Is the F14B worth getting or is it a novelty?

Machinery of War Discussion Aircraft
1

Hey there.

I just got my Mig 29 and F-16 recently and am loving both. However, I always see a bunch of F14’s. Once I expend my radar missiles in the Mig-29, it becomes quite hard to kill them due to their insane amount of flares. However, most of the time I end up winning due to them either just getting completely energy trapped or because the F14 plays it wrong.

However, I do not know if this is them playing the plane wrong or it is not a great plane. Once I finish getting my Mig 29 and F-16 spaded, I’m thinking about going for it. So, is it worth it? Or is it just a novelty and not as good as something like the Mig or F16?

2

I would say F-14B is better than F-16 and fits the meta since it has more missiles and ton of
countermeasures.
It is also more fun to play, you can pull come G’s and easly snap someone beacuse its very responsive and if you are bored you can just climb and shoot AIM 54C not very effective but can be fun

3

It’s not the best thing ever.

Maybe I’m bad at top tier jets but the combination of having bad top speed, bad low-speed acceleration, and mediocre rate capability vs the other 12.0s in the game - well, it doesn’t feel like a very meta vehicle to me. Yes you can pull for shots, but by doing so you bleed speed that you’re not getting back. You lose the ratefight to the F-16 and the mig29, you don’t pull more aoa than the mig29 either, and if you try to pop combat flaps to help the instantaneous turnrate you will usually blow your own wings off, so all in all the flight model is nothing special.

The fact that the aim7F is now completely outperformed by the R-27ER does not help; the fact that trying to launch phoenixes from high altitude will just get you killed is just another nail in the coffin. Oh, and it doesn’t get HMD for its pulse doppler or for its IR missiles, so even getting aim-9Ls doesn’t make it meta after the introduction of Python 3s to the game.

The F-14B is just… okay. If you own the MiG-29 already, you don’t need the F-14B.

It’s a novelty experience that is not worth the days I spent grinding it.

4

I dont disagree that the r27ER is very good, but remember the F14B can carry 6 (or was it 8?) sparrows, while the mig29 can only carry 2 ER’s

5

yeah i love the R27’s but the fact you only get 2 of them then have to use R60’s makes me sort of hate Mig 29. Aim 7M’s still rock as well on my F16.

6

Yes, but the only thing that will stop a good launch of a 27ER is another missile getting to the target first.

Sparrows take so much time to reach the target that they can either notch out, or get to ground level before the missile reaches the position. So 4 Aim-7M = 2 R-27ER, and there’s diminishing returns - you’re not likely to fire 6 sparrows in 1 game, and early-game kills matter more, which is what the R-27ER is good at. + F-14B radar is easy to notch, sure you can switch into SRC mode but chaff exists.

Also, the MiG-29 gets HMD PD, which lets it hug the deck while firing missiles at people above it. The F-16 cannot do this, because if you want to fire a missile at a guy at 1500 meters, you have to pitch up to get the lock, and then you compress so hard that by the time you get back down to the deck an R27ER is already in your face and you die.

Tack on the poor flight performance of the F-14B (compared to the MiG-29 and F-16) and you end up with a plane that’s more of a novelty than a toptier metagamer. No HMD PD / IR, doesn’t have the best IR missiles or SARH, and the Phoenixes are more of a gimmick. It excels at nothing.

7

Currently, the f14b is cut off as a radar, both speed and maneuverability, so I do not recommend it at this time.Although there is one advantage of the f14b (it can be used for a head-on collision with the top missiles at the moment and the same phoenixes without descending and turning away from the target (this could be done before the missile swing was updated, and now it is even easier), but I will not say how exactly

8

Since stating which vehicle is “good” will vary wildly from player to player, I’ll say that the F-14B is a lot like the F-16’s in the sense that there’s a mixed bag of strong traits and very weak traits the aircraft has.

Pros:

Large missile playload, if you subscribe to the idea that # of missiles is important, then it’s a big plus.

Large number of countermeasures if you take the flare pods with the 9L sacreficing the extra Aim 7Ls, on paper you’re effectively never going to die to IR even if you take mixed countermeasures.

