Speaking as someone before tanks were released or the P-51C, the old days just had their own issues. Now I will be talking as someome who mained the USA.
Remeber how the JU288 utterly ruined German props that high tier props was never the same? That was essentially the allied experience, players wanted to play all those famous bombers and attackers that you had matches of four allied fighters with 8 bombers vs 12 axis fighters. Balance against this was all over the place, either the attackers win the match in under 10 minutes much to the chargin of fighter pilots, or they get slaughtered and the usually fighter heavy axis team wins in 10 minutes.
Air RB was still set up in a way that climb rate and good energy retention was king, so US pilots had the joy of always seeing a 109 above them if they didnt fly the XP-50. Outnumbered, flying aircraft that requires more knowledge, much had resorted to ground pounding to at least earn something in losing air RB matches. This is where the ‘just side climb’ meme comes from, as it was an almost useless advice that barely countered the problems allied pilots faced.
Back in the day the timer was also 60 minutes, so it was possible for a late game carries. It also made planes like the P-47 Thunderbolt more viable because it needed a lot of set up to actually contribite to the fighter battle. Of course, it was a double edge sword with space climbing bombers wasting everyones time and made airfield camping significantly more annoying.
Also, German pilots are no smarter than US pilots. I was there when they fought against Japan for the first time in air RB, a nation whose aircraft can match their climb rate. 109s and 190s tried to dogfight zeros just as much as mustangs and thunderbolts did, with just as much whining.
Air RB was wonderfull back in a days, even before ground forces were implemented. Also it was called Historical Battles at the begining which was somewhat right name as nations were tied to certain maps:
on Pacific theatre maps there were only Japan, USA and UK on some BRs
on Eastern Asia theatre there were Japan and Soviet Union
on Western Europe and Mediteranian theatres there were Germany (some Italian planes were in German TT at that time), USA and UK
on Eastern Europe theatre there were only Germany and Soviet Union
Since there were quite lower number of planes, games felt much more balanced.
Well, it ‘sucked’ just in a different way. Todays with Gaijins advertising one would think that War Thunder had no ww2 gear at all and that its all modern jets and tanks. So most players you run into in props are trying to power grind to F-15s, eurofighters etc.
Back when it was just Korean era jets most players usually had their favorite prop in the mid tiers and tried to stick and learn with it. The problems mostly occur when said aircraft just wasnt competetive in air RB, almost all of the bombers are an example. Fighters also suffered, such as the P-51D-5, the first merlin powered mustang a US player could get before the P-51C was released. It was just as mid to bad then as it is now and stupidly punishing for new players.
yeah not gonna lie as one of the new tourists who came onboard very recently, i mostly joined for the rafale and immediately went back down once i found out what top tier was like (also because i suck at top tier air since the skill ceiling is quite high), and i also powered through props very quickly
At least the guides and player made tutorial are better now. Learning how to climb by IAS is a crucial skill to get the most out of your plane. Back then, the common advice was to climb at 15 degrees and nothing else. If IAS climbing was more common then most axis altitude advantage wouldnt have been so overwhelming.
The other useless ‘advise’ that was common was “US planes are fast bro! Just dive to the deck bro!” This completely throws away positioning and energy advantages to the enemy team and properly using extension was obscure.
dont worry properly extending is still obscure, if you “run away” with someone on your tail they will always follow, completely clueless that youre setting up a trap for them
It’s not necessarily bad advice, as is “altitude is king” isn’t bad advice.
The issue is the nuances are left out.
While sim videos, Idaho’s F6F and Squishface’s Corsair video clear up those nuances.
Like - american planes aren’t actually bad at maneuvering. Some are even incredible. Problem: They’re fat and lose energy and generate it slowly. Solution: Descending spiral (trade altitude for speed to maintain energy needed for high energy turns).
I wish I had these videos when I had first gone into props myself. I started off as an america main, and the Mustang & Corsair are still among my most flown aircraft families. I flew them as strict as squish describes (or rather - passively) in the first minute.
“Why should I climb if the enemy will be on top of me anyway?” is a common complaint I hear from US players who stopped even bothering to climb and just mow the grass.
The answer is in the hellcat video, and in the corsair video as well.
Diving room.
In the hellcat video he Idaho has a moment he’s literally rate fighting a bf109 in his hellcat. Through smart conservation of energy and jockeying, he scared the bf109 to dive away. So he could in turn dive after the bf109, and as the video explains: “Don’t take hellcats into a diving spiral. They’ll win.”
I’ve had a fair few moments similar in the Mustang Ia. ~equal altitude merge with Bf109, make a very aggressive lead turn to get on their tail. Bf109 misjudges and goes to dive away. Proceed to stick on their tail like a glue. If Bf109 judges right and goes to climb instead… I can dive away and reset.
Well hey, at least they didn’t tell the US pilots to dogfight. I could go back down to props and I will have the entire US air force trying to dogfight me.
