War Thunder (F2P Air/Ground combat MMO)

[Grand Prix]

Alright, what am I doing wrong? I try to take out someone, use most of my ammo, then the AI tailgunner of the other guy fires one burst resulting in killing the plane, the pilot, and then sever the wing for one last insult.

Try attacking the bomber from the side or a high speed dive from above. You could also get ahead of them and head-on, but that can be risky. It takes a very good bomber pilot to kill you when you attack from the side.

 

[BKGlover]

Try attacking the bomber from the side or a high speed dive from above. You could also get ahead of them and head-on, but that can be risky. It takes a very good bomber pilot to kill you when you attack from the side.

Not me it doesn't. I've been killed at almost every angle save for ahead and above, and even then the guns jammed and I didn't hit a damn thing.

 

[Grand Prix]

Not me it doesn't. I've been killed at almost every angle save for ahead and above, and even then the guns jammed and I didn't hit a damn thing.

OK, don't make it easy for them then, move around a bit. I suggest waiting until you get to 500-600m before firing, and fire in short bursts. Aim at either the pilot or the engines on one wing.

Some guns don't work as well as others, British Hispano 20mms for instance (which can also jam easily). Some have weird trajectories, like ShVAK 20mms.

I tend to avoid bombers lately and go after fighters instead, unless I'm in a twin-engine fighter that can take (and dish out) the punishment. Although even in twin-engines I usually go after fighters these days,

 

[Swagger897]

Not me it doesn't. I've been killed at almost every angle save for ahead and above, and even then the guns jammed and I didn't hit a damn thing.

Sounds like you're attacking them far too slowly and flying in a straight line. The best two ways I've found to cripple a bomber is to aim for the wing tips and see if they lose control, or aim for the tail to destroy their tail control. Most bombers in this game are weakest from the bottom so you want to be about 3km off too their side and about 2km below them. Gain as much speed as possible and converge directly underneath of them while dodging their fire and then climb up for the kill. Keep your speed up after passing by in order to have enough authority to evade their fire.

The name of the game is speed. Your engagement should not be akin to that of an escort mission. You want to go in fast, hit hard, and then leave as fast as possible. If they're still flying, make another pass but do it from the other side to throw their aim off. I'd say this method works best with aircraft that have cannons or .50's. I'd leave out headons due to how dangerous they are. Attacking from the top is good too but I find it easier while playing a bomber to kill someone that's above than below me.

 

[Dunderbolt]

Bombers are effectively worthless to fight as there are more dangers. Still, if you have to. Attack them from 1km+ away. You're out of gunner range, or the manual gunning on the bomber can't accurately hit you. So just have fun and see them writhe in the air as you pop off on them from over 1km away

 

[Swagger897]

Not exactly true. Aircraft such as the 288c are very deadly to teams and you need to at least take out one of three to prevent massive ticket bleed or AF destruction. The 264 at it's BR when in a squad with multiple others is also deadly and can wipe a base for the win.

1km shots are not exactly reliable and requires you to be in a single place for a long duration, exposing yourself to fire. I've had many instances where I've taken critical damage from over 1.4km away while even dodging enemy fire. Your best bet is to have short bursts of fire at their control surfaces to put them into an uncontrollable situation or a sustained engine fire.

 

[Kitten]

Not exactly true. Aircraft such as the 288c are very deadly to teams and you need to at least take out one of three to prevent massive ticket bleed or AF destruction. The 264 at it's BR when in a squad with multiple others is also deadly and can wipe a base for the win.

1km shots are not exactly reliable and requires you to be in a single place for a long duration, exposing yourself to fire. I've had many instances where I've taken critical damage from over 1.4km away while even dodging enemy fire. Your best bet is to have short bursts of fire at their control surfaces to put them into an uncontrollable situation or a sustained engine fire.

I second this a good squad of 288C can end the game relatively quickly; and it has great defense for its BR. I never had much success with American Bombers, I know the time me and @Swagger897 do bomb runs with american bombers it never ends well.

 

[Rage Racer]

I'm back in the game for this year's "Operation Summer", the tank part. One more medal and the main prize (Leopard C2 MEXAS, a Canadian version of the Leopard 1) is mine. However, I think I'll sell it on the market.

Bombers are effectively worthless to fight as there are more dangers. Still, if you have to. Attack them from 1km+ away. You're out of gunner range, or the manual gunning on the bomber can't accurately hit you. So just have fun and see them writhe in the air as you pop off on them from over 1km away

That's a bad idea. At 1 km+, your bullets will lose too much energy to deal some decent damage to the target. And it's much harder to hit that way. You'll be just wasting your ammo.

The best strategy to attack a bomber is to dive from above. You are more likely to hit the wings at good angle and deal great damage, and you're gaining speed while diving so you can steer away and repeat the attack if necessary. Thus, you need some decent advantage in energy (speed * altitude) over the target.
Simply sitting on a bomber's six is an easy ticket to the hangar. Also take care about the aircraft you're using. A fast fighter with powerful cannons (e.g. Fw. 190) is good to intercept large and sturdy bombers like B-17 and Pe-8. A slow dogfighter with light armanent (e.g. A6M3) is not.

 

[nissman]

Anyone have an idea why there is no option to invite friends to squads after the last update?

 

[Kitten]

Anyone have an idea why there is no option to invite friends to squads after the last update?

They have had ongoing server issues afaik.

