Author Topic: So, you want to fly the wooden wonder - again.  (Read 15386 times)

Offline bozon

  • Platinum Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 6037
Re: So, you want to fly the wooden wonder - again.
« Reply #30 on: June 04, 2014, 06:26:37 PM »
If you want to see the most out of the Mossie then fly with a wingman or better yet 3 or 4 mates. I know you can say this about any plane but Mossies flown in this B@Z style support each other and bring an awful lot of firepower to the B@Z game and when flown in the vertical with support can dominate the 5k and up airspace.
There are many theories for what makes a good plane selection for a pair/formation in the MA. Anything can work, even highly asymmetric planes pair, given the right tactic. The easiest to execute is when the planes in the formation have a similar fighting styles and roughly similar performance. Thus, the mosquito naturally pairs well with other mosquitoes.

It also pairs surprisingly well with 190A8, both with very strong punch and similar speeds. The 190A8 usually takes the first initiative since it is able to dive well to high speeds and the mossie mops up everything the A8 has picked up along the way, while the 190A8 grabs E and position to clear the mossie. Both are not good dogfighters, so they keep switching targets between them to shoot at each other's opponent - with the firepower involved, only 1 short burst is needed and the gun packages allow to pull off some high-angle shots. I suppose that a Typhoon can be a good wingman too for similar reasons, but I have little experience with that combo.

Other twins are excellent wingmen. P-38 has the performance to keep up with the mossie, or more if the altitude is higher than the deck, though the guns are on the weak side (only relative to the other wingmen discussed here!). Done that with squaddies many times and it's great. The 110/410 bring the decisive firepower and take a lot of aggro off of you, but are less impressive in performance. It takes a very good player in the 410 to make it work (my experience is with Torquilla). The advantage of bringing a twin as a wingman is that it confuses the enemy - by the time they finished drooling and decided which one of you they are going to attack first, you are both all over them.

With all these combos, given that much firepower and minimal coordination, you can imagine what happens when you run into a lower bomber formation.
« Last Edit: June 04, 2014, 06:28:27 PM by bozon »
Mosquito VI - twice the spitfire, four times the ENY.

Click!>> "So, you want to fly the wooden wonder" - <<click!
the almost incomplete and not entirely inaccurate guide to the AH Mosquito.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGOWswdzGQs

Offline bozon

  • Platinum Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 6037
Re: So, you want to fly the wooden wonder - again.
« Reply #31 on: September 08, 2014, 10:22:20 AM »
As promissed, though way overdue, here are some "motivational" pics:

Quote
Look! a mosquito with friggin' laser beams!






Quote
VVVVRRRROOOOOOOOMMMM!!!!







Quote
Bombs, cannons, machine guns... so many ways to have fun. Btw, she likes it when you rub her
under the belly.






Quote
Shiver me timbers!





Quote
Mosquito crew Tom & Gerry under their FB.VI the “Aristocrat”. Famed 617 squadron used these to
drop marker flares and then send their Lancasters to drop huge Tallboy bombs on the flares. It
would have been much easier to destroy the flares while still back in England, but the RAF has its
own way of doing things.






Quote
A pregnant Mossie XVI






Quote
Armorers sing carols as they roll a ‘Cookie’ bomb (Holy cow! it is big). Look! they even added a
season’s greeting to some friend named ‘Adolf’. How cute!




Mosquito VI - twice the spitfire, four times the ENY.

Click!>> "So, you want to fly the wooden wonder" - <<click!
the almost incomplete and not entirely inaccurate guide to the AH Mosquito.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGOWswdzGQs

Offline Bruv119

  • Aces High CM Staff
  • Plutonium Member
  • *******
  • Posts: 15644
      • http://www.thefewsquadron.co.uk
Re: So, you want to fly the wooden wonder - again.
« Reply #32 on: September 08, 2014, 04:33:36 PM »
Mossie = Awesome!!  Not one Spitfire but two!     :D 
The Few ***
F.P.H

Offline bozon

  • Platinum Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 6037
Re: So, you want to fly the wooden wonder - again.
« Reply #33 on: March 23, 2015, 12:33:47 AM »
Well, exactly one year too late, but here is the motivational bid that should have been on the original post. Click the link to watch in a larger window.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGOWswdzGQs




Mosquito VI - twice the spitfire, four times the ENY.