It’s got solid flight performance all round, maybe not as good as a mig 29 in a sustained dogfight, but still better than most stuff you’ll be seeing.

Lots of radar modes and a very long search distance, I personally don’t see the use in this, but you have it.

Cons:

You’re heavy, and therefore don’t have the greatest acceleration in the world, so try to keep your speed.

The radar can be painful because it only has look-down in front aspect, so don’t be expecting to lock things from the side or rear in about 90% of cases, sometimes causes Sparrows to lose lock in mostly front aspect if the enemy is at your alt or below.

The wings will sometimes decide to spontaneously break, doesn’t happen often, but sometimes at even sub mach speeds in a straight line, the wings will fall off, likely a bug in the code, but still a problem.

Bugs, this vehicle has a ton of tech, so it’s much more susceptible to systems working incorrectly than any of the other top jets, bugs, or if a system has had cumulative nerfs, it might behave weirdly. If you want to play a lot of this jet at top tier, just accept that something will not be functioning properly at any given time.

9

I see alot of people playing the F-14B wrong. It’s got a high skill ceiling but played right has much higher kill potential than the MiG-29 or F-16 since it is a heavy fighter.

IMO with 3 phoenixs you can typically pick up one or two kills by going straight off the runway and launching 3 at TWS tracked targets once you reach 30 miles to the target. Keep them locked while in a shallow dive and then break lock and dive to the ground in notch at 15 miles while flaring. Your phoenixes will connect with any premium bomber players and you’ll dodge any return fire.

From here just stay above Mach 1.2 on the deck which is really easy in the F-14 and shoot targets of opportunity.

If it comes down to a dog fight you have a ton of cannon Ammo and amazing turn rate with landing flaps and fully swept out wings

1 Like
10

i’d rather have two secured kills per game than eight chances of getting killed.

11

2 secured kills vs 8 chances of disappointment

12

The F14B is still great, at 12.0 I prefer it to the F-16s except for the MLU which is my favorite 12.0 because of the radar.

Although a bit worse than the early F-14A, It is still decent in a dogfight, you will lose to f-16’s most of the time but you can still punish most mig29’s unless they are experienced duelists.

13

Guess we’re lucky that most players in Air RB aren’t!

Hell, I’m not even a duelist myself, more of an “informed amateur” ;-)

14

Yes, I use it in GRB and ARB and it works well. It isn’t the best airframe, and it doesn’t have the best missiles but, you can still rock peoples world with the multitude of armament options. Do keep in mind the A has a better flight model than the B but the B has really good engines. If you do take it into GRB make sure you use the Guided Bombs to touch Pantsirs from LEO and the Phoenixes to clap the cheeks of any plane dumb enough to enter your airspace. In ARB fly high and fast but try to act more as a vulture and try to keep out of the furball. Try to act more as a support rather than a fighter.

15

wdym still decent, the F-14B is far better than the A for dogfighting. You don’t dump all your speed by going vertical anymore. The F-14A might turns slighty better for 1 or 2 turns because it’s lighter but after that it’s a sitting duck. The massive thrust difference between the A/B is a much better advantage.

16

As some people have said, the F-14B is a bit of a mixed back, but heres my opinion of it as someone with over a thousand games between the 2 F-14’s:

  1. Low-ish skill floor, very high skill ceiling. Like any gen 4 jets in WT, its not “hard” per say to get kills in due to a mix of lots of missiles and the average player being bad at the game. The jet is also incredibly capable and highly underrated, but extremely punishing if misused for reasons i’ll touch on below.

  2. Fantastic maneuverability, but extremely punishing to mistakes. The F-14B is just about never in a dogfight it can’t win. It is both fantastic in the 1 circle and the 2 circle (with wings fully swept forward and combat flaps) which gives it a lot of tools to deal with enemy jets. That being said, you need to know your comparative strengths and weaknesses against any enemy to maximize this benefit, and more importantly, you need to be very good at judging energy states and managing your own energy. The F-14B is one of the single best rate fighters in the game, but only in a narrow speed band, so deviating from said speed band will significantly impact your chances of winning the fight, it also has amazing nose authority, so its REALLY easy to overpull and get too slow, which will get you killed if done at the wrong time.

