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 bottom window shows you information about the unit you are currently in command of. The top window shows you either:
 * What is beneath your cursor
 * What the selected unit is targeting

The zoom controls allow you to zoom in on where your cursor is pointing. At different levels, various details are revealed.

At the outermost zoom, very little information is revealed - you can only see ship formation leaders and aircraft squadron leaders. Individual ships, individual planes, and gun emplacements are some of the things that are not shown on maximum magnification.

In the middle zoom, individual ships are revealed, but not individual planes. Gun emplacements are also not revealed at this level of zoom.

At maximum magnification, players can see practically everything - from gun installations to individual planes, even torpedoes appear on the map. The ships on the map, regardless of magnification, are never drawn to scale, so while it may seem a torpedo is headed for the aft section of a warship it may actually miss by mere centimetres. From the tactical map screen, it appears as though the ship moves over the torpedo.

Objectives
At the top right of the interface displays all the objectives. Pressing the "Show Objectives" button allows you to view your current objectives, and selecting them is possible too. Each objective is numbered - black numbers indicate the objective is incomplete. Green numbers indicate the objective is complete. Red numbers indicate the objective has failed. Selecting an objective will detail what is or was required to accomplish that objective.

There are three kinds of objectives:
 * Primary objectives are required to accomplish the mission. Failing one means losing the mission.
 * Secondary objectives are optional objectives. Clearing all secondary objectives gives you a silver star indicating you have passed all the primary and secondary objectives.
 * Hidden objectives do not appear on the objectives panel, and means the player has gone above and beyond what was expected of them in the level. Typically, they aren't difficult objectives - what's hard is knowing what they are. Clearing all the primary, secondary, and hidden objectives gives you a gold star as a reward.

Detection Ranges
While viewing the battlefield at the outermost zoom, you can notice several coloured layers representing each vessel's detection ranges. There are three fields: The darker area is the radar detection area. Enemy units spotted this way appear as "Unknown". You will be able to tell whether it is a ship or a plane, but that's it.

The light coloured area is the visual detection range. Any enemy units that enter this range will automatically be reported and identified ("We have incoming enemy aircraft!" or "Enemy ship spotted, sir!")

The green coloured area is the sonar detection range. Submerged submarines can only be detected through sonar. Note that destroyers have a huge sonar coverage in the front but lesser so in the back, so approaching a destroyer from behind when you're a submarine can give you the element of surprise.

Issuing Orders
Issuing orders via the map screen allows you to command separate units for split-second amounts of time, issuing quick, simple commands in a manner befitting a real-time strategy game. To move a unit from the tactical screen, put your cursor over the unit you want to move and hit the select unit control to select it. It will turn gold to indicate that this is the unit you have selected. The move-to control (by default the right mouse button) will have the unit move to where your cursor is - just like an RTS. It may or may not engage enemies that appear based on its standing orders (some RTS games call it the unit's "Stance" or "AI"), which are discussed later.

Along similar lines, a unit can be ordered to engage an enemy warship in a similar fashion. Clicking on an enemy unit with a unit currently selected will have your unit engage the enemy's. A red line will show that the unit is engaging the enemy.

Aircraft ordered to land will have green arrows pointing to their carrier or airfield. Aircraft ordered to patrol and give air cover to a warship below them will also have a green arrow.

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. Unfortunately, this must be done manually.

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.

Taking Off
To put aircraft in the air, select the unit you want to launch planes - whether a carrier or an airfield, and open up the control panel. In the above example, four squadrons are available.
 * The "H" indicates the squadron is at home base.
 * The diagonal arrow pointing up shows that the squadron is currently in the process of taking off.
 * A straight arrow indicates that the aircraft is currently in the air.
 * A diagonal arrow pointing down indicates that the aircraft has received landing orders and intend to land.
 * A skull and crossbones indicates the squadron was destroyed. If you have additional planes, you can launch them.

Beneath those icons you will see:
 * Type: The aircraft the squadron is currently using. You can switch this whenever the squadron is landed.
 * Number: You can change the number of aircraft assigned to the squadron. Typically this means reassigning members from another squadron to the selected one. This number also shows you the number of planes you currently have in reserve. When a plane is shot down, it does not get re-added to your inventory. Therefore, in the above example, the carrier has only 40 Wildcats in reserve - once all 40 are down, the carrier cannot deploy any more Wildcats.
 * Armament: Here you can choose what the planes are loaded with. Typically this involves bombs, depth charges, or torpedoes.

The number at the top right of the window indicates the number of planes airbourne versus the number of planes you can actually put up. Regardless of how many planes you assign to a squadron, the number of airbourne planes cannot exceed the plane cap.

