+---------------+ | | | Soldiers of | | Anarchy | | | | Strategy | | Guide | | | +---------------+ By: UnSub )evilasahobby (at) graffiti (dot) net( Version: 1.01 Date: 1 March 2005 +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ CONTENTS ________ 1.0 Introduction .1 Email Policy .2 Reproduction of this Guide .3 What You Should Do Before You Play... 2.0 Equipment .1 Personal Weapons .2 Throwing Weapons .3 Personal Armour .4 Personal Amunitions .5 Personal Items and Miscellaneous .6 Units .7 Unit Accessories .8 Unit Ammunition 3.0 Personnel .1 Skills .2 Suggested Squad Selection 4.0 General Tactics .1 Included Readme File .2 In the Field .3 Between Missions 5.0 Walkthrough .1 A Leap in the Dark .2 The Raid .3 Market Day .4 Two Roads. One Way. .5T Heroes Die Young .6T The Snare .5C In the Eye of the Storm .6C They Came in the Dusk .7 And Follow Your Destiny .8A Inside the Rat Hole .9A The Judgement .8W The Sign .9W Everlasting Life 6.0 Endings & Spoilers .1 Eyes Toward the Future .2 A Hard Knight .3 Played for a Fool .4 An Explanation on SGDS 7.0 Final Notes .1 Thanks and Contributors .2 Version History ++++ 1.0 INTRODUCTION ________________ It's a sad fact that some very good games don't get the attention they deserve. For my money, Soldiers of Anarchy was one of the better RTS's I'd played in a long time, but it didn't attract much attention in gaming circles or from reviewers. The patch did make a big difference, but it looked like (to me) that unless an RTS has "Blizzard" stamped on the box then players don't notice it. A post-apocalyptic world, lots of different types of hardware, a decent story and mostly interesting gameplay - what's not to love? Having seen SoA in a bargin bin for $15 the other day and that it still had no guides on Gamefaqs, I thought "Enough's enough" and decided to write a guide. Given that you can pick up SoA very cheaply, I'm hoping a few more players might give this game a shot if they see a guide is available - SoA deserves better than being bargin bin fodder! 1.1 EMAIL POLICY ---------------- If I've made a mistake in this guide or you need some help, you can email me. HOWEVER... please include "Soldiers of Anarchy" in the email subject line and or you run the risk of me mistaking if for spam. I can't always promise that I will be able to help you, since once I finish a guide for a game I usually put it away and forget about it. Asking me the exact steps to finishing a level I last played 5 months ago isn't going to be successful. Also, please don't email me about something that is already stated in the guide (I HATE THAT!) unless I've been unclear. Finally, if you need help, please be clear about what you help you need in the email - the more detail I have, the better the chance I can do something for you. 1.2 REPRODUCTION OF THIS GUIDE ------------------------------ You have my permission to reproduce this guide so long as 1) it is unaltered and 2) the reproduction will be free to those who want it. So no slapping your name on this and then charging people to read it, okay? If you want to alter this guide for reproduction, please email me. 1.3 WHAT YOU SHOULD DO BEFORE YOU PLAY... ----------------------------------------- Go and download the latest patches for SoA - they are currently version 1.1.2.178. This will give you the ability to issue commands whilst the game is paused, which is absolutely vital and makes things fun rather than just frustrating. Get the patch from: http://www.soldiers-of-anarchy.com/downloads/index.html ++++ 2.0 EQUIPMENT _____________ Below is a list of equipment that can be used in SoA. Knowing what your equipment can do is vital to successfully fighting your enemies and keeping your squad alive. For a full overview of your equipment and units, take a look at the manual - below are just my opinions. 2.1 PERSONAL WEAPONS --------------------- Beretta - You start with these. It has a very short range and its rate of fire isn't great. You should be able to replace your Berettas with something better fairly quickly though. Uses 9mm ammunition. Uzi - Its got a longer range and fires faster than the Beretta and will probably be the main weapon you supply your squad in the early stages of the game. Given what's available though, it still isn't great. Uses 9mm ammunition. Shotgun - At close range, a shotgun can be very effective in taking out enemies. However, the key here is "close range" - unless you are setting up an ambush, there's a chance that you'll have to run through enemy fire to get within shotgun firing range. Early on having a shotgun or two in the squad isn't a problem, but shotguns should be replaced as soon as you can with MP5's or AK-74's. Uses 20mm shotgun shells. MP5 - The best of the 9mm weapons, with the longest range and highest rate of fire. Useful to have until you can equip everyone with AK-74's (or better). Uses 9mm ammunition. Crossbow - A sharpshooter weapon. A single bolt can kill an unarmoured enemy; it takes three to take out an enemy in a heavy vest. It's also silent, so it's great for those stealth operations. Uses crossbow bolts, which can be hard to acquire. It's range is pretty good, but it's rate of fire is pretty slow. Overall though, it's a great weapon to have. Uses Bolts. AK-74 - These are likely to become your standard squad weapon once your enemies start dropping them. They've got a good range on them and are fairly available in mid- to later in the game. It's range and rate of fire are both pretty good. It won't let you take on everything, but it is a great all-round anti-personnel weapon and the ammo is quite plentiful in later stages. Uses 5.45mm bullets. M60 - One of two heavy machine guns. It's got a pretty good range and rate of fire and is useful if you need to take out lightly armoured vehicles. The biggest problem is that it uses 7.62mm ammunition, which (early on, anyway) means you have to decide if you are going to use this weapon in your squad or give the ammo to a weapon mounted on a vehicle. Still, it's a good weapon to have one or two of in the squad. RPK - The other heavy machine gun. According to the manual, this is more accurate the the M60, but everything else I've said above applies. I also found it harder to come across RPK's than M60's. Uses 7.62mm rounds. Dragunov - A sniper rifle and a sharpshooter weapon. Any personnel hit by a Dragunov round is dead, regardless of armour. In fact, you'll find a sniper armed with this weapon leaves a lot of heavy vests for you to collect. The range on this weapon is incredible and is great for picking off isolated enemies that you can't easily sneak up on. Also, apparently the Dragunov can shoot the soldiers out of certain vehicles, but I haven't played around enough with it to determine how to do that. The only problem is ammunition - you only get five rounds a clip, while clips can be hard to find. Uses 5.65mm bullets. M79 - The grenade launcher. I've got mixed feelings about this weapon. It takes up too much room for it's effectiveness in my opinion. Sure, it can be a one-shot kill and has it's uses, but it just lacks something. Fires 40mm Playma rounds. RPG-7 - Fires rocket propelled grenades that are just great for taking out armoured vehicles. Make sure the vehicles are motionless however, as RPG's don't track targets. Squad members equipped with RPG's will find themselves short on inventory space (since you'll want to take along a few spare rounds and each RPG takes up an inventory slot). Fires PG-7 rounds. SA-7 - The surface-to-air missile launcher, which is vital for taking out attack aircraft who will otherwise spoil your day. There aren't a lot of enemy aircraft in SoA, but if you have access to an SA-7 it doesn't hurt to take it along just in case. Uses SA-7 missiles. 2.2 THROWING WEAPONS -------------------- Molotov Cocktail - Hmm, another questionable weapon. It's great for throwing over walls onto unsuspecting soldiers / Humvees, but you often find yourself wondering (or at least I did) if _this_ was the right time to use it, or to hold off just in case the next bit of the mission would be easier with it. If you're lucky, you can throw it onto a vehicle and the vehicle will stay in the flames, possibly blowing up. Molotovs have do have their uses, but I tended to prefer other grenade types over them. Hand Grenade - Can be very useful to taking out numerous enemies at once. One tactic is to try and bottleneck the enemies (say, when they rush out the gate of their base at you) then throw one of these into their midst. Hitting moving targets can be hard, so try to use them on stationary targets. One warning - sometimes your guys won't throw so well (particulary if you have them too close to a wall) and you can run the risk of blowing yourself up. Smoke Grenade - Can be very useful for setting up ambushes, forcing long range enemies into range (either them coming to you or you going to them) or for covering retreats. Again, you (or at least I did) run into the problem of "is now the time?" for using them. Put a bit of planning into it, however, and smoke grenades can be very useful. Stun Grenade - This is almost a "what's the point?" weapon. Sure, you can knock an enemy unconscious. But you will still need to kill them and I'm a bit morally conflicted over shooting sleeping men. Everything else being equal, use a hand grenade instead - the end result is the same and it'll save you the bullets. Throwing Knife - A one-hit kill that's pretty stealthy. However, you have to get pretty close and in line-of-sight to pull this off, so it's up to you. Almost "bragging rights" weapon, but they aren't too common. 2.3 PERSONAL ARMOUR ------------------- Kevlar Vest - The "light" vest. Keeps your guys alive and is certainly better than nothing. At the bare minimum every member of your field team should have one of these (once they become available). Heavy Vest - Stronger than the kevlar version. Vital for keeping your squad alive. -- Trade for these whenever possible, especially early on. You will run into the issue of damaged vests being mixed in with your good vests. If this is the case, take along a spare vest or two in a car / Ural that you can swap over once a vest is destroyed. Alternatively, equip your squad with the good vests and then trade away the badly damaged ones. -- 2.4 PERSONAL AMMUNITION ----------------------- 9mm - The weakest ammo type. Comes in rounds of 20. Fairly plentiful early on so it will be your main ammo type early on in the game. 20mm shotgun shells - According to the manual, this does "high" damage to physical targets (ie people). This is good early on, but given the factors of how close you have to be (very) and that once enemies start getting armour this ammo type is severely impeded, it isn't something you'll be using for long. Comes in sets of 10. Crossbow bolts - These do high damage to soft targets and also have a pretty good penetration, but can be hard to find. However, given that a Crossbow can be a one-shot kill, they are very handy to have. Comes in sets of 6. *One thing I have noticed about the crossbow is that, when fired from range and your unit is crouching / lying down, it is very possible that the enemy will not be able to work out where the attack is coming from and die before going aggressive. This can be very useful in infiltrating bases. 7.62mm - This is the heavy machine gun ammo, used by both your squad and a few mounted weapons. These guns can spit out the rounds very quickly, so be sure to keep an eye on how much you've got left before you have to reload. Overall, this ammunition type isn't too hard to find - Humvees that were armed with mounted machine guns will drop this ammo type when you blow them up. This ammo type comes in clips of 50 and is a good all-round munition for attacking the enemy with. 5.45mm - This specialist (in game, anyway) AK-74 ammo does good damage to physical targets and is fairly available in the later stages. Comes in clips of 30. 5.65mm - Used by the Dragunov sniper rifle, this ammo type is worth its weight in gold and is as rare as hen's teeth (just to mix colloquialisms). Since a Dragunov is a one-hit kill against any soft target, it becomes an essential in taking out solitary guards or enemies that are otherwise difficult / dangerous to kill (eg those equipped with RPGs). The problem is that there are only 5 bullets per clip and clips are very hard to come by. 40mm Plamya Grenades - Comes in two types: high explosive and incindiary. Both are effective against soft targets, but its better to have the HE version in case you run into some lightly armoured targets (eg Humvee). Incindiaries aren't bad if you want to damage some structures or stationary targets. PG-7 - This is the hand weapon of choice if you have to take out an armoured target. Note well that if the target moves you can miss and that it may take more than one RPG to finish the job, so plan carefully. These also work pretty well against Death Knights. SA-7 - Best for taking out flying targets and should be saved for just such an occasion. In a pinch they can be used for blowing up ground targets, but this can lead you in trouble if the enemy calls in ground support. One SA rocket is enough to take out almost all aircraft. 2.4 PERSONAL ITEMS AND MISCELLANEOUS ------------------------------------ Medipacks - Used for healing injured soldiers and keeping available to fight. Best placed in the hands of a trained medic. You can manufacture these in your Base's infirmary. Fly - A combat drug that can enhance your soldiers' abilities. To be honest, I never used this (less an anti-drug thing than a "there is a comedown and too many may kill you" thing). However, you can manufacture these in your Base's infirmary and trade them for other goods from the Seeker. Binoculars - Enhances your soldier's ability to see the enemy. Apparently works only during the day, but I didn't see the difference between day / night in-game. Night Vision Goggles - Enhances your soldier's ability to see the enemy at night. Again, I saw no difference between day / night, so I just took binoculars instead. Anti-tank Mines - A guerilla's dream (that only trained explosives professionals should use)! Put them in the path of patrolling vehicles, use them to set traps in front of gates or bottlenecks - an anti-tank mine can be used to take vehicles out of commission without putting your men in the firing line. Ignore the "anti-tank" prefix as these things will work on humvees et al as easily as with an M1A1 (although quantity required for vehicle destruction may vary). There are actually plenty around, so be sure to steal them from your enemy whenever possible. Please note that: - 1) your demolitions guy will not always lay the mines where you indicate. It's best to watch him / her to make sure they aren't leaving a big gap through which enemy vehicles can pass through and kill you (it happens, believe me). - 2) When laying mines, put them in a stagger pattern (eg below, with X symbolising mines): X X X X X X X X This ensures that a vehicle that passes through one gap is very likely to hit the mine in the second row and will increase the effectiveness of any traps you set using mines. Explosives / Dynamite - Blows up big. Should only be used on stationary targets since you don't want to miss. Should only be used by your trained explosives squad member. SOMETHING TO KNOW ABOUT EXPLOSIVES - You can pause the game (under patch 1.1.2.178) and _then_ set the timer on the explosive and prime it (ie hit the 'tick' button. This makes dashing in and out of areas to drop explosives a bit easier when you are trying to avoid patrols. However, if you drop three explosives, the third one will appear behind the "Pause" button at the top of the screen, making it impossible to use this trick on the third explosive. Thumper Decoy - These are used to take out thumper mines on a 1-to-1 basis (so if you need to take out 5 thumper mines, you'll need 5 decoys). Take care in planting these, since you don't want to blow up your own squad member while attempting the job. They do have a good attraction range though, so you won't have to get ridiculously close to use a decoy. These only come into play later in SoA. Once you use them, you can pick them up again (provided they aren't blown up, of course). Tracking Device - You plant these on a target to paint them for aerial bombing. Most useful against stationary targets, but if you can drop it close enough to encamped enemy armour it can be great in dealing some damage to them too. These only come into play in the later stages of the game, once you've "requisitioned" some boming air craft. Thumper Mines - Mines that are attracted by nearby movement. I don't think that your side ever gets some of these to use themselves, but they are around in the later stages of the game. Please note that your explosives guy / gal can't pick them up and that they don't blow up "friendly" vehicles (ie if the enemy planted them, then the enemies vehicles are designated "friendly" to the thumper mines). 