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Prior to the Cosair, what is the best fighter available for the Allies. I am running big B and stock long game.

1. P-38?

2. Spitfire?

3. Hurricanes?

4. Warhawk?

5. What would be the best use of each of these planes?

6. What exp is realistically the lowest for a fighter rpior to sending out for combat?

Just like to hear what folks have to say ......

P-38 is hands down the best allied fighter prior to Corsair/Hellcat/Thunderbolt. THe Lightning eats Zeros for breakfast and can do very well against Tojo & Tony. This is a great air superiority fighter. I use it for CAP, but also sweeps and occasionally bomber escort.

The Spitfire is an excellent interceptor/air superiority fighter, but with the range limitations it can't do much more than fly CAP.

P-40, what can you say, its the best fighter the USAAF has in the first year. You will need to use it a lot. It is a good defensive fighter for flying CAP. When used in situations where the enemy has to fly distances to attack it can when a protracted air campaign. It isn't a very good offensive weapon and its range is too limited to escort bombers.

Hurris, see P-40 above, only range is even worse.

Regarding pilot experience, I think low 60's is the minimum you want, but it all depends on if you are playing the AI or PBEM and Stock or some mod. The game doesn't have a good non-gamey mechanism for training up fighters IMHO. I usually send my fighter units into combat pretty green for a short tour of duty. The survivors get pulled back after a few missions and you will find that you have a handful of very skilled pilots. I rebuild the unit around them and then start sending the unit to the front line for longer tours of duty.

Quite frankly, in stock none of the Allied fighters except the P-38 and P-51 are decent bomber escorts.  The later versions of the P-40 have the range but lack the production numbers to support doing so.

among these 4, P38 and SF are better. But with high exp pilots, P40e also can do good job. And, forget hurricane, in my opinion[:-]

Against the AI, I had very good luck with Hurricanes in India. The Japanese were attacking Chittagong/Dacca from Rangoon and my Hurris were running up the score. I'm talking about squadron scores of well over 100 kills. You have a small core of excellent pilots among those Hurri sqaudrons, and so if you don't wear them out, those pilots can take a toll on the enemy.

I'm not out of Jan, 42 in any of my games yet.  To me, early war fighter means before P-38's.  [:D] 
 
Out of the planes I've been able to use, P-40's and Hurricanes seem to both be pretty effective CAP fighters.  As was mentioned above, I think the key to making any of the fighter groups useful is not to wear them out.  I sit my boys quite a lot, resting until the fatigue is almost 0 and morale is in the 90's.  Then, I hit with them and pull them back again, when the morale starts to drop.  If they are winning their battles, the morale stays pretty high.  One costly battle, and the morale can drop very far.  Using this as a guideline, the experience level for my groups is steadily climbing, into the 70's and some in the 80's. 

Yes, Brad, the gun value and the speed of the Hurricane are not bad. And the British pilot's exps are normally higher than 60. But according to my experience in the early game, they can not get good score when against the zeros with high exp. Sometimes, the P40s (such as 24FG, except the high exp AVG here) can give allied player surprised results[:)].

In Jan 42
 
At this point you are usually defending grimly, good range rather than long range is required.
 
Experience should be 60+ as mentioned,
 
P40E
F4F-4
Hurricane IIb
F4F-3
P40B
Brewster B-339
Buffalo
 
As each new fighter arrives you change your loyalties, the Kittyhawk I fills out the RAAF, Spitfire Vb pushes out the Hurri and the Corsair & Lightning does the same to the Wildcat & Warhawks.
 
But the earlier planes (incl the Airacobra) still fills out rear areas and helps train up new pilots.(Dont forget to CAP any TF in range of the Betty or Nell!!

ORIGINAL: JeffK

In Jan 42

At this point you are usually defending grimly, good range rather than long range is required.

Experience should be 60+ as mentioned,

P40E
F4F-4
Hurricane IIb
F4F-3
P40B
Brewster B-339
Buffalo

As each new fighter arrives you change your loyalties, the Kittyhawk I fills out the RAAF, Spitfire Vb pushes out the Hurri and the Corsair & Lightning does the same to the Wildcat & Warhawks.

But the earlier planes (incl the Airacobra) still fills out rear areas and helps train up new pilots.(Dont forget to CAP any TF in range of the Betty or Nell!!

I would pretty much agree with the above but I would insert the F2A followed by the P-39 above the Brewster B-339. Also above the Brewster would be the Daemon (good range and it has descent performance characteristics).

Yeah, but the numbers were so small I forgot them, plus maybe DEI pilot experience is low and the fighters dont perform well.

That changes (NEI pilot experience low). I've got a CW-21 pilot who has made ace (July 27, 42 - he was last flying out of Darwin) with experience of 77.

ORIGINAL: JeffK

Yeah, but the numbers were so small I forgot them, plus maybe DEI pilot experience is low and the fighters dont perform well.

Those are good points. I was really only considering the plane, not pilot experience.

I have found that my Dutch units fighting in exile are nice to have around though, in particular the Demons. Pilots can be trained.

That changes (NEI pilot experience low). I've got a CW-21 pilot who has made ace (July 27, 42 - he was last flying out of Darwin) with experience of 77.

Hopefully that boy is 6 feet under by now!

Chez

Well.... he's down under, but he's enjoying a little R&R in SE Oz (along with his Balinesean girlfriend who enjoyed the flight sitting in his lap!). Turns out I have another dutch ace flying Brewster 339s as well...

ORIGINAL: bradfordkay

Well.... he's down under, but he's enjoying a little R&R in SE Oz (along with his Balinesean girlfriend who enjoyed the flight sitting in his lap!). Turns out I have another dutch ace flying Brewster 339s as well...

I managed to get 1 ace in my game flying a Brewster 339. My thought is he may well be the luckiest man alive, that and he faced mostly nates.

F4F-4 Imho. Because of the large pools and replacement rates.

"I managed to get 1 ace in my game flying a Brewster 339. My thought is he may well be the luckiest man alive, that and he faced mostly nates."

In this case, I don't think I've seen a Nate since Jan '42 so the majority of his kills are front line bombers instead of fighters.

I tried CHS 154 as the japanese and attacked Midway & Johnston Is and kept KB at Pearl for 2 days.
 
After bashing into Pearl for 2 mths I had a peek at the Allies, their top scoring Ace with 5 victories is LtCdr Presley from VP-9 with 5 kills!!!!!!

ORIGINAL: JeffK

I tried CHS 154 as the japanese and attacked Midway & Johnston Is and kept KB at Pearl for 2 days.

After bashing into Pearl for 2 mths I had a peek at the Allies, their top scoring Ace with 5 victories is LtCdr Presley from VP-9 with 5 kills!!!!!!

I've got 2 fulmar Ace's operating in 803 squadron off the CV Formidable in the Bay of Bengal and the north entrance to The Mallaca Straights.. you know your bada$$ when your a Fulmar ace. lol
The kill leaders on my list come from VF5 flying F4f-3 and 4's. They didn't get the f-4's until after the Yorktown was sunk at Tarawa 5/42 invasion and they made it back on the Lexington to friendly base at Baker Island. Eventually they ended up on the CVE Long Island as it's sole Fighters. all 5 of them. The Long Island is now limping towards Gili-Gili after a jap sub hit her today in game ssw of PM 10/42. Any port in a storm as the saying goes.
AVG and 51st Ftr squads are close second flying p-40's in SEAC area of opearions. Imphal to be exact, stemming the tide on Mandalay's air forces and basically going rip$hit on the japs air.

The remaining aircraft of VF5 went down on the Escort Carrier Long Island later this day.