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Company of Heroes
Single Player Campaign Walkthrough
09/22/06
Author: LoneEagle013
Copyright 2006 LoneEagle013
All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders.
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VERSION HISTORY
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09/21/06 - Created basic format. Finished Mission 15 walkthrough.
09/22/06 - Finished Missions 01, 02, 03, 04, 05.
09/23/06 - Finished Missions 06, 07, 08, 09, 10.
09/24/06 - Finished Missions 11, 12, 13, 14.
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INTRODUCTION
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01. This is a quick, general guidelines to approach the single player missions.
02. The difficulty setting for this strategy guide is normal mode, so what is covered here may not apply on harder settings.
03. For the most part I will leave the approach to the objectives loosely, mainly because there is more than one way to approach an objective. I like it how I can replay the mission with completely different way of doing things and each time they are equally impressive.
04. I will limit my walkthroughs in 10 points or less, wherever possible. This way people will not have to remember too many stuff while they are playing the game. I will highlight the crucial points of the mission, and leave the rest to your imagination.
05. All Copyright restrictions apply here. I will not have any problems with people posting this guide in their website, but leave everything intact and as is. My style of writing is relatively unique and I can immediately tell if it is my work being copied and pasted left and right. So just leave my name on the top as is, and you have permission to use this guide so long as it is non-commercial purposes. If you encounter this guide on a pay-site (or if you have to pay to read this thing, then get your money back).
06. Since this is a Single Player Campaign walkthrough, many tactics that can be applied here may not translate to Skirmish games. Campaign games tend to be more of a puzzle of some sorts, while Skirmish is more involved than that. The AI is not particularly smart in the SP campaign in my experience playing the game.
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BASIC TACTICS AND PROCEDURES
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01. Always builda extra engineers, because you never know when you gonna lose one in the front lines, and having a quick replacement handy by the base helps tremendously. In addition, they can quickly fix OPs and create defenses if the enemy tries to cut off a point.
02. Build a halftrack whenever possible. Halftrack with a quad cannon is a very effective infantry killing machine, and your squads can reinforce near a halftrack.
03. Micromanage your Shermans when facing serious threats (AT guns, panzers, etc.). Flanking AT guns from the rear usually takes care of the crew in one shot, and having your Sherman mobile while attacking a panzer will make it survive much longer. Smokescreens help too, so buy them when you have the spare resources for them. In general Shermans cannot go toe to toe with German armors unless they're supported by engineers or infantries equipped with bazookas.
04. Keep your munition rates high. Munitions are crucial for taking care of unexpected things, and many of the powerful abilities require a lot of munition points to use. Fuel is more important in the beginning when you are still building up your base and buying upgrades. But in the long run, if you keep a good care of your tanks and vehicles, fuel becomes less important. In short, look at the map and be sure to control the high yield points and build OPs (Observation Posts) on them.
05. Always bring an engineer to the front lines so you can fix damaged vehicles. Otherwise you will have to spend a lot more replacing destroyed Shermans and Halftracks, especially if their engines are damaged from enemy attacks and they cannot retreat back home in one piece.
06. Rifle squads with BAR upgrade can hold off their own against most infantry threats except for MG42s and snipers. In other words, get the BAR as soon as you can afford it. Engineers with flame throwers are good upgrades too because that way they can hold off on their own against infantries to a certain extent.
07. Units often make comments in relation to their current problems. Infantry units will say whether they are being pinned or being wasted by panzers. Shermans will say so when they are attacked by AT guns or panzers. Pay attention to these comments and reactions and you will keep your units longer.
08. Picking up panzershrecks and bazookas for any infantry squads will increase their effectiveness against armor units considerably. Hence, use your Shermans to soak up the damage while your infantries flank around and go in for the kill.
09. On the other hand, garrisoned MG42s are best dealt with tanks. Leave your infantry squads behind while the tanks make short work of the garrisoned fools. Mortar crew works too, but it might take a while.
10. Snipers can make a short work out of heavy weapon crews out in the open. However, snipers are really vulnerable against motorcycles. Keep an eye on them and pull your sniper out when necessary. A veteran sniper can move much faster while being camouflaged. Heavy weapons in this case include MGs, mortars, fixed gun emplacements, and AT guns. The converse is also true for axis snipers, and jeeps are your best counterattack for sniper attacks. Although for the most part, I use my snipers to counter snipe the enemy.
11. Snipers are also useful as front line scouts. Make sure they hold their fire so they do not reveal themselves needlessly. This is really useful for infantry command path, because once you obtain howitzers and calliope shermans, their attacks are much more accurate when the area is revealed.
12. Airbornes are much deadlier with their recoilless rifles. Upgrade whenever you can afford them. They are also much more effective if you pair two squads together. Pairing infantry squads usually work well universally, because one can soak up fire while the other goes in for the kill.
13. Build howitzers in a position relatively in center of the map. That way you can cover practically the entire map for heavy barrage. Howitzers require some babysitting, however, so leave some defenses around them so they don't get steamrolled by enemy attacks. Conversely, if the enemy have nebelwerfers, take these out first because they can potentially take out your own howitzers.
14. Always build a front line barracks whenever possible, so that you can reinforce from that line instead all the way back from the base. It saves time, especially when your army gets wasted by a lucky artillery strike.
15. Prioritize your enemies. Always take out units that pose the most threat to your army. Field artilleries should be taken out immediately because they can rain down punishment from far away, and their Area of Effect (AOE) damage is tremendous. Panzers and AT guns are major threats to your Shermans and armor vehicles. Snipers, MGs and Mortars are dangerous to your infantry squads. Given the chance, pull the Shermans back first, since your army can always issue retreat to base which makes them more likely than not survive the encounter, whereas Shermans take time to pull out of the hot zone and will take all the punishment when the infantries are gone.
