Any tips?

Unless I choose a very early career where not much is happening, or a two-seater that can fight back like the Strutter, Roland, BrisFit, I can't survive a two-seater campaign for more than a few missions.

Most recent attempt was Schasta in April 1917, DFW C.V. First mission, solo reconnaisance at high altitude, didn't see any enemy fighters and RTB safely, not problem. Second mission, a front-line recon mission @ 14,000 feet with six aircraft. We were in massed formation and heading towards the front, and just as we passed through 10,000 feet we were swarmed by SPAD's. We fended off the first few in formation, but then some snuck up from below and I went down in flames.

I know two-seaters were often ace's favorite prey, but I can't imagine that the turnover rate was quite this high. I imagine being a German observer in mid-1918 was quite dangerous, but it wasn't an absolute death sentence. Any ideas?

Also, is there a way to aim the gunner using the mouse? It's a bit clunky using the stick.

My only idea to help you survive is to bump rear gunner accuracy up and front gun accuracy down in the workshop settings. Maybe also bump up your bullet strength.

I'm not aware of any mouse control option for rear gunner and agree that it would be my prefered way of aiming the rear gun.

The Brisfit is a good 2 seater to last into 1918 and maybe to war's end.
No such counterpart on the german side...IMHO

Ah, the life of a 2-Seater pilot is not a easy one indeed, but everyone had it tough. I do prefer to fly the Strutters myself, to me i like to know i have some one watching my rear with a gun as i fly and maneuver. I rarely jump into the gunner seat, you'd be surprised by how your gunner AI does in the heat of battle, though yes sometimes you don't luck out and your gunner is complete crap. There are a couple of things that i do to try and survive, or at least put up one hell of a fight before I flame back down to earth in a glorious ball of honor, is using my planes position to my advantage and open up a clear enough shot for my gunner. Meanwhile i'll use my rudder to sorta zig-zag left and right to avoid incoming bullets. Yes i'll throw in my evasive maneuvers like a Split-S or a Loop, but remember not to Over-G otherwise your gunner will not be able to fire.You'll have a much higher survival rate when manually flying the aircraft rather then being in auto pilot and leaving the AI pilot to leave you a clear enough shot to down your pursuer. Worse case scenario your gunner does not land a kill and runs out of ammo, you always have your front mounted gun as well to take to the offensive (For me anywho being in a Strutter) Other then that a will not to be shot down, don't give your attacker a easy target, slip and slide around in his sights and take him for a spin. Thats all i got, Cheers & Good luck!

Oh and i almost forgot about the mouse aiming thing. This was actually something i too was looking for from the get go because of being accustomed to IL-2: Sturmovik, Though this is not the only sim i had played that has made you use a joystick for gunners position as well, Battle of Britain 2 comes to mind on this. Granted, it would be a nice feature to such a game, i've come to enjoy the fact that i have to use a joystick and the delay in time that the gun moves to position represents the fact that these guys actually had to turn the gun on it's rails to get into the position they wanted. It actually adds more to the realism in my opinion.

I'd say you'd have to really cut back on the possibility of being attacked jumped. You probably should only get attacked say every five missions or so.

However I'm sure in real life if your a two seater getting attacked without escort you need to try and dive for home asap. Same in game. No escort and you spot enemy machines in the distance then dive for home.