War Thunder: War is Loud

[mistformsquirrl]

War Thunder is a Free-to-Play air-to-air combat game covering the immediate Pre-WWII period up until the Korean War. You can fly any number of aircraft, everything from light and quick single engine fighters like the P-40 Warhawk and Supermarine Spitfire to lumbering B-17s and hard-hitting IL-2 Sturmoviks.

Basically it's fair to call it "World of Tanks for Pilots"; even though it's done by a different company and has some of it's own unique quirks; like a lack of a standard HP system, instead relying on module and component damage to bring an aircraft down. This means that sometimes you'll die to a single well placed shot, and other times your aircraft will survive an absolute hail of lead before going down. It all depends on where you're hit and with what type of weapon.

Check War Thunder (http://warthunder.com/) out if that sounds interesting!

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I know a few other pilots have been flying around in War Thunder around here; and I figure that there must be others I'm unaware of, so it seems like it warrants a thread of it's own.

So who plays?

Currently I fly mostly US and UK aircraft, though I dabble in German, Russian and Japanese. I'll probably be playing German tanks when tanks become available.

I should add I personally only fly Arcade battles < ._.> nothing wrong with Historical/Realistic battles or anything, I'm just no good at them.

Due to the new ranking system I'm rank 3 in the US and UK airforces; almost ready to jump to Rank 4 in the US, UK I'm only about 1/3rd into Rank 3. Everyone else I'm rank 1 or 2.

[Dragonfire]

I too mostly play US and UK craft though i'm roughly rank 2-3 in each air force. Currently i'm trying to teach myself to shoot without useing the lead indicator in arcade battles so I will be more prepared to move up to more difficult game types.

[Flickerdart]

What is War Thunder? Sounds like fun.

[GloatingSwine]

War Thunder is a free to play air combat game, soon to also have ground combat, including mixed ground and air battles (if you thought arty was bad, imagine the rage you'll experience when you're being bombed and rocketed by IL-2s)

However, I wouldn't jump in to it right now because the last patch has basically caused a forum ****storm of epic proportions due to how grindy it's made the progression and how unfair the matchmaking can now be (who'd have thought setting the matchmaking according to historical year would have been a terrible idea?).

[Dragonfire]

I think thats more due to the Battle rateing's of the individual planes rather than the actual historical ranks, but matchmaking is still pretty wonky right now.

[mistformsquirrl]

@Flickerdart - As GloatingSwine noted, it's a F2P WWII-Korea era air combat game. I feel dumb not having mentioned that at the top.

Anyway, imo it's pretty excellent, it's got flaws and faults like any game, but it's an absolute blast if you like dogfights.

And yeah, the latest patch has caused some level of kerfuffle since it made some large scale changes to progression - I don't agree with all said changes, but it hasn't been enough to make me want to stop playing by any stretch.

I'm also admittedly very excited for the upcoming tanks < ._.>

I'm going to amend the OP to explain what the heck War Thunder is <.< Sorry about that.

[Todasmile]

I think it's exciting that they're working on having land, sky, and sea in the same game.

As far as I can tell, I prefer the interface to World of Tanks, though I will admit the research tree to be superior in that - I love the idea of unlocking better weapons and engines and suchlike via experience, and not having those be linked to a specific vehicle, like in War Thunder. I haven't played World of Warplanes to give a comparison of that, though.

[ShadowFighter15]

War Thunder is a free to play air combat game, soon to also have ground combat, including mixed ground and air battles (if you thought arty was bad, imagine the rage you'll experience when you're being bombed and rocketed by IL-2s)

They've already mentioned how that'll be handled - aircraft won't auto-spot tank players and will have to use the ol' Mark-1 Eyeball (not an easy task since the combined arms maps seem like they'll have a lot of properly-dense foliage for tanks to hide from aircraft in). Friendly tanks can act as spotters, though; they locate an enemy and planes can then target that enemy.


I think thats more due to the Battle rateing's of the individual planes rather than the actual historical ranks, but matchmaking is still pretty wonky right now.

That's it exactly, according to Jingles at least: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=je-9v-nQOJ0

[Dragonfire]

Yeap. He's my go to source of info for War Thunder.

[mistformsquirrl]

Hehe, and just like Jingles repeatedly notes, sometimes your team is more dangerous to you than the enemy.

I swear I just had two planes in a row crippled by friendly fire due to people feeling the need to shoot *through* my aircraft to hit an enemy. I sometimes wonder if people really don't understand that friendly fire is a thing in WT. < . .>

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

The new ground attack bases make being an early non-dive bomber a lot easier, from what I've seen so far. If you suck at accurately bombing moving targets like I do, gives you a large stationary target to take down.

[Chaingun]

Been playing for about six months and still enjoy it. It should be noted that it's still in open beta, so the devs are trying things out - like the recent change from ranks 0-20 for each nation to tiers 1-5, and researching one new plane at a time for each nation you play. There are still some things which can be improved, such as a certain very obscure Russian two-engined heavy bomber being far more effective than B-17s and Lancasters - but overall it's impressive just how hard Gaijin is working to improve the game constantly. It's free to play - like WoT, you can spend real cash for a variety of things but - none of these are necessary to enjoy the game, or to be good at it. The maps, and the graphics generally, are detailed and dang pretty. I recommend giving it a try.

[Jimorian]

Speaking of pretty, I definitely recommend some of the War Thunder machinima from Nassault, who's also known for his Kerbal Space Program cinematics.

Stigler (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vv-tpc7gliI)
Verge of War (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOaiZ2_mfzs)
Forgotten Thunder (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BP5MW0fAsZw)

I would seriously recommend these to any film student as great examples of why sound design and musical choices are as important as cinematography (which he's also great at, some really fantastic "camera" work in his videos).

[mistformsquirrl]

So anyone else been trying to do the "Winter Magic" tasks?

So far I've gotten them all done except yesterday's.

[Leon]

How fast is progression up the ranks?

There are 3 things i want to fly and don't wish to spend hours grinding my way through crap to get to them ~ where ever they are on the skill tree.

The 3 are: Beaufighter, Hurricane and Mosquito

[mistformsquirrl]

Well they recently changed the system pretty drastically - it used to be you just played your country of choice's air force and you'd gain levels in it, and then you'd just need to purchase the aircraft in order to fly them.

Now, it's a bit more like World of Tanks where you have to research each individually; so it's a lot slower than it used to be.

That said, the Hurricane Mk I is incredibly easy to get; you can research it pretty much immediately, all you have to do is spend a little time in the biplanes first. The first model of Beaufighter is also fairly low and easy to unlock. Beaufighters and Hurricanes I will add are very good aircraft in this game, the Beaufighter takes a little practice to get used to since it's so big, but it has absolutely tremendous firepower. One of the few aircraft I'm willing to take into head-on engagements since it's guns tend to disintegrate the opposing aircraft before it can kill my pilot or do any serious damage.

The one difficult bit is the Mosquito, that doesn't show up until you've gone through the entire Beaufighter line; which after many hours I'm still a long way from researching - but to be fair I've spent a lot of my time on the American line and researching Spitfires in the UK line - so if you're dedicated to getting the Mosquito you can probably get it faster.

[Leon]

This is just after having managed to pull out of what i though was going to be a crash dive from 5000ft

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/10/ipbo.jpg (https://imageshack.com/i/0aipboj)


The aircraft is as level as it was going to go.

Forgot to save the reply of that one tho as i was being bothered by my housemate to find the phone

[Leon]

Given what ive seen from the Ground forces beta so far im beginning to think i'll be able to play a Firefly in it before WoT ever manages to have one

[Janwin]

Given what ive seen from the Ground forces beta so far im beginning to think i'll be able to play a Firefly in it before WoT ever manages to have one

Probably.

Since we're allowed to publicly talk about it now, if anyone has any questions about WT:GF, I'm happy to let you know how it's looking at this time (note, it's still beta, so everything is still subject to change, so these are all things that it is at the time of writing).

I will say that WT:GF and WoT are completely separate games. Each will certainly have its appeal to gamers, and each will appeal to a distinct group of players as well. WoT is much more arcade-y than WT:GF. For a laid back 15-minute quick game, WoT is a great game to play.

However, if you're looking for more of a simulator, WT:GF will meet that desire far more.

Some differences:

WoT: maximum render distance for tanks (if a tank is outside that box, you can't see it, period).
WT:GF: If you can see someone, you can see someone.

WoT: spotting is done by players manually, and it makes the person very obvious for anyone in render range.
WT:GF: spotting is passive. If your crew spots someone, their name shows up above their vehicle. Depending on how far away they are, the name fades, so it's harder to target someone really far away.

WoT: your shot pretty much goes where you click (with some randomness).
WT:GF: you have to account for range and aim higher to make the shell reach the target. Not just aim for center mass.

WoT: if you move and stop to shoot, you just have to wait for your gun to aim.
WT:GF: you also have to wait for your tank to stop rocking for a steady shot.

WoT: repairs.
WT:GF: oh, your engine got shot? You're now a pillbox.

WoT: you can see through things like bushes and tall grass and such, particularly once someone is spotted.
WT:GF: it's fun to hide a StuG in tall grass.

WoT: HP pools. Boing, zing, ping armor.
WT:GF: oh, you let yourself get shot? By a KV-1? In a Panzer IV? Well, that was silly. Also, you're dead. (You don't bounce nearly as much, and when you get shot, you're generally pretty screwed...like it was in reality.)

So, yeah. They're very different games. WT:GF has seemed to head more down the realism path while WoT has seemed to head more down the arcade path. I'm looking forward to seeing the progress Gaijin makes as they finetune WT:GF, and am really anticipating the final release. I think it's going to be a lot of fun, and a GREAT tank game.

[mistformsquirrl]

Yeah, I've had some good fun in the GF beta. It is, as you note, VERY different from WoT - I really feel like they're going to be good games to play side-by-side honestly.

