I decided to make a little dogfighting guide that includes some effective techniques for dogfighting in Freespace. Feel free to add anything I may have missed.
Before we start there are a few things I should make clear.
It's important to remember that tactics are based on assumptions and they are only as strong as the assumptions you build them on. Basing your tactics on more basic your assumptions makes your tactics more durable, but it limits your options. On the flip side, basing your tactics on more complex assumptions give you more options, but it makes you tactics less durable.
Because of this, there are a few assumptions I do not use when writing these for various reasons:
-The skill of your opponent.
I do not make any assumptions about the skill of your opponent because I think such an assumption would be far too fragile. This means that I write these assuming that your opponent is of roughly equal skill to you. If your opponent is not as good as you are then you kill them faster. If your opponents are just as good then these should better your chances of defeating them. If you opponent is better then these will just make you live a bit longer.
-Your weapons:
I do not make any assumptions regard the weaponry you are carrying. Different people prefer different weapons and I think it's too impractical to come up with different tactics for different weapons. All I assume is that missiles have some kind of homing capability and that your primaries can hurt things in front of you. Obviously both are true most of the time which make these assumptions very durable.
-Your ship:
I don't make any assumptions about the ship you are flying. I assume both you and your opponent are flying more or less equally performing craft. Again, like weapons I think it's impractical to devise seperate tactics for different craft, at least within scope of this guide.
Basically any tactics that requires any of the above three assumptions to be made won't be put into this guide. That doesn't mean I think such tactics are bad, it just means they wouldn't fit into this guide without making it even longer and harder to read than it already is.
So without further to do:
Table of Contents:Chapter 1: Basic Maneuvers and Tactics -Part 1: Offense
-Part 2: Defense
-Part 3: Am I stuck on the defensive of can I fight back?
-Part 4: Head-on Approach
-Part 5: Interception
-Part 6: Missiles
-Part 7: Primaries
-Part 8: Aspect, angle-off, and the turn circle.
-Part 9: Situational awareness
Chapter 2: Multi-ship combat and tactics.-Part 1: Communication.
-Part 2: Some things worth remembering.
-Part 3: Basic Interception.
-Part 4: Advanced Interception.
Chapter 1: Basic Maneuvers and Tactics. Part 1: OffenseFirst, as soon as you get behind your opponent, match speeds. I know some people prefer not to, but I find it much easier to have a baseline speed to work off of. Besides, positioning problems can be corrected later.
This of course, leaves the possibility of overshoot, so that's a good place to start.
It's simple geometry, if your target is turning and you keep pointing straight at it you are flying more and more perpendicular to your target, and as this happens the number of degrees per second you need to turn in order to keep your target in your sights increases. You are also taking a much shorter path to your targets current position than the one your target took, so assuming your moving at the same speed you will get closer and closer to your target because you have a shorter distance to cover. Needless to say, this usually ends in either you overshooting or colliding with your target, or you end up so far ahead of your target's 3/9 line that the number of degrees per second you need to turn to keep the target in your sights exceeds what your ship can do.
Obviously, this is what your opponent wants and they'll be doing their best to make it happen.
There are a couple ways you can fix this.
First is the obvious one, which is to slow down, you can do this by hitting the decelerate key while matching speeds to keep your speed a bit under that of your target. This is probably the first thing everyone does when they start getting uncomfortably close to their targets. This works well, but since you often have to move significantly slower than your target there are a lot of situations where doing this can get you really shot up, especially on higher difficulty levels. Obviously slow ships are easy to hit. Also, this leaves you with an aspect problem. Aspect is the number of degrees you are away from your opponent's rear, and the further ahead of your target you are, the higher your aspect, and the harder it will usually be to keep your opponent in your sights. Slowing down and allowing your opponent to get ahead of you and turn also means your increasing your angle off, the difference in degrees between your direction of flight and your opponent's, but this part isn't that bad because due to the way ships turn in Freespace and Freespace 2, aspect is more important than angle off in most cases.
