The Coming Of The Goblin

If you read the World of Warplanes announcement here or saw it on the portal, no doubt some of you already took off down the interest to look the plane up....

McDonnell XF-85 Goblin.

Without going into too much detail, I will briefly touch on what interests me about this aircraft and what doesn't.

First, I like the "Buck Rogers" look to it. The whole squished F-86 appearance of it does remind me of the same tiered Blohm und Voss P.210, but with a Western twist. Secondly, it's a jet, so that piques my interest almost immediately.

One thing I don't like about it, historically armed with only 4X.50 cal machine guns. I could see this plane struggling at the upper tiers, based on my own experience with the FJ-1 Fury, which is armed with 6X.50 cal in total. I am rather curious to how maneuverable it will be in the game, which could be a strong determination of what would be the less penalized playstyle for it.

And of course, since it's a tier IX aircraft, acquiring one isn't going to be an easy task, I suspect.

During last month's Operation Westwall event, I saw a lot of comments, from both sides of the fence, on the mission requirements and available time needed to park just one of the aircraft into a player's hangar, let alone both. I can accept this should be a challenge (seriously, it's an earnable tier IX) and for some, this plane will be an out-or-reach goal (real life events, poor timing and other things that can/will prevent a player from obtaining the Goblin). Others will make "jumping the hurdles" look so easy (or make claims to the effect), which could inspire some to preserve through the journey, or just anger and alienate others from the quest.

I don't have any details of what will be needed to get a Goblin, so this last comment of perspective might turn out to be a moot point.