Use of Thunderbolt

yugin96 · 19 Sep 2011, 7:47AM

I've seen in the forums that the Thunderbolt is a very good plane for attacking, with people saying that sending 17 of them at once is deadly.
I have unlocked the Thunderbolt but my CC is only at level 3, which means that I can only send in 6 Thunderbolts at once. What is the best way to use them? Is the strategy to clear out all the turrets on the ground before sending them in, just like with the other air units?

Jangooon · 19 Sep 2011, 8:29AM

Just clear the Gun turrets first if you're gonna use them, no need to worry about mortars. Also, be sure to check behind the CC, a lot of players hide Gun turrets behind there.

Blazing_Darkness · 19 Sep 2011, 1:41PM

Destroy the gun turrets with a few land troops and then send in the thunderbolt to finish off as the mortars can't hit them.

DeathDemon · 19 Sep 2011, 3:29PM

i don;t get it when i use thunderbolt they can;t even destroy a building.

Evgenij Koltjev · 19 Sep 2011, 7:49PM

assassin wrote: »

i don;t get it when i use thunderbolt they can;t even destroy a building.

Same problem. And what the point of using thunderbolts after already destroyed most deadliest weapon on the base - Turrets, with help of another units?
Im finding copter drones much more usable

Mike Thomson · 19 Sep 2011, 7:57PM

The problem is their aim seems to be off often.

Sometimes they will start firing just beyond the target while other times they fire at it in the middle of the attack line.

The targeting needs a bit of work to make sure it's the middle more often so they actually hit what you want.

Evgenij Koltjev · 19 Sep 2011, 8:04PM

Also I think They are taking to loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time to build and they dieing very fast. mby Im just lvl 26 noob but I really couldnt do anything with thunderbolts. and there building time is just killing me very slowly

Bird1sTheWord · 19 Sep 2011, 9:01PM

Noob??? most people aren't even level 26.......

Man Tim · 19 Sep 2011, 9:43PM

well, thunderbolt is the best only if you know how to use them. they deals the most damage and they are perfect to destroy storage, turrets and foot units. but only if you know how to use them... copter drones are just air humvees which sucks a lot. raptors are the megatanks but it is the same as thunderbolt. thunderbolt is only a challenger but it is very powerful... 17 of them can destroy buildings way faster than copter drones. try to get them target the resources storages first, then other buildings, last is cc

Evgenij Koltjev · 19 Sep 2011, 9:51PM

Im going to build only thunderbolts and try them once more.
But they still dieing way too fast in my opinion and building time is a problemm

DeathDemon · 19 Sep 2011, 10:44PM

well i am unlocking raptor just for the hell of it. (had way to many resources anyway). hopefully it is good if not well atleast i got it unlocked.

yugin96 · 20 Sep 2011, 5:24AM

Evgenij Koltjev wrote: »

Same problem. And what the point of using thunderbolts after already destroyed most deadliest weapon on the base - Turrets, with help of another units?
Im finding copter drones much more usable

I couldn't agree more! This way for all their power, Thunderbolts are only good for destroying the less powerful defences...

Ben Palmer · 20 Sep 2011, 12:48PM

I just levelled all the storages on a base with just thunderbolts. The idea is that everything sucks at lower levels. But once they are past ~lvl6, they blitz most buildings. Of course, it usually takes 2 thunderbolt (with no other support) attacks to finish them off, but with new DP rules that is all too easy.

Man Tim · 20 Sep 2011, 1:03PM

yeah, and if you put in all 17 thunderbolt at once and even the toughest anti-air units or turrets can't live

thunderbolt is for looting and destroy mortars! if you think to put them all in at the beginning, then of course they all die. so use raptor if you think like that.

JediReefer · 20 Sep 2011, 1:21PM

in my opinion and what i know of the actual plane the thunderbolt is way too weak this plane in real life can take one hell of a beating and still fly home after completing a mission i think the developers should do some research on the plane and mod their creation

Blazing_Darkness · 20 Sep 2011, 1:28PM

Now let me just have another say at how good thunderbolts are.
You see a base with lvl10 gun turrets, lvl10 mortars and a full house of lvl8 mega tanks. It is really an easy base to destroy by. Just avoid the mortars and mega tanks and use a few rockets to knock out the gun turrets. Now send in the thunderbolts as there isn't anything left that can hit them. Just use the retarget to target the resources and you will get a nice big loot with the only cost being a few rockets.

