It looks like they also brought back some premium vehicles. I guess that the premium Hs-129-B2 has been moved to Italy's tree? I still own it from when it was available to germany. It's really good in arcade battle dogfights. It shouldn't be, but it is. It is unreal how many air kills that I have in this thing. It's slow and not that agile, but I think that the slow speed messes with people. It also tends to have a superior turning circle than what I'm fighting, however that's only because I'm slow and they're moving far faster. People like to take it on head-to-head, and it has twin MG-151 20mm cannons and a mk103 30mm cannon. The pilot is also protected by an armored bathtub and a thick slab of bullet proof glass. Don't head on it folks.
Also, notably, it is the best at belly landings. Better than the Me262 at belly landings even. Seriously, don't even waste your time slowing down to land with landing gear. It's faster to belly land and repair.
Ohhhhh! You were talking about worth it for research points (bear in mind, I'm an impoverished pilot (only 123k silver eagles to my name). I've tended to get around 2k-5k RP per decent match.
| Origin/R*SC: Ein7919 | Battle.net: Erlkonig#1448 | XBL: Lexicanum | Steam: Der Erlkönig (the umlaut is important) |
I think those are probably some decent numbers considering that you're not flying a formation of premium planes.
I know that you said that your heart is with the Navy planes, but IMO you really need to eventually make room for the P-47 in your arcade lineups. It's fast and carries a huge ordnance load. You can do what I did with my Do217. Race everyone to the cluster of fragile light vehicles and splatter them by dropping a bunch of big bombs. You won't really be in the best position for surviving after such a rush, but you'll already have the money so who cares? If you can't disengage, then the P-47 still has enough guns up front that you should be able to take at least one person down with you in a head to head. You can then spend the rest of the match in your navy planes.
I think those are probably some decent numbers considering that you're not flying a formation of premium planes.
I know that you said that your heart is with the Navy planes, but IMO you really need to eventually make room for the P-47 in your arcade lineups. It's fast and carries a huge ordnance load. You can do what I did with my Do217. Race everyone to the cluster of fragile light vehicles and splatter them by dropping a bunch of big bombs. You won't really be in the best position for surviving after such a rush, but you'll already have the money so who cares? If you can't disengage, then the P-47 still has enough guns up front that you should be able to take at least one person down with you in a head to head. You can then spend the rest of the match in your navy planes.
So, here's the thing: I run almost exclusively the co-op battles. The only 'light vehicles' that spawn are stationary howitzers. As it is, with tracer ammo, I've been able to line up and take out 3-4 per strafing run pass. What's even better, though, is that I don't have to sacrifice maneuverability to load up bombs for the other 12 waves.
That all being said, I have been having to go down the USAF branch just to progress down the tech levels (there's no way I'm touching bombers, and I am definitely not a USN dive-bomber). I currently have the P-51 unlocked (to get to the P-47), but I'm kinda eyeballing that sweet, sweet 37mm cannon action of the Airacobra (plus, the lower respawn price is pretty nice, too).
Also, a correction: looks like without a premium aircraft and while not having premium time active, I've been getting 2,000-2,500 RP per match where I'm not at the top of the charts (last night I was getting ~2,450RP at second place).
Looking at the rewards with a premium account active, I might toss Gaijin a few dollars to get that going.
| Origin/R*SC: Ein7919 | Battle.net: Erlkonig#1448 | XBL: Lexicanum | Steam: Der Erlkönig (the umlaut is important) |
If you're going to grab premium, now is THE time to do so because it's when they have their big sale on the year long premium package.
What I meant about bombing the light vehicles is that killing a bunch is worth far more than killing an equal number piecemeal. My Do217 earned so many silver lions not because I killed 14 ground vehicles, but because I killed them in such rapid succession that I achieved a huge multi-kill count. The growth of the reward is not linear, so a multi-kill x14 is worth a lot more than a two multi-kill x7 or four multi-kill x4.
I also thought that you were playing regular arcade matches. A lot of the american planes start getting pretty competitive once they start mounting 4+ fifty cals on them.
On a PVE win (placed second on the scoreboard) I got the following:
Silver Eagles: 32k
Research Points: 5k
I could get used to that.
Of course, on the flip side, when I got teamed with windowlickers and we lost by wave 4 or 5, the payout was:
SE: 3k-5k
RP: 300-500
On one of those losses, I was actively strafing right to left on the passive fighter/bomber wave. Had a guy line up immediately off my left wing. While I was zoomed in to make sure my shots are hitting where I want them to. After the collision, he kept setting up on my ass shooting at me.
| Origin/R*SC: Ein7919 | Battle.net: Erlkonig#1448 | XBL: Lexicanum | Steam: Der Erlkönig (the umlaut is important) |
I kind of think that you may make faster progress in PvP.
