WT - P-26 Peashooter Arcade Guide

[@shadowchaser8786]

I recently started playing War Thunder again, and I've been dogfighting in Peashooters with decent results, but only because I didn't know that turn-fighting in a P-26 is ill-advised. I'm definitely going to practice the techniques I saw here. Much thanks!

[@Mattac0n]

Came back to the Peashooter for kicks. Ended up getting Terror of the Sky. Definitely fun. :]

[@SpentCasing]

Love the P-26 its one of those planes people underestimate

[@xphos4762]

You don't understand how much i love the p26a, its better than any other plane when fully modified

[@olimarputin7862]

just thought I'd post and say that a link on a reddit post on proper fighter strategies brought me to your beginners guide playlist. It's awesome how 8 years later almost all of it is still 100% applicable. I could not for the life of me figure out how I could shoot at an enemy for seconds and get a few critical hit indicators while they can knock me out in a single 2 second burst most of the time. Still haven't figured out if that's from my piloting or the caliber and number of rounds I put out but this has shown me how to keep alive longer and maybe damage a few more planes before losing oil pressure or a vital wing component and crashing.

[@mmk749]

Fantastic! Thank you very much! Again, I would like to stress how much I like the focus of your channel!

[@tetraire3844]

Once again an excellent vid. Your kill on the BF109E at 17:24 was particularly nice. I have continued to fly the P26 when I play, finding the repair costs enjoyable, especially since Gaijin now wants money for skins that players formerly earned by flying (seems a bit cheesy). So often one is up against higher tier planes with the P26 but your counter to them sounds very good to me. Thanks for what you do here.

[@Air-Striegler]

Very nice, very informative, very well done. Thank you for your time & effort!!! All the best to you and keep the good stuff comin!!! _Stahlstieglitz_

[@long5hot]

Thanks Stahl :)

[@Axonteer]

i really like how lucky you where in your intro. If i did dhat, those 1-2 hits you got would have ripped my wing off.

[@long5hot]

it happens enough to me too, don't worry about that ;)

[@Axonteer]

hehe ok, but i know how awesome it feels to perform a hammerhead well. I almost want to reach for my Aviator Glasses every time i manage it ;-)

[@agtUnknown]

I'm loving the general increase in team flying footage, even in the tutorial videos. Having three players record was a nice touch, although it was hard to pick out detail in the smaller windows.

[@long5hot]

Yeah I tried editing it in order to switch back & forth between views, but it ended up confusing rather than helpful, so that's what I had to settle with :\

[@agtUnknown]

Yeah. Switching back and forth is somewhat doable with 2 players, I think. 3 is too many. Anyway, unless you come up with something creative, I think this format is worth repeating.

[@hendrik457]

thank you so much long5hot :) im not a beginner but your beginner guis was super helpfull. i played war thunder for atleadt 1 year now but i was just using simple tactics like poorly boom and zooming but after these videos i finnaly know all good tactics

[@ctbram0627]

Brilliant flying sir! Very impressive indeed.

[@thomashazlewood4658]

My first Balancer award was in a P-26 against a Brokefighter. P-26's are underestimated, I think, and fun.

[@trout717oboeplayer9]

Great content! keep up the good work!

[@mobiuskill9298]

Ok thank I'll practice it. And I'm a sorta a beginner and I love ur videos. U are so clear and explain everything to were I understand

[@long5hot]

+Jacob Hernandez No problem - and you might find this playlist helpful (if you haven't already seen it) - kzbin.info/aero/PLuSIUQRYEJmIdv6uh3YD4hp3KIld8w_Zg

[@gusporterhouse]

You seem happier and more animated in this video than I think I've seen in a while. Glad to see it. :)

[@long5hot]

But of course :) I couldn't be glum after flying in a reserve plane, they're too much fun!

