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Campaign
CAMPAIGN Campaigns, Skirmishes, Free Flight, and Demo are available. The map screen and process for getting off the ground in each type of scenario is almost identical. Skirmishes are mini-Campaigns. They have fewer entities (aircraft, ground craft, ships, etc.) and the entities are clustered in a small area. The Skirmishes require much less computing power and much less bandwidth for online play. If your Internet connection is marginal or you want to have many people online in the same game then Skirmishes will fill your needs. Free Flight adds choices for Infinite Weapons, Infinite Fuel, Collisions, and Weapon Damage to the user-selectable Time of Day, Weather, and Environment found in Campaigns. Free Flight would have been the perfect location for training missions. This is one of the few areas where I am really disappointed in this sim. This is a very complex simulation, both in flight model and modes of attack. There are no training flights. You can go into Free Flight, turn off Collisions and Weapon Damage (the enemy's not yours), take off and fly around with the manual on your lap, trying to figure out why the MFD Focus light won't come on even though you have selected FLIR (answer: you have Stinger air to air missiles selected). According to the producer, Kevin Bezant, there was just not enough time to do everything and meet the deadline to deliver the simulation on schedule. It may be possible to add training missions at a later date for download or via a patch.
The EEAH campaigns will make use of the improved graphic and AI of EECH. The campaigns are not changed from the original EEAH sim. The new campaigns are more complex, with more goals to accomplish, and missions to be flown than in the older campaigns. My favorite of the new campaigns is War of Independence set in Taiwan. Hey Kevin, can you show us that crystal ball you used? I often come back to Cuban Crisis, too. One of the many things that is really brilliant about this product is that Razorworks managed to retain compatibility with their previous product while raising the bar for performance in graphics, playability, and immersion. The new product allows EEAH to use the latest technology fully (faster CPUs = better AI, better GPUs = better graphics).
Fig. 8. Game CampaignYou want campaigns, you got campaigns! Pick the campaign and confirm your choice then choose a side, Blue or Red. If you have EEAH installed you will be able to fly Apaches and Havocs. After the campaign generation completes you will see the map screen.
The map screen, which you can toggle in and out of during the entire mission with the <Enter> key, shows Available Missions initially. You can get into the action instantly by clicking below the map on Auto-Select for Gunship then Accept and Auto-Select on Mission then Accept. Click Confirm in the lower right and you are ready to fly by clicking on Cockpit in the lower right. The information available on the map is pretty staggering. If you click on O.O.B. in the upper right corner you will see a listing of every entity in the campaign. Click on a type of mission to open a submenu listing. Selecting a mission displays the briefing. You may note that there are Assigned and Unassigned missions. Assigned missions are already underway. They have Start and Landing Base assigned and the mission is assigned to a Group. They are already in progress so when joining one of these you will find yourself in flight with the autopilot engaged (Be sure to position your throttle at mid-range before disengaging the autopilot! The autopilot flies at low altitude, forty feet or less. If you disengage the autopilot with the throttle at idle you will probably get to watch the helicopter crash sequence.) The Unassigned missions display a countdown timer until they expire and are assigned. You can Pause or Accelerate time at the map screen using the <CTRL> + or - but only in single player.
Fig. 9. Map Screen
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