ASCII art sucks. [ War 2410 FAQ v. 0.5 ] Last modified 9/17/05 By PenguinCandy, a.k.a. Steven Roberts ============ 1. Contents ============ 1. Contents (You're sitting in it now) 2. About the game 3. About this guide 4. General Strategies 5. Walkthrough 6. Passwords 7. Version History 8. Copyright Info 9. Contact Info 10. Thanks ================== 2. About this game ================== Generic, utterly forgotten strategy game for the SNES and forerunner to the also-forgotten War 3010... though the two games don't have much in common. That's pretty much all I know. You command the forces of humanity against scientifically- engineered superhumans who have (IRONY!) turned against their creators. This sounds like a decent setup for a multi-faction strategy game, but AFAIK the factions are all exactly the same except for slightly different-looking units. Not that it matters, but they're the "brutally savage Orcs, cybernetic androids called Cromes, and genetically enhanced human soldiers, code named M.A.R.S." This game's pretty no-frills strategy. All units are predeployed at the beginning of levels, and they're all generic units who don't carry over from mission to mission. None of them gain experience or anything. The map layouts and the low movement rates of some units also conspire to make this game less fun than it should be; moving lots of units across vast patches of empty terrain sucks... Still, the game's not that bad considering what you probably, uh, paid for it. If you're into obscure strategy games you might want to check out 3010, which has less generic gameplay. Or forget 'em both and play Metal Marines. =================== 3. About this guide =================== Still quite rough. I don't have a manual and can't find any good info on this game online. As much as anything, this FAQ is here to give the curious some idea what this game's like. I welcome any additions to this guide, though I don't expect that to happen since this game is so obscure. I'd be surprised if anybody read it. In hindsight, I guess this FAQ wasn't really necessary...uh, moving on! =============== 4. General Info =============== ----- Units ----- *Troop* Their low mobility and crappy ground stats mean they're mere fodder until planes enter the mix. They'll still be quite expendable, but try to make sure they go out fighting planes if there are any in the enemy's assault force. *Commando* Faster and tougher Troops. Treat them as weaker mechs. *Mech* The best close-combat units. Like the infantry units, they can attack planes (and they're good at it.) Make repairing damaged ones a high priority. Slow, but still a good component of an assault force if your aircraft can't finish the enemy defenders alone. *Light Assault Vehicle* Mainly useful as shields for more valuable units (Heavies) and to attack enemy Heavies before they can reach yours. *Tank* Ditto. *Medium Tank* Ditto. *Transport Vehicle* Ditto. You can load Troops and Commandos into them. I've never used this option, since I don't know how to get them back OUT. I don't see why you'd need this ability anyway. *Heavy Tank* Until planes show up, these are the ONLY important units- everything else is just there to form a defensive buffer around them while they attack enemies from outside of counterattack range. If you actually lose a Heavy, you're doing something wrong. It's wasteful to attack enemy Heavies with your own, and they can't attack planes. Everything else, go nuts. Heavies remain vital all throughout the game. *Anti-Air* Heavies that can only attack planes. Not as vital as Heavies, but very useful working in conjunction with planes and infantry to destroy enemy aircraft. *Fighter* Planes that can only attack planes. Great against Bombers, but try to avoid attacking enemy Fighters unless you can finish them off in one hit (remember the special counterattack rules for aircraft!) You can also use them to chip away at ground units that can't hit back (chip away very gradually...and you may not do ANY damage if they have defensive cover.) *Bomber* Planes that can attack any unit. They can help in landing that last little bit of damage against aircraft and I *think* they can destroy Anti-Air units in two hits under any terrain conditions, so don't be shy about attacking units that can counterattack them. Infantry and Mechs can engage them on roughly equal terms, and Bombers are fewer, so be careful there and use their huge mobility to stay safe while attacking. That said, they're very good at wiping out enemies that can't hit aircraft. -------------------------- Attack and movement ranges -------------------------- In most strategy games, your movement and attack ranges are a sort of diamond shape, so a movement range of 2 looks like: x xxx xx0xx xxx x In this game your movement range is a sort of square, even though it makes no damn sense that way. A movement range of 2 looks like: xxxxx xxxxx xx0xx xxxxx xxxxx Essentially, this game lets you shoot and move twice as far along diagonals as most games do. I know it's weird, but whatever. -------------- Counterattacks -------------- This is one of those games that let you counterattack when you're attacked (assuming you can reach the enemy with your