Blazing ANgels 2: Secret Missions of World War II

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Greetings!  This is a guide to give you your Ace Score targets for the 18
campaign missions in Blazing Angels 2.  This does not go over unlocked 
planes and weapons, but missions that include secondary goals will be 
covered.  When you get Ace scores, things unlock, so I'm not worried about
going over them in detail here.

General Tips:

To qualify for an Ace rating, you need to earn a minimum amount of points
for that mision.  Simple as that.  I have found it more to my benefit to
take extra time and blow everything apart rather than try and complete it
under time.

The mission timer gives you bonus points for beating, it does *not*
penalize you if you come in over clock.  I've came in 30 mins on a
15 min. timer and still got an Ace rating for that mission.

You get a 1000 point bonus for completing amission under the time limit.

Hit every stunt marker you can, as fast as you can.  More speed = more
points.  Stunt Markers are identified by white dots on the minimap and
tactical map.  Stunt markers picked up close to each other will award
"Stunt Streaks" that will also give you bonus points, just like
"Kill streaks".  I think it's +20 for each chained token pickup, so if
you're killing yourself trying a particualr combo, you might want to ask
if it's worth it for you or not.

A note about replaying missions.  You can't replay a mission to stockpile
Prestige points, but if you beat your previous high-point total for that
run, you will be allowed to keep the difference.

Reccomended Early Upgrades:
Basic Weapon Systems - Armor Piercing Bullets
  5% critical hit bonus, 'nuff said!
Structure - Engine Armor, Armor Plating, Aluminum Parts
  9000 points combined to get all three of these at once, but you really
  should wait until you can. Aluminum Parts will offset the penalties of
  both Armor boosts, but you need both armor for it to work.
Team - Mission Report Training
  When this unlocks (after mission 4 or 5) make this your next purchase.
  10% point bonus!
Aerodynamics - ALL
  After you've picked up what I've mentioned above, buy that tab out.  I
  can't stress it enough. For me it was unlocked after mission 5, but all
  five of those missions were Aced, so keep that in mind.



Mission 1: Old Secrets
Ace Score: 3000
My Score:  3112 (overtime)
My Score:  3802 (under time) 9:35/10:30

This mission is tricky to get Ace on.  You start with 14 stunt markers on
the map, but after you pick up 10 the map reloads and changes.  There will
then be 6 more available, but you will lose any markers you didn't pick up
in the first iteration of the map.  Best strategy for this, scout the
markers and get yourself familiar with them.  Find three or four that you
know you can pick up in quick sucession, and wait until you have nine to
grab them.  There's about a 30 second delay between map changes, so you
have time to get a couple extra ones.

Also, some markers on this map (airshow) are worth more than others.  The
stunt markers in the highest blimp frame, between the factory smokestacks,
and under the bridge are worth double value. Another lesson learned on this
mission: USE YOUR WINGMEN!  They know how to hit the bad guys, they give
you points when they do so, and they shave alot of time off the clock in
the process.

Mission 2: Special Delivery
Ace Score: 5000
My Score:  5215 (under time) 12:17/13:30

First thing of note here, of course, is the train.  You have to unload
a passenger on it, the hard way.  Follow your lead until you get close to
the bridge with the Marker under it.  Break off, pick up the marker, and
circle back for the train.  Approach from the back, keep it slow and
steady, and it will take about 5 - 10 seconds for your passanger to jump
aboard.

In this mission you pick up a secondary objective, an Ace pilot and his
two buddies.  If he draws a long, solid bead on you, your armor will go
away.  He's not hard to chase down however.  YOu get a total of 500 pts
for killing this encounter, and they are easily identified by the target
names "Ace" and "Ace Wingman".

This is a timed mission, so it will not allow you to run over time.  It
*might* be possible to run over if you're having alot of problems
offloading your passenger.  If you're coming in over 13:30, that's why.

Mission 3: Italian Night Out
Ace Score: 4000
My Score:  4285 (overtime)
My Score:  4098 (under time) 8:17/10:30

This is your introduction to glide bombing! Lucky you!  First off, your
plane has no forward-facing machine guns.  YOur primary attack will be
with the bombs, which are dropped by your secondary fire button.  The bombs
will *NOT* release unless you're on the correct glidepath.  You will know
this when a secondary, red target ring lights up on your bomb ring.  Start
your bomb runs at high altitude until you get the hang of making the drops
when you want to.  The bombs have a pretty good splash radius, which can be
upgraded, so don't worry too much if you're having problems keeping the
targets between the crosshairs.

