Post by [xG]juddski on Apr 29, 2007 18:26:20 GMT
U.S. Campaign - Because there's no stopping the USA.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pearl Harbor
Objectives for some white guy named Walker
1 - Report to the U.S.S. Phoenix
2 - Survive the Jap attack
3 - Destroy the midget submarine
You can't fail on this mission, until you start flying planes and then die.
The hard part is moving your PT boat around while dumping depth charges on a
submarine. Select the depth charges (L-TRIGGER cycles weapons), put power to
about 50% once you are over the submarine and stay near it while raining low-
explosives on the thing until it sinks.
Objectives for some white guy named Donald
1 - Destroy the Japanese attack force
2 - Donald must survive
When flying, decide what you want for flight and movement controls. Since the
R-TRIGGER is used so much for firing, you may want to move the movement and
aiming to the L-STICK instead (classic Medal of Honor). The reason is more
activity is done on the aiming and movement stick than speed control and
camera (the other stick), as opposed to games like Rainbow Six or Gears of
War. You want to be natural with the plane and lancing or strafing since
you'll need to be very good with it later (decides if you win or lose on the
Veteran difficulty).
Destroy all the Japanese planes that are coming back to their carriers. Once
the sky is cleared of planes -- either by you shooting them down or if they
successfully retreat into the attacking carriers, you win. Don't forget that
the units in this game do not have fuel, so you can keep flying until you
explode. Note that Donald's plane is like Jim Raynor's Vulture from Starcraft;
it's tougher than your average P-40 Warhawk.
Phillipines
Objectives
1 - Leave the harbor (head out)
2 - Destroy all landing craft
3 - Sink all AK transports
Shoot down the attacking planes while waiting for your boat to move. After a
few minutes, your boat can start up and you can head out to open sea. Once you
move out, there is a cut-scene. Note that if you do not shoot down the
attacking planes, they will try to bomb or strafe your craft.
After the cutscene, use the AA guns to destroy the landing craft. They look
like small life rafts from LOST (or whatever crappy show about crash survivors
on ABC) but all have soldiers firing guns. Sink five of the craft before they
touch the island or it's game over.
Once all the landing craft are destroyed, sink the larger troop transports
(called 'AK ships or 'AK transports'). The only thing that will damage these
boats and the smaller landing ships are torpedos.
Each PT boat only has 24 torpedos (you cannot re-arm boats or submarines). The
greatest difficulty of torpedos is aiming them. Torpedos will shoot out above
or below the water and takes about 0.05 distance units to reach the surface
(where they may detonate). Being too close to a target means the torpedo goes
under a target or hits the deck (does no damage). Firing torpedos too far away
mean that targets can avoid them easily. Additionally, torpedos come out of
weird angles from all ships (destroyers shoot them from amidships) and it's
imperative you know how torpedos are aimed from each unit -- these are
powerful weapons that can decide if a battle will be won or lost.
Sink the AK transport and the landing ships generating the landing rafts.
JFK's PT-109 will be able to sink the other craft often without your
assistance, since the AK ships don't really fire back on the PT boats.
Palawan
Objectives
1 - Reach the other side
2 - Destroy the enemy destroyer
The main enemy of this mission -- aside from the PT boats you should use free
fire on -- are the coastal gun emplacements. You should drop everything and
kill PT boats with the AA guns. You cannot stop the PT boats until you are
nearly at the place where you fight the destroyer, so you might as well get
used to fighting shore guns and death boats all at once.
If the destroyer is set to fire on anything in range with artillery, select
the torpedo weapon or AA guns and the A.I. will fire artillery at any enemy
targets in range. You can choose to demolish the AK ship on the west side, but
you must go east to destroy the seaplane hanger.
Try to avoid the middle (especially on Veteran) since the boats in the middle
can quickly sink your destroyer with torpedos -- since there's no time limit,
stand back and use the artillery to sink all the ships. If any start moving,
back up your own destroyer (note it's less manueverable than the PT boat) and
a few A.I. artillery shots should take care of business.
Doing things methodically, you should have a decent amount of life by the time
you clear the strait. Set repair crews to stand ready to repair weapons, water
leaks, and fire. Set the destroyer to free move and fire while you man the
torpedos. Circle to the sides of the enemy and unleash torpedos between 0.2
and 0.1 distance units for a sure hit. Three solid hits of a torpedo will
overkill a destroyer.
