Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: MJHerman on September 16, 2003, 03:45:59 PM
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First of all, I suck as a fighter pilot in AH, so no illusions on my part that I can ever compete with some of the best (or even some of the average) in the MA.
Nonetheless, until this weekend I avoided flying the often hated LA7. I figured I would try some of the "more challenging" planes, and that I would take my lumps as they come.
Anyway, I got a bit tired on Saturday of the 1 v 7 that I seemed to be facing all day, so I figured, what the hell, I'll up a LA7 and see what happens. I ended up flying the LA7 for the next two days.
The results so far have been 20 kills against 11 deaths. Nothing stellar, but MUCH better than my usual K/D which is always between 0.65 and 0.75.
Since I know that I didn't suddenly become a great AH pilot, is the LA7 really that good that it can transform mediocre/average skills into better than average?
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Well, in a word.... yes.
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MJH - what Urchin said.
But you should not derive any satisfaction by wimping out like that! Bad, bad boy. Fly a 109E for the rest of the tour - lol.
Depends what you're looking for, really - a challenge, or just results.
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Originally posted by beet1e
MJH - what Urchin said.
But you should not derive any satisfaction by wimping out like that! Bad, bad boy. Fly a 109E for the rest of the tour - lol.
Depends what you're looking for, really - a challenge, or just results.
109E?!?!?!? Don't know if I am ready for that much disappointment and abuse :D
Frankly, the challenge aspect of things got a little bit tiring when the numbers in any particular fight are so much against you. It just wasn't fun anymore being chased by 3 or 4 Spits plus a couple of LA7s, although I did get a bit of satisfaction since some of them auger at low level.
What I did find great about the LA7 is the firepower. I'm a lousy shot, so I like to get in real close (250 or less) where those 3 cannons really tear a con to pieces. The only other part that I really appreciated was the acceleration which let me get out of trouble quick (given how much trouble I get into).
I guess for the moment I'm looking for results :) But I just didn't appreciate how good a plane it is until I tried it, particularly since I never had a lot of trouble killing LA7s to begin with.
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MJH ... you caught 2 ... you can reel the bait in now.
In one breath you say ...
"First of all, I suck as a fighter pilot in AH ..."
"my usual K/D which is always between 0.65 and 0.75"
and in the next breath you say ...
"But I just didn't appreciate how good a plane it is until I tried it, particularly since I never had a lot of trouble killing LA7s to begin with."
Well if you are as bad as you say you are, and the La-7 can turn anybody in an "instant ace", then why is it you have never had a lot of trouble killing La-7s.
Logic would lead one to believe that they should be killing you, and everybody else with ease.
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"Well if you are as bad as you say you are, and the La-7 can turn anybody in an "instant ace", then why is it you have never had a lot of trouble killing La-7s."
I attribute it to luck and having a lot of friendlies around, but trust me, I'm not that good at this game (check out my stats, Blake101).
Wasn't a troll, I swear. Maybe I could have reworded it a bit better. I honestly did not appreciate how good a plane it is, and have no intention of starting a debate about "which plane is better" and LA7 dweebs.
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Originally posted by MJHerman
First of all, I suck as a fighter pilot in AH, so no illusions on my part that I can ever compete with some of the best (or even some of the average) in the MA.
Nonetheless, until this weekend I avoided flying the often hated LA7. I figured I would try some of the "more challenging" planes, and that I would take my lumps as they come.
Anyway, I got a bit tired on Saturday of the 1 v 7 that I seemed to be facing all day, so I figured, what the hell, I'll up a LA7 and see what happens. I ended up flying the LA7 for the next two days.
The results so far have been 20 kills against 11 deaths. Nothing stellar, but MUCH better than my usual K/D which is always between 0.65 and 0.75.
Since I know that I didn't suddenly become a great AH pilot, is the LA7 really that good that it can transform mediocre/average skills into better than average?
Sorry I brought it down that much
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i was out of my squad for about a week the begining of this month....
flew the lala for a ton of sorties. those nose cannos are powerful but tough to aim and keep anough ammo for 5+ kill sorties (no reload).
i Almost recommend everyone fly it to get their gunnery down. NOT just HO a few and get 2 kills in a sortie... really try and save the ammo to get 10 kills.
my gunnery went from around 8% to over 15%. almost doubled my hit %.
oh well just a lame thought by yours truly.
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Every time you up an LA7, god kills a puppy.
The counter to this is, every time you splash an LA7, an angel gets her wings.
Seriously, though, if you're having trouble with one plane, instead of throwing your hands up in the air and crying "it's too hard, give me the best!" instead try adjusting your behavior. Stop ignoring the voice in the back of your head that says "there's 3 guys down there, and you're not that good."
