Keep in mind that this is a very big guide and will soon cover all aircraft with in-depth guides for each plane individually. I choose planes at random to do an advanced guide, if you have a certain one you want to see leave a comment.

• Matchmaking
  
• What types of aircraft are there?

• Crew
  
• Controls
  
• Call outs
  
• Maneuvers

• How to win matches
  
• Shooting at target
  
• Types of Ammo

• American Fighters Stats
  
• American Bombers Stats
  
• American Attacker/Strike Fighters Stats

• German Fighters Stats
  
• German Bombers Stats
  
• German Attacker/Strike Fighters Stats

• Russian Fighters Stats
  
• Russian Bombers Stats
  
• Russian Attacker/Strike Fighters Stats

• British Fighters Stats
  
• British Bombers Stats
  
• British Attacker/Strike Fighters Stats

• Japanese Fighters Stats
  
• Japanese Bombers Stats
  
• Japanese Attacker/Strike Fighters Stats

• Italian Fighters Stats
  
• Italian Bombers Stats
  
• Italian Attacker/Strike Fighters Stats

• American P-40E-1
  
• American P-47D-25(28)
  
• German C.202
  
• German Bf 109 F-4 (Trop)
  
• German He 100 D-1
  
• British Spitfire Mk Ia
  
• Russian Yak-1
  
• Japanese A6M2 mod 11

More soon to come!

• Matchmaking
  
• What types of Aircraft are there?
  
• Crew
  
• Controls
  
• Call-outs
  
• Maneuvers
  
• How to win matches

Note: The Basics Part 1 contains "Matchmaking and What types of Aircraft are there?" Part 2 contains the rest
Note 2: Yes this is a very long section, i wish i had all this info when i first started, but live and learn
War Thunder Air battles are divided into 5 battle types. Each Battle type has its own matchmaking.

• Air Arcade
  
• Air Realistic
  
• Air Simulator
  
• Assault. Air Arcade
  
• Events & Tournaments

Air Arcade
This is the most popular game type for planes it is Player vs Player. Air arcade allows the player perform stunts and maneuvers without harm to the aircraft unless you crash into the ground. What I mean by this is you can dive 1000 meters in a Yak-1b without the wings breaking off, or even deploy landing gears while going 300 mph in a F6F Hellcat and not have the landing gears hit the guy behind youall of this was experience sadly. You have unlimited ammo BUT you have to reload, so you can have 1000 rounds in a belt for your machine guns but once that reaches 0 you need to wait a few seconds to reload, imagine essentially having an invisible stockpile of ammo with you. The certain match rating or Bracket you will be matched into is determined by the average Battle Rating of the planes in your line-up. In planes the matchmaking is the 3 highest BR planes. Example:
My Ameriacn line-up consists of: (4.0) (3.0) (4.0) (3.7) (3.7)
The matchmaking is calculated as (4.0 + 4.0 + 3.7) / 3 = 3.9 or a 4.0 since there is no 3.9 BR
You can squad up with friends, there are multiple bonuses to this including squad awards, teamwork bonuses, and better teamwork. On the note of squads, the matchmaking will put you in the Bracket of the highest BR rated player in your squad. So if two friends happen to be an average of 3.0 but being the evil little ♥♥♥♥ you are, you decide to sneak in your 6.0 line-up and you and your friends are now playing in a 6.0 Bracket with two friends at a severe disadvantage.

Air Realistic
This is another planes gamemode but with more realistic physics....duh. Everything from Air Arcade applies to Air Realistic except for the following notes: So if you attempt to dive 3000 meters on a low flying bomber do it slow or there is a good chance that your wings will snap off, you will know this is about to happen from the loud shaking of your wings. You have limited ammo, the amount of ammo is displayed in the upper left hand corner of the screen by default,
you can also view the amount of ammo in the hangar (pre-game menu).
So I have

• 10 HVAR rockets
  
• 3400 rounds of 12.7 mm (.50 cal machine guns)
  
• Two 1000 pound bombs and One 500 pound bomb

keep in mind that if a armament is displayed as x8 like my machine guns are, that does not mean 3400 x 8 rounds of ammunition. This means i have 8 machine guns and 3400 rounds are split between them so each gun has 425 rounds. You can refill your ammo by landing on an allied airfiled and wait for the rearmed timer, which is displayed at the bottom of the screen.
You can also rearm on an airfiled in Air Arcade but it is not really worth noting, it is just a feature.

Air Simulator
This game type is just like Air Realistic but with the major change of being stuck in first person, this gametype is recommended for people with a flight stick.

Assault. Air Arcade
This game type is a co-op vs AI. It is a wave survival with enemy AI bombers, fighters, and enemy artilery units that spawn in various directions around the map attempting to destroy your base. There are 15 waves and you have blank lives and then their is the durability of the base.

