MA is boring

[Loddar]

Sorry to make this post.

But MA is not fair and not realistic. I take an Il2 and want to attack
an PnzIV with rockets 132 and with guns. All 4 rockets hit and the
tanke survived it ( ??? ). I think ok, then with the guns. I hit the tank so many times and he smoked. I don 't believe it. But that's
nothing what happens next.

I overflew that tank and he shot me with his MG. And my Il2 fell down. A flying tank fell down, shot by tank MGs. That's impossible.
Anybody read the book of "Erich Hartmann". He talked about killing Il2s with guns. He says it was very difficult, only a placed shot to the oil cooling system bring that tank down. No tank MGs !!!

Other things are also boring in MA. First the effektivity of the field ack, second the effektivity of the buff gunners and third the hit model of many planes. They are all too easy to kill. Only a few hits and they get killed. I read many books of World War II fighter pilots and they talked about hits that dameged the plane, but so many can fly away and land with many bullet hits.

So, that must be say !

[ALF]

While I'm sure there is room for improvement in the damage/armor modeling, things are pretty well set in a way to give maximum realism, while maintaining playability.  This can especially be seen in the new Tiger Tank, you can drop ord all around it, and seem to do no damage....as it should be.  That was one heavily armored tank, and you need a direct hit to damage it in most cases, and hitting the front armor is an excersize in futility in most cases.

The IL2 is a very heavily armored plane, but it is not a tank (no matter how many people refer to it as such).  It has to fly, and therefor has very limited armor.  A tank gun will not ordinarily shoot down an IL2, but as with all things, it CAN happen.  The IL2 is a great plane for de-ack missions, and for hitting armor, but the smart pilot doesnt come in at the tank on a vector allowing the tank to have a shot.....next time, try comming in at a very steep angle (80° is good), and then plan your egress to roughly match his turret lock position.

[Pooh21]

Lag ate your shots, 1 direct rocket will kill a panzer, 2 near misses will as well.1 good strafing pass with those 23mm will do it as well. No idea about you getting shot down though I laugh when they shott at my Il2 with  30 cal.

[Karnak]

Last tour I flew the Il-2 as a anti-vehicle strike platform quite a bit.  The only two surface units that I had trouble with were the Ostwind and the PT Boat.  Against the Ostwind I had to bear it, and work to kill them.  Against the PT Boats I grabbed the Mosquito to solve the problem.

Panzers were juicy targets for the Il-2.  Even with just 23mm cannon I could kill 2 or 3 before rearming, and the worst the Panzers ever did to me with their pintle gun was take out both 23mm cannon on one of my Il-2s.

Il-2s are GV death.

[LePaul]

Originally posted by Karnak
Il-2s are GV death.

I wish I had your luck.  Against most any GV, even in a dive attack..the Aces High IL-2 doesnt seem like the flying tank its remebered for.  Every IL2 I can recall taking up almost always ends with a head on shot managing to take out my tail.  I've had some successful sorties, but far and wide, I get 1 ping-death to tail.  Thus I've gone to 190 A8s for most of my GV hunting.

[Jackal1]

Take IL2 lessons from OverBkill. The bastige is deadly in that thing.

[thrila]

I like the il2, it's nice to fly every now and then to kill gv's.  I know many people say it's weak, but i find quite the opposite.  Even 37mm flak hits aren't always lethal- twice this tour i've been hit by the 37mm from an ostie and survived (lucky i know).I've had one damage a flap, a couple of days ago one hit me only knocking out my oil.  IL2's are more or less immune to .50cal fire from a panzer- it just seems to soak it up.


Loddar if you're having trouble killing panzers this is what i do-

Firstly i set me 23mm convergence to 300m because that's the range i open fire at (and less).  Always attack a panzer from the rear diving on him at about a 45 degree angle (if you have the alt) aiming for the top of the turret or the engine.  Within a couple of passes the panzer will have it's turret or engine knocked out.  Leave him alone and go hunt another panzer.  within a minute or 2 the panzer will get bored and ditch, giving you the kill.


I usually stay away from ostwinds and m16's because if you don't kill them in 1 pass you're too slow to run away before getting lit up.

[Kweassa]

You just have to know how to do it right.

 Take no fancy thoughts about precision bomb drops or perfect rocket hits. Think in a crude way. Hit percentages are a petty thing, as long as you are sure you can get the job done.

 You are in a plane. You can rearm and reup your plane more than seven, eight times by the time a tank makes his way to the field from a spawn point.

 What does that suggest?

 Use everything you have, to kill a single tank  - make sure you get the job done whatever the cost. And then, if your ammo and ordnance is gone, you can always go and rearm or reup an IL-2.

 About 10% of my kills every tour is the Panzer IV, and all of those kills are scored in IL-2s. With each IL-2 sortie, I kill about average two~three tanks, and have killed up to six Panzers in a single sortie w/o rearm.

 Typically, the attack sequence in IL-2 starts with bombs, then rockets, and then strafing.

 In boming, what one must practice is low alt level-bombing, or low-alt shallow angle bombing against GVs. Pack the 6-bomb package, go up to about 1500~2000ft alt, and start dropping those 6 bombs in a consecutive line, so when it hits the ground, a long 'strip' of craters are made. You get the picture - fly over a tank and lay down the crater carpet above him.

 ....

 The RS-182 rockets are superbly powerful rockets, which knocks out light GVs with just a near hit, and kills tanks with direct hits. Practice low-angle rocket aiming a bit.  Find your target, and fly around and approach from the rear. Fire everything you've got against his hind quarters - remember, no sense ruining the whole attack by trying to save a few rockets. Just pour everthing you have. You can always rearm. A direct hit kills even a Tiger, and a near miss usually disables even a Panzer.

 Another good method is diving down steeply and pouring rockets on the top-side armour of tanks, which has high probability of killing a tank, but takes some time to do.

 ....

 Strafing, is useless against front-armour. Your targets are tracks on the side, and the rear quarters. Side attacks can knock out a track pretty easily, and rear attacks kill Panzer engines pretty easily.

 When strafing, don't get obsessed by trying to blow up the tank. In most cases, just killing the engine is all you need to do. A tank which is not within a firing range, or firing arc, is no threat. The only instance you have to repeatedly attack and make sure its turrets are all dead, is when a tank is already near field or town, and blasting things away. Unless it is something like this, disable the tank and usually the driver bails, and gives you a kill.

 .......

 So, with bombing, you can kill one tank. With rockets, you can kill another. And with the cannons and MGs, you can disable about three~four tanks with the ammo load.