First of all turn on "Show weapons" which is off by default (Alt-O) once in game. A printed copy of the reference card will come in handy as like most flight sims there are quite a few keys to use. This is a sim/arcade blend so the total number is kept to a minimum.

Lets start with the first mission, an escort mission with no ground targets. Loadout the plane with 4x AIM9Js. These are the stock standard air-2-air missiles and as you will discover have a very low success rate (you'll be lucky to take down a single place with 4 J's).

Takeoff by setting flaps (F), and full 'burners (0). Flaps alone will be enough to lift off once your airspeed picks up, but dont be shy to gently pull up the nose. Once wheels are off the ground retract the landing gear (L), and reduce power to 100% Military (5) once your airspeed is above say 0.30. Think of normal power as 1-5 (~ is 0), and afterburners are 6-0 which eat up the fuel. Take off the flaps (F).

Now lets check in with Stern on comms (C). Select 1 then 1 again for his status. Later missions will allow you to issue specific orders like attack or defend me.

Time to open up the navigation map (N). Use the arrow keys to cycle through your available destinations. Highlight the rendezvous site and press Enter. Rather than fly there manually which is tiresome & the game doesn't really intend for you to do so, press Autopilot (A). This will initiate a brief cutscene of you flying away to your selected destination.

Once the cargo plane has been met check on their status with comms (C), and press A to continue on to the dropoff point. (There is no need to use the nav map again as the next destination is automatically selected). Of course being a Wildcat is never easy and you are met with some opposition.

Air to air combat. Start by toggling on dogfight mode (G). This only allows air to air weapons to be cycled (W). Select a target with (T) and if it has a cross through it then it's friendly. If so cycle to the next target with (T). If you can maneuver behind the enemy plane you can let loose an AIM-9J which has about a 10% chance of hitting. Otherwise, like most planes in the early game, you will need to switch to cannons and get close and personal. You have 900 rounds but they go quick! Line up your shots carefully & only fire in a *very* short burst. Pretend you are single clicking a shortcut on your desktop.

Whilst you get the hang of flying and Air to Air combat you may want to turn on 360 degree lock in the options (Alt-O). This will stop you losing selection of the enemy plane every time it zooms past your front 180 degrees, which will be often.

If all goes well you will shoot down 2 or 3 enemy planes before autopiloting to the dropoff point. The cargo plane will thank you, and then its time for a scenic flyby of the capitol city.

Landing. There is no shame in turning on Easy Landings in Options during the learning phase! If you screw up the landing you need to repeat the mission from the start. After autopiloting back to your base you will be on final approach to the runway...At 600kts! First drop power to Military 20% (1) and activate the speed brake (B). Lower the nose towards the runway and toggle on flaps (F). Once airspeed is approaching 0.30, lower the landing gear (L). Keep the nose pointed at the start of the runway & try to maintain speed at roughly 0.25 by adjusting Military power 1-5 as required. The keyboard helps here as you dont want any left/right rolling input at all. When you are near the ground pull the nose up to slow your descent and..land? Hopefully.

Congrats the first mission is done!

Great post, great info!

I was having a nightmare with weapon loadouts!

Like most flight sims the game assumes you are a bit of a military hardware fetishist :)

*F8 will toggle the weapon cam which is very handy for most air to ground weapons*

Air to Air missiles
AIM-9J - rear aspect only, expect this missile to miss *a lot*
AIM-9M - all aspect (can fire against targtes front or rear). Improved sucess rate on the 9J, especially if fired from behind.
AIM-120 - self radar guided missile "fire and forget". The most expensive air to air missile, and the longest range.

Air to Ground
Rocket pods - cheap and nasty rockets with a short range. You get quite a few per pod so despite my desciption they can be very effective.
Durandel - A specific bomb designed for taking out runways
mk-20/mk-82 - free falling "dumb" bombs. General purpose bombing. I never could figure out the specific use for the cluster bomb & mostly chose the mk-20.
Maverick - Self propelled smart missile. You must keep its target selected and activate the weapon cam with F8 to keep this missile locked on. Good for taking out offensive ground targets like SAMs or antiair flak. Expensive but wont miss.
GBU - Huge laser guided bomb for naval targets. Use similar to the maverick but it has a very low range & requires you to keep the target selected.

Selecting the correct loadout for a mission can be a delicate juggle. You will almost always be against air targets, so take 2x AIM missiles on the outer pylons. For the early bombing missions I would recommend rocket pods & mk-20s. If you find yourself getting chewed up by antiair flak before you can take it out, add a couple of Mavericks and use them to knock out any offensive ground targets. This will give you free reign to carefully line up your targets with rocket pods & the mk-20 bombs.

