BOOM'N'ZOOM or B&Z

                B&Z strategy is a situational strategy. When you are flying a  plane that has little maneuverability but lots of speed B&Z may  very well be applicable. (Especially if your opponent is in a plane  with lots of maneuverability, but little speed.) The best example here is the Spad 13 flying against the Fokker Dr.I Triplane. By no means, or stretch of imagination can the Spad 13 out turn the Dr.I. BUT it is much, much faster than the Dr.I.
 
                To successfully apply B&Z against the Dr.I you should utilize the speed to gain plenty of altitude, and do diving strafe runs on the Dr.I. If the Dr.I applies too much pitch by noseing up at you after you make a pass it will probably stall. The stall can be fatal, or simply give you more altitude advantage over the Dr.I if the pilot manages to recover.
 
                Another method of using B&Z against the Dr.I is that the Spad 13 is structurally a much stronger plane, thusly it can go into a steeper, more sustained dive without risking ripping its wings off.  If the Dr.I tried to pursue a diving Spad 13 without cutting throttle severely odds are the Dr.I would rip its wings off, giving you the victory. Obviously B&Z strategy is one that would require a lot of  tactics.
 
 

Delay Fighting Strategies

               I remember one time in the Pilots Lounge, on the Air Tactics board a debate had sprung up where one pilot claimed that delay did not influence a pilots situational awareness. He was wrong. The reason for this is very simple, if something exists within the game,  it effects situational awareness. The ground exists, if you are not aware of it, you could crash. Bullets exist if you don't maneuver to avoid them, they can hit you. Delay exists, if you ignore it, it can be used against you. Here are a few ways how:
 
 
 

Head to Head Delay Strategies

                In a HTH (head to head) encounter you are in the third most  undesirable position you could wish for in a game. (The first is the enemy behind you, and the second is the enemy above you). Overall  HTH is a pretty fair way to start the game though. This does not  mean that you should leave it that way though!
 
 

Delay Dive

                One of the easiest ways to use delay in the HTH encounter is the Dive. (For this example I will assume a 4 second delay, which is quite common.) A dive, if executed several seconds before your opponent is within firing range can fool your opponent very easily. You should usually dive about one thousand feet, and then climb directly back up, at your opponent. What will usually happen is that by the time your opponent receives the packet that you have dived,  and reacts, you will be climbing up at him as he is just beginning to dive at you. This will usually allow you a very nice head on shot,  where the closing speed is not extremely fast, and your opponent will  be faced with a shot where the closing speed is very fast.
 
                After the pass you may wish to utilize an Immelman turn, and you could very well find yourself on your opponents tail. Remember, you are flying and shooting at where he was 4 seconds ago, so in all likelihood he will turn towards where you were 4 seconds ago.  This can help you stay on your opponent's tail and take him out quickly. (I use 4 seconds as an average delay time, some people experience more, some less.)

                Naturally the counter to this move is to not fall for it. When you are heading in for a HTH pass, and you see your opponent start to dive steeply for no apparent reason, he is probably utilizing the HTH dive delay strategy. Unfortunately you should never have waited long enough for this to become a problem. There are simply too  many better ways start off than a straight HTH pass!
 
 

The Erratic Maneuver Delay Strategy   (EMD)

 
                What this basically implies is that at a point several seconds before your opponent is within firing range, you could  perform a very erratic maneuver such as a loop, roll, or zig-zag. (Erratic as I am using it here, implies a maneuver with a lot of altitude change, or wherein your nose points in many different directions throughout the move.) What this will do is when he actually is within firing range and he receives that packet.. all of  a sudden he is faced with a very hard-to-hit target. The key point  here, as with all delay strategies is to perform this maneuver  several seconds BEFORE he is within firing range. (I recommend  watching from external view, when your opponents plane turns from a small dot with no features, into a tiny plane, this is probably the time to perform the maneuver.) Timing is the key, and after a few attempts you will either find this works for you, or it doesn't!
 
