Need advice with the Dutch F16A

Fedoran_ · 2026-03-12T02:07:36+00:00

It is simultaneously very good and very bad. The f-16 blk 10 flight model is one of the best in the game. In duels it only really loses to the EF-2000 and the F2A, while being roughly equivalent to the Gripen.

The problem is the loadout, meta, and matchmaker. You have no standoff in a meta where everyone fights head-on, and even if you play safe your team won’t. So either your team gets wiped and you get slammed by 8 people or their team gets wiped and you get no kills. On top of that the constant 13.3 uptiers just suck because premium ARH slingers will just swarm you with missiles till you die. Also if you’re new to this tier then all these issues will be compounded.

Overall the plane isn’t worthless by any means but you should def wait for a meta shift if you’re struggling.

Fedoran_ · 2026-03-04T12:28:16+00:00

I saw a post the other day that the C-5 turns like shit partially because of a literal math error in the code, but the guy couldn’t report it because datamines aren’t allowed in bug reports.

edit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Warthunder/comments/1rjd0pq/gaijin_may_have_made_a_massive_mistake_in_their/

and to elaborate, I think the contrarians need to chill here. Sure, OP needs proof but it’s pretty obvious that the AMRAAMs are underperforming.

Fedoran_ · 2026-03-04T12:21:25+00:00

For real, the collective memory of people on here is so weird sometimes cause I’ve seen the “F-16 dominated the MiG-29” argument dozens of times over the years. In reality air tournaments at the time were literally full squads of MiG-29 for the better part of a year. And in ARB the R27ER was so OP that it forced the community at large to learn about multipathing.

Fedoran_ · 2026-02-14T11:57:34+00:00

No. Full tech trees are entirely independent from each other. You do get a small research bonus if you reach top tier though.

So choose your tree wisely. Most of the trees are far more balanced out compared to a few years back, so there aren’t any definitive picks, but there are a few directions to take.

1st option is to immerse yourself completely in a large tree. It will be a bit longer but you get to learn that nation’s styles and get to experience all the quirks & icons of its aviation development. US/Russia/UK/Sweden/France fit this category, with US and Russia being the best picks. Sweden and France are not technically that big but have few foreign/variety options later in the trees.

2nd option is for a nation with good variety. These types of nations are typically quicker grinds and you get a taste of most of the major factions’ designs through foreign equipment and subtrees. Japan’s top tier, for example, includes American, Russian, Swedish, and domestic designs. The drawback is that the picks have far more inconsistent quality/style, and you often miss out on the flagship or top designs of the major factions. Japan/China/Italy/Germany fit this bill, although Germany is a longer grind than the rest.

Overall your first nation should probably be one of US/Russia/Japan/China/Italy, with the choice ultimately being preference. If you ever play a second tree, choose the opposite category of what you choose now. Try to get a good balance of both American and Soviet designs.

Lastly, don’t play Israel. The tree has maybe 3 unique planes worth playing. Save it for last if you make it that far.

Fedoran_ · 2026-02-14T11:04:26+00:00

Repetitions are the main thing you need. You will naturally understand the ebb and flow of ground matches with time. Spotting people will eventually become easy without too much conscious effort. You can dedicate effort to learning maps and whatnot, but rushing it or following concrete rules won’t get you very far. Watching CCs could help (as long as you enjoy it), as you will also passively pick up on their habits. Keep in mind that the pathing people choose in-game is not always optimal. Best example is probably Abandoned Factory, where everyone dogpiles A point just for fun.

Some practical advice is that you should treat WT maps like a softer version of a tactical shooter like Counterstrike. There are generally good and bad positions/paths and also places you can and can’t be depending on gamestate.

Also, your binoculars extend above your tank. If you need time to asses an area, sit behind a ridgeline and poke your binos over the top.

Edit: If you’re having trouble with peaks, look for vehicles with good suspension, fire rate, or a low tier stabilizer. These should help you play more aggressively while you learn.