[@Pulmonox]

You know... it's funny. I honestly was thinking that you should do a series on the reserve craft. I was interested to see how you would handle the plane and the presentation, which I assumed would be geared towards newer players. And lo and behold, your next video is just that! Germany was my first nation when I picked up War Thunder over two years ago. America was my second. I instantly noticed the difference in turning performance between the P-26 and the He-51's and dismissed the less nimble reserves, wanting to move on to the more iconic machines that I was familiar with in the American lineup. That being said, I DID notice that I had more success shooting down enemies in one of the planes than I did in the others. It took me probably over a month before I realized that the M2 had a .50 cal Browning. And honestly... at that tier, that gun is devastating. Now, after I've picked up some more experience playing the game, the P-26 is one of my favorite troll machines. Take it into a 2.7 or even 3.0 match and watch as people either dismiss you as insignificant, or seek you out for an easy kill. Sure the Peashooter doesn't perform all that great at low speeds, but it still outperforms almost any other monoplane (outside of those nimble little Japanese A5M4s and the Ki-27s) in a turnfight. And if other reserve craft are in the fight, you can use your superior speed to do what you've demonstrated in this video. I once went 9 kills with my Peashooter in a 2.3 possibly 2.7 match before someone brought me down. Didn't even kill me, really. My engine got nicked early on and it eventually died. I actually think I have that video up on my youtube channel. It was a few patches ago, and my flying isn't anything to write home about (I do a lot of things you mention you shouldn't do, and there is also a span where I filch GT's because we were losing). And, granted, most of the kills were still biplanes, but there was an A-20 and a P-40 in there if you check the messages. It was a fun match though. Even other reserves look down on the P-26, but in the hands of a capable pilot (as you've demonstrated) it can be a deadly machine. And man, your crew looks fun to fly with.

[@long5hot]

Yes the .50 certainly makes a difference, though right now its not a huge one as the .50s are far less effective right now than they were 6 months ago. Nice going in that 9 kill match :)

[@jaykia]

Proof that even the worst reserve planes in the game can dominate a match if they are in capable hands.

[@puct9]

I'm no expert but I got up to max BR 5.3 on British aviation, then I tried German up to BR ~1.7 and I thought it was nice and cozy, but when I tried the American planes I just found using strategies I've gotten used to like taking quick deflection shots and short bursts when making a quick pass on the target to be rather useless. Even with German planes could I take a little deflection shot and take off a wing, but with the P-26 I could barely do anything other than knock out the pilot most of the time.

[@marcomartini9239]

Uptiered it to a 2.0 lineup, got some very good battles, some bad...

[@mrmanlet7385]

Getting good seems so daunting to me. I'm so bad lol.

[@Ocrilat]

Nice vid...always liked the Peashooter. Problem with the audio on the final part, though...can barely hear you (on the rare occasions when you talk during a fight lol).

[@long5hot]

Yeah my mike level was way too low. Only found out after we'd fought a bunch of battles & it was too late to try and herd all the cats together to do it again. Ah well, I didn't have much of value to say anyway ;)

[@Ocrilat]

novocas7rian It's hard to tell sometimes...the chatting is 90% Agent of Change, 9.9% Jake (I think), and the occasional 'yup' from you.

[@long5hot]

Ocrilat There was a 4th squad member in the battle, Epic, but he didn't record any footage hence he doesn't feature in the vid - but you hear his voice quite a bit. Especially complaining about lousy hit registration ;)

[@Ocrilat]

novocas7rian Oh...is he the 'complainer'? :)

[@long5hot]

Ocrilat Not usually, but in this game he was :) Agent does talk a lot - he's the guy are the start who said "I fail at this game", and Jake has the deep voice. They're all great people.

[@mobiuskill9298]

How do u do that roll on 12:12.

[@long5hot]

+Jacob Hernandez Hmm, I don't see a roll there. Just a simple elevator + rudder turn.

[@MrFalkor81]

Can you comment on the latest patch changes ? I'm thinking about changes to mouse aim in AB.

