Ok guys, I think some tips and tricks from you Albatros aces would be very welcomed. I am actually flying a D.II and at the moment I fight against Nieuport 17s most of the time (January 1917). The problem is, they turn much better than me,even the rookies, and they don't seem to be bad when climbing either, so everytime I try to climb to gain altitude an dive again they chase me from behind surprisingly well. The three kills for my pilot were only possible when flying over the trees and suddenly, the Nieuport decide to return home in level flight...that, or a lucky shot in one of the turns. How do you do it against them?

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Olham will be one of the Alb masters to look to for such advice and he is currently on leave. He should be back soon though. For what it's worth I've always done best when flying the DII against the N17 by keeping above them as much as possible and doing more BnZ and less turn fighting. The Alb rolls well and it can yo-yo like a champ so use those to your advantage. Plus, it has two guns to the Nieup's one and it takes damage like a tank.

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Greetings from Ostfriesland, Lou! Back in Berlin on Wednesday eve.

As Lou says, Aris - don't fight them in horizontal turn fights;
dive and pull up again; use your better forward speed in dives
to break away from them. They are better in right-round turns,
but when you manage to hit them with two guns, it is more devastating.

The best aces even chose to run away, when they were lower;
and they picked a fight rather carefully, when at same height as the enemy.
The best is always a clear advantage of height.

It's amazing the amount of kills they got in JG1 against N17s, Camels, SPADs with the D.II and D.III during 1917, those german pilots in Jasta 6, 11,...were masters of Boom and Zoom, for sure.

In my experiences flying a D.III in WOFF, the N24s could out-climb and out-turn me everything being equal. I've not flown the D.II myself but it sounds like the same kind of matchup.

I think your best bet, as mentioned, is to try and boom & zoom them from a higher altitude. If they get you in a circle fight, it can be real tough. You should probably dive and put on a good amount of speed before turning again, if threatened. Those Nieuports' wings will snap a bit easier than yours at higher speed maneuvers.

So if you can find the sweet spot where you can still turn in a higher speed dive, and he can't, you can actually get them to damage their wing and go crashing to the ground.

I was actually credited with a couple kills while dogfighting these Nieuports, when they followed me down into a turning dive and their wings snapped. They plummeted into the ground and I got a claim. I believe I had this happen a third time but I didn't get the claim for it; one of my wingmates must've previously damaged him or perhaps they had even been hitting him when it happened. Either way, I hadn't planned to lure them into such a situation, but it turned a light bulb on. At least one of those I hadn't even fired at previously so evidentally the devs accounted for such victories too. Awesome!

The AI pilots are usually pretty good about avoiding doing that but you can lure some of the average or less experienced ones into doing it. For the ones that don't follow you down, you should be able to extend out of gun range and hopefully get a lot of separation before deciding to re-engage or head out.

In WOFF the Nieuport 17 is faster than the Albatros D.II, and the Nieuport 24 is faster than the Albatros D.III. You can boom and zoom a little bit, but eventually they will catch you. I've noticed the AI is a sucker for a nose-low turn when it is in pursuit. It will overshoot almost every time, and allow you to regain the advantage.

So, from a newbie standpoint, is much easier to start a campaign flying with RFC in 1917-1918,...isn't it?

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AF, I'm not so sure that it's any easier or harder. It really boils down to learning what your current mount can do and playing to its strengths. Hand-in-hand with that is knowing your opponent's mounts weaknesses and doing what you can to exploit those.

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Try to take advantage of your better firepower. With two Spandaus, you can easily get hits that will slow down even the nimblest of rotary fighters.

However, I've been under the impression that historically, the Albatros fighters were faster with better acceleration than all the pre-N.28 Nieuports, and also including the Sopwith Pups and Camels. Those Entente rotary fighters were excellent in turn fights, but the Albs were better in the vertical and could get out of a scrap by diving faster, for example. I hope this works in WOFF too. (I haven't yet flown the Albs in campaign mode in a serious way.)

I think the Albatroses are listed as being a tad bit faster, or about the same, but I felt like the D.III (early) couldn't keep up with the earlier Nieuports. Flying straight & level while watching it's speed felt like it was cruising a few mph slower than it should. I don't recall my speedometer quite reaching 100mph in level flight in a D.III (early) but it does so in the Noops and others with similar speed.

I've not really flown the Nieuports all that much but the few missions I have, they seem faster. Not until I got into the up-engined D.III did it get better. Not only that but the speed difference was relatively large for that extra fifteen horsepower.

May be worth checking into the earlier Albatros D.IIs and III (early) with the less powerful engine, and compare.

No, I already explained. In WOFF Nieuport 17 is faster than the D.II, and Nieuport 24 is faster than the D.III. Look in the aircraft files if you don't believe me.

Ah.. okay. All is well in that realm, then.

Maybe long term, but I'm 10 missions in in a spring, 1916 start with RFC in an Airco DH2 and the Fokker EIIIs are dropping like flies. Granted, my little Airco Scourge won't last forever.