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Recommended Skill Level: Medium-High
Availability: Available in both tech tree and premium shop
Similar tech tree plane(s): P-51A/D/H
Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine
Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine, ammo
Pros:
An almost perfect copy-paste of the P-51D
Great energy retention, especially in turns
Somewhat large boost pool for an LF (12s)
High dive speed
Good rate of climb
Good altitude
Good controllability
Good roll rate
Fairly durable, fires are very rare
Slightly better muzzle velocity than P-51D
Slightly better unboosted climb than P-51D
Cons:
An almost perfect copy-paste of P-51D
Low gun range
Low gun accuracy beyond 300m
Somewhat high minimum optimal speed
Opinion: A very good aircraft, but severely limited by the range and accuracy of its guns. If you like the P-51D, you'll like the P-51K, if you hate the P-51D however, you'll also hate the P-51K. I would recommend getting the P-51D for yourself to see if you want a version that prints out a lot more credits, but, alternatively, if you want to see what the P-51D is like then the P-51K is for you.
Now, how about actually playing it? Well, it plays a lot like a Mustang, wow, what a surprise, truly incredible and unexpected. This means you play the altitude game and kill people through sustained fire rather than burst DPS; Marksman 2 or an ultimate gunsight is a requirement in order to have the guns consistently deal damage. The DPS of the Mustangs is on the lower end and the gun range is poor, however the sustained DPS in tandem with large amounts of autoaim (bullets adjusting trajectory when shooting) mean that once you latch on to a target, they'll melt pretty quickly. The P-51K is surprisingly apt in head-ons as well despite the poor gun range since planes will begin to melt, it's pretty durable, and it's very heavy meaning it frequently wins rams. Against most light fighters and with some maneuvering, you can come out in pretty good shape from a head-on while crippling the enemy.
Mustangs have exceedingly good climbing abilities and is their primary means of escape, but learn which planes have better burst climbs because simply pointing your nose up and boosting won't get you away from everything. They are also good at diving, having both high dive speeds letting you dive away from your problems or pursue heavy fighters, and high maximum optimal speeds allowing you to follow through maneuvers on targets or engage in dogfights. Overall this allows for superior engagement control, allowing you to pick/leave fights almost at will.
Speaking of maneuvers, learn to manually roll, this is a crucial skill to have as it greatly helps following people in maneuvers and with a bit of predictive ability can lead to nasty traps that practically guarantee a kill if nobody interferes. Maneuverability is also quite good --certainly not turnfighter good-- but the great controllability in tandem with somewhat strong controls can allow for deceptively sharp turns and the incredible energy retention means that the longer a fight lasts, the more likely you are to win. For the more perceptive, skeptical readers out there, this might bring up the question, "but why is it a good thing that a plane excels at long, drawn out duels in a game about quickly killing people?" And that's a great question, it's a highly situational tool the Mustangs have but is important to note, Mustangs when played well will never get into an endless turnfight against anything other than a Mustang.
Overall: learn your match-ups, learn your maneuvers, and learn to control the plane yourself if you want to truly unleash the power of the P-51's.
If you've read through all of this, then you're probably a newer reader as how2Mustang was added over five months after this post was made, so hi! And thanks for reading.
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