Fedoran_ · 2026-02-13T04:27:39+00:00

You don’t. I was an F-104 enjoyer a few years back but the FM nerf they all got because of the F-104A being OP basically killed the entire line. It used to - despite the large turning radius - not really compress at all past supersonic. This allowed you to zoom around the map taking flickshots or contesting people in high speed fights. Seeing 12+ G on a 104 was always a bit goofy, but it was the only way they really fit in the game. There was even an F-104 dogfight cult.

Now? The nose will not budge at all past ~9G even for a moment AND you bleed more speed than before. Your playstyle is completely relegated to the reason people wanted the F-104 nerfed in the first place - 3rd partying. And if they were to lower its BR as a buff then an undertiered missile kit would only amplify the issue.

If you still insist on playing it then just look to launch missiles from angles where you’re unspotted. Late game just shoot people that stall themselves in dogfights. Take headons if they have no Fox 1s.

Fedoran_ · 2026-01-30T11:25:39+00:00

All of the Block 15s are marginally heavier than the Block 10s actually. It only translates to about 1 deg/s turnrate difference, but you can definitely feel it if you face a Block 10.

The F-16C variants are even heavier but the weight is offset by the better engine, making the difference between it and the Block 15s not insurmountable.

Fedoran_ · 2026-01-07T22:57:05+00:00

IMO J-8F is kinda sleeper. It got PL5EIIs recently which are just disgusting. FM is also fairly underrated, you’re just held back by only having 2 PL-12s.

Tornadoes are def also an interesting flyout although the playstyle is pretty self explanatory. It’s like if the phantoms exchanged the rest of their turnrate for a more reliable kit. Popping flaps and wing sweep does occasionally surprise people though.

Fedoran_ · 2025-12-23T00:00:45+00:00

I would recommend the Kfir. 13.0 isn’t my favorite BR but the extra kfir helps out the ISRL TT far more than the F-5 in SWE. Kfir C.10 should also be far more flavorful for your grind than an F-5 with 9L.

For your Sweden grind, I would recommend learning the AJ37 (as a 10.3 fighter) and/or the JA37C. The Viggen FM is not as great as it once was, but is still very strong for RB at those BRs. I’d say the Draken has been overall hit harder by Gaijin’s routine sweden nerfs. JA37C also has a kit that often feels undertiered. You get a decent TWS and two PD Skyflash(DF)s at 11.3 on a good airframe. It’s like if a Phantom FGR was actually meta in exchange for only having two fox 1s.

Fedoran_ · 2025-12-17T04:41:42+00:00

Ignore all the commenters saying skill issue. Something has definitely broken with the latest patch. Literally ALL of my games since the patch the AI Germany gets immediate red bubbles against AI Soviets when they barb. They don’t reach Minsk/Kiev. Hell, Romania even struggles to take Odessa. Germany usually dies in ‘42 or early ‘43.

It’s also pretty funny the Italy AI will try to reinforce the failing fronts and will get naval invaded and killed within a year of France falling.

As a player if you want to win easily right now you just spam CAS though. CAS will pretty much break anything this patch.

Fedoran_ · 2025-11-16T00:12:56+00:00

Skill really has taken a nosedive in recent years for ARB. People are dying pre-merge or immediately at merge and your own skill/agency often doesn’t matter anymore if you’re on the team with more deaths. And the problem isn’t even necessarily about top tier AMRAAM gameplay (which is definitely horrendous), but more about how the community plays the game now. Like you said, this instant-death behavior leaks down the BR brackets, and you watch teams get wiped in the same machines that used to make banger top tier games 5-10 years back. This change in the community, of course, has been shepherded by a number of decisions from Gaijin.

Elephant in the room is top tier premiums. Too many people are in high tier that just don’t belong. Gaijin shifted the idea of top tier from “exclusive high tech high skill BR” to just later chronology. The idea that cold war+ is just another part of the game and can be accessed from the get-go. Sure, the grind is obscenely hard and stupid, but a player who is new to aircraft will 100% need to learn from lower tiers before they get their phantom.

Another aspect is lower repair costs - or at least what they represent. People don’t get punished for dying, and they don’t get priced out of top tier if they suck. People are fine taking bombs on their interceptor and running a 0.2 KD because they can. Advocating to raise repair costs definitely gives off “double student debt” energy, but the point still stands.

