Stuck on a Marine Mission

[rogue187]

I have been playing the 4th(?) mission on the marine campaign and I am really stuck. Its the mission where you have a few guys to guard the flank right after your invasion takes the town. Now I am not sure what the best possible outcome from the previous mission could have been in order to set me up for better success with this mission. But this is what I have:

3 understrengh squads w/wounded. Only one squad is close to full strength while the other two as less than half Only about a dozen LAWs between them

2 ATM teams with 0 AT ammo

2 MMGs

1 HQ

1 Forward Observer and 60mm battery that is empty.

I have that large ravine for the Syrians to cross, but I am not sure how to use my men effectively. The best result I have had is to KO 2 AFVs but even that took about 4 LAWs. Usually I end the mission early since I just get picked apart by the AFVs and the artillery.

Is there a better way to use what I have?

[missinginreality]

**SPOILER BELOW**

Rogu187;

If this is the one I think it is; hang on a while longer; you'll get a bunch of reinforcements that'll help you through.

[rogue187]

I kinda figured there was, the longest I lasted was when the Navy ship arrived on station.

[missinginreality]

Not long after that - am not sure how long exactly but I know it feels like an age!

I managed to hold on by not decisively getting engaged until they arrived; got down into the valley, especially behind that low wall down there, and in the trees, and dug in till relief came.

[Mad Mike]

Hi Rogue187,

Is there a better way to use what I have?

**** POSSIBLE SPOILERS BELOW ****

Well, you don't have much to begin with (did you have rather high casualties in the last mission?), so i would advise to keep the depleted troops back (hiding) and let the Syrians come close to your lines. You could then defeat them quite easily with your superior firepower.

This tactic worked nicely for me with v1.10 and in the end, after some pretty intense fighting and the very necessary reinforcements, i managed to get a Syrian surrender.

With v1.11 i tried the same approach, still got a Syrian surrender, but the end result was a "Total Defeat". You ask why? The answer is in the readme for v1.11:

- Surrender does not necessarily lead to total defeat. The scores for Terrain Touch, Terrain Destroy, and all Unit objectives are preserved.

For the Syrians, the two objectives in this mission (roads leading off the map to the south) seem to be defined as Terrain Touch, which means as soon as any one Syrian unit touches it, they get awarded the points. If they manage to touch both, you can wipe them completely off the map and you will still lose . In my opinion, this is a wrong usage of objective type in this misssion, which did not matter for v1.10, but makes it much harder now in v1.11.

What does this translate into? If i were you, i would try the mission before this one again and see if you can win it with less casualties. Also, the absence of the 60mm mortar support is especially bad, as it would help you to disorganise and delay the Syrians early on in the mission, giving you breathing time till the reinforcements arrive. With the reinforcements, a Javelin team will arrive .. this one i would deploy immediately to the small hill on you right side to deal with the T-62s.

[SGT_56M]

I usually skip that mission by asking for a cease fire, the one that comes after it as a fail is a lot of fun to play.

[TheVulture]

***** SPOILERS*******

As others have said, one option is to replay the earlier mission and put more emphasis on keeping your troops alive. Heavy casualties in earlier missions might make some of the later mission nigh-on impossible.

On that mission, I played for time, from an earlier attempt in a previous patch where I did much the same as you - tried to pin down the Syrians at distance, and got chewed up by the BMPs (and tanks when they turn up). Second attempt I stayed a fair way back so that only the far side of the valley was visible, and all the valley itself was a blind spot. Keep the troops spread out there in split squads with short cover arcs, and when a Syrian squad comes over the crest, they run in to fire by 2-3 squads and go nowhere. The LAWs are not much use at range, but lethal against BMPs that come rolling over the near crest at 100 meter ranges or less. The AT SMAW weapons are a bit more reliable, but not accurate enough to reliably hit something on the far side of the valley. Again, they can smash a BMP at short range, or take out a T-72 on a flank shot - with added luck.

So my main idea was a closed defence - anything getting close runs into something capable of killing it quite easily, and the defenders avoid their main threat of being chewed up and spat out by enemy APC fire from across the map. Once your reinforcements show up you have a javelin team that can deal with the tougher nuts to crack, and then once they are gone the AAVs are quite capable of winning head-to-head against the BMPs, so you can go on the offensive.

But at first, just try to buy time, stay hidden, and only open up at short range targets, and see how that works out for you.

[rogue187]

Well I managed to beat the mission with a minor victory. I claim that I frustrated the AI so it started to cheat. I had two squads that were pulled back with no LOS to the observer, yet they would drop a short/quick barrage directly on top of my guys. Lost almost 2 whole squads that way. Then the tanks were able to take out most of another squad that showed up later.

The even though I was able to get a surrender, one of the tanks managed to breakout, so they got all those points.

So I had to do the loss mission, which was a neat mission. The sad part was that I took so many casualties with Golf Co. that when they came to reinforce me, I had some pathetic squads. I think it was a 6 man, 4 man, and 1 man squad as back up. But I still got a total victory on that mission.

One question: Why is the casualty threshhold so low? When I did the Army campaign I kept finding my core units lacking, and the Marines take ammo into account! Not that I am complaining, but the most casualties that I can remember is usually 25 KIA with about 20 wounded. While in total that is about, what, 30% losses. Usually I do better, but I find myself taking higher casualties with the Marines more so than the Army. They still seem low to me especially given that in most missions the US is outnumbered. At a minimum I still inflict 2-1 or 3-1 casualties on the Syrian side.

[Pvt. Ryan]

If you have ammo for the mortars they are useful for taking out the BMPs early in the scenario. That way you can keep your troops hidden until later.