You will see at the get-go orange target dots scattered all over the map.
They're not easy to see, but the best way to locate them is to remember
that each one is in very close proximity to a searchlight.

Target Tip:  If it floats, it's worth points.  Sink it, even if it dosen't
have a target marker! 

Your primary targets are a pair of cruisers.  Until you sink both,
nothing will shoot at you (unless you get caught in a searchlight).  An
overtime strategy for this map is to simply take your time and blow up
everything.  You'll get your 4K, but this way you really need to be
methodical.  Kill it all, get all the stunt markers.

If you want to take it fast, immediately turn to the cruisers.  Their
escorts are also destructable, so try to get multiple boats in one pass.
Fly flat-out to the new primary targets after you sink the first two and
start puting them on the bottom.  Get the extra ones parked in the docks
when you can.  Drop two bombs per boat in case one isn't enough to do the
job.  Drop all four on the battleship.

DOn't forget about your secondary objectives, the munition warehouses!
They're close to the action when you're attacking the fleet, so keep them
handy as a reload point.  Be aware that you have to destroy the entire
warehouse complex, not just the two munition buildings.  I think it's 5
targets altogether, but they're grouped tightly.

A word about the last leg of the mission.  Trying to shoot down three
aircraft with a tailgun is definately a learned trick.  Set your wingmen
to kill, let them do some of the work for you.  To take one down, your
best bet is to fly straight and level.  WHen the bullets start hitting
you, go to target-cam view and attack (with the primary attack trigger).
You'll have a large bracket to keep the enemy target in.  Up is down,
left is right, and the back is asswards.

On the return leg after knocking down all three fighters, look at your
point total.  You will only get a 60 point bonus for landing on the
carrier, so hit a Stunt Marker or two on the way back if you're short.
If you're racing the clock, remember you'll need to finish with 3000 to
have enough after the on-time bonus.

Mission 4: Shadow of the Pyramids
Ace Score: 6000
My Score:  6474 (overtime)
My Score:  6234 (under time) 13:20/16:30

The first act is a pure damage-gasm.  There's plenty of ammo on the wing,
so use your rockets with abandon!  Bomber formations are the fattest
target sets, strafe them into oblivion.  Picking up the upgrade "Stall
Strips" lowers your minimum speed, and makes bomber killing abit easier.

After your killing spree is over, you have to kill parachutes.  It's not
even fair, but this is your first chance for the XBox 360 achievement
"Great Streak", which is a 12 kill run.

Mission 5: Rendevous
Ace Score: 3000 (3500?)
My Score:  4304 (Overtime)

Ok, remember that mission I said took me 30 mins on a 15 min. timer?  This
was it.  

When you start the run, you will find yourself flying over a river.  Dive
low, because your first four stunt markers will be under bridges.  Fly
fast, and you can combo bonus the last three.  After the fourth one, break
left, get some distance, and you should be able to get the next two as a
combo run as well.  Do this right, and you can start the mission with
between 500 - 600 pts already in your back pocket.

You'll be flying a german plane over unfriendly skies.  As long as you
don't get noticed, nobody will shoot you for a while.  If you look at your
maps, you will see circles on them.  Those are spotter ranges.  Commit no
hostile acts while under the eye and you'll be ok.  Torque the locals off
and you'll have to fly between the circles for a while until the heat dies
down.  Your first objective is to take out 10 enemy planes.  Do this by
flying behind them while under the eye, and firing a rocket as soon as
you're clear.  You'll know you're not safe if there's a big red X in your
target crosshairs.  One rocket will kill the planes, and since you're a
"friendly", they won't try to dodge.  (Not that they're very good at it
when they *are* trying to dodge.)  After 5 kills, you'll checkpoint.

Bonus Stunt Marker:  There's a double-value marker that's placed inside
an archway.  It's a VERY tight squeeze, you might have to do a wingstand
to get through.

A note about unfriendly acts.  If you fire a rocket while it's safe, but
fly into watched space before the rocket impacts, you will still be
considered friendly.

I've scored as low as 3525 on this mission and still gotten the Ace rating,
so I think the minimum is 3500 or 3000.

Mission 6: Grand Theft
Ace SCore: 5000 (?)
My Score:  7915 (under time) 13:03/15:00

Alright, this mission will involve ALOT of ground targets.  Fortunately
you will have a choice between glide-bombers or a rocket bomber.
Personally, I prefer the rocket bomber for this.

You are large, you are slow, this is not a good mission to go for the
stunt markers.  Fortunately there's a huge field of targets to shoot to
make up for it.

