Offline challenges.

[Jumoschwanz]

Lately out of boredom I have been setting up missions in the QMB that are tough just to see if I can beat them. For instance a Stuka vs. two or four fighters, things like that.

The mission can not be so ridiculous that it is meaningless, but it is interesting to see what you can dream up to challenge yourself.

Of course I am flying Realistic settings, but sometimes I will use icons just to learn at what distance enemy aircraft will open fire etc..

A tough mission is to get into four Ace late Stukas and fight four Ace late I-16s or four Ace Spit MkV Earlys. Or maybe one E4b vs. four I-16s or one I-16 vs four Ace E4bs.....

Lets see if we can come up with a reasonable mission that is especially tough to crack so we can all give it a try.

[gaunt1]

Ace AI La-7 vs anything in the game except jets. VERY hard to beat.

[dimlee]

A/c of the same period, or different? Otherwise the toughest would be Hurrie vs 1945 fighters or alike. ;-)

[Jumoschwanz]

It does not matter if the aircraft are of the same period, but if you pit yourself in a biplane against a jet then you will end up with a draw every time because you will always be able to move out of the way of the jets fire, eventually one of you will just run out of fuel.

Ace La-7s or anything are not tough unless the odds are three-to-one against you or more, and I can usually even beat four of them fairly easily if I can get down to the ground, AI has never been able to handle flying close to terrain at all, especially if there is any sort of a hill or ridge you can get to.

The late Stuka vs. I-16 is one of the toughest ones I have found especially if you have four vs. four because although the Stuka has good firepower, it is no better than the I-16 and the I-16 is more maneuverable and faster, so you can not run. The only way to beat them is to shoot them down while they are concentrating on another Stuka.

The Ace AI is still not that good, it can never beat a good human pilot 1 vs.1, I wish it could but if they have not done it in the last 17 years they probably never will.

My squad used to fly every week on a map after it split into two teams, both sides would have Ace AI helping them out, fighters and bombers and AAA etc... My side always had to go up against a group of four Ace La-7s but I usually took care of them all by myself because I knew about where they would spawn and I tried to wait above them in a late P-47. I could zoom down on them two or three times before they got up to my altitude, then I would dive and have the remaining two or three of them chase me to the deck where I would just fly around hilly terrain and shoot them to pieces more often than not.

[gaunt1]

Ok, then try this: Start at 1000m, non hilly terrain, P-47 vs 2x Ace AI La-7 :-P
Or even better, same, but with Fw-190A8 instead of P-47 :D

[Jumoschwanz]

Gaunt thanks for the mission. It was challenging but not too so, vs. Four La-7 is a better challenge. I did it on the Smolensk map which is pretty featureless and starting at 1000m alt as you suggested. Of course I get the 190A8's radiator wide open, put on the combat flaps and get right down on the deck as quickly as possible because it makes it easier to keep track of them and the AI as always are not as good on the deck as a good human pilot even if the ground is flat and featureless.

The mission I have been having fun with is picking any 1942 axis aircraft vs. four Ace 1942 Lagg 35 and four Ace 1942 P39N1 on the Smolensk map starting at 2000m alt.. Even if you take an AI wing-man with you they are pretty brutal.

I beat them using the 109f4 and the 190a4, but often I had to climb up over 7000m alt where they could not climb well, or get down on the deck to finish them off. If I take a few Ace wing-men they will often wipe them all out very quickly for some reason.

[gaunt1]

which 190A4 did you use? The standard one is quite good, but the other is not so, I imagine it must be significantly harder to fly that in such a mission

[dimlee]

Most of my online adventures are in twin engine a/c. So when I have time for some QMB training I choose combinations of Pe-3/Pe-3bis vs Bf 110 E2, F2, G2 or alike.
P-38 as human player choice is out of question, she is just too good. Wish we could have flyable Ki-46 (without 37mm cannon) - decent match to any version of Lightning.

