Syndicate Wars

TACTICS UPDATE 
Although this guide primarily focuses on Eurocorp operatives, the strategies and 
tips can be equally applied to Church of the New Epoch initiates.

Mission Preparation
Briefings are an absolutely vital component of any mission, and executives would 
do well to pay close attention to the intelligence data gathered. Always check the 
mission;s status to see what priority rating it has: youll usually discover that 
missions rated priority one will prove the most beneficial to your syndicates 
endeavours.
Occasionally, youll receive a choice of several missions at the same time and you 
should assess your current situation and decide where your immediate priorities 
lie. If youre short of cash, then a bullion or bank job might be in order, but if 
your research effort is lagging, then a mission to capture additional science 
personnel might prove fruitful. Missions which involve the persuasion and capture 
of enemy agents will provide you with tailor-made manpower to replace any 
casualties and further both your own and Eurocorps objectives.
Once youve accepted a particular mission, study the map in detail and take note 
of your appropriate drop and evac zones, relevant targets, local landmarks and 
any other additional information supplied. This breakdown should also help you 
judge the strength of the opposition and allow you to fine tune your equipment 
and weaponry payloads. 

Interface
The Netscan ability is an extremely useful tool and if funds permit, executives 
should always take advantage of this facility. Up to the minute intelligence can 
prove critical in terms of discovering bonus objectives, enemy concentrations and, 
most significantly, hidden financial reserves. Netscanned information can 
sometimes prove disappointing, but when you consider that risking a mere five or 
ten thousand credits could buy you the location of a bank vault thats worth 
several million, its a gamble well worth taking.

Connection
When arming your agents, try to prepare a balanced group which mixes a decent 
variety of weapons and equipment. If youre playing a mortal game, you never 
know quite what you might encounter, so its as well to cover all eventualities. 
Youll probably find youll need a full compliment of low energy, medium-range 
weapons, such as miniguns, as general-purpose ordinance, while a couple of 
heavy weapons are compulsory for laying down support fire. Explosives and 
nuclear grenades are a necessity for most missions.

Data
A handy tip is to designate agents to specialise in a particular area, which will 
depend on the state of their body mods. For example, the agent who has the 
highest rated arm mod, will probably make your best marksman, while an agent 
with advanced leg mods will make a good explosives expert, because he can lay 
charges and then move quickly to escape the blast radius.

Update
Even though youll probably concentrate on developing four rock hard super 
agents, with advanced body mods, dont neglect your reserve agents. If one of 
your main men gets killed (especially in a mortal game) youll need to promote 
someone for the next mission and if theyre significantly under powered, your 
whole groups performance will suffer

ON THE MEAN STREETS
So executive, youve hit the drop zone, the zealots are out in force, the citizens 
are twitchy and your agents are awaiting their first instructions: where do you go 
from here? Well, in spite of the large and terrifying amounts of weaponry 
available, the mini map is probably the most useful piece of equipment in the 
entire game. Consult it often to recce possible targets, assess incoming threats and 
monitor the movement of enemy personnel and the police. 
You should also practice swivelling the main view, until youre in perfect control 
of your surroundings. During the early missions, take time after youve achieved 
your main objective to become familiar with manipulating the view; in my case a 
combination of mouse and keyboard proves the most effective. 

Connection
When you beam into a new city, its worth using a combination of mini and main 
views to scroll around and get a feel for the place. With this overall strategic plan 
committed to memory, you stand a much better chance of achieving your 
objectives. And, if things should go wrong, of having some idea of where you can 
run to. The better you know a place, the safer youll be.

Combat and Mission Tips
Here, combat is the name of the game and Syndicate Wars presents many varied 
and interesting opportunities for mass mayhem. Therefore, Bath AI has issued the 
following directives for manipulating agents in the field via your remote 
marionette system: 

1. Stick together! In the early missions, youll only have access to limited 
weaponry and equipment. If your agents are all in one group, they can bring more 
direct firepower to bear.

2. The Persuadatron will allow you to recruit a citizens army. Affected citizens 
will begin arming themselves and bring additional firepower to your team. The 
Persuadertron Mark II is even better, allowing you to influence rival agents and 
new church zealots.

3. Roadside furniture and vehicles can be used to your advantage. If enemy troops 
are massed near a streetlight or van, aim to shoot it and the resulting explosion 
will cause them additional damage. Beware of loitering near potentially explosive 
objects yourself, as the enemy wont hesitate to use the same tactic on you.

4. Loot the dead! Always search bodies thoroughly as they sometimes conceal 
advanced ordinance. At the very least, youll be able to resell their equipment for 
a bit of much-needed cash. 

5. Learn to switch from high power, long range weapons to low power mediums 
as the enemy closes in. For example, the LR rifle will pick off your first couple of 
adversaries at range, but you should then switch to a minigun to renew hostilities 
during close quarters combat, as its a far more effective close-range weapon.

