Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: Flavel on February 15, 2021, 04:10:49 PM
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After an intensely, grueling two weeks, I am retiring my indomitable Sturmbocke.
Time to fly something else. Anything else, really.
100 kills, no deaths. Accomplished in 60 sorties of which 56 were landed and 4 had to be ditched.
58 sorties in the A-8.
Along the way, I did learn a lot about air combat in the MA and now have a great deal of empathy for the Luftwaffe's "gray hares."
I wish I could say it was skill. While skill was a prerequisite, a lot more was required. To be frank, it was luck.
For instance, I don't care how awesome the fire power is on a A-8, do you really think you can survive more then a dozen HO merges?
A 190a-8 excels at shooting down bombers. But bombers shoot back. Can you pick off 50+ bombers in various situations and survive the exercise?
In the end, it became a grind in managing damage and knowing when to disengage while all-the-while
maintaining a level of SA that bordered on paranoia. There were a lot of very close calls.
While this kind of flying may have been historically accurate, it's not really in keeping with the spirit
of Aces High with it's premium on dog fighting. Also, may as well admit it, its just not fun.
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It's "Sturmbock" :old:
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Nice accomplishment!
But imagine if everyone played that way? As if you only had one life?
It would be a very boring and sad game.
Eagler
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It's "Sturmbock" :old:
Thanks Lusche. Sturmbock it is. I just don't use the word often enough in casual conversation.
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Nice accomplishment!
But imagine if everyone played that way? As if you only had one life?
It would be a very boring and sad game.
Eagler
Totally agree. I don't recommend flying like its one life as it quickly becomes unfun.
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Hey man that's a great job in that ole 190A8. Very challenging plane to be successful in in the MA. I give it to you. I use it for HO rampages mostly lol.
You don't have to retire it, just fly other planes as well. The P47-D25 or M, or N are similar in style.
"Staying alive" is very challenging in the MA. In my longest streak, I blacked out instantly somehow going straight down on some bombers too high and fast. Woke up just intime to watch me lawn dart going 600mph into the ground.
It's a very boring patient game running from fights when you might be picked and know you might not be able to out turn the plane chasing you. Having the patience to get alt and stay fast is the key skill, along with working on your E fighting management. It will help you in a lot of situations in the MA.
:salute
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While this kind of flying may have been historically accurate, it's not really in keeping with the spirit
of Aces High with it's premium on dog fighting. Also, may as well admit it, its just not fun.
Heh. The A8 is the one plane in AH that I have never been able to figure out a way to dogfight with. (Note to my 7th grade English teacher: Please forgive me for that sentence.) Have tried to do so for years and years, in AvA and in MA and even in H2H. It just doesn't work out. The irritating aspect is that contemporary Allied pilots had trouble fighting it 1v1, at least at low altitudes. Can't duplicate that here...or at least, I can't.
Congrats on working with it so long.
- oldman
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Hey man that's a great job in that ole 190A8. Very challenging plane to be successful in in the MA. I give it to you. I use it for HO rampages mostly lol.
You don't have to retire it, just fly other planes as well. The P47-D25 or M, or N are similar in style.
"Staying alive" is very challenging in the MA. In my longest streak, I blacked out instantly somehow going straight down on some bombers too high and fast. Woke up just intime to watch me lawn dart going 600mph into the ground.
It's a very boring patient game running from fights when you might be picked and know you might not be able to out turn the plane chasing you. Having the patience to get alt and stay fast is the key skill, along with working on your E fighting management. It will help you in a lot of situations in the MA.
:salute
The 47m and N are actually surprisingly agile when light.
I dont find the A8 fun to fly at all. The A5 kn the other hand is a nifty plane.
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The A8 with 2 cannons is not that bad, removing a quarter of a ton from the wings, however its not an A5.
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Even so it really is a boring MA ride. If you can't run and ho, your only options are to stick stir and hope for a snapshot on an overshoot...
That is unless you're going buff hunting or doing strafing runs.
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Even so it really is a boring MA ride. If you can't run and ho, your only options are to stick stir and hope for a snapshot on an overshoot...
That is unless you're going buff hunting or doing strafing runs.
The part I find boring flying the Sturmbock is the 5 - 10 minutes climb from base, but that's true in any aircraft.
Flying this beast is like playing chess. I'm hunting and avoiding hunters. When I actually achieve the merge I'm in the endgame.
Unless I'm engaging bombers, the merge very rarely progresses to a dogfight unless it's on my terms. Otherwise it's shoot and scoot.
There is just too much going on in a dogfight to adequately track and I bleed energy like a stuck pig. Get in, get out, get away.
