I thought I had everything figured out in Microprose' European Air War until the upgrade patch came out. I believe the patch tweaked in favor of the A.I. (artificial intelligence) too strongly. But that's open to conjecture.

Whatever your assessment of the overall impact of the patch, these elementary observations on tactics should assist you if you are new to EAW.

ROLL & DIVE

The most often used maneuver by the A.I. is the split S. It seemed faithful enough to real accounts at first. When you take on the Luftwaffe fighters and follow a 109 or 190 through a Split S, you will grey out/black out. When you recover you'll find that the enemy has had the same strain put on him and must recover too. No cheating here!

The P-47 generally can't get lead on a 109 or 190 in the nose-down pull-up move, but the 109 and 190 can pull lead on the '47. The P-51s, on the other hand, can stay with the German planes without difficulty. What about the P-38s? Unfortunately, these aircraft in EAW get control compression too early, at 440 mph TAS. It should be more like 500 mph. The Spits, Hurricane and Tempest fly fine.

The Me110s, as in real life, are just meat on the table. Modeling is so stong in EAW that the Typhoon even models the weak tail design with compression at a bit past maximum speed of 412 mph. Don't plan on doing much diving or tight turning with this aircraft.

The Me 262, on the other hand, with its superior speed is excellent for running through bomber formations with the 30mms pumping. This will get you kills and keep you almost invulnerable, as did the real thing! Anyhow, so far so good.

COVER ME!

The most important area of tactics in EAW is control of wingmen. Learning to command and monitor your flight is not merely a matter of understanding tactics, but also of learning how the simulation designers have modeled the various responses. Everyone has different expectations of what should happen.

In EAW you have to keep your fingers flying on the keys to direct your guys. "Cover me" is a command for the wingman or the whole squadron, but I don't feel any safer when sending this command to my wingman. Often he acknowledges my orders even though he's too far away to be useful.

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So what do you do if you've made a bad move and the bandits are thick and heavy? Well, you could email me for help, but you'll be down in flames before I respond!

The best move seems to be to use the "Anyone Help" command, which seems to get multiple, quick responses. If you wingman is near enough you can direct him to kill your target. In fact, if he is very close to you your wingman is smart enough to fire on the enemy without being told. As in real life, there are some disadvantages here since several people have been shot down by friendlies. I've taken a few rounds from my wing, but never yet been disabled.

The 1.1 patch addressed the bomber armor and gunner ability and both have been upgraded. The heavies take more hits to die and you will take more rounds from the Allied gunners as well. The good side is that with the 1.1 patch you can direct one of your sections to attack ground targets while you take on interceptors.

One of the lesser used calls that you should not forget is the call to ground control for help. Sending this request will call in the reinforcements, and when they are available they will save your butt. If you are in a weakened squadron with four A/C instead of twelve, issue this call while on the takeoff runway.

The Luftwaffe and the Green

A puzzling thing, both pre and post-patch, is the ability of your squadron mates. In Aces Over The Pacific/Aces Over Europe if you waded into a battle and began scoring, it was infectious. Your A.I. mates did well too.

In EAW you can take out five bombers, get your 190A shot to hell, limp back to base and find your kills were the only ones scored! What the hell were those guys doing? You kept telling them to concentrate on the bombers but to no avail. Eight pilots with 30+ victories each consistently fail to score! Now I know why Hermann Goering was always pissed!

Do not be dismayed if you feel like you are the only one helping the Fatherland. You can always make a first pass on the U.S. bombers before the escorts interfere. Just keep it up!

Puzzling over this one, I've tried different methods to encourage my guys to succeed. I thought those pesky escort fighters might be distracting my guys, so I have told Schwarms 2 & 3 to hit the bombers while my section tangles with fighters. I have sent Schwarms 2 & 3 to mess with the escorts while my flight hit the bombers. Same result- low scores. You must carry the whole Staffel!

Sure, historically a staffel did not knock down ten bombers from a formation. Germany is going to lose the simulated war anyway, but I feel that my A.I. comrades should fare better. And remember, if you are flying in a campaign fatigue is modeled so don't send the same pilots up every time.

