As you may already know, some new game options become available as you
complete the game's four difficulty settings. They show up under the options
menu in a new section called special. Those seem to be the only 'cheats'
available for the game.

    So, once you get to the hard difficulty, the enemy can really get
on your nerves when they gang up on you. I've come up with ways to deal with
each level that work pretty well, and especially for the ninth level,
"Nuclear Transport Blockade". I thought I could contribute this idea and
take some frustration out of the game.

The goal of the mission is to stop four trains from escaping an ore processing 
plant with cargoes of nuclear material. There are three pairs of enemy planes 
defending the site, and two
large mobile gun platforms called Doras that travel rather quickly on their
own rails alongside the trains, trying to shoot you down. The Doras are also
targets that you must destroy in order to complete your mission. You start
flying in from the south, with the facility directly north of you. The train
tracks are arranged in pairs -- two go west, and two go north. The tracks
the trains run on are elevated, and have partial sections covered by steel
tunnels. The tracks also go "underground" for a while, with those
underground sections occurring in the middle of the span within which you
are confined to destroy the trains before they are considered safely away.
One Dora guards each direction, running parallel to the trains, to the
trains' right sides. (Sorry this is somewhat vague, but I'm establishing the
location of the targets, because the strategy relies on high speed and
precision.)  When the mission starts, the Doras are close to the processing
plant, waiting for the trains to come out. Shortly after the mission begins,
the first train comes out, heading west. If you fly to the facility and turn
left to head west, you'll be behind it and it will be on the track to your
right. To the right of the elevated track is a trough with two train tracks
that the enormous Dora runs along. The setup is the same on the tracks going
north. The two tracks are elevated side-by-side, and the Dora is in a trough
to their right, when you look north from the facility. (I'm getting to the
point soon, honestly.) The enemies are timed as follows:
   

    1) Two enemy Mirage 2000's  will be flying towards you, and will try to
circle behind you to shoot you down. You can't play with them because you're
on a tight schedule.

    2) Train 1 leaves to the West on the northern (right) track, and the
Dora runs along beside it, looking for you.

    3) Two Mig-29's will come in from the west to ensure you don't have an
easy time shooting the train or the Dora.

    4) Once train 1 has almost made it all the way out of the mission area,
or is destroyed, train 2 leaves the refinery, also heading west. It will be
on the southern (left) track. At this point the Dora will either be engaging
you or running back to the facility to escort the next train. (If you play
as it would seem they intended you to.)

    5) Again, once train 2 is destroyed or almost makes it safely away, the
next train takes off, this time heading north on the eastern (right) track.

    6) Dora 2 starts doing its escort job as Dora 1 did before.

    7) Two A-10's fly in from the North to defend the Dora and train 3.

    7) Train 4 leaves when train 3 is almost away or is destroyed.

    8) Once all four trains are disabled and the Doras are destroyed, you
win.

    Now that the picture is painted, I can use it as a guide. If you want to
rain death upon all you survey, you'll have to knock out the four trains
first, then go chase down the six planes, and strafe the train cars before
you kill the Doras. If you don't, the mission will end and there will still
be things left alive in your target area. I hate that as much as anyone, but
getting in and out efficiently without taking much damage can be fun too.
Besides, on hard difficulty, the tag-team nature of your flying opponents
can become very deadly, or at least can drag out long enough for you to
overshoot the mission time and lose. Here's how you can get the job done
relatively painlessly, with no wasted shots and in a respectable amount of
time. Also, I've tried this strategy out, and it plays exactly the same no
matter what the difficulty setting.

    1) You'll need to select a reasonably fast aircraft that you are
comfortable handling in some intense maneuvers. The first go around, the
Mig-29, F-16 or F-20 will be available, and can all handle the job nicely.
After you beat the game and start over, you can buy all the planes available
in the game, and I love to hit this mission with the YF-23, because I think
it just looks cool as heck and has the perfect speed and acceleration to do
the job. I also recommend that you use the expert control setup, as you'll
be doing some tight maneuvers.

    2) When the timer starts, lay on the afterburners and make best speed to
the facility. Instead of attacking the first train, which would mean heading
northwest, just go north, and to the right of the two mountain peaks you'll
be approaching.

