Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: SkyTiger on November 09, 2008, 01:54:12 AM
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I recently talked to one of my dad's friends who served on an Aircraft Carrier after WWII and flew planes and jets. I felt a longing to get back into flight sims.
This is the story of my first night of Aces High II.
Offline Practice
After downloading the game, I read through what information I could and then decided on tooling around in the offline arena to make sure my stick was in working order and to get a feel for things. I use a Saitek ST290 and I found the buttons on it already conviently mapped, including the thumb toggle which allowed me to shift views easily.
PS: Barnstorming with the hangars doesn't work, I discovered. There's a wall in the rear of the hangar. :aok
Online
I soon logged into the main arena. The one that had 300 slots for players with almost all of them filled. I found myself in a map shaped somewhat like a globe and covered in bases. After examining the map and reading what flashing bases and the red/green bars represent, I decided to get in on the action as soon as possible.
I immedietly went south and attempted to take off from airfield 128 which was under heavy attack. Unfortunetly the fighter hangars were down and I had to lift off from another base across the channel.
I decided on flying a Zeke for my first 'real' combat flight. It lacks firepower, but being nimble is a good advantage. I imagined I'd probably be out-manuvered by veterans fairly quickly early on and be forced into a turn fight, which I expected the Zeke to excell at.
I flew south towards 128, reading some more information in the game as I went about controls and such and even tested my mic, which appearently works.
Upon arriving at the airfield, I found about 4 friendlies and 7 enemy planes in the air. I was sitting at about 14k altitude and most of the fighting seemed to be occuring at 7k and lower.
I circled for a moment, considering my options. I watched as a flight of enemy B17s flew away from the town in formation, appearently having bombed it. I felt my lone Zeke wouldn't fare well against a Flying Fortress and held to my altitude. Below me, I saw two enemy Typhoons zooming back and forth over the airfield once our fighter hangars were repaired and our team began to get onto the runway.
I did some quick calculations and watched as a Typhoon outran a pack of friendlies. My Zeke wouldn't be able to catch him even with an altitude advantage so I remained where I was. An enemy P47 at about my altitude approached but maintained a good 4k distance from me. I felt he was watching me cautiously, as I was watching him too. He didn't seem to want to dive down among my friendlies now over the town, and with bombs under his wings he couldn't manuver well enough to fight me. He probably knew I'd be able to out-turn him, especially with heavy wings.
I started in the P47's direction and he went into a dive towards the town. I decided to follow until my airframe started to groan. I cut my engine and slowly pulled out at about 9k.
By then a fresh wave of enemy planes had arrived and it turned into a furball. I used my "check six" button quite a bit, not feeling confident enough to leap into the fray just yet but doing my best to follow friendly planes and keep enemies off their tail as I watched them fighting.
A Spitfire screamed past me from the rear, and I'm pretty sure he only managed to knick me with his machine guns. It left a couple of bullet holes in my wing and cockpit glass. I tried to follow him, but he had a ton of smash and was 800+ infront of me before I had time to line up a shot.
I decided to put my Zeke down rather than press my luck any further with a plane that has paper for armor. I successfully landed after having to power out of my landing sequence to avoid an enemy T-34 sitting on the runway and proceeded to the tower.
I decided to try a Hurricane IIC. An ungainly beast, it could no doubt absorb more punishment than the Zeke. Not as agile and a much slower climber, I'd be sacrificing some of my agility and climb for armor and firepower.
I headed out to sea to gain altitude away from the fighting and soon returned with 7k of height in my pocket, which I could burn if needed for energy.
By then, 128 was in pure chaos. It was a good thing I'd traded in the Zeke, because many of the enemy planes seemed to be fighting over a clump of tanks and AAA on the ground near the base. I wouldn't last long in a Zeke getting shot up by anti-air.
Success!
Typhoons continued to whip past, but seemed to pay me no mind as they chased after my comrades. A P-51 carrying bombs pulled up infront of me at about 500 yards. Not wanting to waste precious ammo, I turned on my engine boost and began to very slowly catch up to him. With the P-51 looming large in my gunsights at 400, I fired a short burst. I caught him and pieces of his airframe fell away. He spun into the ground trailing smoke on the far side of the hangars he'd probably been aiming to bomb.
