Hi.
This guide is based on my recent (last month) experience of flying initially completely stock Saab-105G in just 20 realistic battles, during which time i spaded it and scored 50 player kills, while dying only 10 times. And 3 out of those 10 deaths - happened because i did some total silly mistakes early in a match, too. So the jet itself allowed for ~7 k/d, if not to count my mistakes. Pretty awesome for a “striker”, right?
In other words, i found that Saab-105G, while formally being classed as a “striker” aircraft, is best described as “striker-fighter” - a jet which can do extremely well as both ground attacker and fighter. During said 20 battles, i intentionally played it as a jet fighter, only attacking ground units when it’d be the only thing to do at some point of a match (and still did 48 ground targets total, so 2…3 ground kills average per match, in top of those player kills). And i’d obviously score even way more of both, if i’d be playing those 20 matches in already spaded Saab-105G.
So, what makes this jet so powerful and unusual, while its stat card looks nothing out of the ordinary?
The following - are features which make it much better fighter jet than most people realize:
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it has two missiles (roughly same as AIM-9B) while being BR 8.3 in RB. Very few jets at this BR have any missiles. This means plenty and easy missile bomber kills: at this BR, you will see lots of Il-28s, H-5s, Tu-14s, Vatours and Canberras, plus an occasional Tu-4 now and then. There will often be some of those bombers even when fully uptiered to 9.3. And all those bombers can not avoid destruction if you launch from some ~1.5 km directly behind them. Even Canberras will fail to dodge, when at high speed, due to their stiff elevator near their top speed. And you’re faster than most of those, and almost as fast as Vatours. End result? You’re a bomber nightmare, no less;
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as a rank 5 striker, you always spawn in the air. This means you can easily intercept those bombers on their initial base run, unlike other early missile jets like FJ-4B, which start on the field;
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unlike quite some early missile jets, Saab-105G got excellent climb rate for its BR. This allows to easily reach high-alt bombers later on. It also allows to outclimb almost everything you’ll see at the start of the match, because you spawn in the air. F-106 and early Mig-21s being probably the only exceptions, but both are 9.3 and in most matches, you will not see any of those at all;
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excellent roll rate, allowing to dodge cannon fire exceptionally well by quick rolls plus little taps on your elevator, if you end up having a Sabre, Mig-15 or similar close on your 6. I had cases when such jets fired close to half their belts at me, failing to hit, and broke away in desperation - or were destroyed by one of my teammates;
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unlike practically all jets, Saab-105G does not break itself in any kind of a dive. Well maybe from 15 km vertically down, didn’t try - but in practice, you can quickly descend on any unsuspecting low-alt target and put a missile into them, without being distracted to throttle / airbrake, and with no limit on how steep your dive can be. This works particularly well as many enemy pilots, seeing you several km above, seemingly “doing nothing” for a while - will assume you’re some noob, and stop frequently checking what you’re doing up there. While in fact, you hover high above them, picking a promising target. Straight-flying Mig-15s, Sabres, etc - are the best for this, particularly when you see where they are going (like to join some dogfight several km in front of them);
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the combination of powerful climb and using missiles: this allows to extend their effective range by having gravity help them maintain their speed. During those 20 games, i scored a few kills from as far as 3+ km away behind fighter targets like Mig-15s and F9Fs, which were some ~1 km below me, and they were not going totally slow, too. Very handy - many pilots just don’t expect a missile launched from that far away to reach them, and don’t even try to dodge or use terrain as cover;
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vast majority of targets at this BR will not have flares. Meaning, as long as you do good about angles and relative speeds upon launch, you will score kills. A-4s and few other jets are exceptions to this, of course;
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unlike most early missile jets, SAAB-105G also comes with particularly deadly guns - two secondary 30mm cannons. I rarely see a “hit” with those - it’s either a heavy crit, tearing away large part of a wing or such, most of the times ending up scoring a frag, or straight away instant kill if it hits enemy fuselage, or instantly severe fuselage damage plus a major fire. But all that goodness only happens with its ground belt, which is full of 30mm AP shells. None of them incendiary, but they often ignite stuff by sheer force of their impact (sparks, i guess). Those cannons also have very high rate of fire, and pretty wide spread even with upgrade module researched. The latter is both a blessing and a curse: wide spread + high RoF allows much easier kills at dogfighting distance, and much easier kills in close and mid-range headons, but is not reliable in long-range headons (over 1.5 km distance when firing). But even in long-range headons, if you have ammo to spray a lot of shells - over a hundred - then often at least one shell will find its target, and one hit is exactly all you need. And of course, those cannons also destroy ground units extremely well;
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unlike some of early-missile jets (interceptor variants of Vatour, most notably), Saab-105G can easily dodge enemy missiles you see at its BR, provided you properly see the launch. In most positions and speeds. It has more than enough agility for it, particularly when spaded and with minimum fuel load of 10 mins. And since it got no afterburner, this minimum load of 10 mins is exactly quite enough to go with, too;
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its top speed, while nothing outstanding, is not miserable either. You can still keep your distance against most opponents few km behind for quite a while, except Su-7s, F-106s and Mig-21s - but you won’t see any many of those;
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its acceleration is better than most jets you’ll be fighting, which helps to zap away from a dogfight which starts to become problematic, particularly when you have some altitude to dive from and pick the right moment for it. I’ve had Mig-15s and Sabres smelling my exhaust after doing a full dogfighting circle or two with them, from some 2+ km away, realizing they’d need couple minutes or more to catch me “again”. Quite amusing;
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its energy retention is very good, for its BR, much helping with the above in particular, and also to maintain pretty good speed (700+ km/h) even after a couple of 180s or even 360s.