[Jumoschwanz]

which 190A4 did you use? The standard one is quite good, but the other is not so, I imagine it must be significantly harder to fly that in such a mission

I used the "good" A4. Spent a lot of time in the bad one online though because servers run by former allied countries, which is just about all of them, used to love to use the "bad" A4 in their plane set.

I remember that Spits_vs_109s eliminated all 190s from one of their late-war maps except for the heavy F-8.....

I will give it a try with the low-power A4 but I do not think it will make much difference because I am either zooming and booming or am down on the deck using less than full power in slow maneuvers anyway. As long as you have those four-20mm cannons you are doing well.... Would be interesting to try it with outboard cannons removed too. Supposed to save some weight but I don't think it is worth the sacrifice of firepower.

[Marabekm]

Set yourself up an early North Africa scenario. Hurricane Mk I against the Italian G.50 for beginners. For a harder challenge, the Mk I Hurricane or Tomahawk IIb against the 109E7.

[Jumoschwanz]

Set yourself up an early North Africa scenario. Hurricane Mk I against the Italian G.50 for beginners. For a harder challenge, the Mk I Hurricane or Tomahawk IIb against the 109E7.

Nice fun matches. I tried them all. The Hurri vs. G50 was the hardest because the G50 turns well. Vs. the 109 was disappointing because it tries to slow down and dogfight with a slower more maneuverable craft instead of energy-fighting, so it was easy to beat. Most important in these one-vs.-one matches against AI is avoiding their first volley of fire, if you do that then you will almost always win if you use your crafts strengths against the other crafts weaknesses, which the AI seems almost never able to figure out.

[Jumoschwanz]

Okay, here is a really tough one. In the QMB set up 32 1940 Mig ace fighters to fly against 16 1940 Bf-110s and 16 1940 Bf-109s, YOU fly a Mig.....

The Axis craft beat the Migs up pretty badly every time and it is very tough to stay out of harms way.

Good luck and let us know how you do!

[Jumoschwanz]

I almost won the Mig vs. Germany challenge today, I got them down to only five 109s before I accidentally ran into the ground fighting three of them on the deck.

I started off well, getting up to altitude and Zooming and Booming some of the 109s to pieces, then things moved down and down until it was myself and three other Migs on the deck fighting twice our number of 109s and 110s. We got a lot of them and may have won it if I had not crashed my aircraft letting the AI concentrate on the AI Migs instead of myself.

Better luck next time....!

PS. I arm the Migs with the gunpods, they need all the firepower they can get against those German 20mm cannons.....

[Jumoschwanz]

And then a win. I got shot up and flew into some trees after downing a few Bf109s, but I did enough damage to other aircraft and distracted the blue AI enough so that they were able to finish off every last 109 and 110 with nine Migs left to spare.

Once the zooming and booming gig is over and they catch up to your altitude, then head for the deck and drag them down with you, that way the other Migs can come in no matter what altitude they are at and start mowing them down.

Stay on the outskirts of the main battle and pick them off as long as you can with as many wingmen as you can get close to, then when whatever is left of the main blue force comes after you there will be some Migs left to hit them in numbers. Nice if it would play out that way every time, but it is not likely.

Good luck.....

[gaunt1]

Ok, may not be so tough, but incredibly fun: 8x I-153 vs 8x PZL-11. All Ace AI, you fly the PZL :)

[Jumoschwanz]

Ok, may not be so tough, but incredibly fun: 8x I-153 vs 8x PZL-11. All Ace AI, you fly the PZL :)

Gave it a try Gaunt1. They got me in round one but I my side won in round two.

The trick was to get into the fight and distract the AI so the rest of your team can go to work on them.

One flaw with the AI is that if you take a shot at it then it will pursue you until another AI attacks it, you can use this by taking shots at as many AI opponents as possible and you can get more than your share chasing you so that your AI team is free to go on the attack instead of defense.

[Jumoschwanz]

A nice balance is 32 Mig3ud ace AI vs. 16 bf110D and 16 Bf109F2 fighters.

I put the gunpods on the Mig3 because the ability to quickly knock-out an enemy aircraft with one pass seems to be crucial in which AI comes out on top.

