War Thunder: Yak-3P - End of an Era

Channel:

Paul Walsh

Subscribers:

4,330

Published on September 6, 2014 4:49:32 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTFUo9880Pc

Game:

War Thunder (2016)

Duration: 24:36

1,214 views

26

From the outset, I was highly skeptical of how great the Yak-3P would be to fly. Dubbed by many as "a Yak-3 with Cannons", the plane retains all of the characteristics from the original Yak-3, yet faces much tougher competition at its Battle Rating of 4.7.

To put this into context, you still posses one of the best climb rates from ground level to 4000m, only being beaten by the F8F-1 Bearcat (BR 5.0). Additionally, you can out-turn most planes at high speeds (i.e. 400 km/h+), and those you cannot out-turn (i.e. Spitfire Mk. 16, A6M3 mod 22 Reisen) you can quickly defeat from an energy/Boom and Zoom perspective.

As a result, so long as you can be one of the first planes to reach 4000-5000m altitude, you can suppress the skies and force most foes who would love to fly above 5000m (i.e. BF 109 G-2, FW 190 D-9, Ki-84 Ko) to fight a low altitude dogfight, and hence on your terms. Alternatively, the three 20mm Cannons make this plane a decent bomber hunter, and so your role will vary from game to game.

For all these strengths, there are some newer weaknesses to add to those from the original Yak-3 (i.e. poor control response at speeds of 700km/h+, sluggish controls below 250 km/h, weak durability, poor performance above 5000m, and the riskiness of head-ons due to a central armament), most importantly the difficulty in bringing your cannon shells onto target at longer ranges (i.e. 0.5km+) and your limited ammo capacity. Hence, many at this stage in the competition will do everything to exploit these vices.

Set-up:

20mm Cannons: Omni-Purpose Ammunition
Gun Convergence: 500m
Fuel Load: 30 minutes

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