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Airborne Ranger FAQ and Walkthrough V 1.10
An informative FAQ written by Frankomatic
Copyright 2006 Frankomatic
All Trademarks and Copyrights contained in this guide are owned by their
respective Trademark and Copyright holders.
Any extra questions, corrections, or concerns can be sent to
[email protected].
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Table of Contents
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i. Version Information
I. Introduction
II. Getting Started
III. Controls
-Ospery (OS)
-Ranger (RA)
IV. Game Screens
-Menu (MU)
-Ospery Flyover (FL)
-Combat Screen (CS)
V. Practice or Veteran Ranger
VI. Weapons and Equipment
VII. Enemies and Obstacles
VIII. Mission Types and Hints
-Destory a Munitions Depot (DM)
-Steal a Code Book (CB)
-Disable Enemy Aircraft (EA)
-Capture an Enemy Officer (EO)
-Cut a Pipeline (CP)
-Knock Out Enemy Radar (ER)
-Disable SAM Site (DS)
-Liberate a P.O.W. Camp (PC)
-Photograph Experiemental Aircraft (PE)
-Free the Hostages (FH)
-Create a Diversion (CD)
-Delayed Sabotage (DS)
-Campaign (CA)
IX. Ways to End the Game
X. Ranks
XI. Medals
XII. Future Additions
XIII. Credits
==============================================================================
i. Version Information
==============================================================================
1.00 First Released Version (1/18/2006)
1.10 Added a tip from Sashanan (1/19/2006)
==============================================================================
I. Introduction
==============================================================================
Frankomatic is checking in once more with another guide for another C64 game
to benefit those who might still play with them! Up on the chopping block
this time around is a Microprose title, Airborne Ranger.
Playing a soldier in an elite US quick striking unit, you have your choice of
twelve different mission types, or a campaign of all of the missions in a
random order. Of course, the nameless enemy might have something to say about
this as well.
Plug your joystick into port two for this one, friends, and let's get drafted!
==============================================================================
II. Getting Started
==============================================================================
Once again, there's a tiny bit of pre-game work to do if you want access to
the campaign and all of the ranks and medals. This time, however, it's quite
simple. All you need to do is get yourself either a blank disk or one that
you don't mind wiping out. The rest will be handled automatically when you
select a certain option in the menu. I'll let you know when we get there.
==============================================================================
III. Controls
==============================================================================
Two screens where you have controls that aren't menu screens, two sections
listed here!
Ospery (OS)
-----------
Joystick Left/Right (before jump): Move Ospery left and right.
Joystick Left/Right (after jump): Turn paracute left or right.
Fire Button (before green light): Drop Supply Pod.
Fire Button (after green light): Jump from plane.
Ranger (RA)
-----------
Joystick: Move/Aim
Joystick Button: Fire weapon
CRSR up: Run/Walk
Space: Crawl/Upright
Run/Stop: Map (use Joystick to scroll map)
F1: Carabine
F3: Hand Granade
F5: LAW Rocket
F7: Knife
5: Set Time Bomb to 5 seconds
6: Set Time Bomb to 10 seconds
7: Set Time Bomb to 15 seconds
Inst/Del: Use First Aid Kit
<-: Call pick up
==============================================================================
IV. Game Screens
==============================================================================
This section of the guide will give basic descriptions of the various game
screens. In addition, the menu section will walk you through the various
menus as well.
---------
Menu (MU)
---------
The first thing that pops up after the title screen is the main menu! From
here, you have three options. They are as follows:
Assign a Practice Ranger
------------------------
This is the simplest of the three choices. Doing this moves you right to the
mission selection screen, where you choose what mission you'd like to go
on... barring the dreaded Campaign. You need to be a veteran to do that kind
of work, son. The missions will be explained in detail later.
Assign a Veteran Ranger
-----------------------
This selection will lead you to a screen asking for you to put a veteran disk
in the drive, or to cancel if you change your mind. Inserting the roster disk
and pressing the fire button will move you to your roster. This screen will
show all of your rangers (up to six), their merit points, their rank, their
status, and any medals they have acquired. Selecting the name of a ranger
that's not dead or captured gives you the option to assign the ranger (select
him for your next mission) or retire him (overwrite him).
Selecting a dead or missing ranger will only have the option to retire.