The German aircraft will still easily win if it is only AI against AI, but with you flying and distracting two or more of the German aircraft the Migs almost always win.

The flaw in the AI is that instead of just one pair of fighters going after the human pilot, up to three or more pairs will go after the human pilot, so up to six or more enemy aircraft can be tied up going after one human, a serious flaw in the AI programming.

So all you do is fly around and take a few pot-shots at passing blue fighters and that triggers them to come after you. Once I have a "following" I usually break for the ground where the AI is not as comfortable as a human and I can keep my share busy or shoot them down until the rest of the Red team is free and comes to my aid....

[RPS69]

Try a 2 on 2 just veteran flying bf110 against Pe3-bis, at low level.

You will most probably be beaten 9 out of 10

[dimlee]

Try a 2 on 2 just veteran flying bf110 against Pe3-bis, at low level.

You will most probably be beaten 9 out of 10

Depends on Bf 110 variant, doesn't it?

[gaunt1]

Depends on Bf 110 variant, doesn't it?

C4 is slightly superior to Pe-3bis. D1, E2, and even G2 are no match at all. F-2 may be equal, or just slightly inferior, needs testing.

[dimlee]

C4 is slightly superior to Pe-3bis. D1, E2, and even G2 are no match at all. F-2 may be equal, or just slightly inferior, needs testing.

Well, I'd prefer F2 at low alt and G2 at high. But I agree, the testing is required.

So far, I can win at both sides, against ace AI, one on one, using E2, F2, G2 vs Pe-3/3bis. AI G2 is the most difficult for me due to speed advantage at higher alt. AI Pe-3bis is the most difficult for me when I fly C and E variants of Bf 110.

Need to try 2 vs 2. Should be interesting.
I have lost once against Bf 110E2 at low level in multiplayer. Was too overconfident and decided to play turn game instead of climbing. The opponent was good and punished me after several minutes of intensive fight. ;)

[JacksonsGhost]

Slightly off-topic I know, but since we're talking challenges I'm curious what difficulty rating you aces would give to the stock Single Mission "Pearl Harbor Defense 2", flying the P-40B in v4.13.4. (rating 1 as easiest, 10 as hardest)

And can any of you take down any bombers before they reach their targets?

[dimlee]

Slightly off-topic I know, but since we're talking challenges I'm curious what difficulty rating you aces would give to the stock Single Mission "Pearl Harbor Defense 2", flying the P-40B in v4.13.4. (rating 1 as easiest, 10 as hardest)

And can any of you take down any bombers before they reach their targets?

Thanks for recommendation. I never tried this mission before. It is fun. Reminds me some "real life" experience in multiplayer with eager vulchers camping over your airfield. :)
I'd rate this one as 10 when your try it first. Then, once you understand AI behaviour, it's easier...7 probably? Did not manage to take down any bomber before they reach our airfield. Yet. We'll see...

[dimlee]

Back to Pe-3bis vs Bf 110. Just tried 2 vs 2. Only 110 F2 so far.
Start at 3000 m, avoiding head on attack.
Wingman is veteran. Fuel 50% for both sides.

Not too difficult with veteran AI, but more interesting against ace AI. They fly smarter and their gunners are very good. Still, AI of both types demonstrate the same tendency: after two or three passes they dive and continue dogfight close to deck. Mostly turning fights, so they become predictable.

[JacksonsGhost]

Thanks for recommendation. I never tried this mission before. It is fun. Reminds me some "real life" experience in multiplayer with eager vulchers camping over your airfield. :)
I'd rate this one as 10 when your try it first. Then, once you understand AI behaviour, it's easier...7 probably? Did not manage to take down any bomber before they reach our airfield. Yet. We'll see...

Thanks dimlee.

Note the bombers aren't actually targeting Bellows airfield though. They're targeting around Pearl Harbor, so my challenge was to get them before they drop their bombs there. This of course still means escaping the clutches of the "eager vulchers" rather quickly!

