I have recently obtained the Fw-190 D-9, my first Dora variant. As a result of it having a longer engine and nose, (and a higher B.R.) I am struggling with it in AIR RB. (It meets jets). Is there a good maneuver (if so, how?) or planes I should avoid facing?
Thanks in advance.
I think it’s strictly a boom and zoom fighter. I haven’t flown it but I have faced it and it loses in dog fights against turn fighters. It also, to my experience, will out climb most prop planes pretty easy, which is what they normally do. They drop down and take a shot at their target and immediately climb back to the moon. Since it has a pretty hefty armament it doesn’t take sustained fire to knock anything out of the air, so just one well timed dive can result in a kill without having too turn fight.
Jets can run it down obviously but it has a better role rate than most jets so you can set them up to fail by simply faking a role one way and then immediately going the opposite direction.
Planes to avoid would be spitfires for sure. I mostly play spitfires at that BR and they are very good at out maneuvering Fw and Ta series planes. The spitfires almost match the climb rate of the Fw and Ta so don’t be lax in trying to out climb them. And whatever you do, do not engage in a turn fight with spitfires unless you are confident you have the energy to pull out and outrun them if things turn sideways.
All this is from me fighting Fw and Ta not from me flying the plane myself.
At BR 5.0 you can only fight one jet, the P-59, which is a very rare event vehicle that comes up in maybe one out of twenty matches, so I wouldn’t worry about it too much.
With the 190 D you have worse turnrate than the A-8 and the A-4, even when flap maxing, which I will explain briefly here. Basically in the 190s at lower speeds you can drop the landing flaps and then the moment the flap warning comes drop back to takeoffs, and they won’t break because the retraction speed is so fast. This will give a turnrate boost at the cost of losing more speed, which is perfect for when you are trying to reverse people.
At BR 5.0 you have average climbrate so I play it like every other average climbrate plane and sideclimb very slightly to put my teammates between me and the enemy team by between 2-5 kilometers, just so they spot what shows up. However if my team is rushing the altitude with a lot of planes, and the enemy are zerg rushing the deck, I will alter my approach to be way more aggressive so I can get kills.
You are what is known as a ‘boom and zoom’ plane so your main approach to dealing with people at your altitude will be forcing headons and using your teammates as bait. Very occasionally you can bait for your teammates but most war thunder teammates are useless so I only bother with that when flying with someone trustworthy in a squad. To describe headons in brief detail, you want to snap off long-range (1.2-1.5km) shots and see if they dodge. If they don’t, you set up your dodge. If they do, you pop the takeoff flaps so you can lead more, and attempt to mow them down in the headon. The 190 is quite good at this. Just make sure you enter the headon while going fast, otherwise you should probably run instead of taking the headon because you won’t be able to get out of the way fast enough. It’s also very quick at around 5,000 meters, so you can drag people around for a long time.
I would run air targets (maybe stealths if you’re confident) for the 20 mils, and IAI for the machine guns, which will give you a tracer to aim with. They have very similar ballistics. Since you have 250 rounds per cannon you can afford to spray, although obviously if you’re out of ammo / guns jammed midmatch you should reconsider your strategy.
Now more on the boom and zoom. The essence of BnZ is reclimbing after you make the pass. the mistakes that people make are on two ends of the spectrum. The first and most common is that you miss the pass on the guy and then you continue diving for the next guy. This is a bad idea because the first guy will be above you now and give you problems for the rest of the game. You should never do this unless the next guy is CLEARLY stalled out or not paying attention, and you don’t have to dive too far.
Also another version of this mistake is panicking when you overshoot and starting a turnfight with the guy who is slower and on your six. If you already passed him your best shot is to run away and you should make sure you’re quick enough not to get reversed and die before you make the pass in the first place. You aren’t going to be winning that dogfight even against a P-47, so running away while making small rolls and (most importantly) holding the neg-G key randomly for 1-2 seconds is a much better shot at staying alive for the midterm.