The second method is to take a less tight turn, or "lag pursue" your opponent, pointing your ship somewhat behind your target instead of directly at it. By doing this you can maintain your speed without overshooting your target. Obviously this temporarily prevents you from shooting at your target, but allows you to lower your aspect by allowing you to swing around around behind your target, putting you in a postion for a better shot. This is excellent against faster but more fragile targets like those pesky shivan dragon fighters, where getting a shot in edgewise is more of a problem than doing enough damage. Use this as necessary to stay behind your target and minimize the lead you have to pull to hit your target, then line up for a kill shot.
Now say that both the above approaches are not enough and your opponent is perhaps too skilled or is more maneuverable than you are, so much so that you cannot seem to get a good shot and you're in danger of losing them. Not all is lost. You can resort to yet another but admittedly more difficult approach to stay with your opponent, seek turning room outside of your opponents plane of motion.
Conventional wisdom holds that if you cannot turn, or at least move with, your opponent, you will eventually lose him. This is bullcrap. There is always more than one way to go from point A to point B and if you know where your opponent will be in a few moments time you can briefly break off your pursuit, use some clever geometry to seek room outside your opponent's turn to correct your positioning problems, and re-gain line of sight. This will require a bit of thinking ahead and a leap of faith on your part, as you will need to know where your opponent will be so you know where to get back on his tail.
Take this common scenario for instance:
Your opponent is turning hard, you are rapidly closing distance, and you're about to overshoot. You need keep turning to line up with him, but you can't just lower your speed otherwise you'll be left with a difficult shot he can easily dodge and he'll be able to turn head on into you and take some shots at you. Basically you need room fast but you're quickly running out it.
My preferred last ditch solution to this problem is to continue to turn and maintain speed, but loop the turn around the target's flight path in a sort of "turning roll" so that you'll be taking a longer flight path while still being able to correct your angle. To do this first you roll so that the direction your opponent is turning is towards the top of your screen. Next, pull up as hard as you can, and while doing so roll in either direction. You will lose sight of your opponent, but continue pulling up and rolling until you complete one roll and your target indicator is once again pointing out the top of your screen. Now assuming your opponent hasn't done anything crazy in that short while, you should be on the other side of his flight path, a tad further behind him, and with a much smaller angle to turn to line up to shoot. Now pull up a bit more and fire off your weapon of choice.
Obviously this isn't the only way in which you can do this. Again, the idea is that you break off of your opponent, quickly get yourself into a better position, and re-gain pursuit as quickly and as fluidly as possible. Keep in mind that this kind of maneuver is a last resort tactic, as it is difficult to do properly and smart multiplayer opponents can easily counter it if they recognize what you are trying to do, but it gives you a viable option should more practical methods fail to keep you on the offensive.
Part 2: DefenseTurning is perhaps the most important part of maneuvering defensively so its important to know what makes a turn effective in Freespace.
There are two characteristics of a turn that you'll need to pay attention to.
First is how quickly you are changing direction in degrees per second. In Freespace, the upper limit of this for a given ship is the same regardless of the speed you are going at. The second thing to pay attention to is displacement, or how far you are actually moving with your turn. It might be nice to be able to turn on a dime, but tight turns are useless for defense if they don't take you anywhere.
In any case the balance between these two should be determined by how quickly you are turning in degrees per second. There is no "corner velocity" in Freespace so if you are on the defensive you should always be going at your maximum speed. In fact I recommend cutting power from your weapons and putting it in engines and shields the moment you are forced on the defensive, as you're not going to need your weapons until you can get sight of your enemy.
As a rule of thumb, if you are being shot the first thing you should do is to turn in a way that gets the most out of both of these, turning tight enough to change direction but not so tightly that so sacrifice distance. A turn that has the pefect balance between both of these will be different for each ship depending on speed and turning rate. By doing this you are taking the first step in making yourself difficult to hit.
There are two forms of attack you'll need to defend yourself against, missiles and primaries.
First we'll cover missiles. When you have an incoming missile you should consider the missile to be your main enemy, temporarily forget about the enemy ship and concentrate on "fighting" the missile as it is the most immediate threat. The first thing you should do is get the missile on your 3/9 line and keep it there, or in other words fly perpendicular to the missile. By doing this you are forcing the missile to take the tightest possible turn. When you've done this listen for the beeps, when the missile is reasonably close then hit your afterburners and launch a countermeasure or two. If you've done this correctly the missile should overshoot.