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Originally posted by mos
the voice in the back of your head that says "there's 3 guys down there, and you're not that good."
LMAO how much truth to this statment!.... soo many would do so much better to listen to this the best of advise i have seen on this BBS!
Originally posted by mos Every time you up an LA7, god kills a puppy.
somone actuall reads my sig! cool ;)
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Jb73 your a cool guy but that avatar is annoying....................
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Originally posted by B17Skull12
Jb73 your a cool guy but that avatar is annoying....................
I love his avatar!
Badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger mushroom mushroom!
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basicly the la7 is
Idiot proof
You can do the stupidest, most handsomehunk move in flying and still run away. ANY other unperked plane does not allow this.
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Fly whatever the hell you want.
You have fun flying the LA7? you get kills? then keep flying it.
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i encourage all aspiring fighter jocks to fly the la7...those who really know how to use it should move on to more challenging rides like the b-17 or the ju-88.
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Originally posted by bockko
i encourage all aspiring fighter jocks to fly the la7...those who really know how to use it should move on to more challenging rides like the b-17 or the ju-88.
ju88 is a challenging but a b17 come on. in a b17 just spray all you want you'll hit and kill something.<500th post btw>
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Originally posted by MJHerman
Since I know that I didn't suddenly become a great AH pilot, is the LA7 really that good that it can transform mediocre/average skills into better than average?
No, but it will give a mediocre player a better chance at running away after he screws up, and that helps K/D.
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.<500th post btw>
cute, but seems you are suffering from post# envy. For clarity, the challenging ride thing is emedded humor....its what we like to call situational humor.
;)
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Just try the set and figure out what plane you have the most trouble with when you're flying it. Persist with that plane and adjust your tactics accordingly. Bit hard when it's a Spit I or 202 (not competitive enough) but worked out for me for the F4U-1.
Now I try the Bf109-G10 ever so often and although I can fly it and generally not kill myself in it, I hardly shoot anyone down with this baby. It can't maneuver for a good firing solution and that 30mm seems as hard to aim as if I were throwing snowballs out of the cockpit.
But what the hell, have fun
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Have fun is the name of the game.
Ignore everything else.
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you have fun in the LA7.....then fly it.
but if you want some help......ask around....always some good drives who can give you some good tips......
from your accounts.....it seems that its not your fighting skills that are in trouble.....its your SA(situational awarness)
keep flyin...and try to keep improving:cool:
If you ever need some help...just ask....we'll go to DA and work on your SA and how to gain advantage.
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Originally posted by MJHerman
Since I know that I didn't suddenly become a great AH pilot, is the LA7 really that good that it can transform mediocre/average skills into better than average?
In the MA where most fights are centered around a base and are below 10k... yes. Because the LA-7 lets you run when the tables are turned against you, you will always be able to extricate yourself from a bad situation.
But that won't help you during special events, when you only have 1 life to play. If you want to get prep'd for the big-time events, you're better off learning the 109s, 190s, Spit V, and F6F (the more common planes used in special events) in the MA.
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Originally posted by JB73
i Almost recommend everyone fly it to get their gunnery down. NOT just HO a few and get 2 kills in a sortie... really try and save the ammo to get 10 kills.
The LA-7 is why I started flying the FW190A8 with the elephant guns package. So many LA-7 pilots use the same maneuver - hit from behind, overshoot, extend out, turn around, come straight back in nose-on. C'mon LA-7, HO me. I dare ya.
The 190a8 HO works great against Spitfires, too. I break even with N1K2s, though.
If you really want to improve your gunnery, fly the Yak9U. It can actually turnfight.
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Originally posted by SLO
you have fun in the LA7.....then fly it.
but if you want some help......ask around....always some good drives who can give you some good tips......
from your accounts.....it seems that its not your fighting skills that are in trouble.....its your SA(situational awarness)
keep flyin...and try to keep improving:cool:
If you ever need some help...just ask....we'll go to DA and work on your SA and how to gain advantage.
I think you hit on it...my SA needs a lot of work, and the La La lets me get out of trouble awfully quick. It's also helping my gunnery since I can't "spray and pray" with the limited ammo load and awful ballistics.
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Originally posted by B17Skull12
ju88 is a challenging but a b17 come on. in a b17 just spray all you want you'll hit and kill something.<500th post btw>
Bah, you can shoot fighters down in a B17 with all those guns.
In a Ju-88, forget it, those nerfs guns are no match for harsh language :lol
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You anti LA guys crack me up. I bet most of you elitists score most of your kills with 5 of your buddies backing you up. Not hard to be a hero in a 205 that way. And if you fly a P-51, G-10 or D-9 then you have very little room to talk.
