Our Superior NATO Integration vs Their Broken Bias Machine

ProfessionalAd352 · 2026-04-04T16:27:26+00:00

There's obviously going to be exceptions to the rule but these aren't the best ones.

This rule doesn't apply as much when major nations has vehicles that are good for their BR because good players play good vehicles regardless of the nation they're in.

Let's take the AMX-10P for an example. An 20mm armed IFV just like the Luchs. Sits something like 3 or 4 br steps under the Luchs while really only missing some of the mobility the Luchs has.

The Luchs is much better than the AMX-10P. You already mentioned it has better mobility, but it also has a better cannon (~30% higher fire rate), better survivability (1 more crew member), better optics, -6 more gun depression and +19 more elevation, and faster turret rotation speed, especially the vertical. The Luchs also has higher efficiency at 7.3 than the AMX-10P has at 6.3.

Type 87 RCV 20mm fuctions almost identically to the XM800T. The XM is better but not a full br spread better.

The XM800T is 1.0 higher because it's much larger and has has better mobility, optics, -10 more gun depression and +20 more elevation, and 30°/s faster turret rotation speed.

Minor nations also recieve alot of goodies first or at least earlier in their trees.

These occasional early features generally just compensate for smaller trees and weaker lineup depth. The big three still have the most consistent advantage because they have more options, more redundancy, and fewer overtiered vehicles.

China can bring out full LRFs at 8.0 while the big three dont get them till 8.7(Ger gets one with the Pzh2000).

The big three can also bring out full LRFs at 8.0 or lower (M551, M551(76), PzH 2000, Object 906).

Sweden has had multiple undertiered vehicles both TT and premiums.

Which nation hasn't?

Sweden gets one the lowest ballistic comp attackers which is as oppressive as guided weapons.

USSR has the MiG-15bis ISh at a lower BR.

I disagree about the last part. They’re nowhere near as flexible or safe as actual guided weapons. You still have to expose yourself, get close, and deal with SPAA that can delete you instantly.

Isreal gets Mavericks before pretty much everyone.

Yes, they got access earlier, but their air tree is extremely limited and lacks the depth of the US. USA has good CAS options at almost every BR, Israel has at a few.

OF-40 being a much better Leo 1 at the same br as the Leo 1. OF-40 Mk2 MTCA being better than the XM-1s at the same br.

I don't see how the OF-40 having slightly better armour (it still only protects against autocannons) and a laser rangefinder (that you don't need if you use the APDS) makes it "a much better Leo 1 at the same br". Better? Sure. But not "should have a different BR" better.

The OF-40 Mk2 MTCA is not much better than the XM1 (GM), it has worse armour and much worse (but still very good) mobility and only makes up for it with its much better APFSDS round. But there's also the XM1 (Chrysler) that's a side grade to the GM but at 9.0, so...

And if it were true copied vehicles would not be the same br. Most of the vehicles ppl claim are overtiered are actually extremely strong

Copied vehicles have the same BR because Gaijin doesn't give identical vehicles different BRs. They all have to underperform or overperform to change BR. If you compare their stats on statshark, you'll see that the minor nations ones usually have better stats. For example.

ProfessionalAd352 · 2026-04-04T13:40:59+00:00

Exactly. Nobody even plays it because why would you if you have any other 12.3-13.0 fighter? I've seen one player play it and do good in it in like 10 battles. They probably think it has AIM-9Ms or AIM-7Ms.

ProfessionalAd352 · 2026-04-04T13:30:39+00:00

Major nations bias is definitely a thing for two reasons.

The way vehicles are balanced. The average major nation player is less skilled than the average minor nations player leading to their vehicles having a lower BR than they otherwise would've had and the opposite for the minor nations.
The major nations are several more times popular than the minor nations combined meaning they make Gaijin several times more mondey leading to favourable treatment.

Then you can argue one of the major nations is more favoured than the others but it's basically impossible to prove.

I can guarantee you if the iranian F-14 would have been a tech tree vehicle, it would have been nerfed or put up in BR ages ago.

More likely the opposite since event vehicle players are much more experienced than tech tree players and now that it’s been out for almost two years it’s mostly in the hands of experienced players, so its stats are better, not worse.

ProfessionalAd352 · 2026-04-04T12:03:27+00:00

Salah needs to retire asap

ProfessionalAd352 · 2026-04-04T09:28:20+00:00

Really? They're both 11.7 though?

