I was never a big fan of the Pizza map, and this tour has soured me further. I decided that I would confine myself to flying only early-war fighters this tour. Essentially, nothing not already in service by December 7, 1941will be flown. I allow for exceptions in the case of squad nights where the aircraft are selected monthly, or for emergencies as they arise (in which case I may grab an FM-2 or SpitV). Generally though, I’ve stuck to the basic premise.
What I realized early in the tour is that the Pizza map is decidedly unfriendly to early-war aircraft. Only the Hurricane IIC has any jabo capability. All that the P-40E can carry is a single 500 lb bomb. Worse, the long distances between fields’ results in frequently having to carry drop tanks for both the Hurri and the P-40.
Indeed, the relatively low speeds of these fighters means that it takes a long time to get anywhere, exacerbated by having to haul external tankage.
Frequently, when you do finally arrive, the fight you were expecting, hoping for, is non-existent, usually because the field has already been beat down and capped. Or, because the enemy simply landed when no opposition was nearby. This really porks one’s K/T and K/S. This is especially troublesome when it happens early in the tour, as you can never really make it up. Even carrier ops are affected, with nearby enemy fields often being 4-6k above sea level. This makes it especially difficult to keep the CVs alive.
It sure would be nice to some air bases closer together and not so many damned high altitude fields. Some of these early-war aircraft lack two-stage, two-speed superchargers, and are not happy with 11k high fields.
Here’s a weird, but unrelated oddity: Flying Hurricanes, I’ve been forced to ditch a few times due to radiator damage. On two occasions this occurred on the Baltic map. I ditched on the friendly side of the strait opposite A41, just inland from the beach (being as far as I could extend the glide). Both times I got the “you have been captured” message. Yet, there are no enemy bases on that side of the strait! What gives? Who the hell could capture me?! Apparently, the game does not see open water as a physical obstacle to the enemy’s movement. That should be corrected.
My regards,
Widewing