War Thunder - F2P Combat Flight MMO

[Genx87]

I watch some BF109 try to do that to our F4U the other night. He blew up on contact while the F4U repaired and flew away lol

 

[Rinaun]

Once again, I STRONGLY suggest users leave the Japanese Nation with reserve planes. If you buy the 5-plane hangar loadout, just select the Tier 0 plane and the 4 reserve planes available. This way all your planes are under tier 1, meaning you'll be paired with mainly reserves and still have 5 planes. Every time my squad goes to play we just use our reserves. It's too much fun compared to the speed of the other planes; Tier 2+ planes simply move too fast for combat to be enjoyable.

 

[ddjkdg]

Nearly tier 8 with the Germans now, and it has vastly improved from the low tier Italian garbage. However the Stukas are mostly useless - slow, easily taken down, and overall outclassed by Su-2s and IL-2s. Although you can get a respectable loadout on some variants (2x 250kg and 1x 500kg), they are designed as dive bombers, so you obviously don't get bomb sights and don't have the safety of altitude. After executing a dive bomb maneuver you are basically a sitting duck for any enemy fighters in the area that are paying attention.

The Stuka G's have 2x37mm cannon which can take out nearly anything in 1-2 volleys, but the ammo capacity and ROF are bad. You don't get any bombs, so you are restricted to hunting down enemy bombers, and again the Stuka has poor speed and can't climb for dick. In fact if you ever end up down on the deck it is probably faster to land on an airfield, hold down J to get out, and reenter the Stuka so you spawn at bomber altitude again.

The Bf-109s so far are capable but not outstanding. Their armament isn't the best, which is a problem because due to their playstyle you can only get guns on target for 2-3 seconds at a time. Unless you are quite skilled and can snipe at people's wings, it takes multiple passes to get a kill, especially if the other pilot is aware that you are making a pass. But I'm looking forward to getting the G and K variants and the Fw 190s, as they tend to have ridiculous firepower. I also just unlocked pylons for a 500kg bomb on the F-4 and F-4/trop, which will let me crack a pillbox for free every 4-5 minutes.

Brits have great fighters and interceptors. Their early bombers are fairly weak and can only carry 2x500lb. I'm at tier 6 and the Wellington comes at tier 7 with a monster 4000lb bomb, so that will change things up. But the Spitfires and Hurricanes excel at dogfighting and have the right combination of speed, maneuverability, and firepower. Beaufighters are fast with sick firepower so they make short work of bombers and attack aircraft. There are a surprising number of people that try and dogfight in them though, so I like to keep an eye on enemy Beaufighters and prioritize them if I see them drop to low altitude. Tip, if you see a Beaufighter diving on you quickly, fly straight and then make a sudden turn when he is about 1km away. Their handling SUCKS and he will not be able to correct his aim before he blows by.

Soviets are still outstanding at tier 9. Great all-around fighters and attack aircraft, and easily have the best bombers, with literally a dozen at tier 3-8 that can mount payloads of 2x500kg, 3x500kg, 4x250kg, 6x250kg, etc etc. I uploaded some Yak-9T gameplay for anyone that wants to see what they are like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtAuegGj4zg

 

[Elcs]

Brits have great fighters and interceptors. Their early bombers are fairly weak and can only carry 2x500lb. I'm at tier 6 and the Wellington comes at tier 7 with a monster 4000lb bomb, so that will change things up. But the Spitfires and Hurricanes excel at dogfighting and have the right combination of speed, maneuverability, and firepower. Beaufighters are fast with sick firepower so they make short work of bombers and attack aircraft. There are a surprising number of people that try and dogfight in them though, so I like to keep an eye on enemy Beaufighters and prioritize them if I see them drop to low altitude. Tip, if you see a Beaufighter diving on you quickly, fly straight and then make a sudden turn when he is about 1km away. Their handling SUCKS and he will not be able to correct his aim before he blows by.

<takes a pin to your bubble>

The Wellingtons, all 4 of them, are poor. They die quite easily, only have a placeholder flight model which is not good and their bomb load isn't spectacular considering their fragility and lack of mobility. On one occasion I have had a Gladiator (British Rank 1 Biplane) take me down before I was able to hit F6 to change to gunner view.