2.5 UNITS --------- Vehicles are great for transporting your squad around, protecting them from enemy fire, trading for Seeker equipment, increasing your firepower and for providing storage space to put equipment you scavenge off the enemy. Some you'll find empty on the field of battle, some you'll be able to scavenge in a battle-scarred condition and some you'll trade for. Having the right unit can make a lot of difference within a mission. Below is a brief overview of each unit. UNARMOURED VEHICLES: Bull (Motorbike) - Don't know. Never seen it. Gaz - A car that can carry two people. Using these is quicker than walking and does give you some storage space to put the stuff you scavenge. However, it won't be too long before you'll trade this to the Seeker for something better. Gaz A - This can carry four people, but everything else I've said about the Gaz applies. Wolf - Faster than the Gaz. Holds two people. It's most useful as trading fodder. Rager - Holds four people and seems to be a bit faster than the GAZ. Should be used as trading fodder. Humvee - You'll get one of these in the first mission. Humvees can get a number of weapons (machine gun, grenade launcher, TOW launcher), meaning you can adapt them to the mission you are going into. That said, the lack of armour on Humvees means that it's only really useful against soft or lightly- armoured targets. Put them up against anything else and you'll be left with scrap. Overall, not bad in the early missions, but you'll want something armoured before too long. Ural - This is almost essential up until to the last few missions. It provides a lot of room for troop transport... but the important thing is the equipment storage, meaning you can scavenge quite a bit from the battlefield if you have a Ural. I recommend to take one on all missions up to the point where you choose to either assist or attack the COTUC (NB: you can get one for "free" in the second stage). ARMOURED VEHICLES: BTR-80 - An armoured troop transport with a heavy machine gun that fires 14.5 mm rounds and has a smoke grenade launcher. Early on you'll find this to be very helpful for keeping your squad alive and for taking on soft targets, but once you start coming up against tanks you'll need something heavier. Can take up to eight units. BMP-1 - Another armoured troop transport that has a 73mm gun and anti-tank missile launcher. BMP's are better suited for taking on other armoured units and become quite useful around the middle of the game. Can carry up to 8 members of your squad. Vulcan - Armed with a 14.5mm rotary cannon, Vulcans can put lots of lead into the air and quickly. You can take on other armoured vehicles in a Vulcan and have a reasonable chance of winning. These units are also good for putting down aerial units. Can hold up to 8 squad members. Shilka - Like a heavier version of a Vulcan. Shilkas can both give and take quite a bit of punishment. Uses 14.5mm ammuntion and can carry up to 3 squad members. ARTILLERY: BM-21 - I call these "Finger of God" since they can just reach out and touch anything on the battle field. Use a squad member to see a stationary bit of armour, have your BM-21 hit that target with 3 of its rockets (122mm HE) and you'll be left with (hopefully) a still operational but now empty unit for you to scavenge. The biggest drawback of the BM-21 is its small payload and difficulty in getting rockets for it, but if used tactically this unit will make a world of difference in completing missions. Can carry up to 2 troops. *NOTE: You will have to micromanage the use of the BM-21 since it has a habit of firing until the target is destroyed. This means that your third missile might actually destroy the unit, but the BM-21 will have launched two more missiles at a now-smoking chassis. Three 122mm rockets will destroy pretty much everything (bar an M1A1, which will take 4) so once you've launched three missiles, stop the BM-21 from firing. 2S3 - Another unit with massive range. It isn't as accurate as the BM-21, but it can hold more ammunition (152mm rounds) and is a bit easier to manage. Given the option, I'd take the BM-21 though. Can carry up to four squad members. TANKS: T-55 - Tanks are the workhorses of battle in SoA. You'll find using them essential to your success and every time you come across an enemy tank you'll need to take it out with care. The T-55 is the first tank type you'll come across. It's got a 125mm main gun, a machine gun (7.62mm) and a smoke grenade launcher. It can carry up to 4 squad members, but works best with 3 - that way you'll be able to use your machine gun as well as your main gun. However, it's not recommemded to leave your machine gunner exposed if you get into combat with other armoured units - there's a good chance the gunner will die in this kind of combat. M1A1 - The same thing that stands for the T-55 stands for the M1A1. It's got a 125mm main gun, 1 machine gun, smoke launcher and 40mm grenade launcher. The M1A1 can take more of a pounding than the T-55. Can carry up to 4 troops. T-80 - Same as the T-55, but better. Comes with a 125mm main gun, machine guns, smoke launcher and a flamethrower. Can carry up to 3 of your squad. AIR SUPPORT: MD 500 - A light helicopter than can carry up to two troops. Best used against soft targets. Makes scouting out a mission area a breeze though. OH-58 - This is meant to be faster than the MD 500. Can carry up to 2 troops. Mi-8 - A more battle-orientated helicopter, the Mi-8 can carry up to 10 squad members, so it comes in handy for troop transport. It can also be outfitted with a wide range of weapons systems. However, it won't last too long in a stand-up fight with a tank, so keep it moving and use it wisely. Also known as a Hind. Mi-24 - An assault helicopter that is better armoured and can be better equipped than its bretheren. Can carry up to 8 squad members. MiG-27 - I can't really tell the difference in performance by plane type. They all drop bombs when properly equipped and can be very good at wiping out enemy structures / stationary targets. MiG-29 - I can't really tell the difference in performance by plane type. They all drop bombs when properly equipped and can be very good at wiping out enemy structures / stationary targets. F-15 - I can't really tell the difference in performance by plane type. They all drop bombs when properly equipped and can be very good at wiping out enemy structures / stationary targets. And yes, I did use cut'n'paste; why do you ask? 2.6 UNIT ACCESSORIES -------------------- Hummer Machine Gun - The mounted version of the M60. Best for engaging soft targets. Uses 7.62mm ammunition. Hummer Plamya - The mounted version of the grenade launcher. Can take on soft targets and lightly armoured units. Fires 40mm grenades. Hummer TOW - This turns your Humvee into quite a destructive force, but unfortunately one without a lot of ammo (max of 5). A TOW will light- to mid-armoured units. However, it is an absolute waste on soft targets. Fires TOW rockets. Heli Machine Gun - Uses 14.5mm ammo and is absolutely fantastic for taking on enemy soldiers. You can take a maximum of 250 rounds into any mission. Can't be reloaded outside of your Base hangar. Heli TOW - Same as the Humvee TOW, but on a helicopter. Can't be reloaded outside of your Base hangar. Heli AT-6 Single - Apparently this is the Russian version of the TOW. Uses AT-6 rockets. Can't be reloaded outside of your Base hangar. Heli AT-6 4-Rocket - Only available on the Mi-24 and I've never used it, but being able to fire four AT-6 rockets at once makes this something to be feared. However, it'd probably chew through rockets at an insane rate.Can't be reloaded outside of your Base hangar. Heli SA-7 - Fires SA-7 missiles. These missiles track targets (I'm pretty sure they do, anyway) so you could almost fire and forget. Can't be reloaded outside of your Base hangar. Heli UV-7 - Fires 57mm unguided rockets. Best used against lightly armoured targets and packs of soldiers. Can't be reloaded outside of your Base hangar. Heli UV-32 - Same as the UV-7, but bigger. Heli UB-20 - Fires 80mm rockets, but I didn't notice a huge difference between this and the UV models. Can't be reloaded outside of your Base hangar. 2.8 UNIT AMMUNITION ------------------- 7.62mm - Please see the entry under the Personnel Ammunition for this item. Used by the Humvee Machine Gun and by some tank heavy machine guns. 40mm Plamya grenades - Please see the entry under the Personnel Ammunition for this item. Used by the Humvee Plamya Launcher and the M1A1. 40mm Smoke - Can only be used from the tanks' and BTR's smoke grenade launcher. Provides cover for your units / squad. 73mm shells - Comes in HEAT (High Explosive Anti Tank - best for armoured targets) and HESH (High Explosive Squash Head - best for soft targets). Used by the BMP-1. 125mm shells - Comes in HEAT (for hard targets), HEFRAG (for soft targets) and APFSDS (for when you want to kill the guys inside the armour, but want to leave the unit intact for scavenging). APFSDS can come in very handy but can be hard to find. The tanks use these kinds of ammunition. 152mm shells - Comes in HE (for hard targets), Smoke (for distractions), Mine (for laying mines from a distance) and Flare (to light up the sky). Only the HE does direct damage. Used by the 2S3. *NOTE: I'm yet to see a mine, smoke or flare version of this ammo type. SA-7 - Please see the entry under the Personnel Ammunition for this item. Used by the Heli SA-7. TOW rocket - A fairly powerful unguided rocket. Can be fired from the Humvee TOW or Heli TOW launchers. AT-2 rocket - An anti-tank missile that can be fired from a BMP-1. According to the manual, it's got great range but isn't as powerful as some of the other rockets. For some reason I think this is a guided rocket... AT-6 rocket - As powerful as a TOW but able to be loaded onto more vehicles. Can be placed on the OH-58, MD 500 and Mi-24 (which can have the AT-6 4-Rocket attached). 57mm rocket - Used by the UV-7 and UV-32 launchers. Best used against soft targets or light armour. 80mm rocket - Used by the UB-20 launchers. Best used against soft targets or light armour. 122mm rocket - Comes in HE, Smoke and Mine flavours. Used by the BM-21. It takes about 3 HE 122mm rockets to knock out most armoured units - remember to stop the BM-21 to fire more than that or you will just be wasting ammunition. *NOTE: I'm yet to see a mine or smoke version of this ammo type. 500lb bomb - Once you've painted a target with a tracker, you can drop one of these on said target. Creates a big explosion and does a lot of damage. Can be equipped on the jets (ie F-15, MiG-27 and MiG-29). 1000lb bomb - Like the 500lb bomb, but bigger. ++++ 3.0 PERSONNEL _____________ Once you've got your equipment you need to be able to use it effectively. A number of different skills exist and having a good mix of them on the field will make your life a lot easier. 3.1 SKILLS ---------- Athletics - This skill will let your guys run a lot faster. As such, it is important for your scouts / point-men to have, since getting out of the way is a vital skill for SoA. It also means your squad can be faster on the ground, allowing you to come back more easily if something unfortunate happens (eg one of your guys gets spotted). Light Weapons - Whoever has this skill is more proficient at using light weapons. Light weapons are things like the Berreta, Uzi and MP5. This sounds good early on, but unfortunately given that heavy weapons are frequently available later on in the game, it is a wasted skill. Don't get it; get Heavy Weapons instead. Heavy Weapons - Makes your guys more proficient at using heavy weapons. This is the skill to have as it is more useful through-out the entire SoA campaign. Heavy weapons are M60's, AK-74's, RPG's and SA-7's. Sharpshooter - Whoever has this skill can use sharpshooter weapons more effectively and can be used to snipe enemies with either the Crossbow or Dragunov. Given that the sharpshooter weapons can lead to one-shot kills, having a sniper on the squad can make things a lot easier for you. Medical - Those with medical skill can wring more hitpoints out of medikits when you use them. Explosives - Squad members with knowledge of explosives can lay/pick up mines and lay explosive charges without accidentally setting them off. 3.2 SUGGESTED SQUAD SELECTION ----------------------------- SoA starts with you having squad members who have Medical skill, Explosives skill and Light Weapons skill. All of these are useful, but unfortunately the Light Weapons skill guy finds his usefulness fall off as the game progresses, simply because you can get better weapons. By the end of the first mission you can pick up someone with the Sharpshooter skill - this is also great to have. Whenever you go into the field, always take someone with the explosives skill since you never know when you'll need to defuse some mines or plant explosives. A medic is great for keeping your guys alive and for freeing up inventory space (ie give all the medikits to the medic rather than one per squad member). Of the skills, my ranking for them is as follows: 1) Athletics 2) Heavy Weapons 3) Sharpshooter 4) Explosives 5) Medical 6) Light Weapons Athletics means you can get into (and out of) places more quickly. Being able to pull off a successful hit-and-run or just sneak through enemy defences quickly is great to have in SoA. I typically have my two point-men (aka scouts) with this skill. Heavy Weapons include AK-74's, which will become a fairly standard weapon in the mid- to end-game of SoA. Heavy Weapons also mean your squad members will be better at using their RPGs to destroy armoured enemy units which also comes in handy. Sharpshooter is good to have, but you only really need one (maximum of two) in the field at once. This is partly due to the fact that sniper ammunition is hard to come