Need help on Sevastopol Russian mission

[Todd77]

I'm playing on easy because I gave up on medium difficulty and nearly the game. Even so, I'm being totally overwhelmed by germans in this mission trying to hold the coastline. Ive taken out their two heavy Thor artillery's but Im overwhelmed and any reinforcements I bring in get instantly killed before the truck unloads them. Whats the strategy here to win this mission? What do I need to do?

[scotland_93]

I'm playing on easy because I gave up on medium difficulty and nearly the game. Even so, I'm being totally overwhelmed by germans in this mission trying to hold the coastline. Ive taken out their two heavy Thor artillery's but Im overwhelmed and any reinforcements I bring in get instantly killed before the truck unloads them. Whats the strategy here to win this mission? What do I need to do?

for me in this mission, they broke through the left flank. what i did was get the flak gun as they are good against men and tanks.
Also behind each trench i had smg squads hiding in the bushes
so if the germans broke through i would have support and also to replace men in trenches, if they died.
You can also plant ap mines in front of your trenches.

[Hamptonsux]

Certain missions are not designed to be "winnable". Some of them, the main objective is just to "hold the line" until certain tasks are accomplished, such as loading the train, etc.
Slow the time down, take direct control, save in several slots, and try again if something goes amiss. Make certain what your objectives are, and then try to plan accordingly using the best tactics that you can. Sometimes it boils down to sheer luck, or a reloaded game where you can kill that tank/enemy unit etc. that is causing you the most grief. I don't recall the Sevastapol mission being extremely difficult. You need to get these tactics down, because they are even more important in the missions that follow. Don't give up tho! This game truly rewards the player that thinks his way thru the problems, and makes the best use of what they have.

[Todd77]

Well what do I do when they break through a line or are attacking a trench with 6 tanks...they dont give you that many artillery's to take them out..they kill off my artillery's pretty quick then I am unable to defend

[Tomalak]

Well as previous posters noticed, luck plays a big part here, since a loss of few AT guns can mean a difference between victory and defeat. Save often, so you can go to earlier save if, for example, a lucky shot takes out one of your guns.

Take out tanks first, as soon as they are in range, take MC of one of your guns, and start firing. If needed, lower the game speed, so you can manage everything you need. Might be a good choice to reposition those two guns you get in the beginning, which are standing in the middle of the road. If you have problems disabling the tanks, try to take out their tracks at maximum ranges, they will still pose a threat, but at least they wont be able to charge at your line. Keep in mind, however, that the closer a tank is, its easier to destroy it, so try to find good balance.

Call for aircraft attacks, and new infantry whenever you can. If you position infantry reserves behind the trench, in the bushes/cover they can fire at the enemy, and be ready to reinforce where needed, without being in the first line of fire.

The main danger comes from enemy aircraft, since they are capable of destroying entire squads of your infantry, so pay attention to the mini map so you can see if a section of the trench becomes empty. Also, always keep someone on those stationary MGs.

For me, the first part (defense at the first line) was the most difficult. You have that big coastal gun during second part, plus you can get a AA gun, which you can conveniently put near the bridge, where it has a good field of fire, and will take care of airplanes as well. Also during the second part, its possible (with some luck) to repair a German tank or two, which can serve you well before your own tank reinforcement arrive.

So, in short:
1. Save often
2. MC your AT guns as soon as tanks are in range. If you have problems destroying them in short time, target the tracks (you can disable a few tanks then hit them with air strike, especially since infantry likes to gather around).
3. Use reinforcement points on infantry (rifle and smg) and air support. Get the AA gun in 2nd part.
4. Keep infantry reserves behind the trench, and watch the mini map to see when reinforcing the line is needed. Keep those stationary MGs maned.
5. Use air support often to target concentrations of troops, tanks especially.

Reload if things are going badly, like if you lose all your ATs in a single wave, or similar. If you're in a position that 6 enemy tanks have reached the trench, or, god forbid, managed to go even further, like keeping the reinforcement bridge under fire - you've probably already lost.