That said I am a little concerned once aircraft air put in play to a greater degree. Right now they're a non-threat since it's just the reserve planes... but I worry IL-2s and a lot of the American fighter-bombers and rocket-firing Typhoons are going to be nasty for tanks. I mean that's realistic, but the game does also need to be enjoyable as well.

We'll just have to wait and see how that goes though, it may be fine.

I will say I reallllllly like the Tiger they just added to the beta recently <._.> Feels a LOT more awesome than the WoT version - granted that may be because right now it's not facing the kind of competition it does in WoT.

[Janwin]

That said I am a little concerned once aircraft air put in play to a greater degree. Right now they're a non-threat since it's just the reserve planes... but I worry IL-2s and a lot of the American fighter-bombers and rocket-firing Typhoons are going to be nasty for tanks. I mean that's realistic, but the game does also need to be enjoyable as well.

We'll just have to wait and see how that goes though, it may be fine.

Well, if they keep it the way they're saying they want to, it's going to be pretty tough to do ground attack. Aircraft don't spot tanks like tanks do. In order to find a target in a plane, you quite literally have to find the target. With your eyes. Or have a tank point it out for you.

And there's plenty of terrain to hide tanks in. And once they roll out camo for the tanks, it'll be even harder to find them on the battlefield. So I'm not really too concerned about it. I'd love to see them implement some AA guns, though.

[Leon]

What Im getting from War Thunder is pretty much what i get from playing Flames of War but with me in there doing it. I have a feeling that a friend of mine will love it when/if he gets a chance to play it as its a disconnect for him to play tanks and deal with the hp pool. Plus all the vehicles being actual marks/variants than X Tank with Y (possibly fictional) gun.

[ShadowFighter15]

I'd love to see them implement some AA guns, though.

From what I've seen on Jingles' videos about it; there are still the AI-controlled AAA emplacements. And the Germans still have the good-ol' Flakpanzer.

[Grif]

So, yeah. They're very different games. WT:GF has seemed to head more down the realism path while WoT has seemed to head more down the arcade path. I'm looking forward to seeing the progress Gaijin makes as they finetune WT:GF, and am really anticipating the final release. I think it's going to be a lot of fun, and a GREAT tank game.

Oho? This has my attention.

I'm somewhat tired of being shot at by fictional imaginary tanks. (The worst offender in WoT recently was the new German autoloader line, specifically WTE 100)

[Yana]

Oho? This has my attention.

I'm somewhat tired of being shot at by fictional imaginary tanks. (The worst offender in WoT recently was the new German autoloader line, specifically WTE 100)

Surely you meant the "WTF E-100"?

I've been giving WarThunder a shot. It's enjoyable, though I don't think I'm cut out for thinking in three dimensions. I bet having dedicated wingmen would come in handy, but I've yet to actually talk to any of the other players ingame.

Trying to nurse a crippled Do 217 back to a landing strip is the definition of "annoying" since it's a wallowing pig even with both engines and wings intact. Lose one of either of those, and you're lucky if you can maneuver at all. Have fun trying to return to a horizontal position if the were shot out during a turn.

Probably the most amusing landing that I've made in recent memory was with that handicap on my Bf-109 E-3. I was coming in to the strip practically on my side, though I had my landing gear down. The wing hits the landing strip, tears off, and somehow my plane managed to right itself on the landing gear and allowed me to repair it.

[ShadowFighter15]

WoT: maximum render distance for tanks (if a tank is outside that box, you can't see it, period).
WT:GF: If you can see someone, you can see someone.

Meant to ask in my last post, but from what I've seen on Jingles' videos of World of Tanks, isn't it that a tank isn't rendered unless it's been spotted by you or someone on your team?

[mistformsquirrl]

Meant to ask in my last post, but from what I've seen on Jingles' videos of World of Tanks, isn't it that a tank isn't rendered unless it's been spotted by you or someone on your team?

Pretty much. In WoT you can only see a target that's been spotted, in Warthunder, you can see anyone, spotted or not, provided there's no terrain intervening between you and them. However you won't see their name over their tank unless someone's spotted them, which can make seeing someone without 'spotting' them a bit trickier since you have to track the target purely by eyesight.

[Grif]

Pretty much. In WoT you can only see a target that's been spotted, in Warthunder, you can see anyone, spotted or not, provided there's no terrain intervening between you and them. However you won't see their name over their tank unless someone's spotted them, which can make seeing someone without 'spotting' them a bit trickier since you have to track the target purely by eyesight.

WOT system makes for some weird situation(s). I'd seen Caerns literally disappearing not 200m away from an IS-3 that had a dead commander.

[Janwin]

Meant to ask in my last post, but from what I've seen on Jingles' videos of World of Tanks, isn't it that a tank isn't rendered unless it's been spotted by you or someone on your team?

This is correct. A tank isn't rendered unless someone has passive "spotted" it. Not to be confused with active "spotted".

So, for example, in WoT, each tank has a camo rating and crew camo skills (plus camo nets), and each tank has a commander skill, perks, and turret view range (plus optics and binocs). The game compares the camo rating of the target with the view rating of the aggressor, and determines whether or not the target is spotted and should display to the aggressor. If it does display for the aggressor, the aggressor has "passive spotted" the target. The agressor can then use their T key (or whatever it's been mapped to) to "target"/active "spot" the target, at which point anyone else can ALSO see the target.

Unless, of course, they're outside 500 meters, since that is the maximum render distance for anyone in WoT. If the target is 501m away, even if active spotted in the middle of an empty field, you will not see it. You can, however, shoot in its general direction and hope for the best. Shells fired will travel further than 500m.

In War Thunder: Ground Forces, as best I can tell, everyone is rendered. No matter how far away they are. If they are not active spotted by someone, there's no name that pinpoints their position which means you actually have to find that tank in all that terrain and cover, and even if they are active spotted by someone, the transparency of that name depends entirely on how far away you are from the target, so it's only of limited use and just gives you a general idea of "there's an enemy tank somewhere in that direction". Then you have to find it.

[Janwin]

WOT system makes for some weird situation(s). I'd seen Caerns literally disappearing not 200m away from an IS-3 that had a dead commander.

The automatic spot distance is 50m for any tank, no matter the camo rating or skill/health of the attacker. That being said, there are some tanks in the game which are simply impossible to spot when played correctly. The Hellcat is one, and the Rhm.Borsig-Waffentrager is another. Both, with a 100% camo trained crew, camo nets and camo paint, are absolutely capable of sitting in a bush 51m away from an enemy tank and not be seen.

At further range, it is VERY easy to not be seen in both tanks simply by scooting back a bit from the bush before you fire (if you're close to a bush, when you fire it doesn't count in the spotting equation, but if you back up a bit, it still counts and blocks your muzzle flash). I abuse the hell out of it all the time, and honestly, feel a bit dickish for it. But then I get 6000 damage and 8 kills and strangely my moral qualms disappear. :smallbiggrin:

[Yana]

So is anyone else interested in getting a squadron together at some point? It'd be nice to have a wingman watching my back at some point.

NA: Raltis

[mangosta71]

Played a few games over the weekend - just enough to unlock all 5 air forces, really. My initial intent was to focus on Germany since the FW190 D-9 is probably the finest fighter that flew during WWII. Currently still rank 1 with all air forces.

Impressions thus far:
The starter Japanese aircraft are complete and utter fecal matter.
The starter Russian aircraft pack an absurd amount of firepower.
Not being able to spend convertible research points without purchasing Golden Eagles sucks.
I need to get my joystick set up for this. Having to keep moving my mouse simply to maintain a turn is silly.

[SanguisAevum]

Played a few games over the weekend - just enough to unlock all 5 air forces, really. My initial intent was to focus on Germany since the FW190 D-9 is probably the finest fighter that flew during WWII. Currently still rank 1 with all air forces.

Impressions thus far:
The starter Japanese aircraft are complete and utter fecal matter.
The starter Russian aircraft pack an absurd amount of firepower.
Not being able to spend convertible research points without purchasing Golden Eagles sucks.
I need to get my joystick set up for this. Having to keep moving my mouse simply to maintain a turn is silly.

A word of warning.

If your playing "arcade" battles... the performance envelopes of different aircraft are largely irrelevant. In arcade, practically all planes turn and climb like UFOs, and the game pretty much revolves around shoot first, with more guns.

Historical battles have a much better flight model differentiation, so that you can generally fly to your aircrafts strengths. Though because of this... there s a definite "climb" meta. (Since alititude = energy = life)

Sim Battles are, as you would expect... a different kettle of fish. (Locked to cockpit view, no GUI target dots, realistic flight physics, and no instructer help)

I play historic almost exlusivly (as well as historic events) but i have just gotten an X52 Flight stick and throttle so have started training in Sim mode. Even getting the plane of the ground gave me a great sense of achievement!

[Leon]

Grr, I lose my Pilots all the damm time and never seem to inflict any back.
Have been putting points into Vitality but im not seeing a marked improvement in any of the abilities that ive sunk a lot of points into.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

I found historical mode impossible on my keyboard...

[Yana]

What does energy mean, exactly?

[Jimorian]

What does energy mean, exactly?

In Physics, your plane, via its engine, can store 2 kinds of inherent energy. Kinetic energy which relates to its current velocity, and potential energy, which is related to its altitude. For example, if you're flying along level, and pull up, you transfer your present kinetic energy into potential energy as your plane slows down as you gain altitude. Likewise, when you dive, you're converting the potential energy you stored by getting up there into kinetic energy as you go faster in the dive.

Compared to the energy your engine can provide over a short period of time, both of these types of stored energy are far more effective at letting you make quick changes to your heading. A plane that has reached a high altitude, say 20,000 ft., and leveled off long enough to reach cruising speed again, has far more stored energy than a plane flying level at 10,000 ft.