Or the entire Luftwaffe or the Red Air Force, Swedish, Japanese what have you. Seriously, other nations are just as prone as throwing away their positioning and altitude for whatever bomber or strike bomber mowing the deck.
Now that mixed battles are common I see plenty of Yaks, 109s and spitfires battle it out with zeros on the deck. US pilot are not ‘special’ in that regard.
Most experienced pilots avoid them due to their negative impact on their stats and even if you see occasionally exceptional US pilots - they fly just the usual planes (like F8Fs or F4U-4/-4bs) as they are able to leverage their experience advantage in objectively under-BRd fighters.
Years ago in the old axis vs allies world you (flying US) always had 109s above you (sometime UK Spits put away some pressure) or 5-6 Zeroes (or J2M2s, Ki-84s) behind and often above.
You were forced to learn & to adapt your playstyle and to play the long game. The time reduction to 25 minutes killed the this to a large degree - i still remember a few epic 1 hour matches
And there were a hell of exceptional US prop players active - willing to fight 1 hour long matches 1 vs 7 like on Wake Island.
But the sheer masses of rookies grinding for jets or tankers trying to spade their planes these days make flying as US prop (or paired with US via the MM) a very special challenge.
The semi-historical (axis vs allies) MM is still active for small lobbies.
I would estimate that 50-60% of my matches in the UK 3.7 P-47 end up on Pacific maps playing US/UK vs JP in 6 vs 6 to 8 vs 8 matches.
So anybody looking for a challenge and interested in constantly playing 1 vs 4 or 5 - i strongly recommend playing a 3.7 P-47 or the 3.3 F6F-5. U will (depending on ur server choice) play extremely often on Pacific maps in 6 vs 6 lobbies and see US teams vanishing in seconds, no matter how often you ask them to sideclimb.
With side climbing, MEC and proper energy management you are untouchable and can BnZ / BnRun 25 minutes. Thx to the JP/Thai SB2c spam we have since weeks you can win totally outnumbered - all u have to do is to kill their fastest planes (and ofc any B7A2s). The much higher contrail alt of 6.5 km helps a lot when you sideclimb.
This is partially true - and the main reason why the US TT has the most aircraft with Interceptor / Air Superiority spawn. So at least in theory they could use their air spawn to push enemy fighters low and give own non-airspawn fighters time to climb.
In reality you see the fighters with air spawn trying to farm bombers which are usually no threat for the outcome of the match.
It is still viable but needs experience - most guys mess up the zoom part of BnZ, they simply attack with way too low excess speed and try to zoom up way too early and way to steep.
In my experience, the Red Army and Swedish planes are a lot better to dogfight with. At least with Germany you can turn fight with, with America you cannot turn. At least the others you have the ability to turn fight as a near last resort, the Americans (besides two planes) you do not get that luxury. Yet every American still tries to do it. I would know, I was one of those people and it is why I still refuse to finish America. I like dogfights, I don’t like boom and zoom.
can confirm, im not that good at the game (my aim is really the only thing that saves me lol), but the yak 3’s are so easy to fly, the only times i died in them was A) being overrun on a 1v8 shitty clutch attempt or B) fighting a plane i dont know.
im still amazed how easy it is to neutralize someone’s energy in one, and do it SO quickly as well.
When I first played Russian props back in my noob years, I actually believed that Russian bias existed solely because of how amazing the props were. I think the only one I disliked was the early MiG and the biplanes with the terrible scope (I was better at playing in first person than third person). That in itself is a funny story, but it’s whatever. Sweden was too slow for me (I was at jets, and I wasn’t recieving enough RP due to no premium), America was painful (I was spading every plane to get to Vietnam era stuff, and I was attempting to dogfight everything like a noob), so Russia was a breath of fresh air.
i started with france lol, i remember discovering the vg33 C-1 and losing my mind over how stupid it was, i still think its probably one of the best props in the whole game BR for BR.
I also liked the MB 157, those guns on stealth are nuts, i got an ace my second game in it lol. I absolutely DESPISED the D520, the guns on that thing are utterly useless, and the plane itself is of better use in a scrapyard. Eventually bought the yak 3 with a discount coupon and never touched french props again, so discovering russian late tier props was amazing in comparison
Honestly didn’t touch French props after the reserve ones for a while simply because I would put my entire magazine in him, just for a hundred hit markers. Now that I know France gets better, I’m up to 5.0 with them.
Germany, for the longest time, had a bias in the air. I was sure of it, because they were the only ones that repeatedly eliminated me. So I finally decided to play Germany, to where I found out the only reason why they were so good was because I was so bad. After realising that I probably shouldn’t chase Germany around, I stopped suffering to them.
They are severely undertiered that’s all. The RS 2.0/3.0 ShVak buff (and the ballistic “update”) killed the whole justification for lower BRs of USSR props (low ammo count, burst mass) of the past.
The way too low BRs of USSR props are based on the same logic as most undertiered US aircraft: The average user sucks. Nations with more experienced pilots on average (at least in the past) like JP, Italy or UK don’t have such op aircraft (Ki-44 might be an exception).