Luzon
Objectives
1 - Donald must survive the mission
2 - Defend the B-17 bombers
3 - Sink the battleship in the harbor
4 - Retreat to the waypoint
5 - Sink the moving battleship
6 - The carrier needs to survive
This is a fun two part mission, if only because you have things so easy. The
planes you're given are tough and the ones that are easily killed are quickly
replaced with free and fresh units (seems to be infinite). Donald's plane can
be left to CAP and free fire 'on'. You can take over the unti as needed.
Defeat all the ZERO interceptors and the bombers should be able to flatten the
base they were set out to annihilate. During this time, you can attack the Jap
oiler just west of the airfield. It is the middile ship, surrounded by two
destroyers or AK ships. Strafe the oiler and it should explode before the
bombers level the airfield. If you don't do that early, you will have about 30
seconds to do that once the bombers start their retreat (and the mission
notification comes up). Note destroying the oiler is optional and not
mandatory.
Once the airbase is gone, Donald can be left to his own devices (strafing AK
ships is a good bet, but try to focus on nuking the AA shore guns). You will
have command over a free group of dive bombers. Take the dive bombers on
automatic and set them to attack the battleship (BB) in the harbor. On a
middle-level of zoom, you can tell battleships apart from similar appearing AK
ships, destroyers and cruisers by their increased amount of deck detail.
Identify the battleship and nuke the sucker. Note not much damage is done to
the vessel with dive bombs.
Some torpedo bombers will appear after the dive bombers have retreated. Have
them attack the battleship and notice that a flight of them will be able to
cripple the battleship and possibly kill it instantly (this is an old
battleship, not the Yamato or Musashi).
Once the parked battleship sinks, a second moving battleship will appear on
the west. You will warp to a friendly carrier (you cannot control it) and can
manage 12 planes without much worry. Launch 2 groups of fighters (3 planes
each) and 2 groups of torpedo bombers (3 planes each). Don't forget to add
bombs to the fighters so they can dive bomb.
Set the fighters to dog fight the enemy fighters while you set both groups of
bombers on the battleship. The fighters should be able to keep the enemies
busy as you sink the battleship. If the destroyers are giving you too much
flak trouble, send out dive bombers and sink the DDs first.
The torpedo bombers can retreat once they're done and re-arm more torpedos,
but the fighters should stay out until they are all dead. Assuming any
survive, you can order them to dive bomb the ship of your choice. When there
are no more enemies in the air, recall all the surviving fighters, and
continue torpedo runs against the battleship until it sinks. Be sure to take
control over the bombers -- it's good to practice now, since the missions
require more accurate hits with torpedos later (missing means mission failed).
Balikpapan
Objectives
1 - Destroy all the AK transports
2 - The John Ford must survive
3 - Destroy reinforcements (if any)
Break the formation and send the second destroyer ahead to soak up damage.
Place repair crews on weapons, fire fighting, and water leakage (both ships).
You don't need to move around too quickly (yet), but modify your repair detail
as the situation changes. Set the orders for the expendable destroyer to free
fire and torpedos, but leave the moving to doing it yourself (manual and off).
To save time, your objective destroyer should be moving at 50% and the other
destroyer at 100% power. Begin attacking the north end of the channel, since
you can take out the seabase churning out PT boats. When firing on the
destroyers, use a two against one tactic and sink it with torpedos (you only
need two solid hits). When fighting the PT boats, use AA gun fire.
The AK ships will attempt to flee south when attacked -- the torpedos will not
hit straight forward but only the sides. Move straight through the center (the
artillery will attack freely while you move) and line up torpedo shots for
quick kills.
Depending on the number of enemies you kill before they start slamming damage
into you, you will find the raid easy or hard. Clearly, the key with surface
ships is to out-range the enemies opposing you, and once you have a free
reign, kill the objectives quickly. Once the last AK ship is destroyed, your
force escapes automatically.
