Ahem, I didn’t read the comments past 6 or 7 comments, the earliest comments in this thread.
I’d point out few important factors
“It’s fast, untouchable in horizontal flight. Use it on your advantages.” Like everybody already knows it, it’s not that simple. As the OP said it so good, “You can’t just extend forever and call it a day. Only thing you can do next is to force a headon.” So true.
Only solution to this is to have friends. Play the game together, probably better to have a discord voice chat.
Other than that, “You can solo everyone in P-51” is an utter bullshit. It relies so hard on team coordination to be valuable.
Also American props are neither undertiered nor overtiered in most parts. Except F4U and P-51, Xp-50. Probably because those are famous aircraft? So that bunch of newbies try the vehicles and die many times? I’m guessing that P-39 is not even that overpowered compared to something like Ki-43-iii ko which is actually 570kph at altitude. I don’t see notable overtiered aircraft in the US tree. F4U-1A in this game is in a configuration only available in early 1944 onward, F4U-1a with water injection installed are produced in 1 to 4.9 ratio. So it’s 1944 plane actually, at 2.7. And it scored really good K/D in real life against Japanese. And It has excellent roll, low speed maneuverability, top speed, and the acceleration at deck is actually really good. Top speed at the deck is 570kph with the radiators open. A6M(3.7BR) is only 430kph at deck, rolls at the halved rate. F4U-1a has significantly better armaments, high velocity. And you’d think yourself, “wow, skill issue.” But apparently, F4U also faces enemies such as Yak-1B and even Corsairs, be it from other countries or even a mirror match. What if you are getting chased by Yak-1B and A6M at the same time, sure you can outturn Yak but doing so would let you get killed by the A6M. American planes are great when all the enemies are significantly slower and your team has like twice the fighter planes up in the sky. Preferably already establishing the height advantage. It doesn’t match the War thunder meta so hard, that’s true.
Also the skill issue™ bullshit. That’s true. But it could be said for any nations. As much as US main likes to turnfight, Japan main is turn fighting. Saying it as if Japan mains are performing the tactics to match the plane’s characteristics intentionally, is a bit of stretch. They just like Japanese planes because it matches their original playstyle, not because they learned it the hard way. And adding to it, players in ki-43 performing a headon against Me-410? It’s silly as hell. Especially since it’s at the beginning of the match.
Think of it like Rock paper scissors, if you are alone, it could be 1 vs 2 in a rock paper scissors.
Literally, what you do then. You might be the rock, the enemies hit you with both paper and scissors.
Would you be able to create enough distance to kill Yak-1B first, then escaping from A6M to reset the situation. Probably not. Doing 2 consecutive headons and surviving the situation would be the only practical scenario for the game. Unless you have friends that actually manages the situation. Like, using the speed advantage and only making a slow turn to hold the energy during the turn.
High altitude performance is a relative thing. You and your plane’s performance don’t get better in higher altitude, it’s just the TAS /IAS translation of the speed. It’s just that other aircraft’s performance tend to get worsened more rapidly. It’s like fighting in a poisoned area, but only you have the access to a gas mask. You do just fine at low altitude. BR is literally defined by the statistics of the player base, Gaijin is not increasing the BR for the useless features (at least in this game.).
So you better forget about climbing more than 6k, entirely. It’s basically pointless within this game’s flow.
F8F staying at 4.7 is a funny joke, since it actually turns just fine. People are just overshooting in it.
People say American planes don’t turn, but it’s not actually true. I think what is actually happening is that people are always wepping, and not managing the speed. Doing a half-assed B&Z and dying.
If they could throttle down a bit, the B&Z would be more manageable. Just because the VNE is high doesn’t mean you can have a decent control at that speed. As long as the plane is fast at the B&Z exit, staying slow until you fire your guns at the target would aid a lot in the controllability. So what I’m saying is that the plane’s speed when you fire at the enemy below, could be slow. As long as you keep diving after the initiation of the attack. If you don’t have enough energy to climb back up, since the enemy is above you, just fly horizontally. Give your friend a chance to attack the enemy by dragging him down to lower altitude.
If you try to conserve your energy too much, you are trying to fire against the enemy during the pull. Firing against the target when you are at the bottom of the B&Z trajectory would put so much restrictions against your maneuver. You should have freedom of AoA during the attack. So you should continue diving after you attack, and the speed when you attack the target should be lower, definitely.
American planes are only strong because of it’s capability to hold speed after you dive, vertical dive only accounts the drag of the plane. Your heavy plane actually requires more energy to get the lost altitude. So it’s just better to utilize the ability to fly fast horizontally than anything.
Have friends that’s actually matured, and they would aid you real good in playing the US tree.