Events & Tournaments
This game type is unique, Gaijin will change the matches in this regularly, You will need to actually look at the info on the web site sometimes. The section requires that you own some of the specific vehicles to participate, you may even need a ticket to participate. The battles in this may be mixed (planes and tanks). So look at the roster of planes that are required.

This section will talk about the types of aircraft and how to identify them. You only need to remember the ones i have listed in the special note below, i will only go more in depth on those, simply because a lot of the types of aircraft have vast similarities to others or have no game breaking differences in them stat wise.
The types of aircraft are:

• Fighter
  
• Attacker
  
• Strike Fighter
  
• Bomber
  
• Medium Bomber
  
• Flying Fortress
  
• Jet Fighter
  
• Jet Bomber
  
• Long Range Bomber
  
• Dive Bomber
  
• Naval fighter
  
• Light fighter
  
• Naval bomber
  
• Torpedo bomber
  
• Interceptor
  
• Air defense fighter
  
• Heavy fighter
  
• Heavy bomber
  
• Frontline bomber
  
• Flying boat
  
• Biplane
  
• Hydroplane
  
• Light bomber

Special note: You really only need to remember Fighter, Bomber, and Attacker/Strike Fighter

Fighter
Fighters are the average planes you will see in game, there are more of these than any other type in game. These planes are for dogfighting which is fighting other fighters. The fighters with bigger guns are usually bomber killers much like the Fw-190 A-8 which has four 20mm guns and 4 7.92mm guns.
Fighters are generally:

• Fast
  
• Tight turners
  
• Well equiped guns for just the pilot to use
  
• Some have the option for rockets or bombs to be put on
  
• Great climb rate

Take the plane below as the prime example for a fighter.


Bomber
Bombers are the aircraft that technically win the matches. Bombers carry bombs which consist of explosive payloads that range from 50kg(100lb) to 5000kg(10000lb) in a single bomb. These planes are used to destroy enemy bases and airfiled which decrease the enemy teams total points or you can use the bombs to destroy ground targets such as artillery or medium tanks or to kill that helpless guy sitting on an airfiled.
Bombers are generally:

• Slow
  
• Horrible turn time
  
• Usually have no gun for the pilot just turrets (guns for onboard gunners to use)
  
• Always carry bombs (you may need to unlock bombs for a few bombers)
  
• Terrible climb rate

Take the plane below as an excellent example for a Bomber.


Attacker/Strike Fighter
Attackers and Strike Fighters are pretty much the same but generally Strike fighters are single engine and Attackers are twin engine, now there are some Attackers that are twin engine and vice versa for Strike Fighters. So the Attackers/Strike Fighters are basically fighters with bombs and or rockets. These planes are best to go after ground units as they are more manuverable than bombers.
Attackers/Strike Fighters are generally:

• Medium speed (faster than bombers but slower than fighters)
  
• Medium turn time
  
• Heavy armaments, typically a lot of machine guns and or cannons, may have gunners
  
• Medium climb rate

Take the plane below as the perfect example for a Strike Fighter.


Take the plane below as the perfect example for an Attacker.

This section will cover the crew for aircraft and what is recommended to put your crew points into . The Crew is the in game avatar(s) that use the vehicle, you have 3 crew slots by default, you can purchase 2 slots with Silver Lions (standard currency), you can purchase 5 more with Golden Eagles (premium currency). You assign certain planes to your crew which makes up your line-up. as seen in the picture below. When you purchase a plane it is purchased forever BUT you must assign it to a crew, which costs silver lions, then you can increase qualification which costs even more silver lions. I will go more in depth of qualification later in the section

In the case of planes it is the Pilot, Co-Pilot, and Gunners. Every plane has a pilot. Only certain Bombers and the F82 Twin Mustang (a fighter) have a Co-Pilot. Any plane that lists a turret in its stats has a Gunner. You use crew points to increase skills of crew members, skills such as Vitality, G-tolerance, and Weapon maintenance. The crew page looks like such (it has multiple tabs):



I will not describe each of the skills since you can view them in game yourself and the explanations in game are easy to understand.

Note: No, your pilot does not count as the gunner in single man aircraft such as a P40-E Kitty Hawk, just because you have guns does not mean there is a gunner.
Note 2: You think that previous note was stupid? I had a friend who was in that situation and went a week thinking that way.

How do you gain crew points?
Simple you use a plane that is assigned to a crew. You will gain more points if you are using more members at once. For example you will gain more crew points in a bomber that has 1 pilot, 1 co-pilot, and 6 gunners than a fighter that has 1 pilot.

Qualification
Increasing qualification of a crew will increase multiple skills at once with a single aircraft. There are 3 levels of qualification: Basic, Expert, and Ace. Basic is the stock level which is obtained from buying the aircraft, provides no aditional benefits. Expert is the second level which is obtained by purchasing the rank with Silver Lions in the qualification tab, the cost is equal to the price of the vehicle(not the price to assing to crew). The Ace level is the final level and is obtained 2 ways: by purchasing the level with Golden Eagles(premium currency) or you can gain Research points with that plane on that crew to purchase the level for free, the research points will not carry over to other crews if you decide to assign to plane to a second crew slot.

