SA first...... ACM second.
If you don't see them, you can't fight them.
Most often, if u play alot during peak hours, u will find urself engaged with more than 1 bogie. The above statement is accurate, but I would like to add a little something.
SA and ACM actually go hand in hand. When fighting multiple bogies at once, SA, gives u much more information than u realize, u just have to be able to understand what u are seeing. Being able to "read" and "anticipate" what each bogie
IS doing and their
POSSIBLE manuevering angles is a skill that hopefully u gain from practicing SA. In turn, once u have an idea about what options are available to ur nmy before, during, and after an engagement, ur knowledge of ACM comes into play. In other words, when "dogfighting" 2 or more, once u "read" the angles of ur nmy or nmies, now u have to decide what ACM u will use. The first con may or may not present u with a shot, lets say he doesnt, well now u evade, BUT ur evasion manuever SHOULD depending on the sitrep present u with 1 of 2 options AFTER his pass. 1 hopefully give u a shot on his extension, or 2 give u a position set for either evading the second cons attack OR pressing an attack on the second con.
Many a times, I have had to make 3 or 4 evasion moves (Defensive ACM) with the intention of each move giving me an option for the next cons merge of either evading or performing and (Offensive) ACM to gain a firing solution on either the first or the second con.
So simply put, I DO NOT believe that 1 is more important than the other. I believe that BOTH are equally important to the pilot in order for him/her to have the greatest chance of success !!!!!