Once you're in a dogfight, you often have to dive to turn your potential energy into kinetic while you're also making tight turns that "scrubs off" that speed and thus the kinetic energy goes away. When you find yourself at ground level near your minimum flying speed, all you can really do is turn or climb like a slug, making you an easy target for the enemy. The object of a dogfight is to get the other guy to waste all of his energy before you do, and thus get an easy kill.

There's also the run and gun method of fighting, which means you simply dive on a lower enemy, shoot one nice burst on him, then instead of trying to follow his dodge, use your higher kinetic energy to just pull away, either in level flight, or ideally in a shallow climb that he can't match because he's relying strictly on engine power.

[ShadowFighter15]

There's also the run and gun method of fighting, which means you simply dive on a lower enemy, shoot one nice burst on him, then instead of trying to follow his dodge, use your higher kinetic energy to just pull away, either in level flight, or ideally in a shallow climb that he can't match because he's relying strictly on engine power.

Also known as Boom-and-Zoom (it's called that in the in-game encyclopedia and I wouldn't be surprised if that's the historical term). Best planes that use it are Bf-109s - their dive characteristics make them incredibly dangerous in a dive. Swoop in quickly, fire a burst or two, pass their target and then pull back up to a high altitude, using all that speed built up in the dive to outrun your target and prevent him getting a shot off.

[Leon]

Is there any way to change what selection of planes you take into a game - as in these 3 British planes of X level with these 2 USA planes of X level?

Cos as much i like my Low level bombers they are not a good match for the level of aircraft that my upgraded planes can meet

[SanguisAevum]

Is there any way to change what selection of planes you take into a game - as in these 3 British planes of X level with these 2 USA planes of X level?

Cos as much i like my Low level bombers they are not a good match for the level of aircraft that my upgraded planes can meet

Your arcade lineup consists of all crewed planes of your chosen nation. Ie, no you cant play a mix if us abd uk pkanes in the same game.

If your higher tier plane is pulling your lower tier planes into hard matchups... Either swap out the high tier plane for a lower one until you have some more appropriate planes to queue with it, or, just suck it up and do your best in the low tier ones to help with the rp gain.

[mangosta71]

For some reason, every time I try to calibrate my joystick I end up with either a rolling or a yaw problem (or both) that makes it impossible to fly straight. While this makes me damn near impossible to hit, it also plays merry hell with my gunning average. Not to mention the difficulties in attempting to land a critically damaged aircraft when it doesn't respond to the controls even before it gets shot to pieces.

[Gnoman]

I've got an odd problem. For some reason (can't find it configured to do this in the menus, and assigning the button doesn't show a conflict), the "5" button on my Logitech Extreme 3D pro seems to be hard-coded into opening the game menu in flight. Very annoying, as I want to use that key to zoom.

[Jonzac]

Also known as Boom-and-Zoom (it's called that in the in-game encyclopedia and I wouldn't be surprised if that's the historical term). Best planes that use it are Bf-109s - their dive characteristics make them incredibly dangerous in a dive. Swoop in quickly, fire a burst or two, pass their target and then pull back up to a high altitude, using all that speed built up in the dive to outrun your target and prevent him getting a shot off.

It is called boom-and-zoom. The idea is to start several thousand feet above your target, roll inverted and pull on the stick to a dive (roll 180 to get your "cockpit" on top again, shoot the target then immediately pull back on the stick "zoom to the sky" where your opponent can't touch you as your airspeed is significantly higher than his (due to your engine pulling and the higher speed you had while diving). You then rinse and repeat....the key is to not turn more that 10-20 degrees from your original heading...turning blows energy which means you can't "zoom" anymore and now your in a turning fight.

Any American fighter against Japanese should attempt these tactics as none of our fighters could match the sustained turn rate of the Zero. Also, P-47s were Boom-and-Zoom...Brit spitfires were a turning aircraft, but the Hurricane was not. Bf-109 could as well (especially with the 20mm cannon only needing one good burst compared to the .303cal MGs the Brits used)

[mangosta71]

Above 250mph, the P-40 could turn inside the Zero.

[Leon]

How to Stop a Bomber in 1 Hit: Drop a 1000lb Bomb on it.

[SanguisAevum]

Yesterday, i shot down my first player in simulation battles.

After hours of practice in custom battles, hours of getting my stick set up correctly, hours of getting used to how the spitfires handle with a "realistic" flight model... and several games in which i managed to down AI bots, before being mercilessly butchered by players i never saw coming...

I finally managed to take off, engage, and successfully shoot down an enemy player, before making it back to base and landing.

The feeling of satisfaction is amazing. It just makes me want to practice even more! I just ordered a TrackIR, i am THAT into this game mode.


My First player KillThe engine of my Spitfire MK Vb is purring softly as i cruise along at 350KPH. I dip my right wing slightly to get a better view of the battlefield below. Friendly ground forces are advancing against the enemy positions. Tracer fire from heavy weapons crosses back and forth between the lines whilst German artillery batteries deep behind the front line flare briefly. A second later their shells land amongst our American Allies. From one kilometer up, the explosions look like little fire crackers kicking up tiny puffs of dust... but the columns of black oily smoke that rise gently into the air from burning tanks tell a different story.

I glimpse something. A flash of reflected sun from a canopy or wing surface... it's diving, quickly gaining speed as it plummets down towards the German lines. I bank hard to keep my eye on it as it passes over the German front line, heading towards the muzzle flashes of the big guns currently punishing our tanks. A P51, it has to be... nothing else in the air today could dive so fast, so quickly, my evaluation is confirmed as my American brother unleashes his rockets before pulling hard and soaring back up almost as fast as he dropped.

Then I see it, another dot against the azure sky. This time coming from the other direction. German!

"P51, 666, Dive SE, I am on my way" I call out over the radio as I wing over and pull back to pitch into an inverted dive.
"Affirmative" comes the brief reply.

I roll back over as I start to build speed. The P51 pulls a hard inverted loop to turn his zoom climb back into a steep dive, he lost a lot of speed during his assent and the diving German is gaining. The closure rate starts to slow as the Mustang once again plummets down in my direction. Nothing catches a diving Mustang, i just need to get there before he runs out of sky to dive through!

I invert once more to watch as he passes under me, the German hasn't seen me yet and he pursues the P51 lower and lower, I see tracers streak past the Mustang... a long range desperation shot... the American rolls hard to evade but there is smoke. The German got lucky.

I pull hard as the 109 passes me.
The world starts to go black, and i grunt as I struggle to stay conscious as the Spit pushes me hard into my seat. And then my vision is clear again.. and there he is, still fixated on the Struggling P51.

Gently i guide the cross hairs, and slowly pull the trigger.

Four Hispanos bark at my command, there are no tracers this time, i use Stealth ammunition.

I miss.

Too panicked,... trying too hard to end this before the P51 is hit again.
I breath. And start to adjust, but the 109 inverts and pulls hard into a spiralling dive. He must have glanced back, he knows i am behind him. Dammit.

I follow in lag pursuit, i cant match him in a dive so i start to pull out, he realises and also pulls out, using his superior performance against me to try to drag me into in a vertical scissors. He starts to slot in behind me.

No, not going to happen.

I break left and fake a disengage... he falls for it and tries to follow. I have him.

I reverse and break right, again he tries to follow, mistake, 109, big mistake.

He is trapped, bleeding speed and energy trying to follow my tuns, hungry for a kill.

We are in a horizontal scissors, and i desperately try to keep track of him as I perform reversal after reversal, slowly, my baby's turn performance wins out and i pull in behind him. He realises and pulls hard into a dive, but he has run out of sky... i follow him down, has he desperately tries to shake me.

I wait for the right moment, he begins a roll and break, but he is out of energy, his 109 sits sluggishly in front of me.

Hispanos spit fire.

20mm shells connect.

The right wing explodes in a shower of debris and flame

I breath again.

I dip my wing to watch as the stricken 109 tumbles end over end to the ground below, trailing black smoke. A chute opens, and i am glad.

"My thanks, Spitfire" says the P51 pilot.

"Your welcome" i say, a massive smile on my face.

[Jonzac]

If you really like flying Spitfires, I'd take a look at the game Battle of Britian:Wings of Victory http://www.a2asimulations.com/bob/

Single Player, with a dynamic campaign and extraordinary flight models. You can make yourself Downing, or just a single pilot (or both)...it also has the ability to put 1,000 (confirmed in Black Thursday scenario) aircraft into the air.

On realistic it has the same feel you described, where you would be lucky to actually down an aircraft, but the satisfaction of lineing up a shot on a He-111 and causing the left engine to smoke...which makes that He-111 start to fall out of formation, straggling behind the rest of the bomber stream, all the while you sit in a high perch and prepare to come down when the seperation from the rest of the bomber box has pulled away is AMAZING. Ground in realistic enough to find landmarks and fly home without an autopilot.

I gush, but if you love WW2 simulations, I wholeheartedly recommend that game.

[Jonzac]

One thing I can see is the definate IL-2 legacy in War thunder...frankly this looks like IL-2 MMO. Not bad, but shows why there is only 10-12 per side as IL-2 had the same problems in multiplayer.

[Yana]

Well, I just had my best match ever. 13 planes shot down when I was in my Bf 109 F-4. Those 3 20mm cannons on a single engine plane make a huge difference.

Though it also helped that I avoided head on encounters and that I seemed to take wings off.

[mangosta71]

Yeah, upgrading from a couple 30cals to 20mm cannons has made a huge difference. I'm still in first tier aircraft because I put the game aside for a while, came back and unlocked the He112-B, and now I'm blowing people away. I'm having almost as much success with the Hurricane simply because that thing has SO. MANY. GUNS. I still basically only have time on weekends, though.

But yeah, I'm noticing an annoying tendency for people to force me into head-ons and ram me when I'm in my best aircraft. Of course, I shouldn't complain since I've deliberately rammed people flying bombers when I'm in a He51 or Ki-10...

[Leon]

I really like my BF 110 but it has the problem of being so tough to shoot down that i get rammed so damm much.