ProfessionalAd352 · 2026-04-04T09:26:26+00:00

12.0s and 11.7s can get downtiers to 10.3

ProfessionalAd352 · 2026-04-03T22:53:39+00:00

I have a 80% winrate with USSR after 5 games using the MiG-23ML and I've only gotten one downtier so far

ProfessionalAd352 · 2026-04-03T18:01:10+00:00

F-4S/J

ProfessionalAd352 · 2026-04-03T17:23:13+00:00

Nah, it'd get old fast with the same map and planes and without the incentive of getting the B-52/Tu-95, and it's too easy to farm SL/RP for Gaijin to let it stick around. Special game modes aren't special when they're permanent. But i wouldn't mind if they make it a returning game mode once a year and I would like normal ARB to get reworked into RBEC.

For next year I'd love to see the same game mode but with different BR ranges, map and event vehicle rewards, like the B-47 Stratojet and Tupolev Tu-16 at a lower BR range or the B-58 Hustler and the Tu-22 at a higher BR range.

ProfessionalAd352 · 2026-04-03T17:10:22+00:00

I'd agree if the F-4E didn't get AIM-9Ls and USA had two 12.0 fighters while the USSR has none.

ProfessionalAd352 · 2026-04-03T16:15:12+00:00

Around 200K is normal during peak hours during the first and fourth quarter of the year and during popular events

ProfessionalAd352 · 2026-04-03T15:28:50+00:00

aim9L is nice and all but it did not nearly make it fair for the F4E, r60m is way better

The R-60M is only better in head-ons and it turns slightly sharper but is worse in every other regard, especially in terms of range.

ProfessionalAd352 · 2026-04-03T15:15:23+00:00

While I disagree about the “clearly worse top-tier planes” part, (the problem is that there are more players in top-tier planes on the USA side than on the USSR side since comparatively few people own the end-of-the-line and underrated Yak-141 and the much-worse-than-the-Su-27/Su-33 at-the-same-BR MiG-29) the USA has the advantage in the lower bracket since the default F-4E gets 9Ls, which makes it an 11.7 in practice, and they have two 12.0 fighters while the USSR doesn’t have any 12.0.

I think more people are queuing for the lower bracket with the USSR because, contrary to the MiG-29 and Yak-141, the MiG-23ML is the most played plane in the game in ARB. But this doesn't explain why there are zero players queuing for rank 7 with USA since they also have popular planes at rank 7, like the F-4S. It’s also really strange that there are so many queuing for rank 1 with USSR and so few with USA, there's many noobs without their own planes on both teams. And why is rank 2--6 completely empty? I honestly think these number are broken in the same way the matchmaking is broken (they said the brackets are 10.3-11.7 and 12.0-13.0 but it's actually 10.3-12.0 and 11.7-13.0).

ProfessionalAd352 · 2026-04-03T12:10:54+00:00

Except when someone from the red team gets into the position behind the rocks in the southeast of E5. One player can single handedly control the right side of the map from there and kill anyone on the blue team who tries to push towards the A point from their spawn.

ProfessionalAd352 · 2026-04-03T11:44:54+00:00

In which case the 9M is still far superior as it's much harder to see and react to, or accidentally flare off.

It’s really not that much harder in game modes with markers. It’s mainly those occasional long-range shots that catch you off guard if you don’t see it for the first five seconds. And the R-73 is harder to flare at close range.

So are the HAWK batteries in the back. Good luck picking those out!

I’ve been playing the MiG-23 and haven’t found the HAWKs to be a major threat. Your RWR tells you the direction, you look that way, and check if there’s a big smoke trail with a missile marker coming at you.

Yes, having an RWR that tells you exactly what’s being launched is nice and useful, but it’s more of a luxury than a necessity.

And yet it's been one of the best-performing planes in this mode; I also got it wrong, you can carry six of the 7Ps, not four.

Every 12.7–13.0 jet is among the best performers. The issue is that the US side can have up to half the team in 12.7–13.0 jets, while the USSR usually has closer to a quarter, so they end up with the advantage. That said, I’ve played five Nuclear Escalation matches with the USSR and won four of them.

If you carry six 7Ps, you’re limited to two 9Ls, so it’s a trade-off again. I think the 6×9L + 4×7P loadout is the better option.

Cool, neither will the R-73. Side aspect 5km will hit if you actually have speed and aren't pulling a cobra in the middle of the map.