 

[Rage Racer]

I won the MiG-21PFM in the recent "Operation WINTER" event. Finally, my first supersonic fighter.

It took some time, but it was WAY shorter than grinding for a normal MiG-21 (in the research tree) would take.

 

[Grand Prix]

Nice. 👍

I received the Ro.57, not really a fan of it TBH, it's pretty slow. Then again, I do fly many boom-and-zoom fighters.

The new match length of 25 minutes is too short IMO, it should be at least 35 minutes. Myself and Paulie have had a few potential ace games ruined because of it. It also makes it more difficult to achieve comeback victories, but have still managed some here and there.

I hope @Paulie doesn't mind if I post these.

Spoiler: Chat Language Warning

 

[Swagger897]

Yeah I still don’t understand why some games have the auto win conditions. Ground targets should not result in a side winning.

 

[Rage Racer]

Yeah I still don’t understand why some games have the auto win conditions. Ground targets should not result in a side winning.

But then ground attackers and bombers will be useless.

 

[Grand Prix]

I don't mind losing because the attackers and bombers survived long enough to win through tickets. That's a good job on their part. When it's just fighters left, there needs to be more time to hunt them down.

I'd remove the AI planes as well.

 

[Paulie]

A couple fun videos, hope you enjoy.

 

[Grand Prix]

@Paulie Seeing you get bombed by the A-20 at the end of the ITP video made me laugh so hard.

 

[Swagger897]

Oooh, I forgot all about this one. Craziest game I ever had.

 

[Grand Prix]

Forgot to post this pretty intense 2 vs 2. We were bomber hunting in twin engine fighters and encountered a couple of Spitfires, we had to defeat them somehow. Fortunately, the enemy underestimated our planes.

 

[Paulie]

Nice 7 kill game @Swagger897, shame the Swift felt obligated to ruin it at the end. I especially like the relative lack of headons, I see you are a man of culture.👍

That was a great show of playing our planes right that time @Grand Prix , many fear the GT Planeteers in heavy fighters .

 

[Swagger897]

Nice 7 kill game @Swagger897, shame the Swift felt obligated to ruin it at the end. I especially like the relative lack of headons, I see you are a man of culture.👍

That was a great show of playing our planes right that time @Grand Prix , many fear the GT Planeteers in heavy fighters .

Haha thanks. I was pretty unlucky with the first headon that didn't do much critical damage to him. I knew when I went up for him too that it would be the end of me. It's been a while since I've had AI chase my tail too so I was unsure if they were actually going to kill me too.

 

[Kitten]

I was impressed, I was able to manage this tbh.

 

[Paulie]

I was impressed, I was able to manage this tbh.

Hard to tell in replay, I assume that was using thrust vector control? Well played.

Now for all the PC users to have a laugh at me struggling to aim a tank with joysticks, here's my 2nd ever battle in the Australian Centurion.

 

[Kitten]

Hard to tell in replay, I assume that was using thrust vector control? Well played.

Now for all the PC users to have a laugh at me struggling to aim a tank with joysticks, here's my 2nd ever battle in the Australian Centurion.

Yep I put the thrust vectors all the way down which made me hover, and I was able to get behind him.

 

[Paulie]

I wish they'd fix naval, the game automatically kills a plane at like 3km with AI, because that's realistic? I want to dive bomb, torpedo etc. (although torps need a smoke screen probably). The entire mode is basically just shooting someone at long distance, and who ever has better aim, or more likely, a bigger ship, wins. You can't be sneaky with a small torpedo boat either, because everything is so open and by the time you get close enough the AI gunners take you out anyway. Definitely a novelty mode, and one I wish they didn't include in battle pass challenges.
On a more positive note, the P-61 is such a meanie , went for 11 kills in 4 air rb battles in it today because I needed to kill 3 bombers for a task, the other 8 were fighters.


Edit: Had one incredibly glorious moment around the 4:00 mark.

 

[BKGlover]

I haven't played in a bit, finally got burnt out on clouds eating my bombs and getting sniped from 50 miles away, but...what is this I'm reading about nuclear blasts in development? Why?

 

[Team THRT Drift]

I haven't played in a bit, finally got burnt out on clouds eating my bombs and getting sniped from 50 miles away, but...what is this I'm reading about nuclear blasts in development? Why?

It's already in the game for both Arcade and Realistic Ground Battles.

Nuke feature starts at BR 6.7. 6.7-8.0 you have a B-29 or Canberra added to your lineup that you have to unlock. BR 9.0+ you have a Jaguar A added to your lineup.

For all BRs, you need to accrue 3000 spawn points in a single match to unlock the nuke delivery vehicle in your lineup. Not an easy task.

Once you've unlocked it, you take off from the runway and drop it in the A.O. No repair costs will be administered to either side of the game; just an instant win for the team that has the nuke followed by a bespoke end of round screen.



If you do get it, good luck trying to get there in the B-29 before tickets run out, or before you get team killed/shot down by an enemy plane/AA.

 

[Paulie]

@Grand Prix always be getting aces.

 

[Grand Prix]

Heavy fighters are bad planes. Don't fly them.





😉

That was a good result. 👍 Thank you for baiting the P-40 BTW.

Some great examples of energy trapping there.

 

[Paulie]

Heavy fighters are bad planes. Don't fly them.

All planes are bad planes in War Thunder when you fly with a joystick.