*** ACES OF THE PACIFIC - COMBAT TACTICS ***

                Mike Barrs, Associate SysOp,
            Compuserve Flight Simulation Forum
                       (GO FSFORUM)


INTRODUCTION

The best feature in Aces of the Pacific is the quality of the enemy 
pilot AI (artificial intelligence). This article will help you to 
understand the tactics used by enemy pilots, and will give you a 
few proven methods for defeating them. None of this is "gospel"... 
experiment and see if you can come up with your own methods and tactics. 
Most of the discussion below concerns combat at 100% difficulty (all 
realism options turned on, hard combat, expert flight model, expert 
or ace level enemy pilots), but much of it also applies at the lower 
difficulty levels. Some of the ideas below are courtesy of James 
"Jaybird" Johnson.

A note to beginners (experienced flight sim pilots should skip to 
the next paragraph) - I recommend turning on all the realism options 
on the Ctrl-R menu and using the "expert" flight model even if you're 
new to air combat games. This will get you used to your aircraft's 
performance limitations right away, and you won't pick up any habits 
you'll have to unlearn later. To start with, set the combat level 
to easy and fly against novice or average pilots, then work your 
way up to hard combat level and expert enemy pilots.

A key element in AOTP is the historical accuracy of the combat doctrine 
for each side. As in the real war, Japanese pilots will try to kill 
you in a close range, twisting knife fight and U.S. pilots will attempt 
to use hit and run tactics. It may be frustrating at first - here 
you are in a hot dogfighter like the Zero and the Americans try to 
avoid dogfights... imagine that!  But the historical realism will 
grow on you if you give it time.

COMBAT TACTICS - JAPANESE

In the early years of the war, U.S. pilots know they're outclassed 
in a close turning duel. . A U.S. Navy Wildcat pilot might look like 
he's running away (wings level, flying at full throttle away from 
your Zero), but what he's actually doing is refusing to engage in 
a turning fight where your Zero has an advantage. You have to lure 
him in. Instead of chasing him, turn 90 or 180 degrees away and then 
watch him come back at you. Avoid his guns as he makes his pass and 
turn quickly so you end up on his tail at close range. If you time 
it just right you can force him to dogfight, or at least get in a 
few hits before he zooms away again.

The mid war to late war Japanese planes are often at a speed disadvantage. 
There's not much you can do if a U.S. plane zooms away in a straight 
line except chase him and wait for him to decide he's extended enough 
to turn back toward the fight (a better option is to turn away and 
lure him back, see the tactic mentioned above). If a U.S. pilot pulls 
away in a wide turn, or if you spot one turning to chase a wingman, 
you can use geometry to close the distance. Use a lead pursuit curve 
- aim your nose a few plane lengths ahead of the bandit in the turn. 
You'll cut the corner and catch up. When you get in gun range you 
can either try a deflection shot or switch to lag pursuit - quickly 
point your nose behind the bandit and stomp on the pedal that matches 
his direction of turn (right pedal if he's in a right-hand turn). 
Your rudder will swing you around on his tail.

In a Japanese plane, avoid at all costs a direct head-on attack by 
one or more U.S. planes. This is especially important in a Squadron 
Dogfight if it begins with a head-on merge. The U.S. pilots will 
chew you up and spit you out. Instead of approaching an enemy squadron 
head-on, use a Zero's superior climbing ability to get above them 
and Split-S as they pass (if you have time to set that up), or else 
circle to one side, keeping them in view until you see an opportunity 
to turn hard on someone's tail. There is one special trick for heading 
straight toward a single oncoming U.S. plane and surviving - see 
the section below on rudder control.