However with a great crew you can dodge bits and pieces, learning to avoid damage and become even more spatially aware, plus well trained gunners can earn you extra exp/lions and the odd kill. My Crew 1 when piloting a Wellington Mk X have 50/50 +30 Weapon Accuracy, 50/50 +30 Weapon Precision and 92/100 G-Tolerance scores. They're occasionally able to shoot down anything Rank 3 and below but even with me firing at a rear target, I've been mauled by Kittyhawks etc. They're capable of 1-shotting Carriers and Battleships but only with a direct hit. First time you do that then you will be cheering

Hurricanes are terrible at dogfighting and should not be used for that purpose. They get out turned by more than half of planes available. They are however very capable at punching holes in fighters and attackers in a way much like you describe the BF 109's for the Germans. Typhoon's and the Tempest are kind of bigger Hurricanes really.

Spitfires are excellent and can do the turning fight against most things, except Japanese planes. Until you get the Spitfire Mk Vc at Rank 12, you will have cannon ammo issues as the ammo on Spitfires is pretty woeful.

Beaufighters... I hate using them and never bother anymore. The Mosquito is very similar though flies a tad better and lacks the dorsal gunner.

Speaking from the perspective of a pilot whom has Rank 15 British planes, Rank 4 with German and Russian planes, Rank 5 with US planes and Rank 6 with the Japanese.

 

[Genx87]

Use the BF110 or ME410 for bombing missions instead of the stuka. Way faster and can climb better.

I use my hurricanes for dog fighting. I seem to do better in them than the spitfire. The spitfire has weird characteristics to me. Supposedly a decent turner. I find doing loops it is far faster then going into a turn. And its roll rate is really slow compared to the hurricane or BF109s.

I am getting better at utilizing the Bf109s. And provided nobody is on my tail can take people down. Just make sure to utilize its climb and speed to your advantage. I had some poor spitfire all in shambles last night. He would turn and I would climb + roll and come back down on him until he died. Then his buddy showed up in the P39 and overshot me. I climbed rolled over then rolled again and got on his tail. He didnt last long. But if somebody gets on my tail hope to god I have friends or enough speed to get away. Turning isnt a real option unless the guy on your tail is another BF109

Another tip for the 109s or this game in general is use the free look often to know where the enemy is compared to you. I can tell these guys who I am chasing arent using freelook when I perform some of these manuevers. If they were, they could possibly get away. They think I am gone because my guns havent hit them for 10 seconds. I was just climbing off to the left or right and rolling back over the top of them for a better angle and to allow them to get in front of me again due to my superior speed

 

[brandonb]

I am really liking this game. I played all day a few days ago.

I've only played the Germans though. But I believe I'm rank 5 or 6 now. Germans were painful until these ranks though, really slow going, as their noob planes have puny guns. You can unload your entire ammo supply (x2) on a bomber and still not take it down. But it gets easier when you unlock a plane with cannnons.

I also like the HE-111 and flying through the clouds and dropping bombs. I received 3 aircraft kills with a bomb one time. Granted one was a friendly and I receieved -5000 points. But it still made me smile.

 

[Skott]

Is it like WoT where you get a starter aircraft from each nation and can go that way down a line or is it you just choose one nation at beginning and go with it? Also how does their Premium system work?

 

[ddjkdg]

You get starter planes for all 5 nations. You start with a few "garage slots" (crews) for each country and train them to fly the various planes. It's a garage battle system so you can bring a mix of fighters, bombers, etc into each match and switch to another plane as you get shot down. There are minor upgrades (primarily for bombers) but for the most part a stock plane is perfectly fine. You rank up in each air force separately and automatically unlock all available planes when you reach the next rank, you just need to buy them.

I think premium gives 2x credits and 1.5x experience. One big difference from WoT is that you get a bonus to both credits and experience for a victory, so you need wins or you will go bankrupt fast. The economy is pretty much a joke right now, same-tier planes have wildly different repair costs and times. Also someone can KS you and instantly get 10x the credits and xp for landing the killing blow even if you did 90% of the damage. Or even worse, a destroyer or AA gun finishes them and no one gets the kill.