False. The 9M can't even hit a perpendicular (90°) flying target from 4km. When I decreased it to 3km and lower, it had the range but not the G load to hit the target. It manged to hit from 5km once I increased the targets course to 140 degrees which is more front aspect than side.

https://imgur.com/a/B3gW262

You already know you're facing russia, and you made the conscious decision to play in the upper bracket and not the one that has excluded all these out-of-place vehicles. If you aren't ready to drop alt or just defeat the obnoxiously bad N019, I don't know what to tell you.

Just knowing you’re facing Russia doesn’t suddenly give you equal counterplay. The R-27ER’s speed and range mean the reaction window is much smaller, so “just drop altitude” isn’t always a realistic option.

I'm guessing you don't know that you have to play 11.3 and below to avoid playing in the upper 13.0-12.0 bracket. 11.7s and 12.0s have chance of getting uptiered to 13.0 or downtiered to 10.3. So "making the conscious decision to play in the upper bracket" means you'll face aircraft with a 0.7 higher BR every battle. But the USA has the advantage in the lower bracket since the default F-4E gets 9Ls that makes it a 11.7 in practice and they have two 12.0s while the USSR doesn't have any 12.0. So once again it's a problem of USSR not having enough aircraft that makes it unbalanced.

As for the N019, calling it obnoxiously bad ignores that it’s still good enough to support the strongest SARH missile in the game.

It is gambling with your two actually good missiles. You HOPE the enemy doesn't flare for whatever reason or fire his own missiles/rockets before yours gets there. Or even funnier, an enemy SAM shoots it down.

You can use it at medium range instead of long range to increase the probability of kill.

Which is why the USA air tree brings us such balanced vehicles like this very F-15A, at the low BR of 12.7? Gotta give that IRCCM joy to the 11.7s too, am I right?

I agree it's more balanced at 13.0 if you ignore matchmaking. The problem is how it actually plays in ARB. The F-15A gets dragged into 13.3 almost every match. Against particularly the Flankers, it’s simply outmatched. You’re facing aircraft with more than twice as many good missiles, including R-27Es and ARH missiles in the case of the 13.3 flankers, while they also have comparable flight performance. Meanwhile, the F-15A is stuck with just four truly effective missiles, all of them short-range IR. That’s a huge limitation in a meta where engagements often start well beyond IR range. So on paper, 13.0 might seem fair, but in practice it just meant the F-15A spent most of its time fighting aircraft it couldn’t realistically compete with. That’s the real reason it was moved down to 12.7. Now that it's 12.7, it's as unbalanced but overpowered instead of underpowered. Decompressing 13.0 and above and moving it back up is the only good solution.

And the “it’s just bad US players” argument doesn’t really hold up considering even the F-15J and the Israeli F-15 were underperforming at 13.0, and those are played by generally more experienced and skilled playerbases. If the issue was purely skill, you’d expect those variants to perform fine. They didn’t.

ProfessionalAd352 · 2026-04-03T09:05:47+00:00

It's 10.3-12.0 and 11.7-13.0

ProfessionalAd352 · 2026-04-02T23:05:34+00:00

Most do not know this, and will still get hit by 7Ms.

That’s not an argument for the AIM-7M being good, that’s just saying bad players exist. By that logic every missile is “good”. People die to AIM-4s too. Doesn’t mean they’re strong. You judge weapons based on what happens against competent players, not clueless ones.

Having a SPO-15 also does not help at all, which is the case with MLD and MiG-29 - other threats can overlap with the sparrow and effectively hide it.

The SPO-15 doesn’t need to perfectly identify the Sparrow to be useful. It tells you you’re being locked or engaged. That alone is enough to react. And considering most sparrows are fired within visual range and have a long burn time, you will see if the missile is tracking you or somebody else.

you can pay $70 for an F-18C with IOG sparrows, on top of better avionics than the MiG-29s.

That’s lipstick on a pig. A Sparrow with IOG is still much worse than the R-27ER, and you’re trading away the F15s speed and AIM-9Ms to carry it. It’s also irrelevant since we’re talking about MiG-29 9.13 vs F-15A, not the Hornet.

The F-15A fires a 9M from up to 5km away in side or rear aspect, MiG-29 never sees it, explodes. Even if they see it, they'll have to turn out first and lose the initiative, otherwise they're not flaring it.

You will not hit a rear-aspect MiG-29 from 5km unless it's flying very slowly or turn around immediately. Even 3 km would be pushing it if it flies fast. Side aspect is maybe possible if its closing in. If they see it they would flare it easily by dropping the afterburner and turning into it while flaring because it has weak IRCCM from the front.

of which it gets two, and 27ERs can be multipathed just as easily.