Defensive maneuvers - your roll rate, turn, and climb performance 
in an early Japanese plane is better than the early U.S. fighters. 
You can break in almost any direction to avoid a bandit on your tail 
- a hard turn to the side, Immelman (if your airspeed is high), or 
Split-S. Later in the war, against better dogfighters like the P-51 
and F6F, a Split-S is your best defensive maneuver (see the AOTP 
manual for a description of a Split-S and other maneuvers mentioned 
here). The important thing in an early Japanese plane is to respond 
*quickly* if you hear bullet impacts! A Wildcat pilot can safely 
ignore a spattering of bullets for a few seconds while chasing another 
bandit, but you have no armor in an early Japanese plane and you 
have to break *instantly* or you'll be flying a flaming wreck.

COMBAT TACTICS - U.S.

Flying for the U.S. side in the first two years of the war, use the 
same tactics you see U.S. pilots using against you when flying for 
the Japanese. Avoid turning duels with more maneuverable Japanese 
planes unless there are no other bandits in the immediate area and 
you're in perfect control of the situation (and you know when to 
bug out!). For a hit and run attack, throttle up to full power, extend 
away from the Zero, then turn around and make either a head-on attack 
or 90 degree attack with deflection shooting. Make a series of these 
high speed gun passes instead of engaging in traditional WWI style 
dogfighting (that's the Zero's game... it's hard to resist, but don't 
get suckered in!). Later in the war when you get your hands on planes 
like the F6F and P-51, you can dogfight successfully and it's payback 
time.

If you insist on dogfighting in an early U.S. plane, try as much 
as possible to stay in the "elbow" position - far enough behind the 
bandit's tail that you can snipe away with low offset angle deflection 
shots to prevent him from turning inside you.

*Note: there is a flight model flaw in the beta versions I've been 
flying, which allows a quicker turn rate at 30 to 45 degree bank 
angle and full rudder (a coordinated turn) than you can get by banking 
90 degrees and pulling back all the way on the stick. In a coordinated 
turn like this you can actually out-turn a Zero in a Wildcat. I hope 
this will be corrected in an update, but if it's there in your program 
version, use it. Kick hard rudder toward the side you're turning, 
and bank to 45 degrees instead of rolling into a 90 degree bank and 
pulling back all the way on the stick. The rest of the discussion 
ignores this trick and assumes Zeros out-turn early U.S. planes like 
they're supposed to.

Defensive maneuvers - if a Zero gets on your tail when you're in 
an early U.S. plane, use a Split-S instead of breaking to the side.You 
can't escape from a Zero in a flat turn or by pulling up into a loop 
or Immelman in the early U.S. planes (but you can in the later ones 
like the P-51). A Split-S should be your instinctive reaction to 
hearing bullets hitting your plane, unless you're flying too low 
to pull it off. You can take a certain amount of damage from the 
7.7mm machine guns, but it's risky to stay in a fire pattern for 
long... the Zero can switch to his 20mm cannon at any time. When 
extending away from a Zero, try to do it in the direction of your 
wingmen... you might be able to jump a bandit chasing one of them 
or call for an assist. Extending toward the rest of your flight will 
also help prevent you from becoming separated from the rest of your 
flight after the engagement.  This advice obviously applies to flying 
for the Japanese side also. Another possible (but risky) defensive 
move against a bandit on your tail is a combination skid and stall 
to force an overshoot. See the section below on rudder control.

BANDIT TRICKS

AOTP pilots will sometimes try to fake you out. You'll see a bandit 
you're chasing do a quick 180 degree aileron roll like he's getting 
ready to Split-S. Sometimes he'll Split-S, sometimes he'll just keep 
rolling and do a complete 360 back to his former attitude. Try not 
to react too quickly... wait to respond just long enough to be sure 
you know what he's doing.

Another favorite trick is for a bandit to zoom climb in a direct 
line between you and the sun, so he disappears from view. When that 
happens, stay in the climb but apply rudder to shift your nose to 
one side of the sun, and wait to see where he reappears (if you don't 
stall out first!). He'll usually reappear somewhere within 10 or 
20 degrees of the sun.