Then again i like Heavy Fighters of all stripes (shame my Beau has such a vulnerable pilot)

[Leon]

4x Win Streak of games. First time i have gotten the Win on the first game played of each nation.

Unlocked 4 aircraft as well:
F4F-4 Wildcat
He 11 H-3
Su-2 MV-5
Wellington Mk 1c

Had a brilliant game in my BB-1 that i ended with my own bomb... 11 ground kill streak
.

[Leon]

4000lbs of Love is now installed on my Wellington...

Able to drop a base in 2 hits, my friend who was playing it a lot today managed to score 4 ground targets and a Plane with one hit.

[mangosta71]

I get the most derptastic teammates... Last night one of my teammates shot another down 15 seconds into the match - we hadn't even sighted the enemy yet. Same match, I got rammed by a teammate, then shot down by another. These idiots are the reason it takes nearly an hour to get a win. Of course, it doesn't help that I'm flying against opponents whose hangars are filled with higher-tier aircraft than I have access to.

I need to unlock more planes with cannons. I can work with .50 cals, but .30s just don't have the punch to take out a bomber unless you get lucky with a cockpit shot. As much fun as the game is, I just don't have a lot of time to sink into it, and having to fly half a dozen missions before I get a team that isn't a bunch of special needs rejects doesn't help.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

I finally got the hang of bombing in Arcade (had a GREAT run in a Stuka where I took out a ridiculous number of medium tanks), and then I decided to try a few Realistic games. How do you go bombing when there's no sights! I have absolutely no feel of where I'm aiming!

Edit: also wasted a match in one of hte early Brit bombers because I forgot how to Torpedo. If I had remembered, I could have taken out 3 ships, but no, I clean forgot and died RIGHT as I was about to SUCCESSFULY drop a torpedo.

[Jimorian]

I need to unlock more planes with cannons. I can work with .50 cals, but .30s just don't have the punch to take out a bomber unless you get lucky with a cockpit shot. As much fun as the game is, I just don't have a lot of time to sink into it, and having to fly half a dozen missions before I get a team that isn't a bunch of special needs rejects doesn't help.

I got a P-39 on my tail the other night. Yeah, that 37mm will turn a good day into a bad one in a hurry! :smalleek:

I'm getting better at air combat, but still very few kills, just lots and lots of assists. I'm pretty good at ground assault with my fighters, though, and I'll get the bomber medal fairly regularly.

[Yana]

The 37 mm mounted by the P-39 or the 45 mm mounted by the Yak-9 are probably the most dangerous weapons that you'll face at the lower tiers. I've seen wings get ripped clear off the frame with just one shot from either of those planes.

[Leon]

#$%&@ AiroCobra's

[mangosta71]

Ki-45s also carry a 37mm, and they're t2 as opposed to the Yak-9's t3. Well, the first one you unlock doesn't, but all the rest do. Of course, historically, the P-39's 37mm had a really low muzzle velocity so it was terribly inaccurate and was also prone to jam...

I'm really disappointed by the Bf 110. I expected it to be a lot faster than it is; getting outrun by bombers is just...ugh. I have to dive on bombers to keep up with them, which works really well when they start 2km higher.

[Leon]

Heavy fighter vs light bombers.

[mangosta71]

Brilliant match last night. I started in my Blenheim, took out all of the opposing team's ships (and my tailgunner nailed an enemy fighter) before I got pegged by AAA over one of their bases. Hopped into my Spitfire and just started killing. Racked up a 6 air streak before the match ended. Got the Terror of the Skies accolade, the top score in the match... I can't wait to unlock one of the Spitfires that carries cannons, but that will need to wait until after I have a Wellington.

Also, the patch a couple days ago put a FW 190 within my immediate reach. Soon....

[Leon]

The size of the patch makes me sad, I want to play but don't have the space atm

[mangosta71]

Wasn't the reload time on rockets 3 minutes before? It seems to have been increased to 6:30. The only planes I've ever had survive that long are high-altitude bombers. And rockets are about the only way to bring a B-25 down before the 5672329657 gunners (I'm probably low-balling that number) go through half your hangar. **** anyone that flies one of those ****ing things.

While I'm ranting, does anyone else have their engine occasionally die for no apparent reason? A couple times last night, I'd shoot someone down, find another target and start moving to intercept, and then suddenly my engine just quit. No fuel warning, I wasn't taking fire, nothing I could point to to explain it. (Actually, one of those somehow wasn't a kill - I got the "pilot is unconscious" message and swooped away, but the unconscious pilot somehow kept flying and my engine cut out when I turned to re-engage.)

The "radar" thing isn't very good. I watch mine pretty carefully, and I know that it's gone from "no enemies anywhere near me" to "oh, there are 4 fights in a perfect position to kill me". This happens even in clear skies, and they're not using my sun blind spot.

Also, I went 10 games in a row last night (I counted) that featured clear skies over the enemy bases but completely overcast over my team's bases. Our bombers got swatted down like flies, but we couldn't find theirs. Thanks to that bull**** it took 3 hours to get a win with my Russian planes.

[Yana]

Wasn't the reload time on rockets 3 minutes before? It seems to have been increased to 6:30. The only planes I've ever had survive that long are high-altitude bombers. And rockets are about the only way to bring a B-25 down before the 5672329657 gunners (I'm probably low-balling that number) go through half your hangar. **** anyone that flies one of those ****ing things.

While I'm ranting, does anyone else have their engine occasionally die for no apparent reason? A couple times last night, I'd shoot someone down, find another target and start moving to intercept, and then suddenly my engine just quit. No fuel warning, I wasn't taking fire, nothing I could point to to explain it. (Actually, one of those somehow wasn't a kill - I got the "pilot is unconscious" message and swooped away, but the unconscious pilot somehow kept flying and my engine cut out when I turned to re-engage.)

The "radar" thing isn't very good. I watch mine pretty carefully, and I know that it's gone from "no enemies anywhere near me" to "oh, there are 4 fights in a perfect position to kill me". This happens even in clear skies, and they're not using my sun blind spot.

Also, I went 10 games in a row last night (I counted) that featured clear skies over the enemy bases but completely overcast over my team's bases. Our bombers got swatted down like flies, but we couldn't find theirs. Thanks to that bull**** it took 3 hours to get a win with my Russian planes.

To the best of my knowledge, the reason your engine died was because it probably took a couple rounds. Just because you aren't losing fuel doesn't mean that your engine wasn't damaged. Check for smoke trailing behind your plane anytime you go head to head with another fighter. More often than not, even if you kill them, they usually hit you as well.

A good rule of thumb is to always be aware of where your landing strip is and to hoof it back there if you see your plane start to trail smoke. If nothing else, you can at least glide or pancake in and get repaired.

[mangosta71]

To the best of my knowledge, the reason your engine died was because it probably took a couple rounds. Just because you aren't losing fuel doesn't mean that your engine wasn't damaged. Check for smoke trailing behind your plane anytime you go head to head with another fighter. More often than not, even if you kill them, they usually hit you as well.

A good rule of thumb is to always be aware of where your landing strip is and to hoof it back there if you see your plane start to trail smoke. If nothing else, you can at least glide or pancake in and get repaired.
No smoke trail either time. And the one that kept flying with a dead pilot didn't even hit me - I took his gunner out with my first burst, and he was the first target I'd engaged that match.

[Leon]

Had that happen the other night in my I-16. was chasing a something and noticed that i was rapidly losing pace with it and that my engine had stopped. turned around to try and glide back to the strip but lost enough altitude to not make it over the escarpment.

Had some twit bitching at me tonight about not bombing the airfield... the same airfield i had been dropping a 500kg bomb on every min for about 10mins, i dont know whether it had to do with that i was doing it from 8500m or what. We were going to lose that one no matter if the airfield went or not.

Otherwise i had a lackluster run of games and had my first game where i had a negative credit game ~ TKed a stupid little plane that for what ever reason decided to have a go at the bomber i was tailing and also most rammed me in the process and must have received a burst or two in the process. 12 303s have trouble with Bombers but will shred a light monoplane... Credit to the Bomber pilot for being a very hard target.

[mangosta71]

Hurricane MkII? Yeah, I don't even bother with multi-engine bombers if all I've got is .30s. You need at least .50s to bring one of them down, and cannons are better. I especially avoid B-25s unless I've got cannons, rockets, or friends to hide behind, and preferably all three.

I'm surprised at how few friendlies I shoot down with the derptastic teammates I keep getting. I mean, I'll be firmly on one guy's tail, 3 or 4 enemies will be chasing me, and then 5 of my "allies" will swoop in to steal my kill instead of putting down the guys on my backside - most of the time they'll jump in between me and my target - and then I end up not even getting credit for an assist even though I'm the one that blew out his engine, converted his wing into Swiss cheese, and silenced his gunners. I had 3 in a row last night that I set afire and had to veer away to avoid enemy fire, and then some tool on my team in a P-39 used his magical one-shot device on the guy that was already mortally wounded. I probably would have gotten a better score if I'd shot him down to begin with so I could have gotten credit for my kills.

For icing on the cake, I ended that match getting rammed by a teammate 15 seconds after hopping into my last plane (a PBY).

[Leon]

Typhoon Mk 1a

[mangosta71]

Ah. I'm not sure I even want to fly that one. I'm only going to research it to gain access to the one with 4 cannons. Tier 3 is too high-ranked for a fighter that only carries BB guns, no matter how many of them it has.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

I wish they had the Hurricane MkIIc, with the 4 20mm cannons. My favourite plane in Battlefield 1942/ Battlefield 2: Forgotten Hope 2 mod.
Flying a hurricane without the intense ground attack those give me... just isn't the same.

[Gnoman]

Haven't played that much, but I've unlocked the SBD and the P-36, so I want to get rid of all the starting P-26 fighters, which I don't like very much. I can't seem to figure out a way to do this, are you only allowed one plane of each type?