And of course if you chase the bombers you'll still be credited with defending Bellows because the actual mission victory parameters are all screwed up anyway! :)

[Jumoschwanz]

Try a 2 on 2 just veteran flying bf110 against Pe3-bis, at low level. You will most probably be beaten 9 out of 10

A fun challenge. I ran it at 1000 meters altitude. I am not sure what the purpose of the veteran setting is but I went with it. I flew the 1941 Bf110, and it was quite a pig even with 30% fuel, I gave the Pe3s 50% fuel because during the first fight one of them ran out of fuel after I had given it 30% or 40%, maybe it did not have sealing tanks.

My wingman and I flew the mission ten times and won nine of the matches. They were not easy.

My tactic was to command my wingman to attack the oncoming Pe3s, right after the command I would fly a 360-degree circle to let the wingman get ahead of me a few kilometers, this way the pair of Pe3s would usually be occupied while I flew in and attacked. Sometimes the wingman got shot down, sometimes the wingman got a kill, but I always managed to tip the contest in our favor at the end.

With the effective tailgunner of the Pe3 you can attack them from any angle but six-o'clock, which I did, usually doing the most damage from about ninety-degrees when they were turning, or in some sort of head-on.

Sometimes a Pe3 or my wingman would fly off for home-base if they were damaged, sometimes I let them go home, sometimes I gave chase and shot them down if I felt like wasting the time to do so.

Once I was down to one engine and smoking but my wingman chased down the remaining pe3 and shot it down.

Maybe I will try it again sometime against Ace Pe3s to see if it makes any difference.

The last mission was almost a draw, my wingman flew home damaged, the last remaining pe3 flew off to it's base either from damage or lack of fuel or ammo, and I was damaged and limping back to home base when I ended the mission. I figured since we had two aircraft in the air to their one it was our point.



Edit: Oops, I just looked and I only had my side set for veteran, the PE3 pair were set to ace....

[Jumoschwanz]

I'm curious what difficulty rating you aces would give to the stock Single Mission "Pearl Harbor Defense 2", flying the P-40B in v4.13.4. (rating 1 as easiest, 10 as hardest)


Jackson, I would give the mission a high difficulty rating, especially if you are going after the bombers. I don't think the mission is to take down any bombers though, or it should not be. Your field is being attacked and your wingmen are under fire from zeros, so I don't think any real pilot would take off and leave the airfield and their wingmen alone to fly away and attack bombers.

But I did just that a few times and I did go after the bombers, but because they start in the air by the time you intercept them they are approaching Pearl Harbor, and with them flying in formation with tail-gunners I think the best anyone is going to do is to get maybe one shot down before they are peppered to death by the tailgunners and before the rest of them reach Pearl Harbor anyway. I scored some hits on the bombers but the low firepower of the p40b does not do well at taking out aircraft with safe deflection shots in one pass.

As soon as my engine is started I turn the aircraft to the left and take off between two parked P-40s and I head right for the mountain-range to shake-off attacking zeros. Then I figure my real duty is to cover my wingmen who have just taken off behind me if there is anything left of them. Just fighting the zeros attacking the field is enough of a challenge.

If you take enough fuel and evade the zeroes then you can attack lots of bombers which have probably already dropped their loads, I was doing this and I ran out of fuel, I looked and by default it had only given me 30%, next time I took 50%.

[dimlee]

Bf 110 vs Pe-3bis, 2 vs 2.
I just realised that initial task was set for low altitude.
Decided to try again.
Bf 110F2 veterans, AI Pe-3bis aces.
50% fuel both sides.
QMB, Moscow winter map, 500 m.

"Cover me" order to wingman and turn into Pe-3bis immediately after the head on pass. Then focus on the higher one or the closest one. Sometimes Pe starts to climb - and it gets more difficult for Bf 110, sometimes they prefer to turn - little chance for them to win turning contest unless their gunners "help". Head on attacks of Pe-3bis are the most dangerous for me. Otherwise, it's just a bit of patience and avoiding gunners fire.

