by Tim "Flyboy" Henderson

  Take the Fight to the Enemy

This is rule number two. Your next step is to launch your F14s, primarily for the purposes of self-defense. Another of the glaring omissions from the original release was that you couldn't arm your aircraft as you would choose, but never fear, JANE'S is here! Yes, they added selectable loadouts in the patch, and right-clicking a specific aircraft in the flight deck dialog pops up a menu with up to 4 options:

• ASW (Anti-submarine Weapon)
• ASUW (Anti-Surface Unit Weapon)
• AAW (Anti-Air Weapon)
• Strike (Primarily Anti-Surface Unit Weapons but will also include Anti-Aircraft Weapons)

Once your Tomcats are airborne select them (tether them is the term the designers use) and order them to VIS ID the unidentified ships to the NE and North. Then while you still have an aircraft selected, press SHF 3 to order FAST intercept. Actually, you won't have to ID the ship to the north since it will begin launching cruise missiles at you... a good indication of intent!

At this point if you have armed your Tomcats wisely (sic) then you can simply give the order and it will be AGMs aweigh! This was really a HUGE change in the game and it's one heck of a lot easier to take out those bad seagoing guys. Remember that your missiles are more likely to be effective it you jam the enemy ships, so select your E6-B and then hit "C", you can then right click on the target you want to jam and the Prowler pilot will take care of the rest.

Your next step is to take out the offending Backfire bombers. These ones should show up on the screen once your E2 radar goes active.

When Fleet Command was released you could send out a fighter to ID an air target, and if the target proved hostile your aircraft would simply call the ID then turn away. Fortunately in v. 1.1 there is a configuration option in SETUP that allows you to put the gonads back in these boys. If you want them to use a particular weapon, however, then you must bring up their ENGAGEMENT menu.

Shortcuts

Thankfully, however, there are some shortcuts out there, and the keyboard file is only an F1 press away.

One of the biggest issues is remembering who was sent where to do what, especially when the missiles are really flying. (Dang, this game just BEGS for dual monitor support...)

Click to continue

You can use the SHF M key to bring up a whole swatch of color coded lines that indicate current orders for all your platforms. Sure, it clutters the screen, but you can use SHF M to turn it off again as soon as you survey the state of affairs. The lines you see below tell me that I have an E6-B jamming one target, and two other aircraft with orders to ID targets.

You can also PAUSE (P key) the game when things are crazy to have a look around. You can click on objects and select them, though you can't issue most orders in PAUSE mode.

The Best of Times, the Worst..

Occasionally, you will launch a campaign and get slaughtered. It happens to the best of us. But it's time to cheat when this happens, so here is what you do.

Save and quit the game, then use the REPLAY button on the Debrief screen. THis screen will provide you with tons of useful INTEL, showing you all the platforms (even the subs) that you needed to kill. You can now replay the mission or jump back into the saved mission and take care of business.

Mission Builder

Fleet Command is even more fun when in multiplayer mode. There really is too much to do in many of these missions for a single player anyway. Check around the net for some custom mission downloads, and there are also a few on COMBATSIM.COM™. You can send us your favorite missions by clicking HERE. Send them in ZIP format and include a brief explanation.

Other Mods

Heck, you found out that your favorite platform isn't available, or that the weapons characteristics of your favorite missile aren't quite accurate. No worries, where there is a will.. there is a download! And yes, the Phoenix missile is also available in the patched version.

Warship's Database v3.9- by Warship

"This is an ongoing project that I am undertaking to make Fleet Command more realistic than what is presently is. Hundreds of "tweaks" have been made to the database over the course of this project for better performance of weapons and platforms. Thousands of corrections to the data in the original databases have already been implemented and tested. Any and all questions concerning this database project can be sent to Warship." Note: Version 4 should be out by Oct.15.

AirUpdate v2.1- by Chris Thurmond. This download updates the Aircraft database.

Database Editor - version 4.2.0 - by Philip Langdale.

Features:

Manipulates Object, Launcher and ShipBasedAircraft records. Modifies existing records and allows for thus created records to overwrite the original or be added as a new record. Copies new 3DObject record for any new Object records. User has choice of specifying which 3DObject to use. Imports and Exports Object, Launcher, 3DObject and ShipBasedAircraft records.

All these downloads and more can be found on our Missions Download page.

Go to Part II