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Page 12

MarkShot's STK/EAW Guide
By Mark "MarkShot" Kratzer

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Straight in with blazing guns
This means to line your opponent up and begin firing at about 4,000' and continue until the planes have passed or someone is crippled. I never do this. First, it does not seem very exciting. Second, I have faith in my abilities to gain the upper hand. So, why should I flip a coin. Third, it goes against the grain to let anyone get a decent shot at my plane. As stated previously, I would only do this if I was flying an FW-190 versus a Spitfire or some other such situation.


Seize angles advantage
This one accomplishes two high level objectives at once. First, you have reasonable chance of killing your opponent doing this. Second, within the first thirty seconds of the merge, you are going to have a very good sense of your opponent's skill level. Let me explain further how one goes about doing this.

1. Jump into the cockpit.
   
2. Determine if your opponent is going to be offset to the left or right of you. Let us assume to the right.
   
3. Immediately kick in full left rudder. This is to help you maintain sight of your opponent as you close. Also, you will need some right stick to counter the roll induced from the rudder.
   
4. Climb significantly while keeping the nose slightly rolled to the left. You want to be able to maintain site of your opponent and keep him off to one side.
   
5. Your ideal climb rate should put you at 130-150mph when the planes merge.
   
6. When your opponent is within 1,000'-1,500' release the rudder. Drop flaps. With right aileron and right rudder, begin a gentle roll towards your opponent. There are two possibilities here. If he does not attempt to line you up and shoot, then you have just created beautiful separation to do a vertical lead turn and roll in behind him. If he does attempt to line you up, then do not pull into him significantly until he has gone by. In most cases, his guns will be blazing and close, but he will not connect. After he passes, you then pull after him and should be on his six in 1 ½ to 2 turns. Many times, you often force your opponent to spin via this approach.
   

The separation and lead turn approach is pretty clear and I do not need to say much about that. Except that as a general principal, whenever you allow separation either horizontal or vertical, you provide space for your opponent to turn into you. Most people understand this in the horizontal dimension, but many seem not to see how it applies to the vertical.

Assuming that your opponent is sharp enough to attempt to take a shot, here is what you are accomplishing via this opening move.

• You are conserving energy.
  
• You are climbing so that you can slow and drop flaps to improve your turning.
  
• Generally, you are denying your opponent a straight in guns shot.
  
• You are pushing the fight up to the edge of the envelope for the two fighters. If your opponent is not careful, he will spin. He often does, since many people are naturally inclined to follow the merge with an Immelman. On the whole, that is a good opening maneuver, but not when you are at 140mph. The right thing to do is to come back around by slicing downwards or rolling into a Split-S.
  
• You are grabbing a quick angles advantage. Usually, this will put you at a lower energy state than your opponent. However, most players get too frazzled seeing you already on their six to realize this. Thus, rather than going vertical to work the energy advantage, most will begin to spiral down with you. At this point, he tends to be too fast, and you are right at corner. Continue to work yourself in position for a shot is fairly easy.
  

As I said originally, this technique quickly tells you what your opponent is made of. Here are my ratings from best to worst.

1. He nails your engine on the merge. You are going to have some tough flying ahead for the rest of your flights. Do not make any more assumptions about what you can get away with.
   
2. He does not nail you on the merge, but he knows to hold onto the energy advantage and you are now in a circling fight with him somewhat higher. Only through good maneuvering are you going to take the advantage. You are going to have to fly consistently well against such a player to overcome him. He understands energy quite well and you have to be very careful about yielding any of it.
   
3. He begins turning with you and spiraling down. You begin to turn inside him. This player generally plays in a reactive mode. As long as you know where to take him, you should be able to manipulate him on each of the successive fights.
   
4. He goes vertical after passing and spins. This player does not have good control of his aircraft. Using the vertical, you should be able to nail him with spins almost as often as you shoot him.
   
5. He flies straight and allow you to roll in on his six. This player does not think in four dimensions (up/down, left/right, forward/backward, and velocity). It is likely that he barely understand ACM and the flight models. You will be flying circles around him for the rest of the fights.
   

This opening merge approach which I have just outlined here is not something which can work over and over again. Reasonable opponents will figure it out and adapt. However, you are often playing against unknown players and as I said co-altitude merges are not all that common. Mainly, I like it, since it seems to work well and gives away so much knowledge about who I am flying against very quickly. Lastly, on the surface to your opponent, you allowing separation seems like a naïve thing to do. Thus, when you get behind him and nail him quickly after that, it makes a suitable psychological impression.

 

© This STK/EAW Guide is Copyright 2000 Mark Kratzer. All Rights Reserved.

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