Just a couple of observations from a normally "Allied" Flyer.
Taking off to go into battle against the IJ Forces calles for a "certain tactical mindset", at least on My Part. I have to continually tell myself, " DO NOT TURN" with that Zeke. Fight Him Historically, using the strengths of your plane. With that mindset firmly implanted (hopefully anyways), I go seeking the Foe. The Radar Operator informs me that a horde of enemy planes are after one of our CV's, just fly east a bit, till ya see the puffy ack, and join the combat. After finding the Fight, It's time to get set up for a fight, get the speed where I need it, get the correct trim set, all while waggling the wings seeking targets. Aha, 2 Zekes after one of ours, drop the wing, kick the rudder, nose down a bit, go for the bird with the best chance of killin the friendly, line it up, check the needle and ball, squeeze out a burst or two, go into a quick snap roll, looking for the second bird, make a quick decision whether to continue engagement, or break off, get set-up again, and re-engage, see that the 1st zeke broke off when My tracers dinged his engine, the 2nd zeke is following the 1st one, so I decide to continue the engagement, since I still have speed and "E", I set up a converging course on the 2 targets, and suddenly get the "Check Six" from a Friendly. Start looking frantically for whatever is threatening me, and suddenly have a 109 go zooming right past me, having overshot his merge. All kinds of 4 letter words are exploding from me, as I try to juggle two different styles of fighting. Do I climb after the rocketing 109, or take a swat at the pesky zeke starting to fly circles around me ??
At the above point, to me, all of a sudden I feel like I logged into the MA by Mistake. My personal emersion into the arena has just evaporated.
I totally approve of the search and struggle to discover what are effective substitute Aircraft, to fill in the Holes in the different planesets, and realize the subs for the IJ Forces are most difficult to find. The Japanese Concentrated on lighter weigth, agility, speed and Manueverability. To My Knowledge ( which is certainly less than perfect ) , the only A/C the Japanese Designed, built and flew in combat, which had any resemblance to the BF-109's, whether in visual effect or flight charactoristics, was the Ki-61, which is already ingame. Subbing the 109 for any of the other IJ Designs, just feels wrong to Me.
I haven't really reached a conclusion about using the 190 as a sub, but I have reservations about it. The Ki-100 was a late war bird, and even given the difficulties the Japanese industries were facing ( lack of industrial supplies, bombings, etc.) I don't see them spending resources to develope an aircraft from a early/midwar design that was already outclassed.
As far as a sub for the J2M Raiden, the Birds that pop into My Mind's eye, would be the Yak9, or possibly the LA. I have no concrete facts yet, that they would be good subs, just those are the planes that popped up when I thought about the J2M.
Hopefully you see this as a constructive reply OldMan, and not as a whine. You asked for opinions and feelings for how the subs worked out, in this particular set-up. To me, while it was a good positive effort, it just didn't feel right to go looking for a fight with an A6M, and get engaged by a 109.
You guys get a GIANT
from Me, for at least trying something.