Feeling proud, I used my chase energy to grab some more altitude and went into an Immelman. I found myself face-to-face with an enemy P-38, which screamed past off my port wing chased by at least four friendlies. I turned and got onto the tail of another P-51 chasing the pack of friendlies. I fired a couple of shots as the P-51 pulled ahead, and my tracers going past his cockpit must have spooked him because he broke away and began to climb.
With most of my ammunition still left I turned back over the airfield and struck out towards our town to see what was happening there. On the way I was shot at by several AAA but took no damage.
I glanced up and saw a P-47 diving on me from about 1.5k up. I immedietly inverted and dove, letting him chase me. Machinegun tracers zipped all around me as I twitched my rudder back and forth, trying to bleed off some of my speed as I nose-dived towards the ground. Feeling sufficiently safe as despite the fact the P-47 was unloading his guns on me from 800 through 500 he had yet to hit me, I suddenly pulled out of the dive.
I began to black out but maintained the pullout. I looked behind me and saw the P-47 smash into the ground. It had bombs or fuel tanks on its wings, so I wasn't sure if it were the same one I'd encountered before. Either way, it gave me credit for the kill for some reason.
I made my way back towards the airfield in a bit of a circular fashion to avoid the anti-air as I was still rather low on the deck.
A Spitfire cut across my field of vision from starboard and I turned in to chase him as he strafed our runway. He was pulling away from me but then pulled up hard for some reason and began to climb. He rose right into my guns and I put a two second burst into him. He lost his tail, continued to climb and then slowly tipped over and nose-dived into one of our hangars.
I decided to set my plane down at that point as I had about 1/5th of my fuel left and only 20 rounds for each of my cannons.
Revenge
I sortied again and scored a kill against an A-20 almost immedietly after I took off. The A-20 pilot performed a bank turn right infront of me, and it was child's play to take his wing off. Call it a freebie for the new guy. :lol
However, I got raked repeatedly by either AAA or machine guns from P-51s which were swarming the airfield. It was so confused. I spent most of my time in defensive manuvers trying unsuccessfully to scissor with low energy and get a decent shot.
I lost track of how many friendlies and enemies were in the area and my ammunition soon disappeared as I took unskilled snapshots. I was starting to get into a bit of a panic mode, as I had no control over the situation. My clunky old Hurricane IIC couldn't climb out of the treetop fighting because everytime I'd start to get some energy going I had to make a hard turn to avoid another hail of bullets.
With 40 rounds left for a cannon that had been blown away and my ammo bins empty, I had to set down. I went into a climb as if I wanted to yo-yo but instead kept pulling on the stick until I was on my back. Having lost almost all energy, I continued to pull hard and completed the loop about 100 feet off the ground. I cut engine power to 50%, twitched my rudder and lowered my landing gear. I'd lost a wheel, so I raised my gear and did a soft belly landing in the middle of the runway.
On my next sortie I never even got off the ground. Airfield 128 had been utterly overrun. I wasn't sure if it was a ground vehicle or one of those P-51s, but something hit me hard just as I was rolling down the runway. I lost my gear, did a bellyflop and slid forward. Before my slide ended, something else hit me and it was all darkness...
Lessons
In my first day of Aces High II, I learned a couple of useful lessons.
First is not to let myself to get pulled into a very low altitude battle when there is an enemy offensive ongoing. All of the visable enemies may be at 6-8k or lower, but many of the others inbound will have plenty of altitude and can come in with energy to spare. That sort of thing quickly changes the balance of a low altitude dogfight.
Second is that the check-six function is really useful for warning friendlies in a tight spot when there is a lot of radio chatter. I may have overused it slightly, as due to my perspective I accidentally warned a couple of people who were chasing rather than being chased.
Third is patience. My second sortie ever scored me three kills (one freebie) because rather than trying to jump immedietly into the fighting, I moved away some distance and built altitude. With a plane like the Hurricane that doesn't have horsepower to spare, a few hundred feet of altitude can translate into the advantage you need.
- SkyTiger
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geeze, my first day of Aces High, I upped a P-40, went to 15k, then augered trying to kill someone. :lol
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geeze, my first day of Aces High, I upped a P-40, went to 15k, then augered trying to kill someone. :lol
:lol
I may have made it sound easier than it was. I ran into some excellent pilots. It was all I could do to avoid being shot down.