[mangosta71]

Haven't played that much, but I've unlocked the SBD and the P-36, so I want to get rid of all the starting P-26 fighters, which I don't like very much. I can't seem to figure out a way to do this, are you only allowed one plane of each type?
Yeah, you just get one of each.

[Leon]

The Dauntless has to be the best starting Bomber. It comes standard with a 1000lb Bomb.


Wasn't the reload time on rockets 3 minutes before?

Yes, just tried my Hurricane and 6:30 is way too long. the old 3mins was more than enough

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Yeah, you just get one of each.

Huh? I have 3 Italian planes in my German roster, for a while had two different Pe3s in my Soviet. You sure?

[Jimorian]

Huh? I have 3 Italian planes in my German roster, for a while had two different Pe3s in my Soviet. You sure?

You have to distinguish between different variants of the same plane, which if isn't a different icon on the tech tree, is indicated by a tab on that plane's icon, and means you can fly each of these in one mission, and duplicates of the exact same plane, which is what I believe Gnoman was asking about.

[mangosta71]

Well, if you go into modifications, you can spend golden eagles to get a backup plane. Of course, I haven't done it, so I don't know if that's a permanent thing or if it gets used once and then you have to buy another. I'd rather spend my GEs on accelerated training for my crews.

[Gnoman]

So, I'm flying a P-36G (4x .30 BMG, 2x .50 BMG variant, for reference), flying high above rainclouds, when I spot a Catalina casually flying towards our base. So I set up behind it at a nice slow closure rate and open accurate fire at an absolutely perfect angle. A few bursts of fire, and the starboard engine is on fire and the prop is stopped. But, as we're flying at 3000, it will take a long time to crash, and I wanted the kill. So I decide to make several passes, this time exposing myself to defensive fire much more. My prop stops, but I'm high enough and going fast enough to glide to base and repair. Get back in the air, spot another Catalina making a low altitude attack, and engage it. After the first pass, guess what stops working. Didn't make it to landing that time.

[mangosta71]

I generally back out once a bomber is on fire (unless I've taken the gunners out). Circle and climb. Get above and behind, little under a mile away (1.5km). If the fire goes out, I can dive in to reengage. If the plane burns down, I haven't wasted any more ammo. If the gunners have been silenced, slip to the other side and take that engine out, too. I like it when things are on fire when they go down because I keep getting credit for hits as the fire ravages them.

The matchmaking system leaves much to be desired. I'm starting to research tier 3 planes. I've been facing them regularly since before I had full tier 2 hangars. And last night I saw several people still in the starter aircraft. I hated facing people in tier 2 planes when I was in my starters, so I feel a little like a bully when I blow them to pieces. I don't feel bad enough to not do it, though - I still want to win. Guess I'm just paying it forward.

Also, 37mm cannons are grossly overpowered. Historically, the P-39's in particular suffered from a low muzzle velocity, so it was inaccurate as all hell and didn't hit very hard when it connected. A P-39 was not any more likely to blow a bomber in half with one shot than any other plane was. But yes, I'm guilty of abusing the broken balance, too.

[Gnoman]

Wasn't complaining about the first Cat taking me down (that's a risk I freely elected to take, because I know from personal experience just how long a Catalina pilot can keep the plane in the air under those conditions) so much as laughing at the abusurdity of being crippled in the exact same way attacking two of the exact same plane in just a few minutes.

[Leon]

I wish you got more for doing a bucket load of damage to something only to get a "kill assist" when someone swoops in before the bomber you have set afire twice, knocked both engines out and kill all the crew bar the pilot and shoots it just before it hits the ground.

Still after some aggravating games (*&$# Airocobra's) i unlocked my Havoc and managed to scored 2 airkills in my Kittyhawk while gliding back to ground (first kill damaged my engine)

[Gnoman]

Might sound like a dumb question, but do the Catalina's 1000 pound bombs work? I just dropped 12 on an airbase (three passes, after all other bases were destroyed), perfect line down the runway. The base remained completely undamaged.

[mangosta71]

They do. But bear in mind that the actual airbase has a ****load of hp. Once you've taken out the 3 minibases, it's better to start hitting vehicles.

[Leon]

By which time a Catalina has to be very low or very lucky to hit a tank. Thats why i love my Wellington with its 4klb Blockbuster. Makes a impact on anything you drop it on and even if you have a near miss its effective

The Durability of the Cat is fantastic tho.

I am also loving my Ju 88, 2 500lbs and 20 lil bombs that i can rain on ground forces.

[Gnoman]

They do. But bear in mind that the actual airbase has a ****load of hp. Once you've taken out the 3 minibases, it's better to start hitting vehicles.

I didn't do a single point of damage is my point. The Airbase was at 100% health when I made my first run, and it was at 100% health when I crashed into it after being shot down on my third.

[Leon]

Have people done much with GFs yet? I've not really given it much game time. I dislike having to share the crew slots with land and air (and eventually sea). Although I did have a go at the mixed battles the other night and did score a kill on a tank with my sturmovik before I crashed it... I'm not very good at realistic battles but to get a ground kill in one was a big achievement.

I'm very slowly clawing my way out of the t-26 toward a goal of getting a KV-1

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

I tried two mixed battles. The first I managed to get a kill on an AI tank in a rocket LAGG-3 but promptly crashed because it turns out diving straight vertical for a kilometer is hard to pull out of.

The second I spent an age gaining altitude on a bomber in my BF-110 but accidentally ended up wingtip to wingtip at which point he pilot-sniped me.

Despite issues with maneuverability, I really am liking the numerous 20mms on the heavy fighters. Except the Pe3 because honestly I need to upgrade to the Pe3 that has a 20mm. A Pe3 without 20mm just doesn't have the firepower to make up for it's speed and maneuverability.

[Leon]

Im a big fan of Heavy Fighters, although i often don't do that great in them as its hard for them to reach their targets and then get hard countered by fast moving and turning fighters

[mangosta71]

I would much rather have a little less firepower on a chassis that turns when I want it to turn. I especially hate the way the heavy fighters can't climb at all; given that their targets start 2km above them, unless those bombers come down you'll spend the whole match just trying to get up to their altitude.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Having to double back to get the altitude without getting jumped by fighters is a pain, yes. And once you've done that, if your mark dives, then you either abandon them, or you take them down but have to spend forever climbing again.

[Leon]

I would much rather have a little less firepower on a chassis that turns when I want it to turn. I especially hate the way the heavy fighters can't climb at all; given that their targets start 2km above them, unless those bombers come down you'll spend the whole match just trying to get up to their altitude.

Lot of fighters with firepower matching a heavies in some regard. Some with more like the ****airocobra. But yes you spend all game getting up there and some fighter zooms up and gets indignant when you do manage to get the kill on your target that he swooped on.

[mangosta71]

TIL that my Ki-45 Tei's 20mm cannons do not fire forward with the 37mm - they fire up at a weird angle. Are there any other planes like that?

[Corvus]

Only just discovered this game two days ago and started playing yesterday. Having a lot of fun, though I'm sill only running around in the pea-shooter era. Only been flying the Brits and I must say trying to shoot down anything with just 2 .303 MGs is a struggle.

Unlocked the Blenny and have almost maxed its research out. I love that plane. Only lost it twice so far in games - both time to mid air collisions. But I've got a number of air to air kills with it, including a He-111. My favourite thing to do with it is go up dueling other bombers at high alt. Kinda funny how much damage they can take when you are slugging it out with MGs.

Can't wait until they introduce the heavy fighter variant of the Blenny - and hope it is still a tier 1 vehicle. This was the variant were they strapped a gun pod with 4 forward firing MGs under the fuselage and used it as a night fighter.

[mangosta71]

I'm spreading my love around. I'm wrapping up t2 for everyone except the Brits - I'm nearly done with t3 there because they don't have nearly as many planes as everyone else (I'm unlocking and fully researching every plane for all air forces). Gotta say I'm looking forward to flying t5, if only because then I finally won't be facing opponents a tier and a half ahead of me. I don't understand the matchmaking system that puts someone with a single t3 plane in a match where everyone else has at least three t4 planes.

[Corvus]

Well after a day and a half of playing I realise that I just cant dogfight. I get pinged and I go down - but I just cant seem to lay any meaningful hits on the enemy. Doesn't help that I'm using the keyboard and mouse. Haven't had a working joystick in years and I think that having one would make it much easier.

So I think I'll just stick to bombing. Can do that well enough and at least turret gunners can shoot a bit straighter than I ever can.

[mangosta71]

Dogfighting comes down to what you and your opponent are flying. The starter biplanes are fiendishly maneuverable - you can actually beat most of the other t1 planes in a dogfight by latching onto their tail and never relenting. Of course, if you're like me all of your teammates will be useless so you'll be the only blue plane in a dogfight with 4-5 red, in which case sticking on one target means your opponent's buddies are latching onto your tail... As you research modifications, your plane will get noticeably tougher (nd some planes are just inherently tougher than others to begin with), faster, and more maneuverable. Once you're practiced your aim a bit, I recommend switching to stealth ammunition whenever you can (you can't get stealth for turrets or for guns 37mm and larger). For turrets, you'll be forced to carry tracers, in which case AP-T are the best, and I personally like API for as many of the other rounds on the belt as I can get.

Different planes have different strengths, too. For example, I love my Spitfires in Domination matches - their agility makes them amazing in the constant fast and furious dogfighting. But they're not as good for hunting bombers - they're not tough enough to take the punishment that tail gunners dish out. The Beaufighter makes mincemeat of bombers, but its lack of agility means you're better off using hit and run tactics against enemy fighters (unless you can avoid enemy fighters altogether).

You can also tinker with control setups - I also use keyboard and mouse in arcade mode, but I went into a test flight and started messing with key bindings until I found something comfortable for me.