Lombok
Objectives
1 - Protect the airfield
2 - The John Ford must survive
3 - Destroy the invasion force
Launch two more groups of fighters and add bombs to them. The three planes
already out will not be able to immediately help you, so don't worry about it
for the moment. Alternately, you can launch all four groups with 3 planes each
(but don't forget the bombs!).
As the airfield is launching, you can send the squadron already in flight to
the west. Launch two PT boats from the seabase as well. The John Ford can stay
put -- it should not be put in any danger.
Send the rest of the fighters to the west where the enemy aircraft come from
and use your largest groups to battle the fighters -- other groups can shoot
down the incoming bombers. If you split your planes into four batches, then
divide and conquer. For an easier time, take over the planes chasing the
bombers and aim for the engines on the bomber planes to down them. If they
don't have any, aim dead center.
Concentrate on repelling air attacks -- if enemy fighters go after your
planes, jump into the friendly planes attacking the enemy fighters; the faster
you save your bomber-killing buddies, the more damage they do and you save
your base. If your PT boats are near enough to your airfield, they can fire
their AA guns and may catch a few of them.
Assuming you survive the airfield, pull back the most damaged squadrons (leave
the most numerous/strongest one out). If the strongest flight is three planes
or less, consider crashing the one squadron with one or two planes and sending
out a fresh squadron (it's faster).
Take out the B-25 level bombers (both of them) with bombs, and any dive
bombers you have. Note while fighters can dive bomb, dive bomber bombs do more
damage. Send the ragtag fighter squadron out to the east and see which ships
you can destroy. If your squadron still has bombs, send them to dive bomb a
destroyer or the cruiser. If they only have guns for strafing, intercept any
fighters, then destroy the landing ships, then the AK ships, and then crash
them.
Use the level bombers and dive bombers to destroy the cruiser, which will sink
the John Ford quickly. If you have any PT boats, you can set them to automatic
(with free fire torpedos) and delay the fleet while your planes land and re-
arm. You may find that once the planes are out, you can sacrifice them (except
the level bombers, which you only have two of), by turning their CAP on and
having them strafe soft targets the fighters missed.
Eventually, you will want to use the level bombers and dive bombers in large
numbers to attack the cruiser (if it lives), both destroyers, and the AK
ships. The John Ford, with the PT boats, should be able to A.I.-care of the AK
ships and landing ships without damage. Just don't forget to allocate repair
crews to water, fire, and weapons before you set the John Ford on automatic.
Java Sea
Objectives
1 - Meet the British units
2 - The Houston must survive
3 - Destroy the enemy battleship
Break formation, or make a formation that puts the destroyers far behind your
cruiser (at the edge), and set the cruiser to steam east (away from the
planes). You need to be quick in taking down the torpedo planes -- these are
the planes that will hug the water and make for your flagship. Set all the
repair crews to fire, water, and weapon control.
This battle is hectic and you can expect to lose a destroyer due to bad luck
if a lucky hit is scored. Your main concern is to keep your cruiser in tip-top
shape and at least one destroyer. Any more destroyers that survive is your
bonus. Man the AA guns of the destroyer closest to the action and nuke only
the planes coming in (not flying away). Learn to ignore any planes that start
pulling up and away, since they released their weapons; you focus on evasion
from that point onwards!
After the plane attack, a submarine will appear and attack. Order the cruiser
to steam away from the sub at top speed (even if it means chasing after the
planes that attacked you, since they will not have any more bombs or
torpedos), and send your lone destroyer in to nuke the sub. The enemy subs
almost never attack a destroyer, so purse it and drop charges. Having two will
destroy it even faster. During this time, repair all your damage and set
repair crews to control fire, motorvation, and weapons. You may also want to
re-form a formation with two destroyers or even add the cruiser (depends on
how far they are apart).
Once the sub is gone, send all your surviving ships on free fire (everything,
free torpedos, and free move. Attack the southern most ship while the British
should stack (destroyers in the front -- all fire modes free) the northern
ship. If in the case you luck out (the spawns are random), you can concentrate
six ships on one enemy.
Sink all the attacking enemies and an enemy battleship with an escort of
destroyers will randomly appear in range. Depending on how your forces are
arranged, you need to start moving. The basic reason for fleeing is the axiom
of 'breaking' up an attack by forcing the enemy to over-extend themselves.
