Fw 190 G8 Tactics

[R33GZ]

Hi all, I've been flying the Fw 190 G8 on combat box lately and have had a bit of a mixed bag with mission succes and different tactics. 

 

Mostly, I've been taking the 3x 250kg load out, and using 2 different attack profiles with varying success.

 

1. Is a very long approach to target in a dog leg with the 1st waypoint being a climb to approx 3000m. I will then set my initial point maybe 30km out and initiate a 10-15° glide bomb attack. By the time I'm at release point with contact fuses, I'm really hauling ass and if I sight the target correctly and resist the urge to do more than 1 run I can usually make it home at treetop height safe and sound. 

 

The biggest problem I have with this technique is that's its usually a 50-60min mission and the long way round means there's not usually any fighter interference... which means it's very hard to resist making my mission 3 bomb runs instead of 1. This takes away any speed advantage and usually results in my being intercepted by fighters and dieing a horrible fiery death.

 

2. Takeoff and fly treetop to an easily identifiable waypoint close to the target eg, lake/city/forest and then turn to attack run. Attack on target is using a 2sec delay and ideally dropping 3 bombs consecutively, turn and run direct for home at treetop height.

 

The success of this technique largely depends on whether or not the target is defended by fighters. Sometimes I can sneak in and out, but usually I end up getting bounced on the egress. The upside of this technique is that I can usually hit multiple targets and do more overall damage... but with a higher likelihood of a horrible fiery death 

 

Wondering if anyone has something to add with regards to successful tactics in the G8? 

 

[[CPT]Crunch]

Take the wing mounted 250's and leave the center rack in the hanger.  Flying with the center rack is a death sentence, without it the G-8's almost as fast as a dora down low.  You have quite good odds in any fight with a good wingman, no need to run so much than.  Leave the nose guns in the hanger also with that center rack if your really serious, and reduce fuel to minimum to get the sortie done, and you can go looking for trouble on your way home.

[R33GZ]

 

7 hours ago, [CPT]Crunch said:

Take the wing mounted 250's and leave the center rack in the hanger.  Flying with the center rack is a death sentence, without it the G-8's almost as fast as a dora down low.  You have quite good odds in any fight with a good wingman, no need to run so much than.  Leave the nose guns in the hanger also with that center rack if your really serious, and reduce fuel to minimum to get the sortie done, and you can go looking for trouble on your way

Excellent. Thanks man, hadn't thought of ditching the centre line bomb... didn't realize it made a big difference in drag. More speed is good news for the egress ?

 

Already flying with the nose Armament out, but haven't considered flying with less than full fuel. Might give it a go

 

[FeuerFliegen]

3 hours ago, R33GZ said:

 

Excellent. Thanks man, hadn't thought of ditching the centre line bomb... didn't realize it made a big difference in drag. More speed is good news for the egress ?

 

Already flying with the nose Armament out, but haven't considered flying with less than full fuel. Might give it a go

 

 

The A8/F8/G8 already have a higher fuel capacity than the earlier 190 A models; full fuel is overkill for pretty much any game we'd be playing.  For me, absolute max of 500L, and only then if it's a long trip and/or I'll be using boost a lot.

[FeuerFliegen]

Also, I agree with not taking center bomb.  I've done some testing, which actually makes me think it's not properly modeled... because the G8 with 2x 250s with no center rack is FASTER than the G8 with a center rack, but no bombs at all!  

 

Makes no sense to me that two 250kg bombs would slow you down LESS than an empty center rack.

[CUJO_1970]

On 6/15/2023 at 8:56 AM, SCG_FeuerFliegen said:

Also, I agree with not taking center bomb.  I've done some testing, which actually makes me think it's not properly modeled... because the G8 with 2x 250s with no center rack is FASTER than the G8 with a center rack, but no bombs at all!  

 

Makes no sense to me that two 250kg bombs would slow you down LESS than an empty center rack.

 

The FW190 is an absolute mess in this sim.

[LukeFF]

9 minutes ago, CUJO_1970 said:

The FW190 is an absolute mess in this sim.

