Crescent Hawks Inception/Strategy Guide 2
From BattleTechWiki
By Joshua L. Mandel, Andy Backer
Where once the Star League reigned, five Successor States now struggle for control. Battles are waged for control of now-scarce storehouses of repair parts. The field of combat is dominated by huge man-like fighting machines known as BattleMechs. The ultimate engines of destruction, these titans mount more firepower than a battalion of 20th-Century tanks. This particular scenario places you as a son of the Captain of the Planetary Security Force for Pacifica, in the Lyran Commonwealth, ruled by the House of Steiner. Your main antagonist is The House of Kurita which holds several strategic star systems formerly controlled by the House of Steiner.
There are a number of random factors in the game. Among these factors, which make a definitive walkthru virtually impossible, are the names of people you'll find to join your team, the number of possible members, and their locations. Thus, complete exploration will be necessary if you are to complete the game, even with this walkthru in hand. There are several cities in the game, all of which are easily found (they have no names, and most have no special features). Beware: One of the friends you find to join your team will probably be a counterspy for the House of Kurita. You may find him in a hospital in the city northwest of Starport, or in a jail in a city northeast of Starport. After this friend joins your team, he will turn against you during the first battle in which he engages; the situation will resolve itself.
Note that these random elements can change every time you restart the game from scratch. If you want your game to be consistent, you should save the game early on and always restart from that save: Do not restart the game from the very beginning!
As the game begins, you find yourself in the Pacifica Training School, and your only immediate objective is to complete the training necessary to graduate as a 'Mech Warrior in the Lyran Commonwealth Armed Forces. Explore the area. You start out opposite the Citadel, where you should meet Katrina, and take gunnery classes. Next door is Comstar, where the stock market can be played. To your far left you will find your barracks. Southeast of the barracks is the entrance to the 'Mech training center. Other buildings you can enter are a Weapons shop, an Armor shop, a Lounge, and a Mechit-Lube.
The first thing you need to do is make some money. You do have a small income (allowance from Dad?) that arrives regularly, but it isn't enough to pay for your needs in the game. Proper use early on of the Comstar stocks can net you more than enough money to last you the rest of the game. Here's how "I Made a Fortune in the Stock Market Without Really Trying." Stand right outside the Comstar building and save your game. Enter the building and put every cent into Baker Pharmaceutical (BAKPHAR). Go outside and while away the time by walking around and checking out the buildings. Re- enter Comstar. If you've made money, go outside again, and save the game. If you haven't made money, don't play any further; go outside and RESTORE your previous game, putting your money in Nashan Diversified (NASDIV) instead. Then go outside, waste some time, and go back in. Once again, if you've made money, go outside and save; if not, go outside and restore, trying the third stock.
What you're basically doing is going in and out of Comstar, saving the game every time you make money, and restoring every time you don't. BAKPHAR will net you the greatest gains and greatest losses; therefore, try BAKPHAR first every time you're reinvesting.
Eventually, the computer will seem to make time stop passing; your stocks will remain unchanged. You may not even be earning any more allowance! Go into the Training Center and take a class. Then, go out and walk around some more; you may find that time has begun to pass again. In any event, you should earn major bucks in short order. If you like, you can even go into the Training Center and purposely _fail_ the introductory test, just to keep the time cycle going longer without inviting the end of the Citadel section.
In the meantime, you need to buy a Flak Suit, a Machine Gun, get trained to Excellent in the use of Rifles and Machine Guns, and pay for an apprenticeship at the Mechit-Lube. Get these items late in the Stock Market/'Mech Training process. When you perform exercises in the training center (not the Citadel), you will usually be asked to choose which 'Mech you'd like to use for the exercise. Think carefully about which 'Mech to use, and keep the 'Mech Recognition Guide handy. Your stats will improve if your decisions are optimal. For example, don't pick a Locust for an exercise requiring you to retrieve an object on the training field: A Locust has no hands or arms! You'll end up embarrassing yourself, and that training session will be a waste of time.
Eventually, the Citadel will be invaded by the Kuritan, effectively ending your organized training. (The stock market is active in all other cities, though, so don't worry about your investments disappearing.) This will occur during one of the training sessions, usually either the 6th or 7th; however, this is also random, and you may end up in the very last training session before the invasion occurs.
There are two different ways of playing the invasion. The first is to be ready for it with Flak Suit and Machine Gun, and when your 'Mech is destroyed along with the Citadel, make your way to Starport. The other way is to escape with a Chameleon 'Mech. It _is_ possible, but it's not easy. Hide out of range of the Kurita 'Mechs until the Citadel is destroyed; then, make your way to the northwest city gate. Leave via an alleyway just north of the Training Building as soon as the fence is down. Continue a short way to the northwest, and you'll come across Starport. Use the overhead map function to find your way there.
Once in Starport, save your game. Kurita soldiers are plentiful here, and you will almost assuredly see combat before long. Find the Clothes shop and change out of the uniform. Kurita forces in the city will attack you otherwise. Then proceed to the Inauguration Hall and watch the proceedings. Do this twice, and you'll find a friend to join your party (this happened in every game I played). When you have the money, use the Mechit-Lube to modify your 'Mechs. You will find a Mapper in a store to the north of the Arena. It's useful for showing a larger map area.
You will also find an Arena where you can rent a 'Mech and battle for money. It doesn't pay to use your own 'Mech: The repairs eat up the winnings, and there are certain repairs that _cannot_ be fixed by anybody in the entire game. Moreover, the save/restore stock market gambit works just as well here, and it's a faster way to make money than the Arena. As for getting in battle practice, it's better to leave the city and do your battling while searching for other cities.