I also just remembered a few new player tips. I don't know how experience you are with flight sims in general, or if you'd already know this, but I'm going to assume that it will be helpful and share it anyway.
First, if you haven't already, make certain that you speed is being displayed as in air speed (IAS) instead of true speed. IAS is a measurement of the flow of air over your wings, and it gives you insight into your plane's flight characteristics at a given point in time. Notably it lets you know how close you are to stalling, and with experience you'll know how much you should expect your controls to stiffen up at high speeds.
The second builds on the first, and that climbing is super important. Each plane has an optimal climb speed for sustained climbs. Adjust your pitch until you hit that speed and then hold it there. The angle that you're end up pulling back on the stick will vary depending on your altitude, but you'll know that you're climbing optimally as long as you're holding that IAS. Gaijin's forums have a set of datasheets for all of the planes where you can look up the optimal climb speed. I don't know how accurate it is relative to the current flight models in the game, but you can be fairly confident that the datasheet's number is at least close to your optimal climb speed in game.
First thing I do when I load into a PvE match is to do an Immelmann turn so I'm at ~4300m when the first wave spawns in. There's a 50/50 chance of the first enemy bomber wave will be somewhere behind me, and it's always nice to make my initial approach at 650-700kph while in a 10- to 15-degree dive. Yes, also quickly toggling on combat flaps to wingover onto the enemy tail and make probing shots at 1.5km.
And really, progression already feels pretty quick. It slowed way down when I was putzing around Tier 1 PvE matches, but as soon as I noticed the reward payouts in Tier 2, I've been doing a-ok. 5,000RP on a win means it's just 3 wins to unlock the higher-tier level 2 planes (and 4 wins to unlock a level 3).
| Origin/R*SC: Ein7919 | Battle.net: Erlkonig#1448 | XBL: Lexicanum | Steam: Der Erlkönig (the umlaut is important) |
Heads up, some rare premium vehicles are being pulled out of the vault that can be purchased with war bonds. Notably the German KV1-B. That tank's ability to seal club and all around be overpowered for its tier is war crime level. I'm thinking about grinding for it to make the seasonal events easier.
First thing I do when I load into a PvE match is to do an Immelmann turn so I'm at ~4300m when the first wave spawns in. There's a 50/50 chance of the first enemy bomber wave will be somewhere behind me, and it's always nice to make my initial approach at 650-700kph while in a 10- to 15-degree dive. Yes, also quickly toggling on combat flaps to wingover onto the enemy tail and make probing shots at 1.5km.
And really, progression already feels pretty quick. It slowed way down when I was putzing around Tier 1 PvE matches, but as soon as I noticed the reward payouts in Tier 2, I've been doing a-ok. 5,000RP on a win means it's just 3 wins to unlock the higher-tier level 2 planes (and 4 wins to unlock a level 3).
I would strongly recommend anything with a 37mm++ gun for that. Been doing the same with the Lagg-3-34, russian prem with a 37mm, it dosn't have lots of ammo, but when each hit is a kill. Those 14 rounds are suddenly more than enough for each wave.
The aircobra should be just as good, but without the prem bonus. And if you get gud with the 37mm you will have a much easier time when you finaly cave in and start on the glorious russian air tree!
(I'm not biased at all)
And has anyone dived into the navy yet?
LilleDjevel on
Grass Grows,
Birds Fly,
'til there's Fire in the Sky...
I did a little bit of navy back during the limited tests, but I never got that far into it due to the tests being inconveniently scheduled for me. I'm probably going to try it out again this weekend.
But more on my previous post, anyone who does any combat with German tanks should strongly consider accruing the war bonds for that KV-1B. A page or so back we brushed up against the topic of how the Jumbo Sherman is well positioned in the matchmaker, but the KV-1B makes Jumbo look like a fragile joke. A distressing number of vehicles within the bottom end of its matchmaking range are completely outmatched against it and can not hope to penetrate its armor whatsoever. This is especially true if the opponent's lineup still contains a few lower rank vehicles that normally wouldn't be matched against KV-1B at all. The KV-1B's armor is equally distributed around the tank, so those poor souls can't even flank you. When I started out leveling my British tanks, at times my only hope of penetrating was to close within 10 meters and strike a flat surface at 90 degrees.
Of the vehicles within the KV-1B's matchmaking range that sport guns that are capable of seriously threatening the KV-1B's armor from range, the a sizeable percentage of them are German guns. By placing the KV-1B on the German team, a large chunk of its natural predators are removed from the equation. That leaves it free to seal club like crazy.
Statistics recorded by thunder skill list this tank as having a 76% win rate in realistic battles!!!!!!!
It is OP full stop, but gaijin shows no indication of dealing with it since it's such a rare vehicle. Might as well jump on the gravy train if they're not going to fix it.
I did a little bit of navy back during the limited tests, but I never got that far into it due to the tests being inconveniently scheduled for me. I'm probably going to try it out again this weekend.