                There are plenty of ways to utilize delay as a strategy. I have suggested a couple to you already. You should experiment and find which ones work the best for you, perhaps even coming up with  your own. Sometimes you will find ManeuverX always works well, except with PilotB. Then you will be forced to come up with something else (tactics) vs. PilotB. The key of course is to experiment when you have the chance, and always be aware of delay.

 

Wingmate Strategies

                Flying with a wingmate is the place where strategy really comes into play. It is entirely possible for two mediocre pilots to beat two ace pilots, if they utilize strong strategy against them.  Naturally it is important to have a steady wingmate, with whom you have discussed strategies with before you fly. Its hard to implement strategy with someone you have never flown with.
 
 

The Bracket

                The Bracket is a good HTH strategy. Basically upon entering the game both you and your wing should head in opposite directions (one north, one south.) As usual you should have set your throttle to 9, and gain altitude while doing this. Once you see the opponents  have come in between you, or are close to doing so. You  will both  simultaneously turn back and catch them in a diving crossfire! (there is little risk of hitting each other, as you should both have gained alt. while flying in your respective directions.) You could also of course throw in a EMD when you turn at your enemy and are in that critical time-delay zone; this would reduce the chances of them hitting you.
 
 

Criss-Cross

                The Criss-Cross theory is fairly simple. It basically says that you and your wingmate should fly a pattern that puts you at opposite ends of your opponents whenever possible. What this achieves is in part that your opponents wont be able to shoot both of you at the same time, as they may if you fly together. Criss-Cross can be set up by having one pilot engage a couple of seconds before the second pilot. Usually the second pilot can come in on the tails of the opponents as they turn after  the first pilot. Occasionally the enemies may see pilot 2 beyond  and continue to fly straight at him/her. This of course can set them up for pilot 1 to get on their six very quickly!

 

High-Low

 
                High-Low is yet another simple strategy to use. It implies that one pilot will gain at least 1 thousand feet more of altitude than the other before engaging. Usually the high pilot will also be a couple of thousand feet behind the low pilot. What this accomplishes is that after the low pilot engages the high pilot can do a dive on the enemies after they have committed energy in the form of maneuvering after the low pilot!
 
 

Drome Theory

                Drome theory is very, very strong. This is one that can help you beat a better set of pilots! Drome theory implies that you will stay very close to your Aerodrome, whether at a high or low altitude. What this accomplishes is once you have downed one of the enemy pilots, the remaining pilot must fight a 2 vs. 1 until his wingmate can take off, and fly over to your Aerodrome! Even if that pilot is really good, he will have a hard time flying 2 vs. 1 and surviving  for long!
 
                Naturally the key here is to keep a steady rhythm of defeating one of the pilots just as/before his wingmate makes it back to your Aerodrome. If you are not capable of taking them out that quickly this theory won't work really well for you, other than it will keep you from fighting a 2 vs. 1 if you were stuck at THEIR Drome!
 
                When starting from Aerodromes and you wish to use Drome theory, it is often best to do a 180 upon taking off, and gain altitude for at least the first 30 seconds. After that you may turn back and circle over your Drome gaining alt. (storing energy) until the enemy arrives.  Sometimes it takes a bit of patience, especially vs. experienced pilots, to implement Drome theory. If you find yourself waiting over 2 minutes for them to arrive odds are they are doing something similar. You may have to attempt to draw them to you. One  way of doing this, albeit very risky, is making a strafing run on  their balloons, and racing back to your drome. If they catch you as you are strafing their balloons, you have just basically fallen into their trap, and are flying Drome theory... FOR THEM!

 

Keep a Good Man Down Theory

                When flying a 2 vs. 2 match, occasionally you will see one of  the enemy pilots land. Usually this happens when he has his fuel run out, or his oil lines cut and runs out of pressure. Now you have 2 choices, either shoot him or let him sit. This theory says to let him sit. He may die of wounds, robbing you of the 1000 points for his kill, BUT for all the time it takes for him to finally die of wounds you and your wingmate will be flying a 2 vs. 1 against his wingmate! It is also possible that he may not be wounded at all! If this is the case, you can fly the remainder of the match 2 vs. 1. Just take out his wingmate all the way first, then after he is gone, shoot the grounded pilot to death, and go 2 vs. 1 against him as well!

