WWII Fighters lesson 4: TNB

Dude Joined: Jul 21, 2003 Posts: 12 Location: USA

Lesson 4: Turn and Burn

This is lesson 4/6, to help new pilots get a handle on how to be successful at playing Jane's World War II Fighter's. Since a few people will jump to this lesson first, some of the material at the beginning is repeated. I'll try to make that repeated info look the same so you can skip it. Tactics are not maneuvers. Graphical illustrations of basic combat maneuvers can be found doing an internet search.

It is okay to have a favorite tactic, but you need to develop all your skills, and learn to recognize when you're in a position of strength or weakness. You have to learn to use all the the tools available in this game. If your only tool is a hammer, then every problem starts looking like a nail. Situational Awareness is knowing the "who, what, when, and where" of your threats or opportunities. It is foundational to the rest of these lessons, and THE most important advice I can give you.

First of all, you can't hit what you don't see. So if you are getting "blindsided" because you don't have a great setup, go back to the lesson about setting up your ww2 configuration and ww2keys files. Once you've reached the point of being visually aware, you will have to be able to instantly determine your greatest threats or opportunities, and automatically know the "how" to deal with the situation.

This comes with practice and repetition. Many times there just is not enough time to remember and think. Instantly and correctly evaluating the whole situation and then executing the right move, starting your turns before the enemy does, makes you look like you're turning faster and can be quite intimidating. Mastering total situational awareness (who, what, when, where) is as much of a skill as any flight control or textbook maneuver. So get a setup that works for you, and practice it. Knowing the "how" to deal with a given situation means knowing your plane, its condition, and your style, compared to the enemy's current strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes you have no choice, but you need to be disciplined enough to keep yourself in situations that play to your strengths, never the enemys.

Tactical Styles:

Basically there are two styles of fighting TNB (turn and burn) or BNZ (boom and zoom). For both tactics, precise smooth plane movements, sharp-shooting, and good situational awareness pay huge dividends. Every good pilot in this game prides themselves on all these skills. TNB is tricking a slower turning plane into letting you get behind them. BNZ is all about getting yourself in an advantageous position, shooting the enemy, then running when you loose the advantage or the shot. The decision to use the TNB or the BNZ tactic is relative to what plane you are flying, what plane you are up against, and the current condition of each. In either case, be patient. Sometimes it’s best to get the kill in one pass. Many times it is best to go for a few dings, then make the kill on another pass.

Turn and Burn:

TNB is fun. Its mostly skill based, and somewhat instinctive. You adjust the trim, flaps, and try to stay at the best speed for turning. Then anticipate where your opponent is headed and put some bullets in their path. A good tactic for a TNB pilot is to avoid the "Boom" then swing around to ding them from behind, forcing the BNZ pilot to bleed off energy with each pass. After 3 or 4 passes, the BNZ pilot is too wounded and/or no longer has the energy to flee to a safe position.

If you TNB, never let the BNZ pilot get a straight shot at you. Make them spend as much energy as possible before they can get any kind of a shot. You might just trick them into turning or diving too much. Keep your speed up, and only allow the BNZ pilot compound-angle shots.

More advanced TNB involves skillfully avoiding the bull-rush of a BNZ pilot, then faking and making the BNZ pilot think you have less energy to pull a maneuver than they really do (all the while tracking other threats/opportunities). As with all combat, the longer you are involved in a fight, the greater your chance of getting killed. Even if you win this battle, bleeding your speed too low will leave you vulnerable to your enemy's wingman. So at all costs, don't spend anymore time than needed and leave yourself exposed.

From the TNB perspective, don't give a slower turning aircraft an easy Head-To-Head (HTH) shot. Leave them only two choices; making them turn (at least a little) for a difficult deflection-shot, or to flee. In either case, you will eventually end up with a shot at them from behind. Given healthy airplanes, fast turning requires the use of your rudder, that the auto-trim be turned off (sometimes Trim-On for the P-47), but the flap setting will depend on your speed. Generally, the lower the speed, the further you should extend your flaps to increase your turning rate.

But watch out! If you leave your flaps fully extended, your speed will drop dramatically. Conversely, if you pick up too much speed with your flaps fully extended, they will lock in place, greatly reducing the top speed, stability, and long distance shooting ability of your plane. Generally, if the auto-trim is on, it will fight against your turns, because in a banked turn, the elevators act more like a rudder. Use the rudder to keep your nose from pointing upward, wasting speed. In a bank, the rudder is oriented more or less horizontal, so it is now effectively an elevator.

Good TNB planes are the Spitfire and the Fw190. Spitfires turn incredibly fast, but they roll very slowly. The Fw190 turns pretty well, but it is fast, and is the best at changing direction due to its awesome roll rate. However, the 190 stalls violently at slow speeds. Only highly skilled pilots can effectively TNB with a P-51.

