Dark Colony
FAQ and Walkthrough
By Chris Morton
a.k.a. Steric Hindrance ([email protected])



Table of Contents

1. Introduction
1.1 Copyright Info
1.2 Revision History

2. Gameplay
2.1 Mission Briefings/Debriefings
 2.1.1 Rank
 2.1.2 Awards
2.2 Map Screen
 2.2.1 Types of Levels
2.3 Building Units
2.4 Unit Orders
2.5 Keyboard Shortcuts
2.6 Units
 2.6.1 Infantry: Trooper/Gray
 2.6.2 Heavy Assault: Reaper/Sy Demon
 2.6.3 Ground Mines: Sentinel/Slom
 2.6.4 Defensive Turret: Firestorm/Xenowort
 2.6.5 Artillery: Barrager/Atril
 2.6.6 Sniper: S.A.R.G.E./Gorrem
 2.6.7 Recon: Osprey IV/Ortu
 2.6.8 Mining: Exploiter/Brozaar
 2.6.9 Medical: Medi-Craft/Zisp
 2.6.10 Dropships: Angel One/Saucer
 2.6.11 Commanders
2.7 Buildings
 2.7.1 Exo-Center/Mind Hive
 2.7.2 Barracks/Warrior Fold
 2.7.3 Science Lab/Breeder Pod
 2.7.4 Robot Factory/Genetics Sac
 2.7.5 Research Center/Neural Hive
2.8 Other Stuff
 2.8.1 Native Lifeforms
 2.8.2 Other Constructions
2.9 Upgrades
2.10 Artifacts
2.11 Combat
 2.11.1 Attack
 2.11.2 Defense
 2.11.3 Resource Management
 2.11.4 Using Upgrades
 2.11.5 Using Artifacts

3. Walkthrough
3.1 The Human Campaign
 3.1.1 Red Landing
 3.1.2 Base Camp Alpha
 3.1.3 Allied Intervention
 3.1.4 Island Assault
 3.1.5 Darkest Hour
 3.1.6 Ancient Legacy
 3.1.7 Retribution
 3.1.8 Shattered Front
 3.1.9 Extermination
 3.1.10 Silent Strike
 3.1.11 The Prize
 3.1.12 Blood Canyon
 3.1.13 Last Front
 3.1.14 Ultimate Discovery
 3.1.15 Finest Hour

3.2 The Gray Campaign
 3.2.1 First Strike
 3.2.2 Interference
 3.2.3 Legacy Revealed
 3.2.4 Operation: Breakthrough
 3.2.5 Roswell Revisited
 3.2.6 Puppet Masters
 3.2.7 Civil War
 3.2.8 The Screamer
 3.2.9 Buried Treasure
 3.2.10 Animal Instinct
 3.2.11 Spider Canyon
 3.2.12 Then There Was One
 3.2.13 Earth Intervenes
 3.2.14 The Answer
 3.2.15 Final Evacuation

4. FAQ

5. Other Stuff
5.1 Acknowledgements
5.2 Contact Info




1. Introduction
  Dark Colony is a science fiction wargame by Strategic Simulations, Inc.
published in 1997.  It's kinda old and really obscure, but since no one else
had written a guide for it at GameFAQs I thought I would write one up and add
to the sum total of human (or at least gamer) knowledge.  If you find this
game in a bargin bin at your supermarket, find you like it, but just can't get
past one of the levels, I hope this guide can help you out.



1.1 Copyright Info
  This document is copyrighted by Chris Morton.  This guide may be printed out
for personal reference, but it may not be copied, in part or in any form, for
any profitable purpose without my express consent.  This guide may not be
posted to any website other than www.gamefaqs.com without my permission (just
ask first, and I'll let you if you want to put it on your site), and it must
be posted in an unaltered form.



1.2 Revision History
  6-14-03: Began writing this guide.
  8-11-03: Finished writing this guide.




2. Gameplay
  Dark Colony is set on a fictional Mars colony in the year 2137.  Humans
have discovered a "remarkable energy source" by the name of Petra-7 on the red
planet.  Figuring they'd rather not choke on the atmosphere of Mars whilst
mining this precious stuff, the Humans begin terraforming the planet and by
the time the game starts the project has produced jungles and deserts
habitable by people.  All seems to be going well, until the Taar show up.  The
Taar are aliens (the ones from the Roswell incident no less) from a scattered
and dying race looking for a new homeworld, and Mars seems to fit the bill.
Before they can move in though, they have to get rid of those pesky Humans.
(For the rest of the guide I will be using the terms Taar and Gray
interchangeably, since that's what the game does.)

  The game consists of two campaigns where you can either play as the Humans,
commanding a colonization force from Pan Luma Industries (one of the Earth
corporations along with Aerogen and Stratus who are in charge of the Mars
project) whose goal is defend against and defeat the alien threat, or as the
Grays, where you have to defeat the Human presence on Mars and claim it for
your own.  There isn't much of a storyline after you start playing, and
neither campaign goes off the events of the other.  If you're playing the
Humans, then the Humans win at the end, and vice versa for the Taar.

  The other aspect of the game that doesn't differentiate much between the
two sides is the units and buildings.  Each side does have its own uniquely
looking units and base structures, but they each do essentially the same
thing.  For example, both sides have a standard infantry unit, the Trooper
for the Humans and the Gray for the Taar, and there isn't much difference in
how the two units behave.  Likewise, for buildings, the Exo-Center (Human) and
Mind Hive (Taar) serve the same purpose.  I will explain more about what the
units and buildings actually do in sections 2.6 and 2.7.

  Once you start up the game you are given a few options on the main menu.
You can start a new campaign, playing the Human or Gray side from the
beginning.  You can play the Training missions for either side (though the
units really have no major differences between them) which consist of a series
of short missions that will familiarize you with how to play Dark Colony.  You
can load a game from the main menu to jump right back to where you left off.
During the game, you can save any time after or during a mission.  If
you save outside a mission you'll go back to the mission briefing screen when
you load (more on that later).  Next, if you don't feel like playing the
campaign missions you can start a multi or single player war.  I don't know if
you'll find anyone to play multiplayer on a game this old, but the single
player lets you play against up to seven computer controlled opponents on a
number of maps.  The goal is to wipe out all of the enemy players and you can
use the options on the single player war screen (pretty self explanitory) to
set up how many people there will be, what the resource options are, what side
the players will be on, and allies (the little flag icons, same flag for more
than one player means that they are allied).  I will constrict this guide to
the campaign aspect of Dark Colony, but the tactics that you use there are
essentially the same as for the single (and I assume multi) player war.
Lastly, there is an encyclopedia function which lets you peruse through the
units and artifacts avalible to both sides.



2.1 Mission Briefings/Debriefings
  As with most wargames, the action of Dark Colony takes place in the actual
missions, but before you jump right in it might help to know what you're
doing.  The mission briefing screen appear before every mission and gives you
both a brief explanation of what's going on in your part of the war as well as
your objectives for the particular mission.  The top left of the screen
displays a map of Mars centered on the location of the current mission.  The
top right displays the name, rank insignia, and portrait of your Commander, as
well as the awards you have earned during the course of the game.  The window
at the bottom right is the message box which displays the actual mission
briefing.  You can call up this information later during a mission by pressing
the 'J' key.  The three buttons at the bottom of the mission briefing screen
take you to either the main menu, the encyclopedia, or straight to the
mission.

  After a mission the debriefing screen comes up.  The Victory/Defeat message
appears in the top right.  Along the top of the screen is the name, rank, and
portrait of your Commander, along with any awards you have won.  Below that is
the debriefing message, telling you either how good you did winning that
mission or how badly you screwed it all up.  Below the debriefing message is a
window which tallies the money (Petra-7) mined by all the players in the
mission, thier kills and thier losses.  The buttons on the bottom of the
screen will let you load or save the game, return to the main menu, or move on
to the next mission.  If you fail a mission then clicking on the Next Mission
button will return you to the Mission Briefing for the mission you just
failed, so you can retry it.



2.1.1 Rank
  Each side has a Commander unit, which is a Trooper for the Humans or a Gray
for the Taar.  The Commander has from one to four bars above his head on the
map screen, denoting his rank.  You can get promoted (or even demoted)
depending on the Commander's actions in battle (explained in detail later).


2.1.2 Awards
  You get awards based on your performance during missions.  Each side has
the same types of awards for the same actions, only thier names differ.  You
don't actually get any benefits from an award, they're just a nice thing to
let you know that you did well on a mission.  Here is a list of the awards
that you can get during a campaign (Human name/Gray name):

Mars Theater Medal/Xexpaar  For service on Mars, gained after the first
mission.

Battle Star/Teltraax  Large number of kills on a single mission.

Command Star/Altaarkan  Huge number of kills on a single mission

Star of Valor/Xenare  Unbelievable number of kills over the course of the
campaign.

Order of Humanity/Kaoxtaar  Scientific achievement, awarded when your side
discovers its artifacts.

Celestial Crescent/Galtaarx  Highest award for completion of the campaign.

  I am not sure what constitutes a large, huge, or unbelievable number of
kills, but that is how the game manual describes these awards.  I have
received a Battle Star for 337 kills, but not 300, so I guess the kills
needed is a little over 300.  I received the Star of Valor after I had a
total kill number of 1097 for the whole campaign, so I'm guessing you need
1000 kills for that one.



2.2 Map Screen
  After the Mission Briefing you move on to the main action of the mission
itself, which takes place on the map screen.  The key features of this screen
are as follows: the mini-map in the upper right corner shows you the terrain
that you have explored so far, and below that is the three tabs for building,
upgrading, and options.  Right under the tabs is a small text window that will
tell you what part of the tab you've clicked on.  Further down is the "Build"
button, which will start construction of whatever units/buildings you've
selected.  Near the Build button is the game clock which counts the number of
days passed during the mission and what time it is (day/night).  At the bottom
right is the amount of Petra-7 (P7) that you have mined and have avalible to
use.  You must spend P7 to buy anything in Dark Colony.  Along the bottom left
of the screen is the message box which will display on line of text at a time.
Look here during a mission for updates and new orders, usually accompanied by
a beeping sound.

  The rest of the screen is taken up by the map itself.  Here you see a
section of the entire map and can give orders to your units that are visibile
to you.  Move the mouse to the sides of the screen to scroll your view around
the map.  Areas that you have explored and have units nearby will show up as
brightly lit, and you will be able to see any enemy units that enter those
areas.  If you have explored and area, but it is outside the vision range of
any of your units, you will still be able to see the terrain on the map
screen, but not any enemy units.  I will refer to this as the fog of war.  The
exception to this is the enemy base, which will remain visible above the fog
of war even when you have no units nearby.  However, you will not be able to
see if the enemy base is damaged or not unless you have your units in sight of
it.  The mini-map will also reflect the terrain that you have explored and
have in sight.  Also, active P7 vents (where you harvest P7) will appear as
white dots on the mini-map.

  The tab section on the right side of the map screen display different
options depending on the tab you have selected, click on the I, II, or III
icons to pick a tab.  The first tab is the building tab which displays all of
the units and buildings that you can build, left or right click to select or
deselect a unit/building.  The second tab is the upgrade tab, which shows you
the unit upgrades that you can purchase.  This tab works like the building
tab.  The third tab is the options tab.  On this tab there are buttons which
let you quit the mission, save your game, access the game speed, sound, and
game detail options, pause the game, and review the mission briefing.  In a
single or multi player war game the options tab also shows a button that
brings up the allies menu.  I will not be discussing this aspect of the game,
so I'll leave it up to you to find out what the allies menu does.


2.2.1 Types of Levels
  There are three types of levels in Dark Colony: jungle, desert, and
underground.  Most of the levels will be fought on the surface, so you're
looking at either jungles or deserts.  There isn't really much of a terrain
difference, other than the look of things.  You'll still get rivers, bridges,
impassable cliffs and open spaces in both types.  Jungles tend to have groups
of trees that will limit your vision or allow you to hide your units from the
enemy.  Deserts occasionally have giant webs of the native Flynts that provide
the same kind of cover.  According to the game manual, the Humans are more
suited to the jungle terrain, and the Taar prefer the deserts.  I don't know
what kind of effect this has on your fighting abilities, but since you can't
really choose the terrain for a particular mission, you'll just have to deal
with any difference.  I found that there wasn't any noticible change between
the terrain types for either side.
  The third type of level appears for a few missions when you venture into
the ancient Martian ruins in search of artifacts.  On these missions you will
not have a base of operations, instead commanding a small squad of troops.  In
the maze you may find reinforcements, but managing your units carefully and
not letting too many of them get killed is key to winning these missions.


2.3 Building Units
  Unit production is very easy in Dark Colony.  First, open the build tab
(the first one) and left click on the icon for the unit you want.  This will
put a counter on that unit's icon.  Left click again to increase the counter,
and right click to decrease it.  When you give the build order by  clicking on
the build button or pressing the spacebar, the counter will dissappear and
that number of the specified unit will be built.  Thus, if you left clicked
three times on the Trooper icon, then when you gave the build order you would
get three Troopers.  You can also select other units to be built before you
give the build order.  For example, after you queue up three Troopers, you can
left click on the Reaper icon to build some Reaper units at the same time as
your Troopers.
  To build units you have to have enough P7, which you get with your resource
extraction units (covered later).  Your current P7 is displayed in the lower
right of the map screen.  Whenever you click on a unit on the build panel the
P7 cost of that unit is deducted from your total P7.  You can not queue up
unit production if you don't have the money.  Unlike other games, production
of units is not put on hold until you get the necessary resources, you have to
pay up front.  So if each Trooper costs 350 P7 you will not be able to queue
up three of them to be built if you only have 800 P7.  When you're short of
funds, left clicking on the unit icon will not increase the build counter.  If
you right click to decrease the build counter (before giving the build order),
then the cost of the unit you deselected is put back into your total P7.  This
can be helpful if you are running low on P7 and need another unit than the one
you had selected earlier.



2.4 Unit Orders
  You give orders to your units by left clicking on them and then left
clicking somewhere else on the map.  If you click on an enemy unit, the unit
you had selected will attack that unit.  Since you don't want to give orders
to units one at a time, you can click on a patch of ground, drag the mouse to
form a box around the units you want, and then release to select all of them.
You can also do this while holding the control or alt buttons to select the
air or ground units in that box, respectively.  Once you have the units you
want selected you can press 'G' then a number key to assign that group of
units to that number key.  Press the number, and those units will become
selected again.  You can also quick select a large number of units by using
the F keys above the number keys.  F1 through F10 will select all units of a
particular type that are currently on the screen.  For example, if you press
F3 then all the Reapers or Sy Demons you have on the screen will be selected.
If you press F1 (which selects your Commander) and the Commander is off the
screen, no unit will be selected.  (See section 2.5 for all of the keyboard
shortcuts.)
  There are two types of movement orders, Move and Attack, which you select
with the 'M' and 'A' keys, respectively.  Units in Move mode will go directly
to the place you ordered them to, and not stop to engage enemies.  Attack mode
will let your units fire on any hostiles they encounter.  You can use the
keyboard shortcuts to switch between the modes, or use the buttons that appear
in the tab window when you have units selected.  Be aware that once you set a
movement mode, all of your units will obey that until you change it.  So if
you tell one unit to work in Move mode, and then go select another unit it
will also be in Move mode.  To deselect units, right click on open ground.
You can also order units to stop ('S' key), set waypoints ('W' key), or
execute unit specific abilities ('D' or return key) from the menu in the tab
window.  Waypoints are positions on the map that you tell your units to move
to in sequence.  You can use them to make your units navigate along a specific
path, which might be helpful when you encounter a minefield or want to take
another route than the units automatically take.



2.5 Keyboard Shortcuts
  Here are the keyboard shortcuts from the back of the game manual.  Most of
these shortcuts have a button that can be clicked on to do the same thing, but
using the keyboard is usually faster.

  A--Attack Mode (unit movement)
  D--Unit special action (Commander, Artillery, Sniper)
  G then a number key--Assign all currently selected units to that number key
  J--View Mission Briefing
  M--Mode Mode (unit movement)
  O--Options
  Q--Quit Mission
  S--Stop movement of selected units
  T--Pause Game
  W--Set Waypoints for selected units
  Esc--Pause Game
  Enter--Unit special action (Commander, Mine, Sniper, Mining, and Defense)
  Spacebar--Build
  Page Down--Screen capture (Paintshop-Pro PPS format)
  F1--Selects Commander (if on screen)
  F2--Selects all Infantry units on screen
  F3--Selects all Heavy Assault units on screen
  F4--Selects all Medical units on screen
  F5--Selects all Flying Scout units on screen
  F6--Selects all Artillery units on screen
  F7--Selects all Mine units on screen
  F8--Selects all Sniper units on screen
  F9--Selects all Mining units on screen
  F10--Selects all Defense Turret units on screen
  F11--Save Game
  Control and Left-click and drag--Selects all air units inside box
  Alt and Left-click and drag--Selects all ground units inside box



2.6 Units
  As mentioned before, there is no real functional difference between the
units of the two sides.  The Trooper infantry unit for the Humans is just the
same as the Gray infantry unit for the Taar.  If there is any difference
between the sides (other than the day/night vision thing) I can't tell.  Even
though the units serve the same function, each side has a distinct appearance,
so you won't confuse friends with enemies.  The Humans have industrialized
units and buildings, and use a lot of robotic or armored vehicles along with
the recognizable Human Trooper.  The Taar, on the other hand, have a
biological technology which makes all of thier units and buildings living
organisms.  In the following sections I will describe what the units are, and
what they're good for.  In the subsection titles the Human name for a unit
will come first, followed by the Taar name.  Thus Trooper/Gray refers to the
basic infantry unit.
  When you select a unit or group of units, a small triangle will appear
above the unit.  This indicates the unit's health.  Green is full health,
yellow is damaged, orange is heavily damaged, red is severely damaged, and
dark red means the unit is almost destroyed.  Units lose health at different
rates depending on thier armor and what's attacking them.  Units can regain
health by being near stationary Medical units.  If you see a star in place of
a triangle over a unit, that means that that particular unit has an attack
bonus, or is your Commander unit.


