I was knockin' around in a 152 tonight at about 20k... prowling for high fights when I came across a co-alt Spit 14.
How exciting, one might think, a high-alt duel between the very best of the Axis and Allied high-alt fighters!
Alas, it was not to be, I gained what was beginning to be the upper hand in the fight (1 v 1, no cons in sight) and the Spit 14 got spooked and ran for the relative safety of 10k.
Perhaps the Spit pilot might have been more inclined to stay and fight to a stand-still at 20k+ if his aircraft was ENY 5 like mine?
I've flown the Spit 14 once... I hated it. I have no interest in flying it....... but I would LOVE to come across a few more high-alt fights against them... however, as it is at the moment I've seen 2 Spit 14s in the last 3 months.
The Spit 14 has only the ability to fly at high altitude more effectively than the Spit 16 (and let's face it... that's hardly a game-throwing attribute in the MA).... and perhaps an exponentially increased ugliness factor.... and that's hardly relevant to perk value.
To finish my little story from the MA tonight I eventually managed to bag that Spit 14 who insisted on trying to protect his small amount of perks when he got focused on an out-numbered squadie. I managed to execute a nice little stealth hit on him and his perked Spit split in two aft of the cockpit in due order. I had to blow my attack on a very, very high flight of B 26s (which would have been great fun) in order to get him but the end result was a Raw Prawn sortie which achieved a 12-0 kill ratio with all 3 aircraft returning to base successfully.
In summary, I was having a blast prowling at 20+k tonight (I was genuinely looking for high-alt fights and buffs, not cherries) and it would have been nice to have a more readily available opponent to fight up there.
Unperk the Spit 14.... give it an ENY 5 rating and let it roam the upper edges of the fight. They dive like absolute chit, so they're no cherry-picking threat
They're more likely to blow their own wings off than yours.