A Discussion on Impulse Dogfighting by Mm'rek "Tabby" Llin Captain: USS Shiva, Chandley Class Frigate Stardate 44397.16 *** An Overview Impulse combat happens. A lot of captains think they can always begin and complete all combat while at warp. This is simply not the case. Here are two reasons why not: 1) You may be trying to defend a planet or installation. You cannot do this if you are flying around at warp, and your target is staying at impulse, hammering your installation or planet. 2) You may be attacking an installation, which of course is not going to be accessible while you are at warp. Your opponents are only accessible at impulse, so you will have to be as well to affect them. Captains who insist on staying at warp in combat may also be overlooking the advantages of their particular ship class. Some ships perform better in an impulse fight than in a warp fight. In this document, I will present some of the reasons for writing it, and review some of the operational details of impulse combat, and later, of the tactics involved. In the Triangle, pirates had to close in on their prey, and get it out of warp. A large unwieldy ship like a freighter might have the edge in ECCM, but it cannot turn fast enough, when moving at any useful speed, to avoid the smaller pirate vessels which sailed in and out of range. Inevitably, the pirate attacks brought the freighters out of warp. It is this situation where impulse combat comes into play the most often, because it is generally about the time the freighter falls out of warp that my ship could get in range to help them, if at all. The pirates would try and engage the Shiva at warp and keep us in warp, while one of their smaller ships moved in on the freighter to raid it, or even, to try and capture it or acquire hostages. To deal with this situation, a captain is forced to get in close at impulse, to defend the freighter from further attacks, and force the pirates off, while we try and beam its crew to safety, or, to hold until reinforcements arrive. Another situation is the borg. Further discussion on the Borg and their tactics is beyond the scope of this document, but it should be noted that the final battle with them is almost always at impulse speed, in orbit of a planet. Only one ship in history defeated the Borg sitting still, and they didn't win with artillery. Captains need to know these details to be useful in the full breadth of their duties in starfleet. No captain can afford to overlook impulse combat, and expect it never to be necessary. *** Operational Examination Ships at full impulse can travel, typically, at around 29 SU per second. Beam weapon ranges are typically 480 SU for maximum effectiveness, 4800 SU for maximum range. Missile weapon ranges are typically 320 US for maximum effectiveness, 3200 SU for maximum range. These are the ranges and speeds to expect. Now, I will overview some of the systems that are critical to an up-close impulse dogfight: Impulse engines. First of all, don't allocate additional power to movement. In warp, it can help get you that last extra inch of speed and is useful. At impulse, full speed is generally a bad idea, and the power is better spent elsewhere. Two important things to note: First, at full impulse, you cannot turn worth a damn. Try 3/4 impulse. If you still cannot turn fast enough, try 66 percent, or in a huge ship, 50 percent. Extra power will not help, allocated to Movement. The only exception to this is when your fusion reactors are down, and you have to run your impulse engines off of other power sources. In that case, and only in that case, should you allocate power to movement in an impulse dogfight. The slower you go, the more quickly you can turn, and fast-turning is the key to winning. This will be explained later. Reactors. As stated above, these power the impulse engines. Without them, it will take the bulk of your EPS main reactor power dedicated to Movement to keep you in motion. If you are not in motion, you will lose. Fusion reactors, GW per GW of EPS power, are 1/10th as bright as Main reactors on enemy sensors. If you fancy cutting power to drop your signature, drop the Main reactors first. Dropping the Fusion reactors won't help any. Study the effects by watching the LRS and SRS Sig values on the sci stat, monitor mode, or some stat screen where they are shown. Some ships have the raw Fusion power to fight an impulse fight with their M/A powered down low, or off completely.. this makes them very hard to target and hit, even at close ranges. Sensors. SRS sensors operate on a much closer range than do LRS sensors. In a warp battle, the SRS sensors are nearly always useless, as the ranges exceed their scope. Fighting