Note: You must purchase Expert level first to be able to purchase Ace level.

What crew skills should you increase?
First, if you can afford the Silver Lions, Increasing qualification is a must for all types of aircraft!

• Fighters: (Pilot Tab) Vitality, G-tolerance, Stamina. Keen Vision and awareness are more for Realistic battles and just make it easier for the red icon to appear for an enemy. (Gunner Tab) None. You have no gunners. (Logistical Services Tab) Reload Speed and Weapon maintenance. Repair Speed and Repair Rank are not top priority but still recomended.
  
  
• Bombers: (Pilot Tab) Vitality. You do not need the g-tolerance, if you are pulling -5Gs in a bomber you are doing it wrong. (Gunner Tab) Number of experienced gunners, Fire accuracy, Fire Precision, Vitality. Again no need for g-tolerance (Logistical Services Tab) Reload Speed. It would be a miracle if you managed to land and its usually in Realistic Battles when you do.
  
  
• Attackers/Strike Fighters: Same as Fighters, put points into gunners tab IF you have gunners

Note:If you plan on using all types of aircraft i suggest having 1 type per crew slot. So a slot for fighters, a slot for bombers, a slot for attackers, etc. Eventually your crew levels will get high enough to where it doesnt matter

Now I know what your thinking: "I played the tutorial i know how to use the plane." Well that may be true but War Thunder has a few controls that they don't even have assigned automatically.

In the picture directly above the three controls Drop Bomb Series, Schrage Musik, and Ignite Boosters are not automatically assigned, mine are but thats because i assigned them a while ago. Drop bombe series is useful for bombers with multiple bombs like the He-111 H6 which has twenty eight 50kg bombs by default, you can hold the key down and it will start to drop all bombs.Schrage Musik is a set of guns that are usually on the top of the plane pointed up, gunners do not control this, this is for pilots. Ignite boosters is a control for well boosters. Its a jump in speed for Jets that have this modification such as the Me-262 C 1a. Actually this may be the only aircraft with boosters. Some MIG 15's and Sabers have a modification for new boosters but my MIG is saying no booster available.


Now this next one isn't a button, in the above picture is the Instructor Control, now this annoying feature will screw you over especially in domination when you want to capture an airfield. Turning all of these settings off allows you to touch your wheels on the ground and keep flying at 300mph whilst capturing the airfield, it also allows you to deploy and retract landing gear on your own.

Now when i say call outs i dont mean calling someone trash for doing bad or ramming you... those are a given. I mean the radio messages (chat) that appears in an all blue text. Like below.
The "Thank You" and "Yes" are designated hotkeys that appear after hitting the Team radio mesage key (T by default). These messages help inform teammates of a current situation with a few key strokes plus it appears to everyone in their language. This is a good habit to get into and saves time. The key series T 1 7 (by default) displays the message "Someone Attack insert enemy target here" and this higlights that target for a few seconds.

I am going to just tell you where to find the stunt visuals in War Thunder, this is due to the fact of stunts an manuevers being very hard to explain for me. So in the top right hand corner of the Menu (In Hangar) click on the [?] then click Encyclopedia then click the stunts tab, you get a visual like this:
But one quick tip, if your plane has terrible turn time, don't try to follow the enemy's movement. If he turns you do a loop.

So to win matches the general objective is to reduce the enemy team's ticket count to 0, but the different game modes have you do so in various ways, first you have to know the various game modes.

• Ground Strike
  
• Assault
  
• Front Line
  
• Air Domination
  
• Domination

Note: You can also win by default if the enemy team has lost all their useable aircraft.
Ground Strike
In Ground Strike you reduce the enemy team's ticket count by destroying ground targets. The targets are different depending on which BR you are currently in. If you arein the early Tier 1.0 - 2.0 you will be destroying: Light vehicles, Armored Cars, AAA, Artillery, Patrol boats, and Machine guns. All of these can be taken out with any offensive armament such as 12.7mm machine guns or even 50kg bombs. In any other Tier of planes you will be destroying:Light Pillbox, Pillbox, Cargo Ship, Cruise Ship, Destroyer, Light tank, Medium tank, Heavy tank, Base, and Airfield. you may see some AAA or even patrol boats, but those don't count toward tickets. Anything highlighted (blinking yellow)on the in-game map counts toward tickets. To destroy any of these you need bombs or rockets, except for light tanks which you can use 20mm rounds to destroy. To destroy the enemy Airfiled you MUST destroy all bases before you can damage it. Once you destroy all ground targets the enemy ticket counter will continuously drop until 0, destroying the enemy base will do the same except the ticket counter will drop much faster.

