Same mission, chapter 3 mission 10.

It, by far, had the worst, most difficult to defend terrain for your initial 1-2 points. The dug in tanks make fighting to keep the area between points 2 and 3 very difficult. Additionally, the enemy actually has good infantry that you can't ignore, setting up AT ambush teams and blinding your tanks with lasers. The single forest next to point 2 is heavily abused by the enemy AI to hide from return fire, preventing you from leveraging the full power of your stationary shots. I couldn't find a reliable way to kill the howitzers without losing my helicopter, so I didn't bother.

I found that defending the bottom section of the map is a complete trap. Actually, the first time I tried blitzing the northern dug in tank, I beat the level on standard. Taking and holding point 3 lets you ignore a ton of enemy units that come from the south, which are mostly infantry and anti-air. Point 3 is a far better place to destroy enemy tanks because they are funneled in and anything that enters will suffer the full retaliation of all of your tanks because they can't abuse line of sight. 3 armor on an enemy tanks is horrible RNG, because it's pretty much required to kill at least 1 of the dug in tanks, but your initial units only have 2 rockets each. If your first rocket does zero damage, you might as well restart because every rocket is precious against the first wave of tanks.

The good thing is that after this level, the rest of the game is a cakewalk because Abrams are overpowered.

I agree, this level. I never pushed past point one, just covered it by poor infantry units who got pounded by mortars all game. I never destroyed the dug in units with 3 armour, even by the end of the mission, because my choppers were out of ammo by that point. 2 mortars, 2 helicopters and tonnes of tanks, i just continuosly fired at the huge stream of attackers and against all odds finally eliminated them all. It was so satisfying. Then still lost a couple of units taking the second and third points because of bad luck from the dug in tanks.

So satisfying to finally beat them all.

I agree on chapter 3 mission 10, I used mines which was really effective, but the end of it was a real pain in the **** for me cause I discovered that you can't disable your own mines or even destroy units going through them, I was almost stuck because of that with an invisible wall. Very frustrating for such a long mission...

For me it was the first escort mission. It combines the two most annoying threats to deal with, that being:

mortars that can effectively counter your infantry, which otherwise seem to deal with every other threat in the game

the chopper combined with having no good AA available in that mission. I dealt with it by finding a sequence of moves that makes the AI trade it for a TOW truck, which didn't really feel fair.

And this was before the patch that made that mission even harder.

3.10 I didn't really have that much trouble with, though it did take a few tries. I got huge value out of anti-tank infantry in the top-left forest overlooking the road and ignoring the bottom entrenched tank (the point can be taken by sacrificing a truck). The hardest part is surviving until phase two, which I did by defending the second-to-last point as long as possible with infantry (which eventually dies to mortars) and then the bottom point can be defended for a few turns by sacrificing trucks and covering it with a mine chopper.

Chapter 3, Mission 10.

My utilization of Mines and an M47 dragon team in my first deployment wave greatly helped to deter any rushes by enemy vehicles. My solution involved deploying Two AH-1s for defense of the point while a squad of infantry (M35 based) and an M60 pushed through the far northern portion of the map to get in position to eliminate the enemy SPHs. Most missions I'd use 2 SPHs to maximum the ability to counter the numerous squads of infantry. But due to the volume of enemy vehicles I was forced to put more emphasis on AT equipment. I wouldn't recommend replacing the M60/Infantry Squads with an AH-1 due to how the AI spawns 3 SPAAs with their last wave.

I also had some trouble with the second truck escort mission, but otherwise it was relatively easy for the most part.

Geesh I'm still stuck on Chapter 3 Mission 8... They start with 5 more points and with the artillery and the aliens not cooperating (I swear they are in cahoots) I can not seem to get a foothold to get the convoy through. So far I send a helicopter to sacrificially knock out the arty. Then, I thought if I took the southern route the aliens in the north would keep them from flanking me from that direction but then it just turns into a fight over the corridor in the center. Sheridans slugging it out with M60 Starships is never going to go in the Sheridans' favor...

Originally posted by hotdogCrawdad:

Geesh I'm still stuck on Chapter 3 Mission 8... They start with 5 more points and with the artillery and the aliens not cooperating (I swear they are in cahoots) I can not seem to get a foothold to get the convoy through. So far I send a helicopter to sacrificially knock out the arty. Then, I thought if I took the southern route the aliens in the north would keep them from flanking me from that direction but then it just turns into a fight over the corridor in the center. Sheridans slugging it out with M60 Starships is never going to go in the Sheridans' favor...

Due to the way that the AI is omniscient, the Sheridan is actually a better tank than the M60. Your 6-range ATGM will force them to stay out of range, allowing you to inch forward. If you have three Sheridans with clear lines of fire down the middle, they won't be able to attack your convoy except at the risk of losing one of the few tanks they can deploy.

The easiest way to complete this mission is:
- Deploy 3x Sheridans in Wave 1 and M163 VADS.
- Send your Sheridans to control the middle corridor. If they have a clear LOS of at least 5 hexes in every possible direction, the AI won't bother you. Just watch out for AT infantry.
- Deploy another Sheridan and a troop-carrying helo in wave 2. You have to deploy the unarmed trucks now, so have them stay well behind a wall of Sheridans.
- After you take out the artillery (always in the upper left corner), push forward slowly through the centre, making sure to always have multiple Sheridans with 6 hexes of LOS on every possible enemy approach.
- Once the enemy tanks are gone, you can just roll forward with the Sheridans and the trucks behind. You can use one truck to bait out enemy fire (they give you 5, but you only need to escort 4).

