*********1*********2*********3*********4*********5*********6*********7********* Battalion Wars S-Rank Guide Version 1.3 by: amano_hyo email: [email protected] (make sure you put "wars" somewhere in the subject or your message will be deleted automatically) *********1*********2*********3*********4*********5*********6*********7********* Table of Contents 1) Introduction 2) Preliminary FAQ 3) Basic Tips 4) Units A. Infantry B. Ground Vehicles C. Air Vehicles 5) Level Walkthrough A. Tundran Campaign 1. Combat Patrol 2. Behind Enemy Lines 3. Assault on Windbreak Ridge 4. Operation POW 5. Plan of Attack 6. Titans of Tundra 7. Striking Distance B1. Campaign I Bonus B. Dune Sea Campaign 8. Beachhead 9. Invasion Force 10. Gunships of the Desert 11. Black Gold B2. Campaign 2 Bonus C. Coral Atolls Campaign 12. XDay 13. Herman's Heroes 14. Call Sign Eagle 15. The Guns of Tiki Bay 16. Battle of the Coral Atolls B3. Campaign 3 Bonus D. Xylvania Campaign 17. Bridges on the River Stix 18. Road to Xylvania 19. Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers 20. Siege of the Vladstag B4. Campaign 4 Bonus 6) Extra Challenges 7) Credits 8) Version Update *********1*********2*********3*********4*********5*********6*********7********* 1) Introduction Welcome to this S-Rank Guide for Batallion Wars, an excellent action/strategy game along the lines of Pikmin and Myth. This guide is primarily intended for people who have beaten the game, but are having some trouble improving their rank to 95%. If you are going through the game for the first time, I recommend not using this guide or the in-game map which shows enemy unit positions. A lot of the fun comes from being surprised and experimenting with different methods. This is a game that deserves to be savored slowly. I have used the methods in this guide to obtain an S-Rank on every mission, but there are probably many other excellent ways. If you know of a better method, e-mail me, and I might put it in the guide (no guarantees). Make sure you put the word "wars" or "battalion" in the title somewhere or your message won't get through the filter. Let's get started! *********1*********2*********3*********4*********5*********6*********7********* 2) Preliminary FAQ Q: What is Battalion Wars? A: It is a mix of 3rd person shooter and strategy. It shares the general look of Advance Wars and the basic idea of paper rock scissors unit strengths/weaknesses, but the games are otherwise unrelated. Q: Why do the controls suck? A: Considering the variety of situations that you have to deal with, the controls are actually very elegant. You just need to learn to use the C-stick very precisely. Keep practicing and it will become second nature. Q: Why is there no multiplayer/co-op? A: The developer, Kuju, did not have time to implement multiplayer. Maybe they will in a sequel (a la Pikmin). Q: How long does this game take to beat? A: The game clock only keeps track of the time when you beat a new level or achieve a new high score. It takes about eight hours of actual play time to beat the game the first time give or take a couple hours depending on skill. Q: How long does it take to get an S-Rank on all the levels? A: It took me about 25 hours of play time, but I chose not to use the in-game map and did not use any kind of guide. I can see a more skilled/impatient gamer doing it in less than 10 hours. Of course, once you know the methods, it is posible to get all S-Ranks in less than 3 hours (one play session). Q: Does Anything Happen When You Get All S-Ranks? A: As far as I can tell, nothing additional is unlocked. It may be subtle, but I haven't noticed it yet. Q: What Happens When you Get All 100%'s? A: That my friend, I do not know. I enjoy Battalion Wars, but I know that it will take me many more days of playing before I can get 100% on XDay alone. From what I have heard, it seems as though nothing is unlocked even when you get all 100%'s. *********1*********2*********3*********4*********5*********6*********7********* 3) Basic Tips Beating Battalion Wars is not that hard, but getting an S-Rank is a whole other story. There are a few basic tips that will help you keep your score high: A. Keep Moving - For most missions you cannot afford to wait for units to catch up to you or get sidetracked hunting down a couple of infantry. Many times you must send the appropriate squad to attack and then leave them behind as they finish the job. Once a squad is done attacking, they are automatically in follow mode, even if they started out in sentry mode before you ordered them to attack. B. Take Down Large Threats Yourself - Sure, you can trust a squad of flame vets to roast a few rifle men or rocket troops without getting killed, but don't trust two light tanks and some bazooka troops to take down a heavy tank. Take control of a tank and finish it off yourself, the computer-controlled tanks are about 25% as effective as you are in a tank. C. Use The Zoomed Out View - Even in the middle of an intense battle, the zoomed out view should be used to send certain enemy types to defend a particular area. In particular, missile, mortar, and rifle troops should be sent to higher ground. I actually use my right hand to change the camera so I can still move around with my left hand during a battle. When the action dies down, use the zoomed out (global) view to clean up your units and make sure they move back to their correct locations. D. Keep Vulnerable Units Away From Harm - If you know that you are going to be fighting a squad of tanks and machine gun nests, don't have your flame troops and rifle grunts follow you around. Leave them nearby but far enough away so that they don't get involved. As a side note, you should know that everytime you switch control, the original unit (the one you first controlled) is in follow mode. This can cause some problems. For example, if you switch from artillery to a flame unit and the artillery follows you into a group of bazookas. Be sure to put the original unit in sentry if you don't want it hanging around. E. Draw Enemy Fire - The computer always tries to kill you more than the other units, so even if you are a flame vet against a battlestation, it's actually posible to get it to try and turn to target you by toasting it a little bit. This will distract it from the units that can actually damage it. F. Control the Most Powerful Unit - Most of the time, you will be doing much more damage than the other units, so always control the unit that can cause the most damage. For example in Beachhead, you should control an Assault Vet for the entire mission because that is the unit that can kill the most infantry in a short time. G. Control the Unit with the Least Health - The ground vehicles are usually pretty good about healing themselves, but if you are getting ready to go into battle, make sure that you are controlling the tank with the lowest amount of health. Even though the enemies will target you more, you are much better at evading enemy fire and getting to jerry-cans/medpacks than the computer. H. Put Units in Sentry Mode - If you are not moving somewhere, or if your units are being attacked, put them in sentry mode. This is especially important for missile vets/AA vehicles. If units are in follow mode, they may attack once a while if they feel like it, but in sentry mode they will shoot all units that wander into their range. Get used to putting the entire battalion in sentry mode to finish off the last few survivors of an enemy squad. The only time you want to avoid sentry mode is if you are being attacked by artillery or bombers (only your missile vets should be in sentry for bombers) because you don't want to be a stationary target. I. Heal Units When Possible - This sounds like common sense, but whenever you have a moment to spare after taking out a squad, check your units' health (especially mission critical units) and grab any medpacks and jerry cans lying around. Don't waste too much time, just try to get eveyone at least at 70% before moving on if possible. The medpacks and cans that enemies drop disappear in around twenty seconds, so don't let them go to waste. *********1*********2*********3*********4*********5*********6*********7********* 4) Units A. Infantry Rifle Grunts - Most effective when placed in sentry mode at maximum range or on hills. Use them for capture points and to blow up ammo dumps from far away. Assault - One of the best units. Send them against rocket or bazooka troops, AckAcks and riflemen. Also good at taking out MG Nests quickly. Can do decent damage to gunships. Flame - Another excellent unit. Send them against rocket or bazooka troops, AckAcks and riflemen. Limited effectiveness against Acid troops. Bazooka - Good unit, made obsolete later by Mortar troops. Send against ground vehicles. Fully charged shot at point blank range kills most infantry. Missile - Place them on hills or under trees on sentry mode. Do not have them shoot when they are near one of your tanks or a wall. The explosions will damage your units. They can also kill themselves by firing missiles in an enclosed space. At medium to close range they are decent for finishing off pillboxes and ground vehicles. Mortar - The best unit. Are effective against any ground target and have excellent range and damage. The blast also knocks down infantry when charged. Great at defending a position when placed on a hill in sentry mode. B. Ground Vehicles Light Tank - Use to destroy watchtowers, flame troops, rifle grunts, enemy tanks and artillery. If rocket troops get too close, run over them. Heavy Tank - Just like a light tank only better. You can send three of these after one enemy heavy tank and trust them to do the job and not get killed. Light Recon - Not much to say. I never use them except for umm... recon. Otherwise send them afer rifle grunts that are far away and alone. Heavy Recon - Good at drawing fire from tanks. Decent anti-infantry but mostly you just want to keep it out of the way and safe. Fun to goof around in though. Anti-Air Vehicle - Station them on hills in sentry mode. Place missile vets on sentry mode near