The convoy mission, my way

[R@S]

I've decided to share my tactics about this very much dicussed mission. It's one of the hardest in the game since 25% of your allies have to survive.

I'm playing for the Rebels and as you can see I only have 2 mercs, my CQB guy and a sniper.
http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/7669/shot01start.jpg (http://img3.imageshack.us/i/shot01start.jpg/)

I move my CQB guy to the right flank, sprinting all the way to avoid enemy fire.
http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/2874/shot02rightflank.jpg (http://img3.imageshack.us/i/shot02rightflank.jpg/)

I move the sniper to this position. I've found that it gives you good cover from the worst enemy snipers, but at the same time it gives you a clear view of the battlefield.
http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/3452/shot03leftflank.jpg (http://img3.imageshack.us/i/shot03leftflank.jpg/)

I let my sniper pick them off as they appear. I'll leave him for now, but I constantly pick new targets for him as he kills the one he's shooting at.
http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/3291/shot04leftshooting.jpg (http://img7.imageshack.us/i/shot04leftshooting.jpg/)

My CQB guy starts working his way towards the truck, laying waste to the enemy that's in his way.
http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/5504/shot05rightshooting.jpg (http://img7.imageshack.us/i/shot05rightshooting.jpg/)

Shooting from the hip is very important.
http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/5337/shot06rightshooting.jpg (http://img7.imageshack.us/i/shot06rightshooting.jpg/)

Kill one, them move on.
http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/7500/shot07rightshooting.jpg (http://img7.imageshack.us/i/shot07rightshooting.jpg/)

There are more enemies to the left, but I ignore them, the rebels will take care of them.
http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/3529/shot08rightshooting.jpg (http://img7.imageshack.us/i/shot08rightshooting.jpg/)

This is the position I was trying to get to. It gives good cover and lets you throw nades at the snipers behind the trucks.
http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/7470/shot09rightshooting.jpg (http://img146.imageshack.us/i/shot09rightshooting.jpg/)

And throw a few nades at them. From here it won't turn your allies hostile.
http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/5755/shot10rightnade.jpg (http://img146.imageshack.us/i/shot10rightnade.jpg/)

Time to move in and mop up.
http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/4926/shot11rightmopping.jpg (http://img146.imageshack.us/i/shot11rightmopping.jpg/)

Well, that's how I play that mission. There are other ways but I've found that this works best if you are alone or only have 2 mercs. If I solo I follow the path of the QCB guy.

[IceShade]

How many men did you lose?

I've never played this from the Rebel side.. in fact, I've never worked for the rebels. The game can be quite unforgiving when it comes to the number of enemies you have to fight. When I have to choose between defending a town against a rebel force with the help of the local garrison and attacking that same town without a rebel force as backup ..

I think my next mission is actually the ambush mission, but from the government side. I usually just dump my sniper in front and have him pick off people, and have the rest support the government. With this outsourced.ini tweak :

Q10DisableFriendlyFire = "1" //on/off, disable friendly fire for convoy missino reb&gov

It should be a lot easier. If it works.

I remember in vanilla I had to reload about a billion times because I accidentally fired a burst too close to a friendly.. and again.. and again..

If I get a proper strategy worked out, I'll post my AAR. Though I think I'll post my AAR regardless.

[R@S]

How many men did you lose? None, I usually only have 2 or 3 guys when I'm playing, never needed more. And if you have less team members your mercs does a lot more which leads to better skills faster. In this mission it's more important to move fast than to have a lot of mercs. I think I finished this battle in a little more than a minute of game time. Speed is the key:)

I think my next mission is actually the ambush mission, but from the government side. I usually just dump my sniper in front and have him pick off people, and have the rest support the government. With this outsourced.ini tweak :

Q10DisableFriendlyFire = "1" //on/off, disable friendly fire for convoy missino reb&gov

It should be a lot easier. If it works.

I remember in vanilla I had to reload about a billion times because I accidentally fired a burst too close to a friendly.. and again.. and again..