GUNNERY

Avoid taking wild shots. Get in close, fill your canopy with the 
enemy plane's wingspan, aim carefully and fire only when you know 
you'll get results. AOTP at 100% difficulty seems to follow Red Baron's 
damage algorithm where the pilot and engine are the "hot spots" for 
taking damage. So aim at the forward half of the aircraft.

Hits can fail to register if you get too close, in near-collision 
range. AOTP may model the way wing-mounted guns are synchronized 
to converge their fire at a set distance, so your target can fall 
between the bullet streams if you're too close. Or it may be a bug... 
it doesn't make much sense for nose-mounted guns.  Anyway, be aware 
of the problem and throttle back if you get into near-collision range 
(which is a good idea anyway!).

Deflection shots at high offset angles can work very well, but they're 
a gamble. I only go for deflection shots when I have plenty of ammo 
or when it's an essential tactic, as when flying early U.S. planes. 
Practice on the target drones in the Training Mission/Gunnery to 
get a feel for how far you have to lead the target at different deflection 
angles.

The gunsights are not always perfectly calibrated. I noticed that 
the tracers fell a little short of the pipper in the Zero's gunsight. 
When I allowed for that in combat by aiming a little high, I got 
a slightly better hit ratio.  Take note of where the tracers fall 
in relation to the gunsight in each plane you're flying.

Bazooka rockets will work as air to air weapons but they're very 
difficult to use against fighters. They're better for large, slow 
maneuvering targets like bombers. One bazooka salvo will knock down 
a big Emily flying boat. To get bazookas for air to air missions, 
choose a strike loadout and ditch the bombs right after takeoff.

A final consideration about marksmanship: the enemy planes jink around 
so much that it's very difficult to line up a shot if the animation 
frame rate is too slow. I recommend setting a detail level that gives 
you smooth enough animation for aiming well, even if it cuts out 
a lot of the graphics goodies. You'll live longer. On my 386/33Mhz 
machine I have the aircraft and world detail sliders set to the halfway 
point, and ground detail set to turn off during combat. The cloud 
cover also affects the frame rate. You get your best frame rate with 
clear or overcast skies, the worst frame rate on "mostly cloudy" 
days. Partly cloudy days fall somewhere in between. On mostly cloudy 
days (and nights) I sometimes have to turn the world and aircraft 
detail sliders down to minimum.

RUDDER CONTROL

If you don't already own a set of rudder pedals I recommend that 
you run, don't walk, to the nearest computer store or mail order 
company and pick up a set of Maxx rudder pedals (or anything better 
that may have come on the market since this was written). With rudder 
pedals you can do a number of trick moves in AOTP and still keep 
one hand on the stick and the other on the throttle during combat. 
It's possible to do these maneuvers with keyboard rudder control 
or a 2nd joystick, but a set of pedals on the floor sure are fun. 
Substitute "rudder key" or "2nd joystick" for "pedal" in the following 
discussion if you don't have rudder pedals.

The rudder in AOTP can be very useful for lining up bombing attacks 
and for landing, but there are many dogfighting applications too. 
Applying rudder in a 45 degree banked turn will reduce skidding and 
increase your turn rate (left rudder for a left turn, right rudder 
for a right turn).  The expert flight model has a realistic separation 
of aileron and rudder, so you should always apply some rudder in 
a banked turn (until you get past 45 degrees) to reduce skidding.

The rudder can be used to fine-tune your aim in a dogfight. For example, 
if you're in a hard turn, banked 90 degrees with the stick all the 
way back, and the bandit is to the left of your gunsight, the fastest 
way to put him under your guns is to kick left rudder. With practice 
you can get very good at using small amounts of rudder to correct 
your aim.