Now we'll talk about primaries/guns/lasers or whatever you want to call them. Again, when your enemy starts firing his/her primary weapon, forget about the enemy ship and concentrate on "fighting" his/her weapon. "How do you "fight" a projectile?", you might ask. The most important thing to remember is that your enemy will need to lead or fire ahead of you for their projectiles to hit. Remember that lead indicators only guarentee a hit as long as you continue along your plane of motion. This sounds rather pathetic at first but this is the way all gunshots work, if the target changes direction while a shot is in mid-flight then that shot is no longer valid. First you should continue along your best turn until your enemy starts firing. The moment your enemy begins firing their primary weapons you should suddenly change your plane of motion by rolling to change the direction of your turn, this will cause the shots that have been fired to miss.
Also, remember the importance of distance. The farther you are from your enemy, the easier it is to dodge his weapons. On the flip side, the closer you let your enemy approach, the easier it will be to get them to overshoot and get yourself back on the offensive. You'll have to decide when it is a good time to let your enemy get closer and when to keep your enemy at a distance.
Part 3: Am I stuck on the defensive or can I fight back?Now aside from letting your opponent close distance and causing them to overshoot, there is yet another way you can get yourself a chance to fight back.
If you are on the defensive against a chasing opponent you have to answer an important question now and then, "Am I stuck defending myself or can I fight back?". To answer this we need to introduce the idea of a "turn circle". A turn circle is the circle your ship makes when making its tightest turn at your current speed.
Usually, if the chasing opponent is far enough outside your turn circle, or farther than the diameter of your turn circle if he is straight behind you, you will be able to make a hard turn and fight back against him. However, figuring out whether your opponent is outside this critical range can be difficult, and you'll have to get a feel for this with practice. The range your opponent has to be at is actually a bit farther or closer than the outside of your turn circle depending on his/her speed relative to yours, but it should be fairly close to it.
If your opponent is outside this range then you should take advantage of this by making your tightest possible turn in an attempt to face your opponent and get yourself back on the offense.
Part 4: Head On ApproachNow say you are approaching your opponent head on either as the result of simply encountering them or as a result of the above mentioned tactics.
In some situations you may be in a position to deal a great deal of damage before you and your opponent pass by each other. If you feel you can kill your opponent before passing them then you should try to do so. However, this will put you at a disadvantage should you be unable to kill your opponent. For the purposes of this guide, we're going to assume you can't do enough damage before passing your opponent to kill them.
In this situation you want to do a "lead turn" or in other words begin turning towards your opponent as soon as possible but not so soon that you pass in front of or crash into them. This means you will start turning before you pass your opponent. The reason for this is that you want to close your angle-off in the direction of your turn before your opponent closes his angle off in the direction of his. If your opponent is smart he will try to "lead turn" as well, since the best counter a lead turn is another lead turn.
It can be a bit difficult to visualize this turn from the first person view, so the easiest way I've found to do this is to try to turn in a way that puts myself just behind my opponent while flying perpendicular to them. In most cases you won't be able to get this ideal position, but a good lead turn should at least attempt to get into the said position.
Once you pass your opponent you should continue your turn as hard as possible until you get sight of your opponent or until he gets sight of you. You will now be either on offense or defense depending on who made the best lead turn.
Now one of the things people ask when told this is "You assume the opponent is going to lead turn into you as well, what if he doesn't?".
Well if the opponent decides to turn in any direction other than into you then he/she is effectively giving you a easy kill (assuming you and your opponent are similarly skilled otherwise), and I would recommend you take advantage of this as soon as possible.
Part 5: InterceptionIn Freespace you are usually aware of your opponent before they come into weapons range.
However, just because you can't shoot your opponent and he can't shoot at you doesn't mean you have room to get lazy. On the contrary, this provides both you and your opponent the opportunity to "prepare" your positioning prior to the first shot.
What you should be doing in this case is attempt to position yourself in a way that will give you the upper hand before you and your opponent come within weapons range.