Something that you'll run into if you're only flying Brits, and especially if you plan to stay on the bomber focus, the Wellington is extremely slow for a t2-3 bomber. You'll find that enemy fighters intercept you extremely frequently, and someone with a 37mm cannon doesn't even have to get a lucky hit to knock you out of the sky before you even reach your target to drop your first load of bombs. Actually, one of the things I do sometimes when I'm flying a P-39 or Ki-45 is get up to the enemy bomber spawn point and just chill, pouncing on people as soon as they appear. Because I'm a cold, heartless bastard.

[Leon]

The Welly makes up for being Slow by having a 4000lb Bomb

[mangosta71]

The 4000 pound bomb isn't very useful for attacking vehicles - I usually go with the 9 500-pounders option so that I can still contribute meaningfully if I manage to survive long enough to knock out the bases. That rarely happens though - my Welly gets shot down before even dropping my first load more often than not because, thanks to its non-existent defensive armament and armor combined with the fact that it's the slowest thing in the sky, it's an easy target.

[Corvus]

I understand the principles of dogfighting with the reserve planes - watched some of the Might Jingles vids and have played WWII flight sims before. Problem is that some nations (I'm looking at you USSR) have planes which seem to turn better - and I can't for the life of me get a bead on an enemy even when I'm on their tail, especially not when they are throwing their planes around in maneuvers that should rip their wings off.

So I'll stick to bombing. Of course that Isn't easy when all you have is the tier 1 bombers for the Brits and US and you seem to regularly get dropped into games with T2 enemy. Hard to do much against Beaufighters and DO-217s and P-400s and other cannon armed nastiness. I think their matchmaking leaves a lot to be desired in some cases.

[Leon]

I think matchmaking for the Beau and Do is about right or a lil high. For what there role is they have to generally work hard at getting to where there prey starts at. They climb slow and turn fairly slow and will have to rely on the toughness inherent to them to stay up if a fighter gets behind them.

[mangosta71]

He's not really complaining about Beaufighters and Do-217s. His complaint is that he's got the same issue with matchmaking that I do - constantly getting thrown into combat with opponents a tier above him. The little window shows how many people of each tier and country are in the queue. If there are 40 other people at the same tier as me in the queue, why can't I go up against them? When I bought my first t3 plane (the Typhoon with 4 20mms), and thus it was the only t3 plane I had, everyone else in the match had an F8F, or an NK1J, or a B-24, or a P-51, or a Lancaster, or the t4 Yak-9 or Spitfire variants...

[Corvus]

Yeah, the Bo's and the Do's were just examples, ones with rather excessive firepower when against poor tier 1 bombers. While they do have slow climb rates, it still seems enough when dealing with the lumbering Catalinas. Though at least the faster Brit bombers can generally reach their targets before they are caught.

But there are plenty of other later tier 2 fighters which do have the climb rates to easily reach the bombers - and pack heavy armaments. Given matchmaking pits you against opponents of +/- 1.3 BR (so I've heard), it means the 2.0 BR tier 1 bombers can often face up against 3.3 BR tier 2 fighters. And those things shred bombers without a thought.

[Yana]

If you're having difficulty with the supposed flimsy nature of your bomber, go for the American line. The PBY-5 Catalina, the A-20 Havoc and the B-25 Mitchell are all incredibly durable and can withstand an extraordinary amount of punishment.

Well, so long as it isn't a 37 round or a rocket, but you're dead if one of those hits you anyway. The Catalina in particular is nigh-invincible to practically anything it faces in t1, the downside of course being that it's insanely slow and has easily murdered gunners. It also has a 4000 lb bomb load that dwarfs all the other t1 planes by a substantial margin. The Mitchell is actually one of my favorite planes because it can act as a bomber-hunter since it carries 8 M2 MGs in its nose. Add the nose turret gunner and you have 9-10 guns firing at any plane caught in your line of fire, Twelve Gods help any poor schlub that tries to take you head on.

[mangosta71]

Yeah, I had a few games the other night in which all the guys flying B-25s, A-20s, and PBJs were too busy trying to dogfight enemy bombers to attack the enemy ground targets. Incidentally, I was packing a 37mm in my fighter, and thanks to their derping I had extreme difficulty getting into position to take a shot - they were either blocking my line of fire or I was having to break like crazy to avoid their fire. So not only were they not doing their jobs, those idiots kept me from doing mine, too. (We lost every single one of those games. About half a dozen in a row. And those idiots probably don't even know why.)

[Corvus]

I'll have to try the Havoc and Mitchell out.

A quick question about gold eagles for premium stuff - the only way to get it is by buying it correct? There is no in game method?

[mangosta71]

Every once in a while they'll have a special day where you can earn a small number. The last couple times, it was something like 100 for your second victory, another 100 after your fifth victory, and a final 100 after seven victories. But their login server was so overwhelmed I wasn't able to connect.

[Corvus]

Just took a look at the A-20. Thats what I'm looking for in a bomber hunter - 6 forward firing .50cals in the nose and can carry rockets. After seeing what those annoying Russkie biplanes can do with rockets I'm looking forward to flying it.

[Corvus]

Got a hold of the A-20 and have taken it for a few runs. Really enjoying it, even though it isn't fully modded yet and my crew experience is a little on the low side. The rockets are just amazing. Got 3 kills with them so far, including 2 (plus another with guns) on my last one. It can be a little slow on reaching the right alt needed to wreck bombers, but once it does it does the job.

[mangosta71]

I'm not a fan of rockets on the A-20 because they're so far out on the wing - it's hard to do a one-shot-one-kill with them. The P-39, though... only half the rockets, but they're close enough in that I can hit almost every time, and even after I run out I can blow bombers out of the sky without even trying thanks to Gaijin's failure to accurately model WWII-era 37mm cannons.

[Leon]

Why Worry about what a Heavy Fighter can do to you when your day can be soured by a tiny T1 mono plane with a Rocket. *%^#@# I-16s

[Corvus]

Ah yes, the Russian UFOs and their rockets. Those early model Russian planes seem by far the easiest to fly.

I'm thinking I may give up on the arcade mode for now given that it is a little too arcady and how RNGs hate me with a passion. Unlimited ammo, gamey flight models that promote ridiculous maneuvers (especially in bombers) and of course the prevalence of ramming are sort of making me want to opt out except with early tier 1 stuff. And once I get in a plane above about 2.0 BR I just can't make any headway. I can't dogfight and by that stage my bombers cant survive the plethora of cannons and rockets that see play. Plus when I do hit enemies they invariably stay alive while the first burst takes me out. I recently had a game where my Spit hit a Stuka 38 times. It was still alive at the end of the game and hadn't even suffered a crit.

I've had a few realistic battles - bit harder without a joystick and sometimes I come out with a monetary loss but lack of ammo and 1 life cuts back on spray and pray and ramming. Plus I made my first ace mission flying one - as a Catalina mind, up against the Japanese. 5 Air kills, 3 ground kills and a whole host of rewards. Even scored one of those kills as a gunner myself. Not bad for a plane with only basic training, 2 experience gunners and almost no levels in gunner skills.

[Corvus]

I think I found my new favourite toy for the time - the SB-2 series of bombers. Had been trying out the Russian UFOs and unlocked it and took it out for a spin. 2 A2A kills on the first mission sold me on it.

I think it is now my favourite Tier 1 bomber. Its fast, durable and carries a decent load. And it is equipped with frikken buzzsaws in the place of MGs. My favourite tactic is to chase down enemy bombers (because it has the speed) and park behind them while the forward turret chews them up. Can take a while to kill them but the insane ROF of the guns seems to knock out gunners very quick which leaves you relatively safe. And you score a lot of hits, which is good for credits and XP. I think my record was 56 hits (and in the process destroying a Catalina and a HE-111 with forward guns, a Spitfire with the rear guns and taking out a couple of ground targets with bombs.)

[Yana]

I'd have to say that out of all the t1 bombers I've used, my favorite would either be the Blenheim or the Dauntless for different reasons.

The Blenheim is blisteringly fast for a bomber, especially at tier one. Only very few select t1 planes can even reach your level, let alone catch up to you; especially if you spend the first minute or two of every match gaining altitude. Sure, it has next to no bomb load (250 lb x4 or 500 lb x2), but at least you'll have the opportunity to drop it.

The SBD-3 Dauntless is a different sort of bomber, a dive bomber. It has a fantastic bomb load for a t1 plane, to say nothing of the dive-bomber class and is surprisingly maneuverable. It's also a deadly attacker thanks to the twin 50. caliber MGs that it carries when most other planes are lucky if they have a .30 cal.

[mangosta71]

The only thing I don't like about the Dauntless is that the bombs it carries are different sizes and I don't know of any way to select the one that you're about to drop (also, 50/100 pound bombs are useless for hitting the targets that you need bombs for). The Stuka, otoh, only carries one bomb and thus avoids that issue, and at 500kg it's actually bigger than the biggest one that the Dauntless carries.

[Corvus]

Haven't really tried the Dauntless yet - and don't have the Stuka. The Blenheim is nice, but the SB-2M is almost as fast (for mine, the Blenny only has a 5 km/h speed advantage.) It also has a better bomb load and a slight advantage in guns - especially forward firing.

[mangosta71]

Dear Cthulu, the Yak-9 is god mode. First time I ever flew it (so no upgrades yet), it handled better than a lot of my fully-upgraded planes. I was able to survive with someone on my tail long enough for a teammate to come to my rescue, getting a pair of kills along the way (total of 7 kills and 4 assists in that match). Terror of the Sky, Wingman, and Survivor. Dat 37mm... When I lined up my shot and squeezed the trigger on my first kill, I was expecting the slow, plodding, methodical "boom, pause, boom" that American and Japanese 37mm cannons put out. The rapid-fire "BAMBAMBAMBAMBAM" made me say "wait, what?" and release the trigger in shock - but by that time the bomber in my sights had already been converted into a cloud of debris.

