Hi Septenary,
The learning curve in IL-2 can be quite steep. I have played this game for a considerable time and I am still learning, still not always flying at the highest difficulty level. In other words, patience and perseverance are important here.
A good plane to start with, at least in my opinion, is the P-40. In any case, learn the strengths and weaknesses of your aircraft of choice and learn how to use them. Some planes are fast, but not very agile, others can turn on a dime, but are slower than most of their opponents. All of these aspects matter.
Check the knowledge base on this site. I think, over at mission4today there was a guide to online play that detailed the characteristics of individual aircraft and of how to use them online quite nicely.
Good luck and stick with the game,
RB
also a good way to learn and practice your skill is to play quick missions, not singles, make sure you turn the AI level higher as you get better. that is how i practice and get one of the best accuracy in the world :wink:
Practicing offline is the key... :o
As for the aircraft, there are a lot of newb-friendly ones. You would probably need maneuverability+firepower, and there are quite a lot of such planes in the game, just try them out!
5 minutes?! I can barely take off with all those planes crossing the runway , bombs and rockets everywhere and gun vulchers. If you want to train in online games, servers with 10 or less players is highly recommended. In those servers you have time to think and make strategies and meanwhile always climbing, higher you are more advantage you have. In AAA server its impossible to think lol, you chase a plane and you have 5 or more on your six, you can have planes coming from everywhere, its madness.
agreed it can get rather crowded on the aaa server....but sometimes servers with less people can be boring when trying to find a target. i found that flying on full real servers is good training, and you survive longer because people cant use external views to find you. it teaches you to learn aircraft recognition as well without the icons telling you whos who....
Posts: 4.857
Threads: 96
Joined: Jan 2009
La's and I-185 are good (good weapons and powerful engines)
Know your plane and know the enemy's plane. Get altitude and speed, use boom'n'zoom tactics for easier kills, stay off them big bombers, keep your airspeed between 400 and 700 kph but never over it.
And so on.
Hello Septenary,
It helps to know some WW II history to get a better feel for the relative strengths and weaknesses of each aircraft. It all depends on what you want to to with the game. My nephew played IL-2 for a while, but he was mainly interested in the fastest planes with the biggest guns, so he could whip everybody without too much trouble. However, that's not how things turned out for him. I think, it's much more fun to try and fly within a specific historic setting, so for example, when flying in the Pacific theatre in 1942, F4F Wildcats might meet Japanese Ki-43, or A6M Zeros, but not a German Me-262. I find the historic settings much more interesting than and all-out-every-plane-against-every-other plane melee.
Well, good luck, have fun and keep your patience,
RB
Play through a single player campaign or two with "no instant success" turned on.
You'll get sent out on absolutely ludicrous missions, and you cant progress untill you beat them.
MISSION FAILED unless you make it back to your carrier from halfway across the map with 8 wildcats chasing you teaches very important lessons in evasive manuevers. I won't even get into armed recon...
? What do I do? Play alot of matches, randoming trying to learn by myself or find someone to teach me some flying basics 1on1. I need all the tips I can get from more experienced player. So bring them on! 
