The Rheinland Bomber

[Ant]

If the mortar were a torpedo, the blast would kill it, but now that they are changed, it doesn't multiply the damage.

Four class 9s is too little firepower. A VHF could outdo that with his guns. 4 9s and 2 10s is good. Because of the dual torp slot. If you make it have only 4 9s then the VHFs outpower it, even counting the novas, as those drain the energy of the bomber a ton. A VHF with tizzys and nomads with one nova could out damage a bomber with 4 tizzys and two novas. They can't shoot the novas constantly.

A VHF should be able to take on a bomber and expect to win.
As it is, the bomber can drop the shields on a VHF almost instantly and take it out with one well placed nova, whereas a bomber can shrug off a single Nova.

IMO, 2 class 9, 2 class 10 guns and Nova with damage per second comparable to Gunboat Battle Razor(16000 hull and 8000 shield at 0.25 refire) is adequate for the job it's expected to do(similar reduction of Inferno to Gunboat class firepower).
It would still be a potent weapon in the right hands.

If speed could be dropped to around 175 max thrust, that would in some way reflect the inertia of the very heavy armour and weapons(reduction of max thrust was a suggestion by Firebird).