The Booomerang - a diary..
Ok, not gonna thread-jack Nimīs fine little thread anymore..:bandit:
..but I still have so much fun (and so much grief!) in the Boomerang that I am gonna.. ..kinda records their exploits. Try to inspire more than Shortbus to fly Boomerangs with me and take over the world. Or atleast fly Booooomernags effectively together.
The Boomerang, for you that donīt have any of them, were in patches up and until 1.35 tiered very favourably (Wiki article on the cute little plane here btw) tiered. If I rememeber correctly it was tier 4 or 5 in that old 20-tier-system. I flew them for a bit in my early Arcade days and did okay-ish I guess, they are a bit like Spitfire Mk. IIbīs - just slower. Much slower.
But after patch 1.37 with the new BR system it got shafted, kinda. Now a tier/era/whatever-crap-Gaijin-actually-calls-it II plane and currently with a BR of 4.0 in Arcade and 3.3 in Realistic. That means it is in a weird spot - you can get very different match ups from the match maker. I guess, both on what is availble in the que (correct me if I am wrong) and how good you have done with the Boomerang (or maybe just your player score overall?)
Anyways, I can now and then get into "tier 2 games" and then in the next number of games I get into "tier 3 games". What that means is I get into mostly facing tier 2 planes of similar BRs (high tier 2) or tier 3 planes of all varieties..
If I bring in my Boomernags as my highest BRīed aircraft in AB 8and only tier 2 stuff) I regulary face I-185s, P-51s, Bf 109 G2s, the odd G6, Griffon Spitfires etc. It just doesnīt seem to matter that I am in a tier 2 planes in that occasion - the BR pushes it up and I am rarely the top BR dude for some reason...
Good pilots in those opposing aircraft just should not lose to a Boomerang... Atleast not 1 on 1..
Since patch 1.37 I have barely flown my Boomerangs at all in arcade. You can take it out in a line up of similar BRīed aircraft and get a few kills before you die in a furball. Or you can try to play more defensively/conservative and get a kill or two and maybe survive. I just found it gets harder and harder. And I do not enjoy furballs at all to be honest, even in planes that are *good* at it - because I am sick of the head ons, the team rams, the retards in your team shooting through you to get the burning target you have crippled instead of the incoming bandits behind..
If I try to stay out of furballs and climb a bit or go for flanks I usually stick out like a sore thumb and get half a dozen Fw 190-vultures or whatever diving for me... And you can usually deal with them or at the very least survive until they get frustrated - but there is usually not just one bad guy and in my experience I just look like a too good target for the bad guys to be left alone even if I am hanging back a bit. And you know arcade, help rarely comes. I have seen it all, I have been chased around my own airstrip at low alt by several bad guys and seen friendlies respawn above and dive for the furball in the middle.. Whatever. The plane is very tricky to use IN AB (for me) - if you want to do good and survive for a bit..
The BR also makes it tricky to make a straight line-up of similar BRīed aircraft. Do you stick to just tier 2 stuff? (Yes it matters) or do you bring in your tier 3 crap of similar BR? If you do the latter you face even more tougher opposition..
The planeīs performance is noting to write home about.. It is slow.. Very slow. It climbes badly, it dives pretty bad but it turns pretty good and the weaponry is not bad at all even though the cannon ammo is pretty limited (the MGs are not!).
So why it is rated so high I have no idea... But my guess is its old abusive days. I really never saw it dominate but it sure was not bad at that tier 4-5-ish in 1.35 and before that. And I guess a cannon armament in anything but Russian aircraft pushes stuff up as well as its introduction date. What makes a BR seems to be different to different nations (really). In my opinion nothing but a planes performance should matter. Not how well a player uses it nor really its weapons. That is kinda irrelevant. Speed, climb rate and dive characteristics is more important but sure, weaponry should come in somewhere.
