War Thunder [SIM|VR] - Duels with an Ace ft. _Shortik_ (J2M3)

Here's to those who think American planes can't dogfight. Don't let that video fool you, Shortik won about 65% of the fights during our 45 min. session. Those where I failed the most miserably were cleverly edited out :) To my defense I'm not used to such "training" dogfights and forgot to change my fuel amount from 45 min. to minimum... Rookie mistake. o7 Shortik and thanks for those duels, I learned a lot! This is what an American Ace looks like guys!
Gear:
• Thrustmaster Warthog (HOTAS)
• Thrustmaster TPR (Rudder Pedals)
• HP Reverb G2 (VR Headset)
• Honeycomb Bravo Throttle Quadrant (Additional Axis)
PC Specs:
• RTX 2080 Ti
• I9 7940x
• 64 GB DDR4 RAM
Axis Settings:
• Pitch:
- Sensitivity: 100%
- Nonlinearity: 1
- Multiplier: 1
- Dead zone: 0
• Roll:
- Sensitivity: 100%
- Nonlinearity: 1
- Multiplier: 1
- Dead Zone: 0
• Yaw:
- Sensitivity: 100%
- Nonlinearity: 1
- Multiplier: 1
- Dead Zone: 0.05

[@alexanderk5522]

It always looks to me like completely different game... how is mustang so agile, can't believe I had the same plane on my first sim flights

[@ATC83]

Yeah that's why he can be called an ace. I guess he makes the perfect use of throttle and flaps, and he's constantly aware of his energy state

[@Alexandros11]

Oh cool, so you were training with him?

[@ATC83]

We were the last two guys left in a regular EC lobby, and he asked if I was up for some custom dogfights. I said alright and we did this exausting (at least for me) but awesome session. This reminded me of fights I had (and mostly lost) with HelloRoger and AdelWolf. American fighters are deadly when flown by such aces...

[@maven3196]

what convergence do u use

[@ATC83]

250m

[@blackjohnny0]

Someone still playing this game in SB? I tried from time to time go into game but I never could find players.

[@flawleesvictoryapolok9589]

Hi man! Your duels with Shortik was beautiful. But, since you and I are pilots of the axis and an alliance unites our nations, I am obliged to give you two pieces of advice 😁 (I hope you don't mind...): First: you know I don't have that much experience, so take my next advice carefully. Second: you have to be less aggressive or, in other words, use much less lead pursuit and much more lag pursuit. For example, at 20:02 you put your lift vector into lead pursuit (to get a shot opportunity). The problem is that when you do that, more or less two things happen: 1) you burn a lot of energy because you are forcing your fighter to get a shot opportunity and 2) you can overshot him. When you do this and fail to land a shot, you are at an energy disadvantage and, if you overshot him, also at a disadvantage in terms of angles or position. Your opponent takes advantage of this disadvantage of yours to generate turning room and then turn as tight as possible to put his nose on you and shoot you. You can't take advantage of the turning room he creates because you don't have enough energy. Your opponent may not hit you this time, but this situation repeats itself until your energy degrades enough for him to succeed. On the other hand, if you use lag pursuit, you will burn much less energy, you will not overshot him, he will not be able to create turning room for a shot opportunity and, with the wonderful thrust-to-weight ratio that the J2M3 has, his energy will be it will degrade much faster than yours, you will gain angles and position until it becomes easy prey. He will have no choice but to change his tactic (maybe extend to try a frontal shot). In conclusion, a 2C, nose-tail fight is better for you, and not a 1C, nose-nose fight; your opponent will do just the opposite. By wisely putting your lift vector into lag pursuit, you gradually force a 2C fight. Putting your lift vector on lead pursuit you get into a 1C fight which is where he wants to take you. You can also see what I say in 0:15 0:24 0:34 3:05 4:32 6:03 6:33 It also happens on other occasions, but I did not take note. This advice that was once given to me, helped me a lot: "More rudder and more lag pursuit. You're fighting to bring your sight to bear far too often. That makes your chase very straight and lead oriented, while your opponent is taking these wide swooping barrel rolling scoops. If you can give up on trying to get your guns on for just a second and concentrate on staying behind your opponent... you'll let him burn off all his altitude (energy) and then he won't be able to perform such wild evasions. So when he takes a wide ass swooping roll... you need to match it, and even go further beyond that. Keep your engine throttled up and use that rudder to stave off stalls and increase your rate of roll. If you are rolling in a direction, you should also be yawing that same direction. The more you get used to this, the more effective your ability to track the enemy and hold stalls at bay. Stalls are the ultimate enemy here. Your opponent stalled TWICE but you couldn't capitalize because you had been in lead pursuit the entire time and weren't in a position to get your sights on due to them being in a wide booming roll... way outside your track. Had you been in lag pursuit, it would have been quite easy to pull him into your sights the moment he stalled. Think of it like this.... if your opponent is flying in a big rolling pattern, like the shape of a slinky... you don't want to be INSIDE the slinky (going down the center of it trying to chase)... you want to be outside of the slinky and following their every move." TheWingalingDragon Still, you put up an excellent fight and knocked him down many times. And, in my opinion, if my advice is correct and because you are a great pilot, he will hardly be able to shoot you down again. Sorry for my overconfidence in giving you these tips! o7 PS: if you already knew all this (which is likely)... sorry again 😅!