Crossing your controls to throw your plane into a skid has two applications 
in AOTP. A skid is the only good way to survive a head-on attack 
by a U.S. plane when you're flying for the Japanese. Here's how to 
do it (note - this maneuver only works if you start in straight and 
level flight with a good airspeed reserve... maintain full power 
during the maneuver). When you see an enemy plane heading straight 
for you, first line him up directly in your gunsight, then apply 
full rudder (either left or right) and hold it, yawing until the 
enemy plane slides over halfway between your gunsight and the edge 
of the screen. Then immediately bank in the opposite direction (if 
you're holding left rudder, bank right) just far enough to stop your 
yaw and keep the enemy plane located to one side of your forward 
view. About 30 degrees bank angle should do it. Bank only, do not 
apply back pressure on the stick! You're now in a skid. Keep your 
rudder pedal held down and adjust bank angle as necessary to keep 
the enemy plane in view to one side of your screen.

The enemy pilot will fire as he passes but most of the time he'll 
miss completely, since the gun lead he's computing is based on a 
target in coordinated flight, not skidding. The second he passes, 
maintain the bank angle, pull back hard on the stick, and quickly 
stomp on the other pedal so you turn toward the enemy's tail in a 
sort of Wing Over turn. Do *not* try this trick against more than 
one oncoming plane unless you're feeling especially lucky. When you 
come out of the turn you'll be on the enemy's tail. Timing is everything 
with this maneuver... if you do it too soon, the enemy will shoot 
you down. Wait too long, and the enemy will be running away out of 
gun range by the time you put your nose on him.

If you're going to use skids in combat it's a good idea to practice 
so you can do them instinctively. Pick a training flight like the 
carrier landing. Apply full rudder to one side, then bank to the 
opposite side with no back pressure on the stick, just far enough 
to re-center the carrier in your forward view and hold it there. 
Note that you lose airspeed and altitude in a skid, so watch your 
altimeter.

Another use for a skid is to force a bandit on your tail to overshoot. 
With a bandit just barely outside of or within firing range on your 
tail, perform the following routine:

1) Chop your throttle to idle.
2) Apply full rudder to one side.
3) Throw your stick to the other side and bank just far enough to 
   stop the yaw.
4) Pull your nose up slightly.

(If you can manage it, extend full flaps also... that's more than 
I can coordinate, though)

You'll quickly dump airspeed and stall - when that happens pull back 
hard on the stick to keep your plane continuously stalling and recovering, 
and maintain full rudder and opposite bank angle to stay in the skid. 
The stall kills your airspeed and the skid throws off the bandit's 
aim. The enemy plane will overshoot (it may take a few seconds.. 
he'll try to stay with you). As soon as you see him overshoot into 
your forward view, throttle up and you'll be right on his tail. The 
main danger here is that he'll collide with you. Another danger is 
that you're a sitting duck for hit and run attacks if other planes 
are nearby. I don't use this maneuver much in combat (I'm a believer 
in the "speed is life" rule), but it's an interesting trick.

THROTTLE & AIRSPEED CONTROL

If you're at full realism settings, watch out for engine burnout. 
Consider the 100% power setting to be "war emergency power" (also 
known in WWII as "everything open but the tool box") and think of 
the next lowest setting on the keyboard or analog throttle control 
as your "full" throttle setting. Reserve war emergency power for 
brief 30 second bursts when you really need it, like when you're 
chasing a Zero hanging on its prop. Stay at "full" power or less 
the rest of the time. Include the engine temp gauge in your scan 
of the cockpit dials whenever you 're running at war emergency power, 
and immediately throttle back the second you see it light up . (Note: 
it looks like computer-controlled aircraft might not be subject to 
engine burnout even if you have that selected for your plane. If 
this is true in the version you're flying, turn off the engine burnout 
feature. Otherwise your aircraft won't be properly matched against 
the opposition).

Reducing your throttle in a hard turn will lower your airspeed and 
slightly increase your turn rate. That's the theory, anyway - AOTP 
doesn't model this as well as Red Baron did, but the effect is still 
there. Use it when you have enough speed reserve (and altitude). 
You don't want to get too close to either stall speed or the ground 
when turning hard.