Anyways - the Boomernag is in my not so humble opinion severly over-tierd(/over-BRīed). Against good players in similar BRīed aircraft you will struggle and you will have to rely on team mates and the team to not be crap (and that is a big problem!)
The performance dictates that you canīt really be the tip of the spear, you need to be more cautios because what the plane gives you is some decent defensive capabilities but not so much else. The engine donīt perform very well at high altitude but a lot of action atleast starts there at its tier.
So what do you do? I personally have had more success with the planes if I donīt climb too much (some altitude is always good for having the escape route/energy possibilty to dive away a bit) and have some dudes around me but not beeing the first one in... And this makes it tricky.
To be honest I have found the Allied teams I get teamed up with, while flying on my own, usually are just bad or at the very least not as good as the German or Japanese teams. Russian teams vary somewhat.
All too often I see Brit and/or US teams beeing made up of waay too many bombers. That is just more likely with a Bri, US or mixed team than in any other nation. (Talking Realistic Battles now by the way). I understand that players want to fly those bombers but it just donīt help the team in the team death match that RB is - atleast the RB I play.... Sadly. It just makes the rest of the fighters outnumbered.
And it doesnīt help that too many players donīt seem to be able to use US fighters in particular or sometimes they donīt even try...
If I got a penny for every time I see a P-47, F4U or whatever ground derping or turn fighting on the deck I would be rich. And when you get that in combination with a crap load of bombers vresus teams entirely made up of Fw 190 A4s you will not a have a long or (usually) good game... That is my experience anyway.
It sure as hell doesnīt help either when you in a Boomerang at low alt engage some STuka and you see half your team turn back and dive in to *save* you with their F4Us, P-39s etc. - giving up all that altitude that theyr for once actually managed to get. Donīt do that!
/random blabber..
Yesterday Shortbus bought the Booms and of course we had to try them... So we played two games together (with Kaygen in a Spitfire IIb).
First out we got Sicily and actually not a bad MM at all! We faced crap like Ju 87 Gs, Fw 190 A1s and A4s, Bf 109 Fs. That is not bad at all - relative. And the team was not toally useless either, they actually managed to climb for a bit and only one Spitfire tried to dive in and help us with a Stuka and that Spitfire did not even managed to crit me with his fire, he only slightly damaged me...
Short got a very nice first kill on a Ju 87 D-5 and a Fw 190 A4 - not bad at all in his very first Boom-game!
Second game we got Ruhr or Essen or whatevr. And I could not believe my eyes! We faced the usual A4s but also some He 112s and Bf 110s. I had never seen them before whilst flying my Boomernag!
Once again we got away pretty good. Team was not great but atleast they did something.. Me and SHortbus got involved ina furious turnfight, outnumbered, in the middle - perfect for the rest of the team to dive in and help. Those German planes should be easy meat in that situation. But as usual we had to do it ourselves. I got two He 112s and some other Bf 109 F, Shortbus something I canīt remember plus a very, very nice long shot on a Bf 110 trying to get away.
Sadly Shortbus had to leave and later that night I flew the Booms on my own again. And once again I found out what difference that makes. With a similar aircraft (and Kaygen helping out!) and voice between the players you can do good with the Boom, it is much trickier on your own...
My first on-my-own-game, Alternative History Berlin. Russians... I stuck to 1000m and hoovered to one flank to look for ground derping communists.. Risky since I was alone but atleast I could drag down any USSR fighters low and have them be vulnerable to others if I got bounced, or so I though..
I very soon found myself with an IL-2 below me, one at the same altitude as well as a Pe-3 below... I dived on the Il-2 below since it looked like I had a window to take him before the other one might engage me.. Got into a little turn fight, critted him before a *friendly* A-20 decided to "help" and do a head on on him, ramming him. I still got the kill but the A-20 was credited to the IL-2. Great..
Pe-3 disappeared and I gave chase to the other IL-2. Well, giving chase in a Boom is not what it sounds like... And the bad guy decided it was better to dive face first into a blue minibase that fight me... Whatever, he died...
