Basic ACM

[Hayze]

Okay Pigs.. A piglet here needs some help.

I find myself lacking in basic ACM. I understand the rudimentary concept of managing Energy. It can be in the form of Altitude or Speed, and you can trade one for the other. The problem is- I am not sure how to approach situations.

Specifically, I am not sure what to do in varying situations on the merge. If the con is lower than me, I usually go into some kind of Split or corkscrew dive thing. If he is higher than me- I kind of freeze up because I have no idea what to do. No matter how fast I am going- I always feel slow when flying level at no climb or descent. I find myself always having to check my instruments just to make sure I have some sort of speed.

Also, when someone is on my 6. I am pretty sure I have no idea what to do. I usually go in the form of some sort of barrel roll. But I am not sure how to capitalize on a situation and reverse the position. I know there are probably a ton of variables that come into play here- plane vs plane, energy state, etc.

I find myself wanting to fly more of a BnZ style fight in a Pony/F4U/Spit-whateverthatoneis... but I end up in a low alt, low E turn fight.. which is why I switched over to the Spixteen/Seafire and have found some moderate success. Especially with the hard hitting cannons. How does one fly in a BnZ style fight if cons have more E and plan to do the same to you? I guess this will all come back with practice/experience- just looking for advice, tips, links, AH films, etc.

Thanks guys

[HamHawk]

You know I've been playing this game for almost a year and still have no idea what to do in the situations Hayze describes I just try shit, . If some of the experienced pigs xcould possible go into the TA on a few nights with Hayze and I it would be appreciated, I know some basic barrell roll scissors, hi/lo yo yo but the thing that gets me most is maintaining E. I guess its like knowing martial arts.. in my case I know enough to get my ass kicked really well.

[Babalon]

Always good seeing people ask for this type of help. First option and one of the best available to you comes from outside the squad and the AH community, keep your eye open for any training clinic on Basic ACM hosted by Rolex in the AH Trainers forum, or simpley shoot him a PM and he will graceously set you up with another trainer or set some time aside for you.

Second, we as a squad can help you out almost nightly and whenever you're on and flying with us. You've probabley been around our VOX for a bit now, so you know it's best to keep the questions consice and short, but you'll get lots of input.


Basic ACM is brought up in discussing more advanced ACM manuevers for gun solutions and winning a fight. It can take you less than 20 minutes to get a solid foundation on the Basics, but mastering them and then combinging them into succesful combat engagements will be ongoing throughout your cartoon flyign career. It's a gradual stepping up in complicatedness: Torque and throttle control, lag and lead persuit (pointing your craft to where your target is going to be or where they just were), powered through turns, controlled tight (edge of stall) flat-turns, controlled and tight to very wide barrel rolls, controlled and tight to very wide loops, high yo-yos, low yo-yos, wingovers, and probabley a couple other I'm missing.

It's all based on 1 v 1 concepts, no wingman tactics involved into the strategy at the point of learning Basic ACM, though once again when you get into those, Basic ACM is the language you need to know.

In your situation of diving down on a lower con, retaining your E advantage is your best bet. Most players will execute a flat-turn when you're gettign into guns range - basicly throttle off, a fast 90-deg roll and then pull hard ~90-deg and the go back to full throttle, this is a basic ACM used to counter BnZ tactics, as they are already the slower con and they are taking that adantage to turn faster and tighter than you barreling down on their high-6 at +450mph.

At this point as the attacker you have two prime choices to conserve your E and counter this flat-turn, both best executed as soon afterwards as you see the target begin their turn to conserve more of your E. Either pull back up and go wide and reset your perch advantage for another run on the target's six (best if you have a huge E advantage), or a yo-yo (likely a very high one, depending on how much more E/speed than your target you have).

high_speed_yoyo.jpg

^High Yo-yo. As the target begins its flat left-hand turn, you pull up quickly and "bounce" up, gradualy do a rolled-bank-turn as your speed decreases and altitude increases over your target (depending on the differences in E-states of both planes, the attacker could bounce many thousands of feet up above the target, or only a couple hundred - so if you have a lot of speed, you're gonna be bouncing way up above him, this is one option to consider on why it may be better to simply reset for another run if you have a massive difference). You'll eventually be slow and high and turning into their trajectory below you if they have continued with their manuever without any change, you can now nose down and into them and either throttle off to avoid an overshot or power-on to BnZ.

[Cheese]

Hayze/Killo - all great points. Like anything else, the first thing you need to do is just read read read read, and become familiar with the terms and tactics. The AH Trainers site is fantastic (plus it's not blocked and I can read it at work!)

http://trainers.hitechcreations.com/

THEN - you just need to get experience. Experience and learning the timing. Fly a lot and DON'T ever worry about your score.

Get US Rangers Offline mission 'Rune's Rumble' and load it up and practice offline. It's 16 Spit 8's vs 16 109G2's Pick a side and go. The AI drones get stupid after a while, but they are pretty good the first couple of merges.

Wing up with your friendly neighborhood Piggy and follow, listen, and learn. That's the cool thing about being in a good squad - you can pick up key points a lot faster instead of banging your head against a wall.

