Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: hblair on September 18, 2002, 01:19:58 PM
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A squaddie of mine has spent a lot of his spare time writing up a webpage to help newbies or anyone else become more familiar with the different planes in the game. I think he lacks a little bit but it looks done to me so I'm posting the link.
Just go to the Assassins page (click on the link on my signature below) and follow the link on the left side of the page to Soda's Aircraft Evaluations.
Looks to me like he spent a lot of time on it. He prolly won't have a chance to spend any more time on it for a while seeings how his wife just had a baby last week. :) Anyway, read through it and tell us what you think.
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The 202 is best used as BnZ and doesn't turn very well ?
I don't think so. Folgore is one of the best turners in the game .
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The TBM also turns very well .
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I wouldn't want to turnfight a 202 against hordes of N1K's and Spits :)
J_A_B
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I wouldn't want to turnfight anything against hordes of n1k2s and spits .
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Hey, Soda...you're wrong...Ki-61 is uber... :p
great job.
[edit]Oops![/edit]
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Soda's Aircraft Evaluations.
Looks to me like he spent a lot of time on it. He prolly won't have a chance to spend any more time on it for a while seeings how his wife just had a baby last week. :) Anyway, read through it and tell us what you think. [/B]
Nice work, Soda and congrats on the baby. :)
curly
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Evaluations nicely done. Thanks for posting the link. Well worth the point and click to read.
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Hi,
Haven't read them all yet but they seem accurate compared to my experiences :) Nice work Soda, wtg
Cheers..........Trikky
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Great Job! One nitpick, I absolutely LOVE the Yak-9T and Soda doesn't seem to have much of an appreciation for it. I can kill 3-5 panzers in one flight pretty regularly. You just need to attack from the rear and don't fire until you're lined up perfectly. Also great fun when you encounter a buff :)
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Samm: The 202 is best used as BnZ and doesn't turn very well ?
It just doesn't have the HP to sustain a turn and has bad energy bleeding, or so it seems. You really need to maintain energy in a BnZ fight as much as possible. Too many guys are going to turn you into the ground if you don't.
The TBM also turns very well
For a big plane, yep, but I've nailed dozens of TBM's who tried to turn-fight with average turners.... they can't be that good. The Val is another story though..
Hey, Soda...you're wrong...Ki-61 is uber...
Only in very experienced hands.... I've had some success in it and I know you do, but you're not average :)
AKCurly: Nice work, Soda and congrats on the baby
Thanks, it was a lot of work and is really still a work in progress. Lots of the information is rather "soft" with a lot of opinion, but it should help some people and I've been around a while and flown just about everything.
I wish the baby would give me more than 2 hours of sleep a night.
DSDUDE: I absolutely LOVE the Yak-9T
The Yak9T is a fair anti-GV plane, though the ranges you need to get to are just too close. Against Panzers you are good, against anything else (read in Ostwind) it is suicidal. It's actually a decent anti-air plane if you can manage the big gun. Unfortunately it takes someone with a dead-eye aim to land 37mm rounds on air targets. Against GV's you can do much better in almost anything with US .50's or hispanos which offer more flexibility and longer ranges.
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Anyway, it is a work in progress and if I can find some time I have a lot of other information I could plug in. Time is at a premium though and I won't be back to any real AH time for a while.
-Soda
The Assassins.
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Ah, our son makes us sooo proud.:D
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hblair,
Please thank squaddie for me, obvious that alot of work has gone into this and is greatly appreciated. HTC Site should have a link to it.
Excellent work, well done!
...-Gixer
The Horse Soldiers
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I have to disagree Soda I find that a 202 has a sustained turn much like a spit9. It's one of those planes that can outrun whatever it can't out turn . And a light TBM will out turn f6f's and seafires as long as they don't go vertical . As for the flakyak, when attacking GV's it's great, much better than the flakhurri, it's almost as if you have 32 rockets. But what it really accells at is killing buffs . Because of the range of it's ns37mm you can hit buffs from beyond the range of their tail gunners as long as the buffs are flying on autopilot. You just clean up your trim and zoom in on your custom flakyak gunsight . The dispersion of the flakyaks gun at 2000m is very bad though, so may endup using all your ammo killing a buff at those ranges .
Never the less I appreciate the effort you put into this and I think it was time spent worthwhile, and I'll instruct anyone who has plane questions online to checkout the assassins webpage.
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Hello Soda
I would just like to point out a few mistakes.
Ki67: 20mm is in upper (300 rounds)
turret Tail has 2 12.7mm (800 rounds)
Metric sytem: You really need to learn it :D
1 kg= 2.2 pounds
Ju88 bombload: 3000 kg = 6600 lbs more than B17(6000)
Ki67: 800 kg = 1760 lbs
Why dont the us convert to the metric system is beyond me,
its a much smarter system using only factors of 10 so you can just
add zeros to convert instead of having to remember how many
yards there is in a mile.