across, so having more than one sniper will just lead to you running low on rounds. Given that you can get a Sharpshooter to join your squad in the first mission, you only need to pick this skill for someone else if you want a back-up or if your sniper dies. Explosives is a very important skill, but you only really need one (or two) on the squad. You may want to have a spare person with this skill just in case your main guy dies, but with care one Explosives guy will do you fine. You'll get an Explosives guy in level 5. Medical is important, but again you only need one on the field. Have them come and heal your guys as necessary (or the injured go to them) and keep them out of the front lines (someone has to drive that Ural!). Light Weapons is the least useful, just because you'll have access to heavy weapons before too long that'll make leave your Light Weapons specialists looking stupid. The squad I aim to build has: 2 Point-men (with Athletics and either Heavy Weapons or Sharpshooter) 1 Demolitions (with Explosives and Athletics) 1 Medic (with Medical) 7 Assaulters (with Heavy Weapons and maybe Athletics if they get that far) This squad gives me a good mix of skills and abilities to deal with most situations in SoA. VEHICLES: It is too hard to absolutely recommend any particular vehicles for each mission. You may not have those vehicles, or you may not like using the same vehicles that I do. However, in general I recommend that you do not bring any more than 4 vehicles per mission. It is more than likely that you will come across at least one empty vehicle per mission, and since you need at least two people to use an attack vehicle (ie driver and gunner) if you bring more than 4 vehicles you will have to either dump one of your current vehicles or else drive around with your squad spread out thinly over a number of vehicles. The above statement is based on having two squad members as dedicated, on-foot point-men. If you do not use this method, you could probably take more vehicles and not be disadvantaged. You can, if you have enough ammo, take along some vehicles as "spares" ie to replace the vehicles that will get damaged during the next mission. However, you don't want take too many just in case you end up with some enemy vehicles that can be scavenged. So, if you do choose to take some spares, just take one or two extra. Also, keep in mind that when a vehicle takes damage, the soldiers inside it also take some damage. Keep your eyes on your squads' armour and health when they are inside armoured vehicles. ++++ 4.0 GENERAL TACTICS ___________________ Below are a list of broad tips that I found to be very helpful in playing SoA. 4.1 INCLUDED README FILE ------------------------ If you look at the files on the SoA cd, you'll come across a hints'n'tips file from the devs. I've included it below for the sake of completeness. -- From Adrian Miller, Lead Tester: HEAL YOUR PEOPLE AT THE END OF MISSIONS At the end of a mission Heal all injured soldiers with the Medic so they are at full health. Then end the mission and go to Base. Once at base click on the Lab. Since all your units are at full health you will be able to perform Hormone treatments on 2 soldiers instead of one. EXPLORE EACH MISSION MAP There are similar extras hidden throughout the game, so explore each map. SAVE OFTEN You will want to save frequently, because experienced guys are very helpful. Don't let them die. CHOOSE THE ATHLETIC SKILL Choose the "Athletic" skill for at least 2 soldiers and use these soldiers as your scouts. Athletic soldiers are much faster than regular soldiers. CAMERA CONTROL Camera control can be changed by hitting the space bar or by hitting the Follow Mode or Free Mode option in the game window. Toggle that button to switch to the mode shown. PATCH TO ALLOW TURN-BASED PLAY Due to heavy user request, we have created a patch to allow users to pause Soldiers of Anarchy in single-player and issue orders. Please go to http://www.soldiers-of-anarchy.com/downloads/ if you would like to use this patch. -- 4.2 IN THE FIELD ---------------- - The key rule of combat in SoA is to catch your enemy in a crossfire at every opportunity. You are outnumbered and outgunned. Trying to fight the enemy on a 1-to-1 basis will just leave you too depleted to finish your missions. Take your enemy on when you can do so quickly and with minimum chance of damage to your squad. - By the same token, do not let the enemy catch you in a crossfire. - Scavenge everything. Anything you don't want, you can trade and you never know when that extra item you picked up may just be what you need to complete a trade with the Seeker. - Learn to stack items in your Ural / other vehicles. Most guns stack in loads of 5 and you can have up to 9 anti-tank mines in a vehicle. A little bit of planning and keeping track of which vehicle is carrying what will mean you'll be able to carry more back to base. - Know what your vehicles can carry. For example, Humvees and most armour have limited space for equipment, but you can always dump 7.62mm ammo that you find on them. If you want to see if you can place some equipment in a vehicle, drag that equipment over the vehicle icon at the bottom of the screen. That will tell you if that vehicle can take it. - Lay traps and ambushes for your enemy. Use mines to disable vehicles. Plant them across roads you think the enemy will come down or around corners and try to lure vehicles onto them. - Whenever you go into the field, always take someone with the Explosives skill since you will need to defuse / plant mines all the time and to occasionally plant explosives. - Whenever possible take a set of explosives into the field with you. You never know when it might come in handy. - Reconnaissance is very important to successfully taking out enemy outposts. Move your men to positions around the base so you can see what you are up against. It's no fun storming a base only to find out they have a M1A1 waiting for you! - The enemy AI works on a line-of-sight and area of influence format. If you kill an enemy in clear sight of another enemy, you will alert them. The same can happen if you kill one enemy too close to another (especially with a noisy weapon). Try to take out isolated enemies first and whittle their numbers down. - Take your time. SoA gives no rewards for speed, so take your time planning how you are going to execute your objectives. If it takes you half-an-hour to successfully take a base with no casualties on your side, then that's what it takes. - If you alert the enemy to your presence, don't be afraid to pull back. Let them run around and try and find you. Eliminate those who venture too far out after you as targets of opportunity. - Don't be afraid of armour, since you will have to deal with it. Two squad members with RPG's can take out most enemy armour if they catch it by surprise - it takes about three RPG's to finish most tanks. - QuickSave (F8) is your friend! Use it frequently! (Or not, if you want to play hardcore..) - When using vehicles, always have a scout out in front. As far as I know, characters in vehicles won't see mines - you need a person on foot to spot them. Be wary of driving through an unscouted area or one where mines once were - it sucks to see your tank full of guys explode because you missed a mine on your first pass through the area! - Also, keep in mind that when a vehicle takes damage, the soldiers inside it also take some damage. Keep your eye on your squads armour and health when they are inside armoured vehicles. - To take an empty vehicle home with you, I think that you need to have a squad member sit in it at some point during the mission. So, if you empty a vehicle of its previous owners, just send someone to get in, then get them out again. - Get used to selecting what ammo type you want your vehicles to use / not use. By this, I mean get used to switching off ammo types so that your T-55 (for example) will use HEAT and APFSDS against armoured targets, while saving HEFRAG for soft targets. The last thing you want to do is waste your precious heavy ammo on the wrong targets. - When ending a mission, always check that in the "Mission End?" screen that you have all the empty vehicles / vehicles that you have acquired from the mission before leaving the mission zone. 4.3 BETWEEN MISSIONS -------------------- - Tempting though it is, don't rip off the Seeker early on. If you rip him off (that "If you want.." message) he gives you less range the next time. Give him a few "Delighted!"'s to prompt him into offering more stuff. - You can turn certain Base functions to "Automatic". The only one I use is for the Medical Bay - all the others I keep off since I want to be able to pick my own equipment and which vehicles to repair. If you leave these on, you can end up having the wrong vehicle repaired. - Always empty your squad and vehicle inventories before trading, then re-equip them after trading. You don't want to trade away a vehicle full of scavenged equipment by accident. - A quick way to equip a squad is to turn the Automatic function in the stock room on, then off. This will distribute equipment to the squad that you can then fine-tune. - If you are going to trade a vehicle away, it is sometimes better to take the mounted weapons off it and trade them separately. Firstly, this lets you distinguish between the same vehicle type armed with different weapons (if you have two Humvees, taking off their weapons means you won't accidentally trade the TOW launcher when you wanted to off-load the machine gun one). Secondly, you might be overtrading with the both the unit and the weapon - if you trade one first, you will get a better idea of what you can get for it. - Early on I recommend trading for personnel armour. It will always come in useful and you will always be using it. - Don't forget to re-equip vehicles before you go into the field. It is painful to enter the mission, then realise that you haven't restocked your units' ammunition supplies. ++++ 5.0 WALKTHROUGH _______________ Below are mission walkthroughs for getting through SoA. Things may not always work out as I have described them - you may accidentally alert a guard or the AI may behave differently during your missions than it did for mine, changing what happens. You may also not get access to the same sorts of vehicles, or you may have units destroyed that I later refer to - sorry about that, but I'm just recounting how I passed the missions. That said, I hope the walkthroughs are useful to those playing through the campaign. Before starting the campaign, I recommend doing the tutorial to get an idea of the controls are and what is available in SoA. CAMPAIGN DIFFICULTY: This walkthrough was written based on a Hard campaign. GLOSSARY: To save myself a bit of typing, I abbreviate directions to their first letter (eg North = N, South-East = SE, West South-West = WSW, etc). 5.1 A LEAP IN THE DARK ---------------------- Head towards the source of the green waves (ie the green waypoint), but head W where the first path intersects. You'll find a bear near some crates. As your first act upon leaving the compound, kill the bear to again stamp man's dominance over nature. Pick up the crates [2 x Uzis & some 9mm clips] and give your Light Weapon Guy an uzi. Resume your path towards the green waypoint. Kill the wolves on your way there and in front of the dam. Just in front of the dam, you'll come across an empty Humvee. Have your non-Explosives squad members get in and send your Explosives guy up to the dam. Plant your explosives by the wall, program in 20 seconds and run away. Once it explodes, get all of your guys into the Humvee and proceed to the yellow waypoint (the lumber yard). Grab the crates [7.62mm ammunition? - I didn't record this] (again killing the wildlife first) then head towards the green marker. Save the guy from the wolves (not that he needs much help) and talk to him. Follow him to his village. Talk to him again. Avoiding the bad guys, take the path that leads SW from the village. Follow it down until you see a house. It'll blow up (!!). Take out the two Slingers and talk to the guy who ran away. He'll join up. Give him a weapon, scavenge the Slingers' equipment and don't forget to grab the crate behind the shed [3 x medikits]. Head back to the village. Leap the wall next to the Seeker's house. Pick up the crates [2 x MP5s, 9mm clips, 7.62mm ammo, molotov cocktails]. There is another crate [2 x Kevlar vests] around the front of the house, but watch out for the Slinger who will walk down that way. Equip 3 members of your squad with your best equipment and send the other two back to the Humvee with the 7.62mm ammo. (I'd quicksave here). Draw the Slingers into a crossfire. Have your Humvee not too far away to assist if required. Try to attract the enemy Humvee into an ambush - molotov it if necessary or bring in your Humvee to open fire on it, then have your squad open fire on it too. Don't lose a squad member or the Humvee. Scavenge all that you can. Talk to the men in the centre of the village - some will join up. Before you finish the level, have one of your guys hop into the Seekers car, parked out the front of the village. -- BETWEEN MISSIONS: Trade the Seeker's car back to him for personnel armour. Move your guys away from having Berettas, towards Uzis and MP5s. Get the crossbow bolts and give them to your Sharpshooter. -- 5.2 THE RAID ------------ Split your squad into three groups - two groups of foot soldiers and one group in the Humvee. Carefully send your Humvee around to cover the back road leading out of the base. Move your foot patrols closer to the base, watching how the patrols move as you approach. The aim is to take out these patrols without alerting the entire base. Take this slowly and do it right, working your way from the outside in. My preferred method was to work around the W side of the base first, taking out the patrols one-by-one. By the time you've got around to the N side of the base you'll be able to sneak up on those Slingers in the centre area much more easily. You should also aim to take out the stationary Slinger in the centre of the base without alerting him - if he is alerted, he'll get in the car and drive off. If you take him out without alerting him, you get to keep the car (!). There are mines on the road heading W - get your explosives guy to grab them once you've taken out the two guards nearby. The crate in the S-most yard (next to the train carriages) has a [Crossbow] in it - give that to your Sharpshooter who (if you have the crossbow bolts) will be able to take out guys silently. Once the base is clear, scavenge all you can and grab the crates in the compound [which has guns, ammo, crossbow bolts and medikits]. Head to the next objective (but make sure those mines are cleared!). Two guards need to be taken out at the radar station. Grab the crate [2 x 7.62mm ammo] that is there as well. Head to the next objective. If you go NE from the radar station you'll see a drunken man in the forest who has some stories to tell about demons... When you get to the town that is the objective, you'll see 5 Slingers near a truck, gathering the villagers. Move into position carefully, then open fire, aiming to take the enemy out as quickly as possible. There is one patrolling Slinger - try to take him out as far away from the other Slingers as possible. If you tip off the Slingers, they will open fire on the villagers, but this doesn't appear to have any serious consequences. It is, however, easier to take out the Slingers if their attention is divided between the villagers and you. Once you've rescued the villagers, talk to the woman and you'll get two new recruits. Scavenge everything and dump your excess into the Ural and your other vehicles. Jump into your vehicles and head to the next objective. Recon the base and see where everything is. Take out the patrolling Humvee - one well placed mine should do the trick. Plant a mine after you see its path around the base. Taking the base is a bit harder. If you kill the guard on the N wall you can alert the base, but this can make things easier for you as the enemy split up a bit. In the base is an empty APC - if you can sneak two men into it (by jumping the gate in the N wall) you'll end up with a lot more firepower. In the APC you should be able to take on the Slinger guards and Humvees one-on-one, but if it gets too hot for you, move the APC outside and have your men support it with their firepower. Also have your squad ready to move in and help the APC as required. You can also try lobbing molotov cocktails over the walls of the base onto Humvees - if you are lucky you'll be able to destroy / severely damage a Humvee this way, but don't bet on it. After clearing the base, shoot out one side of the prison fence that is keeping the old man and talk to him. Scavenge everything - there are some crates in the base [with Heavy Vests in one, Binolculars and Medikits in the other]. Grab the GAZ as well. See the destroyed helicopter? Open it up by shooting it with a Beretta (it'll take about 10 bullets, then make sure you stop before you blow up the helicopter!) for a free Gaz. -- BETWEEN MISSIONS: Start to upgrade your weapons. Hopefully some of your squad will have gotten some new skills, so take advantage of this. Take an APC and the Ural with you at least. Your point-men should have a Crossbow and mines, depending on their specialty. Also, try to take / trade for as many molotovs / grenades as you can and bring them on the next mission.