How to survive the first minute in AB aerial warefare ?

[Sokaku 43]

For playing up to tier 3 aircraft, I've never needed more than 2 presets per nation @ 5 crew slots. An important aspect of not getting trashed on the battlefield is to ensure that you choose aircraft that compliment each other and the objective you want to play towards. This means ensuring that they fall within 0.5 BR of one another ideally, and for example if you're going to flight high-alt bombers, having a starting fighter or such with a good climb rate & alpha damage (cannons) to try and help secure bomber altitude control before bringing the bomber in. At least 75% of my games I don't get to use more than 2 planes when flying fighters. My survive-ability rate in games is quite high and I average 3-4 kills per death in several fighters.  My goal is generally to get top 3 placement with Survivor/Bulletproof. I fly line-ups of planes that complement each other based on a target BR. Granted, I don't fly much in the way of attackers, and I don't use bombers. That would add a third preset. I've bought nearly all Tier 1-3 aircraft for Britain, Russia, and Germany, all Tier 2 for US, and about half of Tier 3 for Japan. I've tried most of the planes out, pick favourites, and gradually swap 1 or 2 out to try/spade something new. German & British are my "go-to" fighter picks, followed closely by Russia.

 

Japanese fighters are really hit & miss for me. Planes like the Ki-61s / Ki-100, Ki-44 & J2M2 suit my style of play. Ki-43's are a blast in arcade as you can fly them to be virtually untouchable at their BR, but they have no real armament. A6Mx series I don't care for at all, they're just too slow. Honestly as others have said you need to get out of the reserve /entry BR and at least be playing in the 2.0-3.7 BR range to really learn something from the game. You'll still encounter I-153s but at least you'll have something that stands a chance shooting one down or getting away in one piece.

 

Simply put, you won't learn anything about being a better pilot by flying against "easier" pilots / planes. Long5hot's series are a fantastic starting point. Start by learning the climbing spiral, it's an excellent defensive (and offensive, for Rope-a-Dope) technique where you have to learn to use keyboard controls.  My limit will probably remain at Tier 3 simply because the "grind" for T4 aircraft is too steep for F2P players.

 

As a fighter pilot probably the biggest mistakes I see people make include:

- Over-committing to a target. Simply put, if you have to chase a target more than 5 seconds, *don't* chase. Break off, have a quick look around, and come in from a different angle. If you're in a dogfight, keep your ears open for other engines and gunfire, be prepared to evade, dive away, etc. Don't get caught too deep & distracted in turn & burn fights because often you're just an easy mark for someone else.

- Going in alone. If you see a lot more red than blue, don't head in. Use the time to gain energy (speed, altitude) and hopefully some reinforcements, before deciding on a course of action. Enemies that have to climb after you are easier targets, and diving in fast and bugging out is a great way to net kills and disrupt enemies.

- Help your team-mates. Be patient, watch the battle unfold. If you see enemies distracted climbing after a friendly bomber or turning after a friendly fighter, seize the opportunity. Easy kills & experience, and usually gets you a "Thanks!" in chat.

 

For ground targets as an attacker you need to be patient. I'd never suggest going in at the start with an attacker as you'll most likely be prioritized and shot down entering the "scrum". Start off with a fighter to take out their attackers/bombers, then once most of the enemy have settled into their fights/areas, bring in the attackers to probe areas where defenses are lighter, be wary of the enemy re-spawns though as you'll inevitably be a priority for some new spawns.

 

An overarching theme to arcade battles is 'Patience"!  Overall the worst mistakes you can make are due to a lack of patience. Rushing into fights without any advantage or a card up the sleeve; The desperation to try and finish off that kill; Even rushing up the tech tree with stock planes & inexperienced crews. All lead to low-value deaths due to a lack of patience.

[hemmerling 433]

5 hours ago, Sokaku said:

For playing up to tier 3 aircraft, I've never needed more than 2 presets per nation @ 5 crew slots.

Tier3 = a maximum of 5 x 8 items = 40 airplanes, usually still a little bit less.

Well you just ignore the other 30 airplanes you had to ( or should ) explore & buy ?!

And you never explore & buy modifications for all the other 30  airplanes?