them and protect them with tanks from ground assault. As usual, if there is a serious threat, you should control them personally. Artillery - There's a pattern here. Station them in sentry mode on high ground. Put missile vets near them in sentry mode and protect them with assault vets and tanks. Wait for the artillery to turn and face the target before you fire. Battlestation - Ah, there's nothing quite like driving a battlestation. You really have nothing to fear, even rocket and bazooka troops can quickly be taken down by the side cannons or by running them over. Of course, make sure that missile vets are nearby in sentry mode to shoot down any gunships. The most important thing to know about the battle station is that the autoaim sucks. Just manually aim by holding down R and you will be more accurate and also hit targets that are supposedly "out of range" according to the L lock on. Make sure you wait for the station to rotate and actually point towards the target before you fire. C. Air Vehicles T-Copter - You never get to control one. They take a lot of punishment before going down though. Kill as many as you can before they land. Bomber - Fly low and slow and use the pulled back camera to aim better. Make sure you're lined up before locking on, it's hard to correct your path afterward. If you get in trouble fly back near your missile vets or fighters. Fighter - Don't hit a tree. Fly fast to get away from targets, then slow down when you turn and attack. Make sure to fly through jerry cans in the air. Gunship - Use to take down artillery, tanks, and best of all battlestations. Also good for MG nests, watchtowers, and rocket and bazooka troops. Be careful about hanging around near Minigun troops too long, they do decent damage. Strato Destroyer - You never really get to use this to its full potential. I honestly prefer using fighters for air targets and bombers for ground targets. If you do the level correctly, you shouldn't even need to use it. *********1*********2*********3*********4*********5*********6*********7********* 5) Walkthrough Here's the meat and potatoes of the guide. The difficulty of each mission is ranked from * to ****. You might have to try the *** and **** missions several times before you are able to get an S-Rank. Thanks to DoubleStriker73 for providing the unit counts for each mission. Good luck! A. Tundran Campaign The first and longest campaign has a lot of variety. You should get an S in the first four missions easily, but after that it gets much more difficult. The bonus mission for this campaign is my favorite. 1. Combat Patrol - * 5 Rifle 1 L Recon Throughout this mission, you should be finishing the tasks before Betty even finishes telling you what to do. Jump over the barbed wire. Shoot all of the dummies. Look up and right, run ahead chase the spy and shoot the 3 listening stations. Run towards the star. When you get near the drop-off, look up and shoot the two balloons. Shoot the listening station while running at it, then shoot the listening station to your left. Look up and shoot the balloon. Run past the dead soldier, call Alpha company to follow you, run to the right, put alpha company in sentry mode, then call them to follow you again. Kill the grunts and shoot the ammo dump to the right, then take control of the Recon and drive up the hill. Drive to the gold star. 2. Behind Enemy Lines - ** 13 Rifle 1 L Tank Run to Bravo company and ask them to follow you. Kill the spy, kill the grunts, flank the two grunts by running to the right around the rocks and kill them. Run up the hill, lock on to the MG nest and get in. Put your gunts in sentry mode in front of you and kill the grunts on the bridge. Jump out of the MG nest and run across the bridge and down the hill. Ignore Herman and run behind the grunts to kill them. Run down the hill and send your grunts after the enemy grunts while you shoot the ammo dump and free the POWs. When everyone is almost dead, run up the hill to the left. Check everyone's health, they should all be at least 80%. Take the tank and drive towards the bridge. Before you reach the bridge, put all your infantry in sentry mode. Then drive on the bridge and take out the MG towers and the light and heavy recons. Grab a jerry can. Call your grunts to you using follow, and while they cross the bridge, take out the two explosives so they don't get hurt. Send them after the bazooka veterans while you destroy one of the parked recons. Don't destroy the last recon until most of the bazooka veterans are killed. 3. Assault on Windbreak Ridge - * 13 Rifle 4 Bazooka 1 L Tank Call the grunts to follow, then run down the hill and kill the three grunts. Run to the right and kill the grunts, then swim acoss the stream and take control of the bazooka veterans. Put the grunts in sentry mode, run back down the hill and kill the recons with the bazooka vets. Then run to the base. Man the MG nests with grunts and put the rest of the grunts in sentry mode between them. Take the bazooka vets and run to the other side of the base. Take out the recon vehicles. Make sure everyone's health is good. Leave the bazooka vets in sentry mode at this end and switch control to the grunts. Take out the advancing grunts. Switch back to the bazooka vets and run down the hill and take out the recons. Trust your grunts to take down the infantry and take the bazooka vets down the hill to kill the recons. Once they are destroyed check back with your infantry to make sure they have finished the grunts. Grab all the grunts and take them to the flag. Kill the grunts that come out of the T-copter. Then call the bazooka vets back up the hill. Take control of the tank and drive it down the hill. Put the bazooka vets in follow and leave the grunts in sentry at the flag. Destroy the tanks, being careful to draw fire away from the bazooka vets (if you're nervous, don't bring them at all). 4. Operation POW - ** 7 Rifle 5 Bazooka 2 Missile 1 L Recon 1 L Tank Send the grunts for the enemy grunts, take control of a bazooka and take down the tank. Run in the base and free the recon, then take control and drive it out (5:35 left) Follow the road. When you have a choice, turn left. Don't worry about Jerry Cans unless a bazooka vet hits you. Jump the broken bridge (aim slighly left) (3:45 left) Drive through the gate and down the mountain. Jump the stream and drive into the gate. This is the trickiest part. When you enter the fort, aim slightly right towards the tents (and the tank). Then, turn left and jump off the ramp. If you build up enough speed, you should break through. Then turn right and drive out the gate. If you get stuck, remember that no matter what way your vehicle is facing on screen, down always moves backwards. (2:40 left) Drive around the trees to the left and grab a Jerry Can if you need it. Make your way to the silver star. (2:05 left) Drive up the hill to the left and jump off the cliff. Angle slightly to the right and drive to the gold star. Take control of the tank and put everyone except for the missile vets in follow. Kill the first few grunts with the tank and grunts. Kill the recon with the tank then retreat the tank behind your grunts and put the grunts in sentry mode. Use the grunts and bazooka vets to kill the bazooka vets. When they are all gone, use the tank to finish off the enemy tank. 5. Plan of Attack - *** 8 Rifle 5 Bazooka 5 Flame 1 L Recon 1 L Tank Take control of one bazooka vet and have everyone follow you. Run to the broken wall ahead of you and put everyone in sentry mode. Have only the recon vehicle follow you and run to the captured flame vets. While you are far away, assign the recon to attack the grunts. Finish off the tank with 3 or 4 shots and free the flame vets. Finish off the grunts quickly. If you're going for 100%, take the recon north and kill the infantry near the tents. Then, switch control to one of your grunts back near the broken wall and call everyone to follow. Put the recon on sentry if you drove it north to kill the infantry. Wait a few seconds for the flame vets to catch up a little. Run across the bridge to the left and kill the bazooka troops with grunts and bazooka vets. Take control of the tank and put everyone else in sentry mode. Drive up the hill to the right and free the tank, then kill all of the troops. Drive down the hill on the other side and destroy the MG nest. Wait briefly for your flame troops to catch up, then take control of one of them and run across the bridge. Kill the bazooka vets with your flame troops and bazooka vets. Call everyone to follow and while your tanks catch up, kill the grunts to the right with your grunts. Put the bazooka vets and flames in sentry mode. Now, this is tricky. A light tank is going to attack from the left. Take control of one tank and assign your grunts and flame vets to attack the bazooka troops straight ahead, then kill the light tank with your tank. Make sure the second tank stays out of trouble. Once the light tank is destroyed, call everyone to follow. When everyone catches up, put them all on sentry. Take the tank, and drive up the hill by yourself. Attack the heavy tank, and when it is almost destroyed call everyone up the hill. As they approach, destroy the MG nest. Take everyone to the flag. At this point a couple leftover bazooka might will run around the corner from where you just were. They are all clumped together, easy pickings for your flame and bazooka vets. Now, wait! Don't capture the base yet. Nelly will fly a T-copter in with some infantry and another tank. Destroy the tank with your own and send the flame vets to kill the infantry. Once the tank is gone, send the nearest troops to hoist the flag. 6. Titans of Tundra - **** 6 Rifle 6 Bazooka 3 Flame 5 Missile 1 L Recon 4 L Tank I got a 94% on this level seven times in a row before finally getting a 98%, so I think it's pretty hard. It might be easier for you though. Take control of a flame vet and have the flame vets and missile vets follow you. Run straight ahead, and when you reach the base of the hill, call the tanks to follow you. Run straight up the hill and kill