But more on my previous post, anyone who does any combat with German tanks should strongly consider accruing the war bonds for that KV-1B. A page or so back we brushed up against the topic of how the Jumbo Sherman is well positioned in the matchmaker, but the KV-1B makes Jumbo look like a fragile joke. A distressing number of vehicles within the bottom end of its matchmaking range are completely outmatched against it and can not hope to penetrate its armor whatsoever. This is especially true if the opponent's lineup still contains a few lower rank vehicles that normally wouldn't be matched against KV-1B at all. The KV-1B's armor is equally distributed around the tank, so those poor souls can't even flank you. When I started out leveling my British tanks, at times my only hope of penetrating was to close within 10 meters and strike a flat surface at 90 degrees.
Of the vehicles within the KV-1B's matchmaking range that sport guns that are capable of seriously threatening the KV-1B's armor from range, the a sizeable percentage of them are German guns. By placing the KV-1B on the German team, a large chunk of its natural predators are removed from the equation. That leaves it free to seal club like crazy.
Statistics recorded by thunder skill list this tank as having a 76% win rate in realistic battles!!!!!!!
It is OP full stop, but gaijin shows no indication of dealing with it since it's such a rare vehicle. Might as well jump on the gravy train if they're not going to fix it.
Wait the monster is back? HYYYYYYYYYPE the kv1b and the Kv220 are the two tanks I straight up regeret not getting when I could get them before....
And ironicly the Kv1E is the exact same tank as the kv1B except that it faces german guns and therefore gets rekt...
Grass Grows,
Birds Fly,
'til there's Fire in the Sky...
Yeah, I'm patching now to try and get on that. The American T20 is also reportedly very good, but it's not the infamous KV-1B.
The war bond shop has changed since how it was a few years ago, although its current iteration has been around for at least a year IIRC. There are three requirements to purchasing the warbond vehicles:
1: Complete daily warbond challenges each day to both earn warbonds but more importantly "upgrade" your access within the warbond shop.
2: Once you've upgraded the shop enough to unlock the vehicle for purchase, you'll obviously need enough warbonds for the purchase. However there is a second resource that you'll need to spend too (see 3)
3: I forget war thunder's term for it, but it's some kind of combat challenge medal. The medals are unlocked by using warbonds to purchase a combat challenge that's similar to a harder version of the warbond dailies, execept it persists until you complete it (you can re-roll for different tasks each day if you think that your challenge is impractical).
Warbonds and combat medals are yours to keep until you spend them, but each month you need to upgrade your war bond shop access again.
edit:
I had meant to save up those challenges to prepare for this day, but I never did. I don't know how many warbonds that I have stockpiled, but I don't think that it will be possible for me to unlock both the T20 and KV-1B. However I feel comfortable that I'll probably be able to get the KV-1B if I prioritize it.
It's annoying, but the new shop is arguably better than the old one where your warbonds expired at the end of the month. At least with this one you can stockpile both warbonds and the challenge medals over time, and then all that you need to do to unlock the vehicles is to upgrade the warbond shop for that month.
edit:
I was wrong. The challenge medals, or special task medals if you use the correct name for them, expire at the end of the month. Warbonds persist though. The warbond cost is also the lion's share of the vehicle cost.
The challenge medal tasks are fucking bullshit, though. Like, "Win 7 Missions with 90% Battle Activity."
Battle Activity makes me want to pound nails through someone's dick. "Oh - you actually climbed up and shot down the bombers so that your team didn't autolose that mission? Instead of diving for the ground and jerking off in the furball so you could pick up 6 kills in 30s which did absolutely nothing to the overall outcome? Well, guess what, you get 25% BA. FUCK YOOOOOUUUUUUUUU!"
Ooh - or I could throw away 1k lions for a chance of something slightly less FUCK OFF.
Ok, I'm done patching and can deliver a more detailed breakdown of how to get the war bond vehicles like the KV-1B. I'm pulling some data from the wiki too.
Each day, you can complete up to two daily war bond tasks. An easy one that's worth 50 warbonds, and a hard one that's worth 100 warbonds. Also of note, apparently there is one daily task amongst the set of tasks that is worth 50% more than the others. So those would be worth 75 or 150 respectively. Meaning that, if you completed both daily tasks, at a minumum you will receive 150 warbonds or a maximum of 225. This month's shop is available for 28 days, so you can score a total of 4200 to 6300 warbonds over that period.
There are lesser prizes within the shop, but the premium vehicles are in tier 5. Tier 5 is unlocked by completing 40 daily tasks. This set of items will be available for 28 more days, so that's 20 days worth of double completion with about a week of wiggle room.
You can purchase as many special battle tasks as you'd like, but only one can be active at a time and each one costs 30 warbonds.
