I don't know if it has been mentioned before, but here is a trick that will help you determine where the Stuka Dive Bomb will hit:
1. The moment you start hearing the warning sirens you have exactly 5 seconds to react
2. Start panning the camera around (preferably in areas of the map where most of your troops are at)
3. The sound will become the loudest when you are focusing on the area of the map the bomb is about to go off (I don't
think that zooming works. You won't have the time for it anyway
)
4. Be a good teammate, and warn other people in the chat about where you think the shots might land (maybe their sound bugged out?)
5. Use the remaining time to split your squads up so that you don't lose all of them.
TIPS:
- I don't recommend hitting the retreat button with your entire force; the other player may have targeted the retreat path
- Make sure you have practiced your hotkeys so that you deactivate forward retreat points quickly, if needed
(I'm using Low Audio quality in settings. Not sure if that makes any difference)
Having said that. The design of the ability is a bit silly:
- It is neither fair (in terms of cost vs devastation potential)
- Nor does it add any strategic depth to the game
The ability also synergises a bit too well with stealthy recon abilities (Artillery flares, spotting scopes, etc). This is something that out to be definitely looked at.
Finally, ever since the AoE ninjabuff there is very little time to react to the ability (localize and spread); unless, of course, you only play 1v1s.