No, you win by time. There is a very important distinction here.
Extremely, extremely, extremely rarely.
So you’re just playing semantics. Got it.
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I’ve had multiple this past week where my team either won due to ticket rain, or had a ticket advantage when the timer ended. It’s not hard to get either, you just need to not die in the initial wave and have few enough players remaining that no one can contest you attacking ground targets.
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Nope. You just do not seem to be capable of understanding the distinction between winning the game by tickets running out actively, and winning the game because your team had > tickets than their team and time ran out 25 minutes after the game started. They are not the same action.
Good for you! However, this is still the overwhelming minority of all games, being something like less than 0.5% of how matches end.
This is an entirely different discussion.
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Yes - for the majority of players
No - for experienced players
The strategy to deal with them boils down to plane and connected weapon choices, belt selection and attack tactic/strategy.
Imho best suited counters are fighters with US 0.50 cals. The second largest group able to kill them are US bombers (mainly B-25s) using fixed or turrets mounted 0.50 cals - followed by USSR planes with 37 and 45mm cannons. Based on my observations it looks like they use AP/APHE rounds instead of HE.
The best Bv 238 killer (3 Bv 238 kills in single match) i witnessed was a player in a Chinese P-47. He killed all of them with the same approach: High speed head-ons from 12 o’clock high aiming at the cockpit. Otherwise i see frequently B-25s with two Bv 238 kills in a match - surviving those attacks with flesh wounds, their kills are a mix of instant (pilot snipes) and delayed (loss of engine power) kills.
Agreed, even if they are not invulnerable the damage resistance seems too much. Even as I described ways to kill them: The efforts for that requires way too much risk for the attack pilot if the Bv 238 is able to deny head-on attacks.
Alternatives to kill them as described are from my pov non-existent. They are immune vs:
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bombs in the 100 kg class (i scored direct hits with FAB 100s) and 1,000 lbs bombs needs to explode near the cockpit (works fine vs repairing TIS MAs).
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ramming attacks - i watched even a Pe-8 dying doing this (Pe-8 tail broke off in this process, Bv 238 unimpressed).
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airfield aaa. They can wipe out all hitscan aaa in 2 passes or strafe repairing enemies with impunity.
The often mentioned fire resistance is imho on par with USSR bombers like Pe-8s or Pe-3s - both can stay airborne for a very long time whilst burning - and seeing burning bombers landing and repairing whilst burning is not limited to them.
Your point looks reasonable - but at the end of the day you might agree that it makes no difference if you fly a plane faster than your enemies (like a P-47) or a very hard to kill target - both have nothing to do with a numerical superiority.
This is a point on which i agree in general - but not with regards to killing ground ai. I mean as described by @dovah4 you can play around them an do the same task faster if your friendlies play smart.
Game play balance was never a goal of gaijin - otherwise we wouldn’t have seen Wyverns at 4.0 for ages or late war Yak-3 (e) at 4.0. I would argue that even Bv 238s are ultra annoying, a single properly flown TIS MA or Su-8 is way harder to counter than two Bv 238s - even if they are easier to kill when they repair.
This is correct. But - this is not limited to Bv 238s. The whole game play changed. Flying with US/UK vs JP on Pacific maps was always a challenge - now they became milk runs as your 4 B-25s / B-26s clean up JP fighters and the B7A2 / SB2C threat way too easy.
This seems correct most of the time - but the frustration addressed in the OP is comprehensible if you look at the broader picture.
Besides that i share most of your views addressed in this topic - a short example why the whole situation in Air RB is actually quite entertaining. As evidence: Enjoy this replay:
Gaijin Entertainment - Single Sign On
Short:
Winning on legacy maps with the win condition “enemy airfield destroyed” is back. The invulnerability claim of Bv 238s is real for most players, Bv 238s are scoring way too easy kills and i feel like back in 2019 when the Me 264 was at BR 3.7.
Long:
I ended up on the famous Britain map - looking at the planes in the loading screen it was clear that this would be an easy win with the ultra-rare win condition “enemy airfield destroyed” which still exists on certain maps.
