How to fly the "Shrike", FW-190 tactics.

[Hund]

Here are some pointers:

-Full-switch servers benefit the Focke Wulf, the 190 is a great plane to bounce others in because it has good speed, high speed handling, and firepower.

-Gain altitude whenever you can. Engage with an advantage, disengage if you lose it or get jumped. Split-s works great as climbing will get you shot and other planes will out-turn you. Keep the fight at high speed where your plane handles as good as anyone's, if not better.

-Learn high speed gunnery, it is much different that TnB gunnery. Learn to anticipate more while your opponent is maneuvering rather than following. I recommend setting up a QMB with a couple A-5's against a bunch of Hurricanes. This will teach you about gunnery at high speed against a slower opponent.

-Use rudder corrections alot, it is part of high speed gunnery. If your opponent changes direction at the last moment you can kick your rudder at the last second and get a burst on him. This takes practice but with time it will be done unconciously and will make you a much better shooter. And after awhile you will not even notice "the bar," I swear.

-Find your opponent first and stalk him. Don't fly straight at him as soon as you see him. Try to determine where he is heading and sneak in on him. Try to imagine what he sees and where his blind spots are. When diving in on him get as low as possible to stay out of sight, but don't sacrifice your speed advantage.

-Use wingman and friendlies, I can't emphasize this enough. The 190 is not a lone wolf plane but is an excellent 4 vs. 4 plane. Often you can simply out-run pursuers and let your buddies pick them off of you. As long as energy is equal or to your advantage, speed and high speed handling will keep you alive. If you don't have advantage, work to at least even it out then disengage.

-Don't use "auto" prop-pitch, use between 80-100% manual.

-Know other planes strengths, where they are faster and where you are faster. For example, drag a Mustang to the deck or up to 5,000m or so, in between around 3,000m he will be stronger. Knowing where planes are stronger takes alot of time and testing, but it is very useful if you want to employ tactics properly, especially if you want to disengage.

-I like to trim the nose down a good bit from start, I fly the 190 at high speed more often than not and I don't need the nose pulling up on me, this can really effect your gunnery if not accounted for, especially flying at 600-700km/h.

-Fire at very close range, don't fire from far off and alert your opponent prematurely during your attack run. In some, more maneuverable planes you want to scare them and force them to maneuver, not in the 190. Be accurate.

-When attacking an opponent do not follow unless they are making gentle turns. If you are lining him up and he banks hard, simply break off and climb away. He has now lost energy and you have increased your advantage. Try to force him to evade and bleed energy. Not great for Hollywood movies but very effective at gaining an advantage.

-Always keep in mind that almost every plane will out-turn you in sustained turns, and almost every plane will out-climb you in sustained climbs. Never think you can out-turn someone, unless flying at very high speeds but this is more for defensive than offensive value. Never rely on climb either, with the Dora it is more acceptable.

-If you do try to climb away, do so at higher speeds than in most planes. The 190A likes to climb at around 350 or so km/h, don't climb below that speed. Remember also that above 2,000m your climb will start to fall off even more, though speed will increase. The 190 seems to like it around 1,500m and below, and between 4,500m and 6,000m.

-Head-ons are acceptable in the FW-190A, maybe the only plane in the game where this is the case. You should come out the victor in a head-on attack because of your excellent firepower and engine durability. More importantly your opponent often will be less than willing to go head-on and will take evasive action, so you simply climb up and use his maneuver against him. When going head-on I usually aim slightly high because the bullets/rounds will drop and because I want to force him down or to the side. This is one case where it is good to fire from farther out, don't worry about wasting ammo you have plenty.

-Evasive maneuvers can be very effective at high speed. You should be going fast anyway, but if not dive, jink, and gain speed. Severe maneuvers when an opponent is behind you, even to the point of blackout as long as you are aware of angle the blackout is induced at, can be effective because if he wants to follow chances are he will blackout also. Try to ride the edge and not black-out, this takes experience. If blacked-out make subtle maneuvers because you will often still have minor control of your aircraft.

