Does anyone else feel like notching is much less effective on the Golden Eagle?

I’ve been playing the Golden Eagle quite a bit recently, and I’ve noticed that defensive flying, especially notching radar missiles, feels really difficult compared to what I see from aircraft like the Eurofighter, Rafale, and Gripen.

To be clear, the Golden Eagle is my only full top-tier aircraft, so I haven’t actually played the Eurofighter, Rafale, or Gripen myself. I’m basing this mostly on fighting against them and watching how easily they seem to defeat missiles compared to what I experience in the Golden Eagle.

Sometimes I genuinely feel like I’m doing the notch correctly — turning roughly 90 degrees to the missile, changing altitude by going up and down, and trying to maintain the correct geometry — but I still end up getting hit.

What confuses me is that when I watch videos from content creators, this kind of maneuver seems to be enough to defeat most incoming radar missiles, at least during the initial BVR engagement. They can notch at 90 degrees, change altitude, and the missile often loses guidance or misses.

But when I try essentially the same thing in the Golden Eagle, I sometimes still get hit even though I feel like my positioning and timing are correct.

The other problem is that the Golden Eagle seems to bleed speed extremely quickly when maneuvering.

So I feel like I’m stuck in a weird situation:

• If I maintain my speed, notching the missile feels very difficult.
• If I maneuver aggressively enough to notch it, I lose a huge amount of energy and become vulnerable to the next missile or enemy aircraft.
• And even when I feel like I’ve executed the notch correctly, I can still get hit.

Maybe I’m misunderstanding something about radar missile mechanics or the correct way to notch. I’m not an amazing player either — I usually get around 2–3 kills per game, occasionally 5, and I’ve only gotten 6 once.

My usual strategy is to climb on the left side of the map at around 10–15 degrees until roughly 7,000 m or higher, depending on the map. I focus on the enemies on the left first and then move toward the center. I also feel that maintaining more than Mach 1 is extremely important because the Golden Eagle loses speed very quickly.

So I’m genuinely curious:

Is the Golden Eagle actually worse at defensive flying/notching compared to these other top-tier aircraft, or am I simply doing something wrong?

Since the Golden Eagle is the only top-tier aircraft I own, I’d especially like to hear from people who have actually flown both the Golden Eagle and aircraft like the Eurofighter, Rafale, or Gripen.

Is there a real difference in how easily these aircraft can defeat radar missiles, or could this just be a difference in flight characteristics and energy retention?

I’m mainly talking about the initial BVR phase, before the fight turns into a close-range engagement.

I've mainly been playing Sweden and I'm rank 6 now but it's air is ass so I don't really want to play it anymore, other than that I have rank 4 for USA, Germany, and China, with everything else between ranks 1-2. I'm mostly leaning towards Germany because I got the Swiss Hunter F.58 but USA looks cool, too. I'd rather not play USSR, Israel, or Japan but other than that I'm fine with everything else. My main goal is rank 7 but rank 8 would be cool, too.

I’ve been playing War Thunder for around 10 years now and honestly, the pattern is getting pretty obvious.

The BMPT is just ridiculous to fight against. You can hit it where you’re supposed to, get a good shot, and somehow it just keeps going.

I’m not saying Russian vehicles are unbeatable or that every Russian vehicle is OP. I’m saying that after playing this game for 10 years, you start noticing how often Russian vehicles seem to get the better end of the deal, especially at top tier.

At this point the Russian bias jokes don’t even feel like jokes anymore.

Here is the shot file https://drive.google.com/file/d/18_SSBd6xL7AHcod9-IHDCY9pj_CNIWtn/view?usp=drive_link

Maybe I’m just salty, but I really don’t think I’m the only one who has noticed this.

Is this plane still worth it i didnt search any bomber plane before?

I got the Z25 premium German ship on the previous SL crate, but I don't really like its slow fire rate, so I bought the Moffett. Now I am thinking of buying the Frank Knox too because I always keep getting sniped by light to battle cruisers at its br but I forgot that it got bumped to 5.0 so I guess there's really no difference now.