Assault
This gamemode is similar to Ground Strike, except all ground targets count even the lesser units in higher Tier matches. The units are usually grouped up in convoys coming from airfields and toward the opposing team's airfield.

Front Line
This gamemode is exactly the same as Assault but the units are spread across the map in a straight line staring down the enemy team's units.

Air Domination
This game mode is basically survival of the fittest. Both teams fight for control of a big air space. I believe the only way to cap the point is to have a ratio of 8:1 in the air space (8 of your players to 1 of the enemy's). This game is domainated by Fighters while the above game modes are dominated by bombers. Most of the time you will end up destroying all of the enemy's vehicles before you cap the point.

Domination
This game mode has airfields that you have to capture by landing on them, or have ground units sit on them. There are usually ground units to destroy, if you do not the enemy's ground units will reach the airfield and start top capture the point. This is important! If you do not destroy enemy ground units that are on an airfield you CAN NOT capture the point. How to win this is basically hold the most airfields at once.There are 3 variations of this game mode: 3-point, 2-point, and single-point. The number just references the amount of airfields, single-point has just one huge airfield that both teams fight for.

Now shooting, yes you aim for the lead line, but thats not all there is to it. You will need to watch your rounds and aim for something important. For example when attacking fighters you want to aim for the pilot for an easy kill, so aim a bit ahead of the lead line. When attacking bombers it is best to aim for an engine, the bombers wont get far without them, plus when one goes down thebomber slows down and becomes an easier target. Now the lead line may be at different ranges depending on your targeting distance.

The standard is 500m, what this means is the guns are angled up so the bullet drop will cause the round to hit a target dead center 500m away. So if you aim for the lead line, wait until you are 0.5km away or aim a bit above (or in front, depending on the direction the target is going in). Remember the guns are angled upward on your plane so depending on the angle of your plane the rounds may difer in landing position.

This section will cover the types of ammo you can use in your aircraft. So to unlock the different ammo variants for a gun you need to unlock the offensive ammo belt, you may see it in the modifications as: Offensive 7mm, Offensive 12mm, Offensive 20mm or whatever your gun size is. The modification will look like so

Its the modification with the picture of bullets ok. So when you unlock this you can pick between different types of ammo such as: default, universal, air targets, armored targets, etc. Now I know what your thinking, "Well what am i supposed to pick?" have no fear I know just what to use and can explain them in depth. But first! Notice when you inspect an ammo type it gives you a list of the bullets in the belt and how the picture has different colored bullets. This is because each belt can have different round types within it. There are Armor piercing rounds, Incendiary rounds, Omni-purpose rounds, Tracers, Fragmentation rounds, and some can even be combined with each other. So what to look for in a round? Well if you are going after fighters you will be looking for Incendiary, going after bombers you may want armor piercing, for ground targets will generally be armor piercing but thats usually if you havea 37mm gun or bigger and you need to destroy tanks. Now below is to show a general description of the types of ammo you can pick once unlocked.

Default Ammo
This is the stock ammo type that comes with your plane. This will have all sorts of rounds in it, usually it will come with one of everything, but since it has one of everything it is fairly weak compared to others and is not recommended once you have the other ammo types unlocked, unless you are picking ammo for a turret than this is fine especially since the other options you will be given usually don't have any Incediary rounds or Frag rounds.

Universal
This is much like default but usually drops the omni purpose round and has more Fragmentation and incendiary rounds making it more reliable to take out air targets and light vehicles. I would recommend this for Attacker type planes and for Fighters if you can't pick the Air Target Belt.

Air Targets
This ammo type has mostly Incendiary-Tracer (combined in one bullet) with Frag rounds. This is best to use against Fighters, If you are attacking bombers you want to aim for the engine since these rounds have a good chance of lighting it on fire. Important: The Air Target belt for the P-51 has no Tracers in it which may make it difficult for some to hit their targets so you will just have to trust you are aiming properly

Armored Targets
This ammo type is mostly just Armor Piercing-Tracer. It is good for Planes with big guns like the Yak-9T that dismantle planes or wish to attack medium tanks.

Tracers
Don't use these. This ammo type is compiled of Tracers and Incendiary-Tracer. Now i know what your thinking, "Wouldn't it be good to kill fighters with?" The answer is no because of the 8 displayed rounds in the belt only 1 has that Incendiary making this ammo type simple for tracking your bullets in Test Flight.

Stealth
This ammo type Is pretty much like default except not a single Tracer, not even combined. So if you have trouble hitting targets don't use these. I guess if you do realistic and plan on getting a drop on your target they could be useful.

Night
This ammo type is just like Air Targets but just has more Tracers combined, it is usually used in later tier German Aircraft like the Ta-152 H1.

