Statistics dont lie but you can lie with statistics.
In the MA - survival depends on a fast plane. You can argue with this, I suppose, but the majority of the times I die arent because the pilot was any "better" than me - its because I made a mistake and got slow. In a 1v1 situation, slow is almost ok - but as soon as another aircrfat arrives - or even 9 or 10 if youre fighting kniggits, your screwed. I find myself parachuting to the ground if I have lost my speed advantage in or on the outskirts of a furball.
As soon as you lose the ability to engage and disengage on your own terms, you are at a disadvantage. Of course in almost all cases like this, you must force an overshoot - this means getting slow in one way or another - this is fine for the aircraft you are fighting, but his 5 buddies now have numerical and position advantage on you.
The trick to fighting any plane by itself in the MA or in the DA is to use its strengths against it. If the aircraft is slow, stay fast, if the aircraft is fast, force him to get slow. If the abilities of the two engaged aircraft are similar, you are now flying more against the pilot. In this case, I find (In the MA) that E is everything. If you can figure out how to counter what your opponent is doing, youll win everytime.
If your opponent pulls a panic fueled flat turn, move to the vertical to extend and you can reengage at your leisure. If youre bloodthirsty, a high yoyo will work. The key is to make equal trades. If youre going to use E to turn, make sure you trade it for altitude. By contrast - if youre going to drop your altitude to order to engage, make sure you get speed as a result.
Resources are paramount - as in any other activity. The aircraft which uses up its resources first (E, alt, speed, ammo, fuel) is at an immediate disadvantage. The proper use of these resources is what wins fights. The wonderful thing about air combat is you can trade one resource for another (see above paragraph). As long as you remain balanced, and have an advantage in a single area - you can use it to your overall advantage and win any fight.
On a simpler note - I will state that I rarely find myself in a fair fight in the MA. I dont mean numerically - because if I have 8-9K alt on 3 or 4 cons the only thing that I need to make sure of is that I kill them all quickly enough so that the last one doesnt have the time to climb to me. By the same token, I dont mind being lower than a con, just so long as Im faster. By avoiding "fair fights" what I mean is that a good portion of my kills are people who dont even know I am there. Be it AFK, concentrating on something else, no SA, etc - these are the kills I love - if the aircraft doesnt see you at 600 back, he wont see you at 100 back - easy stuff - just roll right in on him, admire Superfly's artwork, and press the fun button. The majority of the rest of my kills are people who I force to give up resources - primarily E. My gunnery isnt top notch - so I love when an aircraft is sitting pretty at about 125 IAS for me (read: rope).
If you remember when you first started playing these games, be it Air Warrior or Warbirds, your first few months, if not your few few years were spent focusing more on killing than living. You saw an enemy icon and by god you were gonna shoot it down. You blew every resource you had to shoot down that one plane and were then faced with 3 or his freinds which dispatched your low and slow bellybutton rather quickly. The successful sticks in the MA are those who think of the game in a fashion similar to billiards - if you play pool - you know that you need to sink the ball youve got your eye on - but aside from that - you also need to set up your next shot. What good is sinking a single ball when you simply give the que over to your opponent afterwards? In the MA - make sure youve got enough left for successive aircraft - if you can learn when to lay your cards down and when to fold and wait for the next hand youll do alright.
Wow - long post sorry - if it doesnt make sense I apologize - tried to explain how I think of combat in AH - thats alot of thought to put into a few paragraphs.
On a side note - Im well aware that youre a capable stick Urchin, so If youre having trouble fighting certain aircraft, you need to reexamine the basics of why they give you trouble and adjust youre plan of attack. My guess is that the problem lies in the very first step of the fight - deciding whether or not you can win and engaging or disengaging from there. I usually wont enter a fight unless Im relartively certain I can win it. When I engage into a fight that I have doubts about winning, its because I made a mistake and was forced into it - this of course means that the pilot in the other aircraft was good enough to show me that "there is always someone better."