2.6.1 Infantry: Trooper/Gray
  The Infantry units are your standard foot soldiers.  They carry projectile
weapons and can shoot at enemies from some distance.  These weapons aren't
very powerful, so you will want to have strength in numbers to do much damage.
Also, the Infantry unit's armor is not the strongest (though much better than
some other units) so they fall prey easily to Heavy Assault units.  The main
pro of Infantry is thier ability to target air units.  The Scout units used
by both sides are capable of bombing bases, Heavy Assault and Artillery units.
Infantry can be used in the field to ward off these harassing fliers, so you
should include some Infantry in your attack force.
  P7 Cost: 350


2.6.2 Heavy Assault: Reaper/Sy Demon
  These units are best described as Infantry killers.  They will easily tear
through many Infantry units by themselves, and they are some of the heaviest
hitters in your army.  They tend to be a bit slower than Infantry, but not by
much.  Also, their armor is probably the second best, behind Defensive
Turrets, making them able to stay in firefights longer.  The downside of Heavy
Assault units is that they are defenseless against air units.  When the AI has
the capability, it will almost always send out Recon units to fly around the
map.  If these units find an unguarded Reaper or Sy Demon they will peck away
at it with thier bombs until it dies.  This means you can't use Heavy Assault
units alone to guard far flung mining operations, you need some Infantry
support as well.  I think its a good idea to have Infantry along with your
Heavy Assault units in your main attack force, so enemy Recons can't harass
you along the way.  If you're charging into thick defenses, you'll want all
the health your units can get.  A final note, there does seem to be a small
functional difference between the Heavy Assault units of the Humans and Taar,
which is this: the Human Reaper attacks with an auto cannon, while the Taar
Sy Demon uses its claws.  Reapers tend to move in close to the target, but can
still fire from a small distance away.  Sy Demons, on the other hand, have to
be right next to the target to attack.  This means in practice that you can
fit a few more Reapers next to each other in a large group to attack an enemy
unit than you could with Sy Demons.  This isn't that much of an effect on
individual enemies, since they're small, but when attacking bases you might
find that all of your Sy Demons can't get close enough to attack (provided you
have a really big attack force).
  P7 Cost: 600


2.6.3 Ground Mines: Sentinel/Slom
  A purely defensive unit, Mines are produced as mobile automatons which you
order to move to a specific spot.  Once there, they will sit until you deploy
them with the return key (select them first).  After they are deployed, they
bury themselves in the ground and become little points of light to you.  Enemy
Mines are always invisible.  When an enemy walks near a Mine it will detonate
and kill anything nearby.  Mines can detonate up to three times before they
are destroyed completely.  The things to be aware of with Mines is that they
don't always detonate when you would expect them to, especially after they've
already gone off once.  An enemy unit walking right behind one that got killed
by a Mine could walk right over that Mine without it going off.  The moral, I
guess, is to have other defenses standing by.  Also, be aware that Mines are
very fragile and completely defenseless when on the surface, so don't forget
to deploy them.
  P7 Cost: 450


2.6.4 Defensive Turret: Firestorm/Xenowort
  These units are like the Mine, defensive structures that are mobile up
until you deploy them (return key), when they become stationary and active.
While in transit, Turrets are slow, have very weak armor, and cannot fight
back.  Once deployed, the Turret's armor increases dramatically and it will
fire at any enemy unit (land or air) that comes into range.  These units are
your main static defense system, since they take a concerted effort to take
them out.  Just be sure to deploy them when they reach thier destination and
keep enemy Artillery away, since those units can bombard from outside your own
Turrets' attack range.
  P7 Cost: 900


2.6.5 Artillery: Barrager/Atril
  Your Artillery units are mobile platforms to throw big explosive things at
your enemies.  Their attack is powerful, though it will take a few shots to
kill most things.  A group of Artillery units can power through even Defensive
Turrets with ease.  The downside to this is that Artillery units are extremely
slow and have very little armor.  Like Heavy Assault units, they cannot defend
against air attacks.  Also, the Artillery attack causes splash damage to all
units by the blast area, friendly or not.  This may present a problem when
your Artillery starts shelling your front line troops, so use your Artillery
units carefully.  Also try not to let your Artillery fall too far behind your
other forces or they may find themselves next to enemy units that can easily
destroy them at short range.  Another important thing to note about Artillery
is that they can fire farther than they can see.  If you have a spotter unit,
usually a nearby Recon unit, to extend your vision, then your Artillery can
shell targets from a great distance.  This is usually helpful when you're
trying to bomb out enemy Defensive Turrets.  With or without a spotter you can
order your Artillery to bomb a specific location by pressing 'D' and clicking
on the target.  Your Artillery will shoot at that spot as often as they are
able to, even if there is nothing there.
  P7 Cost: 1000


2.6.6 Sniper: S.A.R.G.E./Gorrem
  Sniper units are actually the most multi-purpose units you have.  They are
by far your heaviest hitters, can launch a wide area artillery strike that
paralyzes all units caught up in it, and steal resources from enemy Mining
units.  In combat the Snipers are fast and can fire from a long range.  Unlike
Heavy Assault units, strong armor does not go with thier strong attacks.  The
Sniper units are fairly fragile, so be sure to have them well guarded with
Infantry and Heavy Assault units.  Taar Gorrems just die normally, but Human
S.A.R.G.E.s initiate a self-destruct which (I think) damages nearby units.
Thier artillery attack (Napalm/Para-Storm, activated with the 'D' key) is
useful both for causing damage (when a group of Snipers uses it on a base or
Turret cluster), but since it freezes enemies in place you can use it to stop
an advance temporarily or help your forces retreat by using it on a bridge or
narrow pathway.  To use the artillery attack you have to upgrade the Sniper's
weapons twice and wait for the attack to charge (a circular charge gauge
appears above the Sniper units when you have made the upgrades).  Using a
Sniper unit to steal resources isn't always easy or useful, but it can be done
by deploying (enter key) a Sniper nearby an enemy Mining unit.  The Mining
unit must be in your sight, so you'll typically need a spotter, and the Sniper
can steal resources from a long distance.  When done correctly, half of the P7
the enemy miner produces will go to your base as long as the Sniper isn't
discovered and killed.  Keeping that from happening may prove to be difficult,
and since Snipers are your most expensive combat unit they're probably better
off fighting the enemy than stealing resources and be sitting ducks.
  P7 Cost: 1500


2.6.7 Recon: Osprey IV/Ortu
  One of two aerial units in the game, the Recon unit is capable of moving
over all terrain to scout out the area.  They are equiped with bombs that are
best used against Heavy Assault and Artillery units who cannot fight back.
The Recon units have no ability to attack other air units.  The best way to
use them is to scout out as much of the map as soon as you can and then let
them get shot down once you're done.  Recons do not have good armor, so you
should do your scouting in Move mode, so they don't stop and try and fight the
first Infantry unit they see.  The other good use for Recons is as spotters to
extend the range of Artillery units, though you should keep them far enough
back so they don't get shot down by enemy troops.
  P7 Cost: 600


2.6.8 Mining: Exploiter/Brozaar
  Petra-7 is the only resource in Dark Colony, and your Mining units are how
you get it.  Mining units are like Defensive Turrets in that they come in
deployed (on a P7 vent harvesting resources) or undeployed forms.  When
undeployed the Mining unit is mobile and very fast.  The downside is that it
has no offensive capabilities and is destroyed easily.  When deployed the
armor of the Mining unit increases greatly, but it still cannot defend itself
and cannot move from the P7 vent it is on without undeploying it.  If your
Miners are under attack, undeploying them and trying to get away will probably
just get them killed.  Since these units are important to your success and
expensive to replace, it is best to have other units to guard them (especially
against air attacks).  See section 2.11.3 for more information on resource
management.
  P7 Cost: 1500


2.6.9 Medical: Medi-Craft/Zisp
  The second air unit in your army, the Medical units fly above the
battlefield and heal any nearby damaged units or buildings.  The Medical units
must be stationary for them to start healing, and they have no defenses.  This
means that you might want to keep your Medical units back from the main battle
or near your base so they don't get shot down.  Also, providing them a
stationary location to work on damaged units lets them do more good than
moving them continuously with the rest of your forces.  Like with other units,
the effectiveness of Medical units goes up with numbers, so if you build a lot
you'll get your units healed faster.
  P7 Cost: 900


2.6.10 Dropships: Angel One/Saucer
  These units are unlike the others in that you cannot build them.  The
Dropships for your side that come down from orbit and deliver buildings or
units.  Reinforcements are usually given at the beginning of a mission, or at
certain times/places within a mission.  Also, the Commander unit can call in
a Dropship during the mission to deliver reinforcements (Human) or abduct and
kill enemy units (Taar).


2.6.11 Commanders
  During a campaign, you will always have a Commander acting as your avatar
in the field.  The Commander unit looks like a normal Infantry unit, but has
rank insignia above his head.  The Commander moves faster and sees farther
than normal infantry, and I believe he can hit harder and take more damage as
well.  This isn't to say a Commander can stand up to a Heavy Assault unit, but
he's still stronger than the average grunt.  The Commander has two special
abilities: inspire (return key) and call Dropship ('D' key).  The inspire
command causes nearby units to fight harder, adding a small bonus to their
ability to do damage.  Inspired units will have a star as thier life
meter when you select them instead of the usual triangle.  The action taken
when you call a Dropship depends on which side you're on.  The Humans will
have reinforcements delivered to them (more for a higher ranking Commander),
and the Taar Saucer will abduct nearby enemy troops (I believe the number of
units abducted depends on rank as well).

  The Commander's rank is determined by how many kills he witnesses during a
mission or how many friendly units he sees destroyed.  You get a bonus to your
rank (called performance points in the manual) for enemies killed, and points
are subtracted for friendlies killed.  If your Commander is killed during a
mission a medical Dropship will come in, pick him up, and maybe return him
later in the mission, but any bonuses or subtractions for that mission are
lost and you'll have to wait until the next mission.  Thus, if you want your
Commander to advance in rank you should put him in combat and try to make sure
that your forces win (easier said than done, I know).  If you inflict more
damage on the enemies than they inflict on you, then you should advance fairly
quickly.



2.7 Buildings
  All buildings in Dark Colony are built on a plate with five sections around
a large central spire.  This spire is built on a stable P7 vent, and was put
there by the Human terraform teams.  The Taar adapted thier base buildings to
use this setup.  You purchase buildings from the build panel and when you have
enough P7 to pay for them they are delivered to your base by Dropship.  Each
building serves a specific purpose, and most require you to build at least one
other building before you can build a new type.  The Science Lab/Breeder Pod
and Robot/Factory/Genetics Sac can be upgraded once you build them to increase
thier abilities.  Note that in a campaign or single player war you can only
have one base, while in a campgaign your opponent will sometimes have up to
three bases.


2.7.1 Exo-Center/Mind Hive
  Units Built: Mining, Recon, Medical
  P7 Cost: 2000
  Requires: None


2.7.2 Barracks/Warrior Fold
  Units Built: Infantry, Mine
  P7 Cost: 1000
  Requires: Exo-Center/Mind Hive


2.7.3 Science Lab/Breeder Pod
  Units Built: None, Weapons and Armor Upgrades
  P7 Cost: 2000
  Requires: Exo-Center/Mind Hive

  Upgrade
  P7 Cost: 2000
  Requires: Science Lab/Breeder Pod


2.7.4 Robot Factory/Genetics Sac
  Units Built: Heavy Assault, Defensive Turret, Artillery
  P7 Cost: 2000
  Requires: Barracks/Warrior Fold, Science Lab/Breeder Pod,
Exo-Center/Mind Hive

  Upgrade
  P7 Cost: 2000
  Requires: Robot Factory/Genetics Sac


2.7.5 Research Center/Neural Hive
  Units Built: Sniper
  P7 Cost: 3000
  Requires: Upgraded Science Lab/Breeder Pod, Exo-Center/Mind Hive
  Also used to detect artifact excavation sites.



2.8 Other Stuff
  Here is a brief description of the other things you'll find in the missions
of Dark Colony.


2.8.1 Native Lifeforms
  Salise: Long black lizards that inhabit jungle areas of Mars.  Like all of
the other native lifeforms they are typically harmless and will not attack
you.

  Rennat: A speedy desert rodent found on a few missions.

  Flynt: Small six-legged arachnid (thought arachnids had eight legs, oh well
I didn't write the game manual) that are found in desert and jungle regions.
In the desert regions you will sometimes find large patches of white webbing
that provides cover for your units, courtesy of the Flynts.

  Grubs: Larval stage of the Flynt, a small white worm that you will find on
some mission.

  Baat: The only aerial native lifeform, Baats are pretty much what thier
name suggests, Martian bats.



2.8.2 Other Constructions
  Here are brief descriptions of things you may encounter on some of the
missions.  These constructions cannot be built by you, they appear already in
place on the map.

  Human Constructs:

  Dropship Beacon: A small radio tower with a flashing red/white light.  You
will typically find them by your base or out in the field on missions where
you can call in reinforcements.

  Oxy-Gen 1000: Circular pod like building with green stuff inside, used to
help make Mars' air breathable.

  Relay Tower: A typical sattelite dish that sends signals into orbit.

  Petra-7 Tanks: Human gas storage tanks that emit an occasional orange puff
of P7.  Move one of your units to where this tank is and you'll get a one time
payment of P7.


  Alien Constructs:

  Luminar: The Taar equivalent to the Dropship Beacon.  Its a small patch of
three tentacles with lights at the end which wave around.

  Communicant: A Taar communications device, looks like a small brown pod
with spikes pointing upwards.  Occasionally emits a green light.

  Breeding Pod: Small mass of alien tissue that is easily destroyed.  In the
Underground missions these also act as temporary barriers.

  Tendon Ripper: Alien torture pods found in the Underground missions,
typically with some poor Trooper attached.

  Incubaar: According to the manual this is an alien psych warfare device
that renders the victim unable to attack.  I haven't seen one on a mission,
but the picture in the manual has it looking like a small skull wrapped up in
the usual Taar biotechnology.

  Cryo-Chamber: Storage for ancient artifacts left on Mars long ago.  Looks
like a rectangular blue box.



2.9 Upgrades
  You can upgrade the weapons and armor of your Infantry, Heavy Assault,
Defensive Turret, Artillery, Sniper, and Recon units after you have a Science
Lab/Breeder Pod.  Upgrades are purchased on the upgrade tab and work just like
purchasing units.  The first upgrade costs 1000 P7 and the second costs 2000.
In order to get the second upgrade you have to have an upgraded Science
Lab/Breeder Pod.  Also, you can only upgrade units that you can build, i.e. if
you can only build Infantry units you can only buy Infantry upgrades.

  Upgrades may be a little expensive, but they're well worth it when a
mission is running for a long time.  I'm not sure if the enemy forces use
upgrades, but often on missions that take a while you're likely to run low on
P7.  Using the money you do have to upgrade your units may cost you some
troops in the field, but it will help the ones you do have stay in combat
longer and do more damage.  Also, weapon upgrades for the Sniper units are
required if you want to use thier artillery attack.



2.10 Artifacts
  As mentioned earlier, the Underground sections of Mars were left behind in
the world of Dark Colony long ago by some unknown aliens.  Within these ruins
both the Humans and the Taar can obtain powerful alien artifacts that can be
used in thier respective wars.  Once you have played through the mission where
you discover the artifacts, you can then build a Research Center/Neural Hive
at your base to locate artifact excavation sites.  An excavation site will
appear on the map screen as a purple star, and on the mini-map as a white dot
if you have explored the area that the site is at.  Typically artifact sites
are near ruins.  To get the artifacts, you need to send a Mining unit over to
the site and let it dig for a while.  If left undisturbed it'll churn out
artifacts for you to use until the site is exhausted.  Be aware that while
your Miner is excavating artifacts it cannot, obviously, be used for P7
mining, so don't send your only Miner.  Also, your Miner's armor will not be
at its peak while excavating artifacts, unlike when it is harvesting P7 the
unit will still be in its fragile mobile state.  With this in mind, you should
probably send extra guards when you're getting artifacts, since Mining units
are costly to replace.

  There are five types of artifacts that can be obtained in Dark Colony.
Once excavated they become flying units for your side and cannot be captured
by the enemy (or vice versa, unless there's some planned game event).  To use
an artifact you have to deploy it with the enter key.  All artifacts are one
shot effects, once you deploy them they do what they're supposed to and then
self-destruct.  They're not as fragile as some units in the game, but they can
not take a lot of damage.  The best way to use them against the enemy is to
get in to the target fast and deploy them as quickly as possible before
they're shot down.  In the single player war scenarios, both sides have access
to all of the artifacts if you have selected the artifacts option and the map
you're playing on has artifact sites.  In the campaigns the Humans have access
to three of the artifacts, and the Taar have access to two.  You might want
to refer to the in game encyclopedia for what the artifacts look like, the
pictures there are far better than any description I can give.

  Human Artifacts.  The Human artifacts are the heavy hitters of the bunch,
causing direct damage to enemy units and buildings.

  Solaris: This device is used for harnessing sunlight in the area where it
is deployed and then releasing that energy in one quick blast.  I am not sure
if the effectiveness of this artifact goes down during the night time, but
when it hits it can easily take out even a deployed Defensive Turret.  Against
the enemy base it is not quite as effective, though I have gotten good results
when I used a group of Solari at once on a base.  Even with a group of them
selected, pressing the return key will not set them all off at once, and I'm
not sure if the other artifacts will get damaged or destroyed by another
Solaris.  That aside, your main problem with using a mass Solaris attack is
getting past all the Turrets and Infantry that are bound to be there.  Having
a group of artifacts may mean that one or two get shot down while most get
through, but artifacts are rare enough that you may want to make all of them
count.  Experiment and see if you think they're better for attacking bases or
destroying defenses.

