Strike Pad: real-time action strategy for iPhone

The game

Small war. Big stakes.

Neither side can afford a real war, so each sends a few bases and a few machines. You command one of those bases, and you lead it from the cockpit.

Lead from the cockpit

One thumb. Every machine.

Touch anywhere and drag to steer. Your guns fire on their own, so your job is where you go. Land on the Strike Pad to repair, rearm and switch to another vehicle.

A gunship, a tank and a jeep, one at a time, on either side: the Concord’s Shrike, Warden and Lynx, or the Union’s Hammer, Ram and Mule
Missiles and powers on a tap; the guns do the rest
A red arrow to the enemy’s headquarters, a blue one home

Oil pays for the war

Whoever holds the wells pays for the war.

Tap Build, choose a building, and the Mason drives out and puts it up. Every derrick earns credits, and credits buy the guns that keep it yours.

Derricks, a refinery, guns, anti-air and point defence
A strike uplink: jets on any target, called from any vehicle
A Battle Lab for upgrades, a Drone Factory for escorts

Never alone

Buy the escorts. Call the jets.

Buy drones and UGVs at the Drone Factory and they fly and drive beside you. When a column is too big to fight, mark it, and the strike wing comes in along it.

Helicopter drones and UGVs that follow your vehicle
Airstrikes aimed with the stick, on a tap
Your base keeps building while you fight

Two campaigns, one war

Same war. Opposite ends.

Fight Operation Clear Water for the Concord, then The Long Winter for the Union. Voiced briefings, radio chatter, and a story that turns on who fired the first shot.

Every mission adds one new idea, so the campaign teaches as it goes
Three stars a mission: win, lose nothing, beat the par time
Checkpoints, so one bad minute doesn’t cost the whole mission

Quick Battle

One battle. Your rules.

No story, no briefing: just you against the computer. Pick a side, a map and how hard the enemy fights, and the battle starts.

Eight maps so far, and more on the way: islands, salt flats, a fjord, a town and the highlands
An enemy that digs in, one that raids, or one that does both
Recruit, Regular or Veteran; day or night; clear skies or a storm
You win by destroying the enemy’s headquarters

The enemy

KestrelAI. It plays fair.

The enemy commander is KestrelAI, made in the spirit of the classic real-time strategy opponents: it thinks in layers, from its plan for the war down to each squad, and it comes at you in waves. It plays by your rules, and it plays to give you a good fight.

No cheating
It sees only what its side sees, and remembers it as it was. It earns only what its derricks pump: never extra money, at any difficulty.
Pressure in waves
Attacks come in waves, with breathing room between them, building to a climax.
Eight personalities
Balanced, Turtle, Raider, Rusher, Boomer, Hunter, Guerrilla and Steamroller: each with a plan of its own, a tell, and a weak spot a scouting player can find.
You hear it coming
Radio crackles from the direction of an attack, dust where its squads gather, a flare as it calls a power.
It learns your habits
Lean on the gunship, the cloak or one lane and it answers, partly and late, then forgets again.
Difficulty is how it plays
A recruit reacts slowly and attacks one at a time; a veteran strikes on two fronts and remembers you longer. Neither is given more.

Campaign · Operation Clear Water

The Concord

“Precision over numbers”

An alliance of rich democracies with the best technology money can buy, and a public that will not accept casualties. Few machines, all of them precious. You win by not losing things.

Signature: Stealth. The Warden cloaks, unseen until it is close.
Second skill: Precision. Guided missiles and strikes on a point.
Economy: Fewer, richer wells, boosted by a refinery.
Weakness: Numbers. Every machine lost is hard to replace.

Shrike
Warden
Lynx
Mason
Specter

Campaign · The Long Winter

The Union

“Many hands, one fist”

The iron and coal republics of the cold north, whose foundries have gone two winters short of fuel. Old machines, and more of them than anyone can count. You win by not caring.

Signature: The pack. Escorts follow you into every fight.
Second skill: The ram. Its tank charges through what stands in the way.
Economy: Many cheap wells. Scrapyards turn wrecks into credits.
Weakness: Precision. Packs bunch up and lose a fair fight.

Hammer
Ram
Mule
Thresher
Sapper

MERIDIANResource Security

The company that holds the drilling concession sells fuel, spares and intelligence to both sides. A long war keeps the price of oil high.

Neutral · officially

Commanders

The voices on your radio

Concord

Briefing officer · Operation Clear Water

Col. Edmund Vance

A veteran of too many wars. He hates waste, and he has little patience for young pilots who have never lost anyone.

“There. Oil, and money. That is the whole war, pilot, whatever the speeches say.”

The story

They called it a police action. It was a war, and it was ours.

The narrator · a Saltmouth fisherman, old now

1971
The Treaty of Harrow
After the last war, the Saltreach becomes a demilitarised buffer that belongs to nobody. Nobody guards it. Nobody needs to.
1996
Deepwell
A survey ship finds the largest oil field ever charted under the Saltreach. Within a year, its Assembly splits in two.
1997
Two protectors
One half signs with the Concord, the other calls on the Union. Both send “a limited police action”: a few bases, a few machines.
14 June
First Light
Unmarked jets bomb a Union column from the sea. Nobody claims them. By noon, the war has started.