Watching the replay will show you that the community’s perception of this plane’s performance is wrong. The majority of the playerbase does not know how to use this plane at all.
Even if you will not discuss pilot skill and knowledge, we can still discuss machine abilities.
At max prop speed (generally speaking), 650 KMH IAS on the deck, the Horten can CLIMB. This means that any prop that chooses to chase a Horten, will find itself at a worsening energy disadvantage the longer the chase goes. This applies to many, if not all, early jets.
The Horten can maintain a rather tight turn at 550 KMH IAS. No prop can, and if it does maintain that speed, then it means the turning circle is as wide as somebody’s mother.
Sure, any plane can outroll the Horten. But what’s the next step in your rolling master plan? Realize that you just bled all of your energy? I reset and you’re not rolling out of my guns a second time with what speed you have left. Your options? None. None that I can think of at least.
Bad rudder? Rotate your head 90 degrees and the rudder becomes godly.
So you think you can outclimb my 24 m/s climb with 28 or 30 m/s or whatever. Alright, then you dive. But you can’t catch up to me because I’m going 900 in a shallow dive. Both go up after a brief chase, and the Horten will be higher than the prop. Game over.
Surely low speed battles can get you somewhere? You go slow. The Horten goes slow. But the Horten stalls at an incredibly low speed. You better pray you read the Horten’s energy state correctly, because you can’t roll at stall speeds either.
In summary:
Going fast? kills you.
Climbing? kills you.
Rolling? delays your death (kills you).
Going slow? kills you if you’re not careful, but you do get the best chance like that.
As a prop, your only choice in a 1v1 is making me overshoot when I’m compressing. Good luck trying that again if you miss.
I suggest actually watching the replay. Rolling didn’t get people much results other than delaying death. Yes I horribly missed the F89 a lot, but that’s my personal skill issue in that instance. The way he was flailing around did not help him in the slightest, and missing was completely on me. If you want to see rolling that actually made me miss, look at one of the F8Fs I killed.
But you know what? I’ll go with what one of the commenters here wrote. Lets put this plane at 6.7. I’m curious about what kind of suffering I can put F4Us, BF109G/Ks, Do 355s, J2M3s, various spits, and other 5.7s in full downtiers through.
I would absolutely not forgive Gaijin if they change the FM any more. It’s perfectly fine as it is.
Edit: here, have another cherry picked replay. It has baiting a million people (totally not a bad situation I got myself into, very tactical /s) by preserving energy in a turn (true), props failing to dodge, high speed chase after an F84B, and ending in a dogfight with a Yak-15. Despite all the rolling, the Yak didn’t get away. If it were a prop Yak, I would exit and rebuild energy.
replay link