What is a Good Multiplayer Strategy for Fighters?

[zhihengcao]

Is the difference between players who rank high in Wing of Liberty or Combat Box server and those who don't, just piloting ability, or do they use better strategy?

 

Having played multiplayer (mostly WoL due to the GPS map) almost 5 hours every week for a year with over 150 kills (including those lost from stats when you don't play for a week),  these are strategies that I found to be working playing as a fighter.    

 

1. Fly as low to ground as possible.
   This makes it easy to spot planes flying higher than you and make you harder to spot from them.  There is a theory that fighters should engage from higher altitude than enemy, because you start with higher energy state. I used to believe it and climb as high as possible to the objective. But in my experience, this results in not only more time wasted travelling, but worse outcome, mainly because being spotted by enemy fighter from below before you notice them.    After I changed to the fly low strategy, I can often spot enemy from down below at their six and follow them for very long time without getting noticed, right until the point of shooting them down.  Because I can spot planes flying much higher (with higher energy state) earlier than they can spot me, I can choose my fight and avoid engaging those high energy state fighters. 
2. Run away when you see two airplanes flying together but do not see tracers, or they fly in the same direction.
   In that case, they are either 2 enemies or friendly flying in formation. Either case, nothing to gain by going nearer to them.  The best chance to score points is if you see 2 airplanes shooting each other.  It is not about stealing a kill, it is about lending a helping hand. 
3. Avoid crowds
   I have come to notice that going into a giant dog fighting mess is not the best deal if the objective is to score high in the ranking system. Even if you get a kill, it is highly likely your tracer will be noticed by an enemy fighter nearby before you notice him, and as a result getting killed, hence getting 0 score in the ranking system. 
4. After a kill, dive back to ground level and full throttle head home!
   In my experience the most vulnerable point of a fighter sortie is right after your kill. You have exposed yourself with your tracers. You are often not flying close to ground and easily spotted from everybody nearby. You should immediately dive back to ground level and head home, praying that no enemy fighter has spotted you that can catch up to you from behind.  
5. Don't approach heavy bombers from behind. 
   The AI tail gunners in this game are very accurate and their guns can always do more damage to your little fighter than your gun can do damage to the bomber.  So never approach a bomber from behind.  Conversely, the worse mistake a bomber pilot can make is to turn into the enemy fighter. Much better to keep enemy fighter at your six and run home as fast as you can.  The best shot of killing a Pe-2 is to approach it head on, or with a very high speed dive from above (but you risk hitting the ground if the Pe-2 is flying low). 

 

What are strategies that worked for you?

Edited January 20, 2021 by zhihengcao
grammar

[Finkeren]

This reads like a typical set of tactics for a gamer who is singularly focused on personal score. You might get somewhat decent scores that way, but you are not really being useful to your team. 

 

My suggestions, if you want your team - not just yourself - to succeed would be:

 

1. Join a squad, or at least be on TeamSpeak or whatever communications the server recommends. Give reports and listen to what your team mates say. 

 

2. Don't fly alone. With just one wingman  with a minimum of coordination you'll see twice as much and be very tough for an enemy to engage. 

 

3. Know your team's objectives and know the map. 

 

4. Train your spotting. You are giving up an awful lot by flying on the deck just to have a better background to spot targets against. 

 

And finally: Know your role as a fighter pilot. The role of the fighter is almost always either support/defense (of a bomber/attack aircraft or a ground target) or denying the enemy airspace. Shooting down enemy aircraft comes second, always. 

 

Those are my suggestions anyway. 

[216th_Jordan]

After years of flying it really boiled down to:

 

Speed, speed, speed (and checking 6 every few seconds) no matter the altitude. It is true that co-alt or lower gives you better spotting, but down low spotting low(er) attacks is even harder. I prefer to always have some height that I can trade for some manouvers instead of fighting enemies and earth alike, also it gives you room for a high speed low angle dive-away in case you are being bounced.

 

I try to never track a target for a long time unless I know with certainty that other enemies are far away. I usually try to assess my and my enemies energy states and if it is in my favor I try to setup an intercept vector that still makes me hard to spot in one angle of view from the enemy while closing. When I get close I try to sneak in from below.

 

When I fly a fighter I climb at 350-400 kph outside the combat zone, within the combat zone I never climb below 400kph, even if it takes longer, usually however I keep up a high speed ~500kph and fly a pattern through a combat zone while trying to avoid circles. Circles just make you stick out while reducing your chance to spot the enemy.

 

You do not necessarily have to run if you know your plane and your enemies plane and your abilities and energy states - often times you can reverse into the offensive when you are attacked by an unsuspecting attacker, but you'll need clever energy management for that usually and some manouvering skills (yo-yos, scissors, barrel rolls, etc.).

