Chapter 10: Almost Home

This is going to be the toughest mission you've had to face thus far, with an enemy that will be coming at you with a combined army of air and ground units. You begin with a slightly larger economy than your foes do, with eight properties to their five, and you'll need to quickly expand and conquer if you want to outbuild them in the long run. This map is all-out war, so you'll need to get used to the fact that you're going to be losing a lot of units

Begin by moving your bike unit to the west and capturing the airport on the edge of its movement ability. Move the mech unit onto your rig and drop the mech off on one of the properties near the airport, with the infantry unit being loaded into the t-copter and being dropped off onto the factory in the same small square of properties; you'll be able to begin capturing them on day two.

To the east, you have a few forward units near the enemy army. You won't be able to save them all, and even if you did, you probably wouldn't really need to have them. Instead, move the westernmost infantry on that side of the field across the mountains back towards your army, where it can begin capturing on day 2. You can save the recon unit here if you move it back towards your armies, but it's probably better to sacrifice it to slow down their economy. Have the recon unit attack the enemy infantry on the eastern edge of the screen, and your other infantry unit attack the southeastern mech unit. They'll die on the enemy's first day, but the damage to the infantry units will force them to take multiple days to capture the properties nearby, which will help you get a cash edge in the early going.

Elsewhere on the first day, move your other units off to the east a bit. Don't forget the fact that you have four airplanes in the northwestern corner of the map. Try to make sure that one of your dusters is out in front of the rest of the airplanes here; if you're very lucky, the enemy fighter might come along to take a potshot at it, allowing you to retaliate with your own fighter.

Before the end of day one, build an infantry unit on your factory. You can use that on day two to load it up on your t-copter and move it towards the other uncaptured property nearby. Alternately, you can build a tank there; you'll need plenty of cheap units to turn the tide of this battle.

Days 2 and 3 will simply be the start of capturing; neither army will move very far. Fortify your defenses and start building your army up. What we preferred to use were plenty of b-copters; they hit hard against most enemies, especially ground units, but do tend to get chopped up against enemy anti-air and dusters. You'll want to position your missiles so that they can fire on most of the units around the mountain range, which will help take down the dusters and even the enemy fighter if it comes in to kill one of your b-copters.

So, yes, the basic solution here is to simply build as many b-copters as you can, and supplement them with the occasional tank or anti-air unit. A bomber will be handy for dealing with the w-tank later on, as well, but you can also wear it down if you have enough b-copters. You will definitely have plenty of enemy units to contend with, but if you can slow down their expansion they won't have nearly as much cash as you will, so you'll be able to outbuild them (and they'll usually choose to spend their money on cheap units like anti-air that shouldn't be too difficult to take out).

After the fourth day or so, the fight becomes all-out war. Just rely on your b-copters to deal with the weaker enemy ground units, try to use anti-air on the dusters that come your way, and use tanks against anti-air units. Don't hesitate to throw a little extra cash on a bike or t-copter or two, though; if you can clear around the enemy base, you can block their factory and airport by destroying the units on top of them, then quickly moving one of your units over it. If you can lock them down in this fashion, you'll have plenty of time to clear out the rest of the enemy units and take the mission home.

Chapter 11: A Storm Brews

Your first sea fight! This will be a simple fight if you move your units correctly. You won't need to worry about your yellow-uniformed companions here; they'll take care of themselves relatively well. You also can't build any units, though, so you'll need to be relatively careful not to get hit too often.

Your naval units here include gunboats and landers, both of which can pick up units on beaches (but not the rockier sections of the coastlines) and disgorge them on other beaches across the water. On the first turn, move your rockets and the mech unit into the lander by the beach and move them towards the city to the southeast a bit. The rocket unit should wind up one square to the north of the city there, with the mech unit nearby. Move the other lander up to the same beach and move the md-tank onto it, and move the regular tank up the coast towards it. You won't be able to put both units on the lander this turn, but that won't matter. You can move your remaining infantry unit onto the gunship that you didn't attack with, if you like, but you probably won't need to use it at all.

Your gunships can destroy the enemy gunship nearby in two volleys. Gunships can only fire once before needing to be restocked, so move your rig to the beach just northwest of its starting point and start constructing a temp port. Temporary ports will restock your gunships, which will be handy.

On the enemy's first turn, they'll move their cruiser to the northwest, towards your gunships. Hit it with your rockets and finish it off with a gunboat. Start capturing the city to the south with your mech; you'll want to park the mech there and let any enemy units that come your way pound against it. Don't send any units to the south of the city just yet; let them come to you. As they make their way up the little passage, hit the enemy md-tank with your rockets to weaken it up, then pound anyone else in the area with your forces, being careful to stay away from the artillery fire. The rig here might attempt to escape by running away, so you might want to load up your smaller tank on a lander and move it to the east to cut it off, assuming you take out the enemy gunships. You will have already built your temporary port, but your rig can resupply your gunships manually if you park it on the coast and move the gunships next to it.

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