This section of the guide will cover a general analysis of America's Fighters, Bombers, and Attackers/Strike Fighters in War Thunder.
Note: The scales refer to the aircraft in the 2.0 - 6.0 BR
Note 2: The values are on a 1-10 scale. 1 being the worst, 10 being the best.
Note 3: When i reference planes in text or on the scale it is when they are fully modified

Fighters


America has some of the fastest fighters with decent guns and climb rate but with terrible turn time. When using American fighters you should just dive in on an enemy buzz a couple other people if you can without turning and then do an immelman to fly towards your airfield to recover and then repeat. If you attempt to dogfight you will get out-turned by pretty much every other fighter. American fighters dont have the firepower to hunt bombers at but they perform well at high altitudes allowing them to hunt bomber-hunters. The few exceptional fighters that can bomber hunt are the P-51, F8F-1B, P-61, and the P-38's.
Note: The P-51 i refer to is the model with four 20mm cannons.

Bombers


Note: When referring to Turrets I am keeping in mind the number of turrets, the size of the guns, and the number of blind spots on the bomber.

American Bombers are some of the best in game. They are very durable, have a lot of turrets, and in later tiers such as the 5.0-6.0 BR they can wipe out a base in one pass. Also the B-17's and the B-29's have no blind spot meaning the gunners can shoot in all directions. If you favor bombers America is definitely the go-to nation.

Attackers/ Strike Fighters


The American Attacker/ Strike fighter is the perfect mixture of fighter and bomber, great speed and guns while having a good selection of bombs and rockets to attack ground units. If you want to win your matches by destroying ground units America is definitely the way to go.

This section of the guide will cover a general analysis of Germany's Fighters, Bombers, and Attackers/Strike Fighters in War Thunder.
Note: The scales refer to the aircraft in the 2.0 - 6.0 BR
Note 2: The values are on a 1-10 scale. 1 being the worst, 10 being the best.
Note 3: When i reference planes in text or on the scale it is when they are fully modified


Fighters


German Fighters are some of the best armmed, with great turn times, insanely good climb, decent speed and OK durability. You can use german fighters to hunt bombers, bomber hunters, or energy fight (boom & zoom). Germany has good guns to tear apart pretty much anything they come across since the lowest BR that gets a 20mm is a 1.7 BR for germany.

Bombers


German Bombers are not the greatest, they lack the ability to get to the target safely, so an escort is a must. The payload is good but its no American payload. Turrets are few and have many blind spots but some turrets will get 13mm or even 20mm guns. Durability is good but once one engine dies the plane is pretty much gone.

Attackers/ Strike Fighters


Germany doesn't have that many planes in this category, but some of teir Heavy Fighters would fall into this category like the Me-410. Germany's Attacker/ Strike Fighters really just have big guns as their strong suit. Durability is good, but if you are using the Ju-87 G1 or G2 your life is going to suck. Turrets are few, not just amount on a single aircraft but not that many Attacker/ Strike Fighters even have a for a gunner. Payload isn't much since Germany relies more on big guns for the pilot, a lot of the planes in this category just have gus bigger than a 30mm on them. Climb rate is decent unless you are a Ju-87. Turn time is mediocre but on the bright side these planes can do tight flips. I have actually won a battle against a Spitfire mk Ia while in a Ju-87 R2 just because i could flip onto his tail before he could turn into me.

This section of the guide will cover a general analysis of Russia's Fighters, Bombers, and Attackers/Strike Fighters in War Thunder.
Note: The scales refer to the aircraft in the 2.0 - 6.0 BR
Note 2: The values are on a 1-10 scale. 1 being the worst, 10 being the best.
Note 3: When i reference planes in text or on the scale it is when they are fully modified


Fighters


Russian Fighters are like tanks. they have big centered guns and little ammo. They are really good high altitude fighters and bomber hunters, they get outclassed in turn time by Britian but then again everyone does but they are still some destructive fighters. Plus the russian fighters can take a decent amount of hits before losing something important. The bad thing is that Russian fighters have little ammo on them, so make those shots count.

Bombers


Russian Bombers are pretty good, with decent payloads and decent gunners. Some of the bombers actually have guns for the pilot to use and can engage fighters if need be. They are well rounded plus in the IL line you can get the IL-28 jet bomber which is a terror itself.

Attackers/ Strike Fighters


Russian Attackers/ Strike Fighters are pretty good. The main ones to use are the IL's and those planes can carry a decent payload for ground targets then attack a couple fighters or attackers easily. Bad news is they can't turn worth a damn.

This section of the guide will cover a general analysis of Britian's Fighters, Bombers, and Attackers/Strike Fighters in War Thunder.
Note: The scales refer to the aircraft in the 2.0 - 6.0 BR
Note 2: The values are on a 1-10 scale. 1 being the worst, 10 being the best.
Note 3: When i reference planes in text or on the scale it is when they are fully modified


Fighters


British Fighters are really good for turn fights. They can out-turn any fighter except for the russian I-15 biplane and the Japanese Zeros, but that thing has a turn time of 7.9s and its just a biplane. The British fighters have weak guns until 3.7 BR which is when they get 20mm guns. The major downside to British planes is they are paper thin. But overall still great dog fighters.

