Man, this plane is insanely good — the maneuverability, turn rate, machine gun aim, speed — everything about it is excellent. It’s practically unbeatable as long as you’re turning in the right direction; no one can hit you in a match. Why don’t I see more players talking about it? Even the AIM-9Bs aren’t that bad if you use them the right way — and since you can get behind enemy planes so easily, the missiles become even more useful.
Long ass list of reasons
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It’s German; a lot of players stop playing that tree after rank 4 due to the lack of variety
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It’s foldered, so it can be easily skipped, and some people might consider buying it a waste of SL
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It’s not immediately clear how much of an improvement it is over the previous CL-13. It’s night and day once you spade it, but folks might go and say “oh, machineguns at 9.0? 9Bs aren’t worth it” and never try it
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9.3 is supersonic jet territory, and most matches you’ll face 104s and Su7s which can just run and climb away from you
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A 0.7 uptier can put you against supersonic jets with 20g+ missiles, and in a full uptier you see all aspect missiles
Tldr; compression + ignorance + laziness. Definitely a must try, and very beloved in certain circles, but ultimately kinda niche.
Our good old Canoc Sabre… It’s good, so good that may not need any discussion - maybe only some comparison with Ariete. And it’s old. Not supersonic, no advanced missiles, no cm. No fancy-ness, pure old-school fighting, much discussed in the past maybe.
Love it when people know the capabilities of 9Bs
One of easiest plane for killing player imo.
Also, most players on 9.xBR lobbies has skill issue, like keep trying turnfight on F-104, can’t even hit their 23mm/30mms guns, etc.
Because in an uptier you face planes that can run circles around you while you cant even touch, one of the most awful BRs to play in air rb…
Yes, but they can’t really do anything to you if you play it right. Almost no plane at this BR can outturn the MK6, even if it comes down to just an F-104 and a MK6 at the end of the match, you can simply dodge him while going for ground targets and he’ll eventually lose. If he wastes speed trying to turn unnecessarily, he becomes easy prey.
That is simply not true, you dont need to be able to out turn the cl13 to easily kill it with a faster fighter, especially when you can face missiles up to 20 and 30g (even a 10 g missile will easily kill you if you lose speed while dog fighting), also you can face planes that can turn with you while you wont be able to outrun like the Ariete, F3H, F4D, T-2, J35, mig21 etc. and sure this specific scenario where you are 1vs1 against the most sluggish fighter ever piloted buy a guy who cant aim you might win by strafing ground targets but that isn’t how most matches go.
Because it’s a 9.0 subsonic and you get to fight supersonics, Sea Vixens, and undertiered missiles regularly. Even if its good, it’s not fun.
this plane used to be the best back in the day
Because it’s honestly mid. It’s just another Sabre, after all. Every nation in the game has a Sabre in their tech tree bar Russia, Britain, Sweden and Isreal. It’s honestly not that impressive even performance-wise. Sabres are only scary when they’re the top tier of the match you’re in.
Additionally, it and every other Sabre - Not to mention so many other subsonics - in the game exist in a compressed as hell BR range where many subsonics fight transonics and supersonics that often have better guns, almost always better missiles - Or just missiles in general - and much better flight performance.
Why turnfight a subsonic when you can just Boom n’ Zoom it? Why head-on it when you have the superior climb rate and can just get above it and dive down on it, flinging either a missile or use your guns? Why dogfight it when you can outpace it and simply reset the fight to your liking? Hell, if you’re in the Mig-21SMT or the stupidly undertiered Mig-21S(R-13-300) you can just throw a Radar-guided missile at it and laugh.
Subsonics stopped being top dog years ago. There’s nothing to talk about other than how badly they get shafted by BR compression.
Why nobody is talking about it?
the answer to that question is quite simple and is for the same reason why nobody is talking about the
Mig-19 or F-100 anymore
it is simply that they all have been become kinda irrelevant due to power creep and that the overall interest in them is much lower than whatever is at top tier
I got all the mods for it but stopped playing it after that. I don’t mind the armament when I had fun with japanese f86f30, but being slower than the majority in any sort of uptier generally means even with some damage from you opponents will still be able to run away and repair, but your teammates of course can follow up and finish him.
Also there is a ridiculous amount of j35a, av8, the two premium mig21s, and t2 early influencing matchmaking, alongside those being ridiculous for their ratings. I think all the 9.0 aren’t worth playing besides the best ones like g91y and the two event American planes.