Territorial Combat Rooms opened up tonight for the first time flying with the intermediate flight model (not the arcade mode, we have limited full, ammo, blackouts, stalls, etc

) tonight. And honestly, AH has nothing that can match that level of realism.
There's just something a 100x more immersive about taking off with a goal rather then just "shoot down the other guy attack his runway"
I spent almost a hour tonight flying CAP against tank killers above a formations of tanks for my side supporting them against enemy aircraft as they advanced across the map. Landed at my runway low on fuel to find some British attack had wiped out the fuel tanks and I couldn't get refueled there right now. Tried to take back off and lost a wheel in a crater on the runway and crashed. That's a overall level of realism I haven't seen anywhere else.
AH's flight model is advanced and all but FAII's intermediate comes close enough to realism for my tastes (and my budget

) add into that the Territorial Combat mode with the intermediate or advanced flight model on and you have a online flight sim that can honestly compete with AH.
Yes, I freely admit the arcade rooms are exactly as you descibe the game, cheesy, easy and rather silly. But unless you've given some of the higher realism rooms a try or altered the offline settings to reflect it then really you haven't given it a chance. (offline mode defaults to "arcade" realism for training, so if you doing loops right off the runway you might want to check that setting ;P )
But, at the very least, if you just going to fly the arcade mode in a rookie room for 20 mins don't come in here acting all high and mighty about how all the pilots in FA suck and how poor the flight model is. Try the territorial combat mode in one of the more advanced rooms, there's nothing quite like buzzing low over a battlefield hearing the tanks driving and firing on each other below as you try to take out that Thunderbolt who has been strafing your tank columns, nothing in AH creates that level of realistic atmosphere. And really to me that's part of the game, a realistic atmosphere goes a long way towards creating a great sim.
Fighter Ace II : Territorial Combat Announcement & Rules[This message has been edited by Kevin (edited 10-13-1999).]