Apache Havoc
Strategy Guide

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4.1 Objectives - The Goal

Simply put - to successfully win a campaign, your side is required to capture the specified number of Objective Sectors (ObSecs).

This number will vary from theater to theater, but there are always more objective sectors available on the map, than you are required to capture.

Each sector is a 4km x 4km area and control deemed strategically vital for victory.

How Objective Sectors Are Captured

To capture a sector, it must be unoccupied - all opposing forces must be eliminated from it. Any air or ground unit entering an unoccupied objective sector will capture it. Once your forces enter and capture the last required ObSec, the campaign victory screen will be displayed.

A sector can be re-captured by the enemy if it is left unoccupied.

 

Basic Overall Strategy

To win a campaign you should be flexible.

Destroy enemy air capability as early as possible, then move in on mobile ground forces concentrating on those occupying Objective Sectors. To do this you will really need to be flexible and not always follow the generated mission routes. You should create your own scout missions to locate and destroy enemy bases.

Choose a campaign in accordance with your ability. New players should choose to fly the quieter more sedate Golden Triangle campaign.

Campaign Difficulty Table
	BLUE FORCE	RED FORCE
hardest	Cuban Crisis	Golden Triangle
medium	Caspian Sea	Caspian Sea
easiest	Golden Triangle	Cuban Crisis

 

If the FARP is not repaired after a period of time, it will dismantle itself but leave behind a residue of its presence, tents, landing mats etc. The campaign map icon will eventually be removed once it has finally closed. This may take some time.

Ground Advance Stalls

Examine the map for areas where the ground advance has "stalled". Look for friendly ground units on the same road as an enemy ground unit.

When an advancing unit comes into range of an enemy ground force, it will stop and begin to attack with it's available weapons - usually the main battle tanks will proceed to lob shells over several kilometers at the blocking force. The unit will also send a radio message - see below.

The blocked ground unit can not advance until the blocking force has been eliminated.

figure 4-3: Ground advance stall

Be aware, should the blocking enemy be hit by a shell, it will radio for immediate air support. A retaliatory attack by enemy helicopters can take anything from a few minutes to half an hour depending on the proximity of available forces. Also, enemy tanks will return fire - again lobbing shells over several kilometers.

Note: due to terrain considerations, it may not be posssible for the engaged ground forces to hit each other. As there is no "curve of sight" routine in the simulation, tanks could be firing shells into a forest canopy that just happens to be in the way. If this situation occurs, tanks will needlessly use up their ammunition - stop to reload - then continue blindly wasting ammunition. The only way out of this cycle is if the blocker or blocking unit is eliminated by air forces.

So always keep a look out for ground advance stalls. You can fly into the area and clean out the enemy, thus allowing your ground forces to continue.

(Remember, what ever applies to your forces, also applies to the enemy forces)

Ground Unit Radio Messages

If you are within radio range of a ground unit (max range is 32km), the ground controller will radio various signals under certain conditions.

If a ground units advance is blocked they will radio:

• "This is ground control, requesting support"
• "This is ground control, we need air support"

If a ground unit comes under attack by enemy forces they will radio:

• "We are pinned down by enemy fire"
• "We are taking heavy fire, requesting aerial assisstance"

When your ground forces advance forwards or retreats, they radio:

• "This is ground control, we are advancing"
• "This is ground control, we are retreating"

Who said that? - Although it is hard to determine who sent the transmission, there are some clues. The sound volume of the radio message is determined by the distance from transmission source. The fainter the message, the further away. Look at the campaign map and examine the roads and distances. The presence of enemy units near your ground forces give a clue as to who radioed for assisstance.

 

Ground Force Movement AI

How does the AI decide to move ground forces? The advance and direction of ground units is determined by pre-designed "warmth" map.

Each ground unit heads towards a road junction (or junction "node" to give it a techie name) that has the hottest value on the hidden warmth map. Assuming you could overlay the network of roads over the warmth map and sample the values that lay under each road junction. The junction with the highest value is the direction the ground unit will head towards.

Cuban Theater Warmth Maps
Blue Force	Red Force
figure 4-4: ground forces attracted to lighter areas.

Every time a unit reaches a road junction, it stops and waits a pre-determined time before checking the "map" again and deciding which way to turn.

Most campaign objective sectors are hand placed so ground forces following the "map" should eventually pass through them. However some units will get stuck at dead ends. Or bypass some sectors.

The warmth maps and objective sectors are editable with Adobe PhotoShop. Details on this can be found in a later chapter.

 

Capturing most objective sectors is usually straightforward. However those sectors which are controlled by infantry present something of a minor problem.

Infantry units guarding city areas carry shoulder launched SAMs, these are - on the whole - not much of a threat. The units don't move around so unless you inadvertently park in front of them you are unlikely to be in danger from them. The problem is finding the little buggers. They don't have the decency to show up on millimetric wavelength radars or be tracked by 1st generation FLIRs.

The eliminate infantry and capture city sectors you need the greatest sensor system ever devised for pilots, the Mk.1 eyeball. This is real search and destroy, territory. If you must, plan a search pattern and fly it. Using Night Vision can help, infantry tend to show up as two small points. Going through the city, block by block may get a bit tedious so there are some pointers pictured below.

Where Are They?

Infantry units can be found around the same structures, but these structures differ according to the campaign. In Thailand (Golden Triangle campaign), SAM infantry can be found in pairs by a particular kind of hut. Other examples are pictured below.

figure 4-5: examples of urban infantry "hang-outs"

Once all infantry units have been eliminated, it is necessary to exit and re-enter the sector to confirm it's capture on the campaign map.

 

 

Reinforcements

All forces in the campaign begin with a finite number of units. Some of them are already active when the game begins. The rest are "reserves" and remain in a hidden pool.

When a unit is destroyed a replacement from the reserve pool will appear. In the case of aircraft it will emerge from an airbase generator hanger (see section 4.3) and taxi to park on the apron until that aircraft is assigned to a mission.

Smaller bases such as FARPs and aircraft carriers require replacement aircraft to be flown from adjacent bases. When a base is low on helicopters it will radio a request for helicopter re-supply, this will generate a "Transfer" mission at the recieving airbase. You can actually fly some of these transfer missions during the campaign, it's just a taxi job, but it also serves as a way of transferring you to another base.

Fuel and Stores

Each individual vehicle keeps track of it's stores. When a unit has expended it's stores it will remain in this unarmed state until re-supplied. Armoured columns usually carry their supplies with them in trucks. It takes exactly 10 minutes of simulator time to reload, re-arm and refuel a vehicle.

When an SA-13 vehicle has fired it's full complement of surface to air missiles it will be rendered harmless until it reloads.

There is an infinite reserve pool of ammunition and fuel. However airbases and FARPS do run out and require resupply from nearby "supply" installations. These supply installations are identified on the campaign map as factory symbols.

If you wish to transfer to a front line FARP early on in a campaign and no TRANSFER missions are available, you can force a transfer.

On the mission selection screen, create a SCOUT mission, then move the last waypoints near to the FARP you wish to visit. Fly to the last waypoint, your return route will direct you to the nearest FARP or BASE with free capacity which should be the one you wanted.

Most often you will find that when you hit the last waypoint at the end of a mission you will be directed to land at the nearest FARP or base which is low on aircraft.

 

Promotion is based soley on points. The rank pyramid is as follows:

LIEUTENANT CAPTAIN MAJOR LT COLONEL COLONEL

0 5,000 50,000 200,000 1000,000

Your rank determines the availability of more difficult missions (see section 5.1 ).