And then, the following are features which also make it a great ground pounder:
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it can start a match with a bomb load which can take out a full base: 4x 1000 lb plus 2x 500 lb. Using this load means you have no missiles and no cannons, but starting in the air means that almost always you will take out a base easily and quickly, then then get back to your airfield to reload (possibly changing to fighter role) - way before any enemy fighters could even start thinking about going to check what’s going on on your airfield;
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unlike quite some early jet strikers, Saab-105G has ground indication for bomb impact point in RB, and remains precise bomber in both level and diving bombing from any altitude;
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above-mentioned cannons’ supreme killing power vs ground units;
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its subsonic speed, making it easier to strafe ground targets (slower = easier) and never producing Mach 1 shockwave, which sometimes obscures vision in 3rd person exactly when you’re about to aim at a ground target, in supersonics like Su-7, Mig-21 and F-106.
And now, here’s certain tactics i’ve tried and found very effective, in my Saab-105G. In addition to ones mentioned above.
1st, you create three custom loadouts for it: pure air with 2 cannons and 2 missiles; pure bomber with 4x 1000 lb and 2x 500 lb; and mixed with 2 cannons, 2 missiles and 2x 1000 lb.
2nd, you decide which loadout you start with. If you like bombing, take all the bombs for easy base kill. If you like PvP / air fighting, take pure air.
3rd, you decide where to go right after you spawned at striker aircraft air spawn (always check if it’s an air spawn - sometimes, not often, “default” option will be on the airfield, but striker air spawn remains selectable and usable, so take it). Then if you’re bombing, just beeline to nearest base and take it out, then RTB right away, since you’d then be totally “empty”. This is actually quite good, too - instead of trying to remain and fight in a place often hunted by enemy team’s fighters (who love to kill strikers and bombers), you just leave that dangerous place before any of them show up.
Or, if you’re going as fighter from the start, then 1st thing you do - is opening match scores screen and checking BR of highest BR jets in your team.
If you see any 9.3 jets in your team, then it means you’re uptiered by full +1.0, and there usually will be a few F-106s and/or early Mig-21s in the enemy team, who can outclimb you even from their field. F-106’s vulcan cannon and Mig-21s’ radar missiles are quite dangerous, too. So if you’re uptiered to 9.3, go roughly level towards friendly base nearest to enemy spawn, intercept anything trying to bomb it mid-alt or low-alt. Usually, there is at least one striker or bomber there - often more. But don’t dwell there - do a single attack pass, then head towards your team’s main fighter force, and support them. Or, if you spent both your missiles, just RTB for another pair.
But if there are no 9.3 jets in your team - then, in addition to the above, you can (and probably should) also play “king of the hill”. Means, you climb to the top, and rain down your missiles and cannon fire on anything unfortunate enough to be a convinient target below. Just remain aware about any enemies around which can try to follow you to missile and/or gun you down, minding their top speed possibly being little better than yours.
4th, after you’re done with whatever “early match” tactic you chose, if you’re not returning to base, then remain largely near the line of friendly ground units. Few mins into the battle, look for NPC striker aircraft, in addition to any enemy players. You see any NPC jets easily reachable - hit 'em. They count as “ground target”, but give great RP and activity rewards, and often are even worth a missile launch - when you’re sure it’ll be a kill and it’d take some extra time to reach them for cannon kill.
5th, upon returning to base, while you’re rolling on your airfield, braking for complete stop - check match scores screen to see how many friendlies and enemies are still alive. If you see your own team prevailing, consider changing your loadout to full-time bomber or mixed, depending whether you want to get a full base destroyed, or nearly half base destroyed plus ability to use missiles and cannons (the latter is often preferable). But if you see enemy team winning, then you have the option of going on as pure fighter load, to either help your teammates against prevailing odds, and/or to lure multiple enemies into your airfield AA range to thin their numbers. It’s much easier to fight multiple enemies at once when you have your airfield’s missiles and guns helping.
6th, sometimes - not often, but it happens - enemy team has just one guy remaining, and it’s a bomber or a striker who is doing ground work (visible through match scores screen), and in some such games, your remaining teammates are doing the same, or simply agree to let enemy bomber live, wishing to grind ground and/or enemy NPC fliers. In such cases, the best RP earned - is by going with full bomb load, because bases respawn and don’t deplete enemy team’s tickets as much as ground units do. Such “winning, ground grinding” games tend to produce the highest RP reward per game, and are particularly rewarding whenever you have any RP boosters and/or vehicle research bonus active.
And lastly, a word of caution: always remember that you’re not the fastest, nor the most agile, nor the most tough-to-kill, when piloting Saab-105G. Which is, for the most part, why it remains at its relatively low BR: you are not any kind of “can kill half of enemy team all by myself if i do well” guy, in it. This jet is just not made for such heroics - ain’t an F-104 or F-106 or such. Don’t overstay your welcome, and do good teamwork. Then it will shine like few others do.
I hope thus little guide will help you to enjoy this remarkable jet striker-fighter a lot more. Good luck!