Format a new Roster Disk
------------------------
If you don't have a Roster Disk, put a blank disk in the drive (or one that
you don't mind wiping out, but definitely not your game disk) and select this
option. It will remove any data on the disk and replace it with a default
roster for your use.
And that about sums it up for the menus. On to the next screen, which pops up
immediately after you begin your mission!
-------------------
Ospery Flyover (FL)
-------------------
See the blue plane in the middle of the screen? That's what you're
controlling right now. It'll steadily flor over the map of the mission area,
giving you your first look at what you're up against. As you fly over, you
can press the fire button up to three times to drop supplies into the field.
Be careful where you drop them, however, as they can be damaged or stolen by
the enemy.
Once the plane reaches the southern edge of the map, the box in the bottom
left corner will turn green and a sound will be heard. Pressing the fire
button now will cause you to jump from the plane and parachute into battle.
Try not to land in a minefield or some other dangerous location.
Or you could choose to do nothing. This results in you returning to base to
get reprimanded for ignoring your mission. Good job! Assuming all goes well
with the landing, however, you'll move on to the final game screen.
------------------
Combat Screen (CS)
------------------
See that handsome fellow in the green uniform in the middle of the screen?
The one with the targeting crosshairs floating in front of him? That's you!
The crosshairs show which way you're currently facing and aiming. Up in the
upper left corner is the status box. This shows your current weapon and how
much ammo (or how many clips, in the case of the Carabine) you have left for
it. Lastly, the color of this box shows if you are currently walking (black)
or running (white).
Next to that a vertical bar with a little green at the bottom. This is your
fatigue bar, and it increases as you run. While you're standing still or
walking, it decreases. Note that in desert missions, this increases faster
than normal.
And next to this is another vertical bar, this one segmented into three empty
boxes. This is your wounds counter. If you take a wound from a hit, one or
more of these will fill up, depending on what happened to you. If this fills
up due to taking three wounds and not treating them, you die.
Lastly, you can call up a map by pressing the run/stop key on your keyboard.
You can scroll this map up and down with the joystick. The smaller x's you
may or may not see indicate where your supplies landed. If you don't see any,
you either didn't drop any or something happened to all of them. The large X
near the northern area is your pick up point. This is where you want to be
when your mission time runs out or when you call the Ospery in to pick you
up. A ladder will be on the screen here for a few seconds. If you miss it,
you're stuck on location until you die or run out of ammo and get caught.
Sorry.
And that covers all the important info about the combat screen. On with the
show!
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V. Practice or Veteran Ranger
==============================================================================
What's the difference between a practice and veteran ranger? Not a whole lot,
really. The only things a Veteran gets over a practice ranger are as follows:
You get a score count in the form of your merit points, which will get you
promotions and medals.
You get to track your ranger's rank and medals earned.
You get to keep track of his status.
You can choose to do a campaign, which allows a few extra ranks and medals to
be earned for your dedication.
Lastly, if a Veteran gets captured, you have a chance to return him to active
duty by successfully completing the "Liberate a P.O.W. Camp" mission.
As for the bonuses of a practice ranger? It's faster. That's pretty much it.
==============================================================================
VI. Weapons and Equipment
==============================================================================
The purpose of this section is to give you a basic overview of all the
weapons and equipment you'll be using to your advantage in your various
missions.
Carabine
--------
This is your main firearm, and in mission where you don't need to worry about
alerting the enemy of your presence, it makes a good weapon for use in most
cases against enemy soldiers.
Your ammo for this bad boy comes in the form of clips. Each clip holds thirty
bullets, and you start each mission with four clips. Each supply pod gives
you another two clips.
You can also use this to shoot open doors of buildings you might want to
enter.
Grenades
--------
Grenades are small, handheld devices that are designed to be tossed some
distance away from yourself, where they explode. In terms of the game, this
is what they do. Get thrown and explode. Hold the fire button down longer and
you'll throw it further. They are useful against soldiers and will blow holes
in barbed wire and weak walls. They'll also destroy minefields, but it's a
little noisy.
You start each mission with 3 grenades, and each supply pod will give you two
more grenades.
LAW Rockets
-----------
This is the big gun, a hefty bazooka. This artillery has the power to destroy
pretty much anything you aim it at. Planes, buildings, machine gun nests,
people. You name it, this will kill it. The only thing impervious to the LAW
rockets are boulders and their ilk, and the pipeline building in the "Cut a
Pipeline" mission.
