Cpl Steiner Posted August 5, 2012 Share Posted August 5, 2012 Hi all, I can't get passed the first mission of the Troina campaign; my men always get hammered by direct and indirect HE fire and break very quickly. Has anyone got passed this mission yet with a half-decent score? I just can't seem to find a way to deal with the enemy spotters and guns. I've tried using mortars on the guns but I have no idea where the spotters are to target them. I've tried opening barrages on the hilltop positions but nothing seems to work. Any suggestions much appreciated. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dokken1212 Posted August 5, 2012 Share Posted August 5, 2012 Hey Cpl steiner How I got passed it was using my spotter. I sent a jeep at the beginning up the road at the start of the scenario to draw fire which the AT gun in the forest does. I then move my spotter in slowly to get a LOS on the AT gun ... then barrage it. Following this I then move my spotter back and up the hill about halfway and rest him. Then I use one of my tanks to go near the top of the hill and begin clearing infantry ... eventually the other AT gun will fire revealing its position. At that point I use my spotter to crawl into a position to get a LOS on the AT gun ... and barrage it. I then lay down barrages on the 'green' areas that have not been taken and then move my remaining tanks up the hill then push with them and infantry along the the ridge 'rolling up' any remaining infantry. Be aware of the 232 as it will show and then you can deal with that. That in a nutshell is how I did it. My spotter was crucial to removing the AT threat and as for being mortared and barraged I made sure my men were well spread out. I only used about one-third of the force I had to complete the mission as I wanted to rid the map of AT and then use my armour to 'roll' the infantry up. However wait until you get to the second map ... holy heck ...i'm severely struggling with that !!! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cpl Steiner Posted August 5, 2012 Author Share Posted August 5, 2012 Thanks - completed it now using the approach you described. Got a Total Victory due to Axis surrender but unfortunately not before they'd killed about 30 of my men. My FO took out the guns pretty easily, and my canister-firing tanks proved to be very effective at clearing enemy positions, but enemy mortar fire still took a heavy toll, despite my best efforts to keep my men displacing regularly and spread out. The next map does indeed look pretty daunting! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dokken1212 Posted August 5, 2012 Share Posted August 5, 2012 Good to hear Cpl Steiner ....on the second map I am stranded about halfway up and struggling to 'break out'. I have enemy infantry dug in on my left flank and am being hit hard by isolated units that have pulled back after artillery barrage. One tough map and with it being a totally uphill battle the AI has a severe advantage as they have good LOS etc. No matter what terrain features I use ultimately at some point you have to make a move in open ground and thats when the carnage starts :-) ..... if you come up with a plan let me know hahahaha ...I think i'll be on this map for a while :-) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rokko Posted February 21, 2013 Share Posted February 21, 2013 With the new module announced I thought I'd give CMFI another try after not having played it too extensively and started over with the Troina campaign again, and boy, am I glad that it still has the old MG efficency, would have been even more of a massacre than it already was. Lost 30 men KIA and WIA which I was pretty unhappy about even though I got Total Victory in the end. The platoon I sent into the woods got badly shot up and thus didn't reach the objective. The platoon I first sent up on the Northern ridge actually had to retreat temporarily and getting a bloody nose as well. Awesome campaign so far. Besides I'm pretty happy to manage to finish this without cheating (i.e. quitting and loading a savegame) despite being at times a painful show. Had I played in WeGo I bet my losses would have been at least 50% higher 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agusto Posted February 21, 2013 Share Posted February 21, 2013 I really enjoyed the Troina campaign. In the first battle i used the preperatory bombardment to 1) shell the position on the ridgeline with HE and 2) deploy a looong smokescreen in order to litterally split the whole battlefield in half, cutting off the ridgeline from the other defensive positions. I then launched an all out attack on the surviving defenders of the ridgeline, quickly overrunning them without casualties and then had my troops take cover on the other side of the ridgeline. The plan was to break through and then attack the enemy on the hill and forrest from behind. In the meantime my spotters positioned themselves in the center and shelled the enemy foxholes in the forrest and on the main hill, taking out some AT guns. The rest of the battle was cleaning up what the artillery had left over. I took the hill and used it for firing down into the forrest with tanks and infantry. I ended up with some 15-20 casualties mostly due to mortar fire and 1 tank lost. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albe Pavo Posted February 22, 2013 Share Posted February 22, 2013 Troina campaign is really awesome. I'm now at mission 4 (3 total vicotries thus far), defending a ridgeline against a strong german counterattack. In mission one did pretty the same as dokken1212, but divided my troops in 2 echelons. 1 platoon supported with tanks striked the ridgeline after a preparatory bombardement. other 2 platoons moved in the lowest part of the map and entered the forest, striking upward. With so much artillery support, it was easy to destroy or at least pin down any german strongpoint encountered. Troina campaign is really wonderful: having a 155mm battery to call for bombardement... ROCKS!!! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rokko Posted February 22, 2013 Share Posted February 22, 2013 Dividing the battlefield with a smokescreen sound like a pretty good idea, the flanking fire from the hilltop was actually the reason why I had to temporarily withdraw my attacking platoons until I could supress those positions with artillery and mortar fire and try another assault. I guess I'm not very proficent with using smokescreens, don't have much experience with it either, and timing and spacing is pretty important with smoke I guess, also I never know how long the smoke is going to stay. Gonna try it out in the second mission I think. Most of my casualties came from small arms fire I think, mostly in this damn woods that are full of foxholes, ate up half a platoon. Again, if the Germans had their CMBN 2.01 machineguns the entire platoon would have bit the dust I've also noted that with these extremely steep slopes soldiers tend to fight standing upright instead of lying or kneeling. I always set them to hide, elsewise mortar fire really takes a toll. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albe Pavo Posted February 22, 2013 Share Posted February 22, 2013 I think is better to use artillery to pin down the enemy instead of deploying a smoke screen. it could be effective, but just if you can develop it very tigh IMHO. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
umlaut Posted February 22, 2013 Share Posted February 22, 2013 I did reasonably well without any smoke screen: **********SPOILERS************* If I remember correctly (it has been a few months after all), I sent two platoons and three Stuarts on a wide "right hook" to the southernmost edge of the forest. First I let one jeep lead the way to test if there were any hostile fire. When I felt it was save I sent the Stuarts and the trucks with infantry. They all made it safely to the edge of the forest where I parked the trucks. The last two Stuarts and one platoon I sent very carefully up the left (west) slope. They very soon encountered the germans and had to take cover. But they were little by little able to spot the german positions. I was then able to get my FO to direct arty at them. At the same time my two platoons and three Stuarts moved slowly up through the forest and took care of all germans they encountered by massive fire superiority. I had mortars moving near the left edge of the forest. They could then strike germans positons on the ridge, when they spotted them. My right hook reached the summit and one platoon attacked the german postion there from south while the other attacked from the east. They took it with relatively few casualties. I had then planned to move them westwards along the north side of the ridgeline while my single platoon on the west slope attacked from the other side. But the germans decided they´d had enough and surrendered. That was a scenario I really enjoyed. The next one (Hill 1209)? I´ve been stuck halfway up the hill for months now, trying to pull myself together to finish it. Reminds me a lot of the CMBN "Courage and fortitude" campaign. It took me ages before I finished the second mission "School of hard knocks". I just did a couple of weeks ago. And boy am I glad I did, before the 2.01 upgrade with new MG deadliness. Well now I have the incentive to finish Hill 1209 - before the über-MG´s arrive in CMFI too 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rokko Posted February 22, 2013 Share Posted February 22, 2013 Well holy sh*t. Second mission feels like one company pittied against another company, only that one of these is dug in on a frickin' mountain. There goes your 3:1 ratio down the toilet 40 casualties so far, just defeated a German counter-attack which cost them dearly. I have only broken their first defensive position and my platoons are almost rendered combat ineffective. Realistically I guess the attack would be broken off at that point and resumed at a later time, but probably I'll have to do the rest with my artillery. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albe Pavo Posted February 22, 2013 Share Posted February 22, 2013 More than so: you have to hurry to finish mission 3 before the new machineguns arrive! You'll see! :-) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agua Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 The next one (Hill 1209)? I´ve been stuck halfway up the hill for months now, trying to pull myself together to finish it. Same. Just getting green troops ground down. First mission was was able to utilize terrain to find *some* defilade while isolating enemy positions. Not happening on here. Every approach has withering fire sufficient to melt my wet behind the ear troops. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rokko Posted February 26, 2013 Share Posted February 26, 2013 Holy cow pie, I just figured out, the Germans actually DO have an entire company up there! At least 4 platoons of infantry and a whole bunch of support weapons. How am I supposed to storm a mountain with only 3 platoons of infantry with an actually stronger enemy force holding it? Granted, I do have enough explosives to blast this friggin Mt. Everest into orbit, but where's the fun in that? I mean the map is great and all, but that would be a task that should be given to a full batallion, or at least two companies of infantry. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albe Pavo Posted February 27, 2013 Share Posted February 27, 2013 Just use artillery with anti-personnel fire. You will blast them all. Probe with few scout, identify enemy strongpoints and blast them with artillery. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agua Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 [MISSION 2] FINALLY(!) found a covered approach. Mission 3 is pretty fun so far. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rake Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 Hi all, I can't get passed the first mission of the Troina campaign; my men always get hammered by direct and indirect HE fire and break very quickly. Has anyone got passed this mission yet with a half-decent score? I just can't seem to find a way to deal with the enemy spotters and guns. I've tried using mortars on the guns but I have no idea where the spotters are to target them. I've tried opening barrages on the hilltop positions but nothing seems to work. Any suggestions much appreciated. Just in case no one has noticed before... ******SPOILERS****** I got through the first with 16 KIA/11 wounded, 1 jeep knocked out. I kept most of my force back at the start, sending one platoon up to the VL on the left. They took most of the casualties as they were held up by the teams in the VL and got mortared pretty heavily before I could pull them back. I sent another platoon, along with my sniper team and spotter, very slowly up the center... crawling, pause, hide, repeat... until they had LOS to the hilltop and the woods on the right. Soon enough, the AT gun in the woods revealed itself after the sniper team got involved in a shootout with the German sniper. The spotter got a sight and mortars quickly took care of that. After "securing" (I use the term lightly due to the fire they were under) the VL on the crest to the left, I used a smoke barrage to cover my tanks moving over the crest and into the valley along the left side. Along with their accompanying infantry, they arrived at the top of the hill as the German counterattack was coming up out of the brush. The AC was quickly dispatched and the rest of the platoon was slaughtered with short range canister fire. The M5's continued under smoke cover to the dead ground about halfway across. The second AT gun revealed itself and knocked out my trailing jeep, through the dissipating smoke, as the jeep raced along the valley and before disappearing into the dead ground. By that point, I was already on the gun's flank and was able to take it out from behind with a close range assault with tanks and infantry while the hilltop fortifications were under an extremely heavy barrage. From there on, it was just mopping up. By the time I got to the hilltop, artillery had killed or run off all the defenders. The AI soon surrendered after the tanks began pushing over with LOS into the woods. I did okay, too, in the second. I just started the third around the time when CMBN 2.0 was released and have playing that ever since. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agusto Posted March 17, 2013 Share Posted March 17, 2013 Soon enough, the AT gun in the woods revealed itself after the sniper team got involved in a shootout with the German sniper. The spotter got a sight and mortars quickly took care of that. That s pretty much the tactic that will lead to sucsess in most missions of the Troina campaign. Slowly recon until you find the german AT guns, hit em with arty, then kill defensless infantry with your tanks from stand-off range. I really would recommend you to finnish the Troina campaign. It is one of the best of the CMx2 ww2 series that i ve played. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rake Posted March 17, 2013 Share Posted March 17, 2013 That s pretty much the tactic that will lead to sucsess in most missions of the Troina campaign. Slowly recon until you find the german AT guns, hit em with arty, then kill defensless infantry with your tanks from stand-off range. ******SPOILER - Scenario Three****** Yes, it works well... unfortunately, IIRC, there are no tanks in the third scenario :eek: This one looks like a slow slog up the hill and hoping the artillery can smash the defenders before I'm completely exposed... like most of the way up the hill 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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