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I remember my very first sortie (though it was more than 2 years ago!). I was all ready to go shoot down the bad guys. I looked for a fight, and found one just off of one of our bases. I picked a Spitfire to fly, looked out the tower window to see where the enemy currenly was, and went ahead and took off. As soon as I spawned on the runway, an La-7 dove down from 10K and vulched me. What a glorious first flight it was! :lol
The following 3-4 sorties I augered, killshot, vulched by the same la, and was shot down. :)
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ahh... the good ol' days...
I've only been to the TA once.. with Rolex. (and I woulda been as good as I am now by the first year of playing had I been smart enough to go DA)
I still remember the first thing AirFool ever taught me in the DA a long time ago.
When you got E, Immelman is your friend
:rock
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You'll be fine. Just dont hang out in the forums too much!
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Cool AAR !! Welcome onboard :salute
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Cool AAR , Welcome to AH !!!
Grab some trainer time or get with another AHer to help you learn the ropes ... and watch films they help alot.
Also theres alot other things to do here then just the Main arena . :aok
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That was a great read, thanks :aok
A question....
I tried to follow him, but he had a ton of smash
I haven't heard the term smash used in that context for nearly a decade. It reminded me of a galaxy far far away.... may I asked where you learnt that terminology?
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Welcome to AHII Sky Tiger. Thanks for the entertaining and well written AAR :aok
I glanced up and saw a P-47 diving on me from about 1.5k up. I immedietly inverted and dove
The Jug is one of the best divers in the hangar. You may want to discuss defensive moves when you get time with a trainer.
Suggestion: all of your pre-set views can be modified and saved via the F10 key. In any particular plane (or GV) use the number keypad to hold down a view...use the 4 arrow keys to move around and then tweak it further using PageUp or PageDown. In the joystick set-up (OPTIONS>CONTROLS>SET CONTONTROLERS) you can modify all 8 views by assigning LOOK UP to one of your free inputs. Hence, checking 6 by way of your hat switch while inputting the LOOK UP command will add the 45 o up view of your 6.
Good luck. I'll look forward to doing battle. :D
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Nice to see a refreshing point of view from a new guy. :) Great AAR, sir.
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Wow, fantastic AAR. You're clearly not new to flight sims. Welcome to your new addiction. ;)
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:salute Welcome to our addiction skytiger. It's good to know some people read and practice before they jump right in. I have a feeling you'll be one to watch out for. :noid
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Wow, not bad. Took me a week to get my first kill.
And you can "barnstorm" through the hangars, just not the vehicle hangars. They're the ones that only have the narrow opening in the back. I've found bomber hangars fairly easy to fly through but haven't made it through a fighter hangar yet.
Oh, and that one kill you called a "freebie", those are known as proximity or "proxie" kills. If an enemy plane crashes into the ground while trying to dive on you, you'll often get a kill. Same happens if you're in the vicinity of a couple planes fighting and the guy on your side gets killed before his opponent dies. You, being closest to the fight, get the kill.
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Great story.
It was a story just like that one written in a PC magazine 12 1/2 years ago that drew me to Air Warriors. I've never regretted it.
Welcome to AH.
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That was a great read, thanks :aok
I haven't heard the term smash used in that context for nearly a decade. It reminded me of a galaxy far far away.... may I asked where you learnt that terminology?
I used to play flight sims back during the late 90s and earlier this decade. It was non-combat stuff, doing stunts and manuvers and such. I wasn't very good at first, so I ended up going to the video store and renting some old VHS tapes of WWII/Korea footage and some of them had interviews with the pilots.
They threw around a lot of terminology and I picked up some. I still remember a little. I probably use it incorrectly as for me, I use it genericly to describe having too much airspeed for an effective engagement. :uhoh
I really appreciate everyone's kind welcome and I thank you all very much. I decided to stop by this forum before logging in today and look through some more threads for advice and further information.
I'm glad I did, as everyone has been very nice to me.
