How do i play 12.0 with my phantom

Game Discussion Realistic Battle
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For one, learn radar controls, what the modes do, and what they’re for.

DO NOT FIRE AIM-7’s in a target rich environment, the radar and seeker head in the sparrow really likes to flake on other targets in headons. Don’t ask me why, but this is a historical thing too.

Don’t be a bomb bus; at a max, carry the twelve Mk.82’s and if the bases look like they’re all going to be taken or you are in immediate danger drop them and play air combat.

You are fast and can outrun a lot of things, but not everything, and for the love of god, if you get into a dogfight, don’t be scare to extend while you have energy if it was a bad I idea and you don’t have team support.

The plane sucks in uptier matches, I’ll keep it frank. Don’t climb in uptiers. Especially if you see a SU-33 on your team, they have R-27ER and a dedicated PD radar to use them with, it’s certain death.

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They fixed the radar to automatically switch to standard track mode in a notch if you had a good lock beforehand. But chaffing will sometimes throw it off.

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The F-4S is a boom and zoom aircraft in my opinion, much more so at least when fully loaded with missiles and such. The Aim-7Fs are great missiles- I use them when an enemy player gets within about 10km of me (although I really only like playing the F-4E so my experience is more with 7E-2s), and only then usually when the player is above me or at equal altitude with me so it’s harder to lose lock.

This advice given, I would also say that buying up into higher tiers can be a struggle because even if you end up doing alright, often times your teammates let you down. Especially at BRs where there is a strong technological presence like 12.0 or 12.7, where their are many premium planes.
It is incredibly hard to learn the basics when at that point most systems require advanced knowledge of the game and how it works to be most effective, so kind of doing yourself dirty with buying up.

Edit:
And most importantly IN THIS GAME, YOU ARE A FIGHTER PLANE. DONT BOMB BASES. ITS A WASTE OF YOUR, AND EVERYONE ELSES, TIME

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Currently i tend to either climb, or stay low a little bit behind the centre of my team, its working the best out of everything i’ve tried so far, only problems are the sparrows missing but it is what it is for now.

alltho “dont be scared to extend” as in?

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i understand the struggles of going up in br’s just because of a premium, and im much rather willing to have struggles with this than play propps, as i just dont find them as fun.

alltho sometimes i did the exact thing you said here, wait until i can get a near perfect launch, but most of the times i do not have enough time to get into a position like this, and im shoo’d away by missiles before i can even try get into a position like this.

I did tend to just rush through these missiles sometimes, giving me a kill or 2 but also dying in the process, which ive been trying to get without having to rush through missiles and rather live.

I also take 2 AIM-9H’s, 5 Sparrows, and 2 napalm bombs for when its deserted and i am free to get a base in, should i just stop doing this alltogether?

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This seems a bit hard to believe as you did just complain about the F-4S not being a strong 12.0 and it being unbelievable that people thought it was. You were complaining about poor performance without taking into consideration your own performance. Im just saying.

Then you aren’t approaching the enemy from the right side. Are you low? At altitude? Are you approaching from the front, or the side?
IMO the best thing to do for middle-late sparrows (not the 7Ps or Ms, but the E-2s and Fs) is to approach an enemy that is at altitude from their lower 2/10 o’clock or 5/7 o’clock. This gives you the opportunity to be out of their radar/missile range for the most part while still firing on them. Also, go off to the side of the map first. Don’t rush towards the middle. That often times also helps screw you over.

Yeah. 4 9Hs, 4 Sparrows, and 0 bombs. Or 2 9Hs, 5/6 Sparrows, and 0 bombs. The bombs are useless. Stop taking them. They just take up weight and are part of the reason why you might be dying so much, as they are helping weigh you down.

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I see how you got this, it was more of a question and it seems like the other planes were just superior from my POV, but my bad for making it sound like that.

I haven’t actually tried to go off the side many times, so ill give it a try, alltho in general thank you on going out of your way to try help.

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Sure thing. I hate incompetent teammates because they screw me over. So. Helping me out more than anything.

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7f outranges all other radar weaponry until 12.7. If you get a match that doesn’t have 12.7 you probably want to climb pretty high and get more range out of 7f but maybe I’m wrong I generally avoid this rating.

