Originally posted by Murdr
From the radio terms glossary
"cherry (pick) - Attacking an enemy already engaged with another plane"
That's just nonsense.
Suppose me and a squaddie (or any countryman, really) engage a co-alt pair of bogies. It turns into two 1v1 duels within a 4-ship furball. I kill my guy and then turn my attention to the bogey on my partner's 6. I saddle him up and kill him unawares.
That is NOT cherry picking as the term is thrown around. Time for a new entry in the radio terms glossary, I think.
Now here's what I call cherry picking:
There's a a medium or low alt furball between two enemy bases. (For discussion's sake, let's say it is at around 4k, with a few ships just a little higher and lots of planes below, right to the deck.) For the most part, most pilots from both sides are basically just taking off and flying directly to the furball as fast as possible, and are entering the furball co-alt (4k), and they start turning and burning. Most pilots jump right in and start dogfighting until they're killed, though some are able to disengage and get away to land some kills.
I guess this is SkyRock. Sometimes it is me too. It *always* used to be me when I was a younger man.
Instead of this, some pilots don't just fly right into the furball. Instead they climb up higher (say, double the furball's average alt, such as 8k, but sometimes much higher), and orbit above and around the furball. They look for targets of opportunity within the furball, dive down, try for a killshot, and then zoom back up. Their targets are usually totally unaware of the Picker's location and speed, and are relatively easy pickings. The Picker is moving so fast that they're basically untouchable by anyone in the furball.
This is a Cherry Picker.
The score-hound is a Picker that does this and only this, and departs the scene when they no longer have the E to climb high enough to make another pass -- instead of Zooming back up they extend away to home base. Not my cup of tea personally, but this is the Main Arena and there's a war to be won (sorry, Ack Ack - my interpretation of the MA Rulebook), so people do it. It is easy to see why this behavoir irriates the pure fullballer, since it doesn't require any of the furballers' skills to make a kill, and leaves the Picker essentially untouchable.
To me, a smart pilot does a little of both. They arrive at the furball high rather than co-alt, make a couple of Cherry Picking passes to thin out the herd a little bit (or clear a Squaddie's 6), and then starts turning and burning with everyone else to take out some more, and hopefully manages to break away when bingo fuel or Winchester.
And this is sometimes me too. I presume it is never SkyRock. I don't think anyone has anything for apologize for if they fly this way.
Hmm, a tad too wordy for a definition. How about:
Cherry Picker: A pilot who flies above and around a furball instead of within it, eventually using high-speed passes to shoot potentially unaware turnfighting enemy targets, and then departs before any threat of counterattack or danger.
-Llama
