                             --- Midwinter ---
                            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The key personnel to recruit are: DAVY HART, JENNY ADAMS, KONRAD RUDEL,
VIRGINIA CAYGILL, KARL RUDZINSKI, Prof. KRISTIANSEN and FRANCO GRAZZINI.

                        MIDWINTER TIPS

Typed in by SIDEWINDER.  Edited by PARASITE.


KEEPING FIT
Keep a close eye on your muscle power diagram.  Try to rest before you get
totally exhausted, otherwise you can get caught out by suprise enemy attack
and find yourself blacking out in the midst of a battle - definately not
recommended.  If you pass a cosy looking building during your journey
across the white wilderness, take a few minutes rest there - you'll feel
the benefit much more than resting out on the open tundra.

SKIING
To maximise your speed, stick as much as possible to the bottom of the
gullies and head along the U-shaped valleys you'll find in the landscape.
The friction as you go over bumps slow you down, so avoid them as much as
possible.
Skiing down vertiginous mountainsides is another matter altogether.  The
technique to employ on really slopes is called 'traversing'.  Instead of
heading straight down a slope, you get down the mountainside in a series of
zigzags.  This technique works equally well in MIDWINTER as in real life.

HANG GLIDING
Don't panic.  Sudden, wild movements are likely to take you plummeting to
the ground or swerving into a mountainside.  Taking off is the trickiest
moment of all.  If you've got yourself pointing in the right direction
(down a slope not up it) you should'nt need to touch the controls until
you're actually airborne.  Once airborne, just tickle the controls until
you've achieved some real height.
Over high ground where there's lots of lift from the updraught, if you want
to keep your speed as high as possible, you must be little more daring:
maximum speeds mean flying close to the ground as possible.  Over low
ground, you can only get lift by keeping very close to the ground.  Inch
the nose up to stop your feet from touching the ground.
Some of the neatest manoeuvres can be performed when you're heading towards
a cliff or steep mountain.  If you keep your nerve and head straight
towards it, suddenly the updraught will grab you and you'll soar upwards
over a precipice, like you've jumped on an invisible lift!

SNOW BUGGIES
Driving a snow-buggy is usually easier than falling off a log.  The only
things to watch for are steep slopes.  Stick to the low ground wherever
possible, even if this means making a long diversion.

AMBUSHING THE ENEMY
Enemy armoured units have two classes of vehicle - the nasty ones and the
sitting ducks.  They move very predictably in long convoys and even better,
they don't fire back at you!  Sniping is the thing here.  Find a nice tree
and climb up it.  Church steeples are even better - they're twice as high.
Then just wait for the sitting ducks to come waddling along.  If you wipe
out an armoured unit's supply train, it will come grinding to a halt and
won't have much ammunition to fire at you either!
Another favourite ambush tactic is the 'swoop'.  Position yourself on a
steep mountainside and strap on your skis.  As the enemy vehicles come
trundling along through the valley below, swoop down behind it.  Wait till
its squat shape nearly fills your goggles and then lob a grenade in its
general direction, at the same time swerving sharply.  The grenade bounces
towards the hapless snow-buggy and wham!  You got 'im Cap'n.  Erm... this
technique is not recommended while skiing uphill.

BRAINS OVER BRAWN
So now you're a perfect skier, a wonderful pilot and the Alan Prost of
snow-buggy drivers, not to mention the Ian Botham of hand-grenades
chuckers.  But you're still getting trounced.  Yes, you need cunning as
well as power to beat General Masters.
Since the enemy follow a different plan of attack in each game of MIDWINTER
there's no single recipe for success.  But it's useful to know the
capabilities of the members of the Free Village Peace Force and what sort
of missions they are best suited to.  Piecing the suggstions together, you
can plan a campaign for whatever attack the enemy launches.

