Newcomer / Intro FA off newbie needs advise for combat

[Frags]

I'm learning how to combat FA off with KBM in my fully engineered Chieftain.
I just cannot get when to use lateral and vertical thrusters in combat.
Look like for me it's enough to use roll/pitch/yaw and F/B thrusters to keep the aim on the target and desired distance to the target.
My layout:
Pitch/yaw are on the mouse.
W/S keys - F/B thrusters
A/D keys - left/right roll
Q/E keys - left/right
Thumb buttons on the mouse - vertical thrusters
Space - boost

I'm learning FA off in combat exclusively for interceptors Basilisk and up. Can do Cyclops w/o problems with FA on.
Any advise, please.

 

[[VR] Orodruin]

You use vertical and lateral thrusters whenever that acceleration is what you need in order to accomplish your desired flight pattern. In many situations, using verticals or laterals is what you want to do because that is the direction you want to accelerate in. They can also be helpful to use in fine aim control.

Since you are after interceptors, let me point you to my AX tutorials that come with an input overlay where you can see my thruster and rotational inputs used. I am on HOTAS, but that does not really matter in terms of when to use different thrusters. In particular, if you are already familiar with the basics and can take down a cyclops, check out the Basilisk textbook kill:

 

[[VR] Orodruin]

Look like for me it's enough to use roll/pitch/yaw and F/B thrusters to keep the aim on the target and desired distance to the target.

To answer this in particular, no this is not enough. If you need to use rotationals in order to get your F/B thrusters to accelerate in the right direction then you will lose your aim as your desired acceleration vector is usually not directly in the ship's forward direction (which is your aim direction).