The KV-1B costs 12 special task medals and 3100 warbonds (3460 if you include the cost of 360 warbonds to purchase the 12 special challenges)
The T20 costs 12 special task medals and 3400 warbonds (or 3760 if you include the cost of the task medals).
So if you were to start now, either tank looks like it's within reach so long as you log on each day and are capable of competing those challenges (which IMO should probably be easier than completing the challenges during the operation SUMMER and WINTER events).
Collecting both however looks like it is beyond one's reach if you don't already have a stockpile of warbonds. Personally I already have 2280 warbonds saved up, and I have one active but incomplete special task which effectively is another 30 warbonds. Theoretically I could unlock both tanks if I completed the lucrative challenges for most of the days, but I don't think that I'll bother with that. Sorry T20. My heart belongs to Germany.
I don't have a full list of the daily tasks or special combat tasks, but my experience with the special combat tasks is that they fall into two categories for the most part. Challenges that are easy but grindy (shoot down dozens of players) or potentially very quick but requires high performance on the player's part. For example, my currently active special task is a "quick but high performance" challenge. In particular, I need to complete three games where I earn one of the following awards: Hero of the Sky, Thunderer, Survivor, Mission Maker, Punisher, Wingman, Terror of the Sky, anti-mech, bulletproof, balancer, on hand.
Of those, thunderer/antimech, wingman/on-hand, punisher/balancer, and survivor are the easiest to achieve. Thunder/antimech by disregarding all else to mop up as many ground kills as possible. Wingman/on-hand by following your teammates by attempting to steal their kills with your worst possible ammo belts (to ensure that you don't actually get the kill, haha), and punisher/balancer by putting competitive planes that can punch above their weight on a lineup where one outlier plane drags your entire lineup into a higher matchmaking bracket, and survivor by taking your safest plane and then playing a very conservative match (early jets and the P-47 spring to mind as excellent choices).
The challenge medal tasks are fucking bullshit, though. Like, "Win 7 Missions with 90% Battle Activity."
Battle Activity makes me want to pound nails through someone's dick. "Oh - you actually climbed up and shot down the bombers so that your team didn't autolose that mission? Instead of diving for the ground and jerking off in the furball so you could pick up 6 kills in 30s which did absolutely nothing to the overall outcome? Well, guess what, you get 25% BA. FUCK YOOOOOUUUUUUUUU!"
Ooh - or I could throw away 1k lions for a chance of something slightly less FUCK OFF.
Yeah, ditch that one. Battle activity is bullshit. Especially a 90% battle activity score. I don't know if anyone knows precisely how it works, but it's some function based on the leader's score. So if you're in first place, then you're safe. The top few positions are generally pretty good. However if the leader scores a particularly stellar score then it can screw over players in the middle of the scoreboard.
If you were to try and keep that though, my advice would be to focus all of your efforts on blowing up ground targets. Killing ground targets is worth a disproportionate amount of score relative to more challenging tasks like shooting down a lot of players.
Damnit, I misread which hour the premium time discount ended. I thought that I had the rest of the evening. The huge patch kept me from logging in on a whim to buy premium the other day, and then overtime at work distracted my mind from every remember to just leave my computer on patching. Now it's over for another year
Tempted to find a new job some days.
edit:
Managed to get both dailies done today and complete two of the special challenges. Shoutout to the P-47 for being the very best. It was instrumental at letting me farm Balancer. I just dragged it along in a list where my Do335 and Bf109 G14 pulled it up a few tiers. Basically any kills were 1-2 BR's above me. It also let me grab thunderer a few times due to mopping up all of the machinegun nests with its fifty cals.
Now to wake up two hours early to attend a conference call that I've attended twice now, but was canceled because I was the only one that showed up the past two times.
Oh hay, this thread is strangely active. I haven't played this in ages so lemme know what you want the thread title to be. We could also just close this thread early and one of the active players could start a new one of the mods are OK with that.
I quit ages ago due to the god awful map design and the terrible balancing resulting in Realistic being nothing but P47s everywhere. Tanks weren't a reprieve from air combat's stupidity either since the game intentionally stacked Germans and Russians together resulting in them having a perfect blend of everything. Has Gaijin done anything to make any of that less stupid?
Oh hay, this thread is strangely active. I haven't played this in ages so lemme know what you want the thread title to be. We could also just close this thread early and one of the active players could start a new one of the mods are OK with that.
I quit ages ago due to the god awful map design and the terrible balancing resulting in Realistic being nothing but P47s everywhere. Tanks weren't a reprieve from air combat's stupidity either since the game intentionally stacked Germans and Russians together resulting in them having a perfect blend of everything. Has Gaijin done anything to make any of that less stupid?
Eh maps are still made by a 5 year old. But an adult now pretends to look over them before they are put into the game.
P47 was uptierd so it's not used to club tier 2/1s as much anymore, but it's still a beast.
