F15A

[koper]

I just got it, I grinded the whole tree up to this point and so far im struggling really hard. I've yet to unlock the AIM9M's and it seems like all I can do atm is to fly low and pick targets that are busy with others. Sparrows miss most of the time and it is with me chosing targets that are at altidute and launching them from aprox. 5 kms. Is there a way to reliably have good games and it is a skill issue on my part, or is the F15A underperforming and I should skip it and just grind out the F15C?

[Beast of War]

I am in the same situation and i am pretty certain we are suffering from the plane - its radar and weapons - having less abilities then the majority of the opponents have in the same match. No longer the difference is just your dogfighting skill and the agility of the plane, and type cannon or mg.

Most early versions come ( at least stock ) with rear aspect short range AIM 9 sidewinders while enemies you face have all aspect ones, so can kill you at almost any angle they wish. What ridiculous difference that makes is clear to me as my premium A10 and A6 carry these and getting 1-2 kills per match is fairly easy while these are not fighter planes at all !!!

Same goes for the AIM 7 versions that are more capable for the later versions you don't get on an early model. Primitive missiles just go after chaff while higher versions radar or missile ignore that. Same goes for more primitive AIM 9's : they just go after the flares while more advanced versions ignore that.

This is the big difference between engaging targets in test flight and a match : the test targets do not throw out flares and chaff, and do not notch the radar. Primitive radar and missiles will fail if the target does that.

So the only chance you have in early models with early tech is to target the AI jet enemies to get at least some score and progression, and/or hang back and hope the human player target used up all its' flares/chaff fighting others n case the missiles are far more likely to kill. And do note many stock jets do not come with chaff at all, this first has to be unlocked. This tells you something about the top scoring players that know exactly what ( fully researched or premium ) jet to pick....they get to launch advanced missiles at targets that lack even chaff !! Bet ya they didn't even unlock abilities grinding while being THAT vulnerable while most of us do suffer this. ( can't keep spending real money on everything in a game right ? )

I did come to notice however some rear aspect AIM 9 still seem to be able to lock onto head on enemies, often the most modern ones on early version "modern" jets, but this is in cannon range....can give another chance to kill when cannon shells grazed or missed....head on hitting missiles it will end top players just the same as the next common player.

So the conclusion : indeed, nothing is fair in the game and you are at a heavy disadvantage until you get the latest stuff in late models that ignores chaff and flares and can be launched at almost all angles and much further away. You will be miserable until you reached the end of the ladder :-) But the upside of all this misery is you will learn why you suffered, and if you did reach the end of the ladder you can make others suffer that still climb the ladder.

[koper]

I dont know what to do at this point, no matter what I try same thing happens. I'll probably go back to flying F4E and unlock F15C that way. Only reason for me to play and learn air rb was getting F15 and now I don't really want to play no more. No USA plane, prop or jet I've flew was so atrocious to play. Even when I did not knew how to play, atleast then I knew what kind of mistake got me killed. Here I can do everything like I should just to get FOX3'ed from the orbit.

[Beast of War]

Told you : go after the AI planes that fly around in RB matches ( less score but some score ) or hang back to make enemies expend their chaff/flares on each other and then engage them middle match, you will notice more success.

What is frustrating many matches pretty much end when the first wave eliminated each other, or one side has everyone dead and the other side almost everyone alive. You either have no target or are mass hunted.

[koper]

I will never go for ai or bomb bases, I want to fight players. Games end too fast to hang in the back. ♥♥♥♥ it, I'll keep slamming my head against the wall till I'll get through.

[Golden Knight]

Originally posted by Koper:

I just got it, I grinded the whole tree up to this point and so far im struggling really hard. I've yet to unlock the AIM9M's and it seems like all I can do atm is to fly low and pick targets that are busy with others. Sparrows miss most of the time and it is with me chosing targets that are at altidute and launching them from aprox. 5 kms. Is there a way to reliably have good games and it is a skill issue on my part, or is the F15A underperforming and I should skip it and just grind out the F15C?

