| Tactics upd. | Common Tips | PC Tips | PSX Tips |
Although this guide primarily focuses on Eurocorp operatives, the strategies and tips can be equally applied to Church of the New Epoch initiates.
Briefings are an absolutely vital component of any mission,
and executives would do well to pay close attention
to the intelligence data gathered. Always check the mission's status
to see what priority rating it has: you'll usually discover
that missions rated priority one will prove the most beneficial
to your syndicate's endeavours.
Occasionally, you'll receive a choice of several missions
at the same time and you should assess your current situation
and decide where your immediate priorities lie.
If you're short of cash, then a bullion or bank job
might be in order, but if your research effort is lagging,
then a mission to capture additional science personnel
might prove fruitful. Missions which involve the persuasion
and capture of enemy agents will provide you with tailor-made
manpower to replace any casualties and further both your own
and Eurocorp's objectives.
Once you've accepted a particular mission,
study the map in detail and take note of your appropriate drop
and evac zones, relevant targets, local landmarks and any other
additional information supplied. This breakdown should also
help you judge the strength of the opposition and allow you
to fine tune your equipment and weaponry payloads.
The Netscan ability is an extremely useful tool and if funds permit, executives should always take advantage of this facility. Up to the minute intelligence can prove critical in terms of discovering bonus objectives, enemy concentrations and, most significantly, hidden financial reserves. Netscanned information can sometimes prove disappointing, but when you consider that risking a mere five or ten thousand credits could buy you the location of a bank vault that's worth several million, it's a gamble well worth taking.
When arming your agents, try to prepare a balanced group which mixes a decent variety of weapons and equipment. If you're playing a mortal game, you never know quite what you might encounter, so it's as well to cover all eventualities. You'll probably find you'll need a full compliment of low energy, medium-range weapons, such as miniguns, as general-purpose ordinance, while a couple of heavy weapons are compulsory for laying down support fire. Explosives and nuclear grenades are a necessity for most missions.
A handy tip is to designate agents to specialise in a particular area, which will depend on the state of their body mods. For example, the agent who has the highest rated arm mod, will probably make your best marksman, while an agent with advanced leg mods will make a good explosives expert, because he can lay charges and then move quickly to escape the blast radius.
Even though you'll probably concentrate on developing four rock hard super agents, with advanced body mods, don't neglect your reserve agents. If one of your main men gets killed (especially in a mortal game) you'll need to promote someone for the next mission and if they're significantly 'under powered', your whole group's performance will suffer.
So executive, you've hit the drop zone, the zealots are out in force,
the citizens are twitchy and your agents are awaiting their first
instructions: where do you go from here? Well, in spite of the large
and terrifying amounts of weaponry available, the mini map is probably
the most useful piece of equipment in the entire game.
Consult it often to recce possible targets, assess incoming threats
and monitor the movement of enemy personnel and the police.
You should also practice swivelling the main view, until you're in
perfect control of your surroundings. During the early missions,
take time after you've achieved your main objective to become familiar
with manipulating the view; in my case a combination of mouse
and keyboard proves the most effective.
When you beam into a new city, it's worth using a combination of mini and main views to scroll around and get a feel for the place. With this overall strategic plan committed to memory, you stand a much better chance of achieving your objectives. And, if things should go wrong, of having some idea of where you can run to. The better you know a place, the safer you'll be.
Here, combat is the name of the game and Syndicate Wars presents many varied and interesting opportunities for mass mayhem. Therefore, Bath AI has issued the following directives for manipulating agents in the field via your remote marionette system:
1. Stick together! In the early missions, you'll only have access to limited weaponry and equipment. If your agents are all in one group, they can bring more direct firepower to bear.
2. The Persuadatron will allow you to recruit a citizens' army. Affected citizens will begin arming themselves and bring additional firepower to your team. The Persuadertron Mark II is even better, allowing you to influence rival agents and new church zealots.
3. Roadside furniture and vehicles can be used to your advantage. If enemy troops are massed near a streetlight or van, aim to shoot it and the resulting explosion will cause them additional damage. Beware of loitering near potentially explosive objects yourself, as the enemy won't hesitate to use the same tactic on you.
4. Loot the dead! Always search bodies thoroughly as they sometimes conceal
advanced ordinance. At the very least, you'll be able to resell their equipment for a bit of much-needed cash.
5. Learn to switch from high power, long range weapons to low power mediums
as the enemy closes in. For example, the LR rifle will pick off your first couple of adversaries at range, but you should then switch to a minigun to renew hostilities during close quarters combat, as it's a far more effective close-range weapon.
