Mission 2 - Battle of Moscow | Soviet | Campaign Sudden Strike 4 Guide

Mission objectives:

• Secure the airstrip
• Repel German forces - destroy 15 vehicles

There's five stages of this mission: breaking the first line of defense; repelling the counter attack; breaking the second line; securing the strip; and neutralizing the evacuation party before it escapes. Mines will be very useful in fulfilling the last task. Try to capture cannons instead of destroying them. Chose infantry (more gear) or armor (sandbags) doctrine.

When you break the defendants, you can easily outflank them and attack from behind - at this point, it's cakewalk. Enemy cannons can't reach your tanks and the infantry will only increase the vision.

The first enemy line isn't a huge challenge, but you have to attack from left or right flank (1) (the left one may seem more challenging because of the howitzers right behind the field headquarters, but there's quite a few abandoned vehicles here). Keep the tanks at the back. Use your whole infantry to attack. In each of these points, there are a couple soldiers and a reinforced cannon. You should outflank such positions to prevent the cannon to fire at you, hence letting your infantry deal with the threat without a hitch. The enemy will often call reinforcements, but German tanks should be no match for T34 or KV-1. After securing the first position, proceed to securing the rest - use the same outflanking maneuver. Before you deal with the last point, converge all your cannons near the central position (the wooden tower), because the counter attack will be directed here (2). Bring the tanks and infantry to face light tanks and small teams of infantry.

A large group of infantry can clean bunkers or gun statuibs if they are separated or if you can use vegetation or something else as a cover. Use the tanks and a scout to reveal enemies.

Time for stage three - destroying defense lines. You will gain access to the Katyusha - it's ideal for destroying buildings and neutralizing infantry. However, it uses a lot of ammo and is very susceptible to fire (3). Hide scouts in high vegetation - behind them, we want artillery and tanks that will be able to destroy various targets. You can also attack with infantry, which should be able to destroy cannons and the infantry in trenches. Before proceeding to attack the remaining positions, you should try to secure the village on the right (4), but it ain't gonna be easy.

Heavy German cannons are easiest to eliminate using artillery, but if you want to take them over, use only infantry armed with rifles or automatic weapons. Take advantage of the possibility to hide in the forest to shoot with impunity. If you don't have such facilities, attack the cannon from both sides. One of the groups will eliminate the unprotected personnel.

If you're not interested in obtaining more heavy cannons (4), you can skip this paragraph. In the village, there are four 88s and three regular AT cannons, snipers in turrets and infantry in 2-3 buildings. You might want to take over the hardware - it will come in handy. Sent the infantry to a forest and eliminate the personnel from there. If the Flak 88 turns towards your troops, deistract it from the opposite side - you want the back of the cannon exposed. Neutralizing the three cannons in the southern part of the village should be simple. Destroy the turrets and occupied buildings with tanks/mortars/artillery. Bring the trucks and set up cannons near the trenches that you just took over.

Now, begin with the northernmost position. Sent your troops to the back and start with the Flak 88 cannon and artillery (5). Now you cantake your tanks and destroy the remaining forces from the back. Mind the reinforcements from off the map! Those will be light and medium tanks. After clearing the last position, the map will expand to include the airstrip, and the enemy will recive reinforcements at the field behind the village. Some tanks may approach your positions. To get the airstrip, you will only need a small force of tanks and infantry (the author used just one KV-1 and 15 soldiers). The key is to attack from the left and destroying the tanks from behind (6). The enemy will call in reinforcements from the other end of the strip (two tanks and a group of infantry). In the center of the airstrip stands a Flak 88 as well as a howitzer right in front of the forest (a couple of soldiers in the forest will have no problem eliminating the enemy). Slowly proceed forward, let the infantry scout ahead and only attack if there's no other choice.

Set the tanks up at the crossroad, and the cannons in a safe distance, turned towards the road. The infantry can hide in tall grass or other vegetation (white arrow), in order to provide vision of enemy movements.

After securing the last bit of the airstrip, you will need to eliminate an enemy convoy (7). Because of this, don't rush with destroying the last cannon/infantry on the strip. The enemy will be taking the road from the village to the other part of the map. Set up as many cannons along the road as you can. Converge your forces near the crossroads near the railroad crossing. Take tanks and reinforce them with sandbags. Infantry should provide vision for the rest of your army and eliminate the crews of enemy vehicles. You might want to set up mines on the road in front of you and behind you (in case anyone gets through).