Turning Rates:

There are two different types of turning rates; instantaneous, and continuous. At any given speed, the instantaneous turning rate is almost twice the turn rate your plane can hold for any extended period of time. The instantaneous turn rate only lasts for a few moments. This is why most horizontal TNB loops start out looking more like ellipses rather than true circles. When you yank the stick to the max, you snap into the instantaneous rate, as the airflow becomes turbulent, you effectively stall, falling off to the slower turn rate. This effect is very noticeable in the Spitfire. When the air settles back to a more laminar flow, the increased air speed and lifting effects of your wings turn you faster again. Eventually this effect, much like a spring, settles into equilibrium and you drop to the continuous turn rate and the loop begins to look more like a true circle. At this point, if you're fighting with someone, you are in a "Death Spiral." The first airplane to stall or break away from this situation will lose. Even if you win the Death Spiral, you are a sitting duck, because you're low on speed and probably low on altitude as well. This is not a wise move, so leave this option as a last resort.

For the planes in this game, the fastest continuous turn rate is with landing flaps, just slower than the speed at which they will lock. Adjust your throttle, or toggle the engine on and off, to keep your speed down. The fastest instantaneous turn rate of a Spitfire is about 250 mph with no flaps. The faster your speed, the larger you're turn radius. Slower speeds mean a tighter turn radius. However, if you let your speed drop to the point of stalling, you'll spend energy just keeping your plane in the air, your radius will be tight, but the turn rate will be not be fast. When your plane is damaged, many airplanes in this game will turn faster with Trim-On instead of off. I watch the clouds and terrain as I'm turning, and turn the Trim on or off as needed.

Another factor is altitude. Due to the greater lift of a TNB plane's wings, and the thinner air at higher altitudes, the difference in the turning rates is even larger the higher you go. All planes turn slower at high altitude, but the difference between the turn rates for each of the types gets even greater. For a test in FM5, find the time if takes to make ten horizontal 360 degree turns at 2,000 feet and then at 10,000 feet. Get full flaps, Trim-Off, and find the best speed without stalling. In a Spitfire, the best I could do was 130 mph with the same altitude; watching the speedometer, altimeter, and compass. My time to turn ten laps at 2,000 feet was about 120 seconds, or 30 degrees per second (dps). Then at 10,000 feet, the Spit did ten laps in 150 seconds, or 24 dps.

For the P-51 at 2,000 feet, the best sustained speed was 150 mph, with a turn rate of 24 dps, but at 10,000 feet the turn rate was only 15 dps. As a result, at 2,000 feet, the Spitfire proved to be 25% faster in sustained turns than the P-51. However, the effect of altitude on turn rates really shows up at 10,000 feet, where the Spitfire is 60% faster than the P-51 in sustained turns. Instantaneous turning rates are about twice as fast as the sustained rates. So at higher altitudes, while you have the room and potential energy stored up to dive away when you get in trouble, you'll have less time to make the decision to get out of a bad situation when fighting against a faster turning airplane, because of the larger difference in turn rates at higher altitudes.

Pursuit:

There are three ways to chase someone; Lead Pursuit; Pure Pursuit; and Lag Pursuit. Lead Pursuit points your craft into the path of where your enemy is going. Pure Pursuit points your craft directly at your enemy. And Lag Pursuit points your craft where your enemy has been. Lift Vectoring is making the most out of what your wings can do. If you are using your Target Window feature, select (target) the enemy, roll your plane until the red targeting arrow is at 12 o'clock in your cockpit view, then pull back on your stick, now your Lift Vector is in Pure Pursuit.

Assuming both planes are moving at the same air-speed, the only way to get closer to another airplane is to Lead-Pursue that airplane. Which is in effect, turning at a faster rate. But understand that you are also bleeding off speed at a faster rate as well. Even when a marginal pilot gets in close and on your six, you're goose is cooked. There is little anyone can do when someone gets behind them, the only real counter for this is not to let them get there in the first place. Try some of that "Top Gun" movie nonsense once, and you'll not try it twice. Pure and Lag Pursuit can be useful to keep an enemy at bay until you are ready to take a shot.

Rolling:

Basically, rolling is changing the direction of your banked turn. This is a good way to change the pursuit situation. You can use a tighter or looser turn, but nothing robs you of airspeed faster than pulling harder on plane's elevator. However, rolling costs you very little energy. Even the slowest rolling airplane can always roll faster than the fastest turning airplane can turn. Many times a fast turning plane is a relatively slow-rolling plane because of the light wing loading.

Under most circumstances, you should just about complete the roll of your airplane into the direction of your turn with your ailerons, before starting your turn with your airplane's elevator. If you're flying a plane that has a slower turn rate than your enemy, and you get caught in a Death Spiral, and you're past the point of being able to safely run away; your only hope is to cut across the circle and putting them in a Lead-Pursuit situation by rolling toward them before its too late. This means rolling into them well before they're at your 3 o'clock for a right-hand bank (or before they get to 9 o'clock for a left-hand bank). Start your roll when the enemy is at 1 o'clock in a right hand turn (11 o'clock for a left-hand turn). If you wait to long, only your wingman can save you.

