WB:
Week 1:
Learn to kill things. Kill something and die shortly afterward.
Week 2:
Regularly kill 2 or 3 things then die. I say 'things' because "There is no honor among thieves" and "There is no kill that is not deserving of celebration among newbie online fighter pilots" are both supreme truths. I shot guys parked on the runway and loved every second of it.
Week 3-4:
Getting really good at killing things. Cannot land. Before you laugh, show me your WB 1.01 Fw 190A-4 rating. I am not kidding it took me a long time to learn to land. Then I asked the Naval Aviators living up on the 2nd floor of the house what I was doing wrong. Problems solved. New problem emerges - keeping them off my computer.
Week 6:
Killing things and landing. 60 or 70 guys total playing the game and all are 'known'. Only a few fly the Bf 109G-2 or Fw 190A-4 with any regularity. 2 of them - 'drum' and '---v' are like gods. You can't even talk to them. They climb to 15,000' (!!! - unheard of in the early days of WB) and they kill everything. There's another new guy named 'drex'. He hoses 2cm cannon rounds at anything in his front 60 at a range of 500 or less. This is a great way to get guys to stop chasing you. Get near 'drex' and watch him 'go badger' on someone.
Month 6:
For the first time ever, I turn back on a smack talking P-38 in my Fw 190A-4 (he's chasing me at range 2000 and telling me not to run - to really appreciate this you have to know the unique history of the early WB P-38 - made with UFO components collected by the CSM), turn the tables, and blow him to tiny bits. This is a simulation fight that I can still recall in almost pefect detail.
Month 12:
Kind of stumped. I can do fine 1 on 1. But I always end the fight so low on E that then next schmuck to come along - I'm always his *****. Then I read some great 'E' writeups by Fletchmann, which winds up pointing me to Cdr. Shaw's book, which normally would have sent me to new, higher levels of understanding when it comes to ACM, E, etc.
But what really happened was one night I drank Jagermeister almost to the point of brain death. Then I started playing WB. 3 P-51/P-38/etc. chasing me. I fall asleep at computer for ~2 min. (Until my head falls out of my hands - remember falling asleep at a desk? Same thing). I wake up and they are all gone. Later I found out I fell asleep in a shallow climb, they chased, and a 'drex' - detecting climbing target-fixated enemies nearby by using the millions of sensitive olfactory passageways in his nose - came up from behind and ate them all up.
So I could tell you to read Cdr. Shaw's book, but it would be easier to say drink lots of Jagermeister, fly Fw 190s, and get stuff to chase you near a 'drex' (remember - shallow climb, then when they are at about 700 from you and drex is about 800 from them - steepen the climb a little - this gives you a good view over your seat of a 'drex' vaporizing whatever is chasing you), and you will kick total bellybutton for all time.
If you don't drink JM while flying you are forever doomed to the 2nd team.
Mike/wulfie