WINGMAN BLUES

Flying as an American there is a difference in wingman performance most of the time. Other guys get kills with you. The Brits fall in between the performance of the Germans and Americans, returning less often without kills than do their American counterparts. Experience shoud make a difference, but seems to have little effect on the outcome.

Before engaging you MUST instruct pilots under your command to drop their auxiliary tanks. Sure it's one of the first things a combat pilot is trained to do, but your A.I. fly boys all missed class that day. After scattering to engage enemy planes you will see tanks still slung under the fighters upon regrouping. Duh!

I find attacking German bombers in 1940 is just as easy in the pre-patch version. While many on the forum board say the He 111 and Ju 88's are tougher, consider this. I began a Hurricane career. I had never flown the Hurri against bombers and it was the first career in it I tried.

In my first mission I knocked down seven 111's from 6 o'clock before running my .303's dry. No real damage to my plane allowed a leisurely flight home with my wingies. I use all settings to full except enemy skill at "veteran." But again, mine were the only kills scored!

Tackle the Big Boys

When approaching any gaggle of aircraft from 6 o'clock the closer plane to target is the one that is higher on your screen. The U.S. bombers stack their formations differently than, say, Aces Over Europe. As in reality, they're more vertical than horizontal, and this gives better fire coverage. We've all found this out the hard way!

The best way to take out bombers is from six o'clock. Oblique angles from 7-9 and 3-5 o'clock low or high offer slim advantages and you'll find yourself spraying several planes where you should concentrate on one.

Fire rockets from 2000 feet or 650 meters, slightly above the target. Commence short bursts to range in your guns from a bit farther out and watch the tracers for adjustment of nose attitude.

I have tried most methods of pounding the big boys. Head-on exposes you to less fire but the window to aim and fire is short and you must turn, overtake the formation, and gain enough lead to turn and attack again. I have found that creeping in at just barely 6 o'clock low is good. Open up at 2,000-2,500 feet(700-800 meters).

Fighter vs. Fighter

Fighter vs. fighter can be an endless tactical dialogue. For now we will touch on the basics.

The German A.I. never challenges my formation head-on like I tackle them when I fly as an Ally. I have always taken the cue from Bob Johnson's real P-47 experience in sim flying- break up the enemy attack head-on.

Mimicking the real head-on attacks has mixed results. If the aircraft are axis to axis and at equal altitude or a hair below, you can usually score. The P-47 has high marks here with its firepower. It you are not intersecting exactly nose to nose you can easily miss the deflection. Use the magnification key "+" to see ahead. Remember that distances close rapidly when you are flying head to head. Aim carefully.

Enemy artificial intelligence seem to use mostly the same moves over and over. The Germans will roll over and split-S repeatedly until they run out of altitude, then they will roll a lot to throw off your aim. However, their constant rolls allow you to close the distance. They also do a maneuver that appears to be the beginning of a split-S then they twist around rolling, toward their original heading.

Avoid getting too close; 700-900 feet (225- 300 meters) is good. Much closer and you miss quick moves. The Germans especially love to chop the throttle and make you over-shoot.

Outside loops are a usable defense if you begin with plenty of altitude. They seem to throw off the A.I. If you don't have the energy you will know soon enough as the plane will not bend over and through in comparison to the rate the ground is rushing up at you. At least you can turn your outside loop into a dive and hopefully distance yourself from your pursuer.

If you are over friendly territory and damaged you can use the "shift e" command to locate an airfield. Landing there will not improve your score apart from landing in a field but doing it lends the "feel" of an emergency limp in.

I have noticed that late '44 on to the end the German A.I. uses a unique move. They put their planes into extremely SLOW maneuvers which throw you off tremendously. I have heard that they have been known to even drop their landing gear in order to slow down though I've not seen it. There are other other complaints I've heard about the A.I., but this is sophisticated stuff!

ENTER THE PATCH

After installing the version
Me 110.

Heavier aircraft will be at a disadvantage in vertical manouvers as speed bleeds off. If you do not nail your enemy first the lighter planes will out maneuver you at slow speed and likely end up on your butt! Shoot from as far away as your skill allows.