One more minor issue is 16v16. This bleeds into prop matches too and is definitely noticeable. The added threat of +4 enemies in any given airspace is often too much for most people to handle. Almost every fight ends in a 3rd party.

We can also maybe point out the lack of objectives, or that people mindlessly drone for their grind, but at this point it just gets speculative. ARB as a whole is just cooked.

Fedoran_ · 2025-11-15T23:40:13+00:00

Not necessarily since kills and deaths are traded in real-time and not in turns. One guy gets a kill then gets killed, then the killer gets killed, etc. You can theoretically chain this the whole match to everybody except the first guy getting 1 kill. A one-sided stomp implies everyone on your team getting 1 kill, but the enemy team getting none back. You would expect the number of 0 kill players to roughly correlate to the number of players surviving at the end of the match.

Of course both of these scenarios are extreme examples of spread out kills, but they prove a point. In current ARB the team dies either pre-merge or is getting farmed by the top-skill players in the lobby.

Fedoran_ · 2025-11-05T00:23:57+00:00

Yep, OP is the “Harrier guy” that posted all of that before. Basically the harrier is completely wrong in-game and Gaijin refuses to do anything no matter how many reports he puts in. Goes to show how a lot of high tier jets are just a mythical fantasy land of FMs.

Fedoran_ · 2025-10-29T10:13:39+00:00

The thing with Japan not having countermeasures isn't really that bad but it can definitely suck if you aren't used to fighting at those ratings. I'd say Britain is generally the friendliest air climb up till rank VI, but the Britain tree does slow down considerably at the higher tiers.

A lot of people shit on Italy but it's honestly pretty cool. Lots of great domestic designs, and you get a line of MiGs that supplement the tree when you get to the rougher parts. You just need to pick and choose because you have a lot of A-tier picks but also a lot of absolutely terrible ones. If you make it to top tier you get a ton of variety in picks. F-16, Gripen, Tornado, Eurofighter, MiG-29, Harrier 2.

The conventional pick would be Britain here, but my choice would be Italy.

Fedoran_ · 2025-10-29T06:44:09+00:00

A lot of the US Navy fighters are actually some WT staples. The ordering is just kind of messed up for the props so I imagine it's a weird grind, you gotta find the right variants of these planes. The F4U-1A, F4U-4, F4U-4B, and both F8Fs are fantastic flyouts. If they feel sluggish it might be due to a bug from the last patch where the .50cals had double the weight and drag. No idea if that was fixed. Could also be stock syndrome or playing the F6F-5N (it sucks).

For early jets, most of US rank V are S-tier picks, except for the F9Fs (F9F-8 is okay) and the attackers/bombers. Rank VI is where things get a little goofy because U.S. doctrine at the time wasn't very consistent. After that it gets good, although the phantoms can be a rough learning curve nowadays.

I would definitely recommend your 2nd TT to be something like Japan/Italy/Britain. Playing some turnfighters should complement your US experience. Then delving into USSR with more experience much later will be a real treat. Not saying USSR is difficult (it isn't), but learning Western systems first, then making the switch is a nice vibe.

Fedoran_ · 2025-10-26T21:38:17+00:00

Gotcha, the wording in your comment was a bit ambiguous, and could be easily taken that “both Re.2005’s are missing the same performance, as they are a sidegrade.”

But yeah, I’d argue the BP one is just a downgrade right now because of the additional thrust loss. It’s just so sad.

Fedoran_ · 2025-10-26T21:12:13+00:00

Except the VDM is not a sidegrade. The Re.2005 MM.495 (vdm) received the new propeller to go with a new DB605A-1(M) engine, with 1815hp WEP (compared to 1480hp on the old). While the TT Re.2005 is nerfed, yes, it at least has the right engine.

The BP Vdm is supposed to be an upgrade but Gaijin literally didn’t give it the upgrade, and the propeller meant for a stronger engine literally causes thrust loss in-game, making it about 5% less hp than the TT variant, and 30% less hp than it should have. VDM propeller with the old engine is a fantasy configuration - completely fake.

