Originally posted by bozon
Shouldn't P47-D25 be in the mid war areana?
If I'm not mistaken, it entered service in the beggining of 44. It would make a nice perk ride there.
Bozon
5-44 just like the list says. However, is 5-44 mid war? Maybe for the Ami's but for the rest of the world 5-44 would be late. The D-11 entered service in 1-44 but since it lacks the PB prop it can fill in for the earlier Ds (D-5-3-43; a jump of 10 months or so).
Both the D-40 and N saw no service in the ETO and are so late they an argument could be made for perking them. This would leave the D-25 as the free Jug for the Late war arena. I don't advocate perking but as I said an argument could be made.
Krusty,
Well I think there's a typo on the Tiger 1 entry of that list.
There isn't a typo 8-42 is correct. Tiger I production began in Aug '42. It's first combat was in late Sept '42. So sometime time between Aug and Sept Tigers were in 'squadron service'. Either 8 or 9-'42 it doesn't make much difference).
it includes the B26. I don't know your thoughts on the matter, but this thing is nearly unstoppable by early war planes. It would need a perk rating of 100 points per bomber.
I agree but even the Boston / A-20G has a speed advantage over most early war planes.
it excludes the SBD. There are so few attackers, and the SBD is really the earliest allied attack plane we've got.
AH models an SBD-5 with .50 cals rather the twin .30s in the SBD-3 turret. Now you can argue that most of the .30 cals were replaced with .50s in the SBD-3 but for all practical purposes the SBD-5 is a 'mid-war' aircraft.
it excludes the IL2. The IL2 we've got is technically a later variant, but there are no soviet aircraft in the "early" setup, and also see note about lack of ground attack aircraft above.
The Il2 date in the list above is a compromise date as is. The Il2 Type 3 in AH is some what of a hybrid. It matches better with a Type 3M which didn't enter service until late '43, early '44. The date 10-42 represents the earliest date for an Il-2M.
This takes out the 190A5. Without the A5 you would get a lot of complaints re: spit9 coming as a counter to the Fw190.
Instead of constructing an argument over whether or not to exclude the A-5 I think it re-enforces the argument for the inclusion of a Fw 190A-3. Of course folks won't go that route. They will just complain that either the A-5 should be gone or that its perk value should be adjusted up/down. In turn this will lead to the counter argument over the Spitfires.
IMHO the separate arena highlights the need for more early and mid war variants of existing planes as well as for new aircraft all together.
The 109G2 is vital to the early war. There are few planes as lethal as it, tu be sure, but the importance is really the armament. The bomb rack, the gondoals, would make it a multirole craft, capable of hunting bombers (soemthing few early fighters can do) or dropping toolsheds. I honestly can't remember if the G-2 kept its centerline bomb in the 109 update. I'd hope so... The G2 would also be something of a counter to the spit9, but I think the spit9 would need perkage because it dominates the entire planeset for june/july 1942.
If the F-4 were correct then even it would be a handful for the Spit F.IX except at the highest altitudes. Even as is both the F-4 and G-2 can more then hold their own.
Also, get the p38G out of the early war setup!
Even better, model the F and perk the G in the early war arena.
I stated in another thread that I would hope they (and us) don't get to caught up in just service dates. IMHO I think the arenas should be based more on relative performance rather then just dates. The closer the aircraft are to parity in each arena the more fun will be had.