[Todd77]

a few questions...

What is MC?
How do I call in aircraft strikes?
I think I got the AA gun because it shot down one of their planes
Are there any AP mines or Anti tank mines I can pick up? Once the AP miners are out of mines thats it for that squad?

[Tomalak]

a few questions...

What is MC?
How do I call in aircraft strikes?
I think I got the AA gun because it shot down one of their planes
Are there any AP mines or Anti tank mines I can pick up? Once the AP miners are out of mines thats it for that squad?

MC is Manual (or Direct, more properly) control, meaning you directly control a unit by keyboard (arrows) and aim and fire using your mouse. Just select a unit, then hold CTRL, or you can toggle it by pressing "End". But I'm sure you already knew this, playing without it would be..well, pure hell basically. ;)

There is a reinforcement menu on the right, the first button should be to call air support (think its called Air Strike), you click on it, then click on the place your plane should attack. Keep in mind it takes a few moments for the plane to reach the position, so anticipate the movement of your target accordingly.

Engineers have AP mines, but I'm not sure they are worth the reinforcement points, since I'm not a big fan of AP mines. But feel free to experiment. There should be some AT grenades in the boxes in trenches (if I'm not mistaken) if you need to strengthen your infantry's AT capabilities.

[JuggernautOfWar]

Are there any AP mines or Anti tank mines I can pick up? Once the AP miners are out of mines that's it for that squad?

Check the supply trucks in the rear of the defensive line.:grin:

[Todd77]

Still got overwhelmed by the time 6 boats are gone...Usually about when the giant german artillery shows up, 20 tanks come up the left and right flank. I dont see the airstrike button..there's riflemen, SMG men, AP men, 45 artillery gun, a bigger artillery gun, and flak gun..

Ill have to check the trucks, maybe I can lay down a few hundred tank mines...

I never used direct control..Who has time to micromanage each shot like that on each gun??

[Tomalak]

I never used direct control..Who has time to micromanage each shot like that on each gun??

Just thinking of a world without direct control makes me shiver uncontrollably and wake up in the middle of the night covered in sweat.

Seriously now, learn to use direct control, or you will have a really hard time later.

The point is not to micromanage each shot, but to take direct control over certain units in a critical moment. A single player controlled tank, gun or even a soldier can be a deciding factor of an entire mission. At least try to fire AT guns and that big coastal gun manually.

To be honest, I'm astonished you got this far without it, without quitting the game altogether. It is really quite an accomplishment. :)

About the air strikes, I'm at work now so I can't check. I'm not sure if you can run out of air strikes (or get your planes destroyed or something), but I am sure that, when you start the mission, there is an "air strike" button in the reinforcement menu, unless there is some additional modifier I'm unaware of.

[Todd77]

Well, I switched to easy mode after the first or second mission..There is no air strike available. Where exactly do I find anti-tank mines? I cant look in the trucks, just enter them.

I tried direct control...The question is, is this more accurate than ordering the artillery to attack a tank? I tried the flak gun, it can fire fast and its great...What happens when it runs out of ammo? How exactly do you resupply it?

The first thing I noticed in this game (compared to COH & WiC) is that soldiers and tanks die very easily. One hit will cripple them and before you can repair they're dead.

But I love the mission design in the game, and its pretty intense.

I think if I can get some AT mines down, and keep my flak guns safe long enough I have a decent chance. They usually get overwhelmed at some point and Im left with no guns to fight off wave after wave

[Prowlinger]

Ok there are some things that should have been in the manual in more detail...

Ok where you start out... select 1 soldier and "X" for examine to look into the nearby weapon crates. In one should be AT mines and the other should be AP mines. I would force the soldier to put ALL his belongings into the weapon chest (select ">>>") then double click on the mines (which will add as many as you can carry to your soldiers' inventory).

Now you have some mines...

Tell the soldier to go to a spot and select the "mine area" icon and then you will see a little red flag where he is supposed to put one...

I notice you can somehow do a line but I just hold SHIFT and select numerous spots for as many mines as he has.