the bazooka vets with your flames. Then, put all of your missile vets on sentry mode underneath the trees. When Herman says "Here comes the welcome wagon," turn to the left and send all of your tanks to attack the approaching tank. Your four tanks should kill the first tank, but one of them might have taken heavy damage. Once you have killed the two gunships that might fly in, call everyone to follow you, and take control of the weakest tank. Grab the Jerry can from the 1st tank and send your flame vets to kill the grunts near the lake. Drive the weakest tank towards the lake and destroy the 2nd Heavy tank. Then take control of a missile vet and put everyone else in sentry mode. Another gunship may fly in, shoot it down. Then take out the gunship patrolling the fort from far away. Take control of a flame vet, and have everyone follow you except the missile vets. Leave them in sentry near the hill. Send your grunts and bazookas to kill the rifle men inside the fort. Take the flame vets and kill the grunts on the right side of the fort. Leave the recon and tanks in sentry mode once they get close to the fort. Once you are done killing the grunts on the right, leave the remaining flames in sentry and run to the other side. There should be a 3rd heavy tank approaching from the left. Put your grunts and bazookas in sentry, and assign your tanks to attack it while you roll around it distracting it. Once you see one of your tanks get close, take control of it and finish the 3rd tank off. Time for a health check. The weakest tank should get the can. Any wounded soldiers should be sent to the medipacks in the base by zooming out and using the Y button. Don't forget to call back your missile vets who have been waiting patiently. Drive to the right up the hill. Send your flames and grunts to kill the grunts on the right and keep moving. Kill the grunts on the hill with a tank, and make sure your hurt guys get a medipack. Wait for your missile vets to catch up and put them all in sentry mode, then take control of one of them. Any second a gunship will fly by, take it down. This is a very tricky part of the level if you want everyone to stay alive. This is what I do, but there may be a faster way. Take control of a bazooka vet and leave everyone else on sentry at the bottom of the hill. Make sure the tanks are ready to go. Run up the hill and use a charged shot to kill the 2 bazooka vets and the two grunts by moving from the right to the left, then start attacking the tanks while you call your tanks in to help. As soon as your tanks get in range, switch to the closest one and finish off both tank. When the second tank is almost destroyed, call everyone up the hill and have the missile vets destroy the gunship that should attack soon. Heal your tanks and switch to a flame vet. Send the grunts and flame troops forward to take out the bazooka vets and grunts. Make sure to finish off the bazookas before the tanks catch up to you, then take control of a tank. Put everyone else in sentry and drive down the hill and take out tank number 6. When it is almost dead call everyone to follow and send your grunts to kill the bazooka hiding in the trees to the right. Use your tank to kill the other grunts and make sure your missiles are put in sentry when they get near. You're almost done! All of your tanks should be alive and healthy. If one of them has been destroyed, you probably won't get the S. When you are on the bridge, tell your missile vets to destroy the gunship patrolling nearby. Then have your remaining tanks and bazookas attack the tank to your left. In the meantime, you should drive your tank to the right and destroy the final tank yourself. If the events aren't happening as I describe in this walkthrough, or the tanks don't seem to be where I say they are, then your speed is too slow (or maybe even a little too fast). This method of finishing the level will get you around a 95%-100% for speed and a 95% for power, so it is essential that you keep your units alive! That's why I don't use the bazooka vets to take down the tanks except for the 7th one. 7. Striking Distance - *** 6 Rifle 6 Assault 4 Bazooka 2 Missile 3 Artillery Run down the hill and kill the flame vets with your assault vets. Zoom the view out and station the assault vets and grunts on the bank of the stream to the left of the log. Station the missile vets to the right on the green hill and put the bazooka vets to the right of the missile vets. Put the artillery to the right of the log and take control of one of them. Trust your grunts and assault vets to kill all of the bazooka men who try to swim across on the left. Destroy the MG towers and MG nests and do as much damage as possible to the tanks with your artillery. Once all of the swimming bazooka vets are gone, send your assault vets and bazooka vets to the right to protect your artillery from the bazooka vets and tank approaching from the right. Put your grunts near the missile vets and take control of a missile vet when Nova talks about sending a gunship. Make sure all of your artillery survives. When all of the bazooka vets are gone, put everyone on sentry and drive an artillery over to take out the tower on the right. When it is gone, take only the assault vets across to take out the flame troops first, then call everyone to follow and send the grunts to raise the flag. In the meantime, have the artillery start destroying anything they missed. After you hit a tank once, manually aim in front of it to finish it off, otherwise the lock on aim will aim where it used to be. This works well when using battlestations later too. Once the tanks are just about gone, send some infantry to the 2nd flag (not the grunts if they haven't finished the 1st flag yet) and drive the artillery forward. Make sure all the artillery units are healthy (there should be a ton of jerry cans around) and drive them forward. Keep the missile vets nearby in sentry. Destroy the nearest tower and MG nest with your artillery, then send the assault vets after the bazooka vets to the left. Call all of the artillery forward and take out the final Watchtower. Make sure that you destroy the explosives near the final flag before sending your grunts in to capture it. Your assault vets can finish off the surrounding rifle grunts. You should finish with over a minute left. The most difficult part of this level is making sure most of your units survive including all 3 artillery units. B1. Campain 1 bonus - ** 16 Rifle 4 Missiles 4 L Tank 3 H Tank This level is a cake-walk compared to Titans of Tundra. It's also the most fun bonus level IMO. I love the Tundrans' yells of "Victory!" This method can get you 100%. Take one tank and drive down the hill. Leave everyone else in sentry. Take out both Heavy tanks with the good old circle of death to the left. When the 2nd is almost gone, call everyone to follow. While you're waiting for them catch up kill the two flame vets at the bottom of the hill with the tank. Now zoom back the camera, and turn left to face the fort. Station your grunts to the left of the fort, and your light tanks and missiles inside the fort. Then take control of one heavy tank and have the other two follow you around the right side of the fort. Drive past the right of the fort and destroy the group of 3 heavy tanks. Try to save your fleeing light tanks from being destroyed by circling to the left. Make sure you have your missile troops destroy the gunship when you hear it. Take control of a light tank and drive around the fort in a counterclockwise direction and kill all of the infantry. Only do this step if you are trying for 100%. Take your light tank and have the other light tanks follow you to the south while everyone else waits near the fort in sentry mode. When you are able to lock on to the grunts near the tents, send all of the light tanks to be stationed near them, then switch back to a heavy tank and have the missile vets, grunts, and other heavy tanks follow you towards the final 2 tanks. Have everyone wait in sentry mode when you get close to the 1st tank and destroy both of them yourself. Have everyone follow you when the 2nd is almost destroyed. Put the tanks in sentry and place the missile vets in sentry near them, then take the riflemen in and kill all the bazooka vets. The best way to do this is to zoom back and station the grunts on the small high point overlooking the bazooka vets. Your missile vets should protect the tanks from the gunship. If you're going for 100%, after a couple bazooka vets are killed run up the hill to the right with a grunt and kill the 2 flame vets as the last few bazookas are killed by the other grunts. *********1*********2*********3*********4*********5*********6*********7********* B. Dune Sea Campaign This short campaign is weird in that it starts out with a pretty difficult mission and ends with one of the easiest. It's frustrating to play as the Xyylvanians in the bonus level and not be able to goof around due to the level restrictions. 