German and russian teams are still a thing, but the usa/uk stack isn't nice to face. I think the most usual matchup are ussr vs germany and uk/usa vs ussr/ger with japan/france/italy tagging along on randome sides.
Over all it's pretty good now, would say 4.0 BR and around is the most balanced in the game. With all the nations having a good balance with pros and cons.
Grass Grows,
Birds Fly,
'til there's Fire in the Sky...
The "dark alliance" of Russia and Germany is bit less common these days. Still happens though. Now Japan tags along with Germany a lot of the time. I should eventually learn to identify Japan's tanks, but if I see them they're always on my team so I haven't been too concerned.
America and Britain have gotten some nice toys up around the king tiger's matchmaking range. Lots of postwar stuff. Britain enjoys some tanks with some sweet stabilizers.
Edit:
Oh yeah, there are also boats and helicopters now. Some vehicles have ATGMs. This past summer introduced an American jet with a wire guided air to ground missile. A handful of German bombers have the radio guided fritz anti-ship bomb.
The only thing that currently makes GFRB boring is the stupidly overpowerd cas. And gajins complete ignorance about it.
In lower tiers it's not as big a problem as it's mainly bombs/rockets/guns, they all kill you fast enough but it's not like top tier with heli and the FJ-bullshit-232 with agms which currently has 0 counterplay from any type of tank.
Can just hope they actually fix the max range on them as helis can now sit at 6+km wank off and snipe people.... While the current atgm with the most range in game should have a max range of 3.75km..
Grass Grows,
Birds Fly,
'til there's Fire in the Sky...
Wooo! Airacobra gotten! Now I'm working on the P-47, then will work my way to the Hellcat armed with a pair of 20mm cannons (+the four .50cal MGs).
One thing that I've discovered, though, is that vs. the PvE enemy planes, as fun as tracer ammo is, universal seems to be where it's at. Just been melting dang near everything that I point at with those angry AP-incendiary rounds.
Erlkönig on
| Origin/R*SC: Ein7919 | Battle.net: Erlkonig#1448 | XBL: Lexicanum | Steam: Der Erlkönig (the umlaut is important) |
Depends on the weapon. Tracer belts are very good right now on the p-47 D's, but often I prefer stealth belts in PvP. Nothing like the first hint that someone gets that I'm shooting at them is when a 20mm or 30mm minengeschoss round explodes inside their fuselage.
This was after my duck took down eight fighters. Seven of which I shot down, the eighth rammed me from behind as I was trying to RTB while on fire with one engine, no wingtips, and ruined control surfaces.
I hope that anyone who's trying to get some of the warbond shop vehicles is having luck so far. Thanks to my existing stockpile of warbonds, I have enough to unlock the KV-1B now, but I still need to complete more dailies to unlock the level 5 shop. I've completed seven out of the twelve special combat tasks so far.
I was interested in those, but don't they require tier 5 ground vehicles? It'd take me probably a solid year at my usual play rate to unlock even one given the RP caps in ground mode, and that's assuming I was actually competent with tanks.
I was interested in those, but don't they require tier 5 ground vehicles? It'd take me probably a solid year at my usual play rate to unlock even one given the RP caps in ground mode, and that's assuming I was actually competent with tanks.
RP cap is gone, you can easily rack up 20k xp at tier 5/6. And you need a tier 5 plane OR tank. To get a heli.
But you want a top tier tank to go with your heli anyway as the heli only mode is hot garbage.
Grass Grows,
Birds Fly,
'til there's Fire in the Sky...
Yeah, I'd mostly given up on tanks because even unlocking tier 3/4 vehicles was a horrific pain in the ass given how glacial the progress was, and I was mainly interested in mid-tier stuff like that anyway. If they fixed the RP gain they removed my main reason not to bother, so yay for that.
Meanwhile, I suuuuuuuuuck at boats and I don't care at all because floaty chaos is fun.
Definitely understand how ships fighting big-gun duels could spam 375819753 rounds at each other and score, like, three hits.
I've bumped into the warbond cap, but I don't want to buy anything since the only things I'd kinda want cost special combat challenges as well and I don't feel like grinding out a single extra one.
I have 10 out of 12 of my special challenges done, and I'm making good progress with the dailies. I re-roll every daily that relies on my team doing anything whatsoever. I've been having the worst luck with my allies. All of the allies. See below and what shot me down.
I'm continuing to enjoy boats immensely. The aircraft feel much better-integrated with it than they do in tank battles for some reason, though I'm also still low tier so I might not be feeling high-level fighter-bombers yet.
Aerial recon/cover being a Thing is really cool though.
