We used to have the turnfighter-E fighter debate on the AW boards. Personally, I think to each his own...I don't think all E plane pilots are "wussies"(credit to Lazs), and I don't hink all turnfiters are dweebs(credit to Apache). I put a post on the boards then.. it applies now as much as ever:
Oh the folly of SOME turnfiters:
When I first joined the ranks of the AW community, Air Warrior was going strong as a free service on America Online. I had played offline flight sims and enjoyed them very much. Additionally, I had always been fascinated with the WWII period of history. I thrilled at the idea of actually shooting at live opponents instead of the lame AI planes of Aces over Japan/Europe. In fact, I was using windows 3.1 at the time and was forced to upgrade to win 95 in order to play AW. After a tortuous download (my 56k days) and some tertiary perusing of the online flight manuals, I took to the sky in my shiny new P-51 under the CPID Glans. Well, I didn’t actually take to the sky…I sort of got my wheels rolling only to get vulched well before I could rotate. I tried again and again, each time getting blasted into the asphalt. I thought to myself, “ Hmm this never happened in aces over Europe, maybe these FR guys are too much for my newbie lack of skills. I switched to RR3, after wearing out my welcome in the newb or practice arena, as usual at the time RR2 and RR1 were full. I had already figured out that I’d best not take off under the noses of my enemy(jargon: capped base) so I upped a clear base in my shiny pony and headed off to combat. I don’t remember how many times I got shot down. I was no prodigy let me tell you. I’m sure I got blasted dozens of times before I got my first kill. During these many flights I asked a lot of questions and was instructed to try out the spit 9, the most forgiving and easiest plane to fly, if not excel in. I was quickly hooked. I flew every night and weekend. I told one of my friends about the game and he quickly signed up under the cpid Caper. I latched onto a guy named Rullr. I fought him often and just couldn’t beat him no matter what. I became friendly with Manx and others and I quietly hung around, trying to learn the nuances of being a truly accomplished spit pilot. It took me a year or so, but I came to be considered a “good” pilot. It got to be that only Rullr and Manx could regularly beat me in my spitty. Time went by and those were great days to be a turnfighter. There was the endless fight at the vod; a constant furball of turnfighters fighting until they were shot down, only to up right there on the front line. I don’t remember the airport names any more…I think the vod was 81 and 82…it’s been a while. Then there was the pond, dead center in the map. Anything over 5000 feet was considered ridiculously high. The best turn fighters in the game plied their trade over the icy waters there. I’d often run into a most feared squad of PJ pilots there, the Widow Makers. They had some PJ pilots that make the PJ pilots of today who claim to be great look like sheep. Cpid’s like ->Don, ->OD, ->Mar, ->Air, and others. These guys could beat anyone that came at them. They were always on top of the kill board. In those days, finishing on top of the kill board meant something because everyone was in a turnfiter. People debated about who was better by comparing kill ratios and points . They weren’t dirty words or pointless numbers back then because all of us were more or less doing the same thing. Anyway, I’d battle these guys over the pond in fierce furballs. My friend Caper took up the PJ and joined their ranks. I stayed on the other side and continued to fight the WM’s every chance I got. One day, it got back to me that the WM’s might make a spot for me on their roster even though I didn’t fly a PJ. They didn’t have a hard fast rule about flying the PJ, it was just that in those days the PJ was the most dangerous plane in the game when flown by the right person. I joined the squad but stayed loyal to my spit. It was nothing against the PJ or those that flew it, I just loved the elegant simplicity of killing in my spit. It was easy getting kills in my spit and I was down to having few equals. I was hesitant to start at the bottom of the learning curve again. I’ll always respect those guys from those days who ruled the skies in their twin boomed fighters. Things continued blissfully for everyone and the WM’s ruled the kill board whether it was in RR1 or RR2.