Scatter your ships in two directions -- and try to get the newly spawned
submarine to dive to crush depth (level 4); the hull life will be your 'timer'
since the sub will die in about 5 seconds when exposed to depth charges. Or
get the sub to run on the surface or periscope depth away from the chasing
destroyers (note the sub is faster when surfaced).
Work the A.I. and see how they chase your ships. You can begin to see how the
enemy is moving, you converge on one group of destroyers (with your own
destroyers screening your cruisers) and nuke them with free fire (all
weapons). In the mean time, your sub will be free to approach the battleship
and drop it dead from torpedos. Just remember that the sub's biggest enemy is
not really a destroyer but the lack of air and limit on hull points to remain
out of sonar range (at crush depth). Since you only need about six torpedos to
destroy the battleship, get close or behind the ship and let'er rip.
To repair the sub periscope, just leave the repair crews at general quarters.
It will be replaced eventually.
Tulagi
Objectives
1 - Destroy the airfield
2 - Destroy the seabase
3 - The Yorktown must survive
4 - Make sure five landing craft survive
This is a fun mission (note all carrier missions or missions with planes are
fun). Hang back and launch 4 squadrons of fighters (3 planes each) with bombs
and send them out to dive bomb the incoming cruiser. Your destroyer escort
should break from the carrier (send the carrier farther away west -- C8 is
good) and engage the enemy ships with full weapons blazing (turn on all
automatic behaviors).
Remember to distribute repair crews to fire, motorvation and weapons. You will
come back to them when things start to get hot.
Dive bomb the cruiser and pull back (switch the CAP fire back on) and dogfight
the fighters and bombers hunting your carrier. Fight your way to the airbase
and when you have the route mostly freed, send your three level bombers to
blast the airfield. You may need to pull back a fighter squad to destroy the
PT boats and spy planes from the seabase.
Assuming the payload goes well, you can see how your air group is doing. If
you need to kamikaze a single fighter squadron to free an air slot, sic it to
dive bomb the destroyers or strafe the AK ships. You can also strafe the AA
guns on the airfield's island since you will be fighting there later. Once you
have the ability to launch more planes, slot some dive bombers and finish off
the airfield (if it was not destroyed -- highly unlikely), and start working
off the ships in the area. You do this because enemies will carry over to the
next part of the mission.
Keep your destroyers close by and repaired. Have them stay away from the
airfield's island unless you are slowly chipping away the coastal guns and AA
guns. Recall at least two air squadrons and use one to nuke the seabase.
Once that occurs, an additional cruiser and destroyer appear in the north and
attack the landing craft you have. You need to keep them away so at least five
craft survive. Recall planes and fit them for dive bombing and torpdeos and
sic the bombers on the cruiser and destroyer. The DD is easier to kill with
torpedos (if you launch it 0.1 distance away) but take out the ship closest to
your marines first. Once that's done, you win.
Coral Sea
Objectives
1 - Cripple any Japanese carrier
2 - Donald must survive
3 - The Yorktown cannot be destroyed
This is the aftermath of Lady Lex sinking. Donald is here and set him to CAP
on and free fire. Send out two more fighter squadrons (with bombs) and assist
in keeping the bombers and ZEROs away from your fleet. Set up repair crews for
fire, water, and weapons (except the carrier, set two to water and one to fire
or flight deck).
Steam towards the enemy (south and east). Place the cruisers ahead of the
carrier and the destroyers ahead of the cruiser; do this by breaking the
formation and leaving the carrier by itself. The cruiser and destroyers are
expendable.
Get your dive bombers (2 groups maybe) and nuke any errant destroyers (your
screening force can take care of the cruisers). If you find a flattop, send in
a group of fighters to eliminate the screening fighters but keep Donald's
place holding off the incoming attackers.
What happens next depends how good you are at repelling incoming enemy bombers
and how well you fight off the cover from the enemy carriers (they have
infinite planes). Once you get a good flight of bombers through to damage the
carrier, you can probably cripple it with six to nine solid bomb hits.
If you unleash torpedos, do it against the ships on the outer edge and in the
front. If they evade, the other ships in the pack will get hit. Torpedos may
be more fun at this mass of enemies than dive bombs -- you just need to
survive long enough to deliver them up close.
