Gunnery in Aces High for me is a lot easier than it was in WWIIOL. I don't know which one is more realistic, so I won't comment on it. I will admit that when WWIIOL offered the "come try it out again" promotion, that my gunnery was easier, because there were better cues that you were connecting with your 0.303 calibre MG (sorry, I rarely flew the 109E in WWIIOL, I can't comment on it.) Ballistics in AH are better, I think.
Damage Model... It's so transparent in WWIIOL that it's hard to compare. You don't know what's been hurt on your plane, so it's hard to describe the model. The engine damage model on WWIIOL is better, IMO tho. I had a hurricane take some engine damage, and it affected the plane yet was still flyable with some throttle massaging. In AH, you have on or off damage models for individual components. You can lose your radiator and your engine will overheat, but performance stays the same. Eventually, the engine will seize and that's it, dead stick. Same with an oil leak. The engine behaves just fine until no more oil, then dead stick. No progressive damage is what I'm trying to say I guess. Same with control surfaces in AH, they're either there or they're knocked off your plane. In WWIIOL, it felt like your control surfaces could be damaged in varying degrees. Dunno if that was the case or not. In WWIIOL, supposedly the rounds continue through the plane depending on kinetic energy. It's possible, in the "try us out again" playtest, any time I took one, solitary hit, it went right through my pilot. (I got hit 3 times that I heard during the 2 weeks, all 3 times my pilot lost 80% or more of his health). I'm not sure if that's the case in AH or not.
Flight Model. IMO, AH wins hands down in this aspect. WWIIOL was getting better in terms of FMs, but it still was lacking, IMO. It's becoming more of a viable flight sim, but it has some more improvements to make. AH is more than viable, in fact, it's very good. You have to learn each plane's characteristics to be good, and you need to learn how to apply your plane's strengths vs the opponent's plane's weaknesses to be successful. I didn't sense that in WWIIOL while flying. Very few 109s would use their speed and climb advantage, or take advantage of the Spit and Hurri's neg-G engine issues. In AH, there are plenty of pilots that will exploit the weaknesses of your plane.
(this falls under gameplay, I think)
Black out model. I like AH's better. Tho WWIIOL with the pilot fatigue was kinda interesting. Not sure I'd want that added to AH though.
Gameplay. Well, if you're into very historic matchups and flavor, WWIIOL has AH beat. WWIIOL is absolutely a blast to have air battles in support of a raging ground war (this is not taking into account technical issues that arise in attempting to do this!)
You will not see aerial fights breaking out over 20-30 GVs in AH. In the Main Arena, you won't even see historical matchups. You'll fight every other plane in whatever plane you fly. You'll mostly see a lot of Spitfire variants, but there will be plenty of other planes to fly. In the Combat Theater you'll see Axis vs Allied setups, and depending on the setup, you might get a very specific matchup, or you'll get the full Axis vs Allied planeset. If you're looking to matchup your 109E vs Spit Is and Hurri Is only, it's not going to happen very often at all. We do have historical events, where the matchups are very specific. A lot of Aces High players feel these events are where the game really shines.
If you're just mainly interested in some very exciting and challenging aerial fights, involving lots of different airframes then Aces High beats WWIIOL in game play hands down. Aces High has a strategic aspect of base capture that's going to be enhanced soon with some new strat updates. It still relies very heavily on the air aspect tho. Some ground vehicles exist, but this isn't a ground sim by any stretch of the imagination, IMO.
Have your squad give Aces High a try. At the very least, if you decide not to subscribe, you'll have a free Head to Head setup you can play with your squad or anyone else hosting HtH action. As has been stated before, there is a 2 week free trial you can use to play in the full arenas to get a taste of what we're all about.
I'm not sure if it's still the case, but I think most of the Luftwaffe minded squads/players fly on the Knights in the Main Arena. I know Wotan's crew does for sure.
