1. With Lasers

As previously explained, the first step of any attack is to be aware of what is around you, and the main target, as well as its type. You should know its weaknesses, strengths, fighter complement, how many escort fighters are already in the area, and if any support ships are in the area as well. You must always stay alert to what's happening around you, not just your target. You don't want to be in a TIE Bomber and suddenly find yourself under attack by Rebel Fighters, while you are still in range of your target's guns. The battle constantly changes, as a pilot, you must ready yourself and your squadron for those changes.

Unfortunately, you won't always have enough rockets or bombs, so you must use your lasers. Here, the strong, shielded, and slow bomber is useless, so the faster ships are more appropriate. A basic attack pattern is to fly out to 2.5 klicks, link all of your lasers, turn, and begin your approach. At 1.8 klicks, expect the target to begin firing at you. At 1.6, fire back and begin jinking around to avoid incoming shots. Try to "hose" your lasers over the whole target. This will allow you to keep moving and avoid fire while causing maximum damage to the target. Usually around .4 - .6 klicks, your target will have zeroed in on your change, necessitating you to turn around and run quickly away. Repeat this process until the target is destroyed or the situation warrants that you change your attack pattern.

While the purpose of this section is the destroying of capital ships, it is important that I deal with the fighter aspect of the battle. When you are attacking a capital ship, you do not want to have to worry about a fighter on your six, but it is a reality you will have to deal with. Bombers, aside from the missile boat and the Defender, are not designed to deal with heavy dogfighting; that is why it is best to leave it to your escort fighters. Unfortunately, it sometimes comes to a point where you have to get rid of some fighters in order to continue with the mission. Go away from the main target, and pick a fighter that can be beaten by a bomber, like a Z-95, or another bomber. Choose your targets well, and constantly monitor the main target, especially if it is a capital ship. You wouldn't want to be dogfighting, only to see your objective speed off and escape into hyperspace. Alternatively, get your wingmen, if you have any, to distract any capital ship starfighter defense away from you, so you can concentrate on your mission.

When you attack large ships, you need to remember that your advantage is your agility. Your target will have the advantage of firepower (unless you're in a missile boat, but that's another story...). Many ships have a blind spot where they cannot fire upon you, most noticeably the Corellian Corvette. Simply pull up directly behind the craft, and park yourself behind its engines. Make sure your speed is evened to the Corvette's speed, and just pump laser fire into the sucka until it's gone. If you continue to jerk and weave with the Corvette, none of its lasers can touch you. Other ships have other similar blind spots, though they're much more difficult to take advantage of.

Creating Blind Spots

Usually, there aren't any blind spots on a ship, or they are too hard to reach, so you must take matters into your own hands. It is possible to strategically destroy a few turrets and create large blind spots. This works very well on Carrack Cruisers, Dreadnoughts, and Calamari Cruisers, where you can destroy just a few turrets, and have a clear go at them. You may do the same to any capital ship, but it can be quite difficult and not usually worth the effort, except for a few specific ship classes, listed below.

When taking on a CRS or a CRL, the bottom of the ship is usually the place to attack from. The heavier turbolasers are located on the top and on the bottom you find more of the weaker laser turrets.

The FRG is a difficult ship to attack. She is well armed and small enough that she can usually bring all of her guns to bear on you. However, if you can manage to knock out the guns on one side, you can then fly and attack the ship unhindered.

PLT's are well equipped for handling starfighters. They have a strong shielding and a large amount of firepower that is well placed so that it can hit you from any angle. Your best bet is to nail some of the turrets with your warheads and then close in and use your lasers.

The FAC is large and not very well equipped to deal with starfighters. By attacking the FAC from the bottom, you will minimize the number of lasers that can fire on you, and the ones that are left are fairly easy to destroy. It will also allow you to destroy the FAC's missile launcher, as will be discussed later.