 

If you think it is a mess, then post some track files in the appropriate section showing what the problems are. This topic here isn't the area to make generalized complaints about planes being a "mess".

[Avimimus]

On 6/15/2023 at 8:56 AM, SCG_FeuerFliegen said:

Makes no sense to me that two 250kg bombs would slow you down LESS than an empty center rack.

 

It does seem counter-intuitive.

 

The empty rack would be in the propwash from the propeller - so it'd be experiencing a higher effective airspeed (and resistance isn't linear). It might also disrupt airflow over the rear of the aircraft (more turbulence)? So, there might be some combination of phenomena which make them much more equivalent than one would expect.

 

The bombs are also pretty streamlined... although the added weight would require a slightly higher angle-of-incidence during cruise - which should produce more induced drag. Anyway, an interesting conversation.

 

I wonder if anyone has the original test reports on hand? Or a replica Fw-190G-8 I could fly?

[C6_lefuneste]

It may be the same issue than reported here : ?

 

[=MERCS=JenkemJunkie]

On 6/17/2023 at 11:28 AM, C6_lefuneste said:

It may be the same issue than reported here : ?

 

From what I remember that glitch only applies to the A6 center rack and MAYBE the A8 panzer rockets (not the WGr.21). Otherwise the center rack just sucks and you should blame Kurt Tank not 1C.

 

On 6/15/2023 at 7:56 AM, SCG_FeuerFliegen said:

Also, I agree with not taking center bomb.  I've done some testing, which actually makes me think it's not properly modeled... because the G8 with 2x 250s with no center rack is FASTER than the G8 with a center rack, but no bombs at all!  

 

Makes no sense to me that two 250kg bombs would slow you down LESS than an empty center rack.

 

The reason you're seeing funny results with the wing bombs is because the wing bombs (both 70 and 250) have suspiciously low drag values in the game files. In the game files the wing bombs have a Russian note next to them that says "TODO190 - similar to La-5", so the answer you're looking for is the devs didn't give the real drag values to those bombs yet, and just left a suspiciously low placeholder value that hasn't been changed yet. It's been on the TODO190 list for awhile though, as it goes back all the way to the A5.
If you want the numbers, on the wings their drag value is 0.010 each for both types, but on the center rack the drag values are .040 each for the 70s and .075 for the 250. The center rack has a drag value of 0.035, so it is draggier than the 2 250's that combine to a drag value of .020. 

[FeuerFliegen]

1 hour ago, =MERCS=JenkemJunkie said:

From what I remember that glitch only applies to the A6 center rack and MAYBE the A8 panzer rockets (not the WGr.21). Otherwise the center rack just sucks and you should blame Kurt Tank not 1C.

 

 

The reason you're seeing funny results with the wing bombs is because the wing bombs (both 70 and 250) have suspiciously low drag values in the game files. In the game files the wing bombs have a Russian note next to them that says "TODO190 - similar to La-5", so the answer you're looking for is the devs didn't give the real drag values to those bombs yet, and just left a suspiciously low placeholder value that hasn't been changed yet. It's been on the TODO190 list for awhile though, as it goes back all the way to the A5.
If you want the numbers, on the wings their drag value is 0.010 each for both types, but on the center rack the drag values are .040 each for the 70s and .075 for the 250. The center rack has a drag value of 0.035, so it is draggier than the 2 250's that combine to a drag value of .020. 

 

 

Makes sense; dropping the two 250kg bombs from the wings only gave me a max speed increase of 9kph.

[R33GZ]

Well, after multiple different attempts at using the G8 strike aircraft, I have decided that the best tactic seems to be this:

 

Take a long climbing route to target and use all that stodgy weight to come steaming in on your target at an airspeed that is just to great to intercept. Know where your targets are and which ones you are going to hit. Taking 3x 250kg bombs, you must drop them all in one pass... and as the yanks say, then haul ass. Using that formidable amount of airspeed on the deck, with all the bells and whistles out... sometimes I make it home

 

The G8 is just to fat and heavy to have any chance of survival for any other tactics. Those 3 250s can cause a hell of a lot of damage in a very short space of time though 

Edited July 3, 2023 by R33GZ