Battlestations: Pacific/Status Quo

Escort
"A US rocket ship force is assaulting a Japanese base to the south. The US must provide air cover to the attacking vessels whilst the Japanese have to destroy the ships before they have a chance to neutralize their base."

- Map description

Escort is a reasonably balanced map. The Allies are sending four Rocket LSMs to take out the specified facilities, while the Japanese have to sink them. The LSMs are escorted by a single Allen M. Sumner-class. This destroyer must face off against a pair of Kuma-class light cruisers to the south near the base. A second front is to the northwest - two Sumners attempt to engage a Takao-class heavy cruiser, which is escorting a pair of troop transports.

As playable units, the Allies use two rarely seen British aircraft - the Hawker Hurricane and the Fairey Swordfish. The Japanese have three - the E13A Jake, the Ki-43 Oscar, and the H6K Mavis. Obviously, the Mavis is the most powerful torpedo bomber on the map, and will be instrumental in sinking the LSMs.

The mission hinges almost entirely on the LSMs - everything else is either supporting or attacking them. The Allies should therefore focus everything they have on them, keeping them protected - particularly against the Mavises. Fortunately, Mavises are large and slow, but they each carry four torpedoes - enough to sink two LSMs. The Allies should also consider deploying Swordfishes to harass the Takao-class - once it sinks the two Sumners attacking it, it advances on the LSMs. The Japanese have a far simpler objective - simply sink all the LSMs. They have considerable range, but are very inaccurate. It takes them a few minutes to completely eliminate all the specified targets on the island, so be sure to cover the Mavis players as they make their runs on the LSMs. Two torpedoes is usually enough to sink one, but Hurricanes are extremely powerful opponents - you may want to drop all four on a single LSM to ensure its demise.

Due to the light escort by the LSMs, nearly all of the necessary anti-aircraft support will come from the Hurricanes. While capable fighters, they tend to spawn rather distantly from the area they must protect, giving the Japanese a slight advantage. Mavis pilots must rely on Oscar players for support for their runs, and the same can be said for the Swordfish players attempting to torpedo the enemy warships.

Interestingly, from the Japanese perspective, the Allied headquarters is capable of spawning kamikaze aircraft.

Siege
"An American amphibious force supported by cruisers and rocket ships is tasked with conquering a heavily defended island. The Japanese will deploy kamikazes to make this more difficult. The US must protect the landing forces from enemy air strikes whilst the Japanese have to defend the island and stop the enemy advancing at all costs."

- Map description

This map is similar to other siege maps in that the focus is primarily on either the landing forces or the shore defences. The Allies should focus primarily on eliminating the enemy defence lines - fortresses take off a lot of Japanese strength. The Japanese muist both protect these and sink the enemy landing ships.

The Allies have quite a bit of firepower at their disposal - Lightnings and Hurricanes provide a quick focused-firepower interceptor for catching up to and eliminating kamikazes and a turning expert respectively. The Japanese can deploy suicidal Ki-43 Oscars and Zeroes to defend them.

In a similar manner to Siege Dreadnought, the team eliminating the landing forces can slowly sap away at the health of the attackers, giving them a longer, drawn-out victory. The Allies, however, can choose to play the same game as the Japanese (by simply knocking out their kamikazes), they can also attempt to strafe the enemy fortresses. The fortresses are vulnerable to gunfire, particularly from Lightnings, which can also equip bombs. However the Allies must also attempt to protect the landing lines. A delicate balance of offence and defence is necessary for victory for maps like these.

This map seems to favour the Allies because of the vulnerability of fortresses, but in multiplayer things fall down to each player's skill and knowing what is required at what time.

Island Capture - Small
Small is extremely unbalanced - Whichever team gets HQ2 will almost always win the game, since they can spawn light cruisers as well as aircraft from it. Additionally, because HQ 2's shipyard points toward the Allied base, the Allies will have difficulties getting their cruisers into the fight, since the cruisers will have to turn themselves around first to get to the fight. This map is usually avoided as a result.

As stated above, the Bogue-class escort carrier appears as an unlock on this mission. However, it is a glitch and will not appear at all when selected.

Click on a Headquarters to see which units it can spawn.

Island Capture - Medium
Medium is a little more balanced, but not by much. The Japanese, again, have an advantage as they have a supply base close to them while the Allies have none. The two home bases have access to planes only, as well as special strike aircraft (HVAR Corsairs and Kamikazes respectively), so much of the initial fighting will be aerial. Once a team manages to capture one of the middle headquarters, however, the fight takes to the seas. Sail onto victory and the enemy's home base, but be prepared to brave rockets and kamikaze strikes the whole way.

Click on a Headquarters to see which units it can spawn.

Island Capture - Large
Large is perhaps the most balanced of the three. Planes, ships, and subs are all fair game on this map, although many players enjoy using their heavy cruisers instead of other forms of attack. The game will inevitably go to whichever team controls HQ 5 in the middle, but unlike other maps the center does not spawn any new units. Instead it serves as a forward spawn to anyone attempting to penetrate deeper into enemy territory.

Click on a Headquarters to see which units it can spawn.