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Archive   : SOLMECH.ZIP
Filename : MECH

MECHWARRIOR

1 Introduction, Game Plot
2 Recovering the Chalice
3 Financing Mechs
4 The Mech Simulator
5 Final Battle, Endgame


MECHWARRIOR
Part 1

INTRODUCTION

In MECHWARRIOR, your task is to find the Chalice that will restore your
family's good name and the throne of Ander's Moon. To do this, you will need to
follow a chain of clues throughout the Successor States, fight numerous
mercenary missions, perform shrewd trades to raise funds, and defeat a Heavy
Lance in two climactic battles, all within five short years. To assist you, I
have divided this walkthru into five parts. The first part (this one) describes
the overall flow of the game. The other parts are as follows:

RECOVERING THE CHALICE: Details the clues and actions you must take to track
down the Chalice.

FINANCING MECHS: Explains how to accumulate the necessary funds to outfit a
Heavy Lance.

THE MECH SIMULATOR: Presents tips and tactics for use with the Mech simulator.

THE FINAL BATTLE: Describes tactics for use in winning the final confrontation
with the Dark Wing.

Your first task in the game is to start following the thin trail of clues that
will lead you to the Dark Wing. These clues may be obtained in a variety of
locations, but they usually appear when you order drinks at the bar or in
NewsNet messages. As you follow these clues, you will also want to start raising
money by buying and selling Mechs.

It should take from two to three years to discover the location of the Dark
Wing (who hold the Chalice) and to have the money to buy enough Mechs to outfit
a Heavy Lance. The next step in your quest is to take on missions. These will
raise your prestige (or reputation) so that "Good" to "Excellent" pilots will be
willing to hire on. These missions will take most of your remaining time.

Finally, you will be ready for the Dark Wing. You will need to have four Heavy
Mechs consisting of (preferably) one Marauder and three Heavy Mechs. You will
also need to hire three pilots, with at least Good skills in gunnery and
piloting. Assign a Mech to each member, load up, and move out. Once you have
beaten the Dark Wing, you have won the game.


MECHWARRIOR
Part 2

RECOVERING THE CHALICE

This part is a guide to the textual clues that must be followed in order to
retrieve the chalice. Note that in each game certain locations are randomized,
including the starting planet. These planets are designated with an asterisk
(*). Where alternate planets are known, they are listed. You begin play in
April, 3024. I recommend that you spend the first two years or so of play
following the clues and trading Mechs for money. Thus, by mid-to-late 3026, you
should know the location of the Dark Wing (who hold the chalice), and also have
enough money to begin putting together a heavy lance.

The clues are listed in sequence. Each clue has three pieces of information:
the planet you will be on when the clue is received (remember, however, that
these are randomized); the action you must take to get the clue; the information
the clue gives. Note that you must follow the chain in its entirety. Each clue
triggers the next, so you cannot simply skip a set of clues to save time.

*TANCREDI IV: At the bar, order a drink. You will be told to find Grig Griez.
The NewsNet for May, 3024 tells you to go to Galedon V.

GALEDON V: Request a mission, then go to Land's End.

LAND'S END: At the bar, order a drink. You will be told to come back to the
bar. Leave, then return to the bar and order another drink. You will be told to
go to Delacruz.

*DELACRUZ (TABAYAMA): Upon landing, agree to take the package to Dustball.
Then, go to Dustball.

DUSTBALL: Upon landing, fight, then run. Grig's ship is the Stone Arrow. Go to
the bar and order a drink. You'll be told to find Kangaroo Jack and that his
brother is garrisoning at Levorno.

*LEVORNO (SADURNI/GIBSON): The Mech Complex is located here. Go to Okefenokee.

*OKEFENOKEE (TANCREDI IV): At the bar, order a drink, then leave the bar.
Follow the address, hide, then fight. Read the NewsNet; you'll be told to go to
Prosperina.

*PROSPERINA (DELACRUZ): At the bar, order a drink, then accept the story. Read
the NewsNet; you'll be told Kearney's on Albiero.

*ALBIERO (RADSTADT): Upon landing, follow Tasha, then trust her. She will tell
you the chalice is on Radstadt.

You will receive $5-million credits and the location of Dark Wing after the
battle at Albiero. Your next task is to accumulate enough prestige to be able to
hire Good to Excellent pilots and to buy BattleMasters for each of them. Read
the section on Mech Financing to learn how to do this.

RADSTADT: When landing, you will have the option of attacking the Dark Wing in
order to retrieve the chalice. This is covered in the section on the Final
Battle.


MECHWARRIOR
Part 3

MECH FINANCING

This part describes how to finance the Heavy Lance that you will need in order
to tackle the Final Battle with the Dark Wing.