Now if you're in a situation where you need to engage your opponent as soon as possible, like bomber intercept, then things are rather simple as it would make sense to take the shortest path to your target, as in a straight line. However, for the purposes of this guide, we're going to assume the target is another fighter out to get you or your teammates, as this is where things get a bit more difficult.
Like I mentioned earlier, the two most important things in getting the perfect shot are aspect (the angle of between an line drawn from your opponent to you and a line coming out straight behind your opponent) and angle-off (the angle between your opponent's flight path and your own). You want both to be zero, which means you're behind your opponent (zero aspect) and facing in the same direction (zero angle-off).
At distances beyond weapons range your primary concern should be closing your aspect, in other words you want to fly around your opponent while at the same time close distance with him.
The way I prefer to do this is to turn so that my opponent is ahead of me and off to the side at a certain angle, about 30 to 45 degrees to my left or right, and continue flying forward while turning to keep him at that angle. This will mean gentle turn that gets sharper as distance closes. By doing this I can begin to close my aspect without sacrificing too much angle-off.
In addition to allowing you to position yourself effectively, it is also easier to dodge missiles from this interception path because you will already be at an angle to the fired missile and will only have to turn a few degrees the other way, hit the afterburners, and launch a countermeasure or two to dodge the missile.
The beauty of this interception method and one of the convenient things about the geometry of dogfighting is in that, just like the "lead turn" mentioned in part 4, the only way to effectively counter it is for your opponent to do the same thing. This move is its own counter and by doing this you will force a smart opponent to do the same.
Remember that the whole point of this interception path is to better position yourself for a good head on approach "lead turn". You'll have to know when to break off from this path and go into doing what is described in part 4, usually when you both come within weapons range.
It is worth noting the combination of this interception path and lead turn described in the previous section is often the deciding factor in a dogfight between two equally skilled opponents. Assuming a perfect match between equally skilled opponents, whoever does the best interception and lead turn will win the resulting dogfight nine times out of ten. While "perfect matches" between equally skilled opponents are rare and almost never happen, this is something to keep in mind whenever you happen to be fighting someone who is more or less your equal.
Part 6: Missiles.Instead of talking about which missiles you should be carrying, what you want to use is your business, we will instead discuss things that apply to the use of missiles in general.
First things first, remember that in your missiles are able to fly better than you can, and by that I mean they are usually faster and more maneuverable than you are. However, in practice they often don't, because they don't have much AI to speak of and such will often fall into a few of the same pursuit pitfalls as you might occasionally fall into.
For example, perhaps the biggest reason the Hornet can be frustrating to use is because it flies a pure pursuit curve towards its target, meaning if the target makes a hard turn it will often run into the same pure pursuit overshoot problem described at the beginning of part 1. Thankfully, many of the other missiles are smarter than this in that they will lead their targets, so it's a bit harder to get them to overshoot.
When using missiles against your opponent keep in mind what it takes to evade a missile. In part 2 I mentioned that the first thing you should do to dodge a missile is to put it on your 3/9 line. Basically the closer you are to your opponent's 3/9 line (90 degrees aspect) when you fire the missile, the easier it will be for your opponent to evade your missile. Firing the missile from either ahead or behind your opponent is always better than firing it from the side. In addition to this, firing from behind opponent is somewhat better than firing from ahead of your opponent. Needless to say, aspect is one of the most important things to consider when firing a missile. Do whatever you can to close your aspect before firing a missile, as this will make your missile harder to evade.
You should also consider distance when firing missiles. The farther you are when you fire the missile, the easier it will be for your opponent to evade. On the flip side the opposite can be true at shorter ranges as a few missiles have tracking problems at short range, like the Trebuchet. It helps to get a feel for the right range at which you should fire a given missile. If you know your opponent is skilled enough or is agile enough to evade your missiles, it can sometimes be beneficial to "hold on to your missiles" a few moments longer to get a better shot.
