Best fighter in UV

[jcjordan]

Did a test pitting various fighters against each other to see who came out on top. I set experience the same for all to help level the field & some of the results are below -

1. Spit 8 - excellent by far in test
2. F4U - great overall
3. P47D - all very close
4. P51D "
5. P47C "
6. P38J "
7. P51B "
8. P38G "
9. F6F - didn't come out as well as expected
10. Spit 5 - due to range only good for base cap
11. Tony - short range hurts
12. Frank
13. A6M2 & M3 - Zeros rule the early Allied types
14. Oscar 2
15. A6M5 - didn't fare as well as expected except early Allied types
16. Oscar 1
17. P40 - broke even most times
18. P39 - best used in ground attack or on barges, comes out slightly on losing end in CAP
19. Boomerang - another I thought would do better
20. F4F - normally bested by most Japanese types
21. Wirraway - best used in ground attack
22. F2A - just glad they're replaced early if in game
23. Claude - "

As you can see the later allied planes come out best some I thought would do better & some like the Spit8 did much better than anticipated.

[AmiralLaurent]

Interesting tests, but I have a lot of 1943 Scen 17 PBEM experience and my own results are a bit different.

In all my battles, Zeroes are better than Tonies. And there is a big difference between A6M3 and A6M2 in the former's favor, they take less losses and score more victories with pilots of the same level.

As for results against Allied fighters, Zeroes (especially A6M3s) win almost all battles against P-38Gs. Margin depending of the conditions of the battle.
Oscars (IIa) lose against every type but may have a draw against F4F-4.

Corsairs crush every type of air opposition and their kill ratio is around 10 to one, even with fully rested Japanese pilots flying against Corsairs flying CAP for several days in a row...
As for now, I have managed to avoid big battles with P-47C and Hellcats, even if one of my opponent has allready the two types available.

And in my games, the exp of Japanese units engaged is between 60 and 80, no Japanese units leave the Truk training grounds with an exp inferior to 60, but the Allied pilots are still probably more experienced.

[crsutton]

Pretty much agree with all your list. My biggest beef has always been the total superiorty of the zero over the P40 and wildcat. Perhaps it is a measure of pilot skill in #17 and #19 but I disagree. Except for turning ability at low speeds (a totally overrated aspect in modern air combat) and climbing ability, P40 and wildcats were in the main better or equal to the zero. More important-they were much better built (very important) and had radios (even more important). Historically, they did just fine against the zero, but in the game the Allied player has to take his lumps. Hellcat should be better too. It really was far superior to anything the Japanese had.

A lot of folks will argue for the superiority of the Frank. (See the Forgotten Battles forum) The Frank was a beautiful design that generally was so flawed in quality control that it has as good of a chance of killing its own pilot as it did the enemy. Never really had a chance to prove itself.

One of the nastiest exploits in the game is for the Japanese player to send massive fighter sweeps 200-250 planes at a base like Nevea. If the Allies have large number of CAP and try to fight for the base, the Japanese will typically massacre the Allied fighters (P40s, wildcats, and sometimes p38s) I have see upwards of 150 Allied planes shot down in one day for the loss of about 50 zeros. Pretty horrible experience for the Allied player. There is some justice in the fact that once corsairs are present the tables are reversed, but there is more of a historical basis for this.