-FW-190 has more range than say, a 109. Don't take 100% fuel if you don't have too. On most online maps 50% is enough.

-I prefer to set convergence for cannons at 500m, the rounds/bullets leave your aircraft at a much flatter angle than say at 200m, keeping them more level in your gunsight and making deflection shooting easier. At 200m your rounds actually leave the aircraft at a slight downward angle, you don't need four cannons to hit in the same spot anyway. 500m also gives you a bigger hitbox, or more "spread."

-Currently there is a bug where your gunsight gets knocked out way too easily, it is known and will be fixed.

-Right now all guns are porked also, this hurts the 190 alot since that one pass that would have killed your opponent now only causes a fuel leak, so don't get frustrated it will be fixed in upcoming patch.

I'm forgetting some stuff I'm sure but my hands are getting tired.


Hope this helps.

[Hund]

From another post I made:

As for diving in on opponent I prefer a fast, fairly sharp dive to a point slightly above and directly behind my opponent, from there I use a shallow dive to attack point. I dive sharply at the beginning so I can get down and out of sight. If you use a shallow dive and remain high above him you will likely be spotted.

As for convergence I am one of the few that uses 500m in all 190's and 109's except for the 109E (I use 200m). This keeps your bullets/rounds much more level in the gunsight, they don't drop as quickly. The 190 has enough cannons that you don't need for them to hit all in the same spot. In the 109 it only effects vertical trajectory. I find deflection shooting easier at 500m because as I said the bullets/rounds are fired at a more level trajectory. In planes like the 109E, P-40, P-51, etc I set convergence at 200m because the concentrated firepower is needed more. I usually start shotting at 250m or under.


Just wanted to clarify that diving sharply and then going into shallow dive is only used on unsuspecting opponents. Any time you are engaged with someone using slashing attacks you must "guess" where they will be, exactly as you said. Trying to get directly behind your opponent could cause you to take some very bad angles and lose precious energy. Also, another reason for using shallower dive at the end is that you will arrive at a slightly slower speed but at a better position, and this can help keep the 109's elevator from stiffening up as much if you need to make last minute corrections.

It is best to shoot then climb/extend away. Don't follow him into turns unless they are very gentle. P-47 pilots often adhered to the rule that any turn greater than 90 degrees was unacceptable, and this holds true for the 190 as well IMO. I find a straight zoom climb followed by a Hammerhead preferable to a gentle combat/climbing turn unless there are others about who you do not hold a significant energy advantage over. In this case a longer extension/climb followed by a combat turn is probably your best bet.

For the reasons I mentioned above it is easy to see why the 190 is an excellent plane to use when you have a wingman or wingmen, but it is not the best 1 vs. 1 plane unless you have a decent altitude/energy advantage. The utilizatation of the hammerhead can be useful in low combatant encounters as well. If all else fails the 190 has excellent escapability with its great high speed handling, roll-rate, and speed at sea-level. If jumped by an opponent with a severe advantage a split-s into a dive works well as he will bleed his energy turning around (or require a much larger area/radius to perform his split-s), and if he is stuck to your 6 o'clock a split-s, into a jinking high speed dive, followed by another split-s (or variations of it) can be helpful in eliminating his advantage and supplying you with the needed space to simply out-run your opponent. Never simply fly straight in these maneuvers, keep moving but do it gently so you do not bleed speed while performing them but rather you build it. Don't be predictable. If someone is behind you, the last thing you want to do is climb (presenting an easy target), and most planes will out-turn you, so your best bet is to dive/split-s and build speed quickly where you can use your high speed handling, roll-rate, and level speed to your advantage.

Sorry if anything is broken, or iconsitent, as I did alot of copying and pasting.

[Spinne]

What about gun-pods? Is there any point in taking them? In a 109 they result in a small performance hit, so I generally avoid them.

Great post though.

[Hund]

I never take gun-pods as there is too much of a performance hit. The FW-190 relies on speed and its climb is average at best, so any performance hit is magnified.