In addition to the above, if you're firing from long range and if you feel that there is a good chance your opponent will dodge your missile, don't double fire your missiles. If you do, then both missiles will fly more or less the same pursuit path, so if one misses then they both will miss. At longer ranges it is often better to fire one, maneuver a bit, then fire another, so that the missiles take slightly different paths towards the target and making it bit harder for your opponent to evade both of them.
Part 7: Primaries/GunsThe first thing you need to realize about using primary weapons is what the lead indicator really does.
The lead indicator does not always point where you need to shoot in order to hit a moving target. More correctly, it indicates where you should shoot in order to hit a moving target assuming that the target continues along its current path. This means that in order for a shot fired through the lead indicator, the target has to continue moving along its current path without changing direction in a significant way. As mentioned in part 2, this may sound pathetic at first, but this is the way all gunshots with unguided projectiles work. However, having said the above, this is usually sufficient for most shots as the travel time for most shots will be relatively short, short enough to ensure that at least some of the shots will hit.
What this means for you is that the best shots are taken when the target is continuing along more or less the same plane of motion. When know you can't hit your target then it is best to use that time to position yourself so that you can have a better shot when you do have the opportunity to hit your target.
The second thing you need to keep in mind when using primaries is that, in order to hit a moving target, you always have to be flying lead pursuit to hit your target, as you'll have to be firing ahead of your target to compensate for the travel time of your shots. Recall what was explained in Part 1. The problem is that maintaining lead or pure pursuit for too long will almost always result in an overshoot against a turning target.
When trying to hit a turning target it is important that you do not tighten your turn into lead pursuit and line up for a shot until you are ready to shoot, because once you do you will only have a limited time window in which you can hit your target effectively. Once you line up for a shot and begin shooting it is important to know when to drop back into lag pursuit to avoid overshooting your target, which is something you will have to get a feel for with practice.
Part 8: Aspect, angle-off, and the turn circle.It's important not to fall into bad habits and think of dogfighting as a series of "moves" and "counter-moves", as such a perspective is very limiting.
It is ok to think in terms of "moves" when starting out as it helps you remember common maneuvers that work. However, eventually you want to step away from that mode of thinking and think in terms of the geometry rather than a series of moves. So far I have avoided giving individual maneuvers names except where they are particularly important for this very reason.
Going from remembering a set of maneuvers to actually understanding and applying the principles behind them can be difficult for some. I think a good place to start is with learning how to picture the geometry in your head.
I've already mentioned the concepts of "aspect" and "angle-off" several times previously and these two concepts become very important when it come to visualizing how a maneuver might work. Before we go any further it is important to clarify what these terms mean.
"Aspect" is the direction of an imaginary line between you and the target described in degrees away from your targets rear. As an example, if you're directly behind your enemy you are at 0 degrees aspect, if you are in front of your enemy you are at 180 degrees aspect, and if you are to the side of your enemy you are at 90 degrees aspect. Keep in mind aspect is only affected by your position and is not affected by the direction you are facing, being directly behind your enemy is 0 degrees aspect regardless of whether you are facing at or away from your enemy.
"Angle-off" has to do with your heading and your that of your enemy. It is the difference between your direction and your opponet's direction in degrees, and has nothing to do with your position relative to your opponent. For example, if you are facing north and your enemy is facing south then you have 180 degrees angle off, if you are facing east and your opponent is facing north you have 90 degrees angle off, and if your both facing north you have 0 degrees angle off.
These two concepts are very important because they allow you to think of your position and heading relative to your opponent as two values, which allows you to avoid having to form a complete "mental image" of the situation.
For example, if you are to the side of your opponent and facing perpendicular to them it can make it difficult to hit your target because of the amount of lead you have to pull. Instead of having to visualize the whole situation in order to evaluate whether or not you have a difficult shot, you can just think in terms of aspect and angle-off. In this case you can simply keep in mind that a right angle (90 degree) high aspect and right angle angle-off mean a difficult shot, and such a notion could be applied to a wide variety of similar situations and eliminate the need to form a complete "mental image" in those situations. Again, the idea is to simplify the small stuff into distinct and easy to remember values to make things easier to visualize.
