A6M zero help :( | Forums

[Newflyer]

Hello people, recently I have been trying to fly the A6M2-21 1941 in the offline midway and coral sea campaigns but man i am just having no luck. I have no idea how to fly this plane or what tactics to use against the wildcats. Even if I get hit by one bullet my plane either burst into flames or is severely damaged

Can someone tell me what kind of tactics I should use against F4F-3's? I have a feeling i'm not using this plane right at all

[TheCrux]

Others can and will give more detailed answers, but in simplicity, a turning, and especially climbing fight. You can handily out-climb a Wildcat.

Put another way; Go to QMB and fly an F4F-3 or -4 against a Zero model of your choice....heck, even an A6M-2N "Rufe" floatplane Zero. Unless you began the fight with a substantial altitude advantage AND stick to energy fighting tactics, you'll think the F4F is an underpowered dog of a plane, and that the Zero will be some infernally omnipotent plane that can do everything better than you can in a low-speed turning twisting fight. Seriously, try it.

[DKoor]

I know I wont help ya much if I say that it ain't hard to battle 3-4 ace AI Wildcats in Zero.
Vice versa, you must be experienced + have a lot of patience cos AI Zeros are one of the hardest AI in game (along with Spitfires).
You can try it in QMB and see for yourself.

Basically to fight 1-2 Wildcats in Zero, you should always have an upper hand, just turn with them I recommend turning up not horizontal, to preserve energy...

Here is my track, fighting four Zeros in F4F:

http://www.mediafire.com/?730kh05mh0bu80y

[Woke_Up_Dead]

The Wildcats climb very poorly, and turn much worse than Zeros at speeds below 350km/h. Their strengths are their toughness, their dive, and maybe a slight edge in speed, depending on which Wildcat vs which Zero.

The Zeros are great at climbing and turning, particularly at low speeds (210km/h for climb, 300km/h for turn). They are fragile and start losing control responsiveness at high speeds, as slow as 400km/h I think.

So when flying a Zero vs Wildcats, don't follow them in a dive, they're only sucking you in to a speed where they do better. When in trouble, do a climbing turn and tighten it as necessary. Even against 2-3 Wildcats you should be able to sit on top of them by turn-climbing ever higher and diving down very briefly to attack when you see an opportunity. Climb at speeds of 200-220km/h when you see them off in the distance, and level off to increase your speed to 320-350km/h right before a fight.

The longer the fight goes, the more of an advantage the Zero should have, so if you get bounced just parry their first attack or two without trying to counter right away but stay close; after a few turns you will notice they are much more "tired" than you and you can switch to the attack then.

[horseback]

Almost any aircraft you fly in game requires you to get a 'feel' for it; the Zero is not like an Me 109 or a Lavotchkin. Its guns put rounds in slightly different places at different ranges, it accelerates differently and handles differently, and at least as important, its ai opponents will react to it differently. In this respect, the game simulates real life--pilots usually required some 'transition time' away from combat when moving from one aircraft type to another to get used to the new aircraft.

Practice is the best teacher; I suggest flying the 'canned' Zero single missions and a lot of QMB missions to get used to its quirks and reveal its strengths before playing a campaign in it (and that goes for every aircraft in the Il-2 '46 inventory).

cheers

horseback