Note however that the internal MK-108's are a different story, they give you tremendous firepower with no performance hit. This gives you plenty of firepower to easily take down any opponent in the air, and for ground attack I prefer bombs.

[Hund]

Updated:

Here is some older stuff.

-Full-switch servers benefit the Focke Wulf, the 190 is a great plane to bounce others in because it has good speed, high speed handling, and firepower. The 190 also has great all-around visibility, use this to stalk your opponent.

-Gain altitude whenever you can. Engage with an advantage, disengage if you lose it or get jumped. Split-s works great as climbing will get you shot and other planes will out-turn you. Keep the fight at high speed where your plane handles as good as anyone's, if not better.

-Learn high speed gunnery, it is much different that TnB gunnery. Learn to anticipate more while your opponent is maneuvering rather than following. I recommend setting up a QMB with a couple A-5's against a bunch of Hurricanes. This will teach you about gunnery at high speed against a slower opponent.

-Use rudder corrections alot, it is part of high speed gunnery. If your opponent changes direction at the last moment you can kick your rudder at the last second and get a burst on him. This takes practice but with time it will be done unconsciously and will make you a much better shooter. And after awhile you will not even notice "the bar," I swear.

-Find your opponent first and stalk him. Don't fly straight at him as soon as you see him. Try to determine where he is heading and sneak in on him. Try to imagine what he sees and where his blind spots are. When diving in on him get as low as possible to stay out of sight, but don't sacrifice your speed advantage.

-Use wingman and friendlies, I can't emphasize this enough. The 190 is not a lone wolf plane but is an excellent 4 vs. 4 plane. Often you can simply out-run pursuers and let your buddies pick them off of you. As long as energy is equal or to your advantage, speed and high speed handling will keep you alive. If you don't have advantage, work to at least even it out then disengage.

-Don't use "auto" prop-pitch, use between 80-100% manual. 100% in level flight and climb, 80% in dive (or just ease up on throttle).

-Know other planes strengths, where they are faster and where you are faster. For example, drag a Mustang to the deck or up to 5,000m or so, in between 1,000m and 4,000m (and above 6,500m) he will be stronger. Knowing where planes are stronger takes alot of time and testing, but it is very useful if you want to employ tactics properly, especially if you want to disengage.

-I like to trim the nose down a good bit from start, I fly the 190 at high speed more often than not and I don't need the nose pulling up on me, this can really effect your gunnery if not accounted for, especially flying at 600-700km/h.

-Fire at very close range, don't fire from far off and alert your opponent prematurely during your attack run. In some, more maneuverable planes you want to scare them and force them to maneuver, not in the 190. Be accurate.

-Use high yo-yo's when making high speed attacks at slower opponents. Make your attack, pull up sharply, flip over on your back, look straight up (down at your opponent), wait until he flies beneath you, then dive down on him again.

-When attacking an opponent do not follow unless they are making gentle turns. If you are lining him up and he banks hard, simply break off and climb away. He has now lost energy and you have increased your advantage. Try to force him to evade and bleed energy. Not great for Hollywood movies but very effective at gaining an advantage.

-Always keep in mind that almost every plane will out-turn you in sustained turns, and almost every plane will out-climb you in sustained climbs. Never think you can out-turn someone, unless flying at very high speeds but this is more for defensive than offensive value. Never rely on climb either, with the Dora it is more acceptable.

-If you do try to climb away, do so at higher speeds than in most planes. The 190A likes to climb at around 350 or so km/h, don't climb below that speed. Remember also that above 2,000m your climb will start to fall off even more, though speed will increase. The 190 seems to like it around 1,500m and below, and between 4,500m and 6,000m.

-Head-ons are acceptable in the FW-190A, maybe the only plane in the game where this is the case. You should come out the victor in a head-on attack because of your excellent firepower and engine durability. More importantly your opponent often will be less than willing to go head-on and will take evasive action, so you simply climb up and use his maneuver against him. When going head-on I usually aim slightly high because the bullets/rounds will drop and because I want to force him down or to the side. This is one case where it is good to fire from farther out, don't worry about wasting ammo you have plenty.