attack, of course.) Note that the counter takes place at the same time as the attack, so even if you finish off a unit with your attack they can still hurt you! If at least one of the units in a battle is an air unit, then I think the defender only gets to counter if they survive. So don't be surprised if it shows your Fighter jets being shot by enemy Fighters but you don't take any damage. --------- Buildings --------- I'm not sure how buildings work. I do know that you can repair your units by moving them onto the center tile of a building. I'm not sure whether you can lose by letting the enemy capture one of your buildings. Some missions can be won by capturing enemy buildings, so I assume you can lose this way, too, though it never happened to me. ----------- Extra Stuff ----------- The following stuff can't be found on the main battle screen: Radar Unit Stats Turns Taken Options (animations, music, and 'Option B') Detailed Unit Info Pushing B brings up the radar screen, which is fairly useful. I don't think I have to explain what the colored dots and such are. Pushing X from there will allow you to scroll through a few screens which show- I think- stats regarding how many units the different sides have and how many they've lost (I've never found this useful, so whatever.) You can also see how many turns you've taken here, not that it matters. B (or A) exits the radar screen, and select takes you to the options menu. The options menu lets you turn on or off combat animations. I think you're better off keeping them on; it's easier to keep track of unit conditions with them. Use your emulator's speedup key if you want to hurry things along. The options menu also lets you change or turn off the BGM or toggle the mysterious 'Option B.' What does it do? Dunno. Detailed unit info can be found by pushing select while centered on a unit. I think this is the only way to check health bars if you've turned off animations. Note that identical ratings for different units don't mean that stat is actually the same. For instance, Commandos and Tanks both have Low mobility ratings, but Commandos can move one space further. ---------------- General strategy ---------------- -There's no time limit or anything, and the AI's strategy is to just rush you with most of their units while keeping some in reserve to sit on top of buildings. Almost all of the time, the best strategy is to park Heavy Tanks in the middle of a group of units, ideally on top terrain that offers cover. The ideal situation is a base surrounded by plains- not only do you get a cover bonus, but the enemy doesn't. You'll be able to take down any number of attackers. Try to shuffle units around so that one gets repaired every single turn. -You don't necessarily want to attack enemies except with your indirect attackers. That way your blockers will last longer, and your precious Heavy Tanks will never be counterattacked while the enemy wastes time and strength attacking your Light Assault Vehicles or whatever. Defensive cover, defensive tactics and a base on your side will win the day, probably with minimal losses, unless the enemy force is simply crushingly overpowering. -The AI kinda broken- sometimes it'll simply mill around right next to your defenders without attacking or anything, so you can chip away at them with your Heavy Tanks without taking damage. I have no idea what causes this. Do NOT count on this. I've only seen it once or twice.) -There are times when you'll want to attack with your defenders, even if it means disrupting your defensive formation. Bombers are great for attacking units that can't hit back- just make sure your precious planes aren't destroyed. If the difference between your defense and the enemy's attack rating is huge (like a Mech on cover versus a Fighter or something) you may not take ANY damage from counterattack. And Heavy Tanks should be high-priority targets, since the damage they do will pile up quickly and they can attack you without risking counterattack. Finishing off fleeing enemies is also a good idea, since they'll be back after repairs. You should try to do so in the case of planes or Heavy Tanks. So basically, use your best judgment when deciding whether to send your garrison out to attack. -Bombers and Heavies make a good team. Soften them up with Heavies, then finish them with Bombers. That way none of your units will be open to counterattacks. -Don't just pick an enemy for your Heavies to target and pile into them as soon as they're close enough. Enemies will retreat for repairs if they get damaged badly enough. If you can merely hurt a unit badly that round, you may be better off doing just enough damage that you can finish it the next round but not enough damage to make it retreat. -Once you've wiped out their assault force you'll want to go for their base defenders. By this point your forces should outnumber their own quite a bit. Early on there will often be only a single unit on top of their base. Later on, base garrisons will take a bit of muscle to destroy. I *think* this is how the AI works for garrisons: Single-unit garrisons hold their positions no matter what. Since I don't remember seeing any ranged attackers used for this, feel