War Thunder - F2P WW2 plane "MMO" from the makers of Wings of Prey

[Stavroforos]

I don't think it plays a role in in-game repairs, only hangar repairs.

[Brusilov]

My understanding is that the crew reapir skill level should always be the sam elevel as the plane that they are repairing.

I'm not sure of the effect of it being lower. I don't think it would mean that there was a difference between in-game repairs and hanger repairs.

Edit: See this thread: here

As it's not official it could be right or not.....

If you 'mouse over' the repair rank skill in-game it has this: "The maximum rank of aircraft that the mechanic can repair.". It would seem to imply that if the crew repair rank was lower than the plane in the hanger slot then it would not be repaired (or at the very least be repaired slower).

[Comrade_Rory]

Ahhh right. Well my repair rank is about right for almost all the planes I'm using now.

So, first match of the day and I've got awful teams.
I've been playing the XP-38G a lot. I actually really like that plane. When you get an enemy in your sights, those nose guns really pack a punch.
It was the Bulge map. I immediately started climbing with a couple of Corsairs but the majority of the team, not only went low but were literally scraping the trees on their way.
As soon as 3 Bf109's were spotted, the Corsairs ran way and left me on my own, so I went into a dive to get low but I just attracted all the Bf109s, seen as my team just kept running away from me and them.

Also, Steam apparently won't upload anymore screenshots for me so I've had to upload these two from last night on Photobucket.
Both of these are losses that would have been double points if we'd won.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Edit: Ok, I just had this...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

You've got to be ****ing kidding me. How is this even possible? I died because I got chased across the map, past all of my "team" by a Fw190.

[leviath]

It was the Bulge map. I immediately started climbing with a couple of Corsairs but the majority of the team, not only went low but were literally scraping the trees on their way.

This is exactly the right thing to do on the bulge map as american, just fly at trees level and they knew it.
This way, you'll have some bad german players diving to the ground and you can engage them in dogfight where they suck. I found it to be the best tactic as americans against germans.
P-47 with bombs and rockets is the winner for this tactics, bomb stuff while waiting for the germans, and once they are there, just rip their wings with 50.cal. It's a win !

[Brusilov]

It's only good tactic against bad players on the German side.

If they know what they are doing they will just continue to BnZ you until all the low flying planes are shot down. They will be flying high above you and have the energy advantage.

Also at low level you've got less room for maneouver to avoid the attacks (you can't turn and dive and turn when you're at 200 meters)....

[leviath]

I always play with 3 teammates. We have 2 attackers, and each attacker has a fighter as wingman to cover us.

So while we bomb, if any bf or FW tries to BnZ, our fighters engage them. When an aircraft dives on you in HB, there is a short time where he has to stop a moment to avoid breaking his wings and stop the black screen. This is the right moment for our fighters to engage them.

Anyway most of the players are bad so you are quite sure that if they go down to us, they are bad players so risks are low for you. If they are good, they will be at very high altitude which is good because they can't spot us. You have extra cover while flying at trees level. Once they notice that you are down there, already half of their team died trying to dogfight low altitude american players.

My survive rate on Bulge has been multiplied by three since we do that.

[Col. Tartleton]

Spent 20 minutes chasing a Mustang and then he rams me. This pilot couldn't have had smaller testicles if he was a woman. Still flying though. Completely in control. Would have landed too if I weren't the last plane.

Oh good. Just got my x5 bonus on a match where the same thing happened. Did something get in the water? Why are these girlymen allowed to fly?

IMO ramming is fair play if you've lost the ability to continue flying the plane. Japanese Kamikaze or Russian Taran is a totally legitimate historical tactic.

But suicide out of the gate is retarded.

Although I like to try to make other pilots crash by playing guns blazing chicken at low altitude and trying to make them dive into the ground to evade. Sometimes we collide if they pull up instead. Oh well, that's their problem. I like flying the early level biplanes and such so it's not a big deal if either player dies.

At high level though that's evil since planes have a lot more costs attached to their operation.

[Stavroforos]

I don't know, ramming would make more sense if there was some reward involved. If I'm already critical and can ruin someone else's day too then sure I'll crash into them, but I don't think think I've ever been in such a scenario on HB.

[Border Patrol]

The ramming isn't what gets me. The American pilots incessant refusal to fight is what drives me insane. Corsairs refusing to fight paper mache planes head on is disgusting. So what if I have cannons? Six fifties do just as well and I'm much less armored.