[Jonzac]

Dear Cthulu, the Yak-9 is god mode. First time I ever flew it (so no upgrades yet), it handled better than a lot of my fully-upgraded planes. I was able to survive with someone on my tail long enough for a teammate to come to my rescue, getting a pair of kills along the way (total of 7 kills and 4 assists in that match). Terror of the Sky, Wingman, and Survivor. Dat 37mm... When I lined up my shot and squeezed the trigger on my first kill, I was expecting the slow, plodding, methodical "boom, pause, boom" that American and Japanese 37mm cannons put out. The rapid-fire "BAMBAMBAMBAMBAM" made me say "wait, what?" and release the trigger in shock - but by that time the bomber in my sights had already been converted into a cloud of debris.

What do you expect from a Russian company. Oleg and the nIL series was the same way

[Yana]

Alright, I think I have a new favorite plane. The German Hs129 B-2. Sure, it doesn't have the 75mm howitzer that its successor the B-5 does, but I think that it has a gun which makes up for that. The 30mm that you can unlock for it is probably one of the best guns that I've seen on a plane. 100 rounds per reload (as opposed to the pathetic 12 that the 37mm gets) and it fires at a blisteringly fast pace for such a high caliber weapon. Combine that with the two standard 20mm cannons and have them all shoot anti-air shells and you have yourself a plane that can handle practically any other vehicle that you can reach.

Now granted, it's a slow twin engine fighter that isn't the most maneuverable plane in existence, but I bet you guys know just how frequently people are willing to oblige me by charging at me head-on. Also unlike the 37mm, the 30 has a high velocity shell (in fact, I'd wager it travels faster than the 20mm). As long as you start spraying people starting at 1km out and adjust your aim accordingly (it helps that the gun is mounted on the underside of the main fuselage), you can take out their plane without too much trouble.

I've been having an unseemly amount of fun taking out people in domination matches that assume that since I'm a lumbering twin-engine fighter I'm an easy kill.

[Corvus]

Yeah there is an undeniable Russian bias in game. Which is sad as its a fun game otherwise. Even the in game artwork shows it. You see shots of Japanese, German, Brit and US planes being shot down, but not a single Russian one.

Had my first every game where I topped the leaderboard - in the Russian SB. Domination match where we grabbed the airfield early and never lost it. Not a whole lot of players either so it was over fast. 2 air kills, 4 assists, 5 ground kills. Got survivor, anti-mech, terror of the skies and punisher awards.

[mangosta71]

To be fair, the Russian-built guns really were that much better than anything that anyone else was producing at the time. Their 12.7mm MG had comparable performance to the Browning .50cal at half the weight. Their 37mm cannon really did have a much higher rate of fire and muzzle velocity than the American/Japanese guns of the same caliber.

[Corvus]

I can't speak for the accuracy of the modelling without seeing what data they have used, but I hope they have modelled the Hispano 20mm correctly, as it had a higher ROF, higher muzzle velocity and heavier weight that comparable 20mms, which means it should be the best 20mm in game quite easily. Except data can be misrepresented. Many years back I used to play a game called World War II Online, a sort of precursor to WT but on a vaster scale, including land and sea (though less units available.) At one stage they were relying on data provided by one of the players who unfortunately had a very heavy German bias, which meant the data he provided favoured the Germans and penalised the performance of Allied units. The data used is only as good as the source it comes from.

I suspect that things are accurately modelled, but what appears to be happening is the Russian gear is down-tiered so that it ends up a little better than its opponents - and generally is an ahistorical matchup as it was usually built a few years later than the planes it is matched with.

[mangosta71]

I'm not sure how the tiers are determined. I used to think it was by battle rating, but there's a Spitfire in tier 3 with a BR of 5.3, which is higher than half the t4 planes in the game. And then there's the Italian MC202, which at 1.7 is rated lower than many t1 planes despite its placement in t2. It's not by service date, because the B-24 (a t4 plane) was prototyped in 1939 and entered service in 1941, before many of the t2 and, I think, all of the t3 fighters included in the game.

[Leon]

Of large guns on mono planes.

Where is the Hawker Hurricane IID in the tech tree hmm gaijin? Pair of 40mm cannons, was quite effective with little detriment to combat or flight ability.

I'd like to see the IICs added as well. Hurricanes need more love, too many spitfire marks in the game.

Edit: just found a future releases list and the 2C and the Mark 4 (essentially a 2D upgraded) are on it. Squee!

Also on the list is a Sunderland flying boat and a whole slew of Navy air variants.

[Jonzac]

Just had my first ground battle in the PZIIC all stock. Granted it was arcade mode, but 5 kills and only 1 death at the end it ok with me. Dumb people are dumb in any game and knowing how to sit hull down on the flank makes the ground battle easy. Half way to researching the STUG tier 1 after one battle, I kind of like the ground game. It will be interesting at realistic and historical if they get rid of the name floating above the tank.

[Yana]

And by that, you mean frustrating if you're fighting a T-34 in a t1 German tank, right?

[Jonzac]

depends...historically the 76mm in a T-34 is woefully inaccurate. Additionally, PzIIs where being supplemented/replaced by PzIIIs. More importantly, if they modeled the effect of the T-34 not having a radio then there would be no minimap or any comm between players.

Sadly, I'll watch while a Russian game give the T-34, the best tank of the war title.

[Corvus]

Ah yes, the Sunderland. An even more heavily armed flying boat than the ones we have already. The Mk III (which is the one they are going with) was loaded. A quad MG tail turret, a twin MG nose turret, a twin MG mid upper turret, two .50 cal waist gunners and to top it off for nose mounted forward firing MGs (which they used to strafe surface U-boats to knock out AA crews.) The Germans nicknamed in the flying porcupine for a reason. I've heard mention some had 18 guns but I haven't found out where the other four went.

As for BR, it meant to be based around 'balance', though sometimes that balance escapes me. How is a 20mm armed LaGG3 in tier one balanced? Oh, and lets not forget the Su-2s. Capable of carrying a 600KG bombload and ludicruous speeds, good durability and maneuverability, plus a rear gunner with the Russian buzzsaw MG, all for 1.7 BR. It is faster, turns better, climbs better and carries more than a Blenheim, plus packs better guns and has forward firing ones AND has a lower BR than a Blenny? Yeah, that isn't right.

[mangosta71]

Ah yes, the Sunderland. An even more heavily armed flying boat than the ones we have already. The Mk III (which is the one they are going with) was loaded. A quad MG tail turret, a twin MG nose turret, a twin MG mid upper turret, two .50 cal waist gunners and to top it off for nose mounted forward firing MGs (which they used to strafe surface U-boats to knock out AA crews.) The Germans nicknamed in the flying porcupine for a reason. I've heard mention some had 18 guns but I haven't found out where the other four went.

As for BR, it meant to be based around 'balance', though sometimes that balance escapes me. How is a 20mm armed LaGG3 in tier one balanced? Oh, and lets not forget the Su-2s. Capable of carrying a 600KG bombload and ludicruous speeds, good durability and maneuverability, plus a rear gunner with the Russian buzzsaw MG, all for 1.7 BR. It is faster, turns better, climbs better and carries more than a Blenheim, plus packs better guns and has forward firing ones AND has a lower BR than a Blenny? Yeah, that isn't right.
A couple of the He 112 variants have 20mm cannons, so the Russians aren't the only ones with cannons in t1. And the Su-2, as it starts at the fighter spawn point, is far easier to intercept than the Blenheim. It may be more maneuverable than a bomber, but it's less agile than the fighters it's up against. It also lacks a bombardier so you can't do high-altitude bombing with it, which is how bombers generally rack up the big scores in matches.

It may still be too low, but I don't think it's as bad as you make it seem. Especially given that, once you get into t2, planes generally have enough armor to shrug off 7.7mm bullets that don't hit the pilot.

[Corvus]

Ah yeah, there is the He-112. I've never noticed it be the menace at tier 1 that the Lagg is though.

I don't mind the Su-2 starting at the fighter spawn or having no bombs sites, at least not the way I fly it. I just dive down to the deck and do low level bombing runs of columns of enemy vehicles. Can often rack up 3, 4 or 5 kills in a single fly by. Three missions in a row flying this way I got 16, 14, 16 ground kills, which was pretty much the total of the rest of the team put together. When up against the tier 1 fighters, you can outrun or match speed with any fighter except the Lagg, Buffalo and Hurricane - and it takes a lot of MG fire to bring you down. Lagg's are the problem though.

I'm still trying to work out how people are so accurate in their aiming. My sight dances around all over the place, even without WEP on and flying fairly straight and level. Trying to get a lead when they are dancing all over the place is nigh on impossible, and when I do hit it barely does anything - even with .50 and 20mm rounds. And when I get hit, except in the beefier bombers, the first burst almost always proves lethal.

[Gnoman]

What's your control method? I did a lot better once I disabled the rudder on my joystick. I use a Logitech extreme 3D pro, having gotten five of them from a local Goodwill. The "Rudder" on this is a twist of the stick, and mine are all slightly worn out, meaning it's very easy to put a little twist on the stick while fine-tuning your aim. You may have a similar problem.

[Corvus]

I'm using mouse and keyboard, which is probably a large part of the problem. I seemed to have misplaced my joystick when I moved. Though I have heard that some do very well with only mouse/keyboard in arcade mode.

[Yana]

I certainly do well with mouse/keyboard in arcade with my planes. Granted, it all really depends on how fixated on you the enemy team becomes. You can be the best damn pilot in existence, but it won't mean a thing if you have eight planes hunting you down. If people are checking the scoreboard throughout the match, they tend to hunt the higher scoring people in the hopes of removing that person from the game.

[Corvus]

Had my first fighter ace-in-a-mission. I've had 5 kills from a single plane before, but that was a Catalina. In Historic Mode. Against the Japanese. Who only had 7.7mm MGs. And three of the kills were AI. So hardly counts.