The Use of Ion Cannons

As any veteran pilot will tell you, ion cannons = g0d. For those not down with the kid's slang these days, that means that ion cannons are your friend. Especially against capships. Often in a furious fight, with lots of snubfighters looking for your blood or multiple capital ships that you must eliminate, it's utterly impractical to take a ship's shields down, and then let it escape into hyperspace whilst you're off completing the rest of your goals or let it continue hammering your ship with laser fire. The remedy? Ion cannons. If you're lucky enough to be set in a craft with ions (GUN or T/D), then make sure that once you bring a capship's shields down, always disable it. While this, unfortunately, does not prevent it from being able to launch more snubfighters, it does effectively knock it out of the fight laser-wise and prevents it from hypering out while you finish the rest of your goals.

2. With Missiles and Torpedoes

While on your way to warhead range, (just under 6 clicks) keep track of your escort fighters and the enemy's fighters -- this is when you are most likely to be attacked. Once within warhead range, you have three options: First off, you could use some of your warheads to eliminate any warhead launchers on your target. This is primarily useful on Factories, Platforms, Calamari Cruisers, and Nebulon-B Frigates. However, don't be too jumpy about using this tactic; many a time, a capship won't even use its warhead launchers because of mission-building bugs. Also, it's debatable whether or not it's more effective just to get up close and personal and take the launchers out with your lasers. But, if your target is set to be sufficiently nasty, and uses its missiles effectively, taking them out via warheads is a good choice. Secondly, you could try and knock off some turbolasers, either to create a blind spot or just lessen some of the fire coming your way. If you're not too handy with jinking and weaving, this may be the best option for you. Lastly, you could go for some oldskool body-smashing. In other words, just take the bull by the horns and do things the old-fashioned way: use up your warheads on the ship's shields and or hull. Those more advanced pilots who wish to make quick work of opposing vessels often use this strategy.

A Note About Warheads

TIE Fighter provides quite a myriad of warheads, all with their different uses. Detailed here are a brief description of each warhead, and what they're good for.

Concussion Missile

The most basic type of warhead available. Usually only used when mission creators decide to be really, really nasty. Though compared to other warheads, they're quite weak, the classic missile still packs a punch that can't just be shrugged off.

Best use: Dogfighting with lower-range craft, such as T/Is, T/Fs, T/Bs, and Z-95s.

Proton Torpedoes

A step up from the concussion missile, the proton torp is packed with more explosives but moves much slower. Not nearly as powerful as its heavier warhead counterparts, such as the heavy rocket or space bomb, but still useful. When flying a GUN, you'll often find yourself equipped with these babies.

Best use: Attacks on slower, heavier starfighters (GUNs or B-Wings)

Advanced Concussion Missile

The best light warhead in the game. Fast and deadly, these warheads are often a dogfighting pilot's best friend. Their speed and homing skills make them superior to both the proton torp and concussion missile, while still retaining a nice explosive punch.

Best use: Dogfighting.

Advanced Proton Torpedos

Stronger and slower than the original torps, you don't see this warhead variant often. Though powerful, its slowness and scarceness of number make it a disfavourable option compared to more numerous, lighter warheads, or the heavier, more powerful rockets. Still, any pilot would be better off with a few of these missiles.

Best use: Attacks on slower, heavier starfighters (GUNs or B-wings). In some cases, this can also be used as the weapon of choice for dogfighting, really.

Heavy Rocket

For many pilots, the warhead of choice in bombing missions. Very powerful, and accurate, while still keeping some measure of speed, the rocket presents the best of all worlds.

Best use: My warhead of choice in 80% of missions. I've flown a mission where I carried rockest and killed an A-wing with it. Great against anything larger than an E/S.

Space Bomb

The slowest warhead in the game, and not too terribly accurate either. But you sure as heck don't wanna get hit with one of 'em. Though still in use due to their very heavy explosive impact, most pilots view these bombs as too slow and clumsy to get the job done. But, if you're going for a target the size of an ISD, there really isn't much way you can miss.

Best use: Only use if you have a half-missile load but need to kill cap ships.