Holding the Ring (and A Christmas Surprise)

Jules · Post by **Jules** » Mon Aug 16, 2010 2:51 am

Anyone managed to win this one yet? I have tried it with many variations of troops, different tactics including hiding units for last minute recaps and have been wiped out every time in about half the required turns. Right now it feels unbalanced (as does A Christmas Surprise, the first mission of the Bulge campaign for similar reasons) but I would welcome advice and ideas!

gib10 · Post by **gib10** » Mon Aug 16, 2010 5:25 pm

Ya I gave up on it Friday night and started the Bulge campain. It's way unbalanced and seems unwinnable to me too. I plan on trying to copy the files into mycampains folder and start editing it to fix it up. that way I don't scre up the original.

Jules · Post by **Jules** » Tue Aug 17, 2010 1:06 am

I found the first mission of the Bulge campaign impossible also. Presumably they fully tested all these scenarios and they are winnable. I'd be very interested to hear from one of the testers how they did it for either - or indeed both.

LOGAN5 · Post by **LOGAN5** » Wed Aug 18, 2010 12:40 am

I had the idea of last minute re-caps also, only problem is holding out long enough to where you have 1 turn. The only use for the truck at the last base would be to pull back the artillery piece from the front. Maybe we should try falling back and just abandoning the first flag, call in an support on yourself. I dunno what to do but it is pretty hard, please update if you do manage to complete this mission.

adherbal · Post by **adherbal** » Wed Aug 18, 2010 1:11 am

I don't have a recent build on this PC so I can't check again, but IIRC the best way is to be fairly aggressive against the initialy attack wave. Keep in mind that most of the Germans on the roads are fleeing - they will not attack if you avoid them (holding fire might help). That may decrease your casualties a bit. In fact I think holding fire for your AT guns might also be useful to let the attacking armour move closer to kill range before opening fire.

Jules · Post by **Jules** » Wed Aug 18, 2010 1:52 am

Thanks for the advice - once more unto the breach... or rather once more to try and avoid the breach... pfft, so much for me being Shakespearean.

Jules · Post by **Jules** » Wed Aug 18, 2010 5:06 am

OK I beat it - great advice, all it took was holding fire everywhere and not attacking the retreating troops automatically. That and one elite 6pdr that destroyed nine tanks and armoured vehicles including two panthers!

adherbal · Post by **adherbal** » Wed Aug 18, 2010 9:50 am

If you are having trouble with the fist Bulge mission, This hold fire trick has some use there as well. Most armour attacks happen between 2 forests. You have entrenchments in both forests and well as some bunkers further back between the forests. This creates a "U" shaped position were the german tanks pass through. I usualy place AT guns in the flanks and Bazooka's in the middle. If you hold fire until the tanks are inside the U, you can fire frontal (close range bazooka's) and flank shots (AT guns). That should deal with the tanks rather easily. It starts to get thougher when they're mixed with volksgrenadiers. Shooting the grenadiers will expose your infantry to counter fire from the tanks and the grenadiers will spot your AT and bazooka's if they get too close. Mortars are very useful here to supress the grenadiers, effectively disabling them.

Jules · Post by **Jules** » Wed Aug 18, 2010 4:25 pm

Makes sense. I'll give it a go. Thanks again.

LOGAN5 · Post by **LOGAN5** » Wed Aug 18, 2010 6:09 pm

Before:

After:

As you can see I had 1 scout left and an AT gun on the last turn, I moved the scout onto the flag to try and block the capture, the Tank I was blocking was unable to kill me but the German Panther moved up and killed me captured the flag, and was then destroyed by my AT gun. It gave me the victory, even though i think technically that looks like a loss.. but I'm not complaining I was sick of that mission anyway. Is this a bug?

adherbal · Post by **adherbal** » Wed Aug 18, 2010 7:30 pm

Looks like a bug indeed. I'll look into it.

LOGAN5 · Post by **LOGAN5** » Sun Aug 22, 2010 7:34 pm

It happened to me again on the 2nd bulge mission, I lost the final bridge but on the very last turn, the artillery i called on the bridge killed the german unit that was occupying the flag, and it ended up giving me the win even though they still technically had the flag.

TopoSolitario · Post by **TopoSolitario** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 11:09 pm

After about 7 tries... finally I beat the ring... "triggering massive celebrations" :S

A bitch to beat mission... I won in extremis, in the last last german turn they captured the last flag... game achieved victory to the germans and then gave it to me... (strange bug)... I think it is the ultimate mission to learn to keep heads down and fire by surprise... :S

Now for the xmas surprise... :S

Merr · Post by **Merr** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 1:00 am

I don't think the capture flag stuff are bugs ... Since capturing flags are "ticks" it means you won as soon as you grabbed the flag, the extra drama afterwards (including a counter-flag capture) doesn't count.

It appears that it's running out the remaining moves or logic but keeps the win in memory until it finishes.

I would like to see a timer for capturing the last flag ... You know, a random 3-5 turn "buffer" to allow the other side to re-take the flag. That would sure help, especially for those of us that like to "camp" at the last flag, waiting for the last turn to happen.

EDIT : I just realized the posts regarding the VP's were very old, back in AUG ... apologies...I thought that might still apply but appears not!