 

Shoot The Smokers Theory

 
                No, this has nothing to do with cigarette smoking! What it does have to do with is a simple fact: Each plane can only take SO  much damage. Or X amount of hits before it goes down. If you are flying 2 vs. 2 and one of the enemy is smoking, he has been hit. This  means he is closer to being shot down than his wingmate (if his wingmate is not smoking as well.) So logically if you and your wingmate have agreed to go after whomever starts smoking first you can concentrate all of your hits on one plane at a time, and theoretically take him out very quickly, leaving you with a 2 vs. 1! The downside is that if you are both flying after the smoker, then no one is engaging his wing...

 

Crash or Land?

                To crash or to land... that is the question. If you are in a 2 vs. 2 match, and your engines go out, for whatever reason, you now have to decide whether you should land or crash the plane. As we saw in "Keep A Good Man Down" if you decide to land, you could very well strand your wingmate by himself for a considerable portion of the game. If that was all there was to this, it would be very simple, but its not! If you are on your last life for example, my advice would be to land.
 
                Landing on your last life is very sound advice. It simply can't hurt. It may give you a shot from the ground. Or it may cause the enemy to dive at you, and crash before they realize that you are  grounded, not just flying low. It could also cause them to fly a low and slow pass trying to hit you while your wing flies up behind them, filling them with hot lead, as they finish you off. This is the one situation where landing is sound advice.
 
                In most other cases I'd have to say at this point "crash the sucker!" Why? Well so you can get back up in the air, and help your wingmate out! (I once shot down my own wingmate on purpose for landing on his first life!) Do keep in mind though that it is possible if you get your engine cut at a high altitude you *may* be able to glide for a long time. You might attempt to do some of the following things in that case:
 

• Glide towards your Drome (Drome theory) in the hopes of luring the enemy pilots over it
• Glide towards the enemy Drome, in hopes of getting in a few last shots on your way down, if an enemy is just taking off, or maybe balloons for some points if you think you can get a high score!
• Glide as long as you can, in hopes of getting in a lucky shot (keep in mind while you are gliding, all of your bullets will slant downwards even if you are upside down, they will slant down in relation to your position, in this case.. up) Also you may draw enemy fire at you, alleviating pressure of a 2 vs. 1 for your wing. Also your wing might get in a nice shot on a pilot who slows down to shoot  you from behind. Or the enemy may over shoot you, and you can get in a shot.
• But DO crash once you've done everything you could! Get back up and help your wingmate out!

 

RUN AWAY!

 
                I don't recommend this one, but it is a valid strategical method of winning a game. Lets say you have 4 kills in a 2 vs. 2, and your opponents managed to take your wing out 3 times. The score is 4-3 your favor. You have 2 minutes left. And it now 2 vs 1 against you. You could run like heck, and possibly keep them from getting another kill, thusly winning the game. The main problem here seems to be hard feelings. The point of playing Red Baron is to get in the action and fight like crazy, win or lose! Most people resent spending 2 minutes chasing you. Keep this in mind for it could come in useful for a tournament if the win is more important than hard feelings. I would never use this in a non-tournament.
 
                Yet another method of the RUN AWAY strategy is to refuse to engage until very late in the game. You could gain a LOT of altitude and do a dive-strafe on the opponent. Hopeing you hit him enough to take him out quickly on the strafing run, and there not be enough  time left in the game for him to take off and make it back to you, and get in enough shots to get a kill.  This is simply dishonorable, and cowardly.  The reason I mention it at all is because you may run up against it, and should recognize it for what it is. Well run tournaments these days often have rules that prevent this kind of  strategy from winning a game. Either a minimum kill rule, or a "must engage by" rule etc. Just be aware of it, if you see it happening  do your best to counter it, if possible by flying away from the opponent instead of after him. This would help you by making it impossible for him to reach you in the last minute of the game  because you would be too far away! This might be a tie, or a re-fly in some tournaments. In a match for fun, I would probably have left the game after the first 2 minutes if someone did not engage.