Yes, the last of the trilogy is finally here. I don't want to say "long awaited" because I think there was maybe like three people that read my other posts.......but hey, who's counting?
Anyway, in the last two sections we discussed some tacticts for not only locating your targets, but actually being able to KILL them as well. Now comes the last piece of the puzzle....SURVIVING to tell about it, and kill again.
Armored Fury is like the Gay Pride Parade of Anti-Air. They are everywhere, and they all want to shoot something up your tail pipe.
This final guide should help you in avoiding the ubiquitous AA, and even the occasional fool hardy "fighter jock" who thinks he's gonna gun you down.
But first and foremost is one essential tenent of survival.....don't kill YOURSELF. This is still my achilles heel......more times than not, if I DO die, it's because I did something dumb and crashed into a tree or a rock. This, unfortunately is not something I can give you much tactical advice on, because it all comes down to simply practicing flying, and knowing when to pull up versus when to hold that dive a little bit longer. What I can tell you is that the A10 in my opinion is the best for avoiding self-pwnage. Its handling characteristics are very predictable and intuitive. The Fantan and the Frogfoot on the other hand are more quirky, and lend themselves more easily to making love with the ground. The Fantan, for instance, handles relatively well, EXCEPT for in a steep dive. You must pull out of a steep dive much earlier than with the A10, or you'll simply make a pretty display of wreckage for the enemy (AND your own team) to laugh at. But who cares? We're not talking about whoring the Fantan or the Frogfoot......we're talking about whoring the A10!!! So, if you do crash, chances are it's because you go over zealous and decided to persist against that target that was taking longer than expect to kill (like that FAV on the run)......and rather than breaking off, and circling in for another pass, you followed the little bastard right into the pavement or clipped your wing on a lightpost. Yes, I've done this.....and yes, YOU will too. The trick is.......SET ASIDE YOUR PRIDE for a couple seconds......and realize that there are OTHER targets on the map.....you don't NEED to kill this one RIGHT NOW.
The next thing I will address is enemy jets. As I mentioned in the last guide, these are low priority targets, because few pilots will let you fire off the string of ammunition needed directly into their jet without some kind of evasive maneuvering. This evasive maneuvering entices you to follow, because again...you've got PRIDE (perhaps you should be in a parade?). As you are following this jet, chances are, you're not nearly as conscious of your one and only TRUE threat......ANTI-AIR. This can lead to you carelessly flying into a whole sea of AA vehicles and stinger sites........or even just one lucky bastard with his finger on the trigger. So, as was discussed last time.......UNLESS you know you can kill this jet quickly and decisively (IE, he's already smoking and you can easily swoop in, fire a few roungs, and turn him into sky confetti).........DO NOT ENGAGE ENEMY JETS!
"That's all well and good KingLo.....I mean.....FeedUsYourFetus........but what if HE engages ME? Oh, whatever do I do!!!!???" Good question my young PaddingOne (get it....see.....like Padawan.....from those Star Wars movies? Get it.....cause, like...Yoda said that when he was teaching the little ones........ah fuck it you humorless sacks of.....)
Anyway, there is the occasional idiot that thinks he's going to end your rain of terror by shooting you down in his jet. Obviously, you can't ignore this mockery of your M4D SK11111LLLZZZZ. You have to evade the enemy. This, turns out to be quite easy when you are up against the MEC Frogfoot. One must simply utilize a handling quirk that plaques the Frogfoot in order to get away from it. If you have ever flown a Frogfoot, you will know that if you make too steep of an ascent, you can no longer nose back down.....you must roll backwards and/or off to the side to break out of this steep climb. The A10 doesn't have this problem. The A10 can ascend at a 90 degree angle, and can then just as easily nose back down without any major resistance.
So....you simply make the Frogfoot pilot follow you into a very steep ascent. You MUST watch your rear view camera angle so you can keep tabs on his position. Once he is following you upward.......nose down quickly......and watch as the Frogfoot has no choice but to roll backwards and away from you, while you fly off unpersued and laughing at his failed attempt.
There IS a cation that must be made here. The gun on the Frogfoot is VERY powerful. It can destroy you before you even realize you are being hit......so you must be CAREFUL. Chances are, he'll get a few rounds into you as he's following you into your ascent. These few rounds can do a lot of damage....so make sure you execute this maneuver QUICKLY.
Now on to the Fantan. This one isn't quite as easy to lose.....If you try that simple "up/down" maneuver on it.......well......he'll still be following you. I'm sure there are 101 tactics available for avoiding enemy jets, but the one I use to "Great Success!" (Borat voice) is to quickly nose up AS IF I'm leading my persuer into an ascent.....but then I roll my jet over so I am upside down, and pull back on the stick as fast as I can, doing essentially and upside down 180......sending me in the opposite direction. I've had few if any pilots follow me through this maneuver.
