AV-8B Harrier Assault

The game is set in a fictional conflict between UN forces and the Indonisian army occupying East Timor. A battlegroup lead by USS Tarawa is diverted from a navy exercise along with its escorts and is ordered to aid the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit engage the Indonisian forces and occupy the island. The carrier group is equpied with a wing of 18 AV-8B Harrier II jets, a number of helicopters stationed on Tarawa and the escort vessels and a brigade of armoured personnel carriers, tanks and support vehicles aiding the marines and the special forces units.

The game is a cross between a real time strategy game and a flight simulator. Players can literaly completely ignore one of the elements and either play a pure real-time strategy game controlling the forces as the battle plan progresses, or alternatively participate only in combat, flying the AV8B Harrier missions. In practice however, tweaking the battle plan is essential as enemy re-enforcements or lost ground battles can affect the plan as a whole. Similarly flying some missions are essential, such as intercepting C-130 planes, something that the game's AI cannot handle properly.

The game starts in the Tarawa command center where a battle plan can be designed on the area maps. The player is given the choice of creating his own battle paln or loading the Sea Sabre plan, containing navy/army deployments and operations spanning a five day period. The battle plan contains every movement of the navy, army and aerial unit planned for every stage of the operation and it needs to take into account all expected enemy strength at various points in the operation area (cities, villages, airports, fuel dumps, etc.). When the battle plan initiates the first combat flying mission becomes available, where the player can attack a number of targets on the island. As the game progresses new missions become available, ranging from bombing enemy bases and vehicles, reconnaissance, air superiority, interception and close air support of friendly units. The game ends when all enemy forces are destroyed and all strategic locations are occupied by friendly forces.