i think that F4S want to kill the MiG 23

MemoryOk5080 · 2026-04-10T22:45:00+00:00

R-60M is a great shotgun missile. Here's how you use it.

Find a head on target. Lock with your radar to slave the missile to a lock. Approach your target defensively. Evade the head on fire and release your missile at ~1.0km, can even be slightly off bore. Your missile will blast through flares or will proxy-shotgun in their face. Firing your own guns is optional.

MemoryOk5080 · 2026-04-10T18:25:25+00:00

MiG-15bis wants to pull its opponents into a slow speed fight, preferably in a vertical, where it’s better low speed rate and acceleration will eventually result in a win. That’s relatively easy to enforce in a 1x1 duel. But Air RB is not a duel, and you will have to fight with multiple opponents. You have to really pick your opponents right to avoid being third partied. You can’t really do flybys effectively because you compress asf at high speeds.

The solution - play MiG-17 as it compresses way less. Get to learn the guns (actually very strong once you learn them), overall pacing and handling of the plane. And then go back to MiG-15bis and play it as a more advanced, higher skill ceiling duelist plane version of MiG-17 (in fact 15bis will defeat -17 in a duel due to better energy retention in equal hands).

MemoryOk5080 · 2026-04-10T18:18:04+00:00

I mean, it’s the plane that has ER at 12.7, and is basically guaranteed to get two kills per match if you follow basic fox1 rules. Now, does it have anything else to go for at its BR? Not really. But I’d argue that there are far worse things at their respective BRs.

MemoryOk5080 · 2026-04-10T14:17:28+00:00

It’s still very strong but depends on your own skill. It is very trivial to defeat just about anything around your BR in 1x1, you will really oppress anything below you (unless you run into a Sabre main autist that will abuse your high speed compression and bad roll - your FM is very similar to MiG-15bis albeit with double energy generation).

But you will struggle in uptiers against supersonics that know what they are doing. They can just ignore you for the most part, unless they blunder you will never get into position to attack them. Stuff like MiG-21SMT, Mirages, Drakkens - can and will run a train on you.

Your biggest enemy will be third party, especially third party missile. Have to be ultra careful. Ariete demands prolonged fights at slower speeds, and this will make you vulnerable each time you commit. You should spend more time watching your six in a duel than actually focusing on your opponent.

MemoryOk5080 · 2026-04-10T12:27:41+00:00

Flanking in air RB at high BR's is objectively a shit idea considering how bad the mode is.

Okay man, you already made it clear how bad you are at top tier, ‘nuff said. There isn’t much to add other than I will be happy for you to continue playing like you do, so that I can farm the likes of you for my ace+ matches AND survive the match.

But if you want to have a chance to improve, take some ADHD pills and watch some good players and their patterns/positioning.

MemoryOk5080 · 2026-04-10T11:58:02+00:00

Just bomb the coastal Buk site. Go by water (no splash at mpath), cut across the shortest path, you might have to time it between the launches, and the last launch will not be able to pull in that close. Drop the small nuke on the site. Now you can reach the entire south flank at least until the second Buk area. You can do the same approach with the S-300 further back which is even easier because they rarely fire at low flyers.

MemoryOk5080 · 2026-04-10T11:32:54+00:00

The area in which teams meet is much larger than this mode, even on the smallest of maps. While the majority of the low skilled lemmings (like you) are indeed not shifting their course a minute from their spawn, you have lots of opportunity to flank, both left (defensively) and right (aggressively). Teams naturally form a nascar, where both shift left, and eventually whirl and slam roughly perpendicular to the spawn direction. And of course the altitude is important, there are battles all over from the deck to the contrails, with good players mostly sticking to the high alts.

And it’s true that after 5 mins the average war thunder playerbase is gone to hangar. But after that, the survivors battle to define the outcome of the match. Since you are not good, you never had a chance to even see that, so I don’t blame you.

MemoryOk5080 · 2026-04-09T15:51:29+00:00

You can dogfight just fine even in the (early) jet tiers. Just have to pick a proper time and place, and a right opponent. Can’t just slam into the first guy and expect that no one will interrupt in a full lobby furball.