-- 5.3 MARKET DAY -------------- There are four Slingers at a mined checkpoint just up the road from where you start. Send your point-men up to ID the area, then use your vehicles to take them out. De-mine the area (both sides of the checkpoint) then move up the road. Use your point-men to look around the area. There's a Humvee circling the base and three guys on a small hill. One of these guys has an RPG and possibly a heavy vest, so ID him and take him out quickly (eg grenades). The other two guards are easier to deal with. Watch the path of the Humvee and drop a couple of mines for it to hit. Move around to the back of the base (I recommend going the long way around since there are fewer Slingers to deal with - you get bears instead), where another Humvee is patrolling. Take that one out too - you can probably just use your attack vehicles to deal with it. Once you are on the W side of the base, set up an ambush. Position your vehicles around a corner, then lay a couple of mines of the other side of the corner. Move your vehicles into position last - there is a chance that their noise will alert guards on the other side of the wall. Also, there are four Slingers in a small camp to the S - they may join in the battle if alerted. What you want is for the guards to run around the corner and into a crossfire, and for the enemy vehicles (two Humvees and an APC) to hit the mines and be destroyed (or at least have one or two of them taken out). Use the captured RPG if you need to. Once clear, open up the gate by operating the switch and talk to the villager. You'll get two new squad members. Scavenge all that you can. If you've taken out the four Slingers to the S, there is a crate [Fly and Medipacks] you can get from them; if they are still there, have your vehicles take them out. There are three crates in the area that was being guarded: #1 is behind the building opposite where the villagers were being held [4 x Playma HE Grenades]; #2 is next to the T-shaped building [Medipack, 2 x Heavy Vest; Explosives]; and #3 is up near the train tracks [4 x 9mm ammo and 2 x 7.62mm ammo]. In the train area, the suspended train car holds a Wolf vehicle. To get it, shoot a train care underneath the suspended car - the explosion will snap the cable and drop the car. Save your game just in case of mishap. You'll have a new objective. Head NW up to it. You'll see two Slingers and an APC. Set up another small ambush (but it's unlikely the APC will drive over any mines, so don't worry about that). Throw a grenade over the wall at the APC to attract the guards towards the ambush. Talk to the scientist they were guarding. Get the crate [3 x Grenades] and scavenge. To your N will be a group of enemy vehicles - just ignore and avoid them. Head W to the next mission objective, but be careful of the three APCs that are in a small area next to the road. Ignore them too, and go off-road to avoid them as necessary. There is an area with a hill in front of a road leading W from the base - I find this area to be the safest to park any vehicles you aren't going to use in the assault of the base. You are going to want only a gunner and driver in your attack vehicles, with the rest of your squad ready to enter the base. Crossbow the guard who is patrolling the W side of the base when he is out of sight of those behind the wall, then recon the base. You've got a number of Slingers and their vehicles (including a BMP) to take out. I recommend throwing grenades / molotovs over the wall at the BMP - with a little luck, you can damage it enough to scare it off / take it out. Once this is done, shoot down the W gate and have your vehicles kill any Slingers who come at you. De-mine the W gate and then send your squad into the base. Take out the remaining enemies - if you feel more confident about it (or can't spare a grenade to take out the Humvee) send in your APC as well, although you may need to shoot out a wall to do so. Once the final Slinger is killed, you'll get a short dialogue scene. What you want to do is now quickly scavenge and grab the two crates: #1 is near the obstacle course [SA-7 Launcher and missile] and #2 is next to the burnt out cars [AK-74 and 3 x 5.45mm ammo - there are mines next to this crate as well]. If you have a scout on the hill (preferably with binoculars) you'll see enemy vehicles start to move towards the base. This isn't something to panic about - provided your squad stays out of line of sight, you'll be okay. What you do get to see is these vehicles battle it out. Be sure to wait and make sure that all the vehicles have finished fighting before going to finish off the survivors - some times it takes a couple of minutes for everyone to arrive. Once the fireworks have settled (and you've taken out any remaining units), with a bit of luck you'll have a few second-hand vehicles ready to be scavenged. Go back to where you started this mission. Once you've got all your units close enough to the nav point you'll be able to exit the mission. -- BETWEEN MISSIONS: You'll get a free Hummer with TOW launcher next mission, so you might want to bring along a few TOW missiles if you can get them. If you've got two APCs (or heavier armoured vehicles) bring them and leave your other Humvees at base (or trade them away}. Repair up your vehicles and re-stock your grenade supplies. Bring all your mines. -- 5.4 TWO ROADS. ONE WAY. ----------------------- Grab your free Humvee and the crates [RPG Launcher and RPG's; 7.62mm ammo]. Talk to the mechanic to the S, then pick your poison - the Claws are E, the TFR are W. Next to the church (near the graveyard) is a priest delivering a sermon to a group of villagers. Send someone over to listen in, then talk to him. This will give you your first view of a unit that will appear later on in SOA. Don't worry - it won't attack you (unless you attack them first). If you head N and follow a road that leads E out of the city, then take a side road N and follow it around, you should find an empty Humvee at a small camp. IF YOU DECIDE TO SIDE WITH THE TFR: Send your point-men E to plant mines on the main road that leads out of the Claw base. A line of mines that leads between the hill and the graveyard (at least covering the road) will save you a lot of time and effort. Head over to the TFR. Have your Explosives expert de-mine the road to the TFR base. Keep your vehicles in front of the base in that sandy area. Send one squad member in and talk to the TFR members that you need to talk to (ie the gate guard and the base commander). Leave your Ural in the base and get in the vehicle they give you. The Claws will attack. Hopefully a good number will drive straight into your mines, but you will still probably have to take out a few yourself. Wait for the message that the Claws are heading for the TFR base and pull back for the Claw to show up. Try to get the TFR vehilces to draw the incoming fire, then open up on the target with your vehicles. Once the final Claw unit is destroyed (probably a T-55) you'll get a dialogue scene and new mission objectives. Grab the crate [3 x Explosives] next to the base commander. Scavenge from the battle and also take all the crates in the TFR base. +IN THE TFR BASE+: Heavy Ammo next to entrance, N section of base next to other crates and by the helipads; Three crates: #1 at front of base [7.62mm ammo]; #2 and #3 in the N section of the base [Medipacks and Heavy Vests]. NB: Heavy Ammo crates are sent to your base for use in the next mission. Head up towards the Claw base. Stop to grab a crate [2 x Medipacks] that is behind a house next to the park area in the town. Also, you can probably scavenge here for equipment that remains as a result of the battle here. Send your point-men up the road. De-mine the road, especially the new mines that the Claw have laid. You will see that there are Claw guards at the outposts, some armed with RPG's. My recommendation is to destroy the mission targets the sneaky way. Send your point-men in to the base via a short wall on the W side of the base in the S section (it's near a lot of small buildings). Time the entrance to avoid the patrolling guard from seeing you leap the fence. Your aim is to use your Crossbow to take out the guards who patrol your objectives without alerting the base. This isn't too hard to do - just take them out when they are not near / in the line of sight of other Claw units. I'd try taking out the Claw guarding the S-most objective first, then taking out the other guard once he is a good distance away from any other Claws. Save your game as neccessary. Three other recommendations to make this easier - 1) remember to crawl to keep out of sight, but run when you have to; 2) set your point-men's aggressiveness to the least aggressive level so they won't stop to attack any target that attacks them if they get spotted (this makes running away a lot easier) and 3) see SOMETHING TO KNOW ABOUT EXPLOSIVES in section 2.4 above. Sneak in and plant explosives at the middle objective. Set the timer to about 6 minutes and activate it. Plant the explosives at the S-most target and set the timer to about the same time that is remaining on your first explosive. Now, sneak out and leap the fence that you used to enter the base. Head up to the N-most objective (the train yard) and time your entry to avoid the guard. Drop the explosive, give yourself 30s and leap the fence again. Get out of the way of the explosion. *NOTE: If you having trouble doing it this way, try changing the order around. Blowing up the train yard first (or getting spotted there) can draw _some_ Claw units up to that section of the base, making it easier to take out the other targets. However, a base that is on alert can also make things harder as vehicles start to move around and become unpredictable. Once all three objectives are destroyed, the Claw will leave their base, heading E. Stay out of their way. Once the base is cleared, bring your squad in to scavenge what you can. +IN THE CLAW BASE+: In the middle area of the base there are 2 x Heavy Ammo crates and 3 x crates [Heavy Vests and Medipacks - the Medipack crate is slightly hidden in the building to the E]. There is also a crate next to the house to the N of the Claw base [2 x Medipacks] and a crate behind a wall in the refinery that is also to the N of the Claw base [4 x 7.62mm ammo]. Send your Explosives expert to collect the mines on the N road of the Claw base (if he carrying too much, give some of the other mines he is carrying to someone else to hold or store them in the Ural). Have another squad member go back to the nav point and talk to the Trader. Get in the T-55 to end the mission. Completing this option will make your next mission HEROES DIE YOUNG. IF YOU DECIDE TO SIDE WITH THE CLAW: Send your Explosives expert W to the TFR base. Plant about half the mines you have one the main road leading out of the TFR base just before it connects to that crescent-shaped road. Use the rest of the mines you have to cover the road that wasn't mined (because the TFR won't drive through their mine field to get to town, taking the top road instead). Take the mines the TFR have planted across their road. Move your squad up to near the Claw base. Send your Explosives expert to clear their mine field N of their base. Have one squad member move near the base entrance, then talk to the guard (after the dialogue) and the base commander (who channels Dennis Hopper). The TFR will attack. Get into the T-55. With a bit of luck, your mines should take out a good number of the TFR. Don't stray too far from base - be ready to move back as soon as you are told that the TFR are headed to the Claw base. Wait behind the Claw units so they draw the incoming fire, then open up on enemy targets. Once the enemy vehicles have been destroyed, you will be told to blow up the TFR base. Grab the crate [3 x Explosives] from next to the Cobra ... errr ... Claw Commander and then scavenge what else you can. +IN THE CLAW BASE+: In the middle area of the base there are 2 x Heavy Ammo crates and 3 x crates [Heavy Vests and Medipacks - the Medipack crate is slightly hidden in the building to the E]. There is also a crate next to the house to the N of the Claw base [2 x Medipacks] and a crate behind a wall in the refinery that is also to the N of the Claw base [4 x 7.62mm ammo]. Head up towards the TFR base. Stop to grab a crate [2 x Medipacks] that is behind a house next to the park area in the town. Also, you can probably scavenge here for equipment that remains as a result of the battle here. As you move towards the TFR base, you will see some guards located at outposts near on the road. Have your point-men sneak around them and take a look over the base. Save your game. Have your Sharpshooter crossbow bolt the guard at the small gate to the S when the patrol isn't nearby. Have your Explosives expert hop the fence, then crawl and hide behind the crates. Keep out of sight of that patrol. I was fortunate that my Sharpshooter was close enough to the gate to crossbow bolt both members of the patrol, which didn't set off an alarm. However, it should be possible to have your Explosives expert run and plant the explosives at both objectives and at least be able to find a place to hide before the patrol comes back. Set the timers for 5 (or so) minutes. Three other recommendations