spectralent fucked around with this message at 01:32 on Jul 1, 2015

Sard fucked around with this message at 01:58 on Jul 1, 2015

Keep your speed up. You shouldn't be going under 300kmph unless you are side climbing or actively pulling a high yo-yo over your opponent in hopes of baiting them into a desperate vertical position as you bounce back onto them for a high energy attack.

Gain the advantage. Don't loving attack without a clear advantage. Planes like the 109 really suffer when they don't position themselves correctly. Simply flying near an enemy is an aggressive enough stance to affect their behavior so don't feel obligated to go head on and tangle yourself up in an extended turning fight unless you have to or you are not alone.

Do more high Yo-Yo's This is your go-to maneuver whenever you have a huge energy/altitude advantage. If they get baited into a stall that's great. If they try to run they still have to dodge your next attack. Depending on how that goes, you can do more high yo-yo's if you have enough energy relative to them. This is a really old example but yeah:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUoyF-3dYCg

You can experiment with just how high your yo-yos get. The higher you go, the more likely you will stall but it will affect the timing in such a way that it can really gently caress over someone that has over committed to a defensive maneuver because you bought yourself a few seconds to adapt while they expected you to be more immediately aggressive.

Estimating how much energy other planes in the area have as you fly around. Watch when people do high loops in furballs and you'll notice that as they peak in altitude they will slow down. This is ideally where you want a target on the defensive to be when you are diving on them. Often times if you miss, they will still descend into a tight defensive turn (mainly because from their perspective it's 'oh i can just outturn this 109') which is really just locking themselves into a predictable line that you can easily cut through on a follow up bounce attack. Once you get a good feel for reading the field you can even attack people from behind as they climb if you have enough energy to follow them up and out of their curve without risking getting caught in a stall/turnfight.

Stick with your team. Let them engage targets first and support them from above. This will let you watch how attackers and defenders trade energy and maneuvering options in a 1v1 situation. It will also let you practice attacks on them from relative safety and they will often be so fixated on the first person that is locked in a direct chase with them that they might not even see you coming in to scoop off points from the top.

Fly with goons. We are huge nerds and can tell you immediately if you're doing something "wrong" and why AND how you can handle a situation like that more efficiently. Also teamwork is legit OP and a big reason why squads are limited to just 4 people because otherwise public matchmaking would likely be broken and unfun for the majority of players that are too stupid to communicate.

Watch cyber-ace wheraboos play. Seeing how skilled 109s/190s work together can be sort of amazing because on paper these planes simply should not win against any allied team but their specialized roles compliment each other so perfectly for high altitude dogfights. Really just look for when and how they initiate an attack on someone when they have the advantage. You'll start to see a breaking point where that advantage gets neutralized and they will break off. Break off earlier than they do until you actually know your limits.

Breaking off early. If you keep bouncing back on the same target over and over again, your energy will eventually drop to a level similar to theirs and you will not be able to disengage a more agile opponent unless you have a lot of altitude to run away or you do some serious pilot poo poo and juke them to separate. Breaking off, leveling out or whatever you have to do to reserve your energy is a good thing to practice and is essential to success in a 109. When you see a plane helldive away from you and its early in the round, it isn't always simply a last ditch escape plan. Often times they are trying to bait you into burning altitude and eventually trapping you under the clouds for a fight that is in their favor or have teammates come from behind you because you ran right past them. The mistake a lot of inexperienced players make is that they will chase these planes halfway to the deck then break off. When a plane is running like that, simply level off and follow them from a distance. You will have the absolute advantage without gambling half of your altitude away. Worst case scenario is that they RTB and from there you can get them when they go to land or even take off for an easy kill. When someone dives away that hard and you don't follow them they will just assume you gave up. From here only a very experienced player will gently caress off to the side and climb above you minutes later. This is how a lot of heavier things like P-47s and twin engine fighters get their kills but more often than not they're just going to RTB and do a climbing spiral until you attack them or they get impatient and land.

Thief fucked around with this message at 02:01 on Jul 1, 2015

Alkydere fucked around with this message at 03:36 on Jul 1, 2015