You have a secondary mission here, take out 15 baloons.  It's not hard,
just keep shooting.  Use the chin turret for this, because you could fly
into a few of them otherwise.

During the actual bridge bombing phase, you will have AMPLE opportunity
for serious chain-kills.  I picked up a string of 27 without too much
effort.  This is an easy way to get the "Streak Master" achievement.

After this mission, I bought the +10% point bonus.  I'm not certain if 5K
will be enough to get Ace, but my first run through I got 6400.  I tried
to get less my next pass, and got almost 8K (after I bought the 10% bonus).
If the Ace score is as high as 6000, it will still be easy to get.

MIssion 7: A Flashlight to a Gunfight
Ace Score: 4000
My Score:  4232 (overtime)

When you look at the tac-map, you will see four stunt markers lined up
on the left side of the map.  I'll call them 1 - 4 from top to bottom.
#2 is a double-value marker.  Also, the farthest-east marker on the map
is a double-value.  The submarine you're looking for is right next to the
next-furthest east marker, adjacent to land.  The sub-marker is another
double-value.  This is a good map for earning the defensive weapon kill
achievement.  Generaly it's an easy weapon to use, just press the X button
when there's a whole pack of planes chasing you.  FOr best results, use it
close to the ground, in the ice canyons.

Mission 8: Target: Red Square
Ace Score: 8000 (?)
My Score:  8985 (under time) 15:53/16:00

This mission is difficult.  You have to defend Red Square against the
German atackers.  There's alot of targets shootng at it, it may take you a
few times to get it down.  One strategy I used was to let the tank
paratroops land.  Once they hit the ground, they bunch up and are easier
to take out with a rocket or two.  You'll be doing alot of that,
especially in the second half of the mission.  Locate clusters of ground
targets and obliterate them with extreme prejeduce at maximum range.  You
even get to call in artillery strikes. At one point in the battle, there's
a long line of German transports rolling toward the city.  This is a great
time to use artillery support.

The end of the mission puts you up against a train-mounted howitzer.
Take it out fast, because it only takes three shots from it to destroy
Red Square.  If you take it out after the third shot, but before the shell
actually damages the city, it counts as end of mission.

Mission 9: Flying Tigers
Ace Score: 10000 (?)
My Score:  11722 (overtime) 25:44/18:30

It's a canyon run!  Grab the rocket bomber to pacify the enemy runway,
then land to switch to your new plane.  It's a sexy beast, capable of
getting over 100 pts on a normal stunt marker, and there are x2 markers
seeded in the trench.  The secondary objective is to make 30 kills, which
isn't too hard to do.  Should have it by about halfway through the trench.
Be careful going after the enemy planes, they have a tendency to draw you
into a no-fly zone where you'll wind up in small pieces.  You'll learn to
hate that no-fly zone. Alot.  There's a hell of alot of points available
in this mission, narrowing down the exact amount needed for Ace would take
longer than just gunning for 10K.

Mission 10: City Under Siege
Ace Score:  9000 (?)
My Score:   10019 (under time) 18:21/18:30

This is a pretty messy mission.  Remember to hit your "A" button to target
what's relevant to the primary mission, so you can sort out the steak from
the patties.  When you have to guard the friendly troops at the start,
first shoot down all the red planes, don't worry so much about the orange
ones.  After that, take out the fleet.  If you have proximity fuzes
researched, they will help out alot in this.  The secondary mission
involves guarding a commando as he's getting ready to blow the bridge.
Clear out the tanks around him, then don't worry about him.  You won't get
the secondary mission cleared message until he blows it.  Whatever you do,
don't blow the bridge yourself!  It's a very target-rich environment.
There's 8 stunts available, but I didn't bother with them there was so
much to shoot.

Mission 11: HellShip
Ace Score:  4000
My Score:   4433 (under time) 9:36/10:30

Torpedo bombing is the theme of this one.  Just don't hit your buddy.
It's pretty easy and straightforward.  There's three stunt markers on the
map, I didn't need to pick them up.

MIssion 12: Point Defense
Ace Score:  6000 (?)
My Score:   7305 (under time) 17:44/18:30

There's a special kind of insanity that describes this mission.  You have
to defend San Francisco!  Take the Homing Missiles, you'll need them for
the V1 Rockets.  later you'll need to sink two subs as they pass under a
large set of mine fields.  Japanese subs are launching them, you need to
knock them out before they hit various targets.  After that, you have to
prevent kamakazie pilots launching from a *CARRIER SUBMARINE* from taking
out the Golden Gate bridge.  After that, you have to keep them from taking
out you.  They're fast, deadly, tenacious, and incredibly STUPID.  They'll
dart right in on you, and your best defense is their own carrier.  Do some
low-speed orbits around the carrier, right at the waterline.  Pretty soon
the kamikazes will take it out for you.