to make this easier - 1) remember to crawl to keep out of sight, but run when you have to; 2) set your point-mens' aggressiveness to the least aggressive level so they won't stop to attack any target that attacks them if they get spotted (this makes running away a lot easier) and 3) see SOMETHING TO KNOW ABOUT EXPLOSIVES in section 2.4 above. Once the two targets on this side of the base are set, leap back over the fence and head to the NW side of the base. Use an M60 to blow a hole in the fence just behind the buildings that surround the three crates - it will take approximately 100 7.62mm rounds to destroy a section of the fence. There should be no guards in this area. Crawl over to the last objective and plant the explosive, setting the timer to approximately go off at the same time as the others. Escape the base, then find a place that isn't on the S side of the base to watch things go bang. The TFR will exit the base once the three objectives are destroyed. They will exit their base via the main entrance, then turn and head S by going cross-country. Don't get in their way. Also, avoid getting seen by the helicopter. Give the base a few minutes to clear, then enter and scavenge all that you can. Don't forget to clear the mines off the road at the front of the base! Believe me, you'll swear a blue streak when your vehicle drives over one of your own mines after the mission is all but completed! +IN THE TFR BASE+: Heavy Ammo next to entrance, N section of base next to other crates and by the helipads; Three crates: #1 at front of base [7.62mm ammo]; #2 and #3 in the N section of the base [Medipacks and Heavy Vests]. NB: Heavy Ammo crates are sent to your base for use in the next mission. Send someone back to talk to the Trader at the nav point. Get in the T-55 to finish the mission. Completing this option will make your next mission IN THE EYE OF THE STORM. -- BETWEEN MISSIONS: With a bit of luck, you'll have two heavily armoured tanks by the end of this mission. Repair them up as necessary and start trading away your Wolfs / Humvees / GAZ's away for better equipment. AK-74's and their ammo should becoming more available, so start getting them. Alternatively, start giving your normal soldiers M60s / RPKs if you have a lot of 7.62mm ammo. Don't deprive your vehicles of this ammo just to give it to your squad, however. A Draguov sniper rifle will hopefully be available for acquisition, so grab that and its ammo when you see it come up. Have your sharpshooter still take the Crossbow and use that until you are out of bolts before starting to use the Dragunov. You should take 3 vehicles into your next mission - an APC, a T-55 and then whatever is your next most powerful attack vehicle. You can take the Ural as well, but be prepared to leave it behind a lot. Have two guys take RPG Launchers and RPG's.-- +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ AT THIS POINT, THE MISSIONS WILL BE GROUPED BY YOUR CHOICE TO EITHER HELP THE TFR OR THE CLAW. MISSIONS THAT HAVE A "T" IN FRONT OF THEM ARISE FROM HELPING THE TFR; MISSIONS THAT HAVE A "C" IN FRONT OF THEM ARISE FROM HELPING THE CLAW. BOTH MISSIONS LISTED 5.5x AND 5.6x (WHERE X IS EITHER T OR C) ARE ON THE SAME MAPS AND FOLLOW GENERALLY THE SAME OBJECTIVES, ALTHOUGH IN SOME CASES THE ORDER OF THEM IS DIFFERENT. IT IS MY PERSONAL OPINION THAT SIDING WITH TFR LEADS TO MISSIONS THAT ARE EASIER THAN IF YOU CHOOSE TO SIDE WITH THE CLAW. +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ 5.5T HEROES DIE YOUNG --------------------- Watch the bridge blow up. A man will run towards you and, after a little chat, join you. Get in your vehicles and head towards the E nav point. Have your point-men recon the town. You'll see two Claws (one of them has an RPG). Take them out. Move your explosives expert along the train tracks that lead away from the objective until you come to come to a place where the railroad merges. Plant mines across this area. Now plant the explosives next to the fuel depot (the objective) and blow it up. Have your armoured vehicles ready for the oncoming enemy by hiding out of sight behind the trees. The enemy vehicles will be a Humvee, a Vulcan and a tank. Eliminate them as well. Your armoured vehicles should be able to take them out through the use of HEAT rounds and you may even be able to scavenge a damaged vehicle from the fight. Move up towards the closest nav point. Have three guys equip RPGs and use them to take out the solitary Shilka (or is it a Vulcan?) on the W side of the base (3 RPG hits will destroy it). Use this RPG squad to also take out the patrolling APC in the E section of the base - the APC stops here for a few seconds, making it an easy target. Use your point-men to take out a Claw that is standing by himself next to a building in the W - this guy is armed with a Dragunov, so be careful. Finally, use your armoured units (undamaged vehicles leading the charge) to take out the remaining 3 Claws and the tank. Scavenge the remaining equipment and grab the two heavy ammo crates. Head N up the train tracks until you reach the track teminus. Grab the crate that is there. Move to the other nav point. When you get to the town, keep your eyes out for mines on the road - there are one set on the E road and one set in the middle of town. At the W side of town there is an empty helicopter guarded by a Humvee. Destroy the Humvee (I used a squad of six all armed with heavy machine guns and the Humvee lasted about a second) and send two guys into the helicopter. Turn off the TOW missile in the helicopter (by clicking on the green button next to it - it will go red). Grab the crate nearby [3 x Plamya HE; 3 x Plamya Fire]. Use the helicopter to carefully venture around town until you activate a dialogue scene where Beck (the objective) dies. Have the helicopter take out the Claw units, taking advantage of its great attacking range. Watch out for the two Claw units with RPG launchers. You can also have your squad help the helicopter and assault the Claw as well. Use them to take out Claw that are alone before using the helicopter to destroy the vehicles and their guards. Once you have cleared out the Claw, scavenge (including the mines) before heading to the new nav point to the NE. Do not move any vehicle (especially the helicopter) too close to that nav point yet, since once you get within sight distance the attack will begin. Keep your squad together. Once you have your squad in position at a location that isn't too far from the nav point (such as next to a vineyard with small distillery that is at the end of a road) ready your vehicles for attack. Activate your helicopter's TOW (the light next to it should be green) and have it move closer to the town / objective. You will see an APC and two Hummvees attacking the town walls. Have your helicopter attack the APC - the TOW, plus a few machine gun rounds, will quickly destroy it. If one Humvee next to it is still close to the APC, the combination of the TOW rocket and the APC explosion will destroy it as well. Destroy the other Humvee, then pull your helicopter back and send in the armour. A Shilka will shortly come down the road - if you hit it with 3 - 4 HEAT rounds, you will kill the crew inside but leave the Shilka available for scavenging. Send someone to get the crate from next to the small distillery that you just come from [it has lots of shotgun shells]. Move another squad member (or two) into town and grab the crate [grenades of various sorts; throwing knife; 5.45mm ammo; Uzi] that is at the front of the town. Send one of these squad members up to talk to the farmer at the back. End the mission once you have got everything you want. -- BETWEEN MISSIONS: Start to dump your weaker vehicles in trades for heavy ammo. To be honest, you only need to keep one (or two) spare vehicles at base just in case the ones that come back from the mission are too damaged to be repaired in time. Now that you have a helicopter, take that, along with your T-55. If you have managed to get the Shilka from the previous mission, repair it and bring this along too. A third armoured vehicle and the Ural will be enough to round out your squad for the next mission. If you have enough ammo and the capacity, consider taking a fourth armoured vehicle as a spare. Finally, take an SA-7 launcher with a missile or two. By this time, unless you've lost some men, you should have enough to leave David Reaves (the light weapons specialist) back at base. I don't like the Light Weapons skill, so I'd rather take along someone who can be trained up than fill a squad spot with Mr Reaves. -- 5.6T THE SNARE -------------- Switch off your helicopter's TOW launcher. Send your point-men up to the first nav point (ie the one closest to you). Use your crossbow to take out the lone Claw in a heavy Vest at the N end of the base (watch out for the patrolling APC). Move your point-men around to the S end of the base and go down that road until you reach the intersection. Have your Explosives expert plant mines either N or S of the intersection - I've found it easier to plant the mines S, in the bottleneck leading up to the base, but if you plant them N you have the chance of taking out more vehicles. Have your helicopter scout the various nav points, taking care not to draw any aggression from them. Once you've had a look around, use your helicopter to eliminate one of the smaller Claw outposts - one with a Hummer and some guards. Make sure you don't waste your TOW missile doing this. Back at your first nav point, move your point-men to the SW of the base where there are two Humvees. Move into position that will allow you to grenade both Humvees simulatneously, then fade back into the woods and take out the two guards who will be alerted by the explosions. This will trigger several enemy vehicles to come down along the road you have mined. With a bit of luck, several of these vehicles won't be arriving to bother you. Be on the lookout for one vehicle - a BMP, I think - that will take the long way around, coming around the woods and pass not too far from your starting position. Have your vehicles take it out. Now, clear the base, starting from the N end. Try to take enemy vehicles one at a time rather than attack them all en masse. Also, take care in attacking the Claw soldiers with tanks - they will waste HEAT ammo on single soldiers, so make sure you turn the anti-tank ammo off before engaging these soft targets. If you give the enemy armour a couple of minutes, some of it will return to where it came from, hopefully collecting a few mines on the way back. Once the base is clear, scavenge. There is a crate in the courtyard of a house that is opposite the church - leave the fence to get it [kevlar vest]. Head to the next nav point. Remember to clear your mines from the road! In this case, I had used the helicopter to clear the small Claw outpost to the SE of the NOAH compound. You may have used it to clear the other one. Either way, the same basic tactics apply - take the higher ground and use an assault squad to clear out the Claw. Arrange a squad of six assaulters armed with M60s / RPKs and have your helicopter a short way off to act as support (if you need it). Move this squad into position on the raised ground . Have your helicopter take out the Hummer and use your squad to take out the remaining Claw. Be careful - one of the Claw that are near the lighthouse-looking structure has a Dragunov, meaning he can kill your soldiers with one shot. Have either the helicopter or your Sharpshooter take out this sniper. Scavenge, then have someone grab the crate [plot point]. At this point, you may be running out of carrying room. Remember to dump 7.62mm ammo into your tanks to clear some space. Move on to the next nav point. I had used the helicopter to clear this one, but if you may not have. Anyway... once this area is clear, scavenge and grab the crate [5 x Grenades]. Move on to the next nav point around the NOAH compound. This has a tank and a BMP at it. Use your vehicles to engage them, perhaps after using an RPG or two to do some damage. Once this location has been cleared, grab the crates [heavy ammo; 4 x RPG]. Depending on how badly your vehicles are damaged and if you have a spare, you may want to leave your most badly damaged vehicles behind at this point. There is one final Claw outpost in the SE of the map - it has just one Humvee and a number of soldiers. The use of a small squad of soldiers and a heavy vehicle should be all you need to clear it out. Grab the crate at the E end of the base [2 x Medipacks, Kevlar Vest, 2 x 7.62mm ammo] and scavenge. Send your point-men N - there is an empty outpost there that has a heavy ammo crate there. Move your entire squad N so that it is in front of the nuclear power station, but not too close... and send someone to the NOAH compound to talk to the scientist. Have them take the Ural, which should probably be very full by now. Once you've finished talking to the NOAH representative, you'll be given a Vulcan, two squad members and 30 minutes to stop the nuclear power plant from exploding. Have everyone at the NOAH location get into the Vulcan and drive it up to the power plant. You'll see there are a lot of Claw here and quite a few vehicles. Use your Sharpshooter to take out the Claw soldiers while keeping your vehicles free to engage the enemy vehicles. Have your helicopter use the TOW against an armoured target (APC or above). Work your way through the base, keeping an eye out for Claw soldiers armed with RPGs (there are a few) or any other surprises (there are no mines anywhere, though). Use your Vulcan to attack first, but don't be surprised if the enemy vehicle decides to attack your T-55 instead. There are some Claw units that walk around the cooling towers, so make sure you clear them out too. Scavenge RPGs if this makes things easier, and if you see groups of soldiers standing around, grenade them. Try to take the vehicles out in a crossfire and one-at-a-time. Also, be careful not to destroy the main power plant buildings or the cooling towers. If you do, the mission will end. Once you've cleared the enemy ground units (easier said than done) send a squad member with an SA-7 to the small gate at the E of the base (there is a guard there that your Sharpshooter should / should have taken out). You'll get a warning message, then an enemy helicopter will appear. Blow it out of the sky with the SA-7. That should clear the base and stop the clock. Scavenge all that you can (or all that you want) and grab the crates that are next to the shipping containers behind the central building [heavy ammo; lots of 7.62mm ammo, stun grenade, kevlar vest; 2 x medipack]. Send someone off to talk to the NOAH scientist. Once you've done this, end the mission when you are finished with the map. +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ MISSION 5.7 IS THE NEXT MISSION YOU WILL GO ON. +-------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.5C IN THE EYE OF THE STORM ---------------------------- You will be contacted fairly early on in this mission and receive a new mission objective from it. Get into your vehicles and move up the road. You'll see two soldiers shooting an unarmed man - take them out. Keep moving up the road until you see the abandoned helicopter. Take out its guards (two soldiers and a Humvee) and send someone to pilot it. Send your point-men up to recon the area around the