England doesnt even use it anymore even tho they made it
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Originally posted by Samm
I wouldn't want to turnfight anything against hordes of n1k2s and spits .
Whaddya talkin about.... is there any other option in AH? lol
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OUTSTANDING work u did big
Hey Soda, please notice what other gave u as additional information and use it for that page.
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Imp: Metric sytem: You really need to learn it
Canada is metric, hasn't been using imperial measurements in more than 20 years. You should have looked that fact up :)
Unfortunately I've worded the Ju-88 thing a little incorrectly, so while the conversion would normally be approx 2.2lb's/kg, it doesn't seem to work that way in AH. There have been a couple of other threads about that and the damage inflicted by a 500kg bomb is less than that of a 1,000lb bomb, or so it seems. I ran a test a month or two ago that proved that, but maybe it has changed now. I will modify the page though to reflect a better conversion with the caveat that the effectiveness is a little different.
I did screw up the Ki-67 guns... I knew about it too but forgot to make the change before the site got posted. It actually needed another round of edits before it was posted but HBlair dropped it out there a bit early. No problem though, it was basically ready to go.
Samm, I just found that the C202 runs outta E too fast and when it gets too slow it loses a lot of it's turn rate. If someone goes vertical on you in a spiral you would think that it could follow since it has a good climb rate, but it doesn't seem to. I think it has to do with the E bleeding properties and I'd rate it only an average turner, especially sustained. Instantaneous, it is quite good, though I wish it had a little more firepower to make a quick kill. With all the Spit's and N1K's around though it can't really be considered a good turner.
A light TBM is a fair turner, though again in the vertical it is really poor. You can't maintain the turn rate for very long without trading altitude. I've met a couple of TBM's who throw themselves into turns that are really impressive, and throw off my first pass, but once they've blown the first pass they don't have enough E to do it again without giving up altitude.
You are right, the Yak T 37mm is a really good anti-bomber plane, though most people don't use it that way. It can have problems with climb and catching bombers unless you are at high altitudes already though. I have a spot on my Yak 9T gunsight calibrated to D1.0 though for attacking things at long range with my 37mm. A single wing hit on a bomber is often enough to knock the wingtip off and bring him down. Having only 32 rounds is a bit of a problem though unless you get close enough to ensure a couple of hits. Usually the better choice is the 190G10 with the 30mm though as it seems to carry the same effectiveness with a much better climb and cruise.
-Soda
The Assassins.
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Actually soda im from quebec yeah thats right im a frog :D
Im sorry I assumed you were american but the conversions seemed completly screwed up I assumed you must not be used to the metric system.
I hope u wont take offense because I called u a Yank :D
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No problem, I had the math a little screwed up and also hadn't made some edits to those pages that I wanted to.... better to get it all cleaned up though so thanks for the edit.
I guess my french is slightly better than my conversions were, but that was mostly because they were sloppy.
-Soda
The Assassins
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Very, very nice job Soda. I'm sure it took a great deal of time and effort to put that together.
One aircraft I'd like to discuss is the Douglas SBD-5 Dauntless. I doubt if anyone has even 10% of the time I have in this little dive bomber. So far, I've had a lot of fun with it. To the point that I frequently fly the SBD as a fighter, without ordnance or gunner.
In this role it can achieve results far beyond what anyone would suspect.
How is that possible? Understanding its strengths and weaknesses are critical to success. Realize that the SBD has a big leg up on fighters, in that you can fly it in the F3 outside view mode. Meaning, you have no blind spots and an outstanding view in all directions. This is because, like other bombers, it is assumed that the SBD will have more than one set of eyes.
Let's discuss the subject of maneuverability. There are two aircraft that can out-turn (barely) the SBD, the Val and the A6M2 Zeke. At the fuel loads I fly it at, it has a wing loading of about 22.5 lbs per square foot. That's better than the SpitV, A6M5 and FM-2. It's nearly dead equal to the A6M2 flying with 50% fuel.
However, its lack of power requires attention to energy state. Indeed, I prefer to climb to 15k before engaging the enemy. It will manage 450 mph in a dive, just be gentle with the joystick as the structural strength is grossly under-modeled. Douglas designed the aircraft for 7.5 g in service, with an absolute failure loading of 10.5 g (compare that with 12.5 for typical Grumman designs). Four of my SBD losses are due to overstressing the airframe. So, be careful when diving at high speed. Another modeling issue is the weak tail. Carrier aircraft, by design, had extremely strong aft fuselages and tail assemblies to tolerate the stresses imparted into the aircraft by the tailhook. In the case of the SBD and the TBM, AH has modeled them with what some players refer to as "glass tails". Utterly inaccurate.
Roll rate is acceptable, but slow compared to most fighters. However, a big bootful of rudder increases initial roll by better than 50%.
You can loop the SBD with just 170 mph in the bank, down to 150 if you use flaps at the apex of the loop.