Max
It's sort of funny you mentioned that. Adjusting my views was one of the first things I did, as I felt my rear view was blocked by the back of my seat. The LOOK UP was already programmed into my ST290. I learned about adjusting my view from reading the trainer corp section of the website. :aok
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You all have to forgive me here for being a bit of a doubting thomas. When I first came to AH from AW, I had no idea what plane was fast what plane turned well or exactly how well and I had no idea of the lethality of b17s.
I actually have to question the noobness of this gentleman.
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You all have to forgive me here for being a bit of a doubting thomas. When I first came to AH from AW, I had no idea what plane was fast what plane turned well or exactly how well and I had no idea of the lethality of b17s.
I actually have to question the noobness of this gentleman.
If you ever see me, watch me fight and your doubts will be banished! :lol :lol
But honestly, AHII is supposed to be modeled on real-world planes. I just go by what I know of the performance of real aircraft. Who knows, I may have been able to kill that B17 in my Zeke. But why risk it when the Zeke has no armor?
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Welcome to your newest addiction sir!
Might want to visit the following sites to develop your skills more:
http://www.netaces.org
http://trainers.hitechcreations.com/
Again, welcome!
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Welcome to your newest addiction sir!
Might want to visit the following sites to develop your skills more:
http://www.netaces.org
http://trainers.hitechcreations.com/
Again, welcome!
Ooo. Handy stuff, thanks very much. :aok
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pffffffffffffft
gimme a break...... u r just a shade. nobody has a clue 1st day week or month! :lol
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I have to give you mad kudos sky. anyone who can come into aces high their first day and get a kill is really showing some skill. and avoidng getting shot down is even more skillful. anyone can point and shoot guns. but to avoid being shot down in a zeke and a hurricane shows you really know how to handle yourself. you may very well become one of the better sticks on the game. you will come to know some of us guys who fly our signature planes all the time very well. once you play the game more you can praticly tell who you are fighting befor you even die or kill them. welcome to aces high and hope your a rook so i dont have to kill u;)
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I have to give you mad kudos sky. anyone who can come into aces high their first day and get a kill is really showing some skill. and avoidng getting shot down is even more skillful. anyone can point and shoot guns. but to avoid being shot down in a zeke and a hurricane shows you really know how to handle yourself. you may very well become one of the better sticks on the game. you will come to know some of us guys who fly our signature planes all the time very well. once you play the game more you can praticly tell who you are fighting befor you even die or kill them. welcome to aces high and hope your a rook so i dont have to kill u;)
Actually, I'm a knight. :) It auto-assigned me to the knights and I've met some really nice folks so far.
To be honest though, I hardly got shot at in the Zeke as far as I remember so it didn't take too much skill to avoid being flamed. The Hurri though.. woof. I'm glad that thing seems to have a little armor, I had holes all over my airframe! :lol
And again, I just lost an aileron and a cannon trying to kill the AAA guns at rook's 129 airfield. I got 5 at the airfield and 1 in town, but ran out of ammo and am currently flying home as I write this. :D
Thank Hawker for the Hurricane's durability!
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My first try at AH involved sittin in my panzers number 2 position lookin through the gun sight and i kept wandering how are ya sposed to kill anyone tryin to sight through a drinking straw?? took me a few days to realize theres a Z button and bracket keys. :rolleyes:
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If you ever see me, watch me fight and your doubts will be banished! :lol :lol
But honestly, AHII is supposed to be modeled on real-world planes. I just go by what I know of the performance of real aircraft. Who knows, I may have been able to kill that B17 in my Zeke. But why risk it when the Zeke has no armor?
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. A buddy of mine regularly kills b17s with a zero. I watched him do it.
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welcome to the Addiction :aok
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took me a few days to realize theres a Z button and bracket keys. :rolleyes:
I think it took me over a year to get the heads up on that one. I couldn't figure out how I was getting blasted when I was in a panzer and all I could see of the people shooting me was a dot, if that much. As a result, I didn't use gvs much.
Only way I figured it out was after an upgrade to the game came out. I knew about zoom but didn't realize I could make it zoom even closer with the bracket keys.
So this new upgrade came out and I went to my map and zoomed in on it and nothing happened. It seemed the zoom wasn't working. Others complained of the same thing. Finally, someone told me to use the bracket key to make zoom view larger. I tried that and it worked. Then I wondered...if it works for this, will it work with the tank sight???
