Originally posted by JB73
VERY good point bigred 
what you said i was trying to get across in my other post above.
the wider the planeset the more varied fights you will get in the MA.
as for the upcoming AH TOD:
it would be alot nicer to have the real planes modeled to re-create a mission instead of the "substitues" they use in Squad Ops.
oh well another lame thought by yours truly
Aye to both those posts and good dialogue gents, but you still would not need to model any plane beyond the Do217 in terms of capabilities. It will do anything the B17 will do in terms of loadout and capability (excepting extreme range) and as noted, there 1) is no 4 engine axis bomber so if sexy big plane looks is what you want as BigRed posits, they will all go Allied no matter what plane is modeled [an aside: the Do217 is a more masculine plane anyways, far better looking to my mind] and 2) the Ju88 is arguably the finest twin in the game and the vast majority of the rides taken out for buffs are twin engined planes.
I must say, If I want to devastate a place, I take a Ju88 over a B-17 any day of the week. The two loadouts can hit hard and carpet bomb both, in one run. It's an animal. You can damage a single field severely and then take out half a town.
Also, since the vast majority of guys like to fly fighters and engage in that type of warfare, I wouldn't worry too much. Also, also, if numbers are constrained such that no side gets so many it simply bludgeons the other, you'd hardly have anything to worry about: 10 guys in Buff formations are no match for ten hardened fighter pilots. Bomber swould suffer far, far greater losses under those conditions than they did in the war. And the way the allies won was overwhelming numbers of superbly trained pilots--a luxury they will not have in TOD.
Make no mistake, as a game this will be far closer to parity than the war ever was--if not even up. The Axis will have no screwed up central command to blame for any failures.
Turn your arguments around, the Allies could complain that no acceptable interceptors with multiple cannon were produced so intercepting massed Heavies of the germans would be historically and balance-wise inappropriate.
Model the Do217, and some Italian planes, and more early-war AC.
By the by, in the early war the Axis will likely dominate. Should we ask for a redseign of say the P-39 to its best specifications (two stage supercharger and the 20mm gun as an option for length of fire and compatibility of convergence of fire) so the Allies can compete more effectively in the early going? The original F4F specs make it an FM2 which is a devastatingly effective dogfighter and greatly changes the Pacific balance for early Zero attacks, should we roll it out earlier? Is it "unfair" for the lesser armed and defended B-17s with no real escort capacity to be made to go on bombing runs so we should model later G models and longer range fighters so as to make them capable of hitting their targets every time (Sakai wrote of annhiliating B-17 groups with their Zeros in the early war). How can we assuage the fears of Lancaster pilots who have to face cannon-equipped fighters with no escorts for the first year or more?
How far do we extend this logic, I reckon, is my concern. The Emily, as an example, if modeled should never be put into formations: it was a long range patrol bomber, primarily used as recon/bomber and was sent out in a group to bomb very rarely (once as I recollect?). So do we make formations of Emilys? Carpet bomb Beijing (then Peking) in formations of H8Ks???
I can't see it, especially if, as noted, there is parity in numbers. The numbers thing is what beat Japan so quickly, look what numbers did to Germany facing the Red Hammer and the English/US Anvil.
If I were Axis, and I fly Axis as much as Allied or more, I would be far more vocal about number parity than I would an He177. And again, since there will be no High Command to issue orders which define the ways in which a plane type can be used you will in fact have opportunities for long range raids that teh Germans never availed themselves of in the war. That is, Army doctrine will not dominate here: why insist that the war as fought will be refought here? It won't be, and if you have Do217s to hit back with, and use your Ju88s strategically instead of only tactically, you'll find that the ASllies have no great adcantage over you.
Sakai
