Computers - http://maxpages.com/catzmm/WWII

With the celebrations over the return of the World War II fighter sims turning into a fading memory, it doesn't take a lot of stick time to notice something that seems a bit odd. Although all of the major holiday releases model the same theater of operations, each of them have very different "personalities." The dogfights in European Air War, World War II Fighters, and Combat Flight Simulator just don't play out the same way. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the tactics that the computer pilots use. In Jane's WWII Fighters, the computer plays a mean game of cat-and-mouse, fighting far more aggressively than one finds in the competition. It will take every ounce of skill and every trick you can muster to win when you encounter enemy aces in this game. To give you an edge against an enemy who gives no quarter and asks for none, this article is designed to add a few extras to your bag of tricks.

Easy does it when you're on the strafing run
Where'd he go?!
In previous tips articles, I've never failed to point out ways to improve orientation and situational awareness. This is simply because that awareness is the unequivocal foundation of any kind of skillful dogfighting. Otherwise, you're simply drawing donuts in the sky. Keeping your orientation in WW II Fighters is a bit tricky during some violent dogfighting manuevers. While the cockpit does feature canopy reflections and other points of reference, the narrow field of view and "instant on" head tracking conspire to have you staring into blank space too often with little idea of where you're looking and where you're going. Fighters with bubble canopies tend to make the problem worse since there is no cockpit frame around you to hint at the aircraft's orientation.

It may sound like anathema at first, but unless the enemy is within a sixty-degree arc from the front of your nose, the best way to keep on top of things is with the F7 view. This view will keep you oriented in almost all conditions; the only exceptions are when the enemy is high above you or you're flying away from the enemy at very low altitude. Jumping between F5 and F7 should keep you on top of things, then back to F1 when you get behind the target and need to aim for the shot.

The slats on the BF109 can really give you some grief if you're not careful
Maneuver me this
When it comes to combat maneuvers in WWII Fighters, smoothness is the name of the game. Most games will allow you to change direction pretty abruptly without problem, as long as you don't pull back on the stick hard enough to stall the plane. Here, your aircraft doesn't behave well until it "settles" into whatever move you're trying to make. Jerking the stick at all tends to upset the angle-of-attack, making the aircraft pitch about without really accomplishing anything.

For motorsports fans out there, it may help to think of your fighter like a racecar. If the driver turns extremely abruptly and backs off, the suspension will get compressed beyond the equilibrium point, the springs will exert a great return force, but then the load suddenly lets up as the driver backs off on the wheel. Suddenly unweighted, the overcompressed springs help unload the chassis further, and for a moment the car has less weight on the tires where it needs it most, causing it to lose grip or spin out. Of course, your fighter won't use tires and springs in dogfighting, but it does have inertia, angle-of-attack, and wing loading, which actually behave in a very similar manner. The key to remember is that just like the race car driver needs to be smooth on the wheel, you need to be smooth on the stick.

Nothing makes a prettier bonfire than unescorted bomber formations
There's a bit more to remember about flying at the edge. The warning cues for stall buffeting in WWII Fighters aren't as obvious as in other prop simulations. To help keep you on top of the situation, you should always have the "pop-up" airspeed indicator activated (the "Y" key by default). During a lot of the vertical maneuvers you'll tend to use in dogfighting, your airspeed will momentarily drop well below 200 mph. Just ever so gently ease the nose down and you can escape getting into an advanced stall. Being cautious at the bottom edge of your performance envelope is particularly important on fighters like the Bf 109 and P-51, where heavy stalls are accompanied by sharp rolls.

A last word on maneuvering tactics: Don't be too shy to use the rudder in a dogfight. The rudder can add extra "kick" to your roll in a scissors dogfight, give you some control when the ailerons aren't working well, and adjust your nose attitude in a break turn. Just don't forget how "elastic" the yaw from the rudder is. Ease it back into place when you're done, don't just let it "snap" back violently.

Disoriented yet? Here's where that F7 view will save you
Guns 'n' butter? Naw, just guns
Most WW II sims teach you to be really frugal with your ammunition. You can safely lean into the guns a little more in this game. You have a little cheating ammo counter at your disposal, and you'll find that it only takes a couple hits to effectively knock out someone from the battle. If you find yourself getting shot down with a more than half of your ammo stores going unused, you're probably being too conservative.

If you have gunnery difficulty set to anything less than "hard," your guns will automatically track the target if you're lined up reasonably well. The problem with auto-tracking is that is doesn't pull lead very accurately on a target moving laterally across your sights. This isn't so bad as long as you keep it in mind. Any slow-moving target is extremely vulnerable, making the Immelman-happy AI pilots easy kills when they go vertical.

Call it cheating or call it survival—in this kind of dogfight the external view is definitely a tool you can put to use
One of the problems that you'll share with real WW II pilots is that when you pull lead on a wildly maneuvering target, part of the canopy or nose blocks your view. Now you can always simply turn off the cockpit to avoid this problem, but there is a more inventive solution. Instead of simply lining up your nose and pulling hard, maneuver to put the target off center. In most planes, you can see further below on either side of the gunsight mount. The objective is still to put your sight in front of the target's apparent path of motion, but by being able to actually see what's happening, you won't have to shoot blindly.

The computer is a crack shot at head-on passes. To survive a joust with the computer, you'll have to do one of two things. Either you nail him first with your cannon, or you give him the worst shot possible by diving underneath at full power, flying at a high deflection angle with small jinks one way or the other, particularly if you see smoke erupting from his gunports. Diving may help. The point is to make the shot as difficult as possible.

At the default seat adjustments, the guns tend to fire just a little high
Strange as it may sound, you do have the ability to exert some control over the actions of the enemy. For the sake of gameplay, one of the most useful things you can do is to fool the AI into doubling back on you. If you are chasing after a fighter at roughly the same altitude and he has the speed advantage, he'll just keep on running until you "give up the chase," at which point he'll come around to get you from behind. When you are in such a chase with the computer, simply pull your nose about 30 to 45 degrees away from the target. Watch for the computer pilot to pull up into the vertical, half-roll over the top and come back charging right at you. With some planning and a little luck, you can tag him over the top of the loop, make a head on pass if you're feeling brave, or start a reversal of your own in the hopes of catching him as he sails on past.

Pound that ground
Finally, a couple quick words about air-to-ground. Assuming that there are no anti-air positions present, the best way to crack enemy ground units is really with your HVAR rockets. Drop the bombs an any AAA sites as quickly as possible, then set yourself up for single HVAR shots—a lot of bright young men at Caltech put in a lot of hours designing those rockets to give you an edge in wrecking ground units, so don't let it go to waste. With practice, you should be able to kill almost any ground target with three rockets or fewer.

Get a little crazy with those guns—there's plenty to go around
Whether it's with your rockets or guns, the trick to a good strafing run lies in the approach. Once you pull your nose onto the target and level off, remember to give the plane a moment to settle down. Then execute a very shallow bank in the direction of the target and allow it to drift into your gunsight. All your stick motions at this time should be very mild and finessed. Common errors here are using the rudder and banking far enough to put the "lift" vector right on the target. The rudder doesn't change your actual direction of travel much, throwing off your shot and worse, the moment you release it, the fighter will shake its head like a horse confronted by a rattlesnake. Likewise, banking hard into the target causes you to overshoot the angle repeatedly. Force yourself to take your time—a little patience early on pays big dividends.

mmorphon00@yahoo.com

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Page Updated Mon Feb 28, 2000 8:25pm EST