How to Improve Your Aces High Rank
I. Fighter Mode
A. Kills/Death + 1
i. It is important to have a decent kills/death stat. By Decent, I think a target for anyone to achieve by the end of a Tour is 2:1. The key to getting a solid kills/death stat is flying smart. Don’t fly into the middle of furballs, don’t fly planes that you cant get yourself out of trouble in. An excellent plane to achieve a solid kills/death in is the P51D. It really can outturn many planes in AH. Those it cannot outturn, it can easily outrun.
B. Kills/Sorties
i. Also relatively important, but doesn’t seem to be as important as kills/death.
C. Kills/Time online
i. Sneaky important. The only way to improve this stat is to kill a lot of planes in a short amount of time. Obviously vulching does the trick. But one thing that is incredibly helpful as well is do not climb out to 20K before entering a fight. That is wasted time as far as this stat is concerned. Grab a little, get up some speed, and have enough room under you to dive away from trouble if trouble comes your way.
D. Hit Percentage
i. Also sneaky important. Many pilots have a great hit percentage, they just ruin it by doing things they don’t realize will ruin it. For example, when in Fighter mode, if you shoot down ack or buildings/bunkers/etc, your hit % will fall drastically. These bullets are counted as misses. So, improve your hit % by only shooting at bombers and planes. I am not certain if shooting at GVs provices hit % points or not.
II. Attack Mode
A. All the above information for Fighter Mode applies equally in Attack mode. Meaning, when in attack mode, it is important to shoot down planes and have a solid kills/death, kills/sortie and kills/time online.
B. Attack Mode versus Objects
i. When you are in attack mode and blowing up stuff, really all that matters is that you blow up as much stuff as you can. It is important to use bombs and rockets to maximize your damage/death and damage/sortie.
ii. Hit % here counts for your bomb/rocket attacks. There is nothing wrong with dropping your bombs and rockets on a hanger. You get good damage/sortie points for it. However, you also want to try to blow up multiple objects with a single bomb. For example, dropping a 1K egg in the middle of a town at a field, or dropping 1K eggs on the barracks factory targets. When you blow up multiple objects with a single bomb, this increases your hit % and thus increases your rank.
III. Bomber
A. Everything mentioned above for attack mode applies the same here. It does not really matter what bomber you choose for your bombing sorties. However, keep in mind that with a Lancaster, your damage/sortie and damage/death is going to be MUCH MUCH greater than with a B26, Ju88 or B17. Consequently, I usually use a Lancaster to do most of my bombing.
B. One thing to keep in mind, damage/time online is NOT a category. This means that you can up a lanc from as far away as you like and climb as high as you like. If I want to get bomber score points, I will usually wait until there are “secure” targets. For example, enemy factories surrounded by friendly fields. Or, up a Lancaster and attack a field in a mission wherein you will have substantial air support. Be selective.
C. Again, there is nothing wrong with blowing up hangers. They give great damage points. However, it is nice to blow up multiple targets with a single bomb. So just as in attack mode, run some bomber sorties wherein your goal is just to hit multiple objects (i.e. Troop Factory) with a single bomb. Take the 4K and 9x1K loadout in the lank and drop them in the middle of the clusters.
D. Field Capture – you must capture at least one preferably around 2-3 fields in a given tour to get your bomber rank where you want it.
IV. Ground Vehicle
A. As with bombers and attack modes, it is important in GVs to blow stuff up. Certain maps and certain spawn points provide much greater opportunity for this. What I tell people that are wanting to improve their GV rank is BE PATIENT. You have the entire tour (month) to get your GV rank solid, don’t try to do it all within one week.
B. Kills/death, kills/sortie, kills/time online are all counted. Therefore, don’t up an Ostwind at a field hoping a bunch of planes will fly over you. Wait for a field to come under heavy attack, and then up the ostwind. Don’t sit around hoping someone will show up. If nothing is happening, get out of the GV and into a plane.
C. Damage/death, damage/sortie also count. This means that sometimes in GVs you need to target objects. It is best to find good spawn points for this for the longer you have to drive, the lower your kills/time online goes and the greater the likelihood of your being observed and killed. The Ostwind is certainly the GV of choice for blowing stuff up. On some maps, such as the Isles, GV wars break on the main island. This is a good opportunity to get some panzer kills.
D. Field Capture – you must capture at least one, preferably around 2-3 fields in a given tour to get your GV rank where you want it. You can use the M3 or LVT, both count as a capture and greatly improve your rank.
E. Hit % versus Objects. Get a number, ANY number other than 0 in this category, and your GV rank will climb significantly. Why? Not many people understand that this is a counted score. Therefore, most everyone has a 0 in this category. To get your hit % versus objects above 0, there are two ways. First, successfully hitting enemy objects (ships) with torpedos. I find this terribly challenging, and choose not to use this option. The second option is to use the PT Boat’s Rockets. To use the rockets on a PTBoat, you open the doors while in the F1 position. Then press 7 to get to the rocket position. Set your salvo to one, raise the rockets, use your rudder to line up on a target, and fire away. WATCH where the rocket lands, and adjust accordingly to try to get the next rocket to hit. ALL you need is one single rocket to hit something. The best times to do this are in the Mindanoa map when you can spawn PTBoats to neighboring enemy fields OR when you have a CV at an enemy field and can spawn close to it. Get as close to the field as you can to make the job easier. Obviously, mind the ack. If the ack is down, get all the way up near the shore. If the ack is up, you gotta fire from range, so be careful.
Hope this helps! The most important thing is to not let this get in the way of your having fun. It is incredibly stressful, and sometimes can make the game (and you) incredibly unpleasant. I know when I first started trying to mind my rank, boy oh boy I got pissed at every little thing that went wrong. Now, I fly 5-10 sorties per tour for scoring purposes and manage to keep my rank relatively high.
Good luck, have fun!
