you looked up plane in garage viewer, and thats the extent of your research you did before purchasing it?
I can only hope we get a decent mode one day that allows the otherwise off meta strike aircraft to shine in an environment that isn’t pure PvP fighter gameplay. It’s about time.
Yeah. Air Sim its okay, at least it can actually do its job quite well, but the gameplay is a bit poor.
What is really needed is an EC RB gamemode, basically ASB but RB controls and only friendly markers for those not wanting ARB and then to have at long last a decent update for the EC gamemode with new objectives like we’ve seen in the SEAD and Deep-Strike events. Those would be good.
It would be epic If they can bring SEAD/Deep Strike to ASB EC, although the Tornado does well in the regular ESB environment, it is still an incredibly dull gameplay loop.
EC RB without markers would also be great, it’s probably one of my dream game modes for maximum immersion, markers ruin the experience and tactical insertion of enemy defenses and strike targets if more gamemodes like SEAD are thing.
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Yeah… Alas though, Gaijin doesnt seem to care about the gamemodes themselves much these days
I use it for the bombing special task in AAB
What plane you dont use for bombing?
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I guess those that can’t carry bombs?
I would suggest playing SB without markers, but suddenly, the USA is the only nation that has TWO aircraft as of 11.3 - 12.3, an F18A (12.3) and an F14 (12.3), and playing against the USA is only possible in a shooting range where you’re the target. Yes, Buccaneers and Tornadoes of the radar should fight F18s and F14s. However, I stopped being surprised by Gaijins in 2015. For example, today a guy shot 36 aircraft in a session. Apparently, Gaijin isn’t worried about silver anymore, or they have some other interest in the USA. And yes, it’s completely immersive. You can roleplay as a “marine patrol.” The only problem is, the plane has no naval weapons—only radar.
However, that’s not the point. The thing is, as it turns out, the NAVAL variant of the Tornado doesn’t have the same anti-ship missiles as the event Tornado. This seems very odd. Every premium vehicle should have some kind of feature. For example, farming ships instead of bases or something. The plane has a radar that locks onto ships, but it’s unclear why it needs to lock onto them if it has free-falling bombs that can’t miss an aircraft carrier… A plane that has lost its concept at the moment, Gaijin.
Spoiler
Yes, yes. But why radar? You find targets on radar, you select them, you lock them on. These are all game mechanics. They should lead to something other than just flying in and dropping 12 bombs.
Which you can do in the Tornado using the ACM mode, but then you are only firing 2x Aim-9Ls from the Tornado WTD61 which dont require a radar lock and if anything, locking onto a target with the radar only alerts them that they are being targetted.
So what exactly would change with the Tornado WTD61 if it were suddenly to get a top tier AESA radar? All I can think of is useful situational awarness in Air Sim but Id have it disabled 99% of the time, especially in ARB with markers.
Well… first things first. This is precisely what the Tornado IDS was designed to do, its what its meant to do. If you want a Tornado meant for A2A combat, then I would advice playing one of the 3 Tornado ADVs which are actually outfitted for A2A combat and have a surprisingly decent A2A radar.
Secondly, Dont run 12x Bombs. There is a diminishing returns mechanic in-game which reduces rewards you gain from each action depending on the total number of bombs you carry. I would run instead 5x MK83s on the belly. It wont hard kill a base, but get it low enough that it will die eventually due to damage bleed.
This will dramatically increase your performance and allow you to more consistantly get the base kill.
TLDR: Dont get mad about A2A performance in an aircraft literally designed to fly at sub-300ft below enemy radar in all weather to drop bombs onto targets.
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I made the mistake of buying the Tornado and it is only good in Sim if you ask me and a radar would be AWESOME as everyone else radar hunts you and it would be nice to have eyes as well.
But having a radar that always find ships and no anti ship armaments is kind of dumb.
I’m always bombing ships the hard way.
What naval Tornado version?!?
The WTD61 (Wehrtechnische Dienststelle, a test department of the German armed forces) variant is just a specific aircraft used by said test department, and in no way a naval(ized) version.
The event vehicle MFG 1(Marinefliegergruppe 1) is also just a land based Tornado, but operated by the German Navy instead of the Air Force, and - contrary to the other variants - also equipped with the Kormoran anti ship missile.
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Worst premium in the game.
This plane is so bad it feels like a scam.
You’re so slow that you won’t even make it to drop bombs on a base - others will always get there faster. As a flying brick… your chances of success are minimal.
Ive been playing a bit of the GR1 since it finally got moved down to 11.3 and have been reliably getting base kills despite actually being weaker than the WTD61 (weaker engines)
How many bombs are you running?
12x 1000lb
2x AIM-9L
2x CMS
Dont run 12x 1000lbs.
For 3 main reasons
-
Diminishing returns - The more bombs you take, the less reward you actually get. if you can get 2 bases you will earn more than just 1x base with less bombs taken, but the rewards are heavily reduced
-
That increase in mass and drag will result in you barely ever getting 1 base, let alone 2
-
There is rarely enough targets for everyone only taking 1 base each. So most of the time, you’ll be dumping those bombs on nothing.
Switch to this loadout:
2x Aim-9Ls
2x BOZ
5x MK83s on the belly
45-50 minutes of fuel should be enough for a bomb run, though run max internal fuel if you want a little bit of leeway afterwards.
Ive also had some success with 40 minutes of fuel and combat tanks, that way I can ditch them if I need a sudden weight reduction, but it also means dealing with higher initial drag
not an option for the WTD61 at the moment, but if you get the MFG, or GR1, or the ASSTA1 ever gets AS-34s, then some ASMs on the wing pylons work kinda well too on some maps, yeet them at long range for a little extra score
(In theory, 5x MK83s is enough to kill a base, but it wont die straight away, it will tick down slowly when the base gets low enough, Run 6 though if you are worried about this)
This reduction in weight and drag will allow you to keep pace with other aircraft and in theory actually get base kills. Also the Tornado IDS handles a lot better when running a lighter warload.
Then, once you’ve dumped your bombs, go hunting. When lower on fuel as well as out of bombs, the Tonka can be okay in a fight if you are careful and make use of the combat flaps. Though try to third party.
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I’ll try it, thanks. :)
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How to make WTD61 worth its money
Add HARM to it…
Gaijin: nuh uh…
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