The Tempest, in the IL2 game, does not impress me, BUT, I dont fly online...
The first problem, when flying off-line, is:
Tempest IL2 AI is pathetic!
I set up several all-AI battles between late-war fighters (Tempests, Doras, Ta152H, Bf109K, La7, Ki-84, N1K2, ...) and it seems to me Tempests are amongst the worse, likely THE worst AI-flown planes, at least at Veteran and Ace level! (there is much less difference if you set planes at Rookie or Average)
In fact:
- very often AI Tempests don't shoot even when having the enemy straight ahead at 150 mt! Almost every other AI planes I observed shoot from 100 to 400 (and sometimes even 500 mt), every time they have the chance.
- Tempest AI aiming skill is usually very poor, even when in favourable position and without deflection, and often misses the target in spite of the powerful guns.
- they almost never try a deflection shot when crossing EA trajectory and almost never hit when try! On the contrary, for example the new FW190D-13 mod is very good at making crossing shots, they quite easily hit the targets.
- looking at an AI Tempest pursuing an EA on the deck, also having some alt advantage (the most favourable condition, for any plane but even more for a low-alt fighter like the Tempest!) is almost invariably hilarious: it usually shoots, misses the target, the EA dives a little bit more, the Tempest shoots, misses again, then ... suddenly he decides that he is flying too low (even if EA is still much lower ...), stops the chase, climbs and turns away, leaving the EA unhurted and free to escape! Absolutely pathetic ...
- although more difficult to determine, it seems to me they rarely adopt true BnZ tactics, whereas I observed Me262, FW190D and even late-war Yaks constantly BnZooming, diving an then climbing to regain height.
On the contrary, I found that Ta152H AI at Ace/Veteran has a "superhuman" skill, very good in flying and, above all, superb in shooting, for sure the best overall AI I've found so far in IL2.
The new FW190D-13 AI is good too, but not so much.
The second problem (both for on-line and off-line) is:
IL2 Tempest DM model is too much weak, so it's quite easy to shot it down.
Some months ago I found on the net info from "disassembled" DM files and, surprise!, found that Tempest is modelled quite weakly in body and, above all, is strikingly weak in engine! Just to explain: its engine toughness is set at
less than half the value used for other liquid-cooled engine like FW190D and Ta152H engines and
much less than half of the P51D Merlin (that's really incredible
)! Even BF109K DB605, although not really tough, is modelled a little bit stronger than Tempest's Sabre.
It seems to me that the Tempest modellers thought that because Napier Sabre engine had historically a lot of reliability issues, it had to be
particularly weak to enemy hits too!
Which, of course, isn't at all proved or even suggested by history ...
So, we have a
large plane, easy to hit, which is weakly modelled too!
The third problem, of course, is that
the standard IL2 Tempest is just the +9lbs, which is not very significant from an historical point of view and, for sure, is not so dangerous for BF109K and late FW190D.
Some also say that even its
fire rate is undermodelled, I don't know the issue so I avoid comments here ...
I am testing the new +13lbs mod and it is quite better in performance, even if not so stable (due to higher torque) and therefore a worse shooting platform.
I didn't tested the +11lbs yet (which is the Tempest most significant variant).
All in all, for sure in game Tempest isn't overmodelled, like someone has said elsewhere, maybe one could say it's undermodelled ...
The new mods could partly amend that (although at present +13lbs seems to me clearly overmodelled in speed at high alts at least, hope they correct the mistake).