-Evasive maneuvers can be very effective at high speed. You should be going fast anyway, but if not dive, jink, and gain speed. Severe maneuvers when an opponent is behind you, even to the point of blackout as long as you are aware of angle the blackout is induced at, can be effective because if he wants to follow chances are he will blackout also. Try to ride the edge and not black-out, this takes experience. If blacked-out make subtle maneuvers because you will often still have minor control of your aircraft.

-FW-190 has more range than say, a 109. Don't take 100% fuel if you don't have too. On most online maps 50% is enough.

-I prefer to set convergence for cannons at 500m, the rounds/bullets leave your aircraft at a much flatter angle than say at 200m, keeping them more level in your gunsight and making deflection shooting easier. At 200m your rounds actually leave the aircraft at a slight downward angle, you don't need four cannons to hit in the same spot anyway. 500m also gives you a bigger hitbox, or more "spread."

-Look for the 109's. Focke Wulfs and 109's compliment each-other well. These two planes have different fighting styles and strengths and combining the two can only make both of you more effective.

-Don't fly around at 110% throttle when stalking for opponents. Again, no need for unnecessary heat. 100% throttle with WEP and radiator closed allows for very high cruise speed in danger areas without overheat except in extended climbs. Otherwise back it down a little but not too much, you need to stay fast, always.

From another post I made awhile back:

The only thing I would add is that when I see tracers I immediately apply full negative elevator (fully press forward on the stick). The 190 has good elevator response and this is usually enough to throw off your attackers aim long enough for you to perform your half-roll and dive. I like to very gently turn/jink during my dives just in case he is following close. The dive followed by a reversal (another half-roll and pull-out) is effective. Your only concern with this maneuver is that you have sufficient altitude and that you don't perform your reversal so late as to build speed past your critical limit.

Another maneuver that can be effective when you don't have as much altitude and speed but have clouds nearby is a steep diving, fairly tight corkscrew. It is extremely difficult for anyone to hit you when performing this maneuver but you have to be careful with the stick. Again, this is effective when clouds are nearby, when you pull out of the corkscrew you may be vulnerable but the idea is to finish the maneuver in a cloud or very close to one.

Also, if you have a plane that you cannot shake that handles as well as yours at most speeds (P-51, P-47, etc), even after you performed other maneuvers, you can try a harsh, desperate maneuver that induces blackout. Just remember that even when blacked out you often still have minor control on your plane so don't just sit there, use gentle inputs on the stick to keep from being a static target. Also, be very aware of the angle that you induce blackout and where this will lead, you don't want to blackout when descending at anything but the slightest of angle. This is dangerous and you need alot of speed but if someone is stuck to you then it might be enough to save you or buy you time as they simply cannot follow without blacking out themselves. It sounds desperate, and it is, but it should not be ignored as this has saved me numerous times.

[Hund]

Continued.

From another post I made awhile back:

As for diving in on opponent I prefer a fast, fairly sharp dive to a point slightly above and directly behind my opponent, from there I use a shallow dive to attack point. I dive sharply at the beginning so I can get down and out of sight. If you use a shallow dive and remain high above him you will likely be spotted.

As for convergence I am one of the few that uses 500m in all 190's and 109's except for the 109E (I use 200m). This keeps your bullets/rounds much more level in the gunsight, they don't drop as quickly. The 190 has enough cannons that you don't need for them to hit all in the same spot. In the 109 it only effects vertical trajectory. I find deflection shooting easier at 500m because as I said the bullets/rounds are fired at a more level trajectory. In planes like the 109E, P-40, P-51, etc I set convergence at 200m because the concentrated firepower is needed more. I usually start shooting at 250m or under.


Just wanted to clarify that diving sharply and then going into shallow dive is only used on unsuspecting opponents. Any time you are engaged with someone using slashing attacks you must "guess" where they will be, exactly as you said. Trying to get directly behind your opponent could cause you to take some very bad angles and lose precious energy. Also, another reason for using shallower dive at the end is that you will arrive at a slightly slower speed but at a better position, and this can help keep the 109's elevator from stiffening up as much if you need to make last minute corrections.