But how......HOW.......do you avoid that dreaded AA. The BEST tactic for this is to kill them before they know you are even there. As was discussed in Part 2, divebombing is a key tactic for this. Most AA users expect to see jets cruising at reltively low altitudes. If you do this, they can simply watch you approach, and you are out of luck......he's gonna win. Another tactic is to approach from angles and places they are NOT expecting. IE, circle the outskirts of the map......and make your bombing approach from BEHIND them. They often aren't checking in the direction of their own main base........they have this sense about them that everything behind them is ok......everything out front is bad. Exploit this.
Sometimes, however, you're just not going to be able to avoid that missile lock. For instance, you divebomb some unsuspecting AA whore, destroy him before knew what was about to happen.......but lo and behold, theres another AA site close by and he has lock.
You're screwed right? NO. Now is the time for flares.......but remember, flares aren't just "fire and forget." You have to use them PROPERLY. You have to use the flares to mask your heat signature. So.....if you are in the midst of a tight turn, and deploy flares......you are effectively flying AWAY from your own flares, negating their purpose. The guy in AA simply has to point at you, and voila, he's reaquired locks, and you're out of flares. The point is to keep the flares in between you and the AA, so that the flares continue to mask your heat signature as you fly out of range, preventing him from reaquiring lockon.
How? Well, the first step obviously is to be flying AWAY from the AA. Drop your flares as you are ascending, but as soon as the are released, begin decending slowly, so that as the flares fall, you are falling with them. This keeps those protective flares behind you, and in front of him. It's like if someone was shooting at you with a gun, and you were using a moving car as cover........you'd want to run WITH the car, so that you are always on the other side. If you run away from the car....good job genius.......the enemy sees you, shoots you, you're dead.
As you are descending with your flares, the idea is to either get down below the cover of the terrain so that physical objects actually block his view of you......or to get far enough away that he can't achieve lock anymore. One way to get far away in a hurry is to fly deep in the red zone.......this was discussed before as well when talking about choosing the right kit. This is one of those times that being a medic helps. You lose life if you are in the red zone for too long, and eventually you die.....duh. BUT, as a medic, you will slowly heal yourself, and increase the time that you can spend in the red zone.........you'll still die, but not as quickly. So, you can use the cover of the red zone for a longer period as a medic than you can using any other kit.
Alright children, class dismissed. I send you all out into the world of Armored Fury to practice your new found tactics. Make me proud......but for the love of God, if you're on the same server as me, steal THE OTHER GUYS A10, and NOT MINE!
KiL
Anyway, in the last two sections we discussed some tacticts for not only locating your targets, but actually being able to KILL them as well. Now comes the last piece of the puzzle....SURVIVING to tell about it, and kill again.
Armored Fury is like the Gay Pride Parade of Anti-Air. They are everywhere, and they all want to shoot something up your tail pipe.
This final guide should help you in avoiding the ubiquitous AA, and even the occasional fool hardy "fighter jock" who thinks he's gonna gun you down.
But first and foremost is one essential tenent of survival.....don't kill YOURSELF. This is still my achilles heel......more times than not, if I DO die, it's because I did something dumb and crashed into a tree or a rock. This, unfortunately is not something I can give you much tactical advice on, because it all comes down to simply practicing flying, and knowing when to pull up versus when to hold that dive a little bit longer. What I can tell you is that the A10 in my opinion is the best for avoiding self-pwnage. Its handling characteristics are very predictable and intuitive. The Fantan and the Frogfoot on the other hand are more quirky, and lend themselves more easily to making love with the ground. The Fantan, for instance, handles relatively well, EXCEPT for in a steep dive. You must pull out of a steep dive much earlier than with the A10, or you'll simply make a pretty display of wreckage for the enemy (AND your own team) to laugh at. But who cares? We're not talking about whoring the Fantan or the Frogfoot......we're talking about whoring the A10!!! So, if you do crash, chances are it's because you go over zealous and decided to persist against that target that was taking longer than expect to kill (like that FAV on the run)......and rather than breaking off, and circling in for another pass, you followed the little bastard right into the pavement or clipped your wing on a lightpost. Yes, I've done this.....and yes, YOU will too. The trick is.......SET ASIDE YOUR PRIDE for a couple seconds......and realize that there are OTHER targets on the map.....you don't NEED to kill this one RIGHT NOW.
The next thing I will address is enemy jets. As I mentioned in the last guide, these are low priority targets, because few pilots will let you fire off the string of ammunition needed directly into their jet without some kind of evasive maneuvering. This evasive maneuvering entices you to follow, because again...you've got PRIDE (perhaps you should be in a parade?). As you are following this jet, chances are, you're not nearly as conscious of your one and only TRUE threat......ANTI-AIR. This can lead to you carelessly flying into a whole sea of AA vehicles and stinger sites........or even just one lucky bastard with his finger on the trigger. So, as was discussed last time.......UNLESS you know you can kill this jet quickly and decisively (IE, he's already smoking and you can easily swoop in, fire a few roungs, and turn him into sky confetti).........DO NOT ENGAGE ENEMY JETS!