Mistake two is on the other end; being too passive when you have a massive advantage. If you’re above a dude in a bad plane and you have all the advantages, press the attack. Break off early if you can’t hit the shot when he dodges, ofc, but keep coming back and don’t give him any breathing room, as long as he’s isolated.
Thanks for coming to my little ted talk. Fw 190 D-9 used to be one of my favorite props. Not anymore but still one of the highlights of the german tree in my opinion. I don’t like any of their other planes.
Thank you! I love your effort-ed answer. I did try snap-roll, but it is not as easy as I thought it would be. My screen keeps turning red and warns me of the negative G within 2s of the roll. Is it correct to push your nose down (my key as S) and your rudder to the right (my key as Q). I still don’t know much about maneuvers…If you have spare time, please tell me how to do snap-roll please…Thanks for letting me know that I must pull up after a dive…I guess that’s why keep dying to A7Ms…Thanks
I’m not sure it’s particularly about a ‘snap-roll’ so much as it is confusing the enemy by introducing negative G maneuvers.
Stay fast, remember that Potential Energy = Kintetic Energy, and help out your team.
There are only two jets you can meet. The P-59 can be easily outclimbed, and the He-162 is on your side, most of the time. Note that if the P-59 is on your six and higher, you have no chance to escape other than using other teammates as a meat shield.
What if I dive using snaproll and try to get him to overshoot?
He turns himself into a giant airbrake, turns around his own axis, ends up right behind your tail, and gently whispers “nothin personnel” into your ear
Is there a way to kill the P-59 by forcing a head-on?
What incentive does a good P-59 pilot have in taking a headon when it can maneuver on to your six safely? None. You can’t force a headon as it is trivial to dodge, especially so for a fast, well turning plane.
Only way you’re taking out a P-59 is with good teamwork, where one plane covers the other, and while one is baiting for another, all the while you both slowly claw back energy advantage.
No I meant what if the pilot was CLEARLY stupid enough to get lured in. Should I then do a head-on?
Well in that case, since a P-59 is a larger target and has less guns, you have advantage in a headon. Whoever is more accurate wins.
I happen to have rushed through the enemy spawn in Air Arcade with a Fw-190 A-4 and got 5 kills in head-ons before I got shot up by one of the planes that somehow escaped my shots. And I still can’t believe that this took like five minutes. Is that accurate enough?
Dunno, it’s up to you to evaluate whether you’re accurate or not. Can you consistently get hits in headons? If yes, I’d say yeah you’re accurate enough.
uhh… I’d say around 9 of 10 planes in a head-on I can garauntee a crit or a fire.
Well then, develop strategies on how to entice people to do headons with you, to capitalize on that skill. Make sure to share results on the forum, to teach others.
I would recommend Defyn’s TY channel, he can explain it better than I could type it out and he is a far better pilot then I am anyway,
Here is his FW-190 D-9 guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udUUbZqvlBw
And here is a play list of his general Air RB guides since you where asking about maneuvers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSH7c-WyTU0&list=PLLmqHixdtpCOvLas_HftSzPgSmeSN_u2I
I would add something I just learned though, the 1st round in your ammo belts sets the velocity for every shell in the belt, (check the MVs of individual shells in the armour/ protection analysis of your plane), for the German MG 151 20mm every round has a 720m/s velocity except the HEI that has a 785m/s velocity. So if you run stealth belts (the only belt that has HEI as the first round) for the 20mm you gain a 65m/s buff to your shell velocity, but with the trade off of losing some HEI. It pairs well with IAI is the 2nd fastest MG 131 round @ 750m/s 40m/s faster than all but IT (and IT is only 1st round in default belt, not worth only 5m/s). bear in mind that the cannons are mounted low on the wing and the MGs on the engine cowling, so if your MGs have a higher MV then your cannon rounds, they may well be hitting a target while your cannon shots go clean under him, if your MGs have a lower MV they will drop into the same aim point as the cannons.
Uhh…If I figure out a way to get my parent’s permission to start a YT Channel and a way to record…Sure. Problem is…I can’t even take a screenshot because of some stupid settings I can’t figure out.
You can always use text and crude MS Paint pictures.
ok