Once you have mastered that...

Now get 3 soldiers doing mines at once... :)

About swapping out stuff... if you have a soldier that needs to resupply some cannon... again.. make him empty his inventory into a crate (so he has max room)... then open a crate / truck etc with "X" then select the shells (example) and put them in the soldiers inventory..

Next, go to the empty cannon and hit "X" (examine) on the cannon with your soldier... and then transfer all the shells to the cannon. Repeat as needed.
Could be easier but isn't too hard once you see how they designed it to work.

For that mission you also may want to transfer extra shells to your cannons... it is too hard to resupply them mid battle.

About direct fire over AI fire... sometimes using direct fire... you can focus where and what you want to and even get rare shots out of the normal weapon range... plus it is just fun mowing down infantry with big guns manually.

Hope this helps! :D

[Tomalak]

Just to add to Prowlinger's informative post, when you're aiming at a vehicle using DC, there is even an indicator showing you the chance to penetrate the armor at that point, by green, yellow or red color, allowing you to adjust your aim as the situation changes (distance, angle, etc). Plus you are much better then AI at prioritizing targets when, for example, two tanks of a different kind and a squad of infantry are approaching your armored vehicle.

[Todd77]

I looked in every crate in the trenchs (ammo, molotovs, pineapples) and the supplies stacked by the guns (artillery shells), but no AT mines

[Todd77]

something seriously must be amiss if no one else thought this mission was near impossible. Im on EASY and it is overwhelming. And I play tons of games and been gaming for 20 years. Im using direct control to good effect..Shot down 2 of their planes..Still getting pounded by the germans. Im playing at the slowest speed possible. No AT mines anywhere nor aircraft support available..Right around 5 boats safely away and they start knocking my guns out one by one.

[Tomalak]

something seriously must be amiss if no one else thought this mission was near impossible. Im on EASY and it is overwhelming. And I play tons of games and been gaming for 20 years. Im using direct control to good effect..Shot down 2 of their planes..Still getting pounded by the germans. Im playing at the slowest speed possible. No AT mines anywhere nor aircraft support available..Right around 5 boats safely away and they start knocking my guns out one by one.

It's strange you don't have air strikes. I play on normal though, but it doesn't make sense that the air strikes are missing on an easier difficulty. Try to start the mission from the beginning, and see if the air strike option is present.

I'm glad you like direct control. Whenever the situation seems stable, check if you can DC something in order to increase effectiveness, even if its only a MG soldier.

Your main problem is tanks, so they will be your first target. The moment you spot those red triangles on the mini map, DC the closest AT gun and fire away, you need to knock them out as soon as possible. Also, equip your men in the trenches with AT grenades from crates, so they can stop a tank if it reaches the defense line.

During the second phase, there is a minefield already in place on the left flank. Try to repair a few German tanks, especially if one gets disabled near your line (just select a soldier, click on the repair icon and check if anything is reparable near by). Also, when Karl mortars appear, take them out at once, one with the coastal gun, and the second with an air strike (providing you have them).

If I were you, I'd start the mission from the beginning, making separate save games after each successfully repulsed German wave. Take it one step at a time.

[Todd77]

WOW! I selected the mission on Normal difficulty and the mission is SO much easier. I could now do airstrikes and it wipes out everything just like the coastal gun. However, I never did find any antitank mines. I did find AP-40 granades, but no mines :(

Now my problem is this, how do I change the difficulty in my campaign? I changed it to Normal in my profile settings, but when I go to load the mission it remains in Easy mode (no airstrike). Can you switch mid-campaign?

[Todd77]

Hmmm, I never thought of taking out those 88's at the top of the screen...Maybe that will help...

[Daktor]

Just finished this one on Hard. At some point the Germans take out your airfield, which is why you couldn't use air attacks. Here's some things that helped me:

-At the beginning, place your AT guns back in the trees a little bit behind the sand bag semicircles. These positions were set up by the level designers and have a pretty good firing field.

