Sid Meier's Ace Patrol - 100% Achievements

This is a guide to help you get 100% achievements in Sid Meier's Ace Patrol. All the achievements are single-player, and it should take you around 25 hours for completion.

General Knowledge

Sid Meier's Ace Patrol is a turn-based strategy game set in the world of WWI aerial combat. To earn all achievements, you'll need to complete the campaign with four different nations. Each campaign consists of four sets of five missions, each set followed by an offensive. You can earn all achievements for a nation in a single campaign. Prioritize high difficulty and high scores before the first offensive. As you progress, lower the difficulty and focus on kills, alternating between missions and difficulties to achieve the two main campaign goals: 150,000 score and 50 kills.

Gameplay Tips

• Altitude is Key: Maintain high altitude to maximize maneuverability.
  
• Cloud Advantage: Utilize clouds to your advantage, as the enemy AI struggles to track you, even on higher difficulties. Missions without clouds can be significantly more challenging, especially when flying with one pilot.
  
• Difficulty Scaling: Adjust the difficulty to the highest level you can comfortably win for maximum points. If it becomes too difficult, lower the difficulty and repeat the mission or choose a different one.
  
• Critical Damage: Planes taking over 50% damage suffer a critical hit, resulting in damage each turn, reduced maximum altitude, decreased accuracy, or the inability to perform inverted flight maneuvers.
  
• AA Fire: If you eliminate the last enemy in their zone, you won't take AA (anti-air) damage.
  
• Luring Enemies: In non-balloon missions, lure enemies to your side of the map to disrupt their formation and inflict extra damage.

Mission Selection

• Difficulty Impact: Mission selection is influenced by difficulty; higher difficulties offer more mission variety. For example, Forlorn Hope mission won't appear on low difficulties.
  
• Mission Repetition: The game does not offer the same mission twice in a row.
  
• "Save Scum" Technique: To reroll unwanted missions:
  
  1. Complete a mission.
     
  2. Click "Save Game" and save to a slot.
     
  3. Click "Select Mission." If you dislike the options, click the ✔️ to return without saving.
     
  4. Click "Main Menu."
     
  5. Click "Don't Save" (alternatively, during a mission, click "Save Progress and Exit," then "Don't Save").
     
  6. Click "Load a Saved Game."
     
  7. Choose the save slot from step 2.
     
  8. Repeat steps 2-7.
• Save Scumming Limitations: The "save scum" technique doesn't always guarantee three new mission choices.
  
• Best missions: In function of your needs, I recommend the following missions:
  
  • Balloon Buster (Rookie difficulty): Best for farming kills.
    
  • Sitting Duck (Legend difficulty): Balanced for farming both kills and score.
    
  • Forlorn Hope (Ace+ difficulty): Best for farming score early game.
    
  • Ace vs Ace (Leader+ difficulty): Best for farming score late game.

Here is the full list of missions with number of friendly entities, and enemy entities.

Best Special Abilities

Special abilities are granted to squadron leaders at the start of the campaign (or to pilots who perform exceptionally well during the campaign). You can restart the campaign until you get the desired ability.

• Grease Monkey: Allows the pilot to repair damage each turn. (My favourite)
  
• Dead Eye: Increases firing range, allowing the pilot to shoot from 2 tiles away instead of the standard 1 tile.
  
• The Baron: Inflicts more critical damage to enemy fighters.

Best Ace Maneuvers

Ace maneuvers are special movements that give your pilots an edge. You can even "save scum" to acquire desired maneuvers.

• Wingover: A rapid turn within the same tile, highly effective against enemies sharing your tile.
  
• Immelmann: A turn that positions you one tile behind your current location, perfect for pursuing enemies that have just flown past.
  
• Split-S: A 180-degree turn performed by combining a half-loop and a half-roll, good for quickly reversing direction to pursue or escape.

Achievements - Campaign (British)

British Ace Pilot (5 Victories)

Description: Earn 5 Victories with a British Pilot.
How to Unlock: Refer to the Legendary British Pilot (50 Victories) achievement.

