Mission 3 - Pathfinder - p. 3 AA II: OA Guide

Last update: 11 May 2016

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After reaching strong point (2d) the task of neutralizing enemy strong points should be marked by the game as completed. There will appear other American forces in the village of Timurkalaj, and they'll establish there a Forward Observation Point (FOP) Planck. In the settlement there will appear support vehicles (among other things): repair, refuel and ammo truck. And you'll talk with local villagers - they'll inform you about the Takistani pro-government combatants who are harassing their settlement. I'd suggest saying "Yes!" (#23), when these poor villagers are asking you, if you want to help them and save them from these bad combatants.

The position of enemy combatants (4) is located quite close, to the east from the village of Timurkalaj, on the margin of the wood in grid coordinates 093053. The enemy isn't rather strong and you should easily deal with him (#24).

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Return to your vehicles which are parked on the road at FOP Planck and embark your Abrams tank. I'd suggest repairing all the vehicles which may demand it before you drive northwards through the village of Timurkalaj. But first of all you should rearm your tank at the ammo truck - this is one of three trucks which you'll see parked near the road (#25).

Deal with enemy combatants (4) who are harassing Timurkalaj by using for this purpose only your tank, as your best armoured vehicle. For the moment leave the rest of your vehicles at FOP Planck. Drive northwards through Timurkalaj, then go off road to the right (to the east) and towards the nearby slope. Open fire when you see in your sight the first enemy. First of all destroy the recoilless gun SPG-9 which has its position somewhere amongst the tents situated on the margin of the wood (#26). It's best to locate hostiles using the thermovisor and you don't have to save your ammo, because after the fight you can rearm again at ammo truck in Timurkalaj. Kill also the enemies hiding in the wood. When game considers the task of saving the villagers as completed you can return to FOP Planck in Timurkalaj, in order to repair and rearm your tank, if needed.

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Finally, it's time to secure the crash site (5) of a military transport aircraft C-130 Hercules. You observed the crash of this plane earlier. Order your other vehicles (M2 Bradley IFVs) to return to the column formation and move along the road which is running westwards, through the top of another, quite a high hill. Make sure that all the vehicles of the convoy are following your Abrams tank! If one of them stays too far behind, this mission may end with failure! That's because all the time you have to protect this American convoy of military vehicles and have an eye on it. If some of your Bradleys don't want to follow, then the reason is there's probably no one seating on driver's seat. In such a case depress an appropriate function button in order to select one of Bradley's crewmembers and order him to take a driver's seat by pressing the 6 key and then choosing suitable option from the available actions. The process of driving on this high hill (#27) is laborious and it may take some time, so it would be a wise idea to play a little with time compression keys (+ and -).

When closing to the top of this hill you should watch out for enemy combatants who may appear on the left roadside. First of all, kill at least two guys who are carrying AT rocket launchers before they make use of their weapons (#28). It's easily to recognize these gentlemen exactly by these long tubes which are sticking from behind their backs. A little further and on the right roadside there's a HMG emplacement - eliminate its gunner.

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Carefully get with your Abrams tank on the top of the hill and take a look at the surroundings while presenting to the potential enemies only the turret of your vehicle. You should see two old T-34 tanks which are driving back and forth on the road below and in front of you - destroy them both (#29). Then you can drive downhill with the whole convoy and order your Bradleys to form echelon left formation, for example (key combo 8-4). In the distance, behind the destroyed T-34s, to the west, in grid 065048 you'll see a wreck of a downed Hercules transport aircraft (5). Unfortunately, the Takistani army was able to get to it first, but for the moment these soldiers have to deal with some neutral (but only towards you) rebels who are also trying to reach the crash site. You can distinguish these first gentlemen from the rebels by their helmets and military uniforms (guerillas wear turbans and clothes designed in local, trendy styles).

Additionally, the rebels along with their vehicles are closing to the crash site from the left side (from the south) and the Takistani soldiers (your enemies) are already near the wreck of a plane, on its right (northern) side (#30). Fire at the soldiers, do not shot at the rebels. In thermovision you can see all of them very nicely, but it's rather difficult to recognize who is who on this channel of your sight.

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After killing all the Takistani soldiers and getting with the whole American column of military vehicles to the wreck of a downed Hercules (5) the tasks of securing the crash site and protecting the convoy should be considered as completed. If you didn't kill near the wreck these neutral guerillas, then now you'll be able to talk with them (the cutscene should start automatically). Unfortunately, they'll tell you that you're late and the civilians (physicians) from a downed Hercules were taken by the Takistani trucks to the coltan mine. I think that you can trust these rebels (#31).

But if you killed all the guerillas near the Hercules (probably because of mistaking them for Takistani soldiers, right?), then the HQ will order you to find the prisoners from a downed plane by using a reconnaissance UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) named Vampir-3. You can obtain the access to the console which lets you to control UAV by approaching to the rear of one of your M2 Bradley IFVs. The suitable option will then appear in your action's menu (#32).

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Select this option to start searching the area with the help of the camera mounted on UAV (#33). You need to check three locations in which the prisoners from a downed Hercules may be held in captivity. On your map these three spots are indicated with green circles with question marks (?) inside them. You'll direct your UAV over the chosen place by left clicking on your map. When UAV starts circling over the selected point, you have to observe through its camera (which also has several channels of vision) the area located under the plane (#33).

Inasmuch as this mission shouldn't be played for too long (not longer than 2 hours), because it'll end with failure then (in such case the game concludes that the combatants have managed to dig in and you can't win with them) I'll write straightaway that the captives from a downed Hercules plane (5) are being held in the coltan mine in the spot (6). So this is the westernmost one (#34) of these three locations which are marked green on your map and you should search them with your UAV. When you've finally pinpointed it, while looking at this coltan mine through the camera mounted on UAV, the task of finding the prisoners will be completed, as the whole mission.