Which mission in US campaign is the best?

[Sneaksie]

Please answer if you completed the campaign. In addition, which mission in the campaign is the worst in your opinion?

[Sneaksie]

_______bump

[Knokke]

The best is the first one in my opinion. The worst would be Kasserine Pass, followed closely by Sbeitla (no good deployement area, ennemies attacking before having a chance to redeploy to better defensive position, overwhelming ennemy superiority making the mission so difficult as to be no fun)

[Paulverisor64]

I will make a surprizing number one choice here. I liked Tebessa the best because it was the biggest challenge; I thought it was unbeatable. I had to completely overhaul the starting position, the starting units and put painstaking detail into troop placement. When it finally played out correct it was a thing of beauty.

Prior to this battle I enjoyed the Sidi Bou Zid scenario the best. With this I enjoyed learning tactical timing and it was a rare US map where you were on the offensive.

I would have to agree with the other poster here in that Kasserine Pass would be considered the worst. It did not pose a great challenge.

I played all the scenarios on Novice level. The numbers offset which favored the enemy would seem to be too much to overcome on a higher level.

[Knokke]

@ Paulverisor64:

If you play on "normal" level, the ennemy will not have any advantage over your troops. It is the most realist mode, in the sense that neither your units, nor the enney have a boost to their morale and skill levels. In novice mode, your troops will be at an advantage, wether in veteran mode, the ennemy troops will be boosted in comparison to your own.

[Paulverisor64]

@ Paulverisor64:

If you play on "normal" level, the ennemy will not have any advantage over your troops. It is the most realist mode, in the sense that neither your units, nor the enney have a boost to their morale and skill levels. In novice mode, your troops will be at an advantage, wether in veteran mode, the ennemy troops will be boosted in comparison to your own.

I do agree that the enemy would not have an advantage in quality of troops; but the quantity is very hard to offset. I will most likely give it a try at normal settings but on certain maps I'd have to believe it would be an exercise in pain. The reason you play games is to enjoy what they have to offer, not to get humiliated.

I could actually see the advantage that I had when I would hit the panzer tanks with a frontal shot and take them out. I would not want to play this way if the strength of each side was equal; then I would want full realism. As it is I can't really see that my infantry is carrying that much of an advantage; they seem to break and die very easy.

You have said it yourself (overwhelming enemy superiority making the mission so difficult as to be no fun), that is precisely why I choose a lower difficulty.

I am hoping that as I gain experience that I will be able to raise the challenge and realism with the difficulty level. Until then bear with me as I am a noob in training.

[alan123]

I am playing the USA campaign at the moment.

I think there is a bug in the Kassarine Pass game as, besides the UK tanks, one receives no reinforcements at all and even if you manage to keep your units alive you end up simply running out of ammo as waves of germans with never ending artillery barrages keep coming out of the passes.

It is also pure luck if the german artillery spotting team is destroyed and the first series of artillery barrages ends. But even if they are destroyed early in the game, lots of artillery barrages still come with wave 5+ of germans.

I have had a look at the mission in the campaign and mission editor and can see that the USA player gets reinforces however I cannot find/do not understand the trigger event that sets them off.

And if just one German tank gets into the victory zone, even if under heavy fire and sure to die, the German player wins.

Of all the campaigns and missions I have ever played, and that is rather a lot, this one is the worst of the them all.

It is now simply repetitive, boring and frustrating.

Has any body got past this one without using "ignore campaign loss"?

I need a push in the right direction.

Cheers

Alan

[phil stanbridge]

I'm trying to get past that mission too! I tried 14 times yesterday

Both AI stuarts are crap and get toasted almost immediately, so you need to work out where to plonk your one. I've tried all different things. Keeping him in the village, keeping him way back, and keeping him in defilade. It doesn't make a jot of difference as the Germans steam roller their way across the map as quickly as possible. I can't even turn my turret quick enough in most cases to catch that single german soldier who is making a mad dash for the finish line. It's a bit poor to say the least. I didn't realise 'ignore campaign loss' meant that - I guess I will have to try it. I thought that was for the units roster throughout the campaign.

I will continue with TOW2 Africa for now until Kursk is patched!

[alan123]

Hello Phil,

I must have tried at least that amount of times too yesterday!

What I did was build the best unit I could in the roster, this was 3 Lees 3 ATGs and then the rest as infantry (which is about 2 green units that are as good as useless)

After each successfully defeated German wave I saved the game.