As an even better example, take the "lead turn" described in part 5. It can be difficult to understand how the "lead turn" works by trying to picture it in your head as it can be hard to see how two craft facing in opposite directions can cross paths and turn in opposite directions to get behind one another, but when broken down into the concepts of "aspect" and "angle-off" the maneuver becomes much easier to understand. By turning early you are getting a head start in reducing your "angle-off" in the direction of your turn and the resulting turn gives you a head start in reducing your "aspect". If you do so before your opponent turns then you reduce both your aspect and angle of to zero first, meaning you will be behind your opponent. A maneuver that can usually take a couple minutes or more for some people to visualize effectively can be understood in mere seconds using these two concepts.
Another important concept is the "turn circle". When attempting to evaluate the effectiveness of a turn it often helps to keep the following in mind. If you picture consistent turns as parts cut out of a complete circle that the craft is flying tangent to and that it is easier for a given craft to fly away from the circle of its turn than turn into the inside of it, then a lot of turns become much easier to understand.
For example. Using this concept it become much easier to see why leading your opponent all the time eventually causes an overshoot. If you take two circles representing turns of equal size on top of each other so they look like one circle, and pivot circle A around on a point along the edge the circle A so that the line tangent to that point intersects at a point further along circle B, then there will be another point further along the second circle where the circles intersect, and circle A crosses outside of circle B. That point would represent where you would overshoot your opponent if you continued to lead turn. (If you have trouble understanding then it helps if you get two circles of equal size and try this yourself.)
On the flipside, if you lag your opponent then it is much easier to prevent an over shoot. This would be represented by pivoting circle A slightly in the other direction so that if a craft follows along it fly outside of circle B. Notice that the circles will intersect further along circle B, but this time circle A intersects to the inside of circle B, and since it is easier to fly away from your turn circle than it is to turn into the inside of it, it becomes clear why you can stay behind an opponent by not turning as sharply. (again, if you have trouble following go get two circular objects of equal size and try it yourself)
It may take a while to get used to, but thinking of a dogfight using these concepts makes it much easier to evaluate what is going on and what you should be doing to be more effective.
Part 9: Situational Awareness.It might not sound like much of a concern at first, but you'd be surprised at how much of a difference it makes.
Situational awareness has always been a problem in flight sims and space sims. It's big problem that doesn't make itself very obvious unless you've taken steps to reduce it and have a chance to "see what you were missing" so to speak. It is why head tracking devices and software like TrackIR and Freetrack catch on so well among flight sim fans.
Head tracking devices aside, there are several things you can do in Freespace to really improve your situational awareness.
First there's the target padlock view. It's not bound to any key by default so I highly recommend going into the options menu and binding it to a key your button on your joystick you can easily get to. What it does is it turns the camera to face your current target without pulling you out of first person view. It's sort of like of the pilot turning his head to face his target, but since there are no viewable cockpits in freespace you can see everything around you. Obviously it isn't good to stay in this view for very long, but being able to do a quick visual check on your opponent's position even when he's not in front of you becomes very useful, especially when agile targets where you'll do a lot of your maneuvering with a high angle-off.
The other camera controls are important as well. Make sure you can check your flanks and behind quickly and easily. For some this may feel awkward at first. It is often difficult to get new players in flight sims and space sims to use their camera controls the same way it can sometimes be difficult to get new drivers to check their mirrors. Try to pick an easy single-player mission or two to practice with your camera controls until you don't feel so awkward using them.
Also, be careful not to lock your eyes to the center of your HUD all the time. A lot of people do this and for some it can be a hard habit to break. There's no point in blank staring straight ahead if there is nothing happening there, as there are a lot of other things you should be paying attention to. Always remember check your radar, shields, missile count, and so on every once in a while unless you are actively shooting something. In fact, unless the current situations requires you to concentrate on something, try to keep your eyes moving to prevent them from getting stuck staring at something insignificant.
Chapter 2: Multi-ship combat and tactics. Part 1: Communication.Communication is the most important part of teamwork.
It is better to have too much communication than it is to have too little. Do not be afraid to and do not frown upon stating the obvious, as stating the obvious reinforces the awareness of the team. If it is significant, say something about it. When in doubt, say something anyway. Remember that each member of the team serves as another pair of eyes and ears for everyone else and information that seems insignificant to you may be very important to someone else. Voice communiation is highly recommended.