Click!>> "So, you want to fly the wooden wonder" - <<click!
the almost incomplete and not entirely inaccurate guide to the AH Mosquito.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGOWswdzGQs

Offline steely07

  • Silver Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1834
Re: So, you want to fly the wooden wonder - again.
« Reply #34 on: March 23, 2015, 09:17:32 PM »
brilliant, just brilliant, well written, and very amusing, 5/5 would ebay again! :)
Aces High, Wing Commander, Dickweed Heavy Bomber Group: www.dickweedhbg.com

FSO Films : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFs6CAXBQoVBctljybD65fA?view_as=subscriber

Offline shake307

  • Zinc Member
  • *
  • Posts: 74
Re: So, you want to fly the wooden wonder - again.
« Reply #35 on: April 09, 2015, 08:11:02 AM »
I love this write up.  Makes me giggle.  With that being said, I don't mean any disrespect with a question.  Does the mossie xvi seem obsolete now that we have the tu2?  Tu2 is not as fast, but lacking a perk cost.  3 1000kg bombs is nothing to shake a stick at, especially with a formation.  I have found that flying the tu2 as a fat mossie, as you instruct to fly the mossie, in formation is quite effective.  This is with 6000+ lbs of ord per plane.  Over 18000 lbs in total.  I love the mossie xvi, but the tu2 is free.  I have a hard time spending the perks.  Any enlightenment is greatly appreciated.   :salute
Respect is granted, not demanded.

Let's get drunk and fly!

Offline Lusche

  • Radioactive Member
  • *******
  • Posts: 23828
      • Last.FM Profile
Re: So, you want to fly the wooden wonder - again.
« Reply #36 on: April 09, 2015, 10:20:25 AM »
I love this write up.  Makes me giggle.  With that being said, I don't mean any disrespect with a question.  Does the mossie xvi seem obsolete now that we have the tu2?

No, it's not as the bombers are quite different and do well in very different roles.

While being relatively fast for a bomber, the Tu-2 can't be kept from being inercepted as well as the Mossie. The Mossie 16 can cruise at very high speeds and very high altitudes, while the Tu works best at medium and low altitudes. 16K is the Tu-2s best speed altitude vs 27k for the Mossie 16 (at which the Mossie is about 60mph faster than the Tu-2). And no matter the altitude the Tu is flying, it's still rather easily caught by the most typical MA fighters. And while the Tu-2 has some defensive armament, it's very limited in it's ability to protect the bomber.
The Mossie also has a substantially longer range as well. On the other hand, the loadout of the tu-2 makes it more versatile against a multitude of targets.

The Mossie is doing great as a medium to long range strat bomber, while the Tu-2 is well suited as a short range tactical bomber (and really excels as a naval attacker)
Steam: DrKalv
Elite:Dangerous: Snailman

Offline bozon

  • Platinum Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 6037
Re: So, you want to fly the wooden wonder - again.
« Reply #37 on: April 09, 2015, 03:32:45 PM »
I love this write up.  Makes me giggle.  With that being said, I don't mean any disrespect with a question.  Does the mossie xvi seem obsolete now that we have the tu2?  ...
STOP! stop right there.
You do not fly the B.XVI for maximum effect. You fly the XVI because you want to. I like the mossies because they top the list of coolest-man-made-objects and because you could easily place one on a pedestal in a gallery and call it art. Try to do that with a TU-2 and check out the visitors response... :rolleyes:

Now about effectiveness.
TU2s carry more ord which is important when attacking hard targets like hangars and CVs. However, the blast from a single cookie covers a larger area than the large bombs on the TU2 dropped from a tight formation (you cannot drop one at a time). This makes a single B.XVI just as effective in town busting as a formation of TU2s. Also, very important, if you take formation drones you cannot do the "stand off" bomb-tossing attack. This one improves survivability by a great measure. You can with a single TU2, but then the destructive power is not much more than the single mossie, the tossing range is shorter (lower speed) and escapability is lower (again, lower speed, not as maneuverable.)

