"Hostomel Heroes", "hard" level, part two

March 3, 2022, Vorzel.

“People used to be closer to each other. It had to be — after all, the weapons were only for close combat.”

 Stanisław Jerzy Lec

I didn’t randomly start the description of the second part with this quote: because a lot depends on snipers in the mission. Of course, my pair, in addition to the trophy M2010 rifle, received the famous (in narrow circles) Lobaev TSVL-8 “Stalingrad”: less spread, more damage. Besides the sniper pair, the mission begins with a unit armed with an ATGM and paratroopers with a trophy “NLAW”. (Unfortunately, the latter turned out not to be very effective due to its short range — compared to the enemy's armored vehicles! — of fire.)

This is important!

Of course, before starting each mission, it is necessary to improve the equipment of operational units, but there are some subtleties. There is no need to upgrade the firearms of sapper units and units with heavy weapons: they rarely have to fire their personal weapons. It’s not worth improving (or even taking!) the reconnaissance unit (four without a machine gun — too weak!). There is no need to increase the mine supply for the sappers: two anti-tank mines above the norm will not change anything, and the experience points for upgrades will be wasted.

As soon as your units and attached equipment appear on the map, direct everyone, except for the snipers, to the railway — to prevent them from taking away experience from the precise duo.

By transitioning from house to house, the snipers completely clear the first zone;

now we pull the ATGM unit to the intersection; enemy armored vehicles may appear from that direction.

Snipers under anti-tank cover continue to move along the railway, destroying infantry and searching for armored vehicles; their ultimate goal: to clear four large houses at the corner between the roads of enemies. (Watch that this area doesn’t come under your control: it’s still early.)

Snipers fire at the enemy entrenched in four houses from a position with a “cross”: the enemy won't be able to harm them at that distance.

This is important!

The sniper duo spots enemy armor before its crew sees the shooters. Next, it’s up to the ATGM team: they also take the shot before the enemy notices them. Of course, they might miss… But you saved the game, right?

We return and capture the second intersection; summoned units secure themselves in the houses for defense; and the snipers, accompanied by the ATGM, head northwest, clearing the streets of armored vehicles and the houses of infantry.

Once this is done, we call in all available equipment, place the sappers and snipers under armor, and then embark on a raid behind enemy lines. The thing is that the enemy has two mortar batteries, making it impossible for infantry to advance. Thus, we bring the equipment to the point at the top edge of the map; the snipers detect a mortar battery (disable their fire capability so they won’t reveal themselves!), and the “armor” swiftly destroys the first of the two batteries. (Point #1.)

Mortars neutralized!

(By the way, there is a supply vehicle at the top right corner at the very edge of the map; it will be useful to capture it. Point #2.) Done.

In the building at Point #3 sit the enemies controlling this area; attacking them along the highway will provoke a mass counterattack from enemy vehicles.

Therefore, the sappers mine the road with anti-tank mines and retreat. Then any APC moves into position, attacks the second mortar battery (Point #4) with fire, and retreats as quickly as possible behind its minefield.

We still need to clear House #3 and eliminate all enemies remaining in the houses that were initially cleared by the snipers. By the way, another anti-tank weapon was discovered on this map: the “Javelin.” But is it worth arming them if it can only be used by the ATGM unit? (I didn’t check: maybe the “Javelin” works against aircraft? If so, it’s definitely worth using! But you can’t replay several missions just to check this!?)

This is important!

Enemies in houses tend to let your fighters get closer without revealing their positions. But if the snipers open fire on such a house from maximum distance — the enemies will reveal themselves much earlier.

As soon as the additional point comes under your control, you will have two “Nonas”: a gun-howitzer-mortar in one. Now you can begin the final clearing of the territory!

Very quickly the enemy will begin to shell the position of the allied “Nonas”; I managed to stop this by destroying a suspicious “civilian” vehicle that stopped on the highway nearby.

All enemies in the area have been defeated, now it remains to conduct the convoys without losses. You will be warned about several suspicious points; another non-obvious one is located on the highway, in the upper right corner of the map. We mine the highway and move armored vehicles there for support.

You can mine the dirt roads at the right edge of the map, but it will use up too many munitions; furthermore, anti-personnel mines are not very effective. Better to send your infantry units there.

One of the roads even brought in a tank; that is when the paratroopers benefited from the trophy ATGM “NLAW”!

Now all that’s left is to run down the road, opening it for movement, and wait for all the convoys to pass. Congratulations, you have completed the mission!

To be continued…