You start each mission with one rocket. Each supply pod will give you one
more rockets.
Time Bombs
----------
These only have one use, blowing up buildings. You can set them to have a
five, ten, or fifteen second delay, and then they explode. These are the only
weapon that can destroy an enemy pipeline building.
In the "Delayed Sabotage" mission, all Time Bombs are set to explode at
midnight as per the mission spec. You start each mission with one bomb, and
each supply pod will provide one more.
Knife
-----
This is the weapon of choice for those missions where you don't want to alert
the enemy to your presence. The range is really short, but the kill is
completely silent. You have unlimited stabs with the knife, and one stab will
kill a soldier instantly if you're at the proper range.
I actually tend to use this even on missions where it doesn't matter if you
alert the enemy or not, except for "Create a Diversion". It just keeps things
a bit less messy by drawing less soldiers to your location from the firefight
you're normally have with the Carabine.
First Aid Kit
-------------
These fix up your wounds, nothing more! You start with one and get one more
for each supply pod you pick up. If you get all three that you drop in, you
can potentially take seven wounds before kicking the bucket. Not bad for a
one man army!
Supply Pod
----------
These look like travel bags with "US" on them. Walking over one of these will
provide you with some more weapons and a new first aid kit. Very helpful
indeed, but there will only be a maximum of three per mission. Try to drop
them into the route you plan to take through the mission to keep yourself
supplied.
Body Armor
----------
This isn't officially listed anywhere in game, but according to the manual,
you have some nice body armor. This is shown in game by the fact that you
don't always take a wound when shot. Sustained gunfire will eventually start
getting through, of course.
And that's everything you have working for you on these missions. You're
always sent in alone, so no allies this time around.
==============================================================================
VII. Enemies and Obstacles
==============================================================================
This will be a list and descriptions of everything will get in your way on
your missions except for objects specific to a certain mission type. Those
will be covered in the appropriate mission section.
Enemy Soldiers
--------------
These happy fellows are on patrol all over the mission area. If they see you,
they'll try to kill you. If they hear exlposions or gunfire, they'll head
towards it to investigate. When you kill them, they fall down and disappear
after a moment.
All in all, they're not a particularly huge threat. Interestingly enough, in
missions where you're not supposed to alert the enemy, these guys can see you
all the time and won't alert the base to thwart your mission. The only thing
that will 'alert the enemy' is to fire a gun at them. If you wander around
shivving them to death, there's no problem.
Boulders, Trees, Wall, Bushes, etc.
-----------------------------------
These all serve no other purpose than to get in your way. Just walk around
them, or hide behind them to stay out of sight of enemy partols. They also
stop bullets, so you can use them as cover.
Trenches
--------
Trenches are quite helpful indeed. If you're in a trench and you drop to your
belly and crawl, nobody outside of the trench can see you. This makes them
the perferred method of travel if you're not in a big rush.
Lakes
-----
These aren't found in deserts and are frozen over in artic missions, but in
temperate climates, you can go wading through the water if you like. If you
switch to crawling in the water, you'll be totally hidden from sight. Stay
down too longer, however, and you'll start taking wounds from drowning.
Barbed Wire
-----------
Trying to walk through barbed wire will wound you, so you don't want to do
that. If you absolutely must get through the barbed wire rather than going
around it, toss a grenade onto it. It'll blow a hole through it that you can
walk safely through... as well as attract the attention of any nearby
soldiers.
Mine Field
----------
These are the single most dangerous thing on the battlefield. They blend in
with the ground, the only difference being that the dirt looks like it's been
tilled a bit, causing it to look a bit wavy. If you walk onto one of these,
it explodes and you die. Without fail, you die.
So, walk around them. If you have to get rid of one, dropping a grenade onto
it will detonate the field safely.
Machine Gun Nests
-----------------
These buildings fire off bullets at you if you walk anywhere near them.
Obviously, this isn't particularly wonderful for your health. The best way to
deal with them is to just stay away. If you want to destroy them, hitting
them with a LAW rocket is your best bet.
If you're slightly more suicidal, a Time Bomb will also work.
That covers all of the general bad guys and bad stuff you'll run into on the
missions. Speaking of the missions, it's time to hit the dirt soldier!
==============================================================================
VIII. Mission Types and Hints
==============================================================================
This is the meat of the guide, my friend. In this section, I'll describe the
mission, what the objective looks like, and some hints on how to get through
the mission alive and successfully. On with the war!
