@madman1960 – Okay, I might have gotten confused earlier.  Air War and AirWar C21 are indeed different games, I do not know if AirWar C21 uses / borrows from Air War because I am unfamiliar with Air War, or the Air Superiority system you also mention.

So does AirWar C21 include a “scissor?”  Eh … in a way, yes.  And in the way I really enjoy.

So in AirWar C21, aircraft can move in two basic ways.  One, with a normal turn wheel and ruler, or also with “maneuvers” (which you “declare” in secret by laying down cards and everyone reveals at once.  Sounds hokey, but stick with me.

There is no “Scissor” maneuver card.  Which I actually really like.  This is a big part of what I don’t like in a lot of games, especially more recent ones.  Where tactics or maneuvers of doctrines or methodologies are just “cheaped out” on special unit abilities or cards or annotations in a stat line or an addendum in a supplement you have to buy or whatever.

If you want to do a scissor in Air Car C21, g**damnit, you have to DO a scissor.  A normal movement phase is usually executed four simple steps.  Depending on whatever speed you’re doing (energy management, as you say earlier), you move half, execute a turn up to your maneuverability class, then move the other half of your prescribed distance, then execute another turn up to your maneuverability class.

So if you lose initiative and an enemy is on your six (i.e., you have to move first), you can dump as much speed as you can (limited by the plane’s flight characteristics – and watch that stall speed … TRUST me), move, turn, move, turn, and if you execute those two turns in opposing directions, that’s basically a “scissor” that could well force an enemy to overshoot you if he’s too close or moving too fast.

An enemy on your six can try to counter with the “Tailing” rule, but that depends on how maneuverable his plane is, his position in relation ship to yours (both his arc and yours), and luck with the dice.  There are no magic tactics that work every time, after all.

Another “scissor-like” option is a “Break”  maneuver, if you execute it a certain way.  In Break, you dumps even more speed, and get to execute turns at +2 categories higher than normal for your plane, and gives a pretty serious penalty for any weapons that try to hit you in that phase.  The trade-off is that these two turns are pretty close to max-G turns for your plane and pilot.  Your plane can fire no weapons systems that turn, and in fact can’t do this at all without losing heavy external ordinance (bombs, cruise missiles, large external fuel tanks, etc – AAMs and rocket pods are okay).  Oh, and you have to actually MAKE the “Break” roll as well.  Yeah, you DON’T want to fail that roll.  But if it works you dump LOT of speed, make two opposing turns in a basic “S” shape, and can really wind up on your opponent’s six.  I’ll have to look it up,I don’t even know if he can even match that with a Tailing check.  Risky, but effective if you can pull it off.

These re the kinds of rules mechanics I enjoy, that just set “physics” and unit capabilities out for the players and then the players have to really figure out what they would do.  Under ideal circumstances, the player organically discovers real-world tactics thanks to the EMERGENT properties of the game’s tactics, mechanics, and detail.  Later on they’ll read about these things actually happening in combat, and I love that moment when they say: “Oh, damn!  I do something JUST LIKE THAT in x-game (insert name of system).  I didn’t know there was a name for that!”   😀