8. Beachhead - *** 15 Rifle 5 Assault 5 Bazooka 1 H Recon 2 Artillery 1 Anti-Air Drive the Heavy Recon to the fort. Target the tank and send the bazooka vets after it while you distract it and attack. Once it is destroyed, take control of an assault vet and pull the camera back. Station the grunts and assault vets near the medpacks, the recon and the bazooka vets on top of the jerry cans, and put the artillery pieces on either side just outside the front gate. I initially tried sending the artillery up to the hills on either side, but they actually seem to do better when they are just sitting right by the gate. Just protect them from rockets. Once you are finished assigning everyone their positions, run down the beach and kill as many soldiers as possible. At any time in this mission if the enemy starts to pull down your flag, switch control to a bazooka vet back in the fort, kill the invaders, and send your own grunts to pull your flag back to the top. Once the first wave of infantry are gone, make sure you run down the beach again to meet and kill most of the acid troops before they can reach the fort. After they're all gone, send four grunts to man the towers and rearrange your guys in the fort if they have gotten disorganized. Then take the assualt vet and run down the left side of the beach. The first T-copter will land on the right, but it only has rifle grunts, you should concentrate on killing the rocket vets on the left. After the rocket troops are all killed, take out the acid troops on the far left, and then clean up any remaining rifle troops. Remember, even if you have trouble hitting the acid troops that if you can stall them in one spot for a couple seconds, your artillery can take them out quickly. Once the acid troops are gone, there should be two tanks making their way up the beach. Run down to meet them with your assault vet and stall them long enough for your artillery to finish them off. General Herman should say something about kicking butts. Run back to the fort and clean up your men again, putting them back in position. When the AA vehicle arrives, take control and drive it near the flag. Station the extra assault and bazooka vets with the others and zoom the view out so you'll be able to see the bombers approach. Use the AA vehicle to greet any troops that come in through the front gate. A group of acid toops may come in from the left side but your troops will make short work of them. When Herman warns about an air strike, a T-copter will fly overhead, use the AA vehicle to shoot it down. Then shoot down the 4 bombers and you're done! 9. Invasion Force - *** 7 Rifle 5 Bazooka 5 Flame 2 H Tank 2 Anti-Air Call the other tank and the flame troops to follow you and drive forward and left. Use the tank to take out the grunts and then send the flames to kill the rocket troops on the left. Meanwhile kill the artillery with your tank. When the 2nd artillery is almost gone call everyone to you and drive your tank across the bridge to kill any infantry that might be attacking the Tundrans. When the gunships show up, take control of an AA vehcile and take them out. Station your riflemen, one AA vehicle and one tank near the Tundrans and drive one tank to the north bridges with everyone else following you. Station the flames and the AA vehicle south of the bridges and put them in sentry mode. Then use the tank to take out the two heavy tanks and retreat the tank back towards the AA vehicle. Send the flames and bazookas to take out the rocket troops before they can seriously damage any of your vehicles. Move everyone back towards the southern bridge and put your AA vehicles in sentry mode. Take control of a tank and kill all of the infantry that try to cross the bridge. Your flame troops can help too. Once they are all almost dead, take control of an infantry unit and have everyone follow you to the base. By the time Betty says "...both objectives complete" you should be at the base. Station both AA vehicles on the hill in sentry mode. Station one tank at each entrance. Put the flame vets near the flag, put the grunts behind the tank at the south entrance. Put the bazooka vets behind the tank at the north entrance. Then take control of an AA vehicle and drive it to the flag. While all your troops are getting into place two T-copters will land to the north and south, you should shoot at least one of them down with the AA vehicles. A gunship will attack and quickly be shot down by the other AA vehicle. Two heavy tanks will attack from the north. Your tank and bazookas should take them out. Then a T-copter will try to land at the north. You should take it out before it lands. At this point, your northern tank will wisely come back to heal itself, once it is healed, put it back at the north entrance and send your remaining bazookas to the north too. Check the health of the other tank. Another gunship will fly in and be destroyed and a heavy tank will attack to the south. Your tank should be able to handle it and will heal itself. A T-copter will fly in to the south, make sure it doesn't land. Two heavy tanks will attack, one from each side. Switch control to the weakest of the two tanks and make sure you destroy the enemy tank without dying. Then switch to the other tank and do the same. Make sure your AA's are in sentry because another gunship will fly in. Once the tanks are dead, switch control back to an AA vehicle and bring your tanks to the flag where they can get some jerry can lovin' (There are also cans under the tents). Around this time, another T-copter will try to land in the north and Vlad will yell at his men about how expendable they are (not much of a motivational speaker). Another heavy tank will attack from the south and another gunship will fly in. Take the heavy tank out with your own tanks and make sure to send your flames and grunts after any rocket troops that try to come in from the north. A final heavy tank will attack from the north, so turn your tanks around and tank it out. Make sure to take control of the weakest tank so it survives and gets the can. Bazooka vets can help too. Once the tank is gone call everyone to the south. A heavy tank may be waiting for you. Take it out with a tank, then take control of an AA vehicle and drive towards the star. When you get in range, take out the gunships, then send everyone after the infantry and drive to the star. 10. Gunships of the Desert - ** 3 Rifle 2 Assault 5 Missiles 1 H Recon 3 H Tank 1 Gunship Take control of a Misile Vet and immediately run forward and shoot down the gunship. Then call everyone to follow you and destroy the gunships on the ground in this order: left, right, right, left. After that, take control of the recon, jump the bridge, and drive to the silver star. A couple missile vets should survive and swim across behind you. Take control of the gunship, fly forward, and kill the rocket troops. When they are almost all dead, call everyone to follow. Then, fly forward and take out the heavy tank and minigun troops. Take control of a tank and put the gunship in sentry mode. Wait until everyone is together, then put everyone in sentry mode and drive the tank up to take out the two AA vehicles. Once they are gone call everyone and when they are over the bridge, put everyone in sentry mode and switch control to the gunship. Take out the rocket troops and tank. There may be one gunship left, lure it over your rocket troops if it attacks you. Once all the gunships are destroyed, take your gunship to the gate and take out the MG tower and the heavy tank, then fly away the way you came and take control of a tank. Put the gunship in sentry so it doesn't get shot down by the two AA vechicles in and around the fort. Drive the tank in the gate and send the grunts and assault vets to the left to take out the rocket troops while you drive the tank to the right over the 4 jerry cans. Then use the tanks to destroy the AA vehicle and any minigun troops. Drive to the back of the fort and send the grunts to capture the flag. While the grunts hoist, drive to the west gates and destroy the 2nd AA vehicle and the two heavy tanks that come in. Finally, turn around, and drive back to the east side of the fort to destroy the next two heavy tanks that attack. Finally send some infantry to capture the second flag. 11. Black Gold - * 8 Rifle 3 Assault 3 Mortars 1 H Recon 2 Gunships 2 Bombers This level is really, really easy. You should get 100% with no problems. Take control of the gunship and have the other one follow you, Then fly north and take out the heavy tank and infantry. When they are almost all dead, call all your troops to follow you. Then fly back south, switch control to an assault vet and put the gunships in sentry mode. Now comes the fun part, run from light to light, destroying them as you go and anything that gets in your way. The combination of assault vets and mortar troops makes short work of anything on the ground including heavy tanks. If you really care about speed then you should go: bottom right, left, right. Once you destroy the third light, take control of one gunship and take out the miniguns and heavy tanks around the bridge. Make sure everyone else is in sentry mode. As usual, when the last tank is almost gone, call everyone to follow you to save time. Run straight ahead and take out the light and infantry and then run to the right to take down the last one. Switch control to the bombers, and have everyone else in sentry mode including the gunships. Have the other bomber follow you and drop bombs on the southern tower. As soon as you are done with your run, switch control to the other bomber and drop a few more. You should be able to take out a tower in one bombing run this way. Continue to the northeast and take out the second tower, making sure to fly at maximum speed from tower to tower. Then fly to the east and take out the last for an easy 100%. Enjoy it while it lasts. The remaining levels are tough. B2. Campaign 2 Bonus - *** 10 Rifle 8 Assault 3 L Tanks 2 H Tanks 2 Anti-Air When you first play this bonus, you will lose before you even have any clue what's happening. But once you get an idea of the range at which the T-copters start to leave, it's not that hard. Take control of an anti air unit and have the other one follow. Drive to the front of the battalion and then have everyone follow you. Drive forward until you can lock on to the bazooka troop, then send your grunts after it. Send your miniguns and light tanks after the enemy light tank on the left and send your heavy tanks after the light tank that drives in from the right. Wait a moment, then slowly drive forward until you can lock on to the T-copter. Shoot it down. Make sure the other AA vehicle is in sentry mode so it takes care of the two gunships that will fly in. If it is not close enough, you may have to take down one of the gunships yourself. Take control of a mingun and kill all of the bazooka vets inside the walls. A lone light tank may be still wandering to the east, send your heavy tanks to finish it off while you move towards the bridge. Take control of an AA vehicle and drive to the bridge to the left. Shoot down the two patrolling gunships and then send your miniguns