Legendary British Pilot (50 Victories)

Description: Earn 50 Victories with a British Pilot.
How to Unlock: Despite the title, you need 50 kills with a single pilot. Difficulty doesn't matter, so Rookie (Easy) is recommended. Choose the Grease Monkey ability for your pilot to enable quick repairs, ensuring they're available for every mission. If your pilot falls in enemy territory, consider restarting the mission. Ensure the pilot you're focusing on gets the final hit on enemy planes. Balloon kills count. Missions with the most enemies (4) are Balloon Buster, Forlorn Hope, and Turkey Shoot. Balloon Buster is arguably the easiest, pitting 2 of your planes against 2 enemy planes and 2 harmless balloons.

Win an Offensive - British

Description: Win an Offensive as the British.
How to Unlock: Refer to the Win the Campaign - British achievement.

Win the Campaign - British

Description: Win the Campaign as the British.
How to Unlock: Complete the campaign regardless of scores or kills. If you've already earned the Legendary British Pilot, 15,000 point mission - British, and 150,000 Squadron points - British achievements, you can quickly finish missions by leaving the territory or landing on your side of the map.

5,000 point mission - British

Description: Earn 5,000 points with a British squadron in a single mission.
How to Unlock: Refer to the 15,000 point mission - British achievement.

10,000 point mission - British

Description: Earn 10,000 points with a British squadron in a single mission.
How to Unlock: Refer to the 15,000 point mission - British achievement.

15,000 point mission - British

Description: Earn 15,000 points with a British squadron in a single mission.
How to Unlock: Achieve 15,000 points in a single mission. Higher difficulties yield more points; aim for at least Leader (Very Hard) difficulty. Prioritize this achievement before the first offensive, as enemy planes become stronger as the campaign progresses. Your designated "Legendary" pilot will be upgraded, but the rest will be weaker. Forlorn Hope (1v3) and Ace vs. Ace (1v1, but with a strong enemy pilot) offer the highest potential scores in my experience.

50,000 Squadron points - British

Description: Earn 50,000 points with a British squadron.
How to Unlock: Refer to the 150,000 Squadron points - British achievement.

100,000 Squadron points - British

Description: Earn 100,000 points with a British squadron.
How to Unlock: Refer to the 150,000 Squadron points - British achievement.

150,000 Squadron points - British

Description: Earn 150,000 points with a British squadron.
How to Unlock: Accumulate 150,000 total points before the campaign ends. Farm points before the first offensive when enemies are weaker. Frequently choose Forlorn Hope and Ace vs. Ace. A successful Forlorn Hope mission on Legendary difficulty with minimal damage can yield over 30,000 points. In later levels, use Legendary (Impossible) difficulty and farm Sitting Ducks missions, especially on maps with ample clouds and with a well-upgraded pilot.

Achievements - Other

Win a Mission - Pilot

Description: Win a Mission at Pilot difficulty level.
How to Unlock: Refer to the Win a Mission - Legend achievement.

Win a Mission - Ace

Description: Win a Mission at Ace difficulty level.
How to Unlock: Refer to the Win a Mission - Legend achievement.

Win a Mission - Leader

Description: Win a Mission at Leader difficulty level.
How to Unlock: Refer to the Win a Mission - Legend achievement.

Win a Mission - Legend

Description: Win a Mission at Legend difficulty level.
How to Unlock: You'll inevitably earn this while progressing through the game, as you'll be adjusting difficulty based on your achievement goals (higher difficulties for points, lower for pilot kills). These achievements are not stackable; you must win a mission at each specific difficulty.

Hat Trick - Rookie

Description: Shoot down 3 planes with 1 pilot in 1 mission: Rookie.
How to Unlock: Refer to the Hat Trick - Legend achievement.

Hat Trick - Pilot

Description: Shoot down 3 planes with 1 pilot in 1 mission: Pilot.
How to Unlock: Refer to the Hat Trick - Legend achievement.

