My first online battles

[Navvara Ultor]

Having only standalon PF and IL-2 I decided to give PF a try. I don't play PF that much, IL-2 is my personal favourite (i fly 109's 90% of the time) People around here warned me that online play would be quite an experience and it was. Here what happened:

My first ever match.

I joined this low ping server, realistic settings-external views and icons. icons set by server to show at 1 Km. Map: Midway. Players 11.

I played as japanese in a a6m 5c. i chose the zeke as i have little experience flying full realism in PF (only flew the spitfire, corsair and f6f in full realism but only for a couple of sorties) and the zeke is easy to handle and quite forgiving.

My first take off attempt ended in dissaster as a traitor to our cause had parked an b-25 on the aircraft carrier and was shooing everyone on take off. After the guy got kicked I finally managed to take off.

There was some lag but nothing I couldn't handle (at least in normal flight). I then proceded to use external views to find my enemy and in about 10 minutes I was at 4000 m looking down at a hevealy laden corsair at ~3000 (i know i shouldn't go that high in a zero but I wanted to get an altitude advantage over my faster opponent).

As I dove onto my target I realised that he had not noticed me so I prepared for an easy kill. Now lag became an issue (and my lack of skill to be honest, i'm not gonna blame this on lag alone) and i missed my first run. Also the fact that my heart was pounding didn't help my boom aproach. Realising that I was about to evershoot and that I need to bleed off some E I didn't zoom but performed a right hand chandelle, reversed when my speed had dropped to 200 Km/h and then dove onto him again
(was this the correct approach? could someone tell me how I should act in such a situation?). To my surprise the guy hadn't seen me. I got a snap-shot from the guy's high 4 o'clock but again my poor shooting skills and lag caused most of my shots to miss their mark. I did get a cannon hit on his engine-front section causing a fuel leak.

I then went under him and zoomed, rolling to the right to hee what he was up to. The guy jettisoned all ordonance and a turning fight ensued. (I should have kept bnz I know but he was in a clearly inferior plane and situation). My gunnery was shait and after a couple of snapshots i only managed to put a hole in his left wing. he then went into a dive and I followed. I was forced to pulled out before he did (I was going past vne) but he recovered near the deck (how he did that with a shot up wing is beyond me) and dropped his gear and flaps (probably cowl flaps, brakes and opened canopy too).

I once again dove onto the guy, took a high six shot and barely managed not to crash/get into his waining guns.This time I managed to get oil trailing from his engine. "I got him I thought", and dove onto him once again, this time for a low deflection six o'clock shot. Unfortunately , although scoring some hits i also clipped the ground. That was stupid. I almost got him.

Now how would you guys have tackled this bogey? I know my approach was wrong but where exactly did I commit the fatal mistake? Which is the best aproach to the situations depicted above.

Afterwards my trusty zeke delivered a couple of kills in the form of an f6f (went down in flames after a tough turning fight) and a corsair (the same guy as above, this time I got him as I boomed the first time)

I then got kicked from the server with no reason. damn

I then proceeded tp join another server, this time full realistic settings. lag was a non isue and i got some good kills in my zero (and was killed many times myself), got to argue with some guy about who got a kill (i was turning with a spitfire for two minutes when this guy boomed and fired as i took the spits wing off) and got flamed for shooting some poor guy who had crashlanded his plane. The game-play was good, I had a swell time, even getting multiple kills wihtout getting shot down.

Then it all went horribly wrong. Some guys that had VF101 joined (up to that point there was but one pilot with that sig) and they promptly all flocked to the blue side. They quickly estalished air superiority and procedeed to vulching our airfield. The most vile enemy flew with a pair of spits at low level but whenever I tried to engage one I would get blown away by a Ki-84 (a guy called VF101 Reaper was my particular Nemesis)

I know that my tactics were wrong: i would start turning with the spits as soon as I got to 200 metres but i just wanted to fight and didn't take the time to do as I should have: get as far from the airfield as possible, get some altitude and then try to blast the vultures.

There was also a guy in a p40 strafing the runway (i had to time my take offs to avoid his runs) and a particulary lame guy flying an SBD who kept landing on our airfield and taking planes out as they started their take off run. (i think the latter got kicked)

In short as soon as VF101 joined the scene the game turned to shait and I along with my red buddies got owned. Teamwork proved superior to honour and valor.

Any pointers as to what I should have done in this situation?

I haven't had the time to play more but this dogfight made me realise the value of team work in online fights. Also I have to admit that I require some training, if only to get me smart on the ruses that RL pilots employ. I'll try to do a couple more sorties this weekend and I was wondering if any of you guys could fly with me and teach me some stuff?
If at all possible someone with PF standalone please.

[:FI:Mikester]

LOL VF101 Reaper. I can show you a nice video of me and Reaper. It might make you feel better )

[:FI:Mikester]

P.S be careful, "he is the Combat training officer for VF101!!"

and if you beat him, it must be his Joystick!! or he doesn't have trackir

[:FI:COM]

Gunnery, Gunnery, Gunnery. Play quick mission builders vs. numerous bogies/bombers; adjust their skill levels as you move through different AC, concentrating on your shooting. Your chandelle was good- you're just sweaty playing against humans. (meaning you're playing the right game) continue with your DF servers- I recall being equally shocked watching a 190 bolt for the deck at over 450- definately not an AI plane! Talk to the :FI:admin in regards to squad teamplay on Sundays, etc. You'll need teamspeak to co-ordinate with any of the mates. Good Luck!

[Navvara Ultor]

I'm back early from junior prom so i'm off to blue online yonder. i think i'll take another shot at some VF101 guys: hartmann8, BEN, RAVEN and Chagman. Keep your fingers crossed and hope I record a pretty track. Even if I totally suxorz I will still learn something from the experience.

Again, I can't wait to be on the other end of team based tactics.

Damn, I broke my joystick. My rudder randomly gets stuck at full left even if my js is dead centered. In 2 hours I only got 1 kill (some dude crashed into my helpless plane) and made a total fool of myself.