The radio bar has a text area for typing in messages and five radios, with the pressed button showing which radio is tuned. The items selected in the drop-down boxes show which channel a radio is tuned to.

Radios are tuned by selecting a channel from a drop-down box or by using the .radio command. The dot command is ".radio number channel". For example, to tune radio 3 to channel 2, the command would be ".radio 3 2". To tune a private channel to another player on radio 3, use the command ".radio 3 GameID".

Channels

• Channel 1 - Players may broadcast to everyone. This channel may be squelched and unsquelched. This channel is temporarily disabled in select arenas of the game.
• Channel 2 - The country channel allows players to broadcast just to their countrymen.
• Channel 3 - The room channel allows players to broadcast to anyone in the room.  When in flight, everyone who takes off from the same field is in the room. When not in flight, the room is the Tower.
• Channel 4 - The squad channel allows players to broadcast to their squad mates.
• Channel 5 - The mission channel allows players to broadcast to other players in their mission.
• Channel 6 - The "Help" channel. Use this channel when you need are in need of help.
• Channels 100-199 - Anyone tuned to the same channel in this range and also in your country will hear you.
• Channels 200-299 - Anyone tuned to the same channel in this range will hear you, regardless of country.
• Channel 904 - The CM channel is used by Campaign Managers in the Special Events arena.
• Private channels are tuned using the GameID.

The colored text in the radio buffer corresponds to the channels as follows:

• Channel 1 is gray text.
• Channel 2 is green text.
• Channel 3 is purple text.
• Channel 4 is red text.
• Channel 5 is dark gray text.
• Channels 100 to 199 are yellow text.
• Channels 200 to 299 are yellow text.
• Channel 904 is turquoise text.
• Channel 906 is the global announcement channel used by HTC and the Campaign Managers to make announcements seen in all arenas.
• Private channels are white text.
• Blue text is the god mode channel, used only by HTC.

The key commands to pull up the radio already tuned to the desired channel are as follows:

• Radio 1 - [/]
• Radio 2 - [SHIFT][/]
• Radio 3 - [CTRL][/]
• Radio 4 - [ALT][/]

Radio 5 is the voice channel. You'll need a microphone connected to your computer in order to talk to other players in the game.

Squelching and Unsquelching

In Aces High, channels or players may be squelched so that their messages no longer appear in the radio buffer. Use the squelch and unsquelch dot commands for this purpose.

To squelch a player, simply type ".squelch GameID" into the radio text bar using the player's game id. To unsquelch, type in ".unsquelch GameID".

Channel 1 may be squelched with ".squelch 1" and unsquelched with ".unsquelch 1".

Squelching and unsquelching channel 6 toggles the game kill messages on and off. As with channel 1, use ".squelch 6" and ".unsquelch 6" for toggling between squelched and unsquelched.

Entering ".unsquelch all" into the radio text bar will unsquelch all players and channels.

Dot commands are entered into the radio buffer as an alternative to the graphical user interface. They are called "dot" commands because whenever the first character in the chat buffer is a period, or dot, the following characters are interpreted as a command.  You can type ".help" in the chat buffer to get a list of all dot commands.

Commands Available Online

Commands Available In Flight

Commands Available When Not In Flight

Commands Available During Offline Practice

• Gameplay
  • Capturing territory
  • Resupplies
    • Trains, convoys, and barges
    • Supply drops
  • Winning the war
• Strategic system
  • Strategic targets
  • Checking status

Gameplay    

Capturing territory through the use of air, land and sea power is the team objective in Aces High. The arena terrain is divided into three countries (Bishop, Knight, and Rook), with each country starting with an equal number of fields, towns, cities, task groups, factories, and a single headquarter for each country. All countries have an equal amount of territory at the beginning of a war.

Capturing territory    

Territory is gained by capturing fields. A field consists of an airfield, vehicle field or port, and an adjacent town. The town is normally situated 2-3 miles from the field or port and controls the ownership of the field.

When enough buildings in the town have been destroyed, a white surrender flag will be flown in the town center. While the white flag is flown, 10 troops must be delivered to the command bunker (a.ka. map room) via one of the troop carriers to capture the field. After the tenth troop safely makes it into the bunker, a system message will appear in the message buffer announcing the captured field number and the capturing country.

Trains, convoys, and barges    

Trains, convoys, and barges are built into the terrain. Each train, convoy, or barge has a source point and a destination point, and each can be damaged or destroyed while traveling from point to point. Trains, convoys, and barges automatically respawn every ten minutes.

