AIR COMBAT STRATEGIES

Air Combat and Interceptions are the fundamental part of playing UFO,
without them there would be no progress in the game, as you couldn't shoot
down the UFOs to capture the aliens and equipment! So if you have to use
air combat, use it right! This little chapter should give you some hints on
doing just that!

                             INTERCEPT TACTICS
   Interception of UFOs is important.  Intercepting UFOs over funding 
   countries tells them you are doing your job and keeps them happy.
   Successful interception and shoot-down means you can capture aliens, 
   alien bodies, and alien equipment.  Even if interception is unsuccessful
   you may be able to discover an alien base.

      Don't get your shoes wet!
      Try to attack an UFO over land, because if you shoot it down at sea
      no one can get to it.  If you intercepted it over water, press
      minimize and click over to 1 minute time step until you ran out of
      fuel, it lands, it outruns you, or you get back over land.  If you
      fly back over land, change back to 5 seconds, then commence attack!

      Get back to base! That's an order!
      When you send multiple crafts after one UFO and the UFO gets shot
      down, the shooter will go home, but other crafts will continue onto
      the crash site and THEN return.  Instead, click on them and turn
      them back early (Return to base).  They will return earlier, thus
      be refuelled and rearmed faster for the next mission.

      Don't let them get away!
      Even if a UFO has landed, keep an interceptor on top of it if possible
      until your landing craft arrives for the action. That way, if the UFO 
      takes off, you still have a chance to shoot it down before it evades
      detection!

      Don't use the wrong weapons!
      Before attacking click on the VIEW UFO button to take a look at
      your target before deciding whether to attack or not.  Attacking
      with the wrong weapons means either the loss of the interceptor or
      the UFO totally destroyed so that nothing can be recovered.

        Very Small / Small UFOs
        Interceptors with Stingray missiles and cannons can only handle
        very small or small sized UFOs.  Attacking larger UFOs means heavy
        damage or even destruction.

        Medium UFOs
        Interceptors with Avalanche missiles can handle medium UFOs.  One
        Avalanche will blow a very small UFO into pieces though.

        Large UFOs
        Interceptors with Plasma beam and/or Avalanche missiles can handle
        large UFOs, but not VERY large UFOs.  Plasma beam may blow small
        UFO into pieces.

        Very Large UFOs
        Multiple Interceptors with plasma beam and/or Avalanche are needed
        to attack very large UFOs, and you'll probably lose a few, since
        one shot from battleship and the interceptor is destroyed or
        crippled.

        Interceptors with fusion ball launchers can attack very large UFOs
        if it does so at maximum distance, but will probably run out of
        ammo first since they are two shots each.

        The only way to "safely" attack alien battleships is to use
        Firestorms and Avengers, and even then you will probably be heavily
        damaged (as in 20% to 60% damage), even with Fusion Balls and
        Plasma beams.

        Differences among Aggressive, Normal, and Cautious attacks
        The difference between Aggressive, Normal, and Cautious attacks
        were not explained clearly in the manual.  Here's my version:

         Cautious Attack
         Attack the UFO from maximum range of the available weapon(s) at a
         slow firing rate. Cause least damage per shot, useful when you
         want prisoners or attacking a small target and your weapons may be
         overkill.

         Normal Attack
         Attack the UFO from maximum range of the available weapon(s) at
         standard firing rate. Cause average damage per shot, suffice for
         most attacks if your weapon outrange the enemy's.

         Aggressive Attack
         Attack the UFO as fast as possible, as close as possible, and fire
         as fast as possible. Cause most damage per shot, but exposes the
         craft to enemy return fire.

      Applications of each attack mode
      To determine which attack mode to use, you need to look at the UFO
      first. Click on the VIEW UFO icon and take a look at what type of
      UFO it is. See section A.3 for list of UFOs and recognition chart.

      Of all the UFOs, only a Battleship is a major threat to your crafts.
      Battleships have a weapon range of 70 km, longer than even fusion 
      balls. NO OTHER UFO has this kind of firepower. The only way to ensure
      destruction of a Battleship is to use Firestorm or Avenger with dual 
      Plasma Beams. One shot from a Battleship is usually enough to destroy
      Interceptors, so do NOT attack Battleships with Interceptors.

      When attacking Battleships with Avengers and Firestorm, use
      Aggressive Attack.  After several Battleship interceptions with an
      Avenger, I've found that using Aggressive Attack with an Avenger I
      get approximately 40% damage (once as low as 30%) where as I
      usually get 60% damage in Normal attack.  Firestorm got hit pretty
      hard against Battleships, usually 50-80% damaged.
      All other UFOs can be safely tackled with Avalanche missiles and
      Plasma Beams, since you can stay at maximum range and avoid their
      fire.  Supply Ship and Terror Ship have range of 50 km, which is
      the second longest, but Avalanche and Plasma Beam outrange them.

                           CRAFT WEAPONS TACTICS

      Get Plasma Cannon quickly
      Plasma Cannon is THE best craft weapon in the game, with 99 shots
      and 54 km range. Interceptors armed with twin plasma cannons can
      even tackle large (though not VERY large) UFOs safely by remaining
      outside the UFO's weapon range.

      Get rid of Stingray Missiles and Cannons
      Stingrays are only good for hitting VERY SMALL and maybe SMALL UFOs
      due to the short range (30km for Stingray, 12km for cannon).  Replace
      Stingray and Cannon with Avalanches as soon as possible.  You can
      also forget about the laser cannon but at least it does not use
      ammo.

                          FINDING THE ALIEN BASES
      There are two ways of discovering an alien base. First of all, you can
      let XCom agents find them for you, but they are not very efficient, and
      it could take time. Alternatively, you could look at the graphs to find
      high amounts of UFO activity, and if that area is one where you aren't
      getting any UFO reports, ther's probably a base there.

      When you get the Hyper Wave Decoder, you can look for UFOs on Supply 
      missions. When you spot a Supply Ship on an Alien Supply mission, use
      an empty Skyranger or an Avenger to follow it. Follow it to it's last
      known position and keep patrolling. After a few hours game time, the
      base will be discovered!

                    -= GROUND COMBAT STRATEGIES =-
                    -=    TABLE OF CONTENTS.    =-