Two ways to play the Stuka.

One of the reoccurring themes on the World of Warplanes forums is the discussion of Attack Aircraft. Sadly, most times it brings out the "not so best" of comments and opinions. Let me summarize my interpretation of what I usually read....

"GA are not real planes....only low skill floor players use them....easy to fail to the top with them....they don't contribute to competitive play....it takes more skill to fly Fighters/Heavy Fighters....GA will never determine the outcome of a battle among truly skilled players"

I have read stuff like that and even more, since I first started playing, so long ago now. Most times, I just keep my tongue in check and refrain from making any comments that would fan the flames and derail the ongoing discussion.

However, I can see and understand where those who have grown to dislike seeing GA's in battles, are coming from. I have witnessed, first hand, players who play totally focused on just destroying ground targets. Either they are ignoring or just oblivious to what else is going on around them, stuck in "tunnel vision" mode. I have been caught in that mode many times, myself.

For me, it's frustrating to watch, if I stick around in the battle after I have been removed from the action. I will observe those players, who seem either unwilling to take the chance on aerial combat or truly lack the skill to modify their role in the sortie.

But, that is just talking about GA's in general, let's get to the specifics. The Soviet Attack Aircraft branch have been a mainstay of the game, far before it was even officially released. They are tough, slow and if used wrong, an easy target for for those who can this "poor play" to their advantage. The German GA line sheds some of the toughness for a slight advantage in maneuverability, but once again, it comes down to how it's being used.

Which brings me to the Stuka. Compared to the IL of the same tier, the Stuka gives up an optional bomb load and a hitpoints for guns that can hit very hard. Flying with the stock 20 mm cannons can be an exercise in patience  versus ground targets, but be moderately effective against aerial targets. The 30 mm cannons are slow firing, but wreak havoc against ground targets and can pound away hitpoints from just about any enemy aircraft, if you can line the sights up.

Having said that, I present two examples of the Stuka, flown by me, in both a winning defensive and offensive victories.

Defense for the win.

Before I continue, I want to state I really dislike battles that play out this way. The scenario in brief was this; both teams are wiped out, leaving myself and an enemy P-51A standing. Taking on a Mustang with a Stuka, solo, isn't what I considered to be the wisest of moves, so I used the map to my advantage....

....by staying within the "green zone" and very close to the still active AA guns. Simply put, I wanted to bank on the Supremacy lead for the win, since I knew the P-51A didn't have enough sustained firepower to turn the tide to their favor. However, I also knew the Stuka couldn't go toe-to-toe with an aircraft that had an energy advantage, namely climbing and turning. In this situation, it turned into the "waiting game" and a very long one at that. Here is the replay, best viewed with the 1.8.2 client....

Replay: http://wowpflights.com/replays/download/825/ 

Offense for the win.

Now, these are the battles I live for, action, drama and a good dose of suspense. While others have stated, over and over, all of the "real action" happens up high, here is an example where the same thing can and does happen a little closer to the Earth.

This one played a little something like this; I start off being the "typical" GA player, just concerned with attacking ground targets. Then, my team is mostly defeated when I make the choice to end this battle, on my terms.

With the enemy team continuing to attack friendly ground targets, they give away their position to me. All I had to do was disengage the ground, fly on over and take the battle to the air. Two planes fall in quick succession and after a bit of a drawn out turn fight....

....the third and last enemy plane becomes ashes. More often then not, there is where other GA players fail to capitalize on the given situation. If I chose to hide, the enemy team would have collected and surpassed my team in Supremacy. Perhaps, one or more of them might have come looking for me, adding another kill and ending the battle that much quicker. For me, I had only one choice to follow through on, not allow either fate to happen. The replay of how that all went down....

Replay: http://wowpflights.com/replays/download/826/

Two battles won, presented from two different tactics, from the same player. Luck or skill? You be the judge.

Just in time for the party!

Although I won't be around much this week, I will post some of my findings and adventures while I am here, time permitting of course. And, my brief "welcome back" had a few surprises to start my return off right, or so I thought.

It was time to party, both my tier IV premium Soviet Attack Aircraft, LBSh, and Beta/after release reward tier IV premium American Fighter, Model 81A-1, were having birthdays. Meh, why not see if I can collect some prizes?

I saddled up with my old "tried and true" performer, the LBSh, and was on the losing team for the first two battles. I was most not-impressed with this less than stellar start....

The first battle was a blow-out disaster. Part of the problem was the fact I haven't played in 2 weeks and jumped into a Live battle, cold. That and coupled with the fact, I played in a "ground attack only" role. The other part of why things went wrong, my team was out played, plain and simple.

The second battle was on a different map, but the same story as the first. My team was taken apart plane by plane and I was saved for last, swarmed by a wave of reds.

However, third time was the charm, as they say. My team held together and our semi-cohesion won the day, finally.

Things were very different for the Model 81A-1. First, I got my favorite map, Winter War. Second, I was the top tiered plane for our team. Thirdly, and most importantly, my team played their aircraft to their absolute strengths. The enemy A5M did give me a hard time, but my Curtiss held together for the win.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring, since today's parties are over....

Time to climb out and walk away, for a short while.

With June right around the corner and my real life about to become very busy, I have to step back from this blog for a while. Between some intense training and employment activities, I will be putting this hobby on hold, but I do look forward to returning to this and continuing on, as time permits.