Destroying a train, convoy or barge will add an additional 7 minutes of downtime to any destroyed field or strategic resource that it supplies.(See table below)

Once a train, convoy, or barge has successfully reached it's destination, a new supply convoy spawns.

Supply drops    

The C-47, LVT(A)-2, SdKfz 251 and M-3 have the capability to drop supplies on a damaged field or strategic resource to shorten the downtime. These object supplies will repair all resupply-able objects in a one mile radius from the point where the supplies land. The supplies are selected as a loadout option in the hangar and .25 perk points are awarded to the player who dropped the supplies for each object that is affected by the resupply. You cannot resupply the field from which you started your sortie. Field supplies must be flown or driven in from another field.

Field Supplies remove 10 minutes of downtime from destroyed objects at airfields and 4 minutes of downtime from destroyed factories.

A vehicle supply type is also available to repair and supply vehicles with ordnance. When these supplies are dropped, any friendly vehicle within a half mile radius receives a Load Supplies button on their screen. Clicking this button will use the supplies to both repair and rearm their vehicle. If the supplies are unused, they vanish after 15 minutes. Vehicle supplies will not replenish troops or supplies.

Winning the War    

The parameters for winning the war can vary, depending on the configuration of the terrain. You can find the current requirements by right clicking on the clipboard map and selecting country status from the menu.

At that time, the arena is reset, a different terrain is rotated in with the country territories randomly set, and a perk point bonus is awarded to players that have been in the winning country for a minimum of 12 hours prior to the end of the war.  

Strategic system    

The basic categories of strategy targets in Aces High include field targets, strategic resources, city buildings, and supply targets.

The field targets affect availability of field items such as planes, fuel, ammo, etc. Every tower has a chalkboard displaying the field number and the current status of the field targets.

Strategic resources affect the downtime of the field objects they control. (E.G. ammo bunkers at a field will stay down longer if the ammo factory has already been damaged or destroyed.)

The city targets are the buildings within a city and they affect the downtime of town & HQ buildings.

The supply targets are the trains, convoys, and barges that resupply damaged fields and factories.  

Each country has a single Headquarters. Destroying the HQ will take down all radar coverage in that country.

Checking Status   

In Aces High, the status of any field may be checked by right-clicking on the clipboard map and selecting "Field Status" from the menu. The clipboard's swing out page will show the status of the field nearest your click point. While the swing out page is showing, you may check the status of any field by highlighting that field in the list.

Fuel Availability at the Field

The plane fuel loads available at a field is determined by the percentage of fuel tanks that have been destroyed at the field. The rebuild time depends on what percentage of the fuel refinery was down at the time the fuel tanks were destroyed.

Ordnance Availability at the Field

Ordnance available for aircraft, vehicles and/or boats at the field is determined by the percentage of ammo bunkers that have been destroyed at the field. The rebuild time depends on what percentage of the ammo factory was down at the time the ammo bunkers were destroyed.

Radar Availability at the Field

The rebuild time of a destroyed radar at a field is determined by the percentage of the radar factory that was down at the time the radar was destroyed.

Troop Availability at the Field

Troops must be available for loading on troop transports such as the C-47, M-3 and LVT-2. The rebuild time of destroyed barracks at a field is determined by the percentage of the training facility that was down at the time the barracks were destroyed.

Model Availability at the Field

Fighters, bombers, vehicles and boats must be available for use at a field. Airplanes, vehicles and boats become unavailable when their hangars are destroyed.

City Damage Status

The city damage status indicates the percentage of objects destroyed in a city complex, which then affects the downtime of town buildings.

Refinery Damage Status

The refinery damage status indicates the percentage of damage to a country's fuel refineries, which affects the downtime of the field fuel tanks.

Ammunition Factory Damage Status

The ammunition factory damage status indicates the percentage of damage to a country's ammunition factories, which affects the downtime of the ordnance available at the fields.

Radar Factory Damage Status

The radar factory damage status indicates the percentage of damage to a country's radar factories, which affects the downtime of radar at the fields.

Training Barracks Damage Status

The training barracks damage status indicates the percentage of damage to a country's training barracks, which then affects the downtime of troops available at the fields.

Ack Factory Damage Status

The ack factory damage status indicates the percentage of damage to a country's ack factories, which affects the down time of field ack.

HQ Status

Enemy and Friendly Count refers to sector counters, or the red or green squares in the map sectors, for friendlies and enemies. If a country's HQ is destroyed, then all radar and sector counters for that country are disabled. As the HQ becomes damaged the radar components are destroyed in this order: friendly counters, enemy counter, friendly radar and enemy radar.