Important remark:
One big - really big - advantage of Bf 110 is ammo supply. In Pe-3/3bis I fire from 250-300m. In Bf-110 I fire from 500m and up and sometimes manage to score good hits from 700m. Basically, I just don't care about ammo in short time mission in Bf 110 and fire at any suitable occasion but have to restrain myself in Pe-3/3bis. Same with gunners. UBT of Pe-3bis is nice machine gun, but 200 rounds is just not enough.

Next time I have to try 110E2 and 110D - the latter without Dachshund's belly, of course. Should be interesting...

[RPS69]

I did it on 100% fuel both airplanes. And everything started at 1000 as Jumo did.
I will try it with 50% and see if it is far better, or nowadays I'm really crap at flying this.

[RPS69]

Flying on the Pe side, I always win, on the 110 side, a win was extremely hard.

[gaunt1]

Flying on the Pe side, I always win, on the 110 side, a win was extremely hard.

Try the 110C4. So much easier!

[RPS69]

I tried again, and it seems that the settings on QM affect the results a lot by changing AI behavior.

If I climb a bit, AI turns around and confronts me. If I just try to pursue, they will fly away from me, acquire lots of speed (I can't catch them), and then turn around far away and fight back.
Somehow this gives them an advantage I can't counter back with my sluggish 110.
I always avoid frontal fire exchange, because I consider it "cheating". Even if the Pe2 rear gunner is a cheat in itself! Some marksman those guys! They will fire at you with precision never matter hard turns, high G's or whatever.

[dimlee]

Flying on the Pe side, I always win, on the 110 side, a win was extremely hard.

What about luring Pe in turn fight? It worked for me in low alt scenario. And shoot, shoot, shoot. Even the smallest (and sometimes invisible on model) wing damage of Pe-3 impacts her agility considerably.

Saying that, in one on one encounter in multiplay I'd prefer Pe-3 bis to any Bf 110 model.

--------------

Just tried C4, D1 and E2 in 500 m scenario vs AI Pe-3bis.
I still prefer F2 as it seems to me the most balanced in speed and agility. C4 was a bit difficult due to lower speed and climb. D1 surprised with good climb (is it better than F2?) - with all tanks dropped, of course.

All in all, I have concluded that I can beat AI Pe-3bis in any Bf 110 variant in most cases. Multiplay is different story :-)

[JacksonsGhost]

Jackson, I would give the mission a high difficulty rating, especially if you are going after the bombers. I don't think the mission is to take down any bombers though, or it should not be. Your field is being attacked and your wingmen are under fire from zeros, so I don't think any real pilot would take off and leave the airfield and their wingmen alone to fly away and attack bombers.

But I did just that a few times and I did go after the bombers, but because they start in the air by the time you intercept them they are approaching Pearl Harbor, and with them flying in formation with tail-gunners I think the best anyone is going to do is to get maybe one shot down before they are peppered to death by the tailgunners and before the rest of them reach Pearl Harbor anyway. I scored some hits on the bombers but the low firepower of the p40b does not do well at taking out aircraft with safe deflection shots in one pass.

As soon as my engine is started I turn the aircraft to the left and take off between two parked P-40s and I head right for the mountain-range to shake-off attacking zeros. Then I figure my real duty is to cover my wingmen who have just taken off behind me if there is anything left of them. Just fighting the zeros attacking the field is enough of a challenge.

If you take enough fuel and evade the zeroes then you can attack lots of bombers which have probably already dropped their loads, I was doing this and I ran out of fuel, I looked and by default it had only given me 30%, next time I took 50%.

Thanks for the reply and advice Jumoschwanz. Glad you had some challenge too! 30% fuel is fine for me for this mission though. I never live long enough to run out! ;)

Some interesting points with this mission are:


The briefing asks you to hit aircraft before they hit their targets (with the bombers targetting Pearl), but the actual target set in the mission file is to defend Bellows airfield as you suggest.

Unfortunately, the Defend Ground target settings don't work properly in the current version so you will be credited with a successful Bellows defence even if you just sit there and die, provided you wait ten minutes for the credit to kick in. I've adjusted the settings on mine so you at least have to disrupt the attack a bit to get the mission credit!