16. Build a triage center right in front of your HQ, so that whenever you have units retreating they will be automatically healed by your triage center. The easiest way to determine the optimum location is to have one of your infantries retreating somewhere close from the base. The point where they stop is best used as a point of reference to where you should build the triage center.
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SINGLE PLAYER WALKTHROUGH
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MISSION 01: D-Day/Omaha Beach
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Primary Objective: (1) Get 25 Soldiers on the Beach (2) Move Engineers to the Shingle (3) Destroy Bunker with Satchel Charge (4) Neutralize 88 Guns on the Beach (2)
Secondary Objective: Clear 3 German Bunkers
Medal Objective: Clear Left Beach Exit
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Walkthrough
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01. This is the first mission, so it shouldn't be too hard. Listen to the in-game cues and conversations, and you should have a good idea what to do. They are very helpful in the game, even until the end.
02. For the first objective, just drag your mouse and mass select your units. Then move them toward the shingle. Keep doing so until you have most of Able on the shingle.
03. Get the sniper camouflaged, and snipe the closest MG42 crew. This will give your engineers an easier time to reach the shingle.
04. Move your engineers from tank trap to tank trap, and they should survive the MG42 onslaught.
05. Use your snipers to take care of the MG42 crews as you go up the hill. Once it is clear, use your engineer to blow things up with satchel charge.
06. Take out the bunkers first, because infantries spawn from there. Continue slowly as your sniper take care of the Machine gun emplacements, as well as manned heavy guns (88 guns and such). Use your rifle squads to cover the engineers as they move from one place to another. Grab any light MG42s you see, they will increase your squad's firepower tremendously.
07. Take out the final gun after you clear out the left beach exit, that way you will get your first medal.
08. If you leave the closest 88 gun intact, you can use it to clear out the left beach exit and the two objective 88 guns with less casualties.
Medal Earned: Expert Infantry Badge
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MISSION 02: Vierville
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Primary Objective: (1) Destroy AA Guns (5 total) (2) Secure Road (3 total) (3) Destroy Convoy (8 total)
Secondary Objective: (1) Capture Munitions Sector (2) Rescue Baker Squad
Medal Objective: Ambush the Road patrols
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Walkthrough
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01. Reinforce your Airborne squads to maximum. Then move them behind the thick bush for protection. Use one squad to distract the the fire, while fire up the other squad and toss in a satchel charge to the AA gun. Once the gun is destroyed, the surviving german troops will retreat.
02. Capture the munition points and build an Observation Post (OP) to achieve the secondary objective. Reinforce any lost men along the way.
03. Moving up a little bit, Baker Company is surrounded, so we need to rescue them. Drop another squad, and fire up one of your squads and frag the MG42 crew. Fragging big groups of german troops would also make things a lot easier and faster.
04. Once Baker is safe, reinforce your squads until you reach the population limit. Try to balance the squads so they all at least have 3 men. Grab one of the heave MG42 and station them pointing at the area where you're supposed to plant the mine. Upgrade all of your men with recoiless rifle if you can afford it, and grab and panzschrecks you see.
05. Capture the remaining munition points in the area before the road. Having spare munitions never hurt anyone in the past, except for the enemy.
06. Mine the road, and have your squads (armed with recoiless and panzschrecks) toward the road. Take out the first road patrol. After that, move your squads to the road, covering your MG squad while they move and prepare the gun. Point everyone at the direction from which the patrol came. There should be several more patrols, and they go down real fast with MG fire and anti-tank fire.
07. To your right, there is a German ammo dump that has tons of heavy weapons if you need any. I would grab a mortar and any panzscrecks I see. Destroy the bunker too, so less infantries to worry about.
08. Beyond this point, it should be relatively easy. Advance carefully and cautiously, eliminating any enemy from safe cover. The AA guns can be taken out with relatively the same procedure: distract, bum-rush them with satchel charge and voila. Alternatively, you can grenade them out and take over the AA guns, but we're short on men here so just blow them up.
09. Once you destroyed all the AA guns and capture all the roads, a German Convoy will approach from the North. You have 2 minutes to prepare. Reinforce all of your men, and all of your squads should have recoilless guns or panzershrecks. Man the AA gun by the bunkers, and garrison the bunkers with 2 full squads each. Mine the road right next to the point, continuing on until past the bunker. The idea is so that not a single unit escapes from the bunker area. Finally put an MG squad at the other end of the road so it will intercept any escaping units from the ambush.
10. There will be eight waves of convoy - eliminate them swiftly. Attack relentlessly and leave nothing to survive. Mission accomplished.
Medal Earned: Army Parachutist Badge.
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MISSION 03: Carentan
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Primary Objective: (1) Destroy Cafe Normandin (2) Clear the Church area (3) Garrison the Church (4) Upgrade the Church to Barracks (5) Capture the City Hall
Secondary Objective: Capture munition points.
Medal Objective: Inflict 30 sniper kills.
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Walkthrough
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01. Get your squads to cover. The squad on the right should flank the building and toss a satchel charge from relative safety. Boom. First objective completed.
02. Capturing the church can get trickier. Same idea holds true here, but there's more buildings, and they're relatively covering each other, so this one is a little bit more involving. Clear out the building one by one using grenades and satchel charges. Grenades are more resource efficient when there's only one or two people in the building, while satchel charge just brings down the house (quite literally).
03. Right across from the front of the church, there will be a building with an MG42 garrisoned inside, and to the left there will be an AT gun. Use the fire-up ability to rush in and grenade the AT, while use another squad to fire-up and toss in a satchel charge into the building while the MG is preoccupied with the other squad. Once the area is clear, garrison the church and upgrade it to field barracks.
04. Train several snipers (2 or 3). Blow up the wires to the left of the church. Clear the area using the snipers, while keeping an eye on enemy snipers camping in the building. Make sure you lure them with your Airborne squad, then use your sniper to countersnipe him. Proceed with two squads of airborne and the sniper pair around the town, capturing points along the way.
