Fighter Pilots can be bought with Gold or Credits. The cost of a Fighter Pilot also includes each faction's Reconnaissance planes (Polikarpov R-Z for Soviets).

 

Fighter Pilots are very effective for taking out enemy tanks using their bombs, machine guns, and main cannons to either blow up the tanks by dive bombing or penetrating their weak top armor through strafing. Pilots are also very effective at taking down Transport Planes. A good group of pilots can take out all the paratrooper planes in an Assault Team, rendering them useless. For this reason it is also a good strategy to send Fighter Pilot Assault Teams with Paratrooper Assault Teams to defend them from enemy fighters. When playing as a pilot against enemy fighters, it is generally good principle to focus on destroying the enemy fighters first, then moving on to provide ground support. This way, if you succeed in taking out the enemy planes, you will be able to provide ground support with little resistance.

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All of the Fighter planes currently handle the same, the only difference being size/shape and weaponry. The German's Messerschmitt Bf 109E-4 is similarly-sized to the Yak-9; it has 1 centered 250KG bomb, and 2 nose-mounted MGs but has 2 wing-mounted 20mm cannons making it harder to hit targets (especially ground targets) than the other planes which have nose-mounted cannons.

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Most pilots only carry a wrench as it is unlikely that you will make effective use of explosives or pistols.