DocDooms Tips
DoA and it's WWI kites can be very frustrating to the WB player that has just crossed over. The differances are very subtle between aircraft but they *DO* exist. Altitude takes forever to grab and is easily lost. Roll rates are slow as molasses when compared to WWII AC. Killing takes loads of ammo, and bullet spray is far greater at as little as d4 or d5. Rudder is MANDATORY to get even remotely close to what manoeuvres you might be up against in another pilot. Subtle as the differance are, they are there. Fokker D.VII is slower (3 -> 5mph) than Camel but can be flown very successfully ala Bf109 via the hard climbing spiral turn, left is best, the Camel can turn well left in a flat turn due to torque effect but when the nose is up in a climbing turn that torque will stall it out of the chase. These manoeuvres, however, are done when VERY close to the pursuer, he will actually be within guns range (d3 - d4) but not able to get the required shot (nose will be too low). The D.VII also has by far the best diving performance, but you want to be very sure of your fight before surrendering your hard fought altitude. Spad XIII and VII are both faster than all but the SE5a (which the XIII can beat for top end, but not the VII) however have heavy nose down effect when turning at stall and thus are not great stall turners, although the Spad VII is much better here, it can surprise those who think they are up against an XIII but then again with just 1 x 7.9mm MG it doesn't do much damage quickly, apart from pilot kills. Both these planes can run from all but the F2B and SE5a (if it is within guns range) but you have to remember that acceleration is slow and you can be killed before you can get away. Doesn't happen to me, but I don't commence extending when that Camel is d1 and having lead turned me for the shot F2B's are pretty deadly, turn like a truck in comparison to the rest, but they have a rear gun that is DEADLY out to d6 (questionable). It also is faster than everything but the 2 Spads and the SE5a. Closure is slow no matter what is chasing an F2B, so watch out for that rear gun ! Camels turn better than anything else in the set, and loop over well having the best zoom from standard level flight (no diving E to assist in zoom I mean) ... but they can bite their pilot if he isn't in EZ MODE (a real can of worms, should be turned off NOW imho) and they get liberal with tight slow near stall manoeuvres or too great an AoA on the elevator. For that matter, ALL planes will bite you when low and applying too much AoA on the elevator. SE5a's have the highest climbrate, and can sustain very steep angle of attack (AoA) when compared to the other AC. They also have a 45degree up top gun position (foster mount view) that can be very handy if used creatively in a situation, I have a toggle to "foster mount view" on my joystick and a seperate trigger for the Lewis gun, it's a wild set-up sometimes as I can switch and fire and then switch back without taking hand off stick or eyes off screen. The SE5a is also faster than all but the Spad XIII, with the Spad VII just behind by about 2mph. Scissors are difficult, require very good rudder technique, and can be highly risky due to how close combat is, and how slow acceleration/roll is. It also exposes the cockpit for pilot kills, although it may be worth remembering that Camels have no throttle control apart from on/off (blip throttle) so you might exploit value here, they cannot slow down effectively having no graduated throttle and have little variation to their speed control so you might exploit them if you're really good, I mean SCARY good. Zoom manoeuvres and loop ups/over and high yo-yo's are hard to perform unless you have watched your speed carefully, and thus, while difficult and rare (as a result) they are EXTREMELY effective if you learn how to do them, most pilots have no defense other than a flat turn (looping pilot starts to laugh about here) ... I watched a pilot in an SE5a do endless high yo-yos once and he ruled over several enemy cons with impunity while they floundered around below him stalling and spinning and crashing into the ground. I was in a D.VII and eventually ended his merriment by carefully managing my E and nailing him in the turns during the climbing apex sections of the yo-yos. The Albatros DVa, is a little difficult to figure out. Good all round AC with no clearly superior aspect to it's performance, apart from perhaps a certain gentleness and ease of handling (less likely to get into a crash through pilot error) but for the most part, it seems to be easy to exploit something against it if you have a Camel (turn/climb) D.VII (climb) SE5 (zoom/climb) SPAD XIII (speed) ... etc. The CL2 has a great turn rate for a 2 seater, it has the slowest top speed of all the planes so it's just as well, it can't outrun anything. I have seen CL2 pilots surprise the less able turning aircraft, but it's a brave move all the same DR1 has good turn rate (still behind the Camel though) and doesn't have the climb or speed of it's arch rival. Not a lot of them flying because they don't have clear advantages anywhere, and they are only faster than a CL2 by maybe 2mph. That makes them very tough to exploit options with, as they don't have any most of the time, other than to turn (remember the zeke from WB ?). 1 on 1 is the toughest area to work unless you are a H2H genius (salute Huntor !) due to the narrowness of the margins between aircraft, requiring patience, skill, and no mistakes ... but if you learn the ropes, multiple plane engagements are challanging and can be the best 1 kill hop you'll ever experience. A 3 -> 5 kill hop is an awesome thing to land, you just have to learn to condense your WB background into the DoA planeset (and its very different rules) and if you remember that altitude is 100 times more important in DoA than WB, and that speed management in a dive is 1,000 times more important, you will start to understand the subtle nature of the combat tactics and perhaps find the gem that exists under all that hairy furball. To take a real estate agents saying here, DoA success is POSITION POSITION POSITION. With altitude, and patience, a plane OTHER than an uber Camel (now fixed, but it is still the most capable of all if you are an expert) can still beat several of these deadly planes. It will never be easy, and the risks are great, but it *can* be done. In much the same manner that a Bf109F can beat several Spitfire IX's if the Bf109 pilot knows the rules, has the experience, and makes no mistakes. One caveat here, "easy mode" tends to mask most of the true nature of DoA (stalls, spins, the consequences of a good/bad manoeuvre) and since THAT is what makes up the foundation of DoA, should be turned off IMMEDIATELY ... my opinion but I have thought about it very carefully as I fully understand why it is there (newbies) ... if it remains on you will have to understand how it impacts the fragile enviroment of DoA (compared to it's impact in WB) and take what is DoA and factor in how "easy mode" tends to destroy what the fundamental of air combat is in DoA. That aircraft are not able to be abused in terms of the flight envelope like they can in WB, and that this is one of the foundations of combat tactics for DoA to actually work in a realitic fashion for those that work to excel at it. Doc.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