Once a carrier is about to explode, the mission ends.
Pearl Harbor
Objectives for some white guy named Walker
1 - Report to the U.S.S. Phoenix
2 - Survive the Jap attack
3 - Destroy the midget submarine
You can't fail on this mission, until you start flying planes and then die.
The hard part is moving your PT boat around while dumping depth charges on a
submarine. Select the depth charges (L-TRIGGER cycles weapons), put power to
about 50% once you are over the submarine and stay near it while raining low-
explosives on the thing until it sinks.
Objectives for some white guy named Donald
1 - Destroy the Japanese attack force
2 - Donald must survive
When flying, decide what you want for flight and movement controls. Since the
R-TRIGGER is used so much for firing, you may want to move the movement and
aiming to the L-STICK instead (classic Medal of Honor). The reason is more
activity is done on the aiming and movement stick than speed control and
camera (the other stick), as opposed to games like Rainbow Six or Gears of
War. You want to be natural with the plane and lancing or strafing since
you'll need to be very good with it later (decides if you win or lose on the
Veteran difficulty).
Destroy all the Japanese planes that are coming back to their carriers. Once
the sky is cleared of planes -- either by you shooting them down or if they
successfully retreat into the attacking carriers, you win. Don't forget that
the units in this game do not have fuel, so you can keep flying until you
explode. Note that Donald's plane is like Jim Raynor's Vulture from Starcraft;
it's tougher than your average P-40 Warhawk.
Phillipines
Objectives
1 - Leave the harbor (head out)
2 - Destroy all landing craft
3 - Sink all AK transports
Shoot down the attacking planes while waiting for your boat to move. After a
few minutes, your boat can start up and you can head out to open sea. Once you
move out, there is a cut-scene. Note that if you do not shoot down the
attacking planes, they will try to bomb or strafe your craft.
After the cutscene, use the AA guns to destroy the landing craft. They look
like small life rafts from LOST (or whatever crappy show about crash survivors
on ABC) but all have soldiers firing guns. Sink five of the craft before they
touch the island or it's game over.
Once all the landing craft are destroyed, sink the larger troop transports
(called 'AK ships or 'AK transports'). The only thing that will damage these
boats and the smaller landing ships are torpedos.
Each PT boat only has 24 torpedos (you cannot re-arm boats or submarines). The
greatest difficulty of torpedos is aiming them. Torpedos will shoot out above
or below the water and takes about 0.05 distance units to reach the surface
(where they may detonate). Being too close to a target means the torpedo goes
under a target or hits the deck (does no damage). Firing torpedos too far away
mean that targets can avoid them easily. Additionally, torpedos come out of
weird angles from all ships (destroyers shoot them from amidships) and it's
imperative you know how torpedos are aimed from each unit -- these are
powerful weapons that can decide if a battle will be won or lost.
Sink the AK transport and the landing ships generating the landing rafts.
JFK's PT-109 will be able to sink the other craft often without your
assistance, since the AK ships don't really fire back on the PT boats.
Palawan
Objectives
1 - Reach the other side
2 - Destroy the enemy destroyer
The main enemy of this mission -- aside from the PT boats you should use free
fire on -- are the coastal gun emplacements. You should drop everything and
kill PT boats with the AA guns. You cannot stop the PT boats until you are
nearly at the place where you fight the destroyer, so you might as well get
used to fighting shore guns and death boats all at once.
If the destroyer is set to fire on anything in range with artillery, select
the torpedo weapon or AA guns and the A.I. will fire artillery at any enemy
targets in range. You can choose to demolish the AK ship on the west side, but
you must go east to destroy the seaplane hanger.
Try to avoid the middle (especially on Veteran) since the boats in the middle
can quickly sink your destroyer with torpedos -- since there's no time limit,
stand back and use the artillery to sink all the ships. If any start moving,
back up your own destroyer (note it's less manueverable than the PT boat) and
a few A.I. artillery shots should take care of business.
Doing things methodically, you should have a decent amount of life by the time
you clear the strait. Set repair crews to stand ready to repair weapons, water
leaks, and fire. Set the destroyer to free move and fire while you man the
torpedos. Circle to the sides of the enemy and unleash torpedos between 0.2
and 0.1 distance units for a sure hit. Three solid hits of a torpedo will
overkill a destroyer.
