The 110G2 has less firepower than the 190-A8 in its stock form, and doesn't perform as well.
stock, its actually VERY close, losing by only the 2 13mm's, but picking up FAR more 30mm ammunition. And when both planes are clean and light, the 110 is by far the better-armed of the two.
In particular it's rubbish in high-speed dives. It's a big target and everybody wants to kill you.
Agreed.
The extra gun package cuts your performance and doesn't really add to your killing power; you can only kill the bomber so much before more bullets are a waste
It doesn't significantly cut preformance, like gondies on the 109's (and with your starting point so low, who cares anway? Its still fast enough to chase bombers).
So if the 2 extra 20mm's are unneeded, why is firepower a concern on the other aircraft?
Ditto the 410, which if anything seems even worse in a dive, and more fragile.
Of course, with the BK 5, you can really just sit out beyond range of retaliation. And I don't think its as fragile. It seems generally pretty sturdy, and is at least the equal of the 110 in a dive.
The Mosquito has a tremendous gun package but in my experience you get lots of pilot wounds; the Typhoon also has great guns but has a glass radiator and very short range. The N1K2 has the firepower but doesn't perform as well as the 190-A8. Everything else either has less firepower or less performance or less range. The G14 with gondolas has almost the firepower of the 190-A8, but on a personal level I prefer the 190's roll rate and its handling in a dive.
What happened to that bit about excessive firepower? And the 109's with gondies have more firepower than a P-47, or anything else that isn't lugging around 4 20mm's or more
The Ta-152 is an odd cross between the 190-A8 (similar firepower) and the P-47N (range, performance at high altitude), and one of those big fat disabled women who rides around in an electric wheelchair. In my experience the A8's extra 30mm and machine guns ensure a one-pass kill, with the Ta-152 it's not quite as assured, and the longer you spend on the attack the harder it gets.
The MG's do less than a tenth the damage of the 30mm. They are negligible in the A8's killing power.
Chase:
BF-109K4, easy. Terrific rate of climb, excellent performance, sufficient firepower, endurance, magic WEP. In my experience the single 30mm does enough damage that if you land hits but don't manage to finish the bomber off, then if somebody else shoots them down you get the kill, because you filled the bomber with warm human jam.
The real stength of the K4 is its climb and acceleration. After climbing (which is among the shortest trips to 20k in the game), you accelerate comparatively quickly to combat speeds.
On a tangent, and I'm not a mathematician, but my hunch is that if the bombers are coming straight towards the base at 20k, 270mph+, and you spot them on the edge of the radar circle, then only the Me 163 has a hope of climbing to shoot them down before they drop their bombs.
Pretty much. IIRC, you'll arrive at alt, and be about 1/2 way accelerated when they drop.
I imagine you could draw a chart which shows the relative merits of altitude and speed - I suspect that a formation of Bostons heading for the target at 12k, 325mph, would be just as safe from interception as a formation of B-17s coming in at 20k, 280mph, for example.
Maybe. The K4 can make 10k in only a little over 2 minutes IIRC. Since bostons have no belly guns, a low-6 attack is tied for the safest approach, and its effective (its a boston, not the most heavily armored thing US factories ever produced).
In any case you're vastly more likely to be chasing after bombers that have already attacked, in which case I've always wondered why more bomber pilots don't simply ditch; it lets you double your sortie rate (you don't have to fly back) and really angers the defenders.
Because combat is the entire point of the game. If you just want to make milkruns, you might as well fly offline; you'll see just as much actual combat there as you would in the MA's.
As to sortie rate, and pissing off defenders, those two points are canceled out by lowered perk earnings and score (the reasoning behind doubling the sortie count), is against the spirit of the game, and results in a sudden case of sweetheart-bag syndrome.