[Stavroforos]

Head on is always a bad idea, especially if the enemy has cannons. Most American planes are terrible at head on attacks because of their convergence anyway.

[Brusilov]

Head on also can easily lead to a ram - each player blaming the other for not avoiding the collision. If one of you has the controls damaged it may not even be possible to move out of the way.

Ramming does happen in HB - watch this Mustang ram my Hs 129 B-2. They claimed that they had control damage and could not avoid the hit but it looks to me as if they managed to move and hit me at the end....

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Yes, this clip is from a month or so ago.

[Stavroforos]

Well it doesn't look intentional, probably just bad calculation.

[Comrade_Rory]

I was tempted to get the premium Mustang. Is it worth the 1850 gold? I'm a little bored of the Typhoon.
I've got just over 5000 gold and was going to save most of it for the ground forces or a premium Italian plane when they add them but I figure, I've got plenty of time until then.


I just had a match in my Typhoon which looked like it could go quite well. We all flew together and I got my first kill and then chased a Fw190 all the way back to my airfield, despite not having ammo for half the trip so a friendly Spit took him out. By the time I'd repaired and rearmed, most of our team were dead apart from me, that Spit and a Wellington who had just asked if bombers were any good in HB...

The Spit needed to land and repair/rearm and he did so as I was taking off and saw 3 Bf109's coming head on at me. I thought, challenge accepted. I took out one, damaged another who got finished by AA, the third one strafed the Spit, killing him, and got taken out by AA. A fourth dived on me and took out my wing, so I couldn't outmanoeuvre him and he ended up killing me but AA got him.
I thought to myself, we might actually win this one... they're dropping like flies. This Wellington just has to survive.
Then I saw him coming in to land at a 40 degree angle, carrying the 4000lb bomb...

We didn't win.

[leviath]

The Mustang premium is quite good. It has so many free repairs which you can use to farm tons of lions in HB.
It's an heavy plane but very powerful.
It has some sweet camos too.

[Stavroforos]

From what I understand it's a difficult plane to get to a high speed or good altitude, but it does retain its speed very well and does well in dives.

[leviath]

In HB, I use to hunt down german wellingtons, Me410 and Ju88. It does the job very well.

[Col. Tartleton]

The ramming isn't what gets me. The American pilots incessant refusal to fight is what drives me insane. Corsairs refusing to fight paper mache planes head on is disgusting. So what if I have cannons? Six fifties do just as well and I'm much less armored.

You never want to attack in a head on though, you want to be in pursuit. That's why they're called Pursuit Aircraft... American specifically. You get in behind and slightly above (well relative to the orientation of their aircraft, I guess I mean inside their turning radious) and you kill them with sustained fire and you ride them as long as it takes. That's how I get my kills. Basic dog fighting. I've been on the same guy's ass for maybe 3 minutes before he went down. But then after in the same game that I killed two guys who were close together in a single continuous burst by shooting their controls and wings off. It's hit or miss I guess. Although I'm still relatively new to this game and don't claim to be any good.

I do head on attacks occasionally but it limits me to a relatively narrow space and time to move in and we usually either both die or both live, it's not very useful. I may as well ram them.

When I dog fight properly I can usually get 2-4 air kills and do a half dozen or more ground kills on a single aircraft for the whole game. I prefer not losing aircraft to simple mistakes if I can help it. I mean for me is a perfect flight is 5+ air kills, a contribution of the ground and getting home safely or alternatively completely wrecking their ground units, engaging enough to survive and then getting home safely.

If I'm not going to try to keep my crews alive, I may as well just try ram people on the first pass and get a half dozen kills that way.

[Border Patrol]

In historical battles the Japanese and the American Corsairs are usually at an impasse during the game. The American can't get a dive on the Zero successfully because it's too nimble, and won't keep in the fight because nothing can dogfight with a Zero. The Zero is stuck chasing the Corsair/Lightning/Kingcobra to keep it from getting too high an energy advantage. As far as I can tell the only solution is a head on or a lack of awareness or skill by one party.
Keep in mind that I mainly fly Japanese and when I do try to fly American I get stuck with players that refuse to play together. So I may or may not be heavily biased against them.

[Comrade_Rory]

Does the premium Mustang get different MM to the Typhoon or am I just really unlucky? I just got into a match with Lancasters and Mosquitos.

[Nikitn]

Gotta hate the idiots who keep chasing you for half the map only to eventually pick up 3 of your teammates and swiftly die.. What a waste of time.