Hey CV fellas (or any wanna be future CV), I'd like to share some experience and tips for
maneuvering planes when you re out there. Hope this help (and I better see better CV
performance in GB >.<)

There are 3 major planes type for CV: Fighter, Dive Bomber and Torp Bomber. Each has a
different way to control to get the best performance out of the planes, the pilot and to
be effective. I will try to keep this as understandable as possible.

Before you continue to read this, please make sure you know the basic control of your
planes (ie. Prepare/launch/retrieve/move your planes/bomb/raise altitude/lower altitude, etc.)

====Fighter====

Fighter carry gun just like ship does (just one is gigantic while the other is flies
shooter) so there is some physic in it too. By using these physics, you can gain
advantages that can help you win (or just to make your fighter's life easier and take less
damage in battle, which mean you can kill more with one flight, after all, its part of the
game to make your enemy run out of planes first).First, lets look at your angle of
approaching the other fighter.

One of the smartest moves (also the most basic) is to NOT go head to head with the other
fighter. Its always better to make the other fighter CHASE you and then turn back and kill
them. When the other fighter chase yours, they only chase "one" fighter plane so they
wont fire on the other plane, as you turn back, your whole flight will be firing on
whatever they see, while the enemy flight is concentrating on that "one" fighter they are
chasing. This happen because once the fighter gets engaged, they engaged only to ONE plane
and they wont fire on any other until that ONE plane is dead(or unless you manually
command them to break away). I call this the "sticky-engagement"(for the sake of my others
explanations). Remember this and remember it well because all other maneuver will base on
this sticky-engagement factor and bring the advantage to your plane.

>>>Drag-Spam-Release<<<



To prevent the head on collision, fly your fighters(yellow) toward the enemy (white)
fighter, and just before they about to reach the enemy, redirect them to another point by
SPAMMING on that point. After you avoid the head on fighting, continue spamming on the
next point so your fighter is running and the other fighter is chasing. Don't do this too
long because you might lose your chance to kill them. When you are ready, stop spamming
(on the diagram above, the red dot is where you should stop spamming) and your fighter
should engage the enemy planes now, and should be able to take out the other flight
without suffering much damage. Follow the diagram to get an idea of this (sorry for any
confusion, its hard to explain this). Note, by "release" I mean that you release your
fighter from your manual control and let it do the work. Continues the "drag-spam-stop" if
necessary to kill all planes in sight. If you do this right, you ll kill the other fighter
with ease.

>>>Counter Drag-Spam-Release<<<

If your fighter get stuck in the situation above (chasing the other fighter), IMMEDIATE
drag them away by spamming on a point anywhere to manually call your plane to that place
so they disengage and to prevent them from chasing. When you are comfortable enough with
fighter maneuvering, you can also try this more advance move but I would not recommend it
because it can be risky if you don't do it properly. Look below



Pick a point above or below the enemy flight (whose running away), try to keep a safe
distance too, and spam on it, at this point, it might appear that your chasing the other
plane, but you are not anymore. Once the enemy fighter is "released" they will turn to
your planes, and you can continue drag them away and make them chase you back and do the
"Drag Spam Release" on them. (This is one basic way to do this "fake following" your
creativity can be come in handy here, just don't be too creative)

>>>Counter Dog-Fighting<<< (The round and round we go scenario)

I'm sure you've seen these before. Its pretty simple to get out and get the advantage and
kill the other plane that is in the circle with you. When your plane is flying in circle
chasing the other guy, pick one point either directly EAST or WEST (preferably EAST, I
cant explain why yet, just I can tell its better from experience) spam on that point so
your plane get OUT of the circle and at the same time make the other plane CHASE you. As
the other plane chase your plane, stop spamming (release) and your fighter should turn
around and kill the chaser. Oh by the way, the possition of where the planes are in the
dog fighting and the point you click effect the way the other plane chase you too. Keep
that in mind and it might help you find the right place to click to make your planes kill
the other one in the circle faster and more effective.

Few more tips on fighting flying for guys who already is an expert in the above tactics:

-Watch where you drag your fighter. When you perform the "Drag-spam-release" tactic, the
angle where your planes "turn back" matter a LOT. Some angles are better than others and
it will help your fighter fire more effectively at the enemy. Some angles are worse that
can actually defect your fighter firing and give the other fighter the advantage. I can't
explain how I get this yet (except from the 2 years CV playing experience) due to it's
complex nature but I know there is a NF "plane" physic and when its combine with the
"sticky-engagement" factor, it create certain good angles and bad angles.

-Try approach from east or west, don't approach from north or south (bad bad bad, these
angle have irregular outcomes, its like ship shooting north and south, except this is
planes and its more complicate). -don't read this if you are already confuse- From my
experience, if I really had to chose in these for direction, I would choose approaching
from East to be best, West, South, and approaching from North would be my last option.
E>W>S>N. The angles in between (SW, NE) are pretty much as complicated and I don't have
any understanding on this so any input on this part is more than welcome.



-Using fighter as scout- fighter are our precious creature so when you fly them to scout
for your BB, make sure you keep your eyes on them, keep them flying in many direction,
keep raise/lower the angle and think like an AA whore. Don't fly them in and let them die.

-Launch fighter to engage fighter over your head-when you launch your fighter, select the
group and fly them away right away, there is no point letting them get up one by one
against a well formed group.

-Most important of all- KEEP YOUR EYE ON YOUR FIGHTER, pay attention to them like how you
play your BB. It will help for intercepting bomber... ... ...and many more.