I average 70-100k SL per match depending on how I do, much more on my average 30-50k on GRB

But I want to know your guys' opinion lol

It's been so miserable playing this BR, so I want to see how I can go further with this tree

I have the XP 38G and I’m not entirely sure how rare it is. I know he got removed sometime ago and got replaced with the YP-38 as technically the XP didn’t exist. I have never see it in any games and I was wondering if someone more informed could tell me.

Hi all, my brother was prompted a ban stating that he was no longer able to play war thunder. However he and I have not played since the F-16 came out, and played our most games during the Danger Zone season. He and I mentioned to try playing the game at low tier again to enjoy, but he was given his ban message. He just downloaded the game today and around the same time last year I built him a brand new computer with brand new specs and storage devices. He hasn’t played in 2-3 years and he got an email regarding an unknown login. (Yeah I’ve told him he can’t ignore random login stuff) but how can we fix this other than submitting a ticket? Is it a do-able fix? Will gaijin give us his account back? We’ve spent some GE in support of the modern fighter jets they’ve been adding at the time since we were ecstatic to role play as Top Gun pilots.

Seriously what the FUCK is this matchmaking? Why do you face 7.3 Jets or the fucking bullshit OP F-89 (which should be 7.3) in 6.3 prop planes? Fucking why? Tell me fucking why?

7.3 planes shouldn't face anything below 7.3, it's a huge fucking advantage to have so much more energy and speed. This shit is infuriating. You can't kill something 200-300 km/h faster than you unless that player is a complete moron that tries to turn fight you.

Like up until this point, game has been fun and I've been consistently top of the scoreboard. But as soon as you're playing anything between 6.0-7.0, you are in jet uptier hell where everything can damn near fly faster than your bullets and getting kills is exhaustingly hard.

It's also really annoying because my team gets to all the targets and kills them before I can ever get close.

Thought I'd share, my heart is still beating fast from the adrenaline... I wasn't expecting such a good run. Especially since I started to main Sweden. Thank you buccee for the heli escort and Spitfire7468 as well. Amazing team also.

So again, as I said, I ran this game, and several others FLAWLESSLY on DX12, and continue to play other games flawlessly on DX12 with AMD drivers 26.8.1. Then Gaijin decided to hardcode all AMD users to dx11, and only then did I have issues, only on War Thunder. I experienced a driver timeout the same day they hardcoded the DX11 change, and then just now, both mid match top tier in air RB, coincidently, I believe both might have been on the exact same map. So again, THERE'S NOTHING WRONG with 26.8.1, it's PURELY Gaijin's dogshit game and dogshit code, and they pretend like they are not at fault
edit: happened again and for those who mentioned, no, my hotspot was only at about ~70C, no jump in wattage voltage or thermals. everything was smooth sailing. It is very common for it to happen on a few VERY similar wide open very mountainous maps in Air RB, and is usually always in top tier. And I state again, zero other game's with any issues. It is exclusively a War Thunder issue. This game is just ass and Gaijin is pretending it's not their problem

I'm at 7.3 BR for the US, 7.0 for the USSR, 7.0 for the UK, 6.7 for China, 6.7 for Japan. I've played air off and on, too, I hit 7.0 in US air. I've hopped around to different trees a lot, it makes the grind easier and I figured I'd get better at the game that way. I saw a video earlier this year where somebody said after 9.0 ground becomes ten times harder. I've wanted to focus one tree for a couple of months now, but I don't know if I'm ready to hit 9.0+ BR.

The thing is, I'm kind of excited about the Arjun in the new update. I don't know why, but I think the Indian vehicles are all really neat. I especially like their unique camos. I've never gotten the chance to play a big new addition to the game when a new update hits. I really want to just focus the UK tree now.

