Originally posted by lazs2
wide.. you are justifying and I think you are smart enough to know it. I don't care about "fair" fights. the point is... drex wins from unfair fights just like you. difference is... he works from an unfair disadvantage and you work from an unfair advantage. this has nothing to do with anything except... skill level. He is more skilled than you. you fly smarter than him but then.... everyone inthe game flys smarter than him.
So I guess drex has made "best" a blurry (at best) equation. His lack of hit percentage and his willingness to fight till he dies make his "score" relatively low. some, like yourself make the most of the fact that you can play this game risk free if you are smart enough and have relatively high scores. I am merely saying that he has more acm skills than you and that if you attack him... then, what you would normaly consider a suffiecient advantage will not be enough. You will get burned. If he attacks you.... you will not be able to defeat him on your own even with a huge alt or plane choice or position advantage.
In the arena this translates to.... Some people are scary... you attack them with an advantage and they look helpless and they somehow turn everything around and you die... Others swoop down from an advantage and you can't seem to overcome your disadvantage in time or... you never even see em...
when you reflect back (like in this thread) the former sticks out and the latter has to blow his own horn cause for some reason... ya feel like ya never really got beat by him.
lazs
I'm not arguing that Drex isn't the best. I'm not implying that my skills are anything remotely close to his. This is not an issue whatsoever.
I think that you have missed the point of the Grant/Lee story. Of all the battlefield commanders who ever lived, Lee is perhaps the most studied in “war colleges” around the globe. He was brilliant battlefield tactician, although sometimes considered a bit impetuous at times. No one in the Union army could consider themselves as being even remotely close to Lee in skill.
This is why Grant’s Corps Commanders were so anxious. Grant, on the other hand didn’t care about what Lee might do, he was more concerned with what he (Grant) was going to do.
And thus it is in the MA. I know there are pilots out there with greater ACM skills than I have. Quite a few, actually, and I’m sure you do also. So what? It sure as hell hasn’t prevented me from shooting them down, has it? Yet, these same pilots almost never shoot me down. Why do you think that is? Ponder it for a moment and then read on.
Back in late 1944, the Eighth Air Force issued a training document that was compiled and written by successful combat pilots. It was distributed to newly arriving pilots as they attended “Clobber College”, the 8th’s combat training school.
Unlike Shaw, this document is focused exclusively on tactics, or simply stated, what happens before and after guns are fired. The good news is that it has been reprinted and can be found at Amazon.com. Look for the Osprey title, The Long Reach.
We fly in an environment that is frequently different from that which existed in the ETO, circa 1944. However, the basic tactics can be adapted and used with great effectiveness.
I have stated before, that if I must depend upon ACM to kill the enemy or simply survive, I’ve already screwed the pooch. The tactics I use are designed to negate any advantage in ACM skills, and for the most part, they do. I fully understand that many, if not most players enjoy the challenge of furballing. Generally, I do not. Therefore, over the past 6 months I have worked on developing tactics that allow me to kill and not be killed. This has proven to be undeniably effective.
Finally, In December of 1941, Japan’s Army and Naval Air Forces were densely populated with pilots highly skilled at ACM. When these pilots encountered the AVG in Burma and China they suffered tremendous losses to the tactics of Claire Chennault. Those tactics revolved around speed, surprise and the art of ambush. Eventually, these same tactics were adopted by U.S. Army, Navy and Marines. By the end of the war, Japanese fighter pilot deaths exceeded 90%. In comparison, the losses experienced by U.S. fighter pilots were in the range of 8-9% (to all causes).
Whether or not you can appreciate my “style” of flying is irrelevant. Nothing succeeds quite like success. Indeed, the greatest skills become moot if you do not have opportunity to utilize them. My intent is to deny them that opportunity.
I am not adverse to furballing in the TA for the fun of it. However, once in the MA, I fly by my rules and not those wished upon me.
My regards,
Widewing
