So as the title says I need tips for dog fights. I tried doing the scissors but it doesn’t work for me. I can somewhat avoid enemy planes for a long time by just circling but they catch up to me.
Also I saw in a video that if you get shot at, you should immediatly fly as low as you can. Does that work, and when should it be used?
Also is it more accurate to shoot in front of the marking circle or right at it.
And finally with canons, should you shoot even more in front of marking circle and somewhat above it, because I noticed that they fall off more quickly
Thanks for reading and replying.
tip is to spot enemy plane before it spots you and move to its back. there is no maneuver that will help you against (lighter) plane if enemy plane knows what it is doing and he gets to your back.
so i would suggest that you always check kill feed and take perk for spotting enemy planes on longer range.
depends on your ping, enemy ping and status of server. think that circle shows center of plane, so you can aim slightly left or right to get the wings. sometimes the circle is accurate and sometimes you need to shoot ahead.
also it depends on what enemy plane is doing. is he changing directions or flying in straight line etc.
overall experiment and practice to see what is best for you… you can also check youtube for some guides…
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As above if you are in a heavy plane with a light fighter on you, once hes behind you, you are done…(if hes competent)
Alot arent though so you can predict they will just do horizontal turns to track you. You can abuse this to take them out “sometimes”
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Depends on what plane you’re using, in my case I always use P-38. And below are the things I always do when engaging the enemy.
- Lower your throttle to at least 20, for sharper turns
- While making turns, hold C and try to keep track of the enemy plane so you don’t lose him
- While chasing the enemy, try to keep your speed the same as your enemy
- Aim for the engine to force the enemy to become slower, so you can force him eject
I think I’m a pretty good flyer. And in my opinion, dogfight is a waste of time. If a plane is chasing you, but you were able to destroy it, you are not a winner, since the plane is most likely damaged, precious time is lost. bombs and missiles are dropped to improve maneuverability. You only killed one pilot, but you could have killed dozens of his allies on the ground. But you chose not to do this and now you are flying empty to recharge. While the same pilot is already on the ground, helping his allies.
so if someone is flying behind me, I just try to drop my dangerous cargo on the enemies. And I crash the plane to join the team on the ground as soon as possible.
pragmatic and somewhat realist. but isn’t it’s better to aim to land your plane in that situation? would be a fun experience too landing a burning one winged plane safely while hitting a couple trees on the way down.
for this there is - war thunder
If your aim is fun, yes (if that sort of thing floats your boat…I really enjoy the challenge of landing a damaged bird).
If you want to win…no. Every second you spend evading, reloading or limping home is better served being on the ground contributing.
Planes really arent necessary except to remove the odd pain in the ass tanker or bomber strike.
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First and foremost, everything is situational when you’re dog fighting, and there’s no single strategy that will work 100% of the time. What might work against one opposing player, might have no effect on another. But with practice you’ll gain experience, and eventually you’ll start holding your own when you’re fighting other aircraft.
Next: Custom map your controls. Depending on what platform you are using, the default settings make flying/dogfighting nearly impossible. You can get on YouTube for walkthroughs, or ask the forum for help with mapping your controls. The test range is your best friend when it comes to getting your aircraft functioning EXACTLY how you want it.
Learn what the different flap modes do, and how you can use each of them to manipulate your aircraft to the desired result while you’re dogfighting. Many aircraft have combat flaps, which allows your aircraft to turn/circle at a tighter rate. So when you find yourself playing the circle game with another aircraft, the combat flaps will help you gain a competitive advantage.
And depending on the situation, you can adjust your throttle to 50% or less, and increase your turn rate at the expense of momentum. Just depends on what you’re trying to do.
But once you find yourself behind an enemy aircraft, switch your flaps back to normal so that you can achieve your top speed if needed.
Another situation: Sometimes you can essentially hit the brakes while your flying, and attempt to have the enemy player speed past you. And to do this, adjust your throttle to ZERO and change your flaps to landing-mode.
Your airspeed will drop significantly, and it’s important to listen closely/use the freelook to assess the correct moment that the enemy player can no longer shoot you, and then you rethrottle back to 100% and change your flaps back to normal or combat mode.
(This doesn’t always work, and sometimes you’ll get blown to pieces. But the more you practice, the better you’ll get)
As for where to aim when engaging an aircraft, the white circle is essentially a guideline. But is by no means the only place to aim for. For instance, depending on the aircraft you are using and the type of ammunition… the bullet trajectory comes out at different speeds. The larger the caliber, the slower the bullet… which means you’ll probably need to lead your shots a little bit further ahead of the white circle.
Meanwhile, smaller caliber bullets travel faster, and you can either aim directly at the white circle or even behind it by a small margin.
Again… there’s no single answer, so I recommend getting familiarized with your favorite aircraft and spending some time learning the bullet trajectory speeds.
Always shoot in small bursts in order to conserve your ammo. The only time you should be unloading is when you have the aircraft up-close and dead to rights, or when you only have a small window to score a hit. The rest of the time, especially shooting at long distances, shoot your weapons in bursts and watch where your tracers are going. (The more you shoot wildly, the easier it is for the enemy pilot to assess your location.)