In the mean time I the rest of my team had been involved in an epic furball and for once the Allied team did really good! I saw it from a distance but very low on cannon and halfway to our base I made the decision to reload and be in a position to defence my team returning. I almost reached the furball when two Spitfires dispatehced the last enemy fighters leaving only that Pe-3 from earlier. One SPitfire returned to base while me and the other one, very low on ammo, gave chase. We found him taking off from Tempelhof (that arena looking airfield in the middle of Berlin). A bit away we both engaged since there were no other bad guys left and the Spitfire set him on fire. I decided not to shoot but the fire went out so I nailed him, actaully giving me the kill (I would call it half a kill).
So two bad guys (1,5) down and I survived! That is VERY good in a Boom for me!
However, that was followed by some really terrible games. One on Alternative History Krymsk. On my own (stupid!) I got bounced by a Yak-9T and a Yak-9K. Not bad players but they were constanly diving for head ons and low on energy I had a very hard time evaiding both. Caught a 45mm shell in the face... Team died very quickly ground derping somewhere...
The Operation Saipan. Teamed up with some Typhoon 1b/Late and some P-47s in the ground erping role. All but one Typhoon were total derps and died turn fighting Zeroes at the deck (yes) and there was not much we two could do really. With teams like that...
Another epis game on Alternative History Krymsk I wne for a flank, ground derping and hoping a lone Russian would find me and turn fight me.. This time both teams very extremely good and I am very glad some Russians managed to crash and team kill each other since otherwise we would have been defeated.. My team, all of them, got invovlved in a high altitude dig fight (Spitfire Vbs, P-38s, Bf 109F4 Premium etc). I got bounced by a La-5 of some sort plus a Yak 3. I managed to evade for an eternity and when they were out of ammo they dissappaered back to their base. That was the last bad guys and in the mean time my the last three guys in my team went back to base to reload and repair and I managed to tie up the last bad guys while they did so.
On team chat we then decided to use me as a bait, low and the bad guys actually fell for it and both dived in. I survived (without kills) but only me and a Spitfire Vb did so. Still a good game and I felt I could contribute (as a bait!) even though all other aircraft severly outperformed me.
Then another Operation Saipan with Typhoon 1b/Lates evrsus Ki-84s. My team ground derped themselves to death even before I reached the Islands.. I flew around hiding (yeah..) until we lost.
Essen again. Tried to keep at 1000m and went for one of the bridges, trying to defend. I found a BF 109F2 flying low and attacked, got into a turn fight but before I could get him two Fw 190 A4s and another Bf 109F screamed in. I evaded for MINUTES, no help whatsoever and they got me in the end, at the deck, turnfighting. When I died I checked my team and I saw two P-47s turnfighting a Ju 87 together with a B-25 and some fourth fighter. We lost. Allied teams sometimes gives me flashbacks from the worst Arcade games, sadly.
The last game of the night was on Bulge. Small teams. I was teamed up with a P-39, F4U, P-38 and two more fighters. The P-39 immidiatley went low, around the map to the enemy airfield, shot some tripple A and died... I went to some friendly ground targets, at 1000m, intercepted a Ju 87 D5 and got onto its tail. At that point I saw half my team, heading BACK, giving up their altitude to dive in and *help* me. I quickly emptied my cannons into the Stuka and got the kill. My team continued towards the ground, ground derping with an entire team of Fw 190s diveing in on them. I actaully sneaked back to base, repaired and left the game as the last guy with the only kill. ALmost puking in disgust...
I doubt anyone have read this far but below are some sweet vids on the Boomerang. I might record a couple myself if I can but I will at the very least try to get some more Boomerang-wingmen and have these underdogs work! Kinda.. :bandit:
Bo Time!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...Q8xJ_YiY6NEw41
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1har99ZBllU&feature=player_detailpage
Magz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=giKt8jCn80s&list =UUfqbhEEocD5WFc1y6Xy7Zgg
More to come..
