II Comes After I

Now, I have taken my first step up the Japanese Army Air Force line, to the Ki-43-II.

In all honesty, I don't expect this plane to perform too differently from it's tier IV version, since it's just more of the same as before. However, I do anticipate encountering tougher opponents and aircraft that come with tier V threshold and more complicated environments.

It's those complicated environments where the learning curve will lie, I believe.

The map on the left is what I was typically given to fly my sorties on with the tier IV Ki-43-I. For those who are really curious, it's Archipelago: Decisive Blow. After the initial novelty wears off, the environment is pretty straightforward with low islands, good viability and only three capture points.

The map on the right, Plateau: Advance Game, starts to shed away the simplicity seen from the lower tiers and moves a player into the realm of moderately more complicated gameplay. Deep canyons and towering rock formations that can wreak havoc, if one isn't paying attention to what is going on around them. Combine that with deadly aerial actions of combat, capturing and defending, can lead to a head spinning experience.

And, just to add to that, I bring in a brand new aircraft, an untrained pilot and just a vague idea what to do here....