I am writing this for X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter training purposes only. I am not
the best pilot in the TRA, but I would like to be some day, as would everyone I suppose.
These are simply thoughts and ideas I have had and experienced since I have joined the
TRA. There are also many other pilots thoughts expressed here as well as the official
DarkJedi manuals. This document will include flying tactics for certain ships in
reticular situations for 2 on 2 furballs or melees. One on one dogfights are a
totally different beast and will not be covered. This document will always be in the
process of being revised, for I am always learning, as are we all. A lot of this will be
common knowledge and things you probably already know, but some of you may be new and
may find some of these tips useful, and it may change your view on how you fly. The
point of this is to get you to think out matches and to help you consider all options
and ideas. It is one thing to be a hot shot pilot and another to be a cerebral pilot.
I want this to be a database of our knowledge to pass on. I want to explore and exhaust
all possibilities. This is a way to consider everything and think up new and innovative
tactics to grab the advantage over our enemies. The most difficult part of this is
trying to put what we know into words. One last thing, I am open to criticism and if
you know anything that should be added to this document, please by all means let me know.
I hope that this document will be passed around, and where you, the viewer see fit, to
make changes or primarily to add things. Just try to make it fit in and make sense with
the rest of the document. The one request I make is that after you finish altering it or
adding your knowledge, that you send it back to me so I may compile it and send it on.
Thank you. -TRA_TheDream
Part 1: Head to Head
This a basic idea of what usually occurs in a Basic Furball or Melee
This is your basic situation. 2 on 2, you and a friend, fighting for your lives.
The first part of your battle will start with you anywhere between 2 and 4 clicks away
from your enemy, going head to head with your enemies. Once you are in range, you fire at
each other. Your enemy sometimes likes to weave left and right or up or down to avoid your
lasers. This is a must depending on your craft, without weaving you are as good as dead
most of the time. NEVER fly straight ahead. This is a really rookie thing to do. You want
to stick and move, meaning get your enemy in your crosshairs, take a shot, then weave to
avoid your opponents incoming lasers, and believe me the lasers will be coming for you.
Your enemy of course will be doing the same thing. I have had the opportunity to play
against some of the better pilots, and to see how they toy with lesser pilots. Some
elite pilots like to weave back and forth avoiding your lasers, then within a certain
distance(.5 - .3 clicks), just seconds before they pass you, turn into your flight path
and shoot you as your going by them (sometimes you can actually shoot your enemy with out
actually having them on the screen, I believe this comes from you being within .1 clicks
away and having a certain angle on them). The head to head is something you just have
to learn and experience to get better. There is no perfect way to do it, everyone flys it
differently and it always changes depending on your enemy. On the head to head, you need
to work as a team. You might want to pick one of your enemys ships to pick on, usually the
closest one. Both of you target and fire upon the closest ship, killing him quickly.
The first enemy craft should have his attention on the closest one of you to him/her. If your
friend is closer, your friend can trade shots with the first enemy craft, while you should
be able to kill him quickly without much attention from him. Maybe a better thing to do is to
fire accurately once or twice at the first incoming ship and then turn your attention to
the second. In this scenario, the first or closest enemy will be destroyed rather quickly
with you helping your friend. Now comes the second enemy craft. Of course the second enemy
has seen this and Ill bet he has his sights on you, probably because he/she has just watched
you blast his/her friend into pieces. You might (depending on whether lasers are coming
for you now or not) fire off a few random shots just to get him to swerve off course and make
a drastic attempt to weave out of danger while your friend blasts him/her (this ideally
occurs if the second enemy craft is targeting you), if your friend didnt die swapping laser
blasts with the first enemy. I usually apply this style of fighting with all the craft I
have listed below. This is my no means the only way to do this. Actually, just talking
about what a scenario might be like is idiotic, since every match is completely different
almost every aspect. Please add if you find it necessary. This is the point, to compile
our knowledge as a group for the benefit of our pilots in Blue Squad and TRA.
-TRA_TheDream(4/14/99)
Only thing I have is to not get tunnel vision. That is the main reason most pilots
get smoked. They just fly straight in and do not dodge and weave. -TRA_Burnout
Part 2: The Turning Battle
In all honesty, I am terrible at turning; the better pilots always get me.
Before you pass the first craft enemy craft, you should have already hit the 1/3" power
key. Setting your engines to 1/3" power is the fastest way to turn. If you decide
that you are not going to risk the head to head shoot out at this close range
(.5 - .1 clicks), it is best to make sure you swerve the opposite way to make sure he
doesnt shoot the tail end of you as you pass each other. It is better swerve away
and hope you get your enemy on the turn than give up an easy kill to a superior enemy.
