The battle rating of the French premium Mirage F1C-200 is extremely unreasonable. Its airframe has poor maneuverability and very weak energy generation. The two types of radar-guided missiles it carries also perform very poorly, and since they share hardpoints with bombs, players are forced to choose between the two. The Magic 2 also suffers from poor sustained propulsion and relatively weak resistance to countermeasures.
Meanwhile, the MiG-23ML, which has better energy generation, a higher top speed, and access to the R-24R, is actually placed 0.3 BR lower than the Mirage F1C-200.
More importantly, the F1C-200 has to face aircraft such as the American premium F/A-18C Early, the F-14D, and various F-4S Phantoms. These opponents not only have superior airframes, but also significantly greater missile-carrying capability.
For all of these reasons, I believe that the Mirage F1C-200 being placed at 12.0 is extremely unreasonable. It should be moved down to 11.3, or potentially even lower.
The equation is simple. Magic 2 on such an airframe will never let you below 12.0. It just can’t happen, a 10.7 has no business facing that.
If you lose magic 2 and only get magic 1 (which would be reasonable imo) then you can get to 11.3
I’d say the F1CT is more suited than the F1C for 12.0, so keeping it at 12.0 while the F1C and F1C-200 go down to 11.3 by losing magic 2 seems like a good solution to me, and it’s also historically accurate
Most of the Mirage F1C-200’s strength comes from the Magic 2, but its disadvantages in airframe performance and other areas are more than enough to offset the limited advantage provided by these missiles.
From my own gameplay experience, the Mirage F1C-200 can only carry two Magic 2s. Their lock-on range is very short, and as IRCCM missiles that rely on seeker FOV reduction, it is almost impossible to score a kill against an opponent who is already aware of the incoming missile and actively defending against it. Their sustained propulsion is also rather weak, and when fired at around 3 km in an intercept or tail-chase situation, they often fail to catch the target.
Looking at the overall balance, the Mirage F1C-200 sits at the same BR as the American F-4S. The F-4S can carry a large number of AIM-7Ps while also having better overall airframe performance.
The F-4S is also a brick and carries much worse ir missiles
The F1C suffers from compression but for the same compression it just can’t go down. Try facing a F1C in a 11.0 or 11.3 and tell us about it.
It’s the kind of plane, you just gotta understand how to play it or not play it at all if it’s not your playstyle
The Magic 2 is simply not that strong of a missile in the current meta. Outside of a limited number of surprise-attack scenarios, any opponent who is aware of you can simply deploy flares the moment you launch and evade it with relative ease. The era of FOV-gating IRCCM missiles has already passed.
Magic 2, from rear is nearly 100% kill on that BR.
True, it doesnt have so much missiles as F4S example , but it got a damn better IR missiles , compared to F4, phantoms, etc etc, actually nothing on that br got better IR missiles, and just imagine JH-7’s in 12.3 and those got only 4 ir missiles, yes those are one of best ir missiles, but nothing else, not even single radar missile, and worse airframe sitting in 12.3 in airgames.
PS. Enjoy your countermeasure amount, what is over double compared to phantoms, or migs.
Against lower BR planes, yes it’s incredibly strong and everyone will tell you that. Just like the Magic 1 is very strong at 10.x even though people can flare it off from a distance. Just learn the playstyle, and if you really can’t play uptiers just leave them from the start
honestly considering we have 3 of them and the f1ct is just kinda better with the rwr, seeing at least the tech tree f1 lose the magic 2s and go lower BR
bro, ive never understood the hate for the mirage f1 airframe, like sure its not great top speed and its by no means the best turnfighter but its really not that bad, you can go pretty well at all speeds and can compete against most of the aircraft you fight
The Magic 2 can only reliably force a kill when launched from roughly 2 km in a rear-aspect chase. Once the distance gets even slightly longer, its limited sustained propulsion simply does not give it enough energy to reach the target effectively.
More importantly, in actual matches, how often do you realistically get the opportunity to sit 2 km directly behind an enemy and launch a missile?
so do that then, its not that hard, im mean you could even do only launches at less than 1km and itd be even better
its a limitation for a free kill, hardly the major disadvantage you make it out to be
you dont need to sit behind them, you need to be behind them for barely a few seconds to launch the missile, its actually pretty easy especially with the good defensive ability of the f1c
Once the F1C gets dragged into a close-range dogfight, it is almost guaranteed to die. Even if you avoid the dogfight entirely and try to disengage, its poor energy generation means it simply cannot create enough separation from its opponent.
skill issue, I can and have beat mig23mld, mig21s, f4s many times in pure dogfights, which are like 90% of what you fight at that BR, and im pretty average at dogfighting tbh
if youre complaining about f18s? thats a whole other issue thats called compression and you should go complain about that properly instead of asking for more of it
I’ve managed to kill these opponents as well, but a few individual victories cannot be used as evidence of the overall balance. After all, there will always be opponents who are simply less skilled than you are. If we compare the aircraft purely in terms of their actual performance, the F1C is clearly and significantly inferior to them. That is an objective difference in aircraft performance, regardless of individual player skill.