The afterburner fuel paradox has bothered me about WC for some time.
It's been pretty well established that the majority of the fighters in the WC universe burn hydrogen for fuel, and are equipped with hydrogen scoops. The hydrogen scoop field serves two purposes: it picks up stray hydrogen atoms and sweeps them into the fuel tank (more on this in a second) and the impacts against that field allow the fighter to perform aerodynamically in a space environment. It also prevents infinite acceleration.
The fighter's mass and size of the scoop field are then used to calculate the cruise speed used in WC/WCII (the speed you see when you leave autopilot). In theory, anything beyond that speed should also eat at your fuel reserves, as you can't scoop up enough hydrogen to replace the burn rate needed to achieve that velocity. The impacts on the scoop field that allow aerodynamic flight should also slow your afterburner acceleration rate as the impacts become more frequent at higher speeds (assuming uniform distribution of hydrogen in space). Basically, acceleration should diminish up to a certain point when you can no longer overcome the force of the impacts (again, calculated relative to the vessel's mass and scoop field size), rather than gaining a predetermined velocity uniformly. Or one could argue that it's a predetermined maximum set by an engineer (it would still be a diminishing acceleration curve), but one would think that extra velocity could come in handy in a life or death situation.
Of course, it's a computer game from the early 90's using what is by today's standards a rough physics model (though fantastic at the time).
Okay, time for LOAF or ChrisReid to pick me apart...