free to blow them away with Heavy Tanks. They'll just sit there and take it. I don't even think they'll move for other units that are trying to get repaired. Larger garrisons will actually move out to engage you. This is triggered by moving close enough to them (possibly within their move and attack range?) I think triggering one to attack you will cause all of them to do so, except maybe for one left to guard the building. -------------- Mission Briefs -------------- Mission Briefs cover both a specific goal for the next level and a 'Scouting Report' with a little bit of info about the level. Victory conditions vary in different missions- I believe the first mission with a factory lets you win by capturing it, for instance. Destroying everything seems to work in every mission, too (and will sometimes actually be the victory condition.) Since you have to destroy almost all enemies in the course of a mission anyway, the specific goal in a level doesn't really affect what tactics you'll use much...eventually, I just went for the total destruction victory every time. Scouting reports don't seem that useful. I'm not sure what the one 'hidden lab' report means (see below) but most seem to be for flavor. The 'Combined Arms' message seems to be meaningless, for instance. I guess it's referring to the fact that a variety of units are deployed in that battle, but since that's the case for *every* mission... You earn promotions and medals just for progressing through the game. That is, you don't have to perform well during missions to earn them or anything. The highest rank is 'Undisputed Leader.' ============== 5. Walkthrough ============== I don't plan to ever add walkthroughs for the first ten or so missions. If memory serves, you don't even get planes until ten-ish, so the Heavies-behind-defenders strategy should be all you need. -One mission- I *think* Mission 10- may have some sort of secret in it that I missed. The mission brief mentions a 'hidden lab' or something like that, but damned if I know what that is or what to do about it. -I believe Mission 10 is where things start to require a little strategy. Halfway through the game, Planes, Anti-Airs and Mechs will make things a bit more complicated, and you have to make slightly harder decisions about where to have your units form their defensive line. If memory serves, 10 is the one with four bases in the NE, NW, SE and SW and a big forest in the middle. It's not a hard mission, but this is one times simply hanging back and letting them come to you won't work well. First, note that an extremely long trek through the forest separates the two bases at the north from each other. Your NE base is pretty much safe from the west. The enemy will move troops south from their NW base and west from their factory to try to wipe out your force in the southwest. Don't let them- move east with your factory garrison (go ahead and abandon it) and south with your NE base troops. They'll take the factory you start out with but no real fighting should occur there anyway so it won't matter. You should be able to wipe out their forces in the southeast between your combined groups, capture their factory, and make a stand there against the rest of the units sent against you. It's not some huge, intricate strategy or anything but you'll probably get so used to playing base defense right off the bat in this game that you'd be tempted to try it in this level. Don't. -Mission 11 has an annoying gimmick. The enemy base is hidden, meaning the game tries to simulate fog of war by shutting off your radar and not letting you scroll the screen into any part of the map until you've moved a unit there. Once you do so that part of the map is unlocked for the rest of the battle. You can, fortunately, unlock parts of the map by cancelling a unit's move halfway through (that is, select it, move it over with the control pad, then push the cancel button.) If it won't let you scroll into the area even when moving a unit, that's the edge of the map. You'll be able to see the enemy's units while the AI is moving them during its turn as usual, though. You *won't* be able to see units that aren't moved- meaning the ones it uses to guard its base. You can wipe out the force to the south of you by playing defensively, as always. I recommend doing your best to keep your Heavy Tanks, Mechs, Commando and planes from taking any damage here. This is easier than it sounds- the first part of this battle is nothing you haven't seen before. The second half isn't much tougher. You want to head south and then east from your starting point to reach the second enemy force in the SE corner. This garrison is pretty big, so you'll want to send all those units I told you to keep from getting damaged. You could send the rest, but moving big armies around is such a pain in the ass in this game that I hate doing so. Up to you. I managed to win pretty neatly with just the units I mentioned, for what that's worth. -Mission 12 Defense works, as usual. Your Heavy Tanks should concentrate on the enemy Mechs. Damaging units enough that they retreat is just as good as wiping them out here. Once you break their initial assault you'll have a little breathing