Yep.
One of those "secrets" everybody seems to know but few will tell the new guys about.
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Here we see how an adult takes on a new game as apposed to the squeaker.
Adult searches though help files, sets up off line and practices a bit. Then and only then begins his 2 week free trial. Reports good experience online to the bbs.
Squeaker DLs the game, clicks start and spams 200/all on how to fly/drive the plane/GV. Then logs off in disgust because all didn't hold his hand. Proceeds to find the bbs and complain about being picked on/no help.
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I just started playing today and I love it. The whole experiance was very immersive and fun for me. The OP was one of the reasons that I decided to give this game a try.
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pffffffffffffft
gimme a break...... u r just a shade. nobody has a clue 1st day week or month! :lol
:noid hmmm..... who has been MIA for a while and would surely create a shade???..... :noid
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Yeah, you've done a little combat sim flying before, in AHII or something else. But, otherwise, hey, nothing wrong with a little positivity on the BBS.
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I just started playing today and I love it. The whole experiance was very immersive and fun for me. The OP was one of the reasons that I decided to give this game a try.
Excellent! I hope you've had fun so far? I hope I didn't make it sound easy, these guys go for the throat in the air! I got incredibly lucky a few times to avoid being shot down.
Today I got nailed by a skilled NIK pilot when I even started with a height advantage. I blew it turning too hard in my Hurricane! :D
Anyhow, I joined up with a squadron appearently run by Vermont1 and CHAPPY and they've been very nice and very helpful. As a fellow new guy, if you need any help or advise I'll be happy to share everything I've learned so far. (Really, vets are far better to answer questions but sometimes it takes a new guy to explain to a fellow new guy.)
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Best newcomer AAR ever! :aok
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:cool:
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Day 2
I was fortunate enough to be taken under the wing of Vermont1 and CHAPPY and joined their squadron. They invited me along for a medium range air raid into Rook territory.
Our mission was to assault an air base and neutralize the town. I was first to the staging point and in the air, but because I was once again flying my Hurricane I was outpaced by my squadronmate's faster aircraft.
I arrived over the enemy base to find a wall of anti-air pounding away at our friendlies as they made their bombing runs. Without bombs of my own, I felt I'd be most useful trying to kill off the AAA positions. I attacked selectively, trying to position my strafing runs so that my exit path would avoid crossfire or at least allow me a shot at a second AAA.
I killed off five of the AAA positions using 6-10 round bursts from my 20mms and in the process lost a flap and one of my guns to return fire. A Japanese NIK had taken to the air while I was busy and as I pulled out of the final attack run I saw CHAPPY fly past with the NIK on his tail.
I gave chase, firing at 400 and then again at 500 as he began to outpace me. I scored at least one hit but didn't seem to hurt him. I continued to chase until he was 800 away and then broke off. He turned around and CHAPPY called a warning. I turned back to engage and we blew by each other, cockpit to cockpit.
I miscalculated my flap loss and overcompensated on my turn, bleeding off too much of my energy. I looked up through my cockpit glass while banking and saw the forward belly of his aircraft. He had lead on me, and I was soon shot down.
I returned again, this time with bombs and moved straight to the enemy town. Their fighter hangars were down, and they had a Panzer and Flakker on their way to town. Not having had any practice in bombing, I opted to nose dive towards town and drop my bombs indiscriminately. I managed to kill a building and then gunned down an AAA position in the town that was still firing.
Using the energy from the dive, I caught some altitude and went into another dive. I cut my engine power and sighted in on the Panzer. I was bemused to see a couple of my rounds bouncing off and the 30-40 or so shots that I put into him seemed to do nothing.
Not wanting to waste all of my ammo I broke away and circled east of the town, trying to cut off an enemy P-51 as it zoomed towards my squadmates who were mostly on the ground in vehicles at this point. As I intersected his flightpath he entered an aileron roll and I hit his belly with several cannon rounds. His engine began to smoke and he turned back home.
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Day 2 <cont>
I took a break to get some things done and returned later this evening to see that the map had changed. This one had far less bases and most of the action seemed to be taking place from aircraft carriers.