In the above example, the carrier can have 12 planes in the air at once. You have four squadrons. You can assign squadron members evenly (each squadron has 3 members - 4 squadrons times 3 planes each = 12 planes total). You can also choose to have 5 planes in two squadron, but that means one squad is left underpowered at only two members (5+5+2=12).

Landing
Landing aircraft is important, especially for bombers. Planes do not respawn - you simply have a lot of them. Ordering planes, especially bomber squadrons, to return to base gets them fixed up and rearmed for another attack. It does take time, but ultimately it becomes worth it.

To order a squadron to land, open the Command menu and select the left option. You should hear "Landing orders acknowledged, sir" or something of the sort, and your squadron status will be set to "LAND".

The AI takes its time landing - you can attempt to land yourself, oftentimes quicker than the AI, by simply reducing your airspeed (your gear will come down automatically) and simply touch down at a low speed. You can do this for either carriers or airfields, but carrier landings are considerably more difficult than airfield landings.

As mentioned above, recon planes like the Catalina can rearm themselves by landing in the vicinity of a shipyard. Simply do the same thing as before, except on water. Landing on water should be easy - just don't come down at a sharp angle and you should be fine. Keep your throttle low and get close to the shipyard to rearm (you should not need to enter the shipyard, and docking the plane is impossible).

Torpedo Bombing
When piloting a plane armed with torpedoes, you have to fly low (the game says "slow and low", but speed generally isn't an issue) with your plane flying parallel to the sea. Dropping the torpedo from a high altitude means the torpedo will explode upon hitting the water. The torpedo bay won't even open if you're upside down or have your wingtips touching the ocean.

Once within a close enough range of the target (experience will tell you when) press and hold the bombing mode key and, while doing so, pull the trigger to release your torpedo. Hold the trigger to watch the torpedo streak through the water and hopefully land a hit. Even if you don't watch the torpedo, you'll hear "Ordnance was on target, sir!", confirming you have made a successful torpedo run on the enemy warship.

Once your ordnance is gone, it's best for you to turn around and head back home, but be careful when issuing landing orders - if the rest of your squadron is behind you, they might not have released their torpedoes yet. Issuing a landing order at this time will prompt the entire squadron - including those who still have their torpedoes - to turn around and head for home (not only wasting time and torpedoes but also aircraft, as the expose their vulnerable tails to the enemy). Therefore, it's best to let the AI handle the landing orders. The squadron will automatically return home once all its torpedoes have been expended.

Torpedo bombing is one of the most effective way of attacking ships, as it not only causes leaks but also it punches under the waterline, bypassing a battleship's heavy belt and deck armour.

Dive Bombing
The other method of attacking ground targets is dive bombing. Best used by dedicated dive bombers, dive bombing causes little damage and is difficult to perform, but it is from the ship's perspective the most difficult to stop, given the bomber's high altitudes. Dive bombing in theory is simple - fly as high as you can, and once you're somewhat past your target, roll over and plunge like a brick right at the enemy target, and drop your bomb when you're sure it's going to hit. In practice, however, it is considerably harder than it sounds. Most rookies dive too early or too late, or are simply too afraid they are going to crash into the ocean.

Your best bet is to simply follow your wingmen. The AI will almost always do a better job of dive bombing than you will, so simply let your wingmen lead the target and watch them. If they rudder right, you rudder right too. When they roll over and start a dive, you do too. Once you're in the dive, it's all up to you.

Plummet as fast as possible towards the enemy target and at this point toggle on your bombing mode to see where your bomb is going to hit. Position your crosshair over the enemy warship and, once you're low enough, drop the bomb, cut your throttle to the absolute minimum, and pull out of the dive. Again, hold the trigger if you want to see if it scored a hit. You'll still hear "We hit it!" regardless, however.

Carpet Bombing
The easiest and possibly most destructive way of attacking enemy ground targets is with a carpet bomber. These massive planes carry equally massive amounts of bombs - the B-17 has a whopping payload of 24 bombs. You need to fly straight and level over your target in order to release, however - you aren't a dive bomber, and while a dive bomber can perform a level bombing attack, a level bomber cannot perform a dive attack. Once you've positioned the crosshair over the target, simply open your bomb bay doors with the bombing mode button and pull the trigger to start dropping bombs. There are two main methods of carpet bombing ships - from side-to-side (port to starboard or starboard to port) or from front-to-back (or back-to-front - bow to stern or stern to bow). Bombing from side-to-side almost guarantees a hit, but given the ship's low profile in this manner, most of the bombs will miss.

Conversely, bombing from bow-to-stern or stern-to-bow will result in far more bombs striking their target, but at the same time if the enemy warship is moving fast enough and turns, most of the bombs could miss. Against the lighter targets, therefore, it might be wiser to employ dive bombers instead of carpet bombers.

Strafing
Strafing is pretty easy, but don't expect it to cause a lot of damage. The most you can do is annoy the enemy. It does, however, have its purposes.