 

[clamum]

Is it like WoT where you get a starter aircraft from each nation and can go that way down a line or is it you just choose one nation at beginning and go with it? Also how does their Premium system work?

It's similar to WoT in that you get "Reserve" planes for each nation (USSR, Germany, British, USA, Japan) and can pick and choose which part of the tech tree of planes (called "Research" in the game) to unlock.

If you have a Premium account, you get 1.5x XP earning... and... haha, I forget the rest. I'm sure a Google search or a visit to their forums would give you a full answer, though.

 

[clamum]

Also someone can KS you and instantly get 10x the credits and xp for landing the killing blow even if you did 90% of the damage. Or even worse, a destroyer or AA gun finishes them and no one gets the kill.

Yes, kill stealing fucking sucks. I keep firing at my target until he's hit the ground or just about. Many times I've ended up crashing into the back of him because of this since I hate to miss out on the XP/cash for the hard work. However if there's no teammates around I don't bother of course.

 

[Rinaun]

One big difference from WoT is that you get a bonus to both credits and experience for a victory, so you need wins or you will go bankrupt fast.

Totally untrue. You need to do well in rounds, but not win. If you had to win rounds or face a negative repair bill something is wrong on your side. Winning a round has less of an impact than doing well. I've learned this after trying to do the objectives, vs dogfighting for the first 5 minutes then doing objectives. Every time I try to do objectives right off the bat it ends in our team running out of planes. Until they fix how this mechanic works, winning or losing rounds will basically revolve around eliminating all opponents. Opponents equal more exp/pts compared to objective targets.

 

[ddjkdg]

Totally untrue. You need to do well in rounds, but not win. If you had to win rounds or face a negative repair bill something is wrong on your side. Winning a round has less of an impact than doing well. I've learned this after trying to do the objectives, vs dogfighting for the first 5 minutes then doing objectives. Every time I try to do objectives right off the bat it ends in our team running out of planes. Until they fix how this mechanic works, winning or losing rounds will basically revolve around eliminating all opponents. Opponents equal more exp/pts compared to objective targets.

I'm not talking about negative repair bills, I'm talking about being able to afford new planes as you rank up. I manage my free repairs very carefully with several crews maxed out on repair speed, rarely lose more than 3 planes even in losses, and still need to farm credits in reserve planes fairly often.

edit: I figured I should add that this is on a premium account. And I am trying to put things into context of WoT where I can turn a profit even at tier 10, but if they suddenly removed 1/3 of my income in losses, I would probably break even at best.

 

[Genx87]

One thing I am noticing. People are getting a lot better with bombing targets. It is hard to get more than 3-4 kills with how fast they are taking out the ground objectives and finishing the match.

 

[ZaneNBK]

Brits have great fighters and interceptors. Their early bombers are fairly weak and can only carry 2x500lb. I'm at tier 6 and the Wellington comes at tier 7 with a monster 4000lb bomb, so that will change things up. But the Spitfires and Hurricanes excel at dogfighting and have the right combination of speed, maneuverability, and firepower. Beaufighters are fast with sick firepower so they make short work of bombers and attack aircraft. There are a surprising number of people that try and dogfight in them though, so I like to keep an eye on enemy Beaufighters and prioritize them if I see them drop to low altitude. Tip, if you see a Beaufighter diving on you quickly, fly straight and then make a sudden turn when he is about 1km away. Their handling SUCKS and he will not be able to correct his aim before he blows by.

Brits and Japanese both have pretty agile fighters, I enjoy playing them both. However the Japanese peter out (in available planes) around tier 9 or 10. The Wellington (British) is extremely fragile and I've had very poor luck utilizing them as bombers due to how easily they get shot down.

Beaufighters aren't that bad once you know how to handle them. If you see one turn anywhere near another plane then immediately go after him, he's a free kill at that point since he doesn't know how to fly that plane properly. Beaufighters lose in pretty much any dogfighting situation.

 

[ZaneNBK]

One thing I am noticing. People are getting a lot better with bombing targets. It is hard to get more than 3-4 kills with how fast they are taking out the ground objectives and finishing the match.