My team had 2 Bv 238s, 1 PB4Y and one B-17 (3.7 -4.7 match) and i knew that if they play it correctly that their TNT load is enough to kill all 3 bases and the enemy airfield. So i actually thought about not even spawning as the game will end with an ez win without firing a single shot.
But based on a feeling i decided to pick up two sea mines in case my bomber players mess things up and manage to throw away an easy win created by the MM.
Long story short:
Both Bv 238s scored 4 kills but just on of them played bomber, the B-17 wasted payload on a base and the PB4Y was stock. My 2 sea mines (~ 0.384 tons of TNT was required to kill the airfield) have a TNT output of 1 ton and were more that sufficient to win the match.
If you look at the 2 Bv 238s - one scored 2 defensive kills and killed a landed Pe-3 with bombs followed by shooting down a Ki-61 without a propeller, whilst the other dropped all of his 20 bombs on a single base (4 are enough) and survived fire from up to 6 attacking fighters at the same time and even a ramming attack from a Pe-8 - a Ki-44 collided on purpose and exploded like a fly hitting your windscreen.
Game analysis from a bomber perspective:
Technically seen the match was decided by plane choices and applied attack strategies of the 8 bomber pilots - and the enemy team had way better options to win by killing the airfield way earlier than mine just based on map layout.
It boils down that 4 enemy USSR / CHN bombers (Pe-2 110 with 4 x FAB 500, CHN B-25, A-20G with 2 x FAB 1,000 and a Pe-8 with 40 x FAB 100) would have won the game if they had attacked coordinated (like in the good old times) dropped not too much payload on bases (like the Pe-2 and the B-25) or had used a smarter attack pattern like the A-20 G-30 which could kill just one base.
The 4 GER/US bombers had to fly a large loop from enemy bases to the enemy airfield whilst the route to drop for the USSR/CHN team was way shorter. That means that smarter players in both teams could have killed enemy airfields in the first attempt and the USSR/CHN team had better cards.
Edit:
Found this vid recommended by yt:
What’s even crazier, is that the BV-238 never saw military service.
It was accepted into service then got bombed before it could do anything iirc. Anyways whether or not it saw service IRL doesn’t matter for WT
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I mean given its reserve-level flight speed couldn’t you just…ignore it and go munch on ground units?
It has zero hope of catching anything unless you fly intentionally towards it. And if you do, try to pilot kill with AP or don’t bother. But it has two pilots I think so good luck.
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and when you inevitably run out of ammo and go back to rearm it can just park on your airfield all game long
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It cant,if you land on enemy airfield,there is countdown saying you will be captured in xx:xx and then it J you out of your plane
It is already quite nerfed, I mean balanced, since it “features” the following deliberate problems:
https://community.gaijin.net/issues/p/warthunder/i/oV9OG1orS3yA
https://community.gaijin.net/issues/p/warthunder/i/pSF43pRQoKmZ
https://community.gaijin.net/issues/p/warthunder/i/eJlLZdDpTyzB
https://community.gaijin.net/issues/p/warthunder/i/E4Tm1DFjP336
https://community.gaijin.net/issues/p/warthunder/i/KR1q16tIKmon
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I don’t mean actually land, just hover over it forever
I would say setting the fuel tanks on fire would be a way to take it down, as the fuel tanks aren’t self sealing. Last time i flew the BV after the buff, a P-51 or something set my fuel tanks on fire, killed 2 of my engines, and i could only fly for a few more minutes because my fuel was pouring out of my plane like a showerhead. Plus the 6 engines are just barely enough to keep the BV airborne. Not saying its balanced, but there are definitely ways to kill it
2 Likes
In 5 minutes sure
I said it was a way to kill it not a fast or efficient way to kill it
It’s not if it takes 5 minutes
If a plane is unable to live much longer then it is dead. Not when the red dopamine text appears lmao
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Matches only last 25 minutes and actual real average match length is like 7 minutes. A 5 minute burn time isnt a real kill, especially when they can just fly back to base and rtb WHILE on fire the entire time
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rtb
not in a BV238 it isn’t. That thing has reserve level speeds and literally can’t even land on the airfield. The water landing point is also located much farther away and doesn’t have AA protecting it.