------------------------------
Destroy a Munitions Depot (DM)
------------------------------
This is a rather straightforward mission that takes place in the desert. At
the far end of the field are three buildings, a bunker, a fuel dump, and a
little shack. The object is to get over to the far end and destroy all three
of them, then get picked up at the pick up site.
You don't need to worry about alerting the enemy for this mission, so feel
free to raise a little hell if you'd like. The LAW rockets are reccomended
for busting up the three buildings, as they're much quicker than the time
bombs. If you need to get an inconveniently placed machine gun nest out of
the way, however, that should take priority as there's a little secret to
this mission.
If you shoot the door open for the bunker or the shack, you can walk inside
the building and get ammo much like you would from a supply pod. For this
reason, you should save one of them as last if you don't have three LAW
rockets on hand when you arrive.
I would reccomend using the Carabine as your weapon of choice for this
mission, since you get extra merit points for defeating enemies. Don't dally
too long though, or you'll run out of time. And watch really closely for
minefields, they seem to blend in best in the desert enviroment.
All in all, this is the simplest mission in the game. I'd reccomend
practicing this mission until you're comfortable with how the game works, as
it gives you the most basic sort of assignment. Infiltrate and destroy.
----------------------
Steal a Code Book (CB)
----------------------
This is a mission that takes place in a Temperate climate. The object is to
get to the enemy's communication post (noted on the map by a rather obvious
radio aerial), swipe their code book, and get picked up alive. To steal the
book, walk up next to the table holding it. The screen should flash and the
book will disappear. If this doesn't happen, walk around the table a bit
until it does.
The enemy is expecting trouble, so don't worry about alerting them. Kill as
much as you want with whatever you want. I reccomend the Carabine once again
for this purpose.
Since this is one of the temperate missions, feel free to make use of the
water if things get really heavy. It'll get the enemy off your back if you
duck down in it, but don't drown yourself by staying down too long!
Occasionally the command post will have a whole mess of machine gun nests
around it. If you see this on the map, save your LAW rockets so you don't get
torn apart at the end stage of the mission.
---------------------------
Disable Enemy Aircraft (EA)
---------------------------
Your objective in this mission is easily seen on the map. There's a runway on
the northern end of the battlefield with a number of planes on it. You need
to get over there and destroy them. However, if you alert the enemy too soon,
they'll just scramble the jets to protect them and the mission will be a
failure.
Because of this little problem, use your knife for most of the mission. Oddly
enough, being seen won't alert the base. Fighting won't alert the base either
so long as you're not shooting off firearms or causing massive explosions.
Feel free to stab whoever you need to in order to get to the objective.
When you get close to the airfield, the amount of machine gun nests rises
considerably. If they're rather evenly spread out, you're just going to have
to run the gauntlet. If they're packed on one side, use the other. Also, the
runway is protected by a line of barbed wire with no breaks in it. When you
get to this point, you can safely use a grenade to blow a hole in it so you
can get the planes.
I would advise against walking over the ice lakes if you can, as sometimes
the ice can break and this can end your mission. It's rare, but I'd still try
to avoid it.
I'd reccomend a time bomb for busting the planes, if only because the
collision detection for the LAW rockets is a bit wonky on them.
-----------------------------
Capture an Enemy Officer (EO)
-----------------------------
On the map for this mission, you'll see a number of tents on the far side.
Your object for this mission is to go over to the tents and enter them one at
a time. When you enter a certain one, a soldier in a different colored
uniforms with his hands up will come out. This means you've captured the
officer and you should immediately recall your pickup plane.
DO NOT go to the pickup point shown on the map! This is for emergencies only.
Once you capture the officer and recall the plane, the pickup point is moved
to your current location.
DO NOT move too far from the officer after capturing him, otherwise he'll
escape and you'll fail the mission. You also have to keep him safe from other
soldiers while you wait for the plane to arrive. If he's wounded, your merit
points will be penalized in the end, so try not to get him involved in a
crossfire. This is pretty easy since he doesn't move around.
Alerting the enemy has no effect on this mission, so go to town. Just try not
to blow up the tents, you might kill the officer you're supposed to be
capturing.