  Maktor: A quote from the game manual, "The Maktor is a 'gravity well', quite
similar to a black hole".  Only this "black hole" only affects units and not
every other piece of matter on the map.  (Gotta love the selective physics of
video games.)  When deployed this artifact sinks into the ground and sucks all
nearby to itself and destroys them.  This effect extends about as far as the
artifact's vision range, I've found, and does not affect stationary units like
deployed Miners, Turrets, or bases.  If you can get it deployed without
getting shot down, this artifact is a wonderful surprise to spring on an
approaching attack force.  At no P7 cost to you, you can wipe out a large
number of units with this device.  Use it carefully, and keep your Recons out
to spot groups of attackers.

  Kaox: The "Mobile Mass-Destruction Device", and my favorite artifact.  When
deployed it drops to the ground, duplicates itself a few times, and then those
duplicates head off in random directions all with whirling blades that will
kill most anything in its path.  Unlike the other two artifacts avalible to
the Humans, the Kaox is extremely powerful against bases.  Keep in mind
though, that once you deploy the Kaox you lost control of it and it moves in a
random pattern.  This means that though you may deploy it near the enemy base,
the individual Kaoxes may not go attack the base.  Since the devices burn out
a short time (and thus a short distance) after you deploy them, they're much
more likely to hit some enemy targets if you deploy them near said targets.
This is why I recommend attacking bases with them, you're very likely to hit
something, and if you're lucky a Kaox or two will spin around a few buildings
for long enough to destroy or severly damage them.  Just make sure that the
artifacts are not actually over an enemy base when you try to deploy them or
you won't be able to.  Deploy them over clear ground away from the base.

  Taar Artifacts.  Even though the armies of Human and Taar are evenly
matched, their artifacts are not.  In my opinion, the Taar get the weaker set
of artifacts, but they are still useful for something.

  Lunatek: This attack artifact deals indirect damage by causing nearby units
to go berserk and attack each other.  This artifact should be used alone since
I don't think deploying more than one Lunatek extends the time of the effect
any.  Besides, the units you catch with one Lunatek will probably kill each
other long before the effect can wear off, and any survivors will be very
damaged.  The best uses for this artifact are against oncomming troop
movements, reinforcements to units your forces are already fighting, and enemy
bases.  When using it on enemy units, try to keep the Lunatek as far away from
your units as possible, since it won't help to have them berserked while
you're trying to fight off an attack.  Though the Lunatek will not technically
do any damage to bases, it will cause any nearby Defensive Turrets to attack
thier own base.

  Tektaara: The second Taar artifact allows you to gain control of the native
Martian lifeforms that are on the mission map.  Deploy it, and a large number
of native lifeforms will come under your control and obey your orders.  You
typically will find more than one Tektaara in a mission, and I'm not sure if
using more than one will get any more lifeforms for you or if all of them join
up after one use.  This artifact is kinda worthless, but not entirely so.  The
native lifeforms are easily destroyed, and I haven't tried gathering them up
for a mass attack to see if they'd be at all effective.  They are useful for
revealing the map, since when you first use the Tektaara you'll probably get a
bunch of lifeforms in areas you haven't explored yet.  When you can control
them you can send them to do your exploring, and spend that 600 P7 on a new
Heavy Assault unit instead of a Recon.  Be aware that once you use a Tektaara
enemy forces will attack on sight any of your lifeforms, so you may have to
send more than one to scout.



2.11 Combat
  One good aspect of the equivalent armies of Dark Colony is that you can
make good strategies for one side and be able to use them with the other.  The
campaign missions for both Humans and Grays do start out fairly easy, but if
you've already played through one campaign the other one shouldn't pose too
much of a problem.  In this section I will discuss the strategies that have
worked the best for me.  Don't assume that I'm the know-it-all expert at this
game, so feel free to experiment with what works


2.11.1 Attack
  Your main attack force should consist of a mix of Infantry and Heavy
Assault units, with more emphasis on the Heavy Assault.  These units move at
about the same rate, so your forces shouldn't get too far ahead of each other
when you move them long distances.  If you include faster units such as
Snipers or your Commander, or slower units such as Artillery, you may want to
give move orders that take your force a small distance to where they can
regroup and move out again.  When your forces are concentrated you'll be able
to deal with enemies more quickly than when they're all spread out and you
have to wait for them to catch up.

  When you are attacking your main goal will probably be one of the enemy
bases on the map.  The reason I recommend more Heavy Assault units than
Infantry is that those units can take and do a lot more damage.  Base
structures, and the Defensive Turrets that are usually nearby, take a lot of
punishment before they go down.  Also, since a building can still churn out
units up until it is destroyed, you need strong units to deal with new enemies
as they appear (though you may have to target these enemy units manually, your
forces will not always engage them when they come under attack).  Even though
Infantry units are weaker than Assault units, they have several qualities to
thier advantage.  First, they're cheap and easy to replace.  Second, they can
ward off enemy Recon units who can, and will, peck your undefended Assault and
Artillery units to death.  Third, Assault units need to be at close range to
attack, while your Infantry can stand behind them and shoot at a target, thus
including them lets more of your troops attack a target (since you can't stack
units on top of one another space will get limited as your Assault units all
bunch together).

  While you can defeat any base in the game with enough Infantry and/or
Assault units, you can also add Snipers and Artillery to the mix as the
campaign progresses.  I do not recommend using Recon units for anything other
than recon, they are weak in both weapons and armor, and you really should
spend that 600 P7 on a new Assault unit rather than making an air force.  The
Artillery unit you will get early on in the campaign, though it has some
serious drawbacks as well as advantages.  The advantages of Artillery is that
they can hang back a great distance and shell your enemies from far away.
The damage they do affects all nearby units and buildings, so they can damage
an entire base with one attack.  The damage of Artillery also increases the
more Artillery units you have.  The other good use of Artillery is to clear
out enemy Turrets when other units aren't heading towards you.  The downsides
of Artillery are its cost, their slow speed, weak armor, and its splash
damage.  The splash damage is both an advantage and a disadvantage because it
can hurt even your forces, and often will when Artillery units in the rear
start shelling your front lines.  Also, when using Artillery it is vital to
keep them guarded by other units.  If there's an air or side attack, the
Artillery will not be able to run away and will quickly get cut down.  They
will also try to shoot at their attackers, even though at close range thier
attacks will damage themselves.  With all these considerations, the enemy AI
seems to like Artillery units and will always use them once they are avalible.
For me, I do not like Artillery on the attack after the first few levels where
you get them.  They are difficult to always keep guarded and expensive to</pre><pre id="faqspan-2">
replace.  Furthermore, I like to keep my units as undamaged as possible so
they can stay in combat for as long as possible.  Artillery's splash attacks
do not help this, even when you get Medical units.  As such, I usually
relegate Artilley to defense later in the game, but you may want to experiment
with using them otherwise.

  I do, however, strongly recommend using Sniper units when you have the
option.  They are almost twice as strong as Assault units when attacking, have
a longer attack range than even your Turrets, and can move quickly.  The
downside of Snipers is that they do not even have the armor of Infantry, and
if left unguarded in small numbers they will quickly get overwhelmed.  Also,
they cost 1500 P7, so it might be difficult to build up a sizable force.  As
such, I recommend adding about as many Sniper units to your main force as
Infantry, or whatever you can afford.  Keeping them together with other units
will let them do thier damage while the enemy focuses on your cheaper and more
expendible Assault units.

  Now that I've discussed the composition of your attack force and moving
your troops, I think I should say something about attacking itself.  When you
are moving towards an enemy base and find a group of enemy units you should
always stop and engage.  They are either headed to attack your base or to a
rally point to meet at before they attack your base.  In either case, you can
deal with them out in the field before they ever get there.  When the enemy is
using Artillery and Sniper units, be sure to keep giving move orders to your
units so they go towards these attackers once they get finished with the ones
at hand.  If you can break through the Assault and Infantry units the enemy
throws at you, thier Artillery and Snipers will be easy to destroy.

  When you get to the base, the main threat to you will come from the nearby
Turrets.  Either take these out at a distance with Artillery if you can or
head in there and slug it out with your Assault units.  Your forces may start
attacking the base first, so you might select a few Assault units and manually
target the Turrets.  You may take a few casualties, but if you destroy the
defenses fast enough you'll keep more of your units around long enough to
finish off the base.  The second danger while attacking a base, especially on
maps with more than one enemy base, is that of reinforcements attacking either
your attack force or your home base.  The best way to guard against this is to
have reinforcements of your own.  Unless you have some flawless mastery of the
Dark Colony battle system, your forces will take casualties, so you should be
building units as often as you have the funds once you send your attack force
out.  Once the new units get built, send them over to the base you're
attacking and repeat.  In this way you can have a near continuous stream of
fighters to beat down enemy resistance.  This tactic can also be helpful if
the enemy defenses are particularly strong.  I recommend building Assault
units for such reinforcements because you'll want the most bang for your P7
buck and it won't matter how much enemy Recon units attack them along the way
if you've got some surviving Infantry at the battle site.


2.11.2 Defense
  Dark Colony provides you with two purely defensive units: the Ground Mine
and the Turret.  Both are too slow and weak to be used offensively, and once
deployed cannot be moved, so they are best used near your base or at places
you want to defend (such as outlying P7 vents).  In my opinion, Mines are not
very useful unless you want a temporary defense in a very narrow passage that
the enemy must pass through.  Mines are temporary because they will eventually
be used up, but not after taking a few enemy units with them.  But for the
cost of two Mines you can buy one Turret which can probably do just as much
damage, if not more when properly defended.  Also, mines will often times be
triped by the first Infantry or Assault units to go toward your base, and not
the Artillery units following behind.

  My primary defense is a few Turrets near my base to ward off enemy Reconds,
and then Turrets in groups of three or four along the entrance(s) to my base.
This works very well against Infantry and Assault units that come along,
though it tends to break down when large numbers or Artillery show up. Since
Artillery can attack from long range, you'll need some other units to go after
them when they show up, since Turrets alone will not be able to fire at them.
This is where the attack force you're no doubt building up will come into
play.  Often you will find it necessary to take this force and meet whatever
is attacking your base or its defenses.  Thus, before you commit your forces
to attacking an enemy base, you will want to keep them close to where your
defenses will come under attack and reinforce them as needed.  Upgrading your
Turrets will help them last longer and do more damage, as well.

  Now for defense outside your base.  In all of the levels, I think, there
will be at least one P7 vent for you to draw resources from.  This vent might
not always be active, or enough resources for you, so you may have to expand
elsewhere.  Typically the way I defend a new resource site is with one
Infantry unit to ward off Recons.  I'll add a few more Infantry and Assault
units if I expect the Miner to be attacked, but usually this won't even slow
a determined attack down.  To defend against large attack forces you'll need
your own attack force to intercept and destroy them before they get near your
resource operations.  I usually do not use Turrets at far away P7 vents
because Turrets are expensive, are vulnerable while travelling, and the site
is probably going to get overrun even with the Turret there if a real attack
comes along.  Also, spending a lot of resources defending one P7 vent might
limit whatever P7 you'll actually get from that vent.  So all in all, if you
really need another vent under your control and are afraid that it will get
attacked, park your main force outside and deal with the enemy units as they
come.


2.11.3 Resource Management
  Though I've mentioned resources and P7 before, I'll go into more detail
here.  Petra 7 is the reason why the Humans are on Mars in Dark Colony's back
story, and it is your only resource in the game.  P7 vents look like small
campfire pits, and will become very distinctive once you play a few levels of
the game.  Every time you have a base you will have a P7 vent nearby.  In
order to harvest the P7, you must have a Mining unit, either a Human Exploiter
or a Gray Brozaar, deployed on top of the active vent.  After that is done,
your P7 counter in the bottom right of the screen will increase at regular
intervals as long as the vent is active or your Miner remains on it.  All of
your bases are constructed on stable P7 vents, so you will also recieve three
units of P7 per tick of the clock (how long the actual tick is depends on what
game speed you set in the options menu).  If you left click on any active vent
you will see two numbers beneath the tab screen, the one of the left tells you
how much P7 is left in that vent, and the one on the right tells you how many
units of P7 you (or your enemy) recieves from that vent per clock tick.

  I've mentioned previously how to defend your resource operations, now I'll
talk about how and when to expand them.  On a typical level you don't want to
have more than 2 or 3 Miners.  Not only are they expensive, but the really big
vents don't appear until late in the game.  Usually you want to mine one vent
to exhaustion and then move on to a new vent.  In this way you can keep a
steady income of resources for a long time, and put P7 that you would have
used building Miners towards attack units.  This plan does rely on you not
having to replace your Miners, so guard them well.  Also, even when you're not
using a far out vent, it wouldn't hurt to send your forces out to it whenever
you spot an enemy Miner setting up shop.  On some early levels, the vents for
both sides may run dry before you're done with the mission, and if you can
deny the enemy resources you deny him some extra units to throw at you.  When
you're left with only the three P7 from your base, keeping your units alive
becomes very important.

  Lastly, you should always try to keep your P7 supplies as low as possible.
By this I mean you should build new units as soon as you are able, either to
replace losses or add to your strength.  Units are built very rapidly, but
churning out ten reinforcement units at your base doesn't do your losing
attack force much good.  Having units before you really need them is the key
to victory on more than one mission.


2.11.4 Using Upgrades
  While you are busying yourself with building your army and your defenses,
you should also give some mind to buying upgrades for your units.  As I
mentioned before, I'm not sure if the enemy AI uses upgrades, but it wouldn't
suprise me if they did on the later levels.  Thus, upgrading can either put
you ahead or on par with your opponents.  In either case, it will mean fewer
casualties for you, and that's always a good thing.  The upgrades you should
probably go for first are the weapon and armor ones for your Heavy Assault
units, since they will being doing a lot of the grunt work.  Upgrade infantry
next so they can hit harder alongside your Assault units, and Sniper upgrades
if you can (though you might want to upgrade Sniper weapons first to get thier
artillery attack).  I also upgrade the weapons and armor of my Turrets at
least once on the later levels, and earlier in the campaign an upgraded Turret
can cause major damage to would-be attackers.  I don't use Artillery much, and
Recons hardly ever, so I wouldn't spring for those upgrades unless you have
some ungodly amount of P7 and just want to spend it.  Artillery upgrades will,
of course, be more helpful if you decide to use those units.


2.11.5 Using Artifacts
  While I went into detail on how to use each specific artifact earlier, I
can say a few things about using them in general.  First and foremost,
buried artifacts are of no use to you: go get them.  Send one of your Miners,
even if its on a second P7 vent (keep one of your Miners on a vent at all
times), along with a strong defense force to the artifact site and start
digging.  As soon as an artifact turns up, either use it or send it back to
the safety of your base to be used later.  Once the site is all dug up, it has
no more value to you and you can send your Miner and its defenders back to
whatever it was they were doing.  Secondly, deploy your artifacts wisely and
always keep them in your sight.  Like your other flying units, artifacts are
fragile and can be shot down fairly easily.  Keep them out of harms way until
you're ready to deploy them, and try to manuver them to reach thier target
before they take too much damage.  Deployed correctly, artifacts can be very
powerful, so you don't want to lose them to some Infantry unit that wandered
along.




3. Walkthrough
  In this section I will describe the types of situations you will run into in
the missions of Dark Colony, and my strategies for completing those levels.  I
make no claim that my tactics are the best, so of course feel free to
experiment with what works for you.  If you have a strategy that you think is
particularly good or have some piece of information that I have overlooked,
send it to [email protected] and I'll include it in a future
version of the guide.



3.1 The Human Campaign
  In the Human Campaign you play the role of one of the Commanders of Pan
Luma Industries, one of Earth's largest and most powerful corporations.  Sent
to Mars for the wealth of Petra-7, you find that the Taar have moved in for
much the same reason.  The task of saving Human settlement on Mars, and
Humanity itself falls to you.


3.1.1 Red Landing
  Map Type: Desert
  Enemy Bases: 0
  Objectives: Reactivate the Dropship Beacons
              Locate and Secure the Mining Colony
              Commander must not be critically wounded.
  New Units: Commander, Trooper

  The first mission puts you in charge of a small squad of Troopers charged
with finding the Mining Colony at the far end of the Chryse Basin, and
rescuing it from alien attack.  This is a very simple mission, and you can use
it to get a feel for the unit controls of Dark Colony.  Your Commander and
four Troopers are set down at the far end of the map near a Dropship Beacon.
The basin is a desert canyon, the may be big in some places, but essentially
runs in one direction.  Just follow the canyon and you won't get lost on the
way to the Mining Colony.  There are two other Dropship Beacons that will give
you four fresh Troopers when you bring your Commander near them.

  As you're working your way to the Mining Colony, you will find scattered
pockets of Gray soldiers.  Unlike what you will find later in the game, these
Grays have already taken a lot of damage, so they will be easy to kill with
your full health troops.  Using the Commander's inspire command will add a
little attack bonus to finish them off that much faster.  If you manage your
units carefully (or leave behind Troopers that take a lot of fire), you should
finish this mission without a single casualty.


3.1.2 Base Camp Alpha
  Map Type: Desert
  Enemy Bases: 0
  Objectives: Guard the Communication Satellites
              Destroy all the Aliens in the area
              Protect your Base until the new Commander arrives
  New Buildings: Science Pod, Robot Factory
  New Units: Exploiter, Sentinel, Reaper
  New Upgrades: Trooper +1

  This mission is fairly simple, like the one before it, except now you have
an actual base to defend.  Once the Dropship delivers your Commander and
Exploiter, you should immediately send it over to the vent and start mining.
Assign one or two Troopers to stand nearby the Exploiter, since alien raiders
will come that way eventually.  Defending the Communication Site may be the
most tricky part of the level, because the Relay Towers start out with low
health.  This is the one level where I found Mines very useful.  Build three
Sentinels and deploy them in a line across the entrance to the Communcation
Site, and that defense should hold for a long time.  Keep the three Troopers
that start inside the site there to hold off any Grays that get through the
mines and you're even more set.  Since there is a ledge surrounding the
Relay Towers, you only have to worry about an attack from one direction.  If
any of your Sentinels are set off three times, be sure to build another one
to replace it.