There are numerous other cities in the game, all of which should be explored for the purpose of finding additional party members. Talk to everybody you see in every lounge, shop, and store you can. Do not be misled by the back of BATTLETECH's box; you will not find nine members to join your party. You will probably only be able to find four to six members, possibly slightly more, but even that's doubtful. Strictly speaking, you only need four to win.
In one of the other cities, you'll find the Mayor's House. Here you may choose from among three actions. You should either attempt to play your holodisk, or read the newspaper. Reading the newspaper may give you a clue as to where to find another party member. Playing the holodisk will give you some partial information.
You will also find a jail in a city to the northeast of Starport. In the jail will be a potential party member. This person may turn out to be a traitor, but you'll have no way of knowing that until you try. So, go ahead and spring him; time will tell whether he's honorable or not.
Most of the time, when entering a lounge or other building and attempting to talk with somebody, nobody will be interested in talking to you. In order to increase your opportunities, hang around outside a building. When you see somebody enter the building, follow them inside, and immediately try to talk. You'll usually get a response, though this rarely leads to finding a new party member; it's merely a diversion.
Whenever a new person joins your party, train them at a hospital and at a Mechit-Lube -- even if they're experts. Equip everybody with Infernos; they're expensive, but they're wonderfully effective against 'Mech and human enemies alike. Also, Medkits are cheap; make sure everybody has at least one. Note that despite the game's reference to medical schools, there are none in the game. Nor can any 'Mech be improved by the Speed shops more than twice.
Your next goal is to find the Inventor's Hut and gain entrance. This requires one simple task: You must return to the wreckage of the Citadel dormitory. As you search the wreckage, you'll come across a holodisk player. Use this player to play the damaged disk you received from your friend at the Inauguration Hall. Failure to accomplish this will mean that the Inventor's Hut will never show up on the surface of the planet, and your game will be stalemated.
Having found the holodisk player, head for the Inventor's Hut. (It's located at approximately 47.60 latitude and 36.40 longitude on the map on Page 6 of the manual.) This looks vaguely like a 'Mech garage, by the coast of the bay to the west. Try to enter, and you'll be asked several questions. These questions will vary in topic, from engineering to piloting to medicine. Along the way, you may be stumped. Make note of which topic stumps your party. If it's a medical question, go and make sure that _every_ party member is fully trained with the Hospital seminar. If it's engineering, go back and ensure that all members have taken the Mechit-Lube class. You had best have a Pilot with excellent skills, a Medic with excellent skills, and a Technician with excellent skills. In any event, making sure you're trained -- and then going out and doing a bit more battle -- will usually net you enough experience to get into the hut and to your meeting with Dr. Tellhim.
After the meeting with Dr. Tellhim, you're ready for the endgame: The secret Cache. In the IBM version, the cache is on a tiny island to the south-southeast of the Inventor's Hut. This island is depicted in the manual map at the junction of 55.60 latitude and 39.60 longitude. I've been told that it's located in other areas in other versions of the game. Either way, Dr. Tellhim will tell you approximately where to find it. Entering the cache is easy; opening all the doors is another matter entirely.
You have with you a keycard that needs to be imprinted with one red number, one blue number, and one yellow number. The combinations are different for each door, and the keycard can only hold one "number" of each color. Thus, you could bump up against one machine and get, for example, RED 1. Then, if you bumped up against another and got RED 2, your card would now be imprinted with RED 2 only; RED 1 has been replaced. If you do the same for BLUE and YELLOW, your card will now be temporarily imprinted with one red, one blue, and one yellow.
[Editor's Note: For an ASCII map of the Cache Maze, refer to the BTECH.MAP file stored in LIBrary 9 of The Gamers' Forum (GO GAMERS). The following is based on that map.]
Using the arrangement described, you will be able to open the doors in alphabetical order. There is some flexibility, although at least the first three doors must be opened in the order listed on the map. After you print out the map, you may find that whiting-out or crossing off the map's machines and doors as you finish with them may make your task easier.
Remember that your card can only hold the registration for one number of each color at a time. Thus, if you have the correct blue number, and while getting your red or yellow number you accidentally access another blue machine, you will have to go back and "re-register" your correct blue number.
On the map there is an area filled with question marks. This is a false wall, behind which you will find your father's secret 'Mech -- the one that will net you a free Battletech miniature from Infocom (while supplies last). To get to this area, move south along the corridor on the western wall, where you found the Y21 machine. Keep going, even though the corridor apparently ends. Voila!
Once you have all the doors open, proceed down both sets of stairs. One will reveal all the secret weapons; another will give you what's called "The Map Room." Because this is part of Infocom's copy-protection, I can't give you the specific answers, but the solution is easy as can be -- assuming you have the original manual. Take a look on Page 14. This map duplicates the map on the floor of The Map Room. You need to "turn on" the correct stars on the Map Room floor by bumping into them. There are seven stars to be turned on -- all the stars contained within the green streak. Make sure you turn on only those seven stars -- no more, no less. Then, proceed to the computer on the western wall of The Map Room, and you'll be given the correct white code.
You're virtually finished. Go back upstairs to the power room and turn on the power. Proceed next door to the transmitter room and turn on the transmitter. There's a brief congratulatory closing sequence, and that's all, folks! There, now...that wasn't so tough, was it? A sequel is planned, one that will explore the world of BATTLETECH more fully. Stay tuned!