The experience is intense and cerebral. If it gets "exciting" I've screwed up somehow. Situational Awareness is everything.
A word about HO'ing. I stopped seeking any HO gun solution flying this frame. Still if an opponent turns into me what am I going to do?
Turn away? I found the best compromise is to wobble and jink a bit as my opponent approaches. I don't need him calibrating for long
range hits. I start shooting just as the range counter goes to 1000 yards and make a sharp break at 600 yards. After the merge I'll disengage.
With this approach I find I might take a hit or two but nothing serious. Meanwhile the frikking mustang has a smoking engine and doesn't
want to chase me down.
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The reason people have difficulty flying the heavy 190 is simply they think of it as a fighter, fly it like a fighter,
and get creamed by fighters.
It's not a fighter in the conventional sense as it has no business dogfighting except in limited conditions.
It's not a fighter. It's a killer.
You don't fight with it. You just kill. :devil
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The 47m and N are actually surprisingly agile when light.
I dont find the A8 fun to fly at all. The A5 kn the other hand is a nifty plane.
The 47M especially can do some pretty magical things.
A5 is a dream bird!
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The 47M especially can do some pretty magical things.
A5 is a dream bird!
47M is a monster! Death by superior horsepower with a side of combat flaps.
A5 is spritely but, like the A8, it can run out of E though it does take a bit longer.
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Over 20k, it takes the A8 a 25mile radius to flat turn 180' without losing alt... Super job OP.
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The new radar rendered the A8 pretty useless in a furball, everyone can see everything, adjust and vector themselves favorably, ever if you fly on the other side of a mountain, the perfect on-top AWACS-radar with digital feed directly to all planes.
SA is not needed since you are fed everything in real time except altitude, like a state of the art modern fighter.
The alternate solution would be to small small maps with a small front for all sides, or delay radar feed for 30 seconds.
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I really like the idea of a 30 second radar delay. Drop the icon range from 6k to 3k while we are at it. :devil
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While this kind of flying may have been historically accurate, it's not really in keeping with the spirit
of Aces High with it's premium on dog fighting. Also, may as well admit it, its just not fun.
Premium on dogfighting? never knew that existed as a premium. see lots of cherry picking, vulching and kill-stealing/picking but very rarely n actual "dogfight" all kidding aside. perhaps use that survival mode to your advantage. When you are in fighter points mode, landing is the priority and in attack mode kills are the priority. at the end of the tour, check your accuracy stats vs k-d etc... eventually those two ftr. and attack stats will start to merge with with each other.
Not counting the sometimes, you are, dead engine, landing or fighting someone and in swoops the timid kill-farmer (that kept running from a "dogfight") for that all to common vulch or pick.
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The added pressure of having one life to lose actually gives me more intense pleasure than furballing in a mass of death. I enjoyed both, but in terms of feeling like I was in the pilot seat, nothing compares to real life role play. I think I once made 156 in a D-stang and when I finally went down I felt like something had gone from my life. Great job in the A8, that is really not anything like easy at all.
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It's "Sturmbock" :old:
When you saw this guy in one coming at you you might as well just bail and save yourself the trouble of getting killed. :O
I flew bombers almost 100% of the time back in a former life and Lusche was without a doubt the worst, as in best, enemy I ever came across, especially in those 190's. I spent hours in the TA developing tactics and tricks and it just didn't help. He almost never put himself in a position where you could hurt him. I remember only once.
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I always enjoyed kill streaks. Highest I ever got to with landing every sortie was 294 kills before an Ostwind round randomly intersected with my wing.
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I always enjoyed kill streaks. Highest I ever got to with landing every sortie was 294 kills before an Ostwind round randomly intersected with my wing.
Bet it was an LTAR :lol
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It's "Sturmbock" :old:
How come when I search online for Sturmböcke I get matches for A8 but when I search for Sturmbock I get unrelated stuff?
Maybe it's a translation thing?
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the Sturmbock was extra armored variant of the A8, it was close to impervious to .50 caliber in the front, but paid much in maneuverability.
German ground radar vectored in the Sturmbock's against undefended bomber formations with a telling effect, but normally paid heavily after when the fighter escort arrived.
One particular effective raid killed 40 B24s in one attack, but paid with 25 downed Sturmbock shortly after.
The smart (read old) pilot only made one pass and dove down before Allied pilots could help remaining bombers.
It was not uncommon at that late stages of the war to shoot German Sturmbock pilots in their chutes, and they tried to open chute when very low.
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It's "Sturmbock" :old:
We miss you poppa snail!
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The alternate solution would be to small small maps with a small front for all sides, or delay radar feed for 30 seconds.
A better solution would be goes back to the old radar...and doing away with this arcade nonsense.
CAV