How many times do we need to remind american mains that phoenixes are extremely potent force multipliers? They allow one player to disrupt multiple opponents from a range where they can launch with impunity. Those opponents either die or are forced to waste time and energy deviating from the pack to take evasive action. This breaks up the size of the enemy formation and places them at a numerical disadvantage when both teams merge in the center of the match. This force multiplier effect makes the phoenix one of the most powerful missiles in the game for influencing the outcome of a match even if every single phoenix misses.
The only thing halfway keeping the phoenix in check is that most modes have mixed matchmaking, so you have phoenixes on both sides of the battlefield working in roughly equal measure against each other. In simulator battles USA has had an overwhelming advantage for years, and it shows with the abysmal state of people queuing for red team vs blue team in sim lobbies.
I dont know if its changed much since the MP reduction. But my experience in SIm is that most F-14 players ran Aim-7 in sim rather Aim-54, simply because most targets would be within MP and the Aim-54s work best an altitude where no one flew.
Not disagreeing with more people on bluefor than redfor, but id not really contribute that to the Aim-54, but rather other factors like better multirole aircraft like the Phantom and F-16 and the poor performance of soviet aircraft withwise of radar and RWR.
The phoenix isn’t the only advantage blue team has over red team in sim. There are a number of problems impacting the balance of power. Blue team simply has the advantage in most every category. Them having a complete monopoly on such long range pressure is just one issue. Quality of RWR is another big one. A lot of blue team mains forget that not everyone has a fancy digital RWR that tells you precisely the direction of the incoming threat. A lot of adversaries have dramatically less capable RWRs that just tell that the missile is approaching from roughly that time zone. I remember some people in matches complaining that their planes don’t even have RWR to detect the phoenix, but that was before the BR decompression and I don’t recall what the plane was to check if it’s still in matchmaking range.
They have also made that ahistorical change so that many soviet can now detect PD radars, which should help somewhat.
But I do know the frustration, at least in a secondary manner of a bad RWR. The Buc S2B, SHar FRS1 and SHar FA2 all have placeholder RWRs which show a fraction of the information they should. Despite much of my desire to do so. I have barely touched the FA2 due to the amount of placeholder parts (HUD and RWR are the main 2) which render it nearly unplayable. Last time I tried, the RWR was just spammed with “IPD” pings and I had no idea what was going on (though the IFF filter will also help a bit with that as well)
A lot of american players just come off as entitled. The phoenix is one example where they have the advantage of a clear monopoly on an advantage than rival nations cannot match. But their response to this objective advantage in their hands is lamentation that the power gap isn’t even greater.
Yeah. They can certainly be hypochondriacs, though at the same time. Im on the fence with how good AIm-54s actually are. At least they can usually be fairly easily defeated if you know what you are doing. they are also underperforming i beleive due to the fact that dual-plane missiles arent modeled (or something like that)
But overall and returning to the thread at hand. Im not sure whether the F-14 should move up or stay put. The F-14A has a clear weakness of Aim-9Gs and the F-14B does have to contend with the BOL Nerfs. Im not sure whether Aim-54s alone make it the equal of many of the aircraft at 12.7 or higher. I serously doubt it could cope vs an F-15C slinging 8x AMRAAM in a full uptier if it was 12.7
Ive actually ran a test mock fight against friend in his F-14A vs. mine MiG-29G. Standard large vietnam like you would get in random battle, fuel consumption and everything.
I had exactly 42 phoenixes launched at me (once friend landed and rearmed). Only one ever came close to me, and that was when friend ambushed me at 20 km by turning off his radar.
You left out the part where the Aim-7Fs are vastly superior to the Supertemp aside from point blank shots. Also the FM difference is massive, the F-14A easily clears the Tornado.
