Originally posted by humble
(the J 38 is a monster far as I'm concerned)....
As for your two specific planes....the 38 is an enigma to me...as far as I'm concerend its a pilot dependant plane. The 38 drivers (most of em) I can kill I can kill in anything...the ones that own me just own me....
Personally, I don't see any significant difference between the J and the L. Ok, the J turns a tiny bit better, but the L rolls much faster at higher speeds. For me, it's a wash.
That said, the P-38s, any model, are monsters... in the right hands.
I try to teach noobs the P-38 when doing my Trainer thing. My thoughts are that if they can master the basics of the P-38 early on, everything else will be easy by comparison. Indeed, the P-38 can do things that will leave the average player sitting there with their mouths wide open in amazement.
Last night, I flew a series of fights with Kong. I was in a P-38G, he had a 202 initially. After the 202 was dispatched, he took a 109 (a G-2, I think). Similar results. At that point he took up a Ki-84.
What I observed was this: Once he got the flaps out on the Ki-84, he held a slight edge in level turning. That didn't prevent the P-38G from gaining angles and hosing it good. He was also undone by the flaps retracting almost as soon as the nose dropped below the horizon.
At 155 mph, his flaps retracted half way, at 172 mph, they retracted fully, and the P-38G out-turns it without any drama because it still has 80 % flaps deployed at 200 mph. That's the major weakness of the Ki-84, you must remain extremely slow to take advantage of the flaps. Between 160 mph and 250 mph the P-38G absolutely owns the Ki-84. It gets worse if it's a P-38J as it has the power to handle the Ki-84 in the vertical. Likewise, the Ki-84 has the same problems with Spitfires, only they don't need flaps....
In terms of acceleration, on the deck the Ki-84 gets from 200 mph to 300 mph about 3/4 of a second faster than the P-38J. At 4k it's even, and at 10k the P-38J simply ckecks out (at 20k, the P-38J accelerates faster than any prop driven fighter in the game). Likewise, climb is close from sea level. However, the P-38J gets to 10k faster (about 20 seconds sooner) and gains in advantage as altitude goes up. Speed on the deck is virtually identical (however, the Ki-84 is badly hampered by a short WEP cycle, taking much longer to reach max speed), but the Ki-84 falls behind at greater altitude.
As to the F6F, I don't recommend using more than 1 notch of flaps. Hellcats are not very good stall fighters as modeled in AH2.
I find the F4U is superior at low speeds. In fact, with flaps out the F4U can beat all but the lightest turn fighters in pure turning, and its massive rudder allows for flying it deeper into a spin than virtually any other fighter. You can do insane things with the F4U if you master its monster rudder, as I'm sure humble knows.
Back to the F6F; climb, level acceleration and roll rate are average at best. It dives well, hides E like nothing else and has a strong rudder. It's very study and above 200 mph is a match for almost everything until it bleeds its E off.
I'd avoid turn fighting with Ki-84s if you're flying the F6F-5. Keep it fast and work for angles. If you see the E states getting close to equal, bug out while you can.
My regards,
Widewing