6. If you need to be somewhere in a hurry, hijack an empty car, it's much quicker than moving your agents around on foot. Receive extra bonus points and a considerable cool factor rating by joyriding in police cars. For the discerning sinister agent, it's the only way to travel!
7. If you want to stay out of trouble with the local law, make sure your weapons are concealed. A nifty double click on the left mouse button, will result in all your agents drawing simultaneously, so you won't lose too much time when engaging the enemy.
8. Every agent should be equipped with a medikit. With appropriate body mods, you might not use it often, but it could mean the difference between life and death for your guys when they're under heavy fire.
9. Churcher flying vehicles are an extreme pain and will try to hunt you down relentlessly. Shelter beneath buildings and retaliate with launcher and projectile based attacks.
Research is a critical element of Syndicate strategy and fuels discovery of new weapons, devices and body mods which will weld your agents into an irresistible force. Your ability to research and manufacture new technologies is dependant on the amount of cash and scientists you can allocate to an individual project. If you feel you're falling behind in the research race, you should choose missions which involve persuading and capturing science personnel to redress your shortfall.
Moving onto the wider question of what to research and in which order, well apart from high explosives as a first choice, there's no definitive route through the weapons and body mods on offer. However, it's fairly safe to say that some of the minor weapons such as the flamer, aren't really worth concentrating on and you should perhaps shovel funds into the bigger, meatier projectile weapons. The weapon chart on the previous two pages should help you decide which are the most useful investment.
Remember, when you're setting a project's budget, the cash you invest is a per day allowance. Committing substantial resources to a project can rapidly deplete your financial reserves and you should bear in mind that the recommended figure (on the right), indicates the amount of cash needed per day, to finish that project in ten days with your current science team. Sometimes it can be worthwhile suspending projects between missions, until you've actually captured extra scientists. This additional, augmented brain power on the research team will mean that the money you eventually invest will be spent more cost effectively. Intelligence reports indicate science personnel can be found in the following cities: Adelaide, Santiago, Cape Town and Reykjavik.
In the race to develop new and terrifying weaponry, it's easy to forget body modifications as a way of improving the performance of your agents. But you shouldn't neglect them, as they can play a vital role in helping your agents survive the rigours of the battlefield. The body mod is the basic building block, and offers improved overall survival and performance, but the brain mod is equally important, boosting intelligence and making your agents much easier to control. Bionic arms will definitely improve your agent's targeting and weapons functions, while the leg mod will substantially increase speed and manoeuvrability, an invaluable asset in the urban warfare environment.
When your technology permits you to move up to a new cybernetic level always research the body implant first, as this mod is required before any other can be fitted.
For the erstwhile executive, cold, hard cash is one of the most difficult, yet most desirable commodities to acquire and considerable guile is required to keep a healthy credit balance. You'll need dollars to fuel extra research, discover new body mods and develop all that fascinating and destructive weaponry. Nevertheless, with a little ingenuity, financial solvency is possible and can be broken down into two distinct strategies. Early on, you'll find difficulty raising money and the quickest solution is to collect and recycle weapons from enemy casualties, then sell them once the mission's complete. Unfortunately, you can only carry one of each weapon type, which is a pain, but the somewhat radical solution is to under-arm your group in ops and then scavenge weapons from the opposition in the field. Before the mission's complete, make sure each agent is crammed to capacity with surplus weapons, then unload everything except your hardest armaments or new technologies to make a workable profit. Remember, you'll only receive half of what you'd pay for the same weapon new, but it should allow you to survive the early financial hardships and keep your research lines ticking over. If you're looking for a more immediate and satisfying way to make quick, easy money then a life in armed robbery is for you. You'll need to research high explosives, but once that breakthrough's been made, the world's financial centres are ripe for the plucking. The location of bank facilities and vaults are often revealed by a netscan (see above) and once their presence has been established, no matter what your primary mission is, you should make a bank job a high priority. Local police forces don't take these things lightly, so expect a swift, armed response. However with a cool half a million as a minimum payout the rewards are worth the risk.
The presence of bank vaults and cash opportunities will usually be signalled by a $ sign on the map. When these are detected, make credit transfer a high priority. It'll prove worthwhile to search the map and particularly enemy casualties for hidden briefcases. These bonus discoveries will often yield substantial cash rewards.
Bank and vault facilities have been detected in the following cities world-wide: Singapore, Rome, New York, Christchurch, Tokyo and Bahrain.