MiG-29 - why no R-73s? [PLEASE STAY SENSIBLE]

I know it’s a bit of a sore topic for certain members of the community who will immediately complain about bias or some other bullkak, so let’s keep this chat sensible.

Is there any reason the 12.0 MiG-29s don’t have R-73s and R-27ER/ETs? Balance at the BR range, or…?
And if balance is an issue, couldn’t they just be raised to 12.3 and have the missiles added? Though that does beg the question of what 12.0 would replace them… the only 12.0 in either Germany OR Russia is the Yak-141M, so it’d leave them with nothing.

Why not an interim solution such as R-73s on MiG-29s?

Looking forwards to your answers,

  • Mantis
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Both Russia and Germany have MiG-29s with and without R-73s. It’s done this way so as to have different aircraft at different Bars.

For the Soviets, the MiG-23MLD could replace the MiG-29 at 12.0 just fine if it was fixed. Currently it underperforms in energy-maneuverability characteristics and lacks its R-73s. A coked up MiG-23 with R-73 capability would be pretty good for the 11.7/12.0 gap.

For the Germans, it’s harder to fill the gap with anything less contentious. Depending on how they model the AMRAAM, the F-4F ICE w/ 120Bs could mayybee not be a bad choice, but I’m not confident on that.

Also, they both have R-27ERs. Which they shouldn’t. As I always have, I currently advocate for simply removing the ahistoric R-27ERs and giving them their rightful R-73s.

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You already have migs with both of those missiles. Play with them

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There is no need to move the planes around or modify the MiG-23. The early MiG-29s without R-73s can receive the ordnance, simply remove the R-27ER from those that are not 12.3.

Giving 9.12 and 9.13 R-73s would completely invalidate the BR placement both Russian and German air trees lmao. The solution would be to decompress so that R-73s aren’t being used against poor Gen 3s.

The 9.12 and 9.13 were supposed to receive R-73s upon release but Gaijin retracted them in part due to concerns that such a MiG-29 with R-73s would be too stompy and in part because the R-73 wasn’t performing correctly. Then at some point the devs realized the MiG-29 sucked without R-73s and gave it R-27ERs to compensate.

I’d say now that the R-73 is presumably fixed and MiG-29s have a counter now Gaijin can (and IMO should) swap the R-27ER out for the R-73 as was originally intended.

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I think that USSR should get the MiG-23P in the tree, which would replace on BR 11.3 the MLD with the R-73, which would go to BR 11.7/12.0. This would allow MiG-29 9.13 to get R-73 in place of R-27ER and move to 12.3.

yes and the f15a now has aim9m and regularly takes on the mig29 9-13 that only has 2 r27er that can most definetly miss or lose lock just give it the 4 r73 and move it up to same br as the f15a to compensate for the randomness of enemies remove the uptier downtier function war thunder has enough players now so this mechanic becomes obsolete and makes the overall experience of top tier better to balance too

Both on BR 13.0 with current BR rates. At the time when I wrote the post, there were other BR ranges and the MiG-29 sat on BR 12.0.

Reason : Cry Babys main usas

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Gonna take wild swing at this and say its likely because of how much better the R-27ER’s are compared to all other Fox 1’s in-game, to the point where it really isnt a contest.

Couple that with the fact the R-60M is the most appropriate russian analogue to the AIM-9L seen in-game and the missile loads are arguably fair between the 12.X MiG-29s and F-16s.

The F-16s do have the better FM and avionics though, which is reflected in all F-16As with AIM-7Ms being 13.0 in sim.

I hear a lot of ppl compare the MiG-29s with R-60Ms to the 13.0 F-15A, which imo is somewhat unfair as the F-15A does have the slightly higher BR (but is in a rough spot balance-wise due to no AMRAAM).

Overall, the situation is kind of rough on the balance side. The issue as I see it being that there are limited numbers of aircrafts at top tier, leading to few compairisons being able to be made, which makes aircrafts on the higher or lower end of a BR’s performance stick out like sore thumbs.

The R-60M arent ideal on the early MiG-29’s, but an HMD R-73 + R-27ERs isnt exactly a fair fight vs 9L + 7M. I also have my doubts regarding the Su-27 and F-15A placement in sim. At 13.0 the F-15A clubs almost everything it sees if its top of the bracket, and a Su-27 would probably dominate even moreso if it was dropped to 13.0, but the Su-27 struggles significantly with its terrible avionics in its current perma-uptier due to not being able to rely as readily on the performance advantage of the 27ER.

TLDR; Theres always going to be a “best” and “worst” aircraft at a given BR, but high/top tier having so few choices mean players from different nations dont really have many options when picking what nation they want to play which may give an inflated sense of imbalance. The large differences in capabilities between each single BR steps really harms the balance, but also means that changes in BR or “decompression” likely would not solve the issue either, it would just shift it to another aircraft/nation.