 

Absolutely with you on bombers and for flights of 2 or more enemies: only with more than enough altitude and overall energy! (But it is possible!)

Edited January 20, 2021 by 216th_Jordan

[zhihengcao]

>TeamSpeak

The participation of team speak English channel is very low, and I can imagine even if there is  a lot of people there, one would not want to wait your wingman/teammate to return to base before going out on the next sortie, if you crashes or died before your teammate, so formation fight will not always be possible. 

>Jordan/energy state

In my opinion, energy state advantage is over rated.  Diving from above at high speed will not give you much advantage, when the enemy use the tactic of flying slow while doing small radius turns. Often people flying Russian ground attack airplanes do it, and if your first shot misses, then you have overshot the enemy who is now at your six. Even if your first shot did not miss, the canon in 109 often cannot kill IL2 in a single shot, you need at least 190 with extra 20mm cannons to kill IL2 in one shot.   Spotting early is much more important than energy. 

I used to "climb back to safety" in fighter, but no more after being killed so many times while climbing from below. 

 

[216th_Jordan]

13 minutes ago, zhihengcao said:

Spotting early is much more important than energy. 

I used to "climb back to safety" in fighter, but no more after being killed so many times while climbing from below. 

 

 

Energy is both by altitude and speed, potential and kinetic energy. Going fast gives you kinetic energy and that is of utmost importance, atleast going from what I learned in 20 years of dogfighting in Combat flight Sims. If you read carefully I did not favor going high above everyone, it always depends on the situation.

 

Also turnfighting with planes that have a tighter turn radius is usually not the best way, much better to go back into the vertical and attack again, that way you retain energy and dictate the fight.

 

If you are serious about it I'd recommend you to read 'Fighter Combat' by Shaw, its IMO still the best book about that.

Edited January 20, 2021 by 216th_Jordan

[=FEW=fernando11]

All things said by OP are acurrate observations of specific situation.

Now, MY QUESTION IS, do you whant good strategy for flying fighters on MP, or you whant a way to score higer on the leaderboard?

 

If it's the second, I can't help you much with it. Never been particularly good at it. My higest success "score wise"  proabably was flying a bomber or maybe a ground atack plane. (7 players killed by a single salvo drop on a pe2... )

 

Now, without a doubt, the biggest change I saw flying MP, that you dont talk about, is flying with a good wingmen, that you already know.

 

Flying high, risk being spoted first? Fix by flying with a wingmen/squad.

 

See 2 planes flying close/in formation, run away?

Fixed by wingmen

 

Avoid crowds? Personaly, yes. But if you read the situation and you feel you have the advantage, you can engage a crowd (already fighting), make a pass with your wingmen, extend and check eachother. If you got a six, wingmen will fix it, even if both of you got a six. Mutual supot means you probably still have the upper hand.

 

After a kill, your wingmen should have your six under control. Regrup, check arround and keep on hunting!

 

Hunting bombers from dead six is never a good option...

BUT  if you feel the situation is in your favor, you can make some long range shooting, to make the bomber panick and start turning, then you can work your target together with your wingmen, gunners can't shoot at two planes at the same time.

But engaging a bomber from dead six is already a mistake when setting up the atack.

[peregrine7]

At a guess, OP flies the FW190.

Different strategies work for different planes, different goals (you aiming for K:D? Objectives? Winning the map? Staying Alive?) and different situations (playercount, number of large furballs etc).

In general.

 

GET ON COMMS: SRS or TS/Discord!!!!!
 

Fly with a wingman.

Keep your energy high (whether by alt, or by speed in the combat zone. Speed is always good), don't get wrapped up in furballs, disengage if you aren't at the advantage. Always keep an ace up your sleeve. Don't get greedy.

[Cybermat47]

I would say that the most important things are:

 

1. Speed.

2. Communication.

3. Speed.

4. Situational awareness.

5. Speed.

6. Not being a Wehraboo, VVSaboo, Freeaboo, or Teaboo. Treat every opponent as though they’re as much a threat as you are, because they probably are.

7. Did I mention speed?

[RedKestrel]

Fly very low over friendly objectives in the highest performing fighter you can get, and kill enemy attackers after they've hit the target and get lit up by AA. 

I mean, your team will lose the map because most of the team is doing nothing but farming kills, but you'll get some easy points.

