So I fell in love with the Ju 87 "Stuka" today. So much so that I commissioned Myuu to sketch one for me on her stream at http://www.twitch.tv/myuurin Here is the finished result: EDIT: Marking this down here for posterity- 10/09/2013 is the date my beloved Ju-87 B-2 gained its name "The Ugly Duckling" ("Das hässliche Entlein"), and then shortly after destroyed its first medium tank. A properly executed Stuka divebomb from 3000m altitude onto a hapless tank trundling along a road, at about 700m the tank tried to veer off the road to avoid its impending doom but one small nudge to the rudder and a slap to the "bomb release" button put paid to that. Very happy today.
LOVING the german planes. Didnt really like the Stuka but I am not a bomber and using it as a fighter failed horribly, but oh god are the bfs awesome. I am currently owning them from the Emil up to the Gustav and I love every single one of them. Had a battle where I killed 8 with the Gustav today and then 4 more with 2 other bfs. Another time I even killed 14 total, and in average I am getting around 5-6 kills per battle. The german planes are really really awesome, at least in arcade.
The 109's are beautiful planes as long as you don't use them for something they aren't built for. Boom and zoom or a wing over pass and your golden, but try to scissor or turn and your toast. A straight run wont help you either as you suffer around a 60-90kph disadvantage over your rivals in most cases. Instead your power to weight ratio will save you in the straight accel race while climbing, well unless its Russian Yaks. Then your just dead.
So far the 109 is dovetailing well into my experience from American planes, although I can't seem to kill shit with the 109-E, something about the cannons makes it hard for me to hit anything, I don't really know what though, in theory they look fine.
The Stukas without cannons are less than useless if you try and use them like fighters, especially carrying a bomb load. That said, there are a few fun tricks you can play on enemy fighters that might just get you the edge (or let you escape), like a steep dive that your airframe can definitely withstand but most others will almost always rip themselves apart on. Treat the Stuka as it was in real life- a difficult to maneuver precision bomber good for that and not much else.
The stuka has its bright moments and sometimes I even managed to kill a fighter with the reargun... but this is rare
I can kill lots of idiots with the rear gun, they think the twin .30's are useless, right up until I put one between their eyes.
Well, I've only used the rear gun on the B-2 and R-2 which is, quite frankly, bloody awful. A single 7.92 MG. Yuck. On top of that you have the choice of switching to your rear gunner and giving up combat maneuvering or letting the AI do the work and having him shoot at passing butterflies.
D-3 model stukas and later versions get 2x 7.92 MG81 in their turret, which quite frankly is a gigantic improvement over the 1x 7.92 MG15. D-5 is probably the best stuka in the game, considering tier to performance ratio. Only one problem: no sirens
It's a damn shame only the B-2 mounts the Trumpet of Jericho. Easily my favourite part of the Stuka experience. Heck, I'd pay golden eagles just to attach it to the other models.
I just got my BF 109 G-6, I did not realize how over the top a 30mm cannon would be. Stepping from 20mm to it has been a huge game changer. I mount the additional guns on any plane I can for arcade. Is there any planes that still fly well with the additional gun pods on them in historical?
I just got my BF 109 G-6, I did not realize how over the top a 30mm cannon would be. Stepping from 20mm to it has been a huge game changer. I mount the additional guns on any plane I can for arcade. Is there any planes that still fly well with the additional gun pods on them in historical?
No, if you mount anything extra, including bombs on bombers, your flight model suffers noticeably. The one time id deem it acceptable is with the G-6, just because the DM associated with the German 30mm cannons is completely fucked up right now. Half the times you hit it doesn't register, the other half it registers as an adjustment round, basically a big flare so you know where your shots are landing in respect to your target. So you don't do damage on most of your HB firing of the 30mm, instead the 20mm work great and the pair of them is more then enough in most cases to wipe the floor with allied fighters. The worst part of bringing them though, is you suffer climb penalties, and as a result, cant do the one thing your good at. Climb.
