After an intensely, grueling two weeks, I am retiring my indomitable Sturmbocke.
Time to fly something else. Anything else, really.
100 kills, no deaths. Accomplished in 60 sorties of which 56 were landed and 4 had to be ditched.
58 sorties in the A-8.
Along the way, I did learn a lot about air combat in the MA and now have a great deal of empathy for the Luftwaffe's "gray hares."
I wish I could say it was skill. While skill was a prerequisite, a lot more was required. To be frank, it was luck.
For instance, I don't care how awesome the fire power is on a A-8, do you really think you can survive more then a dozen HO merges?
A 190a-8 excels at shooting down bombers. But bombers shoot back. Can you pick off 50+ bombers in various situations and survive the exercise?
In the end, it became a grind in managing damage and knowing when to disengage while all-the-while
maintaining a level of SA that bordered on paranoia. There were a lot of very close calls.
While this kind of flying may have been historically accurate, it's not really in keeping with the spirit
of Aces High with it's premium on dog fighting. Also, may as well admit it, its just not fun.