-Try to always have someone on the fixed machine guns in the trenches.

-Bring in reinforcements ASAP, don't let points build up. Either heavy squad or more AT guns. If you bring in heavy squad, make sure to use their AT soldiers (2 per reinforcement), they have a pretty powerful AT weapon.

-Watch for planes. There's not much you can do about the bombing runs. Even if you try to move the targeted AT gun, the plane just adjusts it's route and kills it. However, you CAN see where the machine gun strafing runs will probably occur and move your guys out before the plane can get there. This is very impt as one strafing run can decimate an entire line of trenches.

-When a tank is getting near range, save it. Then go through each AT gun and make sure it's ammo type is AP (armor piercing) instead of HE (heavy explosive). That way they're not trying to switch ammo type and reload when the tanks are in range. When the tanks gets in range click on each AT gun in range to attack the tank. If you lose an AT gun, reload. If you kill the tank, save.

-SAVE/LOAD IS CRITICAL! You need some patience, but due to the randomness of this game, saving and reloading until it goes right is key.

-Try to make it to 5 ships passed before retreating or being overrun from your first line of defense.

-Once you fall back, get a flak gun ASAP and place it slightly left of center behind your trenches. Keep a constant eye for a fast moving enemy on your minimap (an enemy plane) and attack the plane with your flak as soon as possible. The goal is to shoot it down before it reaches your lines so the falling parts don't take out any of your men. If a plane attacks an area of your line where the flak can't reach it, reload. It'll probably choose a different spot on the next load.

-Try to fill all the sandbagged semicircles with AT guns, just like before. It really helps to pull back the 76mm AT gun from the first line of defense before everything crumbles.

-Once you have your flak and AT guns in place, get ready for a long, tough battle. Constantly keep an eye out for planes so you can force target them with your flak gun before they reach your lines. Do the AT force-fire trick as before, saving and reloading if things do not go well. Try to save up 50 reinforcement points so you can get the KV1 Heavy Tank. This will give you a solid mobile defense since you can move the tank as needed.

-Most impt: SAVE EVERY TIME SOMETHING GOOD HAPPENS! I ended up having about 25 save slots. Every time I destroyed a tank and none of my AT guns or Flak was destroyed... save. Every time I shot down a plane w/o the falling parts killing something impt... save. Before you shoot the coastal gun... save. 20 seconds before the next wave of tanks hits your line... save. Then if everything goes to hell (which happened ALL THE TIME for me), you can reload and still be OK.

-Final note: I had to play the entire mission at the slowest speed in order to have a chance at keeping up with the action. Even then I struggled. I don't see how anyone can play this game at full speed.

Post back if you have more questions, good luck!

[man'o'war]

Hi all - new member here.

Just finished that mission myself.

Air Strikes are not available for me either.

I just won with a mixture of a stubborn will not to die, and one tank which i called in a reinforcement killing 5-6 german tanks. it saved me. they were attacking the left flank, and i made the tank come from the right flank (no enemy tanks there) and hit the german tanks from behind and to the side.

Also make sure that you take out the two german vehicles that come in to destroy the AT mines in front of the left flank. i took them out before they could clear the mines, so the german tanks got blown up when they attacked "en masse".

hope that helps

[nilloc93]

alright 1st off tomalak considering you know so much you should know that through the entire mission you NEVER get air support
2ndly here is how i won the mission (alternatly i NEVER used DC and i did this on med difficulty)
step 1, get that 10-20 guys standing in the middle of the road into the trenches, have them stop off at supply crates 1st to get better weapons, then send the AT gun on the RIGHT hand side of the road to the right flank

step 2, deploy a AT gun from your reserves and put it on a gap in the left flank (back in the trees but still giving it a line of fire)

step 3 ,hold the 1st line you need to do this till 6 boats get by here is how you do this, deploy RIFLEMEN as much as you can or heavy infantry if you see a lack of PTARD's in a spot, and do as stated in another post with having about 3, SMG squads in the tree line to stop any german who bum-rush into your trench (i thought the japanise did that :P)
here is how much you SHOULD deploy to your front line durring this phase, 1-2 45MM AT guns, however many infantry you need, heavy i would deploy about 4 is all you should need. also deploy your AP miners from the renforcments and mine the left field CLOSE to your trenches if you do it too far the german tanks will just run them over and they will be wasted.

