What could I have done more in the first Paratrooper mission?

[HenkieDePost]

I bought the game in early access but the campaigns were disabled back then. So when the game finally got released I was stoked to try it out and see how it works so I tried the first paratrooper mission. I captured the village with minimal losses. Then I made a defensive line and spawned in some troops to attack the artillery whilst the Germans tried to push for the village. I took the Artillery with ease and made plans to do the same thing on the other side of the map, where the AT guns were located. The Germans, in the meantime, were banging their heads against my steel wall of AT guns and machineguns. After capturing the AT guns I went back to the village to hold the line there. I thought that the 'hold and assist' timer was just there to show you how long you had to hold without losing the village, but after the timer ran out I got a 'loss' screen with a message that Ike blew off the invasion after heavy losses. In the end screen I see that I had 200 losses against 3000 kills. I completed all the secondary objectives. I held the line at the village. What could I have done more? Is this a bug or did I just not understand what the objective was? I have to say though that I only killed the AT guns fairly late in the mission (with around 1.5 mins left) because there was a machine-gun I had trouble with killing. So the Sherman DD's weren't at my front yet when the timer ran out. But I still don't understand why I lost. Bug or what?

 

[Gethsemani]

Not a bug. You have to hold the village until the tanks arrive to help you, then the objective becomes to counter-attack and take out the German "spawn" at the bottom of the map. The trick is really to be diligent and quick about taking out the guns that's holding the 4th back from reaching you, because it cuts down on the time you have to hold the village and minimizes your losses.

 

[HenkieDePost]

Not a bug. You have to hold the village until the tanks arrive to help you, then the objective becomes to counter-attack and take out the German "spawn" at the bottom of the map. The trick is really to be diligent and quick about taking out the guns that's holding the 4th back from reaching you, because it cuts down on the time you have to hold the village and minimizes your losses.

Okay. I thought the AT guns were also a secondary objective but I wasn't paying attention then. The tanks were literally on the outskirts of the village when I got the defeat screen so that's a bit of a bummer. Next time I'm going to target the AT first before attacking the Artillery. Thanks for the clarification.

 

[Sourlol]

I only had a little time to play the campaign so far. But as gethsemani said, once you capture audouville you not only have to defend against Germans coming from the south but also you will need to push north--I believe on the right side of the map--to take out the 88s specifically targeting the tank column.

The guns you can take out--more or less on the left--for secondary objectives are a different thing altogether.

 

[Karlburg]

If you want to speed up the armor's arrival, you should also look to knock out the pak 40s watching the road.

 

[KarampaFIN]

I basically "cheesed" my way through the map and lost 3 units in the end. Basically, I rushed the spawn where the enemy comes from once the counter-attack begins. That is their only spawn on the map, so if you get to it, they cannot bring any units to you. It was quite simple really. I sent 2 units of AB Engineers against the unguarded 88's while on the west side of the map, I sent my "free" units to hunt for the Artillery. Meanwhile, I spent most of my points on making an assault force to rush the enemy spawn. I sent the upper squads towards the town to slowly wither the enemy there with the two mortars, while my main assault with the lower squads with some additional fire support from Mortars were sent towards the enemy spawn. There are 4, 3-star MG42's protecting it, so those Mortars had a fun time dealing with them. After I got close enough and was able to wipe out the last MG, I had 2 minutes left to prepare for the ambush. The 88's were killed by my Engineers and I was able to take down 2 of the 4 guns. I might have been able to take out the rest, but I hadn't realised that this game worked similarly to the way European Escalation did where you could just block the enemy spawn and "break" the mission that way. My original plan was to place 6 units of Airborne alongside 2 Bazooka units right next to the spawn, so any infantry that tried to come out would immediately be pinned and burned to a crisp while any Armoured Vehicle would blow up instantly to my Bazookas.

It was a massacre towards the end.

 

[I WUB PUGS]

I basically "cheesed" my way through the map and lost 3 units in the end. Basically, I rushed the spawn where the enemy comes from once the counter-attack begins. That is their only spawn on the map, so if you get to it, they cannot bring any units to you. It was quite simple really. I sent 2 units of AB Engineers against the unguarded 88's while on the west side of the map, I sent my "free" units to hunt for the Artillery. Meanwhile, I spent most of my points on making an assault force to rush the enemy spawn. I sent the upper squads towards the town to slowly wither the enemy there with the two mortars, while my main assault with the lower squads with some additional fire support from Mortars were sent towards the enemy spawn. There are 4, 3-star MG42's protecting it, so those Mortars had a fun time dealing with them. After I got close enough and was able to wipe out the last MG, I had 2 minutes left to prepare for the ambush. The 88's were killed by my Engineers and I was able to take down 2 of the 4 guns. I might have been able to take out the rest, but I hadn't realised that this game worked similarly to the way European Escalation did where you could just block the enemy spawn and "break" the mission that way. My original plan was to place 6 units of Airborne alongside 2 Bazooka units right next to the spawn, so any infantry that tried to come out would immediately be pinned and burned to a crisp while any Armoured Vehicle would blow up instantly to my Bazookas.

It was a massacre towards the end.

I tried doing that after I failed the first attempt. Ended up running into MG's guarding the bottom of the map and they sort of ruined my day.

I think the easiest way of playing it without cheesing is to just fill in the main town you're holding, then send those starting troops you have closest to the artillery secondary objective and give them some .50 cal jeep support and just mop up those, then swing east to hit the 88's. If you do it fast enough, you win pretty easily.

 

[KarampaFIN]

I tried doing that after I failed the first attempt. Ended up running into MG's guarding the bottom of the map and they sort of ruined my day.

I think the easiest way of playing it without cheesing is to just fill in the main town you're holding, then send those starting troops you have closest to the artillery secondary objective and give them some .50 cal jeep support and just mop up those, then swing east to hit the 88's. If you do it fast enough, you win pretty easily.

I noticed that adding the two mortars was required. You bomb the heck out of the two MG's that are looking out to the field, then skim the treeline between the spawn and the village. From there you go through the forest that was next to the treeline where the closest MG was. You move the Mortars up and bomb the MG unit to Pin them. Then you just charge them while you turn your Mortars towards the last MG. Do the same thing and there you go, mission complete.

You really don't need anything "special" for the 88's. They are completely unguarded and very close to forests so even a single unit of AB Engineers could kill them. Just avoid all the houses between your spawn and the 88's and you'll avoid every single Osttruppen unit.

 

[I WUB PUGS]

I went with the quad stack of 105mm artillery. That's actually what killed the 88's for me.

I really could have played it smarter, and I did lose the first go around (no tanks made it down the road though I cleared all objectives) but I don't think the mission is all that hard. None of the 3 that I've played in the American campaign seem that difficult.