WRT learning..
LEVEL 1 Dogfight: Not only do you have to learn the pros and cons of your aircraft, but the pros and cons of your aircraft relative to the other aircraft. For example, in WWII, F4u vs. Zero. In this match up the F4u would be wise to use 'boom and zoom' tactics, in KOREA, F4u vs. MiG 15. In this match up the F4u would be wise to use 'turn an burn' tactics. Thus it should be clear that there is not a set tactic for a plane, it all depends on the plane your mixing it up with as to which tactics to use.
LEVEL 2 Tactics: One of the things I find rewarding about flight sims is that when I apply real world tactics (Boelcke dicta) they actually work! Which makes me appreciate not only history, but the men themselves. In that chuck said it best, it is the man not the machine! Thus the man who wins is the man who 'knows' which tactics to apply per the situation. Granted you need a flight sim with a good flight model that mimics the real thing pretty closely to make use of specific historic tactics, for example the BoB era 109 vs. Spit, where the 109 uses the nose push (red out) tactic to evade the Spitfire. If the sim does not simulate carb cutout you will not be able to make use of this 'specific' tactic
LEVEL 3 Team Work: Another thing that I find rewarding is when you get a good group of guys together who have mastered levels 1 and 2 and have worked with each other enough to almost know your next move before you go to the trouble of saying it over team speak. This is where it all comes together and makes for an experience that should not include the word 'game' anywhere in its description!
That is why I feel sorry for the Quake types of flight simmers who know nothing but the wonder woman dog fight servers.
You know the types, they are the ones that feel the need to defend the wonder woman view by any means necessary. Never stopping to realize that they are short cutting the flight skills needed to maintain SA vs. simply looking 'through' the glass floor to maintain SA. Those poor fools will forever be locked into the Quake mind set where thier definition of an air battle happens below 5kft between two air bases that are so close to each other that you could toss a rock at the planes taking off at the enemy field from your own airfield.
Not that there is anything wrong with that! To each his own, but, they just don't know what they are missing IMHO