SOMEWHAT-GRAND 2019 REOPENING

A younger, dumber me created this guide years ago as a sort of War Thunder Magna Carta to allow people to understand what not to do and why to avoid it. It might help, it might not help, but dammit, at least I tried.

TL;DR: Skip to the appropriately named section.

Note of warning: I take no responsibility for aneurysms induced by my solitary Italy-related pun.

Let's start with something so simple that your mother (hopefully) taught you this from toddlerhood: be nice to the other kids.

• Say thank you if someone just saved you from an enemy plane. (By same penchant, save your teammates from enemy planes)
  
  
• Say "Bombers, would you mind going after the enemy objectives?" rather than "omfg noob b-17 feeder not attacking target reported ♥♥♥"
  
  
• Don't complain about being shot down.
  
  
• Don't rag on about how "only noobs fly German/Russian/British/Japanese/Italian/American/French/whatever". If you really hate facing a particular plane or nation, try them out yourself - experiencing their weaknesses firsthand will give you a better idea of how to deal with them when you're flying against them
  
  
• Teamkilling is dumb. Revenge teamkilling is even dumber.

In short, behave in such a way that your own grandfather would be proud of you if he was your wingman.

(Hey, I dunno, maybe he was a fighter pilot sometime...)

Killsteal (verb): Intervening in an ongoing dogfight that your teammate is winning in an effort to secure the kill for yourself.

Try not to killsteal. Keyword 'try': there are situations where a killsteal is necessary (Po-2 trying to joust a B-17, anyone?) or even beneficial (when said Po-2 is starting to knock out allied pilots with his wild firing), but try to moderate it.

There are a few very good reasons for this:

• Every plane engaging one enemy is a plane not engaging all the other enemies, leaving them free to bomb your ground bases or gang up on your teammates or whatever. Bomber pilots love nothing more than pulling half the enemy team behind them as they careen towards the edge of the map; sure, they'll almost certainly get shot down eventually, but now all of you have to make your way back to the main fight, which has now turned to the enemy's favour...
  
  
• The grind's rough, man, so like, let the man have his kill, man. He, like, needs the RP, man.
  
  
• A cloud of planes trying to pile on one target can very quickly have dangerous consequences for all involved (see: Steps 3, 4, and 5).

Basically, here's a rule of thumb:

Is your ally doing just fine with killing the enemy, doing reasonable damage without endangering the team?

Let him have his kill.

Is he violating the above criteria?

Consider stepping in.

HOLY CHRIST MAN DO YOU EVEN PERSONAL SPACE

Please, please, please. Always, always, always stay at least half a kilometre away from your nearest ally. If he suddenly has to turn sharply or change altitude and you're right on top of him, one or both of you will be screwed.

Preferably you if you were the one who forgot personal space.

(Couldn't find a picture on google. Three minutes in Paint solved that.)



In case my Da Vinci masterpiece ugly diagram is too vague:

While I have said earlier that killstealing is dickish but sometimes necessary, you know what you absolutely shouldn't do?

SACRIFICE YOUR TEAMMATES FOR A KILL

I see this way too often. I'm chasing an enemy plane when suddenly...
...and I've lost a wing because some guy with a better-armoured plane bounced in from the side to steal my kill.

The worst bit? I've yet to see the day anyone apologizes for it. Yeah, sure, it might sometimes be accidental (I still think it could easily be avoided), but at least have the decency to apologize.

Gangbang: (noun): When >2 planes chase after one enemy aircraft in an attempt to take the kill.

This should be pretty obvious: don't do it. The amount of planes attacking an enemy is directly proportionate to the chance of someone getting wingclipped, not to mention that it's totally counterproductive (read: time/ammunition wasting) and merely allows a random cannon-equipped plane to waltz along and fire randomly into the cloud of rabid fighters.

One Beaufighter can ballistically penetrate half your team if they're stupid enough to do this. Additionally, the fact that you're all distracted by one enemy allows a significant portion of the enemy team to go ahead and complete whatever the objective is.

