Team Apache

Team Apache is an attack helicopter flight simulator developed by Simis and published by Mindscape Group. The game emphasises on commanding a group of six AH-64 Apache crews of the US Army in battles against the Communist FARC insurgents in Colombia and the Russian military in Latvia.

Team Apache
Developer(s)Simis
Publisher(s)Mindscape Group
SSI
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows
ReleaseJune 24, 1998[1]
Genre(s)Flight simulator
Mode(s)Single player, multiplayer

Team Apache was at first developed by Simis under Eidos Interactive. When Simis' two lead developers, Jonathan Newth and Ian Baverstock bought the company back from Eidos, they became an independent development team once more and Mindscape purchased the publishing rights of the game.

Flight modelling

The cockpit, sensor and flight modelling aspects of the game are a lot simpler than those of the Comanche series and the Longbow flight simulators. Cockpit renders are not very advanced, and instruments are difficult to read. This applies to the rendered cockpit and the floating cockpit. The clear cockpit view is the easiest to use, but there are no sensor overlays. The gunner selects the targets most of the time, and players have reported some issues with its AI. ECM, radars and lasers cannot be toggled on or off. The flight modelling is not the most accurate on the helicopter sim market. For example, unwise maneuvres that warrant a crash can be performed without a hitch. In addition, hovering is a lot simpler than in the Comanche and Longbow games.

Gameplay

Unlike most flight simulators, Team Apache focuses less on the realism of flight and weapons systems modelling, and more on the gameplay aspects of command, tactics and battlefield realism.

Team Apache gives the player more direct control their combat unit than most flight simulations. The player manages the unit's morale, supply and maintenance, and the tactical planning that takes place before the mission. Although the player's control over these factors is rather basic, but deeper than the system found in most flight simulation games. The geopolitical causes of Team Apache's wars are related in both the game's manual and the "daily" newspaper and intended to be realistic. Detailed military-style SITREPs create a picture of the tactical situation, and ground forces can be seen in the game fighting each other throughout the theater using fairly realistic deployments and movements. These details provided by the game make Team Apache one of the most immersive combat simulations ever published in some player's opinions.

Perhaps the biggest drawback of the game is the lack of time compression. The Colombian campaign missions are short, lasting less than 15 minutes in most cases, but the Latvian campaign missions may involve travelling more than 100 kilometers round-trip. The player may turn on autopilot during these long transit periods but must still stay alert for enemy contact. Depending on the player's point of view, this either increases the immersion experience or wastes time. Players should not be concerned about playing the same long mission over and over again, though, because the campaigns, although linear, can be played by accepting defeats and the player team's casualties and moving on to the next mission.

In the Colombian campaign, the player can fly the other direction overseas and may get captured by intercepter planes from another country, which warn the player to not fly further or else they will be shot down.

Plot

The storyline in Team Apache is developed through FMV sequences, in-mission briefings and newspaper articles.

Colombian Campaign

In 1998, the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia–Ejército del Pueblo or FARC-EP (Spanish for "Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia–People's Army") has staged a large-scale guerrilla offensive against the government of Colombia. In its wake comes a wave of kidnappings and assassinations of high-ranking officials and their families. The corrupt and inefficient military of Colombia and police cannot hold their own against the insurgents, and need help from the United States. The United States needs to safeguard Colombia's oil industry and eliminate FARC's illegal cocaine industry.

Modes of play

Team Apache contains a host of play modes, including a multiplayer mode and a mission building application.

Training

The Training missions give players the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the mechanics of flying the Apache helicopter. They are instructed by an artificial, gruff flight officer, one pilot McNabbit. While the learning curve in the actual game takes no more than two hours, the training missions are extremely rigid, and each instruction must be performed precisely.

Instant Action

This mode puts the player into arcade-style combat. The player has no team to command or get support from, and there is no mission structure. The objective is to simply engage and destroy as many enemy vehicles and troops as possible around a circular course that leads back to the base each time.