If I get a proper strategy worked out, I'll post my AAR. Though I think I'll post my AAR regardless.Yeah, please post one for us, it's always nice to see how others deal with difficult problems.

The friendly Fire thing should work, there is no compatibility issue with that part of the BSM and Outsourced code.

[IceShade]

I meant how many did the rebels lose :P

[R@S]

Hehe, in that case I would guess a handful. The enemies dint have much time to shoot at them, my CQB guy made sure of that. Hip-shot bursts at close range are deadly with the 6.8 caliber AR, IIRC 4 of them died within a few seconds by the trucks. The AI makes them run for cover if you run at them fast, in this case it cost them their life))

[Dr.Q]

I concur that speedy skirmishers will win this mission. Well, my own merc is always of that type, they are the most interesting to play. Packing a light, fast short gun, even pistol gets used a lot and a bunch of 'nades.

A heavy weapons specialist with RG-6 launcher can be very useful to take off the edge at the start of the mission. Some aerial bombardment, multiple 40mm nades pop out very quickly, and the runners have enough time to get into close range comfortably.

With the BSM mod a copy of this mission also comes up as a Bobling mission, that one is very delicate because the mission objective is placed on the ground and even nearby explosions, especially heavy nades will push the gold bar through the floor and make the mission unwinnable.

[IceShade]

Here's my little ambush story from the government point of view. Mind you, I did this in one go .. only reloaded once, because of a crash.

I started by dropping my two riflemen (SIG-552 and a SIG-550) at the left rocks. From there they can fire into the flank of the rebels, while they are occupied by the Gov. soldiers in the middle.
http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/xx194/PieShade/Hosted/762/Ambush/E62010-07-2005-20-14-79.png


My marksman (SIG-550-1) and my automatic rifleman (HK-23E) are deployed to the right side, as there is a lot of open ground to cover here. And quite a few enemies.
http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/xx194/PieShade/Hosted/762/Ambush/E62010-07-2005-21-43-48.png

Just keep firing down the flank, while staying in cover. Moving forward at this point is complete suicide.
http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/xx194/PieShade/Hosted/762/Ambush/E62010-07-2005-22-25-45.png

http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/xx194/PieShade/Hosted/762/Ambush/E62010-07-2005-22-53-57.png

Unfortunately, the AI sometimes feels a bit special.
http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/xx194/PieShade/Hosted/762/Ambush/E62010-07-2005-27-51-68.png

It is time to push up, and the enemies are already in retreat.
http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/xx194/PieShade/Hosted/762/Ambush/E62010-07-2005-34-53-29.png

My right flank has been cleaned up by this point.
http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/xx194/PieShade/Hosted/762/Ambush/E62010-07-2005-35-10-49.png

The overall situation: I move my marksman and automatic rifleman to the middle of the road to wipe out the last enemies in the open, and my riflemen to support them. The rebels were smart enough to pull back a bit, into cover.
http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/xx194/PieShade/Hosted/762/Ambush/E62010-07-2005-38-42-11.png

Masha was hit while she was pulling back to the road, and I put her in cover to heal and rest. So I had to flank the enemy alone. Surprise!
http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/xx194/PieShade/Hosted/762/Ambush/E62010-07-2005-42-17-06.png

Two bursts later...
http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/xx194/PieShade/Hosted/762/Ambush/E62010-07-2005-42-46-27.png

The last enemies are waaaaay back in the jungle, but my marksman has spotted them. These were the last two enemies.
http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/xx194/PieShade/Hosted/762/Ambush/E62010-07-2005-45-22-79.png

Bodycount:
- 6 friendly KIA
- 30 enemy KIA

About 10 friendlies remained, or so. Most of the guys who charged into the open got killed, but there were a few unlucky incidents to those in full cover. Such as a rebel charging up to the trucks, tossing a grenade and then running into it himself .. but still killing a soldier.