Please note: This is Will Harbin's base (the CEO), I wasn't the one to attack it last as I would usually kill the mega tanks aswell just to be mean.

Mike Thomson · 20 Sep 2011, 3:38PM

I know that M but it seems like their aim is a bit off at times and sometimes shooting after the target.

Just a bit of a issue at times as usually with enough they will destroy a base fast.

Croatoan · 20 Sep 2011, 3:45PM

They are extremely powerful, i underestimated them and went afk as they destroyed a RF, and got back too late, they had already destroyed the CC, so now im down to 1 RF u.u

Man Tim · 20 Sep 2011, 3:51PM

they are super powerful, deals the same or a bit less damage then raptors. but normally, you don't use them at the BEGINNING! they are perfect to take out mortars or any other units except megatanks. they can beat any storage in 1 wave and if the other storage is in the attacking zone, then it is down too. heavies, rifles, herclues can't even keep up with them when they fly and they get killed well trying to target a tb.

Gio · 20 Sep 2011, 4:01PM

@The M, how can you destroy the gun turrets with only a few rockets, gun turrets outrange rockets so they get killed super fast...

Man Tim · 20 Sep 2011, 4:04PM

if you are smart enough, you will use rifles to bait gun's fire and use rocket behind

Blazing_Darkness · 20 Sep 2011, 4:04PM

Gio wrote: »

@The M, how can you destroy the gun turrets with only a few rockets, gun turrets outrange rockets so they get killed super fast...

Half of your capacity full, just send in 40 (yes thats about half the amount you can have at lvl5CC) at a gun turret, once gun turret is destroyed move them round to the next one and so on. You might not kill the last one if all the gun turrets are lvl10 but the thunderbolts can finish it off easy.

You can always use riflemen to take the hits from the gun turrets.

Gio · 20 Sep 2011, 4:06PM

The M wrote: »

Half of your capacity full, just send in 40 (yes thats about half the amount you can have at lvl5CC) at a gun turret, once gun turret is destroyed move them round to the next one and so on. You might not kill the last one if all the gun turrets are lvl10 but the thunderbolts can finish it off easy.

You can always use riflemen to take the hits from the gun turrets.

lawl, that easy, guess that infantry take up too less space

rip901 · 20 Sep 2011, 4:15PM

i just got wing drones yesterday, seems like they might actualy do some dmg , but they just run straight at the enemy and die super fast, do thunderbolts do that too?

Blazing_Darkness · 20 Sep 2011, 4:17PM

rip901 wrote: »

i just got wing drones yesterday, seems like they might actualy do some dmg , but they just run straight at the enemy and die super fast, do thunderbolts do that too?

Someone really needs to make a video to show how to use thunderbolts/wing drones/raptors effectively as too many people keep asking this.

Man Tim · 20 Sep 2011, 4:25PM

17 lvl 8 thunderbolts can destroy any level cc in less than 30 seconds.

Bythedawns · 15 Oct 2011, 8:49AM

send in thunderbolts, re-target them to hit a target and click retreat once the thunderbolts opened fire. they can hit a target from a huge distance

urborg74 · 16 Oct 2011, 8:11AM

Basically, I have zero use for strafing aircraft right now. Their need to pass over bases for their runs negates any use I'd have for them (since they get shot down like a flock of geese trying to get past an AA gun). My single biggest use for air units is taking out mortars (obviously), and copter precision is far more valuable than any damage advantage the other units might have. Air units are also nice for taking out tanks, but the delays between targeting and the actual attack makes strafing units unreliable there as well. Far easier to set up my copters then bait the megatank into a path that goes directly under them, where it dies just fine.

Hrm, just thought of a method for making strafing units far more useful, gonna start a thread on it in suggestions methinks...

andrew d · 16 Oct 2011, 5:04PM

Man Tim, what's so bad about Humvies? they are better than tanks. they have a little less armour, but they take up less space, faster, cheaper, more versatile (good for units/air/buildings), compared with a tank which is only decent vs buildings. 2/3 humvies are superior to any tank apart from a challenger or megatank. IMHO

srinath · 17 Oct 2011, 11:30PM

having 3-4 thunderbolts to takeout far off tanks is what i do , works good

Ormagöden · 18 Oct 2011, 2:59AM

andrew d wrote: »

compared with a tank which is only decent vs buildings. 2/3 humvies are superior to any tank apart from a challenger or megatank. IMHO

Don't forget Paladins.

Strategy Discussion

Use of Thunderbolt