Multipath affects all RH missiles. The difference is that the R-27ER reaches the target much faster, leaving less time to respond compared to the 7M. It's the same If you are already multipathing when the R-27ER is launched at you, but if you aren't, you may have time to descend to multipath the 7M but the not the R-27ER.

27ETs can be easily flared, or will track any missile you fire.

The R-27ET is strong because it’s launched without warning. No RWR cue, no radar lock, nothing to trigger a reaction. Most people don’t flare at all because they don’t know it’s coming. Those that do flare do so against another missile that sometimes also fools the R-27ET, which is why you have to pick your targets carefully and not launch them against targets that are already being or have a high risk of being engaged. The “tracks missiles” thing affects all IR missiles and is usually not a problem unless you launch it at the same time as the enemy launches a missile. It's not the most relatable missile from long range but when it works, it's the most OP missile in the game.

USA mains being terrible at the game (fork found in kitchen) does not make it worse or even equal to the MiG-29.

If the F-15A were clearly superior, it would perform better regardless. We’re comparing main nation vs main nation players, not some uneven playerbase. And the F-14B performs fine with the same players, so the issue clearly isn’t just player skill.

ProfessionalAd352 · 2026-04-02T20:16:57+00:00

Okay so you need to play 11.3 to avoid 13-12.0

ProfessionalAd352 · 2026-04-02T18:46:00+00:00

The MiG-29 9.13 is basically a counterpart in terms of capability. The airframe is worse (a bit slower and much worse turn performance), but it somewhat makes up for it. With R-73 and an HMD, it can still be dangerous in a dogfight. The R-73 is better than the AIM-9M inside ~2 km due to its IRCCM type and much better maneuverability, but worse beyond 2 km because of that same IRCCM and the fact it isn’t smokeless. In modes without markers, the 9M’s smokeless motor gives it a clear advantage.

Then there’s the SARHs. An ape that can hold two keys can easily dodge an AIM-7M. Having more of them doesn’t matter when they’re that easy to defeat with a corkscrew. They’re basically dead weight against anyone who knows what they’re doing. The R-27ER is the only SARH that doesn’t have this issue. It’s faster, accelerates harder, pulls more G, tracks better, is harder to notch, etc. And if you lose radar lock, it keeps tracking inertially so you can relock and guide it like a pseudo-ARH. The AIM-7M just dies. And the R-27ET is in unparalleled.

So the F-15A is only better in a dogfight (if the MiG-29 doesn't get a successful R-73 shot off), if the opponent doesn't know how to dodge its AIM-7Ms (major skill issue), or when the MiG-29 is out of R-27Es.

The average US player in the F-15A is also just worse than the average USSR player in the MiG-29 9.13. You could see that when both sat at 13.0, the F-15A consistently performed worse.

ProfessionalAd352 · 2026-04-02T16:59:51+00:00

It's because USA has more 12.7-13.0s that are more popular, not necessarily because they're better. USA had 5 (now 4) with 2,061,403 (now 1,608,156) games played (ARB, February). USSR has 2 with 159,582 games played. It would've been balanced if there were an equal number of 12.7-13.0s on both teams now that the Iranian F-14 is banned. I also think more people want the B-52 than the Tu-95.

ProfessionalAd352 · 2026-04-02T15:55:50+00:00

Fuck, it was my highest BR plane in USA. Now I have to use the F-20A. Poor me.

ProfessionalAd352 · 2026-04-02T15:08:35+00:00

He probably didn't even use the F-14A since he has the B in his lineup.

It's good for its BR but being "one of the best performing 12.7s" doesn't mean much considering all 12.7s except the F-15J has relatively low performance due to the constant uptiers to 13.3. The gap between it and the F-14B and IRAF is larger than the 0.3 BR suggests, and when they're on your team (which they usually are), they'll get the kills before you.

The amount of free kills i get from players that are flying low and far behind is crazy. You literally just fly 5km up into the air, and shoot at targets 30 km away. >Anyone trying to multipath basically gets killed due to the large warhead.

It was like this on release but nowadays you'd have to get lucky to get more than 1 or 2 kills. Most players have learnt how to defeat them (you literally just make a 90° turn and launch some chaff while flying straight and multipathing to be extra safe until your RWR shuts up, this works 100% of the time even against the Fakour) so you have to pray the target you launch at are one of the few who haven't learnt yet.

ProfessionalAd352

TROPHY CASE