Bf109s and FW190s are the worst experience i've had in this game

The shell penetrated the canopy and exploded inside his skull.

yak-9k_he_i_mine_285.05.blk (1.1 KB)

Here is the protection analysis file, if you are interested.

Lmao mate 👍👍😂😂

As a “non-head-on enthusiast” i have to admit that against JP planes you often have no real alternative to spray from very long range. Ki-84s, A7M2s or these bloody A6M5s take ages to energy trap - and most of their players are good enough to avoid these traps or are masters in “ninja-climbing” and pop out of nowhere on Pacific maps with a contrail at of 6.400 meters.

Even as my Hotas kills any form of accuracy (except with 4 km separation and very high speed) vs mouse aim players i have now at least 70 head-on kills in total 😂 - mainly due to several hundred matches in P-47s on these bloody 6 vs 6 matches on Pacific maps.

With 800 meters convergence and 3.400 rounds of API-T opening fire at 2 km distance forces 95% of the JP players to dodge way too early and the P-47 is agile enough (at very high speed) to get them when they dare to turn in.

@GGK_Brian

I acknowledge your high passion level for the game (and some stuff is worth to talk about) but it looks like that the discussion drifted away from the title of this topic.

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Bullet proof glass can also absorb huge HE round hits, with no damage to the pilot.

In reality even a .30cal hit would result in loss of vision for the pilot and he had to RTB to get it replaced.

We also don’t have damage to guns modeled or ammunition that can blow up.

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Guys, just fly the K-4. Due to current matchmaking/BR meta, it’s constantly downtiered, and it slaps anything up to 6.0 BR



I’d say it’s better to go 190-A1 or 109-F4.

The f4 is a amazing energy fighter and you can hold your own against most thing except the obvious yak3, the main weakness of the F4 is managing the engine thermos, since if you climb at full wep, you won’t have much time until your engine start to overheat. And for some reason, you cannot cool those engine since they’ll overheat 5 C earlier.

190-A1 has the best FM of 190s alongside the 190A8, and at the BR is one of the fastest has a very good climbrate and acceleration.

I honestly wouldn’t recommend the K4, too much yak3u vk107, P51h, Spitfire LF mk9, F4U-4B, F2G-1, even stuff like the Ki-84 and A7M can be a pain to face when played right.
If you go .3 higher you have the 152-H, one of the best fighter of WT, or the He-162, 800kph at 6.0 is no joke if you have a friend to help.
If you go .7 lower you get the D9, fast and decent climb rate for 5.0

Now that I mentioned the subject. The way engine thermo works in this game seems absurd.

The best example IMO is stuff like the He-100.
At the beginning of the game, you only overhead when water go higher than 110 deg. But 10mins in, you will overheat at 103.
If you continue to play without landing, you’ll reach the insane situation where the engine will overheat a 100% throttle (no wep) since the oil overheat at 87.

Funny, you have a 1/3 to 1/4 K/D ratio on those planes.

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Seeing your recommendations a short reminder:

A good pilot can do a lot of things close to a miracle even in inferior hardware, but the overall competitiveness is depending on the the performance of the hardware he is facing, the quality of the involved pilots and the composition of both teams.

Your mentioned aircraft are not bad - but if you face a similar skilled enemy flying anything at the same BR your chances to win a fight / 1 vs 1 are basically gone (except with a massive energy surplus) - that’s why nobody is scared of facing German props at 3.3-5.7 in Air RB.

Therefore i am glad to see that you still feel confident enough to use them in Air RB. But to be fair: This thread exists mainly as there is a large number of experienced players thinks otherwise.

Based on my experiences based fighting together with German teams dominated by 109s and 190s is exactly the opposite. Yes, a large part is a result of the overall skill deterioration of players in Air RB, but when flying the 3.3 Rank III Me 410 A-1 or the C-3604 i am usually the last man standing.

And fighting German dominated teams in the 3.3 Hellcat (US Rank II, UK Rank III) or the French MB 157 (III, BR 3.3) is basically a walk in the park as all you have to do is to kill the few very good pilots in the 109 E-4 (not F-4) - all others share a similar fate like Noah & Co facing Larry.

In case you miss the context - a short reminder how Larry deals with things:

Edit: Replaced Wildcats with Hellcats 😂👍

I think you mean the Hellcat, right?