LA7 lets you avoid the gangbang if you only fly solo or with 1 or 2 friends. I used to enjoy flying different planes for different situations, but on the big maps (and with the new gameplay) the LA7 is a default. It lets you get in the action sooner, work to find a fairly even fight (at times the only way to do this is to drag 1 or 2 planes half a sector away), and avoid the gangbang. Now, I can see how it would be annoying if you like to be part of the gangbang. Hell, it has even replaced my previous favorites (A6M5 and Spit v) in base defense because you find yourself watching the faster planes and the ground get all the kills.
The LA7 has several disadvantages as well. 1/2 the planeset will out turn it, a 1/4 is fast enough/accel quickly enough to catch it with a little E, another 3/4 have better guns and in the MA you usually run into a combination that can do all of these at the same time. Its one survival trick, speed and acceleration, is given away pretty quickly if you dogfight using the plane. And you can actually dogfight pretty well if you avoid the pure, flat turn.
Charon
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try the 2 gun SHVAK package imo its better, as the guns have better balistics.
La-la's fun sometimes but still ultimately gay, fly a yak instead :D
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ou have the lala haters, and the lala PILOTS. It's a crutch.
"1/2 the planeset will out turn it, a 1/4 is fast enough/accel quickly enough to catch it with a little E"
It can also outturn half the planeset and run away like a coward if it's blinked it, and it can out-accel 3/4 of the planest, and outrun all but a few down low.
what's gonna come next is "up high it sucks!"
Above 11k or so.. but tell me how many dogfights happen at 20k? the vast majority happen around 5k.
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ok , tomorrow is LALA night, everybody up in lala's , pass the word.
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ou have the lala haters, and the lala PILOTS. It's a crutch... Run away like a coward if it's blinked it...
Righhhht...
The crutch is having to fly with better than 3-1 odds in your favor in order to play the game. I seem to notice a lot of people rely on this crutch, then brag about what manly men they are in their Dora or P-51 or 202 for that matter, and how they would never run (with 5 of their friends by their side the whole time of course). Or who substitute strat (more like tic tac toe than any of the strat games I play) for ACM because ack (or the ground) is less ego bruising than getting your bellybutton handed to you by another virtual pilot in a virtual plane.
Personally, I'm one of those who wouldn't mind a RPS or a 1943 arena or a 5 pt perk on the P-51D, LA7, G-10 and D-9. Until that happens (yeah right) I want a plane that as a SOLO pilot gives me some control over the current numbers imbalances on all sides and mixed encounters that will include LA7s, P-51s and Spitfires and N1k2s. FWIW I'm a hopeless turn and burner who actually likes to dogfigt Spits in an LA7, but who does run when 7 of the Spit's friends show up to play conga in their late war planes.
[edit: a successful escape from the hungry mob of wolves gives me the same satisfaction as sneaking aroung the base crushing steamroller and pissing in their cornflakes by splashing the unescorted goon :)]
Charon
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Charon.... you fly the La-7 because it is the best plane that you can fly. That is really all you have to say. You can say whatever else you want, but what it really boils down to is that you fly it because it is the best plane in the planeset. There isn't anything intrensically "wrong" with that reason, I don't know why people are so afraid to just say it.
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Absolutely Urchin. Though until the big maps came out and the gameplay changed I probably spent more time in a Spit V or a Zero mainly doing base defense. The odds weren't always great, got killed a lot, vulched more often than I should, but the attackers seemed to like to mix it up at least.
This time last year I had:
32 kills in a Spit V / 21 deaths
14 kills in a La7 / 11 deaths
4 kills in an A6M5 / 3 deaths
The reason I fly it now as my primary fighter I outlined above. Again, if your're fighting with a bunch of your buddies it doesn't much matter what you fly. Squadron ops are great, certainly nothing against them at all, or even the big missions I suppose (though there could be a greater strategic purpose to them -- maybe I'd drop a few bombs myself). But it gets kinda tiresom on these maps if you're a solo flyer (or fly with one buddy like I do mostly) who likes to dogfight and doesn't like to just give the kills away to the 5th zoomer in the crowd.
[edit: What was so different a year ago? I remember flying base defense a lot because the odds would be close for a while and there was some good fighting. The goal was still to take the base, but the attackers actually engaged the defenders and you could get a few kills in a spit V or zero. Now, it's much more mechanical. You don't even worry about the attackers taking a shot at you most of the time. It was some time after the main AW influx, so I don't think that was it directly, though the big pork has certainly arrived. Was it the switch from heavy bombers to Jabos with the bombsight change? The big maps? At some point there developed the big Typh raids that got bumped up a couple of notches with the recent P-51 switchover.]
