Weirdo so youd like to see the internal bomb bay/bomb rules able to support continuous bomb dropping, not limited to 10 hexes for external ordinance altitude bombing and 6 hexes for internal bomb bay altitude bombing, at least for strategic bombing? Thats fair I suppose. 1 single long continuous bomb attack isn't possible even over multiple turns, since planes move 16 hexes at the slowest speed but can altitude bomb for only 10. Thus with the btech turn structure, even if you have more then 20 external bombs somehow you cant use them all in a single altitude bombing run--the game supports an absolute max of 20 bombs and no more then 10 hexes in a line right? I mean, clearly if you move 16 hexes logically you could bomb 16 hexes with altitude bombing, but like you say the game abstraction doesnt allow this.
This does feel like a gameplay abstraction level issue though, and not an issue for strategic bombing. The big internal bomb bay bombers, for gameplay reasons, are limited (and thank goodness they are! Can you imagine a 200+100HE HE dive bomb from a planetlifter in 1 turn!). But said planetlifter with the internal bomb bay quirk, regardless of the gameplay balance used with 10 second ground battletech turns, is still a tactical bomber right? 30 Bombs if you customize with a quirk, that yes will take several battletech turns to drop, still puts 30 bombs on the enemy in less then a minute. I dont think some gameplay balancing factors means the concept of a bomber wing isnt valid.
For me, my most common bombers used are the Boeing Jump bomber, and planetlifter. I just stick with external ordinance, cause the tactical game we play is 4-8 units per side, so 40 damage from a Boeing Jump Bomber acting like a gunless F18 on a bomb mission, and the planetlifter acting like a c130 but now with bombs, is my 'big' bomber with 100 damage on demand. The Jump bomber is good for tactical strikes, dropping bombs on soft targets like infantry, and the planetlifter goes for hard targets like mechs and assault tanks. Those 2 work well on the battletech scale, which is kinda the tactical scale. The Torrent, then, at 200 tons, would be akin to the 188 ton tu-95 bear strategic bomber. And that feels about right, its a bit too big for the tactical battletech game normally played and requiring quirks and advanced support rules. The Longhaul is a bit newer, toting 105 internal cargo, and the King Karnov has 76, so giving either the internal bomb bay quirk would make them strategic bombers that are much better then the ancient and primitive Torrent, which is a hot mess of rules.
The Gorgon at 6800 tons is a destroyer or submarine at that scale, I always assumed the internal bomb bay on those was for the nuclear Alamo and anti-air + anti-ship missiles, so the Gorgon can act like a missile destroyer or torpedo submarine, descending and ascending through the atmosphere interface layer to strike naval assets as its pocket warship type allows. But yeah, it can also drop bombs too, but I wouldnt class it as a strategic bomber.
the tl;dr... strategic bombing is the scale above battletech, which is a tactical game. So the issue with bombers using the internal bomb bay quirk being limited in the 10 second tactical turn in battletech isnt really a concern for this kind of force, which would be used in battleforce or planetary conquest scaled games.