Many more ideas will come to me later, but that's it for now...

Cheese

[Changeup]

I few things to get you started that I think will help you.

1. Alt is life, even in an on-the-deck scrum. Always think that your first move should be UP. When turning flat, nose above the horizon...that causes speed to diminish and your turn rate will be faster. The guy that makes the smallest circle wins (in a 1 v 1 scenario). To help you in those low-slow UP situations remember FLAPS. They will save your life in most planes.

2. When you see a bogey from behind your 3-9 line, always turn INTO your attacker if you want/have to fight and remember two things: If he was higher, he will be faster than you which makes you more maneuverable. Co-alt equals maneuverability more but then you have to know what he is flying vs what you are flying.

3. If you get b n z'd from behind by a faster, diving con, BARREL ROLL HIM. It works 80% of the time. Chop your throttle, and draw a big circle with your nose...a nice circle...not a bumpy circle. He wont hang with you. If you fly the plane he is flying then you should know which side to barrel roll to cause him the most difficulty. (DODGER is the best in the squad to know which planes can't turn which direction. If you are caught and he is online, be sure to ask him while you are in the fight...he knows)

4. German planes behind you? FLAT TURN THEIR ASS...80% of the time it will work. Some German variants turn real well, but none turn great. Pull flat until you go black for a full two count. Slowly release back pressure on the stick to open the blackout circle and start looking for him.

5. The Krupnski Reversal - I call it that because he taught it to me...come see me ingame and I will show it to you. Its great to get one more kill on the way home.

6. Let the good guys take you to the DA and WEAR YOUR ASS OUT. Every one of them will tell you what you did wrong, what they did right and why they did it. Deck fighters and alt fighters are typically different guys...me, Im a deck guy and am worthless at anything above 8K. We have a ton of both in the squad so seek out BOTH...you will need it.

7. Managing E and fighting at alt is an art form in this game. Be patient...and have fun because you are gonna die a lot.

[Cheese]

Hayze (and all you other Pigs),

Here is a document I put together based on 'Boelcke's Dicta', adding in how it's applicable in Aces High.

Please take a look and review and comment on it. I tried to add in AH specific pointers - please add any other you may think of. I hope to add in Pics and Screenshots of appropriate examples as well.

Hope this helps a bit,

Cheese

[Waystin2]

You already got some great info from several great pilots and you will need to experiment with all of it to see what works. I'll add some more info from my own framework.

I am primarily what you would call an E fighter. I prefer the Spitfire family of planes over most others. My approach is always to spend as little as my E as possible, while bleeding as much of my opponents E as possible. A vampire so to speak. When I say E, it is a combination of the potentital energy avaialble to use based on a given situation (your speed and altitude vs. their speed and altitude).

Here is how I apply it for the specific areas you talked about:

Lower con:
A corkscrew down to lower con bleeds to much E, I prefer barrel rolling to a vector that will alow me to drop on them. sometimes this is a pure split-s, sometimes it is not. Once I drop on them I'll try to anticipate their turn and have my cannons out ahead of them. I more than likely will not stay with them after my drop, and will go back up into a high yo turn and then drop again. Rinse and repeat. Each time they break, they lose E, each time you go up and don't stay with them you are conserving E.

Higher con:

It sounds contrary to what you would think, but I always climb into a higher con to force the engagement. Never do a 100% of your planes climb capability, but use about 50-60% of it's climb capability. This keeps pleanty of speed onboard for break turns to avoid them if they get pissed at you climbing to them. The closer to their altitude you can get before they start attacking you, the more E you have stored up and the less E advantage that they have over you. Each time that they drop on you, watch them closely and begin a soft turn that gradually tightens up as they get closer to guns range. Barrel roll or hard break turn at the last moment to avoid being shot. I'll only split S down and give up E if they are really agressive or multiple cons bouncing me. When they are in guns range they will either try to stay with you or go back up, but if they follow your tightening turn they are bleeding E while you are climbing. More E for you, less for them.

On your six is better left to some of the Pigs reversal artists, but it is a hairy scary random ACM's to shake your enemy our of your vector of flight. This can be barrel rolls, break turns, flat turns, scissors, rolling scissors, etc. When to apply each depends on what is on your six. This experience comes with time.

Let's do some DA time with a pack of Pigs for grins and giggles and see if we can get you some learning..



Way

[HamHawk]

Let's do some DA time with a pack of Pigs for grins and giggles and see if we can get you some learning..



Way

Instead of DA we could set up one of the new create-A-servers for this

[Krupnski]

PM me sometime man, I'm always willing to help someone w/ ACMs.

[UrSelf]

one of the private rooms would be fantastiic, i need alot of 1v1 work, the 9 years of flying this game ive just really never taking the fighter role serious as maybe i should, half the terms you guys use are over my head and would like to sharpen my skills and learn some moves. example the tail slide WTF? ok how lol ive seen some planes do some real freaky shit while fighting them always thinking to myself..... Self WTF did he just do, by then im toast or in some serious shit with no way out but UGH! death