Charon
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LA7 isn't a challenge for anyone, even 746573248 and his best friend 487653434 can get kills in it and then run away.. Of course they crash when trying to land
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La7 is a superplane.
So great, that it makes me think it's actually me who is great.
We unworthy low-skill slobberdonkeys keep forget that we're sucky pilots in reality. The only thing which reminds of us that fact, is when we meet a good pilot and get shot down by an inferior plane. Ouch!
But then again, busting the balls of a good pilot who thought he was tough enough to face Lalas in his inferior plane, and then get overwhelmed by the sheer brute force of the Lala and get shot down.. is a rare delicacy for us sucky pilots. Man, listen to them scream and shout and whine.. their shattered pride and disdain towards us dweebs..
It fuels our very existence.
.. and when we see that same guy come back in a La-7.. we know. Whatever he may mouth off about skill and tactic and blahblahblah.. we know that he admits it in his heart.. the La is one dweebey super sonofabi*ch. Oh yes.. hearing that excuse of how he rides the same plane only to catch others running away and shi*.. hee hee hee, right, we believe you, mr.experten.. :D
And when we see that.. we can go to sleep with a smile on our faces.. ah.. the wonderful world of dweebey Lavochkas..
:D
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The La 7 is for pathetic dweebs. But killing them in my 2-3X bigger lightning gives me that big smile on my face.
:)
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The La7 is God's gift to the Spit V.
-- Todd/Leviathn
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Originally posted by Dead Man Flying
The La7 is God's gift to the Spit V.
-- Todd/Leviathn
"The La-7 has 512 kills and has been killed 429 times against the Spitfire V."
Current tour.
"The La-7 has 876 kills and has been killed 805 times against the Spitfire V."
Last tour.
"The La-7 has 1231 kills and has been killed 1067 times against the Spitfire V."
Tour before that.
Not going to bother checking back farther than that, I think it is safe to guess that the trend would continue.
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Originally posted by Urchin
Not going to bother checking back farther than that, I think it is safe to guess that the trend would continue.
i·ro·ny ( P ) n. pl. i·ro·nies
(1) (a) The use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning.
(b) An expression or utterance marked by a deliberate contrast between apparent and intended meaning.
(c) A literary style employing such contrasts for humorous or rhetorical effect.
(2) (a) Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs: “Hyde noted the irony of Ireland's copying the nation she most hated” (Richard Kain).
(b) An occurrence, result, or circumstance notable for such incongruity.
-- Todd/Leviathn
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I tried the LA-7 in the CT...Liked it, but my personality dictates that I do something different than everyone else. Kind of a weird Birth Defect, I suppose.
I would love to see a healthy mix in the MA, but it's not gonna happen.
Last night, in a massive furball, I looked out the side of my F6F-5 and saw every last red plane (and there were about 15 of them) was either a Spit, La-7, or Pony.
So for goofs, I adjusted my icons to see what my country mates were flying...
Spit, La-7, Pony.
I swear to god, with the exception of a single 190, and my F6, every plane in the approx. 24 plane fur was a spit, La, or pony.
*shrugs*
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Originally posted by MJHerman
Since I know that I didn't suddenly become a great AH pilot, is the LA7 really that good that it can transform mediocre/average skills into better than average?
Depends of the way you fly. If all you do is cherry picking and run then answer is yes. If you fight in it, then no. La7 is a decent plane in low turning, and very good in low verticals, but still in a dogfight there are many better planes.
If you want to learn and be a good pilot one day, fly something more competative, for example la5. Rides which makes you to fight instead of running helps you to learn how to fight.
Watch films, politely ask and join some good pilot online, film your sorties and watch both what you made wrong and what they made right. Will make the learning faster. Do not fly p51, dora or la7, they are too fast to be a good learning platforms. And fly agressively :)
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Absolutely untrue Fariz... the La7 is the best plane for a clueless newbie to "learn to fight" in, because you never actually have to learn anything.
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Originally posted by Urchin
Absolutely untrue Fariz... the La7 is the best plane for a clueless newbie to "learn to fight" in, because you never actually have to learn anything.
I usually do not find la7 a very tough opponents, and can't understand your sarcasm here. Most remarkable thing about la7 pilots is that they are usually not agressive, so they give you a chance to dominate the fight. Sometime you can meet a good stick in la7, but not that often. Forcing overshoots against la7 is quite easy in anything with long-range-effective guns, like .50s or hispanos. I have not checked the stat, but more than sure that la7 is not the k/d champion among the non-perked planes.
My point stands here, for people who want to get a good progress in acm I would suggest 205, 109a5, p47d10, p38, la5. Fast planes are bad in teaching you a defensive side of things, and that is what virtual pilots shall learn first of all.