  While you're building up your defenses, you might send your Commander
around to scout out the area.  There are two P7 vent to the northeast and
northwest of your base, though they start out as inactive.  There is another
vent to the south of your base, but that is guarded by a group of Grays.  You
should probably wait until you have a few Reapers before heading down there.

  To win this mission you just have to wait out the enemy and defeat whatever
they throw at you.  If you're quick about setting up your defenses, you should
have a little time before they start sending Saucers to teleport troops near
the Communication Site, behind your Base, or near your Exploiter.  Keep your
Commander and a group of Troopers and Reapers hotkeyed (G plus a number key
when units are selected) and send them to deal with any threats.  This map is
small, so you should be able to respond quickly to the alien raids.

  If you don't lose many units, you should have more than enough P7.  You may
want to upgrade your Troopers, but the money is probably better spent on more
Reapers.  The main and final attack of the level will come from the south near
the P7 vent with a large group of Grays accompanied by Sy Demons.  Use your
Reapers here or your Troopers will get slaughtered by the Sy Demons.  After
you defeat this attack the new Commander will show up and the mission will be
over.  Also, if you keep your Commander involved in the battles and keep your
casualties low, he might make Captain by the next level.


3.1.3 Allied Intervention
  Map Type: Desert
  Enemy Bases: 1
  Objectives: Help protect Aerogen
              Destroy the Alien Hive
  New Buildings: Upgraded Robot Factory
  New Units: Firestorm
  New Upgrades: Reaper +1

  In this mission you have to guard the base of Aerogen, located to the west
of your base, as well as fend off attacks from a full Alien Hive.  When I
played through this level, Aerogen didn't build anything other than an
Exo-Center and a Barracks, and you'll only see some Aerogen Troopers wandering
around the map.  This means you're going to have to bail them out if the Taar
show up in force, but luckily you get shared vision with Aerogen around thier
base.

  Now that you have to contend with an enemy base and not just Saucer
attacks, you need to set up a defense.  Luckily, the area your base is on is
surrounded by a river with only two bridges across, and you now have access to
Firestorms.  The entrance to the west goes right into Aerogen's base, so that
doesn't need to be defended as much if the aliens don't get through to that
route.  It's probably going to happen anyway, so set up some Firestorms along
that bridge to either hold off the attack or buy time for your main force to
get there.  I also recommend setting up four Firestorms on the bridge to the
north, since that's the most direct avenue into your base.

  You start out with three thousand P7 unit, an Exploiter, and some Troopers
and Reapers.  You should build your Upgraded Robot Factory immediately, since
it's the only building you don't have at the start.  If you scout around
you'll find that there is a P7 vent west and a little north of your base on
your side of the river.  Start saving up money for a second Exploiter, because
it will come in handy went that vent erupts.

  Now on this maps you'll find a lot of P7 vents.  One is located to the
north across the river from you, and there's another north of Aerogen's base,
though they'll probably beat you to it.  There's a cluster of four vents that
Aerogen will tell you about to the northwest, and one more northeast of that
group.  When these become active you'll want to set up some defenses there
when you move your Exploiters in, since this area is where the Taar send their
troops through on thier way to attack.  Further north from the vent cluster is
a lone vent that the enemy will usually get to, so you should probably attack
it as soon as you can and deny them the resources.

  Even though there are a lot of P7 vents on this mission, they only have a
few thousand P7 units in them.  This means that you should check your
Exploiters regularly to see if they've mined out a vent.  When they have, move
them quickly to an active vent to keep your cash flowing.  Also, make sure you
guard your Exploiters against air attacks, since the Taar have Ortus on this
level.  If you position your main attack force near the vents you're mining
(while you're building said force), you should be able to handle any attackers
before they destroy your Exploiters.  With the small amounts of P7 you get
from these vents, keeping all of your units, especially Exploiters, is
important.

  Also important in this mission is upgrades.  You get access to Reaper
upgrades here and I definitely recommend them.  The +1 to attack will let you
tear through enemy Sy Demons easily with a decent number of Reapers.  Try to
keep numerical advantage, and when you're ready head off to the northwest
corner of the map (where all the aliens are coming from) and smite that Hive.
Smite it, I say!


3.1.4 Island Assault
  Map Type: Jungle
  Enemy Bases: 1
  Objectives: Locate the missing Stratus Commander
              Destroy the Alien Hive
  New Buildings: Upgraded Science Pod
  New Units: Osprey IV, Barrager
  New Upgrades: Trooper +2, Reaper +2, Firestorm +1

  This mission can be a little tricky, but it will teach you good unit and
resource management skills.  The map is divided up into numerous small islands
connected by bridges.  Your base is in the south, and the enemy Hive is in the
north.  The Taar have the initial upper hand, because they've stationed two
Xenoworts across most of the bridges.  To make matters worse, P7 is a scarce
commodity in this level.  There are two vents on your island, and a few others
on the other islands, but the vents do not have much P7 in them.  Late in the
level both sides will run out of resources, and you have to manage your units
well to keep them alive while still mopping up the troops the enemy sends at
you.

  Since P7 is so valuable here, start your Exploiter going as soon as you
hear the Dropships come in.  Your base isn't as developed as it was in the
last level, you only have an Exo-Center and a Barracks.  Fortunately, you do
start with 3500 P7, so you can get your Science Pod and Robot Factory fairly
quick.  You will want to upgrade both facilities for Barragers and Firestorms.
There are two entrances to your base, one to the north and one to the
northwest.  When you can spare the P7, deploy three Firestorms on one side of
each bridge as a first line of defense.  The Taar will attack you with Atrils,
thier own Artillery unit, so be prepared to send in your mobile forces to
attack them when they show up.  Also, expect at least one Saucer raid during
this mission, so have some other units around to help out the Firestorms near
your base.  The enemy Ortus in this level seemed a lot more agressive than
usual, so keep up your air defenses around outlying Exploiters, as well.

  While you're building your base structures and defenses, you should
probably go looking for that lost Stratus Commander.  If you sene your
Commander to go scouting you should find him soon after the mission starts.
I won't tell where he, preserving what little element of surprise there is,
but sufice it to say if you run into enemy Xenoworts, you've gone to far.
Near the Stratus Commander is also a P7 vent that will be active later on in
the mission.

  Once you've completed that task and have your defenses up and running, you
should start building up your attack force.  As mentioned before, when the
enemy attacks with Atrils you have to send your forces through whatever Grays
and Sy Demons they have and destroy that Artillery before it hammers away at
your Firestorms from outside thier range.  While you're building your attack
force, you should also build two Barragers of your own.  I'm not typically a
big fan of Artillery, but in this level it works wonders.  Use a Osprey or
your Commander as a spotter and your big guns will be able to take out those
enemy Xenoworts bridge by bridge.  Keep your other units on hand in case they
send some ground troops in to attack your Artillery.  Those units are
expensive and you really can't afford to lose them.

  Concerning your mining efforts, you should only keep the one Exploiter you
start with and keep it well guarded.  Mine out any active vent you see, and
then quickly move your Exploiter to the next active vent.  With vents that you
discover further out in the field, you should keep your attack force nearby to
ward off enemy Brozaars.  When you get further into the mission, you will
probably run out of P7 before you destroy the enemy Hive.  The good thing is,
you still have the three per second income from your Base, so you're not
completely broke.  It will take a while to build a Reaper with that kind of
cash flow, though.  In this stage of the mission, you win or lose depending on
how many units you've managed to keep alive.  If you force is large enough to
defeat the last remnants of the enemey force, then it shouldn't be a problem.
Just don't try to rush through Xenoworts or you'll lose more units than you
can replace, leave rooting them out to your Barragers.  If your Commander has
been promoted to Captain by this level you should not use his Inspire command
and wait for his Dropship command to come up.  You only get to use one before
his charge bar resets, and a Captain's Dropship will bring you two Troopers
that you don't have to pay for.

  One final note about the Commander, this mission will offer your attack
force a lot of targets.  If you can keep your Commander alive and witness to
your crushing victories, then you can rack up the performance points on this
mission.  When I played through I got promoted to Major on this level, though
if you're just starting out this might not be so easy.  The important thing is
to keep your Commander alive or you'll have to wait on his advancement until
the next mission.


3.1.5 Darkest Hour
  Map Type: Jungle
  Enemy Bases: 2
  Objectives: Destroy the Alien Hive
  New Upgrades: Firestorm +2, Osprey IV +1, Barrager +1

  This level is a certain change of pace from the last one, but there's
nothing real remarkable about it.  The avalible P7 should be enough for your
needs, the map is mostly wide open spaces with lots of room to maneuver.
Basically, all you have to do in this level is stomp on the enemy bases and
quietly move on to the next mission.  And yes, contrary to what the mission
briefing suggests, there is a next mission.  You can't wipe out the alien
threat yet, it only level 5.  There hasn't even been a commercial break yet.

  You start with your Exo-Center and Barracks already built and 4000 P7.
Your first priority should be building your base structures and sending your
commander to scout around the area.  You have one P7 vent in your section of
the map, a small island in the southeast.  The vents that become active soon
after the mission starts are located to the west and north of your base.
Because the vent you have near your base will last you a long time, build a
second Exploiter when these other vents erupt.  When you get around to setting
up your defenses, I recommend that you cover the west entrance to your base
with Firestorms north of the vent over there.  Enemies can't get to the bridge
going to your base without passing the vent, and setting up your defenses
there guards any Exploiter you have in that position.  The north entrance to
your base starts with two Firestorms near it, though you may want to add two
more if the enemy attacks in force.

  Across the river from your base is a wide open section of land.  The alien
Hive is to the northwest.  You'll find a P7 vent way up north in front of a
ridge.  The aliens will set up a Brozaar here, and at the vent to the west.
The easiest way that I have found to deal with the aliens in this mission is
to attack their resource operations as soon as possible.  You will need a lot
of units, especially Reapers, to get through the Xenoworts already stationed
by the Brozaars and the Sy Demons they'll send at you, but if you can destroy
the Brozaars you'll get the upper hand.  Without any more than 3 P7 per second
coming in, the aliens can't field many units at a time.  Use the units you
have left to whittle down whatever they send at you.  If your Exploiters are
alive, then you can still replace casualties.  Once you kill off enough of the
enemy units they won't be able to send more than a single Gray at you at a
time.  Just make sure that you guard the P7 vents you took from them so they
don't retake them, and when you're ready head up to the Hive and wipe it off
the face of Mars.

  After you destroy the alien Hive you'll get a large Dropship raid on your
base.  Either send most of your troops back to your base before you finish off
the last alien building, or build some reinforcements to deal with the
attackers.  The mission objectives change, and you have to destroy the new
enemy Base, located west of your Base across a river.  The bridge to the
section of land where the enemy Base is lies northwest of where the alien Hive
was.  Also around this time you'll get new P7 vent erruptions.  The vent
northwest of your base will last you a long time and you should grab that
first.  If you need it, there's also one west of the alien Hive across the
bridge.  The two vents near the enemy base you won't be able to get to without
finishing off the enemy anyway.  So when you're ready and have replaced your
battle losses, head on over to the other side of the river and do a repeat of
what you did to the alien Hive.  Keep a sizable Reaper force on hand (15+) and
Troopers for support fire and you won't have a problem (just upgrade them and
they'll do even more damage for you).  Lucky for you this base does not spawn
a third suprise attack, so when you destroy it the level is essentially done.


3.1.6 Ancient Legacy
  Map Type: Underground
  Enemy Bases: 0
  Objectives: Escape from the Alien Prison

  Welcome to the first Underground mission of the Human campaign.  Ideally
you would've wanted to visit the ancient ruins as something other than a POW,
but that's not really up to you.  Grab that weapon of the nearby dead Trooper
and start busting your way out.

  You start in a cell in the northwest of the map.  There are some alien pod
constructions at the entrance, but if you attack these they will quickly blow
up.  The Gray outside your cell is already weak, so it won't take long to kill
him.  After you get out of your cell, head east and free the other Troopers in
the two cells over there.  You'll have to shoot through the pods in front of
thier cells and move your commander right next to them, otherwise they'll just
stand there getting shot at by Grays.  You'll hear a little sound effect when
you get them on your side.

  Once you've liberated your fellow Humans the rest of the maze is pretty
straight forward.  Use the minimap to backtrack if you hit a dead end.
Unfortunately though, you really don't have enough firepower to fight your way
out.  Your Commander and your Troopers can probably hold thier own against a
few Grays, but they will get massacred when even one Sy Demon shows up.  I've
found that the only way to win the level is set your units to Move mode and
run like hell.  Your Commander will probably be out in front because he's the
fastest, but that means the aliens won't shoot at him for long as he zips
past.  Your other slower Troopers will probably get killed by the aliens that
your Commander passes by, but at least those troopers won't be turning around
and heading after him.  You lose the mission if your Commander dies.  If you
need more Troopers to act as bait there's another cell to the southwest of
where you start.  Shortly after that is the exit, so if you can dodge your
Commander well you should make it.


3.1.7 Retribution
  Map Type: Desert
  Enemy Bases: 2
  Objectives: Aid Aerogen in their fight
              Destroy the Alien Hives
  New Buildings: Research Center
  New Units: Solaris
  New Upgrades: Osprey IV +2, Barrager +2

  On this mission you find yourself and Aerogen positioned right down the
road from two Alien Hives, and you have to keep Aerogen alive as well as
destroy the aliens.  Aerogen's Base is immediately to your northeast.  The two
alien Hives are located north of your Base and east past Aerogen's Base,
though you have to go north, east, and then south through a canyon to get to
it.  The way to each Hive is pretty easy to find, but you should probably send
Ospreys to do your scouting on this mission, so your Commander doesn't get
shot at as much.

  You begin with the standard Exo-Center and Barracks, along with 5500 P7.
There is a Saucer raid very soon after the mission starts, so you should get
your Robot Factory built and start cranking out some Reapers.  Once you
survive that attack you should build up your defenses.  There's a narrow
canyon north of your base that leads to the north Hive, and this is a good
place to set up two Firestorms.  The north Hive forces have to get through
that pass to get to either you or Aerogen, so defending that pass helps both
of you.  Likewise, the east Hive forces have to get through Aerogen to get to
you (but they'll usually stop and kill Aerogen first, if given the chance,
which will end the level).  I recommend using your Firestorms to reinforce
Aerogen's defenses, set them up near the Aerogen Exploiter north of thier
Base.  You probably will need to send more troops into that area when the east
Hive attacks, since that Hive will be the biggest threat in this level.

  As far as P7 goes, there are a lot of vents and more than enough gas if you
have two Exploiters working at the same time.  There are three vents near your
base, one east on a little island, one north on a raised section of ground,
and one far to the northwest on a plateau overlooking the road to the north
Hive.  Keep in mind that you will have to compete with Aerogen for these
vents, but I've found that if you let them have some vents and keep thier
Exploiters defended, then they'll turn out enough units to defend themselves.
It of course can't hurt to send your own units into the fray, but that's what
allies are for, right?

  Once you get your defenses in place, save up enough P7 to build a Research
Center.  The first artifact site is among some ruins to the northwest,
directly north of your first P7 vent (if you keep following this section of
land north you'll run into the northwest vent I mentioned).  The other
artifact site is located to the northeast of your base, and you can only get
there from a bridge a little south of the north alien Hive.  Sending a fragile
Exploiter through enemy territory like that isn't a good idea, so if you want
the artifacts I suggest you take out the north Hive first.  Both artifact
sites contain three Solarii (plural Solaris) each.

  In addition to the artifact site, there are also four vents with a lot of
P7 to the east of the north Hive.  These become active late in the level, and
can be just what you need when your other vents run out.  Even though the east
Hive is the most aggressive one, I recommend taking out the north Hive first.
If you use the Solarii from the artifact site near your base, you can take out
the Xenoworts guarding the Hive (there are only two or three of them).  After
that, if you can destroy whatever enemy units are in the area, the Hive itself
is undefended, and you can destroy it with a relatively small force (6 or so
Troopers and Reapers).  Just have enough healthy units on hand to deal with
any new Sy Demons or Atrils the Hive cranks out.  Also, while you're attacking
the north Hive, make sure you don't abandon Aerogen.  Send as many Reapers as
you can make over to help them out whenever they start getting attacked.  You
may lose most of them, but it'll keep the Aerogen units in better shape then
they would be fighting alone.  If Aerogen has time and resources they'll build
up thier own army and start attacking the east Hive on thier own.  By this
time you should hopefully have the north Hive destroyed.

  After you do destroy the north Hive, head east across the river and take
out the enemy Brozaar on a vent located east of where the Hive used to be.
The other vents in this area will become active later in the level, so send
your Exploiters over here when thier vents run out.  Send the troops you used
to attack the north Hive over to where your other forces were defending the
Aerogen Base.  At this point, provided Aerogen hasn't been hit too badly, it's
two on one.  Build up your forces and attack.  Getting the Solarii from the
second artifact site to weaken the Xenoworts around the east Hive really
helps, since there are at least 8 around the Hive itself.  Once the Hives are
dust and Aerogen is still on its feet, you win.


3.1.8 Shattered Front
  Map Type: Jungle
  Enemy Bases: 2
  Objectives: Destroy the Alien Hives
  New Units: Medi-Craft, Kaox

  It seems that Aerogen just can't do anything without your help.  They've
got thier heads thoroughly handed to them in the Brownbill Swamps, and it's
your job to clean up the mess.  Funny how these 'swamps' look just like any
other jungle on Mars, but you can't really call this game on accuracy.

  You start off in the southeast corner of the map with an Exo-Center,
Barracks, and 1500 P7.  Immediately send your exploiter north to your Base's
vent so you can get some buildings.  The Dropship delivers both your Commander
and four Medi-Craft units, and you're going to need them.  The first thing you
should do in this mission is find the Aerogen survivors.  There are two
Ospreys west of where you start.  Move near them and they'll become yours.
You should probably send them out to find the other Aerogen units, because
they can cover more terrain than your Commander.  Scout out the land west of
your base and you should find four groups of Aerogen troops, a few Reapers and
a Barrager.  There's also a group camped out to the north of your base near
one of the ruined Aerogen Bases.  Try to find them quickly or enemy Grays will
come along and destroy them.  The Reapers are all damaged, so send them back
to your base and let the Medi-Craft work on them.

