what about ai targets?
Yeah, you can go for those if you want, but they wont reward anywhere near as much.
You’ll also put yourself into a fairly vulnerable place to get dived on
another question 1 kill then survive or 2 kills but die after
More often than not, probably survive.
Your reward is based upon activity time just like in ground, the longer you live for, the more reward you’d get.
Ideally, you want 2 kills and to survive though
Though if the choice is between 2 kills and dying or 1 kill and probably still dying, id take the second kill
Just use the Spitfire Mk IX to unlock the Tempest V and/or Spitfire Mk XIV. Pray you don’t get tiered higher than 4.7, climb, dive on busy/unsuspecting enemies, full send turnfight against anything not called A6M or A7M, don’t chase faster planes than you to the deck early in the game or you’ll get singled out. Spitfires Vc/XVI are not worth using.
Don’t bother unless they’re the only targets around, or your team is cleaning up and they’re within reach
1 Kill + Survive, more time in battle leads to more RP than 2 kill kamikaze
since 10 battles ive been dying to 5.7 while flying 4.7
Don’t use the 4.7 Vc Spitfires, they’re complete ass.
also a question to everyone what the f do i actually do when a jak is coming to me when he is above me i cant do anything
Have you considered practicing in air arcade? you get as many spawns as you have planes so you can just keep practicing, and it doesn’t take as long to get into the fight. you just need to remember the performance drop and the fact you can rip your plane when you switch back to RB.
And it might be you just enjoy air arcade mode more, people like to dunk on arcade players, but if you enjoy it, play it.
ah yes spend 1 year to get a plane
i gotta open a festive cupcake to gain back my sanity
after the mk IX what do i play?
DM me bro :)
That’s a headache for a Spitfire, especially if it’s something like a Yak-3 that’s remotely competent
You’re only hope it to split-s if you have altitude, dodge and hope he commits to a turning circle fight or does something equally dumb, because you won’t build enough energy in a Spitfire to equalise the difference.
Griffon Spit XIV is the smoothest change, they both play similar.
Tempest V if you like going fast, it doesn’t turn that well but it’s more optimised for low altitude, has a metric ton more 20mm cannon ammo than any Spitfire, great for flying at speed and clearing teammates 6 or dragging slower enemies (long list) into friendlies. Stock grind from hell tho.
Follow the advice of the other posters here - pick one plane you enjoy and stick with it for a while. Do not rush to top tier, it is rotten to its core there.
The 4.3 Spitfire Mk IX is quite good, but if you are looking for a little more flexibility in your playstyle, I actually recommend the Mk XVI at 5.0. It has the same 2x20mm + 2x.50cal gun setup, but flies somewhat faster than the 4.3 Mk IX, and more importantly rolls better, making it far easier to get and keep your guns on target.
The 4.3 Mk IX is still good, but it does not handle in a dive very well, especially being bad in its roll rate. But as people don’t expect a Spitfire to roll well, that is precisely why I recommend the Mk XVI - people don’t expect you to pull the moves you pull and they die.
However, the Mk XVI does turn a little bit less well than the Mk IX, so keep that in mind.
It also dumps speed faster than any other Spitfire.
Here are some random tips, they aren’t all specifically exclusive only for Spitfires, but I’m thinking in that context…
BnZ defense
-If you are getting BnZ’d, keep doing wide circles below the enemy. When he dives to attack you tighten the circle when he is in his firing position, this way you have the ability to quickly change your turn radius to evade his aiming solution. Rolling into a different turn direction might also be applied at the same time.
Positioning and patience
-When you dive into someone or generally start an attack, consider doing a lag pursuit. Imagine that you want to position yourself in a flight formation behind the enemy which will give you an easier shot, and manage your speed so you don’t overtake the target before he is missing a wing or something important. Many people try to aggressively dive for a high deflection shot, which is easily avoidable if the target has some energy to do something like the tip above. So instead of chasing where you think your guns will cross with the enemy flight path, chase a position behind him and be a little patient.
-Most spitfires don’t roll well, it makes high-deflection shots harder to achieve, so the lag pursuit is more useful. Because they don’t roll well, it also makes defensive flying more difficult if you have someone on your six. Don’t let this happen, try to make the enemy turn hard when he is the one chasing in lag pursuit, if he is already on your six, try to do an inverted turn by pitching down (can be horizontal but inverted) and see if the enemy rolls into it (you will be inverted relative to his turn) then you pitch up aggressivelly and hopefully he won’t have time to react with his roll.
-Spitfires with clipped wings (CW) roll very well, compress less at speed and are faster because they have less drag, but they turn considerably worse and have worse energy retention. Aiming is easier with them and they handle doing BnZ passes much better but suffer in pure dogfighting. So expect considerably different playstyles.
Spitfires in a nutshell
-Spitfires, in general, have very good climb rates. Good turn rate and energy retention. Below average top speeds, and kinda bad compression at speed. To perform good with them you have to know your enemy, how you play depends entirely on what you are fighting. On average you will have better dogfight/turn capability than what you will be facing, but there are better planes at it than you. The zeros will be the more common example. Yak3s are also common, those will match your turn ability and do everything else better.
-In general, what you can outturn, you can’t outrun, and what you can’t outturn, you can outrun. Pick your fights, be patient. Positioning will do most of the work.
Work on your aim
-If you have trouble aiming, consider playing arcade. Yes arcade. But instead of constantly focusing on the aiming reticle and constantly doing high deflection attacks, practise a bit of lag pursuit and only even look at the reticle when you are about to shoot, as a suggestion. In air RB you spend very little time actually practising shooting and learning ballistics since most of the flight will be spent on positioning and just following people. FM are boosted in arcade, but aiming and ballistics is the same. You have a reticle but the planes can also evade more to an extent. Doing a custom match with a bunch of bots is not a bad idea for practice either.
I also use vertical convergence to 400m. I use it in everything, from low tier props to high tier jets. I find aiming much easier with it, but you will have to re-learn head-on aiming for a while.
High deflection shooting
-For deflection shoots, avoid positioning your plane straight into the line of fire before actually be ready to shoot, What I mean by this is, instead doing hard turns to position yourself for a shoot and then flying straight while aiming for the enemy to cross your guns in the last moments, hoping he doesn’t react, turn a bit less so he thinks you are out of enegy, when you are at the correct distance to make a shoot, turn hard and make your shoot.
This way the enemy might misjudge your energy or turning capability and you give him less time to evade.
This is also very useful to reverse BnZ, especially in jets. You conserve your energy and make the enemy do a dumb move like climbing in a vertical, thinking you don’t have the speed to follow. But you do, so you can lag behind him and just easily dispatch him while he is out of energy himself.
People are used to just mash the pitch up button in a dogfight or just doing max turns (max instructor allowable) by pointing the mouse where the enemy is. Ease your turns with the mouse aim, conserve your energy, and make the enemy misjudge you.
Understanding BFM goes a long way
This is a bit of a hard read, and I know I’m talking too much about lag pursuiting but it’s something so basic about BFM that I rarely see anyone do, and it doens’t require much skill either.
I learned more about flying in WT by learning from DCS videos than by watching AirRB youtubers
1 Like