A Purely Tactical Reason For Not Gang-Banging

[tedrbr]

Originally posted by crockett
Well if you watch "Dogfights" on the History Channel last night, you would know it doesn't matter how many guys are on your 6.

According to the world's leading ace fighter pilot (Col. Giora Epstein) in his words, he said it doesn't matter if it's one guy or 16 guys on your six.. Only one can be directly behind you and shoot you.  

lol so as long as you can keep all 12 of them, on your six you aren't in much danger.

Only if those pilots won't shoot past one another, risking a killshooter hit, to land hits on the lone enemy plane leading the pack.  And you have to worry about anyone trying for a snapshot.  

At most, IMHO, 3 on a single target.  More than that, I break and look elsewhere.  As I play for countries with lower populations against the horde, another half dozen will be along shortly anyways.  

OTOH, if I find myself the lone enemy plane up front, I'll do my best to drag the conga line down to the deck and away from the field they are attacking/defending..... or drag them through friendly ack a few times.    I'm not going to out-fly a half dozen L-Gay7's, Splixteens, Runstangs, and Nikdweebs with the planes I generally take up (La5, Yak, Ki-84, C.205,...) so I might as well do as much damage as possible in other ways.

[Sketch]

Oh man he's using the avatar I sent him!!!!  Man I miss Italy....

[Zazen13]

One of my former Squaddies had a saying I liked that describes this, a great rule to apply...

"If there's 2 there's room for you..."

"If there's 3 then let 'em be..."

Words to live by, unless your teammates are incredibly inept and/or the one guy is incredibly great, 3 on 1 is plenty. The only exception I can think of is if none of those three have the E to catch a dragster like an La7, and you just dive in to turn him for them, taking a shot if one presents itself then zooming back up...

[DoNKeY]

Originally posted by Gianlupo
Clerick, I have nothing against fighting many vs one. The point is that, beyond a certain number, being too many becomes just pure idiocy and a tactical suicide: it's simply stupid that 10 or 20 friendlies follow a bandit, exposing themselves or the field they're defending to attack from other bandits/directions.... 4, 5 at most, should be sufficient, the other ones should think about the bigger picture and keep their eyes open for other bandits.

Otherwise, you would frustrate your own purpose, because you would end up concentrating on one single threat (and, let me state this, not such a big threat, to be honest, because if  it has a lot of friendlies around, it can't do much damage or dropping unnoticed on your six), totally ignoring any other threat in the area, possibly much more dangerous that the one you're following.

Just take a look at this movie, you'll understand what I mean in my first paragraph:

Grits vs the Knights' horde

lol at first i was like you actually asked for help:O

[TalonX]

For everytime I have circled a field and watched up to 10 of my countrymen chase the lone fighter....

I always ask on range, "Do you think you 7 guys have that con covered?".

It's embarassing.

[DaddyAck]

Ahh yes, cant you just hear the "mine mine mine mine" as you look behind your plane.   I have had 6 or more chase my plane at times, then I just laugh thinking how sad it was it took that many to kill one plane.  The kicker is before they all chase me, on the "merge" they all HOed in sucession!  I can usually force 1 maby 2 over shoots  and get out a snapshot but then one of the gaggle of dweebs pops me.

[Hap]

Originally posted by Stoney74
Gents,

Beyond the mere sportsman-like facets of not ganging up on someone, there is a great tactical reason not to be part of the school of fish chasing the lone LA-7 around a field.  If you see two or three guys handling an enemy plane, grab some altitude and pick up the next guy that is guaranteed to come in shortly.  Maybe even intercept those bombers that are relatively low at 8,000 feet, but to the mob on the deck, seem stratospheric.

If we can't get sportsmanship, why not just try for sound tactics?  At the most, 2 v 1 odds on inbound bad guys.  Everybody else climb and intercept his buddies that are arriving piece-meal...

Just an idea...

[Gianlupo]

Originally posted by SkyRock
I hope your avatar is of a female, if it is, grrrrrrrrrrrrrr, yummy!:aok

Skycrock, if you can't recognize a female bottom... you really need glasses!!!! Btw, why in the world everyone always concentrate on my avatar and not on what I'm saying??? I'm not a blonde!!!!!

Oh, and say thanks to Sketch, yeah, it's the avatar he sent me.

Originally posted by Sketch
Oh man he's using the avatar I sent him!!!!  Man I miss Italy....

Come back, then, they (the chickens) are all waiting for you!

Originally posted by DoNKeY
lol at first i was like you actually asked for help:O

There must be something really wrong with my english......