  Once again you face two bases, but this time you don't have an ally to take
the attacks for you.  This means that you really have to break through to one
base quickly, destroy it, and move the battle to one front.  The two alien
Hives are located west of your Base across the map, and on the center north
edge.  The north base is the most heavily guarded, and the terrain has a lot
of obstacles that you units will have to navigate.  The west Hive is on an
island with only one bridge as an entrance, and it is sitting on one of the
two artifact sites on this map.

  I personally recommend that you go after the west Hive first, because the
game is nice enough to provide you with a bunch of Reapers and Barragers from
Aerogen.  Churn out some Troopers for air cover and some healthy Reapers of
your own and you should be able to take down the Hive.  Before you do, at
least set up some Firestorms at the west end of your Base in case the north
Hive attacks while you're gone.  Once that's done, move out to the west.
You'll cross a bridge from the land area with the south Aerogen Base, and then
find another bridge going south to the Hive.  Position your Reapers and
Troopers here to block anything coming out from the Hive, and let your
Barragers hammer away at the Xenoworts.  With most of your Aerogen Reapers
damaged from the start, you don't want to get into a war of attrition too
soon.  Once you've uprooted the Hive's defenses, move in and destroy it.  The
main thing you have to worry about is a counter-attack from the north Hive on
either your base, or more likely, your attack force.  Keep turning out Reapers
when you have the money and send them off to join your attack force.  If they
meet an enemy counter-attack, then they'll probably be too few to do much
damage, but they should stall them long enough for your other troops to finish
thier job.

  Once at least one of the Hives has been destroyed, you've bought yourself
some breathing room.  If you destroy a Hive early on, then you won't have to
deal with the combined might of two Hives at once, and the forces you'll see
from the remaining Hive won't be as numerous.  At this point, finish off your
base and build a few more Exploiters.  I actually used three Exploiters in
this mission, two for mining P7 and one for artifact digging.  The amount of
P7 avalible to you isn't a real problem in this mission, but the flow rate is
not as high as you might like.  The way to solve this problem is to get
another Exploiter going on another vent.  There are two vents near the south
Aerogen Base that become active fairly soon, and if you destroyed the west
Hive first they are the farthest vents from enemy territory.  There are a few
vents to the north of your Base and the other Aerogen Base, but the enemy
usually grabs those, which isn't to say you shouldn't drop by with a bunch of
Reapers and blow up thier Brozaars.

  When you're regrouping from the first Hive's destruction, be sure to
upgrade your Reapers and Troopers.  If you have enough cash on hand and you
aren't taking enough casualties to warrant more units, it's a good time to
upgrade the ones you have.  While you're doing that, send out an Exploiter to
the artifact sites as soon as you can.  The artifact sites are in the
southwest and northwest corners of the map, they contain 3 Solarii and 2
Kaoxes and 3 Solarii and 3 Kaoxes, respectively.  You have to destroy the west
Hive to get to the southwest artifact site.  These sites are well worth it
because of the Kaox.  If used correctly, and with a little luck, these things
can tear through anything the enemy's money can buy.  I've found they
sometimes don't deploy properly if there's no target in sight, so use them
during the day (when your vision is greatest) near the remaining enemy Hive
and watch the fireworks.  The Solarii are also good for digging out Xenoworts
or blowing up a group of enemy troops you've found moving toward your Base.
Getting artifacts out of the northwest site may be tricky since it's so close
to the enemy Hive, but it is doable.  Use your main attack force for defense
if you really need it, but late in the mission even Exploiters can be replaced
if your mining operations have remained intact.

  Once you've softened up the resistance with your artifacts and built up a
big enough force, go stomp on the enemy Hive and avenge Aerogen's defeat.
Before that, be sure to assemble your troops near your outlying Exploiters and
keep them defended.  This is also a good mission for practicing how to use
Medi-Craft.  You don't want to send these into battle with the rest of your
group, since they'll outrun your ground forces and get shot down.  Keep them
behind the lines and when the fighting stops send them in to hover over your
damaged troops.  The enemy may not always give you enough time to heal your
units, but you can heal some of them.  More Medi-Craft will also speed up the
process.


3.1.9 Extermination
  Map Type: Jungle
  Enemy Bases: 2
  Objectives: Destroy the 12 Breeding Pods
              Destroy the Stratus Base
              Destroy the Alien Hive

  This time you're not only going to have to outwit a whole Hive of Taar, but
also the forces of the traitorous Stratus.  Good thing that this game doesn't
have too many differences between the sides, shooting at Humans is much like
shooting at Grays.  This mission may be a bit tricky, so I hope that the
advice I offer here will be useful.

  You start off with your standard two base structures and 5500 P7.  Start on
your Science Pod and Robot Factory right away.  You do not get an Exploiter in
this level, so be sure to build one and get it working.  If you scout around
the area you're in you'll find an artifact site and P7 vent to the south of
your Base through some trees, and another vent to the north.  The logical
entrances to your Base area's are to the east and north of the P7 vent.  You
should save up for an Upgraded Robot Factory and set up Firestorms at these
entrances immediately, you're going to need them.

  I recommend getting four Firestorms on each entrance as soon as you can.
This time you are facing down two enemy Bases by yourself, and neither one is
really a pushover.  Since the Firestorms won't help against the enemy Atrils
and Barragers which will show up, be sure to build up some Reapers and
Troopers.  You may take a lot of Trooper casualties from Artillery, but
they're easy to replace.  I also recommend buying the +1 upgrades for your
Reapers as soon as possible, it really makes a difference in the early stages
of the mission.

  The tricky thing about this level is that both enemy sides throw everything
they have at you.  Expect concerted attacks with Infantry, Heavy Assault, and
Artillery units.  You are always outnumbered here, so you have to do your best
to manage your units and keep them alive as long as possible.  Use upgrades
and Medi-Craft so that every time you encounter the enemy they lose more
troops than you do.  Through this attrition process you'll eventually end up
with numerical advantage, especially if you attack any enemy resource
operation you see.

  While you're building your defenses and fending off attacks, build your
Research Center and another Exploiter when you get the chance.  The vent south
of your base becomes active early on, and you'll want to start mining it to
enhance your resource supply.  When you have the Research Center, you can also
grab some artifacts.  The artifact sites in this mission only have Solarii,
and are located south of your Base, north of your Base in the northwest corner
of the map, in the southwest corner of the map near Stratus, and on an island
in the north center part of the map.  These sites contain 6, 3, 4, and 5
artifacts, respectively.

  Just like in the last level, the key to winning here is to break through
the enemy attacks and neutralize one of the enemy Bases.  I chose to go after
Stratus first because their base is closer.  After excavating the artifacts
from the south site, I used them to blow up enemy Firestorms, and any
particularly large group of advancing troops.  Without the Firestorms to
defend it, the Base is easy as long as you can get past the rest of Stratus'
units.  You'll want to destroy this Base as soon as you can, but don't skimp
on defense in the early part of the mission, or the Taar will mass an army and
bear down on you while your forces are off fighting Stratus.

  Once you have taken care of Stratus you can go after the Hive in the
northeast corner of the map.  It might have a few more defenses since you've
given them time to build up units while you were attacking Stratus, but
without turncoat Humans breathing down your neck you should be able to build
an even larger attack force.  By this time you should be running out of P7
from the first two vents, but if you've explored the map well you shouldn't
have trouble finding others.  There are three vents in the section of land
between your Base and Stratus', not to mention the vent that Stratus had in
its base.  There are also vents along the way to the northwest artifact site.
All of the vents that you'll have to use later in the level are far out from
your Base, so put more defenders than a lone Trooper around your Exploiters
just in case.  I found that two Exploiters working continuously gave me more
than enough resources by the end of the mission, since all of the vents on
this map have a lot of P7.

  When you go to the alien Hive you should by now have a sufficiently massive
force of Reapers that you can deal with any Firestorms directly.  Be sure to
buy the +2 upgrades whenever you have the cash.  It's up to you as to whether
you want to grab the other artifacts, but I didn't find them very useful
against the Hive, simply because I had so many other units.  Once you destroy
the Hive, if you find that the mission isn't over, it's probably because of
the third mission objective: destroying the breeding pods.  These pods are
located in the forested arc of land northeast of your Base between you and the
Hive.  They look just like the things lining the prison cells in Ancient
Legacy, and aren't very difficult to destroy.  You may find a few Grays around
them, but they're not heavily defended.  If you didn't happen to destroy all
of them before you went after the Hive there's no penalty, just hunt around
the forests until you find them all and end the mission.


3.1.10 Silent Strike
  Map Type: Desert
  Enemy Bases: 1
  Objectives: Destroy the Alien Base
  New Units: S.A.R.G.E
  New Upgrades: S.A.R.G.E +1

  This is a nice little mission that can be quite easy for you, since you
don't have to face down two Hives at once.  The only trick is that your
Exo-Center is broken and you cannot build Exploiters of your own, they have to
be delivered to you by Dropship.  This is the game's way of making you use the
S.A.R.G.E's steal resource ability, and that unit makes its debut here.

  You start off with 3000 P7 and your standard Base setup.  You do have one
Exploiter for the vent near your base, so that's good at least.  If this
mission drags on for a long time you'll want to make guarding your Exploiters
an extra priority, since you can't rebuild them on a whim.  You also start
with four Ospreys that you can use to find the Taar mining operations so you
can then call in a S.A.R.G.E to swipe the P7 right out from under them.  Half
of the P7 at any rate.  There are three enemy Brozaars that I have found in
this mission: one immediately east of your Base, one to the northeast of your
Base, and one on the far east side of the map.  If you bring an Osprey within
sight of these Brozaars, a Dropship will deliver a S.A.R.G.E nearby.  Have the
Brozaar in sight of your Osprey (though watch the Xenoworts that are next to
them) and use the S.A.R.G.E's steal resource ability (return key).  Once the
S.A.R.G.E has started to steal resources you can move the Osprey off to scout
another section of the map.  Be warned, though, that the S.A.R.G.E will not
defend itself against enemy attacks while it is stealing resources, and like
all Sniper units thier armor is not the best.  Stealing from these three vents
will help you get started, but later in the level you'll want to withdraw your
S.A.R.G.Es back to your base so you can use them to attack.

  And speaking of attacking, you can really do so whenever you want in this
level.  The alien Hive is directly south of your Base, around a little canyon
detour.  If you want you can use the resources you steal from the enemy
Brozaars to build up a large attack force, maybe a few more S.A.R.G.Es to see
how they work in combat, and then stomp on the Hive.  Since there's only one
source for the attacks in this level, it really is much easier than the past
two missions have been.  If you hold off on attacking, the enemy will come at
you with Atrils and Gorrems, but you should use the same strategy for dealing
with both: advance through the front lines of Grays and Sy Demons and attack
the Atrils and Gorrems as soon as possible.  They have terrible armor and will</pre><pre id="faqspan-3">
fall easily to your Reapers.  You will want to take out enemy Gorrems as soon
as you see them, especially if they show up in numbers, since they are very
powerful attackers.  If you mix some S.A.R.G.Es into your attack force you'll
see what I mean.

  But if you don't want to wait for the Taar to show off thier new weapons,
then this is one mission where a blitzkreig tactic actually works well.  Start
off by sending out your Ospreys to the enemy Brozaars and steal resources.
The P7 you get from there, along with your own Exploiter, will help you finish
your Robot Factory and start building Reapers.  Crank out a few of them and
send them off to the south, they'll find thier own way past the terrain to the
enemy Hive.  Keep building Reapers and send them as reinforcements.  You'll
probably have to fight through some Grays and Sy Demons, but if you have
enough numbers or have upgrades you'll win through.  Catch the Taar early
enough and they won't have thier Hive completed, and you can swarm around them
with all the Reapers you can make.  I recommend Reapers for this tactic
because Troopers won't kill the Sy Demons as well, and if you move early you
don't have to worry about Ortus because the enemy hasn't started building them
yet.

  One final note on this mission, there is a group of four Comunicants, the
alien communications structure, located in the northeast corner of the map.  I
don't know if they're window dressing for this mission, or if something
actually happens when you destroy them (I tried and nothing seemed to).  If
you have any ideas on this, email them to me.


3.1.11 The Prize
  Map Type: Underground
  Enemy Bases: 0
  Objectives: Locate the P.O.W.s
              Find the Artifact Chamber

  This is the second underground mission of the Human campaign, and this time
you don't have to fight through an entire maze of Taar forces with just your
Commander.  You get two Troopers and three Reapers to start with.  These
should be more than enough to take out any wandering Gray sentries, but the
Reapers will not last long against repeat encounters with the Gorrems and Sy
Demons that inhabit this mission.  If you can't win through force of arms, go
for stealth and avoid enemies, or just set your units to Move mode and run
like hell.

  Your first objective is to find where the aliens are keeping thier
prisoners.  Move your forces to the north and look for a large room.  There
will be Gorrems in this room, so you should kill them right away before they
do to much damage.  Once you take care of the alien guards, set your troops to
Move mode and have them go near the Troopers in the room.  When you get close
they'll come over to your side, but if you're in attack mode your forces will
attack the motionless Troopers before you get close enough to convert them to
your side.  I guess they think the Troopers were brainwashed or something.  In
any case, once you have rescued the P.O.W.s you'll have a sizable, though
damaged, force of Troopers in addition to the Reapers you have left.

  In order to preserve what little suspense there is in this mission, I'll
leave finding the artifact chamber up to you.  Since you can't win against a
whole lot of enemies with the troops you have, the way to the artifact chamber
is generally the one that doesn't have a lot of aliens shooting at you.  You
will have to fight your way through a few guards, but they should be easy.
Look around, use Move mode if necessary to retreat, and keep your Commander
alive.  That's all there is to this mission.


3.1.12 Blood Canyon
  Map Type: Desert
  Enemy Bases: 2
  Objectives: Stop the Alien Council from reaching the Hive
              Destroy the Alien Hives
  New Units: Maktor
  New Upgrades: S.A.R.G.E. +2

  This mission throws a new twist to the destroy the enemy Bases format: you
also have to stop the Taar High Council members from reaching thier
destination.  Every now and then a group of two Grays acompanied occasionally
by Gorrems will enter the map screen and head for the Hive at the northeast
corner of the map.  The Council members are identifiable by their purple
color.  If they reach the Hive alive, they will call in Saucer raids on your
Base.  These raids get progressively more dangerous, as later Council members
call in more troops, so you shouldn't worry too much about the first Council
group slipping past you, but you'll want to stop later ones at all costs.  The
stealth cameras in this mission are set up at various points around the map
and allow you to see anything that goes through there.  Use these to your
advantage when you see the message that Council members have entered the area.

  While stopping the Council members is all well and good, you really do have
to do something about the two other Hives in this mission.  The main Hive that
the Council members are heading for is located on an island to the northeast,
and the other one is on the east edge of the map, just outside the vision
range of one set of your cameras.  Your base is located in the southwest
corner of the map, with entrances to the north and east.  Expect attacks on
both fronts from both Hives, and expect these attacks to have lots of Grays,
Sy Demons, Atrils, and Gorrems.  They really pull out the stops on this
mission, so Firestorms simply won't cut it as defense.

  Since you're going to need a lot of troops to combat enemy attacks, start
building up your base right away.  You get 4500 P7 at the start, and your
Dropship will deliver an Exploiter for you to use on the vent to the south.
The two other vents near your base are to the north in a little cul de sac,
and to the east.  Both of these become active fairly early, so be ready to
take and defend them.  I found that having three Exploiters mining P7 at once
gave me more than enough P7 to defend against enemy attacks.

  Once you have an Upgraded Robot Factory, deploy four Firestorms along both
entrances to your base.  These will give you a little breathing room to move
your troops, since the enemy will have to attack your Firestorms before they
get to your base.  I recommend placing your eastern Firestorms out past the P7
vent so you can grab it when it becomes active and still have it behind your
defenses.

  Your other main advantage in this mission is the artifact sites.  There are
8 of them, containing either 3 or 1 Maktor each.  The Maktor can be a powerful
weapon against an incoming attack force.  Just deploy it as close to the
center of the enemy troops as you can without getting it shot down, and watch
it suck them all into oblivion.  I highly recommend that you send out an
Osprey to explore the entire map so that when you get your Research Center up
and running, the artifact sites will appear on the mini-map.  There is one to
the southeast of your base, and two to the northeast, both of which contain
three Maktors.

  Now that I've talked about how to prepare to win the level, I'll talk about
actually winning the level.  Like in all two Base missions, you have to
destroy one of the enemy Hives to cut down on the number of units you have to
face.  I recommend going after the east Hive, since it is the closest to your
base and is in a wide open area.  The northeast Hive has only one narrow
bridge as an entrance, and a lot of Xenoworts on the other side.  With the
east Hive you can build up a large Reaper/Trooper force (with a few
S.A.R.G.E.s thrown in for good measure) and be able to take on the defending
Xenoworts easily.  If you can keep your Exploiters defended and have enough
resources, you should be able to build up a force strong enough to take down
this Hive.  Be sure to keep an eye on the mini-map while you do, though.  The
stealth cameras will let you know if a counter-attack is coming in from the
northeast Hive, either toward your troops or around to the north side of your
Base.  In this case, either build some more Reapers and send them to meet the
counter-attack, or deploy one of your Maktors.