Bombers


British Bombers are decent, they are slow but some of them have great payloads and climb rate, much like the Halifax. Durability is good but turrets are just decent with many blind spots.

Attackers/ Strike Fighters


British Attackers/ Strike Fighters are pretty good, but work more like bomber hunters, so they are along the lines of Germany's Attacker/ Strike fighters. payloads aren't much but it is enough to take out a couple of ground targets then go after heavy fighters

This section of the guide will cover a general analysis of Japan's Fighters, Bombers, and Attackers/Strike Fighters in War Thunder.
Note: The scales refer to the aircraft in the 2.0 - 6.0 BR
Note 2: The values are on a 1-10 scale. 1 being the worst, 10 being the best.
Note 3: When i reference planes in text or on the scale it is when they are fully modified


Fighters


Japanese Fighters are pretty much lke British fighters except they get 20mm guns earlier. So great dog fighters but paper thin.

Bombers


Japanese Bombers are not the greatest, they really aren't used to destroy bases they are more for taking out ground targets. Durability is good, turrets are useless, climb rate is decent, payload is not the greatest and turn time is terrible. Japanese bombers are not very good to use.

Attackers/ Strike Fighters


Japanese Attackers/ Strike Fighters are. japan has 1 attacker and 0 strike fighters, so some oftheir heavy fighters will fit into this role. These Heavy fighters are fairly good, turrets are not very useful but the guns and climb rate are good enough to make this category a bobmer hunter, once the plane gets up to that altitude.

This section of the guide will cover a general analysis of Italy's Fighters, Bombers, and Attackers/Strike Fighters in War Thunder.
Note: The scales refer to the aircraft in the 2.0 - 6.0 BR
Note 2: The values are on a 1-10 scale. 1 being the worst, 10 being the best.
Note 3: When i reference planes in text or on the scale it is when they are fully modified


Fighters


Italian Fighters are

Bombers


Italian Bombers are

Attackers/ Strike Fighters


Italian Attackers/ Strike Fighters are

Note: Coming at a later date. Sorry for the inconvenience.

This section of the guide will cover a general analysis of France's Fighters, Bombers, and Attackers/Strike Fighters in War Thunder.
Note: The scales refer to the aircraft in the 2.0 - 6.0 BR
Note 2: The values are on a 1-10 scale. 1 being the worst, 10 being the best.
Note 3: When i reference planes in text or on the scale it is when they are fully modified

Fighters


French Fighters are

Bombers


French Bombers are

Attackers/ Strike Fighters


French Attackers/ Strike Fighters are

Note: Coming at a later date. Sorry for the inconvenience.

This is an advanced guide for the American P-40E-1.
Important: All advanced guides recognize the aircraft as fully modified

Official Name: P-40E-1
Max Speed: 367 mph at 3810m
Guns: Six 12.7mm (.50 cal)
Turn time: 20.3 seconds
Climb rate: 19.6 m/s
Max altitude: 9555m
Rank II with a Battle Rating of 2.0


This clip of my gameplay is taken during a 2.0 BR match, other player's had BRs of 1.3-2.3, this is the BR you want to use this particular plane. My line-up made me a 2.3 BR.
Spoiler alert! I get 15 kills, 1 assist, and 0 deaths by the end of the match.

The P-40 is a very nice team-based dogfigher, you want to stick near your allies because at this BR a lot of planes can out turn you, so you may need assistance from time-to-time. The six .50 cal MGs are very good at this BR, they can tear through just about anything. I use them to pilot shot people just because im use to it. When dogfighter don't forget about your flaps, if you deploy them mid-turn you will turn tighter and get behind the target much faster. If you find yourself in trouble and no assistance near you try and fly to your airfield (allies), you are much faster than a lot of planes at this BR. The guns are wing mounted meaning at the target distance (stock is 500m) the rounds will land at center and will cross when the rounds get passed that distance, so try and start firing at 500m or compensate for more or less distance. Also for dogfights try and him for the pilot to kill the enemy quickly, its better to get use to this then aiming for the fuselage (body of plane) which will take more time to kill, plus if you don't hit the pilot you have a good chance of taking out the engine. One more thing, the plane has an option for bombs but you shouldn't use them, unless you want to win and there is like 1 more medium tank.

This is an advanced guide for the American P-47D-25 and P-47D-28. There is very little difference between the two so they will be in one guide.
Important: All advanced guides recognize the aircraft as fully modified

Official Name: P-47D-25 (28)
Max Speed: 457 mph at 9144m (454 mph at 9144m)
Guns: Eight 12.7mm
Turn time: 23.4 seconds
Climb rate: 18 m/s
Max altitude: 12200m (12500m)
Rank II with a Battle Rating of 2.0

This clip of my gameplay is taken during a 3.7 BR match, other player's had BRs of 3.0-4.0, You would want to be in a 2.7-3.3 match, so lower than what i was in. My line-up made me a 3.0 BR.
Spoiler alert! I get 4 kills, 1 assist, 6 Ground Targets, 1.87 Tons on bases, and 1 death by the end of the match.

