Got any tactic tips?

V

vortex_01

Guest
So I am not familiar with all the WWI Planes and their particular faults and advantages. And since I was unable to find anything even remotely resembling any flight combat maneuvers on this forum I decided to start one.:d

So give me some pionters on your plane of chioce and how to kill the other guy with it.

Thanks
 
Altitude is Life

Don't fire till you close to Rock Throwing Distance, and then in short bursts

In a P51 you had 6 X .50 cal Machine Guns, you destroyed whatever you hit.
Now you have 1 maybe 2, .30 cal Machine Guns. Your target is mostly wood and canvas.

If you can't pump a few bullets into the Pilot, the Engine, or the Fuel Tank, it Could Be a long Day
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtprTL66-FY&mode=related&search=

http://www.simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2529057#Post2529057 :kilroy:
 
Camel can out fight anything, if you keep your head and concentrate on avoiding spins.

Nothing can turn with you, out run or out climb you, and you have two guns.

Downside is pretty limited view, but if you just hang on and keep turning the target just keeps coming into view and eventually you win.

He will never stay on you tail, not ever if your on the limit, so just concentrate on the attack, attack, attack.

If you want comfort then SE5, If you want a challenge the Albatross, It is not a really match for the Allies and it's pilots deserve respect.

If you want to feel superior the survive a couple of missions in an EIII.

I'll wait for the SPADs in P3 before judging, I can't wait.

Of course this is one on one.
 
Hey ho Vortex..

if its dog fighting(!!) then I think two of the key defensive skills is to be able to put the plane in and out of a spin going the way you want without losing too much height and to be able to fly it sideways (side slipping radically).. if you can shoot accurately while slide slipping then wonderful too.. I read about it in a book. I like doing screech stops too.. are they called stall turns? :wiggle:

Maybe you should suggest the ACES (I'm sure there are some) to make short videos of the clever moves.

Of course we know.. the numbers cannot lie.. that most of the high scorers were very efficient hunter killers kicking off the barely trained newbies.. diving onto the backs of unsuspecting slow observers. etc. sneaky stabbing in the back murder rather than anything to do with dashing chivalry.. So probably the best technique is to be able to dive unseen but accurately onto the back of a gaggle of Albatrosi and zoom away back over the line as fast as possible..
:173go1:I read about that in a book too..
 
The aeroplane itself is not so important as is how competent you are as a pilot and thinker of suitable tactics. So I would suggest that before you go and get all aggressive :) choose the aeroplane that you like best and spend quite a LOT of time just flying it and getting to know what it can and can't do well.

And use a stop watch! Time yourself making 180 degree turns - then practice until you can better that initial turn rate. Then do the same at various heights - because whatever aeroplane your flying it WILL vary in performance at height (thanks to the excellent work of the OFF FM developers). Keep a record. Same for climbing, measure time and speed until you get the best you can. Stall the aeroplane and measure how quickly you can recover (as in losing as least height as possible). Then practice until you can better that time. Do the same with spins. Yank and bank until you find the point when the aeroplane loses speed and drops out of the sky. Keep notes so you know what to watch out for and avoid.

If you want to fly online one of the very best manoeuvers to master is the "level turn", that is being able to turn any number of degrees without losing height. Very few pilots (especially online) can do this. If you master this you can outturn a Camel in a Pfalz! You'll find that you keep height and your opponent is all over the place trying to stay with you.! :)

Once you've mastered your aeroplane THEN your ready to take on others. "Think" about the tactics you can employ against your opponent. There's enough info around to provide a general sense of what various aeroplanes can do as in speed and turn capability.
* For example don't get into a turning fight against a Fokker Dr.1 or Camel if your in an less capable turning aeroplane like a Pfalz, Albatross, Se.5 etc.
* Use height, make a diving attack and zoom for height, or simply make one attack and dive and extend away.
* If your in a great turning aeroplane get in close and hussle, make your opponent twist and turn and burn off speed.
* Never get caught below - run away and fight again another day.
* Watch your speed - avoid being caught low and slow.
* Treat each combat as if you DO run the risk of dying. That way you won't take silly chances or fight against odds.

And most importantly practice shooting until you can hit what you aim at. The closer the better, and only fire when you absolutely sure you will hit.

Your there to win. :kilroy:
 
There's some video on youtube, specially one about the combat rules from Oswald Boelcke called Dicta Boelcke and it's made in OFF P2 by someone here but I can't remember who.
Shame on me cause this video teach me everything!!!
 
That's the main reason for Quick Combat, "YOU" control everything, and gives you the place to 'Hone' your skills.
You're gonna lose pilots, everybody does

Sooo when you 'Think' you're good, try Campaign, you have only one choice to make. Do your duty, or don't

The average pilot in WWI, survived 17 Hours in the air

Kills are important, but sometimes you must chose, the mission, or the kill, or just to survive :kilroy:
 
There are two axioms that will always serve you well no matter what you fly. When in doubt...attack. And never give up first. Keep turning, etc until the other guy makes a mistake. Gunnery practice is crucial, learn to lead your target. Also learn whether your plane is good in turns (Entente mostly) or boom and zoom tactics (German empire mostly). Also, bear in mind that the AI gets some perfomrance advantages that aren't historically correct to compensate for their lack of grey cells and synapses.
 
grumpybear007 said:
Here is a link to a good vid On Boelcke's dicta

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYMZlrLVosA&feature=related

GB
Click to expand...
Hey ho Grumpy bear.. nice name.. Really good helpful video..

and Pips's post resonates.. Pity there isnt a game component which takes newbies/trainees under their wing and teaches them strategies and training stuff..
I was going to enlarge on that at a later date...