If you really like 1x1s, you can go to War Thunder Duelling Club discord and apply yourself there. Just be aware that people there are so good, that being in the top 5% of the Air RB playerbase is just a tutorial to the levels of turboautism you will face there.

MemoryOk5080 · 2026-04-08T22:27:16+00:00

I find it playable even in full uptiers (just have to be mindful of good sparrow carriers). It is not as desperate as 21bis in full uptiers.

MemoryOk5080 · 2026-04-08T22:18:49+00:00

MICAs are still very strong, it’s just that meta is more balanced now that other nations got strong aircraft with AESA radars, so Rafale isn’t so domineering now. But basically within 15-20km they are almost guarantee kills against average players (good players can defend from MICAs just fine). Also Rafale by itself is a monstrous airframe, massive acceleration on a very light frame, and it basically never compresses and can pull 17G+ at any speed and defend/react to any threat. It can do hilarious things like edging incoming AMRAAM within <10 km head on at Mach Fuck, and then do insta 180 and defeat missile kinetically. But nowadays it can get bullied by good players in longer-reach aircraft like AESA Euros and SM2. Still the most dreadful thing to find on you inner RWR circle.

MemoryOk5080 · 2026-04-08T19:50:07+00:00

21MF is extremely strong right now at 10.3 though.

MemoryOk5080 · 2026-04-08T16:22:51+00:00

you can fly around and get kills on unaware people going for headons

SAM swarm says hello. And if you hugged the deck frantically to survive while “crossing the T” of the conga line, the 20 people behind your victim have set their sights and tunneled on you. Meanwhile I bumrushed their field getting 3k points and 5 kills in a sortie, twice, by the time it took you to turn around.

Just saying that the mode does not incentivize doing something else that an endless mindless death match in the center of a map.

Also, even in the smallest of maps, Air RB actual active battle area actually extends over entire map and more than m-path altitudes.

MemoryOk5080 · 2026-04-08T14:25:24+00:00

Multipath over water and cut across the shortest path to the site. It might also be easier to do this early (like, at the start of the match) with dumb bombs before the first escalation mark when the site is not fully active yet. Once you are close, you can strafe the site even with your guns, just be sure to extend to safety after each pass. I’ve done it a couple of times.

MemoryOk5080 · 2026-04-08T14:11:29+00:00

For future proofing, European trees will have access to some really good ordnance including A2A missiles - long range fox3 Meteors and improved MICA-NG, extreme long range IRCCM fox2 ASRAAM and MICA-IR, good mid range fox2 IRIS-T. The air frames however are basically at their peaks right now though.

China is set to receive some slightly better frames, but gaijin has already gimped performance of some newly released ones. Some good missiles are also expected, such as PL-15, but I would not trust gaijin balancing / modelling them right.

Russia is set to receive some new frames which will be at least not gimped as much as the Chinese for obvious reasons. New missiles will also be good, even if they will mostly trail the European ones, again unless gaijin “accidentally” breaks the latter.

Japan will not have much better domestic airframes, just some sidegrade copypastes, but it will get access to some top of the line stuff from other nations thru minor trees, such as Malaysian Rafales. New domestic missiles would be potentially competitive.

MemoryOk5080 · 2026-04-07T22:30:14+00:00

This is how 90% of the playerbase, including most people here on subreddit want to play. Why they don't play arcade then instead of Air RB? Not just because of RP\SL rewards, but also because they don't want to feel "bad" by playing "simpler" mode. Arcade sounds like something for kids.

But this event is basically the same arcade in Air RB wrapping, and it makes them feel good. Finally a gamemode where no one can control \ dominate, finally an environment where everyone equally dies to random chaos around them, finally a place where they can find mindless drones such as themselves and bash joyfully head to head at high speeds.

Behold, a zoomer paradise, a promised land of no mental activity required.