  Once you've destroyed the east Hive the best thing you can do is contain
the northeast Hive by positioning most of your troops across the bridge
leading into the Hive and making sure nothing gets out.  Meanwhile, build
another force and make sure that the enemy has no active Brozaars on 'your'
side of the river.  This will cut off thier resources and limit the number of
troops they can send at you.  Also, since you control the only entrance to the
northeast Hive, you don't really have to do anything special if any new
Council members enter the area.  Just wait till they get to your position and
gun them down.  When you want to finish off the mission, be careful about how
you invade the Hive.  If you just order your units across the bridge they'll
line up two by two, stop when they get in firing range of the Xenoworts, and
block the rest of your troops from advancing.  The Xenoworts will probably
take your front line troops out, meaning you'll take a lot more casualties
than you might like.  If you want to spend lives frivolously, and have the P7
to do so, go right ahead.  A more sensible strategy might be to call in some
Barragers and bomb out the Xenoworts right across the bridge, though enemy
Atrils may make this difficult.  Another strategy is to just put your force in
Move mode, have them march right past the Xenoworts, and when enough of them
are across the bridge, then order them to attack.

  Two final notes on this mission, regarding the alien Council members and
the artifact sites.  The first Council members enter from the south central
area almost right after the start of the mission.  You'll need to order your
Commander over there right away to catch up with them and cut them off.  Your
other slower units can follow along and back him up as needed.  The other
Council members appear in the NW corner, then in the south, then north of your
base in the center area of the map, then in the northwest corner, and the last
two groups I saw came from the south area.  All of the Council members enter
the map near a group of stealth cameras, so you will be able to see them
coming.  Remember to use a Maktor if you can't get ground units out there fast
enough.

  Artifact sites on this mission are as follows: southeast of your Base with
3 Maktors, two sites northeast of your Base with 3 Maktors each, north of your
Base with 1 Maktor, east of your Base near the east Hive with 3 Maktors, near
the center of the map with 1 Maktor, north of the center area with 1 Maktor,
and northeast of the center area near the northeast Hive entrance with 3
Maktors.  That's 18 portable vortices of death for you to play with, enjoy.


3.1.13 Last Front
  Map Type: Jungle
  Enemy Bases: 3
  Objectives: Destroy the Alien Hives

  Through your efforts in the past missions, you've pushed the aliens back to
their last strongholds.  Of course, in this mission that means you're faced
with the task of taking on three whole Hives by yourself.  From here on out
there isn't anything new in terms of units or upgrades, so you've encountered
everything the enemy's going to throw at you.  The only difference in this
mission is that you're going to encounter a lot more enemy troops than you
have in the past, so get those Exploiters going so you can crank out the
troops you need to grind these alien bastards into the red Martian ground.

  You start with your standard Base and 6500 P7, which will let you build
most of your other buildings.  The active vent near your base is just outside
your vision range to the northeast.  Your Base is located in the northwest
corner of the map surrounded by a river.  There are two entrances, bridges to
the south and southeast.  You'll want to set up four Firestorms along these
bridges as soon as possible.  The Hives seem to start out underdeveloped, so
they won't send Atrils and Gorrems at you right away, so the Firestorms will
keep the Grays and Sy Demons out of your base while you build up your army.

  There are two more vents near your base, to the northwest and southwest,
that start out inactive.  The northwest one erupts shortly after the start of
the mission, and the southwest one will be avalible for the mid-mission phase.
There are also three vents on the island east of your Base that erupt in the
mid to late phases of the mission, and that island has only one eastern
entrance, so you might extend your defenses out to there or station a group of
Reapers in the area to ward off attacks from that direction when you tap those
resources.  Like in the previous missions, there are numerous vents in this
level that provide a lot of P7, and your best bet is probably to just scout
out the whole map with an Osprey and go for the ones that you can defend.

  The three Hives in this mission are located to the east, south, and
southeast on a small island.  Expect attacks from these Hives on both the east
and south entrance to your base.  Fortunately, the Hives didn't seem to
coordinate their attacks that much, so if you fight off one attack you'll have
a little time at least before the next one hits.  Try to get your Research
Center and Medi-Craft quickly to repair your units in between attacks.  You
can't rely on your Firestorms because in addition to Atrils you're going to
see a lot more Gorrems in the attack forces, and they can shoot at your
defenses from outside their firing range.  I decided to take out the east Hive
first simply because it is located in a wide open plain with no terrain
difficulties once you get across the bridge from the island east of your Base.
Attack in enough force and you can quickly overwhelm the scattered Xenoworts
and then go for the Hive itself.  I went after the south Hive next, which is
located at the bottom of a little ridge.  You'll have to send your troops
around this ridge to the east or west to attack the Hive, and I recommend the
east path because you'll destroy an enemy Brozaar before you get to the Hive.
Also, you can station units with long attack ranges (Barragers or S.A.R.G.E.s)
on top of the ridge, and they'll be able to fire on the Hive when your other
units have it in sight, though this will leave those units more open to
counter-attacks from the third Hive.  The last Hive is on a small island to
the southeast of your Base.  There are bridges leading to the island on the
west and east sides, and it's really up to you which to take.  You might have
some problems with defending Xenoworts like what happens in Blood Canyon, but
if you select Move mode and send enough of your troops across the bridge
before turning to attack, you shouldn't get your forces backed up too much.

  A final note on this mission, there are three artifact sites on the map,
each of which contain two of the types of artifacts avalible to the Humans.
That's 6 Solarii, 6 Kaoxes, and 6 Maktors from all three sites.  The sites are
located east of your Base, past the east Hive, in the southwest corner of the
map, near the south Hive, and near the south center section of the map, east
of the south Hive.  I found that the best use of these artifacts was to soften
up the southeast Hive, so I didn't have to lose a lot of troops getting over
the bridges.


3.1.14 Ultimate Discovery
  Map Type: Underground
  Enemy Bases: 0
  Objectives: Find the Artifact

  Well, before you can eliminate the alien scourge properly, you have to go
through one more underground mission to find the ultimate artifact, a weapon
which will drop a whole cargo ship load of whoopass of your unsuspecting
opponents.  I'm not sure why they haven't used this artifact to their own
advantage, seeing as how the aliens infest this map, but oh well.  You start
with four Reapers, four Troopers, and your Commander.  After fighting through
the group of Grays at the underground's entrance, it's up to you to explore
the area and find the artifact.  The way to it is painfully simple, but I'll
let you look for it yourself.  The hints I'll give are these: you are
outnumbered and outgunned against the groups of Taar that aren't guarding the
artifact, and search EVERYWHERE for the entrance to the artifact chamber.  I
hope you have fun on this mission.


3.1.15 Finest Hour
  Map Type: Desert
  Enemy Bases: 3
  Objectives: Destroy the Alien Hives
  New Units: Esgaar

  Welcome to the final mission of the Human campaign.  For the last stand of
the Taar, your enemies have assembled three Hives and a whole lot of P7 to aid
in your destruction.  Expect to see lots and lots of Gorrems on this mission,
sniping away at your units from just out of range.  In your corner you have
the Esgaar, the ultimate weapon you found in the last mission.  This artifact
flies like all of the others, but does not need to be deployed, nor does it
self destruct when you use it.  It shoots little bolts of energy at enemy
units that can kill anything except a deployed Brozaar and a Xenowort in one
shot.  Brozaars and Xenoworts just take two shots.  This unit is more than a
match for any army the enemy can throw a you, but you have to use it carefully
with all of the Gorrems running around.  The Esgaar can and will get shot down
if you're not careful with it, and that leaves a very big task left to your
remaining troops.

  You begin the mission with a whopping 10 thousand P7 and your standard base
setup.  The fact that you only have an Exo-Center and Barracks doesn't matter
as much with all the cash you have on hand, so build up your Base right away.
You'll notice that the Esgaar is teetering on the edge of dying, so build your
Research Center immediately and crank out at least two Medi-Craft to start
healing your artifact.  I recommend that you keep at least 6 Medi-Craft near
the Esgaar at all times during this mission, so the cumulative damage it takes
doesn't become too great.

  While you're building your Base, be sure to send your Exploiter to the
nearby vent.  This vent will provide you a lot of resources at a good rate,
but will run out sooner than you'd like.  You should use the resources you do
get from it you build a large standing force, in addition to whatever
Firestorms you put up on the east and west entrances to your base.  While
you're building this force you can use the Esgaar for defense agains any
attacks that come your way.  You'll want a strong force of Reapers and
Troopers in this mission not to attack, but to defend you Base and/or
Exploiters while the Esgaar is somewhere else.  Since the enemy relies on
Gorrems, your army needs to be sturdy enough to get into firing range, so buy
those armor upgrades.  Once they get in range, Reapers can make short work of
Gorrems, as you already know.

  Once you have your defenses up and ready, build some Medi-Craft to
accompany the Esgaar and go out hunting for aliens.  The Hives are located to
the northeast, southeast, and northwest of your Base.  The northwest Hive is
the most heavily defended, so you might want to take it on last when there
aren't any other counter-attacks from the other Hives.  When attacking with
the Esgaar move slowly and carefully.  You don't want to bring it into range
of too many Xenoworts or Gorrems at once.  If you advance in small steps, with
the Medi-Craft following behind, the Esgaar will take out anything it sees
usually before it takes too much damage.  When you get to a Hive, be aware of
when enemy Gorrems or Grays show up, the Esgaar may not stop firing at the
Hive and shoot at its attackers.  In this case, manually target the enemy unit
and the Esgaar will return to the Hive when its target is destroyed.  If the
enemy unit is hidden by the Hive and you can't target it, set the Esgaar to
Move mode and pull back away from the base.  You'll take too much damage
hanging around, and moving back a short distance will force the enemy troops
to follow you, so turn the Esgaar around and gun them down away from the
safety of the Hive.

  After taking out one of the Hives, you should be able to take your
Exploiter and your defense force over to the vent it was using.  Most of the
vents in this mission become active late in the level, so you might have a
little shortfall of resources in the mid-mission phase.  If you can keep your
units alive then you shouldn't have too much of a problem, since the Esgaar
will be doing more damage than the enemy can repair.  Once you clear out a
Hive and move in to take the vents, be sure to be on the lookout for enemy
attackers going after you Exploiter.  Call in either your defense force or the
Esgaar to take care of them.

  There's really nothing left to this level other than take the Esgaar around
and kill stuff.  That may prove a little tricky in places, but that's the
general idea.  For a challenge, I suppose you could try to complete this
mission without the Esgaar, but that might prove difficult when your vents dry
up.  In any case, however you defeat the mission is up to you.  Once you win,
you'll get this classic message from your superiors: "Excellent work...you
have won the war."



3.2 The Gray Campaign
  In the Gray Campaign you play as one of the Taar warriors of Nebres Warship
T sent to investigate the Terran sector for a new Taar homeworld.  Having
found Earth too darn polluted, the Taar decide to go for Mars.  Your task will
be to get rid of those pesky Humans from your new home.


3.2.1 First Strike
  Map Type: Desert
  Enemy Bases: 0
  Objectives: Destroy all Atmosphere Contaminators
  New Units: Commander, Gray

  This mission essentially mirrors Red Landing in the Human Campaign.  I
guess the game designers presume that you can play the campaigns in any order,
so the Taar campaign progresses in difficulty much like the Human one.  In
that case I will also presume that when you're playing through these missions
you're new to the game in general, so if I'm describing stuff you already know
how to do from the Human campaign, just skip on ahead.

  You start out at a Luminar (Taar Dropship Beacon) at one end of a winding
canyon.  You have your Commander and four Grays.  The mission is to destroy
the Oxy-Gens, aka Atmosphere Contaminators.  I guess the Taar like oxygen in
their air, just not too much.  In any case this mission is real straight
forward.  Take your troops and scout out the canyon, destroying any Aerogen
troops or Oxy-Gens that you see.  Eventually the canyon will dead end, and
that should be the end of the mission, provided that you didn't miss an
Oxy-Gen in some corner.  Be thorough and you won't have to backtrack.  Also,
along the way there will be two other Luminars which will provide you with
more Grays.  You'll get four at the first one, and two at the second.


3.2.2 Interference
  Map Type: Desert
  Enemy Bases: 0
  Objectives: Destroy the Communication Sites
  New Buildings: Mind Hive, Warrior Fold, Breeding Pod, Genetics Sac
  New Units: Brozaar, Sy Demon
  New Upgrades: Gray +1

  In the second Human mission you are charged with protecting a
communications site, here you have to destroy them.  Interesting symmetry in
the campaigns.  Anyways, in this mission you have your first Hive, and have to
launch an attack on two groups of Stratus Relay Towers.  You begin with the
standard Hive setup of a Mind Hive and a Warrior Fold.  Once the Saucer
delivers your Brozaar, set it to work on the vent to the northwest and start
saving P7 for your other buildings.  You'll want to get the other two as soon
as possible so you can start breeding more Sy Demons to go with the 8 Grays
and 3 Demons you already have.

  While you're assembling your army, send your Commander out to scout out the
area.  There is an inactive P7 vent south of your Hive, and another east of
that vent across a river, southeast from your Hive.  This vent is guarded by a
group of Troopers, or at least it was when it became active.  When the vent by
your Hive runs out, you'll want to relocate your Brozaar to one of these
vents.  Don't both building a second Brozaar to go after the other vent, since
they only have a few thousand P7.

  The communications sites that you have to destroy are east-south-east of
your Hive (further east from the southeast vent) and south of your Hive.  The
terrain isn't complicated, so you should have no problem finding either.  Both
sites have a Firestorm guarding the entrance, and have Reapers and Troopers on
hand for additional defense.  The east site has a entrance on the north side
that isn't guarded by a Firestorm, but you'll probably have to deal with the
Turret on the south side eventually.  You should build up a large force of Sy
Demons to cut through the Firestorms and the Reapers, and take pressure off
your Grays and Commander so they can cause extra damage from the back lines.
The south communications site is much more heavily guarded than the southeast
one, with a lot of Reapers that will chase you all the way back to your base
if you don't attack with enough force.  If you have enough Sy Demons, neither
of these sites should pose a problem, and you can destroy them in any order.

  The only other thing to watch out for on this mission is Dropship raids
which will deposit three or so Troopers north of your Hive.  This is also
right next to your Brozaar, so be sure to send a few units to take out the
attackers quickly.  Also keep an eye out for when your vent runs dry, since
this seems to coincide with a Dropship raid.  When your Brozaar is not
deployed on a vent it is very vulnerable, so be sure to move it out of the
way to a new vent before the enemy Troopers kill it.


3.2.3 Legacy Revealed
  Map Type: Jungle
  Enemy Bases: 1
  Objectives: Locate Ancona's secret
              Protect your discovery at all costs
              Destroy the Human Outpost
  New Buildings: Upgraded Genetics Sac
  New Units: Xenowort
  New Upgrades: Sy Demon +1

  The Taar, being quicker on the whole Mars has powerful ancient artifacts
thing, have sent you to the Ancona region to find a Cryo-Chamber before those
puny Humans get their primitive hands on it.  The Chamber isn't difficult to
find, since it's located near your Hive.  This is a good thing, because you'll
have to defend it for the rest of the mission.  As soon as your Commander gets
teleported down, start him out scouting the area and find the artifact as
quickly as you can.  Since you also get a Xenowort, in addition to 3 Sy Demons
and 7 Grays, you should be more than able to defend your discovery.

  You begin with 3500 P7 and the standard Hive.  You should build a Breeder
Pod and a second Brozaar right away.  There's an active vent on the island
east of your base (you'll have a Gray standing by it at the start), and the
second Brozaar will speed up your resource collecting abilities.  You don't
have to keep your Brozaars defended directly, since the Humans do not have
Ospreys in this mission, just make sure that your perimeter defenses are
strong enough that none of the Humans can get close to your resource
operations.

  In terms of defense, this mission will help you familiarize yourself with
the Xenowort, your main defensive unit.  The map is laid out in a group of
islands with bridges connecting them.  Two Xenoworts on one side of a bridge
will be more than a match for a few Troopers or Reapers, though you might want
to send in some other units if the Humans attack with greater force.
Alternately you can deploy more Xenoworts to increase their combined attack
strength.  I recommend that you set up Xenoworts at the north bridge of the
east island, the bridge furthest east from your Hive.  This leaves two
entrances to the east island and your Brozaar there, the one from your Hive
which you don't need to defend, and one north of the bridge from your Hive.
The second bridge leads to the island north of your Hive, which has two P7
vents which become active fairly early.  You'll want to defend these vents,
so I recommend setting up Xenoworts at the west bridge of the north island.
Doing this, and keeping that bridge defended, keeps the enemy out of the east
island as well because the only other entrance is the other bridge you have
guarded.  Once you've scouted out the area with your Commander or other units,
you should be able to see where the best defensive places are located.

  After you have your defenses set up, you should start building up an army
that can deal with attacks on your perimeter and crush the Human Base to the
north.  With no Ospreys, you may be tempted to go completely with Sy Demons,
but don't forget that Grays can shoot from behind your Demons so you can get
more units causing damage.  You don't need too big a force, since this is an
early mission, but don't worry about going overboard.  P7 is not a real
problem in this mission, just don't forget to relocate your Brozaars to the
vents to the north when the ones they're on dry out.  There is also one vent
on the island north of the east island, if you care to go for it.


3.2.4 Operation: Breakthrough
  Map Type: Jungle
  Enemy Bases: 1
  Objectives: Find the Petra-7 depot
              Destroy the Human Base
  New Buildings: Upgraded Breeder Pod
  New Units: Ortu, Atril
  New Upgrades: Gray +2, Sy Demon +2, Xenowort +1

  In this mission you have to rescue a Hive under heavy attack by Stratus.
The Hive has been severely damaged, all entrances surrounded by Firestorms,
and you have no P7 to boot.  Not the best way to start a level, but there's
always a way out.

  Your first task is to take your Commander, teleported down behind the first
line of Firestorms, and raid the enemy P7 depot located at the northwest
corner of the map.  Set Move mode, and just run like hell.  There is a second
line of Firestorms further west past your Hive that you have to get through,
and your Commander will get gunned down very fast if he stays in that area for
too long.  Just get to the depot and be sure to run in to all of the P7 tanks
before the Saucer picks you up.  You'll get a whopping 15 thousand P7 for you
to use, and the P7 vent near your Hive will become active.  Don't worry about
your Commander taking damage, because once he gets returned to the Hive he'll
be back at full health.

