Teamwork, a change in perspective.

[Flavel]

While its always satisfying scoring a kill I've become more focused of late trying to improve my teamwork skills.


The simple goal I've established for myself is to consistently score more "assists" then kills.  Fly with others, use the secondary weapons, get the opponent on the defensive and as team mates swoop in for the kill I back off and assume high guard.  When the bombers are smoking I back off and let the other guy finish them off.

I'm not far down this road but I'm finding that my situational awareness has gotten a lot better for taking this approach.  I'm not surprised near as often and I'm landing my plane much more often. 

It is an odd change for me, but changing my intent from killing the enemy to trying to keep my compatriots safe while improving their scores has made the game more enjoyable.  I'm using the radio more, calling off the "check six" to fellow pilots.   When I back off on a damaged enemy and tell somebody else they can have the kill I get a ego boost. 

I was curious if there are other pilots that have transitioned from lone wolf to shepherd dog and what their experiences have been. 

[deadstikmac]

+1

[Bruv119]

focusing on what others are doing is part of your overall situational awareness.  Some of the most fun you can have is a wingman who knows exactly what your going to do and being there in the shooting position everytime for a rope.   The game suddenly becomes 4 times easier.

most will find the nearest red guy and fly at him with the trigger down.   By observing what others are doing, what plane do they have, how much energy they have, whether they are in or out is constantly going through my brain when i'm flying.  

so you are right in saying your surviving more because it is important to know what is happening outside your cockpit as much as what your doing in it.  Using that information in real time and making the right decisions is key to killing and surviving.  

[Flavel]

I figured the SA improvement was because I am no longer target fixated.  But, yeah, I'm looking at the DAR bar more and taking the time to figure out where all the red dots are going.  I'm not rushing things quite so much.

When I find bombers, instead of going into my attack run I'm calling out distance, direction, and altitude to other pilots.  Bombers are easy enough to soften up.  The problem is trying to damage the Japanese planes.  Even using twin 13 mm's and Jap planes have a tendency to come apart. 

[Noir]

what bruv said

don't forget to kill them when you get a chance, often a missed kill means that you will get outnumbered later in the flight!

[Rodent57]

Flavel,

Welcome to the Bigboys club!

Completely agree that working with others is more gratifying.

I'd caution you against willfully letting a kill get away simply for the reason that Noir posted.  I don't endorse "kill stealing" in any fashion .... but not killing a threat just means you have a wounded threat flying around and that cant be a good thing. 

'Herding' a badguy while a wingman maneuvers out of plane for a quick entry and kill effectively always makes me smile.

- Rodent57


PS Thank you for saying "Check Six" (or "Check Three", etc.) rather than the inane "CHECKIT" (which means the square root of nothing)

[Flavel]

Well if nobody is nearby then getting an assist isn't too likely. 

Funny thing though, once you tag an opponent half of them tuck tail and go totally defensive.  Of course there is the other half who act like a whacked beehive and wish to explain what "reciprocal instant Karma" is all about. 

The times to go for a kill...I'm still working this out; when your outnumbered, when your alone, to prevent imminent destruction of a comrade, to prevent the bombs from falling. 

Too often I see 4 or 5 friendlies ghanking a single opponent down to the deck while I watch on radar as additional enemies are approaching.

[Wiley]

My general rule of thumb in a multi-on-multi engagement is, if I have the opportunity to put down an enemy aircraft without sacrificing too much position, I take it.  That which is dead cannot harm us anymore.

Too often I see 4 or 5 friendlies ghanking a single opponent down to the deck while I watch on radar as additional enemies are approaching.

And that's just the nature of the beast.  I do the same thing, if I see a bunch piled on a bandit on the deck, I try to get into position for the inevitable high bandit(s) coming in to start BnZing them.  It always brings a smile to my face when I see a pony dump 10k of alt to attack friendlies on the deck while I set up on his high six for the inevitable zoom.

When I'm in a crowd and there's an opposing crowd, my first priority is to get high, then work the enemy from the top down, either killing them or pushing them down to within range of the people who consider 6k alt to be 'high'.  I prioritize buffs if I see them, but if I don't then I start working on fighters.

Wiley.

[bozon]

When you fly with wingmen, what matters is the total number of kills and not how they are distributed between the wingmen. And surviving to spam the system messages with the kill messages, that too.

This is what we tell each other in Loose Deuce as we race to steal the kill from the buddy firmly saddled on his target, followed by a congratulation on the fine setup. Bunch of kill stealing knaves the lot of them!