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el cid again -> RE: RHS-Ki76 Stella WTF (4/1/2008 12:07:20 AM)
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FYI this aircraft is/was famous - or anyway it is a variation of such a plane - and curiously (given your views) also an outstanding performer. Like the C-130 - it had roles to play - just not glamorous ones (well usually).
This aircraft is more or less the Fiesler Storch - except even more STOL and with even better performance !!!
It is in all strictly historical variations of RHS because of a special role - and if you don't build it - you won't get that role performed:
it is the ASW bomber of JAAF equipped IJA aircraft carriers.
In fact it represents two aircraft - itself and the Ka-1 - another unique observation "plane" - and the very first combat rotary wing aircraft in the world - which also served in the ASW squadrons of IJA.
The strictly historical scenarios force you to play with these carriers - well almost: you can refuse to build them. But UNLESS you refuse to build them you need air groups - and they cannot use navy planes.
A similarly very marginal ASW plane of IJN is included. Ironically, it is a land plane. But it is so slow it is not likely to survive if any enemy fighters (or fast flying boats or blimps probably) gets near it. Fitted with MAD and radar, it is the strangest "dive bomber" in the game - so rated because it attacked by dive bombing its target - armed only with a pair of DC.
Both these types are not in the EOS family - which exchanged them for higher performance aircraft. Neither are the IJA carriers. They exist as ships - but they are in the form of tankers, or army transports or amphibs, or whatever they really were to begin with - so you do not need air groups for them. Instead you get an Army idea of a land based ASW bomber - the Ki-49 II - in a dual role - fitted with radar, MAD DC and bombs, it can hit targets other than submarines. Also there is a Navy idea of a carrier based (or land based) ASW bomber - a late Kate variant - similarly fitted. But this operates from Navy CVEs rather than Army ones. Both planes existed, but the Kates were not used from carriers nor mass produced - EOS lets you do both - and the Ki-49 II here represents two planes - due to slot limits. It is not a great bomber - but it is better than the I - and it has this other job (hunting subs or even ships with sensors). It was mass produced - but not really for naval work - and not sufficiently to replace the Ki-21 or Ki-49 I - so again - you get an option (which for technical reasons looks pretty good in game terms).
RHS gives you different mixes of planes and ships so YOU can choose which to play with? If you want to optimize Japanese air power you shouuld try an EOS variant. The most radical is the new one - EBO - and it will have a surprise update - probably today - mainly enhancements of a technical sort. EBO is cool in another sense - it permits some ships for both sides that were not built in the form they appear - but they probably would have been good performers. It is more or less the "Iron Storm" of RHS EOS family.
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