I happen to be reinstalling at the moment and tried this mission a few times at 4.07 standard. The P-40s don't seem to come under attack straight away, allowing all three to get into the air safely. So I guess when the mission was first designed it was a whole lot easier to at least get off the ground!

Sadly, the way it plays now is actually closer to the real history. In reality one pilot was killed climbing into his cockpit, the second was shot down just as he got airborne, and the third went down after a short one-sided fight.

[gaunt1]

I still prefer F2 as it seems to me the most balanced in speed and agility.

Actually, the german pilots had the exact same opinion! Looks like TD did a good job with the FM!

[DKoor]

I had literally tons of QMB scenarios in which I went vs at least 4 ace enemy aircraft of the correct period. Like Hurricane vs 4 He-111 (downing 4 of those on ace level with Hurri was a nightmare as those were the snipers back in a day), F6F3 vs 4x ace Ki-84s, F4F vs 4x ace A6M etc. stuff like that.
Arguably A6M was the toughest ace Ai from that time, close second would be boosted Spitfire. But last time I fired up the game it was like 2009 or 2010 so many thing could have changed.

Once I even pushed to the limits and went Me-262 vs B-17 scenario... managed to down 25 of them on realistic settings.

One of these days I'll probably put some of the most interesting stuff online, if for anything that for nostalgia's sake.:cool:

[dimlee]

Me 262 vs B-17 is "classic" scenario...

As much as I loved it and tried it I never managed to shoot more than 12 or so(offline). By the way one good campaign was adapted to BAT last year:
https://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,55095.0.html

[Jumoschwanz]

Here is a fun battle. I have had fun this past week flying four ace 1940 Re.2000 aircraft against four ace 1943 La5fn aircraft.

I start the battle at 250 meters altitude on the Smolensk map.

The tactic I found that works best for me is as soon as the La5fn comes into sight I order my wingmen to attack them as I veer off ninety-degrees to the right and climb up to almost 1000 meters. I roll into the battle as my wingmen meet the distracted La5fn squad.

The Re.2000 has light armament and much less power than the La5fn fighters so if you can wipe them all out before they wipe out you and all your wingmen you will have earned the victory.

I have gotten to the point where I can win this battle just about every time, so I will look for another one soon, but not before giving the La5fn squad one more chance....

[dimlee]

Here is a fun battle. I have had fun this past week flying four ace 1940 Re.2000 aircraft against four ace 1943 La5fn aircraft.

I start the battle at 250 meters altitude on the Smolensk map.

The tactic I found that works best for me is as soon as the La5fn comes into sight I order my wingmen to attack them as I veer off ninety-degrees to the right and climb up to almost 1000 meters. I roll into the battle as my wingmen meet the distracted La5fn squad.

The Re.2000 has light armament and much less power than the La5fn fighters so if you can wipe them all out before they wipe out you and all your wingmen you will have earned the victory.

I have gotten to the point where I can win this battle just about every time, so I will look for another one soon, but not before giving the La5fn squad one more chance....

Re.2000 is interesting a/c. Inferior in most respects to most fighters from 1942 on...that's why it is so interesting. ;)
I tried it in multiplayer against probably every "red" fighter except La-7 and Yak-3. A lot of fun. Highly recommended.
By the way, it can be used as very precise fighter bomber or even dive bomber (yes, despite its meager bomb load).

[Jumoschwanz]

Okay, four ace Re.2000 vs, four ace 1940 I-16s is a tough fight because the I-16s are well-armed, very maneuverable and they are at least as fast as the Re.2000. I have only tried this a couple times so far and have not beaten them yet. Looks like a lot of work.

[Jumoschwanz]

I have left the four ace Re.2000 vs, four ace 1940 I-16s mission on my QMB for the last few months as a go-to whenever I am on the computer and feel like a flying challenge. It is still a very tough mission to crack and I never know if my Re.2000s will win or not. Maybe it is really a tough mission, or maybe I am not that good a virtual combat pilot anymore, either is possible.....:)

[Marabekm]

Try this one:

The Hungarians Re.2000s had their most successful day on 9 August 1942. That day, near the village of Davidovka, 16 Ilyushin Il-2s and a similar number of LaGG-3S were intercepted by four Reggianes. The Hungarians downed four LaGGs, suffering the loss of the Re.2000 of Lt Takács, who crash-landed behind his own lines, wounded.