to take care of the bazooka on the other side. Shoot down the two gunships patrolling near the hill. Then back up, turn to the left, drive down the beach, and shoot down the 2nd T-copter. Make sure everyone catches up, then turn to the right and drive between the buildings towards the 3rd T-copter. Send the Miniguns to kill the bazooka vets and grunts, and shoot down the 2 nearby gunships yourself. Send your tanks to take out the small tanks near the T-copter while you destroy the copter from outside the tank's range. Drive in to help the tanks finish off the 2 small tanks and heal your vehicles as necessary. Turn right and drive towards the final T-copter. Take control of a Minigun and kill the 2 bazooka vets in the middle of the level. Then, when you approach base of the hill, wait for everyone to catch up. Send the tanks at the enemy tank, send the grunts and minigun at the enemy infantry, then take control of an AA vehicle and shoot down the final T-copter. You will have a few seconds after it is destroyed to kill as many units as possible to boost your power rating. Use these seconds to send your miniguns and tanks up the hill to kill another tank or two. *********1*********2*********3*********4*********5*********6*********7********* C. Coral Atolls Campaign This campaign has a lot of missions where you have to protect one type of unit that is critical for the mission's success. It also features the introduction of the two most powerful units, the awesome battlestation and the so-so strato destroyer. The bonus mission lets you drive those wacky Solar tanks that seem to get stuck on everything and also pilot the all-powerful Solar fighters. 12. XDay - **** 14 Rifle 6 Assault 6 Mortars 4 Missiles 3 L Tanks 2 Fighters Okay, unless you are a gaming god, you'll have to play this level a few times before you get an S Rank. For me, a few times means about twenty. Getting an A Rank is simple, but S Rank takes a little bit of luck, at least using this method. First send your grunts to attack the grunts to the right side of the beach. Run ahead with the mortar vet, then switch to an assault vet when they arrive. Run up the beach with the assault vet killing a couple grunts along the way. When you get close to the rocket troops, send the assault vets to attack them and send the tanks and mortars to destroy the artillery. Run around and make sure that all of the rocket troops are dead, then put all of your grunts in sentry mode so they clean up any remaining grunts. Take control of the most damaged tank and put everyone else in sentry mode. Finish off the artillery and heal the tank, then destroy the two mg towers. Have the other tank follow you and drive through the gate. Fire a shot into the group of flame vets then destroy the mg tower. Have the other tank attack the flame vets, but be careful not to fire at one when it close to your tank or you will take damage, just run them over or use the tank's heavy mg. When the flames are almost all gone, call all your troops from the beach and send your grunts to capture the helipad. Drive in ahead of them to take out the lone grunt at the flag. When the units start to get close, put them all in sentry mode (not the grunts at the flag) and take one tank up the hill to free the missile vets. One tank is all you need to kill the grunts, tank, and mg tower. Then drive right over the fence and shoot the explosves to free the missile vets. Fire a few more shots to finish off the grenade troops being careful not to damage your tank more than necessary. Note - If you want an easy A. Just call all of your troops to the high spot where the missile vets were being held (make sure to get rid of any explosives first). Zoom out and station your tanks in the back (northeast) corner. Put your missile vets behind the tanks. Put your mortar vets, grunts, and assault vets along the edge of the flat area to guard your tanks. In this formation, your battalion will be able to defend itself against the stream of infantry that will attack. Meanwhile, you can take one brave assault vet down the hill into the base and free the fighter pilots. The assault vet will die when the tank follows him into the base, but he will die a hero because your fighters will be ready in time to give you an easy 100% time and 100% technique. Your power score will suck however. But, back to the S-Rank walkthrough which is what you're really here for. At this point, the T-copter should have just dropped reinforcments. Drive back down the hill to meet them, then take control of the weakest heavy tank and drive down the beach to take care of the artillery. Run over any grunts that get in your way. While you are finishing off the artillery, send your assault vets to kill the bazooka troops to the right and then start your assault on the base. This is the hardest part of the level because it is very hectic and you need to kill the 3 mg towers and the 2 tanks quickly. The best method I have found is to drive a tank in first and destroy the mg tower on the left. Send your tanks after the tank on the right, and your mortars after the mg tower in the middle. Then use the tank to destroy the far right mg tower and drive to the right to help your tanks finish off the enemy tank. As soon as the enemy tank is almost dead, switch control to a mortar vet and zoom out. Send the entire batallion to the area enclosed by the four walls in front of the only gate to the fort. Then run into the fort and free the fighter pilots. If the gunships are already attacking you when you free the pilots, you are going too slow. At this point you should already see the gunship gold stars on the map, but they should still be far away over the water. Run back out of the fort, and station the entire Battalion with the Y button in front of where the far right (south) mg tower used to be. This is so that the huge group of infantry that spawned when you freed the missile vets are forced to approach them through a fairly narrow passage between the hill and the wall of the fort. Take control of a fighter and have the other one follow you. Fly out to meet the gunships and take them down quickly. Once they are all gone, fly over the largest group of enemy infantry you see on the beach (don't hit a tree) and try to kill a few. Then, fly out over the ocean towards the approaching Strato Destroyer and tell your wingman to attack it while you take out the gunships. Make sure to fly through the jerry cans to heal yourself. Finally finish off the Strato Destroyer and pray that your troops back on the ground killed enough infantry to get you a high power score. If you do this method correctly you will just barely get a 100% speed score, and almost all of your units will survive. It's all a question of power. If your power score is a little too low, try waiting a few seconds before you destroy the Strato Destroyer, or even switch briefly back to your ground troops to make sure they kill as many infantry as possible. 13. Herman's Heroes - ** 6 Rifle 5 Assault 8 Bazooka 5 Flames 5 Missiles 1 H Recon Run across the bridge and send the flame vets after the grunts. Send the mortars and grunts after the two rocket troops, then call everyone to follow and run up the hill. When you near the top, put everyone in sentry mode, then take a lone mortar troop and kill the two grunts and the mg tower. A mingun may run out, your mortars will make short work of him. Run to the left through the gate and take out the mg nest and the minigun. Then free the missile vets and call everyone into the fort. Run back to toward the other gate, killing the miniguns and taking out the mg nest at the far end of the fort. Then have your grunts raise the flag. Put your missile vets in sentry mode, and shoot down the gunship that flies in. There should be a lot of medpacks lying around, heal anyone that needs it. Take control of a mortar troop, run out of the fort and down the hill to the right. Once you get within maximum mortar range for the mg tower on the right, put everyone in sentry mode and take out the tower. You may have to attack the rocket troops before someone mans the tower. Once the tower is gone, run to the left and take out the other tower. Call everyone into the base and run stright ahead to free the bazooka vets. Then run to the left and send the bazookas and mortars after the recons while you kill the miniguns with your mortar. Once the recons are gone, put everone on sentry while you take down the remaining two mg towers and clean up any rocket troops still on the left side. Send the grunts to the flag. A couple of heavy recons will attack from the north, take them down with bazooka vets and mortars, then go out the north exit and turn left. When you get within range of the mg tower, put everone on sentry and take it out. When the tower is gone, call everyone to follow, then run into the base. Send your bazookas after the tank whle you take out the explosives on the left wall and free the Solar troops. With a little help from your mortars and bazookas, the Solar troops and tanks will make short work of the tanks and mg tower. Run out the back exit and under the bridge. Target the rocket vets on the other side and send your grunts to attack them. Send your flame vets to attack the grunts on your side. Run across the bridge and send your bazooka vets after the tank. Then use your mortars to take out the 2 towers. Send your flame vets to clean up left over infantry and jump onto the platform for a nice spot to mortar anyone you see. 14. Call Sign Eagle - ** 6 Fighters 2 Bombers 3 Gunships 1 Strato Destroyer This level is a lot of fun. There's nothing like raining down destruction from above. The first time you play you might have trouble figuring out where the men are that you are supposed to protect. They land in the middle to the south, then they move east, then north, then west across the bridge to the base. As long as you make sure you are destroying all of the enemy units slightly before Herman's men reach them, they will be fine. Make sure you are holding up on the analog stick before the level starts and immediately call