I reached the point where my force as still intact but had no AT ammo or no ammo at all and the German waves were still coming plus renewed artillery barrages.

Eventually one German tank or a handful of infantry will slip through and win the game.

My thought is that there is a trigger in the game that sends endless waves of Germans at you unless you have done something or other, (crossed a certain way point, entered a certain building, destroyed a certain German unit) and until you have done this it never stops.

A bit like the last battle where if you do not save the radio station (trigger) then the Germans get hold of it (another trigger event) and you get Stuka dive bombed until all your units are destroyed no matter how good you are doing in the battle.

With this in mind I tried one battle where I raced my units to the UK 6pdr guns to try to eliminate the German artillery spotters, save the guns (or re crew them) hoping this was a trigger event, this only seemed to speed the respawning of the German side and I lost my attacking units in the process. And during this time a wave of Germans went up and broke through too ending the game.

"Ignore campaigne loss" means that even if you lose the battle you still get to advance to the next map, which I think is the only option with this particular battle.

Any wise words from the makers of this game as to how one triggers off an event that evens things out a bit?

Cheers

Alan

[phil stanbridge]

Hi Alan, I was actually talking about a different mission so forgive me. I am playing that one too, but I get so stuck that I find them pretty frustrating and move on. I can't get past "Stop the Gap" in the Centauro US campaign.

I also remember winning that mission you are talking about - once. I kept three of my best tanks, M10's if I recall, on the far right flank, at distance and almost hull-down. I packed the barracks with everything else and hid all my men. I also removed the howitzers from the front line, and kept them right at the back, (there is a dip in the terrain that offers some cover). I think I had a single Lee at the rear as well, and he dealt with the tanks/vehicles on the right flank. The M10s dealt with the attacks on the left flank. The remaining infantry took care of everything else. I think it was as much a fluke as tactics however. That's part of the problem with this game - sound tactics will rarely win. Combat Mission in that respect is far superior. I didn't lose a single tank however, but i had played it and lost it many, many times.

The problem with "Stop the gap" is I cannot progress due to the nature of the campaign, and I cannot change my roster either. I'm stuck with a single Stuart and I cannot work out how to deal with the enemy.

[alan123]

Hello Phil,

Well I got through the Kasserine Pass USA mission by trying just about every trick in the book.

I could not have succeeded without constantly saving and reloading the the game after making sure each enemy wave and the artillery spotters were dealt with successfully.

I have never had to play this way before and really it is cheating and not a lot of fun.

And now onto the next one.

Alan

[alan123]

Tebessa is as bad as Kasserine Pass, endless repetition and saved games all because one tank or man slipped through.

[Gnasher]

It's a shame that these missions are you vs the mission creator rather than scenarios that require you to use the correct tactics to win. IMHO ToW's biggest single fault is these IMO BS single solution missions, they spoil the fun to a degree & are the prime reason for most of the negative press / remarks AFAIK.

[alan123]

Gnasher,

I am glad you think the same. These sort of mission designs remind me, OMG , of Command and Conquer type games that I played as a kiddie. If all the missions are like these I am going to give up on TOW2.

As you say, the mission design forces one to do silly things in order to win and that would not occur in real life.

By the way have you gone gold yet on your excellent TOW1 Bulldog Campaign, I am longing to play that all the way through?

I hope TOW2Kursk does not have this sort of rubbish in it. The Demo mission was ok though so I am hoping for the best.

AL

[alan123]

Gnasher,

As a modder are you able to make a mod that does away with other annoying features (that sadly have made there way into Kursk as well) such as:

Everything costs points (why?) One should have a force pool and pick and choose units regardless of cost to suit the mission, just like in real life.

Fixed unit type allocation slots. Now one is forced to take units into battle that do not belong there. Can you make the slots so that they are free for any type of unit?

Reinforcements are offered on a success basis, the better you do the more you get, this is also not real, what really happens in real life is that the worse you do the more you are reinforced (or replaced). In real life the more successful you are the less you get as you are doing fine and fighting efficiently with what you have.

Alan

Cheers

Alan

[alan123]

I have finished the USA campaign and my final comments are:

The bypass missions were frustrating and not a good idea. Like Gnasher says it is a battle between you and the game designer.

The first mission was the best and was a lot of fun to play out.

The fixed unit slot idea should be gotten rid of and one should have a free choice as to what one takes into battle.

There were not enough missions in the campaign, in fact you could hardly call it a campaign.

AL