Strafing is simple - using the forward firing guns on a plane to attack a ground target. Given the weak nature of guns, however, it only affects extremely lightly armoured targets - personnel landing ships (that is, Daihatsus and Higgins Boats), patrol boats, the cargo of cargo ships (shooting their superstructure does little to no damage) and most types of land installations (Fortresses, shipyards, and airfields being notable exceptions).

The most useful part of strafing, however, is the ability to target exposed anti-aircraft emplacements on an enemy ship. It won't affect fully-enclosed turrets, but if you intend to disable the enemy's machine gun emplacements or flak guns, strafing may be a viable solution. Simply attack the enemy with your machine guns and shoot the gun until you see a small explosion.

Strafing is possible really with any type of ship that uses an anti-aircraft weapon (in theory, flak guns work too, but they are often too inaccurate to strike such small targets). A good place to try surface-to-surface strafing is in Defence of the Phillipines. Take your PT boat and drive it close to the enemy destroyer. Arm your machine guns and fire at the enemy's own machine guns. You should be able to blow them up.

Note that enemy gun emplacements will automatically respawn, so don't expect a target you disabled ten minutes ago to still be a sitting target for your air wing.

Submarines
Operating submarines requires extreme patience, because while devastating since they can launch a spread of four torpedoes in front of them, they are also one of the slowest units in the game.

Depth Levels
There are four depth levels which submarines can operate at. The dive and surface controls toggle which of the four depths you will go to.
 * Surface: The sub is extremely vulnerable on the surface. Anything can strike it, and will cause a lot of damage. Air-dropped depth charges can easily fry a surfaced sub, as can torpedoes and cannon fire. To assist a little, the Narwhal and Type B submarines have a cannon that allows them to take potshots at other ships while surfaced. They also have a small machine gun to ward off planes, and additionally they can use their torpedoes. Air is replenished at this depth level.
 * Attack Depth: Also known as periscope depth, this is where you should be when you're readying for an attack. You can raise your periscope at this depth and use it to observe your surroundings and track enemy targets. It's basically a submarine version of the binoculars. Enemies can spot periscopes in the water, but they are often very small and difficult to see. Torpedoes can be launched at this depth, but if the target is very close, torpedoes can fly under them. The minimum torpedo range is approximately 0.2 nautical miles. Beware also of depth charges - they cause a lot of damage at this depth.
 * Manoeuvring Depth: The third depth level is where you should be spending most of your time. Depth charges cause considerable damage, but only well-aimed charges can strike you, and even then for considerably less damage than at attack depth. Unfortunately, you're too deep for both torpedoes and periscope work, so you won't be able to do anything here aside from manoeuvre.
 * Crush Depth: The final depth level is as deep as you can possibly go. Here is where you re-enact the scene in every submarine movie ever made: "The hull canna take teh pressuar, captain!" Water pressure begins harming your hull, and you'll take tiny but consistent damage until you rise. The advantage to being at crush depth is that you are so deep enemy sonar cannot spot you, and you are invincible to depth charges. You can wait the enemy out here, but ultimately you'll be forced to get to depth level 3.

Oxygen
As a submarine you don't have an unlimited supply of oxygen. Your oxygen gauge is viewed at the bottom of the screen, near the speed indicator.

You won't die if you run out of oxygen, but you will be forced to the surface, where you'll be vulnerable to pretty much everything. You'll also give away your position, thus negating the stealth you need as a submarine which allows you to evade destroyers and whatnot.

Torpedoes
Torpedoes are your primary weapon as a submarine, but there are several problems with them. A submarine's most glaring weakness is that it can't hit anything in the sky. Only by surfacing can you fire at air targets, and even then your single machine gun may as well be a pea-shooter.

Another weakness of the torpedo is how difficult they are to use. Unlike every other type of ship weapon, you have a fixed number of torpedoes and no way to replenish them. You must, therefore, make each torpedo count.

Torpedoes are also very slow, and when firing at ranges beyond 0.5 nautical miles, chances are the enemy warships will evade your attacks.

When launched at depth 2, the torpedoes will take about 2 seconds to rise to the surface. Until then they simply swim under anything, so firing a torpedo at point-blank range will, most often than not, actually result in your torpedoes being too deep to strike at the enemy hull.

Like ship-launched torpedoes, submarine torpedoes can steer themselves to a small degree. You can fire torpedoes approximately 30 degrees to the left or right of the bow or stern. When launched, the torpedoes will travel straight until they clear the sub, at which they will turn towards the crosshair, rising to the surface at the same time. Creative submarine commanders can use this to make their torpedoes follow unpredictable patterns, making them difficult to avoid. For starters, hwoever, firing at an angle is difficult and generally shouldn't be done - try to fire head-on if at all possible.