B-17 Flying Fortress The Mighty 8th Cheats (PC)

During the mission-planning phase, make sure to plot the waypoints for your ingress and
egress routes around enemy antiaircraft concentrations. Although it may take longer for
the bomber fleet to reach its objective(s), the formation won't have to fly through as
much flak, which will hopefully cut losses and make your bombing run that much more
effective.

  Don't forget that in addition to the bombers, you can take over the controls of your
fighter escorts at any time during play. Consider hopping in the fighter escorts during
the early phases of the mission to keep the enemy fighter opposition at bay as long as
possible. You can always switch back to the bombers whenever the enemy fighters are
within attack range of the bomb group.

  If you're playing the bomber campaign, don't bother going after distant targets such as
Berlin until the spring of 1944, when long-range P51D Mustangs are available to escort the
bomb group to and from the target.

Success in B-17 revolves around taking care of and learning from your crew. Take time to
notice how the computer-controlled gunners aim for the fast moving fighters and try to
learn from their techniques. When you are being attacked, use 'Z' and 'X' to change to an
enemy fighter, then SHIFT-F1 to see the battle from the fighter pilot's view.

  Take care of your engines. Make regular checks on the outside view to check your
engines; if your co-pilot has been hit you don't get any warning. Fuel leaks can be
critical to the success of a mission. If necessary you need to turn off an engine or two
and drop out of formation to conserve fuel. If your engines are on fire point the nose at
the ground and try diving at between 350-400 mph - this is useful in later levels when one
fire extinguisher per engine isn't enough.

  A healthy crew is a happy crew. Make regular checks to ensure the crew is OK and that
the guns aren't jammed - it's easy to miss messages in the heat of combat. Keep at least
one pilot healthy because the plane can end up in a spin if it's in a turn when the pilot
is hit, giving little time to bail out.

  Make the radio operator send a MayDay message to improve your chances of survival when
you're bailing out over the channel. Landing an engineless, bullet-ridden, flame-scorched
B-17 after a mission is risky and difficult. Bail out over the channel to ensure mission
success. Before landing, attempt to heal injured crew otherwise they are hospitalised.
Having more than one crew member peform first aid on a casualty increases the chances of
success.