KC23's Spring Offensive Strategy Guide - Getting Started
This Strategy guide focuses
on MiG Alley's dynamic campaign the "Spring Offensive". Some of this material
can certainly be used in playing some of the other aspects of MiG Alley,
but this strategy guide is specifically designed for Phase 5 "The Spring
Offensive". Throughout this "Getting Started" portion of the guide you
can click on links to specifics about each individual mission type. If
you are just getting into the Spring Offensive for the first time it might
be helpful to finish reading the "Getting Started" piece before exploring
the individual missions. Now it is time to get started.
In the campaign selection process you will see Five Phases of the campaign
which can be selected to play. Only one of these, however, is dynamic
and this is Phase 5 "The Spring Offensive". The first four phases have
nothing to do with each other or phase 5. These first 4 phases are simply
designed to get you familiar with the different aircraft and the kind
missions each of these aircraft are primarily used for. The "Entire War"
selection simply links all five phases. I suggest you go to the "Spring
Offensive" after you are somewhat familiar with each aircraft and not
to bother with the "Entire War" selection.
Once the "Spring Offensive" has been chosen you are taken to the Map
screen and asked to write in your pilot's name for the campaign. After
you enter the name and click on the check mark in the upper right hand
corner you will get to the "Directives" dialog window. Click the "64"
and "32" to send all your pilots to resting and then click the check
mark to close. This will clear the map of all computer-generated missions.
It is possible to use the "Directives" dialog window to set up computer
generated missions, however, this guide is geared to generating the missions
yourself giving you total control of all the UN air assets in North Korea.
This may sound like more than you want to get into, but if you follow
along you'll soon see that generating missions is very easy and takes
no special skills what so ever. You'll also have the satisfaction of seeing
the results of your own specific strategies. This document isn't necessarily
the very best way to play. It simply is designed to give you enough information
so you can start experimenting with your own strategies. I will interject
with several things that I think work best for my style of play, but I
encourage you to challenge my thinking and come up with better and more
unique plans of your own.
Now we have this big beautiful map full of targets with a complete stock
of aircraft and pilots at our disposal. Enjoy this moment cause it won't
last for long.J My overall strategy is fairly simple to describe, but
as the campaign presses on you will have to make some tough decisions
that are specific to your own campaign and style of play. The ultimate
goal may be to push the Reds back to the Chinese boarder, but the bottom
line to winning the Spring Offensive is stopping the flow of supplies.
As long as the pipeline of supply is adequate the enemy will just keeping
putting the pressure on the UN. It is not enough to wipe out tons of supplies
near the front lines you must also sever the pipeline that feeds into
those front line supply depots.
The following are my general priorities that will be explained in detail
below:
At this point you may be asking yourself why Airfields rate at the top
of my list after explaining how stopping supplies is everything. The
answer is simple. The Chinese have a seemingly endless supply of MiGs.
The MiGs are a strong threat to your strike aircraft and medium bombers.
You do not have an endless supply of aircraft; therefore your first order
of business is to protect these assets. UN aircraft do get replaced,
but at a painfully slow pace. These air assets are by far the most important
factor in reducing the enemy supplies and severing the supply pipeline
to the front. Look at what airfields are closest to the front and have
a high level of MiG activity and target them. This will allow you to
send out strike aircraft against targets close to the front without much
harassment from the MiGs.
Bridges
Trains and trucks don't get too far if there is no way to cross rivers.
This is a choke point for supplies. Keep these out of action and there
is no way for the enemy to re-supply. The enemy may put up a fierce fight
for a while, but without bridges he will soon find his ammo gone. The
enemy is very good at fixing bridges with the very large local work force
so the same bridge will sometimes have to be targeted more than once in
the span of several weeks or even days. Think of bridges as if they are
holes in a boat you are bailing water out of. If you don't keep the holes
plugged your bailing will be in vain.
Supply Depots / Marshalling Yards
Ah, so you've knocked out the local airfields and all the bridge choke
points are down. It is finally time to eliminate existing supplies close
to the front. This is where you get the most bang for your buck. You
can occasionally have over 1000 tons of supplies eliminated on a single
mission. Make sure you read the specifics on how to approach these tricky
targets cause the Reds have several aces up their sleeve to reduce the
effectiveness of your strikes. The "Art" of playing the "Spring Offensive"
is largely with these missions. There is much more to them that meet
the eye.
Armed Recon / Rail
These missions don't give you large amounts of supplies to kill, but every
little bit counts. They are also not very dangerous. Sometimes when you've
pretty much wiped out supply depots these make good missions to keep the
pressure on the enemy. I also set these missions up when I have aircraft
to spare and no other viable targets.
Villages
When you have especially hurt the enemy he will resort to hiding supplies
in cities or even small villages with huts. Keep an eye on these after
you have really nailed the supply depots and/or truck and rail lines.
CAS
You won't see these types of missions until after several days into the
war. A film clip will precede CAS missions and give you a brief description
of what is happening. The three icons located on the brown front line
are where you can click on the map to pull up the CAS missions. It happens
right before the front line moves so it is a sign you are doing well and
the enemy is about to retreat. These missions are not that important in
the overall scheme of things. If you don't do well with CAS missions,
but are doing well with the other missions then it is only a matter of
time before the enemy front line collapses due to lack of supplies. I
don't consider these missions much more than a novelty.
Making
missions looks very complex, but is extremely easy. Just click on one
of the red icon targets and you will be presented with the "Dossier"
dialog window where you can see the level of AAA and MiGs as well as
the activity level. Use the "Photo" selection to familiarize yourself
the target area and hit "Authorize" if you want to attack. There is a
bit more to this, that I will go over in the individual mission descriptions,
but you can certainly get started with doing just what I have described.
After selecting "Authorize" you will get the "Load Profiles" dialog window.
Depending on the mission type you will see a number of default selections
you can choose from.
Just pick which one best fits the mission you
have picked and bingo you got yourself a mission. Once you have chosen
a "Load Profile" feel free to go to the different dialog screens and
change things to your liking. You can change just about anything you
want. Once you have things just right, make sure to save it for future
use in the "Mission Profile" dialog window. That way the next time
you pick that target you will find your saved mission in the "Load
Profile" dialog window under the "User Strike" button.
Since Airfields are your first order of business here is the link for
specifics.
