Generally the guides we have seen are aimed at novices, and would be better thought of as "companions" than guides. But we'll walk you through their latest release and let you see for yourself the kind of help offered by Prima for USAF fans.

First, let's take a look at what Prima says about their USAF strategy guide:

• Complete briefings for every mission— even training, single, and multiplayer missions
• Mission-by-mission playtester tips
• In-depth guide to creating custom missions—trade 'em with your friends Official USAF command fact sheets, with unit patches
• Jane's USAF table of organization & Equipment (TO&E)

This listing pretty much covers the content. Here is how the content breaks down by length:

• Training Mission Briefings: pp 6-33 (includes Red Flag)
• Single and Multiplayer Briefings: pp.34-65
• Campaign Briefings: pp 68-170
• USAF Command Organization: pp 172-246
• User Mission Editor: pp 248-288
     - Includes 5 page Mission Wizard Tutorial

As you can see, the mission briefings and playtester tips comprise pages 6 to 170, making up more than half of the content. Roughly one third of the content is comprised of an Order of Battle like listing for the USAF, including page by page breakdown of units.

For example, on page 230 is listed the Tenth Air Force, which further is broken down into 310 Fighter Wing, 340 Flying Training Group, 419 Fighter Wing, 442 Fighter Wing, 482 Fighter Wing and 513 Airborne Control Group. That information, together with the actual platforms employed and a further breakedown of 340 Flying Training Group, occupies an entire page.

This section really has me puzzled. I'm not sure what use this information is to the average gamer. Yet this kind of information occupies fully one third of the manual.

UME Online Help

The mission briefings are at least useful for the novice. To be fair, this seems the orientation of the guide in general. The more seasoned player wouldn't likely refer to the mission briefings and tips, simply because it would spoil the fun of discovery.

On the other hand, the section detailing the User Mission Editor is quite useful since it supplies in printed form much of the information contained in the Online Help section within the UME. But in fact the user does have access to most of the same information via the help file included with the UME, so unless you want it in printed form there is no need to purchase the strategy guide.

Conclusions

So far it doesn't seem that Prima has hit the mark, except for the novice who wants a mission by mission briefing in order to more quickly achieve success. If I were building this guide, what would I change?

First, I would divide the guide into two sections: one for the novice and one for the more seasoned user. The novice section would include the mission briefings, though I might skip the briefings for the training missions altogether.

Second, I would eliminate all 75 pages of the USAF organizational information. I would use twenty pages of that space to add to the UME section, adding an "advanced" mission building walkthrough.

Third, I would use the other 55 pages saved from eliminating the USAF data section to cover information on threat characteristics and threat avoidance, and perhaps to discuss some of the strengths and weaknesses of the particular USAF platforms as modeled in the game. This section would have to be written by someone with forty or fifty hours experience in the game.

Finally, I would be tempted to include brief interviews with pilots who have actually flown each of the USAF platforms modeled, as well as an interview with the game designers, allowing them to share general tips on mission success in each of the campaigns.

Unfortunately, this guide won't be useful for most of our readers. I recommend that you "try before you buy," if you can get access to the guide at a computer outlet near you.

• $19.99 U.S.
• $27.95 Can.
• £12.99 U.K.
• 288 Pages