your fighters to follow you. When you get close to the T-copters, ignore the fighters, and send your wingmen after one of the T-copters while you attack and destroy at least two others. They should just barely finish off theirs before it lands. You might lose a fighter, it's okay, the technique score requirements are pretty lenient. Fly forward and do some damage to the artillery and heavy tanks on the ground. Then take out as many fighters as you can until Herman asks you to take out those bombers. Fly north and make sure you bring down both bombers before they can bomb Herman's men. Once they are gone, fly back and damage the artillery and infantry as much as possible and take out both watchtowers on the southeast part of the island. Then switch to the bomber and finish off the two artillery units and any remaining infantry. Also destroy the two MG nests before Herman's men get close. Use the bombers to destroy the tanks, then switch to a fighter and take out the 2 watchtowers near the middle of the island and the watchtower at the northeast that is guarding the captured gunships. Continue north and destroy the two artillery units. Switch control to the gunships and make sure to take out all of the mg nests and any remaining watchtowers. Also make sure to destroy the tank patrolling the base. Herman will say something about T-copters. Switch to a fighter or the strato destroyer and fly to the southeast to take down 2 of the copters before they land. If one manages to land, use a bomber to destroy most of the infantry before they can get to Herman's men. Herman's men should finish capturing the base. Then a few fighters and 2 strato destroyers will fly in. Use the fighters and strato destroyer to shoot the sluggish enemy strato destroyers down. If you take too long, bombers will fly in and start bombing Herman's men in the base. But, if you destroy the strato destroyers quickly they won't get the chance to do any damage. 15. The Guns of Tiki Bay - ** 6 Rifle 3 Assault 4 Bazooka 3 Gunships 2 Anti-Air Run straight ahead and take out the minigun, Then command your assault vets to take out the mg nest while you draw its fire. Kill all of the ackacks. When the battle station arrives, run all of your infantry south a bit, then take control of the gunship. Before you take out the battlestation, destroy the 2 gun towers to the north or they will pepper you to death. Then circle the Battlestation and destroy it. Fly your gunship down low to pick up the jerry can. Switch control to an assault vet and put your gunship in sentry. Run north towards the gold star and take out the infantry. Make sure you take down the miniguns and mg nests quickly, then take the Ackacks. Send your bazookas and grunts to take down the Ackacks on the beach to your left, and take the assaults across the bridge. Kill the minigun and mg nest (just roll around the nest while the other assaults kill it.) Then kill the ackacks and grenade troops. Run to the AA vehicles and send both of them back across the bridge you just crossed. Have your infantry kill the Ackacks on the right and then heal themselves with all of the spare medpacks. Take control of one AA vehicle and have the other follow you back across the northeast bridge. Then shoot down all of the fighters (make sure the other AA is in sentry mode). Your grunts and assaults should kill the grunts at the end of the bridge. When the last fighter is down, take control of your gunship, have the other gunships follow you, and fly to the battlestation. Make sure you focus your attack on the 2 Ackacks near the station. Once they are dead, kill the rest of the infantry and the station will be a sitting duck. Other Ackacks may try to run over, but they will be too late to save the station. Muahahaha... 16. Battle of the Coral Atolls - *** 6 Rifle 4 Flames 4 Missiles 1 Battlestation 1 Bomber This level requries some strategy to get a 100% time. First, take control of the bomber and fly to the right. Bomb the tank then turn left and bomb the next tank. Turn right and destroy the three artillery pieces (this may take 2 passes). By now, 2 gunships will be pestering you, so fly back over your men making sure to drop a few presents for the rocket troops near the hut. Switch control to a missile vet, put the bomber on sentry, and take the gunships down. Take control of a flame vet, call the other flames and the battlestation to follow and clean up any remaining grunts and rocket troops in the area. Make sure to leave the missile vets in sentry to protect your bomber. Run to the northeast side of the beach, zoom out, and send your battlestation to the start of the bridge leading to the southeast island. We will be using it later, but for now it should just stay there. Take all of your infantry and swim to the northwest island across the space to the right of the broken bridge. You should still be controlling a flame vet. Run up the hill to the left and kill all the infantry while your grunts capture the flag. Then skeedaddle across the rope bridge before the tank to the north can get close enough to hurt you. Send the flames to kill the guards, and switch to a grunt to free the solar assault vets. Then run across the next bridge and quickly take out the infantry to the right with flames. Call your battlestation to follow and it will start across the bridge to meet you while you keep running forward taking out infantry on the left and then the right. It's a beautiful sight to see your battlestation drive up to meet you. Switch control to the station and put your men in sentry mode. Then drive back up the hill and take out the tank that you ignored and the enemy battlestation. Make sure to aim manually by holding R instead of using the L lock on whenever you use a battlestation. You will be much more accurate. The enemy station should get one good hit against you tops before it bites the dust. Drive up the hill and run over the ackacks, then call everyone to follow except your bomber. Drive the station across the bridge, then put everyone in sentry mode on the bridge and manually aim to take out the infantry and barbed wire wall on the right. Drive to the right, turn to the left, and manually aim to get a few cheap shots on the battlestation. A couple gunships will fly in, send the missile vets after them. Wait for the battlestation and tank to drive towards you and destroy them as they appraoch. Then drive up the hill and send your grunts to capture the flag while you cover them by running over infantry. This is important. Before your grunts finish taking the flag, turn the battlestation to the right and manually aim at the POWs. One well-placed shot will free them right before you beat the level which will help your technique score. If you have extra time, turn to the south and fire a couple shots at the ackack on the hill for a litle extra power. B3. Campaign 3 Bonus - *** 12 Rifle 4 Assault 9 Flames 6 H Tank 3 Fighters Take control of a tank and drive forward, send the two other tanks down to attack the artillery to your left. Send your plasma troops down to the left to take out the rocket troops. Take your tank and the grunts and take out the artilery and rocket troops to the right. Then turn left and drive down the hill to finish off the other artillery. Make sure the weakest tank gets healed, then drive back to the left and across the bridge to the middle while everyone follows you. Free the plasma troops and put everyone on sentry for a second to kill the rockets, then drive across the next bridge and do the same to free the tanks. Turn to the right and drive across the bridge towards the easternmost antiair. Your tank should have the most damage, since it is leading the way, but it should still be healthy enough to take down the antiair and grab the can. Don't be greedy! One can should be enough for you. Pause a moment to give the tanks a chance to catch up. During this mission, you want to try and make sure your tanks are never bunched up in a single blob by taking control of them and spreading them out a little. It's very easy for them to get stuck on something, so keep them apart as best you can. When you see a rise to the right with a bunch of cans on it, send your weakest tank in sentry mode to stay near them. You have way more tanks than you need, and 4 cans is enough for a tank to survive the bombers for a while on its own. Take the other tanks and continue to drive counter-clockwise around the island taking out antiair vehicles. After you destroy the heavy tank, make sure you turn right to get the antiair and leave another tank on top of the jerry cans. Send your infantry to take out the rocket troops, then drive up to the barricade and destroy the AA vehicle on the left. Drive through the gap in the barricade and take out the 2 artillery units. Then turn right and take down another AA unit. Finally drive back and turn right to take down the last two AA vehicles. Switch to an assault troop when the last vehicle is almost dead and kill all the rocket troops in the area. Then assign all of the units still with you to the spot on top of the jerry cans. Switch to a fighter and put the other fighters in sentry over the tanks. Then fly back and forth over the tanks making sure to take out any bombers and gunships before they can get close. Zooming back the camera makes this a lot easier. D. Xylvania Campaign Every level in this short and final campaign is long and difficult, although the last level is actually the easiest of the campaign. Infinite numbers of bombers and gunships respawn in the levels, so its important to keep moving and be consistent with your timing. Let's finish this thing! 