Just musing here but . . .
You know, when the A-bomb was introduced into WWII it was the end of the war; it would be the end of AH for myself, too.
It is silly to model a game on WWII air combat with some ancillary points (CVs, Ships, bases, vehicles) then model city killing, society transforming weapons that belong to the next generation of wars and the end of mainstream propeller-driven aircraft for combat purposes.
If you want a game where 163s Chase down B-29s, my god, what kind of asinine stuff is that?
That's not air combat, that's Billy Spaceman and his rocket interceptor.
At that point the game becomes every other shooter out there. What sets WWII AC combat apart is it's attachment to the last vestiges of non nuclear warfare. By the time the A-bomb was dropped, the world had changed. The only excitement comes in being part of the world that has not yet sold out.
The whole "German secret weapon" and tweaks A-through Z thing is so bloody ridiculous, it misses the entire point of the idea of WWII combat, much less air combat. The war's most alluring moments were the undecided portions through late 1943-at most the earliest of 1944. After that the outcome was not in question and it was the inevitable "bludgeon the belligerents into submission" time. Oh, I know there are some who think otherwise, but the game was up in late '43, early '44. The tragedy of WWII was it's being dragged out, almost as tragic as some peope believing in the capacity of the so-called Third Reich to have come out on top "If Only . . . ." Yes Dorothy, just click your heels together three times and say "there's no place like home . . ."
At the point the B-29 and A bomb come into being, when we could have the SM79, He-111, Dewoitine, Il-4, Ki-43, Ki-27, countless Eastern Front variants, and many more setups that actually enmesh one into the war that occurred, I don't know, I can't see it and it would certainly taint the experience for me.
Doesn't anyone really think about these things when they request A-bombs and B29s? Asking for stuff should reflect some thought, not some dream of blasting things apart, but how does the entire society of AH change when such weapons are introduced? The 262 and A234 are already enough laughingstock aberrations, reflecting far more of an impact than they actually had in WWII (as is the Ostwind--get a grip on that ridiculous Ostwind's overbearing impact on the game). Why even have it based on WWII if you are going to skew it into the realm of far-fetched possibilities and away from the probabilities that defined the war? There were two A-bombs used in WWII (count 'em, two). There would be two an hour in AH. It is silliness to even consider, it is the height of frivolity and the end of ideas, hope, and personal impact, all sold wholesale to the weight of brute force, redundancy, and mere machines.
One man in a Gloster was more closely aligned with his machine's capacity, it reflects far more closely a one-to one equilibrium than one man flying an A-Bomb equipped B-29. Think about the relative impact of each person. One with an A-bomb, one with a pair of 7.7s.
Just my dos centavos.
Sakai