Perk cost.
Mossie B.XVI is free. Yes you read that right - free. Remember that you lose perks only if you do not land and I have yet to lose an XVI to the enemy despite tangling with multiple enemy fighters like tempests, 109K, KI84 and 190D9. I even have maneuver kills in it. I did lose perks once when I went AFK and came back to find myself at 36K and way off the map, so I bailed. On the off chance that you do get shot down occasionally, the perks you EARN with it, should easily cover your expenses. It is so survivable and earns so much perks for lbs of damage that I consider it free - at least as a single bomber. As I said in the guide above, if you chose to take a B.XVI formation is it "milkrun or bust", because when you do get caught, you are powerless to do anything about it without losing the drones and their perks.

TU2 on the other hand gets to treat its formation drones as expendable bomb-carts, or "3-strikes" before you are out. There is absolutely no incentive to land the drones, so why not take them and lose them? You only need to land one plane to get the system damage message and perk landing bonus, plus as far as I know K/D do not factor in bomber scores. For these reasons (and others) I always called for the formation to be very lightly perked, but that will not happen.

Survivability.
The B mossie is much more survivable than the TU2. It is considerably faster and has a dive speed that will leave many planes compressed behind (109s, KI84s, P-38s, etc). TU2 is not as easy to catch as the heavy bombers, but once caught in anything but a tail chase, it has very poor defenses and it dies easily. TU2 cannot dive very well at all and will not shake any plane by pushing the speed up. If you go single TU2, it maneuverability is far inferior to the mossie - by the way, the mossie B.XVI (after ords release) maneuvers much better than the FB.VI mossie because it is significantly lighter (no cannons and very little armor). B.XVI will make about 3,800 fpm in a climb without the bombs and with a reasonable fuel load, which also translates to a better acceleration.

TU2s best survivability card is the 3-strikes disposable drones, since the TU2 player can start shooting with the gunners, and if it lost 2 of the formation without killing/maiming the attacker, it can go maneuver with the last one. The attacker may even be out of ammo by this point, so you get to land the last bomber.

Coolness factor.
Can you even compare?

Conclusions:
Two different planes. The TU2 in many aspects (speed, ord, defensive guns) is somewhere between the mossie and the heavier bombers, so it sort of fill the hole in the spectrum (the B mossie being so far off in its entire concept). TU2 is very effective against carriers and tough point targets. Mossie XVI is mostly for towns, cities, and GV orbit-sniping  :evil: (talk about gaming the game...)
« Last Edit: April 09, 2015, 03:46:38 PM by bozon »
Mosquito VI - twice the spitfire, four times the ENY.

Click!>> "So, you want to fly the wooden wonder" - <<click!
the almost incomplete and not entirely inaccurate guide to the AH Mosquito.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGOWswdzGQs

Offline shake307

  • Zinc Member
  • *
  • Posts: 74
Re: So, you want to fly the wooden wonder - again.
« Reply #38 on: April 09, 2015, 04:50:55 PM »
I said I meant no disrespect, bozon!!!  :rofl. I appreciate the enlightenment.   Thanks Lusche and Bozon for the information.  I have flown the xvi a few times in the way Bozon describes.  It is stupid fast compared to just about everything.  And the coolness factor trumps all.   :rock
Respect is granted, not demanded.

Let's get drunk and fly!

Offline molybdenum

  • Nickel Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 429
Re: So, you want to fly the wooden wonder - again.
« Reply #39 on: June 03, 2017, 08:18:17 PM »
Just discovered this and it is so well written, so entertaining, and so damn' helpful I am risking Skuzzy opprobrium by punting it to the top. Wtg bozon.