[@ATC83]

First of all, thanks for taking the time to give me such great advice! I'm aware I'm (way) too much aggressive and I must confess that I like taking those small time window opportunity shots and it usually pays off. But against a pilot like Shortik I realize it doesn't work (most of the time) and it's not a viable option. I should have been less impatient, stayed in lag pursuit and waited until his energy degrades like you wisely said. Hope I will remember this the next time I'll be in the heat of battle against such an opponent :) Thanks again!

[@reggiekoestoer1511]

interesting take...Wingaling said that (respect o7)? I also usually instinctively like to roll lag pursuit somehow, to get deeper into the control zone before pulling lead for the shot (because I'm a bad shot lol). Problem is, it takes a lot of time. The aggressive stance taken by ATC here maybe (just my theory) is because normally he's a great shot and high angle deflections are no problem, the thing is Shortik from what I see in this video is super good at last second jinks under the gunsight, giving a small silhouette, slightly changing geometry with rudder, making small moves and so on. Hence a lot of shots didn't land (it would've if it was against me lol). Just a theory from me though, I'm nowhere near qualified to prove it against them. And as you said, the high angle pull to lead is basically a gamble because if it doesn't work, you're in a worse position when you overshoot. This is an interesting discussion of course, and I'm looking forward for further input from the others. To learn from all of you ofc! o7

[@flawleesvictoryapolok9589]

@@reggiekoestoer1511 I think you have made a very good assessment, I agree with what you say. It also appears that Shortik doesn't push the turns as much after the first merge and on subsequent merges and doesn't put his lift vector on ATC, saving small amounts of energy and keeping his speed up, allowing him to pull off those last minute evasions with greater efficiency and gain, little by little, a superiority in terms of energy. It is when ATC is relatively low on energy that Shortik creates a turning room and looks for a shot opportunity by turning wildly towards ATC.

[@reggiekoestoer1511]

@@flawleesvictoryapolok9589 Thank you! I see..that's an interesting observation. Maybe that's how he kept the energy so high throughout the engagements. I'm just amazed at how the P-38 was so good for example. In a zero, I've never had trouble turnfighting P-38s flown by the average Joe Pilot. Should be about the same with a J2M. But this guy rocks in his P-38!!!

[@reggiekoestoer1511]

Crazy good top tier duels. Shortik is a Dark Souls Boss. I felt like watching two masters testing some theories against each other. I can't understand how he could fly the Jug like that! I was shocked many times throughout this video, it was a very equal fight. Beautiful reversals and congrats to both of you, I'm sure it felt really satisfying to have a workout like that!

[@ATC83]

Yeah it was an awesome session. It felt like having 1 year worth of experience in 45 minutes lol. Shortik is an amazing pilot, not only he killed me many times with the Jug, but I couldn't shoot him down once when he flew the Lightning! I have a lot to learn still... :)

[@reggiekoestoer1511]

@@ATC83 although I'm just a student of the dogfight, I can see all the subtle nuances in the moves, the rationale behind every angle taken, every turn, every roll under the gunfire you both took. The energy game. It's beautiful. "US planes can't dance", I've said it myself many times. How wrong I was! Maybe it was total energy mastery as you said. I am humbled.

[@2bparistol8]

​@ATC83 wow!!! That's unbelievable dude!!!

[@ricardomartin3656]

FUCKING AMAZING DUELS, I LOVE IT

[@ATC83]

Thanks man! Yeah those duels were amongst the very best that I ever had, I learned a lot in only 45 min. Shortik really is an Ace

[@camaku3084]

great piloting!

[@ATC83]

Thanks!

[@kvf3672]

Delicious!!!😍

[@ATC83]

Thanks, appreciate it!

[@harryhallersflightdiary847]

Many really really great fights there! Would be really cool to see _Shortik_ view also... :P Thx alot man!🤓 o7

[@ATC83]

Thank you very much! Yeah it was a really intense session, I was amazed by his mastery of those American birds. I would be very interested to see his perspective also! o7

[@2bparistol8]

This is supreme!!!

[@ATC83]

Thanks man! Yeah it was a great session!

[@most_sane_piano_enthusiast]

insane

[@ATC83]

Thanks! Yeah those duels were crazy cool, I had a blast!