And you  don´t want to have several presets graded by different BR levels, so that if you "need SL money" or "just want easy game", can play a preset with a low BR level, while with the current high-level BR preset, you often fail and have much repair costs ?!

 

And if you ignore all the 30 airplanes which don´t fit into your 2 presets,

I may assume that you don´t buy premium aircrafts?

 

For japanese airforce, I have the presets

 

1) Reserve-1.3

2) 1.3-1.7

3) 2.0

4) 2.3-2.7

5) 2.7-3.3

6) 3.3-3.7

7) 3.7-4.0 ( coming soon )

8) Seaboats

 

So with BR 4.0, I will be on "low Tier3", but I can´t put full Tier3 into my presets.

If you play ground vehicles, you must even reserve one preset for airplanes, due to the effect of "repair speed" and "repair rank" of the airforce on the ground forces..

So I don´t have even a preset for tournaments ( mixed planes & ground vehicles ) then... or squadron games...

 

And I don´t like to destroy presets ( or change presets to play with other planes )...

 

Sincerely

Rolf

Edited November 8, 2016 by hemmerling

[Sokaku 43]

3 hours ago, hemmerling said:

1) Reserve-1.3

2) 1.3-1.7

3) 2.0

4) 2.3-2.7

5) 2.7-3.3

6) 3.3-3.7

7) 3.7-4.0 ( coming soon )

8) Seaboats

 

Far too granular IMO. 

My presets for Brits for instance are 2.0-2.7, and then 3.0 - 4.3  Depending on the faction these numbers change a bit depending on how the planes complement each other.

 

As for ignoring planes? Heck yes I ignore many of them Occasionally I swap one or two in/out against a crew slot to give it a try or spade. If I find it has at least some merit as a stock plane I'll spade it.  Some planes don't suit my play style, others may be decent but their BR is too high to warrant using with planes that would compliment them. I prefer to keep my BR no more than 1.3 above my lowest plane. Still, I'd rather have a good, spaded plane that is 1.3BR lower than my opponents than put in stock planes I don't fly particularly well just to keep a narrower BR spread. For instance I put my 109 E4 in my German line with the F4's (3.7), 190 A4 (4.3), and Hs129 (spading) rather than another plane around 4.0 BR or even the 190 A1 at 3.3  The E4 is a "better" plane for me and more potent, even at 3.0. Getting dragged into a 5.0 BR game is possible, though very rare.4-4.3 is the norm.

 

However, that is just me. I have enough time for maybe 5 games a night, a few more if I get dragged into sub-5-minute go-go-gadget-bomber missions. So no need to sift through dozens of planes. I might play 2 line-ups a night.  My 2.0 line-ups are my relaxation lines. The second line is where I'm working to spade new planes, etc. Gradually it will increase but I'll be surprised if I breach 5.0 BR due to research costs on Tier 4.

[ArthurBloss 633]

There is a limited number of presets I use. Basically just one for each tier. In case the need arises I'll just swap out some planes.

 

 

High T4 lineup would look like this:

 

 

Usually just replacing the primary fighters. The Bombers are there to fill the crew slots. I rarely use them, as you can see by the low crew level. If I lose both the 109 and 190 something is seriously wrong anyway.

[hemmerling 433]

To be honest, it would be boring and dull for me just to have a handful of planes ( though I must explore & buy so many others ), or to be limited to certain BR-levels, or even to have just presets with a items with a wide BR range....

 

it would lack of the **variety** given by the game developers...

 

So for the German tanks of my major Ground force, the Japanese airplanes of my major Airforce,

and for the lowest-tier presets of all other nations ( vehicles & planes ), I bought all items, explored all modifications.... to have some **variety** in game and play.

But just as long as the presets have space - so by the pushing down of the repair times for German tanks, by gaining XPs with low-Tier German planes, I explored almost full Tier I+II, but I didn´t buy anything, as there was no preset space...

 

Sincerely

Rolf

 

Edited November 8, 2016 by hemmerling

[SHID_MY_JORTS 1,863]

19 minutes ago, hemmerling said:

I explored almost full Tier I+II, but I didn´t buy anything, as there was no preset space...

 

I hope you know you can switch around vehicles inbetween your crews. They aren't assigned to it forever.