The key to MECHWARRIOR and winning the game is to realize that the most
important thing you can do is earn lots of money. You will need around $40
million in credits to buy your Heavy Lance; you cannot accumulate this kind of
money by taking on missions, at least not in five years. The only way to do it
is to buy Mechs at low prices, and sell them at high prices. Using this
approach, you can accumulate the necessary funds in a couple of years.

In order to streamline your task, it is recommended that players combine Mech
trading with clue chasing. As will be seen shortly, this will necessitate some
extra travel and detours in the course of following the clues. But overall, a
critical time savings can be achieved by carefully combining the two tasks.

The key to successful Mech trading is quite simple: Buy low, sell high. You can
buy Mechs for relatively low prices at centrally located worlds in the areas
controlled by each House. Capitals and military centers are particularly good
areas. Good prices can be obtained for these Mechs at outlying (backwater)
worlds such as Land's End. Note that most backwater planets will only buy one or
two Mechs at a time. So, you should buy one or two expensive Mechs in order to
obtain the best margins.

The sole overhead to your trade will be in transportation costs. These can be
quite high when transporting several Mechs across known space. So, keep your
numbers small and your journeys as short as possible. If you're uncertain about
where to sell your Mechs, save the game before traveling. If the prices offered
aren't satisfactory, restore and try a different planet. Above all, don't get
caught hauling the same batch of Mechs around from planet to planet. The
transportation costs can completely erase your profits.

As you near the end of the clues and trading cycles, you should begin to keep
your eyes open for BattleMasters and Marauders. You will want three
BattleMasters and one Marauder for your Heavy Lance. These can be hard to find,
particularly the BattleMasters, so it may be worth the extra transport costs in
order to ensure that you have enough of these scarce Mechs for the Final Battle.


MECHWARRIOR
Part 4

THE MECH SIMULATOR

This part includes hints and tips for operating your Mech at maximum
effectiveness in the battle simulator. It also discusses some tips on handling
Mech teams, such as the Heavy Lance you will use in the Final Battle.

The first task you have is to familiarize yourself with the Mech controls. You
can do this during your first mission, which should be against a Locust. When
requesting a mission, choose Attack or Retrieval missions over Garrison or
Defense missions. This will allow you to dictate the pace of the engagement, and
places the burden of positional defense on the computer. It is all too easy to
lose a defensive mission against fast jump-jet-capable Mechs.

Before embarking on your first mission, be sure your Mech is fully repaired and
loaded out. You may wish to check the prices of available Mechs. On the first
world, it is often possible to sell your Jenner and have enough money to buy a
Phoenix Hawk. Even a lightly damaged Phoenix Hawk is superior to a Jenner, and
helps to ensure your first mission will be a success.

Before starting the first mission, be sure to save the game. Then choose your
mission, assign yourself to the Mech, and blast off. Once on the planet, take a
few minutes to familiarize yourself with the controls. You will want to have the
manual open to page 27. First, practice changing your speed. Then, turn back and
forth. Twist your torso, and note how your heading and torso directions can
diverge.

Next, check your weapons linkage. You start with all weapons linked. Toggle off
the short-range weapons. You should only have the longest-range weapons linked
at the beginning of each engagement. In general, you will make better use of
long-range fire than the computer, so the tactics detailed here emphasize that.
Practice using the numbers and the plus (+) and minus (-) keys to select
different weapons. Then, set the active weapon to the longest range weapon you
have, preferably a projectile weapon.

As you approach the opposing Mech(s), you will want to have your torso twisted
to the right or left. Slow down as you begin to come within range, and be sure
your target indicator is set on the enemy. Before you reach the range of your
longest weapon, fire it. If the weapon is a projectile weapon, you can usually
hit with it before it is "officially" within range. Note that this trick does
not generally work with lasers.

Once within striking range, the other Mech will generally close. To keep your
range, you will want to slow or even move backward. This will allow you to keep
peppering the enemy with shots before he can reply.

You will have to make a fundamental choice in tactics: Shoot at the legs or at
the head. Body shots are easy, but they may not disable the Mech, and they will
take a long time to do so at any rate. Head shots are extremely difficult in
most cases, but they leave a Mech relatively unscathed allowing for more
lucrative salvage fees. Leg shots are of medium difficulty; Mechs will be
disabled when a leg is shot out. This was the tactic of choice for me, but if
you can consistently make head shots, then go for it. The one weak spot of
BattleMasters is their relatively prominent head.

Heat control is critical and can be very difficult with some Mech models.
Marauders are particularly prone to this with their heavy complement of weapons
and relatively small heat sinks. Nevertheless, I recommend them as the best
Heavy Mech for the human player (you). The reason is the Marauder's superb
long-range weapons. Through judicious use of Autocannon, you can seriously
damage a Mech before it can even return fire. A linked barrage from the
long-range lasers can often finish them. Be careful, though, and watch the heat.

