How does one actually play the F/A-18C Early? It is easily the most dogwater jet I’ve ever played, it can’t turn, has an awful loadout, not enough countermeasures and it’s slow. I’m not new to jets, I have top tier in Britain and basically top tier in Russia and Japan but holy this thing is the biggest pile of garbage I think I’ve ever played. Fly high? Nope you’re getting touched by R-27ERs, “Just notch bro” only works when there’s one enemy firing at you. What if you had to spend the whole game flying defensive “Just notch bro” so that your entire team is dead. Fly low? Get slapped up when your entire team died as you only have 60 countermeasures. THIS IS AWFUL
Hornet cant turn? Wtf you are on about?
6x 7Ps are awesome for its BR.
While R-27ERs are dangerous theyre on platforms with dogwater radars.
If you get fired at by multiple enemies from multiple directions thats positioning issue not aircraft issue.
If you get fired at by multiple enemies from single direction, usually at range, just go cold.
5 Likes
Have you ever played it? It’s got a worse turn than a MiG-29 which was notoriously bricked years ago
Just… no. The 7P loses lock on absolutely everything, you can’t relock them because its DL is atrociously bad and goes for the ground every single time.
MiG-29 9-12?
Then how does one position
Bro what are you on? Press the special maneuver button and outturn everything.
Also 9L’s and 7p’s are great what?
3 Likes
Honestly forgot that was a thing because I am a prop main.
9Ls on their way to get flared by everything under the sun:
7Ps on their way to lose track and fail to relock because it got bored:
Bruh
Dont fire 9L’s above 3-4 km. Also make sure that the enemy is paying little attention. With the aim 7p’s go for high flying targets or headons, dont shoot them at ppl flying away from you since the pd track struggles with those.
I broke my “no preorders” rule for it.
I played both 18C early and MiG-29 and Hornet is much more agile.
7Ps are great and I will die on this hill, especially when compared to 7F/Ms. IOG alone would make them worthwile upgrade, DL is just cherry on top.
Fact that sparrows act stupid is game engine issue, one that has been plaguing warthunder close to 2 years now, maybe even longer.
The 12.7 one. Extremely easy to notch, speaking from both my experience flying it and flying against it.
certainly not at the tip of the spear, 18C early doesnt have CM count for that.
I usually hang back in the second line, around 5km or just below the contrail alt and sling my sparrows at targets.
In downtier if im feeling it i play more aggresively.
They just don’t track anything.
Hence them being bad
No, no it isn’t, from my experience both flying it and going against it
What about high altitude? yk the only way the 7P even pretends to be viable
thats what about 18000? gets touched by R-27/AIM-120/insert radar missile here
I’m not trying to be rude, just trying to understand why none of this ever works for me
yeah but 7F/Ms just go on their own happy little adventure if they decide they feel like it. whereas 7Ps thanks IOG and DL get tardwrangled into submission and actually being usable.
Ill admit i dont have hard data on hand, so take the following with grain of salt.
As far as I know, 12.7 MiG-29s radar has both slow scan speed, and high minimum relative speed to pick up the targets. Meaning it is rather easy to notch.
You do know that you need to keep track of the target?
Which is why not tracking something is an issue?
Idk what youre doing but 95% of the time my missles track just fine
2 Likes
I just wish 7Ps were even half as good as Skyflash, at least those hit something 20% of the itme
my 9Ps hit if they don´t to the goofie thing they do :D sometimes they fly into the orbit sometimes they look for teammates. the hornet is one of the best airframes.
Idk man I find the F-4J UK more reliable, at least the skyflash is reliably trash
they’re not Complete FnF missiles, they tracks perfectly.
Datalink itself gives you time to re-lock onto the ennemy after notching. → way better than any other SARH in the game (apart R-27ER, which also got DL)
go play 7M or S.530D → you’ll die to come back on AIM-7P’s.
for real,… and they have a good range for 12.7BR → the F-18A and C initial should have been 13.0, if gaijin was honest.
They do not.
Doesnt matter when they can jhst multipath
530D is amazing, 7M is just a worse 7P, DL only saves the missile 1/10 occasions, I’d rather have the Skyflash because while it tracks worse than 7P it st least pulls 25g right off the rail, making a launch under 5km viable (you still wont kill anything but lol)
Congrats, you’ve been notched.
you’re hypocritical right now:
There we can see that Skyflashes are the worst missiles of them all.
Followed by the Super 530D (better at close range, but only 5G more, have far less explosive mass, and is far more heavier → so lower acceleration)
Also, the Proxy-fuse range needs the missile to be within:
AIM-7M/7P : 8 meters
Skyflashes: 15.25 meters
Super 530D: 8 meters
Add to it that AIM-7P can even be launched at 40-50km, with few steps:
Lock Radar
Launch Missile
Unlock Radar
Wait 5 seconds
ReLock Radar (thanks to IOG and DL the missile will relock onto the painted target)
Unlock Radar
Wait 5 seconds
ReLock Radar (thanks to IOG and DL the missile will relock onto the painted target)
until the missile is close enough to the target.
Unlike all the others (AIM-7M/AIM-7F / Super 530’s / Skyflashes) that will self destruct if you loose the lock.
so, as we can previously see:
Skyflashes are going to make “hit” instead of “kill” most of the time(larger proxyfuse radius+lighter Explosive mass than AIM-7’s)
Super530D can direct itself on target better than all, but have the less explosive mass → sometimes it will only makes “hit”
AIM-7’s are having the worst explosion reliability (same radius proxy-fuse than Super 530D) but are sure to “kill” when it does, thanks to it’s larger warhead.
now,… you have AIM-7P which can, as R-27R/ER’s relock onto a designated target - quite an edge at long range.
Maybe you need to learn tactics and strategies,…
because the later point:
proves you didn’t know how to use it efficiently
not when they’re flying directly towards me at Angels 5
Did… did you read what I wrote?
If not, read it again:
It’s speed difference is what makes it good, it’s one of my favourite SARH missiles.
Fun fact, proxy fuse doesn’t matter if the missile ends up eating dirt two and a half km from your enemy because he decided to do nothing and ignore your lock
If anyone has more than a braincell it won’t hit beyond 6 km
A hit is better than nothing
I’ve literally never had an issue with the 530D’s damage
The amounts of "Hit"s I’ve had when using AIM-7s is actually laughable
It’s kinematics can not make it hit at long range however, unless the target is flying dead straight.
Fun fact! I actually do!