Then hit the 1/3" power key, turn and fire and hope you see an explosion. Of
course at this point you are a sitting duck for the enemy pilot re-entering the game,
but thats how it works. If you hit your enemies a few times on the head to head to
weaken his/her shields or hull, and make a quick kill on the turn, you will have a
fair chance of attacking the re-entering enemy. That is why turning is so important.
I usually apply this style of fighting with most of the craft below. Please feel free to
add any thoughts to this, for I am lacking the words and flying skill to elaborate any
further. -TRA_TheDream (4/14/99)
I learned some new stuff on turning this weekend. I realized that there is a
better way. I saw some people instead of hitting 1/3" power right when you pass each
other, keep flying at regular speed straight ahead until they got about 1.0 clicks
away, then they hit 1/3" power and turned and came after me. It seemed very effective
because it gave your enemy more room to maneuver. Please feel free to add any thoughts
to this, for I am lacking the words and flying skill to elaborate any further.
-TRA_TheDream(4/23/99)
If you are losing and you are not getting close to winning the turning battle.
This may only work a few times, but if does, great but mined you it takes practice.
Stop turning and trying for the tail of your attacker and go to full power and fly straight.
Go till youre about .25 to .35 from the enemy and cut back to 1/3 and turn toward
your attacker and open up. If it is done fast enough, you will catch him/her off guard
and win that one. It doesnt always work but it does most of the time, if you catch
them off-guard. So try this next time you get stuck in a no win turning battle.
-TRA_Burnout
With all ships you will want to watch your back. Preset a joystick button
to cycle through targets targeting you, and learn to push that button every 3 or 4 seconds,
this will let you know if someone has targeted you. But some opponents will fly
and go after you without targeting you, at that point you will see your red light flash
on the top of your cross hairs, abort mission or die at that point.
-TRA_Ceeeeg
The Rebel Alliance s Black Squadron Flying Tactics
Ok. I trained with TRA_Blinkie this week. He is the commander of Black Squad and
a RG(Rebel Gun). He is a great pilot and knows what he is talking about. His strategy
is during a 2 on 2, not to dogfight. Dogfighting consists of trading laser shots with
your enemy and hitting 1/3" power when you pass each other. In a 2 on 2 this is, as I
have found tonight, stupid. It doesnt work. At least not effectively against
people who know what they are doing. Heres why you dont dogfight. 1) Your vulnerable
to an incoming enemy at 1/3" than you are at full. Picture this which Im sure you
see all the time: Youre just re-entering from a death and you see in your sights three
ships all flying in circles. One is your wingman flying for his life; the other two
are your enemy. When I see this, I start to salivate. Lambs to the slaughter. When youre
in a turning war, you are vulnerable to incoming enemy fire. Here is what Blinkie taught me.
This only applies as of now to X-wings and possibly Tie Interceptors. On the
head to head, shoot your enemy twice. It takes three shots to kill an X-wing (with your
lasers linked usually). Keep swerving and moving making it hard for you enemy to get a bead
on you, then when you have a good shot at him, squeeze off two shots, then swerve out of the
way. The key to this strategy is your wingman. Count on him for the third and final kill
shot. Here is how it works. Once you have hit your enemy twice, turn you attention to
the other enemy. He will probably be gunning for you. The enemy who you just hit twice
should be gunning for you, thus grabbing his attention from your wingman, which should
move in for the kill on the crippled enemy. With one shot from your wingman, the enemy
should be dead, leaving you both, to pick apart the other enemy. Teamwork is everything.
Dont get into a turning battle. Count on your wingman to cover you. Of course he has
to understand this strategy, with your wingman flying in circles, you are pretty much alone
in this fight. Now of course there are times to hit 1/3 and times not to. Just use your
best judgement. Count on your wingman to cover you, and vice versa. This is how Black wins.
They work as a team, while we are selfish and try to score the most points. Dont be a hot
dog. Its not impressive. Sometimes youll see a hot shot pilot score 40,000 points with
27 kills. But if you look a little farther to the right, youll see his deaths are 32. This
usually ends up meaning no teamwork. You have to cover each other. My first priority is my
wing and his safety. I kill whoever is attacking him, and then I protect myself. Of
course you cant be stupid, and not dodge or weave or defend yourself when necessary.
-TRA_TheDream (5/3/99)
TRA_RG_Blinkies Thoughts on flying
The 2 on 2 melee is about teamwork. You need to learn how your wing flies and what
to expect from him. With that you learn his weaknesses and his strong points. You
learn if he will need help in that turning war or if he will own those pilots. You
also learn if you need to worry about that enemy that just flew past you. If you want
to learn how to fly a turning war. Play a lot of 1 on 1. It is highly recommended
that you do that. I don't like 1 on 1 so I don't play them.