injured man. With the helicoper in support, use your vehicles to clear the enemy units on the NE side where the injured man can be found. This shouldn't be too hard and shouldn't get you in too much trouble. Knock down a wall with a grenade and send in a squad member to talk to McNowell. He'll join you. Use him to clear the mines in the area (ie on the road nearby). The TFR will then move a couple of Humvees down a road S of you to join up with their comrades. They won't get near enough to see you (unless you want them too). Ignore them for the moment. Head NE to the village near the vineyard. Stop in the vineyard to arrange your vehicles, then move in. Have your helicopter hit the APC with its TOW and then destroy it with your 14.5mm guns. While this is happening, move your armoured units up towards the village road. Use your helicopter to destroy the two Humvees, then move it back. A Shilka should come moving down the road - have your tanks hit it with 3 HEATs, which should knock it out but not destroy it (if you are lucky). Send someone to hop into the Rager (and the Shilka, if it is still in one piece) and have someone else talk to the Farmer. He'll give you another objective. Have the helicopter move SW towards the bridge (one of the new yellow objectives) taking care not to fly over any enemy units. You'll see TFR soldiers running away from the bridge and it will blow up. Use your helicopter to take out the TFR soldiers who did this and also the four TFR soldiers that are on the hill (all four of these guys have RPGs, so keep your helicopter at maximum distance and move when you see them fire at you). Have your other units head towards the fuel depot, taking care to avoid going through the occupied town. Send your point-men up the hill to the NW of the depot and crossbow the lone TFR soldier that is standing there. Grab the SA-7 launcher and missiles he drops and have a squad member arm themselves with it. Use your helicopter to take out the two guards at the fuel depot. Scavenge their gear and then send your explosives expert up the railroad tracks to the place where it merges. Plant mines across this area and position your vehicles behind some cover. Blow up the depot (you can use explosives or HEAT rounds, depending on how you want to do it). This will see a Vulcan, APC and light helicopter sent to the depot. Hopefully your mines will take care of the ground units while your SA-7 soldier will take care of the helicopter (which comes over the hill NW of the depot). Once these enemy have been destroyed, clear your mines and send your point-men W around the occupied town. On this side of the town is a lone TFR unit with a Dragunov. Sneak up and use the crossbow or a grenade to take him out, then use the SA-7 to destroy the other light helicopter. This will most likely see the units in the town go hostile, so pull your point-men back. The aim at this point is to pick off the TFR occupying the town one by one, so use your vehicles / squad members to conduct hit'n'run tactics. Killing off the enemy one or two at a time may take some time, but if you try to hit them head on you'll risk some heavy casualties. If large number of the enemy start going hostile, pull back and regroup. Watch out - a lot of these soldiers are armed with RPGs, so you will want to make sure you take them out before they can get a shot off. You may want to try grabbing the Dragunov and using that to take enemy soldiers out at range. Also, some units may come down from the town to the NW. Once you've cleared out most of the TFR units, you can send your vehicles in to finish the job. With the town cleared, scavenge and grab the heavy ammo crate that is in the centre of the town. Send a unit N to the railroad storage area and grab the crate [4 x 7.62mm ammo, lots of shotgun shells]. Have another squad member (perhaps in the helicopter) head to the small outpost N of the bridge. Grab the heavy ammo crate from this base. Finally, send your squad to take out any remaining units from the area where you saved McNowell from. There may possibly be two Humvees there, but some grenade / RPG action here will quickly take them out. Grab the crate [6 x RPG rockets]. With all the TFR killed, you will be able to exit the mission. -- BETWEEN MISSIONS: Trade for heavy ammo and re-equip your squad. Trade the Rager for equipment. For the next mission, be sure to bring plenty of mines. Night Vision Goggles might be handy too. -- 5.6C THEY CAME IN THE DUSK -------------------------- Send your point-men ENE from starting point to find an enemy outpost with 2 BMPs and 2 T-55s (the outpost is at the end of a dirt road as well). Plant mines on the dirt road where it goes through a small dip alongside some trees. Leave one point-man there and send your Explosives expert N to some crossroads that are W of the Nuclear Power Plant and E of the first occupied town. Plant mines all over the crossroads. Use your helicopter to take out the two guards at the entrance to the occupied town that is a short distance from where you started. There is a patrolling APC that may be attracted by this attack - just lead it back to your armour to dispatch it quickly. Attacking this base is also likely to see the T-55s and BMPs from that outpost start to roll down towards you. If the first attack doesn't summon the reinforcements, just keep slowly clearing the occupied town until those enemy vehicles start to move. The BMPs will take the dirt road while the T-55s will cut cross-country and go via the crossroads. With a bit of luck the mines will stop any of these vehicles ever reaching you. If the mines don't stop them, you'll have to take them on the normal one. Slowly clear the town using soldiers and vehicles as appropriate and fall back as necessary to regroup. Once things are clear, collect any unused mines from your ambush points and get the heavy ammo crate from the small outpost that the T-55s and BMPs left. Scavenge the now clear town and grab the crate [Kevlar Vest, 2 x Medipacks, 2 x Grenades] near tents next to church. Send your helicopter, an armoured vehicle (an APC will do) and your point-men SSE to the enemy outpost in the train yard. When you get there, watch out for the wolf pack that is a short distance from the base's main road. (For fun, you can use a vehicle to scare this wolf pack into range of the guard at the front gate, where they will attack him.) Use your helicopter to blow up the Humvee at the far end of the base (it is equipped with a TOW). Have your armoured vehicle and your point-men clear out the rest of the base - it should just be soldiers. Once clear, scavenge and grab the crate from behind the building with the smoke stack [Kevlar Vest, Night Vision Goggles, 2 x Grenades, 4 x Mines]. Head back N and clear the next outpost. Have your point-men take out the soldiers near the watchtower on the hill - take care, because one of the TFR units has a Dragunov. Use your armour and squad members to take out the remaining soldiers guarding the outpost. Scavenge and grab the crate [plot point]. Move on to the next nav point. At this outpost, the Humvee goes in a wide circle around it, so keep an eye out for it. Once you locate it, it isn't hard at all to destroy. With the Humvee gone, it should be pretty simple to clear out the remaining TFR units. Grab the crate [3 x Fog Grenades] and scavenge. Head S to the next nav point. It is guarded by TFR soldiers, a BMP and T-55. Have your armour position itself to the W and have the Sharpshooter move to the hill to the E and equip the Dragunov. Have your armour focus on the BMP, then destory the T-55. Use your Sharpshooter to snipe enemy soldiers from the hill. Once the base is clear, scavenge and grab the heavy ammo crate. Move your units to in front of the NOAH base. Send someone in to talk to the scientist. Add the Vulcan to your list of units and (if you have any spare) give vests to the two new squad members that have joined your side. Head up to the Nuclear Power Plant, letting your healthiest vehicles lead. Take out the 2 Humvees and 2 T-55s by the front gate, then use your helicopter to hit the two patrolling Humvees and the APC. Move through the power plant killing all enemy units you come across. Make sure you move close enough to the cooling towers to be able to see any enemy units that may be patrolling around it. Listen out for helicopter blades once all the ground units are destroyed (you'll get a warning) and use a healthy vehicle / group of vehicles to destroy the light helicopter as quickly as possible. Grab the heavy ammo crate and other crate [2 x Medipack, 4 x 7.62mm ammo, 2 x Grenades] and scavenge. Go back to the NOAH base and talk to the the scientist. This is the end of the mission. +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ REGARDLESS OF WHETHER YOU FOUGHT THE TFR OR THE CLAW, MISSION 7 IS THE SAME. +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ -- BETWEEN MISSIONS: You can grab some Thumpers to deal with the crawler mines, but you will find some in this next mission. Also trade to replace the heavy ammo that you used up in the previous mission. -- 5.7 AND FOLLOW YOUR DESTINY --------------------------- Switch off your helicopter's TOW launcher. Send your helicopter off to the nav point (avoiding the enemy on the way) and land it. Talk to the monks. They aren't so helpful, so you are going to have to do things the hard way. Hit the SW base first. Have your sharpshooter snipe the isolated guards (one of them has a Dragunov. Set your tanks / armoured vehciles up, then have your helicopter take out the Humvee and the COTUC soldier armed with the RPG. Use the helicopter to guide the APC back to your tanks and let them take care of it. Use your armoured vehicles and other squad members to take out the remaining enemy (be careful that your armoured vehicles don't waste their HEAT rounds and use HEFRAGs instead, if you have any). Scavenge and also grab the heavy ammo crate in the W side of the base. Send two squad members to the BM-21. Move on to the south base, using your helicopter and point-men to recon. Send your heaviest armoured vehicle to accompany them, but leave two squad members in the BM-21. Watch out on the roads around this base - there are crawler mines spread across some areas. On the W side of this base there is a tank (a T-55, I think). Have the BM-21 fire three rockets into it (either stop the BM-21 manually after you hear three "wooshes" or turn off their rocket supply) - three direct hits from the BM-21 will destroy the tank (and if you are lucky, leave it damaged but available for scavenging). Have your armoured vehicle and squad members take out any soldiers who rush you for attacking the tank (the Humvee may also attack). Now, have your armoured vehicle and an RPG soldier destroy the Shilka (or again you can fire three rockets from your BM-21 to take it out). Have your tank and squad clear out any remaining enemy. Scavenge. Grab the heavy ammog crate on the S side of the base - it's next to a house. Head over to the final outpost. A quick recon of the area will show you that is is fairly spread out, so just work your way down the line until you clear it. Use a vehicle or two to take the Humvee and the bulk of the soliders when they go red and start running at you. You could also use your Sharpshooter to clear out a few of the more isolated soldiers. Once you've cleared this area, get the heavy ammo crate next to the fenced house and then get the other crate. Watch the dialogue scene, then put your point-men in your helicopter and have them fly back to the monastery. Have the rest of your squad scavenge while you use your point-men in this bit. At the back of the monastery there are 2 crates [Thumpers, Bug from Crawler Mine]. There are a few guards patrolling the area around it - wait until the monks are a distance away, then throw a grenade over the wall to take them out. Leap the fence and grab the bug (the other items can stay if you don't have room, but make sure you have at least 1 spare slot for the bug). Hop back over the fence and get back into the helicopter. Try to avoid being seen by the monks. NOTE: You can do this part when you first arrive at the monastery (ie when you first talk to the monks) and it's easier to do since there are no guards. I'd save your game here, just in case. Once you have the bug, you'll get a new objective - to plant it on a COTUC VIP's helicopter. Head back to your helicopter and fly towards the new nav point, but be very, very careful not to fly too close - there are a lot of enemy vehicles at this location and you won't survive long if you alert them of your presence. Move around to the E side of the base and blow a hole in the fence on this side. You should be able to see the empty helicopter. Without being spotted by the guards, have one of your point-men plant the bug on the helicopter (just drag the bug over the helicopter to plant it). Keep a watch on the patrol that circles the U-shaped building, but with a bit of crouching and some patience it isn't hard to plant the bug. During this time you'll be getting a conversation between COTUC members - don't worry, you have more time than the length of this conversation to bug the helicopter. Move your point-men back out to the E side of the base and head N. In the NE section of the base is a jet that you can "acquire". (Oh, and E of the jet outside the base is a Bengal Tiger, which is just an Easter Egg.) To get the jet, just eliminate the two COTUC soldiers who are guarding it (and do your best not to alert the nearby COTUC tank when doing it). Your Sharpshooter should be very useful to do this. Once the guards are gone, move in and get the crates [heavy ammo; 4 x 5.45mm ammo; 2 x bug] and scavenge if you need to. Move back to your helicopter. By this time, the bugged helicopter should be leaving. Stay out of its sight. Once it has gone (and you've successfully bugged it) you'll get a message to go back to the monastery. Fly back to the monestary. You'll get a message that "Something's not right". This refers to the increased patrols on the roads below the monastery and the crawler mines that now lie on the road to the monastery, but if you fly back, this won't be a problem provided you aren't seen by enemy vehicles. Land at the monastery and talk to the monks. You'll be given an option - to either side with the COTUC or to kill the monks (and I agree with the squad on this - "thanks a lot, base!"). IF YOU CHOOSE TO SIDE WITH COTUC: Talk to the monks again. The mission will end. IF YOU CHOOSE TO GO AGAINST COTUC: Attack the monks out front. Once you kill three of them, the mission will end. -- BETWEEN MISSIONS: Trade for bombs and load them up on your jet. Get more heavy ammo and trade away all those you can't use (eg if you aren't using the BMP, get rid of all its specialised ammo). You may also have an M1A1 available from the Seeker for trading - you can get it by trading a T-55 and a Vulcan. For next mission, remember to take bugs to place on targets for your jet to bomb. However, if your next mission is INSIDE THE RAT HOLE, don't worry about equipping anything else since you won't start the mission with it. -- +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ AT THIS POINT, THE MISSIONS WILL BE GROUPED BY YOUR CHOICE TO EITHER SIDE WITH OR AGAINST COTUC. MISSIONS THAT HAVE A "W" IN FRONT OF THEM ARISE FROM SIDING WITH COTUC; MISSIONS THAT HAVE A "A" IN FRONT OF THEM ARISE FROM GOING AGAINST COTUC. +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ 5.8A INSIDE THE RATHOLE ------------------------ You start this mission disguised as monks, which means no weapons. Run up and talk to the guard at the gate. Once you've entered the city, split your squad up and move them around the various nav points. Have your point-men stay in the area where the dialogue about the explosives occurred - get them to leap the fence at the back of this area and position them behind the shipping containers in anticipation of stealing the explosives. Work your way up through the base - once you have talked to the angry wife in the S of the base, you'll be able to enter the bodyguard's area. Of the COTUC base - be careful. Going into the wrong areas will get you killed. Getting caught with weapons (this includes grenades) will get you killed. A lot of things can get you killed. Once you've hit all the nav points, you'll get new objectives. You might want to save the game at this point, just in case. Here's the order in which you should act: 1) Have one of your point-men crawl in and get the explosives, avoiding the two man patrol that walks around this area. Once you have the crate [3 x Explosives] move back out and leap over the fence to leave the area. 2) Have the two man team that detected the airport run N along the sand barrier until you can see the empty helicopter (it's a Hind). Have them cross the sand barrier (you can do it at the point where it bends) and move them to just NW of the Hind. Have them lie there - the Hind should protect them from being seen by the patrolling guards. I'll note that this second step isn't vital, but it does reduce the number of squad members you need to worry about for the moment, so I found it made things easier. 