Offline hgtonyvi

  • Silver Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1931
Re: So, you want to fly the wooden wonder - again.
« Reply #40 on: June 04, 2017, 12:06:19 AM »
Nice write up Bozon, How long did it take ya?  :D
CO of the Hell Hounds. In Game: Rud3boi
*Ain't no grave can hold my body down.*

Top German Ace of Pantelleria 1943
            6./JG 27- 109G-2

Offline bozon

  • Platinum Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 6037
Re: So, you want to fly the wooden wonder - again.
« Reply #41 on: June 04, 2017, 05:27:49 AM »
Just discovered this and it is so well written, so entertaining, and so damn' helpful I am risking Skuzzy opprobrium by punting it to the top. Wtg bozon.
Thank you molybdenum.  :cheers:

Nice write up Bozon, How long did it take ya?  :D
Too long and bring train rides to work. This was a better use for my laptop than posting nasty talkbacks on news websites or surfing pr0n. :D

I intend to write an addendum to the mossie XVI section, now that I have more experience with it as a tactical bomber.
Mosquito VI - twice the spitfire, four times the ENY.

Click!>> "So, you want to fly the wooden wonder" - <<click!
the almost incomplete and not entirely inaccurate guide to the AH Mosquito.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGOWswdzGQs

Offline Max

  • Platinum Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 7680
Re: So, you want to fly the wooden wonder - again.
« Reply #42 on: June 04, 2017, 07:10:47 AM »
Nice write up Bozon, How long did it take ya?  :D

2 weeks

Offline hgtonyvi

  • Silver Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1931
Re: So, you want to fly the wooden wonder - again.
« Reply #43 on: June 04, 2017, 12:33:22 PM »
Thank you molybdenum.  :cheers:
Too long and bring train rides to work. This was a better use for my laptop than posting nasty talkbacks on news websites or surfing pr0n. :D

I intend to write an addendum to the mossie XVI section, now that I have more experience with it as a tactical bomber.
You are a good man  :cheers:
CO of the Hell Hounds. In Game: Rud3boi
*Ain't no grave can hold my body down.*

Top German Ace of Pantelleria 1943
            6./JG 27- 109G-2

Offline bozon

  • Platinum Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 6037
Re: So, you want to fly the wooden wonder - again.
« Reply #44 on: November 09, 2017, 03:03:34 PM »
Chapter 6 - Dive! Dive! Dive! The B.XVI as a dive bomber
==========================================================

What is that you say? The XVI is a level bomber?! It does not even have a front reticule to aim with?
Bullocks! The real mosquito bombers often bombed from low altitudes and with pin-point accuracy. This historically included lobbing of bombs into railway tunnels, into Gestapo headquarters, and down Goering's throat. The mosquito is the all-in-one wooden wonder! if some other silly plane can dive-bomb then the mossie can do it too. Period. In this chapter I will explain how to do it right and what is it good for in Aces High.

Why dive bomb when level bombing is laser-like accurate?
========================================================
The level bomb sight is indeed ridiculously accurate and takes a very short time to calibrate. However, you must still keep a constant speed, direction, and altitude while your head is buried in the bomb sight. If you use the XVI as a tactical bomber over contested fields, the enemy will be around and not always you will get a clean bombing run. In such cases you still have the option to dive-bomb your target and use that speed to escape towards friendlies. Many common fighters will not even be able to follow you in the dive (109s, P38s, N1K, zekes, KI84). And lets be frank, the 4000 lbs cookie does not really require aiming...

Another common use for dive bombing is to hunt GVs. The XVI carries 6x500 lbs bombs and climbs very well with them. It thus gives you both the option to snipe stationary whirbles from outside their reach with the level bomb sight, or dive-bomb moving tanks and M3s. Setting up a level bombing run on a vehicle takes some practice, time to set up, and is easy to mess up. Dive bombing helpless tanks on the other hand is a hoot!

