Early war planeset/Arenas/Scenarios.
I would suggest the Spanish Civil War or Early Desert Arena. The needs of the game to thrive long term would best be served by allowing people an opportunity to learn the finer art of air combat (in my opinion only, of course). This is not done at ten feet in a 400 MPH Tiffy.
The Early war planeset, with it's slower, more lightly armed birds, allows a pilot to slow down and learn more skills than "bore in, snap turn, crash after high speed Jabo". The MA will become redundant and boring for many if this is all we have.
The earlier planesets also allow for scenarios that have a sense of urgency to them that playing a 1945 planeset scenario lacks. The war was decided by 1944-1945. In 1937-1943 the issue was very much in doubt.
Spain, France, the entire desert campaign, Italy, the early Pacific, these are the tempests that defined the tenor of the victory.
Toward that end, I would suggest the modeling of the Polikarpov I-16 "Rata" as a first plane for an early war set. I would also suggest that the Stuka needs to be modeled along with the He-111. After that, the Cr-42, Gloster Gladiator, Sm-79 would make fine additions. I would note that the Sm79 would give the modelers a baseline trimotor design from which the Ju-52, Cant Alcione, and possibly even the SM-81 Pipistrello could be modeled. Oh, and could we possibly have some way to load out HE vs AP bombs for shipping/hardened targets like Gun Bunkers on Coastal defense guns?
I think the Japanese planesets have been adequately discussed and called for elsewhere and I support each call, noting teh need for such basic models as the Kate, Ki-45, Ki-43 Oscar, and early war bombing craft like the Sally, Helen, and Dinah. [Give me an Emily and I'm content for life, or until next Camp whichever comes first.]
Also, it should be noted that the arena play is really quite adaptable to a Mediterranean planeset. The Mediterranean and Desert campaigns, as we all know, were really wars of supplies and thus, the desire for so many AH gamers to interdict and sink ships, blow up trains, etc. would be fulfilled neatly in an arena modeled on the Desert campaign. Improvements in strategic goals--modeling AI frieghter groups that roam between ports with supplies for example--would really be great. We could have some fun escorting suppliy ships whilst others tried to disrupt. Note how important such freighters could be to the pacific campaigns as well.
As an aisde, if anyone is interested, I have all of the Italian bases from each theatre scanned in on maps-from Spain to Russia. I have their Order of Battle as well.
Thanks for your time, this game has so much potential and I do greatly appreciate the additional planes added so frequently by HiTech, this is a really nice bonus--especially after begging for planes and improved gameplay which we all were reduced to in Air Warrior.
See you all in the air.
Sakai