3) Move your non-Sharpshooter point-man up to the needle to hear the COTUC service. Have your Sharpshooter move up to the bodyguard's compound. This step isn't vital either, but it does provide a bit more information on the COTUC. You can also plant some Explosives here if you want to, but don't get seen doing it and put plenty of time (like 15 minutes) on the timer. 4) Have one of your squad who is in the bodyguard's area grab the second crate up from the W - it contains [4 x Kevlar Vests] which will help keep your guys alive just a bit longer. 5) In the bodyguard's area, have your Sharpshooter move up and the crate [Dragunov; 2 x 5.65mm clips] next to the empty M1A1 when the patrol isn't there (ie they have moved past it). Make sure you have the Sharpshooter put the Dragunov away into his inventory (so that he's not openly carrying it). Move all your squad out of the bodyguard's area by the main roads. 6) Have a squad member go near the Place of Questions and talk to the COTUC follower who is in charge of the execution. Talk to him and then leave the area with the prisoners - this will add two members to your squad. About this bit - * If you take too long, the prisoners will be executed, so have someone nearby just in case. However, if you get too close, you'll start the execution dialogue. * Once you have the prisoners, leave the area immediately, or else the guards will start shooting you. Head E towards the bodyguard's area. * Finally, saving the prisoners starts an invisible clock that will end in your team being uncovered, so make sure you factor this in to the above actions. Start assembling your team in the desert to the S of the bodyguard's area. Once everyone is there, move them E and over the sand barrier so they are in the airport area. Move N and have your Sharpshooter take out the airport guards - if you wait for the right moment you will be able to take out the two-person patrol as they come down to the gate as well. Also elminate the two COTUC soldiers who are guarding the jet. Have your squad scavenge everything. From this point, I'm not going to say "Scavenge" - you should be doing this after each fight. Make sure the right people in your squad have the right weapons, and that everyone has enough ammo for the next fight (at least). Grab the crate next to the jet [Grenade] and use it to blow up the Death Knight that is standing behind the airport control building. Once that has been destroyed, you can take the Hind in complete safety. Grab the crate [SA-7 Launcher; 5 x SA-7 missiles] and have one of your Heavy Weapons specialists equip it. Don't use your SA-7 missiles yet - they will be very handy in protecting the labs (more on this later) Go back to the bodyguard area. Use the Hind to take out the Death Knight near the gate (or use a grenade if available) then use your squad to take out the COTUC guards. Don't hold off on using the Dragunov if you have any ammunition left for it - it's better to clear the gate so you can better arm your squad. Once you are in, grab the remaining crates [2 x M60, 2 x MP5; 4 x 7.62mm ammo; 5 x Grenades, Explosives; lots of 19mm ammo] and equip your squad. Send two squad members to drive the M1A1. Eliminate any guards who remain in this area. Grab the crate near the helipad [4 x Playma fire grenades]. Put these grenades in the M1A1. Also place any 7.62mm ammo that your squad isn't using into the M1A1 for both storage and so that it can use it as necessary. Outside this area are two patrolling T-55, circling the base via the main road. Try to take out the guards at this gate while a T-55 isn't there to assist. Use your Hind to take out the two T-55's as they come past - keep the Hind at maximum range so the T-55 can't hit it with a HEAT round. Two or three AT6 missiles will destroy them. Also, if you draw the T-55 into the bodyguard's area, you can have your M1A1 hit it as well. From the bodyguard's area, your M1A1 should have a clear shot at some of the Death Knights protecting the temple. Fire a shell at a Death Knight, then move back into the bodyguard's area. The aim of this is to draw some Death Knights close enough to the compound that your squad can throw grenades over the wall at them. You don't need to kill every DK that is guarding the temple - just enough so you have a side clear that will let you drop some explosives. But first... head SW towards the labs (it's not too far from the Place of Questions). It is protected by COTUC soldiers. Have one of your squad (with an MP5 and lots of ammo) blow in the fences at the back of the base and move through. Eliminate all the soldiers, using your M1A1 in support. Leave most of your squad here, but send a small group (your point-men and an Explosives Expert) up to the temple and the needle (ie the two green objectives). If you've already planted explosives at the needle, then you only need to worry about one target. The objective here is to plant explosives at both of these locations without being seen by the Death Knights or any armoured vehicles. It is possible to do (well, I did it!), but if you aren't having any luck bring up your M1A1 to help. Once you've planted your explosives, give yourself enough time to get back to the labs before detonation (say, about 3 minutes). Once the temple and needle blow up, COTUC will attempt to destroy the lab. This will see a number of Death Knights come at the lab via the front gate. Position your M1A1 and your SA-7-holding Heavy Weapons specialist at the front gate. Use the SA-7 to take out the Death Knights as they come and have the M1A1 assist as required. One SA-7 should finish off a Death Knight. You'll know when the attack has finished because your objectives will update. Now, all that is left to do is to clear the base. At the production facility there are two Death Knights at the gate. One grenade between them should take them out, while your squad / M1A1 should have no problems eliminating the soldiers from the small hill outside this area. Grab the crates [3 x grenades; 3 x Medipacks, 6 x Anti-tank mines]. By this point, your Hind will most likely have used up its ammo supply while your M1A1 is probably fairly well banged up. That's okay - if you sneak past the place where you got the explosives and move N you'll be able to find an empty T-55. Get in it and move it up to the road - once you get in a small group of COTUC (a Humvee, a Death Knight and 2 soldiers) will start heading your way. Use the T-55 to take them out, starting with the Death Knight. Head back to place where you found the explosives and clear it, starting with the Death Knight or the Humvee. Next, head E and look for the final Death Knight / Humvee / soldier combination. With this done, it is likely that you'll finish the mission; if not, look around for any remaining COTUC units (civilians don't count) Once the base is clear, you can end the mission. -- BETWEEN MISSIONS: This next mission is your final one, so trade for and equip the best of everything. Load up the Ural with some spare Heavy Vests and medipacks just in case you need them. Make sure you've loaded up your Hind with a full set of weapons - trade for different launchers for it if you want to. Grab all the heavy ammo you need to fully load up your vehicles. Equip your jet with bombs and take some bugs along. Take your full set of vehicles into the field so that you have spares available if you need them. -- 5.9A THE JUDGEMENT ------------------- During this mission, only scavenge when you run low of something. Given that you go into this misson pretty well equipped and that this is the last mission, there is little point scavenging for profit. Get in your vehicles. Have the Sharpshooter take out the two soldiers guarding the gate, then have a vehicle blow it open. A Humvee patrols this road - take it out. As you move up, stay away from the railroad tracks - there are some crawler mines there. In fact, all through this base there are crawler mine fields, so be careful where you send units. Move up the NE side of the base, clearing out the COTUC units you see. Watch out for Death Knights, who can be hard to see. Once you have secured the power station, have your Hind scout the SW side of the base, which is an airport. Locate the two enemy Hinds and use your BM-21 to destroy them. If your Hind gets spotted, just fly away (but make sure the Hinds are destroyed first!). Now pull to near the entrance and start towards the yellow nav point. Take out the Death Knight near the camoflage netting and use your BM-21 to clear out APC near factory. Use your other vehicles and the squad to take out the Humvee and soldiers. Watch out for crawler mines! Use your point-men to take the base indicated by the yellow nav point. Grenades thrown over the walls will eliminate any Death Knights while your Sharpshooter will be able to hit guards that stand by fences. Clear out the E section of the base first, then access the panel at the terminal at the back (your cursor will turn into some whirling gears when you move it over the terminal). This will give you the SGDS components. Next move W and shoot out the guards in this section. Move closer to the non-hostile Death Knights until you can see which one you are able to talk to. Shoot out a fence and talk to him (he's full of useful information). Send your Hind to turn off the power at the power station (use the terminal). Next, use an SA-7 or two to take out the Death Knights guarding the panel your Death Knight wants to use. Have your Death Knight use the terminal. Next, focus on getting to the terminal that deals with the crawler mines. Try to sneak in as much as possible with your point-men, using your BM-21 or Hind to take out any enemy units that look like they'll get in the way. Once you activate this terminal, you'll get a lot of explosions as the crawler mines switch sides. Grab the crates next to the crawler mine switch [4 x Medipack; 2 x Heavy Vests, M79 Grenade Launcher and Playma grenades] At this point, watch out for Death Knights. Instead of chainguns they are now armed with rocket launchers, which really pack a punch if you get hit by them. Head toward the S side of the base, taking out any enemies you see. Grab the crates from in the walled area [RPG Launcher, 4 x RPG; SA-7 Launcher, 4 x SA-7 missiles]. A bit further on you'll see an empty helicopter, but it isn't loaded with any weapons. Take out the soldiers who are guarding it. At some point (heading far enough S is the trigger) NOAH will announce that they are attacking from the S. Assist them in getting to the main compound, but try to get them to take most of the enemies' attacks instead of you. Once they get close to the central COTUC stronghold, use your BM-21 to hit some targets in this area. You can also use it to destroy the temple if you want. What you want to try and achieve is for the COTUC in this area to rush out of their base and into NOAH units. You can also try doing this with the Hind, but watch out for it taking incoming fire. Once this centre area is clear, blow up the temple (if you haven't already). A COTUC unit that you can talk to will appear. Have all your squad move into this area and be fully ready for a fight. Talk to the unit. Four Death Knights will teleport around the COTUC unit and start attacking. Kill them all. Hopefully this will finish the mission; if not, search around for any other units and take them out until you finish this objective. Congratulations - you've finished Soldiers of Anarchy! Your ending can be seen in section 6.1. +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ 5.8W THE SIGN -------------- Watch the outpost in front of you get taken apart by a Death Knight, then listen to the COTUC tell you your mission objectives. You'll get a Death Knight added to your squad. Make it a point-man alongside your regular two. Grab the crates from the outpost the Death Knight cleared [2 x Kevlar Vest, Medipack, 7.62mm ammo]. Move up the road until you get near the second checkpoint, taking out any units on the way. You'll know the second checkpoint as it is a road that has been carved through the hills. Use your Sharpshooter to clear the guards on the hill (one of them has a Dragunov too) and have your BM-21 hit the T-55 on the other side of the checkpoint before it moves (3 rockets should do it). Use your vehicles to clear out the other enemy units and take the Death Knight for a test drive. You'll find he can take on other soft / light armoured targets pretty effectively, but won't last long versus anti-tank rounds. It is at this checkpoint I recommend that you leave your BM-21 and any spare vehicles you may have brought along. Make sure you position the BM-21 in a location that is nice and open, with no mountains in front of it - it's a waste of precious resources if you order the BM-21 to attack, only to have it's rockets fly into a nearby hill! If you put in the corner in front of road carved through the hill, this shouldn't be a problem. Once this area is clear, move through and grab the crates on the N house [4 x RPGs] and at the S side of the base [2 x 5.45mm ammo, 3 x Playma Fire; 2 x 7.62mm ammo; 2 x Grenades, M79 Grenade Launcher, Kevlar Vest]. You can get the empty T-55 if you want. Keep moving towards the nav point along the road. When you come to point where the road leaves the the hills, stop. Move all your units out of sight from that circular area in front of you. Have your Death Knight move up to the unguarded crates and find - surprise! - that it's a trap. Have your Death Knight take out the observers on the two overlooking hills. An APC and an M1A1 will roll in from the N and S respectively. Let them reach the point