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[Madman1960 362xp 1]

Sounds reasonable. At cons the game I usually play is check your six. I assume it is a developed version of the old Battleline titles Air Force and Dauntless. In any case you have to preplot your movement for the game turn in a method just like the system used in Wooden Ships & Iron men. Higher quality pilots have the option to change their plots within limits.

Please bear with me as it has been 25 years since I played Air Sup so some of this may be off.

So to start you would choose your throttle setting. Idle, Mil power (max thrust no reheat) or afterburner. You can choose values between these levels but for game purposes the setting level gives you fuel use and an engine level for infra red missile or other heat sensitive sensor use. If you choose idle the result is usually an immediate reduction in flight speed given in terms of flight points. These settings and their characteristics are given for six altitude groupings which are chosen based on air density and other flight related characteristics.

Now these flight points can be used for horizontal flight or vertical flight depending on your speed and climb or dive angle. A chart listed the differences allowed depending on climb or dive type. If I remember correctly there were about 8 pitch angles from nose straight up to straight down. In addition to how many HFPs vs VFPs you had your pitch also affects how the radar and or missile tracking cones limits are determined.

So in this case I might choose to cut to idle throw on speed brakes (they use so many flight points and I can’t remember but probably added drag). Then perform a rolling maneuver (faster nose angle changes but include some sideways movement as well), alternating direction through the game turn. Now at the end of the game turn (assuming I am still alive) I would total the energy generated by my engine as thrust, any energy gained from diving (over one level). Then I would determine how much drag I caused from engine setting, drag brake use, gaining altitude, costs for maneuvers or turning (altitude and how many Gs I pulled dependent) . I would subtract energy lost from that gained and for every 3 units in either direction my new speed (and fight points) would be increased or decreased accordingly. Half points are retained and given to the aircraft when they translate (add) up to full ones but your speed is still the same.

Here I am getting foggier. In order to change the direction of a turn you have to change the angle of bank of your aircraft. I think we had 8 positions corresponding to level, wings banked right or left with plane still right side up, angled 90 over and inverted right or left and flat inverted. You had to bank to turn, and maybe as a result of or a requirement to perform some maneuvers. Most turns took X number of flight points to complete a 30 degree facing change. JD developed an ingenious 12 point direction of flight track on standard hexagonal game maps so you could face a hex side as usual or a hex point. Some planes banked fast allowing you to immediately change bank angle at any time while most took a flight point to change bank points. Some slow ones took multiple flight points to change bank. So turns didn’t happen all at once or swap back and forth instantly. By the way for each altitude level the number of flight points required to change your facing was shown at different values (common chart for all planes). Each plane gained drag, altitude dependent for the turn sharpness and as you turned sharper your minimum (stall) speed also changed so some planes couldn’t turn tight at altitude.

So a simple rolling scissor maneuver could easily last four to six game turns as an example. In the game you are allowed to shoot up to twice per turn with the only stipulation being a flight point had to be spent between shots. So if you moved first, usual for planes disadvantaged (in front of their opponent) and were allowed a full turn’s movement before your opponent moved (not likely) they often had a shot as soon as they moved or as they drew in close. In JD’s game the first player could be interrupted in their move by their opponent after the first player had moved a minimum number of flight points. The opponent, who had to have the target disadvantaged, could then move half his flight points shooting as they went. This allowed a slower moving trailing plane not to be outdistanced before getting a shot in.

Of course us game nerds didn’t stop there but used proportional moves stolen from Star Fleet Battles. So if you had 5 FPs to your opponents 7 then we used a track to tell when each would move. No interrupts were needed as movement would remain proportional. Now combine all this with details such as banked planes can only spot planes on the inside of their turns, planes pitched up or down have blind areas due to their noses covering targets, carrying parts of turns from game turn to game turn and having to fly off the carried turns (remember to bank the other way first) and you can start to get a feel for AS.

I only brought up rolling scissors as they were and advanced tactic used by extreme game, and especially fight pilot tactics, nerds. I probably used them in 25% of my games. They could be very powerful but the game allowed exact play which translated to real world tactics, not only with this maneuver combination but many others as well. The techniques covered in Shaw’s book were our life blood. Check your six, no way, let your bogie check his!