C03 – Air Ace!

Mission 3 – Air Ace!

CO Choice: Andy

What’s that?


Properties

Air Ace HQ
Cities
Bases
Airports
Ports
Neutral 5 2
Orange Star Yes 4 1
Blue Moon Yes 7 0
Total 2 16 3 0 0

General Strategy

Speed Limit 6 days
Technique Limit 3 units

Air Ace! Right on! What? I like the mission!

Well maybe you don’t like it, and it’s understandable. Eagle’s got a pretty powerful arsenal of Air units and if you’re not careful he can kick your ass to the skies and back. But alas, if you know what to do, the mission becomes decently easy.

The first thing you should notice is that Eagle will capture a base on day 3, and produce units non-stop. Which means that considering the speed limit and your rather small arsenal, it’s a very bad idea to go for a rout. So HQ capture it is, and therefore your most important unit is your T-Copter. You need to rush it to Eagle’s HQ island in 4 days, which can be a little bit complicated considering his fighters and copters.

You need to use your anti-air arsenal to it’s full extent. Decoy the fighters with your B-Copter for easy Missile kills. You can build a Missile on turn two to bolster your arsenal. Your Anti-Airs deal heavy damage against Copters and Fighters, so use them well. If all goes well, you should be able to finish off the fighters by day 4; CONSTANTLY CHECK FOR LIGHTNING STRIKE. You should NOT trigger Eagle’s COP until you kill his fighters, otherwise he’ll screw with your T-copter with his 18-movement fighters.

By day 4, Eagle will have Lightning Striker charged no matter what, so you should make good use of it: lure his stationary Bomber with something, and have a second unit ready to take the Lightning Strike hit and take advantage of his weakened defense to kill his Bomber without problems (you might want to use Hyper Repair around here.) If you’ve got the Bomber down, then it’s a free path to capture the HQ. Remember to build stuff whenever possible for technique, and rejoice when you’re done.

Day to Day Strategy

Day 1:

– Attack the tank with your Md. Tank.

– Kill the B-Copter with your left-most Anti-Air.

– Place your other Anti-Air left of your first one.

– Finish the tank with your B-Copter.

– Move your tank 5E, 1S.

– Move your Missiles left of your Anti-Air.

– Load your T-Copter with an Infantry/Mech. Move it north of the Missile (4E, 1S.)

– Move your Artillery left of the Missiles. Load your APC and move it left of the Artillery. Move the rest of your units as far as you can.

– Don’t build anything.

Day 2:

– Move your T-Copter 1S, 5E. You will need to surround it with ground units to keep it safe!

– Move your B-Copter 3W and attack Eagle’s own copter.

– Move one of your Anti-Airs northwest of the T-Copter and attack the eastern Fighter (that’s to the right.) Move your other AA left of the first.

– Move your Md. Tank to the right of the T-Cop, and the Tank south of it.

– Move the APC left of the T-Copter, and drop the Infantry SOUTH.

– Move the Missiles left of the APC.

– Move the rest of your units east, and build some Missiles (IMPORTANT!)

Day 3:

– Glory! Use both of your missiles to destroy or at least heavily damage Eagle’s fighters. You should be able to finish off the damaged one at the very least.

– Move your T-Copter east as far as you can.

– Kill the remaining Fighter with your left most Anti-Air (move any units that might be in the way.)

– Kill the healthy B-Copter with your other Anti-Air.

– Now you need to lure Eagle’s Bomber. Do so by moving your Md. Tank to the bridge. Move your APC 3E, so it’s covered by the Missiles.

– Surround the damaged B-Copter with Infantry, Artillery and anything else you might have at hand. Place everything else in a formation that protects your Missiles and AAs (doesn’t matter much, though.)

Day 4:

– Lightning Strike? Hah! Use Hyper Repair and kill Eagle’s Bombers with whatever you like (a healthy Anti-Air should do the trick.)

– Move your T-Cop 1N of the GE HQ. Drop your Infantry south.

– Finish up any damaged Copters or Fighters. Move your Missiles from the base and build stuff to help on your technique.

Day 5:

– Start capturing. Build stuff. Feel free to kill some of his infantry for fun.

Day 6:

– Build more stuff, finish capturing. Perfect S-rank!

Who in the world is that?

Special thanks to all that contributed at AWCC.

By Linkman 145