Head on Shots....why have them?

[guttboy]

Hmm Head On shots......let me think about this one......

TAKE EM IF YOU GOT EM....like posted before they are a valid tactic...also most HO's as people call them are actually NOT....like was posted before they are a scissors maneuver and HELL yes I will take the shot....

With regards to the post.....that was about the A8 vs the Spit....I ALWAYS think twice about who my opponent is...If I am flying a flying tank and the other is flying a paper airplane...HELL YES I am gonna take the shot...however if the roles are reversed I will not attempt it.

In addition.....there is a "tad bit" of skill involved spraying your opponent with bullets then maneuvering at the last minute.  I am not the best at it but I seem to do better than 50%.


DONT CHANGE A THING!!!!!!!!

If you dont like the HO's then maneuver away....

[Gman]

I remember I was interviewing HT on the phone back before you had to pay for AH, sometime early 2000 I think, and asked him about all the complaints I'd read about "Ho's".

He told me the easiest way to dodge them, and I still use it every flight, and it's the first thing I show pals new to the game.  When buddy is merging with you, at about d1.5, just unload to 0 g's, feed in a bit of roll and turn to about 10-20 degrees away from the line the two of you are merging on.  It's a green day in hell when I even get pinged, much less shot down.

I'll still take a HO if I'm up against certain aircraft, and I'm in a certain aircraft however, and have no problem taking my beats when someone bests me in this endeavor, because it was MY choice to risk it.

[Bluedog]

Originally posted by Apar
What Senna said,

Even if you are in doubt whether a merge will end up in a HO, maneuver out of it, if you don't want to end up in a HO.

I'm always surprised how many planes with good maneuver capacity will try to HO a 190A8, Tiffy, Hog-C or P-47. You don't want to HO those!!

Truly amazing are those that will willingly HO a Mossie, man, 4x Hispano 20mms in an area less than that of your prop, with a handfull of .303s in there too, just for background noise, and a pair of Merlins dragging them along.........what a plane
As these guys are saying, the 'HO Dweeb' argument, and coding so frontal hits do less damage is BS, HOs dont just happen, you either make them happen, or let them.
Pssst, BTW, the gunsight can be zoomed, one of AH's dweebiest features, and possibly the one I love the most

[Tyro48]

The two most common shots taken in WWII even by fighters 1 on 1 were the six shot followed by the head-on, but keep in mind here that by and large most shots were taken from a surprise attack but still all in all these were the most common shots taken.

[Anvil]

Gunsite zoom is not dweebish....when my computer screen fills my entire view with infinite resolution i won't need zoom ....
and...if ya don't like HOs, don't point your nose at me.

[WildBlue]

Okay, I read half of this thread and maybe I missed something... but if you have a guy coming head on, sure it's easy to avoid, but it gives him the high angle shot and half the time they kill me with that! I usually try to go under at about 1.5k, they dive into me, no big deal, I barrel around, but they get shots on me and cause enough damage to put me out or kill me. What am I doing wrong? Not to mention the outnumbered situation... bad SA, yes, but when ya turn out from one HO right into another, it gets to be a b*tch. Besides, constantly avoiding HO's gets to be pretty annoying, boring, and just plain stupid. Seems like that's almost all there is anymore... I'm starting to think my $15 could be put to better use. And I hate thinking that... I love this game.

Edit: That 1.5 is when I dive hard and pull up, I try to stay just under them from the time I see the dot.

[Xjazz]

I try avoid HOs most of the time. In sitution when Im Iow&slow comparing to the enemy or it is 1 vs many sitution, I use HO but in certain way (3d).

Some ways to go:

Preset (d4-d2k)
1. use 0G dive to get under opponet. Point your nose litlebit left or right side of enemy. Beware of speed.
Too slow or fast and your plane aint response too well...
2 be sure you are level before merge. Best sitution is if you are allready level and under compare to still diving enemy

premerge & merge (d2k-d500)
3a. with turner plane make fake break to the left or right before merge, continue with barrell roll to avoid fire and last make lead turn. Feels good when you nail it
3b. with turner plane just lead turn that sucker
3c  with b&z plane just barrel roll and ru... extend and attack with E-cheat(tm)
3d. Start aiming with zoom well before merge. Fly & aim steady. about d1.3k-d800 give very short brust and break oblique up.

Funny one: Well before merge roll upside down. Litlebit before merge roll fast back upside and laugh out loud because enemy dont know where he should roll/pull/push

If you have big guns, you just need point and shoot.
U know: "ACM is for whimps!" or "(virtual)Real (virtual)man (virtual)fly (virtual)Jugs/F4Us/F6Fs!" etc BS

j/k

[Dashe]

All I can ask is why anyone would talk about realism then talk about HOing a Spit as reasonable.  If you got that slow against a spit, you shouldn't reincarnate in 5 seconds, or at all in reality.

Dashe

[Ghosth]

LOL

First off Richard Bong got a surpriseing amount of his kills useing HO attacks against a under armed & weaker opponant. So from a historic viewpoint you must leave them in.

2nd most of the time a true HO is not that hard to avoid. I'm not talking about a front quarter shot on the 3rd merge, I mean a true HO where you see the other guy at 5k. Turn at him, line up and gun's at 1.2k out nose to nose.

Thats a HO, the nose to nose in a dogfight is NOT what I call a HO.

A bit of roll, a bit of dive, a bit of horz seperation and you've not only dodged the HO you've got position also for the rest of the fight.

Last, had a pony HO me last night in desperation. He had 6 guys behind him but he forgot that the A20 I was driving had more .50's than he had.
Laughed all the way back to the base,landed &  3.5 perks for that numbskull.

Use your head & the HO isn't so terrible

[raven 8]

quit ur yappin:P

[WildBlue]

Okay, no problem, that all works fine and pretty when the bad guy does what you want him to... but what about when he doesn't? No matter how far out I start my avoidance, no matter what I do, they ALWAYS get a high angle shot on me that either takes out something or kills me... should I just say to hell with it  and just fly a friggin jug so I can always win ho's? I'm really getting tired of it, all I see anymore are damn HO attacks... it's getting REALLY old! What happened to the FIGHTS we used to have here? Every now and then I make it work... I end up on the guys 6 with some e, and wax his butt, but taking every fight from the HO is old... sure, I try to pull to the side, or under, or whatever, but the guy just keeps pointing his friggin nose right at me. It's getting on my fragile (lol) nerves! I'm tired of it... it does only get me sometimes, but still... it's silly... all the guy has to do is keep his nose on me and if he has better guns, he wins... BS. Eh, screw it, my whining ain't gonna change a thing... disregard.

[raven 8]

disregarded:D

[raven 8]

one tip. try not to ho p-38s:)

[SKurj]

Wildblue... roll pull...

I rarely get hit by the ho monkey, at the merge i will not be facing the con i will be slightly nose down and at a slight off angle.  i will give a little roll and small pull to throw off his shot if he's looking to take one.
One of the methods i use that works 95% of the time..

Stay out of his 'plane of turn' abd u create a ton of probs for the ho monkey


SKurj

[Makofan]

Geez WildBlue - where are you when I'm looking for easy kills???