Last: Your bullets “disappear” after 1,000m. So there’s no point to shoot at aircraft that doesn’t have a red/grey indicator on it. Otherwise it’s too far away.
use the takeoff and landing wings as a last resort, they give you the best turn rate but with a very high risk of damaging them
iunno, landing is just crashing without exploding. it’s not that hard half the time when you’re losing thrust and altitude and can’t aim your plane toward the enemy. so instead of just crashing, giving your enemy the satisfaction of the point from shooting you down, might as well try landing instead no?
holy shit, i was wondering how does some player just… slow down and make me the one being chased! thank you for the tips!
while we’re on plane speed thingy, what does flap actually does anyway? i know that on some planes combat flap would just wreck my plane if i go too fast, but what exactly are the difference between up and combat?
Try doing it without elevator, control surfaces or half your plane 
might as well bet on it since i can’t aim for the enemy anyway XD
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Its for comparable planes, if opponent more agile-don’t do it;
That’s ok, if you cannot outturn. Try to pull enemy to friendly AA in this case.
90% of my opponents, left me after 7-10 circles, and I can get their tails.
when you low- you hard to track, but also, no space for dive;
Don’t shoot at it - it’s just marker of direction, correct you shooting by watching tracers. Sometimes, hits come when you shoot so far from circle.
General tip for dogfight on heavy planes- never dogfight on heavy planes.
Keep speed, keep alt, avoid turns;
Use boom & zoom tactic;
Go headon, only if your frontal weapons also heavy;
Don’t stick to agile enemy: if you did not kill him from first attack-keep speed and go back to alt, do second attack from invisibility, then third etc, but don’t turnfight on heavy plane.
Best advice for newbie pilot-get squadmate. He can watch your tail even from surface, build AAA, or even can have plane too and watch your back. All pilots flying in pairs, you should try it too.
It’s very basic and should be obvious, but:
- Know your machine.
Planes all have different specs; strengths and weaknesses.
Then following this
- Know your ENEMY’S machine.
When you know both you will better know how to act depending of the situation. Take the Normandy p47. It’s a bomber/attacker, but it’s very fast and maneuverable enough. Also got great armament that will melt anything. Now if your enemy fly with a bf110 G-2, and knowing specs of both machine, you KNOW you will have the advantage over it and should win a dogfight if you try to get behind. If your enemy flies a bf109… your only hope is to target it first from afar before it can maneuvers behind you, at which point, just eject.
Another example, in Pacific. You fly the big green Japanese bomber. It got no offensive canons whatsoever, only a defensive gunner buddy behind.
But! The plane also got broken turning rate… BETTER THAN ALL USA FIGHTERS! Use this to your advantage, when you see a fighter closing in… go TOWARDS it, pass it, then quickly turn around and get behind… while circling with it in a way you slowly get closer to your carrier! If your gunner buddy haven’t took the fighter down, your carrier will make your pursuer explode, and definitely rage.
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A bomber isn’t a dogfighter. But your buddy flying around in a figher, is. If you think you spotted an enemy figher going towards you wanting to engage, don’t waste time and try to fly towards your own fighter buddy… Then hope he’s not an idiot who only tries to attack ground… (happens very often, sadly, especially with Normandy p38 pilots.)
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Last, but very important: energy. Conserve it. More energy will make it harder for an enemy fighter to take you down.
A few months ago. I was on a Stuka in Berlin. A Soviet Il-10 flew in front of me. Although I had little ammunition left, I had an ally in the CP and an airstrike would have resulted in heavy losses. I decided to shoot it down right then and there without refueling. I chased after the Il-10, but could not get a chance to shoot it, so we had to have a dogfight.
Eventually the pilot of the IL-10 gave up evasive maneuvers and flew straight south at top speed. I was trying to get behind him and get closest to him and then use my 7.92mm MG81 to punch through the cockpit, but I could not close the distance at all.
Soon we were in a gray area, and a warning echoed in my brain that the Nazi telepathic device would shoot the deserter.
I had no choice but to turn and try to get out of the gray zone as fast as I could, when a very thick tracer bullet streamed up behind me and snatched the cockpit. That IL-10 was firing behind me. I have to take evasive maneuvers, but in a few seconds I will be gunned down by the Germans.
“Oh, no!no!no!”
I realized that I had stupidly walked into a trap.
In my confusion, a 23 mm Vya-23 machine gun shatters my cockpit into pieces and takes my pilot away to Valhalla forever…
So, if I can give you some advice, if you can’t outrun enemy aircraft, aim to leave the war zone. If you are playing in the Pacific, you can also run to an airspace with a friendly carrier and let the AI anti-aircraft guns take care of you.
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“Know yourself, know your enemy. A hundred battles a hundred victories.”
It’s simple and obvious, and yet it works.
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reading the ne post here taught me that planes are just not for me. i am an unga bunga guy