I upped in a Seafire and allowed autopilot to do the work as I'd never operated from a carrier before. I soon learned that a turning carrier has negative effects on takeoff and was forced to dodge the tower. I got off OK and turned towards the enemy base. It was a mess with the most F-4s I'd ever seen up at once backed up by Zekes, Spitfires and a couple of Yaks.
Our side managed to take out the enemy fighter hangars with me contributing by killing several more AAA positions. We then moved towards the town which was overrun by Flakkers. I followed the beach while trying to climb up to a pair of F-4s overhead and watched below me as amphibious vehicles assaulted the shore and moved inland.
The town was reported as being 'down' but we seemed unable to capture it as the enemy began to take off in IL-2s and B-25s and swarmed our troop carriers as they stormed the beaches.
For about ten minutes we continued in that way. The enemy launching bombers and ground-attack aircraft to destroy our LAVs while we did our best to weave through nets of flak they'd set up. I'd find myself chasing an IL-2 or A-20 but be forced to break away as they dragged me through an anti-air trap.
After being shot down several times and learning hard lessons, I found that the air was once again alive with enemy fighters. Not sure if the fighter hangars were in operation again or if reinforcements had arrived, I found myself in some vicious and entertaining dogfights.
I engaged a couple of Hurricanes, seeking them out to get a feel for what it is like to fight one so that perhaps I could be better prepared for situations when flying my own Hurricane. I downed a Yak that was a bit too focused on chasing a friendly by simply pulling up behind him and blowing off a wing at 300 and then almost immedietly took machine gun hits as an F-4 zoomed by.
I managed to break clear and found myself head-on with a B-25. We avoided collision and I mangeled another Hurricane, watching its wing fall away and then had to go evasive as a P-40 dove on me. Luckily he had too much smash and when I went into a barrel roll he shot past me and ate a few hits from my guns before getting out of range.
All in all, it was a good night. I ate several unecessary deaths on the carrier flight deck and was swarmed several times as well, but I think I gave as good as I got too.
<S> to all who shot me down or vice versa
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PS: Barnstorming with the hangars doesn't work, I discovered. There's a wall in the rear of the hangar.
Perhaps you picked the wrong hanger. Fighter and bomber hangers don't have a back wall, the "indestructable" buildings do.
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Welcome to AH SkyTiger :aok
It is higly addictive so you should prolly start thinking about making excuses to you wife on how you lost your job, interest in her and why you have grown a beer belly.
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Tiger Ive been playing for over a year and 1/2 and am still fascinated by the game. On the one hand I never "gamed" before and am fascinated by the technology aspect of being able to fly combat in near real time cyber space with so many other players from all over the world. On the 2nd hand Ive always been a WW-ll buff and this game just fits right in there. Ive always held a special interest in WW-ll air combat, or what might rightly be called the greatest era of air to air gunfights.
Its good to see you have the enthusiasm I still have for the game. I still have some flights that are so exciting I'd like to tell the world about them. And very often they haven't been fights Ive won, or they have been ones where Ive been outnumbered. The best thing about the game? There is always someone better then you which means theres always another lesson to be learned.
And you learn far, far more by the fights you've lost then the ones you've won. To this day I'm always turning the airplane around to engage no matter what the odds. Oh, and welcome to the game. :salute
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:salute SKYTIGER
Had great time yesterday. Welcome to the squad.
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You all have to forgive me here for being a bit of a doubting thomas. When I first came to AH from AW, I had no idea what plane was fast what plane turned well or exactly how well and I had no idea of the lethality of b17s.
I actually have to question the noobness of this gentleman.
Anyone who's spent time with other flight sims covering WW2 will know much of this. I - for example - knew Zeke's were nimble but fragile and P51's fast as blazes from flying CFS. The lethality of buffs came as a rude awakening right enough. :confused:
Welcome to AH2 Skytiger. Hope your friends and family won't miss you. :D
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Welcome to AH SkyTiger :aok
It is higly addictive so you should prolly start thinking about making excuses to you wife on how you lost your job, interest in her and why you have grown a beer belly.
Hah. I wish I could make an excuse for my belly. :lol :lol :lol
And thank you all for the very warm welcome!
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Howdy! *waves* Sounds like a pretty great first night of playing.
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:salutewelcome to the real world! er ah :(