Posts
https://warthunder.com/en/news/5852-special-news-war-thunder-s-birthday-discounts-and-gifts-en
It looks like they also brought back some premium vehicles. I guess that the premium Hs-129-B2 has been moved to Italy's tree? I still own it from when it was available to germany. It's really good in arcade battle dogfights. It shouldn't be, but it is. It is unreal how many air kills that I have in this thing. It's slow and not that agile, but I think that the slow speed messes with people. It also tends to have a superior turning circle than what I'm fighting, however that's only because I'm slow and they're moving far faster. People like to take it on head-to-head, and it has twin MG-151 20mm cannons and a mk103 30mm cannon. The pilot is also protected by an armored bathtub and a thick slab of bullet proof glass. Don't head on it folks.
Also, notably, it is the best at belly landings. Better than the Me262 at belly landings even. Seriously, don't even waste your time slowing down to land with landing gear. It's faster to belly land and repair.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
I know that you said that your heart is with the Navy planes, but IMO you really need to eventually make room for the P-47 in your arcade lineups. It's fast and carries a huge ordnance load. You can do what I did with my Do217. Race everyone to the cluster of fragile light vehicles and splatter them by dropping a bunch of big bombs. You won't really be in the best position for surviving after such a rush, but you'll already have the money so who cares? If you can't disengage, then the P-47 still has enough guns up front that you should be able to take at least one person down with you in a head to head. You can then spend the rest of the match in your navy planes.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
So, here's the thing: I run almost exclusively the co-op battles. The only 'light vehicles' that spawn are stationary howitzers. As it is, with tracer ammo, I've been able to line up and take out 3-4 per strafing run pass. What's even better, though, is that I don't have to sacrifice maneuverability to load up bombs for the other 12 waves.
That all being said, I have been having to go down the USAF branch just to progress down the tech levels (there's no way I'm touching bombers, and I am definitely not a USN dive-bomber). I currently have the P-51 unlocked (to get to the P-47), but I'm kinda eyeballing that sweet, sweet 37mm cannon action of the Airacobra (plus, the lower respawn price is pretty nice, too).
Also, a correction: looks like without a premium aircraft and while not having premium time active, I've been getting 2,000-2,500 RP per match where I'm not at the top of the charts (last night I was getting ~2,450RP at second place).
Looking at the rewards with a premium account active, I might toss Gaijin a few dollars to get that going.
What I meant about bombing the light vehicles is that killing a bunch is worth far more than killing an equal number piecemeal. My Do217 earned so many silver lions not because I killed 14 ground vehicles, but because I killed them in such rapid succession that I achieved a huge multi-kill count. The growth of the reward is not linear, so a multi-kill x14 is worth a lot more than a two multi-kill x7 or four multi-kill x4.
I also thought that you were playing regular arcade matches. A lot of the american planes start getting pretty competitive once they start mounting 4+ fifty cals on them.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
On a PVE win (placed second on the scoreboard) I got the following:
Silver Eagles: 32k
Research Points: 5k
I could get used to that.
Of course, on the flip side, when I got teamed with windowlickers and we lost by wave 4 or 5, the payout was:
SE: 3k-5k
RP: 300-500
On one of those losses, I was actively strafing right to left on the passive fighter/bomber wave. Had a guy line up immediately off my left wing. While I was zoomed in to make sure my shots are hitting where I want them to. After the collision, he kept setting up on my ass shooting at me.
I also just remembered a few new player tips. I don't know how experience you are with flight sims in general, or if you'd already know this, but I'm going to assume that it will be helpful and share it anyway.
First, if you haven't already, make certain that you speed is being displayed as in air speed (IAS) instead of true speed. IAS is a measurement of the flow of air over your wings, and it gives you insight into your plane's flight characteristics at a given point in time. Notably it lets you know how close you are to stalling, and with experience you'll know how much you should expect your controls to stiffen up at high speeds.
The second builds on the first, and that climbing is super important. Each plane has an optimal climb speed for sustained climbs. Adjust your pitch until you hit that speed and then hold it there. The angle that you're end up pulling back on the stick will vary depending on your altitude, but you'll know that you're climbing optimally as long as you're holding that IAS. Gaijin's forums have a set of datasheets for all of the planes where you can look up the optimal climb speed. I don't know how accurate it is relative to the current flight models in the game, but you can be fairly confident that the datasheet's number is at least close to your optimal climb speed in game.
https://forum.warthunder.com/index.php?/forum/312-aircraft-data-sheets/
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
And really, progression already feels pretty quick. It slowed way down when I was putzing around Tier 1 PvE matches, but as soon as I noticed the reward payouts in Tier 2, I've been doing a-ok. 5,000RP on a win means it's just 3 wins to unlock the higher-tier level 2 planes (and 4 wins to unlock a level 3).
Heads up, some rare premium vehicles are being pulled out of the vault that can be purchased with war bonds. Notably the German KV1-B. That tank's ability to seal club and all around be overpowered for its tier is war crime level. I'm thinking about grinding for it to make the seasonal events easier.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
I would strongly recommend anything with a 37mm++ gun for that. Been doing the same with the Lagg-3-34, russian prem with a 37mm, it dosn't have lots of ammo, but when each hit is a kill. Those 14 rounds are suddenly more than enough for each wave.
