Act of War: Direct Action Profile Preview - Consortium Buildings and Units

Act of War: Direct Action is one of a new breed of real-time strategy games due this year. While traditional real-time strategy games follow the familiar formula of gathering resources, building up a huge economy, and then swamping the enemy with sheer numbers, Act of War will try to shake things up a bit. In Act of War, the base-building is mostly automated, and while you'll need to gather oil as a resource, your renewable resource will be prisoners that you capture in the field. You can grill prisoners for valuable information and ransom them off for cold, hard cash.

The game is best described as a technothriller that focuses on modern-day weapons and equipment. The storyline was actually written with the assistance of Dale Brown, a noted technothriller author. In the game, a terrorist organization known as the Consortium seeks to destabilize the United States by launching audacious attacks on its homeland. In response, the US deploys its conventional military, as well as Task Force Talon, an elite antiterrorist unit with access to experimental weaponry. Act of War is due to ship this spring. In the second of our profile previews, we'll take a look at some of Consortium's buildings and equipment in the game.

Very little is known about the Consortium and the people behind it. What is known is that through various means of bribes and infiltration, they have managed to gain control over a large number of armed groups around the world. The Consortium operates in two dramatically different modes: undercover and revealed. While undercover, they rely on large numbers of inexpensive infantry and lightly armored vehicles. Once revealed, however, the Consortium is a formidable opponent. But it must rely on capturing large numbers of POWs to finance its high-tech operations.

Buildings

Revealed HQ: No information is available on the mysterious Consortium HQ.

Undercover HQ: No information is available on the mysterious Consortium HQ.

Barracks: Infantry training center used to create regular soldiers, Kornet antitank missile vehicles, and SA7 Grails. The barracks allow the upgrade of terrorist hostage camps.

Field Prison Camp: Evacuation and interrogation center that is used to create BMM-1s, the armored medical transport of the Consortium.

Infantry

AK-74 Soldier: The AK-74 soldier is your typical terrorist infantry unit. Poorly trained, well armed, but with a slow fire rate, they are useful for taking and defending a building. The AK-74 is the ideal unit for capturing POWs.

RPG-7 Soldier: The RPG-7 rocket-launcher soldier is the counterpart to the old "bazooka" warrior from WWII. You need to protect the RPG-7 from enemy infantry, but when ambushing or in a building, this unit can be very lethal to any stopped vehicle or building.

Vehicles

Ural Bomb Truck: Modified version of the Ural Tanker armed with an explosive charge, which you can detonate at will. It loses its ability to collect oil, but cannot be recognized by the enemy as an offensive vehicle.

AMX-10 RC: This is the standard mercenary light tank. It's capable of delivering great damage, but has a slow firing rate and medium armor. It's better to move these vehicles in a platoon or with an infantry escort.

Porcupine Mortar: A cheap mobile defense tank that can be deployed under sandbags for added protection. With its mortar, it's perfect for a first-line infantry defense or for slowing down enemy forces.

Tunguska: This unit was built for only one purpose: superior ground-to-air support. It's an excellent escort unit for ground forces or a typical second line of air defense for a base.

Fennek: This experimental unit was built around an optical camo engine, making it invisible. It is also very fast, has long-distance visibility as well as thermal detection for spotting stealth units, and it can carry two passengers.

Piranha: This strong artillery unit is capable of a powerful long-range attack. Its damage zone is bigger than the US Paladin, and the vehicle itself is more resistant to damage.

Aircraft

Mi-35 Hind-D: The Hind is a versatile air transport. Though slow, it has heavy armor, good transport capacity, and a nose canon for defense against light vehicles and other helicopters. You can upgrade it with rocket-launcher pods for more firepower.

YF-23 "Black Widow": This fighter bomber was designed for multirole missions: air superiority, close air support, and precision bombing. Its stealth technology makes it invisible to low-technology radar.