[@long5hot]

Well, I hated the initial change they made yesterday. Since then they've just uploaded another patch to tweak it, only a couple hours ago. I'll need to get in & play with a variety of planes in order to make up my mind on it.

[@MrFalkor81]

novocas7rian thx for fast replay... I hope that when you make up your mind you will make a short video about it and how have you adjust to new controls.

[@long5hot]

MrFalkor81 Yes I hope to have a new video online about it soon. For me right now its an open question as to whether I adjust, or move on and find another game. Its not a decision I'm going to rush though.

[@long5hot]

MrFalkor81 And here's why I'm not rushing on this - for now, the change has been reverted. forum.warthunder.com/index.php?/topic/227772-mouse-aim-mechanics-reverted/#entry4383033

[@MrFalkor81]

novocas7rian now this is a good news... i did not expect this to happen :D

[@kurtbennett1164]

Hi there. Quick questions. What is the significance of the green plane in most all the games? Second, during the game, someone will blare out, 'Cover me!'. How can I find them so I can go and help?

[@long5hot]

If there's a green plane, its because you have automatic squadding turned on in the options. That pilot is your assigned wingman, and you'll both get extra Silver Lions for "teamwork" if you kill stuff in close proximity to each other. When someone yells cover me, their plane icon will flash both in the game and on the minimap. If you see that, and you're in a position to help, great - if you can't then don't stress over it too much as the chances are you're too far away to help anyway.

[@kurtbennett1164]

novocas7rian Aha! I wondered how come sometimes the word 'teamwork' with an award showed up on the screen when I was either running away scared or just circling above at altitude by myself. I must have inadvertently worked with him or hit a plane he then killed. Cool. Does he know he's my wingman? In other words, am I green to him on his screen? Thanks 'longshot'! I really do appreciate your videos and answers.

[@long5hot]

Kurt Bennett Its purely a proximity based award, being within 3km or so of your wingman - one of you gets a kill, the other gets the teamwork award. If one of you damages a plane that the other kills, then in addition to the Assist and the teamwork award you get a "Supporting Fire" award. And yes, you are green to him. Personally I have the automatic squadding option disabled, as unless I choose to fly squadded I'm going solo and don't want the distraction of a green plane demanding my attention ;)

[@mobiuskill9298]

How do u perform a that ?

[@long5hot]

+Jacob Hernandez I hold up elevator and left rudder keys at the same time.

[@SnprMk7]

I've spotted the snap roll being used far more often in the last couple of days, real annoying in my brute of a 217. Do you use the default Page Up/Down for manual elevator, or have you swapped to something more handy for the left hand?

[@long5hot]

Page Up/Down is useless really, not sure why they changed to using that as the default. When I started playing, Q & E were rudder, A & D were ailerons, W was down elevator and S was up elevator. Up/Down arrows controlled the throttle, and apart from moving the throttle to my gaming mouse buttons & firing button to the spacebar, I've seen no reason to change the other key mappings.

[@SnprMk7]

Yeah, I'm in a test now and I reset to W and S (Moved hard throttle to Z and X since I never use these keys anyways, set to 20% throttle increase/decrease, mousewheel can fine tune the rest. I'm stuck with a standard 3-button Dell mouse I'm afraid) One technical problem I find is that If I mash S and D, Q for rudder will work, but E will not. Additionally, mashing *any* three keys does nothing but lock the keyboard up until one key is released, triggering the other two. Currently practicing on an He 112 (second one, forget factory code. The one with the C/30 on it) Curiously, though, when I do roll and yaw first, the elevator feels like its entirely unresponsive.

