Fighter Analysis - What fighter to chooseHere is my little personal list about the fighters in AH2, its partly compiled from the
kill stats of tour 55 56 57 and partly from what i heard, read or experienced myself.
Also sodas aircraft listing is where i pulled information from, great site but i wanted to put all in one text and shorter.
There you can see more detaild characteristics, but it is split up in multiple pages and therefore dificult to read if you want to read about all.
There are a lot of fighter pilots in ah2 that are better than me and this is not the ultimate list but a start.
AH2 aircraft can be splitted in 5 categories, whereas some planes are in more then one category.
Here i want to think of light fighters only and only in their role of fighters.
Aircraft for air to air combat, use against any other aircraft.
light/medium/heavy fighters could be further specification, i want to look at the fighter best suited against enemy fighters,
where hitting power can be small but maneuverablitiy is importand, thats what i call "light" fighter.
When there are multiple loadouts i would choose the lightest gun/ammo load that includes canons if possible.
On some fighters you can choose more canons, bigger cannons or more ammo (ie 109F,109G,P47) these sure add hitting power but give a serious hit in maneuver capabilities.
Some can take bombs, droptanks, rockets etc. that makes them long range fighters or fighter bombers, but thats another topic i know nothing of.
Considering the MA range is not a big factor in dogfights, only for special missions.
Most of the above fighters can be loaded for ground attack. But there is a big advantage to attackers, once the ordonace is gone you have a decent fighter capable of defending himself,
other aircraft or eaven attacking fighters.
Whereas most fighter bomber dont hit as hard as attack planes they can do good damage and have a good chance to get to defended targets. Late in WW2 most fighter got some bombing attack abilities added.
These are used for ground attack or to attack enemy bomber formations, hard hitting, faster and more maneuverable they are prime choice to pin selected ground targets, can mob up the rest of town after the bombers or destroy enemy field instalations.
In AH2 bomber can take of in formations, bringing lots of bombs on enemy targets. But you need some skill with them, i mostly miss my target. 3 bombers make a diffrence where 1 bomber can only do slightly more damage than 1 heavy attack plane.
Some aircraft in ah2 have special canons to hit ground vehicles, others pack enogh ammo to make a decent attack on weaker ground vehicles. Ground attack is every aircraft which is suited to strafe down groundvehicle (gvs). Some of these are also rated as bombers, attackers,fighters,fighterbomber.
Note among the most common IL2, Bf110, P38, Hurry2D, Yak9T,P47.
I want from a fighter that it gets me lots of air to air kills and the possibility to return back to my base. Depending on the place where i want to go, sufficiant range is necessary.
Taking into account that i dont want to strafe / bomb ground targets i let this capability totally out. Some fighters can take off carriers (c) be equipped with bombs (b) droptanks(d) or go heavy(h), with more ammo or hitting power.
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When i looked at the kill stats for the last tours i thought of 5 categories to put the fighters in and, despite a few not really fitting, most fitted pretty obvious in one of the categories. Note that i would recommend the "Killer" aircraft to new pilots.
Of course you should always fly what you want to. But having to choose from 39 fighters is not easy, maybe this helps.
CategoriesMost of the early war aircraft are outdated in the Main Arena. The provide weak engines, weak guns or low speed.
Dont get me wrong every one of these aircrafts has its advantages and can hold its own in a 1 on 1 fight. Also with and expert pilot they are still dangerous.
Overall they get a bad kills per death rate in the ma, since it will take some time till you get a kill and untill then either someone else shoots you down or someone shoots down the aircraft you have been working on.
These aircraft are quite good but for some reason few people use them. Mostly this is because they have a flaw or because other aircraft do the same job better. Maybe their not "en vouge" but they can all get kills and would even be good for starters, maybe except the F4u1.
Most kills in the MA and verry good kd rate, these are the easiest to get kills with and have a decent chance to rtb. Of course you have to fly the aircraft right, but thats always the case.
There are the beaten dogs... some aircraft get used a lot for suicide attack, which in my oppinion beats down the k/d rate quite a bit. In addition all aircraft in this group have a serious flaw or two, which makes them dificult to fly for starters. They are no sloughs, as the outdated early war rides, all of them provide the potential to get tons of kills.
Its just harder than in a "killer" aircraft.
These fighters are only available in the ma when putting some of your fighter perks at risk, most of them show better k/d rate than any non perked aircraft (exception being the Spit XVI), but this might be because the pilots try to get it back home and take less risk of loosing it, not upping at a capped field and avoiding engagements against more than 3 opponents. With the changed icon system in AH2.03 it is now easier for perkplanes since they are not distinguishable on distances bigger than 800yards.
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Challenging, early war(listed in reverse order of k/d, that means lowest is best in this group)
P40B (medicore guns, weak engine)
Hurricane MK1 (neg g kills engine, guns are a joke, weak engine but verry good low speed)
C.202 (pretty good climber but bad guns)
109E4(B) (weak engine, low ammo)
SpitMk1 (neg g kills engine, guns are a joke, weak engine but good low speed)
F4F4(DC) (ok guns, slow but good turning, small and durable)
A6M2(DC) (Low ammo, slow but verry good turner)
Yak9T (Low ammo, good when you can hit with it)
P40E(DB) (Not that bad, good guns but slow)
FM2 (DC) (Slow but stable)
Underdog(listed in order of k/d rate, highest rating first)
All the P47s are called "Jug", when you load it full of ammo and ordonance its called a "heavy jug". But then its hard to dofght. Go light with the low ammo load but still use 8 guns and only 50% internal fuel and your golden for dogfights. Some people eaven use the 6 gun pack.
During the 2nd ww i heard there where squadrons dismounting a pair of mgs and only going with 4 instead of 6.
This plane has a good range and is surprisingly maneuverable with the combat flaps. Good k/d rate.
Better prop than D11 but a bit heavier make for better climb but less nimble. Despite that similar to the 11, same about heavy and light guns. Better view and option of up to 3 droptanks for real big range.
Nimble plane with good maneuverability in medium speed range, cowl cannon make shooting at any range devasting.
A disadvantage is that its quite fragile and a bit nervous at slow speeds, nasty stalls. Can surprise lots of enemys but its a tad slow to run home.
An earlier version of the F4U1D it is used verry few but with good results.
Nasty stalls but good high speed handling, hard hitting mgs and great range. It is faster than the later versions.
Best turning 109. difficult in stalls but verry maneuverable it surprises enemys that think of 109s as heavy, powerful climbers with bad turnrates and high stall speed.
One canon with 200 rounds of ammo is not much but enogh to kill enemy fighters. When you want to turnfight better go without gondolas.
Nice fighter with good climb, good dive speed and 500 rounds of canon, it got good k/d rates in the last tours and is fast enogh to rtb out of a furball. It has no droptank option and fuel doesnt last long, so need to watch it.
mostly the pursuers give up the tailchase after a while. Sometimes i wonder why it is not used more.
Good combination of engine power and maneuverability. Pretty fast at the usual, low, MA altitudes. Small and hard to hit.
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