As a 2nd Spitfire with Griffon engine, Spitfire MKXVIIIe is the worst one in the whole Griffon Spitfires; it is heavier than MK 14 due to additional armor, and much worse than LF MK9. Its climb rate and speed are also pretty normal, with only about 1900 HP, The only advantage is the high altitude speed, with speeds of over 700km/h, but that will make the Griffon engine overheat pretty fast. So what does that mean to keep Spitfire MK18 still at 5.7? Considering Spitfire LF MK9 is generally better than MK18.
It also has another fuel tank in the front
It is too heavy, mcuh heavier than MK9 over 400kg
LF MK9 is better because it is better suited for the scenario war thunder simulates, short range medium altitude interception and low altitude furball, it can carry less fuel, it turns better, climbs almost the same at altitudes WT actually takes place, oh yeah it is also lighter even when empty.
It’s hilarious, I never see griffons, even if LF Mk.9 is buried under 2 of such it is by 10k miles more common than them.
Think of P-47 D-28 vs P-47 N-15 comparison.
Sometimes I can see Spitfire MK14, someone will purchase the mk14c, but yeah, I never see anyone play MK18, I wonder if Gaijin already forgot this plane as many WWII aircrafts. Weight and Engine power are never expected as part of BR balance
I really curious if the reason for the rejection was too casual?
We do have the report 2 years ago, and Gaijin just said: “No changes are required. Perhaps in the future we will make changes.”
https://community.gaijin.net/issues/p/warthunder/i/c18QFryvjTGn
How much heavier is Mk XVIII compared to Mk XIV? Does it REALLY make a difference? Bf 109 and Trop variants sit at the same BR too, trop is heavier. Such is life.
It’s like 30kg
imagine struggling in a spitfire
I mean the clipped wing Mk XIV is really mid, esspecially in an uptier vs like 3 P-51Hs and 2 Yak-3Us, but a regular one, that I don’t understand.
yea the clipped wings ones are a bit mid, especially with how undertiered the yak-3u and p51 h NA is (yes im calling it undertiered, the thing beats the mk24 in a straight line and is better armed because of API-T overperformance)
still wouldnt say any are bad by any major means other than having the bad .50 cal belts
This is just the turn rate, right? KI84 is not a 100% dogfighter there, considering we have Spitfire LF MK9
I would like to use BF109G2 and VL Pyörremyrsky’s situation to compare LF MK9 and MK14/18, except the high Alt performance, I don’t see any advantages MK14/18 could be 5.7
It’s more. This is for low altitude, includes top speed + sustained turn rate + max instantaneous turn rate + and shading shows energy difference
Mk18 sustains turns about as well as Ki-84 (at slightly lower speeds) and can turn harder. Ki-84 loses speed slower than it at very high speeds, basically near the wing rip limit.
There’s this guy I recently killed with Do-335B2 that plays clipped wing Mk XIV (the Pedoghost’s Spitfire or something like that) almost exclusively, and he’s doing good, can’t tell you how good because pushing head-ons with 3xMK103 firing 30mm HVAP + 2xMG151/20 just to “saturate” the area" doesn’t really help showcase plane’s capabilities fully, haha.
But BTW Yak-3U is one thing I have trouble with in Do-335B2, as that little sh** is super small and dodges super good (great roll couped with great turn and insane acceleration, so it’s not running out of speed, like ever).
I thought they were better at high speed, but probably you’re right.
Lf Mk IX to 6.0 then.
Does it include KI84 uses flaps? We know Spitfire is pretty hard to use flaps to improve its turn rate.
The top speed is useless, you’d better compare the sea alt speed that the engine won’t overheat.
By the way, Ki84 is not a 100% dogfigter, it is close to yak3 or la7, and 5.7 ki84 has better firepower
Do you see anywhere on the chart that shows flaps?
Regardless, the Ki-84’s don’t change much:
And neither do the Spitfire’s if you stay close to the speed limit:
By the way, all data is from CatWerfer’s excellent videos.
It’s the same conditions for both.
Neither is the Mk18 but it is about as good as the Ki-84 at low altitude and better at high altitude. Hispanos travel a lot further than Ho-5s and the Mk18 gets more trigger time. There’s no reason for it move down when it is already very similar to one of the better actually balanced 5.7s.
It looks like pretty close to Spitfire MK14 when it is using combat, and also takes off flaps. considering the enigne power is simliar and the KI84 is lighter than MK18( 300kg), spitfire is easiler to lose energe
I mean Spitfires needs control its engine to avoid overheating, which will reduce the speed a lot(after 5mins)
MK18 is like high alt fighter, better high-speed control, ki84 is close to la7 with low alt(<6km), and it is hard to say 2 Hispanos for MK18 is good, especially at close range and the belts, and HO-5’s fire rate are much better.
Compared to MK9, MK18 is totally worse than it, you can see Catwerfer’s data; unless at high alt.
MK18 at 5.7 is not a great plane due to a lot of super powerful planes, and it is hard to see anyone plays it; however, let it be 5.3 or add 150 octane fuel can make it much better(don’t forget N1K1 is also at 5.3)