17. Bridges on the River Stix - *** 7 Rifle 8 Assault 6 Bazooka 10 Missiles 3 H Tanks Take control of a tank and drive to the front of the batallion. Then drive down the hill and have everyone follow you while you take out the two mg nests. Drive to the middle of the bridge and put everyone in sentry mode. Then maually aim to the left and right to take out the two towers with two shots each. When Vlad sends the rocket troops, send the assualt vets to take them down. Switch to an assault vet and send the rest of the assault vets to attack the rest of the rocket troops. When they are all almost dead, call everyone over and assign the grunts to take the flag. Assualt vets can take down both mg towers pretty quickly. Right after the towers are taken out, a bomber will fly in. Take control of a missile vet and shoot it down. Then run down the hill towards the next star. Leave your missile vets on sentry near the base of the hill and send your assault vets to take out the infantry while you drive a tank in with the other tanks following and take out the 4 mg towers. Send the grunts to take the flag, call the missile vets down the hill and clean up any leftover infantry. Another bomber will fly in right after you get the second flag, take it down with the missile vets, then take control of an assault vet and cross the bridge. Herman will say "less than 4 minutes to go" around this time. As you approach the rocket troops, Vlad will deliver one of his funniest lines where he admits to stealing equipment from the Tundrans. Kill the rocket vets before your tanks get close, then take control of a tank and put everyone on sentry for a moment while you take out the 1st mg tower. Call everyone to follow and take down the 2nd mg tower while they catch up. Another bomber will fly by so make sure your missile vets are in sentry mode and shoot it down. This will happen a lot faster if you take control of one of the missile vets yourself. While you are shooting down the bomber, send your tanks up the hill in front of the capture point. Once your men have captured the flag, two heavy tanks will attack from the hill. Switch to one of your tanks and destroy them both then drive up the hill while everyone follows. Destroy the artillery while your assault vets take out the rockets. Send the assualt vets and grunts to kill the vets on the bridge and switch to a missile vet. Take down the next bomber, switch to a tank, and put everyone in sentry mode before you drive to the area near the star. I think it just might be a trap. Drive straight ahead and destroy the heavy tank. A heavy tank on the right will attack, but ignore it and do the circle of death left. Once the first tank is gone, grab its can and take out the 2nd tank that is now on your left. Then send your other tanks and bazookas to take out the artillery while you circle back and take down a 3rd heavy tank (the one that you ignored that was on your right initially when you drove in). Continue forward and destroy the artillery. Then destroy two more heavy tanks. Yes, that's right you just took down 5 heavy tanks on your own. No time to feel good though, destroy the artillery then turn around and take out the final heavy tank. Call everyone to follow and drive to the gold star. And the score for the final skirmish is, You: 6 heavy tanks, 3 artillery, The Rest of Your Battalion: 1 artillery. Talk about being overworked! 18. Road to Xylvania - **** 6 Rifle 6 Assault 6 Bazooka 6 Missiles 1 Battlestation Drive the battlestation forward and take out the two pillboxes. Remember that unless you are at point blank range, never use the L lock on with the station, always manually aim with R. Drive down the hill slightly, aim up and to the right and take out the pillbox on the ridge. Call everyone to follow you and drive up the hill. Take out the artillery and infantry, and make sure to grab the cans. Put everybody on sentry while you take out the pillbox. Switch to a missile vet and take down the attacking gunships. Then drive out the east opening with the station and have everyone follow. Around this time, possessed Ingrid will ask you to join her or be destroyed. Kill all of the grunts with the station and assaults and make sure your missile vets are on sentry. You should be done and moving on while Ingrid and Vlad are still having their heart to heart. I know you're not supposed to do this, but I like to run over the bazooka vets in the battlestation even though it costs you some damage. Otherwise, send the assault vets after them. Pause at the left turn to destroy the 2 pillboxes and kill the bazooka vets from afar. Then drive up the hill. When you get to the point where you have to turn right to enter the stronghold, have everyone stop in sentry mode while you drive in and take out the flame vets and tank. Then switch to a missile vet and take down the gunships. There's another can under the tent. Drive out of the north entrance and take out the 2 pill boxes. Then drive to the right and destroy the heavy tank. Around this time gunships will attack, so make sure your missile vets are in sentry mode and take them down. Drive down the road and take out the infantry, 2 heavy tanks and pillbox. Pause and wait for everyone to catch up when Ingrid starts yelling, then put your missile vets in sentry mode and shoot down the next wave of gunships. Drive up and take out the heavy tank and pillbox from maximum range, then call everyone to follow. Drive forward and take out the two pillboxes and heavy tank, then put your missile vets in sentry to shoot down the gunships while you drive forward and take out the next heavy tank and pillbox from afar. Call everyone to follow you as you destroy the the last tank, then shoot the statues over the wall (1 shot each) while putting your missiles back in sentry mode. You should get at least a 94% time if you don't waste battlestation shots and use this method. 19. Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers - **** 10 Rifle 6 Flames 4 H Tanks 2 Anti-Air Like XDay, this is another level that is extremely hard to get an S rank on, the first few times you play it(at least it was for me). After this, there's only one left though so let's get to it! (Note: Al the Hedgehog has an easy method to get 100% which is described below. It works!) First, take control of an AA vehicle and have the second one follow you as you drive forward and right. Station your grunts and tanks in the path of the grunts that run in to the front of you, and send your flame vets to kill the grunts that run in from the left. Four gunships will fly in, so put the other AA in sentry mode and shoot them down. Then when everyone is dead, take control of a tank and drive forward while the other tanks follow. Destroy the two heavy tanks that attack by circling to the right. Your circle of death must be larger for the legion tanks because their shots travel more quickly. When the last one is almost dead, call everyone to follow you. Take control of a flame vet and run to the right up the hill. Put everyone in sentry except the other flame vets. Kill the bazookas and free the Solar jets. Then turn and make sure your AA's have taken care of the next group of gunships. Take control of a tank and drive through the trees whle everyone follows. Make sure you stay far enough away from the bazooka troops on the left so they don't attack you. Send your flames to kill the bazookas on the right while you take out the heavy tank. Save the can for your weakest AA vehicle. Drive on and take out the next heavy tank then stop at the base of the crater and wait for everyone to catch up. All of your tanks should still be alive and both of your AA vehicles too, this is essential for getting an S Rank. Take control of an AA and drive towards the crater. Two gunships will fly out. Take them down, then switch control to a healthy tank. Zoom out and station the two AA's on either side of the entrance to the crater. Station the grunts on the lip, and the flames behind them. The tanks should be following you. Send the two weakest tanks to attack the statue on the right. Then send the third tank to attack the statue on the left while you drive forward and shoot it 3 times (one more shot should kill it). Don't kill the statue on the left, but continue making a large circle to the left and destroy the next statue. If your circle is big enough, the bazooka's shots will just miss you. Keep driving in a large clockwise circle and destroy the next statue. By this time, tanks will be attacking you , but you should have just enough health to finish off the last statue. While you were circling, your other tanks have destroyed the first 2 statues, so the main obelisk will now be vulnerable. Command your entire battalion to attack it while you run like crazy up the side of the crater desperately trying to dodge the tanks' shots long enough to survive. Your other units will destroy the obelisk in four or five seconds. Hopefully you were able to keep your tank alive, but even if it dies, you can still get enough technique to get an S Rank. Whew, that was a short but tough level. Now it's time for a lengthy, but easier level. Note: Al the Hedgehog posted this method to get an easy 100% on this level. When you get to the point in the level when you are going to send a unit into the crater to destroy the statues, instead of using a tank, take control of a flame vet and leave all the tanks at the lip of the crater, ready to go. Run into the crate with the flame vet and destroy the statues starting with the right one and moving counterclockwise. Make sure to use short bursts so the flamethrower doesn't overheat and the statues will go down quickly. A lot of infantry will teleport in and a couple heavy tanks too when you get to the third one. But, if you're good at dodging and rolling you'll be able to destroy at least 3 statues before you bite the dust (I usually can't get all 4, I'm not too good at dodging the tank shots). If one of your flame vets dies, just run in with another one. If two die, then you probably won't get the 100% because of time. Take control of a tank and drive forward to take out the final statue. When it's close to gone, call your entire batallion forward and destroy the cenotaph. The heavy tanks should be on the opposite side, helpless to stop you. This method is a lot more consistent than mine, and it gets you 100%! Sometimes if a tank is really close to the Cenotaph when it explodes, the tank will fly back through the air and do several back flips. It's pretty funny to see in slow motion. 