That's what they say about the Ki-61, but wait, I suck at this game anyways. Carry on.
And it usually is when it comes up against a mid-war or late-war plane flown by another player with equal skill level.
Not saying the Ki-61 sucks at all, I've seen what a well flown Ki-61 can do when I used to fly with odege late at night but against some planes it's just out matched. In those cases where the Ki-61 driver runs into a plane, for example the P-38, that is flown by someone of the same skill level, the P-38 driver will be able to dictate the fight at will unless he screws up like thinking the Ki-61 is an easy kill. The P-38 has the advantage in all areas with the exception of flat turns and you know that is the one area the experienced P-38 driver will not get into against a Tony.
McGuire also didn't think lightly of the Tony. Again, his description of the Tony.
Tony - The usual armament of this plane is two 12.7 mm. machine guns, synchronized through the prop with one 12.7 mm. machine gun in each wing. (Later models have one 20 mm in each wing). With heavier armor and a fair quality of self-sealing tanks, this plane does not have the tendency of the OSCAR and ZEKE models to explode or burn unless a very good hit is scored. An in-line fighter like our P-40’s, the TONY is not an altitude fighter but makes up for this by being faster than the ZEKE in level flight and extremely fast in a dive. A successful evasive tactic against this plane is, if in a dive, to make a diving turn to the right. At high speeds the TONY handles very poorly to the right and the Japanese pilot has trouble turning in that direction. If you are pursued from the rear and on the level, a very high-speed, shallow climb will keep you out of range and eventually you will draw way.
One pilot found out about this the hard way. He was returning from a strike at Wewak when he was jumped by three TONYS. He was at 20,000 feet at the time and went into a shallow dive which ended up on the deck one hundred miles farther south, with the TONYS right behind him. Forced to alter his tactics, the pilot began a high-speed, shallow climb and soon lost them. His was the original experience of this sort with the TONY and his pioneerings saved many from falling into the same error.
If you are on the deck, a very sharp turn to the right at high-speed, may do as an emergency maneuver, but it is definitely a last resort and at best will only keep the enemy pilot from holding his lead on you.
ack-ack