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9/10 games for me are uptiers to ATLEAST 12.7 so yeah…

Will take this into account next time i can tho.

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If you start getting reeled into a dogfight (something the F-4 isn’t excelling or really good at) but don’t bleed all your speed into fight. Pick up speed, go full afterburner, and if you have to, preflare.

Ideally you just don’t dogfight unless it’s against another F-4 or a fat/slow plane and you know what you’re doing.

All you have to know is go left with the team if it’s an uptier. Climb if it’s a downtier, I’ve beat out F-14’s in BVR and close in fights, you just have to know how to notch and re-engage.

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Aha, so i was doing something correctly.
I was just to stupid to not constantly watch my back, since most of the times i died like this was to IR missiles which i could have easily avoided.

I’ve been playing with your and CmdrVince’s advice in mind and it did help certainly, thank you on that.

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I have a few tactics I use with the 12.0 F-4s.

AIM-7E-2/AIM-7F I use exclusively for head-ons.
ACM fighting is a tactic, and probably my primary.
Pretty much anywhere from 3 - 12km shots at low altitude, with leading of course.

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You’re welcome; happy holidays, and happy flying.

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Stop cooking him 😭

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In head ons, my sparrow misses the enemy plane, slamdunks into the ground,

All radar missiles in the game are affected by a mechanic called multipathing (there are good youtube videos on this). The basics of it is: if you are below 60m radar altitude the missiles will aim more towards the ground, you might sometimes see the green radar box being below a plane, that’s multipathing in action. Basically don’t shoot at people going low if you are also low to the ground.

but my phantom is just so bulky that dodging missiles is insanely hard

In top tier you do not really kinematically dodge missiles, you position yourself correctly and use countermeasures to defeat missiles. To defeat radar missiles you should either be 30m in radar altitude (called multipathing) or moving perpendicular to the missiles and chaffing (called notching). I recommend staying at 30m and multipathing til you get better at top tier, notching can be quite difficult.

To defeat IR missiles you pretty much just need to flare, the earlier you flare the better. For some IIRCM missiles you will need to maneuver too, so don’t go in a straight line when getting shot at. In a head-on I would recommend pre-flaring before they shoot their missiles to guarantee you won’t die to an IR missile.

when should i shoot my sparrows?, i do not remember a single sparrow kill that wasnt me being “under” the enemy at 4km distance.

Sparrows have a surprisingly long range, and you can even hit targets 20km away if you shoot from up high. However, long shots give enemies a lot of time to move to cover or turn away. I would recommend shooting at 3-8km, but only really if they are going towards you. The phantom radar is very bad at targeting anything else.

How is the F4-S phantom considered the best 12.0 when there is the premium mirage with magic 2’s, constant uptiers fighting hornets, etc.

The grass is always greener on the other side. Stop thinking about other planes or uptiers, all planes have upsides and downsides and everyone gets uptiers. For example the premium mirage gets terrible flight performance and useless radar missiles. You plane is simply more difficult to fly, so it feels worse to start off with.

and 2 napalm bombs for when its deserted and i am free to get a base in, should i just stop doing this alltogether?

Your thinking makes sense, but it has a real impact on your performance and mentality. Taking bombs distracts you from going for kills, makes a small extra overhead to switch missiles and slows your plane. When I even take two bombs on a jet fighter I notice a significant drop in my performance, simply because I change the way I play. Just go full missiles to learn the most, have the best performance and have the most fun.

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Stat shaming is lame bro. Yes, he got a premium, yes he skipped. So what? Now he is here asking for help but people are mocking him. Lame. Premium sales keep the servers running and the game online for all of us to play. No money = no game.

So many players buy premiums but NEVER ask for help on how to get better. Would you prefer that he never asks and stays “bad” forever? Common guys. Help the new player out. All of us didn’t know what the heck we were doing at one point too. I have been playing for 10+ years now and I still ask for help/tips/and advice.

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What are you talking about? He stopped playing for a while, and logged back into his account again. He said his computer, NOT account. You should already know that accusing someone of rule breaking in public chats/forums is against the rules, contact a Game Master if you think there is an issue.