The aircobra should be just as good, but without the prem bonus. And if you get gud with the 37mm you will have a much easier time when you finaly cave in and start on the glorious russian air tree!
(I'm not biased at all)
And has anyone dived into the navy yet?
Birds Fly,
'til there's Fire in the Sky...
But more on my previous post, anyone who does any combat with German tanks should strongly consider accruing the war bonds for that KV-1B. A page or so back we brushed up against the topic of how the Jumbo Sherman is well positioned in the matchmaker, but the KV-1B makes Jumbo look like a fragile joke. A distressing number of vehicles within the bottom end of its matchmaking range are completely outmatched against it and can not hope to penetrate its armor whatsoever. This is especially true if the opponent's lineup still contains a few lower rank vehicles that normally wouldn't be matched against KV-1B at all. The KV-1B's armor is equally distributed around the tank, so those poor souls can't even flank you. When I started out leveling my British tanks, at times my only hope of penetrating was to close within 10 meters and strike a flat surface at 90 degrees.
Of the vehicles within the KV-1B's matchmaking range that sport guns that are capable of seriously threatening the KV-1B's armor from range, the a sizeable percentage of them are German guns. By placing the KV-1B on the German team, a large chunk of its natural predators are removed from the equation. That leaves it free to seal club like crazy.
Edit :
http://thunderskill.com/en/vehicle/germ_kv_1B_finland
Statistics recorded by thunder skill list this tank as having a 76% win rate in realistic battles!!!!!!!
It is OP full stop, but gaijin shows no indication of dealing with it since it's such a rare vehicle. Might as well jump on the gravy train if they're not going to fix it.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
Wait the monster is back? HYYYYYYYYYPE the kv1b and the Kv220 are the two tanks I straight up regeret not getting when I could get them before....
And ironicly the Kv1E is the exact same tank as the kv1B except that it faces german guns and therefore gets rekt...
Birds Fly,
'til there's Fire in the Sky...
The war bond shop has changed since how it was a few years ago, although its current iteration has been around for at least a year IIRC. There are three requirements to purchasing the warbond vehicles:
1: Complete daily warbond challenges each day to both earn warbonds but more importantly "upgrade" your access within the warbond shop.
2: Once you've upgraded the shop enough to unlock the vehicle for purchase, you'll obviously need enough warbonds for the purchase. However there is a second resource that you'll need to spend too (see 3)
3: I forget war thunder's term for it, but it's some kind of combat challenge medal. The medals are unlocked by using warbonds to purchase a combat challenge that's similar to a harder version of the warbond dailies, execept it persists until you complete it (you can re-roll for different tasks each day if you think that your challenge is impractical).
Warbonds and combat medals are yours to keep until you spend them, but each month you need to upgrade your war bond shop access again.
edit:
I had meant to save up those challenges to prepare for this day, but I never did. I don't know how many warbonds that I have stockpiled, but I don't think that it will be possible for me to unlock both the T20 and KV-1B. However I feel comfortable that I'll probably be able to get the KV-1B if I prioritize it.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
Like, GA's post above me just pisses me off something fierce.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
edit:
I was wrong. The challenge medals, or special task medals if you use the correct name for them, expire at the end of the month. Warbonds persist though. The warbond cost is also the lion's share of the vehicle cost.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
Battle Activity makes me want to pound nails through someone's dick. "Oh - you actually climbed up and shot down the bombers so that your team didn't autolose that mission? Instead of diving for the ground and jerking off in the furball so you could pick up 6 kills in 30s which did absolutely nothing to the overall outcome? Well, guess what, you get 25% BA. FUCK YOOOOOUUUUUUUUU!"
Ooh - or I could throw away 1k lions for a chance of something slightly less FUCK OFF.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
So if you were to start now, either tank looks like it's within reach so long as you log on each day and are capable of competing those challenges (which IMO should probably be easier than completing the challenges during the operation SUMMER and WINTER events).
Collecting both however looks like it is beyond one's reach if you don't already have a stockpile of warbonds. Personally I already have 2280 warbonds saved up, and I have one active but incomplete special task which effectively is another 30 warbonds. Theoretically I could unlock both tanks if I completed the lucrative challenges for most of the days, but I don't think that I'll bother with that. Sorry T20. My heart belongs to Germany.
I don't have a full list of the daily tasks or special combat tasks, but my experience with the special combat tasks is that they fall into two categories for the most part. Challenges that are easy but grindy (shoot down dozens of players) or potentially very quick but requires high performance on the player's part. For example, my currently active special task is a "quick but high performance" challenge. In particular, I need to complete three games where I earn one of the following awards: Hero of the Sky, Thunderer, Survivor, Mission Maker, Punisher, Wingman, Terror of the Sky, anti-mech, bulletproof, balancer, on hand.