In a 2 on 2 melee, you and your wingman need to work as a team. You do this by knowing
who has what enemy. Lets say I am flying with Cowboy against Adam and Rodeo.
Cowboy and Adam die about the same time. That means I am after Rodeo in a head on head.
I when I fly past Rodeo my target becomes the new guy. That means I am after Adam.
Cowboy has always been hunting Rodeo though. Another way to put it is, if you are the
new guy for your side, you go after the old guy for the other team. When you are the old
guy, you go after the new guy. Hope you understand that.
Another thought that goes along the same lines, Always go after the guy that is farther
away from you. That keeps you out of the turning war. Typically your wing would be aiming
for the guy closer to you because that should be his far away man.
Major point in 2 on 2, Turning wars are generally bad.
1)You leave yourself open to the second enemy flying in. He typically gets to
fly straight and unmolested I like it when I get to do it.
2)Slows down your kills.
3)Killing a craft from the side is harder than straight on due to your lag shot.
The lag shot is where you actually have to hit the enemy to kill him, not where the image
of his craft is. Also known as the ghost hit. That why you get more ghost hits against
cable player and cable hosts.
4)Friendly fire
-TRA_RG_Blinkie(5/26/99)
NEW IDEA FORUM
1) Has anyone ever considered not giving the enemy a head to head battle? To
simply evade his lasers and try to get him out of position for an easy kill on
the turn. Maybe what I mean is to go head to head with the enemy, but not fire at
him. I want to learn to draw him into a set design trap. Maybe pull off to the left,
as you are about to pass each other. Thus, using logic should make your enemy follow
you to the right (your left). He will no doubt hit 1/3" power and turn to his right
(your left) and come after you. Here is the problem. What kind of trap can you set to
draw him after you? How can we find away to get on top of him? This is probably a
stupid idea. -TRA_TheDream(4/14/99)
Proof of Theory 1
Ok, during WoW X, I got into a battle with one of the best pilots Ive played
against. His name was ASF_ZEBRA and he was a bad man. On the head to head he would
swerve back and forth, not letting you get a real good shot at him. While he was swerving
he would squeeze off a few shots and fly by you. Thinking he was going to hit 1/3" ,
turn and come after me, I did the same. He didnt come after me directly, he flew
about 1.0 clicks away and then turned giving him a lot of space between us which in
turn gave him room to maneuver. Somehow he always turned faster than I did. I dont know
how he did it. But he would then blast me to pieces. Now he didnt kick my butt, it was
close between us with him winning by 7 or 8000 points, but he made it real difficult to get
those points. That is the point. Make it difficult. Dont be an easy target. Like my
theory above, he wouldnt give me a fight head to head. More than anything he frustrated
me. I want to learn this and start applying this to my flying style. You may beat
my wingman and me in points. You may win the game but Im going to make you earn those
points. -TRA_TheDream(4/23/99)
This proof above is what I believe is what Blinkie taught me. ASF_ZEBRA knew not
to get in a turning war, which would leave him vulnerable. Instead he shot me a few times
and flew by me and kept going. His intention was not to kill me, but weaken me, in turn
softening me up for his wingman to kill me as I slowed down on the turn to go after ZEBRA.
ASF_ZEBRA had forgotten me and turned his attention to my wingman at this point, as he
trusted his wingman to finish what he started. This is the model of teamwork.
-TRA_TheDream(5/7/99)
Ship Philosophy
These ideas may be older than the information above.
AWING
To be honest, most people never fly this craft in melees.
XWING
The X-Wing is a good craft to start out with. It gives you descent speed
with shields. When flying head to head, I always put the shields on double front,
that way I can take a few hits and keep on coming for more. A lot of times a game of
X-Wings will become a swap match. A swap match is where you end up trading ships with
your enemy, killing each other. I think maybe the best way is to combine a little
swerving with some swapping, meaning that you try to evade his first couple of shots
then move in and try to kill him before he gets you. Ideally you would want to catch
him/her swerving and blast him. Im sure this sounds obvious. But what I try to do is
to get him/her to swerve, that is what I want him/her to do. As I said earlier, I put
my shields at double front, so I can take a few hits. As he/she has fired and swerved,
I take the laser hit, but I aim ahead of him and fire. Usually I get 2 or 3 shots at him,
taking his shields down further than his/her shot took mine. Now I have the advantage,
because I can take more hits than he can and I win the swap battle. -TRA_TheDream
3 Quad shots kills X Wing -TRA_RG_Blinkie
Y-WING
Y-wings are rarely flown, but are a lot of fun. They have a lot of guns and
can take a severe beating. Y-wings are so slow, they are usually swap games because
you really cant swerve and dodge incoming lasers. You pretty much just end up killing
each other, but there are things you can do to have a slight advantage. I always
put the shields double front. Then I take power from the guns and add it to the shields.