Luzon
Objectives
1 - Donald must survive the mission
2 - Defend the B-17 bombers
3 - Sink the battleship in the harbor
4 - Retreat to the waypoint
5 - Sink the moving battleship
6 - The carrier needs to survive
This is a fun two part mission, if only because you have things so easy. The
planes you're given are tough and the ones that are easily killed are quickly
replaced with free and fresh units (seems to be infinite). Donald's plane can
be left to CAP and free fire 'on'. You can take over the unti as needed.
Defeat all the ZERO interceptors and the bombers should be able to flatten the
base they were set out to annihilate. During this time, you can attack the Jap
oiler just west of the airfield. It is the middile ship, surrounded by two
destroyers or AK ships. Strafe the oiler and it should explode before the
bombers level the airfield. If you don't do that early, you will have about 30
seconds to do that once the bombers start their retreat (and the mission
notification comes up). Note destroying the oiler is optional and not
mandatory.
Once the airbase is gone, Donald can be left to his own devices (strafing AK
ships is a good bet, but try to focus on nuking the AA shore guns). You will
have command over a free group of dive bombers. Take the dive bombers on
automatic and set them to attack the battleship (BB) in the harbor. On a
middle-level of zoom, you can tell battleships apart from similar appearing AK
ships, destroyers and cruisers by their increased amount of deck detail.
Identify the battleship and nuke the sucker. Note not much damage is done to
the vessel with dive bombs.
Some torpedo bombers will appear after the dive bombers have retreated. Have
them attack the battleship and notice that a flight of them will be able to
cripple the battleship and possibly kill it instantly (this is an old
battleship, not the Yamato or Musashi).
Once the parked battleship sinks, a second moving battleship will appear on
the west. You will warp to a friendly carrier (you cannot control it) and can
manage 12 planes without much worry. Launch 2 groups of fighters (3 planes
each) and 2 groups of torpedo bombers (3 planes each). Don't forget to add
bombs to the fighters so they can dive bomb.
Set the fighters to dog fight the enemy fighters while you set both groups of
bombers on the battleship. The fighters should be able to keep the enemies
busy as you sink the battleship. If the destroyers are giving you too much
flak trouble, send out dive bombers and sink the DDs first.
The torpedo bombers can retreat once they're done and re-arm more torpedos,
but the fighters should stay out until they are all dead. Assuming any
survive, you can order them to dive bomb the ship of your choice. When there
are no more enemies in the air, recall all the surviving fighters, and
continue torpedo runs against the battleship until it sinks. Be sure to take
control over the bombers -- it's good to practice now, since the missions
require more accurate hits with torpedos later (missing means mission failed).
Balikpapan
Objectives
1 - Destroy all the AK transports
2 - The John Ford must survive
3 - Destroy reinforcements (if any)
Break the formation and send the second destroyer ahead to soak up damage.
Place repair crews on weapons, fire fighting, and water leakage (both ships).
You don't need to move around too quickly (yet), but modify your repair detail
as the situation changes. Set the orders for the expendable destroyer to free
fire and torpedos, but leave the moving to doing it yourself (manual and off).
To save time, your objective destroyer should be moving at 50% and the other
destroyer at 100% power. Begin attacking the north end of the channel, since
you can take out the seabase churning out PT boats. When firing on the
destroyers, use a two against one tactic and sink it with torpedos (you only
need two solid hits). When fighting the PT boats, use AA gun fire.
The AK ships will attempt to flee south when attacked -- the torpedos will not
hit straight forward but only the sides. Move straight through the center (the
artillery will attack freely while you move) and line up torpedo shots for
quick kills.
Depending on the number of enemies you kill before they start slamming damage
into you, you will find the raid easy or hard. Clearly, the key with surface
ships is to out-range the enemies opposing you, and once you have a free
reign, kill the objectives quickly. Once the last AK ship is destroyed, your
force escapes automatically.
Lombok
Objectives
1 - Protect the airfield
2 - The John Ford must survive
3 - Destroy the invasion force
Launch two more groups of fighters and add bombs to them. The three planes
already out will not be able to immediately help you, so don't worry about it
for the moment. Alternately, you can launch all four groups with 3 planes each
(but don't forget the bombs!).