The outsourced.ini tweak worked perfectly. At one point I accidently shot the guy who ran in front of my gun (TWICE), but nobody really cared (at this point I crashed, ironically, because I tried to quickload. The guy died anyway, because he charged up quite far ahead). Tossing grenades with friendlies next to me didn't upset them either.

[Stix]

Hi.

Thanks for your help, I didn't thought about flanking from there...

BUT. Now my problem is a shower of nades on my guys.
Ennemies have; better weapon, better skills, number,... And their nades are always right at the bad place for me. (while my nades always fail because of my own cover)

Well... I'm on this mission since 3hours, doing and doing again... I'm thinking I don't have the level for this; my guys are very bad and when I see you weapons on your screenshots, I guess there is a problem: I only have
1st character: a snipe rifle (something v700) + colt
2nd character: mp5 (red dot + silencer) + silenced pistol

Damn it. I'll have to come back, and to do other missions to get better equipement, right ?

[Stix]

Damn.

Spent so many hours on this mission...
Now I finally made it, but... these silly soldiers are all dead !!!! My stupid guerrileros are ALL dead... I'm bored by this mission.
How can we do it if friendly troops runs everywhere.

[Inverted]

BUT. Now my problem is a shower of nades on my guys.
... And their nades are always right at the bad place for me. (while my nades always fail because of my own cover)
I guess you know this, but just in case: you can actually throw back grenades (at least those that are timed) as long as they land right near your guys. Its no fun when they explode in their hands, but worth a try. :)
If they have to move to pick it up though, or in worst case, already doing something, like aiming, than you are better off sprinting (if they are standing) or going prone and rolling away (if at least kneeling).
And for early completion of this mission you can use the same grenade shower since they are awesome to distract enemies, which includes them not throwing their nades at you.

I guess there is a problem: I only have
1st character: a snipe rifle (something v700) + colt
2nd character: mp5 (red dot + silencer) + silenced pistol
That makes it somewhat hard indeed. However on the good side, that means the enemies have worse armament and armor too (unless this mission is hard-coded, which I doubt). That sniper rifle is probably not the best here unless used by a high level guy (such as Sniper) for far away headshots. Its powerful, but slow, so its not really worth body-shooting with it in this situation. But then again, headshots require a good merc especially when bullets fly around.
The MP5 isnt bad though. I take it you are with the rebels, so just sprint close but to some cover (like that pack of trees near the trucks, or the trucks). If you get shot on the way, load and send a few burst shots in their direction (forget about hitting them as long as the shots are close its fine) before the rush, however you are best off sprinting straight at start before they take position/aim.
Once close enough, throw in some nades (3-5) with high throw (again I guess you know, but you can arm then throw them directly from your pockets), then jump out of cover and start shooting from the hip, if you did it right the army guys will be running around wild trying to avoid the grenades and wont care about you. Just make sure you reach/make a safe place by the time the nades exploded or you will be in trouble. Or if you are confident, you can keep pushing of course. But if you wait a bit out of their sight, they will hopefully start shooting the guerillas instead (or throwing nades after you, so be ready to run), and you can run out/shoot some/run to cover before they could aim at you. Prioritize guys with SMGs/pistols as rifles are too slow to get you here.
Also, since everyone in the game is right-handed, make it a habit to go around every obstacle (like the trucks) counter-clockwise if possible, giving a good chance to be able to shoot at enemies who in return can only shoot the obstacle.
While you are at this with the MP5 guy possibly drawing away the attention of most soldiers, the other merc can happily keep sniping, and you can also expect the guerillas to land a few lucky shots.
Of course you can keep throwing grenades later too to flush them out from their cover, provided you brought enough. Same goes for ammo, be ready to use a lot, 2 extra clips is a minimum (not boxes, clips).
And a tip for early fights: since Im quite sure you dont have a vehicle, and instead carry around backpacks, drop those ASAP during the battle, it saves you a lot of stamina and you shouldnt have anything in them that you need during the fight anyway.

[Tozmeister]

how to do this mission in 2 words... "smoke grenades".