I just did my first campaign flight . and got told I have to tell the wingmen what to do.. What? I dont even know the signals.. It was a scramble and we flailed around until all the bad guys died. BUT back on topic.. Was there any wing man 'strategy' at that time..Vics etc or was it all a bit of a zoo?:wiggle:
Anyway in the excitement I forgot to check I had all the bits still on and bent it a bit (lot) more on landing but I got away with it.. a bit charred but ok..
good fun..
and I have to admit I got sweaty when we got down to the last enemy.. would I survive? shall I risk dying for the glory.. of course I would.. BUT back to topic.. presumably no radio (when did that develop?) meant that the wingman stuff was simply Follow me.. waggle .. tally ho chaps.. :ernae: I'm getting into this..
 
In the early years they mostly used lone wolf tactics but later they did develope team work. We don't get to be as strategic as they were IRL but we can TRY to tell them to attack, split, help and the ever popular, rejoin. The commands don't work very often. In P2 they're not very useful but in P3 they actually shhot and join in the fight, so the commands will mean something.
 
wehyam said:
got told I have to tell the wingmen what to do.. What? I dont even know the signals.
Click to expand...

Main ones are
A = wingman attack
H = wingman help me
S = wingman split
R = wingman rejoin

You are right...no radios. Just assume these are hand signals, or just imagine that the wingman magically has this thought pop into his head.

When you hit 'A' the Wingmen will attack whatever is close, or if you have a target selected on the TAC they will attack that thing specifically.
 
gimpyguy said:
The average pilot in WWI, survived 17 Hours in the air

Kills are important, but sometimes you must chose, the mission, or the kill, or just to survive :kilroy:
Click to expand...

Where did this 'fact' come from Gimpy?..
The reason I ask is that there maybe confusion about what it means..


Is it the mode? ie does the frequency distribution of pilots hours flown/survived peak at 17 hours..
Is it the mean.. take all the pilots add up all the hours they flew and divide it by the number of pilots.
or is it the median.. that is the number of hours that splits the number of pilots into 2 groups on the 50 percentile :kilroy:
..
some (relatively few) pilots must have flown hundreds , some even thousands of hours and a very much larger number flew a lot fewer than 17..

Its a bit like salaries.. there's a huge rump getting not much and a long tail getting megabucks... say one footballer gets the same salary as 19 professors. If a professors salary is 1P the total for the 20 guy/gals is 38P and average salary is 38P/20 = 1.9P which is nearly twice the salary of a professor!!

I bet a lot of the guys didnt make any thing like 17 hours...

enough already.. :ernae:
 
Surely the figure means absolutely nothing unless it's applied to one discipline, nation, front etc.

The crews of British spotters didn't last as long as scouts?
 
Thats another reason for knowing where gimpy got the number from..
I suppose it doesnt include training!! Or does it? what ever..

Its just that I have a book which has lots of useful facts about WWII..
did you know that between jan and oct 1942, the luftwaffe lost 868 single engine fighters to enemy action and 866 fighter to what is called " not due to enemy action " !!!:icon_lol: or that from july 1944 to the end of the war.. the americans and british fighter pilots had about 3-4 times as many hours training as the germans.. 3-400 hours against 100 hours... 100 hours and up you go in your FW 190.. enjoy... lambs to the slaughter.. :ernae:
 
I quick search

HI after a quick search I found this page, I thought it was rather nice even though there is no mention of the sourse for the info.

http://www.usaww1.com/World_War_1_Fighter_Pilots.php4

The following is a quote from his page.

"World War I fighter pilots had a typical life expectancy of several weeks while flying in combat. Several weeks. Not much at all. In terms of flying hours, a combat pilot could count on 40 to 60 hours before being killed. Indeed, of the original seven pilots of the Lafayette Escadrille, only one emerged from the war neither killed nor wounded."
 
Prior to the crash, the standing challenge was 17 hours of airtime, of survival, that was the average

Tooo many survived, so the game became tougher, this happened a few times.

While the Developer's swear to their innocence, after the Hotfix, I've seen alot more enemy activity :costumes::costumes:

I was just starting to grow eyes in the back of my head, when I was KIA, and started cheating :costumes::costumes::costumes: with 3 Kills, 7 Claims, 5 Hours 53 Minutes
 
ahhh

I see so the 17 hours is strictly a game related challange and is not real world related. Cool that works for me but so far that seems a bit tough I mean getting to, what like, 10x the average life of the average armchair fighter pilot...:d and I aint average..yet. Just kidding of course but I would assume you are not using warp and that will bring up the hours alot faster I would think.
 
You got it Vortex, if you are using warp then your flight times will be much shorter in duration. With warp your flights may last from anywhere of 2mins to half an hour (depending whether or not you encounter the enemy). If you dont use warp your times could be from half and hour to three hours. Personally I dont have the time to fly in real time and my hours for pilots are very low. I wish there was an option of your flight times logged from either real time or elapsed time on the games clock.
:ernae:
-Rooster
 
Don't know where the book you found came from, but the 17 hours, roughly was 10 Days at the Front. The average life span of a WWI british pilot. The game was made tougher, because too many people were surviving.
When it was initially done, we were told it would prepare us for Phase 3

AFTER the release of Phase 3, when things are a bit quieter around here, talk to the Developers with regaurds to the 17 Hours :ernae:
 
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