How to enter the jet space and not instantly die in War Thunder.
Early Jets
Going from propeller aircraft to jets is a big step and you have to change your mindset.
Early jets try to gently prepare you for top-rank jets but it does not do a good job, but if you follow these simple rules you will have a much better time.
スピード
Speed is everything with jets, if you lose speed you are a sitting duck. You did realize this until you snap another player who is below 600 km/h. When you are doing 700 km/h+ and you see someone who looks like they are hovering you have an easy kill because they cannot maneuver and they cannot run. You don’t want to be a sitting duck, don’t slow down even for a missed opportunity.
Prime reasons for losing too much speed are:
- Dog fighting. This is coddled with low-rank jets but if you do serious turns at the high rank you want to make sure you have time to build that speed back up.
- Missile avoidance maneuvers
- Climbing loop
If you want to do a climbing loop to save energy, make sure there isn’t another enemy around that can get you at the top of the loop. If you are following an enemy into a climbing loop and there is also someone on your tail I would advise against it. Better to allow the enemy to be a sitting duck for your team rather than both of you or even worse, yourself being slapped down.
If you want to change directions but have an enemy on your tail then better to loop down to maintain energy.
The top rank is all about max speed, you don’t want to lose it unless it is to your advantage.
Top Ranking Jets
Late Jets
The same rules from Early Jets apply to late jets, don’t lose your speed or you are back to the hangar. But there are more easy to follow rules since there is more advanced weaponry.
レーダー
- Two types, one detects enemy jets and the other one can track them by giving their direction and distance. IN real battles radar won’t work at all if you are looking below the horizon.
Radar Warning Receiver (RWR)
- Will let you know someone is locking you with radar and what direction.
Radar Missile
- All aspects mean they can track from all directions, not just behind like IR. If you don’t have RWR you won’t know they are coming unless you see them get launched (white trail of smoke)
IR missile
- Launched from behind.
フレア
- They help to misdirect missiles but are not needed if you know how to avoid missiles
Avoiding missiles
- Early missiles are very easy to avoid as long as you are paying attention. If you see one launched then wait until it is within about 1 km and do a moderate turn.
- Late missiles like the R60 can be avoided, just wait until about the 2 km mark and do a moderate turn, roll 180 度, and moderate turn in the opposite direction.
Paying attention
- Most of my game will be watching by 6 and enemy locations with quick glances for idle enemy or enemy too busy chasing a friendly they won’t notice my missile.
Someone on your tail
- This isn’t a bad thing if you know what you are doing, your team knows how to shoot at an enemy and the enemy on your 6 は 1.5 km or greater.
- The worst thing to do at this point is to do hard turns. The best thing you can do is keep him busy and flight as straight as possible to give your teammates the easiest possible target. Missiles will be your biggest threat, but once you know how to shake them then this is fairly easy.
- If the enemy is on your tail and under 1.5 km then you have to worry about his guns, you still don’t have to hard turn, just jig around a little unless he is right on you then pull some hard maneuvers, it will drain your energy and he will either overshoot or he will stick with you and become a sitting duck as well.
Targets of opportunity
- You don’t want to engage everything you come across in high-rank jets. if someone just zipped past you in a head-on you don’t have to turn to get him. You have a team and one of them might be in a better position to get him.
- You want to pick your fights, look for the enemy absorbed in chasing a friend or the guy at the top of a loop who has little energy left.
Exceptions
- There are exceptions to these rules. Jets like the mid 19 and F5C are able to maintain and build speed quickly and these sort sorts of jets play much like a WW2 prop. But the rule of speed still applies, if it drops below 800 km/h then you are again, a sitting duck for missiles but for these jets it is easy to do a hard turn and still have 900 km/h.