The P-47D models are really good strike fighters, they are very good for taking out ground targets then buzzing a few people on the way back to base to re-arm. This fighter can also high altitude fight but i don't recommend it unless you have another person to watch your back. The plane can add on bombs and or rockets, which is what i recommend so you can attack ground units. Due to its horrible turn time you should attack some ground units then return to base and re-arm so you don't have to wait the full 4 min it will only take about 2 min to return to base, land, and wait for timer. Equipped with eight 12.7mm guns the P-47D is capable of buzzing a few people on the way back to base such as other Attackers/Strike Fighters. Since the plane is very durable you will most likely be able to complete a few trips to attack ground units. You can use this to attack bases but it is not recommended, yes i did in the beginning of the video but that is due to the enemy ground units being close to the enemy airfiled so i figured i could help bomb the base and rearm.

This is an advanced guide for the German C.202.
Important: All advanced guides recognize the aircraft as fully modified

Official Name: C.202 Folgore
Max Speed: 390 mph at 6000m
Guns: Two 12.7mm (.50 cal) & Two 7.7mm
Turn time: 20.2 seconds
Climb rate: 33.1 m/s
Max altitude: 11500m
Rank I with a Battle Rating of 2.0


This clip of my gameplay is taken during a 1.7 BR match, other player's had BRs of 1.0-2.0, this is a bit lower of BR match than you would normally get into, usually you will see planes of 1.7-2.3 but being lowered made dogfighting a bit harder actually. My line-up made me a 2.0 BR. Spoiler Alert! I go 7 kills 8 Ground kills 6 Assists 0 deaths and 1 unfortunate friendly ground unit.....i swear it was a mistake.


The C.202 is a very deadly fighter when used correctly, and hopefully you don't destroy your own Ground unit like I accidentaly did in the video. This early Tier Italian fighter for Germany has an insane climb rate of 33.1 m/s and pretty decent guns for a 2.0. The plane is meant to put its enemies into a flip battle, you will cause your opponent to stall before they catch you. Or you can high altitude fight, but as it is a 2.0 your high altitude fighting will be very minimal, maybe 1 bomber and 1 fighter at like 3000m. But this fighter has not that good of turn time at a whopping 20.2 seconds, so if you can't out-turn the guy either run to allies or initiate a flip battle and wait for the guy to stall OR climb like hell. You have a lot of options with this fighter when in a tough situation. Yes these are wing mounted guns, so make sure you are at a good distance to hit the pilot or dismember the plane.

This is an advanced guide for the German Bf 109 F-4 and the Bf 109 F-4 Tropical.
Important: All advanced guides recognize the aircraft as fully modified

Official Name: Bf 109 F-4 (trop)
Max Speed: 432 mph at 5800m (428 mph at 5800m)
Guns: Two 7.92mm & One 20mm
Turn time: 18.2 seconds
Climb rate: 28.3 m/s
Max altitude: 11600m
Rank III with a Battle Rating of 3.7


This clip of my gameplay is taken during a 4.0 BR match, other player's had BRs of 3.7-4.3


The Bf 109 F-4 and F-4 tropical are without a doubt my favorite planes to use for Germany. They are the terror of high altitude fighting and pretty good low-mid level dogfighters. With the great climb rate and speed along with 3 nose guns, one of which being a 20mm cannon makes for an excellent plane. But this plane is not the greates in a head-on situation due to the single 20mm being its strong suit, you can add-on two 15mm guns but i prefer not to, it hurts the plane more than it helps, as long as you avoid head-on battles you will be fine. This plane is meant to hunt bomber hunters, so kill the guys that will go after your bombers, the bobmers may be the one to take out the airfield but your job is to protect them.

This is an advanced guide for the German He 100 D-1.
Important: All advanced guides recognize the aircraft as fully modified

Official Name: He 100 D-1
Max Speed: 431 mph at 5000m
Guns: Three 7.92mm
Turn time: 186 seconds
Climb rate: 23.1 m/s
Max altitude: 9500m
Rank II with a Battle Rating of 1.7


This clip of my gameplay is taken during a 1.7 BR match, other player's had BRs of 1.0-2.0, this is the BR that you want to be at. My line-up made me a 2.0 BR. Spoiler Alert! I got 7 kills 9 Ground kills 0 deaths.

