The Art of the Setup
by Zazen

from This Thread on the Aces High Bulletin Board

One thing that I've noticed throughout the years is people tend to approach a fight with a stubborn single-mindedness. This is not necessarily a bad thing in a restricted engagement. But, in a complex multi-plane engagement, where flexibility and adaptability is key, it can be a serious hindrance and a potential source of great frustration. In a complex engagement, unlike a 1 vs. 1, even when engaged you must maintain a 'reserve' of SA for your immediate surroundings, you must be vigilant and aware of what all the other planes in your immediate vicinity are doing, friend and foe alike. If need be you must be willing to disengage your current target and engage another target of opportunity. In situations where you yourself are engaged while pre-occupied you must know how to help others help you. This is what I will discuss here, the set-up, or how to help others help you, in other words wingman tactics and teamwork. I write this especially for the newer players, or for those new to fightering. Good set-ups will use those flying near you who are much more experienced than you to help you live longer, which in turn allows you to enjoy more protracted fights and learn a lot more quickly.

For the set-up to work there are some basic requirements. I will list them briefly here:

1) You must have the SA to be aware of the bandit before it's too late.

2) You must have at your disposal friendlies who have the SA to recognize a set-up.

3) Those friendlies must be opportunistic enough to take advantage of that knowledge.

4) Your set-up of the bandit must be done subtly so as to conceal the fact from the bandit that he is being set-up at all.

5) You must have the tactical awareness to know what to do in different situations, some set-ups only work in certain circumstances.

Here are the three most common set-ups and how to properly execute and exploit them. A big part of setting bandits up for teammates is communication, don't just assume everyone is on the same page as you, talk to them and tell them what page to be on.

The Drag 'N Bag

This is the most common set-up. The key to this is twofold.

1) Keep the bandit interested, think like the bandit. A bandit that does not have a sizeable speed advantage will not likely chase you for long. It is your job to make yourself an enticing fruit just beyond his reach. What a bandit is hoping for is for you to break, so wiggle, make it look as though you could be about to break at any moment, don't let your fish off the hook.

2) When you have a friendly coming to bag your drag, do not do anything sudden, but do something to keep the bandit more interested in his forward view than checking his 6, wiggle, pull up a tad to slow him down, just do not drastically change your heading. The reason is the friendly is likely holding a lot of E and will not be able to maintain lead for a shot without chopping a lot of E.

Hang 'Em High

This set-up is quite similar to the drag but is more specialized in its application and implies use of the vertical. This is probably the most beautiful set-up for your wingmen, if done correctly it's almost impossible to miss. Think of this set-up as a rope, but for someone else. There are some considerations for this method as follows:

1) The first key to this move is E. You must have the E to keep just out of arms reach, but like the rope, E states have to be close enough the bandit feels he has a chance, especially if you were to loop over the top. Pull him up very gradually at first, steepening your climb gradually until you are vertical. With gravity fighting against him he will be a very unstable gunnery platform even if he does have the range for a shot at the top.

2) The 2nd key to this move is timing. If E states are relatively equal between you and the bandit you must be reasonably confident your friendly will pick your fruit as it dangles on the branch before the bandit gets close enough for a shot. This is where communication comes in. Again, like the drag it is important to keep yourself attractive to look at, especially as your friendly is coming in for the kill, wiggle a bit or act like you are going to loop over the top to keep the bandit from checking his 6.

The Suck-Drag

This technique is very useful against alt monkeys. Everyone has been in this situation, you have a con above you and some friendlies who is looking to BnZ. The key to getting this fellow is the suck-drag. An alt monkey BnZer has two vulnerabilities, excessive speed and only being able to attack one at a time. As you are sucking his E away from him your friendlies are jockeying into position to turn the tables on him as his relative E advantage degrades.

1) A high Alt BnZer operating without a wingman can only attack one person at a time. This provides an opportunity to degrade his relative E advantage without actually engaging him per se. Again, think like the bandit, what does he want to see? What will make him most likely to over-commit his E? I'll tell you what...an unaware opponent. So, give him what he wants, pretend you are unaware of him, but do it in a crafty way. The second you realize he may dive on you , start a very shallow dive, build-up E, forcing him to lose alot more alt than he thinks with his pass, he will be diving so fast he will not notice the difference. Don't dive steeply enough he can tell by aspect of your plane what you are doing. Just sit there until the last possible second, then chop throttle and break (never break straight up). Repeat this as necessary, every pass he makes on someone the others are closing the E gap as the bandit wastes his E in high speed power dives. This works best on bandits attacking from at or near the pure vertical.

2) Control compression from excessive dive-speed is enemy #1 for the BnZer. What is a lazy turn for a plane going 300, is an impossible black-out turn for a plane going 500. Use this against the BnZer to suck his energy advantage away. This works best on bandits not attacking from the pure vertical. In this suck-drag do not build up speed, keep in level flight or even a shallow climb, maintaining your best corner speed is most important. As soon as the bandit starts his pass, start turning, very gradually at first, tightening up as he gets closer and faster. One of these four things will happen:

a) He blacks-out trying to follow you without chopping throttle.

b) He compresses totally and either lawn darts or blows a HUGE amount of E before he recovers from control compression.

c) He aggressively chops throttle for the shot, but likely will not be able to match your turn, this burns A LOT of his E, you may even be in a position for a shot when he overshoots.

d) He aborts his attack at some point, burning some E.

The key to these moves is to make yourself attractive to fixate upon. The more fixated the bandit is on you the less he is checking his 6. The other keys are communicating with and being predictable to your friendlies. Don't do anything unexpected, if you must break hard, announce your intentions so your friendly can be ready. For example: "Breaking Left 90 degrees!". If you are dragging a bandit within guns range, do not drastically change your heading with unpredictable panic moves, never vary your heading more than 45 degrees, by doing this you give friendlies dumping E with alt a chance to come clear you. Like the BnZer a friendly diving down to clear you cannot turn with a slow moving bandit for a shot.

Anyways I hope this helps. Happy Hunting!

Zazen