Before I pause my current adventures and commentary in World of Warplanes, I want to thank all of those who took the time to read this and the other posts I have made previously. Even if a few people got some entertainment/information value from this endevour, than one of my goals for doing this has been satisfied.

Anyways, on with my final train of thought.

With the "Planes Birthdays" on activated, I figured I would take a shot at collecting either from my tier VII American Multi-Role Fighter, F2G Super Corsair and/or tier VII Soviet Fighter, La-7.

Despite giving it my best shot, I failed miserably with the Corsair and through persistence (or, stubbornness, depending on how you could view things) I pulled it off with the La-7.

I lost track of the amount of times I was shot down and my team was defeated, but in the end, I achieved this little mini-goal. During the process, I came to the conclusion, despite my best efforts, Fighters and Heavy Fighters are just not my thing. Funny, you would think after all this time I would have known this, but I kept at it with hopes my skills would improve, relying less on luck to pull off the impossible.

So, with this "insight" fresh in my mind, I recalled something that happened during the 1.8 Common Test server. While tring to complete the Missions to pick of a "Testers emblem" I achieved a Meyer Medal Class II. Along with the Thunder achievement, the Meyer Medal is one of those coveted tokens that Ground Attack players strive for, much like the Galland Medal and Ace for Fighter/Heavy Fighter players. Dusting off my trusty old tier VIII IL-20, I took to the skies to see if I could close that chapter where it would really count....

....and the second battle produced the results I was looking for.

Now, I can go away and deal with other things, since my house is now in order, for when I will return.

The party is over and a trend is emerging.

War Cache is now over and regular programing has returned to World of Warplanes. The next talked about event is the "Planes Birthdays", as seen on the 1.8 Common Test server. Honestly, I have a very neutral feeling about this. Sure, it will be another "something to do" series of tasks, where players will have the ability to earn emblems and other small rewards, but I am just not too excited about it, personally.

Something that has been discussed before on the forums, but now seeing it with my own eyes; the disproportionate amount of players flying attack aircraft. Long ago and up until very recently, GA players were often labeled as being "low skilled" and often shunned/ridiculed over their choice of aircraft. To be honest, comments along those lines did bother me, but I soon just as laugh after reading them now. Some players are very good at flying Fights, others have mastered Heavy Fighters and the "boom and Zoom" playstyle that comes with that. If what I do as called "mowing the lawn" or "tending to the rock garden", then so be it, that is my pleasure from this game.

However, players have discovered the German line of attack aircraft offer much more flexibility over their Soviet counterparts.

The IL series aircraft are very much like taking a Greyhound bus to a Rally race.

The German aircraft are akin to taking a tuned pickup to the same event (ladies are not included, sorry).

What are the benefits? Well, attack aircraft tradeoff maneuverability for armor, a larger hitpoint pool and usually, a greater selection of optional weapons, such as bombs and rockets. While some Heavy Fighters and Multi-Role Fighters offer the same kind of ordinance selections, GA's can hang in the fight just that little bit longer, in an attempt to get the job done. In essence, a Very Heavy Fighter, if you will.

It will be an interesting trend to observe, over the long run.

Spining wheel, got to go round.

With the War Cache event in World of Warplanes about to come to a close, I spent the last two days using the login tokens to play the Wheel of Fortune. Here are the results of all my spins....

My first crack at the Roulette wheel. Now, the odd bird emblem is decorating my Me 109 TL....

The second spin rewarded me with mostly credits and a very small shark emblem for my American aircraft. I am sure the equipment and consumables will come in handy for something....

And, for what I have written off as my last day with this event, three spins for the price of two. This time, nothing really spectacular to report.

War Cache offered me a chance to collect my highest tiered premium vehicle, at a substantial discount and a few little "trinkets" along the way. While I did spend some of my Gold that I have been saving for sometime now....

....thanks to another event going on, I am slowly building that "nest egg" back up.

War Cache made it worth it.

After cashing in on the once-in-a-lifetime deep discount, I have put my first tier VIII premium aircraft into my hangar. So, was it worth it? Well, here are the first three battles with it....

The very first battle was a "successful failure", the success is from the fact my team pulled off the win. The failure, I didn't do much of anything, poor choices lead to my poor performance. Still, despite all of that, I didn't lose my shirt in the encounter.

While I did somewhat better this time around, the results were not enough to help with the win for my team. I had to get my head into the game and get a real feel for this plane.

Now, this is what I was wanting to happen, from the first battle. I secured a rocket kill on the enemy IL-8 and really had the opportunity to spread around as much damage as I could. The credit earnings alone made my jaw drop, considering my highest tiered premium aircraft, before now, was only tier VII....

The whole point of high tiered premium ingame assets in the WarGaming titles is for crew training through extra experience gained from battles and for increased credit generation over their regular tech tree counterparts. I have never had a game that has delivered the same results from my Me 262 that was even on par with the Me 109 TL.

The Meteor, on the other hand, has been a disappointment in the premium department. I have yet to have "one of those battles" where it's "special status" has really shone through. Granted, I didn't fly it anywhere as close to how it should be, but neither did I with the 109 TL. Then, there was the XP-75 Eagle....

....where I lost credits due to my own dismal performance. I am sure there are players out there, right now, who could produce screenshots of stellar games with fantastic returns on these tow aircraft. But, to not break even on a loss? The way I see it, all I have to do is show up to a battle in my tier VIII TL and it's "money in the bank" while I have to work both my tier VII Meteor and XP-75?

I dunno about you, but something seems a little wrong to me, about that.