[hemmerling 433]

30 minutes ago, Anown said:

I hope you know you can switch around vehicles inbetween your crews. They aren't assigned to it forever.

Yes, but I saved the money

a) for buying

b) for modification

and I saved the time to try to make XPs and SLs on a high-level BR / Tier, where the enemies are much more skilled than me. I am a bad air pilot ( I ´still can´t win  dogfights ). And as I explored the Japanese airplane tree, I learned about the air battlefields of higher BR/Tiers....

 

And indeed, a crew is trained on a certain item, means that I can just switch items of the same crew.... without paying too much money for the "basic training" which rises very mucht with rising BR...

Edited November 8, 2016 by hemmerling

[sidchicken 721]

I only keep pre-sets for groups of planes that I really enjoy.  I've gotten pretty far into spading every aircraft (as of right now I have everything T3 and lower done, and a pretty good chunk of T4, plus a few T5 (Arado, B-57) that I've been using to grind the other jets.  There are definitely a lot of planes that I have spaded that I'd just as soon never fly again - like the Firebrand.  Never touching that piece of junk again.

[ArthurBloss 633]

It's simple: crew training and module upgrades are an investment. Without investment, no return. Similarely it is with engaging more experienced players. They will defeat you, and you will learn from that.

 

Regarding all those presets- they are not necessary. At some point you will know which aircraft and lineups work for you. You can always modify them a bit if necessary.

 

At least I need a few games to adjust to the handling and gun ballistics of the different aircraft. And that means I will play several games with the same lineup before I switch to another one. Modifying a lineup takes just a minute. Time well spend.

The important part is that your aircraft are spaded and the crews trained to operate the aircraft. As you can see my first crew operates Messerschmitts (and substitutes), the second one Focke-Wulfs (and substitutes) and so on.

 

[Sokaku 43]

One other thing I do with one or two "favourite" planes is I train each crew slot with one of these favourite planes. it's more expensive, but then I have an easier time leveling up crews when I want to "chill out" with some more relaxing games. I can switch my favourites to different crew slots and get some crew exp. value taking them out. For instance, every one of my British crews knows how to fly either the Spitfire Ia or IIa. Those planes are so much fun to fly, and it's common to rack up over 10 kills in a game with one of them. I really should train them all up with the Hurricane IV because I've been having far too much fun and success with that plane when goofing around, it's now my most experienced crew by a fair margin.

 

Honestly, you can't have your cake & eat it too. On the one hand expect to find a use for every plane in the game, then on the other hand wonder why you get your **** handed to you by other planes/pilots. The jack of all trades is the master of none. There's nothing wrong with mixing it up, but it's a rather silly argument to say you can't be bothered to vary a line-up once it's set. The # of presets & crew slots anyone should need really should only be based on the number of games they expect to play in a day, then the composition should suite what you want to fly for that week or so. Different planes have considerably different flying traits. Switching between planes too frequently does nothing for your skill/score. I don't even need the slots for free repairs. I leave auto-repair on for instance and I buy every plane I research, yet my SL balance is always climbing mainly because I focus on getting good with planes I enjoy flying. I have no lack of variety with any faction, even just considering that I almost exclusively fly fighters. I mix in attackers, heavy fighters & such occasionally and spade them, though those are ones that I feel like flying infrequently so I don't keep them part of a preset very long.

 

[JeanLucBecaq 177]

Regarding the looking around for threatening players coming to fire at you, 'C' is of course king but I find it very handy t have a 2nd little helper: Target track view. I think it is set originally to right mouse and everyone needs guns there but I have it on a key and it is quite handy when maneuvering with keyboard or when you wish to track an incoming fighter while aiming at the bomber before you

 

Try it if you don't already, otherwise call me a dofus.

[hemmerling 433]

7 hours ago, ArthurBloss said:

Regarding all those presets- they are not necessary. At some point you will know which aircraft and lineups work for you. You can always modify them a bit if necessary.

Well then I must keep track of useful presets by own notes ( on a private or public blog or website, or on on offline document... ).

I don´t want to use my brain to setup a preset, and then just to learn in the first minutes of game "hey I did a mistake"...