Originally posted by Vathek1:

Originally posted by hotdogCrawdad:

Geesh I'm still stuck on Chapter 3 Mission 8... They start with 5 more points and with the artillery and the aliens not cooperating (I swear they are in cahoots) I can not seem to get a foothold to get the convoy through. So far I send a helicopter to sacrificially knock out the arty. Then, I thought if I took the southern route the aliens in the north would keep them from flanking me from that direction but then it just turns into a fight over the corridor in the center. Sheridans slugging it out with M60 Starships is never going to go in the Sheridans' favor...

Due to the way that the AI is omniscient, the Sheridan is actually a better tank than the M60. Your 6-range ATGM will force them to stay out of range, allowing you to inch forward. If you have three Sheridans with clear lines of fire down the middle, they won't be able to attack your convoy except at the risk of losing one of the few tanks they can deploy.

The easiest way to complete this mission is:
- Deploy 3x Sheridans in Wave 1 and M163 VADS.
- Send your Sheridans to control the middle corridor. If they have a clear LOS of at least 5 hexes in every possible direction, the AI won't bother you. Just watch out for AT infantry.
- Deploy another Sheridan and a troop-carrying helo in wave 2. You have to deploy the unarmed trucks now, so have them stay well behind a wall of Sheridans.
- After you take out the artillery (always in the upper left corner), push forward slowly through the centre, making sure to always have multiple Sheridans with 6 hexes of LOS on every possible enemy approach.
- Once the enemy tanks are gone, you can just roll forward with the Sheridans and the trucks behind. You can use one truck to bait out enemy fire (they give you 5, but you only need to escort 4).

I will give this a shot, thank you!! I think I was getting close to a similar strategy but kept losing my resolve and trying to pounce on moments to destroy an M60 and then ending up in a bad position. I have struggled with different missions but still felt like I could come out on top, this and the last mission are some where I really have felt like the game balance is so tight that I really wasn't sure how I could win besides luck. I shudder to think whats in store in the next few missions...

^Remember that there is no turn limit, so the best strategy is usually to just turtle up and slowly roll forward, with overlapping fields of fire from ATGM and tanks.

Another nasty mission is Chapter 3, Mission 10--that one is honestly a bit luck-based. I don't want to spoil it for you, but if you don't get a good roll on a TOW missile shot against the first tank you encounter you might as well restart.

For me, the absolute worst mission was Chapter 3, Mission 6; I got past that one solely by luck.

I'm still stuck on C3M6 or whatever the second air assault mission is after the notorious truck escort. ):

Originally posted by Kåt Tsun:

I'm still stuck on C3M6 or whatever the second air assault mission is after the notorious truck escort. ):

I managed to complete C3M6 again earlier today. What I did in a nutshell:
- Purchase 4x CH-47 Chinook with infantry, and 2x UH-1 Iroquois with AT mines. The AH-1 on this mission doesn't feel like a great choice due to its high point cost, low HP, and the metric ♥♥♥♥-ton of AA that the opfor brings. Also, the battlefield has very few long sight lines which would allow you to really take advantage of the TOW missiles.

- When buying the mine choppers, make sure to read the description carefully. The useless Huey with the M60 looks exactly the same in the unit card.

- The other Chinook with two jeeps is also a trap. The enemy has too much armoured strength, and the ability of infantry to hide in forests is essential here. The opfor has enough armour to risk taking a shot or two from your I-TOW jeeps in order to blast them to pieces... and that's assuming you managed to take out that howitzer which will prioritise those jeeps.

- Use one mine chopper to block off the path south of the third victory hex, one to block off the path leading to the fourth one, and during a lull in the action, to mine the forest path leading toward your initial CP (just in case).

- Land a decent contingent of troops around the 2nd three CPs, then send your partially full Chinook way around the northwest (where the aliens are hanging out) so you can pre-emptively park your troops on the last victory hex.

- To take out the artillery, send one of your mine-laying UH-1s to scout that area after it has deployed at least one mine. These helos have no other weapons, so you can use them to block hexes and suicide scout once they've deployed their mines. If the area doesn't have an SPAAG or tank parked there, send a Chinook with a couple infantry (Riflemen, not AT troops, although a rifleman and recon team pair works fine) to that corner to have them eliminate the gun... and hope you roll a 3 on your LAW missile shot.

After that, just try to rely on air strikes to whittle down the enemy vehicles. Bypass immobilised tracks unless they are really in your way.

This mission is really a crapshoot in terms of luck. A streak of low rolls can make it go bad fast. Also, the aliens don't really tend to attack you, or anyone during this mission in my observation. One other tip is to try to bait the enemy into taking shots at lower-value units--if they shoot, they cannot move that turn.

For me the hardest level was 3-6 -> up until that point the strategy I'd mostly adopted was to dig in around the early areas and let the AI attack, grinding it down then advancing through the leftover units. In this level that doesn't work because the AI had an overwhelming force, and it took me a while to get my head around the hit and run tactics required to fully utilise the Cobras to break through (I basically bought as many Cobras as possible and used the leftovers for an infantry Chinook). Funnily enough though this was also the level where I went from thinking this was a decent game to an amazing game, because the strategy I learnt in this level was extremely useful in the subsequent levels - the Sheridans are *way* more powerful than they initially seem because they act like ground based Cobras - you can race 3-4 of them in on a mostly isolated enemy unit, pop it with anti-tank rounds and run away without the other units having a chance to fight back. The ATGMs are merely a nice bonus.

Like the topic creator, for me it was 3-10. It was fun coming up with a viable strategy though.

Just finished it. 3-06 for me, followed by 3-08

Just took an attempt at 3.3, and reading this thread I'm fairly convinced I'm done. I'm positive it's winnable with a lot of RNG and slowly crawling infantry forward, but why? Ugh.

I like the concept of this game, but the gameplay itself is awful. Limiting what units the player can take is a particularly egregious choice. In campaigns with dug-in enemies why would I ever attack without a ton of air support and mortars?