Don't do it. Seriously.

They might as well make this an actual plane now.

Oh, the dreaded Kamikaze! The horrific, rage-inducing, "noob move" of the game.

...

You thought I was gonna say 'don't do it', didn't you?

Well, see, here's the thing. Are you a puny biplane trying to take down a Heavy Bomber as he flies merrilly towards your base?

RAM THAT ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

But do make sure to do it right, or else you're screwed and he ain't.

Oh, and of course, don't do this to fighters that you can easily kill with your guns. That's not honorabru.

Something I see a lot is people failing to understand their plane and its role.

In 90 percent of cases, it should be dead easy to grasp but isn't, so let me give you a quick rundown:

Is your plane not terribly fast, but turns faster than the Italians turncoat in times of war?

Congratulations, you're flying a turnfighter. Fly low, perform sick tricks, and use your superior maneuverability to kill the enemy.

Is your plane really fast, packing mad heat, but turns like your arthritic grandmother dancing the Waltz?

Congratulations, you're flying a boom-and-zoom plane. These are literal no-brainers to fly: climb as high as you can, dive down on unsuspecting enemies, use your superior firepower to rake them with bullets and then use your superior speed to hurtle away into the sky before anyone can retaliate.

Is your plane even less maneuverable than a boom-and-zoom fighter but sanic fast and packing much bigger guns?

Congratulations, you're flying a heavy fighter. Find the biggest enemy aircraft on the map and forcefully revoke its flying license. Or, if you're feeling particularly suicidal, pretend you're a boom-and-zoomer (and then die when your huge airframe gets riddled with bullets).

Does your plane maneuver like ♥♥♥♥ but have a fancy thing called 'a bomb', (singular/mildly plural)?

Congratulations, you're a dive bomber. Attack stuff on the ground/sea by diving on it.

Does your plane maneuver even ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ but have a really fancy thing called 'a lotta bomb'?

Congratulations, you're a bigger bomber. Attack stuff on the ground/sea by diving never ever losing altitude because you will be shot to all hell if you lose your one and only advantage.

Dead easy, right?

Apparently not. Too often I see people trying to joust heavy bombers in their A6Ms by flying right behind them, or see F4Us get into turnfights with Spitfires. Seriously, when you get a new plane, give it a quick google and see its entry on the War Thunder wiki - it'll tell you the best role for it.

You see those red dots on the ground?

Those are called "objectives"

"BUT THE OBJECTIVE IS TO KILL ENEMY PLANES", you shout in between bites of Doritos! No, silly you, the objective is (generally) not to kill enemy planes

Indeed, the objective is usually "kill this innocent car/pillbox/tank/AAA" or "land at this airfield and convince the airfield staff to surrender to you without ever leaving the comfort of your plane" or, god help us all, "capture this zone which can only be captured once you eliminate every single one of the constantly-respawning enemies" (gaijin pls fix domination this is ridiculous)

Anyways, the team that completes the objective naturally wins. Hence the purpose of bombers: not, as typically believed, being bullet sponges (except Domination Mode, but NONE of the normal rules apply to Domination!). As such, they are objects to be protected by one team and annihilated by the other.

Usually what happens, though, is that the fighters give nary a thought to their friendly neighbourhood bombers and merrilly fly off to give chase to one poor F2A-1 whilst all the Bf 109s and P-38s on the enemy team lick their mechanical lips expectantly.

SAVE THE BOMBERS, YOU PROBABLY WON'T WIN WITHOUT THEM.

Seriously, if you are flying a plane capable of performing objectives, do so. It's literally as simple as strafing an AAA with a couple of seconds of machine gun fire and then pulling up.

Be credit to team, please.

It's a game, try to have fun, stop playing for a while if you aren't, and always remember that even if you're not having fun, you still shouldn't ruin it for others.

Always.

Shame on you, go back and read the whole thing.