After capturing the officer, stand in front of him. Enemies entering from the
top of the screen will be blocked by the tent, while those coming in from the
bottom won't have to shoot through him to get you. The ones from the sides
will miss him as well, since they'll be aiming for you.
-------------------
Cut a Pipeline (CP)
-------------------
A building with pipes coming out of it will be found on the far side of the
map in this mission, you need to get to it and destroy it. This building is
impervious to all weapons aside from the Time Bomb, so make sure you save one
or else you won't be able to complete the mission.
Mini-tanks will start showing up when you get close to the pipeline building.
These look like small tanks and they'll follow you around mercilessly. If
they touch you, they explode and will most likely kill you regardless of your
health. The best way to kill these is with LAW rockets.
The pipeline building is always surrounded entirely by minefields. Save a
grenade to blow up one of them so you can plant your time bomb and destroy
the pipeline.
Alerting the enemy has no effect on this mission, so blow up whatever you
want to get the job done. This is also a temperate mission, so you have a
watery way out of trouble if you want to raise a little hell.
Once the mini-tanks start showing up, destroy your objective and get out of
there as soon as you can manage. You don't have the ammo to get into a
prolonged fight with those things, so the less time you're around them the
better.
This is one of the tougher missions in the game, in my opinion. Those Mini-
Tanks are a royal pain to deal with, since you never get a whole lot of LAW
rockets to play around with. Just be quick when you get to the target site
and everything should be just fine.
--------------------------
Knock Out Enemy Radar (ER)
--------------------------
This is a rather interesting artic mission. On the northern side of the map,
you'll see an icy river cutting through the area. Beyond this, there will be
a number of radar emplacements. You need to destroy those radar dishes... but
the river is a trial in and of itself.
There are numerous places you can fall through the ice, and this will bring a
quick end to your mission. It just adds a whole extra mess of trouble to your
plate if the enemy starts harrassing you while you're trying to cross.
For this one mission only, I reccomend dropping all of your supplies in the
same general area: past the river. This will put them all near the radar
dishes you need to bust up and will allow you to not have to worry about much
of anything until after you get past the obnoxious river.
Alerting the enemy here has no effect, so kill them all if you want. It'll
make you feel better when that cursed river gets the best of you one too many
times.
If you're low on LAW rockets and Time Bombs when you get to the radar area,
grenades actually pack enough of a punch to destroy these things, so don't
get yourself in too much of a snit.
The enemy can fall through the ice just like you can while on the river, and
you can hear it from a pretty good distance. Count how many splash down while
you're walking for fun!
---------------------
Disable SAM Site (DS)
---------------------
In this desert mission, your objective is to make your way to the north end
of the map (as usual) and destroy all the SAM bunkers in the area. This is
made more difficult by two little additions to the game.
You're not supposed to alert the base. Doing so will not cause a total
failure of the mission, since nothing will happen to the SAM sites, but it
will result in a penalty to your merit points. Use the knife for all your
killing needs until you're at the target.
The second thing is that automated Mini-Bunkers guard the SAM site. These
little guys are the bane of your existance. They work by detecting motion,
which is both their strength and their weakness. The motion sensor emits a
whining noise and has an antenna on top of it while it's active, so if you
wait for this to go away, you can move by without any issue. They also can't
determine friend from foe, so if you keep an enemy between yourself and the
bunker, you have a shield.
Unfortunately, you can't destroy these right off as it would alert the base.
If you want to take out one or two for fun after completing the mission, hit
them with a LAW rocket. The LAW rocket is also the reccomended way to destroy
the SAM sites, as you can hit them from a decent distance if you line
yourself up with the map.
--------------------------
Liberate a P.O.W Camp (PC)
--------------------------
In this mission of the temperate variety, you are charged with fighting your
way to the northern end of the map to find some tiger pits with captured
soldiers in them, who pop their heads out from time to time. These are
essentially holes in the ground with bars over them. Nearby you should see a
small pyramid. Blow this up with a LAW rocket or a time bomb (the bombs are
much easier to use) to reveal a lever. Touch the lever to open the pits, then
call in your pick up plane while fighting off any enemies that approach.
If you alert the enemy to your presence in this mission, they'll move the
P.O.Ws somewhere else and you'll be penalized for your failure. Time to
sharpen up the old knife once again.
This is a rather important mission type for those of you playing with roster
disks, as you can recover rangers who have been captured in battle by
completing it successfully. Just make sure you don't shoot anyone on the way
to the prison area and you'll be fine.