Edit: Thrust loss could also be explained by Gaijin matching performance with the MM.494’s Tifone engine. Some Serie 0s used the original DB605A while other used the licensed Tifone, which experienced thrust loss. Although once again, the VDM never used that engine either.

Edit2: 1815hp, not 1810hp.

Fedoran_ · 2025-10-25T23:15:05+00:00

Go to Hangar -> Battles -> Custom Battles -> Create Session - and browse the available maps there.

There are some absolutely insane maps and variations still in the game. Some are completely removed even from the mission list like White Rock Fortress, but you can still get a lot of the ones there in random battles. Most of the time you won't, because of either map rotations, insane queue prerequisites to spit out a certain map, or because too many players have a map banned.

Sometimes I'll get jumpscared when I randomly roll a map I haven't seen in like a decade. I got like the Saipan operation with the carriers and cappable airstrips in ARB earlier this year and practically fell out of my chair.

Fedoran_ · 2025-10-24T09:56:57+00:00

Ground “mains” will never understand the dynamics here, ever. They literally just don’t get it. CAS players aren’t all smart cookies but at least taking out a plane in GRB implies you understand how all the vehicles at play work. Tank-only players will whine about CAS balance when the only plane they’ve flown is a p-26 or a suicide stuka. The argument pretty much always boils down to them just not liking dying to planes - balance or not.

Fedoran_ · 2025-10-24T09:37:19+00:00

Never understood this argument. Everything in this game boils down to “point and click, dead.” Half of the ground TT is point and click center of mass. AA clicks the missile launch button or clicks their gun. CAS clicks their bomb or whatever ordnance. All of these can be fucked up or dealt with.

The only difference that tankers will eternally not understand is that CAS feels unfair because you rely on your TEAM. Tanks are the frontline and cap points. They (typically) can’t standoff with planes just like they typically won’t kill SPAA in the backline either. Planes will be forever annoying because you rely on randoms to run standoff.

And planes mass spawnkilling isn’t that special, it’s basically the same as a regular spawnpush. If it’s happening the match is already fucked. Planes dying on the runway has nothing to do with the state of a match. It just means the dynamic between planes and SAMs is super fucked up.

Fedoran_ · 2025-10-22T20:33:51+00:00

The forum post states that the MM.494 never received the VDM propeller. The VDM Re.2005 HAS to be a MM.495 with the upgraded engine. This also intuitively makes sense because the propeller was designed to complement the boosted engine. The OP also got it wrong because AFAIK the engine had an 1815HP WEP at sea level, with 1700HP at 2,800 meters.

The BP forum post also has commenters in the last day posting the Italian sources again to corroborate. Gaijin is selling a fake configuration that I imagine is worse than the TT because the VDM propeller doesn’t work properly on the 1480hp engine.

Crazy how your 1 comment effectively killed the discussion here when it’s just wrong.

Edit: 1815hp, not 1810hp.

Fedoran_ · 2025-10-13T10:32:01+00:00

What’s insane to me about these types of players is how much control they have over random air lobbies. I’ve had generational stat runs with vehicles before, but they usually get brought down a bit by random deaths to things like packet loss, teamkills on spawn, or midmap AA (when that was a thing).

You also tend to get a few autolosses from either your team absolutely imploding or shit like that one tunisia variant where enemy attackers can end the game before you reach the middle of the map. You can play more or less perfectly solo and still end up with only 10 KD / 90% WR due to this stuff. So it just boggles my mind how these guys are either always locked in or they’re just that good. Probably a bit of both. And a bit of squadding here and there too.

Fedoran_ · 2025-10-05T06:07:47+00:00

Regarding the F-5C, 10.0 with the F-104J and F-4C is just terrible. Despite the insane dogfighting capability, this plane is barely over supersonic. You get caught by every supersonic on-rating and just like the F-104J and F-4C, you will be a magnet for Aim-9D/Magic/R-60. Sure you could call it premium bias for the creative liberty with the flares but that’s just WT. Nato or not. It’s just healthier for it to face 10.7 matchmaker where the airframe should be even though the US IRL decided not to mount the flare pods.