 

[zhihengcao]

I really think this game needs to improve its communication capability.  Add native speech capability in game like so many (virtually every other nowadays) multiplayer games out there.  Team Speak, discord etc are either difficult or too much hassle for a lot of players to setup and manage.  Location of all friendly with player name (better still 3 digit tail number!) should appear on the moving map, to truly allow arranging with other players to form groups in a mission.  I know the developer is to trying to make the game authentic, but on the other hand they are making changes like making far away planes appear larger etc, just to make the game more fun.   Why can't they do the same on the comms side. 

 

However until they do this,  telling people to always go on a sortie with a wingman is not realistic. 

 

>Speed and energy state

Nobody is trying to fly slower on purpose, I always set the power to 1% below emergency power and I guess that's what everybody is doing.   However, once getting in a dog fight, you will quickly lose any initial energy advantage (maybe with 1 turn) and you will be going at 300kph regardless of initial speed.  Also, if you got spotted earlier, speed advantage will not help you unless the enemy is at your six and simply cannot catch up; other cases the enemy can close in from the side with a lead.  

 

[RedKestrel]

33 minutes ago, zhihengcao said:

I really think this game needs to improve its communication capability.  Add native speech capability in game like so many (virtually every other nowadays) multiplayer games out there.  Team Speak, discord etc are either difficult or too much hassle for a lot of players to setup and manage.  Location of all friendly with player name (better still 3 digit tail number!) should appear on the moving map, to truly allow arranging with other players to form groups in a mission.  I know the developer is to trying to make the game authentic, but on the other hand they are making changes like making far away planes appear larger etc, just to make the game more fun.   Why can't they do the same on the comms side. 

 

However until they do this,  telling people to always go on a sortie with a wingman is not realistic. 

 

>Speed and energy state

Nobody is trying to fly slower on purpose, I always set the power to 1% below emergency power and I guess that's what everybody is doing.   However, once getting in a dog fight, you will quickly lose any initial energy advantage (maybe with 1 turn) and you will be going at 300kph regardless of initial speed.  Also, if you got spotted earlier, speed advantage will not help you unless the enemy is at your six and simply cannot catch up; other cases the enemy can close in from the side with a lead.  

 

SRS is dead easy to install and run, and is pretty close to being built in at this point. 2 click installation, auto-connect to the server. Easy interface. And not hard to link up with ad-hoc groups on the radio channels, I do it just about every weekend on Combat Box.

 

[zhihengcao]

What is SRS?  Does anybody use it in Wing of Liberty server? 

[JimTM]

42 minutes ago, zhihengcao said:

What is SRS?  Does anybody use it in Wing of Liberty server? 

 

SRS = Simple Radio Standalone.  Here's an install video Sketch made regarding use in Friday Night Flights on the Combat BoX training server. 

Edited January 21, 2021 by JimTM

[354thFG_Drewm3i-VR]

My advice? Do what the German 109 players do:

 

1) Camp over the enemy temporary airfield because there is no threat of flak and it is target rich.

 

2) Hide in the sun and clouds and wait for people to take off so they are in a low energy state. 

 

3) Send one guy in as a decoy with full nav lights on and try to attract enemy planes.

 

4) Dive in after any unsuspecting noobs who pursue the bait and pilot snipe them in once piece.

 

5) Rinse and repeat until all ammo is expended and the pack heads home.

 

6) Objectives like defense of ground units or escort duty? What?! Blashpemy!

 

In all seriousness, these tactics and unbalanced plane matchups are making me and my wingman want to stick to single player or coop. 

[[DBS]Browning]

 

1) Fly at an altitude where the majority of planes will be below you

You might be hard to spot at low altitude, but you aren't safe. At 5km high, you should have plenty of chances to spot any attackers. 

2) Locate yourself along an enemy  flight path 

Covering targets is largely pointless as the bombers will very often drop before you can destroy them. Covering the path from the enemy base to the target of more effective at stopping bombers and enemy fighters tend to be less aware of their six here. 

3) Have a visual scan pattern and follow it

 

4) Plan your escape

This might involve a heading to safety, a "hard deck" below which you will not dive or other means to exit to safety. 

5) Only press the fight whilst you have the advantage 

Don't enter a fair fight. Ideally, don't fight anyone who sees you. 

6) Disengage before your escape route closes 

If your plane is faster, disengage before your opponent is the same speed as you. If your plane is slower, disengage when you no longer have a significant altitude advantage. 

[PaladinX]

As i am mostly flying alone as well, i partly agree to zhihengcao observations.

I am a bad fighter pilot, but i try and try and try and try since months (109, 190, YAKs, Hurricanes...)

In 90% of all sorties (while im cruising at 3-4 k altitude), watching around every seconds, diving with high energy (but then the enemy evades with slow and short turns), returning to 2-4k, i suddenly explode because i did not see, that there are estimated 10 enemies since a while in the area, but i did not see them.

