Villages
Villages are a rather obscure aspect of MiG Alley. When I was first
getting into MiG Alley I thought someone at Rowan had a rather sick
sense of humor regarding this aspect of the campaign. Sure the buildings
blow up and the huts burn down with little village people running for
their lives sometimes like a human Roman candle. What possible strategic
advantage could you gain by killing off the civilian population?
So I ignored the villages for the most part until one day when I was
doing an armed recon mission. Some MiGs jumped me and I was running
for my life trying to get back home. I stumbled upon a village at low
altitude a got a quick glance at some supplies hidden under some trees.
That was my first hint that there was more to villages then I ever imagined.
I started paying attention to the activity level during my campaigns
and sure enough they are pretty high in some areas. In the west there
are four villages worth paying attention to and in the central area
there are three.
Some of the village icons are a bit of a misnomer. They are really small
cities with very large and very tough warehouses. When you find a village
icon with activity levels medium or better take a look at whether it
is a city with large warehouses or a small village with nothing but
huts. When you authorize an attack you will approach both of these targets
in a very different manner.
On the villages with the large warehouses make sure you use 1000lb bombs
as they are much more efficient than the 500lb bombs. You can use medium
bombers or Strike aircraft. Rockets are generally a poor choice against
these large warehouses. In the smaller villages however a single strike
fighter flight with rockets can nearly take out the whole village.
I personally have had some crash to desktop issues in the village missions,
however I rarely see a complaint on this on the various MiG Alley forums.
I've found as much as 880 tons of supplies in a single medium activity
village which is over half as much as a supply depot. So when the supply
depots are pretty much depleted of supplies take a look at the nearest
villages near the front lines and get some easy supply kills.