=====Dive Bomber/Torp Bomber=====

Dive bombers are fragile. When flying these, don't let them fly on the GOLDEN AA altitude
(the altitude that all plane go to when they are launch,) lower them a bit. Usually it's
the best option to make your drop the most effective is by approach the ship from behind
and bomb it. This will reduce the "dodging" capability. However, this tactic will not work
100% of the time because of NF plane physic. I know for certain that approaching from the
SE direction toward the behind of a ship will make this not work, especially if it is a
fast moving ship. (pic below)



You will get a better sense of all these angle as you bomb more. But if you are a beginner
just keep in mind the DROP FROM BEHIND tactic :P

>>>Circling<<< (Not recommended for Torp Bombing, although you could do it, it wont work well)

This tactic is for bombing those ships that is being played by people who know how to
dodge. By "know-how-to-dodge" I refer to ship that give out lots of resistance while you
try to bomb them (ie. Fast moving, crazy zig zag) Its wise to not bomb them at your first
try as they are expecting it and will probably ready to dodge. Instead of bombing them
right when you reach them, wait. Be patience with bomber. Wait until your pray is tired
(no more over heat) and by flying in circle around them, it will be harder for them to get
ready to dodge (and probably confuse them as well). And by "circling" around them, I mean
actually plane flying around the ship and wait for opportunity to bomb (from the back of
the ship) not the automatic plane circling. This is one way to help against those tricky
to bomb ship, but beware of fighters coming your way and AA that protect them.

>>>Flying "wave"<<

-Credits go to the creator of the "AA mission"

I got this idea from the AA mission and it work pretty well when you fly into heavy AA
region. If you haven't play one of the AA mission yet, try it. The plane approach in a
"wave" of going from high altitude to low altitude and repeated up and down. This can be
archive my using the (default) L key to raise the altitude and , key to lower them. The
whole point of this tactic is to confuse the AA people so lessen the chance of dying.
BTW, try to make this "wave" vary. Don't make yourself too predictable because it will
just ruing the whole purpose of doing this.

NOTE: You will NOT be able use the automatically targeting when you are not in the NORMAL
flying altitude. After you do perform the wave tactic, either you have to raise your
planes all the way to max altitude to use the auto-bomb feature, manually bombing or you
have to use the "L-key technique"

>>>L-key technique<<<

-Credits go to nicotine123 (he taught me this technique)-

I was afraid of flame about this technique being contain in this post because some say
it's an exploit, but I believe it just another way of bombing because bomber should be
able to target their pray at any angle so the heck with it.

This technique is use to enable your bomber to auto-bomb at ANY angle. As you are flying
in a low altitude, press the (default) L key to raise the fly and as they plane is
raising, simultaneously click on your target and he will automatically target him and
bomb. The timing is critical in this technique because if you click too late, this won't
work. The clicking have to happen when the plane is gaining altitude.

>>>Anti-Fighter<<< (Yeah I know it's a sucky name for the tactic)

This tactic can be use to buy some time for the bomber, or maybe even kill fighter with
bomber if your bomber's level is high enough. When your fighter is caught by the fighter,
and as they are chasing your bomber, RIGHT CLICK on wherever your bomber currently are so
they stop and start "circling" and or dog fighting with the fighter. The sooner you click
to stop your bomber, the less damage you may get away with. After you do this, you can
either call your fighter to rescue your bomber, or just wait (and pray) until the enemy
fighter run out of fuel and come back to their CV.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>If the enemy fighter decide to use the "counter dog fighting" your
bomber is out of luck.. or not.

>>>Evading Fighter<<<

This is another tactic to evade the fighter on your bomber tail. This is pretty similar to
the wave technique but the angle changing happen really fast to help buy some time for
your bomber. With Dive Bombers, you can do this by continuously do MANUAL DIVE (press ; to
activate manual Dive bombing and right click to make your DB dive), instead of flying in a
straight line toward your target manually dive and slowly get to them. Fighter won't be
able to dive as fast as the bomber , therefore, less chance for them to kill the bomber.
If you can, select an open space to do this (or else AAW will kill you)

With TB, just stay in normal altitude and click on the enemy to dive down, wait until you
almost reach the water level and then, click on an open space to get up, and continue to
do this until you reach the reasonable drop range and drop.

NOTE: both of the above tactics will only help "evade" fighter, not a guarantee get-away
scratch free tactic. You can only get away freely if you kill the fighter, and best way to
do that is with your fighter.

Few more tips for bomber:

-When auto DBing, remember to SPAM your right click to ensure the bombs are drop on time
and for unwanted misses. ***thanks OAAcommander for this reminder***

-Triangular approach: This is a hard tactic to perform, as you are controlling 3 different
flight, but this promise the a definite hit with at least one or two torps. Set up 3
flight of bomber, then assign them to 3 different spot to make a triangle (some
imagination is needed here). Fly the 3 toward the target, and when the target is in the
center of the triangle, bomb him.

-Improving TB's accuracy when bombing with more than one group: it require some fast hand
movement but its doable. When you are bombing with more than one group of TB, after
targeting the enemy with those group, select each group separately and drop in the order
of closest/farthest from the enemy. Ex. 3 TB group is bombing (4-5-6) and 4 is closest
then 5 then 6, instead of dropping all at once, do (pressing keyboard motion) press 4,
press . (drop) press 5 (drop) press 6 (drop). You can get a better accuracy and make every
torp count.

This is all for basic, hope you guys able to use this to perform better in your CV. (Sorry
if I confuse anyone with the long post ^_^?

ayeaye

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NOTE: the described tactic above are only intent to help CV perform better with their
planes and by no mean guarantee a definite win in a real battle as level of the pilot
matter very much here.