Did you even look at his profile page? 2018. Your post is wildly inappropriate. You should delete it.

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NOTE: If anyone sees any errors that I might have made, if anything needs to be corrected/added to, please let me know and I will fix ASAP. Thanks!

This 100% this 👆 The effectiveness of the F-4S’s AIM-7F’s vary WILDLY depending on which radar mode you are using. Pulse Doppler is pretty much the only effective option to use with your AIM-7F’s, 90%+ of the time. (I will RARELY use normal/non Pulse Doppler when I am behind an enemy plane.)

SRC PDV HDN (Search, Pulse Doppler Velocity, Head-On)

Link to the “Radar Lock” chapter for the YouTube video. You only need to consider the “BVR” (Beyond Visual Range) and “Cyclic Targeting” information and keybinds for now. “Manual Target Cueing” is far too much to worry about for now, or ever lol: https://youtu.be/Weghk_2DpfA?t=906

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This is the mode that I personally use when spawning in. SRC PDV HDN. This mode should give you the most consistent results with the AIM-7F missiles. And will probably be the easiest to use until you have learned all the ins and outs of your F-4S’s radar.

You can set this to be your default mode by using the drop downs, before you spawn into a real match. Or by setting it in test drive menu, again before loading/spawning in:

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Contacts are displayed by velocity, NOT by distance. The higher a contact is on the radar’s vertical axis, the faster the target is moving towards you. Usually, because of how Pulse Doppler works, the faster a target is moving towards you, the better the radar lock will be. (And Pulse Doppler does not like to lock onto targets moving away from you, especially if they are moving at nearly the same speed as you.)

Pulse Doppler radars pretty much “only” look at velocity differences to maintain their lock. Thus, very low or 0 velocity difference targets are effectively invisible to the Pulse Doppler. However, this is also why Pulse Doppler can see a target low to the ground, through the ground clutter reflections. Because, the target is the only thing that is traveling at a different velocity.

The higher a target’s closing velocity on the radar screen, the better the resulting lock will be. Targets moving to your right or left are nearly impossible for your Pulse Doppler radar to lock onto, and will have a much lower displayed velocity (and why this is the normal evasive maneuver to try and lose a radar/missile lock from a Pulse Doppler threat.)

ACM (Air Combat Maneuvering)

ACM PD HDN (Air Combat Maneuvering, Pulse Doppler, Head-On)
Direct link to the YouTube video’s chapter on this mode: https://youtu.be/Weghk_2DpfA?t=1520

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I also sometimes like to turn the radar OFF until I am close, then use Air Combat Maneuvering (ACM PD HDN) mode (the one that automatically locks on as soon as it sees an enemy) to speed up the process and give the enemy less time to react. All depends on the situation.

HMS (Helmet Mounted Sight)

HMS PD HDN (Helmet Mounted Sight, Pulse Doppler, Head-On)
Direct link to the YouTube video’s chapter on this mode: https://youtu.be/Weghk_2DpfA?t=1163

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You ALSO have an HMS lock on mode, but this is also not very fast and I don’t use it unless I am turning hard and trying to lock a plane that is far off my nose. This mode will not lock on automatically like ACM mode, and you must use the keybind to lock a target after you have moved the targeting square onto a target. NOTE: You can use the “camera free look” to move the targeting square around your field of view, so that you do not have to actually turn your aircraft.

PD (Pulse Doppler) to SCR (Search) Keybind

Most/all of these radar modes can be switched between PD (Pulse Doppler) and SRC (Search). There is an extra keybind to accomplish this, but you do not need to worry about that extra step right away. The video below goes into full detail about these differences, and the appropriate keybinds for each. Better to keep it simple to start with, and only add on more keybinds as you get comfortable 👍

YouTube Guide

I would highly recommend watching through this entire video, even though not all of the information will apply to your F-4S. Take your time. Go into a test drive and play with the keybinds he mentions in the video one by one. Ask more questions in your thread here. It will take hours, probably days, even weeks to fully grasp and become comfortable with everything that your F-4S can do. But it will be well worth all the time and effort to go through the entire process.

Happy hunting brother o7

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a note on this - F-4S can slave its IR missiles to the HMS, so you can launch your sidewinders off bore sigh

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