is done purely on LRS resolutions and signatures, adjusted by electronic warfare. The high speeds of ships in a warp battle compensate for this, such that the faster ship is brighter on the LRS and thus easier to hit, all things being equal. In an impulse battle, speed does not increase your brightess, nearly as much as your reactor levels do. Tractors. Watch out for these. If you are in a little ship, buzzing a big ship, you're relying on your higher rate of turn and your higher angular velocity to protect you from getting hit. One tractor beam can lock you in place, even if only for an instant, allowing a full volley to be delivered, with no way to dodge. If you have the power, keep the tractors ready for offense or defense. If you don't, then do not get closer than 10 SU if you can at all help it, if you are the craft trying to evade. ** Theory of the Impulse Dogfight There is one and only one religion in the impulse dogfight, and that is relative Angular Velocity (AV). I will explain what this means. Imagine a ship sitting motionless. Ahead of them, another ship at a distance is travelling on a radial course that is perpendicular to its bearing, from you. That is to say, it is not gaining or losing range with you, its course is 'to thee side'. Tangential, if you will. As you watch this ship move, you will note that the bearing to it is changing. 213 12, 213 13, 214 13, and so on each second... it is on your starboard side, heading slightly upwards, and toward your aft. The root mean square of the rate of change of its angle, is around 1 degree yaw and pitch combined, per second. This rate-of-change-of-angle, or angular velocity, is what makes ships at SU ranges harder to hit. The higher this angular rate of change, the harder it is to hit them. Imagine a ship coming straight at you, perhaps doing a long INTERCEPT course. If you are motionless, its rate of change of angle will be zero. It is travelling straight toward you along a fixed heading, with all the change in its position relative to you being in its range. This ship is very easy to hit. Your weapons are, in reality, firing in straight lines, at a target moving right at you. No leading of the target is required by the fire-control computers, no way they can steer out of the way. It is like shooting at a star. Easy to hit. This applies to targets moving directly away, on EVADE courses. Naturally, a ship on a perpendicular course that is closer, will have a higher angular velocity. Think of standing in a field, watching an aerospace fighter flying around at a great distance. You do not need to turn your head much to keep it directly in sight. Now, that fighter suddenly buzzes right past and then behind you. You have to spin around in place to keep it in sight. The speed at which you turn your head to follow its path is an analog of its angular velocity, relative to you. Trying to hit that plane by throwing a rock at it is easier when it is coming straight at you, then when it is coming at you off-center. When a ship screams by on an oblique course at under, say, 100 SU, doing full impulse, its angular velocity is on the order of 20 or 30 degrees per second. This makes it 20 or 30 times harder to hit. The equivalent of around 9000 GW of ECM. The point I am trying to get across here is that being up close, under 1000 SU, on an oblique course, can make you much harder to hit than being far away, on a straight intercept course. *** Tactics of the Impulse Dogfight Here are some basic guidelines: 1) Once you are in close, circle them, turning it toward them only to line up and fire. Remember... if they cannot hit you because of your AV, you likewise will not be able to hit them. Your manuever affects both ways. In practice I prefer to INTER and then immediately YAW or PITCH + or - 90 degrees, if I am fighting a slow-moving target. I will simply fly in a circle around them. I will INTER <#> on them around 4 or 5 seconds after they fire, to fire back. When I've got FPSUD arcs on them, I'll fire, and then INSTANTLY bank off (Adjusting EW back to ECM if I've got EW running), with a YAW or PITCH as described above. Since I know their recycle-time, I instinctively attack right after they fire. This way, at no time I am pointed right at them, with minimal AV, when they are firing. Only when I am firing. This is the centerpiece of the dogfight. 2) When you fly towards them trying to engage from a long distance, never fly right at them. INTERCEPT and then immediately YAW 10 or 20 degrees, or PITCH if the weapons you have favor that instead. Never stop moving, never ever IMP 0. Your AV (angular velocity) will drop to nothing, and they'll be able to hit you a lot easier. Never give them an opportunity to fire at you, when THEY are in your FPSUD arcs, and you have AV of 0, from their perspective. 