Often when tasked with destroying a base you need to take out the runway at a minimum, plus a certain amount of its surrounding structures. Its tough to know just how much you need to drop on the runway itself, but once you have damaged enough of the base overall you will get an audio message like "Mission completed. return to base" or "Objective completed. Fly to next target." Dont waste any more ammo on the current base once you get these prompts.

When heavy laden with bombs your plane will become a flying pig in dogfights. Although there are keybinds for jettisoning weapons this should always be avoided as you wont be able to complete any objectives. Get used to toggling G for dogfight mode! Otherwise you will be cycling through your air to ground weapons when in a dogfight.

Don't forget to use the 'Y' key after targeting the enemy.
It will track your targets automatically and helps a lot in dogfight =D
To turn it off press the 'Y' key again.

Hope it helps =)

I can't link to it for some reason, but google "falcon 3.0 bfm" minus quotations for a general guide on BFM that applies to virtually any flight combat game with some semblance of realism. It's a long read and not all the concepts are necessary for dgfighting in Strike Commander, but it's useful.

I also have some of my own tips, assuming gameplay is set to Ace and the flight model is Realistic:

Shoot first - I know flying directly behind the enemy will net you the highest success rate, but if you see a good opportunity to take a pot shot, (i.e. head on pass) take it. It won't be accurate and you might be wasting ammo, but you might also get lucky.

Landing Gear Damage - If your landing gear is destroyed, (check with the D key) restart the mission. There is no way you will be able to complete the mission safely as belly landings aren't modeled.

Collisions - Beware, the AI is actually not all that smart. I've died from midair collisions more frequently than anything else. Watch out for your wingmen too, they are equally not as bright and will often crash into the enemy they are chasing. This will cost you support for the duration of the mission as well as spare F-16s.

Keeping track of the enemy - Even if you padlock the enemy (Y key), if you end up turning with him you may sometimes lose sight of him. Don't panick if this happens, he's probably still moving from where you last saw him.

Max turn rate - My magic number is 300-450 knots, this is the speed in which most fighters (especially the F-16) can pull the sharpest turn possible. Fly too slow or too fast and you can't maneuver all too well. Flaps can help slightly, but they will add drag and increase the rate at which you bleed off airspeed. Once you are directly behind the enemy, you don't need to maintain this speed unless you are worried that someone else might be tailing you.

Vertical - Pulling straight into the vertical (ninety degrees up on the pitch ladder) is a bad idea. If you need altitude, set the throttle to full afterburner and pull up at an angle; never try to fly directly against the force of gravity.

Dissimilar Air Combat - Considering the arcade elements of Strike Commander, this isn't modeled all too well. Assuming a light or moderate ordnance load, the AI will always perform worse than you no matter what they are flying and regardless of difficulty setting. Just remember that higher end planes like the F-22 can put up a decent fight.

Blackout - If you pull a hard turn at a speed higher than 500 knots or if you are at corner velocity for too long you will probably black out. While this is inevitable when pulling hard turns, you are virtually blind. I don't remember if this game simulates G-LOC, though. Adjust the throttle, ease the turn and use flaps and the brake to bleed off airspeed.

Redout - You will red out if you pull opposite of your lift vector. As far as I know there is no reason to pull into negative G's.

Don't waste fuel - Especially if you are running a long range mission, and especially if your fuel tank starts leaking. You don't have to be at full afterburner all the time while fighting, just when you need to accelerate quickly. You can be on military power and still turn without losing too much speed.

Chaff/Flares - Maybe this is a bug but if you fire a missile at the enemy they love to dispense at least a third or even all of their chaff and flares at once. This can be annoying if dealing with missions involving multiple fighters but if I'm guessing right they may have no way of defending themselves from subsequent missile attacks.

Premature ejection - The enemy may eject prematurely. In older DOSbox versions this is a bug, (the enemy would eject before you even start fighting) but there is consistent logic--if the enemy decides its aircraft is no longer airworthy they will eject. If you are fighting multiple enemies and you've scratched one with your guns, switch to the next target; there is a good chance the previous one may yield and ditch his plane.

Objects may be closer than they appear - If an enemy within visual range is appearing larger and larger there is a good chance you will overshoot the enemy or worse, collide with them. What I usually do is a maneuver like a barrel roll or high-G yo yo with flaps and brakes on, and set the throttle to zero (` key). It is safer if the enemy flies a little further out of gun range than if you collide with him or let him line up his own gunshot.

