I couldnt agree more. Even the american jets are just better than the me262. Its a rough grind but you cant really find any place to properly balance it. You put it too high and it deals with jets that outrun and out-turn it. Put it too low you get stomped by late war props that can dive bomb you and run circles around you.
Ive come to believe its not the other jets that make the me262 bad, the me262 is just mediocre at best.
I have to disagree slightly with this, while some russian props are undertiered theyve never felt that overbearing. I dont have a ton of experience in air but ive enjoyed my time grinding the bf110s and some bf109s.
I have heard realshatter 3.0 messed up a lot of aircraft cannon balance. And seen complaints about its afgect specifically on higher he filler german shells.
Did they nerf the shell speed or something? If they did that would kinda suck.
I agree with the fact that 262s are hard to balance if your main targets are the large US market and the domestic market in the Russian federation.
There is simply no economic need for gaijin to push Germany in aerial warfare as WW 2 tank warfare is Panzer warfare, so if Ground RB is their main market, everybody will feel the need to play Germany - imho Air RB is for most players just a tool to grind or spade something they want or need in ground RB.
But i do not agree that US jets are better, same as USSR jets (which not even existed during WW 2). Gaijin just has a severe issue with proper balancing and BR setting as soon as Germany has something outstanding to offer.
The pain i mentioned whilst spading the 6.7 event 262 A-2a was coming more from seeing my German teams melting away like snow in hell. And this not because the other teams were better pilots - it was just that they faced opponents in way more capable aircraft - which either never saw service or combat in WW 2.
So the 7.0 F-80 A-5 is a 1947/1948 aircraft (the engine was not produced earlier), the Su-9/11s were 1946/48 prototypes and the implemented F.3 Meteor is imho (with the implemented engines) a postwar aircraft; the 7.3 Sea Meteor is one of 2 1948 prototypes. As soon as you realize that their superiority comes exclusively from postwar engines (and not from the air frame) you can’t blame the 262 A-1a/A-2a, a 1944 production aircraft.
My spading experience of the BR 6.7 Me 262 A-2a:
I played roughly 28 battles to get the plane spaded, whilst i landed in about 40-50% of them with a score of 0 points as my team (or the enemy team in about 5 matches) was dead before i had something close to good positioning and it makes zero sense to play 1 vs 6-8 vs way inferior jets.
In the other half i scored 29 kills vs 6 deaths, 3 of them skill issues on my part (f*ck these clouds/fog on some maps) so crashing into something whilst the other 3 deaths were 2 Su-11s and 1 F-80 C being totally outnumbered.
As i fly exclusively with Hotas (and not mouse aim) i can’t force or take any head-ons due to the lack of accuracy so my kills rely solely on lightning attacks & high speed deflection shots. And the MK 108s ballistics are close to a mortar - you have to get very close.
But the fun (in abot 5-8 matches) was playing vs props in full downtiers. Yes, you always have these clowns in Hornets / P-51 H-5s trying to neutralize you by chasing you the whole match, but with some experience (and enough fuel) you can score kills whilst getting chased - some guys got real angry as i strafed them (the usual Ground pounders) rearming at their small airfield whilst having 3 guys at my six.
You are obviously a long term player, so your statements just reflect the ability of an experienced player. But imho you might consider 2 things:
Air RB has changed significantly since 2019/2020. In the old axis vs allies world there was nothing more boring than flying a 109 - you simply outclimbed most enemies, the few Spits at high alt got swarmed and died in a head-on. Those days are long gone.
Whilst you as experienced player are able to find workarounds to play around the strengths of enemies (and you are able to use your own advantages) i used in my examples rookies as they are the absolute majority in Air RB.
It boils down that on most medium or small maps Yak-3s and 109 meet on co-alt at the first merge. If the majority of these rookie players sees a FCH as viable game plan, it plays a significant role if the ballistics of your cannons are superior or not. ShVaks are way more easier to use.
There are a lot of threads dealing with MG 151/20s. The things from my pov:
Together with the early iterations of RS gaijin implemented their new ballistic model of cannon shells. They added drag coefficients on each shells based on weight and muzzle velocity. Mine shells are rather heavy and their muzzle velocity is not great - both led to mortar like flight trajectories.
RS 1.0 was reducing damage output of HE shells severely, the MG 151/20 was not really affected. RS 2.0 made all 20 mm cannons op like hell, RS 3.0 reduced the damage output to a more “realistic” level.
Since around September 2024 gaijin added a self-destruction (SD) mechanic to MG 151/20s - with is actually historically seen correct. What they messed up (either intended or by accident) is the pure fact that they have implemented a distance travelled based SD fuse which is flat wrong. The fuse was time based (3 seconds). The speed of the firing aircraft plays a major role as this speed reduces the effective range of your shells.
The resulting issues / problems play a role in 2 very common scenarios:
A) High speed head-ons: It is very common for mouse aim players to use this tactic. If their speed is high enough & and the distance large enough their shells explode in front of their enemies without inflicting any damage.
B) High speed fights: At very high speeds your mine shells explode way too early - so even if you learned to use deal with the mortar like ballistics it is technically impossible to hit anything 0.9 to 1.1 km in front of you as your shells never reach their targets. All other 20 mm cannons work up to 1.4 km before they de-render.
not realy, gripen still is strong and has fnf armament, that is not the case for the typhoon
besides that sweden still dominates in ground as well
3 heavy armored tanks against 1
better spaa
better light
the only point where germany is arguable stronger is the helicopter but the uht always is strongly map depended
no it is not the cas but it is a serious improvement over previous options.
Btw that wasnt a rude question or anything im genuinely curious if germany is now a contender for best top tier :D
the SPAA is the ITO much better than the flakrad? (grinding out both so dont know yet)
and the lights yeah i get that
i mean didnt mean to sound rude or anything i just answered factualy
propably solid place 2 now yes, once the radar gets fixed i would say
oh definitly, ITO 90M has a better radar and gen 3 thermals, flarakrad gets gen 1
additionaly ito 90m has 8 ready to fire missles , flarakrad only got 2 thats the biggest problem, they can just intercept if necesary.
Flarakrad has only 2 and thats by far not enough. the "advantage " of the flarkadrad is that it has smoke launchers, but thats negated and useless by now, because of the IOG of modern missles they will hit your last position, if you drive out of the smoke cloud to “dodge” the missle just reaquires the lock on you and you die either way.
of course, i do counter the typhoon as the better one myself as well, but that doesnt mean gripen is bad now and sweden still wins in pretty much any other ground aspect