It's quite possible to complete this mission without attracting any
attention, but that'll usually take a bit more time than you'll want to spend
sneaking around and waiting for patrols to move on. Time is a luxury you
don't often have in this game. Just knife the patrols and keep on moving
forward.
That's really all there is to say for this mission. For being the type that
can return lost rangers to your roster, it's surprisingly simple.
-------------------------------------
Photograph Experimental Aircraft (PE)
-------------------------------------
In this arctic mission, you can see a hanger over on the northern side of the
map. The object of this mission is to enter the hangar to take a picture of
the enemy's new aircraft, then move on to the pickup point and get out of
there. Sounds simple enough, doesn't it?
Well, you can't be seen entering the hanger. That complicates things a little
bit. How do you manage this nigh impossible feat? First off, use your knife
so you don't have the whole base following you around, it'll make things a
whole lot easier. Second, just make sure that there's nobody around when you
enter the hangar to take the pictures. If anyone sees you go into the hangar
or enters the hangar while you're taking the pictures, you will immediately
be killed. Oddly the mission will somehow succeed anyway, despite the fact
that the pictures didn't make it back.
There are a number of small buildings near the hangar which I assume are
guardhouses. They appear to be impervious to damage and, as far as I can
tell, don't serve any real purpose. You can hide in them if you want, but it
really won't change much since the patrols tend to hang around the hangar
anyway.
You technically don't have to worry about alerting the base of your presence
as it won't cause a failure or penalty, but it's far easier to sneak into the
hangar unseen if there aren't a ton of soldiers following you around.
This is one of the tougher missions in the game, in my opinion. I've lost
many rangers by not noticing a single soldier I missed who happened to walk
into the hangar and shoot me in the back while I was taking my photographs.
Just be sure that you can't hear any footsteps when you walk into the hangar
and hope for the best.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
NEW INFORMATION Version 1.1
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Sashanan of GameFAQs adds this to the discussion:
"Frank, you mentioned needing a better strategy for photographing the enemy
aircraft? There's a tent fairly near the hangar where an enemy officer walks in
and out sometimes. Slip inside (without gunning him down) and then stab him
with your knife while you're in, and you'll come out wearing his uniform. This
disguise lasts until you open fire with any weapon, and while you're wearing it
you'll be left alone by soldiers outside and can take your photographs
unhindered, too."
This works not only for this mission, but for the Delayed Sabotage mission as
well. Thanks muchly, Sashanan!
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
END OF NEW INFORMATION Version 1.1
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
----------------------
Free the Hostages (FH)
----------------------
In this desert mission, your objective is to get to the prison on the far
side of the camp, blow open the door, and call in your pickup plane while
protecting the hostages from the enemy. Of course, the enemy isn't afraid to
kill the hostages rather than letting you have the satisfaction of rescuing
them...
So, don't alert the base. The prison is wired with explosives and will be
detonated if you do, which will do very bad things to your merit points. Your
knife gets to taste blood once more, this mission.
Normally you can use your Carabine to open up doors, but the door to the
prison is reinforced. It'll take a grenade to open that one up. There's also
a nearby guardhouse, you'll probably want to deal with the guards there prior
to making all that noise.
As soon as you blow open the door, some soldiers in brown will start showing
up and make a beeline for the prison. These guys pack some nasty weaponry and
want to kill the hostages. These guys take priority over the grey clad
soldiers until help arrives in the form of your recall plane.
I reccomend taking out the guardhouse with a time bomb before destroying the
door on the prison. It's easy enough to do in passing and seems to lessen the
amount of brown soldiers you end up having to fight. If you want to deal with
even less of them, you can call the plane and then blow the door open. This
takes some fast moves though, so don't do it if you don't think you can
handle it.
If the brown soldiers manage to bust up the place, you're penalized just as
if you had alerted the enemy too soon. If you're a good shot, this mission is
surprisingly easy.
-----------------------
Create a Diversion (CD)
-----------------------
Tired of sneaking around and being stealthy? Want to kill people and bust up
millitary targets? This is the mission for you, my friend. Located in a
lovely temperate environment, you're dropped behind enemy lines and charged
with busting up as much stuff as you can during the mission time. Sounds
simple enough.
However, you can't start fighting as soon as you're dropped in.
