You REALLY don’t need flares at 8.7
If you refrain from groundpounding the Alpha E is a nimble little dogfighter that can compete in a fight with most things you face, and with up to three DEFAs it has deadly armament. I’d say Alpha E >> Alpha A and of course thai alpha A is in another league entirely. Good plane, but don’t waste your time ground pounding, climb up to altitude at a high airspeed and pick a fight with someone and use your banked energy to turn into their maneuvers, you can retain your energy well if you manage your pitch and unleash your full turning ability at the right time to kill.
Etendard has INSANE acceleration and climbrate, good pull and unbreakable leading edge flaps that can give you some insane pull in the right speed range (too fast and they will make you compress). Pretty much like an SMB2 but without AA nords and better acceleration, great low speed control with flaps but lacking the ability to go much faster than a sabre on deck. It is also the earliest plane in the game that can supercruise (Mach 1 without afterburner at about 6.5-7.5km altitude)
But my favorite plane in rank VI has been the Super Mystere B2 because it lets you play with Nords without being as insufferable as the Mystere IVA since it actually has some performance to back them up, and there is nothing more satisfying than slamming a Nord into someones face or sniping someone out of the sky from 6km away because they are dogfighting someone else and are slow.
The SMB2 also has good acceleration (in a straight line) and climbrate (climb at mach .8) as well as a very high top speed for the BR (1170kph, though you compress really badly) only exceeded by the F-4D, F11 and now the su-7 too obviously. So while you bleed energy like crazy in turns at lower speeds you can tactically use your massive 1 turn ability to get the shot and finish a fight quickly then accelerate away again.
I played 553 games in it and while its not an exceptionally strong plane it has a lot of quirks that you can abuse to your advantage, mostly you’ll be doing bnz and managing your speed so you’re just in that sweet spot of not so fast that you compress and not so slow that you will get caught. Just stay out of close range knife fights, always use your speed to energy trap people instead.
F100D you can also fly with decent results but your fun can get ruined by missiles if you don’t have an eye for those things. Definitely avoid the Vautours, the Mystere IVA, the F86K and F-84F. Hunter F.6 idk about but its probably not pretty at 9.3
You will just need to bind some buttons, either the arrow keys or use alt+WASD like me. Make sure the axis control settings have relative control disabled since you wont be needing to make very gradual adjustments, just 100% or 0% input is perfectly fine for guiding them onto a target.
If you want playable and enjoyable, use the SMB2, F-86K, F-100D, and Etendard. The SMB2 is mid but unique and not bad. I enjoyed it. F-86K is the same but not unique, but still decent/fun enough when you get the upgrades it needs (namely boosters/engine). F-100D is more of the same, mid, but not bad. This one is the worst of the F-100 variants in game but it’s still decent enough. Etendard is the best of these and is unique, decently strong for its BR, and fun.
Admittedly, it’s the worst of the F-100s in game, and the F-100s are already considered mid jets, but even with all that going against it I played it recently and it still does fine. It has the tools to perform well if you aren’t bad and use the right mindset in games.
The more people are answering to this thread, the more I realize it’s mostly about preference and all planes are decent… well except the vautour or course
Well technically the vautour is not that bad either. It’s just overtiered.
It has alright speed and bombload. Just sucks that it has no airspawn and no weapons at all.
I spaded it and it was alright as long as nobody went to kill you. And even if they did you can often outrun them.
As I said it just sucks that it has no airspawn so it takes ages to take off and get anywhere.
Yep, and there’s a gap in 4th line rank 5 where they should be so it’s nonsense… but the vautours are rank 6 bombers of the french tree, that’s 3 reasons that ensure us that they’re gonna stay there forgotten for at least the next decade
You can get the hang of it rather quickly, you just have to keep the marker flare on course to hit the target and then hope it connects at the right time.