05. Train a mortar crew. Using your sniper as the eyes, bombard the garrisoned building to the left of the city hall. Your third sniper should start clearing out the area in front of the building which your mortar team is bombing away. You should get 30 sniper kills in no time to win the medal.
06. Make sure to capture all the point on the map before going in for the kill. Your 2 squads of Airborne and sniper pair should build OPs along the way, and should stop relatively to the right of the city hall. Have them sit there and wait for the main attack.
07. In this area, there are two buildings garrisoned with snipers. Have your mortar crew move to the right munition point and pound the buildings until they're gone. If you can get the motorcycle along the way too, even better. Once the enemy snipers are gone, let your snipers loose and rip anything out in the open.
08. Capture some AT guns to anticipate a panzer counterattack. Once everything is ready and good to go, have your snipers take out AT guns, MG 42s, and mortar crews while your AT gun should fire at the garrisoned MGs by the city hall. The rest of the airbornes should attack and support the AT by tossing in satchels.
09. Armored car will show up from the north. Take it out, and the mission should end once the cars have been destroyed and all axis forces retreat to the north.
Medal Earned: Army Sharpshooter Badge.
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MISSION 04: Carentan Counterattack
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Primary Objective: (1) Establish Defense Perimeter (10:00) (2) Defend the Town Hall (3) Defend the Church (4) Destroy all Axis Armor (4)
Secondary Objective: None
Medal Objective: Inflict 250 Axis Casualties.
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Walkthrough
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01. In this mission, you will have all your previous units from Mission 03. If you have been building up your army from the ned of the last mission, you will save a lot of time preparing for this one. Also, if you already captured all the points by the end of the last mission, you will have no sniper problems on the northern part of the town outskirts.
02. Build up your defense on the other side of the bridge, the further side from the town. The idea here is that the Germans will spawn from the north part of the map, and they will continuously spawn until a scripted event where you have to retreat back to the church. In other words, the sooner we stopgap the invasion, the more they will spawn, and the easier it gets to reach our quota.
03. For each defense point, have a MG nest built by engineers, one 5.7 mm AT cannon, and one squad armed with either recoilless or panzershreck. Have your airbornes build mines, tank traps (if available), barb wires, and sandbags surrounding the area. Upgrade your engineers with flame throwers because they can cover your flank if some crazy infantries decide to come near. Don't go overboard on the defenses because a scripted event will be bombarding the living daylights out of your defense and you will have to abandon it eventually.
04. Set up some defenses by the church as well. Man any abandoned AT guns and MG42s and set them up by the church. The germans will come from three different directions, so set up accordingly. Basically you should cover a 180 degree radius in front of the church.
05. Any spare squads that you have, send it up front as a "fire brigade" crew. That is, if things get too messy for one post, reinforce them while you replenish the squad and repair the MG emplacements. Ideally the fire brigade should be located in the center bridge.
06. Hold the line until the artillery strikes the area. Once this happens, fall back to the other side of the bridge, and try to consolidate your force by the town hall until the second barrage.
07. By the second barrage, pull everyone back to the church, while replacing any units that were lost under the barrage. If you have snipers at this point, station them by the church tower.
08. Hold the line until reinforcements come. Focus on the panzers because they are the highest threats on the map. Mop up the infantries using MGs. Save your grenades and use satchel charges to take care of the panzers instead.
09. If you survive up to this point, reinforcements should arrive with several Shermans and rifle squads. Secure the area by the church, eliminate any straggling infantries, and finally wipe out the 4 panzers using your Sherman and infantries. At this point you should have 250 kills easy if you reach 240 kills by the time the reinforcements arrive.
10. To get the medal, you should reach 80-90% of the quota (230-240 kills) by the time the reinforcements arrive. Otherwise, chances are you might end up short since the Germans stop spawning once reinforcements arrive. This may involve some luck and practice.
Medal Earned: Bronze Star
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MISSION 05: Montebourg (Red Ball Express)
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Primary Objective: (1) Rescue Dog Company (2) Secure the Road (3) Defend Redball Express
Secondary Objective: Destroy Axis Forward Base
Medal Objective: Destroy all of 109th Panzer units (10)
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Walkthrough
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01. To your left is the HQ. Clear the area of any foolish units that dare to venture to your HQ. After that, proceed forward and rescue Dog Company.
02. Use the Sherman anti-mine flail to lead the way and follow its path so you don't get blown up.
03. Rescue Dog Company, which should be straightforward here. After rescuing Dog Company, bring all your units back to the HQ and fortify there.
04. If you venture forward of the Dog Company house or once a "hidden time limit" expires, there will be a panzer counterattack. This is why we want everyone back at the HQ to focus the defense.
05. Defend your base using AT guns and Shermans, while having your engineers fix any damaged tanks. Build 4 rifle squads, replace your halftrack if you lose it for any reason, 2 AT guns to protect your base, and the rest should be focused on Shermans. One M8 armored car is also useful if you purchase the point that allows light vehicles to capture points.
06. Slowly make your way across the map, capturing points and clearing out any enemy forces you see. Avoid capturing the points on the road for the main objective because once you secure the road, the convoy will show up and make life much more difficult. You will have to destroy the German front base or otherwise they will keep on respawning and retaking all the points you own.
07. The roads after the intersection have landmines on them, so use your Anti-mine Sherman or engineers with mine detectors to find the mines.
08. The Axis front base is located on the top right of the map. Use your Sherman and infantry to take care of the base. Shermans will clean up any garrisoned buildings, while the infantry can take care the anti-tank guns the Germans have. Your engineers should be able to use their demolition ability to bring down the tougher buildings faster.
09. Once you secure the road, clear the mines and be ready for german attacks. Bring one of your Shermans to the rear and protect the flank of the convoy. Hurry and secure the road so that the convoy can be on their way.
10. This mission can get very annoying unless you absolutely clear the map out of german buildings and armor units.
Medal Earned: Distinguished Service Cross
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MISSION 06: Cherbourg
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Primary Objective: (1) Secure the Town Center. (2) Destroy the Coastal Guns. (3) Destroy the Axis HQ.
Secondary Objective: (1) Upgrade a Building into a Barracks. (2) Eliminate Axis Artillery Lookout (Officer)
Medal Objective: Destroy the Demolition Station (2:00)
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Walkthrough
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01. In case the opening sequence was not obvious enough for you, there is a sniper at the end of the street, garrisoned in a building. Immediately enter the building one the left, and upgrade it to a barracks. Have your other squad grab the bazooka, and go around the corner to the sniper's blind side. Toss a grenade into the building and it should flush him out.
02. Once you take care of the sniper threat, reinforce your squads and grab the bazookas lying on the ground. Rifle squads with bazookas are almost as deadly as the rangers, if not deadlier (since they can use sticky bombs on top of the bazookas).
03. Assault the town center. This can be done using grenades against the MG42 crews. Once the MG42 is down, the rest of the german troops will fall back and the area will be secured. Bring in all your units to the center of the town hall. Use your tanks to run down the barb wires so you can build there. There is a big open area behind the town hall, so build your support buildings there, while your barracks, motor pool, triage and tank depot should be up front (if they fit the front, that is).
04. Slowly build and inch upwards until you reach the coastal gun. Ignore the fuel point on the corner for now, because that area is guarded by a panzer from across the channel - it can shoot you, but you cannot shoot him back. In addition, there is also an axis artillery lookout officer hiding by the sandbags slightly to the north from the fuel point, right before the bridge. Easiest way to take him out is to snipe the bastard, one shot and one kill.
05. Try to focus on getting the rangers early. Once you have access to the rangers, build 4 squads of rangers and pack them together. You should have tons of munitions available in this mission, so upgrade them with Thompson SMGs to increase their effectiveness. 4 squads of rangers can rip panzers into pieces in less than 15 seconds if you position them carefully. Bring a halftrack and engineer as backup/support for your front line troops as you push on forward.
06. Once you reach the coastal guns, breach the door with an engineer, and wreck the gun inside using your creativity (I used a grenade to get the job done). Once the coastal gun is destroyed, you will have artillery support from the warships off the coast. Use it wisely.
07. Move all your units to the one side of the bridge, and hold the bridge from any axis attempts to counterattack. They will attempt to cross and assault your position, but they will be sitting ducks in the bridge because there is no room to escape. In the meanwhile, have your sniper run across the bridge and scout for the area.
08. From the sniper's view, launch artillery attacks on the german defenses across the bridge. Snipe their AT crews while maintaining distance and steatlh. After the area by the bridge is clear, send in the rangers and shermans across with engineers and halftrack nearby. Let the rangers capture the points, and have the rifle squads/engineers build OPs.
09. There's a german outpost on the southern end of the map. Pound it good with artillery, then rush it with rangers and shermans to mop up the survivors. To the north of the bridge is a German forward motor pool which if you capture it, you can build tanks from that building. Up further northwest is a demolition station. The demolition station is the medal objective, and you only have 2 minutes to destroy the structure. The fastest way to drop this building is to rush it with two shermans while raining it down artillery fire on the building. The barrage should take out most of the defenses, if not the building itself. Rush with the shermans, and have the rangers come in for support. After destroying the building, clean up the rest of the area with your rangers and shermans.
10. To the northeast is the axis HQ. Slowly make your way there, and using the sniper as your scout, rain down more artillery barrage to the area, and the HQ will be down in no time at all. Mission accomplished.
Medal Earned: Soldier's Medal
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MISSION 07: Sottevast
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Primary Objective: (1) Wire the missile with demolitions.
Secondary Objective: (1) Secure the Base Entrance (2) Wire the Oxygen tanks with demolitions.
Medal Objective: Eliminate the Base Commander.
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Walkthrough
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01. Begin by reinforcing all your airborne squads and upgrading 2 recoilless guns. Drop another airborne squad. Charge the German position, and take over the AA gun before the Germans do (move faster using the fire-up ability) and wipe out any MG crews you see. Comandeer an MG42 and point them toward the base entrance. Stay clear out of the tower's MG range.
02. Use a satchel charge to blow up the wall (either wall is fine). If you have enough munitions for a satchel charge, fire up a squad and blow up one of the towers and get away from the MG fire. The second tower will be easier because you can just fire up two squads with bazookas and bring it down relatively fast. Once that is done, secure the base entrance and build a OP on it. Leave your MG squad there.
03. Have three airborne squads ready, and assault the AA gun to the right of the entrance, the one nearby a munitions point. My personal tactics is to run up to the AA gun and toss in a grenade or two, then wipe out the rest of the defenses. Capture the point, and build an OP on the post.
04. Once that's done, swing to the left of the base entrance and clear up the AA guns, towers, and any unlucky Germans on your path. I find it that if you comandeer an AA gun that has ben cleared, life can get easier in some cases. Otherwise you need to set up MG squads to guard the points. Get the AT gun airdrop ability ASAP, and supply drops are good to have to. Air strafing is not as useful here until you disabled all the AA guns, so save that for later. For your defense, it is wise to push on forward and abandon AA guns as you can always comandeer another one that is more front of the line.
05. At one point you will encounter oxygen tanks that needs to be demolished. Ignore them for now, and concentrate on taking out the AA guns at the left corner of the base. Watch for a panzer hiding behind one of the buildings. Take them out, and run up to the roof. There should be stairs on the side of the silo.
06. The base commander is sitting in his office. Give him a nasty surpise with a bag of satchel, and watch him make his getaway. If he survives and escapes with his life, let him be. Deal with the sniper instead. Take out the AA gun on the roof, and any infantries guarding the roof. Capture the point, and build a OP over there as well.
07. By this time your reinforcements should start coming in. Send in your Sherman and a squad of Airborne (if you have one to spare) to the central AA gun situated by the construction site. Have the Sherman lead the way and take out the AA gun. An ostwind sits nearby, take it out with your Sherman. There is a mortar crew nearby, take them out with your Airborne Squad.
08. Save your game before attempting to wire the Oxygen tank. The game has a bug where if your original squad gets wasted while wiring up the tanks, subsequent squads will not be able to finish the job. Wire the tanks, and blow it all the way back to stone age.
09. Now to capture the rest of the base. Push on to the right, going around counter clockwise all the way to the silo. Have your tanks lead the charge and let them deal with the towers. Your airbornes should follow close in case there are panzers and anti-tank guns that need schooling. Engineers and half-tracks should tag along from behind, fixing and reinforcing anyone lost in the slugging match.
10. There will be several panzers and massive amounts of infantry entrenched by the missile door. If you have the air strafing ability, chew up the infantries using this power. Lure the panzers with your sherman so that your Airbornes can ambush them. Do not hesitate to retreat if things get too ugly. Once the dust settles down, wire up the missile and press the button once all is done. Mission Accomplished.
P.S.: Before you press the button, make sure the Base Commander is deader than Elvis (as Sam Fisher puts it in Chaos Theory) to get the medal you deserve for this all hard work.
Medal Earned: Air Medal
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MISSION 08: St. Fromond
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Primary Objective: (1) Repair the Bridge (2) Capture the Town Center (3) Hold the Town Center
Secondary Objective: (1) Destroy the Axis Rockets (Nebelwerfers)
Medal Objective: Destroy Axis HQ.
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Walkthrough
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01. This mission is not that tough to complete, but can be really tricky if you want to win the medal. Build your base and train a sniper so he can scout out the area across the bridge. You can either use the starting mortar crew, or use the caliope sherman to take care the AA guns and the MG crew across the bridge. Capture the point using your rifle squad and build an OP. Once the area is secure, send in an engineer crew to fix things up, including the bridge. Cover your engineers with your sniper and sherman.
02. Once the bridge is up, consolidate your troops to behind the bridge area. Whatever you do, if you want the medal, you do not capture the town center for any reason. You can, but things will get really messy.
03. Instead, Go left and split your army into two. The smaller force should hang by the bridge (don't go across). This one should compose of at least one AT gun and one MG squad.
04. Proceed slowly to the left, capturing all the points across. Enemy resistance should be minimal, but do be careful about the occasional panzer patrols. Drop some Airborne squads and upgrade them with bazookas. Try to minimize consumption of munition up this point (Don't use satchels unless you really have to).
05. The northernmost area is actually an Axis HQ. This is the medal objective. Here is the reason why I'm flanking left instead of attacking straight through: once you capture the town center, any uncaptured areas will be sprawling with spawned german units. And on top of that, the three german rocket crews will be dispersed across the map (One by the graveyard, one by the HQ, and one on the right side of the map). If you capture the graveyard area before they spawn, the graveyard rocket will deploy by the Axis HQ, making it easier to take out two rockets that are next to each other.
06. The Axis HQ is heavily defended. Taking out the defenses will take far too much casualties and effort, which is not possible when your other army is guarding the town center and being bombarded and assaulted into pieces. The Axis HQ takes roughly 3 caliope rocket barrages to go down, and each of the rocket emplacements take roughly one barrage to dispose of. Plus, the main street is covered with 88 guns and AT guns, and those suicidal rocket droids go along the road as well. These bots dish out a whole lot of hurt, so avoid them or shoot them before they get too close.
07. While you are taking out the axis HQ, reinforce the area by the town center. This area will be constantly bombarded with rockets until you take out all three rocket launchers, so you want to minimize the concentration of troops here. Building an OP would be moot because it is too risky and it gets destroyed far too easily. Instead, have an MG squad (or two, if you happen to have a spare one) cover the point so any foolish german squads attempting to capture it will die in a hail of bullets. Have an AT tank to deal with the armored units, and pay attention to the road as any goliaths (suicidal tank bots) will come from there. Setting up a forward barracks in this area also helps a lot. If you can reinforce with Shermans at this point, do so because they can take a lot of punishment. Send your Sherman up to assist your other army when things are not so hectic on the town center.
08. Assuming you took out the Axis HQ, sweep down and go right to take care of the last rocket emplacement. Once you take care of these threats, link your army together. At this point the mission should be relatively easier to do.
09. The point immediately left of the town center will be a hotly contested point. Build up some defenses early on and try to maintain control of that point for as long as possible, because that point links up with the rest of your other points.
10. The rightmost nebelwerfers can easily be rushed by a lone sherman. Rush the sherman, and once it's destroyed, pull it back for repairs. Once all the other objectives are achieved, return to the forward area with your airbornes and sherman support to take out any axis production buildings. Satchel charges will do the trick here. Caliope sherman barrages don't hurt either.
Medal Earned: Bronze Star
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MISSION 09: Hill 192
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Primary Objective: Capture Hill 192.
Secondary Objective: Destroy the Artillery Post.
Medal Objective: Capture the Hill under 50 minutes
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Walkthrough
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01. This mission can get particularly hard if you want to get the medal. First order of business is to take the point on the right of your base, and fortify it with a MG squad and AT gun.
02. Bring a pair of rifle squad to the left field, but lead it with sniper and a Sherman (either regular or croc is fine). Eliminate the bunker and any infantries, then hurry and capture the point.
03. Capture the rest of the points in this area, carefully scouting the area with a sniper first. Use the tanks on MG squads, and capture the points with infantry. You need a lot of fuel and ammo to build up your army, and you need to minimize losses so you can save resources to focus on building your army.
04. Beware of snipers on the other side of the hedgegrows on the left side of the map. Use your tanks to clean them out.Keep racking up xp points so you can start building howitzers.
05. Build Shermans, and get the howitzer ASAP. You can get the rangers later once you are howitzer capable. Secure the points to the left of your base, and start advancing upwards.
06. At one point you will encounter a scripted event, in which the game reveals the german artillery outpost. Use your artillery special power right before the fog of war covers the area again - you should be able to destroy this in one shot.
07. In the relatively middle right of the map, you will see a checkpoint (the small town during the briefing), which has bunch of exploding oil drums around it. Blow up the oil drums, and take care of the German defenses over there. There should be an 88 gun you can comandeer to help with the defense.
08. Once the area is secure, send your engineers there and build two howitzers if your resources allow for it. Make sure to leave some room for the howitzers in your population limit. Once you have your howitzers ready, scroll up to the hill and pound away. keep pounding and try to penetrate the hill from the bottom while minimizing losses. Send your sniper in to reveal the area while your shelling so you can maximize the damage. Destroy all things that pose big threats to your tanks (AT guns, bunkers, panzers, etc). That way you can rush your tanks in and eliminate the infantries.
09. At this point you should have the ability to build rangers - build 3 squads of rangers and a halftrack. Move them forward while avoiding German artillery barrage. It would be ideal if you can time the rangers assault with the tank rush. At this point rush all your infantries into the hill.
10. Your goal now is to capture the point at all costs. Expect 80% casualty rate at least, because unless you shell the living bejeezus out of the hill, the defense is way too strong. The mission ends once you control the hill. In my case I managed to take over the hill in 33 minutes after 3 attempts of playing the mission.
Medal Earned: Soldier's Medal
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MISSION 10: St. Lô
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Primary Objective: (1) Surround the Axis HQ (7 points)
Secondary Objective: (1) Take out the Nebelwerfer
Medal Objective: Upgrade a Ranger Squad to level 3 veterancy
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Walkthrough
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01. This mission begins with your starting point being bombarded by German Nebelwerfers. Evacuate all of your units out of the firing range, and build your barracks ASAP and build some engineers. Have the engineers build your base. A sniper is really handy in taking out the nebelwerfer crews, so build one or two.
02. Build a barracks and get the BAR upgrade for your rifle squads. Clear out the buildings by the nebelwerfers from snipers, so that your sniper can do his worko safely. The easiest way to clear out snipers at this point is to have two rifle squads charging at the building and toss some grenades to the windows. Use your sniper and carefully snipe the crews, while avoiding MG fire. Once the nebelwerfers are silent, reinforcements should arrive.
03. 2 squads of rangers, a crooodile sherman, and a jeep will come in as reinforcements. Frankly, I'd sacrifice the jeeps as they're using up population resources. Also sacrifice your rifle squads, but safe one squad for capturing points and building OPs. Your ranger squads should do most of the heavy work here, because you want to move them up in ranks til one of them reaches level 3 for the medal.
04. Have your engineers build defenses by each points and by your HQ area, because there will be some grenadiers with panzershrecks harassing behind your lines every now and then. Some panzers will also try to take over your points, which is why you should build a sherman or two for quick response units.
05. There are tons of AT guns and snipers in this map, so your sniper is priceless in this misison. Have him scout the area ahead, sniping heavy weapon crews, among the things he should do. Meanwhile your rangers should be clearing out buildings with their grenades, and clear infantries until you get your medal. Have a halftrack nearby to reinforce your rangers, because they will have massive casualties.
06. Once you have the capability to build a howitzer, build it in a location somewhere in the center of the map, so ideally you can reach nearly any point in the map. Have a sherman guard the howitzer because it will be a prime target for enemy units.
07. There is a quick way to beat this mission instead of capturing all the 7 points. If you can find the Axis HQ and level it to rubble, you will also win the game. The Axis HQ is essentially a big, giant building (I believe it is a 4 to 5 story building, with 6 to 8 windows across) located somewhere in the center of the map. If you pay attention in the briefing, you should have a good idea where it is situated.
08. Use your sniper to scout for the building, and use your howitzers and artillery call to level the building. You'll know that it is the right building when there are literally tons of units garrisoned in there, and your sniper gets automatically detected when it ventures around that building. Level the building and mission accomplished.
09. Alternatively, you can just surround the Axis HQ by capturing all of the seven points. To do this, howitzer each of the uncaptured points using your sniper as the spotter. Use your rangers and crocodile sherman to clear out the buildings. Panzers are breakfast for your veteran rangers, and your rifle squad should help out with sticky bombs. Just keep your halftrack and engineer safe in the back, and you should be able to push forward slowly.
10. Make sure you build MG emplacements on each point so when the enemy attempts to retake the points, they will have to deal with the MGs first and give you enough time to bring your army back to eliminate them. A elite sniper can run back and forth relatively fast, so have him run back to the contested point and snipe some of the bad guys. Usually they will break line and retreat. After you capture all the point, the mission will be over.
Medal Earned: Army Ranger Badge
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MISSION 11: Hébécrevon
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Primary Objective: Destroy the Lehr Panthers (7 total)
Secondary Objective:
Medal Objective: Minimize Allied Tank Casualties (No more than 5)
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Walkthrough
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01. This mission can get tricky because the enemy will constantly harass your base with armors and infantries. However, we have a loophole that we can abuse. Infantry and AT gun losses aren't tanks, so use them for nearly everything.
02. Capture the point to the left of your HQ, and build a decent defense in this area. Build several AT guns, a halftrack, and 4 rifle squads. The rest should be focused on shermans and an extra wolverine (if you still have some space left). 2 wolverines flanking a panther is a really quick and no-contest battle. Additionaly, 4 sticky bombs on a panther usually spells doom for that panther anyhow. Somehow if you plant the sticky bombs from the rear of panzers, usually they have a good chance of disabling or destroying the tank's engine. Keep this in mind.
03. Use your sniper to scout for the area by the points. There are tons of german armors in this map, so proceed with extreme caution. MG and mortar crews are fairly useless in this mission, so use MG emplacements as defensive measure instead. Leave one sherman, 2 AT guns and an engineer as your mobild base defense. The rest of your army should go out and hunt for the panthers.
04. Capturing the points would actually shrink the panther's area of operation, meaning that they will get detected much more easily when you have OPs for them to attack. When they do, sneak up on them and pound them from behind.
05. Use caution when attacking. Once you build up your army, it is only a matter of patience and luring the panzers to the open to destroy them without losing too much units. Whatever you do, do not rush in blindly because there are a lot of garrisoned buildings and AT guns hiding around corners.
06. Build forward barracks when possible, because that way you can pump out AT guns and rifle squads from the front lines instead all the way back from your base.
Medal Earned: Distinguished Service Medal
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MISSION 12: Mortain
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Primary Objective: Hold Hill 317.
Secondary Objective: Defend Mortain.
Medal Objective: Rescue the Ranger Company
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Walkthrough
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01. Begin by building up your defenses around the hill. Send two veteran rifle squads up north (once you get the BAR upgrade, which should be the first thing you should do here) to find the trapped rangers. Rescue the rangers and the medal will be yours.
02. Capture as many points as possible with your spare infantries. I think you have a good 5 minutes of grace period before things get messy. Build tank traps around Mortain and one MG emplacement behind the point. This should be more than enough for Mortain's defense. Additionally it is relatively close to your main HQ, so you should station a squad for reinforcement purposes.
03. Surround the hill with tank traps and MG emplacement covering the critical entrances to the hill (there should be at least 3 to 4 emplacements total that you should build). Crew your AT guns, and send in the MGs to the points by the medic tents. You may want to garrison them on buildings on some of the points to make them last longer, but that is optional.
04. The germans will start attacking after a cutscene. They will come from the right side of the map, spawning from top and bottom parts of the right side of the map. These points should be reinforced with MG emplacements and at least one AT gun. Build a halftrack from the motorpool and use it as your quick response anti-infantry unit, as well as reinforcing any hot spots in the battlefield.
05. Every now and then German artillery will pound the hill. Watch for the flare drops and evacuate the area temporarily, and return to your defensive positions once the barrage has ceased. Replace any lost units and watch for the occasional snipers coming in with the german assault force.
06. Halfway through the mission, a howitzer will be available for you. Hotkey the howitzer, and defend the howitzer with at least a rifle squad. The howitzer is such a dangerous threat to the AI such that it may focus the attack on the howitzer. But if you build tank traps and your defense is well set up, it should not be a problem.
07. In the event that Mortain's defense gets decimated, fire howitzers down at the enemy's position attempting to capture the point, while sending in the stand-by rifle squad by your HQ to clean up the rest.
08. Your HQ will also get attacked every now and then. Have your engineers build sufficient defense on your HQ, and if you can afford it, The rescued rangers can be of some use defending the HQ if the situation calls for it.
09. Pick up any dropped panzershrecks for your rifle squads, because they will massively benefit from the extra firepower.
10. For the most part, the enemy attacks in waves, so as long as you can hold their assaults without losing too much units in a wave, you should survive the mission in a relatively good shape. However, if things do get messy on the front end, don't hesitate to abandon the points and focus all of your units in the center of the hill. Although if this is the case, be careful for german artillery fire. You only need to hold the hill for 30 minutes, so it shouldn't be that hard. In fact, if your defense is strong enough, the axis would start retreating by the last minute of the misison.
Medal Earned: Army Expert Badge
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MISSION 13: Mortain Counterattack
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Primary Objective: (1) Capture and hold 3 victory Points
Secondary Objective: (1) Destroy the 88 gun emplacements.
Medal Objective: Win with more than 250 points.
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Walkthrough
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01. At the start of the mission, you will have all your previous units that survived from last mission and several reinforcements. Using your engineer, hurry and build up the defenses around the hill. This is the first mission where you can choose your command powers. I used airborne and infantry commands in the past, and both work equally well, depending on your strategy.
02. To the corners of the right side of the map are two german bases, and in the center is the 88 battery emplacement, a few yards short of your howitzer. Darn it. If you're on the airborne path, just scout the area and strafe the batteries. Alternatively, if you're on the infantry path, scout the area with a rifle squad and rain down the artillery barrage. A more novel way is to send in an airborne or a ranger squad and literally run in circles surrounding the gun while tossing grenades like a mad chicken. If you hide behind one of the guns, the others will try to shoot and destroy its own gun by accident. Anyway you deal with it, do it fast before the rest of your army on the hill becomes hamburger.
03. While you silence the 88 guns, capture the lower point first, using a rifle squad and backed up by a Sherman. There is an 88 gun to the right guarding this point, so take it out first before it rips apart your Sherman. A grenade and close infantry charge will dislodge any crews sitting there. Capture the point, and send your engineers to build an MG emplacement to guard the position.
04. The next job is to take the point to the right of the base. This one can get tricky because it is along the path where the Germans come in for the assault. Bring some backup, but for the most part a lone rifle squad, ranger or airborne will be sufficient to capture and guard the area, even though having engineers build MG emplacements later doesn't hurt at all.
05. Use your howitzer to bombard the final point to dislodge any silly German troops camping there. Send in 2 squads of infantry there to capture the victory point. Watch for Ostwinds because they can rip apart your squad to pieces fast. Use sticky bombs to deal with these annoying armors.
06. Now if you notice on top, there is a bar with points counting down to zero with stars in between them. This is basically the victory bar, which should be familiar to those who play skirmish games. Otherwise, the idea is that as you capture more victory points, the other team's meter will decrease at a faster rate, with the maximum when you capture all the victory points on the map.
07. If you have equal points under your possession relative to the enemy, then both meters will not decrease. Anyone that controls less points will lose victory points. In order to get the medal, you should not by any circumstances control less than 2 points at any given moment. This is actually easier than it sounds. In fact, once you capture all 4 points, the germans suddenly lose the initiative to launch large assaults.