    3) Your first target is Dora 2, the one that heads North. It'll be
sitting there like an idiot, and probably won't even shoot at you, even on
hard difficulty. When you approach its trench, drop down and make sure
you're targeting the gold box, so you knock it out in one strike. Fire two
missiles when you have lock, then bank right and make sure you're still on
the afterburners. If you're successful, Dora 2 will be dead.

    4) As you bank around to the right, you'll see the two Mirage 2000's
catching up with you, and they may take a pot shot at you. Ignore them and
go full speed for Dora 1, which will be waiting for you with SAM's ready.
Fly low to the complex, so it can't fire at you from within its trench.
While doing that, make sure the targeting computer is tracking the gold
target box again, or you won't kill it with one strike (unless you're on the
easier difficulty levels).

    5) Ignore the screaming metal as the dora comes shuddering to a halt on
its track, and drop down into its trench, right into the underground tunnel
it uses to follow the trains. This is for a couple reasons. First, the enemy
planes can't shoot you (they never go in tunnels, but might make a shot that
follows you inside). Second, you'll be overtaking the train in a way that
will allow you to intercept it more easily.

    6) Once you get to the end of the Dora's tunnel, pull up and bank
slightly to the right, going almost to the edge of where the trains can get
away. Let off the throttle and let the plane fly normal speed. You should
get a warning as you turn, indicating that you're leaving the mission area.

    7) When you straighten up, fly low over the train track to your LEFT,
because that's where your friend is coming at you from. If it looks like you
may overshoot the train before it leaves the tunnel, you're going too fast
and may blow the strategy. Hit the brakes and try to time it so you're
approaching the tunnels when the engine has fully emerged. Since you're
coming at it head-on, the gold box should be lit up, meaning you're gonna
take out the engine. If you're low to the track, the SAM's from the train
should miss you. Feed it two missiles and get a grip.

    8) When you shoot, you should be going right of the train. Your mission
is to now bang the afterburners and fly straight into the OTHER train's
tunnel. This will be kinda tricky, as the train tunnels aren't nearly as
roomy as the Dora tunnels. This may sound like just showboating, but I've
timed this before, and you have to ram straight at the train or the engine
is likely to make it inside a metal tunnel before you get back to the
facility, then you have to bank or loop, then chase it down. Meanwhile, the
train's SAM's and the enemy planes will be blowing you up. Also, the two
Mig-29's won't touch you while you're screaming down the tunnel, fighting
the stick to keep off the walls, ceiling or floor. MAKE sure you're going
full throttle, or you'll either have to turn anyway to chase the train, or
you'll ram it if you don't pull up.

    9) If you survive the tunnel, pull up right when you get to the end, as
there will be plenty of room and time for you to hop up and clear the steel
tunnels. You'll see the train leaving the station, and if you did this
correctly, will just be able to feed the engine two missiles before it gets
safely into the first metal tunnel.

    10) Four targets down, two to go. The other trains go down the same way,
but with slightly different timing. You'll bank left after killing train 2,
and see train 3 trying to escape. Let him go, and fly north over the ground
to the second area where you can engage the train. The Dora you destroyed
will be partially blocking the tunnel entrance, and isn't worth the risk of
dodging around. Besides, you'll need to let the plane go to normal throttle
when you get to where the Dora is. That's because you need to time the dance
so you hit the train when it leaves the tunnel again, and right now it has
to catch up with you. Just stroll to the edge of the mission area again, and
turn around. When the train pops out, knock it off and really get on the
throttle through the other train tunnel. This time it's urgent.

    11) You MUST be hammering full speed at the other train as soon as train
3 bites the bullet. In fact, start running as soon as you pop the missiles
off, because the metal tunnels are spaced differently on these tracks. When
you emerge from the long tunnel this time, you're gonna stay right on the
tracks the whole way, full throttle. If you let off at any time, you're
either gonna eat train or have to try and pop out somewhere, then chase it
down anyway. As you near the station, you'll see the train coming at you. If
your timing was good, and your plane fast enough, you'll be able to fire two
missiles into its face and pull up out of the tunnel just in time to scrape
the bugs off its windshield. You may also catch two SAM's in your belly, but
not to worry, you just completed the mission.

Like I said before, if you follow this attack pattern, Hard difficulty plays 
just like Very Easy, because your enemies don't get much of a chance to shoot 
at you, and the mission is
sequenced.