I recently got the A-10C thunderbolt II not for ground (god knows BMPTs would eat this thing like candy), but for the fact that i figured 4 AIM-9Ms against 12.0 aircraft would be really funny. however during the stock grind with 2 AIM-9Ls, im realizing this is one of the most abysmal aircraft i think ive ever used, and can see that outside of the AIM-9Ls, it has zero good weapons.
is it worth continuing to grind or try to play it with 9Ms or should i just give up now
No… Its damn terrible at 11.7, but you can do some funny ground pound with the glide bombs at a decent range from the battlefield.
Best strat is to sneak at medium altitudes and avoid being spotted at all costs, drop your gnss glide bombs into each individual target with the help of the pod, and sometimes you get to shoot 9M’s into unsuspecting targets.
Sometimes your team will be gone when you reach the battlefield, also theres a chance you get killed before any of your bombs even land because they take some time to reach the targets and you often can’t run away from the battlefield before being spotted if you have no team left.
I really liked the A-10C (probably due to my bias towards it) in air sim/rb (Don’t even bother playing it in ground rb/sim).
A-10C biggest strength is gonna be AIM-9M be ability to carry 24 GBU-39 at 11.7 br. While the stock grind is not the most enjoyable since it is literally a A-10A until you get AIM-9M or any A2G weapons
For stock grind, I recommend getting GBU-39 modification then sniper pod. Only target ground/air AI and don’t engage with other enemy jets unless they engage you (Destroying 30+ ground target should at least give you 3k rp without any prem or booster).
For an easier method try Air sim after getting GBU-39 and sniper pod. For this method you would require SA servers though since players in these server usually only bomb and huge stationary AI groups appear on the front line (I have not seen this happen in EU servers for quite a while now). So what you need to do is, Climb high, at around 8km start dropping gbu-39 on AI and that’s it. You get 15+ AI kills and enough score to for full reward. Do this method for an hour with booster and get more then 30k+ rp.
Though keep in mind that A-10C is a very slow plane with 9M and A2G being the only good thing about it. It is slow enough that sometimes matches end before you even reach the battlefield. Everything is going to be faster then you and hence can reach ground targets faster then you (If they decide to ground pound). Since you are also slow, firing 9M on target which is at a distance of 2km+ will not do anything since missile will run out of energy before it hits the target, so you have a very small engagement area.
Before you stock grind it, ask yourself,
Are you ready to spend alot of time flying slowly to the battlefield (Only for it to end as soon as you reach there)? If you answer is no to that, then I won’t t recommend you to stock grind it
Only if there was any indication of this happening, like the aircraft being A-10C at 11.7.
after trying the glide bombs on it,
this thing is somehow so bad that even with modern munitions against 11.7 air targets, the A-10 is so fantastically slow that it cant even use glide bombs properly, as they putter out and die well before they reach their targte, how this thing is honestly any higher than 11.0 baffles me
I actually enjoy using it in Air RB 🤷. The gun is fantastic in my opinion. Anyone that goes head-on is cooked. The Aim-9m is good. I just recently started using it in ground. I don’t feel like the BMPT is any different than anything else when you’re shooting air-to-ground missiles. This is just my opinion. The only downfall is half the time by the time you get to the merge, the enemy teams almost gone. Just my humble opinion.
i dont see how its at all enjoyable in air rb, head ons were funny with the A-10A since guns were the only option, but at a BR where head ons is just asking to get smacked by a sparrow its miserable, and the AIM-9M excuse is useless since its too slow to even use them, let alone spade it to rank 4 to get them
How are you using them? I can throw mine out from over 20km out and they hit fine.
climb to around 3-4km ralt and then level out for a second or two then drop them from about 20-25km away, they all either end up hitting a hill or running out of energy entirely
I just went into a test drive to check. Dropped a bomb from about 30km out, 4.4km alt, going about 530kph. It made it to the target.
I shot down an Su-30 MK2 yesterday with guns in ground RB…🤷. The Aim-9m missed I turned in behind him then he turned towards me and I gunned him.
can it hit? maybe. take into accoutn how long it takes an A-10 to reach 30km from its target, while climbing to 4.5km, and then the insanely long glide time of the bombs. now take into account the average duration of a game. of the last 15 games ive played in the A-10C, 2 times have my bombs hit. every other time the game ends first.
thats enbtirely a skill issue on the SU30, he could of just as easily slightly broken off and slung an R77 at you and gotten the kill
I usually drop them from 20km out. I have never had an issue with them reaching.
I agree that the biggest issue is one team collapsing in the first like 5min. There really isnt anything that can done about that other than hope.
If possible, drop them closer. It will cut the total time down since the a10 is faster than the bombs.
Maybe… don’t care, I killed him. 🤷
Ironically, it does best on the EC maps.
https://warthunder.com/en/tournament/replay/490171513549689524