Post Patch Modeling Flaws

The patch definitely makes the Me 110's better than reality. A P-47 can no longer turn with them, they seem to always be going too fast, and they perform the same vertical stunts as the single-engined fighters! Their low altitude split- S exhibitions leave my jaw on the table. Yes, they do smack into the ground sometimes while fleeing you but usually they survive.

Beginning a split-S at 2,500 feet is risky at any speed in any plane, but post patch Me 110s do it. A Spit is about the only plane that can follow. Try it in anything else and kiss the ground!

Running enemies into the ground happened in WWII with all planes, of course. But in EAW you do not get credit for the destruction of an enemy aircraft by this method! My friend Clint Burdick, P-47/P-51 ace in WWII, ran an FW 190 into the ground, claimed it and was credited. The EAW A.I. Victory Review Board is tough!

Allied Aircraft Modeling

The Hurricane has been branded by many as having a more lively FM (flight model) than is believable. I noted it in the beta I had and it seems to lean that way in all release versions too. It can be hacked into submission by changing the roll/turn rate.

I have noticed no difference after the patch in attacking German bombers in the Battle of Britain with a Spit or Hurri. I DO notice more difficulty in taking down Allied heavies in version 1.1. Many have talked about the 110 and 410 gunners being too good. No one has mentioned any other German A/C gunners' skills having changed.

What about the Ju 87? I truly am never bothered by the rear guns. A "tink" and "plink" of the little shells on my plane has little effect. I don't know why some are having trouble, unless they are coming in too close and too slow and not jinking enough.

Spitfire

I have found that sneaking up from 6 o'clock low on a German fighter who is intent on the bombers is effective. If the pilot is any good he'll see you from 2200 to 2400 feet out.

Fire at 2500 to 2700 feet or so and you'll hit him. Punch "+" for magnification at 3,200 feet and fine tune your aim. Aim one width of the pipper above the guy to score, and anticipate a break up and to the left.

Before the patch if your landing gear would not come down you really had to bail out sinces bellying in always resulted in an explosion and death. Now you can belly in, but be careful, and I have yet to ditch in the water and live.

Hack It Up: the Big Guns

Attacking the bomber stream in the 109G with 2 13mm's and 1 20mm gives you an idea how inadequate the craft was as a bomber destroyer. I got SO tired of the endlessly repeated missions of a long career flying the "G." I finally used the tricks I had figured out in hacking to change the "G" to the "H" or the 190A.

While looking at the program files for EAW I noticed text describing the under-wing guns which were mounted on the "G" model, as actually was done by the Luftwaffe. EAW programmers somehow glitched this and the guns went missing. Furthermore, the 110G was supposed to have 2 30mm's and did not. Never fear, hackers are here! Paul Morais and Charles Gunst put together a patch that corrected all this, and the "G" now mounts adequate weaponry for bomber attack. (On the next page is the download link.)

The 110G has its 30mm's, plus the "K" has the extra 2 30mm's in the wings as did the Bf 109K-6. The FW 190A has two extra 20mm's for a total of six. These field modifications are great but I find the standard four weapons to be good enough. The great thing is that if you do not want to use the extra guns you can revert back to standard by simply dragging the plane's .FLT icon out of the /EUROPE subdirectory to your desktop.

Now you can have effect on the big guys. I personally do not care if my plane is shot up and I am forced to land in a meadow if I take out three or four bombers. The same goes for bomber intercept RAF vs. Luftwaffe. Hey, when you're over friendly territory you can afford to take chances!

HELP FROM DOWN UNDER

While I had found a couple of easy modifications to change planes or change one plane's performance for another's, Charles Gunst in Australia took it all ten steps further with his add-on modules that allow you to fly most of the non-flyable aircraft. This, coupled with the superb Meatwater sound packs, really pumped up the sim. Don't worry; Gunst's add-ons incorporate the extra guns, and we will cover more on hacking in the near future.

This is certainly not all there is in tactics. Cruise our forum boards to see what other pilots have found and watch for more here in the next few days. Best tactic? Always check your six!