The MaxKayDee ("maximum kill/death" ratio) special project is complete !
101 random arcade air battles*
433 aircraft kills
9 planes lost
48.1 kill/death ratio
61.9 kill/death ratio excluding deaths from collisions
4.3 kills per match on average
116.3 minutes average time of survival
2.4 minutes average time between kills
91 % of matches survived
55.5 % of matches won
My intent was to see what kill/death ratio I can achieve if I focus on it with a new account, including stock planes and rookie crew.
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| He 112 B-1/U2 |
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| Fw 190 A-4 |
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I created an account, spent a buck on some gold, purchased the German
He 112 B-1/U2 premium fighter since it looked like the best possible German plane to start with (though American Thach's F2A-1 would have been an even better start). The He 112 was meant to research towards the Fw 190, preferably directly to
Fw 190 A-4 - and it did. This part actually exceeded my expectations,
without a single He 112B-1U2 lost, resulting in a kinda infinite k/d ratio. I learned that I needed to add a 2nd and 3rd plane in order to reduce the BR by one step (2.3 to 2.0), though this should not have been necessary according to widely circulated BR calculation rules. Staying alive in the He 112 was stressful, for it is a turnfighter that faces several faster opponents and the pilot would hardly survive even only a single hit.
Then I switched to Fw 190 A-4 and flew it with great caution (and some kill luck) initially, quickly researching the most vital upgrades. It was in full swing once it got its engine injection upgrade, and with all-stealth ammo the deadliness improved another time at least against fighters.
The A-4 is rated BR 4.3, but most matches I flew as 4.0. I turned out that a 2nd and 3rd plane with BR no more than 1.0 lower were needed to reduce the BR to 4.0, something that was apparently introduced recently. About 10-20 matches were thus flown at 4.3. The Fw 190 A-4 is tier (era) II, so I didn't meet any tier IV opponents. The biggest bombers I faced were B-17E and Pe-8, the best fighters I faced were J2M2, Spitfire IX, Fw 190 A-4, Bf 109 F-4, Yak-9T, Yak-3, Typhoon 1b, Mustang Mk I and P-51.
I knew the A-4 well and like it very much, but staying alive for 79 matches was beyond my ability and luck.
I remember all nine Fw 190A-4 planes I lost as MaxKayDee:
Once
an I-185 was diving at me from high altitude and I decided to evade by
diving towards the airfield. An I-16 was in the way, but couldn't be hit
(I was past 600 kph already, so controls were stiff and the I-16 was dodging). Regrettably, the I-185 was resolute enough to
follow me and the airfield defences chose the I-16 as target instead,
so I lost a wing when turning in an effort to stay within airfield
defences' range. It was a classic "shit happens".
Second,
I was stubborn enough to get shot down by a A-20G turret gunner. My
bad, approaching from that angle AND staying behind the bomber for so
long was stupid.
Almost
third; a Pe-8 zombie gunner set me on fire early in an air domination
match, I extinguished the (rear fuel tank) fire, climbed with a leaking
(forward) fuel tank and then kept sailing till the end of the match. I
was at 300 m when the match was over at last.
Third,
a Spitfire IIb insta-killed me (likely 20 mm to the pilot) a split
second after I scored a P-51 while I was diving with 750+ kph. That was
likely a super-lucky shot.
Fourth, I knew a blue P-47 was 1,000 m above me and turned left upwards to kill a P-51 when suddenly that P-47 crashed into me. Blue-on-blue air collision death.
Fifth, a Pe-8 shot me the wing off on first hit, but it was my bad since a botched approach led me into a five o'clock high position where 3 gunners could shoot at me. I never respected the Pe-8 much as A2A even though others on teamspeak expressed great respect for its gunners. Well, there's always a first time.
Sixth, I botched another approach and got into the field of fire of a Ki-49 tail gunner (20 mm) for a split second, and he had his lucky day.
