MULTI-ENGINE AND MACHINE GUNS RANGE

[monse]

Don't forget that the Bombers (Caproni, Gotha and larger) don't shoot back from the central peg - the gunners' positions are quite a bit closer to the edge of the base.

More precisely, the rear machine gun of the Handley-Page and the Gotha is not on the center point of the aircraft (blue point on the Aircraft card).
It is located slightly forward of this center point and is a bit further of the rear edge of the base.

The rear machine gun of the Zeppelin Staaken and the Caproni are placed on the center point of the plane (or just beside it for the two machine guns of the Staaken).

This often negates the advantage held by the fighters in shooting at a larger plastic bomber base plate.

Actually, not.
In the case of the Gotha and the Handley-Page, be careful to place the ruler from the red dot of the rear machine gun and not from the center support.
When attacking from the rear at a specific distance, this allows an attacking fighter to avoid the rear machine gun fire.


Correct position of the rear gunner's ruler


Incorrect position of the rear gunner's ruler


HOW TO ATTACK A BOMBER ?
The base of the bomber is wider than that of the fighter.
By attacking the bomber from the side (or from one of its four corners), this allows the fighter to escape a long-range shot (or a short-range shot at a closer distance) from the bomber while still being able to hit it.
But this configuration can only occur exceptionally and is played at less than a centimeter.


Standard attack from the rear : mutual fire has the same range.


Attack from the side (or one of the angles) : the mutual fire has a different range.

I'm surprised that the Austro-Hungarian fighters did not descend quicker - they would have been a lot less vulnerable to the Caproni's higher platform gun.

The Caproni doesn’t have a rear blind spot.
So, it wouldn’t have changed to attack the bomber from the same or lower altitude, as the Caproni arc of fire is the same at these altitudes.

The rear MG fires 360° at targets at a higher altitude.
A plane at a higher altitude in front of the bomber can be fired from both front and rear MG. It would be the only case of a penalty for the fighter to be at a higher altitude.