It is best to shoot then climb/extend away. Don't follow him into turns unless they are very gentle. P-47 pilots often adhered to the rule that any turn greater than 90 degrees was unacceptable, and this holds true for the 190 as well IMO. I find a straight zoom climb followed by a Hammerhead preferable to a gentle combat/climbing turn unless there are others about who you do not hold a significant energy advantage over. In this case a longer extension/climb followed by a combat turn is probably your best bet.

For the reasons I mentioned above it is easy to see why the 190 is an excellent plane to use when you have a wingman or wingmen, but it is not the best 1 vs. 1 plane unless you have a decent altitude/energy advantage. The utilization of the hammerhead can be useful in low combatant encounters as well. If all else fails the 190 has excellent escapability with its great high speed handling, roll-rate, and speed at sea-level. If jumped by an opponent with a severe advantage a split-s into a dive works well as he will bleed his energy turning around (or require a much larger area/radius to perform his split-s), and if he is stuck to your 6 o'clock a split-s, into a jinking high speed dive, followed by another split-s (or variations of it) can be helpful in eliminating his advantage and supplying you with the needed space to simply out-run your opponent. Never simply fly straight in these maneuvers, keep moving but do it gently so you do not bleed speed while performing them but rather you build it. Don't be predictable. If someone is behind you, the last thing you want to do is climb (presenting an easy target), and most planes will out-turn you, so your best bet is to dive/split-s and build speed quickly where you can use your high speed handling, roll-rate, and level speed to your advantage.

More:

In short the FW-190D is a better 1 vs. 1 fighter and allows for better "e" fighting due to its better speed, acceleration, and climb. Still, the FW-190A-9 is the best aircraft on full real servers IMO. It lets you hit, kill, and move on, increasing situational awareness. When I see a P-47 when I am in a Dora I cringe because I know it will take me awhile to finish him off and in the process making myself more vulnerable as I lose altitude and maneuver to kill him. The A-9 usually only needs one opening and spends less time focusing on his opponent. Also, the A-9 absorbs damage better then the Ta-152 and FW-190D, and it is a slightly smaller target. The A-9 is also more versatile, it is fast and is modeled with a bomb-rack. Therefore you can load up a 1,100.lb bomb, drop it, and have the same performance as if you never carried one. No other plane can be an effective ground attack plane with the speed to escape almost any plane, act as an extremely effective attack/bomber interceptor, and hold its own as a fighter in one package with a single load-out IMHO.

Against Spitfires, Yaks, Laggs, P-39's, etc., simply use hit and run tactics below 7,000m and you are almost invulnerable. They are simply too slow to catch, you have a good speed advantage below 7,000m (or more). Often they will become impatient and break off, then I am the hunter. I often stay at the fringe of a fight or at the edge of my spotted opponents visual radius while gaining the needed altitude advantage. Then I attack. Do not get slow or use sustained climbs when Spitfires are in the area.

Against La-7, you must stay high. Below 3,500m he is faster, turns better, climbs better, and retains energy better. You can lose an La-7 with a high speed dive and reversal if you ride to your plane's limit. Above 3,500m you have slight speed advantage and climb is more similar. At about 6,000+m speed evens out again. Do whatever it takes to get above your opponent and kill him, use teammates when La-7's are around.

Against P-51 you are faster up to about 1,000m and between 5,000 and 6,500m (using 100% prop-pitch). Do not stay at 2,000-4,000m with Mustang, his performance advantage is huge. Again proper setup is the key, find him first and get higher, don't engage otherwise. If in trouble get down low and leave him. Use escape methods mentioned above if in trouble, if you have the advantage it should just be a matter of avoiding the pieces .

Hope this helps, there was more but I lost it. Sorry if anything is broken or it doesn't flow well as I put pieces together quickly.