The fastest turning plane in this game is the Spitfire. The fastest rolling plane is the Fw190. The only way a 190 can TNB with a Spit, is to roll into well timed changes in direction and then rely on the Fw190's instantaneous turn rate, not its sustained turn rate. At extremely low levels, sometimes a Split-S with a faster rolling plane will keep your enemy from following you. But most experience pilots know to keep enough altitude in their banks to level out their turn, and get a snap shot at you when you pass directly in front of them at close range.

Horizontal TNB:

There are two basic forms of TNB, horizontal and vertical. Before deciding on which type to engage in (just like the decision to BNZ), take into account, your plane, the plane you're up against, who's flying them, and the current condition of the aircraft. In any case, the goal of TNB is to get your guns pointed in their flight path before they can do it to you. Depending on several factors, this may happen quickly, or it may happen after a long series of turns, trying to make your enemy bleed speed to the point of stalling before you do. There are a couple of ways to start the TNB attack with your enemy; one is the Early Turn (ET) which is a form of Lead and Pure Pursuit, and the other is to Drive to the Corner (DC) or Lag Pursuit.

The ET is useful if you are close (roughly one turning radius away) and neither of you are currently lined up for a shot. Basically, even though your plane turns slower, if you start soon enough, you can get pointed at them first. This requires starting into a turn well before you have passed each other. If you are already lined up, then shoot. However, if he is lined up, exposing your belly is the last thing you want to do. In this case, roll your plane to dip down and then back up quickly, in an unexpected direction, this is called a form of the Split-S. If you have a TNB plane, try keep them turning because you will win by attrition.

Driving to the Corner (DC) is done when there is some distance that is much greater than a turning radius from you to your enemy, and if a continuation of your turn will only put you in their bullet stream. Whether or not you can shoot them, half of your goal is to keep them from shooting you. DC (which is a form of Lag Pursuit) that keeps you behind the bogie by flying to the point where the bogie began their turn. Properly executed, you will get your shot a little later, only to deny the enemy any shot at you, and in the process it will keep your speed up.

If the enemy is very far away, then you are basically responding to a BNZ attack. If you let them line up for a head to head shot, you are only playing into the other pilots game. This is the BNZ pilot's strength, why give it to them if you can out turn them? Only give the BNZ pilot a tough high deflection shot. When their guns are pointed in your direction, keep your speed up, and when they are in gun range, perform a large corkscrew turn in their general direction. Then start your early turn just when you get to their 2 or 10 o'clock. FORCE them to turn to get any kind of a shot at you. If you are fortunate, they will turn too much and you will be behind them before they can flee. At the very least, they will have to bleed some speed to shoot, decreasing their ability to safely exit.

Either way, be patient. Keep teasing them on each of their booming runs. Then try to get some dings in on each pass, if not outright killing them. Eventually, they will be too weak and slow to get away. Even if you can't get hits in on them in the first couple of passes, they will probably lose patience and take more time to turn with you each time they miss. Sooner or later, they will not get away clean and/or they will be forced into turning with you.

A more aggressive counter to the BNZ attack is to use the early turn to slash back and try a short-range high-deflection shot just before they pass. But many times, this will leave you vulnerable to a quick close-up shot by them, and it will take away some of the effectiveness from your early turn. In either tactic, do not give the BNZ attacker a head on shot. This also applies to a wounded TNB bird. Play to your strength, not to theirs.

Vertical TNB:

Vertical TNB is like a combination of TNB and BNZ. Energy management is crucial. The goal is to conserve your speed loss to a slower loss-rate than your enemy's loss-rate, causing them to stall before you do. One way to do this is to decrease your decent speed without loosing so much speed that you can't make it over the top on another loop. Accentuate this with flaps at the upper most part of the loop to give you that last little bit of lift at the top of the loop.

No matter what type of fight you are in, jerky stick movements waste speed, many times you over-correct, only to correct again and again. Failure to keep your Lift-Vector pointed at your opponent has the same effect, loss of speed and position. If you get caught in a loosing battle, get out early. Learn to tell when you are out-classed. Watch for the enemy to bottom out, and start into the upward part of their loop. Flee to in the direction that you are moving 180 degrees away from their forward motion, just when they are at the apex of their loop.

Another way to make the most of the Vertical TNB, is to learn to shoot from the inverted position. You will save time and energy by not rolling to the upright position before the shot. Make sure that you turn the Trim-On if there is any distance to the shot. Remember, this is a basically a TNB fight, if you want to make it work, keep your loops the same or just tighter than what the enemy can do. But this has to be balanced against your goal of trying to make them bleed energy (speed). Basically, you don't want to give them time to recover. The worst speed stealer is the elevator, make them use it as much as possible. Watch for them to make a break to flee. When they do, always roll your plane first, then pull on the stick.

