The self destruct ruined head-ons. It’s also broken as rhe shells explode at 1400m from firing position. IRL they exploded after 3s, so much further away if fired at alt and by a plane moving forward with significant speed.
At the same time, 1 HE shvak or even HE Berezin 12,7mm hit will.ruin your maneuvrability to the point that return to the AF is your only option.
Gaijin has really made the game so much worse with their decisions. And nowadays poor G.55 can’t even deploy combat flaps above 280 IAS and it was one of the few planes that could actually threaten Soviet dominance if it was allowed to climb to alt.
Why does everyone always want to nerf Japan or uptier us? We have J2M’s now facing jets, our Ki-84’s can face 60’s jets. Our planes are made of paper, even the 44 though less so, and we have a far few weaknesses.
I mean it is just the Yak-3 which is a pain to fight if you are not in a JP plane. And there is imho no dominance - the superiority you describe is the result of way too low BRs combined with overperforming 20 mm ShVaks.
Technically seen the La-5 at 3.3 or the 3.7 La-5 FN are in the same league (benefitting from too low BRs with op cannons) whilst a contemporary LW fighter to the 4.3 Yak sits at 5.3 like the Bf 109 G-14 and both Lavotchkins saw service after the Bf 109 G-6 at 4.7.
Today I had the pleasure to watch a Yak-3 (4.3) playing like the usual rat and murdering 7 of my team (+ 1 assist). Ofc with one ammo load and enough ammo left before i had an undisturbed 1 vs 1 vs him.
A decent pilot using his plane to his strength whilst facing braindead opponents - he made just one mistake as he chased me and tried to turn & energy fight a B7A2 at tree top level - otherwise he just could have out energy me by running away.
They are as powerful as any other, but they get belts with 3/4 for them.
Yesterday a Me 410 broke my B7A2s wing tip with its 13mm MG 131. Later I scored several Ho-103 hits on a Yak-9T and he was flying like nothing happened.
With realShatter and unrealistic damage models you can never know what is going to happen.
It’s basically a coin toss.
Japanese and Berezin hit harder than MG131, a lot harder, but 2 bullets from MG131 will rip the wingtip anyway.
Meanwhile I sometimes fail to do that with 2-3 MG151/29 M-geschoss, but the funniest thing happens when MK108 M-geschoss fails to do that too
I mean, while my B7A2 Homare turns nicely, I know Yak-3 can outmaneuver it if given enough time as I’ve seen that happen, I mean, eventually something else killed me, but guy had the right idea.
Similar story with G.56 vs Ta-152H. G.56 can pull tighter at a wide range of speeds. But start just turnfighting while going up, and at one point he inevitably is much lower or much slower, and latter scenario is easier to exploit but way more difficult to notice properly. I am v. bad at it, but I sometimes manage to pull some ridiculous BS vs Spitfires while flying Ta/Yak-3, because most players don’t expect getting energy trapped with 80m of vertical separation haha
I like flying easy planes. Remember I play this game for fun. My definition of fun is squeezing highest efficiency possible out of a plane while minimizong the amount of brain use required. Hence I absolutely love playing Wyverns on good days where people just take head-ons and die, lol.
I would be flying BI if I could get my hands on one.
And I would whine and cry about it being OP every day in these forums, mind you.
EDIT: I used to play Fw 190 A5/U2 a lot when it was the best Fw 190 at 4.3, I didn’t know about stealth belt being best back then, but it was fun to win with a plane that “wasn’t exactly the best”, facing J2M2s, Mk IX Spits and Yak-3s. It was fun and challenginf.
But these times are long gone as A5/U2 flight model got curbstomped. So I’m just playing good planes in a brainless manner hoping one day I’ll learn to duel and properly dogfight…
Okay but last I checked the datamines the G.55 has a fantasy FM where it’s wings have like 1.5 CLmax instead of 1.3.
And the Bf-109’s also have fantasy FMs
What’re they supposed to do? Not arbitrarily buff the FM and then nerf the guns? Impossible
Playing bad planes is even more self sabotaging,as they require a lot more effort to do anything, and you either play too safe and end up against overwhelming odds or you just end up in 1 unwinnable scenario after another.
Learning to dogfight better requires dueling,as Air RB is anti-dogfight environment and by trying deliberately to go “dogfighting” you’re just increasing enemy’s kill ratio.