Battlestations: Midway/Map Tactics

As mentioned before, Battlestations: Midway is a hybrid game which allows players to command any number of units - ranging from battleships, to destroyers, to submarines, aircraft carriers, and land bases. This section of the guide will go through the basics of gameplay - stuff that is better and easier explained through the tutorial. The advantage of this guide though is that if you don't have the game, you can read this and get an idea for it.

This guide is divided into four sections: The RTS section, the air section, and the warship section, and the submarine section.

Real Time Strategy
Pressing the map key opens a tactical map which shows you where your units are and any spotted enemy units. The darknened area is where you lack radar coverage. Enemy units will not be shown.

The lighter portion is your radar coverage. Enemy units can appear in this area, but you won't be able to identify them and they'll be grey and labelled as "UNKNOWN". You'll be able to see if they're a ship or a plane, but not specifically what kind of ship or plane it is. It could be a destroyer, or it could be a battleship...or an aircraft carrier.

Clicking on a unit will select it. Hiding the map now will put you observing the unit you just selected in real-time. You can take command of it by giving it any order.

Many times you will want a unit to be protected by another unit. To do this with a plane, you can click on an air unit and right click on the target you want to protect. A green arrow will show that units are flying a Combat Air Patrol (CAP) over the target. They will engage any target that comes within 1 nautical mile of the target they're protecting.

Aircraft
Aircraft are the most powerful units in the game given their high attacking power and high speed. There are several kinds of aircraft, including:
 * Fighters: Includes the A6M Zero and the F4F Wildcat. These planes are typically armed with machine guns and have extremely high manoeuvrability, allowing them to out-turn and out-fly all other aircraft. Typically they have machine guns, but they can be equipped with small bombs too. The bombs cause very little damage. Equipping them with bombs also doesn't appear to affect their manoeuvrability, but dive bombers are far better.
 * Dive bombers: Includes the D3A Val and the SBD Dauntless. These bombers start high and dive low on their targets. Ineffective against targets with strong deck plating, like battleships, they are best wielded against lightly armoured targets, mainly destroyers and light cruisers. They can also bring the hurt on aircraft carriers given the huge size of their deck. Difficult to destroy, but in general causes little damage.
 * Torpedo Bombers: Includes the B5N Kate and the TBD/F Avenger. These planes start low, then climb high after releasing torpedoes. Torpedoes must be dropped at an altitude less than 1,000ft while the plane is almost parallel to the ocean - otherwise the torpedo will detonate when hitting the water. Far easier to use than dive bombers as well as being far more devastating, they are easy prey for targets with a lot of anti-aircraft fire.
 * Carpet Bombers: Includes the B-17 and the G4M. These planes fly at high altitudes and drop massive amounts of bombs on targets. They are rather easy to use and are oftentimes heavily defended by themselves, but their accuracy is typically abysmal. They are effective against all targets, but particularly excel in bombing shipyards, airfields, and aircraft carriers in particular.
 * Recon Planes: Includes the PBY Catalina and the H8K Emily. These planes are slow, but they sport sonar, making them ideal for anti-submarine operations. They come equipped with either bombs, twin torpedoes, or most devastatingly depth charges. Without a doubt the submariner's most deadly enemy, since recon planes can see and attack them without fear of counterattack from the sub. It should also be noted that recon planes can land on the water. If they land on the water near a shipyard, they can be rearmed with additional weapons.

All the above types, excepting recon planes, are produced at either an airfield or, most commonly, at an aircraft carrier. Recon planes are produced at shipyards.