There are a few things you should always communicated to your teammates, these include:
-Am I on the offensive or defensive against an enemy ship?
-Who am I attacking?
-Who is attacking me?
If the answer to any of these changes then always inform the rest of your team. Everyone has to be aware of the situation of everyone else, otherwise effective teamwork becomes difficult.
In order to have effective communication you have to have a way for everyone to know who is saying what to whom. This is often overlooked and causes unnecessary confusion.
My preferred method of solving this problem is to put messeges into the form [reciever][sender],[message] so that everyone knows who is talking and who the message is intended for. If the reciever isn't stated then it is assumed to be the whole squad.
To get a better idea of how this should work, here is an example scenario:
Alpha 1: "Alpha 1, targeting Kappa 2."
Alpha 1: "Missile inbound, evading."
Alpha 1: "Alpha 1, taking fire from Kappa 3."
Alpha 2: "Alpha 1 Alpha 2, moving to attack Kappa 3."
(Alpha 2 swings in behind Kappa 3)
Alpha 2: "Alpha 1 Alpha 2, missile away."
(Alpha 1 reverses his turn, if Alpha 2 used primaries a different action would be taken, more on that later.)
(Kappa 3 breaks off and evades.)
Alpha 2: "Alpha 1 Alpha 2, your attacker has broken off.
(Alpha 1 turns hard and swings behind Kappa 3)
Alpha 1: "Alpha 2 Alpha 1, targeting Kappa 3."
You do not have to use the form depicted here. Use whatever terminology and shorthand you and your teammates can understand. Make sure the everyone know who is saying what to who and everyone can understand each other.
Part 2: Some things worth remembering.Before we get into more specific tactics involving multiple ships, we must go over some basic tactics and methods as well as some basic principles governing combat between multiple ships. Keep in mind that unless otherwise noted, "ship" refers to a fighter of similar performance to the one you are flying.
-Always deal with immediate threats first. If you're being shot at then defending yourself should be your top priority for the moment.
-Ships attacking other ships are always easier to kill. The best way to maneuver to attack another ship and the best way to maneuver to defend yourself are usually not the same. If given the choice between attacking a ship that doesn't have any current targets and attacking a ship that is currently attacking one of your friends, the latter will be an easier kill and it will help out your buddy as well. Keep in mind the same applies to you as well.
-The best way to keep a ship from attacking another ship is to attack that ship. This is another way of applying the above principle. If your current target chooses to constrain their maneuvers to attack another ship they will be an easy kill. Again, keep in mind the same applies to you as well.
-There is only room behind a ship for one other ship. In other words, you can and should only have one ship pursuing an enemy ship along the same plane of motion. Not only is it problematic to have more than one ship getting directly involved in a turning fight with a single enemy ship, it is pointless to do so. Of course, this does not mean that you cannot have more than one ship attacking a single enemy ship, you just should not have them taking the same pursuit path. More on this later.
-Unless otherwise occupied, always travel in pairs. The buddy system is good, and having someone to watch your back can make all the difference. Also, from a tactics perspective, just having one other ship with you greatly expands your options.
-Fighters do not multi-task well, divide up tasks whenever possible.
-Individual one-on-one dogfights are not done until one ship dies. As a rule of thumb, two ships go into a dogfight and only one ship comes out. If you break off from your current target without killing it to do something else, chances are that target will turn around and come after you. Normally you should only break off from your current target without killing it if you need to defend yourself, in which case your own defense will take priority. Because fighters don't multitask well, this can become a problem if you have other more urgent objectives. However, there are a few exceptions and workarounds to this I'll get into later.
-Pick your fights wisely. With the above problem in mind, whenever you are not otherwise occupied and have a choice between potential fights, try to pick one that will yield the best results. Remember, once you're in a dogfight you're usually going to be stuck in it until you either kill your opponent or get killed yourself. Also, use some common sense, don't go off by yourself to engage an incoming wing of four enemy ships unless you know you can kill them easily, it would be better to help get one of your teammates out of their current dogfight and bring them with you.