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Bruh, you diss the k-4 but then support your claim by stating that wildcat slaps 3.3? Maybe I missed something

Thing is, I agree about the hellcats, as well as xp-50s, yaks, early p38s, mosquitos, etc. That’s exactly why I don’t consider f-4 to be a great pick currently.

At 3km to 6km K-4 outclimbs and outperforms vertically almost all its competitors up to 5.7 BR, and a good chunk of planes at 6.0. Below 3km it depends on energy advantage but it’s very good at getting it, and then maintaining it as well.

merge (equilize energy states first if needed), upward spiral, they either stall out and die or disengage at the cost of altitude, while you keep initiative. With how poor the average skill level is in air rb right now, it’s very easy to abuse.

Beating some clueless dude in a stock k-4 trying to turn fight you isn’t indicative of its weakness

yes! you missed his correction to hellcats, which is very good at that br. But he actually is leaving out the most glaring issues, the f4u4b at 4.3 lmao, literally better performance than the k4 (same as f4u4b) but over a full br lower because it gets 6 12.7s… oh and let’s not forget about the f8f-1 at 4.7, good luck doing ANYTHING against that in a fw190a lol (it has insane low speed performance and overall climb rate. And I’m leaving out the most disgusting op place that curb stomps the k4 and that whole br bracket, the yak3u is faster than a p51h5 at low altitude and will out climb the k4 easily while out turning a re2005. the ONLY thing balancing the plane is the relatively low ammo count but it’s easier enough for 3 or 4 kills if you don’t spray. The k4 has great energy retention and I enjoy it, but it’s got 2 good turns before it is a brick and will lose a sustained dogfight to most if not all fighters around its br.

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Sorry to come off as a smart ass but that’s not how a k-4 is supposed to work.

Yak3u performs better than a k-4 up to 3km only. But unlike k-4 it overheats a lot. It can set prop pitch to 90 but then it loses climb advantage vs k-4 even at low alt. 3km to 6km it doesn’t hold a candle to K-4. Yak also rips at 660kph, on top of compessing hard even before that. So its potential energy has lower ceiling (k-4 trades altitude into speed and back better, even at low alt, although i wouldn’t wanna push my luck at sea level unless i absolutely have to)

All you need to do in a k-4 is equalize energy (in a dive by split s’ing until they compress, ,then going hard vertical) or merge and go into upward spiral until they stall out. That’s it

I flew for testing purposes the P-51 D-30 - an allegedly bad aircraft. My report - and a small quote out of it:

As i saw multiple times German aircraft mentioned - the overwhelming majority of my kills (and unwanted assissts) were 109 K-4s/G-14s and 190 D-12/13s. From my pov they have zero chance in a 1 vs 1 on equal energy states. All you have to do is to merge at very high speed.

In addition to that they are my preferred victims when flying the US-P47 D-28 or the Chinese F-47 & D-30 in full or partial uptiers and like the Yak-3/9 variants at 5.7 easy to fight in a plain A7M2 - and free kills like in my P-59.

The P-47s turn way better than the K-4 (i use a Hotas) at any speed ranges and for guys trying to setup energy traps - 3.400/4.000 little API-T friends are happy to make friends with K-4s.

That’s why i mentioned upfront:

So arguing that you can stall out rookies is exactly what you state here:


Next:

Thx - too many cats…👍

I found a decent player who could support my claim that Hellcats are Yak-3 killers - in case you use a Hotas like me. His post might be interesting for you:

P51D-30 needs a performance buff or lowered BR - #112 by Mahrs

Regarding F-4U4 & 4B - i was never a fan and refuse to play them, but my observations are similar to your description.

Exactly!

I don’t want to be a smart ass either - but even energy states kill every K-4/G-10 & 14 - just noobs follow into an energy trap and stall out below a 109.

In any case - to both of you - have a good one!

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Alright, fine, you win. So, p-51-30 beats k-4 by “going into a merge at a very high speed”, same with p-47. Apparently both p51 and p47 somehow climb better than k-4 to get that massive energy advantage, and, I suppose, they retain energy in vertical better too.