6. If you need to be somewhere in a hurry, hijack an empty car, its much quicker 
than moving your agents around on foot. Receive extra bonus points and a 
considerable cool factor rating by joyriding in police cars. For the discerning 
sinister agent, its the only way to travel! 

7. If you want to stay out of trouble with the local law, make sure your weapons 
are concealed. A nifty double click on the left mouse button, will result in all your 
agents drawing simultaneously, so you wont lose too much time when engaging 
the enemy.

8. Every agent should be equipped with a medikit. With appropriate body mods, 
you might not use it often, but it could mean the difference between life and death 
for your guys when theyre under heavy fire.

9. Churcher flying vehicles are an extreme pain and will try to hunt you down 
relentlessly. Shelter beneath buildings and retaliate with launcher and projectile 
based attacks.

THE SCIENTIFIC PATH TO POWER
Research is a critical element of Syndicate strategy and fuels discovery of new 
weapons, devices and body mods which will weld your agents into an irresistible 
force. Your ability to research and manufacture new technologies is dependant on 
the amount of cash and scientists you can allocate to an individual project. If you 
feel youre falling behind in the research race, you should choose missions which 
involve persuading and capturing science personnel to redress your shortfall. 
Moving onto the wider question of what to research and in which order, well apart 
from high explosives as a first choice, theres no definitive route through the 
weapons and body mods on offer. However, its fairly safe to say that some of the 
minor weapons such as the flamer, arent really worth concentrating on and you 
should perhaps shovel funds into the bigger, meatier projectile weapons. The 
weapon chart on the previous two pages should help you decide which are the 
most useful investment.
Remember, when youre setting a projects budget, the cash you invest is a per 
day allowance. Committing substantial resources to a project can rapidly deplete 
your financial reserves and you should bear in mind that the recommended figure 
(on the right), indicates the amount of cash needed per day, to finish that project 
in ten days with your current science team. Sometimes it can be worthwhile 
suspending projects between missions, until youve actually captured extra 
scientists. This additional, augmented brain power on the research team will mean 
that the money you eventually invest will be spent more cost effectively. 
Intelligence reports indicate science personnel can be found in the following 
cities: Adelaide, Santiago, Cape Town and Reykjavik. 

Modification
In the race to develop new and terrifying weaponry, its easy to forget body 
modifications as a way of improving the performance of your agents. But you 
shouldnt neglect them, as they can play a vital role in helping your agents survive 
the rigours of the battlefield. The body mod is the basic building block, and offers 
improved overall survival and performance, but the brain mod is equally 
important, boosting intelligence and making your agents much easier to control. 
Bionic arms will definitely improve your agents targeting and weapons functions, 
while the leg mod will substantially increase speed and manoeuvrability, an 
invaluable asset in the urban warfare environment
When your technology permits you to move up to a new cybernetic level always 
research the body implant first, as this mod is required before any other can be 
fitted.

Finance
For the erstwhile executive, cold, hard cash is one of the most difficult, yet most 
desirable commodities to acquire and considerable guile is required to keep a 
healthy credit balance. Youll need dollars to fuel extra research, discover new 
body mods and develop all that fascinating and destructive weaponry. 
Nevertheless, with a little ingenuity, financial solvency is possible and can be 
broken down into two distinct strategies. 
Early on, youll find difficulty raising money and the quickest solution is to 
collect and recycle weapons from enemy casualties, then sell them once the 
missions complete. Unfortunately, you can only carry one of each weapon type, 
which is a pain, but the somewhat radical solution is to under-arm your group in 
ops and then scavenge weapons from the opposition in the field. Before the 
missions complete, make sure each agent is crammed to capacity with surplus 
weapons, then unload everything except your hardest armaments or new 
technologies to make a workable profit. Remember, youll only receive half of 
what youd pay for the same weapon new, but it should allow you to survive the 
early financial hardships and keep your research lines ticking over. 
If youre looking for a more immediate and satisfying way to make quick, easy 
money then a life in armed robbery is for you. Youll need to research high 
explosives, but once that breakthroughs been made, the worlds financial centres 
are ripe for the plucking. The location of bank facilities and vaults are often 
revealed by a netscan (see above) and once their presence has been established, 
no matter what your primary mission is, you should make a bank job a high 
priority. Local police forces dont take these things lightly, so expect a swift, 
armed response. However with a cool half a million as a minimum payout the 
rewards are worth the risk. 
The presence of bank vaults and cash opportunities will usually be signalled by a 
$ sign on the map. When these are detected, make credit transfer a high priority. 
Itll prove worthwhile to search the map and particularly enemy casualties for 
hidden briefcases. These bonus discoveries will often yield substantial cash 
rewards.
Bank and vault facilities have been detected in the following cities world-wide: 
Singapore, Rome, New York, Christchurch, Tokyo and Bahrain.