In 9% of all sorties, i spot an enemy, i dive on him, he evades and is suddenly again behind me, although i try running away at full speed.

in 1% of sorties, i dont not follow the generall high energy rule, i fly low to a target, circle until an enemy shows up, and at least get some hits on him ( i still dont know how the YAK 1 yesterday was not interested in a full hit from my FW190 guns and canonns...anyway). Then, while flying home, i suddenly explode again...

 

So, beeing frustrated every evening is an intense part of the experience online. But i keep trying.

Yes, i have watched a lot of good tutorials, i concentrate on a hand full aircraft to understand them better and better, but even though...i have not the feeling im getting better with the experience i collect.

 

Maybe i should really just stay away from the Multiplayer as a single pilot.

 

?

 

Edited January 14, 2022 by PaladinX

[Giggles]

Its an interesting thought, that multi player needs specialized skills to live on it, or to at least long enough to get some kills. 

 

 

I would suggest just skipping the multi player if its just about getting kill points or what ever they are called. 

 

I MYSELF am curious on the aspect of multip player, limited solely to "flying in formation and coordination of attacks". 

  

       I have spent mucho time doing the single player stuff, its all ive done. I particularly love the air field and anti ship missions.  Mucho fun, but have issues with the AI wing men NOT doing their job..... 

 

     Leaving me all alone on target, and either not doing ANYTHING until i have made my first attack pass,, or just doing absolutely nothing and engaging enemy fighters with 4 sc 50s on their belly rack.

 

 

[Feldgrun]

As a relatively new player, I wish I got some advice earlier in my "career," before I flew a 109 and unsuccessfully tried to turn fight a Yak.

[GOA_Karaya_VR]

For 109s ..

 

Climb to 5000 meters and attack only targets 2000 meters below you.

 

Patrol areas on your zone, and virtualize the patern of the enemy flight path vs the Frontier.

 

Before you attack constant repeat yourself the heading to your base.

 

Attack one time only and immediately climb at 350 kph.

 

If the enemy see you when you are decending, abort the attack and retake your altitude.

 

Never enter on a turn fight agains allied planes, they will try to conduct the fight at the deck when most of the time you will be outnumbered.

 

If you see multiple targets on a furball when you are hight, attack the planes that are RTB, they can be wounded, without ammo or fuel.

 

Learn the strengths and weaknesses of your plane agains the enemy aircraft before you attack.

 

S.

[=FEW=fernando11]

All this is true.

Boring as F in my humle opinion, but as a guideline, probably very efective.

 

On the other hand, if you can, get in coms, get a wingman, and have fun.

 

I distinctivly remember a sorty, my buddy and I, in TAW, way back in the day. We were in laggs with the 23mm cannon, flying treetop at 12-15 km off the main enemy airfield, all in all a recipe for disaster.

BUT we where in coms, we were coordinated, and agresive.

We engaged IIRC 4 109s, one at a time but  in a continous fight, chaos working in our favor.

We won, granted, we  got damaged, but we had a blast in a fun and intense dogfight.

[Icehandcarpocrates]

On 1/14/2022 at 3:27 PM, PaladinX said:

As i am mostly flying alone as well, i partly agree to zhihengcao observations.

I am a bad fighter pilot, but i try and try and try and try since months (109, 190, YAKs, Hurricanes...)

In 90% of all sorties (while im cruising at 3-4 k altitude), watching around every seconds, diving with high energy (but then the enemy evades with slow and short turns), returning to 2-4k, i suddenly explode because i did not see, that there are estimated 10 enemies since a while in the area, but i did not see them.

In 9% of all sorties, i spot an enemy, i dive on him, he evades and is suddenly again behind me, although i try running away at full speed.

in 1% of sorties, i dont not follow the generall high energy rule, i fly low to a target, circle until an enemy shows up, and at least get some hits on him ( i still dont know how the YAK 1 yesterday was not interested in a full hit from my FW190 guns and canonns...anyway). Then, while flying home, i suddenly explode again...

 

So, beeing frustrated every evening is an intense part of the experience online. But i keep trying.

Yes, i have watched a lot of good tutorials, i concentrate on a hand full aircraft to understand them better and better, but even though...i have not the feeling im getting better with the experience i collect.

 

Maybe i should really just stay away from the Multiplayer as a single pilot.

 

?

 

 

You almost depicted myself and my wingman (who is called Frustration).

Maybe I'm not able to manage energy in the right way, or I don't turn constantly to avoid attackers, but I get killed almost 100% of the combats without a single hit in a foe airplane.

Any suggestions out there?