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[ukulele]

Just use lagg3s or p39s as energy fighters, you can usually get 10 kills before they take you down (you get bored and start playing recklessly).
No one in arcade has an idea what to do against some one energy fighting, they will point up, they will lose all energy you aim down and take the kill, zoom up, and repeat.

[Sonlirain]

I did some energy fighting with the germans (BF-109 and ME-410) and honestly it rarely works for me.
Sure it looks easy on paper:
Gain altitude.
Find prey.
Swoop down guns blazing.
Return back to safety before a Yak/Cobra can oneshot you.

In practice people move around changing directions (especially in a fight) while a diving ME/BF has the maneuverability of a dump truck.
Yeah you CAN pull out and immediately gain enough height to be pretty hard to kill but that won't earn any exp/lions and trying to turnfight in a BF109 is pretty much suicide.
In effect i tend to get more kills in the derpgun stuka because it starts at bomber height... and pretty much devastate any bomber with the reasonably rapid fireing 37 mm cannons (so what the reload is 30 seconds long if your target is dead) AND its pretty inconspicious to bombers because it appears to be a "dive bomber" at first glance.

[Ant]

Loaded this. Some 40ish games stretched along 3 evenings at ABs, and I find dying to lag and bad connection far more common than to enemy fire. Curious since I've got pretty good low ping conn in many other MPs, but that might be just bad luck. Fun times though, although I'm far better strafer than dogfighter

[RedKing]

I get redonkulous numbers of kills in my IL-2 for the same reasons....dat cannon.

I'll have to try using the LaGG-3's as energy fighters. Those and the MiG-3-15 are usually pretty mediocre for me.

[TheBronzePickle]

I did some energy fighting with the germans (BF-109 and ME-410) and honestly it rarely works for me.
Sure it looks easy on paper:
Gain altitude.
Find prey.
Swoop down guns blazing.
Return back to safety before a Yak/Cobra can oneshot you.

In practice people move around changing directions (especially in a fight) while a diving ME/BF has the maneuverability of a dump truck.
Yeah you CAN pull out and immediately gain enough height to be pretty hard to kill but that won't earn any exp/lions and trying to turnfight in a BF109 is pretty much suicide.
In effect i tend to get more kills in the derpgun stuka because it starts at bomber height... and pretty much devastate any bomber with the reasonably rapid fireing 37 mm cannons (so what the reload is 30 seconds long if your target is dead) AND its pretty inconspicious to bombers because it appears to be a "dive bomber" at first glance.

Is this arcade or historical? Boom and zoom fighters tend to perform much more poorly in arcade, partially because their advantages are flattened out a little, making them a lot less capable of booming and zooming, partially because there's not as much room to get an altitude advantage.

[Sonlirain]

Arcade. Had a good B'n'z game now tho.

Played some event operations (simplified so i guess it was arcade) and managed to... well maybe not dominate but repeatedly harass a spitfire tol death (i ended with 2 kills in a no respawn game so i guess i did decently).

Anyway i don't have problems with room but how every plane loses most of its maneuverability when speeding over 600 kmh (and i assume that's what germans are expected to do).
It's just freaking hard to get a good shot at anyone because the plane barely responds to commands.

Also in the news:
Derpgun stuka vs B25.
I snapped his plane in half and he made enough holes in my engine to permanently silence it... but since it happened so high up i actually managed to glide all the way back to the base do a perfect landing and repair HAH!
Arcade mode of course...

[TheBronzePickle]

Planes never really have good maneuverability when booming and zooming. Your best bet is to dive on someone when they're traveling in a reasonably straight line, so you can line up way beforehand and rake them to death with fire without having to maneuver a whole lot. This is really hard to do in arcade because nobody ever flies in a straight line. Still, if you're having trouble with the maneuvering, what you can do is dive a little off from your target, then straighten out and use your energy to maneuver then, though you won't be able to use it to climb back up if you do so.

[Flying Dice]

The biggest problem with playing an energy fighter in arcade is the UFO flight model. Someone can literally turn 180 degrees, fly 800 meters straight up toward you, and come out with the kill. It's completely retarded. Of course, I abuse that as well when hunting super-high-alt bombers: just fly straight up until you drop below 180kph, level out, gain speed, repeat.

[ukulele]

You are right about some of that flying, while they can climb 2 km with no energy, you can do so too, so just respond to their 90° UFO climb with the same manouver, when they cant keep it up, just dive on them.

[Flying Dice]

You are right about some of that flying, while they can climb 2 km with no energy, you can do so too, so just respond to their 90° UFO climb with the same manouver, when they cant keep it up, just dive on them.

The problem tends to come when they start climbing towards me when I'm already in a 500+kph dive and barely 2000-1500 meters out; I've got too much momentum to pull up or divert course enough for them to miss me, so I've stuck choosing between giving them free shots they don't deserve or going head-on with my fingers crossed. Not nearly as annoying as the ones that can magically catch you with a vertical climb while you're moving away from them at top speed, though. :x

[RedKing]

We should try to organize a couple of squadron events some time.

[sluissa]

You are right about some of that flying, while they can climb 2 km with no energy, you can do so too, so just respond to their 90° UFO climb with the same manouver, when they cant keep it up, just dive on them.

The problem tends to come when they start climbing towards me when I'm already in a 500+kph dive and barely 2000-1500 meters out; I've got too much momentum to pull up or divert course enough for them to miss me, so I've stuck choosing between giving them free shots they don't deserve or going head-on with my fingers crossed. Not nearly as annoying as the ones that can magically catch you with a vertical climb while you're moving away from them at top speed, though. :x

I actually find the most success using this tactic is using it with a team, even if the other team member is working with me unwittingly. Find a friendly with an enemy on its tail. 90% of the time the enemy will have tunnel vision and not break off until they start getting hit. Look ahead to where the friendly should be maneuvering next and try to plan ahead in your dive to aim where they will be when you're in range, especially useful in mountain terrain when someone gets themselves boxed in and can't really go anywhere but straight. That first hit is important. You get a nice solid critical hit off first and you can cripple them allowing you to come back around and finish them off more easily. Miss, just climb away, don't let them get on your tail instead. You can sometimes risk turning for a bomber, but usually it's better to climb away from them too, as you can spend too long maneuvering in their turret sights. Occasionally you'll get lucky with a cannon hit or pilot shot on that first pass, but boom and zoom fighters(except the ones with the large cannons) shouldn't usually expect a lot of shattered planes, focus on crippling them and then hope you get the credit when they crash from lost controls or engine. It sucks in arcade battle due to people stealing kills and the ability of some planes to simply stay in the air despite all doctors recommendations, but that's honestly the best way I've found to fight with them. If you focus on taking everything down to the ground then you're going to end up losing too much speed, get someone on your tail and die yourself. Learn to appreciate, rather than rage at assists.

[Anvilfolk]

We should try to organize a couple of squadron events some time.

Had good fun when I did this with B12 a while back. Been super busy, but if you organise something regular I can likely popup sometimes!

[Flying Dice]

Yeah, if people are up for a group session, post your ideal times here. Once we work something concrete out, I'll update the squadron info page with the date and time.

For me: any time this Saturday is good, as is most of Friday afternoon (I'm on CST, FYI). I can't really do much Sun-Tues of next week because I've got a ton of work to do on papers, and I'm going to busy most of next Saturday.

[Anvilfolk]

I can do the occasional evening EST (GMT -5)!