"But wait! JABO work was covered in chapter 3! Surely this is the same."
No! you silly rhetoric commentator, it is not.


Calibrating your dive bomb-sight
=================================
Good news, you do have a dive bomb-sight! It requires calibration though, but the process is quick and can be set-up in advance. I always calibrate my dive bombing sight before my level bombing run, so I can easily switch to a dive attack when enemy fighters are on me.

The process is exactly how they did it in WWII:
1. Enter the level bomb sight (F6).
2. Raise the clipboard (ESC).
3. Grab the clipboard with the mouse and place the hole in the clip of the clipboard on the cross-hair.
4. Move the hole along the vertical hair down under the horizontal hair until the top of the tip of the clip touches the cross-hair.

There! your sight is ready and calibrated. Lower the clipboard and happily continue in your mission.



It is interesting to note that the F6 crosshair is slightly above the center of the screen where the usual guns reticule point is at. Placing the clipboard as described above centers the clip-hole on the guns aiming point. This gives you the same reference point as you are used to with other planes. However, it makes sense to place the clipboard even lower so as to compensate for the bomb trajectory arc in shallower dives. Personal preference.

Dive bombing
=============
When you enter your dive, place the target roughly in the center of your view and pull up the clipboard. If you started from a slow speed, push the nose down so the target is well above your aiming point (the hole in the clip, in case you did not get it by now). Slowly bring the nose up, so the target is seen through the hole. Watch your speed, hold steady and release your candies as the target moves out of the hole downwards. If you dropped a cookie, cue the Gregorian a-Capella (see chapter 5 of this guide above).

That is all there is to it, and this is how they did it in real life - honest!

The even greater escape
========================
From here, it is similar to the JABO escape in chapter 4, except one crucial difference - you are gun-less! Escape is all you can do. Luckily the B.XVI seem to handle very high speeds slightly better than the FB.VI and can be safely pushed past 500 mph true. If enemies are close on you, pick up as much speed as you can to prolong the chase before you are forced to turn. If not in immediate danger, put the mossie into a shallow dive and maintain 400+ mph all the way home.

I forgot to mention this in chapter 5 - the B.XVI model is lighter than the FB.VI. It has no cannons, no machine guns, no ammunition for them, no front armor, and no moral setbacks. All this adds up to over 1000 lbs empty weight difference. This in turn means that the light (you should also have less than 15% fuel at this point, because 25% last 22 min at MIL power) B.XVI will turn even better than the FB.VI model. However, remember that turning is to be done only when you cannot use your speed to escape. You have almost no armor and are fragile, so even low probability shots are dangerous.

If an enemy is closing on your 6, break early (1.5k out) and while you still have a few 1000 feet under you. He will likely take a wild shot or pull up, because this is what they always do, and you will follow with a nose low turn, away from him and into a zero-G dive towards your (pre-planned) escape direction. You must have some alt in order to accelerate in the dive, or else he will be right back on your tail. Run screaming for help like a girl with a bat in her hair.

It is however hilarious to stay and duel it with you opponent. The light XVI will hang-with and even out turn many opponents. Most don't really know what to do when they have a gun-less plane holding on to their tail feather (the safest place for you to be...). You'll be surprised how many will panic and run away (I had players run all the way to their acks with a mossie XVI on their tail). Others will keep trying and eventually get picked by a friendly plane passing by.

Have fun, and don't forget the immortal words of G. De-Havilland: "Mosquitoes fly, but flies don't mosquito!"  :old:





... You dont know that! He could have said it!  :mad:

« Last Edit: November 09, 2017, 03:16:59 PM by bozon »
Mosquito VI - twice the spitfire, four times the ENY.

Click!>> "So, you want to fly the wooden wonder" - <<click!
the almost incomplete and not entirely inaccurate guide to the AH Mosquito.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGOWswdzGQs