Tactician

Tactician is a side-view fixed screen space themed shoot-em-up where you have to destroy all of the waves of enemy attackers from the bases at the top of the screen. The main difference from other shoot-em-ups is that in addition to your forward facing guns, you can lay down a mine-field to assist in your defence. The very first mine you lay down will be a red master mine, which if destroyed will cause all of the rest of the mines to explode. You then can put down enough additional mines to span three rows of the screen. The mines will defend you from attack by the regular ships, but will also defend them from your shots. Destroyed mines may be replaced. At the start of each wave, "tactics time" is provided for you to lay your mine-field before the attack starts.

There are several types of enemy. Attackers will swoop and fire at you, but will be blown up when they run into your mines. Destroyers will maintain a distance, and try and pick off all of your mines. Searchers will seek out your master mine, and disable it to destroy your entire mine field. The enemy bases are all equipped with a multiple warhead missile each, which they will occasionally fire. These missiles are unaffected by your mines. When they get close to the ground, they split apart into deadly fragments, and launch a jumping bomb. This jumps along the surface of the planet until it is destroyed.

Occasionally, there is a bonus stage where you can destroy asteroids with multiple shots before they strike the ground. Successfully doing this will give you extra points. The game continues with increasing difficulty until you lose all of your lives.