Then one day it happened. I remember the exact moment vividly. I was furballing on the deck at the pond. There was an enemy A8 zooming through the fight. Sure enough, he shot me down, along with several others, then went merrily on his unmolested way. It was a long time ago but I think it was SONEK. I died a few more times to this new threat, and had no luck chasing these hated “cherry pickers” down. I came to the sad realization that an era was coming to an end. It was the end of The Happy Time. Many people complained bitterly about this new style of flying, this BnZ tactic, but soon BnZ pilots topped the killboards. Guys like Krieg, SONEK, and later =Bill ruled the scores. It was Caper, now going under the Cpid ->SUN who convinced me to try the focke wulf. Like me, ->SUN didn’t want to fly what everyone else was starting to fly so he, then I, took up the FW a4 instead of the a8. A little lighter and nimbler, but less lethal than the a8, the A4 was a great bird to fly. Soon I was blazing through furballs, feeding greedily spits, PJ’s, yaks, Hurris, whatever got in my path. BnZ tactics were nothing new, but in the past BnZ’ers were not nearly so prevalent in numbers. Well the old school turnfighters were incensed. A huge ongoing row commenced. Many people quit the game because, “It just wasn’t the same anymore.” Instead of adapt, these people chose to die off.
Oddly, fantasy mirrors history here. At the onset of WWII planes like the 109, zero, hurricane, and spit were the mainstay of airpower. Quickly pilots and leaders realized that turnfighting lead to death. Demands were made for faster, more lethal planes. The Germans developed the Focke wulf line. The brits countered by loading cannon onto spits, and powering them with bigger engines. The Americans entered the fray with the P51 Mustang. Later, Germans developed Kurt Tank’s plane, the D9, and the Me 262, both in few numbers. The point here is, that as the war developed, fast fighters and interceptors were developed, not tighter turning aircraft. Strategy evolved.
For a classic example of this evolution, look to the jap zero. At the onset of WWII, the Zeke was the class of fighter planes. In less than 3 years, American hellcats and corsairs with their huge frames housing staggering horsepower, were shooting down jap Zero’s at amazing clips. It became quickly apparent that turnfighting was an obsolete way of waging war in the sky.
Well there were those who could not reconcile that the game was changing in a similar fashion so they did one of two things: they quit like those who I mentioned or they stubbornly kept to their turnfighters, declaring that those who flew the fast planes and used BnZ tactics to be unskilled and somehow ignoble. There was nothing wrong with wanting things to remain as they were but these stubborn people fail to realize one certainty about all things in life: nothing stays the same. Instead of adapting to the changes on the game, these people merely decided that anyone not turnfighting was somehow inferior. In the old days, anyone who finished near the top of the kill board, or with a kill/death ratio of say, 3 to 1 or better, was generally respected for his abilities. New kill/death ratios climbed over 5 to 1 and better as BnZ tactics were used more and more frequently.. A8 pilots also now topped the kill boards. Did the turnfighters adapt? Decidedly no. They merely began to exclaim, and often, that points didn’t matter. Ratios didn’t matter. What used to be used as a gauge of ones skill(ratio more than points), were now considered irrelevant because the turnfighters couldn’t keep up. Today, these same type of antiquated, obsolete whiners still exist. These people will take off in their PJ’s and spits voluntarily. While there is certainly nothing wrong with this, it is in this group of people that all the whining is coming from. Frankly, I fail to see the logic in their crying. People like VMPR, Donk, Irvn, Brit, Murdr all choose to fly slow planes then cry or call names when they cannot catch the Fw’s and ponies, like their inability to stay with their opponent is anyone’s fault but their own. I laugh at them to be honest. I mean, I could understand if these same planes weren’t available to them but we all choose from the same plane set. What would these guys say if the next time one of them shot me down if I whined like them, “There you go again, turning your plane!” It’s ok for them to win a turnfight, but if I win a fight using E tactics I am a dweeb. The truly humorous thing here is that these same people fail to see their own hypocrisy. They quickly decry their skill if they manage to shoot down someone in an Fw or pony, but when the reverse is true, said fw or pony pilot is a no-skill dweeb. To these guys, using your planes strengths is only ok if you’re in a turnfighter.
