Manning Battlestations: Midway – tips and tricks

Reading through IGN’s tips section on Eidos Interactive‘s Battlestations: Midway, not to mention spending a couple of hours in the demo, we’ve come to understand why the game’s definitely not for everyone. It is as much a team-oriented game like the more high-profile Halo and Gears of War, but it demands a different, strategic mindset as well as a trigger finger.

Some of you may have already tried the demo out and decided it’s not your thing. But for those who liked it, for those who can waste an entire day playing the Axis and Allies board game, you should find the rest of this stuff useful.

Unfortunately the demo did not ship with a single-player tutorial, so unless you’re a veteran of countless World War II strategy games, it’s too easy to get lost in the middle of battle (handy guides are provided via the Pause menu, nonetheless). Hence, IGN decided to condense a bit of battle experience into a short field manual of sorts.

Here are the important stuff to remember before going to war (and since there’s a PC version of the game, we’re putting this up in the Games for Windows section, too):

• Rock-scissors-paper. Destroyer pwn Sub, Sub pwn Cruisers and Battleships, and Battleships pretty much pwn everything else on the water or on land – except subs. The aircraft should be easy: fighters pwn other fighters and attack planes, and attack planes pwn ships.
• In the demo’s case, IGN advices concentrating on battleships and subs. Cruisers don’t enjoy the battlewagon’s firepower, and dive bombers can be used to take out subs. We take that with a grain of salt, however – nothing beats a dedicated destroyer escort, and sometimes you need to use the bombers elsewhere.
• Important controls to remember: the LB is your friend, slowly repairing damage to the ship. In a sub, since you can only fire torpedoes at periscope depth, Y raises the periscope, and the D-pad controls depth. (Obviously this applies to the 360 game; PC owners will have their own keyboard assignments to remember.)
• Learn how to multitask, jumping between units to take control and swing the fight in your favor. Don’t forget your teammates, either.
• When your attack planes have dropped their load (bombs or torpedos), use them to strafe ground positions (dive bombers) or tangle with other fighters (torpedo bombers). As an alternative to IGN’s suggestion, you could just probably swarm them over an enemy fleet or installation, draw fire, and make life heck for antiaircraft artillery there.

Reading through IGN’s tips section on Eidos Interactive‘s Battlestations: Midway, not to mention spending a couple of hours in the demo, we’ve come to understand why the game’s definitely not for everyone. It is as much a team-oriented game like the more high-profile Halo and Gears of War, but it demands a different, strategic mindset as well as a trigger finger.

Some of you may have already tried the demo out and decided it’s not your thing. But for those who liked it, for those who can waste an entire day playing the Axis and Allies board game, you should find the rest of this stuff useful.

Unfortunately the demo did not ship with a single-player tutorial, so unless you’re a veteran of countless World War II strategy games, it’s too easy to get lost in the middle of battle (handy guides are provided via the Pause menu, nonetheless). Hence, IGN decided to condense a bit of battle experience into a short field manual of sorts.

Here are the important stuff to remember before going to war (and since there’s a PC version of the game, we’re putting this up in the Games for Windows section, too):

• Rock-scissors-paper. Destroyer pwn Sub, Sub pwn Cruisers and Battleships, and Battleships pretty much pwn everything else on the water or on land – except subs. The aircraft should be easy: fighters pwn other fighters and attack planes, and attack planes pwn ships.
• In the demo’s case, IGN advices concentrating on battleships and subs. Cruisers don’t enjoy the battlewagon’s firepower, and dive bombers can be used to take out subs. We take that with a grain of salt, however – nothing beats a dedicated destroyer escort, and sometimes you need to use the bombers elsewhere.
• Important controls to remember: the LB is your friend, slowly repairing damage to the ship. In a sub, since you can only fire torpedoes at periscope depth, Y raises the periscope, and the D-pad controls depth. (Obviously this applies to the 360 game; PC owners will have their own keyboard assignments to remember.)
• Learn how to multitask, jumping between units to take control and swing the fight in your favor. Don’t forget your teammates, either.
• When your attack planes have dropped their load (bombs or torpedos), use them to strafe ground positions (dive bombers) or tangle with other fighters (torpedo bombers). As an alternative to IGN’s suggestion, you could just probably swarm them over an enemy fleet or installation, draw fire, and make life heck for antiaircraft artillery there.