I’ve been grinding Air RB quite a bit recently and I’ve invested my RP in to the F15, A10C, and F15E series. I’m just wondering which line would have the best rank 7 planes as a workhorse for when I’m grinding planes.
I’ve been doing basebombing to grind and TRY to dogfight people but I suck ass at it. I know missiles IR or radar and how to counter/use them, although I don’t actually have the radar missles yet. I’m using the Canberra and F86F-2 Sabre right now
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If base bombing is your thing (as it was for me at exactly that stage…), the A-7D is a pretty good choice, but a F-4 would work very well too, or the F-105. Always liked the A-7 best though , for various reasons: Very useful for base bombing, but also great against ground forces and even ships, it that’s your thing. And a nice cockpit with a good HUD, pretty good visibility (compared to Phantom and Thunderchief), comfortable to fly, stable weapons platform…
You can probably skip the A-7E, as it offers only the LANA FLIR targeting pod as advantage over the 7D, but which only becomes useful in Sim in certain maps, but at the loss of the Mavericks.
However, afaik in RB base bombing is quite tricky atm, even for fast dedicated bombers like the F-111, as often the fighters beat them to targets.
I really strongly would encourage you to try out Sim EC: It’s the best mode for base bombing by far, and lets the attackers play out their strength without suffering unduly from fighters. For me it was really the switch from RB to SB EC where I “took off” on modern aircraft. I know a lot of players complain about the rewards system there, but really you get very consistent and decent rewards especially by base bombing. Bases are well spaced out, respawn quicky, so there’s usually enough for everyone, even the slow movers like the Corsair II…
Oh, the A-10 is of course the best for attacking ground targets (tanks, artillery, AA,…), but due to its speed less so for base bombing.
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A-10s are too slow to be very effective as the game is usually over before you can make it to any targets. F4s are a pretty solid and versatile platform (some variants more so than others) that can be used to hit some ground targets or a base before engaging the enemy team, or mopping up ground targets if you have a few people that either AF camp or just run on the enemy team.
I think the F-5 is still decent if you like gunfighting.
A-7s and F-8s where struggling when I last played them, but that was a LONG time ago (like attackers still air spawned long ago) I know the F-8 has been buffed a lot since then and it’s wings stay on now.
I cant speak for the Pig as I have only gotten to the F-105 in that line.
I would go do with the F4S cuz the corsairs are not fast enough and only get 2 missiles.
Dedicated strike aircraft are dead in the water in ARB. In ASB you’ll get some use out of them.
Multirole you’ll get something out of, but I really don’t recommend trying to base zomb in an F-4 as it’s a waste of its potential and once anything slots behind you - You’re dead because you can’t outrun or out-maneuver it.
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I’ll definitely look into Sim EC when its not heli only. I’ve been comparing the stats of F4E, A7D, and F105 for a bit now and yes, they have their own pros and cons but mainly I’ve been looking into the F4C because I feel like it would be a decent multipurpose plane, especially since it gets radar missles at 10.0 (although they might be trash) or 4 BLU 27/B incendiary bombs which could destroy 2 bases (Could you possibly add missles with 2 BLU 27/B with custom loadout?). Yes, I see the appeal of the A7D but I feel like its just a little slow for jets at its BR, mostly with those MIGs everyone uses in the german and USSR TT being mostly above 1.3k MPH (2092 KPH)
Absolutely!
Here my personal (Sim EC relevant, focusing especially on base bombing) experiences on their advantages and disadvantages:
F-4C:
- Multirole, good against ground as well as air targets, but struggles more against air than other aircraft at that BR, I’d say.
- Large and diverse air/ground load, capable of easily killing two bases and have full Air/Air load still
- Only CCIP, not CCRP bomb mode, so less easy to use against bases.
- No stand-off weapons, so little use against ground battle events with SPAA
- Poor visibility, bad reflections of windshield and HUD in certain light conditions, making it hard to see anything
- No countermeasures
F-105:
- Fast
- Ok but not diverse A/G load, capable of killing 2 bases, but then no AAM’s
- Only Chaff as countermeasures, but sacrificing bombs, allowing only one base kill
- Not agile
- Missing any indication of CCRP in sight, so in Sim practically only CCIP possible, which limits its use
- Very low amount of fuel, allowing little mistakes
A-7D:
- One of the first/earliest aircraft with a very good HUD, and perfectly working CCRP mode
- Roomy, comfortable cockpit with quite ok visibility, well suited for A/G work
- Large and very diverse Air/Ground weapons options. Can kill2-3 bases depending on bomb mix, very good against ground battles with SPAA thanks to AGM-65
- Very limited use against aircraft, strictly only for self defense.
- Good amount of countermeasures
- Can be challenging to fly at first (beware negative-G situations!)
- Slower than the other two, but not in a very limiting way, but on the other hand much more agile than the other two.
As mentioned before, I’d recommend the Corsair II most for grinding via base bombing in Sim: Always enough targets, good options to do also other work (against tanks, ships, can even kill a Carrier with one attack with 6 Mk.84’s…), fun to fly, and not plagued by the disadvantages of the other two mentioned types (CCRP, visibility, agility,…).