As the airfield is launching, you can send the squadron already in flight to
the west. Launch two PT boats from the seabase as well. The John Ford can stay
put -- it should not be put in any danger.
Send the rest of the fighters to the west where the enemy aircraft come from
and use your largest groups to battle the fighters -- other groups can shoot
down the incoming bombers. If you split your planes into four batches, then
divide and conquer. For an easier time, take over the planes chasing the
bombers and aim for the engines on the bomber planes to down them. If they
don't have any, aim dead center.
Concentrate on repelling air attacks -- if enemy fighters go after your
planes, jump into the friendly planes attacking the enemy fighters; the faster
you save your bomber-killing buddies, the more damage they do and you save
your base. If your PT boats are near enough to your airfield, they can fire
their AA guns and may catch a few of them.
Assuming you survive the airfield, pull back the most damaged squadrons (leave
the most numerous/strongest one out). If the strongest flight is three planes
or less, consider crashing the one squadron with one or two planes and sending
out a fresh squadron (it's faster).
Take out the B-25 level bombers (both of them) with bombs, and any dive
bombers you have. Note while fighters can dive bomb, dive bomber bombs do more
damage. Send the ragtag fighter squadron out to the east and see which ships
you can destroy. If your squadron still has bombs, send them to dive bomb a
destroyer or the cruiser. If they only have guns for strafing, intercept any
fighters, then destroy the landing ships, then the AK ships, and then crash
them.
Use the level bombers and dive bombers to destroy the cruiser, which will sink
the John Ford quickly. If you have any PT boats, you can set them to automatic
(with free fire torpedos) and delay the fleet while your planes land and re-
arm. You may find that once the planes are out, you can sacrifice them (except
the level bombers, which you only have two of), by turning their CAP on and
having them strafe soft targets the fighters missed.
Eventually, you will want to use the level bombers and dive bombers in large
numbers to attack the cruiser (if it lives), both destroyers, and the AK
ships. The John Ford, with the PT boats, should be able to A.I.-care of the AK
ships and landing ships without damage. Just don't forget to allocate repair
crews to water, fire, and weapons before you set the John Ford on automatic.
Java Sea
Objectives
1 - Meet the British units
2 - The Houston must survive
3 - Destroy the enemy battleship
Break formation, or make a formation that puts the destroyers far behind your
cruiser (at the edge), and set the cruiser to steam east (away from the
planes). You need to be quick in taking down the torpedo planes -- these are
the planes that will hug the water and make for your flagship. Set all the
repair crews to fire, water, and weapon control.
This battle is hectic and you can expect to lose a destroyer due to bad luck
if a lucky hit is scored. Your main concern is to keep your cruiser in tip-top
shape and at least one destroyer. Any more destroyers that survive is your
bonus. Man the AA guns of the destroyer closest to the action and nuke only
the planes coming in (not flying away). Learn to ignore any planes that start
pulling up and away, since they released their weapons; you focus on evasion
from that point onwards!
After the plane attack, a submarine will appear and attack. Order the cruiser
to steam away from the sub at top speed (even if it means chasing after the
planes that attacked you, since they will not have any more bombs or
torpedos), and send your lone destroyer in to nuke the sub. The enemy subs
almost never attack a destroyer, so purse it and drop charges. Having two will
destroy it even faster. During this time, repair all your damage and set
repair crews to control fire, motorvation, and weapons. You may also want to
re-form a formation with two destroyers or even add the cruiser (depends on
how far they are apart).
Once the sub is gone, send all your surviving ships on free fire (everything,
free torpedos, and free move. Attack the southern most ship while the British
should stack (destroyers in the front -- all fire modes free) the northern
ship. If in the case you luck out (the spawns are random), you can concentrate
six ships on one enemy.
Sink all the attacking enemies and an enemy battleship with an escort of
destroyers will randomly appear in range. Depending on how your forces are
arranged, you need to start moving. The basic reason for fleeing is the axiom
of 'breaking' up an attack by forcing the enemy to over-extend themselves.
