I was flying the La-7 last night, a plane I’ve always liked as I’m big on energy fighting.
But in today’s air RB meta, with small maps, 16 vs 16 and 25 min games, energy trapping an enemy often means a friendly will simply charge in and ‘help you’ kill the completely stalled out plane you are about to roll over on to.
Result: zero reward.
You are far better off flying a plane that can turn well, and still has decent enough speed - like the Yak-3, so you can finish your food quickly.
Compare this to the old larger maps with 12 vs 12 and a 1 hour timer.
An era where P-47s had the time to side climb to high alt and fight like they were designed to do.
Today, it all feels like a mindless, arcade like, rush to the middle - grab a kill or two, die, repeat.
If you try to take several mins to position well, one side is dead and you achieved nothing.
What’s next? A 10 minute timer and 20 vs 20?
Perhaps enemy airfields could be right next to one another so it’s a race to see who can take off faster?
Needed a rant, sorry.