"That's all well and good KingLo.....I mean.....FeedUsYourFetus........but what if HE engages ME? Oh, whatever do I do!!!!???" Good question my young PaddingOne (get it....see.....like Padawan.....from those Star Wars movies? Get it.....cause, like...Yoda said that when he was teaching the little ones........ah fuck it you humorless sacks of.....)
Anyway, there is the occasional idiot that thinks he's going to end your rain of terror by shooting you down in his jet. Obviously, you can't ignore this mockery of your M4D SK11111LLLZZZZ. You have to evade the enemy. This, turns out to be quite easy when you are up against the MEC Frogfoot. One must simply utilize a handling quirk that plaques the Frogfoot in order to get away from it. If you have ever flown a Frogfoot, you will know that if you make too steep of an ascent, you can no longer nose back down.....you must roll backwards and/or off to the side to break out of this steep climb. The A10 doesn't have this problem. The A10 can ascend at a 90 degree angle, and can then just as easily nose back down without any major resistance.
So....you simply make the Frogfoot pilot follow you into a very steep ascent. You MUST watch your rear view camera angle so you can keep tabs on his position. Once he is following you upward.......nose down quickly......and watch as the Frogfoot has no choice but to roll backwards and away from you, while you fly off unpersued and laughing at his failed attempt.
There IS a cation that must be made here. The gun on the Frogfoot is VERY powerful. It can destroy you before you even realize you are being hit......so you must be CAREFUL. Chances are, he'll get a few rounds into you as he's following you into your ascent. These few rounds can do a lot of damage....so make sure you execute this maneuver QUICKLY.
Now on to the Fantan. This one isn't quite as easy to lose.....If you try that simple "up/down" maneuver on it.......well......he'll still be following you. I'm sure there are 101 tactics available for avoiding enemy jets, but the one I use to "Great Success!" (Borat voice) is to quickly nose up AS IF I'm leading my persuer into an ascent.....but then I roll my jet over so I am upside down, and pull back on the stick as fast as I can, doing essentially and upside down 180......sending me in the opposite direction. I've had few if any pilots follow me through this maneuver.
But how......HOW.......do you avoid that dreaded AA. The BEST tactic for this is to kill them before they know you are even there. As was discussed in Part 2, divebombing is a key tactic for this. Most AA users expect to see jets cruising at reltively low altitudes. If you do this, they can simply watch you approach, and you are out of luck......he's gonna win. Another tactic is to approach from angles and places they are NOT expecting. IE, circle the outskirts of the map......and make your bombing approach from BEHIND them. They often aren't checking in the direction of their own main base........they have this sense about them that everything behind them is ok......everything out front is bad. Exploit this.
Sometimes, however, you're just not going to be able to avoid that missile lock. For instance, you divebomb some unsuspecting AA whore, destroy him before knew what was about to happen.......but lo and behold, theres another AA site close by and he has lock.
You're screwed right? NO. Now is the time for flares.......but remember, flares aren't just "fire and forget." You have to use them PROPERLY. You have to use the flares to mask your heat signature. So.....if you are in the midst of a tight turn, and deploy flares......you are effectively flying AWAY from your own flares, negating their purpose. The guy in AA simply has to point at you, and voila, he's reaquired locks, and you're out of flares. The point is to keep the flares in between you and the AA, so that the flares continue to mask your heat signature as you fly out of range, preventing him from reaquiring lockon.
How? Well, the first step obviously is to be flying AWAY from the AA. Drop your flares as you are ascending, but as soon as the are released, begin decending slowly, so that as the flares fall, you are falling with them. This keeps those protective flares behind you, and in front of him. It's like if someone was shooting at you with a gun, and you were using a moving car as cover........you'd want to run WITH the car, so that you are always on the other side. If you run away from the car....good job genius.......the enemy sees you, shoots you, you're dead.
As you are descending with your flares, the idea is to either get down below the cover of the terrain so that physical objects actually block his view of you......or to get far enough away that he can't achieve lock anymore. One way to get far away in a hurry is to fly deep in the red zone.......this was discussed before as well when talking about choosing the right kit. This is one of those times that being a medic helps. You lose life if you are in the red zone for too long, and eventually you die.....duh. BUT, as a medic, you will slowly heal yourself, and increase the time that you can spend in the red zone.........you'll still die, but not as quickly. So, you can use the cover of the red zone for a longer period as a medic than you can using any other kit.
Alright children, class dismissed. I send you all out into the world of Armored Fury to practice your new found tactics. Make me proud......but for the love of God, if you're on the same server as me, steal THE OTHER GUYS A10, and NOT MINE!
KiL
