Quite often, you will find yourself attacking only a solo ship or installation. However, there will be times when you will find yourself facing multiple targets. When this is the case, you need to work your way in from the outside. In order to allow yourself to focus on your specific target, you will need to reduce the amount of hostile fire with which to contend. You may, however, find that you can use the hostile fire to your advantage. If you fly between ships, or place your target between yourself and another capital ship or installation, you can shield yourself and cause "friendly-fire" incidents.
When dealing with capital ships and facilities in close proximity to each other such that you can not attack one without being in the firing range of the other, you will need to select which target you attack first. There are a few things which you will need to factor in: approach, relative angles, and target types.
When assessing angles and selecting a target, you want the target the vessel which:
Is the easiest to eliminate first.
Allows you to attack it while providing neighboring targets with the poorest angle possible. That is, where your movement is as far off from their defensive emplacement's firing plane as possible.
Defenses of the various targets. Leave the targets with the fewest defenses for last unless their defenses can hit you while you attack another ship.
Here is an example scenario:
Target 2 is positioned just forward and above Target 1. Their absolute distance is just over two klicks. Both targets are facing the same direction, flying in formation.
In this scenario, it is best to eliminate the corvette first. Though it is the easier craft to destroy solo, that is not the primary reason. If you left the corvette alone and went after the shield generators of the VSD, there is a significant chance that you will be hit by fire from the corvette as you make your attack on the generators and retreat. If you are not attempting to complete your task within a certain time, then engage the VSD from its underside first. This effectively eliminates the CRV from engaging you and allows you to concentrate on the one craft.
More scenarios to be added later.
Written by LT Rei Ayanami