Over the weekend past I've been a very busy boy, this was in spite of being ordered to rest by my doctor. But I did manage to get two sessions flying out in WarThunder...
Mainly to test out the new graphics card, more about which later.
But whilst flying around I levelled up my American planes and I unlocked the F4F-3, the F6F, the P47D-28, the P38 and a bunch of aircobra's.... All Good I thought, I was playing energy fighters and getting somewhere...
This was, until I thought I'd try to fly the new Fw190A1 on the German branch... My first Focke Wolf 190, and to be honest I had very high hopes for it. Based on its legendary status that is, and the fact that I'm playing realistic battles not the ram fest arcade version of the game.
And... I'm pretty sure its rubbish... The FW190-A1 appears to be the Marmite of the Butcher Bird world, as I've spoken to other players randomly and they either exclaim "No you're flying it wrong!"... or they exclaim "yes its rubbish!"
So, lets just go over it, I fly the 190 as an energy fighter, trying to climb, I keep a steady rise to altitude going, but above 10,000ft it aircraft is sluggish to move into a turn, also it consistently wants to nose down when travelling below 220mph.
When going into a turn, be that a low altitude high speed turn, or a high altitude low speed turn, or anything in between the thing wobbles and widdles around on the flight instructor.
The engine also incessantly overheats, and cutting throttle into a dive it takes an age for the water to cool again, yet if I leave it above 0% throttle it cools quicker, which is totally nuts.
So, I don't like the FW190A1... And though I see people getting up to 15,000ft in it and taking out AI spotter planes I can't get mine to go up there, it simply stalls out, and even in a standard climb the angle of attack to keep in the climb means we're flat planing at altitudes around 10,500-11,000 feet maximum.
I've asked what I'm doing wrong, I've played other planes - both higher and lower in tier... In both the German Tree and others, and the Fw-190-A1 has to be, for me, the most disappointing aircraft in WarThunder.
All this before I even mention the damage model, its almost worse than flying a Japanese plane, because you know they have no armour. But the Fw190 was build with armour a forethought, it was a fast, light yet rugged machine... Not the delicate thing they're presenting us with in the game.
The 190 was designed to intercept, more than be a fighter, it was to be a jabo... a Fighter Bomber... and a high altitude interceptor.
But its so badly behaved and so brittle.
And I'm not just saying this... Look at a comparable tier aircraft, the P400... Look at the damage mine took, and got me back to base in the very same Ruhr mission which was knocking the Focke Wolf down like a mosquito in rainy season.
One eight of this kind of damage and the 190 bursts into flames, or its wings tear off like a small child is toying with flying ants.
So, I don't like the 190-A1, so much so that I'm not even going to show a picture of it here...
While I am also struggling with the Fw 190 A-1 (it is my first Fw atm) I feel the need to make some comments on your assumptions:
ReplyDelete"it was a fast, light yet rugged machine"
Fast and rugged, yes. Light, no. The Fw 190 was actually a heavy aircraft, weighting from 4000 kg to 5000 kg on take off, depending on the version (the later, the heavier) To put it in perspective, the heaviest Bf 109 was around 3400 kg (K-4 versions, late 1944)
"The 190 was designed to intercept, more than be a fighter, it was to be a jabo... a Fighter Bomber... and a high altitude interceptor."
Adapting the Fw 190 to be a fighter bobmer was not a goal from the start. Also, it was not meant to be a high altitude interceptor; the air cooled BMW 801 engine lacked the power output at altitude, lacking an efficient supercharger. It took several years and a switch to the liquid cooled Junkers Jumo 213 to produce a viable high altitude version of the Fw 190, the D-9, entering service in late 1944.
I stand corrected, on reflection the Fw190 was heavier, especially when equipped, however, it did carry a larger fuel load than say its Russian contemporary the La-5, which it still handily out performed in most situations, yet in game the Fw190A1 is utterly out classed by even an I-16 in both climb and dive.
DeleteSometimes its utterly gobsmacking to watch how out performed some of the best fighters the Jagdflieger made their mark with being simply tossed aside by the performance of the Russian aircraft in game.
Historically though, I'm going to argue the 190 was to be an interceptor and fighter-bomber, it was deployed and virtually stopped all circus incursions by the RAF over the Atlantic coast in 1941, that's a pure interceptor at work, and from its inception there were multiple variants, the "U" variant of which was specifically for ground attack work.
Spin forward to the A8 model, known as the "Panzerbock" and you have a machine also carrying one 1100lb bomb, or two 550lb bombs, and that aircraft was competing with the Hawker Typhoon and P47 Thunderbolt, both excellent in the ground role themselves.
I don't make my claims lightly, but accept perhaps using the word "light" was wrong, my phrase should perhaps better read:
"But the Fw190 was build with armour a forethought, it was a fast, agile yet rugged machine".