  Now that you have some money, it's time to pay Stratus back.  Be sure to
breed a Brozaar, since you don't get one from a Saucer.  Use the rest of your
P7 to build up your Hive, breed 2 Atrils and whatever Sy Demons/Grays you
think you'll need.  Use your Atrils to bomb away at the Firestorms outside
your Hive, and use the two Ortus you have from the start to act as spotters
for your Artillery.  Keep you other combat units nearby to intercept any enemy
units that try to attack your Atrils.  There are two entrances to your Hive,
one bridge west and one southwest, and each bridge will have four Firestorms
on it.  Fortunately, these Firestorms are already damaged, so it won't take
your Atrils long to destroy them.

  Once you have the first line of Firestorms destroyed, start building some
Xenoworts, but don't deploy them yet.  There is a crescent shaped chunk of
land southwest of your Hive that has three P7 vents on it.  The crescent has
only two entrances, bridges further west and further southwest from your Hive.
Since you're going to want to go after those vents, and its not too far from
your Hive anyway, you should set up your defenses at the entrances to the
crescent.  These entrances are guarded by enemy Firestorms, ones with full
health, which you'll have to destroy before you send in your Xenoworts.
You'll also find a Stratus Exploiter at the vent west of your Hive, so try to
take that out quick.

  After you've cleared out the Firestorms and ended the seige, start building
up your army.  Stratus will attack with a decent number of troops, so I found
that four Xenoworts on a bridge was useful.  You will need your other units
when they show up with Barragers, though.  After you've fought off a few
attacks, bought some upgrades, and built up your forces, head on over to the
southwest corner of the map and destroy Stratus' Base.  There are a few other
P7 vents on the map which you'll want to scout out with your Ortus.  You'll
face fewer units if you make sure that undefended Exploiters die quickly.
Also, be sure to attack Stratus with a lot of force because they will have
many Firestorms on hand as well as Barragers straight from the Robot Factory.


3.2.5 Roswell Revisited
  Map Type: Earth
  Enemy Bases: 0
  Objectives: Find and Abduct Cmdr. Tick

  This is the only campaign mission that takes place on Earth, and is it a
tough one.  Having let Commander Tick of Stratus escape in the last mission,
your Commander has to track him down at the Stratus base on Earth.  This is
kinda like the standard Underground mission, in that there's no enemy Base to
destroy, but you only have your Commander directly under your control.  You
will get help from the Roswell Taar though, provided you can find the P7 tanks
scattered about the map and pay them off.  This mission is difficult because
of several factors: the sheer magnitude of enemy units you'll encounter, the
fact that even with the Roswell Taar's help you will not be able to win with
force of arms, and setting your Commander to Move mode and running like hell
may still get you killed.  For the Underground missions in the Human campaign
I was very vaugue with my walkthrough because the mazes weren't that difficult
to figure out.  Here I will provide more detailed information to help you
through this level.

  You start out at your landing zone at the southwest corner of the map.  The
area is fenced in, so start heading the only way you can, to the northeast.
You'll soon reach a open area with a few buildings that look like aircraft
hangers.  Take a right here and go east to the first P7 tank.  This will call
in some Roswell Taar Saucers which will beam down some Grays.  The Roswell
Taar only provide Grays to help you, and these units will do little more than
distract the enemy.  Since in almost every section of this mission you'll find
Reapers, this distraction can be just what you need to save your Commander's
skin.  After all, he's the only one that matters.  Set your Commander to Move
mode and do not stop running.

  After getting the first P7 tank, head around the buildings and look for a
bridge to the north.  The second P7 tank is to the west of the bridge.  Wait a
little for the Roswell Taar to land so the Barrager will waste its first shot
on them.  After you get past that group of troops, head to the northwest.
You'll see a fork in the road, but continue northwest to the third P7 tank.
After you pick up the tank head back to the fork and take the route east.
You'll eventually reach another large space with three hangers.  Stick behind
the hangers to avoid enemy units.  When you hit the fence head south to the
fourth P7 tank.

  After the tank you'll run into another large open space with a bunch of
cacti and Reapers.  You're going to need all the distractions you can get in
the face of these Reapers, so first go north to the fifth P7 tank.  Head east
through the cacti field until you get to a fork in the road.  Go to the
southeast fork to pick up the sixth P7 tank, then head north to a group of
Reapers and Barragers.  This part can be a little tricky, since the Barragers
are blocking off the way out.  Your Commander can technically slip in between
them, but sometimes they move to block your way, or the Roswell Taar get in
the way.  Just keep in Move mode and click past the Barragers over and over.
Your Commander should be able to find a way through, and reissuing the command
will help if he gets stuck.  Expect to take some damage from the Barragers and
the Reapers if the Roswell Taar aren't beign good target dummys.  Lastly, if
you're having a lot of problems with this section I recommend saving right
before you attempt it so you don't have to redo the rest of the mission before
it.

  After you get the Barrager road block you'll find another Barrager near a
hanger.  The seventh P7 tank is north of the hanger, and you can pick that up
before heading northwest again.  There will be another two Barragers, but you
can get around them easily.  At this point head southwest and stick to the
south fence as much as you can.  There is a guantlet of Firestorms and
Barragers on the other side.  You'll probably take a few hits from the
Barragers, but the Firestorms shouldn't bother you if you stay far enough
away.

  After the guantlet you should head southeast to another open area with
cacti.  To distract the enemy units here, grab the eighth P7 tank that's east
of the area entrance.  Head to the northeast and you should find the ninth P7
tank in a little dead end area.  After picking that up you'll find the tenth
and last P7 tank near the southeast exit to this area.  Sometimes a Roswell
Taar will land near enough to that tank to pick it up for you.  In any case,
head down that way and past the two Reapers.  You may want to wait for a
Roswell Taar to wander down there and engage the Reapers instead of sending
your Commander, who's probably pretty hurt by now, but if that doesn't happen
you're just going to have to go for it.  Southeast past the Reapers is a
Stratus office building and Commander Tick is southeast of that.
Congratulations, you've completed the mission.

  Side note: Contrary to what the mission briefing says, Human slaughter is
only a proud and honorable thing if you're some alien bent on world conquest.
Don't try these things at home, kids.


3.2.6 Puppet Masters
  Map Type: Desert
  Enemy Bases: 1
  Objectives: Destroy the Citadel
  New Buildings: Neural Hive
  New Units: Lunatek
  New Upgrades: Xenowort +2, Atril +1, Ortu +1

  Welcome to Using Artifacts with the Taar 101.  In this mission you'll be
digging up Lunkateks and driving Pan Luma units crazy.  It'll be great fun.
At the start of the mission you'll have to sit through a little cutscene where
the newly brainwashed Commander Tick leads off the Pan Luma guards so your
Commander can teleport down and swipe the Lunateks they've already uncovered.
You'll get three of the artifacts from this little raid, which you should
probably save for use on the enemy Base, located to the southeast of your
Hive.  If you set one of these off near a group of Firestorms, then they'll do
a whole lot of damage to any nearby unit before the effect wears off.  Try to
get the defenders of Pan Luma's Exploiters to the east and west of their Base
to slow them down a little, or send Lunateks repeatedly to the Firestorms
around their Base so as to damage their buildings.

  While you're using or relocating your Lunateks, you should also pay
attention to your other units as well.  Send your Commander and the two Grays
that come with him back to your Hive as soon as possible.  Once you grab the
Pan Luma Lunateks you'll have a Saucer bring in 3 Grays, 2 Sy Demons,
2 Atrils, and a Brozaar to your Hive.  Start your Brozaar on the vent to the
east, and use the 4000 P7 you get to build up your Hive.  There's only one
entrance to your Hive area, a bridge to the south, so it shouldn't be too hard
to defend it.

  The first thing after you get your Commander back is take out the enemy
defenses at the P7 vent to the south.  You'll have a nearby Ortu overlooking
this vent, so you'll see when it becomes active.  Use your Atrils to bomb the
two Firestorms and keep your other units on hand to guard them.  Once the
defenders are taken care of you should breed another Brozaar and Xenowort for
that vent, since the increase in cash flow will help you build up your forces.

  Since using artifacts is the main idea of this level, be sure to get your
Neural Hive as soon as possible.  There are four artifact sites on this map,
located east of your Hive across the river, south of your Hive on a little
island, along the south central edge of the map (where you grabbed your first
Lunateks), and in the southeast corner of the map.  These sites contain 6, 4,
6, and 7 Lunateks, respectively.  Be warned that there will be Pan Luma units
running around the southeast site, so you may want to send in some other units
before your try excavation.

  The way I handled this level was to attack the enemy resource operations
and main Base with Lunateks as often as possible.  While the Lunateks were
keeping the enemy busy, I also built up a fairly large force to handle any
attacks that I didn't catch with an artifact.  When I ran out of artifacts the
enemy Base's buildings were severely damaged, and it didn't take long to
destroy them.  In the meantime while you're preparing for the final attack, be
sure to defend your outlying resource and artifact excavation operations.


3.2.7 Civil War
  Map Type: Jungle
  Enemy Bases: 3
  Objectives: Destroy the Human Bases
  New Units: Zisp
  New Upgrades: Atril +2, Ortu +2

  In the Human campaign you had to destroy Stratus after they allied with the
aliens, in the Taar campaign you get to sit back and let the three Human
factions fight amongst themselves before you mop them all up.  I'm not sure
how exactly you got into an alliance with Stratus, since two missions ago you
were shooting up their troops on Earth and brain scrubbing one of their
commanders.  The diplomatic element is lost on me here, but oh well.

  To give you some relief from having to deal with three enemy Bases right
from the start, Stratus begins as your ally in this mission.  You share vision
at their Base to the east, but not with any of thier units.  This means you
only have to deal with the Pan Luma and Aerogen Bases.  You get an Ortu at the
start of the mission, so you should probably send it out to do some recon on
this map.  Meanwhile you can spend the 4500 P7 you have to upgrade your Hive
and start getting more units.

  Defense on this mission is very simple.  There are two bridges leading away
from the island your Hive is on, located to the south and southeast.  Luckily,
the southeast bridge actually only leads to another island with a P7 vent on
it (not active at the start, but will be active soon enough).  This means you
only have to set up your Xenoworts on the south bridge.  Expect a few attacks
from Pan Luma and Aerogen, but nothing that four Xenoworts can't handle when
you're in the early stages of the mission.  I found that I didn't get attacked
nearly as often as in other missions, so I guess the other Humans are more
interested in Stratus.

  Just because you can sit back and let the Humans slug it out, doesn't mean
you necessarily have to.  I found that I could take out Pan Luma easily with
only 10 Sy Demons and 5 Grays.  Their Base is located to the southwest on a
wide open plain.  I must have caught them early because they didn't have any
Firestorms or Barragers, just a few Reapers and Troopers.  Basically if your
attack force can handle any mobile force Pan Luma has running around, then the
Base itself will be easy.

  Once you get finished with Pan Luma, you're probably going to have some
damaged units.  This mission gives you the ability to deal with those units in
the form of the Zisp.  If you haven't already, build your Neural Hive and
crank out a few Zisps.  You can heal your units, and get a feel for how to use
your Medical units, while Aerogen and Stratus shoot at each other.  The other
perk of the Neural Hive is that it will reveal the only artifact site on this
map, located on the south center edge of the map southeast from Pan Luma.
You're probably going to need to take out one of the enemy bases to get to the
site safely, but it only has two Lunateks, so it's not that great.  In any
case you can reassign the Brozaar (it should be your third by this point in
the mission) to one of the active P7 vents you've found by exploring the map.

  When you decide to take on Aerogen, be aware that they have a wide
perimeter defense of Firestorms set up.  There aren't that many Firestorms, so
you can probably take them out easily if you've add another ten or so Sy
Demons to your army, or you could simply attack one group and sneak through
out of range of the others.  Like Pan Luma, Aerogen's base is on a wide open
plain so there aren't too many terrain obstacles to worry about.

When it looks like you've got the upper hand on Aerogen, leave just enough
troops to finish off the Base, and move the rest over to Stratus for the big
backstab.  As soon as both Aerogen and Pan Luma are dead, Stratus becomes your
enemy.  Since they've already lost some units fighting with the other Humans,
and if your units start their attack from within the Stratus perimeter, this
will be an easy battle.  Once their Base is destroyed the mission is over.
One final note: you are under no obligation to defend Stratus.  If their Base
is destroyed, that just means you have to fight through the other two Human
bases to win the mission.


3.2.8 The Screamer
  Map Type: Desert
  Enemy Bases: 1
  Objectives: Meet up with Commander Tick
              Eliminate Human Bases if they exist

  In this mission you have to track down Commander Tick for the last time.
After escaping from Stratus' last stand, he has somehow broken the Taar mind
control and sold you out to Aerogen.  At the start of the mission your
Commander will be teleported down and charged with finding Tick.  If you'll
move north you'll find him among a bunch of Aerogen Troopers.  Set your
Commander to Move mode and just run after Tick.  He'll lead you on a merry
chase across the map ending at an artifact site.  Unfortunately the enemy has
already planted mines across the entrance to this site, so to get to Tick
you're going to have to send in some other troops to clear the mines.  You get
reinforcements in the form of 9 Grays and 5 Sy Demons, and as soon as they
arrive they'll get attacked by other Aerogen units.  To get Commander Tick,
send two Sy Demons across the minefield straight to him, one of them should
trip a mine, allowing the second unit to pass over that mine before it resets.

  After you kill Commander Tick you should take your remaining units and head
back to your Hive.  You don't get any P7 at the start of the mission, nor a
Brozaar, and only a Mind Hive to start out with.  When you kill Tick you start
getting a large influx of P7 from the vent under your Hive.  This lasts until
the vent near you Hive becomes active, but the P7 you get will be enough to
get a Warrior Fold and a Brozaar.  If you managed your units well you should
have a decent size force to deal with the occasional Trooper that wanders into
your Hive, so spend the money you get from your vent on new buildings.

  After you have your Hive up and running, start with your Xenowort defenses.
Aerogen gives you plenty of time to build up your defenses, so you should use
it.  Deploy four Xenoworts on both your north and southeast entrances to your
Hive, and get a Neural Hive for Zisps as soon as possible.  Once your defenses
are secure you can start building more troops (hopefully while your Zisps are
healing your old ones from whatever damage they took around the minefield).
The great thing about this level is that you start out with +1 upgrades to the
weapons and armor of your Grays and Sy Demons, so once you have a large enough
force you can go straight for +2 upgrades.

  When you get your Neural Hive, you'll notice an artifact site where Tick
made his stand, but unfortunately the minefield is still in place.  The site
contains only two Lunateks, but if you really want those artifacts, send in a
Gray before your Brozaar to trip the mines, then rush the Brozaar across.  You
shouldn't worry about enemy Ospreys too much, since it won't take your Brozaar
long to excavate the two artifacts, and after its done you can let it die.
There are no other P7 vents on this map, other than the one at your Hive and
the one at Aerogen's Base, so you only need to build one resource Brozaar.

  Finally, when you're prepared, march on Aerogen's Base to the northeast.
Expect stiff resistance from numerous Reapers and Barragers, as well as from
the large perimeter defense of Firestorms Aerogen has deployed.  Make sure you
have plenty of upgraded Sy Demons and you should be able to cut through their
units with no problem.  If you got the Lunateks and want to use them, keep a
careful eye on their health so they don't get shot down before you deploy
them.  Even with only two artifacts, if you use them on the right bunch of
enemy units you can cause a lot of damage and make the rest of your job a lot
easier.


3.2.9 Buried Treasure
  Map Type: Underground
  Enemy Bases: 0
  Objectives: Find the Chamber of Ancient Knowledge
  New Units: Gorrem
  New Upgrades: Gorrem +2

  This is the first official underground mission for the Taar.  You have to
make your way through a whole bunch of Human troops and find the artifact
chamber.  Unlike other underground mission, you can actually stand your ground
and kill off enemy units, so long as you manage your units carefully.  You
don't have any Zisps with you, and you will take a lot of casualties either
way, but you can actually fight through this mission, rather than just running
past enemy units as I have recommended in the past.  If you find that the
enemy units outnumber you too much and are just too great a challenge, you can
also order your Commander to run through the maze as in previous missions,
once you've explored enough of the map to know where the artifact chamber is.

  As mentioned in the briefings, you have three separate groups of units at
the start.  Your main group consists of your Commander, 2 Sy Demons, and 6
Grays, located at the southwest corner of the map.  Two Gorrems are located at
the northeast corner of the map, and one Gorrem east of your main groups
position.  The Gorrems can prove to be very useful in combat, since they pack
about twice the punch of a Sy Demon, can attack from long range, and come with
their +2 weapon upgrade in this mission, allowing them to use their Para-Storm
attack.  This attack will stop any units caught in the black cloud that
surrounds the target area and damage them while the effect lasts.  However,
you're going to have to get your main group to the Gorrems, since there are
enemy units in the way and Gorrems are very fragile on their own.
</pre><pre id="faqspan-4">
  If you're going for the combat route, you're probably going to want to pick
up your Gorrems.  To do so I suggest that you take your main group north and
fight past some Humans.  Send your Sy Demons after the Reapers so as to damage
them and draw their fire away from your Grays.  Don't forget to use your
Commander's Inspire command to increase the attack power of your troops.  Once
you destroy the Humans, keep heading north and you should run into a group of
Taar units, reinforcements from the previous forays into the underground.
There is another reinforcement group southeast of the first, and both have
three Grays and three Sy Demons to add to your little army.  After you pick
these units up, you can find a way to the Gorrems easily with the mini-map. I
recommend going for the northeast Gorrem group first, since they are closest
to the other reinforcements, and there are two Gorrems there.