Of those, thunderer/antimech, wingman/on-hand, punisher/balancer, and survivor are the easiest to achieve. Thunder/antimech by disregarding all else to mop up as many ground kills as possible. Wingman/on-hand by following your teammates by attempting to steal their kills with your worst possible ammo belts (to ensure that you don't actually get the kill, haha), and punisher/balancer by putting competitive planes that can punch above their weight on a lineup where one outlier plane drags your entire lineup into a higher matchmaking bracket, and survivor by taking your safest plane and then playing a very conservative match (early jets and the P-47 spring to mind as excellent choices).
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
Yeah, ditch that one. Battle activity is bullshit. Especially a 90% battle activity score. I don't know if anyone knows precisely how it works, but it's some function based on the leader's score. So if you're in first place, then you're safe. The top few positions are generally pretty good. However if the leader scores a particularly stellar score then it can screw over players in the middle of the scoreboard.
If you were to try and keep that though, my advice would be to focus all of your efforts on blowing up ground targets. Killing ground targets is worth a disproportionate amount of score relative to more challenging tasks like shooting down a lot of players.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
Tempted to find a new job some days.
edit:
Managed to get both dailies done today and complete two of the special challenges. Shoutout to the P-47 for being the very best. It was instrumental at letting me farm Balancer. I just dragged it along in a list where my Do335 and Bf109 G14 pulled it up a few tiers. Basically any kills were 1-2 BR's above me. It also let me grab thunderer a few times due to mopping up all of the machinegun nests with its fifty cals.
Now to wake up two hours early to attend a conference call that I've attended twice now, but was canceled because I was the only one that showed up the past two times.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
I quit ages ago due to the god awful map design and the terrible balancing resulting in Realistic being nothing but P47s everywhere. Tanks weren't a reprieve from air combat's stupidity either since the game intentionally stacked Germans and Russians together resulting in them having a perfect blend of everything. Has Gaijin done anything to make any of that less stupid?
Eh maps are still made by a 5 year old. But an adult now pretends to look over them before they are put into the game.
P47 was uptierd so it's not used to club tier 2/1s as much anymore, but it's still a beast.
German and russian teams are still a thing, but the usa/uk stack isn't nice to face. I think the most usual matchup are ussr vs germany and uk/usa vs ussr/ger with japan/france/italy tagging along on randome sides.
Over all it's pretty good now, would say 4.0 BR and around is the most balanced in the game. With all the nations having a good balance with pros and cons.
Birds Fly,
'til there's Fire in the Sky...
America and Britain have gotten some nice toys up around the king tiger's matchmaking range. Lots of postwar stuff. Britain enjoys some tanks with some sweet stabilizers.
Edit:
Oh yeah, there are also boats and helicopters now. Some vehicles have ATGMs. This past summer introduced an American jet with a wire guided air to ground missile. A handful of German bombers have the radio guided fritz anti-ship bomb.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
In lower tiers it's not as big a problem as it's mainly bombs/rockets/guns, they all kill you fast enough but it's not like top tier with heli and the FJ-bullshit-232 with agms which currently has 0 counterplay from any type of tank.
Can just hope they actually fix the max range on them as helis can now sit at 6+km wank off and snipe people.... While the current atgm with the most range in game should have a max range of 3.75km..
Birds Fly,
'til there's Fire in the Sky...
One thing that I've discovered, though, is that vs. the PvE enemy planes, as fun as tracer ammo is, universal seems to be where it's at. Just been melting dang near everything that I point at with those angry AP-incendiary rounds.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
Birds Fly,
'til there's Fire in the Sky...
This was after my duck took down eight fighters. Seven of which I shot down, the eighth rammed me from behind as I was trying to RTB while on fire with one engine, no wingtips, and ruined control surfaces.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
Birds Fly,
'til there's Fire in the Sky...
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
Apparently I haven't patched the game in awhile?
Time to see how much I suck at boats.
(And planes, given I apparently missed two major updates...)
and helicopters.
RP cap is gone, you can easily rack up 20k xp at tier 5/6. And you need a tier 5 plane OR tank. To get a heli.
But you want a top tier tank to go with your heli anyway as the heli only mode is hot garbage.
Birds Fly,
'til there's Fire in the Sky...
Only fun if you are on the murican side as it's pretty much an auto win.
Birds Fly,
'til there's Fire in the Sky...
Meanwhile, I suuuuuuuuuck at boats and I don't care at all because floaty chaos is fun.
Definitely understand how ships fighting big-gun duels could spam 375819753 rounds at each other and score, like, three hits.
I have 10 out of 12 of my special challenges done, and I'm making good progress with the dailies. I re-roll every daily that relies on my team doing anything whatsoever. I've been having the worst luck with my allies. All of the allies. See below and what shot me down.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
Aerial recon/cover being a Thing is really cool though.