As you note, the Dauntless is armed with just two .50 caliber MGs. But at least they're grouped together above the engine cowling, and have a total loadout of 720 rounds. That's enough to kill multiple B-17s if carefully used (I prefer HO shots straight into the cockpit, or a belly shot aiming between the engines, which usually takes off the wing). Those two guns are powerful enough to kill a PT in a single pass.
In combat, one on one, it is extremely difficult to kill any well flown aircraft that offers such maneuverability. Even two on one situations can be managed, especially if you use the F3 mode, and your attackers are not experts themselves. I've watched Leviathn use a Val to embarrass several guys in high performance fighters, by simply being impossible to hit. The SBD is similar, although not quite as agile as the Val, it's faster, dives much better and has vastly more destructive guns.
As you pointed out, many pilots will head straight for the SBD thinking thay have an easy kill. That's exactly what you want them to think. They will get a shock to their system when the defenseless dive bomber does a rediculously tight reversal right onto their six. An even greater shock is in store when they get bounced by an SBD roaring down from 25k.
Of greatest importance is the huge fun factor of taking on and often besting late-war fighters in a 1,200 hp, two-seat dive bomber. Just remember this: The SBD is a slow aircraft, therefore you must be extremely aggressive, pressing any advantage, because running is not an option.
Today, I had many first-rate fights. Of these, the most entertaining was over V38 (Baltic map), where I interrupted a 4 on 1 Knit gangbang of a brave Rook. A Typhoon was doing the typical dive and zoom routine. He made a run at the Rook, pulled into the vertical and zoomed up. His only problem was that I was waiting for him at the apex of his climb (having just dumped my ord). I hit Ute hard as he struggled to get clear. Too late, I had more E. Another burst took out his radiator and did extensive airframe damage. Just then, a Hellcat came boring in, forcing me to break off. A hard turn into him spoiled his shot, and I reversed onto his tail. I followed the F6F through a series of loops and tight turns, shooting short bursts until his wing came off. Meanwhile, Ute crashed. Immediately thereafter, a P-38 made a run from about 30 degrees off of HO. I skidded right and raked him from nose to tail, starting a stream of coolant from his right engine and knocking off his right aileron as well. My attention turned to a 190 coming down, which I avoided.
Low on ammo, I disengaged and headed to A39 to rearm. On the way, the P-38 must have gone down as I received a kill message. Taking off from A39, I kept the 1,200 lbs of bombs, just in case V38 was clear of fighters, I'd bomb the VH. As I arrived at V38, I discovered several fighters were there, but an equal number of Rooks were present also. So, I kept the bombs.
A 109 spotted me and raced down to get a shot from behind. As the range dropped to 700 yards, I broke hard right, then reversed onto his six. Well, he made the mistake of turning hard, and I got a solid burst into him. He limped off trailing smoke. Another Rook finished the 109, and I got the assist. A few other Knits made runs at me, all missed, but I was able to ping several of them with ineffective snapshots.
Finally, I spotted a P-51B (flown by Hap). He was working up and down. Without thinking about the 1,200 lbs of bombs I was hauling around, I went after him and followed him up into the vertical just 600 yards behind. I opened fire, scoring solidly. However, I ran out of E almost instantly. "Damn", I thought, those bombs!!!! As the Dauntless rolled into a gentle spin, I pickled the thousand pounder, selected the 100 lb bombs and let them go too. Break the spin, nose to vertical, get some airspeed. Too late, here comes Hap, probably very unhappy with his Mustang being battered. I slip left, roll right, but take a hit to the tail. Typically, the elevators came off... I bail. Hap lasted about 30 seconds longer, when another Rook finished his wrecked P-51. I suspect he had a pilot wound.
Now, before anyone dismisses the SBD, consider this: I have little more than average ACM skills. Yet, I can survive flying the Dauntless against most aircraft. That means that any of you can do the same, probably even better. Do not underestimate the SBD-5, it is a very capable dogfighter, if (and I stress "if") you fly it to its strengths. Forget the rear guns, they are next to useless when faced with cannon armed fighters on your six. Remember that hits to the tail area will often result in the loss of your elevators. So, be aggressive, horde your E, fly in F3 mode (until ready to shoot) and you will find that the SBD can not only survive in the MA, it can prosper.
My regards,
Widewing
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Originally posted by Soda
I guess my french is slightly better than my conversions were, but that was mostly because they were sloppy.
-Soda
The Assassins
Bon travail soda ;)
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Good post Widewing.
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Widewing... great read.. I love the VAl and DAuntless as turn fighthers!
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I just spent 5 minutes searching for the link before I discovered it
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du tres bon boulot !
Wtg :)
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Nice effort!
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Soda...great stuff. It answers a ton of questions i had...most relating to the "How to beat it" section for each plane.
Thanks.
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Great stuff Soda. Mind if I link it into my netAces site?
Hammer
netAces.org - Info, Tactics and More! (http://www.netaces.org)
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Soda what time are you usually online ? I would like to do some demonstrations with the 202 with you .