I don’t know why “rookies can be stalled out” somehow dispells my whole argument, while your “overwhelming majority of kills on 109s and 190s” is solid proof. But I’m sure you’re a better pilot than me (no sarcasm), so I’ll concede and join all my 109 brethren you killed, if only in spirit :)

wooah dude stop it rn!!
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maybe because of your personal experience in the yak3u you said these things but simply i did this or i did that doesn’t mean its the truth
look the f4u-4 at 4.3 and the f4u-4b at 5.7 aren’t the same plane the 4.3 pushes about 2400 hp while the 4b hits near 2850 at low altitude and around 2600 up high same airframe but totally different performance

the yak-3u has a beast of an engine giving it insane acceleration climb and instant turn ability especially at low to medium speeds that power lets it close and convert energy way faster than most opponents it hits 630 km/h at 200 m and 690 km/h at 6 km pretty good ngl but!!

above 2.5 km the bf109 k4 starts pulling ahead in sustained climb and high altitude speed and oh boi you said faster than p51h i tell you p51h can hit 676 km/h at 200m and 776 km/h at 6 km so the Mustang clearly outpaces the yak-3u at any altitude

here’s the key part about a skilled players in both a re.2005 versus a yak-3u in a turn fight the re.2005 will just slip inside the yak-3u every time landing multiple hits in a single pass by the time the yak-3u starts using its engine advantage the re.2005 already has 5-6 solid shots stacked up in practical terms a competent re.2005 wins 8 out of 10 encounters the yak-3u advantage only matters if the re.2005 pilot is inexperienced

the yak-3u is great in 1v many and going turning with everything because it had great energy generation from such good engine on light airframe

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yak3u is faster than the p51h5 and f4u4b at low altitude and turns literally any plane around it’s br other than a zero. that isn’t a matter of debate it’s a matter of experience and gameplay lmao test it yourself. and the performance isn’t too bad at higher altitudes either since it’s so light but let’s not pretend that’s a big disadvantage bro because the VAST majority of fights appear at low altitude (plus it out climbs k4 lol.

re2005 is NEVER going to turn inside an yak3u lmao, it’s literally impossible the yak3u can literally do everything it can better the re2005 is a noob trap plane and has never been op.

Forum exchanges are not about winning or losing, it’s about exchanges from different perspectives.

You missed the point:

Merging at high speed does not mean that you have to perform a head-on (which i avoid as mouse aim is far superior) - the instantaneous turn of a P-47 or P-51 is far superior to a K-4 - so as long as the 109 is very fast they compress way harder - so after 1 or 2 turns the better sustained turn of the US planes kill you.

You don’t have to out climb a K-4 (which is not impossible) to enforce a high speed fight. Next time i face a K-4 i will share the replay - a replay says more than 1.000 words.

Have a good one!

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Bro the Yak-3U is criminally undertiered at 5.7 but this just isn’t true. The US planes you mentioned are both 30-40kph faster at low alt. The Yak-3U also has always been a plane that has insane sustained dogfighting performance but it can and will lose to planes that have tiny radius/instant turn rate like you mentioned vs Zeros. Planes that back up these characteristics with engine power are even more dangerous (e.g A7M, Spitfire LF mk9) forcing BNZ as the main method of attack.

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From my pov the fellow player @The_diddler2 made some good points. Even assessing the A7M2 as “Super Zero” - you forget the P-59A.

I killed (besides some K-4s😎) quite a few Yak-3Us - in classic turnfights below 3 km started at very high speeds - the speed loss of the P-59 with the first turn glues you at their six and their superior low speed acceleration does not help them if you can easily follow every turn and stay the whole time 4-500 meters behind them.

Imho you missed the pre-nerf Re 2005 - even after getting uptiered to 6.0 they were absolute monsters and killed every LFMk IX Spit without any effort . The current 6.0 version has way less power…

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Do I read it right: first there is the merge (I almost never head on in merges, not with 151 nerfed ballistics anyway), after merge p-51/47 does an an instantaneous turn (horizontal?) which k-4 tries to follow but can’t, then p51/47 goes into sustained horizontal turn which k-4, again, accepts, and loses

Huh?.. why on earth would you do that in a k-4? In a k-4 at energy disadvantage, you don’t turn, you extend away after merge while the p-47/51 turns and burns its energy, if p47/51 catches up, you split S, until eventually you reverse them, cuz both p51/47 are too heavy and don’t retain energy long term as well as k-4 does, that’s a fact