When putting together a Lance, I recommend waiting until your prestige enables
you to hire Good to Excellent pilots. This will take quite a few missions. You
should take the toughest missions offered if you have the Mech to handle them.
This will bump your prestige more quickly than several lesser engagements. When
your prestige is high, you should go to the bar and try to hire crew. If the
crew available is not up to snuff, take some more missions and check again.

Though the simulator provides a fair degree of flexibility in the ways in which
you can direct a Lance, your Lancemates will generally come to close range as
soon as possible. This means they will take significant damage (and dish it
out). So, you will need to get them the best Mechs possible for close-range
combat: BattleMasters. You should stick with a Mech that has good long-range
strike capabilities such as the Marauder or Rifleman. Then, as your Lancemates
close with the enemy, move to one side and keep hitting the enemy Mechs from
long- to medium-range. Avoid closing as this limits the amount of assistance you
can render.

In missions where you can complete it by touching the enemy headquarters, you
may try having one of your Lancemates circle around for the headquarters while
engaging with the rest. This does not usually work, because the enemy will
usually leave a defending Mech to deal with this.

One anomaly that can work to your advantage is the gap between the headquarter
buildings. If you can get the buildings between yourself and the enemy Mechs,
you can sometimes fire at them through the gap in the buildings. They will not
return fire and will often continue to stay where they are.

You can successfully complete any mission by destroying all the enemy Mechs.
This will also ensure maximum salvage fees; it is the recommended method for
winning each mission. The one exception is the Final Battle. See that section
for details.


MECHWARRIOR
Part 5

THE FINAL BATTLE

This part describes tactics for the final confrontation with the Dark Wing.
When you have won this engagement, you will retrieve the Chalice and win the

game. In MECHWARRIOR, unlike many CRPGs, the final battle is anything but
anticlimactic. The Dark Wing is a Heavy Lance of four BattleMasters and a
WarHammer. This is the toughest opponent you will ever face in MECHWARRIOR; when
you win you will deserve the Chalice.

As described in other parts, you will need to have a Heavy Lance of your own to
tackle this battle. The ideal Lance will have three BattleMasters (for your
hired mercenaries), and one Marauder (for yourself). You should also have Good
to Excellent pilots. Every Mech should be fully repaired and loaded, and each
should take enough extra ammo to do a complete reload.

The final battle actually consists of two battles. In the first, you will face
the Dark Wing in a set-piece battle. Assuming you win this clash, you will then
be taken to another battlefield. Here, you will face the Dark Wing again, which
has been fully repaired and loaded. Your own Mechs retain their damage from the
first engagement but can reload. The second battle is a standard attack mission
with the goal of touching the Dark Wing Headquarters.

In the first battle, you should try to concentrate against one or two of the
enemy. Maneuver your own Mech to one side and attempt to finish the Warhammer,
then, attack the nearest BattleMaster. Your Lancemates should be coordinated so
that they cannot be picked on individually. Depending on the terrain, you may be
able to prepare a defense behind a mountain so that the enemy can be attacked,
one Mech at a time. Remember that you have two engagements to fight; try to
minimize the damage your Mechs take.

After you win the first battle, you will be taken to another battlefield. In
this battle, your objective is to touch the enemy headquarters (thus retrieving
the Chalice). Unlike earlier missions, your best chance is to do just that:
Avoid the enemy Mechs as much as possible, and get to the headquarters.
Fortunately, the enemy Mechs are split on either side of a mountain in front of
the headquarters.

You should move your entire Lance to the south of the mountain. Your Mech
should be in (or close to) the lead so that you can deal with the enemy Mechs on
that side of the mountain. Send one of your Mechs to the headquarters while you
and the other Mechs tangle with the enemy. The northern Mechs will come around
the mountain and attack your rear, so be prepared for them. You may wish to peel
off a Mech to delay them, though it is basically a suicide mission.

The key to this last battle is the quick elimination of the southern Mechs
followed by touching the base as soon as possible. I know of one player who took
a light mech into the final battle with this in mind. A fast, light mech with
jump-jets is definitely an asset in the second engagement. However, the light
mech will be hard pressed to survive the first battle, and may do best by
staying out of it entirely. Needless to say, this puts a strain on the remaining
Mechs. I chose the all-Heavy Mech approach and found it the easiest way to
tackle the final battle.

Once you have touched the base, you have won the game! You may continue to take
missions and play with the simulator. Note that a bug/feature in the game causes
the NewsNet messages to act as if you had failed in your mission. Also, if you
land on Ander's Moon, you will still be arrested. There is nothing you can do
about this; simply ignore it and enjoy the simulator.

MECHWARRIOR is published by Activision and distributed by Mediagenic.

This walkthru is copyright (c) 1990 by Stuart Moulder. All rights reserved.