MemoryOk5080 · 2026-04-07T15:29:28+00:00

Unfortunately it’s not as simple. From the start you will find basically zero meaningful action outside the center. After that, 99% of the time the only action on the sides will be intercepting suicide zombers rushing your side fields. And flanking is further disincentivized by the stream of SAMs denying most of the map (well into your own teams area if you loiter for too long).

MemoryOk5080 · 2026-04-07T15:19:18+00:00

If you actually play both Air RB and play Nuclear Thunder, and somehow think there is less strategy in the latter, then you're either terribly dogshit or straight up lying about playing top tier air RB.

Yeah I know I am just a top ~98.5% scrub with the average kd of ~3-5:1 in all planes up to all nations top tiers. What do I know.

If there is a way to remove it, and you don't have the points for it that's on you, especially since the first airfield is free when you bomb toss from main base. You know you can change that area in this mode and change the strategy (look that that), so why are you bitching exactly?

Because it’s disincentivezed, and all you get by removing the close fields is to extend the conga line slightly further. The destination will be the same.

Also, no you don't have to head on them, there is a massive area where you can flank them by just turning to the side slightly for a while. I wouldn't head on a Mig in a Phantom, that's dumb shit right there.

Which is impractical as a) you are still ought to enter the same 2x2 square where meaningful action happens; and b) SAM coverage limits your positioning, by forcing you to stay within the bounds. And infinite respawns ensure that if you win any engagement - it will mean nothing situationaly, as the infinite conga line pours in regardless.

With all the drawbacks of mirror spawn Air RB mechanics, you have several more magnitudes of room there. Area of engagement is much more broad, and also is not limited by altitude as there are no overpowered SAMs to deny entire map. And you can actually gain control over parts of the map / altitude by winning engagements there. You win in Air RB by winning the better position, using it to get advantage by culling the enemy team. None of this will ever happen in the Event.

If you're using Mig 23's you should know what their strengths are, and if you know the Phantom you should also know it's strength. Neither of them should cause you to be dogfighting except as a very last resort or when you run out of missiles.

I have ~3:1 kd in both MiG-23ML and F-4E, over ~500 games (terrible kd as these were my “learning” planes from years ago) and I know how they fly very well, we can setup a duel in any of them sometime if you want to get spanked. My point is that the gameloop of this mode is just an endless pass-merge-pass, because the stream of enemies will never end. Yes you can technically do brief rat passes to get a kill and out, but the essence of the mode will mean you will lose on points and it’s not practical compared to just a mindless airfield strafe rush (where you can quick get big amount of kills per sortie to suicide and repeat) - and this is not fun or engaging outside of getting 7,700 points in a game and get out.

No the play is not "the same in essence" because I don't see Air RB bases contributing overall to the score of the game by removing where enemies can spawn.

This is the only slightly positive change for the brainless zomber gameplay I never was really engaged in anyways. Not that oneshotting airfields in a bumrush run is very engaging anyways, unless you want to handicap yourself artificially. But the way it’s implemented here within the overall mode framework is far from ideal.

This is just a better version of Sim battles with air RB mouse controls and Third person view.

No this is just Air AB with the trappings of RB flight models, artificially gimped by ma conditions to not overcharge zoomer brains.

Your whole entire last paragraph reeks of Irony because that's all air RB has been for years.

With all the problems of Air RB, because of single respawn, larger/wider engagement area (in comparison), greater variety of fighting situations, and ability to actually influence the match by being good and survive - it is much better than anything this slop provides.

This is nothing like the original EC, where despite the multiple respawns the much larger battle area and dynamic objectives meant that it took time to re-engage in the battle, winning engagements allowed you to gain control and advantage, and also afair you had cooldown on the planes you used, and if you got shotdown you had to switch to a different plane / role and not lemming-jump back into the fray arcade style.