-The attacker has the upper hand, but the defender controls the direction and pace of the fight. This becomes important in combat with multiple ships, especially if the defender is in communication with someone else who could potentially take out his attacker.
Also, remember that everything explained in the previous section still applies, and can lead to even more possibilities as you introduce more ships.
Part 3: Basic InterceptionIt may be good to take a moment and re-read Chapter 1 Part 5: Interception, as this will expand upon that interception method.
Here I will list a few basic interception methods and tactics you can use with multiple ships. These are relatively simple and you've may have used these in some form before, but they form the basis for more sophisticated maneuvers that I'll get into in the next part. Keep in mind that these tactics are meant to be used when first approaching your enemy, not when you are already engaged in a dogfight.
For this I will describe these as if you have two ships, as it is the easiest way to explain them and most of these will be easy to expand to use more than two ships anyway.
Single-side offset:
To be perfectly honest, this tactic is pretty basic and is usually pretty useless in Freespace if you can do better, but I include it because it is still better than straight up flying at the opposing ship and a few more complex tactics are based on this. Basically both you and your wingman perform an interception around the same side along only slightly different curves in an attempt to close your aspect. That's all there is to it, it's little more a basic interception except with more than one ship. This tactic may be useful in situations where you can't afford to seperate from one another for some reason, but in most other cases you can do better than this.
Trail:
This basically consists of having your squad forming trail behind one another so that you are all different distances from your opponents then flying into them for a fight. The idea behind this is that by being at different distances you will take different paths to your opponents as soon as you come into range for a turning fight. By doing this you ensure that most of the opposing ships will have at least one of your ships shooting at them from behind. This is relatively simple, but it is good for when time constraints or other factors prevent you from setting up a more elaborate interception.
Bracket:
This is basically two interceptions coming at opposing directions. To put it simply this means if you have two ships, one will perform an interception around the "right" side and one will do one around the "left" side. The idea behind this is the opposing ship or ships go after one of you, then the other will have a better shot. If there are equal number of ships on both sides, then this will help isolate different opponents for each ship and spread out the threat more evenly among your wingmen. If you have more than two ships then you can add more interceptions "above" and "below" as well for added effectiveness.
Drag:
Not a complete interception method by itself, but a tactic that will be used in combination with others. Dragging is the act of intentionally going on the defensive and acting as a target in order to "drag" an opposing ship into an easy shot for another friendly ship.
Part 4: Advanced InterceptionThese are a few more sophisticated examples that I seperate from the rest because require a tad more coordination to do properly.
Not that distances in illustrations are NOT to scale, and ships should be much farther apart then they are shown.
Single Side Offset into Bracket:
A far more effective variation of the Single-Side Offset. It starts with a normal single side offset. Just before coming into primary weapon range the outside wingman turns hard and passes behind the inside wingman and circles to the other side, converting the single-side offset into a bracket/pincer at the last second. Timing is important, as the outside wingman has make his turn late enough to make his move effective but not so late that the enemy can simply gun him down as goes to the other side. Again, ideally this is done just before coming into range of the opponent's primaries. This method is useful in cases where a normal bracket is too predictable or easily countered.
Bracket with Drag:
This interception technique is good for getting easy kills against inferior numbers of ships. Here you have one pilot setting up an easy kill for his wingman. Starting with a normal bracket, the first friendly ship to be attacked breaks off and goes on the defensive while signal his wingman to move in for an easy kill against an already occupied opponent. Keep in mind that breaking off too late can cause problems for the defending ship, as he must allow enough time for his wingman to get a good shot before the opponent does, it is best done just outside of primary weapon range. As soon as the opponent starts firing the defending wingman should reverse his turn, put the opponent on his 3/9 line, and take evasive action to give him a difficult shot, doing a head-on approach if possible
Keep in mind that these are not set ways of doing things, but more sophisticated examples of how the principles explained thus far can be applied. Again, it's much better to get a feel for how the principles are applied rather than memorizing a set of "moves".
I will probably come back to this sections and add more examples.
I'll probably add more to this later on, in the meantime feel free to post any other useful advice you might have.