Scatter your ships in two directions -- and try to get the newly spawned
submarine to dive to crush depth (level 4); the hull life will be your 'timer'
since the sub will die in about 5 seconds when exposed to depth charges. Or
get the sub to run on the surface or periscope depth away from the chasing
destroyers (note the sub is faster when surfaced).
Work the A.I. and see how they chase your ships. You can begin to see how the
enemy is moving, you converge on one group of destroyers (with your own
destroyers screening your cruisers) and nuke them with free fire (all
weapons). In the mean time, your sub will be free to approach the battleship
and drop it dead from torpedos. Just remember that the sub's biggest enemy is
not really a destroyer but the lack of air and limit on hull points to remain
out of sonar range (at crush depth). Since you only need about six torpedos to
destroy the battleship, get close or behind the ship and let'er rip.
To repair the sub periscope, just leave the repair crews at general quarters.
It will be replaced eventually.
Tulagi
Objectives
1 - Destroy the airfield
2 - Destroy the seabase
3 - The Yorktown must survive
4 - Make sure five landing craft survive
This is a fun mission (note all carrier missions or missions with planes are
fun). Hang back and launch 4 squadrons of fighters (3 planes each) with bombs
and send them out to dive bomb the incoming cruiser. Your destroyer escort
should break from the carrier (send the carrier farther away west -- C8 is
good) and engage the enemy ships with full weapons blazing (turn on all
automatic behaviors).
Remember to distribute repair crews to fire, motorvation and weapons. You will
come back to them when things start to get hot.
Dive bomb the cruiser and pull back (switch the CAP fire back on) and dogfight
the fighters and bombers hunting your carrier. Fight your way to the airbase
and when you have the route mostly freed, send your three level bombers to
blast the airfield. You may need to pull back a fighter squad to destroy the
PT boats and spy planes from the seabase.
Assuming the payload goes well, you can see how your air group is doing. If
you need to kamikaze a single fighter squadron to free an air slot, sic it to
dive bomb the destroyers or strafe the AK ships. You can also strafe the AA
guns on the airfield's island since you will be fighting there later. Once you
have the ability to launch more planes, slot some dive bombers and finish off
the airfield (if it was not destroyed -- highly unlikely), and start working
off the ships in the area. You do this because enemies will carry over to the
next part of the mission.
Keep your destroyers close by and repaired. Have them stay away from the
airfield's island unless you are slowly chipping away the coastal guns and AA
guns. Recall at least two air squadrons and use one to nuke the seabase.
Once that occurs, an additional cruiser and destroyer appear in the north and
attack the landing craft you have. You need to keep them away so at least five
craft survive. Recall planes and fit them for dive bombing and torpdeos and
sic the bombers on the cruiser and destroyer. The DD is easier to kill with
torpedos (if you launch it 0.1 distance away) but take out the ship closest to
your marines first. Once that's done, you win.
Coral Sea
Objectives
1 - Cripple any Japanese carrier
2 - Donald must survive
3 - The Yorktown cannot be destroyed
This is the aftermath of Lady Lex sinking. Donald is here and set him to CAP
on and free fire. Send out two more fighter squadrons (with bombs) and assist
in keeping the bombers and ZEROs away from your fleet. Set up repair crews for
fire, water, and weapons (except the carrier, set two to water and one to fire
or flight deck).
Steam towards the enemy (south and east). Place the cruisers ahead of the
carrier and the destroyers ahead of the cruiser; do this by breaking the
formation and leaving the carrier by itself. The cruiser and destroyers are
expendable.
Get your dive bombers (2 groups maybe) and nuke any errant destroyers (your
screening force can take care of the cruisers). If you find a flattop, send in
a group of fighters to eliminate the screening fighters but keep Donald's
place holding off the incoming attackers.
What happens next depends how good you are at repelling incoming enemy bombers
and how well you fight off the cover from the enemy carriers (they have
infinite planes). Once you get a good flight of bombers through to damage the
carrier, you can probably cripple it with six to nine solid bomb hits.
If you unleash torpedos, do it against the ships on the outer edge and in the
front. If they evade, the other ships in the pack will get hit. Torpedos may
be more fun at this mass of enemies than dive bombs -- you just need to
survive long enough to deliver them up close.
Once a carrier is about to explode, the mission ends.