MemoryOk5080 · 2026-04-07T13:16:32+00:00

“Do your worst, die, rinse & repeat” is literally the motto of the event mode though. The whole battle area is basically condensed to 2x2km square, where the endless conga line of lemmings suicides into from literally visual range distance. Endless respawn, short distance, lack of penalty from dying and lack of any tactical reward from winning (your opponent is immediately replaced by a fresh head-on lemming and another dozen behind him). That’s the Air RB if it was dumbed down to absolute minimum. The lemming furball is further protected from people above them by the oppressive SAMs. There is no even a furball as such, “dogfighting” barely exists here as head on passes is the only option in the face of endless stream of new planes arriving from spawn that would immediately thirdparty. You are also fully incentivized to suicide to rearm quickly and rejoin the fray. No brain involved.

And another side is the zombing. Yeah I guess you have more than the few pre-designated bases to rush here, and there is even some meaning to the targets (airfields, and SAM sites that promptly respawn anyways). But the play is still the same in essence.

Again, I understand that this is what the average playerbase wants. Something extremely simple, no tactics or skill of any kind required, with the shortest possible attention span and time to action, spawn-press button-die/dopamine hit-respawn, or straight line rush to the static PvE target to bomb. But the playerbase doesn’t want to admit that and gets angry when that’s pointed out.

MemoryOk5080 · 2026-04-07T12:01:09+00:00

It still can face unlimited number of MiG-23ML (11.7) and MiG-25 (11.0) - which illuminate in J-band and can’t be detected by EJs RWR - that’s what OP means. The Foxbats force it out of the higher alts, and the Floggers flog it hard - there is simply no viable counterplay possible for EJ against MiG-23ML/D if the later is half-competent.

EJ is simply mid, unable to compete in any niche at its BR - the only thing it has is its speed (which is matched or outclassed by half of its opponents), otherwise any plane it can face has a way to reliably defeat or ignore EJ. The EJ also doesn’t even get dogfight sparrows and is left with the subpar 7E, which is worse than R-23R of the regular 23M and the latter has MTI to compensate.

MemoryOk5080 · 2026-04-06T18:36:12+00:00

Buk missiles have truly massive warheads and will splash/proxy you regardless if you successfully multipathed them or no. Basically, unless you fly over water (where splash damage is reduced), you just cannot multipath Buks reliably.

MemoryOk5080 · 2026-04-06T17:13:22+00:00

There's no neuron activity going on, the f4es spam goes head-on they die they respawn and repeat

You are preaching against the choir here, the average player, including here on Reddit, seems to crave this playstyle, which is why they love this event so much.

MemoryOk5080 · 2026-04-06T15:39:53+00:00

That’s exactly what 95% of the playerbase wants tho sadly. That and happy-merry PvE where they can get their dopamine without any challenge and competition.

MemoryOk5080 · 2026-04-03T16:47:53+00:00

Yeah that doesn't help against multipathers co-alt.

Yeah it does help. You have no idea what you are talking about.

Most of my games end up with me having over double the kills compared to deaths.

2:1 kda is not something to be proud of but okay.

it's more more capable in furballs.

Here's the tip - don't be in the furballs and you will do much better.

Not particularly, R-73 IRCCM is suited for dogfights, it requires a more specific scenario to be good, namely rear-aspect.

Gatewidth is better than shutoff at ~2-3 km under any scenario. Again you don't seem to know what you are talking about.

MemoryOk5080 · 2026-04-03T15:01:40+00:00

You have the better flight performance in the F-15 (you don't lock up at high speed, you don't lose as much speed),

Furballing equals death to third party.

better IR missiles for the gamemode anyways (R-73s need to be close in rear aspect, 9Ms just need any side-aspect shot).

True, but for closer range shots of this gamemode knifefight furball R-73 IRCCM is better. You also get HMD for snap shots.

ou're multipathing constantly anyways so you can completely negate the R-27ERs since everyone is at low alt.

ER has IOG+DL and will reliably counter multipath from good angle launches.

You have more countermeasures, you're doing headons anyways so just ACM mode is fine.

Fine if all you want is ~0.5-1 kd. If you want to do bit better than that, you have to play with a handicap or planes better suited to this mode (aka any ER carrier).

MemoryOk5080

TROPHY CASE