So I am still having problems dealing with Ki-44s and A6/7ms. I thought about a lot of manuevers but they outclimb, out speed, out turn and out gun my US planes (P-38, P-36, B-25, A-36). Is there a way to get on their six and stay long enough to blast them into flames? I heard their very paper-ish.
It boils down that you need patience and experience in order to make US planes work. Most US planes are way more tough in taking hits and are way faster than JP planes but US planes are not that intuitive to fly - u need often MEC for US aircraft and especially new players tend to lose their nerves when getting chased.
In other words: You have to deny them their strengths whilst you fight only when you can outplay your strengths which are speed, firepower and (usually both) higher rip/dive speeds and available engine power at higher altitudes.
I checked your US vehicles - and imho you need to adapt your play style vs JP planes. Basically you have at least 2 planes which are (at the same BR) untouchable for any JP plane: Your F4U-1 and the P-38 E.
And your main goal is not to get behind a JP fighter, your goal is to get above them and to kill them with a mix of BnZ & BnRun tactics. In addition you have to prioritize your targets - u need to kill the enemies with the highest threat potential first; usually their best pilot and/or the fastest enemy first.
In order to learn how to fight vs JP planes i recommend to use the very frequent 6 vs 6 matches of various Pacific maps (Iwo Jiima, Saipan, Guadalcanal, New Guinea, Peleliu and Midway) in Air RB as opportunity to improve.
At least in Air RB all u have to do is to sideclimb out of the line of sight - as soon as you are above 5-6 km you are untouchable as JP fighters lack speed and high altitude performance.
Example:
Grab a coffee and watch this replay (link) and you see why it is a pain to fly US props (use option 2 pilot view).
-
Highly motivated, but also highly inexperienced US boys refused to climb (2 x 4.7 F4U-1c), choose the wrong tactic (F8F-1) or attacked the wrong target (XP-50). My B-17 pilot killed their best plane (a B7A2) and died - i played 1 vs 3 after 7:20 and killed the last 3 guys rather easy - in a plain premium 3.7 UK P-47 from the war bond shop.
-
I saw that a Ki-61 and a Thai SB2C were low on my side of the map, blocked a blind hunt order and tracked their Ki-43 III back to his forward airfield, fully aware that the other 2 guys were too far away to help him. Killl #1 at 11:38.
-
I had chosen the Ki-43 as first target as attacking a low Ki-61 and SB2C was counterproductive. It takes me way too long to kill two good turners and in the meantime the Ki-43 would have rearmed. The Ki-43 had killed 6 ground units and as i am aware of the very high rate of fire of his 2 x 20mm Ho-5 cannons i assumed he used all his ammo - and i was right. In addition Ki-43s are a real pain to fight as they outturn A6Ms and are faster.
-
The 18 km distance to the other guys helped me to regain alt and speed and i flew sideways in order to split them up, knowing that the SB2C could not follow and i am able to outrun and outclimb the Ki-61; he manged to close the distance to 5-6 km until he realized he is unable to catch me and broke off(15:20).
-
I turned then back towards his predicted flight path and activated an avenger order (15:49) tracking the SB2C and i assumed the the 4.3 Ki-61 tei will try to protect him - i found him there and score a one-pass kill at 17:27 as he was too slow to dodge properly.
-
My opponent in the SB2C was a very good pilot - but i was lucky enough to kill his gunner in the first pass (18:07). He almost got me with a bomb drop, but at the end of the day he was a sitting duck, i killed him at 22:00.
You have to boom and zoom, climbe and dive, and if thay get in your alt too and you start loosing he fight, you have to dive to the ground in hight speed, ww2 japanies cant go really fast, or thay will fall a part. Its really easy to kill them and much easier to escape them.
But when you are slow and low to the ground, there is kind nothing to do.
Yea, so for the both of you–thank you for your answers, but I assume my BF 109 G2/Trop would do better in BnZ? And I also think that it is harder for US planes in Rank II-III to outclimb Japanese Ki-44s since I heard they have a 22m/s climb rate compared to the F4U’s 11m/s?
im grinding them atm and 1-2 hits im dead … i need to constantly keep energy or im dead in the air as players know to knock them out first … tail gunners are a nightmare so i usually go under …just arcade thought .
You might not see the solution, the only advantige that US planes has againts japanies is speed, if you play RB or Sim first you need altitude, than speed. Once you got this you can kill anything. Japanies will never be as fast as you, max of ZERO is I think about 510 km/h and corsaier has about 750km/h. If you keep speed you can boom and zoom as you want, and if you loose energy, you just drop cuple km to the ground, reaching up to 880km/h witch is max speed of ww2 US fighters, japanese cant follow you beacuse its max speed is about 660 km/h than it will fall a part. This is something that if you know, no japanese can kill you.
teank kyu
I recommend that you play with Japanese planes yourself, then you will better understand their strengths and weaknesses. It won’t take long to level up to BR 3.7, and you’ll get to try out the Zero, Ki-44, B7A2 etc.
Experienced players advise you BnZ tactics for a reason. When I’m on a Japanese plane and an American tries to get me on 6, it’s usually an inexperienced player and an easy frag. Experienced ones attack at speed from a pass, and if I manage to notice them and dodge the attack, I often don’t have enough time to make accurate shots in pursuit, and I can’t catch up with them even on a fully functional spaded plane.
I remember how I couldn’t catch up with a damaged Corsar in a Zero, I chased it for several kilometers and it crashed from damage before I got to a distance of about a kilometer.
Nice. I mean I made a goal of getting the local prop producers (USA, Germany, Britain, Italy, Sweden, Japan, France and USSR) to 4.0, so since I am almost done with USA and already far ahead in Germany, I guess I can grind Japan next LOL. Thanks.
Keep in mind that at rank 1 some Japanese planes require getting used to and appropriate tactics, otherwise it will be difficult. For example, you are on a twin-engine attack aircraft against the agile enemy biplanes.
But once you get the Ki-43, it gets easier, especially if you already have some understanding of maneuver combat.
Bombers have their charm too. Some of them, although they don’t have any course guns, turn well, which allows them to evade attacks. Against a clumsy enemy, you can spin until help arrives or he gets tired of it.
And the crew is important, first of all G-Tolerance and Stamina. Otherwise, in a maneuvering battle, you will lose control of the aircraft and lose the main advantage of Japanese aircraft.
Yeah. I already know how to BnZ (from my Bf 109s) and kind of do sisscors (not perfect) and may some barrel rolls and some stupid thing that makes your plane look like it’s stalling and spinning. (nose up + right/left rudder and roll left/right). And yea, I always get max G-tolerance and maybe stamina but IDK for bombers since none of the bomber guns are that useful anyways.
f4f-3 and f6f-5
Are they good against the Japanese? I already have both researched and am about to buy the F6F-5. ( I am fricking broke only 16,000SL).
When spaded, the hellcat has a 19-second turn time and has 6 12.7’s so yea pretty good
f4f-3 has an 18 sec turn time so that’s really good
Ye, I got the F6F-5 and am playing it now. It has good turnrate but the stock isn’t the best.