Hat Trick - Ace

Description: Shoot down 3 planes with 1 pilot in 1 mission: Ace.
How to Unlock: Refer to the Hat Trick - Legend achievement.

Hat Trick - Leader

Description: Shoot down 3 planes with 1 pilot in 1 mission: Leader.
How to Unlock: Refer to the Hat Trick - Legend achievement.

Hat Trick - Legend

Description: Shoot down 3 planes with 1 pilot in 1 mission: Legend.
How to Unlock: You'll likely earn this while pursuing the 50-kills achievement, especially in the Balloon Buster mission, which offers two "free" kills (the balloons). These achievements are not stackable either.

Four Aces

Description: Create a Squadron with four aces.
How to Unlock: Have each of your four pilots achieve 5 kills. You can aim for this early in the game by choosing missions with four enemies: Balloon Buster, Forlorn Hope, and Turkey Shoot.

Destroy an enemy supply train

Description: Destroy an enemy supply train.
How to Unlock: Keep rerolling missions until you get "Train to Nowhere." Destroy the train before it reaches the opposite side (mission completion is not required).

Zeppelin

Description: Shoot down an enemy zeppelin.
How to Unlock: Zeppelins are the large enemy balloons at the end of each offensive. You'll automatically earn this alongside the Win an Offensive - British achievement after completing your first offensive.

Achievements - Campaign (Rest of Nations)

The campaign achievements for France, Germany, and America follow the same structure and strategies as the British achievements detailed above. They are included here for guide completion purposes only.

French Achievements

French Ace Pilot (5 Victories)

Description: Earn 5 Victories with a French Pilot.

Legendary French Pilot (50 Victories)

Description: Earn 50 Victories with a French Pilot.

Win an Offensive - French

Description: Win an Offensive as the French.

Win the Campaign - French

Description: Win the Campaign as the French.

5,000 point mission - French

Description: Earn 5,000 points with a French squadron in a single mission.

10,000 point mission - French

Description: Earn 10,000 points with a French squadron in a single mission.

15,000 point mission - French

Description: Earn 15,000 points with a French squadron in a single mission.

50,000 Squadron points - French

Description: Earn 50,000 points with a French squadron.

100,000 Squadron points - French

Description: Earn 100,000 points with a French squadron.

150,000 Squadron points - French

Description: Earn 150,000 points with a French squadron.

German Achievements

German Ace Pilot (5 Victories)

Description: Earn 5 Victories with a German Pilot.

Legendary German Pilot (50 Victories)

Description: Earn 50 Victories with a German Pilot.

Win an Offensive - Germans

Description: Win an Offensive as the Germans.

Win the Campaign - Germans

Description: Win the Campaign as the Germans.

5,000 point mission - German

Description: Earn 5,000 points with a German squadron in a single mission.

10,000 point mission - German

Description: Earn 10,000 points with a German squadron in a single mission.

15,000 point mission - German

Description: Earn 15,000 points with a German squadron in a single mission.

50,000 Squadron points - German

Description: Earn 50,000 points with a German squadron.

100,000 Squadron points - German

Description: Earn 100,000 points with a German squadron.

150,000 Squadron points - German

Description: Earn 150,000 points with a German squadron.

American Achievements

American Ace Pilot (5 Victories)

Description: Earn 5 Victories with an American Pilot.

Legendary American Pilot (50 Victories)

Description: Earn 50 Victories with an American Pilot.

Win an Offensive - Americans

Description: Win an Offensive as the Americans.

Win the Campaign - Americans

Description: Win the Campaign as the Americans.

5,000 point mission - American

Description: Earn 5,000 points with an American squadron in a single mission.

10,000 point mission - American

Description: Earn 10,000 points with an American squadron in a single mission.

15,000 point mission - American

Description: Earn 15,000 points with an American squadron in a single mission.

50,000 Squadron points - American

Description: Earn 50,000 points with an American squadron.

100,000 Squadron points - American

Description: Earn 100,000 points with an American squadron.

150,000 Squadron points - American

Description: Earn 150,000 points with an American squadron.