wat

[tyrspawn]

So I was playing the British campaign today and finished the Counterattack level with a draw and the campaign ended with a major defeat for me. Most of the levels I played I got a major victory, 2 were draws (at no fault to me, the briefings lied), and I had one minor defeat. WTF?

[MikeyD]

Only guessing, you may have lost too many men winning those battles. Me, I'm notorious for throwing my troops lives away needlesly, after a few battles it really starts to add up.

[JonS]

The counter attack is a critical battle. Do badly there (a draw here counts as "doing badly") and you'll be booted out of the campaign early. As you found out. Basically, you and your 4 SCOTS BG can no longer be trusted with combat operations.

[tyrspawn]

The counter attack is a critical battle. Do badly there (a draw here counts as "doing badly") and you'll be booted out of the campaign early. As you found out. Basically, you and your 4 SCOTS BG can no longer be trusted with combat operations.

Ah thanks for the info, that battle is so difficult! The AT-4s are basically useless against enhanced t-72s. I managed to finally beat back the force but I was a little too aggressive when the last 3 friendly tanks showed up and they were all taken out by a single t-72 which was unbelievably well hidden in an ambush position. I lost 60% of my force in that battle, although to respond to Mike's post, I did quite well in the other battles with usually 1:10 to 1:20 casualties.

Cool, I guess I can replay that level and still progress!

What does the UK government expect, a miracle? If that happened in real life they would have retreated, without air support or artillery support (which comes about 45 minutes after the ME by the enemy armored forces), or javelin teams, it's a death trap.

[JonS]

What does the UK government expect, a miracle?

Why, yes. Yes of course. It's tradition, doanchaknow.

[Blackcat]

Tyrspawn,

If you are going to replay this mission you might want to have a look at a thread on the Tactics forum entitled "Stuck on Brit Campain" (or something very similar) from a few weeks ago. I was in the same position as you and sought help, which I got.

[Dietrich]

*** FILMED IN SPOILER-VISION!!! ***

After my first attempt at this mission in which I suffered heavy losses, I hunkered every vehicle behind a building (thank goodness there are so many buildings on the map), pulled my infantry well back and assigned 30-meter cover arcs to every unit, used my AS90s like indirect-fire anti-tank guns (if you're patient, the T-72s and such will remain stationary long enough for your artillery to score consistent hits on them), and deployed my late-arriving Challengers in a wide right-ward flanking maneuver to attack the Syrians from behind. Thus I inflicting heavy casualties while suffering few myself. Also, right at the beginning of the scenario, rush the lone Challenger to the right flank so it can smash the Syrian penetration from that direction -- that helps a lot.

[tyrspawn]

*** FILMED IN SPOILER-VISION!!! ***

After my first attempt at this mission in which I suffered heavy losses, I hunkered every vehicle behind a building (thank goodness there are so many buildings on the map), pulled my infantry well back and assigned 30-meter cover arcs to every unit, used my AS90s like indirect-fire anti-tank guns (if you're patient, the T-72s and such will remain stationary long enough for your artillery to score consistent hits on them), and deployed my late-arriving Challengers in a wide right-ward flanking maneuver to attack the Syrians from behind. Thus I inflicting heavy casualties while suffering few myself. Also, right at the beginning of the scenario, rush the lone Challenger to the right flank so it can smash the Syrian penetration from that direction -- that helps a lot.

This is exactly what I did. I almost was succesful doing this the first time I played, but I panicked and did a few emergency danger close fire missions, wasting a lot of ammunition and delaying accurate fire missions. This being said, I still consider my first attempt a success, I held my ground and repelled the attack. A cease fire in a situation like that IS a victory, you have stopped the blitzkrieg into your line. This is why the Ardennes counter-offensive is considered a strategic victory for the allies. I was successful on my 2nd attempt. I created a defence in depth and positioned the lone challenger in the far rear with an open LOS to the attack on the right flank. He was positioned so that he would be able to fire upon vehicles coming into view one at a time, also had hull down position from a wall and partial hull down from being partially blocked by a building. I managed to take out all the tanks on the right flank with the challenger. It took about 25 minutes to secure the left, as I also took sub 150 meter potshots at vehicles with AT-4s from ambush positions. The level ended with the creation of two makeshift mechanized battlegroups from the remnants of the company. We assualted the objectives on the flanks, ran into a company of BMPs and after destroying them, Syrians surrendered.

Lesson: BMPs are very dangerous in engagments of 500 meters or less, as the rockets they have are actually accurate at those ranges. I lost a tank and had another immobilized from BMP fire, while the 2nd time I played I lost 0 tanks to enemy armor. I was really surprised that the BMPs could penetrate the frontal armor of the challengers, I knew there was a wave of BMPs there but I couldn't foot patrol it because my dismounts were so battered from the fight for the town (most at half strength).

I also couldn't outflank them because i wasn't sure where the remnant armor was (this is how I lost the first time, to a single t-72 which killed 3 of my challengers from an extremely good ambush position). Accordingly I hoped to absorb the initial rocket spam from the BMPs and then take them out quickly with my own mechanized wave. Very fun.