  After you pick up all of your units, you should have explored enough of the
map to figure out where the artifact chamber is, so head there.  When you get
there you'll find two more Gorrems that you can bring to your side by moving
near them.  The Taar have to conduct a mind scan on the artifacts for sixty
seconds and don't really care that there are twenty or so Reapers heading your
way.  No matter how many of your units have survived to this point, they're
not going to be able to handle this attack.  Instead, use the Para-Storm
attack on the Gorrems you have to keep the Reapers immobilized in the hallway
outside the artifact chamber.  Run your Commander into the door to the north
as far you can, that will be your exit point once they mind scan is complete.
Continue to use your Gorrems and other units to hold off the Reapers until
your Commander can escape.


3.2.10 Animal Instinct
  Map Type: Jungle
  Enemy Bases: 1
  Objectives: Destroy the Human Base
  Note: Gorrem Upgrades Not Avalible

  In this mission you start out with a Hive that is on the verge of
destruction by Human forces.  There is no way to save it, so select all of
the surviving units, set them to Move mode, and retreat to the southeast
corner of the map.  There is another pad there for you to build a new Hive,
along with five Taar P7 tanks.  When your Commander teleports down you should
grab these tanks to give you a total of 5500 P7.  This is enough to build a
Mind Hive, Warrior Fold, and a Brozaar.  Get to work right away on building up
your Hive, because you're going to need new units quickly.

  As soon as you can get Xenoworts you should start setting up your defenses.
The area your new Hive is at has two bridge entrances to it, to the north and
to the northwest.  The enemy will attack both, so set up Xenoworts as you see
fit.  Note that there is a P7 vent near the north bridge which will become
active early on in the mission.  I recommend setting up your defenses on the
far side of the river so your Xenoworts can help defend that vent.  Also set
up defenses around your Hive so it can't be bombed by wandering enemy Ospreys.

  The Humans won't give you quite as long to build up as you might like, but
at least you still have some vision around your old Hive area.  This will let
you see when the Human forces are coming.  They seem to like Barragers and
S.A.R.G.E.s in this level, so be sure to build a few more mobile units to add
to the ones you saved from the old Hive.  Also, when the enemy starts
attacking your defenses at one of the bridges, send your ground troops out
through the other bridge and do a flanking attack on the enemy.  This will let
you take out their Barragers and give your troops room to maneuver, rather
than letting them get stuck behind one another as the first two Sy Demons
duke it out with the first Reapers they come across on the bridge.

  When you've fought off a few attacks and have a large standing army, you
should probably go after some artifacts.  By this time you should also have at
least two Brozaars working on P7 vents, and your army will help you defend
your resourcers when you have to go after vents farther away.  The artifact
site west of your Hive contains two Tektaara, the site in the southwest corner
has 5 Tektaara, the site on the west edge of the map as 3 Lunateks, and the
one in the northeast corner also has 3 Lunateks.  The Tektaara isn't a real
useful artifact, since the native animals will get gunned down easily by
enemy forces.  They're also pretty slow, so I never bothered much with
grouping them into one force for a mass attack.  They are good for sitting on
inactive vents so you'll have them in your vision range when they become
active.  You'll want to send some Ortus out to do scouting, since there are a
lot of vents in this mission and the ones near your base won't last as long as
you'd like.

  Finally, when you're ready to end the mission you can march on the enemy
Base in the northwest corner of the map.  There is only one entrance to the
Human Base, so if you can contain them on their island you can wait until
they run out of P7 (be sure they don't have any Exploiters elsewhere on the
map).  With the Human's affinity for expensive units, you can have a much
easier time attacking their Base if you wait for their money to run out and
destroy any units that come to you.  Integrating Gorrems into your attack
force will also help you out greatly, since Gorrems in enough numbers can kill
enemy units before they even get in firing range.


3.2.11 Spider Canyon
  Map Type: Desert
  Enemy Bases: 1
  Objectives: Find the Gorrems and steal Petra-7 from the Humans
              Destroy the Human Base
  Note: Gorrem Upgrades Now Avalible

  This mission starts off on a similar note as the last one, but the
situation is not quite as dire.  Your Hive is located in the northeast corner
of the map and has taken quite a bit of damage, but on the upside you start
out with a Genetics Sac.  You don't have any P7 to spend on much though, you
start with only 800 units.  Your Commander, along with 2 Grays, 4 Zisps, and
2 Ortus are teleported to a landing site south of your Hive, and your first
objective is to find surviving Gorrems and use them to steal P7 from the enemy
so you can rebuild your Hive.  Unlike the similar mission in the Human
campagin, your inability to build Mining units is not something you have to
deal with throughout the mission, as soon as you have the P7 you can start
breeding Brozaars to your heart's content.

  The first thing you should do is send your ground troops and Zisps back to
your Hive.  Your Xenoworts are intact, so your Hive has a good degree of
defenses, you'll just want to heal up the damage to your buildings as soon as
possible.  Use your Ortus to find the Gorrems and enemy Exploiters.  There are
two Gorrems hiding on the map, one located north of the landing zone, and
another on a small island to the west of the landing zone.  The enemy Base is
located southwest of your Hive, and there are two vents with Exploiters on
them nearby.  There is also another Exploiter to the west across the river
from the westmost Gorrem.  Once you find a Gorrem and bring it to your side by
moving near it, move it to the nearest spider web cluster and move an Ortu
into visual range of an Exploiter.  Select the Gorrem and press enter, it's
brain (of all things) will pop out and hover in the air if the Gorrem is in
range to steal P7.  Once that's done, you can move your Ortus off to scout out
the rest of the map.  If you hide your Gorrems in the spider webs then you
will be able to let them steal for a longer time before the enemy notices
them.

  Once you have your Gorrems stealing resources, breed a Brozaar as soon as
you have the P7.  There is an active vent guarded by two Xenoworts to the east
of your Hive, so go take that ASAP.  Your Zisps should be mostly done healing
your Hive, but let them finish up while you complete your buildings and add
whatever defenses you think you need.  There is an entrance to your Hive area
to the south, as well as a bridge going east to your vent.  The enemy will
attack from both entrances, so build up some mobile troops to counter them.

  The main problem you face in this mission is that the enemy starts out with
three P7 vents, and even with your Gorrems stealing from two of them, that's
still a significant chunk of resources going into their coffers.  Unless you
do a quick and effective strike on their Exploiters, expect to see a whole lot
of enemy units coming your way quicker than you'd like.  Since resources are
so plentiful for the Humans, they'll bring out S.A.R.G.E.s on a regular basis.
Counter all this with lots and lots of Sy Demons, upgraded when you can, and
keep your Zisps working between attacks.  Also be sure to keep an eye on your
Gorrems and have them retreat when they come under attack.  While they are
stealing resources, your Gorrems will not defend themselves, so you will have
to move them out manually.  You get two of these powerful units for free, and
it would be a shame to waste them.

  If you want a powerful weapon to turn the tide in this mission, you're
going to want to dig up some artifacts.  There are two sites on this map, to
the southeast of your Hive and near the center of the map, containing 3 and 2
Lunateks, respectively.  You should build a Neural Hive so you can get more
Zisps, but when you've built up a large army you should send a Brozaar to
harvest artifacts and use your other units to guard it.  If you manage to use
a Lunatek successfully on a large group of enemy units (say, near their Base),
then they will cause a lot of damage, especially when you catch S.A.R.G.E.s in
the group.  The downside is that you'll have to be real careful when deploying
your artifacts on this mission.  The S.A.R.G.E.s pack a good punch and can
shoot from far away, and the enemy seemed to like to cluster their Firestorms.
Fly your Lunateks in a close as you can, and deploy them before they get shot
down.  If nothing else, you'll cause a few S.A.R.G.E.s to get killed by their
own troops.

  The end game of this mission is much like the others at this stage in the
game.  If you've softened up the enemy with some Lunateks, then send in your
other forces to finish the job.  Be aware of new enemy resource operations,
and take those down so they can't throw as many units at you.  Also be aware
of new vents, and use those to expand your own forces.  Lastly, Gorrems will
be invaluable on the attack since you can group them into a separate group and
use them to pick off individual units, such as S.A.R.G.E.s and Firestorms,
very quickly.


3.2.12 Then There Was One
  Map Type: Jungle
  Enemy Bases: 2
  Objectives: Destroy the Human Bases

  This mission pits you against two enemy Bases on a very large jungle map.
This time all sides have access to all of their units and upgrades, so expect
a whole bunch of units of all types to be thrown at you.  The only thing
really different in this level is that you have to face two opponents with
their advanced units, but by this point in the game you should be able to
handle them easily.

  You start off in the southwestern corner of the map with 5000 P7 and your
standard Hive setup.  You'll want to go for an upgraded Genetics Sac as soon
as possible because defense will be a little bit of a problem in this level.
The most obvious places to defend is the area west of your Hive where the
northern ridge ends, and the bridge to the east.  However, there are four P7
vents in the area to the north of your Hive, and you might want to set up your
defenses further out so these vents are behind your Xenoworts.  This means
that you'll still have to set up defenses at the eastern bridge, as well as
the land passes to the north (past the two nearby vents) and northeast.  Send
your Commander to scout out the nearby area and you should figure out what I'm
talking about.  Fortunately the enemy seems to give you a lot of time to breed
a deploy your Xenoworts before they start attacking.

  When you have your defenses set up, some of the P7 vents you're guarding
should become active, so crank out a Brozaar and get it to the vent.  I had
three Brozaars running at one point, though later in the mission you're going
to have to send them further from your Hive.  This will become a problem with
marauding enemy armies, so try to keep either good defenses by your Brozaars
or just evacuate them at the first sign of trouble.

  The artifacts in this mission are not quite as usefull because they are
mostly Tektaara.  There is an artifact site north of your Hive with 1 Lunatek
and 3 Tektaara, a site in the southern central region with 2 Lunateks, and a
site near the southeast corner of the map with 1 Lunatek and 3 Tektaara.  The
last site is near the Pan Luma Base, so you're going to have to take them out
if you want to get to that site.

  I recommend going after Pan Luma first, since thier Base didn't seem to be
as heavily guarded, and your troops could move to it more easily.  Aerogen is
located on an island to the northeast of your Hive, and you can run into
trouble if your ground forces get backed up on the bridge going into their
Base.  As in all of the missions with more than one enemy Base, the trick is
to break through to one side and stop fighting a two-front war.  When you've
destroyed Pan Luma, expect Aerogen to attack your perimeter from any way they
can, they just won't be able to bring in the same number of troops as Aerogen
and Pan Luma combined.

  If you manage your resources and units carefully, you should have no
problem with this mission.  Having two or more Brozaars going will give you
enough resources to build up a sizable force and upgrade them, all with money
left over for reinforcements.  You shouldn't go overboard with Gorrems as they
are still expensive, but 5 or 6 can really hurt the enemy when you run into
them.  Be sure to get your Neural Hive for Zisps, if not for artifacts, and
breed 6+ of them.  I had 12 Zisps by the end of the level, and they really
helped out in between battles.


3.2.13 Earth Intervenes
  Map Type: Desert
  Enemy Bases: 2
  Objectives: Destroy the Human Bases

  This mission is essentially a rehash of the last mission.  You're facing
two enemy Bases, everybody has every unit, and there's more than enough P7 to
go around if you manage your Brozaars carefully.  I can't offer much more
advice on battle tactics at this point in the game, so just take what you've
learned so far and mop up those pesky Humans.

  Your Hive in this mission is located on the south central edge of the map,
and you begin with 5000 P7 along with the standard set of buildings.  There
are three vents nearby that you can grab easily, the one next to your Hive and
Brozaar (active at the start), and one vent each to the west and east (active
later).  Start building up your Hive and send your Commander to scout around
the area.  Like the last mission, this one has a lot of area to defend if you
want to keep the nearby vents behind your lines.  As you probably saw already,
the enemy will be more than happy to descend on your outlying Brozaars with
overwhelming force, so you want to keep your vents as defended as possible.

  The easiest places to set up defenses are by the pair of bridges to the
west of your Hive, somewhere east of your Hive past the vent where the path
turns northward, and directly north of your Hive where you have some Xenoworts
set up already.  There is a wide open area north of your Hive which is pretty
difficult to defend, even though I didn't see any attacks come through that
way.  Your Xenoworts should take out some of the advance troops, but you're
going to want to use your army to take out any attacking force that comes
through that way.  Also, four Xenoworts still seems to work well, though it
can't hurt to increase that number or reinforce them with a Zisp or two.

  The enemy Bases are located north and northwest of your Hive.  I took out
the northwest Base first, since it seemed to be closer.  This Base is defended
by clusters of Firestorms, so be sure to take in a bunch of Sy Demons, or send
in a Lunatek to get them to soften themselves up.  Alternately, if you can
afford 6 or so Gorrems you can use them to individually target and destroy the
Firestorms while your other units concentrate on the Base or other defending
units.  Gorrems can tear through Firestorms with enough numbers, and do so
from a safe distance.

  Lastly, there are three artifact sites on this map, one west of your Hive,
one northeast that you can reach by following the canyon walls east of your
Hive, and one to the north.  The north site is west of the north Human Base,
so you're going to have to take out that Base if you want the artifacts.  The
west site contains two Lunateks and two Tektaara, while the other sites have 3
Lunateks and one Tektaara.


3.2.14 The Answer
  Map Type: Underground
  Enemy Bases: 0
  Objectives: Find the Chamber of Destruction

  This final underground mission of the Taar campaign is much like the final
underground mission for the Humans.  If you've played through the Human
campaign, notice that they use a similar, though not the same dirty trick to
hide the path to the final artifact.  If you haven't played through the Human
campaign, then the hints I'll give to complete this mission are as follows:
look EVERYWHERE for a passageway, and the rooms that have stealth cameras
(little blinking tripod things) and a bunch of Humans are not the rooms you
are looking for.  There will be some fighting in this level, just not against
a whole bunch of troops that you can't handle with your 5 Grays and 5 Sy
Demons.


3.2.15 Final Evacuation
  Map Type: Jungle
  Enemy Bases: 3
  Objectives: Destroy the Human Bases
  New Units: Portalis

  Having unearthed (unmarsed?) the ultimate weapon in the last mission, you
are now tasked with wiping out the last vestiges of humanity infesting your
planet.  Diabolical enough for you?  You start out in pretty much the center
of the map surrounded by three enemy Bases.  You only get your standard Hive,
7500 P7, and a few units to start out with.  The Humans have discovered enough
P7 in this area to build S.A.R.G.E.s like they were troopers, and you will
come under a massive attack early on in the level.  Try to build up your Hive
and don't worry too much about deploying Xenoworts, they'll never survive long
against the enemy attack.  Before all hope is lost, the Taar complete their
checks on the Portalis, and send it to you.  Use this flying wrecking ball to
annihilate your attackers, and start preparing for the final battle.

  Once you get the Portalis, you can best use it as a mobile defender while
you build up your Hive and defenses.  The P7 vent near your Hive has a simply
awesome amount of P7 and an impressive flow rate, so you won't be wanting for
money early on.  Finish all of your buildings and start deploying Xenoworts on
the three entrances to your Hive, to the northeast, northwest, and southwest.
You can expect attacks from all three entrances, and since S.A.R.G.E.s will be
more prevalent than ever before you should also build some mobile defenders
for when the Portalis isn't around.  I cranked out 6 Gorrems, 10 Grays, and 10
Sy Demons, upgraded them completely, and they served as a good defense force.
The other thing to be careful off is your Brozaar at the P7 vent.  The vent is
on a little ridge west of your Hive, but the entrance to that area is closer
to where the enemy will approach than your own Hive.  Deploy a Xenowort or
Slom to keep nosy Humans away from your resources.

  With the Portalis, this mission is much like the final mission in the Human
campaign with the Esgaar.  The basic strategy is to take your artifact around
and kill stuff.  I recommend that you have a least 6 Zisps accompany the
Portalis whenever you send it to attack, both to heal the artifact and draw
enemy fire away from it.  You can try this mission without the Portalis, or
even complete it after the artifact has been shot down, but I bet it's going
to be pretty tough.  I personally just used the Portalis to destroy everything
hostile, and kept my other units at home for guard duty.

  You start out with three Ortus, which you can use to scout out the map.  If
you do this you'll find that there is one Base to the northeast, one to the
northwest, and one north-northwest of your Hive.  I took out the northeast
Base first on account that it was closest.  Also, there is one P7 vent to the
northeast, just outside your Hive's perimeter, and another vent by the Base
that you can get to once the Humans are gone.  You should get access to these
vents as soon as possible, and be ready to move your Brozaar once your first
vent drys up.  This far away from your Hive you'll need your other units as
defenders, but if all goes well you'll only need the extra P7 to finish your
upgrades and replace a few Zisps.  If thing's don't go well, it's better that
you have a bunch of money in the bank.

  Taking out the other two Bases follows the same pattern, and the order is
up to you.  If you hunt down enemy Exploiters then they won't be able to
replace their buildings as often, which will speed up your work destroying the
Bases.  In this mission I saw them replace Science Pods and Robot Factories,
as opposed to just Barracks.  Also, as you may have noticed, the Portalis has
the same weakness as the Esgaar when it is firing at a Base structure, in that
it won't always retarget enemy units that are firing at it.  This is
especially true when S.A.R.G.E.s are standing right next to the Base so you
can't manually target them.  In that case, rather than let the Portalis get
shot down, set Move mode, stop your attack, and move back a little bit.  The
attacking units will follow, and once they're in range the Portalis can take
them out easily.  Once the threat is gone, move back in range of the Base and
continue the attack.  After two more Bases crumble under the firey destruction
of the Portalis, you've won the Taar campaing.  Hooray!




4. FAQ
  Well, there really isn't a FAQ in this guide, since this is the first
version and no one has emailed me any questions.  If you have questions, feel
free to send them to me and I'll do my best to answer them.




5. Other Stuff



5.1 Contact Info
  If you see something missing from this guide, an error I've missed, or have
some info that I haven't included here, you can tell me at
[email protected].  Please include something about Dark Colony in
the subject heading so I know its not spam.



5.2 Acknowledgements
  I used the Dark Colony manual as a reference for the unit and building
dependencies, as well as for the names of the NPC objects (native lifeforms
and other buildings).  All due credit goes to the makers of Dark Colony for
that info.

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