Falcon

The different versions

Mark Hermonat reported in 2002:
Here are some scans from a great strategy book for the original Falcon by Spectrum Holobyte. It has interesting info throughout the book on the different versions on the Mac, PC, Amiga and Atari ST.
This is one of my all time favorite strategy guides as it complements the user manual for Falcon, not just duplicates it. This one has been read cover-to-cover many times. The scans show the cover and a couple of key pages which show the depth of information the book covers."

The enemy

Since Falcontakes place in an imaginary land, the enemy is also an imaginary opponent, rather than a real country in today's world. It just os happens that the enemy buys his weapons from the Warsaw pact countries and uses Soviet-built planes and SAMs. But because Falcon takes place within an imaginary country, you need to know the rules of engagement for your encounters with enemy forces.
Rules of engagement (ROE) are the rules current at a given time that define how to encounter enemy forces. The situation in the Falcon world is grim. Tensions have been high for several years and hostilities have finally flared up in a limited military action which is taking place at one border location.
The ROE are to encounter the enemy and inflict damage. You may open fire on sight. This doesn't mean your're required to engage the enemy. On certain missions you might want to avoid the enemy at all costs and just complete a bomb run.
But if you encounter enemy MiGs, it's at your discretion whether to engagae them or not. In Falcon, you'll encounter the enemy by engaging it's fighter force and it's missiles (SAMS). By getting to know each threat you'll increase your chance of survival.
The enemy air force is equipped with the MiG-21 supersonic jet fighters. The MiG-21 is the most popular fighter plane in the world. There have been more MiG-21's produced than any other supersonic fighter in the world. Made by the Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau, the is widely used throughout the world and is considered a capable opponent even though it was designed almost 25 years ago.

Armament

The MiG-21 is equipped with air-to-air heat-seeking and radar guided missiles. It carries the AA-2-2 radar guided Atoll missile as well as teh AA-2 heat seeker missile. It's also armed with the Gsh-23 30mm cannon. The MiG-21 cannon in Falcon is considerably more accurate than the one on the real MiG-21.
How MiGs are created in Falcon.
Each MiG is created as a separate individual with his own set of skills and capabilities. When Falcon creates a MiG, it randomly assigns him a rank and a set of 2 or 3 favourite air combat manoeuvers. Depending on your distance, altitude and aspect anglem the MiG pilot may start an air combaat manoeuver in order to either escape from you or to engage you.

Mission Objective: Shoot down one MiG-21

Distance: 59 miles (approximately)
There has been quite a contest of air supremacy the last couple of months. The enemy has had some hot pilots around and we've taken heavy losses. Now a spotter plane has radioed that an enemy MiG has been spotted in friendly territory. You must go up and intercept this MiG.
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