Approximentally fifteen time units after you're dropped into the zone, you'll
hear a buzzer go off. From this point on, you need to kill and/or destroy as
much as you can while fighting your way to the heavily defended pickup point.
You cannot call your pickup plane in early on this mission, you have to fight
it out until the timer runs down. I hope you spread your supply pods out
decently or you're in for one heck of a rough time.
Make good use of all of your weapons. A well placed grenade can take out a
machine gun nest just as well as a LAW rocket or a time bomb, so you can save
those for more difficult targets.
There's really not a whole lot that can be said about this mission. It tends
to have an impressively high turnover rate due to nearly six hundred time
units worth of fighting, but it's simple in execution. Just kill, kill, kill.
And make sure you're at the right place when the pickup plane arrives.
---------------------
Delayed Sabotage (DS)
---------------------
In this final arctic mission, your objective is to set a time bomb (set to go
off well after you're out of the area) near the fuel dump of an enemy
airfield, so as to distract them later on. You cannot be seen in the vicinity
of the fuel dump or the enemy will get suspicious and find the bomb before it
can explode. This will result in a mission failure and a merit point penalty.
How do you go about setting this bomb unseen? Well, you can just wait until
you don't hear anyone wandering about the site, but who knows how long that
will take? The more reliable way to do this is to hide out in or around one
of the guardhouses near the airfield until an enemy soldier enters. You can
then enter, kill him, and put on his uniform. Nobody will be suspicious of
one of their own men wandering around the fuel dump.
All of your time bombs are set to go off at midnight for this mission, so
don't bother setting them anywhere other than the fuel dump. It'll be
pointless. I also reccomend using the knife for this mission. It's easier to
be unseen when you're not shooting guns and blowing stuff up, after all.
There aren't really any surprises in this mission type, you've seen it all
before. Just make sure you're either disguised or alone when you set the bomb
at the dump and you'll do fine.
-------------
Campaign (CA)
-------------
When you commit your veteran ranger to a campaign, you're just commiting him
to doing each of the twelve missions once. In random order, of course. Be
warned that once you start a campaign, you can't get out again until you've
completed all of the missions, retire, or die. You get the ability to gain
some extra ranks and medals for your loyalty to your country, however.
It's a true testament of skill to be able to get a ranger through a campaign
with the difficulty slider cranked all the way up.
And with that, we close the section on missions. Hopefully this has been of
some help to you all out there!
==============================================================================
IX. Ways to End the Game
==============================================================================
There really aren't all that many ways for a mission to end, so I'm just
going to present them in the form of a short list. The ways to end a game are
as follows:
Don't jump from the plane during deployment.
Land outside the mission area during deployment.
Take three wounds and die in some way.
Miss your pickup plane and run out of ammo to be captured.
Get picked up by the pickup plane, regardless of mission success or failure.
Yep, that's it! The most common endings are to be killed in action or to be
picked up by your plane.
==============================================================================
X. Ranks
==============================================================================
The following is a list of the ranks your veteran ranger can earn throughout
his career, from lowest to highest. Any that have (campaign) next to them can
only be gotten through a campaign.
Private First Class (PFC)
Corporal (CPL)
Sergeant (SGT)
Staff Sergeant (SSG)
Platoon Sergeant (PSG)
Sergeant Major (SGM)
Second Lieutenant (2LT)
First Lieutenant (1LT)
Captain (CPD)
Major (MAJ)
Lieutenant Colonel (LTC)
Colonel (CCL) (campaign)
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XI. Medals
==============================================================================
The following is a list of the medals your veteran ranger can earn throughout
his career, from lowest to highest. Any that have (campaign) next to them can
only be gotten through a campaign.
First Army Commendation Medal (COM1)
Second Army Commendation Medal (COM2)
Bronze Star (BSTR)
Silver Star (SSTR)
Distinguished Service Cross (DSC)
Congressional Medal of Honor (campaign)
==============================================================================
XII. Future Additions
==============================================================================
Gather data on minimum merit points for each rank and medal.
==============================================================================
XIII. Credits
==============================================================================
I would like to thank the following people for their part in this guide:
CjayC for running GFAQs, the best site in the universe.
Sashanan for giving me the hint on stealing an officer's uniform.
fealu_bryne for always being around and for agreeing to marry me.
Microprose for just plain being awesome.
And all my readers for actually reading this stuff!
See you next time, soldier boy!
