Fightercraft Maneuvers & Formations

Standard Manuvers Burnout Hit the afterburners and increase speed until your pursuer is no longer gaining on you or the afterburners finish their burn. Then perform as tight a 180 turn as you can handle; if your target is within your cone of fire, open up on him. Fishhook Calculate the new heading you want. Turn to a heading which is at a 180 angle off that figure, then almost immediately make a 180 turn to your coarse of choice. For instance, if you are on a 0 course and you want to make a 90 left turn, you first make a 90 right turn, then follow up immediately with a 180 turn. Hard Brake Reduce forward velocity as quickly as you can. If you brake sooner, harder, and better than your pursuer, he will overshoot you and enter your cone of fire. Open up on him. Kickstop Make a hard 90 turn in any direction and hold your new course for a moment. If your pursuer overshoots and doesn't turn in your wake, do a 180 spin back and open fire. Roll Close on your target while performing a corkscrew roll. Shake Also called Zig-Zag. Perform back-and-forth 45 evasive manuevers while closing on a target. Varying between shake and Roll tactics while closing is usually termed a Shake, Rattle, and Roll. Sit-'n'-Kick An evasive manuever especially useful against large ships. Make a 90 turn in any direction. Shut off engines and spin to face your target; open fire. Then make another random 90 turn and hit your afterburners. Sit-'n'-Spin Kill your engines and perform a 360 spin, firing on any targets that enter your cone of fire. Once you've spun to your orginal course, re-engage engines and continue. Tail You all know how to tail a target ship. But don't forget: Until you're sure of your most effective tailing range, try and maintain a range of 1000 meters, the "by-the-book" range. Tight Loop Perform a minimum-radius turn in any direction until you resume the course you held at the beginning of the manuever. Properly performed, this will put you behind your pursuer, or at least shake him off your tail for a moment. Turn-'n'-Spin This is like the Kickstop, except that you also kill engine power. Formations 1. Alpha-One Standard triangle shaped formation. Wing Commander in front with one WingMan to each side. 2. Alpha-Two Resembles a sloping line. Wing Commander at front with both WingMen on his left side and slightly behind. 3. Alpha-Three Wing Commander and WingMen in straight line. 4. Beta-One Resembles a triangle when seen head on. Wing Commander at top with WingMen below and on each side. 5. Beta-Two Wing Commander in Middle with WingMen above and below 6. Beta-Three Resembles Beta-One, except the Wing Commander is slightly behind his Wingmen instead of ahead of them.