I'm talking about finding fights and fight avoiders using stealth......not hiding from a fight.
Hunting and surprises is what I enjoyed the most before full dar. Sure there were many bad surprises, but good "presents" made up for it. Like upping a long range fighter after being shot down ib to strategic target in a bomber by a heavy overpowering cannon aircraft and going in again as if making another bombing run. Obviously with a lot of altitude and pouncing the heavy cannon bird so next time the enemy would be thinking more about fighter performance as well and not just the biggest guns.
I liked going around the enemy horde to fight the guys that follow so they drop ords before they get to their target. Had great 1v1 fights because aircraft before the horde often trickled in one by one. So often one of us got shot down before the next guy came in. Many guys following the horde were so confident that they even did not scan the sky or were afk for climb, even when their radar was down and base was flashing. I often took out the radar at the base from where the horde was coming in and flew fast and low to come in at the enemy blind spot. Sure some guys got shot down as sitting ducks but they learned a lesson for the next time.
I liked taking a fighter-bomber to strat object and drop bombs/rockets on it and then trying to fight my way out after losing my altitude advantage in the attacking run.
I liked when aircraft where pulling moves like running away behind a ridge so you would lose icon contact and then reversing to come around and attack the following fighter from one of the blind spots.
I liked when you would go in as axis or allied to attack a field and one guy would see your icon and come up in a good historical match-up aircraft instead of the best late war dogfighter etc.