You'll sometimes find yourself approaching a bandit's tail too fast, 
in danger of overshooting. If the plane you're flying has speed brakes, 
use 'em. If not, most of the planes have enough aerodynamic drag 
to slow down if you just chop the throttle for a few seconds and 
then run it back up. This is easier to do in combat than using the 
two-stage flaps key.

COCKPIT VIEWS

I spend a lot of time in the overhead view (F5) when dogfighting, 
especially when chasing a bandit around the circle in a turning duel. 
Pull your nose toward the bandit (assuming you can out-turn him) 
so that he slides down toward the bottom of the overhead view, then 
disappears off screen. When that happens, switch to the forward view, 
reacquire him and line up your kill. There's a gap between the fields 
of view for those two screens, and the bandit will be in that blind 
spot for a few seconds before he pulls into the forward view. Be 
alert for any attitude changes he might make while he's in that blind 
spot.

The external view (Return key or #2 joystick button) is good for 
clearing your tail if you can use it fast enough. Practice hitting 
the following sequence - joystick button #2, F1 for a quick look 
at your tail from the front of your plane, then joystick button #2 
again to return to the forward view. Many AOTP planes have restricted 
rear views and the external view is the only good way to see what's 
going on behind you. Don't use it if you already see tracers flying 
past your forward view... that's the time to break first and look 
later!

FINDING THE ENEMY

The autopilot will sometimes drop you out with a "bandits nearby" 
message but you won't see anything. Sometimes all you have to do 
is make a few 360 degree circles and they'll come into view. Another 
method that will sometimes work if you're the flight leader is to 
use the radio and try sending your wingmen all the different variations 
for "bandits at..." until one of your wingies confirms spotting them.

If you see an airbase nearby and you're over enemy territory, the 
bandits are often scrambling from that airbase and you can pick them 
up by flying toward it.

Don't let yourself be bounced! I was in a Zero escorting Betty's 
at high altitude over a solid undercast, panning the external view 
around to admire the view. I panned horizontally, saw nothing, panned 
around the sky over my flight, saw nothing, and there were no radio 
calls. I returned to the cockpit and less than a minute later heard 
a "bandits at five o'clock!" call. Tracers immediately erupted around 
my flight and we lost an escorted bomber and one Zero before recovering. 
I watched the replay and saw that a flight of P-40's made a long, 
slow climb at my low six o'clock position, unobserved by me while 
I was panning the external view around at higher view angles. I learned 
that you can't depend on your wingies to spot bandits if they come 
up in a blind spot like that. My wingies didn't spot 'em until they 
pulled up right behind us and were ready to fire. Keep a sharp lookout 
on your low six and on the sun, too. I've seen bandits attempt a 
high angle bounce out of the sun.

BOMBER INTERCEPTS

Tail gunners in AOTP are deadly (more so than the historical accounts 
I've read would indicate, but this is the way it is in AOTP and you 
have to deal with it). I've had the best results attacking dive bombers 
and torpedo bombers by sliding up underneath them, then pulling my 
nose up and raking the belly of the enemy plane with gunfire. Tail 
gunners can't cover that low six position so try to sneak up on 'em 
from underneath. Watch out for lateral fire from other planes flying 
in formation with your target. You can reduce the risk by working 
your way in from the side of a formation instead of attacking a plane 
in the formation's center. This limits exposure to lateral defensive 
fire to only one side of your plane.  Also keep an eye out for enemy 
fighters when you're working your way into these belly attacks. Your 
airspeed will be low and you'll be a good target for enemy fighters.

Kates lack forward guns. A frontal attack against Kates has little 
risk, but also a low probability of hitting the target due to the 
high closing speed. I use belly attacks against Kates too, not only 
to conserve ammo but also because it's faster to knock down two or 
three planes if you stay inside their formation and don't spend time 
setting up frontal attack runs.