room- they'll be repairing their stuff but so will you, and the second wave will be a lot weaker. -Mission 13 Start by sending your western group out to reinforce your eastern group. Taking out the Fighters here is the key. You'll need to take advantage of the unique rules for aerial unit counterattacks. Their air force is as strong as yours and their ground troops are stronger, so you need to wipe out the Fighters, and your Fighters need to be strong enough afterwards to wipe out their Bombers. Once that's done, you can pretty much just go nuts with your Bombers. Fun level. -Mission 14 Instead of trying to hold all three buildings here I'd split your army between the westernmost building and the one to the southeast of it- just abandon the one east of your headquarters, it doesn't matter. Make sure to attack those Heavy Tanks when they near your southeastern force. Once the enemy army reaches your NW base, your SE force is useless where it is, so do whatever you like with them- have them help finish the main enemy force or root out the base defenders or whatever. -Mission 15 Neat trick here. Abandon the northern base and just defend the southern one (I guess the other way would work too...) For this next part I think you have to let the enemy capture the northern base, but maybe not. Anyway, the enemies that get damaged assaulting the southern base will head up the road to that base for repairs. That makes them perfect targets for your two Bombers, since they'll probably be able to finish off the units in one hit and not be open to counterattack. As an aside, I get the impression here that enemies can repair themselves at allied buildings, not just their own. Could be wrong, though. -Mission 16 Son of a bitch. Minor air power for both sides and most of this map is covered in forest?! Not a lot of advice for you here. This mission's not that hard, but don't expect any shortcuts here. I think this one is a 'capture base' mission, but it wouldn't end for me until I destroyed all of the enemies. This game made me hate trees. -Mission 17 This time the objective is to escape despite being surrounded. Or at least, the Mission Brief says so. I just destroyed everything, as always. It's the same as always, really, just with a smaller margin of error than usual. -Mission 18 Head straight for the base where your planes are. Send those planes out to attack theirs, and have some of your infantry help if they get the chance. While you're covering for the units who are heading for that base, you may want to have your Anti-Airs act as a rearguard for when those planes show up. This is when they're most useful. Don't worry about your forces being wiped out on the long trek to your base, since their strong units are as slow as yours and their fast units aren't a huge threat. I won here by capturing the base in the NE. You might be able to pull off a quick victory that way, since it's so poorly defended. -Mission 19 Set up defenses at your starting points. Your bomber will be more helpful to the east, so move it. It'll help against all those Heavies. The 'Blackout' means that you can't see many enemy units until they move, but it's not a huge deal. Don't worry about any huge invisible garrisons or anything. -Mission 20 Everyone but the group to the far SE should move to your base near the center. The SE group should stay near their base; it'd be too hard to have them meet up with the others. Air power is key here. Your planes can win this one for you, but you have to keep them intact in the face of the enemy's impressive plane-killing capacity. Make their A-Airs and Fighters a priority here. Once you win, enjoy the...uh...man, that sucked, didn't it? Yeah, that's it. That was the ending. You could have been teaching yourself to play the guitar or brushing up on your Hegel all that time, but at least you managed to beat War 2410. Yay? ============ 6. Passwords ============ Didn't start writing these down until a ways into the game. Mission 12- DNJRCMSTR 13- NTHNVRDCC 14- JNNMRPH 15- TMMLVY 16- JSHMRNLL 17- JNNYSMN 18- SLJRSMN 19- PTMMRGN 20- SLVTRSMN =================== 7. Version History: =================== v. 0.5: First and final version, barring emails about this game. Currently missing: Passwords before mission 12. Walkthroughs for early missions. More importantly, still not clear on all game mechanics ("Option B?") ================= 8. Copyright Info ================= Steal from this FAQ all you like. Go nuts! STEAL THE WHOLE THING! Print out copies! Charge millions for them! MAKE MILLIONS OF $$$ WHILE YOU SLEEP!!!!111!1!!!111111111!!!11 =============== 9. Contact Info =============== Me email: loanfato@hotmail.com Please make the subject line something that'll make it clear it's not spam. Something like 'War 2410 FAQ' would be good. 'Penis Enlargement Offer' or something, not so much. Not that I expect anyone to email me about this guide, but I totally welcome any additions or corrections from anybody else who's played this game. Be warned that I check my email very rarely and am an extremely lazy bastard in general, so don't expect speedy results or anything. ============= 10. Thanks to: ============= CJayC for being the man. Your name could be here!