08. Unlike the previous mission, the predominant force attacking the hill will be armored vehicles, so AT guns must be present and guard the 3 different directions. Station your wolverine on the hill for better protection. Upgrade your engineers with flamethrowers to deal with any infantries tagging along with the armored assault.
09. Once you capture all 4 points, just focus on defending the points and before you know it, the mission will be over.
Medal Earned: Silver Star
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MISSION 14: Autry
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Primary Objective: Destroy the Tiger Ace.
Secondary Objective: None
Medal Objective: Destroy 20 Axis Vehicles.
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Walkthrough
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01. For this mission, I choose the vehicle command so that I can build the Pershing heavy tanks. These guys can practically go toe to toe with a tiger, but definitely not with the ace.
02. Build up your base, and send your rifle squads across the field to the right and capture the fuel point here. Bring along your pershing for heavy fire support. Leave your sherman back at the base, and build an AT gun to help out the sherman in case the Ace decides to rear its ugly fact on your base.
03. Capture the fuel point, and build a forward barracks here. Send one AT tank to this point, and have your engineer build an MG emplacement in this area.
04. Build a halftrack, and further complete your base. Also train a sniper for scouting purposes. The next point we need to capture is the munition point right next to your base. This area is heavily defended, and the tiger ace will start moving on to your position once you assault this point. In other words, get ready for some serious firefight. Your rifle squads should take care the infantry carrying panzershrecks, and in return they should grab those bazookas ASAP. 3 rifle squads equipped with the bazooka, as I mentioned in the previous missions, kick a whole lot of panzer ass in this game.
05. In order to get the medal, you need to destroy 20 axis vehicles. With two pershings roaming around, it is not even that hard. What is hard is to keep the ace alive long enough while you go around and hunt for axis vehicles to wreck. To do this, have a pershing go bait the ace's heavy fire, while having two or three engineer squads nearby to fix and keep it alive. And by the way, you don't want to lose your only pershing until you can replace it. Otherwise there is no other unit that can take that kind of punishment from the tiger ace. The ace usually retreats after a certain amount of time, or if it damaged bad enough (10-15% is usually enough to make it retreat).
06. The points in this mission are usually heavily defended by the Germans. So the tactics to take out the points are somewhat straightforward and the same for most of them: Pershing lead the way, supported by rifle squads and sherman towing in the back, with engineers keeping the Pershing alive. Rotate the pershing to the back if it's halfway damaged.
07. Keep in mind that the AI is extremely sloppy with friendly units in front of them. So if you have panzers lining on each other, manuever your tank so that one of the panzers is between the attacking panzer and your tank. That way you only take one shot, while the other panzer with the blocked path will end up hurting his own friend's tank.
08. Once you have two pershings at hand, you can get away with rushing them both forward, wreck havoc, and pull them back to your safe area so your engineers can work on them. Have them wreak havoc on the infantries and the light armored vehicles. Pull them back when they're getting pounded by AT guns and once the ace approaches your position.
09. Take out 20 vehicles, and take out the tiger ace. You will earn the medal if your 20th kill is the ace, but there will be more than 20 vehicles to drop in this mission. If you recall the retreat path from the briefing, there will be trucks and german halftracks moving down that path which are easy pickings for the pershings.
Medal Earned: Legion of Merit
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MISSION 15: Chambois
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Primary Objective: (1) Close the Falaise Line between the two Allied HQs (2) Repel the Axis Counterattack.
Secondary Objective: Capture all the Bridges.
Medal Objective: Inflict 300 casualties on the Axis.
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Walkthrough
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01. Start by building a Sherman tank and upgrading the BAR rifle for your infantry.
02. Get your snipers to scout the area. The first bridge has a motorcycle unit, so don't get your sniper to wander in its range.
03. Make sure you capture the high ammo point adjacent to the base. Ammo in this mission is crucial, so make sure you always have at least +40 ammo to make your life easier.
04. I personally used Airborne in this misison. My main strategy with Airborne is basically to drop three squads of Airborne, get the recoiless upgrade, and shred any tanks that come by with it. I also abuse the supply drops from time to time. Alternatively, infantry path is good too because rangers supported by halftrack can raise a lot of hell to the convoys, but it takes longer to field the rangers on the ground.
05. To inflict the maximum casualties for the Axis, pay attention on the axis convoy patterns. Then proceed with an upgraded Halftrack, your starting wolverine, and your sherman. Bring along infantries to support the heavy vehicles. Also have an engineer to tag along with your heavy vehicles to fix them in between attacks. Rinse and repeat for most of the convoys. Do not worry about the upper half of the map because unless you slowly clean out the axis defenses, it would be suicidal for your heavy vehicles to venture north.
06. Gradually capture the bridge, slowly sweeping from bottom to top. The Germans will keep on retreating until you close the line at least once. In other words, if you want to earn the Medal of Honor in this mission, keep the line open until you've reached a good 80-90% of your quota.
The AI allies will capture the points on their own, so keep an eye on them as well.
07. A general strategy is to have 2 squads of rifle infantry to capture the points and bridges, while leave your rangers with the rest of your tanks/ halftrack to intercept the convoys. If your rifles get pinned our get into messy situations, call them off and bring one of your shermans to the rescue. You should have build two shermans by now, so they can take turns in getting pounded.
08. If you have spare ammo, take your sniper to the top left area and conduct a bombing run on the axis base. Do this after you reach a good 60% of your quota so you don't run out of bad guys to shoot if you're gunning for the medal.
09. Keep an eye for red flares, because that would be axis artillery barrage. If you see them on the ground, get clear ASAP, unless you want to see allied chop suey served on your lap.
10. After you close the pocket, you will return to the map screen. The next objective is to defend against the axis final counterattack. There gonna be tons of panzers raining down on your ass, so consolidate your surviving forces and deal with them one by one. But if you happen to make them bunch up together, send in the bombers to take care of them in one fell swoop. Once the panzers are toast, mission accomplished.
Medal Earned: Medal of Honor
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