20. Siege of the Vlagstag - *** 6 Rifle 7 Flames 8 Mortars 7 Missiles 4 L Tanks This is it. The final level, and it throws everything at you in large numbers. The main thing to remember is that you need to keep your mortar men alive and healthy. They are the key to getting an S Rank with this method. Take control of a flame vet and call everyone to follow you. Send your flame vets after the acid and rocket troops while you take down as many troops as you can. Make sure you get the acid troop on your right. Switch to a mortar and put everyone in sentry mode. Have the tanks attack the pillbox on the right and take the mortars to attack the two pillboxes on the left. An important thing to know about this level is that whatever unit you target will be targeted by Nova's gunships and destroyed more quickly, especially pillboxes. While the gunships are destroing the pillboxes, send the grunts to take the flag, switch to a missile vet and take down the bomber. Then switch to a flame and have everyone follow you through the gate. Kill as many infantry as you can in a few seconds, including the rocket troop, then put everyone in sentry mode. Send the tanks to take out the artillery and switch control to a mortar and call the missile vets to folow you as you run up the hill to the left. Use the missiles to take out the pillbox and then the infantry. If the gunships haven't destroyed the artillery yet, destroy it. Switch to a missile vet and shoot down the bomber. Switch control to a tank and have everyone follow you as you destroy the three pillboxes on your right. Send the grunts to take the flag and switch to a missile vet and shoot down the bomber. Switch to a flame vet, put everyone in sentry just past the gate, then call the flames to follow you as you run forward and kill the acid troops. Send the tanks to take out the artillery, and take control of a mortar troop. Run up the hill and destroy the lights and pillboxes. Send the grunts to take the final flag. Put everyone in sentry mode just past the gate while you have the other flames follow you and kill the rocket troops. Then switch to a mortar troop and have the other mortars follow you as you run up the hill and right. Make sure you take out the lights, and run past the front gate to the right. Pause a moment and wait for a mortar or two to catch up, then run forward and through the side gate on the left into the base. Make a beeline for the back right side of the base and destroy the Antiair vehicle, then move to the other side of the base and hunt down the second antiair vehicle. You might have to kill a few grunts along the way to regain some health. Now that the antiair vehicles are gone, Nova's gunships will make short work of the battlestations while your units sit back and relax (except for the constant bombing). If all of your mortars die before you are able to kill both AA vehicles, you might as well start over. They are the only units that have a chance of taking out the 2 antiair vehicles quickly enough inside the occupied base. Send your remaining mortars to take the west flag (farthest from the battlestation). If you're the only one left, you can always hoist the flag yourself by getting close and pressing B. While you're doing this, check to see that Nova's gunships are tearing up the battlestations. When the stations are both gone, call all of your infantry to follow you, and when they show up, go to the second flag and raise it while you take out any remaining pillboxes with the help of the gunships. You're done! The ending is short, but it hints at further wars to come. Revolutionary Wars, perhaps? We'll have to wait and see... B4. Campaign 4 Bonus - ** 6 Rifle 6 Bazooka 6 Flames 3 H Tanks 4 Gunships Time to sit back, relax, and be evil for a while. Take control of a gunship, have the the others follow you as you fly forward and kill all of the rocket troops. Don't fly into the range of the missile vets. Feels good to be on the giving end of an Iron Legion gunship barrage for once, doesn't it? Once they are all dead, call your men to follow, then switch to a flame troop (the ones whose guns scream in pain) and put your gunships in sentry mode. Then take all of the infantry and tear through the missile vets. Send your tanks and bazookas to demolish the heavy tank. Put the tanks in sentry, and run in with the infantry to take out the bazookas. Call everyone to follow, then take control of a gunship and put everyone else on sentry while you fly forward and quickly take out the artillery and heavy tank on the left. Then fly back over the mortars on the left and take them all out while you call your group to follow and wait for them to catch up. Finally, take control of a tank, put the gunships on sentry, and drive into the base annihilating everything. Call the gunships in to finish the job. Ahh, so sweet. Actually, this level is a little underwhelming, but I'm guessing they were pressed for time. It is fun to use the legion gunships though. That's all there is unless you like... *********1*********2*********3*********4*********5*********6*********7********* 6) Extra Challenges Battalion Wars is like a mysterious beautiful woman. You will spend a passionate few days loving it, and then it will seem that your relationship has ended all too abruptly just when you were starting to get serious. So the question is, now that you have all S Ranks, what is left to do? Well, you can always go for all 100%'s, but that might be more frustrating than fun. Here are a few suggestions for ways to have some additional fun in the levels. These challenges limit the number of and/or type of units you can use to finish a level. Obviously, your Rank will suck, but who cares? You've already got all S-Ranks, just relax and have fun! 3. Assault on Windbreak Ridge A. Beat the level with only grunts. B. When you get to MG nest, jump in and never leave until the mission is complete. The funniest part of this challenge is that if one of the recons makes it to the flag, it sometimes tries to "mount" it. You'll also get to hear a lot of your soldiers' quotes. C. Beat the level with one grunt and one bazooka vet. 6. Titans of Tundra A. Beat the level with only bazooka and missile vets B. Beat the level with only tanks and missile vets 7. Striking Distance A. Never fire an artillery shot. B. Only use assault vets and missile vets. B1. Campaign 1 bonus A. Beat the level with only tanks and missile vets. 8. Beachhead A. Beat the level without putting any units inside the fort. (Make the units already inside leave). 9. Invasion Force A. Take control of a tank and never switch to another unit until the level is over. 10. Gunships of the Desert A. Purposely allow all of the gunships to survive. B. Kill every unit in the level (this is fun in any level). 11. Black Gold A. Destroy all of the Ackacks with only assault vets B. Destroy all the Ackacks with only mortar vets. 12. XDay A. Beat the level without freeing the fighters (it's possible!). B. Beat the level using only mortars and the freed fighters 13. Herman's Heroes (one of the best levels to have fun in) A. Beat the level using only one mortar and any freed units. B. Beat the level with only the recon and any freed units. 14. Call Sign Eagle A. Only use the fighters 16. Battle of the Coral Atolls A. Use only infantry. B. Use only the battlestation, the bomber, and missile vets to kill all enemy units. C. Use only the bomber to kill all enemy units (you're allowed to fly back over your missile vets.) B4. Campaign 4 Bonus A. Use only the gunships B. Use only infantry C. Use only tanks *********1*********2*********3*********4*********5*********6*********7********* Aditional Challenges - Choose any one unit at the beginning of a level. Never switch to another unit until the level is over. Have all units wait at the beginning of the level and send them out one at a time. When that unit dies, send another one out by himself, and so on. For a weaksauce multiplayer, do the above but alternate with another player or players. Play an entire level only using global view. Beat the entire game in one sitting. It's like a really long war movie!! Kind of... If you know of any other silly things to try to milk some more life out of this game please let me know. Just email me at [email protected] and make sure you have either the word "wars" ot the word "battalion" in the subject line. *********1*********2*********3*********4*********5*********6*********7********* 7) Credits/Legal This FAQ was written by me, amano_hyo. DoubleStriker73 provided the unit counts for each mission. Al the Hedgehog provided the 100% method for Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers. He also has 100% for every mission! Truly a dedicated gamer. You may post this anywhere you want as long as you give me credit and don't try to trick someone into paying money to read it. I would like to thank Debbie Chen for putting up with the constant sounds of gunfire and explosions for 3 weeks. I would also like to thank Kuju, who pulled this excellent game out from nowhere, and Nintendo, for realizing that Kuju was onto something with their original idea. This is my first FAQ, so it's pretty barebones. If you want to know all the different things the soldiers drop when they die and other trivia, you'll have to find a more detailed FAQ. I hope that you enjoyed Battalion Wars, and that you support any sequels that may (hopefully) be developed. Thanks for reading! *********1*********2*********3*********4*********5*********6*********7********* 8) Version Update 1.0 - 10/05/05: Has the walkthroughs for every level and a few ideas for having fun once you're done. Hope it helps you get those last few S Ranks! (If only there was a reward of some kind besides the satisfaction of a job well done =) 1.1 - 10/06/05: Fixed many typos. 1.2 - 10/08/05: Added Al the Hedgehog's 100% method for Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers and DoubleStriker73's unit counts. Fixed a couple more typos and tweaked some walkthroughs to make it possible to get 100%. 1.3 - 10/10/05: Changed Numbering of levels. Fixed a few typos.