I’ve made it to rank 6. Now I need something to get me to the Phantoms and rank 7. Leaning towards hunter f6. Thoughts?
Well, the Hunter f.6 is definitely one of the British planes of all time, what are your other options.
For Air to Air:
Hunter F6 - Can be good, SRAAM can be quite potent when they want to work, but the lack of CMs and the common nature of All-aspect missiles leaves the Hunter Vulnerable. its a great airframe with great guns, but suffers from compression. SRAAM overhauls might help in the future, but we have no idea if or when that is gunna happen. Though the Hunter F6 does have some multirole payload, handy for that extra RP. If your goal is Phantom FGR2, then you also get that small RP bonus
Lightning F6 - You’ll be one of the fastest at that BR and can be quite deadly if you fly it right, but can be quite hard. You need to rely on its speed to make boom and zoom attacks. Red tops can be tricky to use right and like SRAAMs, are awaiting a total overhaul. The Lightning lacks any multirole payload though, so its worth baring in mind. You also need to keep an eye on your fuel, unlike most of the others at this BR, fuel management is a core skill you will need for the Lightning
Harrier Gr3 - The Harrier has good missiles in the form of Aim-9Gs and unlike a lot of aircraft at its BR, has CMs which are powerful assets (its the only British aircraft at Rank 6 that has them internally, and the only other aircraft is the Buc S2). Also has good multirole payload (can kill an entire base in a single run). It is subsonic still, so can be tricky if you encounter any supersonics, but can handle itself well in a fight. You will need to learn how to “VIFF” (Vector in forward flight) where you angle your nozzles to increase turn rates.
I dont really have much experience with the other A2A jets at rank 6, I kinda skipped them, though planning to go back and play them at some point. The Scimitar might be an honorable mention as the Sea Harrier FRS1e is quite a good aircraft and you get the RP bonus in the Scimitar.
Additionally, the Sea Harrier FRS1e sits at 10.3 vs the 11.3 of the Phantoms, meaning you have a smaller jump. 11.3 can be a challenging BR currently, especially when it comes to mastering BVR combat. So it might be worth working towards the Sea Harrier First once you begin researching Rank 7
If you want to sit a little lower, and avoid the slightly messy BR10 region, the Hunter F1 or Javelin could be good choices, ive not really flown either as I said before, but the lower BRs might make for an easier grind.
For Air to Ground:
For this, you have 2 choices
Jaguar Gr1 - Transonic with a bomb load, supersonic without. 2x Aim-9Gs and half decent flight model does make it reasonably good for air to air, but its main role should be to put bombs on bases. It does lack CMs though, which is something worth baring in mind
Buccaneer S2 - Massive bomb load, optional CMs but A2A payload is entirely optional, and no guns available. You can easily take out 3 bases in a single run, but Id advice running the CM pods which would reduce the number of base kills. You can also get kills from dropping bombs and killing chasers, but its not the most reliable method. If you want to bomb bases and ground targets. the Buc S2 is very good for that.
For both of these though, ARB is not the best place for them. If you could get into ASB, then the Buc S2 makes short work of the grind but that does come with a huge learning curve.
Conclusion
If you are looking for something mostly Air to Air, but can ground pound for that extra RP and something that can be used reasonably reliably in ARB. Then Id take a look at the Harrier Gr3. Its a solid multirole and the Sea Harrier will probably be a core aircraft for you to play at rank 7, so learning how to handle a Harrier is a valuable skill for Britain (we have a lot of harriers and more to come in the future)
Also worth noting the Sea Harrier FRS1 is available via a Squadron vehicle, its worth beginning the research for it as well. Its a very good Rank 7
but my best piece of advice is this. Dont talisman anything on a whim. Try them out first… Properly. if nothing else, spading the aircraft fully gives an RP bonus to whatever you are researching, its a half decent amount and so worth at a minimum spading them all. Talisman whichever one you found the most fun
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Buccaneer. Faster than almost every subsonic, has access to counter-measures to make plebs waste their missile on you and you can destroy 2 bases each run. It prints RP and it is so damn easy to play too. If you manage to stay alive for second or god forbid 3rd bomb run, you’re looking at 40-50k RP (with premium account).
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Sadly I skipped the buc line completely. So that’s out of the question. Going to try out the hunter tomorrow after I unlock it. No flares might be a deal breaker.