where they stop, then have your BM-21 drop 4 rockets on the M1A1. This should leave it damaged, but empty and collectible for you. Use your vehicles to eliminate the APC. Send your helicopter NE to scout for two howitzers that will otherwise be a big pain for you to deal with. Once you've found the howitzers, send a small squad of those armed with RPGs to deal with them. (If you don't elimnate the howitzers at this point, they will hit you (hard!) when you next run into NOAH soldiers.) Grab the now unguarded crates [3 x heavy ammo; 2 x Medipack, 2 x Playma HE] and use your Sharpshooter to clear the soldiers guarding the front gate. Have an explosives Expert clear the mine field (which is 10 mines, so make sure you have the room for all of them). Enter the base and head S, moving along the fence. Use your Sharpshooter to snipe the lone guard at the post, then use 3 x RPG soldiers to destroy the Shilka. There is an empty Vulcan here if you need it. Send an armoured vehicle or two around the back of the base. Use them (or your BM-21) to destroy the T-55. Have your vehicles take out the guards (squad members can lob grenades over the walls to help) and clear the area. Knock down a fence and talk to the COTUC spy. He'll join your squad. Scavenge as you need to. Grab the crates as well [M60; 4 x 7.62mm ammo]. Move towards the next nav point, keeping as S as you possibly can. Use your Sharpshooter to hit the lone soldier on top of the fence (he's got a Dragunov) and get ready for some units to come at you from the small gate and the larger one to the N. Use the buildings as protection and take them out. Blow a hole in the wall next to the small gate and enter the lab area. In this section, a large number of units are waiting around, so try only to alert a few at a time. Once alerted, try to take them out as quickly as possible. If you alert too many enemies or get too damaged, fall back and regroup. Use the cover you have to limit the number of enemies who can fire at you. Once the area is clear, send the spy to access the terminal at the lab (it's on the N side of a building in the concreted area). Then access it again. You'll get new objectives. Take out the remaining scientists and grab the crates [heavy ammo; SA-7 Launcher, 2 x SA-7 missiles]. There is an empty BMP in the vehicle area to the SE of the lab. Use some explosives to blow up the lab. Move towards the bunker nav point. Clear the guards and the patrolling vehicle that cover the road into this area right next to the lab area. Head towards the nav point - watch for mines. Shoot down a fence near the compound when no enemy units are there to see you do it. Send your point-men in to stealthily plant a bug on the bunker, then steal the M1A1. Keep your guys hidden from the patrolling enemies. Once you've gotten away with the M1A1 (or get seen escaping with it) call in the airstrike - hopefully you'll take out an enemy unit or two in the resulting explosion. Airstrikes take a little while to come in though, so don't expect immediate results. Alternatively, plant explosives on the bunker. Take out any remaining enemy units in this area and head back towards the prison area. Grab the crate near the gatehouse on the way [2 x RPGs, Explosives, 2 x Medipacks]. Head N. Your next target should be the large fuel tanks that has a few vehicles around them. Send a HEAT round into one of them and watch the chain reaction. Mop up any other enemy units you see and pretty soon you'll get the mission end screen. This doesn't mean all enemy units have been killed; just that all the NOAH units have been destroyed. There is a good change you picked up a lot of vehicles from this mission. Make sure you take the ones you want back with you. -- BETWEEN MISSIONS: This next mission is your final one, so trade for the best of everything. You should have quite a few spare vehicles, so trade for those you want (in my case, I wanted a Hind!). If you do get a Hind, you'll also need to trade for weapon systems for it and then ammo for those systems. Take all your heaviest vehicles with you - you'll need them (and probably a spare or two as well...) -- 5.9W EVERLASTING LIFE ---------------------- You'll be given two Death Knights and a T-80 at the start of the mission. Add the Death Knights to your point-men squad. Send all your units E, but stop your BM-21 / Howitzer on high ground. If you have any spare vehicles, leave them near the BM-21. Watch out when you are going E - there is an M1A1 that sits in a small yard at the S end of the road. Locate it and have your Explosives Expert lay mines across the road a short way away from it. It is a good idea to make sure this M1A1 is destroyed, so once it runs over some mines try to finish it off (if it isn't destroyed). The M1A1 does start moving at some point, so keep an eye on it. You can, if you wish, send your Sharpshooter to take out the guards (one of them has a Dragunov) on the hill above the radar station but this isn't really necessary unless you are short on Dragunov ammo. Once most of your squad has moved E towards the airport, have your BM-21 drop a rocket on each of the two radar dishes. That should destroy them and complete the objective. When this happens, some dialogue will pop up on the screen calling units to fall back to the airport. This does open up a big possibility of mining the roads into the airport before destroying the radar dishes... but I didn't do it that way. At the airport, knock down the fence on W side (ie the side closest to where you started this mission). Move your vehicles in and start attacking the Shilkas and other vehicles that come at you. Quite a few vehicles are there to protect the airport, but I found with 2 x M1A1s, a Shilka and a Hind that it wasn't too hard to take on. The enemy vehicles will come up one at a time for the most part - if you are quick enough, you can dispatch them before the next one arrives. Once the vehicles stop coming, send in your Death Knights to take on any other remaining soldiers. When all units at the airport have been destroyed, you'll get your objectives updated and some COTUC helicopters will arrive. Talk to the COTUC representative. Grab the crates from the airport - E side near hanger [2 x Heavy Vests, 4 x Mines; SA-7 Launcher, 4 x SA-7 missiles], at NW house [2 x Medipacks; Heavy Vesst, M60, 3 x 7.62mm ammo] and on the W side near the main road gate [2 x Stun Grenades; 2 x Fog Grenades; 2 x Medipack] - and head off to nav point via the cross-country route. Talk to the scientist. Have your squad recon the labs a bit before you attack. Use your BM-21 and / or Hind to destroy the enemy armour that you see before you try and take the labs. This will make things a lot easier. Next, have a Death Knight shoot down the gate and then use your point-men to take out the soldiers in the area. The Death Knights are pretty good at taking down enemy soldiers, but just watch out for any units carrying RPGs / anti-tank rounds. I'll note it here, but it applies to any point of this mission - if you find yourself in a position that you've fired your BM-21 or Hind dry, have the crew of that vehicle exchange it for a spare one you brought with you. If you didn't clear out the radar station of enemy units (like I didn't) be careful of sending units in straight lines between the NOAH base and where you started the mission (most likely where your spare vehicles are) since you could start drawing incoming fire. Once you've cleared the lab area, you'll get a new objective (and yes, you do a lot of dirty work for the COTUC before they do any for you!). Hug the wall of the base as you move toward the front gate nav point, only destroying the enemy units that you have to. At this point, if you need to swap any vehicles over, I recommend doing it before the COTUC enter the base. Don't get too close to the front gate until you are happy with how your squad is equipped. You'll only need to send one unit to the front gate to trigger the next scene. When you do get close to the front gate, the COTUC will attack. Give them a little bit of help (like using your BM-21 to destroy the T-55 guarding the front gate) but just stay out of the way. Let the COTUC take on the large number of NOAH vehicles rather than your squad. Use smoke / fog grenades to protect your units from incoming fire. Send a Death Knight / point-man armed with an RPG and heavy machine gun towards the wooded area on one side outside the main bunker area. Be careful - you are looking for a large number of BM-21's and howitzers that have congregated by some fuel tanks. These vehicles are protected by NOAH soldiers who are patrolling the woods, some of whom have RPGs. Work your way around until you can destroy the fuel tanks, which will in turn destroy a number of these indirect fire vehicles. You may need to use some of your vehicles to wipe out the remaining units, but avoid getting into a firefight with the NOAH soldiers if you can. On the other side of the base, have two squad members armed with SA-7s take out the two Hinds that are sitting on the helipads. Use your vehicles to take out any other enemy units that are outside the main bunker area. When this location is clear, plant some explosives by the bunker gate and pull all your units back to a safe distance. The COTUC will engage the NOAH units surrounding the bunker. When the dust settles (with the COTUC having wiped out the NOAH guards) blow up the bunker with a few HEAT shells. You'll get a new objective. Assemble all your units near the destroyed bunker. Make your choice after COTUC's leader talks to you. Congratulations (well, kinda) - you've finished Soldiers of Anarchy! The two possible endings can be seen in sections 6.2 and 6.3. ++++ 6.0 ENDINGS & SPOILERS ______________________ Depending on the path you take, SoA can end in one of four ways. A summary of these endings is listed below, along with a brief discussion of what happened with the SGDS Disaster. Don't read below if you don't want to know any spoilers. I've given a name to each of the endings that roughly fits in with what that ending contains. 6.1 EYES TOWARDS THE FUTURE --------------------------- When you talk to HE (well, SHE) you are lambasted for letting evil loose on the world and ruining the COTUC's work. The ending itself is bittersweet, mourning the friends you've lost in the fight while also talking about how the good guys won this battle and that the world is on the path to recovery. Although this ending recognises that sacrifices have been made, it focuses on the future and, although further missions may be needed, your team can now focus on assisting with the reconstruction of society. This is the best ending you can get. 6.2 A HARD KNIGHT ----------------- After being given the ultimatum by SHE, if you wait for a short while a Ural will make its way into the bunker area. Wait until it's drivers get out (and watch them take your vehicles! Cheeky!) and have all your squad enter the Ural. This ending sees you taken by the COTUC to their labs and turned into a Death Knight (a whole squad of them, actually). You see the world through different eyes and are brainwashed into having no will of your own. However, there is a small hope that one day you'll be able to throw off this brainwashing... and when you do, Heaven help the COTUC... Both of the assisting COTUC endings are bad - it's up to you to work out which one is worse. 6.3 PLAYED FOR A FOOL... ------------------------ After being given the ultimatum by SHE, you choose to try to fight your way out. You are doomed to fail - you are surrounded by COTUC Death Knights armed with missile launchers - but at least you will die free. Although you have helped the COTUC establish themselves as the dominant force in a post-SGDS world, you hope that others will rise up to take your place and that some day the good guys will win. Both of the assisting COTUC endings are bad - it's up to you to work out which one is worse. 6.4 AN EXPLANATION ON SGDS -------------------------- I'm sure some people are a bit confused about what happened with the SGDS virus. Here's my take: SGDS was invented by NOAH (or whatever NOAH was) was a treatable disease that they could earn some money off by selling the vaccine. Trouble was SGDS mutated into a its genocidal form and started killing millions. NOAH is still seeking a cure for the virus, but can't shake the fact that they were responsible for the regression of civilisation into a near-tribal state. COTUC existed before the SGDS took its bloody toll out on humanity, but its members were somehow generally immune to the effects of SGDS. In the time since the virus nearly wiped out mankind, COTUC has been building its power base and somehow inventing fantastic new technologies (eg the Death Knights). It would seem to be too great of a coincidence for the COTUC not to have had some kind of help in its survival, but it isn't clear whether or not that help is truly divine in nature or just the result of its highly gifted leader. So, who is worse out of the two? NOAH, who made a mistake that cost the lives of billions but are currently trying to fix that mistake? Or COTUC, who seeks to take advantage of a broken civilisation and impose on it an order they control, but will be a stabilising force in a chaotic world? Your answer depends on your personal beliefs, obviously, but SoA's only "good" ending comes from helping NOAH. 7.0 FINAL NOTES _______________ 7.1 THANKS AND CONTRIBUTORS --------------------------- Thanks to Silver Service for creating such a great game! However, I was a bit disappointed by the lack of importance that helping either the Claw or the TFR had on the game. 7.2 VERSION HISTORY ------------------- Version 1.01 - Fixed up some spelling errors. Version 1.00 - Finished the walkthrough for all the maps. Added in an explanation on the endings. Version 0.55 - Added in walkthrough for THE SIGN and EVERLASTING LIFE along with the second and third endings. Version 0.45 - Added in walkthrough for INSIDE THE RAT HOLE and THE JUDGEMENT. Added in first ending. Version 0.37 - Added in walkthrough for AND FOLLOW YOUR DESTINY and a few more tips. Version 0.35 - Added walkthrough for THE SNARE and information about the priest dialogue in TWO ROADS. ONE WAY. Version 0.32 - Added in some more Tips. Added walkthrough for HEROES DIE YOUNG. Version 0.31 - Added in readme file tips from game CD. Also added in patch information. Version 0.30 - About 6 months after starting the guide, I've finally got around to adding in two more missions! The walkthroughs for MARKET DAY and TWO ROADS. ONE WAY. added. Plus it made me remember how much I like SoA. I'll aim to add in more missions shortly. Version 0.25 - Against my normal flow of FAQ writing, I'm releasing this guide well before it is complete. SoA is a long game (especially since I'm trying to complete all the levels). Currently I've just received City of Heroes, which I absolutely love and am concentrating on. I plan to come back to SoA over time, do a couple of missions then write them up. If I wait until I'm completely done with SoA before releasing the guide... well... it could be a long time before this guide say the light of day. If you are wondering what the heck is happening with this guide, send me an email and remind me to do an update! +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Version 0.25 was released 29 June 2004 +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+