You better try f15c only good aim7 is aim7p in possession of f18 others will get notched easily

[Golden Knight]

Originally posted by Koper:

I will never go for ai or bomb bases, I want to fight players. Games end too fast to hang in the back. ♥♥♥♥ it, I'll keep slamming my head against the wall till I'll get through.

What plane you use to grind?

[Golden Knight]

Originally posted by Beast of War:

Told you : go after the AI planes that fly around in RB matches ( less score but some score ) or hang back to make enemies expend their chaff/flares on each other and then engage them middle match, you will notice more success.

What is frustrating many matches pretty much end when the first wave eliminated each other, or one side has everyone dead and the other side almost everyone alive. You either have no target or are mass hunted.

Tried this one time and it was me and a bounty on me vs whole enemy team

[koper]

Originally posted by Golden Knight:

Originally posted by Koper:

I will never go for ai or bomb bases, I want to fight players. Games end too fast to hang in the back. ♥♥♥♥ it, I'll keep slamming my head against the wall till I'll get through.

What plane you use to grind?

I played mustangs, sabres, then switched to a4b, then f104, f100d after that i used f5e, when i got f4e i used that to research f15a. I also bought the captured bf109 in american tree to help with the grind and cause i didnt properly understand how to fly the mustangs, but then realised its worse than its german counter part and ditched it. Sabres were probably the peak of my enjoyment of the game. Only now have I compared the F15s from the fighter line to the one in the bomber line and this ♥♥♥♥ aint funny, makes no sense why its made that way, I guess if I want to get the best F15 I'll have to grind the bomber tree from scratch.

[Golden Knight]

Originally posted by Koper:

Originally posted by Golden Knight:

What plane you use to grind?

I played mustangs, sabres, then switched to a4b, then f104, f100d after that i used f5e, when i got f4e i used that to research f15a. I also bought the captured bf109 in american tree to help with the grind and cause i didnt properly understand how to fly the mustangs, but then realised its worse than its german counter part and ditched it. Sabres were probably the peak of my enjoyment of the game. Only now have I compared the F15s from the fighter line to the one in the bomber line and this ♥♥♥♥ aint funny, makes no sense why its made that way, I guess if I want to get the best F15 I'll have to grind the bomber tree from scratch.

Yes sadly the best f15 is the bomber line f15e and the only f15 that is still in production is f15e it has better engines aim120b and a dont differ that much
I only grind the f15c line to the sabre because its as you said one of the peakest planes in us tech tree
Currently imo f16c, f15e, f14 dominate as the latest planes jn their treeline (f18c at 14.0 is not a good choice but f18c early at 12.7 is a nice one)
Before the update of fox 3 (i mean adding c series of planes)
Game was great everyone went on strategies but after that mig29, f16a, f15a, su27, and any other plane without fox3 in that range meant useless as you see in terms of missiles aim7 are one of the worst missiles alongsides r27R only this update aim7p is proving worthy
Aim9 only the irccm version is ok
R73 and r27T can be flared much easier now
So the best plane is sth that wont face fox3 if you want to grind in tech tree sth like f4, f5, a7, everything at rank 7 that wont face fox3 is good except bomber line imo if you wanna dogfight


For me i researched literally all planes in ussr tree so i wanted usa and i bought f18c early to research i use 6 aim7p 2 aim9 and 5 bombs i bomb bases of they gone i go for ground targets i try to take out ai planes and then hop in dogfights, its better to not fall in a dogfight at the start

[Colonel Jason]

With F-15C it will getter but in stock state you still have to use sparrows until amraams.
But as for sparrows, yeah they are nerfed to the ground and it is bad sadly since sparrows (late variants) accurate as much as R-27s. Anyho, losing track here. With sparrows what I'd do is lock and launch at the targets in the high alttidue. AIM-9Ms will make the grind much better.
Keep on grinding and good luck.

[The-D-Point]

AIM7s would fly to space randomly with radar lock on these days. Just dont play this ♥♥♥♥.

[Golden Knight]

Originally posted by The-D-Point:

AIM7s would fly to space randomly with radar lock on these days. Just dont play this ♥♥♥♥.

Aim7 most of all the aim7 not good but aim7P is a solid shot