To compensate for the laser energy lost; I set the laser and shield recharge rate at
maximum capacity. Yes, youre thinking man he is so slow, he will get shot to pieces.
Well, you have to realize your going so slow to begin with, so your going to get shot to
pieces anyway. Besides, the slower I go, the longer I have to get my lasers recharged.
Then I just blast away. If they try and swerve and move, they are easy targets to hit.
You probably shouldnt swerve and move because your going to get hit, its better to just
play swap ships and hope you come out on top. And if the impossible happens,
and you actually pass each other, you will already be going close to 1/3" speed so you
dont have to mess with the controls. Also, when firing your weapons, you should
always link your laser and ion canons. Use the W trick so you can fire your lasers and
ions at the same time, what you do is keep hitting the W button as fast as you can while
firing your weapons.
-TRA_TheDream
Z-95
The Z-95 is a fun ship to fly. I fly these like a Tie Fighter except I put the
shields double front. The basic strategy I use is stick and move. You have to master the
stick and move technique. You take a shot at your enemy and immediately swerve to
avoid the incoming lasers. If your lucky enough to get passed your enemy, it turns into a
turning war, which I have stated I am not very good at. You never want to fly straight-ahead
and trade ships with the enemy. -TRA_TheDream
3 Dual shots kills a Z -TRA_RG_Blinkie
TIE BOMBER (Bricks)
Uh...Im not sure that there is any good way to fly a Tie Bomber. T/Bs can
take a beating. Most games I have played were swap games. I think the best thing to do
is to stick and move. -TRA_TheDream
I think it is 6 dual shots kills a TB. This craft is the most important team craft
because of the heavy pounding it takes. Team up to kill.
-TRA_RG_Blinkie
Yeah these ships are fun, You ca fly them just like the T/F or T/I, the same rules
apply. You can get a few more shots off before having to move and makes for a great
training ship for T/F and T/I. TRA_Ceeeeg
TIE FIGHTER
Tie Fighters are the simplest craft to fly. You really dont have to touch the
controls most of the time, except for turning at 1/3" power. The only problem with the
Tie Fighter is that it has a very weak hull. One direct hit and your usually dead.. I always
link the lasers, that way if I hit the incoming ship, it will probably destroy it.
Here is the simple truth about the Tie Fighter. It is a master ship, master in the fact that
you cant hide behind shields or a strong hull. You have to be a great pilot to be
successful Tie Fighter pilot. There is no room for error in a Tie Fighter. You have to
master the stick and move technique. You take a shot at your enemy and immediately swerve
to avoid the incoming lasers. If your lucky enough to get passed your enemy, it turns into
a turning war, which I have stated I am not very good at. Again, you never want to fly
straight-ahead. Anyone have anything to add to this? -TRA_TheDream
On a head to head match, I like to get the first 2 shots off first, this will
hopefully make the opponent swerve early. Then I am already setup to get the next shot by
the time the opponent comes back. At this point you start swerving back and forth and
never stop in the center just fire as you cross the center, if you practice the timing
of this maneuver, it proves to be very effective. Then like TheDream said, if you do pass
the opponent, it turns into a turning match, Im not very good at it, but my technique is
to bring the opponent into the side of you radar for about 2 or 3 secs then bring him
into center. This will make him correct on you and hopefully you will catch him trying to
correct. Also a good technique is to go full throttle and straight for just 1 or 2 secs,
then bring him into the center, this will give you a burst of laser and also a straighter
line of fire. TRA_Ceeeeg
TIE INTERCEPTOR
Generally, flying this craft is the same as flying the Tie Fighter, except the
T/I can take a few hits. Again, mastering turning is the main way to win in this craft.
-TRA_TheDream
The Tie Interceptor also has the option for linking the lasers for quad. If you
are real comfortable with your aim, you will want to use quad lasers, if you are finding
the lag is bad and a lot of ghost hits you might want to try going to 2 lasers or even 1 if
you cant seem to hit anything. TRA_Ceeeeg
1 quad hit kills a TI -TRA_RG_Blinkie
GUNBOAT
Ok, I am terrible at Gunboats. I usually try the same strategy as I do with the Y-Wing
but it usually doesnt work. The only thing I do differently is that I leave the laser
and shield recharge rate at matinence level, that way I can maneuver better. Just swerve
and dodge until you get close enough to him, then tun into their flight path and blast
away. Do we have any Gunboat pilots out there? -TRA_TheDream