Damn I like it. Yesterday I was bimbling along at 5k when a 109 bounced me near field 10. I opened up with bursts at 1100 yards as the con swept in on a high 7 to level 6 attack, (and suffered greatly judging by the impact flashes and missing wing that followed). No pings or damage on my nice shiney plane.
After grabbing up to 33kft I commenced my attack on field 19 and in the process a P51 grabbed slowly up on my tail and then the canny bugger tried to creep ahead of me for what looked like a classic 10-2 attack. The only evasions I could make was to turn away and hopefully extend enough on the turn to give me 30 seconds for the bomb run.
Adding to my problems was a Mark IX Spitfire on my low 6. By the time I had made a third pass the P51 had grabbed enough altitude to try an attack. I was caught out in the pilot's seat and had to pull a hard banking turn avoiding the P51's gunfire. This gave the Spit the chance to latch onto my tail so I set autoclinb and jumped to the tail gunner's seat. The P51 dropped away as I started firing on the Spitfire, (the P51 turned out to be Hitech and he had run out of fuel). Again I opened up from 1100 yards and got good hits inside of 600 yards when the Spit started to open fire. The .50 cals shredded the Spit's wing and it plummeted to the earth below, (after destroying the ball turret).
No more cons were anywhere to be seen so I completed the run at 19 while the rest of the Rooks attacking 19 suppressed the fighters and allowed the C-47 in to capture the field.
Things I have learned since the B17 got teeth...
When the B17 had no guns you needed altitude or several escort fighters to destroy an enemy field. Now you just need altitude because the fighters don't have enough lift to perform any serious attacking manoevers at altitdue. HT was the first person I'd seen trying to get above and ahead of my plane. Everyone else so far has been too impatient to get above me and try to seriously shoot me down.
Adjusting fire is a necessity to make sure you give the target enough lead, ("lead" as in leading your dog). The two simple methods I use in real life are :
- Walking the rounds onto the target, (hold down the trigger and adjust your point of aim till the rounds impact the target), which is best for close in fighting where ammo isn't a consideration, (in RL for me under 300m with a .50cal and under 100m with LMG's).
- Applying Aim Off, (best guess and fire a couple of rounds watching for the fall of shot then correcting and firing a few more rounds repeating the procedure untill the rounds strike the target), this is best for distant targets and where ammunition is low.
The last thing I've learned is that people have gotten into some really bad habits attacking unarmed planes, (especially the B17 prior to this revision). Dragging low 6 attacks, straight line attack paths and firing well outside convergence ranges. The B17 pilots in the meantime are going to higher and higher altitudes where the B17 has a manouvering advantage and is an excellent gun platform. Attacking fighters seem to be shredded a lot easier because those pilots are to impatient to set up a good attack run.
All I need to do now is find out what striking the various factories in the enemy territory really does and which ones to hit. Hi ho Hi ho and off to the archives I go....
Spotcha in the Air