I kept the same number of Re. 2000s, but only did 8 each of the Sturmoviks and Laggs. Not for the faint of heart!! ;)

[JacksonsGhost]

Don't know if this is a challenge for you guys, but I'm having some fun with it:

Three ace I-16 Type 5 against three ace Ki-27 Ko and two ace Ki-27 Otsu.

Start at 250 meters on the Smolensk map as the I-16.

I also used Hayate's great Chinese skins for the I-16s to give it a Chinese vs Japanese historical flavour!

[Jumoschwanz]

Marabekm, Thank-you for the bit of Re.2000 history. I had many days of fun flying them against those dastardly I-16s and got to the point where I could win consistently. The trick that usually worked was zooming and booming the I-16s, especially early on while they were distracted with your wing-men.

And thank-you Jackson's Ghost, I will try your scenario with the I-16s vs. Jap planes and see how it goes.

With the summer season here I am not flying as much, but there are still rainy days here and there that see me back in the seat.

The new 4.14 patch has made the AI a little better in my opinion, or maybe I am just getting older and worse at flying, but it has been fun trying things with the new patch, flying the MIg3ud vs. a 109f2/20mm is interesting this morning, the 109f2 seems to be the better aircraft but I can beat it with the Mig using old-age and treachery.

S!

[Jumoschwanz]

For quite a while now I have been filling the entire allied team in the QMB with 1943 P-47s and flying them against the axis side filled with all Bf-110s and eight 1943 FW-190s. Sometimes I will swap a group of four oddball aircraft into the allied side to see what they can do, currently trying out four 1943 P-39 aircraft.

I like 1943 for the WWII air-war as I think it was the most evenly balanced from the technology view, nobody had a large advantage in aircraft performance.

I have run this scenario too many times to remember or count, and I can never guess which side will win. If I stay alive until my ammo runs out it is always a good thing though and usually means a win for my side. The German aircraft all having 20mm cannons means you can not really afford to take a hit. The P-47 is tough though and I have been able to keep fighting after being hit, but it is not as much fun or as effective to fight in a P-47 that is down on power or is missing some of it's controls or wing area.
I usually load the P-47 with a light fuel load and "extra ammunition" for the guns, trying to not put in too much fuel that the plane has less performance, but not so little fuel that if I get some holes in it all the fuel will drain out and I am eliminated by running out of fuel. The tanks seal up, but not until some or a lot of fuel is lost.

The tail gunners on the 110 can take out your engine or pilot easily, so you need good gunnery and tactics to hit the 110 with your fifty-caliber guns from any direction except the rear. And of course if you get the attention of two or four of the fw-190s then you are going to be kept busy long enough that your AI wingmates will be fighting without your help.

The best tactic I have found is to fly off away from the battle until the AI calls it has spotted the enemy, then to turn back towards the battle and get as much altitude as possible, making fast passes on as many aircraft as possible. This gets them chasing you instead of your AI. After you get so many after you then you end up diving to the deck and evading their fire while creating opportunities to shoot at them and take them down.

You have to do your part and keep a lot of the axis AI busy at once with your P-47, if you spend too much time fighting just one or two aircraft then your AI will have too much to do and will usually be massacred.

I set all the AI to ACE and run the two sides together at 1000 meters altitude on a clear day.

[Igo kyu]

I do not fly full realism.

My eyes and monitors get dark with age, so I use the icons to spot distant aircraft. I don't appreciate being shot through clouds that I can't see through, so they're out (I'm using the ?4.11.? that comes with the Ultimate edition, I'd like something later, but it's what I have). I was concerned to find that the P40 would break up in level flight, so vibration destruction is off.

I generally fly the auto-generated careers. I generally try to use different aircraft in different stages of a career.

