types of battles

[Betelgeuse]

What kinds of battles do you see? Here are some of mine.

Long range spray: fly at a right angle to a group of enemies and just spray them with fire. Works better far away so they are less likely to chase you.

Sniping: timing you shots so that you hit a faster moving enemy. Works better with slower weapons due to better damage and you don't have to worry about slowness of a weapon if you are just firing one shot at a time.

dogfight: basic head tword them firing your weapons turning when needed.

follow the leader: you lead the enemy along keeping pace while taking out anyone that comes within range

weave: use speed to avoid shots and attack while you can.

diving run: run past smaller things while firing at a station or capship.

[Fossaman]

Early on, most things are faster than me. I usually end up with them following me, and me waiting for them to edge into my line of fire. Call this a Tail-Chase. Most common with zulus and corsairs, I think.

With really fast stuff, like hornets and wind slavers, they'll circle you, firing as they go. When you're moving, the forward part of the circle takes longer, giving you more chances to hit them. Call this a Running-Circle. The other one is a Standing-Circle, and it's a good way to practice your aim for other types of fights.

The Barn-Stormer: Fly directly at an enemy station, firing. once the enemy guard ships fly past you on their way to intercept, hook around and take them out. Then deal with the station at your leisure.

The Ninja: Motor in firing, stop on top of the station, blast it to pieces, loot, run away, and blow the guards up in a Tail-Chase.

Capship Tail-Chase: Line up with the capship, start flying, slow down to their pace, turn around and blast away. Good with Dual tevs versus Huari.

The Bob and Weave: This one works well with an omni weapon, like the lighting turret. (drooling commences) Rapid left to right turns under thrust to evade enemy shots, along with firing whenever you get to the angle with the armor segment you've been working on. Long range is recommended for the ranx, incidentally. Short range works for Ares dreads and destroyers, and Gaians. It's also a good tactic for swarm fights. Modified slightly, it can be used with a non-omni weapon, but you're more likely to take hits.

I probably use the Bob and Weave more than anything else; especially when my shields aren't up to the task. It's effective, and it just looks cool. Barn Storming is another preffered tactic.

[OddBob]

I have two favorite types:

When taking on a station, preferably with slow-traveling weapons like a recoilless or missiles:
Set up your run so that you will pass by the station on one side (let's say the east side). Approach from the south and point your ship west, at 90 degrees from your direction of travel. Hold down fire, and right before your stream of fire gets to the station, accelerate towards it. This creates a wave in your stream of fire that will sweep itself across the station and any docked defenders.
Then take out the station/remaining guard with the method of your choice.

When taking on standoff ships or stations that you don't want to get close to:

This one almost requires a stock Sapphire with a medium-full hold, or any ships with a thrust/mass ratio that is equivalent.

It's good for sheling stations or ships that hit hard but can't chase you.

It consists of holding thrust and left or right for an entire turn. Sometimes you have to lay off the turn key if the maneuver is happening too fast.
If you've got at least some weight, or a lot of weight and a thrust upgrade, you'll not turn a complete circle, instead it's more like a pathetic oval. This is the point.

If you're stationary or facing your direction of travel, you'll merely end up right (or left, depending) and behind your former position, with almost no velocity. This is nice for parthian shot tactics, where at this point you let loose a few kiloton rounds and play Tail Chase until they lose interest, at which point start over.

But, here's the great part. If you're drifting slightly to one side (how much depends on how much cargo, as does thrust. play with it till you get it right for the situation) and you pull this maneuver on the same side, you'll end up drifting at the same rate on the same axis at the end of the maneuver. This means incoming fire will fall short.

Pull one the other way and you end up nearly stationary. Now do another on the same side, but slow down the turn so you get more left-right momentum and you'll be drifting the other way. Repeat until bored, firing the whole time.
Great for anything that can't really chase you and has a slow-to-medium fire rate.

[FAD]

How to snipe Dwarg Masters at long-range with a Fusionfire Howitzer;

1) Targeting ROM required.

2) Target the D-Master and "park" over a planet to shield yourself from any incoming paralyzers.

3) Keep nose of ship aimed in the direction of the D-Master as it runs/circles in and out of LRS.

4) When D-Master becomes visual, thrust toward him and turn (but don't thrust) two "clicks" ahead of him and fire--retreat and repeat if necessary.

With some practice, you'll find it pretty easy to snipe that nemesis even at long range with using a Howitzer.

[Frits]

Great thread I may well have needed to use évery síngle tactic that's described above in the past. Or did i Getting the timing right is another matter altogether.

[dvlenk6]

I use that 'Barn Stormer' one a lot. I always thought of it as 'Base Crashing'. The only way to curtail the reinforcements is to take out the base; so I go after the base. It requires a strong shield. Dual, tri, and wall weapons will act like a second shield by intercepting some the incoming fire.
Instead of turning to pursue the enemy ships, I strafe the base on a fly by. As I pass over the base, I try to turn so that I keep hitting the base. I haven't been thrusting for a long time now, just floating at top speed. Once I turn, I start thrusting and try to keep pounding the base.
The enemy ships will pursue you and fly directly into your stream of fire (they will act as shields against the base's counterfire also).
If you can take out the base, then you have a perfectly safe area to sit on if you start to get overwhelmed.
I fire both my primary weapon (I like beam weapons) and my MAG launcher simultaneously. I only use the MAGs as base busters; or against cap ships. I keep some fragmenting MAGS, they are good against the big swarm enemies (Dwarg and Marauders and Ranx). I keep MAGs until I find a Fusionfire (or Hecates Cannon now also), then I switch to that for base busting and sell off the mags. That clears out cargo space for fuel to feed the Fusionfire.

Outside of base crashing, I try to exploit the enemies strategy. Ships that stand-off (like the Drakes and the Tripolis), I charge and hit them with everything I have; worry about the buzzing flies around them later. A lot of the capships are large enough that their wrecks make pretty good barricades to hide behind.
Ships that close (most of them), I retreat and let them suicide themselves running up my stream of fire.
Of course, I target the biggest threat first, concentrate everything on it.
Towards the end game, about everything is a big threat. Then I target the nearest enemy. Either way, I try to finish off one at a time.

[dvlenk6]

On another note:
I think it would be very cool if the enemy ships were more evasive and actively attempted to dodge your fire. Then some more of them could start carrying omni weapons and start using some of these strategies against the player .