Guns are more dangerous than missiles - This applies to the enemy, too. In real life, all possible weapon systems are equally dangerous and have a very good chance of killing you; in a game like Strike Commander, (or Ace Combat) however, missiles are not very effective and can be dealt with if you know where they are coming from. However, you never know if someone is shooting you with guns until it's too late, whether it's from anti-air artillery or enemy fighters. When dealing with the former, stay out of their line of fire; when dealing with the latter, check behind you visually (F5) or keep an eye on the RWR for anyone targeting you (the little radar on the left of the ICP panel on the F-16).

Might have more, but this is all I can think of off the top of my head at the moment.

More:

Read the manual
If you bought the game on GOG, it comes with the playtester's guide and the strategy guide. The strategy guide alone is over 300 pages and has a wealth of information on how to properly fly and operate the different weapons. It's still pretty light compared to something like Falcon 4.0.

Air to air cont.
Missiles are generally ineffective because of the above problem with chaff/flares.

I know it's not recommended, but if you're conscious about running out of AIM-9Ms bring AIM-9Js instead. It's not like 9Ms are that much more effective. Usually this doesn't happen since you'll be buying both types in a single bundle.

If flying a mission that involves shooting down a large plane, save your missiles for them because they have no chance of evading the missile.

AIM-120s are not recommended unless you are flying the F-22, because your loadout options are severely limited in that. AMRAAMs cost way too much to be useful. Load your plane with six AIM-9Ms instead.

Always bring Primetime with you.

Air to ground
You don't have to destroy all ground targets, you just need to score a specific number of points for a ground attack to be considered successful. When strafing vehicles, make sure it's already destroyed before you fire.

The LAU-3 rocket pod is the best overall weapon to use for most air-to-ground missions. It is extremely cheap, you can carry more rockets than Mk. 82s, and very light--you will be able to turn with enemy aircraft even with rocket pods attached. But the best part is you may not lose the rocket pod at the end of a mission unless you expended all of its ammo; and it will get replenished for free for use in the next mission. You can plow through a ton of air-to-ground missions with very little overhead this way. The only problem with the LAU-3 is that there are no discount bundle packs for them.

The Mk.82 isn't as useful as the rocket pod but it does much more damage, and is better for taking on ground objects that soak up a lot of damage. Don't bring too many bombs though, or it will make your plane too heavy to defend itself. If you must bring Mk.82s, supplement a couple with rockets.

The GBU-15 comes with the Mk.82 bundles so there isn't much harm in using them. Save them for special targets like aircraft carriers.

If you need to destroy a runway, bring four Durandals or eight Mk.82s. Line up with the runway as though you are about to land for an accurate bomb hit. The CCRP aiming line is not as accurate as the one in Falcon 4.0.

Always bring Gwen on air-to-ground missions. Unless she flies into something or dives into the ground, she is mostly competent at destroying ground targets.

Navigate manually
Not required, but if you don't feel like fighting extra enemies you can navigate around sections where they are lurking and not have to fight them. Use a military power setting of 80% (4 key) to conserve fuel.

Why you shouldn't go directly into the vertical
This is most definitely a bug. Sometimes if you pitch 90 degrees up, you can get stuck no matter how fast you are flying and will get locked almost indefinitely. You won't be able to recover unless you stall. If this happens to you, turn off the throttle, turn on brakes and flaps and deliberately stall the plane until it recovers.

This can happen to the AI too, only they don't know how to recover. This makes them easy targets.

Flying the F-22
The F-22 Raptor (labeled the Lightning II after its original nickname, which later went to the F-35) is flyable in some missions of the game. I'm assuming because very little data on the F-22 was available at the time, the F-22 handles a lot differently from what you'd expect. In fact, it has no thrust vectoring or supermaneuverability, no pre-emptive strike capability due to the lack of stealth modeling, can only carry two Sidewinders and two AMRAAMs, and maneuvers worse than the F-16. On the other hand, it has twice the amount of fuel, twice the amount of chaff and flares, and has excellent acceleration and climbing ability. So in actuality, it's an F-15 made to look like an F-22.

When flying the F-22, rely on the aircraft's speed instead. Use vertical maneuvers and hit and run tactics rather than trying to turn with enemy aircraft.

This is a very long post for my very first post in these forums.

I remember back in the day I could never get durandels to work. I'd never get the mission accomplished noticed when I tried to use them on runways. Eventually I gave up on them altogether and just went with carpet dumb bombing.

I remember thinking how crap the F22 was compared to the F16! "What the hell? All that trouble to get this plane and it turns out to be worse than the one I was already flying?" Totally dig the A-Team plan of stealing it.