Theatre of War (pt.4) – Command & Control
Contact! This game event is scripted in the tutorial mission and the game auto-pauses, giving the player a chance to adjust to the new situation. You won’t have this luxury in a “real†combat mission.
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The pause gives us a chance to explore the battlefield. Moving the camera into the hamlet, we can have a closer look at the enemy positions that our guys have spotted. This machinegun would have been devastating if it had opened fire down the road we just came (and it would have if this wasn’t a tutorial mission), and it is the primary target to take out to break the enemy defense.
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We see some other German soldiers in position in the village. Keep in mind that even though you can move the camera freely over the battlefield, you only see the soldiers that your soldiers on the battlefield can see (plus in some special cases you can also hear the enemy).
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Now we take a look at our own position. Even with the game paused, you can issue orders to your soldiers.
We have three guys on the right side behind a stack of boxes,…
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…a few more guys, including the squad sniper, a little back behind a wooden shack, and…
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…three guys further forward, already almost in hand grenade range! We’ll take advantage of that, and – during the pause – order some of them to throw handgrenades at the MG position.
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We do this by clicking on the grenade and then right-clicking on the target, as shown in the image above.
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Private Voronov advances into range and tosses the grenade, and takes out the MG crew!
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Meanwhile we select some targets for our other soldiers. The sniper naturally is ordered to target units further away, since his accuracy (marksman skill) as well as equipment (scoped rifle) give him the best to-hit chance at longer ranges.
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Well-aimed shots also from the other riflemen take out the visible enemy soldiers one by one.
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When none are visible anymore, we give the order to advance in groups.
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Some of the guys are ordered into cover on the left side behind one of the shacks there.
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More targets come into view and are picked off at a distance.
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Then the right side closes towards the village as well.
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But not all enemy are dead yet.
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We order some of the guys in for the close kill.
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