I’m a returning Air RB player on kind of a fresh account (it’s old, but I forgot my original original account when I tied stuff to steam).
I used to love american planes, especially in naval encounters with carriers and stuff. I like to think I got decent at them too.
However, nothing seems to work even in a spaded F4U-4. I get outclimbed if I fly head-on or at a slanted angle by everything.
I try to sideclimb to 4-5 km, but by the time I get there using 220 IAS sustained climb, either the enemy team or mine is dead. Occasionally they survive, but then everyone is at like 500m or so and diving them is a bit impossible without bleeding off energy to avoid compression/lock-up.
And most annoyingly, if I satisfy myself with just a 3 km altitude and try to BNZ a low-flying plane… they can somehow up and split S and shoot me down. That’s another thing that confuses me. I’d have 1-1.5 km advantage making a pass over planes that have been down there for a while so they’re not regaining altitude they turned into speed. However, despite this they just pitch up and shoot me down.
Also… how are you supposed to deal with the air RB markers? I feel I cannot sneak up on anyone no matter what with how tightly clustered the enemy planes are.
I used to love american planes, especially in naval encounters with carriers and stuff. I like to think I got decent at them too.
Snail took all of the sea battles with carriers out, they were fun though. (At least different)
However, nothing seems to work even in a spaded F4U-4. I get outclimbed if I fly head-on or at a slanted angle by everything.
I try to sideclimb to 4-5 km, but by the time I get there using 220 IAS sustained climb, either the enemy team or mine is dead. Occasionally they survive, but then everyone is at like 500m or so and diving them is a bit impossible without bleeding off energy to avoid compression/lock-up.
f4u-4’s basically a turn fighter for the usa that needs alt and speed for the greatest outcome. But sense we have all vs all, it get’s overshadowed by most other planes that does it’s job better.
if I satisfy myself with just a 3 km altitude and try to BNZ a low-flying plane… they can somehow up and split S and shoot me down.
This depends on planes you face kinda. If its a zero, try to bnz and don’t dogfight. if its a fw or bf, you can usually win in a turn fight. As for them doing a split S to shoot you down, when flying away, fly defensively so they can’t just gun you down. All comes down to knowing your enemy more or less and your own plane.
Also… how are you supposed to deal with the air RB markers? I feel I cannot sneak up on anyone no matter what with how tightly clustered the enemy planes are.
Kinda a mixed bag here.
At lower tier’s, try to get directly above an enemy about 2-3km up and approach from their rear. This might work alot for sneaking up on someone if there preoccupied with something else (AFK or focused on another player)
If you reach higher tier’s, be warned.
RB markers stay the same at every br, so you’ll usually have jet’s sneak up on you a lot more and more easily then prop’s
This mean’s that they’ll usually get a guaranteed kill if you don’t see their missile’s smoke/red diamond.
Same goes for you though.
In imaginary world, you climb to altitude. Realistically: cry because you’re a fighter that was never built for quick air interdiction only to be stuffed into such a role due to Gaijin not having any other gamemodes.
Ever notice how the game is slightly easier with American props in those few matches you get where everyone has Air spawn?
P-51s and P-47s (To a lesser degree) have the same Vautour issue years back where it’s so fast no one can catch it, but also so heavy you can’t fight back unless you count flying back and forth for 6 minutes at a time to catch a lucky and risky headon. Spitfires can sit on your rear forever and you literally can’t do anything. I think I remember recently a DEFYN video where he had the same instance happen in a P-51D-30 and he went “Welp, can’t do anything but run.”
That doesn’t mean there aren’t good american prop planes, but the vast majority you get are gimped from the very start.
The same people who say “But their speed makes them OP!” and say ‘American props are good!’ Are the same people who think Twelve from Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike is good because his gimmick invisibility taunt is useful, but conveniently ignore the fact he does NO damage and has no combos outside of two neutrals.
Snail took all of the sea battles with carriers out, they were fun though. (At least different)
I still get sea battles in Air RB, though very rarely, and it’s usually USA vs Japan. Its a shame that Gaijin kinda phased it out for the most part since sea battles are lots of fun.
I decided to bite the bullet and start playing with MEC. Nothing special: 100% rad/pitch+WEP on climb, 24% rad/85% pitch on level flight, 0% rad on boom and swap back to AEC if it looks like I gotta maneuver and can’t just zoom away.
Either I got better, or this makes a massive difference for climb rate and energy retention in american planes. Granted, been using P38s more than the F4U after the replies that it’s unlikely I’ll get a carrier map rolled so that might also contribute to greater performance.
But still. it’s crazy what difference MEC does for perma-WEP climbing.
This depends strongly on the daytime and selected servers. Unfortunately gaijin deleted the “SA server” checkbox. About a year ago i played 35-40% of my matches on the 4 main maps:
Iwo Jima
Saipan
New Guinea
Gualdalcanal
On very rare occasions you might get:
Midway
But - these are usually 6 vs 6 matches with the usual steamroll effects, some maps have auto ticket wins for the US/UK side and basically no one in those lobbies has any clue to fight there.
In addition the aa on ai destroyers became extremely deadly - and US carriers seem to have way better aa the JP carriers.
Imho no one has adressed the elephant in the room:
From a holistic pov the average pilots became less smart than years ago - and lobbies are full with tankers and not dedicated pilots.
Gaijin reacted as always - they adopted to their target customers and ruined Air RB as a mode for pilots. The BR setting policy at certain brackets is actually a joke - a hell of highly capable US props is way too low, same with USSR planes around 3.7-4.7 - and ofc the I-225 at 5.0 and Yak-3U at 5.7 - lmao.
Feel free to check WRs based on nations and brackets here:
curious, which us prop is way too low? personally I have difficulty recommending US tech tree to my friends as the prop tech tree only have like a few truly fun planes to fly. ( p39 p63 F4U4,4B, P51D30, P51H… maybe? German tree seems a bit more fun if you learn where the damn 151s go)
When I started the game, I was totally new. This is the reason I grinned out almost all the P47s and wondered why they aren’t as good as the history books would to suggest.
This is def something I observed. Like, not even climbing inefficiently or something but… take off, hug the deck at less than 1 km altitude and fly straight towards the enemy in BnZ fighters.
At least with the lightning’s airspawn and MEC adjustments, I can keep up and use them as bait lmao.
I’m surprised germany is lower than USA though at 3.7-4.7. In my experience, Fockewolves and BF109s seem to fly at least within their planes’ intended role rather than turnfight spitfires.
Would you consider the lightnings (38E, G) to be below their BR? They feel incredibly strong to me.
For some magical reason, the “not climbing” guys are always on my team. When I play Germany I get bunch of ground pounders, when I play US I get a bunch of 47s on the deck, When I play France well…no one plays France why would you play France XD.
Quite easy - most experienced German pilots avoid the 5.0-7.0 black hole - created by gaijin in order to cater German tankers with Ju 288s and rookie US pilots - that’s why you had even in peak hours a axis vs allies MM with 4 Ju 288s and 2 5.0 GER fighters vs 5-6 US/UK fighters…
I see the 3.3 G with the 20mm as very strong too. The E version needs an even more boring playstyle to make them work.