If that's happening in the games you play then stick to fighters and go anti-bomber as long as needed. I haven't seen the same issue the the games I play, but it basically points to players not countering enemy bombers quick enough. Bombers aren't that hard to take down for the most part. They might get off their first load of bombs but then they have to wait ~1 minute to re-arm. If you don't fly directly behind them in range of their gunners then you should be able to take them down before they get a second attempt at bombing.

 

[Genx87]

I think a lot of the issues I am seeing has more to do with fighters carrying bombs.

Anyways I have been playing with the airacobras. Talk about a fun plane. That 37mm gun hurts feelings. And it has decent enough maneuverability. Like to see what its bigger brother is like.

 

[ZaneNBK]

I think a lot of the issues I am seeing has more to do with fighters carrying bombs.

Anyways I have been playing with the airacobras. Talk about a fun plane. That 37mm gun hurts feelings. And it has decent enough maneuverability. Like to see what its bigger brother is like.

The Kingcobra is very nice. Fast, maneuverable and good firepower.

 

[Elcs]

Got my AVRO Lancaster. Used it in Historical Battles only.

It's pretty fast and agile for a bomber, moving much better than the Wellingtons, however it is just as fragile.

First repair cost: 73,719 Lions or 5 days, 22 hours with Repair Rank 16, Repair Speed 49/50 crew.

 

[Genx87]

Tunnel vision will get ya everytime. So I got into the Corsair last night. My first arcade game out I take out a couple of bombers then this P-39K targets me. I go in the opposite direction as I didnt want a dog fight without knowing how this plane handles. He follows for about 5 miles and cant catch me. I turn around and dive under him and go in the other direction. Now I am thinking lets mess with this guy. I go all the way to the other side of the battle field until it tells me to return. Then perform the same manuever and head back to the battle. As I come to the battlefield I kill a wildcat literally by not turning but just shooting and then a BF109 hits my wing. But I keep trucking along at about 200 feet towards our base. This guy is still on my tail but cant catch me. I get to our base and bail giving the BF109 the kill. This guy literally chased me for 10 mins. The best part is yet to come. I come back in with the airacobra and he happens to be right there chasing somebody on our team. I dive and knock his wings off lol.

 

[Daverino]

Played this for a few days and I can't like it. The game seems very optimized for a mouse and I'll be damned if I fly around with a mouse. Flying just has to be done with a joystick for me. Even turning the sensitivity way way down, the joystick controls were just too loose. The precision the game expects for aiming, though, is what you would accomplish with a mouse. So while I feel like I've got great control over my aircraft, I can't hit a damned thing.

 

[ZaneNBK]

Played this for a few days and I can't like it. The game seems very optimized for a mouse and I'll be damned if I fly around with a mouse. Flying just has to be done with a joystick for me. Even turning the sensitivity way way down, the joystick controls were just too loose. The precision the game expects for aiming, though, is what you would accomplish with a mouse. So while I feel like I've got great control over my aircraft, I can't hit a damned thing.

If you play Full Real Battles it's limited to joysticks only, so you're not competing with mouse-aim players or players using instructor assistance. There's also a thread in the forums dedicated to getting joysticks working optimally in-game. The developers have said the next big update will includes fixes for joysticks as well.

Here's the joystick setup thread: http://forum.warthunder.com/index.p...nsitivity-settings-for-controllers-explained/

 

[lupi]

finally started to d/l it, my god they are sooooo slow though.

 

[ZaneNBK]

finally started to d/l it, my god they are sooooo slow though.

Yup, all the servers are hosted in Russia or Europe, which doesn't help. They just got Greenlit on Steam recently though so hopefully they'll be setting up US servers soon.

 

[lupi]

ok, just now need to figure out how to play.

 

[benzylic]

Played this for a few days and I can't like it. The game seems very optimized for a mouse and I'll be damned if I fly around with a mouse. Flying just has to be done with a joystick for me. Even turning the sensitivity way way down, the joystick controls were just too loose. The precision the game expects for aiming, though, is what you would accomplish with a mouse. So while I feel like I've got great control over my aircraft, I can't hit a damned thing.

Yeah, when I first started playing I tried doing the tutorials with a xbox controller. It was almost impossible to hit anything. I gave up and tried the mouse, much better.