The He 100 D-1 is a decent low-tier fighter, now when i saw low i mean keep it at its 1.7 BR, the D-1 can't handle higher BRs due to its lack of fire power. You might manage up to 2.3 but thats has high as i would recommend. The D-1 has good climb rate and speed but lacks in fire power and turn time for its BR, the only benefit to its guns are the fact that 1 is nose mounted and the other 2 are very close to the fuselage they are pretty much nose mounted. The D-1 is best used as an energy fighter (boom & zoomer) the climb rate and speed can get you in and out of fights, but the hard part is getting the kill, you will have to try and pilot shot or dismantle a wing. This fighter is not very durable so if you go after bombers try and stay in a blind spot and just take out the engines really quick. But overall it is a decent fighter for the 1.7 BR.

This is an advanced guide for the British Spitfire Mk Ia.
Important: All advanced guides recognize the aircraft as fully modified

Official Name: Spitfire Mk Ia
Max Speed: 384 mph at 4267m
Guns: Eight 7.7mm
Turn time: 14.7 seconds
Climb rate: 30 m/s
Max altitude: 10000m
Rank II with a Battle Rating of 2.3


This clip of my gameplay is taken during a 3.3 BR match, other player's had BRs of 2.7-3.7. My BR was 2.7. I actually got up-tier'd in this match and surprisingly did well. For this plane you want to be in a 3.0 BR match so make your line-up a 2.3-3.0. Spoler Alert! I got 8 Kills, 1 Assist, 9 Ground units, and 0 Deaths.


The Spitfire Mk Ia is force to be reckoned with. This fighter is an extremely well turn fighter with its shocking 14.7s turn time at a BR of 2.3. You can solo dogfight meaning you dont need back-up although you might want some if there are more than 2 enemies, keeping track of more than 2 enemies in a turn fight can be quite hard. Even though this fighter has amazing turn time its guns are very weak since they are just the 7.7mm, so if you try and take on bombers or heavy fighters try and get the pilot or else you will spend a life time trying to dismantle it. The climb rate may look great but the engine isn't powerful enough to go at a 60 degree and climb a whole 2000m in one go, but it can climb fast just being at a 5-20 degree angle. This fighter is not durable at all, it is paper thin, so stay on the enemy's tail and try to avoid being near enemy ground units unless you need to.

This is an advanced guide for the Russian Yak-1.
Important: All advanced guides recognize the aircraft as fully modified

Official Name: Yak-1
Max Speed: 375 mph at 5000m
Guns: One 20mm & Two 7.62mm
Turn time: 17.1s
Climb rate: 22.8 m/s
Max altitude: 10000m
Rank I with a Battle Rating of 2.3

This clip of my gameplay is taken during a 2.0 BR match, other player's had BRs of 1.7-2.3. My BR was 2.3. The 2.3 BR is the perfect spot for this fighter. Spoiler Alert! I got 11 Kills, 0 Assists, 1 Capture, and 2 deaths. Both my deaths was from an enemy colliding into me.

The Yak-1 is a well built fighter. It has good durability, a powerful engine, a 20mm cannon, nice turn time, and the best part, all of its guns are on the nose of the plane. Nose guns are very good for dogfighting especially in domination, nose guns give you more control of the weapon spread and allow for easier tracking of the target since the bullets won't cross at a distance. Much like russia's aircraft the biggest round on the plane has very little ammo, luckily this model has two 7.62 guns so you can still do a bit of damage once the 20mm runs out. The turn time is decent but you will need to use flaps to help you out, luckily the flaps deploy to a landing state so you can turn tighter than you would normally if they went to combat state. This fighter can go against any plane you throw in its sights, the nose guns give an advantage when you are in a head-on incident, so you will most likely come out the victor. Although this plane has a major weakness like most planes at the 2.3 BR, as soon as a spitfire gets on your tail you need to get help, the spitfire can just take his time with you until you die. All in all the Yak-1 is a tremendous fighter that can handle almost any situation

This is an advanced guide for the Japanese A6M2 mod. 11.
Important: All advanced guides recognize the aircraft as fully modified

Official Name: A6M2 mod. 11
Max Speed: 332 mph at 4400m
Guns: Two 20mm & Two 7.7mm
Turn time: 16.7s
Climb rate: 20.9 m/s
Max altitude: 10300m
Rank II with a Battle Rating of 3.3


This clip of my gameplay is taken during a 3.0 BR match, other player's had BRs of 2.7-3.3. My BR was 3.0. Domination is one of the best if not the best game mode for this fighter. Spoiler Alert! I got 10 Kills, 1 Assists, 1 Capture, and 1 death. Yes I did end up winning the match after i died, i had to recap the point at the end with my A6M2-N, surprisingly i took off afterwards.

The A6M2 mod. 11 aka Zero is a teriffic dogfighter, it has great guns, nice turn time, and decent climb rate. However the Zero is fairly slow compared to other fighters at its BR, but since it has a slower speed this just helps it turn tighter. One other downside is medium speed roll rate, though not very important it is what killed me in the end of the video. Overall the zero is a very good dogfighter for its BR but this particular model shouldn't be fighting in high altitudes it just doesn't have the engine power to do it, but still it is a very good fighter to solo other players and has the fire power to back it up.