As Sim battles are much more spaced out, one can really take advantage of terrain and map size to avoid having to battle it out all the time with enemy aircraft, or race friendly aircraft to the targets…
There are some things one has to adjust to (cockpit only view, more challenging to prevent TK, high importance of communication between players), but I can’t stress enough that Sim EC is the optimal game mode for any mud mover afficionado, while also offering a lot of fun and challenge for “top guns”…
Ok I’m gonna be honest, I completely forgot to check countermeasures on F4C and F105 , which is probably one of the most important things at its BR because of those AIM9Ls and stuff, which is a mistake on my part. Now that I look at the countermeasures, your point that the corsair is a good aircraft for those things becomes valid and the fact that since I’m going to be placing a SIM mode, which locks you into cockpit only so the windshields and all the other stuff do matter because they block your vision which is pretty important when you’re trying to see if there’s enemies or even a missile flying at you
As you’re going for sim, you wont have to worry about 9L’s, as you can decide on what BR you fly (e.g. 10.0 for the A-7D). In general I’d say countermeasures are less important in Sim at that BR range, as map size will be avery important part of defense, contrary to RB where attackers have no option but to head straight into tve thick of enemy aircraft…
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Good to know, now all I need to do is wait for EC to be for planes and not helis or something
A-7D is painfully slow. For RB, F-4, 105, or 111 are much faster.
If they added CCRP stuff for the F-111 cockpit I think it would be the best sim bomber at the BR
Also for thunderchief, can’t you still bring napalm for 2 bases with the outer chaff pods?
Yes, you can use both chaff pods and 3 sets of 2 BLU 27 which is enough for 3 bases, although using it now, I think that missiles are more worth the slot as you probably won’t be facing radar missiles at around 10.0 and uptiers are somewhat rare.
Also yes, the A-7D is pretty slow for 10.7 RB with mainly Mig-21s and stuff but Schindibee is talking about sim battles, which in his words, “As Sim battles are much more spaced out, one can really take advantage of terrain and map size to avoid having to battle it out all the time with enemy aircraft, or race friendly aircraft to the targets…” meaning you wouldn’t need high speed for bombing bases to be effective since you won’t be racing or out-speeding anyone when you’re trying to reach a base so even if you have a max speed of ~710 mph, it wouldn’t really be a big deal
Honestly, if you get far enough I think the F-111A with 2 3000lb would be great for sim, it’s easier to CCIP those than napalm and the 111A is fast and has a ton of internal fuel. You can do a full AB takeoff and sit at like 102-103% the whole flight, or even go 105+ if the bases are close
The F-111A has rear-sector MAW which is incredibly useful in Sim. Basically makes you invulnerable to rear aspect IR missiles (though you have to remember to disable countermeasure slaving to MAW because that will exhaust your flares very quickly). Bomb load is also decent, gets CCIP that makes bombing easy, and it can outrun most enemies in its bracket. I’ve never used it in RB though.
F-111F is very good at base bombing in RB. A spaded F-111F carrying a light load (I usually carry two AGM-130, one 2000lb, and one AIM-9L) can outrun every other plane within its BR bracket, including the MiG-23ML, which means that it’s a guaranteed base per match as long as you don’t get intercepted. It also performs fine in Sim. While it gets the same rear-sector as the F-111A it’s not as useful at this bracket due to all aspect IR missiles and radar missiles, so it’s a bit less survivable, though it generally still has the speed advantage. It also gets guided weapons that are useful for attacking difficult targets like SPAA and ships.
Is F-111F worth using above the F-111A? I feel like it’s more focused on air to air rather than its predecessor, who has WAY more air to ground options than the F-111F and its stats on the stat card is a bit better than the F version and it’s a whole 1 BR under the F-111F which I’m guessing would make the experience easier since 11.7 has a lot of planes with radar missiles and yes, both have chaff+flares but who wants radar missiles flying up their ass every second with Mig-29s, Mig-23s, Mirages, etc
I think loadout variety is a matter of perspective. The A gets more kinds of unguided weapons, but the F gets more guided weapons. In practice maximum bomb load is also going to be roughly the same, because carrying weapons on the outer four pylons of the A blocks the wing sweep even after dropping ordinance, hence limiting the A to subsonic speeds and losing the Vark’s greatest advantage. The A would be better at attacking large numbers of unguarded targets while the F would be better at attacking defended targets.
The stats card is misleading. The two have the same flight model but the F has immensely more engine power, which means that the F has much better flight performance than the A.
Overall, I do think that the A is more survivable for its BR than the F. However, comparing them in Sim (because I haven’t played the A in RB), I actually find the F more fun than the A due to its versatility. The A is pretty much limited to base bombing because going up against the aimbot AA or HE-VT equipped ships with dumb bombs is practically suicide for an unmanoeuvrable aircraft like the Aardvark (unless you’re particularly skilled at using the MCLOS AGM-12). Meanwhile, the F has the weapons to tackle pretty much any kind of target you may have in Sim.