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Contents 1 Finding action and gaining rank 1.1 Air Warning System – AWS 1.2 What is it like at the target? 1.3 Gaining rank

Finding action and gaining rank

If you are new to WWIIOL:BE you must know two things: the world is huge, and the norm is to see either too little or too much action. Life in WWIIOL:BE is very much like real life – a lot of interminable waiting in between extremely frantic bursts of sheer terror.

So, how do you find action – or better still, how do you find it before it finds you? To answer this question, study the map carefully before selecting your spawn point, and listen in to communications in the text interface to get an idea of where to go and what to do.

Air Warning System – AWS

The automated AWS helps you home in on the bad guys and will also tell you if you are in danger or not during cruise to and from the target area. Bring up the map (M) and make sure to select the AWS symbol in the left hand column to view current reports. Red boxes indicate more than 5 enemy aircraft (EA), yellow boxes indicate less than 5 EA. If a square is not lit either red or yellow, no EA are reported in that particular square. Note that the AWS is not 100% reliable and updates every 60-120 seconds. If you are found cruising in an empty square adjacent to an active square, be on the lookout: you may be “bounced” by an EA coming in hot on your six. An empty AWS square does not guarantee a safe passage!

Friendly aircraft on your mission are marked with white and light blue (mission leader) aircraft icons. Follow them to gain some security in numbers! Friendly aircraft NOT on your mission are not shown on the map – though they will show up when inside 1000 m range from your location.

Read more about AWS particulars here

What is it like at the target?

Generally speaking, pilots tend to flock to battles already in full swing – and the location of air battles is largely determined by what the Army is doing. Therefore, the vast majority of pilots tend to fly directly from the airfield closest to the ground battle, usually at minimum altitude and as fast as their crates allow. Once there they will bomb and strafe at low altitude (below 3000 ft or 1 km) and generally try to shoo away the enemy in the air. If a side wrests air superiority over the enemy, pilots will immediately turn to strafing and bombing again – until enemy aircraft reappear.

The alternative to fighting in close proximity to an active ground battle is to try and find the enemy on his approach to said battle. The enemy will usually be less alert and often fully intent on reaching the battle area, therefore you can employ the element of surprise and often get away with it – if you avoid low-level turnfighting, regain high altitude after your combat and fly at a good rate of speed.

A few home truths to consider:

• The closer an (enemy) airfield is to the ground target, the lower the EA will be flying, and the bombcarriers will be more plentiful.
• If you fly outside the main combat corridors you will rarely find action – unless you fly low, slow and predictably.
• The heavier the activity the greater the penalty for being low, slow and turning.
• If you cannot kill the bandit in a single pass, let him go and find easier targets.
• It is several orders magnitude harder to hit a manouevring target than one which flies steadily and predictably.
• If the enemy has air superiority, our bombers and transports cannot hope to survive.
• The farther away from your home airfield, the less likely you are to find support when you need it.

Gaining rank

There are three general ways of gaining rank, and they all demand that you land successfully.

1. Destroy an enemy unit (or destroy a critical part of the enemy unit such as engine, tank gunner or main armament, to name a few) or an enemy installation (building, bridge, AI emplacement etc).
2. Resupply an aircraft from a Division HQ to any of its subordinate units (Brigade/Kampfgruppe/Wing etc).
3. Destroy an enemy unit as above while occupying a multi-crewed secondary position (bombardiers and air gunners).

As a beginner you gain more rank advancement points than those with superior rank, and the points requirement to gain rank is considerably less for a low level than a high level rank. In other words, the higher the rank, the harder it gets to advance further.

Taking the above into consideration, and remembering that you will want to gain rank quickly to access more capable aircraft, it makes sense to focus on survival before all else. That is, once you have succeeded in destroying something, break off combat as soon as it is safe to do so and make haste for home plate to collect your rank points. Do not linger in the combat area in the vain hope of scoring another kill, for greed kills more than anything.

Remember again the three most important factors for success:

• Maintain superior altitude and speed
• Limit yourself to single passes on the enemy, after which you promptly disengage to regain SA and energy
• Do not surround yourself with enemy (as in a furball)

Because you need to return successfully to base to collect your points, practice landing extensively until you are no longer afraid of the ground!

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