Tunisia Focke-Wulf 190 A-1; Thoughts and Issues

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1

Needless to say, after grinding up for the FW, I can honestly say it’s worth it for strafing and gunning down large groups of infantry, performing far better in that role than the re.2000. For dogfighting however? You better have got a damn good jump on them and take them down quickly, or else you’re not getting them at all. Time to elaborate;

This goes for even the SBD, which when I tried to jump on my second time using the FW, managed to dodge and then do a full turn on me to get some rounds on me, even despite my solid speed. The turning is just heavy, rolling is a arduous manoeuvre where I have to use both mouse and keyboard to increase the rate of turn on either Left or Right, lest I overshoot nearly all targets I engage. Decreasing the Throttle to as little as 25 then increasing on the turn to 60 or even 80, it’s not much of an improvement if any at all, getting behind a Hurricane or a Spitfire is nigh on impossible if they’re semi-competent and start turning to evade, and once on you it’s better to try to ignore them and go for those ground kills.

Speeds alright, solid rate of speed increase with the throttle, even if a bit sluggish and taxing on the TAS when performing turns, feels much heavier than the re.2000 but again, the cannons and MG’s are simply brilliant compared to the former. It delivers more of a punch than, scattering alot more fire on a wider target so that if you line it up correctly you can snag a good few groups of enemies on a single pass, especially when moving to a point or catching a few sniper groups on an exposed rooftop, scoring at one point a damn good strafe of 5 pushing on the first point, whilst when I do get an SBD kill it’s practically a quarter of what it previously required with the re.2000, where I found myself running out of ammunition before achieving a kill with the measly 300 rounds, even with the most nose-to-tail and miser attitude toward letting lead fly, even having to snipe enemies on passes, only ever scoring one or even two on a single pass with a re.2000.

There is a odd sudden pitch in the nose, though this only happens occasionally, where I find the FW insisting on banking upward for no discernible reason, insisting upon jittering upward for a bit before settling out, even when in a sheer dive for the ground. It’s mostly recoverable provided the altitude is alright, doesn’t seem to affect TAS when pitching either, which I found odd but not game ruining to any extent. Less of note is a bit of a lean on the right when diving, but this can be corrected by simply pulling out of the dive.

So, overall the FW 190 A-1 is a decent fighter, very solid for CAS work in lieu of a Stuka, decent for taking on an SBD as well, but by damn it’s damn near useless in a turn battle, due to just how wide the turning circle can be for the FW, and just how slow it can get when performing these turns. I’d say to fix it, since the FW was more a fighter of manoeuvre, make it far quicker in a turn, left or right, so that I can slip in on a Hurricane and Spitfire, especially given the small size of my aircraft in comparison with the bulkier fuselage of a Hurricane or Spitfire, I should be at least out-turning the Hurricane in any event, and absolutely out-turning an SBD.

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Why do you think that? Hurricane’s best full turn time is more than 4.5 seconds quicker than the FW 190

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3

This. The 190 is/was a good fighter, one of the best of the war, and while it was reported by its pilots to be more maneuverable than the BF109, it was outclassed by Hurricanes and Spitfires for turn rate. It just means a change in tactics is needed to be successful.

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Does it still have that bug where it likes to dump all of its ammo?

5

Does still have that, but it tends to be only when nearing the end of the ammunition. It’s only happened twice though, so perhaps it’s an infrequent type of thing.

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I just hate that Italian Squadron uses german emblems

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In WT (wher ewe all assume the flight models come from) the 109 is more manouverable than the 190.

What the 190 excells at is roll rate - it can flip from doing a turn one way to turning the other much faster than pretty much any other plane.

And it was fast for its time too - faster than the 109.

See here for descriptions of various manouverability characteristics of some late war allied fighters:
http://www.wwiiaircraftperformance.org/sl-wade.html

And here for charted comparisons of many allied a/c + 190 and Zero:
image

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Fair enough, and while it doesn’t likely perform as it should in game between the bugs and flight model, losing dogfights largely comes down to pilot skill, with aircraft performance secondary.

I want to see the FW190 fixed and performing as it should, but no better.

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9

Indeed - one thing with the FW in WT - it is “boom and zoom” - or energy fighting - not a dogfighter.

In Enlisted we don’t have the 3rd person view that WT has, and so it is much easier to lose track of where your opponent is, which make B&Z much harder, since you ahve to reacquire them every time.

Edit: Much easier to lose track, not much harder!

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That’s true, there is a higher skillcap and situational awareness need b/c of the cockpit view.

I never noticed, tbh, I play DCS.

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I find when flying the FW, which is currently broken on Normandy at least, Freelook is so important to keep track and get the angle of attack, it is easy enough to get on the tail or get a good attack angle with practice.

Not sure what the flight model is like on Tunisia yet as I have a few more levels to go (axis was a tough low level grind!), But hoping the devs will correct the flight model on both campaigns, then we just got to learn.

It sounds like it is not half as responsive on Tunisia, in Normandy it rolls left and right with the slightest touch, seems to wobble even…