Mission 13: Top of the WOrld
Ace Score:  4000
My Score:   4532 (overtime) 18:11/12:30

This one's pretty basic.  Shoot down the bomber escorts, protect the plane
you're going in to steal. No problem, right?  Catch is you're in the
Himalayas.  Try taking a plane with the Flashstrobe defensive, see how
many you can get to pancake into the mountainside.

It's worth noting that at this point I have every aircraft upgrade, except
for the team tab.  I only have the 10% point bonus there.

Mission 14: Marguerite's Express
Ace Score:  9000 (?)
My Score:   10015 (under time) 16:22/20:00

Guard the lady's train!  Shoot everything and anything pretty much.  At
one point an armored train will give chase.  Wait for her to detach
ammunition, then blow it on a bridge.  Once again the Flashstrobe defense
comes in handy, since you wind up against 5 german aces!  Blind them, then
shoot 'em down while they're locked into straight and level flight.  If 
you knock them down while under the strobe effect, it probably counts
towards the "Eye in the Back" achievement.  Then again, maybe you don't
actually have to make a kill with them.  THe details just say "Hits",
not "Kills".

Mission 15: Gladiators in the Dark
Ace Score:  5000 (?)
My Score:   6536 (overtime) 17:54/16:30

For your opening act, you have alot of planes to shoot down and not a heck
of alot of time to do it.  FOrtunately for you, they have the short-bus
variety of pilot in them.  Just get behind a nice line of them and open up
with that nasty cannon.  Not alot of ammo, so make your salvos count.  At
the end of the mission you have to kill a blimp.  Knock out all 9 turrets
on it, and all the searchlights on it, to bring it down.

Note: After 15, I have every tech upgrade with 3 missions to spare.  Time
to have fun!

Mission 16: The Eagle's Nest
Ace Score:  9000 (?)
My Score:   9430 (under time) 11:59/13:30

Hey, is that a TV-Guided missile in your pocket or are you just happy to
see me?  These things are fun.  Fire them, and your point-of-view shifts
to the missile.  Fly it into the targets and blamm-o!  You don't get many,
so watch your ammo close.  Secondary targets are a fortified building on
top of a hill, and a radio tower behind that hill.  Once again, use the
"A" button alot to target what's actually relefvant to completing the
mission stages.  When the big plane comes out, feed it about 3 or 4
guided missiles.  You'll take the engines down fast.  Just remember that
your plane is still flying straight-and-level while the missile is.

Mission 17: Rain of Death
Ace Score:  10000 (?)
My Score:   11682 (under time) 19:49/23:00

The Tesla coil is a fun defensive weapon.  It works like the Flashstrobe,
but 360 degrees around your plane.  Use a plane with Homing Missiles,
you'll need them to hunt down V2 rockets.

Mission 18: Harvester of Storms
Ace Score:  6000 (?)
My Score:   6849 (overtime) 23:29/18:00

Hold on to your socks, this is going to be a wild ride!  The first part of
the mission has you escorting a large wave of bombers.  There's some heavy
ground clutter, but the bombers just annihilate it. Of course the other
shoe is about to drop and you well know it.  Large, land-based tesla coil
generators.  Four of them.  When it discharges for the first time, every
bomber dies.  The trick to them is to take out every truck, car, and AA
empacement around them.  Once you do that, a tunnel opens up.  You are
using the Force, aren't you?  You'd better be, because you get to fly into
those tunnels and take out the coil generators.  Each one is more evil than
the one before it.  That's the easy part though.  After that, you get to
take on a carrier aircraft.  With a shield generator.  And Tesla coil
nastiness.  It's cheating, it really is.  Use an aircraft with tesla coils
of your own and knock out the enemy fighters.  Stun them and kill them.
When they have to return to the mothership to repair, or the losses have
to be replaced, it will drop the shields for about 20 seconds or so.  Keep
the fight close to the aircraft so you don't have to travel far once it's
shields go down.  The rest is up to you!

This guide was written on 5/26/08.  If you would like to leave me feedback
regarding this guide, feel free to send a message to nuke_em(@)comcast.net,
or to Sir Razorback on XBoxLive.  See you in the air!

Version 1.1

1.1 Note: Reformatted to bring under 80 columns for submission.