Of course this was not much better. LaGG-3-11 taking on mostly biplanes in a domination match. So not only was I flying a grossly under-ranked plane, I was the +1.0 for about the first time ever. It was a collision that killed me in the end, not the enemy.

[mangosta71]

Do you mean ace in a mission, or in a single plane? Because I regularly do one of those. The other, not so much. Less since I moved my Yak-9 to the back of my lineup because I finished researching all its mods.

[Yana]

Ace in a mission is pretty simple, at least on arcade. I had a domination match earlier today where I took down three planes in a row head on while I was a: on fire, b: being chased by several other planes, c: over the central landing zone (which is always the most contested), d: and I was flying into the enemy fighter spawn point.

I think there comes a point in some matches where you look at your plane's HUD, notice that it's almost entirely black, say "to hell with it!", and do a crazy suicidal stunt that somehow works. God knows that throwing myself into a swarm of fighters isn't a fun way to go, but knowing that I tied up at least 5 fighters for the couple of seconds my team needed to respawn and return to the airfield made the difference. Plus I got to return to the fight in my Me 109 G-2 with its glorious triple 20mm cannons to wreak my vengeance on the cowards who set me on fire.

(Seriously though, the odds of tearing of a wing dramatically increase with the additional cannons that the higher tier German fighters can mount instead of bombs. I love them!)

[Corvus]

I meant ace with a single plane. Apart from the aforementioned Catalina mission, I don't recall every having got ore than 2 kills with a single plane before. 5 with one fighter plane before dying was new for me.

[mangosta71]

My highest in one plane is, I think, 11. That was a pretty exceptional performance, though - I made it through an entire domination match in a single fighter (the first Corsair if memory serves). Of course, that was also early enough that not every single opponent had multiple planes that each carried multiple cannons - back then, 6 .50cals was pretty damned good armament, seeing as how the guys shooting back were mostly packing .30s.

[Corvus]

I've decided I really only have time to concentrate on one nation at the moment - and I've made an odd choice for that nation. The Japanese. They are considered by most it seems to the weakest of the nations, though I'd argue that the Brits aren't much better.

Why the Japanese? Well, they have a decent bomber line up and I prefer bombers. Plus they are the underdog. Oh, yeah, and their ultimate bomber is a frikkin death star. Not that I'll get there for a while.

Only just made a start with them, and still leveling up tier 2. The Ki-45s with their 37mm cannons are fun planes - now if only I could aim properly and the guns weren't loaded with blanks half the time. Need to finish leveling them up so I can improve the climb rate and get up to the bombers were they can really cause some pain. The Ki-45 tei is an oddball one - a fast, 37mm armed 2.0 plane. With the 2 20mm upward firing guns. be interesting to see how that goes.

The H6K is amusing, especially when fighters try and get on its tail. And apparently we are meant to be getting its bigger brother, the H8K, which has multiple 20mm guns. Depending on what BR they give it, it could go good - or bad.

[mangosta71]

I don't even bother to go after H6Ks unless I have either a 37mm or rockets.

[Corvus]

Okay, there is something seriously wrong with the 37mm cannons carried by the Ki-45s. There appears to be a major collision detection error. namely you see the shell hit, see a big explosion - and then nothing. No damage, not even a hit being awarded. It happened 3 shots in a row on a Catalina just now.

[Leon]

German Engineering At its Finest


http://i.imgur.com/wCOKu6O.jpg
Screen cap taken as it was on its way back to base after running out of fuel ~ 7mins of haphazard pillbox bombing. 6 Air Assists.
Yanna will attest i make good bait

[Yana]

Indeed, he spent the entire match in that Ju 87 D-5. I got mine shot down in a head-to-head contest with an A-20... after killing two other planes.

[Jonzac]

Seeing the picture and playing the game, feels like I'm playing IL-2. Feels and looks the same to me.

[Corvus]

Mine never get that shot to pieces and survive, sadly.

I've only been flying The Brits and Japanese of late. Brits in the hope that one day they'll fix the abysmal BR of the Brit bomber range and Japanese for their fun bomber range.

Its painful flying low level Brit fighters - going up against Migs and Lags and P-40s and 109s with only MGs is never a fun experience. The Tiffie is nice - great for climbing up to bombers. The difficult is of course shooting them down. Especially given the engine on it seems to die very easy.

I have come o the conclusion that as it currently stands the Ki-45 tei is useless, or all but. It has just a single 37mm forward firing gun, with only 15 rounds and a very long reload time. Problem is that the dispersion on it makes a shotgun look like a sniper rifle. You can be firing at a plane flying level 300m ahead of you and the first shot goes way off to the left of the plane while the second goes way off to the right. And if by some miracle you do manage to hit them the round will have the sparkle failure. And the two upward firing 20mms have their own problems (though I did take out a lag with them on my very first tun with the plane.) When you switch view to them it will cause your engine to cut out. I actually stalled because of this one time.

They've also got a fun event going on at the moment - a floatplane battle. H6s and F1 and Cats and OSUs, trying to capture zones by landing on water. Highly amusing watching lumbering flyboats exchange broadsides of MG fire that take ages to bring each other down. The Japanese H6 performs better I've found. Faster for starters, plus it has more guns -and can bring more guns to bare against a single enemy. The Cats may have .50cals, but you can normally only shoot one of them at a time against an enemy while the H6 can often bring 3 MGs to bare (and a 20mm if you are behind it.)

[Yana]

Does anyone know how to convert the replay files to a youtubeable format? I just had a match where I took out 16 foes, 8 of them with one plane. Easily my best match ever and I'd love to share it with you guys.

Though this shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, having six 20mm on a single engine fighter means other planes die in an awful hurry.

[Jimorian]

Does anyone know how to convert the replay files to a youtubeable format? I just had a match where I took out 16 foes, 8 of them with one plane. Easily my best match ever and I'd love to share it with you guys.

Though this shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, having six 20mm on a single engine fighter means other planes die in an awful hurry.

You need to replay the match in the War Thunder client software, then record that output with video capture software like Fraps, Camtasia, OBS, etc.

[Corvus]

What fighter has 6 20mms? Most I've seen is 4. I'm sure even I could get kills with that one...

Floats has finished. Had a lot of fun with that. Came in 62nd i think in number of kills - 112 from 56 matches. All but 3-4 were with the H6. Had relatively few deaths as well. Mostly from collisions or bombing too low. This is actually one mode that I could do well with - got plenty of terror of the skies and even a number of 1st places. Good for the crew XP as well - went from 2 to 5 trained gunners in my main Japanese bomber slot.

[Yana]

What fighter has 6 20mms? Most I've seen is 4. I'm sure even I could get kills with that one...

Floats has finished. Had a lot of fun with that. Came in 62nd i think in number of kills - 112 from 56 matches. All but 3-4 were with the H6. Had relatively few deaths as well. Mostly from collisions or bombing too low. This is actually one mode that I could do well with - got plenty of terror of the skies and even a number of 1st places. Good for the crew XP as well - went from 2 to 5 trained gunners in my main Japanese bomber slot.

The plane with 6 cannons is the FW190 A-5/U2. However, it doesn't start with that number. Its initial armament comprises of two 7.92mm MG 17 and two 20mm MG 151, all four mounted in the nose. The four additional wing mounted cannons are a 4th tier research option, so it does take awhile to obtain them. Also, the accuracy of the added cannons falls off dramatically past 500 meters or so.

It's also a bad idea to fire all guns for longer than a two second burst. In addition to the stability issues presented by the recoil from so many guns, it also causes the plane to bleed off speed at a rapid rate.

[Corvus]

Ah, I didn't know that you could research additional guns. Is it an option on any other planes?

[mangosta71]

Not very many, and I think only the Germans had attachable gun pods that could be added to hardpoints under the wings.

[Yana]

It starts becoming an option for some German planes starting with the Bf 109 F-4. Come to think of it, I think one of the t4 planes actually gets to upgrade the nose cannon from a 20 mm to a 30 mm in addition to the wing cannons.

Regardless, it takes forever to research all those options, and in the meantime, you only have one cannon for the 109 with two MGs. At least starting by t4, they get upgraded to 13 mm MGs.

Additionally, you can't carry bombs when you have the gun pods. Normally, you wouldn't want bombs on a single engine fighter, but sometimes it can win you a match.

[Corvus]

1.43 is out.

http://warthunder.com/en/news/886-Update-143-en

[mangosta71]

Just glanced at it and saw that I haven't played in a month. I fire it up and the opening screen is TIGERCATS.

You guys don't understand how much I loved flying the F7F in Aces of the Pacific back in the day.

[Leon]

Im glad i moved up from the JU88 when i did otherwise i'd have to suffer through the Italian bombers...

[ShadowFighter15]

Well the new kill-cam for tanks is interesting.

For those who haven't seen it yet - when you die in a tank, you get a (skippable) cutscene showing where the shell that killed you hit, what it did inside the tank and what was damaged either by the shell, the resulting shrapnel/spalling or both.

For one; I found out the hard way that you can kill a Panzer IV ausf H by putting a shell into it's commander's cupola. Can't remember what it was that got me (feel like it was an SU-100 - I know it was a tank destroyer at least) but his shot went through the front of the cupola, shattered on the back of it and rained shrapnel down through the whole of the crew compartment.

[Leon]

Think about what it''l be like when the British and their HESH shells arrive (if ever...)

[Leon]

Is there a way to disable the large red annoying text that tells me to Retract Flaps constantly when i have engaged them for a reason...

[mangosta71]

So, I've taken to starting out with a P-47 when I'm flying American just so I can finish researching all the mods and replace it in my lineup with something that doesn't suck donkey balls. It's slow going; I rarely get more than 2 kills before an enemy fighter comes along and turns that PoS sitting duck into a fireball. Last night, I spent an entire match in my Thunderbolt and racked up 11 kills. And now I'm left wondering what I could have done to that enemy team in a plane that's not less maneuverable than the average brick.