Combat Missions

The Combat Missions are a series of realistic, structured missions during which the player takes command of a team of Apaches. They are much like the Campaign missions themselves, but they are independent of one another and can be repeated upon completion. These are the following mission types:

Air to Air

In the Colombian scenario, the player must lead the company to hunt down FARC 500MD Defender light helicopters. In the Latvian version, a large group of Mil Mi-24, Mi-28 and Ka-50 attack helicopters are approaching to destroy the Apache company's base.

Deep Strike

Route Recon

Search and Rescue

Search and Destroy

Suppression of Enemy Air Defences (SEAD)

While there are different mission types, the objective remains the same for each. However, the weather, the time of day, the location of the mission, the number of Apaches accompanying the player, and the difficulty can be adjusted. The player begins the mission on the ground, takes off, and follows a route dotted with Aerial Check Point (ACP) destinations to find and eliminate the target or rendezvous with an ally and achieve the objective. Auto-pilot can be activated to easily navigate and find the APCs.

Campaign

This mode allows the player to take control of a company of six Apache helicopters - plus a spare. Under the player's command are eight pilots, eight co-pilot/gunners, and sixteen crew chief personnel. The player can choose a name with limited characters, and can also select the division and company the team will belong to:

Army Attack Helicopter Units

Company

The player can roam around a pre-rendered army base, and enter a building by highlighting the title above it and clicking it. The areas that can be accessed include the repair hangar, the pilot's barracks, the briefing room, the commander's quarters, and the landing strip to start the mission.

The pilots under your command are realistic, and each has a rich background well described in their biographies. However, their catchphrases are not so convincing. The player will need to weigh their strong points against their weaknesses, and from their assessment select the best pilots for the team.

The damage report tells the commander what parts need to be repaired, and can judge how many crew chiefs will be needed to make the repairs in time for the next mission. The player can tell them whether to load AGM-114 Hellfire missiles or Hydra 70 rockets.

Mission builder

Team Apache comes with a fairly simple mission creator utility. The user is allowed to set their helicopter unit's takeoff and landing points and place enemy and friendly ground units. It is possible to give initial orders to ground units, but no sea units can be placed, and the only air units other than the player's helicopters that can be placed are enemy helicopter flights, which hover over their location and cannot be given orders in the mission creator.

The user then sets point values for the Major Defeat, Defeat, Draw, Victory, and Decisive Victory win levels, may adjust the default weapons load for the mission, and can set a briefing. The user saves the mission and opens it in the game in the "Combat Mission" screen, where the mission's weather, time, difficulty, and the number of aircraft in the player's flight may be adjusted with each play.

The mission creator is not full-feature and does not have all of the functions present in the missions that come with the game.

Other forces

Friendly forces

The player cannot communicate with ground or air units outside their wing, but can request reinforcements and artillery strikes. Many friendly ground and air forces are present in each mission.

Friendly units include:

Aircraft

Enemy forces

There are two main adversaries Team Apache will face. The first is that of the FARC. These are the equipment they use in the Colombian Campaign:

Aircraft

Ground units

  • Hand-held SAM
  • Infantry
  • EE-9 and EE-11 scout vehicles captured from the Colombian army

The Russian forces have the following equipment:

Aircraft

  • MiG-27 'Flogger-J' ground attack fighter
  • Mil Mi-8 'Hip' transport helicopter
  • Mil Mi-24 'Hind' heavy gunship helicopter
  • Mil Mi-28 'Havoc' attack helicopter

Air Defense

Armored Fighting Vehicles'

Ships

  • Cruiser
  • Patrol boat

Comparable games
  • Ka-52 Team Alligator - the 'sequel' to Team Apache, developed by Simis.
  • Comanche series

References
  1. "News for June 24, 1998". Online Gaming Review. June 24, 1998. Archived from the original on December 4, 2000. Retrieved December 6, 2019.
    "June 24, 1998: "Some new games have been spotted in stores: ...Team Apache from SSI."
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