I did notice that the Yak 1 was almost helpless against the IAR 80 if you are looking for a difficult fight, though the i16/24 seems to be a better match.

[Jumoschwanz]

I do not fly full realism.

My eyes and monitors get dark with age, so I use the icons to spot distant aircraft. I don't appreciate being shot through clouds that I can't see through, so they're out (I'm using the ?4.11.? that comes with the Ultimate edition, I'd like something later, but it's what I have). I was concerned to find that the P40 would break up in level flight, so vibration destruction is off.

My eyes are not the best anymore either. I don't think there is anything wrong with using icons for flying offline. ten to twenty years ago the best IL2 pilots and best servers were all hard-settings. It was a joy to be able to ID the aircraft at a distance by the silhouette as real pilots did. I do not believe the P40 has any problem in level flight. In the patch when the p40 first appeared, which was probably over 15 years ago, it would break up in a dive at a certain speed, and it was fun to get p40 pilots to follow your bf109 in a dive if they got on your tail and have them explode. No matter what the patch I destroyed a lot of over-eager pilots of Russian aircraft by baiting them into following my fw190 in a dive.

The type of aircraft has no bearing on victory in aerial combat though, as every aircraft does something better than the aircraft it is flown against, and a smart, educated pilot will know these things and be able to use them to an advantage.

The wonderful thing about the hard settings servers back in the day was that you could get the element of surprise, bouncing enemy aircraft from altitude, even if you were in a slow aircraft. I shot down jets with the I-16 this way. Also I used to fix the 20mm cannon in the nose of the He-111 bomber to straight ahead and sit in it's nose and bounce allied fighters with it and shoot them down, it was fun to knock down fighter planes with a bomber. Lots of great memories. You can punch "jumoschwanz" into YouTube and find the channel I set up for old IL2 tracks I saved, some of the tracks are almost 20 years old.

[Igo kyu]

My eyes are not the best anymore either. I don't think there is anything wrong with using icons for flying offline. ten to twenty years ago the best IL2 pilots and best servers were all hard-settings. It was a joy to be able to ID the aircraft at a distance by the silhouette as real pilots did. I do not believe the P40 has any problem in level flight. In the patch when the p40 first appeared, which was probably over 15 years ago, it would break up in a dive at a certain speed, and it was fun to get p40 pilots to follow your bf109 in a dive if they got on your tail and have them explode. No matter what the patch I destroyed a lot of over-eager pilots of Russian aircraft by baiting them into following my fw190 in a dive.

I think it was more recent than that, I remember the MiG3 mission in the original where your wingman would dive and die before getting down to the level of the 109s, that was long before the issue I was talking about, and since it happened at high speed maybe fair enough. The change happened when the new difficulty panel showed up, maybe in "1946"?, before there were two pages of difficulties that you could turn on or off for each career, the new difficulties have five pages. The particular difficulty switch I'm talking about is labelled "Flutter Effect", with that on, the P40 can get very near to flutter speed in level flight, and you have what seems like less than five seconds from onset to lethal explosion.

The type of aircraft has no bearing on victory in aerial combat though, as every aircraft does something better than the aircraft it is flown against, and a smart, educated pilot will know these things and be able to use them to an advantage.

The IAR is AI only, and it seems to me to be both faster and faster turning than the early Yaks, the I16 can outturn it though. If you are looking for a challenge, the IAR against an early Yak might be worth a try.

The wonderful thing about the hard settings servers back in the day was that you could get the element of surprise, bouncing enemy aircraft from altitude, even if you were in a slow aircraft. I shot down jets with the I-16 this way. Also I used to fix the 20mm cannon in the nose of the He-111 bomber to straight ahead and sit in it's nose and bounce allied fighters with it and shoot them down, it was fun to knock down fighter planes with a bomber. Lots of great memories. You can punch "jumoschwanz" into YouTube and find the channel I set up for old IL2 tracks I saved, some of the tracks are almost 20 years old.

I never played online, I'm almost addicted to time-slowing in combat, and I don't usually watch Youtube because of the cookies they demand to set.