Crimean Offensive: Key To Kerch

[JJMicromegas]

Hello, I am having trouble with the mission in the Crimean Offensive campaign the key to Kerch. I have 4 units of infantry and 3 light tanks and an entire village of Germans with well fortified positions, guns of all sorts and artillery on top of that.

I tried moving around the right flank which seemed the weakest but still got my tanks sniped by the opponent's superior tanks.

I tried going all the way around and grabbing his artillery but it was well defended. How did anyone beat this mission?

[Korsakov829]

Take one unit, sneak it around the hills, take a well aimed shot a enemy and run behind cover. Then go back, take some more shots, run back for cover. Keep doing that for about 1-3 hours and you should be able to rush in with your tanks towards the end and finish it.

Infantry with anti-tank rifles will be extremely useful.
Try not to let allied soldiers fighting on the frontline die, they are very useful.
Remember to save often too. Try again if one of your soldiers die.
In the end a convoy will appear, you have to defeat it to win. Use enemy artillery guns.
Stay out of sight.


Make sure you have enough ammo! Rifle men start with no ammo if I recall.

[JJMicromegas]

Thank you for the response, the problem however is that if you are doing the hit and run thing for 1-3 hours your allies are getting all shot up and won't be around to help at the end. I think this mission is insanely unfair considering what you have to work with. They should either give you some artillery backup, some reserves to call in, air support, anything really to help.

[Korsakov829]

I had to restart it some 20 times. Took me two days.

Towards the end you do get reserves of your own. In the middle your allies get the reserves (tanks and infantry).

Your allies will stay behind cover most of the time.

[kane1]

They should either give you some artillery backup, some reserves to call in, air support, anything really to help.

You could always give yourself a little more help. Either changing things in a saved game or by using the Editor. Whatever makes it more fun.

Here's a vid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20ZK53lQ_hU

[JJMicromegas]

Is there a guide on how to edit files? Thanks for the help.

[kane1]

Is there a guide on how to edit files? Thanks for the help.

Have you used the Gem Editor? If so check out this link.

http://www.cheathappens.com/show_board2.asp?headID=91496&titleID=14920

[dziban303]

This mission is an epic bitch.

The editor route seems overly complicated and doesn't appear to work with the Steam version of the game. There's no editor in the RT directory, so I copied the one from the original game's folder over, but the directory structure is different from that detailed in the post referenced earlier.

For any Steam users out there who're frustrated with this mission, maybe this will help. I downloaded a trainer from gamecopyworld.com (the Red Tide +6 v1.0.1 STEAM trainer). Your antivirus will probably tell you it's a virus, but it isn't, so set an exception for the binary (brewers.exe). Run it as an Administrator (right click, then Run as Administrator). Your AV program might detect another file (I forget what it's called, but it's placed in a C:\windows\somethingorother folder...add another exception. After the trainer is turned off, this file is removed). Now run Red Tide--for some reason I had to run the program directly from the C:\program files\steam\steamapps\common\men of war red tide\ folder for the trainer to work. Running it from the steam games list didn't seem to work. Now start the mission. You'll need to change your F9 and F10 key bindings in the game to something else (I just used shift-[ and shift-]). Now, pressing F9 gives you unlimited health, F10 unlimited stamina, F11 unlimited fuel, F12 unlimited ammo (caution, see below), and some other stuff. If the trainer is working you'll hear a sound when you activate any of the features.

Note that the infinite health only works for infantry. Tanks can still be damaged/blown up (although the crew will be okay). DON'T use the unlimited ammo cheat, as in addition to unlimited ammo, your tanks have 0 reload time. Sounds great right? It would be, except all the German tanks/vehicles/artillery *also* have 0 reload and unlimited ammo. Those infantry guns firing 3 rounds per second ruin your day even with infinite health turned on, and you can't turn this cheat off once you start it.

So leave your tanks behind and use your infantry to run around and kill everything. You can still give your infantry unlimited ammo, just hit I to open the inventory, hover the mouse over an item, and press the number 9 key. You'll get 99 of whatever you're highlighting. Do this for every soldier in a squad. Why? Because if your infantry blob gets hit by arty, there's a good chance they'll drop their guns and grenades. (I spent more time picking up weapons after dropping them than I did killing enemies).

I think this game is awesome and don't generally see the need to cheat...even if I'm having trouble with a mission it's fun enough to start from my last save and try another tactic. However, this mission is just ridiculous and isn't fun. After dicking with it for 6 hours I just wanted to get past it and on with the rest of the game.

Cheers.

[patric]

Thank you for the response, the problem however is that if you are doing the hit and run thing for 1-3 hours your allies are getting all shot up and won't be around to help at the end. I think this mission is insanely unfair considering what you have to work with. They should either give you some artillery backup, some reserves to call in, air support, anything really to help.

hey, maybe its later, but i've made a guide for this mission in HARD level.
Enjoy it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFfmbXR3CIE

[KnightFandragon]

Damn, just watching that video makes me never want to play that mission...ive nto played RT but wow....you didnt have even half the red dots off the minimap and all you had left was like 7 guys and a Tank............

[patric]

Damn, just watching that video makes me never want to play that mission...ive nto played RT but wow....you didnt have even half the red dots off the minimap and all you had left was like 7 guys and a Tank............

the real toruble is not shown in the video... the "guerrillas war" what you have to do after the shells from the cannon are out. killling house by house, mg by mg in a german infested map...its a lot work. A lot time needed for that.

[Slowhand]

Thanks for the playthrough video, patric. It's been quite a while since I beat the mission, but your recap brought back great memories. "Key to Kerch" is undoubtedly difficult and seemingly impossible for newcomers, yet it's a tip of the hat to all veterans of the series. Still, the map's not only quite possible to beat, but also incredibly fun.

Yes, my squad crawled around on their bellies more often than I'd like to admit. All the same, I intuitively followed the strategy your video suggests: after parking the main force in safe positions, I assembled a team consisting of a squad leader, a sniper, an AT buster, and two heavy MG gunners and infiltrated the enemy's right defenses.

First, we silenced the STUG once and for all. Afterwards, we continued operating behind enemy lines, taking out troops and guard towers in commando fashion. Our final assault was a carbon copy of your attack on the church, destroying the tanks and capturing the arty.

After that, the mission was a breeze. Not fast, not easy, yet fun and offering an incredible sense of satisfaction once the smoke cleared. Imo, one of more memorable missions of the franchise.