3) When you are unable to get a target off your aft, and he is hammering your backside in a running dogfight, you will have to feint and jink. First, if you have the nerve, -give- him one extra shot at your tail, without trying to shake him from your aft. Of course, pitch and yaw wildly so he will miss. The INSTANT after he fires, EVADE him, and go full-reverse impulse. If he is near 100 SU and trying to stay on your tail, you will most likely wind up behind him. Hold fire until he's in front of you, INTER him and fire instantly. Then engage impulse forward again. Try and be able to execute this entire maneuver in under 8 seconds, 6 if possible. If you wait longer, you risk being caught in a IMP 0 speed transition, or with him in your APSUD or FPSUD firing arcs at a AV of zero, where he will not miss you. Properly executing a jink can mean a lot and save your life, and win the dogfight, particularly when both ships have the bulk of their weapons forward. 4) Allocate power to shields properly. Flying in a circle around him will make you hard to hit, particularly when both ships are trying to fly around each other and get into a superior tactical position, or just evade fire. Since both ships will be trying to present a flank to one another, the Port and Starboard shields will take most of the punishment. The Forward shield will get hurt if you miss-time a line-up-and-shoot, and your target manages to fire when you're on the FPSUD. The Aft shield will get hurt if your opponent gets behind you and you cannot shake him or jink him. Keeping power in the F P and S shields even is generally best, here. The P and S shields will get hit often, and the F, rarely, but when the F does get hit, it will be bad. Allocationg to shields with a ratio of 3 3 3 2 or 2 2 2 1 is often good here. Hopefully you will never be so outclassed that your A is hit more often than any of the other three shields. If it is, and you are, then allocate P S and A equally, and let the F shield be weaker one. 5) Unlike warp fighting, a ship cannot suddenly get out of range as easily. You have more time to respond if they suddenly go full speed directly away from you, or suddenly stop. Watch the speeds. Speeds are critically important. If you are at full impulse, you cannot turn. Turning is the best way to avoid fire, and a ship travelling at full blast away in a straight line has a very low AV. Unfortunately, rocketing after them at full speed in a straight line is equally bad for you. Yaw off at 10 or 20 degrees if you must give chase. Do not let them trick you into putting them in your FPSUD unless you know they cannot fire at you. After you catch up, SLOW DOWN to no more than IMP 90, even in a fighter. IMP 80 or 75 is better for ships, as they normally turn a lot slower, and require lower impulse speeds for good manueverability. 6) If you are fighting a larger target which has the edge in power to ECM and ECCM, then you will need to open the range up. If you open it up too much, you will be too far away, and your AV will suffer, allowing their ECCM the advantage. You need to find the 'zone' where the combination of your AV and their ECCM works best for you. Too close, you'll have a high AV, but their ECCM will win out. Finding this zone lies in knowing the power output of the ship you are fighting compared to your own. Also, remember that if they are larger, they are an easier target by default, so opening up the range some more, to take advantage of that, is prudent. 7) Never ever try and dogfight on a ship that doesn't have a fighter interface, if you are alone. The timing of line-up, fire, and bank-away, make it pointless to even try. Your tactical and helm personel must be coordinated and smooth in their respective modes. This requires practice. Practice, practice, practice. *** Final Notes I have done a large number of fighter drills. In warp-dogfighting, it takes me twice as long to disable a target than it does in impulse-fighting. If you are the attacker, favor impulse fighting. It will get the job done quicker. This will allow the attack to be completed before reinforcements can arrive. If you are on the defensive, and if you have the option of stalling them with a warp-fight, then do so. If they are serious about their objective, they will speed past you and attack their immobile target while you warp around, hoping to draw their fire. When lives are at stake, don't waste the time doing this. Grit your teeth, and take it to an impulse dogfight. One way or the other, it will be over quickly. Regards, Captain Mm'rek "Tabby" Llin USS Shiva, Stardate 44397.16