Again, the slowest roller can always roll faster than the fastest turner can turn. If you stall at the top of your loop, try a "Hammerhead" turn. This uses the airflow generated by your propeller and full rudder to one side or the other to attempt a 180-degree flat spin. This trick is not very effective if your nose is already pointed down. The best vertical TNB plane in this game is the Me109, not only is it the best short range climber, it has the methanol boost to give it that extra kick over the top, just in time to catch someone when they stall. If the P-51 has a strong point, its here, but its still second best.

TNB versus BNZ:

The most important thing in either style, TNB or BNZ is to keep the fight where you want it. If you are both healthy and high on energy, then stick with running and gunning, or turning and burning as the case may be. But keep a weather-eye out for changes in the situation. When a BNZ pilot severely wounds you, many of them will go ahead and turn and try to kill you as fast as they can. If you are only lightly wounded, fake some hard-stalls. Then when they turn to pursue you, ease into your first turns just enough that they commit to a turning fight. If you are healthy and start into a hard bank, and a BNZ pilot is just behind you, but doesn't quite have a shot, the longer you keep them turning, the sooner things will get better for you. If the BNZ pilot is smart, they'll get out while they still have an exit, breaking away from a death-spiral when they can. If possible, try to trick the BNZ pilot into pushing a bad position. Every moment they're turning, they're bleeding energy. So as long as they are close but don't quite have the shot, do some high or low YoYo's to keep them interested. Then when they get low on energy, move in for the kill. Even if the BNZ pilot won't stay in the turning fight long enough for you to swing in behind them, the TNB pilot only needs to trick the BNZ pilot into staying long enough for them to loose their safety margin on the exit. Then you get a straight Head-To-Tail (HTT) shot. Generally, the HTT range of all the weapons on all these planes is about 3,300 feet (1 kilometer), so if they have a faster plane, once they reach that distance, they should be safe.

When you are trying to evade the boom-charge, you have two basic choices; start high and early turn low, or start low and early turn high. Starting high generally means slower speeds when the boomer is at a longer gun range. Another advantage is that the closer the boomer gets, the more speed you will be picking up, making the exposure to short-range fire low. However you will be building up speed and increasing the reversal turn radius. Starting low will expose you longer to a short range (though difficult) shot. But starting low is a good way to bait the BNZ pilot into a turning fight and allows you to decrease your turn radius on the reversal. With either tactic, timing is everything. Turn too soon, and you will expose your belly (hint: this is NEVER a good thing). Turn too late and the BNZ pilot gets a free shooting pass without any consequences.

Sometimes a TNB pilot will try to get pointed at the BNZ pilot before the pass for a quick "snap-shot." Then they try to turn quickly and shoot the BNZ again before the exit-zoom. If the TNB tries this, they'll also give the BNZ pilot a chance at a close range shot, though it will be quick. Other TNB pilots won't even let a BNZ pilot get a shot at them, they will evade the Boom by completely cork-screwing around in front and to the side, actually starting their early turn even before the pass, then try to get in a few HTT dings before the BNZ pilot can exit. To combat this, the BNZ pilot has to roll with you to get a high deflection shot, which will probably be a complicated compound angle as well. As soon as the shot is gone, but before the pass, the BNZ pilot has to plot a good exit strategy, then roll and probably turn again to get away. If the BNZ pilot turns too much or wastes ammo, they're bleeding out of two holes. The TNB pilot should wait for the BNZ pilot to spend too much ammo, energy, or get bored and frustrated, then try something stupid and play into your game. If your evasion moves are working, wait for your shot. In stead of chasing someone, consider climbing and storing up energy, while they run away and turn around. You can't catch them anyway. Be sure your speed is high enough for your evasion moves when the next boom-charge comes. Done correctly, you'll gain a little more energy each pass.

Avoiding the HTH:

The reason for choosing the TNB tactic is that you can out turn your enemy. Whether or not you have good firepower, if someone is choosing to BNZ, it is to the enemys advantage if you line up for a Head-To-Head (HTH) contest. Of course there are exceptions, but generally it is not wise. In the hands of a sharp-shot, the P-47 in a HTH battle will almost always bring the other guy down, and since the 47 is so tough, many times it will survive the encounter, even if they get badly wounded. Unless you're in a 47, it is best to avoid the HTH, and find a way to do a stern conversion. If you have wounded someone severely enough that they can barely fly, do not go for a HTH shot, the situation has changed. Re-evaluate, if all they can do is fly straight, no matter what plane you're in, you're now in a TNB plane, so have some fun and don't let them do the only thing they can do.