Seventh, I was chased to the blue airfield by a Typhoon and another plane. The airfield defences killed the other plane, and I shook off the Typhoon (which has a poor roll rate and seemed to reload) with scissors - only to crash into a mountain next to the runway soon thereafter. The looking left and right during scissors combined with the loss of speed left me unable to dodge that mountain.
Eighth, A J2M2 chased me (and was to my surprise faster), caught up and after a lengthy dogfight it defeated me in a honest 1-on-1 (which it started ~2 km behind me at equal energy, though). As usual, I wasn't all that great in scissors, the only manoeuvre a Fw 190 A-4 is better at than a BR 1.0 lower J2M2. I had merely one split second chance to hit it and missed.
Ninth, I was engaging a fighter during a shallow dive at 750+ kph when suddenly a blue He 112 appeared out of nowhere in front of me and crashed into me. I couldn't have dodged it even if I had seen it somewhat earlier, since the controls are too stiff at that speed.
I lost no plane during the last 15-20 matches.
Tactics and principles with Fw 190A-4:
Turn 90°, climb at 25° to 4 km, then turn towards reds while climbing at 20° to 5 km and possibly at 15° beyond. Preferred targets were bombers and attackers (other than B-25, PBJ and later also A-20G and Pe-8) from their weak (no or minimal resistance from gunners) angles. I actually killed a lot of B-25s, but always with extra caution.
Fighters were killed preferably with Boom-and-zoom, sometimes with Rope-a-dope. Head-on kills against fighters were very rare, but sometimes I was forced into such an encounter. I sought head-on fights only against opponents with at most two light machineguns facing me. I largely avoided getting shot at by more than two light machineguns or one heavy machinegun in any situation. My planes usually finished the battles with no damage displayed.
Repairs on runways were only done if absolutely necessary. I had to repair only two or three times and finished one match as a glider without fuel. I never captured a runway.
In de facto lost matches (such as 3 blue planes left facing 8-12 red planes) I either withdrew or -if possible- kept fighting with energy advantage (above the reds).
On domination maps with multiple airfields I tried to stay close to the "blue" airfield, especially if it was the farthest from the red spawn point. Red fighters would typically be distracted and low there.
My aim usually was good enough for a kill on first pass, I estimate about 80% of targets were killed in one pass and a ratio of 9:1 in terms of kills and assists. Both fighter types have above average firepower at their BR.
My gun convergence range was 500 m in both planes.
When in trouble:
(a) run away if fast enough
(b) defensive spiral
(c) scissors (especially against P-38, Spitfire and Typhoon since they roll slower)
(d) run to blue fighters for help
(e) run to blue fighter spawn point for help
(f) run to blue airfield for (AAA) help
(g) head-on fight with opening fire at 1.3-1.5 km and evasive manoeuvre beginning at 0.8-0.9 km
(h) if pursued by a turnfighter: dive and run
I estimate I fed the airfield defences about 10-15 red fighters, none of which were counted as my kills, of course.
Screenshots:
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| Crew level stayed below 30, so no acing was possible. |
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The long reload time of about 26 seconds was a pain in the butt,
and it was even worse early on in the He 112. |
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The final match. All I wanted was to not lose a 10th plane,
but it turned out to become the match with the most kills! |
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On the 99th match once again a squad got obsessed with chasing me in vain.
I only scored a single kill that match, but I neutralised 3 red players for long.
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*: 101 matches is as far as I know the minimum for a leaderboards entry. I will add the leaderboard screenshot once the leaderboard is updated
__________________
The leaderboard stats are out, and MaxKayDee unintentionally achieved a top 100 place for air kills per session (all time):
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| kills per session is almost the same as kills per match in the case of MaxKayDee |
Sadly, there's no k/d leaderboard category. I'd like to see who (with 100 or more missions) achieved a higher k/d ratio, and with which planes. I guess it could be done with the Ki-45ko, but how to get to it without losing a couple Ki-10?
