While apparently simple, tank to tank combat can be a very important part of the game. The game can be much different depending on whether you have direct access to the enemy tank or not. If you are engaged in a pill war assess whether you can drive over to the enemy side without taking too much damage. In that case, for example, losing your lgm becomes less of a penalty, because you may be able to keep your opponent busy dogfighting long enough for your man to come back. It is also helpful if your opponent is more skilled at pillwars than you are -- if you can force them to dogfight you'll be playing on a much more level playing field. Thus a pillwar in which there is a reasonably safe path around the pill front tends to help out the less skilled/lgmless player.

Anytime you can be sure you have more armor than your enemy, you have an advantage. All of the following assumes that the enemy tank is accessible. That is, you have a clear path to the enemy tank where you won't have to drive through areas heavily covered by pills. For example, say you are fully armored and fueled and you see (on pillview) one of your pills being taken by using walls to screen shots. Rushing to the scene you arrive as the pill is downed and the enemy takes a few hits. One thing you could then do instead of risking your man to repair it is just to kill the enemy tank and rebuild when it's safe. Or, if you are feeling adventurous and there's a lone enemy pill nearby, after destroying the enemy tank you could pick up your pill instead of rebuilding it and use it to take the enemy pill before they get back. For another example, say you are fully armored and your opponent hardlines one of your pills right in front of you. As soon as he takes the hits, you have the advantage in the dogfight. If you chase him he will have to run away or lose his tank (watch for mines.) Thus you can use this fact to force a retreat, maybe putting in a spike at no risk to your man, etc. Yet another time when dogfighting is to your advantage is when your opponent is carrying more pills than you are, or when they are carrying without a man. In the latter case, your opponent will most likely run away from you, you can thus "herd" them to one of their bases or pills. This is especially useful if you both are missing your lgms. Then you can basically stand guard over them and make sure they stay out of trouble, while you maybe take a base or something like that. By the way, with the inane start algorithm that bolo uses, it's often pointless to kill an enemy who's carrying in your own territory -- each of you is likely to appear in each other's territory, which in general means that your opponent will get them right back. Well, that's it for this week's installment! Stay tuned for next week's which will be on hardlining pills.

Just a few things that really help when dogfighting (I'm talking head-to-head stuff here, not really vultures):

i) If someone charges you you have the advatage. Start firing BEFORE they get in range. Bullets travel twice as fast as tanks. If they are heading towards you at full speed, you should start firing when they are 3-4 squares in front of your gunsights. Your first shot will hit them just as they come in range. You will have 4 shots in the air while they are just firing their first.

ii) If you are doing the charging, don't run in fast. Run in and stop just out of range. Don't give them the advatage. If they're on a base, stop just out of range of their shots, nudge forward when they're not firing and shoot. The first shot will knock them to the back of their base. Don't keep moving forward - you'll die. Just stay still and take out their base. That forces them to charge you to stop their base from dying - giving you the advantage.

iii) This rule on charging applies during a fight too - although usually there are enough shots in flight that the person not charging will die too - just after the first tank.

iv) If two people are head-to-head, but one is in trees, the person in the trees will win. They let the enemy shots push them back through the trees - the trees absorb some of the shots - they win.

v) There is one risky, but annoying, strategy. If you have no man (it's usually better to attack normally if you do) and they are down on bases, try attacking their tank and purposefully NOT killing them. Knock their armour down low and then die. This forces them to refuel and use up base armour as most players cannot play effectively on low armour - it also slows down their refueling because armour is loaded before bullets.