It’s been going on for years now, but it s getting worse with every patch. Red Team (=russian side) at higher tiers needs HELP in sim as soon as possible.
First, here Im gonna write what is going on right now:
-Red teams are almost always smaller compared to blue teams, and not just by 1 or 2 people, but many times they might be 6 or 7 people LESS than blue team. This is likely both caused and effect of what will follow below
-BR that need to be revised: fighters for red team usually sit higher in br compared to where they should be staying. For example, red team doesnt have any regular fighters that has flares and missiles between 9.3 up till 11.0 where mig21 smt currently sits. This is a BIG issue and needs to be addressed. Blue team can play with impunity at these BR because there is nothing that can really be dangerous to them. Their ground attackers are incredibly well armed and, as said before, red planes often dont have flares to defend against all aspect IR missiles or even against hig performing rear aspect missiles, like aim9g. Also, blue team has several very proficient fighters at these br, like the F8 for example, that can simply fly uncontested. Even at higher tiers there are unexplicable differences in BR, for example in the current rotation where 13.0 is top bracker, blue team has acces to f16, f15, f14 and AV8 (with amraam) while red team is limited to the first mig29 variant. There is no reason why a su-27 should be higher in br than any of those planes.
-Lack of efficient bombers: we all know that many players use sim to grind points with bombs. Blue side is incredibly efficient with this, and phantoms and f-111 can easily be used for this purpose with great effect. Red team doesnt have any plane that can perform equally to those on blue team, thus making it harder to grind the red tree itself, which in turn leads to fewer and fewer player the higher in br you go
-Lack of efficient attackers: air to ground weapons on red side are, simply put, inferior to anything blue side has. To make an example, an a7 at 10.0 has access to mavericks and walleyes. These weapons are incredibly efficient and much easier to use compared to anything read team has. To see a similarly good attacker on red side, you need to wait up to the su25t, which is the only red attacker that has a pod (with a free camera and the ability to zoom in) and a number of guided weapons comparable to what blue team has a full 1.0 BR below. This also NEEDS to change. Mind also that r-73 are NOT a problem against blue team, because, as stated before, blue team planes almost always have flares available.
What is needed?
We need this issue to be addressed. Right now playing red is usually a guaranteed defeat. It’s frustrating for red players and it damages the community overall, because with few people wanting to play red it means that there are less games where blue team players can access. It means long waits for a blue team player before finding a match, and a one way only match for red players that almost always ends in defeat. In my opinion, the issues above all need to be solved in order to have a more healthy sim matchmaker.