CAPTAIN JOHN STARK
Captain Stark is an excellent driver and a good all-rounder.  He's also a
good recruiting officer.  Wherever he starts off, your first priority is to
get him a snow-buggy.  Then he can start to activate the other members of
the FVPF.  After he's recruited a few people, you can then afford to send
him off against the enemy to devastating effect.  Don't bother to use him
for sabotage unless it's absolutely vital - he doesn't like blowing things
up and he's not very good at it!

VIRGINIA CAYGILL
Virginia is the ski instructress and the only excellent skier in MIDWINTER.
She is also very well liked and  is  very useful for recruiting some of the
grumpier and more cantakerous men, Professor Kristiansen in particular.
Virginia is found in the Snowstorm Valley.  When you've recruited her, she
should head west to Deathwatch Pass to recruit little Jenny Adams.  From
there,  Virginia should head north to the Pico Mountains cable-car station.
Go up the cable car with and then ski north across the mountains to Diamond
Valley, where she will be able to recruit Prof. Kristiansen, the radio
expert.  Then if need be she can head west into Devil's Valley to recruit
young Davy Hart.

PROFESSOR KRISTIANSEN
The Prof. needs help to get around, so once he's recruited at his house in
Diamond Valley, a snow-buggy should be his first priority.  Then you drive
him round to the radio station in Snowstorm Valley.  Using his electronics
expertise, he'll be able to force a radio message through the enemy jamming
and recruit a total of four people.  This makes him extremely valuable.

DAVY HART
Young Davy starts the game at the store in Devil's Valley.  Like his
friend, Jenny Adams, he is young and fit, well able to tackle long, hard
journeys.  The one thing he lacks is experience.  He is the only person in
the game who can recruit Rudel the hunter who is a valuable asset to your
side - tough, rugged and an excellent sniper.  Once Davy has been
recruited, he should move east to Mad John's Pass and take the cable car up
the mountains to Rudel's hut.  After he has recruited Rudel, Davy can be
used to slip past the enemy (who take little notice of children) and
recruit others.  Davy has been taught to hunt by his friend Rudel and is a
good sniper too.

CONSTABLE FEDERICO GARCIA
An excellent strategy is to take out all the enemy held radio stations.
This kills the jamming signals that swamp the airwaves and enable you to
recruit everyone simultaneously.  However, there is one radio station at
Snowgoose Fell that is deep in enemy territory at the very start of the
game.  The best man to take this out is Federico Garcia.  At the start of
the invasion, he is to be found at the Sierra Garcia Settlement.  He is
good at both skiing and hang-gliding but his fiery temperament makes him a
poor snow-buggy driver.  Despite the fact that he's clumsy at sabotage,
he's still got the best chance of destroying the Snowgoose Fell radio
station.
First, Garcia skis west to the Claypipe Gorge cable-car station.  It's
rough country but Garcia is a good skier and it takes him about 25 minutes.
The cable-car journey up to Sierra Madre takes him a further 20 minutes but
he rests during the journey and he's back to peak fitness when he reaches
the summit.  From there, Garcia launches himself off in a hang-glider,
flying southeast towards the distant Snowgoose Fell.  The first part of the
journey, over the Sierra Madre, is easy but as he approaches Snowgoose
Valley, the updraught falls away and he rapidly loses height.  Look closely
at the mini-map, trying to keep to the light green higher ground of the
valley.  Garcia just grazes the hill tops as his speed drops away to no
more than 20 mph.  Then, at last, the ground of Snowgoose Fell approaches
and Garcia finds updraught again.  Gradually he rises higher and higher,
eventually flying right over the top station of the Snowgoose cable-car
run.  A short distance further on, he spies the spikey mast of the radio
station and then circles in to land.
His tricky flight has taken one and a quarter hours.  It is now just two
hours since he left Sierra Garcia.  After the next situation report, he can
wire up his explosives and blow the Snowgoose Fell radio station to
smithereens!
After that, who knows?  Heading further south, deep in the enemy heartland,
he might reach Shining Hollow where General Masters sits safe and secure in
his brand new H.Q...

End.