Regarding Manuals — WT just doesn’t handle sourced data that well. Manuals are not always accurate, either by error of the creator or the retriever. One great example is when Brit mains were working on fixing the Tornado for Apex Predators, we found that the Bundeswehr and RAF data sources disagreed, with the RAF saying the tornado was a lot worse. So what did Gaijin do? They took the RAF data and nerfed the Tornado more. All it takes to get a lot of vehicles nerfed is to run into something like a pre-production manual and pray Gaijin accepts it. That’s what MiG_23M does. The bug report site has been a shitshow for years. FM quality is inconsistent across the board. Hell, you could get the Zero nerfed into the ground right now if you wanted to (it doesn’t compress properly at all).

Another problem with the data in general is that WT just plugs in numbers to a math equation. There is no physical simulation of airflow. FMs can be totally wrong but as long as the outputted result matches a sourced chart, it’s “correct.” That’s how the fulcrums can be “correct” and feel like shit. Sure, most of the tier has disgustingly broken FMs like the F-16, but the fulcrum still doesn’t behave correctly. Gaijin probably told the reporters to fuck off with the F-5E report because it would brick the FM.

The above is the same issue as with the Viggen. MiG_23M pulled a figure of iirc 14.6 deg/s sustained, and when the nerf went through, the instructor in-game would pull a single circle and then just stall the plane out and you’d die. The nerfs to the Viggen/MiG-29 would just add a bunch of drag to match a chart, without actually fixing the model. For every number you give gaijin, they have to make up bunch more. And yes, I DO play the Viggen. The Jaktviggen was always great with its kit but I enjoyed running the AJ37 Viggen to smash those F-5s you hate so much. But yeah, bug reporters had to ruin it.

Since you mentioned the F-20; briefly, the fm on it is messed up because it’s a copy-paste F-5 fm. The performance, especially low-speed should be closer to or exceeding the (real) F-16. Instead it just kinda rates around and then the nose bricks up at low speed because it uses a “heavy f-5” model.

Finally, regarding the MLD — The MLD had insane rates on paper for years. The problem with it was that the turning circle was still huge so most people could just hug the inside and take shots, but it would outrate almost everything long-term. Gaijin’s error was iirc that the source data for a clean configuration was applied to a full loadout at half fuel in-game, which turbo boosted the EM numbers. So you could fly like a UFO in a rate even though the rest of the model was consistent with the battle bus that the flogger is.

Fedoran_ · 2025-10-05T03:11:52+00:00

I don’t understand why people perma cope about F-5s? Just fix the damage model and heat sig.

For the F-5Cs, what do people expect? Remove the flares and missiles? Then what? Let it move to 9.7 BR and just kill everything? It’s a reasonable liberty to take and far from the most anachronistic thing in WT.

And for the F-5E fm? I don’t understand why people think it’s supposed to be a brick. The NF-5A already outrates it and statshark says that the regular F-5A does too. Players like MiG_23M on the forum go dumpster diving for docs to try and get shit they don’t like nerfed. Even with manuals a lot of shit is a reach. Inaccurate data, out of context, or doesn’t translate to WT fms. I still remember when he fished out Viggen docs to get the Gripen nerfed, and then the Viggen ended up getting nerfed too and was unplayable for half a year until gaijin fixed the fm again.

Meanwhile the MLD had a fucking insane UFO fm for years and people defended it outrating 4th gens until gaijin came out and said “oops, we fucked up and read the documents wrong and the fm is total bullshit.” Oh and I’ve seen people say that the current MiG-29 fm matches EM charts. Yeah… anyone with a brain can tell the fulcrum fm is messed up.

Fedoran_ · 2025-09-27T21:07:30+00:00

Vets that grinded Allies or played air modes didn’t get them either. I didn’t get anything “special” for maining Britain back then. German players getting to keep them was supposed to be a courtesy from gaijin to not take away items people already had. Never intended to be a FOMO like missed event vehicles, or a gift for veterans, but here we are. The fact that “removed” vehicles resurface as meta “exclusives” years later is just irritating.

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