Just for a little comparison.....
Normally I would only fly the A6M in a base defense scenario. I love the way it handles, but it's really not an MA plane. It's too fragile, and way too slow. Flying it on some of the maps we've had this past month, you really have to go some distance to hunt for kills. NOT a role this plane is suited to in the MA. It has great range, but at those speeds if the enemy is more than half a sector away, I might as well go make coffee. Heck, I can even grind the beans for the coffee, and still be back before I get anywhere near a red plane.
The 109E is a great ride. The problem is, just like when I fly the F-4, people see "109" and gang you. I guess they automatically assume its a G10 or something, and must be a threat. In a 1 vs 1 co-alt, I'd take on just about anything in the arena in a 109E. I actually find the wing mounted 20mm's easier to shoot at a convergence point, whereas the nose mounted guns on the others make hitting the target problematic without lots of experience. Climb and acceleration are similar to the 109F, turn performance actually seems a bit better.
The C.202 I normally wouldnt fly, except in scenarios or snapshots. Against period planes it's a champion. In the MA it's dogmeat. It's easily as fast and nimble as any of the 109s, and actually seems a bit easier to handle. The guns just purely stink. I can get more kills with the BBs in a Val than I can with whatever they loaded the C.202 with.
The Hurri MkI has been a favorite of mine ever since the Rangoon scenario. In AW I always favored the Hurri MkIIb (I thank Manx for that, he turned me on to the Hurricane way back when), and if it weren't for the engine cut out on the MkI I'd fly it more often. It's more nimble than the MkIIc we have, and the 8x.303s will shred planes if you get them into convergence range. If HTC models a MkIIb when they redo the Hurricanes, I'm there.
The P-40B is an incredible little plane. If it had WEP I'd fly it all the time. Only its slow acceleration and climb keep it from being one of my top 5 rides. I'll keep hoping when HTC remodels the P-40, we get a P-40N as well. Some of the best fights I've had in the MA have been in a P-40. And I know there are guys out there that can make it perform far better than I. I've seen Shane do things with a P-40 that defy logic.
Funny enough, my best K/D ratio was in the Spit MkI. It was my least favorite plane to fly in this group. It rolls like a pig in thick mud. It looks and feels like it weighs way more than the others, and yet it performs. Rolling the Spit I is more like a total body workout. It requires a great deal of coordination between rudders and ailerons and elevators to make that pig perform well, but I've used it with great success against all the other model spits. The key with it is looooooooooong climb outs and having plenty of alt when you engage. As long as I can work around onto another spits 6, I can stick and get the kill. It amazed me every time, but they couldnt out turn me, couldnt out dive me.......and they certainly couldnt force an overshoot. Maybe its just that all the newbs fly Spit V's and Spit IX's, and I ran into them. This thing bleeds E like crazy with just a little encouragement. Either I am very lucky every time I get in it, or this thing just plain fools you into thinking it's worse than it really is.
Great contest.
