Company of Heroes Walkthrough - Invasion of Normandy - Mission 4 - Carentan Counterattack (EXPERT Difficulty)
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For general tips about this mission, first read about our Carentan Counterattack playthrough on Normal Difficulty.
In this playthrough at Expert Difficulty, we used Sensible Preparation and mined the spawn point as well as all roads and bridges. We still wanted active defense and not rely entirely on mines for a Bronze Star win.
In the picture you can how far we set our troops from the spawn point, in the hopes that they would completely exit the spawn point and lose their hidden bonuses in that area. However, this also meant we couldn't spot the enemy mortars when they started arriving, and therefore could not use Off-Map Artillery Support on them. As a result, we had to retreat when they arrived and find another way to spot them (jeep or sniper).
The Jeep fortunately did not die early from a tank, so we quite extensively used it after calling a retreat from the first line of defense. It was the only unit that could be "healed" (repaired).
Of course we could have let units die and continually send in new ones, or run units toward the spawn point once the mines were exploded, in order to spot for artillery--But our Company of Heroes playthrough paradigm of preserving units forbade that sort of move. It's too bad you are not commanding Riflemen because they have a line for that ("With all due respect sir, are you high?").
We did however leave the snipers behind Camouflaged to at least take out the few Pioneer Squads with Frankfurt 42 Mine Detectors that accompanied a later wave of tanks.
On Expert difficulty, enemies also come from the other roads to the northwest and northeast very early on. Once we pulled back from the initial defense line to avoid mortar shelling, the enemy spread out thinly and kept moving, so it was actually hard to bombard them with Off-Map Artillery Support except when we found a clump of mortar teams already set up and who would be unable to escape the bombardment, which takes several seconds to arrive once the location is marked.
Our Performance
No Bronze Star, but a respectable amount of points prior to the arrival of Able Company, and only one squad of Engineers completely lost.
Overall, we should have:
For general tips about this mission, first read about our Carentan Counterattack playthrough on Normal Difficulty.
In the picture you can how far we set our troops from the spawn point, in the hopes that they would completely exit the spawn point and lose their hidden bonuses in that area. However, this also meant we couldn't spot the enemy mortars when they started arriving, and therefore could not use Off-Map Artillery Support on them. As a result, we had to retreat when they arrived and find another way to spot them (jeep or sniper).
The Jeep fortunately did not die early from a tank, so we quite extensively used it after calling a retreat from the first line of defense. It was the only unit that could be "healed" (repaired).
Of course we could have let units die and continually send in new ones, or run units toward the spawn point once the mines were exploded, in order to spot for artillery--But our Company of Heroes playthrough paradigm of preserving units forbade that sort of move. It's too bad you are not commanding Riflemen because they have a line for that ("With all due respect sir, are you high?").
We did however leave the snipers behind Camouflaged to at least take out the few Pioneer Squads with Frankfurt 42 Mine Detectors that accompanied a later wave of tanks.
On Expert difficulty, enemies also come from the other roads to the northwest and northeast very early on. Once we pulled back from the initial defense line to avoid mortar shelling, the enemy spread out thinly and kept moving, so it was actually hard to bombard them with Off-Map Artillery Support except when we found a clump of mortar teams already set up and who would be unable to escape the bombardment, which takes several seconds to arrive once the location is marked.
Our Performance
No Bronze Star, but a respectable amount of points prior to the arrival of Able Company, and only one squad of Engineers completely lost.
Overall, we should have:
- Camped closer to the spawn point so that we could see and immediately use Off-Map Artillery Support whenever things started getting out of control or when key enemy units arrived.
- After the Town Hall was bombarded, placed mines on the roads leading into and through the Town Hall area, though our clump of units defended quite well against the enemy straggling in.
- More mining at the end of Mission 3.
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