Hister

Excellent, thank you!

@Fuser: Do your modded textures present bigger load on the PC aka it means I will get less FPS with your mod and my ancient PC? I'm also looking forward at the preview - as many different landscape views as possible...

Excellent, will definitely try it out!

Plenty of people must have played it since that is where you end up with for failing the hard knocks which a lot of people did. The nice thing is that the German casualties are carried over from school of hard knocks. It's much easier to reach the hill but be aware of exposing your men too much at the top of the hill since second defences in the valley behind the ridge will open fire on you. I tried it a bit and then decided I want to perfect school of hard knocks so I'll only play this level for real if I fail to deliver a win before hand.

Haven't been playing the German side but with the allies this is exactly the kind of results I get. I'm never quite sure if I managed to knock out the team behind the gun or not if I don't have direct visual on them (aka just the question mark) and the enemy AT gun is far away. But I do agree that some adjustments should be made for the casualty rate of entrenched units but nothing radical - for me the devs got it almost right.

Yes, the waypoints in this particular scenario should have been fixed in the patch. Micromanagement is needed in abundance at the bridge. The tutorial seems a bit odd in the fact that when he positioned tanks hull down where the mortar teams were he didn't get bombed the hell up. Maybe because enemy spotters were more concentrated on the units that have already crossed the bridge? Still need to practice how to know where exactly tanks need to be in order to have a hull down position - how do you guys determine it?

I spent a lot of time trying to win it and count amongst those who love it 'cos I keep getting back to it. Looking at above video for the 4th time now 'cos for the life of me I couldn't succeed in getting to that damn hill I just realised what's the element that I got wrong so far: SPOILER: - you need to advance with one platoon as soon as the game starts since it's still dark and enemy spotters can't react in time. Be too late and enemy spotter/s will unleash all the hell on you and you won't be able to proceed far from the bridge. I also figured hot to avoid getting your tanks run over the AT mines before and after the bridge. First send an engineer team to blast the barbedwire at the entrance at the bridge which will also blast all the AT mines present there. Send your tanks over the bridge and as soon as they exit the bridge order them to make a sharp right turn which will enable them to avoid the remainder of AT mines. That is in theory - I still need to prove my assumption for real.

To you to matey - fix the link though, it ain't working for me. :>D

Good you confirmed it!

Thanx but one mine exploded on the marked field when one dude run fast over it. Maybe it was at the edge of the other square or something although it looked pretty much at the centre of the marked square...

OK, I read the manual 3 times and somehow missed this.

Can someone else confirm this? As for my unit measure yeah, I'm not familiar with Imperial metric system - was just trying to make my point, I believe everybody understood what I meant

Erm, 150" doesn't do the trick?

Yeah, only 150" artillery is supposedly able to clear them out. Haven't got to any level where I could test that myself. Anyway, I've practised and managed to get proficient in the mine clearing process. Detach a scout team, send them on the square where you know mines are and hope one of them triggers the mine (so crazy I know, hehe). Afterwards send the engineers and let them mark the mine field after which there are less kaa-boom events (here and there mines do go off when soldiers walk in the marked square which is realistic though). I managed to send tanks over the bridge without getting them run over the mines and thus prevented any of them from getting immobilised. Spoiler alert! Have one engineer team blow up the barbed wire in front of the bridge (barb-wire at the centre). This blast will detonate also other mines (but usually one or two AP mines will still be there) which will allow your tanks to drive on the bridge without getting immobilised and thus preventing other tanks to cross the bridge. As soon as you drive over the bridge make a sharp right turn where there are no antitank mines. Proceed on the right side of the road and eb acrefull not to send your tanks to forward or you will lose them to panzerfausts. I'm still having trouble in getting this level right namely in still having to learn how to synchronize the smoke screen, artillery shelling and infantry crossing the bridge so that the enemy is deprived of their overwhelming advantage. Would appreciate a lot any tips you guys might give me...

I tested all the sounds in all the sounds mods and made a personal combo. I don't like incoming artillery in this mod at all for instance but granted there are many sounds that clearly win over the competition

Hmm, not sure why are you all hyped about this sound mod - tried it out now and will swap back to Vein's sound mod. But then again maybe I installed it wrong...

Yeah, engineers/pioneers can't mark the mines if mines don't go off. This sucks and should be "fixed" in the next patch. Another option that I will also try is to clear the mines around the bridge by using a mortar fire.

What is ASL?

Finally made some progress - I would have secured all the objectives if the time wouldn't run out. I'll reply this level and try to be faster. The trick is you need to carve a path through the hedges on the right so that your tanks can sneak towards the right part of the map where they don't endanger other units like mortar groups since when they get spotted bombs start to fall on them. On that rightmost ridge on the other hand bombs are not presenting a problem becauise you can spread out your tanks. What I had a problem with is clearing the minefild - I think I don't know yet how to properly clear the minefield. 2 tanks lost their tracks due the mines just over the bridge. Next time I play this level I'll split all my pioneer groups and send them over to the bridge . 2 groups will get rid of the obstacles while other groups will be clearing the mines (I hope I'll be able to figure out how to properly get rid of them) - all this under the cover of the smoke screen which I also need to master yet.

Not solely related to the moratrs but to the whole artillery arsenal: Change the color of the dirt that is blown out of the soil when bomb hits the ground. Soil should have been dark brown and not at all what we have now. Any modders out there who can change this?

AT guns can only be spotted when they shoot and they only shoot when tanks come to play. I'll move pioneers to the spot and wait - hopefully they won't get shot at by artillery. Wish me luck guys...

What is cover armor arc?

Thanx for the info - now I know where to get the smoke Should I position my mortars in this level in direct or indirect mission? I see that direct missions gets them fire very quickly but are also prone to be hit by enemy artillery. Seems also that as soon as I put my tanks in the position first one of them gets hit by a AT gun and when the gun is dealth with my tanks get hit by the heavy German offmap artillery. This level is really hard but now I'm making some progress. I opted to split one pioneer unit into two parts, send them quickly towards the bridge to blow up the fences and this did work. What I still don't know is how can pioneers search for the mines - is it automatic? I don't see them finding any mines while moving over the mined area.

He sent one divided platoon to the bridge in order for the first enemy positions to be uncovered and had pioneers follow that platoon in order to destroy barbed wire and clear the mines. He managed to get to the bridge with those two groups without any bombs falling on them. In my case I get bombed before I manage to get to the bridge. Maybe I should have used the quick move order to negate the time needed for the enemy spotter and artillery to start firing on me? What I forgot to do though is to mark all other units to be hidden - will do so next time I play it and see the results. Also one another beginner question - how do you make an indirect order a smoke shell from the mortars or offmap artillery? I must be blind or something 'cos i don't see the command available to me. Smoke screen has a major importance in this level and without it your men eat lead on the filed when hey start crossing the bridge... Any help much appreciated.

Yes he did but as soon as I move any of my units artillery barrage starts falling to where the movement is. I haven't divided my units though, maybe that is the cause.