  3. The F-14’s acceleration is sorta lacking. If you get too slow, its hard to gain the energy back.

  4. The radar is powerful, but finnicky, and has horrid notch angles and ACM range. To really get the most out of it, you need to use it fully manually, using manual radar cue, and elevation. They have recently made it a little easier to use by making locks auto-switch between modes to maintain lock though.

  5. The weapons are numerous, but lackluster. The 9L is pretty mid with its relatively poor flare resistance, long burn time (and therefore highly visible), and doesnt have the 9M’s low smoke motor. Its also below average in max G’s at this point, but its still serviceable. The 7M is massively hit or miss, and just about always at a disadvantage vs the other common top tier SARH (R-27ER). The AIM-54C is a direct downgrade to the AIM-54A and should never be used. This is due to gaijins terrible modelling, and unlikely to ever be fixed. The AIM-54A, though marginally better than the 54C is largely still just a skill check for bad players. There is never really any real situation where a good player is likely to die to either the 7M or 54A due to excessive multipath in-game, and their poor maneuvrability and highly visible motors (smoke and long burn), and the F-14B leans heavily on these 2 missiles for kill potential, with them making up between 50-75% of its missile load.

  6. The AIM-54 is unique, and a lot of fun even though its bad. Its fun to learn, fun to play, and there’s nothing quite like it in-game, making it very satisfying to learn/master (at least to the degree you can in WT)

  7. The plane is a massive target and is EXTREMELY fragile (contrary to irl, another “funny” quirk of gaijins modeling), if you give an opponent a chance to hit you, they will, and if they hit you, you’re basically as good as dead. You CANNOT make mistakes in this plane, you WILL get punished for it.

  8. CM count is high, but CM effectiveness is low. BOL got nerfed super hard (and ahistorically) recently because of the Gripens overperformance. You will likely need to use more flares than you are use to when playing any other jets.

All in all, its a fun plane, and a good plane, but its strict and punishing. If you like a challenge and like something unique in air combat, there’s nothing else quite like it in WT (besides the F-14A obviously), making it worth getting. But if you just wanna play the most meta jet, dont bother getting it. I will say though that getting good in the F-14 will make you a better pilot than getting good in a handholdy jet like the F-15/16, MiG-29/Su-27, and Gripen.

17

Far better how? The F-14A being much lighter has better 1C capability and similar if not better sustained turn rate at around 800kph.

The F-14B has more power but that won’t offset the extra weight while maneuvering hard, and you are more likely to break your wings.

On top of that, one big problem with dogfighting on an F-14 is the fuel consumption, which is even worse on the B

18

Yes the A is a bit better (not by much) in the one circle but like I said it can’t keep up for long and definitely can’t follow the B in vertical or it’s dead. The F-14A just has worse energy retention.

I’ve never heard before someone claiming that the B is a worse dogfighter, by either virtual and real pilots. The massive static thrust difference largely compensates the extra weight.

The fuel consumption is definitely wrong, the F-14B both in-game and IRL have more efficient engines. It’s even stated in the WT wiki. I think it has around 30sec more full afterburner time in-game.

19

If I am not mistaken thrust values for B engines in subsonic is quite something compared to A model. Yes the aircraft itself is also heavier but it is easy to feel the difference. I’m also much more confident in B when going vertical and slow thanks to that. Anywhere below mach 0.9 I’d take B over A tbh.

20

I was wrong about the fuel consumption, its the other way around now. Gaijin changed that.

At 800kph IAS (rate speeds)

Fuel consumption
F-14A: 946kg/min
F-14B: 876kg/min

Thrust per engine
F-14A: 10400kgf
F-14B: 12100kgf

The F-14B has about 1000kg extra weight and 3400kgf extra thrust, but even with the extra thrust, it is not enough to offset the weight. They have identical sustained turn, maybe a bit of an edge to the A, and the A is better in 1 circle.

Of course this is nitpicking and in practice is not noticeable, while the B will still hold better performance when holding weaponry.

Edit: I think they somehow buffed both FM’s in the update that changed flap behavior to auto, they almost if not on par with F-16 sustained turn rates now