LOVE THE SMELL OF NAPALM IN THE MORNING : The virtues of tactical and strategic bombing in Alpha Centauri

By Animal66

Fighters = Interceptors

Bombers = Needlejets and Penetrators

My first love in gaming was an Intellivision/Intellivoice cartridge called B-17 Bomber, about 20 years ago. You will not therefore be surprised to find out that my passion in long, drawn-out campaigns is strategic and tactical bombing of enemy targets and infrastructures.

Mind you, I am not writing about finding open rovers and other ill-defended units outside of towns. Taking those out goes without saying, and does not warrant extensive analysis. No, my interest in this comes from bringing a powerful opponent to his knees, softening him up for that fatal invasion that is still many turns away when you start.

Sweeps, rhubarbs and the like

Of course, the first step in such a campaign is scouting. If you have not obtained the enemy's map, or your readings are outdated, nothing like sending a few fighters out there to get the lay of the land. Why fighters? On the off chance that the enemy's got interceptors out there, yours will have a fighting chance; it's a give-and-take, though, given the lesser range of your typical fighter unit. If you still do not wish to chance your precious few fighters, out-dated bombers will also do the trick. For coastal sweeps, an old rig with radar will vindicate your decision not to expend resources in upgrading them.

While you're out there, a few choice targets such as formers and supply units are always irresistible. Formers should always be taken out, as a prelude to your campaign. Don't expand bombers on this, fighters again will do the job, even with that -50% penalty for ground attacks.

Too much information, driving me insane

You can never have too much information. Beyond your visual scouting, your spies infiltrating datalinks will give you an accurate, turn-by-turn reading of how much you're hurting your opponent, and what counter-measures he's taking.

For instance, switches from infrastructure building to AAA units or artillery (for coastal protection) will not only slow down the economy, but will give you some type of a time-frame as to when to stop attacking the city and getting your units out of there. The same goes, obviously, if fighters and killer choppers are being built. Way down the road, taking out airbases with your spies will reduce the air defence factor when you're ready to move in with your marines or airborne.

By the same token, rendering your opponent blind and deaf is a must. To this effect, you take out defenseless units scattering the landscape and, of course, bomb those sensor arrays to oblivion. Use the "d" key to accomplish this. Don't forget about the "b" key for establishing bombing runs.

Angles of approach to a target

This brings me to my next point : why take the most direct route to a target if you can instead block a road or a port square for a turn? Indeed, your plane occupies that square for a whole turn. I've often held out invasions using a rotation of three bombers against a technologically challenged but plentiful Miriam opponent : I just came back time after time on the same crossroads. Of course, this is provided you've got the spare range to do it. You can also play a zone-of-control game, which hampers the approach of reinforcements to a given city.

Tubes, roads, boreholes, mines, etc.

Any strategic bombing campaign can not help but also be tactical. Depending on your calendar for invasion, or your post-occupation plans for a given city, you may not want to damage the infrastructure too much. However, given the dangers of having a beach-head overrun by countless kamikaze attacks coming down a mag tube, I always make sure to at least destroy the tubes, if not the roads. At least with the roads, you can see danger coming a turn away.

But if your future beach-head promises to be tenuous, and you need time to continue your campaign, taking out roads may also be advisable. With computer opponents, this will also trigger a skeet-shooting contest with his formers coming to repair damage as your targets. Also of tactical importance are bunkers, especially at crossroads; if there's a chance it would be of more use to your opponent than to you after invasion, take it out.

If you do not plan to invade soon, or like to practice scorched earth warfare, you can take your pick of targets : I personally prefer the costliest. Thermal boreholes and condensors are always choice strategic targets; the added bonus of taking out a condensor might be hunger, famine and the accompanying riots!

But if you pay close attention to your opponent's industrial capacity, and retaliation capability using a given city, taking out the high altitude mines and mineral rich squares is always advisable. Finally, for adding insult to injury, you can move on to energy and farms. Obviously, most of the preceding also apply to maritime targets.

When strategic moves to tactical

You've napalmed the hell out of your opponent's little empire, now you're ready to move in for the kill. Your bombers are still useful for taking out heavily defended AAA units while they're out in the open; once inside the city, at equal technology, you're dead meat if you try the air route. The same applies to SAM units in the open. I also like to take out artillery units in the open, since almost no one bothers to armor them (especially mobile artillery). For an opponent that likes to move in the fungus, planes are also useful for smoking them out. Nothing as pesky as a mind worm ambush once you move out of your beach-head.

Speaking of which, establishing one means you can move in with your short (choppers), medium (fighters) and long-range (bombers) capability. Keep the latter to extend your strike ranger, while the choppers clean up the area. Keep at all times at least one fighter/killer chopper unit in town; provide cover for your vulnerable units on the road, in ships and those early formers re-building infrastructure. With stupid computers, be aware of multiple bomber flights going over on their way to who-knows-where. A well-placed killer chopper unit can take out 5 or six at a time, and decimate an entire wing.

But I digress…

Survival of the fittest

Strategies and tactics can differ; I like bombing campaigns because I often play « dovish » factions such as Gaians, University and Peacekeepers. These have, theoretically, a lesser punch and therefore a greater need for systematic invasion preparation than « hawk » factions who might want to preserve the countryside for their own post-conquest cottages.

Naval powers might want to blockade and isolate insulary opponents, and coastal-bomb accordingly.

The above also assumes that you've achieved reasonable supremacy of the skies, through superior tactical skills or sheer technological dominance. No use in sending your planes to slaughter, à la Herman Goering over Britain in 1940, if you're not going to follow suit.

Good hunting!

Speaking of Herman Goering....

By Daytrippin

Plane Blitzkrieg!

Undoubtedly one of my favorite tactics. For those of you who don't get it yet, a plane blitzkrieg would be a fast strike taking over bases faster than your opponents can build defenders, move defenders, or otherwise defend their bases at all. To ensure the effectiveness of the Plane Blitzkrieg it is essential that you obtain the Cloudbase Acadamy secret project. It is undoubtedly one of the most powerful secret projects you can get. Especially if you use it to overrun your enemies with a Plane Blitzkrieg. The other great projects to have for this are the Cyborg Factory, the Maritime Control Center, and the Command Nexus.

Essentially, the ability to take over a base and then heal up any damage incurred within 1 turn is a huge benefit. Keeping as many of your planes attacking as much as possible is the key to success. Remember, you want to overrun them and limit the resistance to your attack. Limiting the number of turns they have to produce defenders and limiting the number of production facilities by taking them over is the whole concept of a Blitzkrieg.

Obviously, the more planes, better equipped planes, and invasion forces you have the better. The planes do the grunt work while your invasion forces stay well healed and ready to take over the next base, wether they be ground troops or naval units. I try to keep interceptors in the mix as well to help thwart any resistance given and as Animal66 mentioned, to take out the formers and other nuisances along the way, saving the Needlejets for the base attacks. All this is fairly basic though. I will be elaborating more in the next strategy guide.

Air Unit Specific Commands

B Designate Bombing Run

Not sure how well this works... I never seemed to have a need for it.

Ctrl-Shft-A Automate Air Defense

An excellent way to protect a 2 square radius around your bases from attack.