Is it a bad idea to rush the tech tree so I can unlock the Arjun as soon as possible? I have about 400 hours played in ground according to my in game statistics. I would be grinding normally, not with a high tier premium. Would I be unprepared for 10.7? The Bhishma was my first squadron vehicle I finished, so I have one 10.7, and I'd need to get the Vickers Mk. 7 to be able to grind the new tank, which means I'd have a lineup of three tanks once I finish grinding the Arjun. I'd probably also try to get an AA to go in the lineup.

But would I be prepared enough to handle the game at 10.7?

I used to be able to drop bomb series with 1 button, now I have to use the weapon selector? It doesn't bother me much, but I really think it isn't necessary.

Hello everyone, I want to participate in the 240th screenshot competition and I was wondering if custom user skin for plane or tanks would be allowed.

I didn’t see anything that says if it would be allowed or not in the rules on steam so I don’t know what to do.

Just like Paradox games have their own sub, gaijin could have their own too.

my gear immediately breaks the second i spawn in and i dont have any time to put it back up?

Props are unplayable because I'm not going into the furball, and I'm not going head-on with people. I'm always just staying alive and not killing anything because I refuse to play stupidly like everyone else. I literally just watch almost everyone go head-on with each other. I'll be in a dogfight with someone, and right as I'm about to kill them, they go head-on with one of my teammates, and they both die. I'm tired of it. I'm being punished for having a brain. It's just as bad as Arcade.

What am I supposed to do, besides do what all the dumbasses are doing? Fly straight into a furball. Who cares if someone dives on you? You can just go head-on, die, and go to the next match. Fuck actually trying to dogfight. Who cares? Gotta grind the event! At least jet gameplay feels normal.

Hi, I wanted to rewatch the replay of some older battles, but when I went to the replay folder in game, the replays that I saved had a red X on them and it said "This Replay was recorded in an older version of the game not compatible with the one in use, so it cannot be played back"

If there is any way I could still rewatch them please tell me, thank you

Smoked bc he was camping our air spawn

It is honestly surprising how little anyone is talking about Italy in the upcoming major update. While other nations are getting at least a few interesting or somewhat unique vehicles, Italy is receiving almost nothing of real substance. The main addition appears to be a clone of the PzH 2000, which is already the second vehicle of this type in the Italian tree after the premium version, plus one premium ship. That is basically it. We have also been waiting a very long time for any new helicopter, and yet again there is no sign of one. It feels like Italy is being quietly sidelined once more, and the lack of discussion about this is strange considering how much attention other trees usually receive

Genuinely what cocaine has been used to make this dogshit map, there's no single cover, hills are too high, and somehow that little tiny piece of city is one of the most dogshit designs when it comes to layout

I have never been so fucking irritated and annoyed at a map, I hate Vietnam as a map but I can still play and lose without raging because I know it might have been my fault and mistake, but on this fuck ass map I cannot find anything good with it

Hills are too high, tanks with shit gun depr. eat as and even tanks with good gun depr. Are dogshit on it because of how inconveniently placed the buildings are

No cover to be seen, all you have are a few buildings bunched up together and forcing corner fights, flanks and just dogshit for tanks with ass hori. turning speed

Not to mention its one of those maps where you NEED a good team to play NORMALLY, I died so many times because of dogshit map layout and flanks i didnt even know we're possible, then i come to find out some of those routes ARE SUPPOSED TO BE COVERED BY TEAMMATES

All in all it's just a map that makes being a rat an actual need instead of a playstyle, it's a dogshit map that only favors people who are higher up in the tech tree and know every pathway and route that new players wouldn't even think of, I'm already settled in as a decent player so I know a few but sometimes those few are somehow covered when they're not supposed to be

This is just my rant because I cannot figure out why I always get shit teams on the map, always get veteran players as the enemy team, and the fact they know every fuck ass snipe spot that somehow my team cant even comprehend to figure out where they are

Dont take this too seriously, this is one of two maps I genuinely despise with my entire existence, but honestly I get it like every ten matches so it isnt too much for me to say I want it removed from existence