On larger maps of 4-9 square kilometres, Ro offers a role where an infantry soldier goes through a sequence over a radio involving the following steps... a bomber plane by
And it would not be overpowered: no one complains about arty. The Messerschmidt and Henschel are a must for this game, carrying light bombs and 20mm cannons.
There's a number of reasons we didn't do it:
1. No-one really likes complex call/control procedures in game. If we'd wanted that, we'd have made arty call procedures rather more like the real world (and we did have a design for that).
2. Space... any sort of "bomber" of the period needs a good amount of space to turn, line up their target etc. Most maps are only a few 100 meters across, so just wouldn't fit. And maps multiple kilometers across run like ***
3. Power - the HS-129 uses a 30mm auto-cannon, which is a complete beast of a weapon. And "light bombs" start at 50Kg. The Ju-87 routinely carried 500Kg or 1000Kg bombs. Consider that the charge in a 105mm arty shell is only a few Kg, then even the smallest bomb will have 10x the power - a 500Kg bomb will run 100x the power of an arty shell. Devastating on the scale of RO!
And yes, we did have designs for fighter-bombers, ground attack, AAA. Just decided that it wouldn't be good on the scale of this game