1: There are three battle modes: Arcade, Realistic and Simulator. In Arcade, you have an "instructor" that prevents you from stalling, you can maneuver however you want without damaging your plane, your engine won't overheat, you resupply your ammo in the air when you run out, you have aiming reticle enabled on the enemies, so this is the most newbie-friendly mode. In Realistic battles, the instructor is still there, but the flight and damage models are more realistic. Your aircraft can be ruined by flatter if you dive too fast, sometimes it may be damaged by turning too tightly at high speeds (today I tried to turn onto an enemy when diving on my Ki-200 and broke my wing
), your engine will overheat if you abuse the WEP, the ammo can be reloaded on the airfield (or carrier) only, no reticle on the enemies to aim, and so on. And in Simulator battles, there's no instructor, stalling works, no markers on the enemies, cockpit view is the only available, and it's recommended to play with proper flightsim equipment. I prefer Realistic mode, it's the most fun IMO. But I recommend to begin in Arcade. Generally, WT has complicated mechanics but it's actually easy to learn.
2: I'd say, the leveling in WT is better than in Wargaming projects (World of Tanks/Warplanes/Warships), but slower than in Armored Warfare (or so I feel). You can unlock the Rank 2 (P-40, P-39, F4F, A-20G, B-34 etc. in the USA tech tree) pretty quickly, maybe in the first day of playing, but reaching the jets (Rank 5) will be
much longer.
3: Both. The system is generally similar to the WG games - each nation has a tech tree that you progress on, you have to research a vehicle then buy it for Silver Lions (the in-game currency earned in battles) and pay for training a crew for it. But it's also different in a good way. You can skip a vehicle you don't like and research the next one on the other vehicles of this nation. For example, you purchased the P-51 (early model) and you want a P-47D that goes next in the branch, but you didn't like the P-51. Then you can research the P-47 by playing on F6F-5, F4U-1, SB2C, and more. But you play on the P-51, you'll unlock the P-47D 10% quicker.
There are also premium vehicles that don't need to be researched/unlocked but they're available for Gold Eagles (currency normally bought for real money) or in packs from Gaijin Store, or as event rewards (like my NC.900).
4: In Arcade battles, there'll be no "German team": both teams will be mixed, consisting of planes from various nations. In RB and SB, where teams are matched as different nations, you will not play for Germany on American aircraft (unless you use a German captured P-47D, which is premium).
5: No. Custom skins can only be used on PC (AFAIK) and they're not visible to other players.
But you can customize your plane using in-game decals (up to 2 or 4 with premium account). Here, I made an approximate replica of Ivan Kozhedub's La-7:
Lavochkin La-7 by
RageRacer48, on Flickr
And this - Brazilian roundels on my B-25J:
North American B-25J-20 Mitchell by
RageRacer48, on Flickr
Some planes have additional liveries that can be unlocked or bought for GE.
This is a Polish livery on my Il-10 I got after playing a lot on it:
Ilyushin IL-10 (Polish Air Force) by
RageRacer48, on Flickr
6: The repairs are expensive for jets and some late Japanese aircraft, like A7M2 and Ki-84, because they have high win rate. But there is "free repair" feature, not all players know about it. If you turn off the auto-repair and leave your damaged vehicle with a crew, it will gradually repair for free, while you don't play the game. This can save a lot of SL if used regularly.
But it's not quick for a new player to reach these planes so you don't need to worry about it yet.
Re-arming isn't expensive at all. Except, perhaps, some Ju.87 or Pe-2 with heavy bombs but even they won't eat your Lions too fast.