[@long5hot]

SnprMk7 Unfortunately that kind of thing is usually a hardware issue, as many keyboards have limits on the number of keys held down at the same time :\ Here's a discussion with some interesting info on the topic - gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/6669/how-do-i-remove-the-limit-on-pc-keyboard-button-presses

[@SnprMk7]

Ah, so it was the keyboard limitation. Always thought this was just an operating system limitation insofar as the O/S couldn't handle three keystrokes delivered at the same time, but could handle multiple with some spacing. Still weird how I *can* hold down three, but only certain ones. Welp, now I have a reason to go out and get a gaming keyboard, although I hope to hell I can find a well priced one that is *not* a flatboard. Born and bred on the old standard, don't like the intrusion of these flatboards! Thanks for the link, though! Bookmarked it as it has some suggestions for boards as I rifled through it.

[@Rexal_The_Saltiest_Brit]

SnprMk7 That's called ghosting, imagine the underside of your keys as a cross section of patterns, all leading from the lower edge of your keyboard to the top section, when you press a key down, that column/row 'lights up', and the intersecting points lets your computer know which key is being pressed, hold two of these down and several columns/rows light up, if you then light up more keys along the same column/row then your computer won't be able to tell which key is being pressed, and will act as if it's only the first key... I've got my keybindings set to W/S for Throttle, A/D for Aielrons, Q/E for rudder, and Z/X for Elevators, if I press E+D+Z I can do a snaproll to the right, but I can't press Q+A+X to snap left, as I ghost the X key. The only real way to solve this is to upgrade from a membrane style keyboard to a mechanical keyboard, where all the keys have their own individual switch, but those can be expensive

[@irwinrommel9301]

it seems to me that the glass tail phase of war thunder is here. I've flown my Russian line up and died ever single time by loss of tail control. Its starting to get ridiculous

[@TrxmpBrownNosersBgone]

Lol. This makes me want to play reserves again.

[@long5hot]

And why not? Its fun :)

[@TrxmpBrownNosersBgone]

novocas7rian Yeah you have a point there. I play Tier 3 too much and its a lot more time climbing and jockeying for position than anything else. Gets boring after a while.

[@long5hot]

zdronexx Exactly. The squad game I showed in this video was one of several we played after the guys have been bashing their heads against the wall in tier 4...

[@breadnoodle]

Today somebody tried to kill me face to face. I was in Bf109 E3 and he was in Ki10 :D Killed him in 1 burst and it just disappeared

[@LekanAdeyeri1]

I feel like you recorded me play, lol/

[@programmingcafe7571]

Haha, this was me when I started

[@andrewx3436]

Dammit your skill with this peashooter makes me feel sad

[@long5hot]

***** I'm not that good - I was flying with a friend a month or two ago and saw him go 12-0 with this plane...

[@andrewx3436]

long5hot Even so, you're better than most pilots!

[@hulladek3]

Play p47 its fukin crazy its a d9 at 3.0.

[@J7Handle]

You know, considering how advanced your flight knowledge is I'm surprised you never fly Simulator Battles or Realistic Battles. Why is that? Is it because they take too long for any action to happen? If so, the realistic and simulator combined arms challenges give arcade spawn points with Realistic and Simulator physics applied. Personally the craziness of arcade battles makes me dislike them. I prefer 1 on 1 duels where the odds are even and it all depends on the moves each pilots makes, like chess, not 5 on 5 furballs where the pilots most concentrated on lose, because they cannot handle 3 enemies at once, and the ignored players come out on top.

[@long5hot]

I am interested in both Realistic & Simulator (though I'd be confined to mouse joy) but yes I have indeed avoided them because they have far too much downtime for my tastes. A little while ago Magz was testing a Simulator concept set on AB maps which looked interesting & I'd give that a go if it ever became a reality. The crazy chaos of Arcade is part of what I find appealing, as it stretches my ability to track multiple planes at once and make sound decisions as the battle evolves. That said, I enjoy duels as well but I don't think I'd keep coming back for more if that was all that was on offer.

[@sccojake]

I is famous!

[@sccojake]

For our next outing lets do Hurricanes! Or, idk, the Fury if you want to keep it in reserves. I would do He-51s too.

[@long5hot]

Jake Petrie You giant-slaying Bf110 killer!! And yes, absolutely happy with any of the above :)