step 4 this should be done within step 3, ok this takes a small ammount of micromanaging but not too much, you may find german snipers and just crackshot riflemen starting to pick off your infantry, so do this whenever they are not advancing on your trench (or are farther taht say 5 tanks away) have your infantry go PRONE presto how a moarter or an 88 round will have to land RIGHT on the trench for them to die and that happens about 8% of the time

step 5, this is for a bit into step 3-4, ok while all that wonderful slaughter is going on up north, deploy the rest of your 45MM guns onto the 2nd line whenever there is a lapse or you do not need immediete renforcements.

step 6 retreat the guns, when you have 6 ships gone start to have any remaining GUNS (not the usless infantry) and trucks (full of ammo) retreat back to the 2nd line, also send PTARD's and machine gunners (cause they have a use).

step 7, by now hopully you have found those mines in the 2nd line and have had those combat engineers putting more in the right hand field, alternatly the germans should be flooding over the 1st line. but fear not comrade who has most likley lost over 100 infantry you are doing well! ok anyways start deploying the AT guns like no tomorrow to your 2nd line (good places to put them is in the village to the west and near that big @$$ costal gun, as well as in the bushed on the east side of the left flank, don't forget bout the right flank either it needs 2-3 opperational at all times)

step 7. alright you now controll the 2nd line no retreat anymore (oh wait the infantry from the 1st line did not retreat anyways:-P) alright you should be able to get 2-3 shots off the costal gun at dem german tank groups (wait till they are stopped and shooting at you) before THOR1 & 2 shows up, now then SAVE (you should have at many points allready but) cause you need to shoot the one to the west with the costal gun like NOW and if it does nto blow it up your ****ed so reload the save and try again.

step 8. alright i am assuming you allready figured out how to hold the 2nd line on your own so i am not going to explain it in detail just deploy AT guns and infantry and DO NOT froget about teh right. but we have more pressing matters that other THOR is still alive and its blowing the $#17 out of you. you will soon get some tanks! now if your GOOD with them you can take out the other THOR with those + some from your reserves. if your not GOOD you need to use the costal gun again on it but dun worry it takes the THOR 3-5 mins to hit your gun so you only have 1 shot.

step 9 with your costal gun freed up from shooting THORS (or your tanks allready got it) the rest should be easy, if it gets to hard abbandon the right flank and use the navy boys to get you more riflemen

hope this helps now go figure out a way to do behind enemy lines

[Slowhand]

I've tested the availability of air strikes in the Sevastopol mission, and can confirm that - in my english MoW v1.11.3 - they're only available under the normal or hard, but not the easy difficulty setting.

[crazycelt]

try slowing down the game. Press backspace.

[torqual]

on first attempt of this mission i lost all trenches when the thrid ships was leaving harbor. i only had some units guarding the coastal battery and the bridge. i bought two anti air and some guns to guard the bridge. The aa fought off bombing planes an infantry. the guns shot down tank after tank. lost guncrews and guns all the time was sending in replacements all the time. the coastal battery last job before being destroyed was shooting the two thor batteries. the mission is only lost when you have no units surviving near the bridge.

first time on easy i had no air strikes. replaying the mission on normal i had air strikes. so its some kind of bug. its actually very hard to not win this mission. i tried this by only defending the bridge area. it works fine.

[kane1]

Any Questions?

[nilloc93]

wow kane that is an amazing cheap but efficiant way to win

[kane1]

wow kane that is an amazing cheap but efficiant way to win
Have you read the comments in this thread? I don't need any more stress in my life. When I play this game (which I love!!) I want to have fun, and to me having fun means plenty of firepower!! By the way, I've played this mission about 50 times.