Combat tactics.

[starquest]

So you both pointing at each other, both scanned, now what. Do you go all guns blazing and hope for best.
What happens when you get into a spiral with the cmdr, have you got a trick that can get on his rear or is it the most nimble ship that wins the spiral game.
Any tips would be most welcome as you are a very kind bunch.

 

[Yodafone]

Your question is a huge one quite honestly, simply because there are many a tactic that will vary depending on your current ship. What's its loadout, what are you up against, do you have the agility advantage or not. I tend to have certain power distribution tactics depending on the ship I'm currently in, but in a nutshell... small ship - rely on evasion first and foremost (i.e: use boost to reduce being hit by weapons fire and so power dist. centred around ENG primarily), or larger ship - centre power dist. around pips to SYS to strengthen your shields with your lack of maneuverability.

There are plenty a guide on youtube that will answer your question in far morte detail, I suggest you start there really (something that can be explained far easier than a wad of text).

 

[Zeta Legion]

Don't shoot them in the face. They will shoot you back.

Try to jump them from above or below. This gives you the best angle of attack. Try to use your maneuver thrusters to maintain this position, and remember you can boost through your maneuvering thrusters as well as your main ones to maintain a good angle of attack. Putting pips into engines can be very helpful for this because you get better maneuverability and more boost energy. Also FAoff can be used in conjunction with thrusters to quickly flip around if your opponent is out-maneuvering you. Be careful doing this because you can lose your momentum.

Generally you want to avoid jousting matches. Those usually come down to who has better shields/hull/weapons and even if you win you'll probably take more damage than if you can pin your opponent down while beating him to death.

 

[M. Grey]

Well said both.
More tips/tactics depend on the ships involved.

 

[Wasp0]

It's about getting the best optimum firing position first, so i use Flight assist and as Yodafone has said power dist management. IMHO this is where Voice Attack really comes in handy. you can easily voice the various eng/weapon/sys management commands, whilst flying with FA off to get that position first. once you have it.........................pips to weapons and BLAST HIM/HER

 

[CMDR Zadian Lichtfrost]

So you both pointing at each other, both scanned, now what. …

If you are in that situation something went wrong.

Do you go all guns blazing and hope for best.

4 pips to shields and boost to get behind the enemy. Knowing how to do a fast U-turn helps (flight assist off or using all trusters).

What happens when you get into a spiral with the cmdr, have you got a trick that can get on his rear or is it the most nimble ship that wins the spiral game.
…

Use all trusters. Down trusters to get behind a ship that has a small turn radius by making a wider turn, up trusters to get the enemy back into sight. Add side trusters to force the enemy to react to your movement and not getting forced to react to the movements of the enemy.

If you are outside the enemy fire move all pips to engine and weapons. If enemy is shooting at you move all pips to shields and the remaining two to engines/weapons to recharge.

Knowing when to run is important.

 

[Space Pigeon]

FA-off and reverse combined still is awesome.

 

[Alex Brentnall]

I'd generally start with a message saying "hello there!" or something like that. It may be that now they have scanned you they don't want to fight if you have no cargo/bounty etc.

If they are in a weaker but faster ship and you want to fight then yeah, 4 pips to shields, 2 to weapons blast away and fly backwards trying to keep them centred in your crosshairs.
If you are in a weaker but faster ship and you want to fight then I'd go 4 pips engines, 2 pips shields and try to get behind them before opening fire. Don't get aggressive whilst they have all their guns facing you

If you are about evenly matched I'd boost at them with 4 pips to shields and start a jousting match. Starting with a burst of shots and a ram attack is generally not a bad start...

As above it really depends on what ships you both have, if you both even want to fight and what you are confident with.

If you don't want to fight you have 2 options. You can boost under them and try to out-run them or you can sit there with 4 pips to shields and activate your FSD (Edit: Or you can boost past and try to stay behind them whilst charging FSD). If you do it whilst not moving they may be confused enough so that they don't start shooting until it's too late and you are gone.
It also shows your intentions are non-hostile so if they don't want to fight they'll generally wait until you are gone and more on. <- I was once followed on my way out of a station by a CMDR who scanned me and had hardpoints out, I flew backwards with my FSD charging so I could watch him/her. They must have decided I was too much trouble since as soon as they saw I was flying backwards keeping an eye they retracted hardpoints and peeled off back towards the station.
In any case sometimes showing you know a bit about what you are doing whilst simultaneously being non-aggressive is enough to put them off. Why fight someone who looks experienced if they plan to leave?

 

[Kazacy]

First of all before i start a fight i prefer to study my enemy. Look from SC at his fitting to get an idea of what his ship is capable. Don't get fooled by his rank, it's very possible to encounter a very good commander after a save reset.

Next, and is one of the most important thing, try to find a way to have the some advantage in the fight, here comes the surprise factor. Usually i prefer to attack targets in RES, and if you use a fast ship you can easy use a hit and run tactic. Surprise and speed are essential for this.

Every time if you feel is a trap, it's a trap for sure.

If the fight go south run to the hills, it's better for you to live with some bruises than to stare at the rebuy screen.

Refuse any fight which resemble a fair fight, you goal is to win and be efficient, and fair fights are the worst, for me personally a fair fight i always mark as a lost fight even if i win the fight. It's a failure of planning from my part.

Be random, every time when you are predictable you increase your chances to get caught with the pants down.

Other than that i am a bad pilot, so using these simple rules i manage to win a good chunk of pvp fights.

Good luck and fly dangerous.

 

[Crimson Kaim]

Stealth scout for the lulz. Tricked 3 Commanders at once in my unarmed DBE and they weren't able to catch me for a whole evening. Was even dancing in front of them and stealthed behind them and the like. Funny howw some commanders are just not capeable of catching a D-rated DBE in a FAS, Python and a Courier.