The medium bombers and flying boats are especially tough... you'll 
be lucky to knock down just one without taking extensive damage. 
Stay away from the 20mm tail cannon in these bombers... it's a killer.

One tactic I've used with good success against medium bombers is 
a lateral circling approach, ending in a beam pass. Here's how it 
works (using a right side approach as example).  Approach from the 
bomber's rear quarter at the same altitude. Yaw with the rudder to 
keep the bomber just barely in view at the left edge of your forward 
view. Hold the bomber in this position as you close the distance. 
This results in a gradual curve toward the bomber that will end up 
with your plane at 90 degrees to the target. When you get close enough 
to resolve details like the vertical stabilizer, yaw to the left 
(with rudder only) and point your nose slightly ahead of the bomber. 
This will line you up at almost exactly 90 degrees. Hold down your 
trigger and rake the bomber from nose to tail as it passes (if you 
line this up just right, all you'll have to do is hold your plane 
steady and let the bomber pass from left to right under your guns).

If you get too close, pull up slightly as you pass to avoid a collision. 
In a correctly timed pass you won't have to pull up. After firing, 
stay on your course for a count of 10 seconds to get some separation, 
then turn 90 degrees to the right and level out. You should now be 
on a parallel course to the bomber. Use the rudder to yaw back toward 
the bomber, this time keeping it at the right edge of your forward 
view to repeat the attack from the other side. It may take two or 
three beam passes like this to knock the bomber down, depending on 
your plane's firepower. You should pick up very little damage with 
this method, at least from the lighter armed bombers. It's tough 
not to get stung by B-17's and B-29's. This beam attack method also 
works well against torpedo and dive bombers.

BOMBING TIPS

When dive bombing, follow the tips in the Aces manual but release 
at a lower altitude for better accuracy. I release 300 feet above 
the target if the ground fire isn't heavy. Don't release lower than 
about 250 feet since you can be damaged by the bomb blast. As far 
as I know there is no partial blast damage - it either destroys your 
plane or doesn't touch you. To avoid blast damage at low altitude, 
bank hard to one side after release instead of pulling straight up. 
This gets you out of the blast radius sooner.

Glance occasionally at your needle-and-ball (bank indicator) during 
a bombing dive. If you get out of wings-level trim, bank until the 
indicator is level, then use only rudder and elevator to put your 
nose back on the target.

If it looked like you were right on target but you missed, you probably 
didn't apply enough lead. Aerodynamic drag affects bombs while they're 
falling, and you have to aim forward of where you want them to hit. 
The amount of lead depends on your dive angle, your release altitude, 
and the target's relative motion (in the case of ships). For static 
targets like airbase hangars, I've had good results using a 60 to 
70 degree dive angle (judged by looking out my left cockpit window 
during the dive), placing the desired impact point at the bottom 
ring of my gunsight, and releasing at 300-500 feet.

Relative motion becomes a factor when attacking ships (note - not 
all ships are in motion, those near shorelines are usually at anchor).  
As the manual says, you'll have the best results if you first position 
yourself off the target ship's stern, lined up along the length of 
the ship so you have plenty of room under the bomb's glide path to 
compensate for mistakes. If you're not being pressured by defending 
fighters, it's well worth the time to set up an in-line stern attack.

If fighters are attacking you during the dive, retract and extend 
speed brakes as necessary to keep your dive speed high (don't let 
it get over 300mph or you'll damage your aircraft). If you need to 
jink away from enemy fire on the way down, use your rudder to yaw 
back and forth - it won't mess up your dive angle (using ailerons 
and elevator will).

Well, that wraps it up for now. Wingman and section tactics with 
radio calls are not covered here because I haven't learned enough 
about it yet. A later update to this article may include section 
tactics.

  This article copyright (c) 1992 Mike Barrs, all rights reserved.
  Aces of the Pacific is a trademark of Dynamix Software.