The Eagle
The Eagle is interested in exactly one thing: air superiority. The Eagle does the minimum groundwork required
in order to produce airplanes and defend his air production facilities. Everything else is just icing on the cake.
Eagles, in general, win huge once they perfect their technique. There are some serious drawbacks to putting 100+
air units into play. However on very large maps, Eagles dominate entirely. Even the most dedicated Porcupine or
Octopus might want to switch to an Eagle strategy on 20 x 20 or larger maps.
The good points about Eagles come mainly in mobility and all that comes with it. Planes, even slow ones, are the
fastest things on the map besides a few underpowered scout units. That means the Eagle player can respond to threats
and project power more rapidly. A group of gunships in the right time and the right place can devastate an enemy column
and prompt a bout of cursing from most opponents.
Next, with a small sacrifice force, planes can at least get a good view of an enemy base. While they will get chewed
up by a good air defense ring, Level 2 fighters will live long enough in enemy airspace to at least get a look into
an opponent’s base. This is more than can be said for anything but the most overwhelming ground assault force trying
to get in on a Porc.
Eagles also tend to get visuals on the whole map and identify enemy positions before anyone else. With their rabid
focus on getting planes in the air, they normally will have scouted the whole map in about the time more ground-oriented
players are getting their first air units up. And often by the time their slower opposition are managing to get airborne,
the Eagle has enough fighters on patrol to maul opponents long before they can field enough high-level planes to even
venture outside the confines of their own base’s air-defense ring.
The bad points to Eagles are few, but serious. First, planes aren’t as powerful as ground forces. While that is hard
to say right after a group of 10 gunships have eaten half of your base, the right group of Level 2 Kbots would have
done the job a lot quicker. Under most conditions, 10 Fidos will eat a base more rapidly than 10 gunships.
Powerful planes are produced less rapidly than ground forces, and in a nasty corollary, construction aircraft build
things less rapidly. Since the really serious Eagle minimizes his number of ground forces, and in more extreme cases
never builds ground forces at all, Eagles need to double up on construction aircraft in order to equal the building
rates of their mud-bound brethren.
How do I become an Eagle?
Well, the answer is pretty much as simple as asking the question. Build planes. Build lots of planes.
If you are really serious about being an Eagle among Eagles, don’t ever build a ground vehicle at all.
As a matter of a fact, it should annoy you quite a bit that your Commander doesn’t have wings.
Eagles don’t build just one airfield, they build at least three Level 2s and have them continuously
cranking out new aircraft. In order to provide adequate base defense, the Eagle will have to build some
ground defenses backed up with lots of patrolling planes on patrol. As an Eagle, you should maintain a force
of about 100 air units.
What are my tactics as an Eagle?
There are a few things to keep in mind when you are going to stick to the high road. First, you need to break eggs
in order to win. Planes get chewed up on a regular basis. Make sure you don’t neglect to put up at least one Level
2 aircraft plant for each type of plane you are going to be using on a regular basis. In most cases, that means
one plant for fighters and another for gunships. You probably want to put up at least one more to produce
construction aircraft or to augment your gunship and fighter production.
Make sure you assign multiple construction units to assist your air production facilities. This is covered in
more detail later in the Production section.
The biggest plus to being an Eagle is the ability to take out one or more buildings in the enemy camp at will.
In order to stop 50+ planes from at least getting some damage done means your opponent must become the most
serious of Porcupines. A favorite tactic of serious Eagles is to take out an opponent’s missile defense system
and them immediately hit him with a couple of nuclear missiles.
As a cheap trick at the start of a game, Eagles can build a transport or two and go Commander hunting.
This involves flying your transports around and trying to find an enemy Commander out and about without
enough air cover. Pick up the enemy Commander and run your transport right next to some enemy defensive
emplacement. When the transport dies, so does the enemy Commander, either depriving the enemy of a powerful
unit or defeating the foul evil-doer altogether, depending on the game setting.
Also note that when you get to the levels of the preset missions that give you Level 2 aircraft plants,
becoming an Eagle will in most cases assure a quick and painless win (more details can be found late in the
Mission Breakdowns).