In Sudden Strike 1, everything dies fairly easily. Foot soldiers can die from a single bullet, armored vehicles from a single mine or grenade, heavy tanks from a single Howitzer round.

Due to the innate vulnerability of all units, mindlessly group-selecting your army and ordering it to march into the enemy lines will (almost always) result in catastrophic failure. The flimsiest of enemy defenses can inflict a great deal of damage to your army - especially when long range, heavy artillery is involved (and you should always expect the enemy to have long range, heavy artillery - ALWAYS).

That means that you have to use your noggin' and approach each mission with a PLAN. Before we discuss what a successful PLAN consists of, though, we need to talk about the basic game mechanics - namely 1) Vision 2) General Unit Management and 3) Unit Commands - and the basic unit types - these will be presented in the next section - in SS1.


1) VISION.

Vision is probably the most important aspect of this game. Why? Because in order to shoot the enemy, you have to know where he is on the map (duh). Enemy units will be invisible to you while they are inside the Fog of War (fow). Therefore, a big portion of your playtime will be devoted to revealing the enemy's positions and blasting the ever living crap out of them.

However, gaining Vision requires advancing into enemy territory which exposes your units to danger (the danger of being bombed to bits that is).
In what follows I'll try to outline some general habits/strategies that will allow you to (somewhat) safely scout the map and discover enemy positions.
Before I do that, however, I want to highlight the basic concepts relating to General Unit Management which are necessary for forming and executing a well-planned out strategy.

2) General Unit Management
Every unit has a Line of Sight (los) - an area around it which removes fow and can reveal enemy units. Generally, foot soldiers have a wider los than vehicles and artillery.
Anyway, for now what's important to understand is how you can extend your current los using your units. In other words, how you can utilize yours units in order to see further away in enemy territory.

In any other game, the answer would simply be "Select unit, right click in destination, wait until it arrives in destination, see if there are enemies in destination, repeat". Sorry to disappoint, but that won't be the case in SS1.

Say you select a rifleman. You order your rifleman to move forward, into enemy territory, because you have a sneaking suspicion that there is an enemy rifleman hidden in fow (we assume the enemy rifleman is identical to yours and therefore possesses the same los as yours - as will be explained later on, this won't always be the case). Common sense dictates that the moment that your rifleman gets close enough to the enemy rifleman, they will see each other simultaneously and will therefore open fire simultaneously at each other.
Unfortunately though, your soldier's los lags behind him while he moves (meaning that your soldier moves first, and after a short delay his los adjusts to his new position). As such, the enemy rifleman will AWLAYS see your rifleman first. Which means that between two identical unit types (in terms of los), the stationary unit will always have an advantage over the moving unit. This 'law' makes attacking the enemy's position a real strategic challenge.

Thankfully, there are two main methods of overcoming this challenge:

First: Utilize units with wider los than that of the enemy. That way, your wider los compensates for that one tile of los that you lose against the stationary enemy troops.
While this strategy is very reliable, it can prove to be ineffective, for example, when terrain is obscuring vision altogether or when the enemy uses similar unit types as you do. In these cases, you can use the following method.

Second: Using cannon fodder units (a.k.a. submachine gunners) to run down enemy lines and (hopefully) reveal their position before they are brutally killed.

After familiarizing yourself with the game and getting more competent, you will start using other more advanced strategies for scouting and gaining vision control. Until then, these two methods will be your bread and butter for most missions.



3) Unit Commands

The available Unit Commands are fairly simple.

Press T to disable/enable autofire. Use this command when you don't want your units to automatically fire at the enemy.

Press R to order units to stand their ground. That's a particularly useful command, especially when defending a position using tanks.

Press Q to move the selected unit(s) to the designated position.

Press W to fire at the selected target (WARNING: Friendly fire exists in this game, and it's brutal. Be wary of where you are ordering your troops to shoot at.) It's important to note that if the target is not withing your unit's range of fire, your unit will move towards the target until he is in range.

E is for attack moving. This command will cause your troops to actively chase and attack enemies within their los so be careful when using it

A is for placing mines. This is a feature that only the riflemen have (and possibly some other types of foot soldiers).

S is for picking up enemy or friendly mines - extremely useful for disarming enemy minefields.



I believe it's very useful to get used to the Hotkeys (instead of clicking each icon every time) early on, because it will allow you to perform more actions in a shorter period of time.
Some unique units (such as the Howitzers or the Supply Trucks) will have different available commands. It suffices to note that the attack command for Howitzers is D instead of W.

Lastly, it's important to note that you can string a series of commands using the Shift key. For example, you can select a unit and while holding Shift, order that unit to move to three different locations (you can use your mouse instead of Q), and your unit will travel to each location according to the order you assigned. Shift - commands are a life saver in this game. Plus, it allows you to create really cool minefields (there is a video from VoloundExplosions somewhere, where he showcases how do this).

Units' Experience

Before we move on to unit types, it's very important to discuss Experience.

After selecting any unit, you will be presented with the following 4 bars:



The first (HP bar), third (ammo bar) and fourth (special ammo bar) bars are pretty self explanatory.

The second bar is the Experience bar.
This bar can be filled, up to 1000 points. In order for a unit to gain experience it needs to either:

a) Receive (and survive) damage.
b) Fire (at anything at all).

Once sufficiently experienced**(1), a unit will receive certain bonuses. These bonuses affect:


1) The unit's accuracy.
Especially useful for AT gunners (who tend to miss an awful lot) and artillery/tanks.

2) The unit's resistance to damage.
Especially useful for submachine gunners and commandos who are often used as meat shields for scouting purposes.

3) The unit's LOS.
Vital for scouting.
A fully experienced unit has an additional tile of LOS compared to an inexperienced unit of the same type.


**(1) I don't know what experience threshold must be surpassed in order for a unit to enjoy all of these bonuses. I might do some tests if i have the time and energy.

Tips and tricks for Experience gain

An experienced army is a capable army. Most of the times, your troops will be given to you fresh and thus, inexperienced. That can prove to be a problem though.
As we have already established, in order to safely scout the map, you need units with as wide LOS as possible. (see the chapter dedicated to VISION in the last section)

Also, for most missions, you will be using units as meat shields in order to protect your more valuable units (snipers, officers, generals etc).

For both of those reasons, training your army is essential.

Below, I will be listing some convenient ways of training (some of) your units.


RIFLEMEN, OFFICERS, ARMORED VEHICLES

Order them to shoot at a friendly heavy tank or an empty building. Their gunfire can't harm your tank or the building, and therefore, as long as you keep supplying your units with ammo, they will be shooting indefinitely. Officers and armored vehicles will generally gain experience faster due to their faster fire rate. Riflemen on the other hand will require some time to reach full experience.

There are two methods of resupplying your units for training purposes.
The first one is to keep a Suuply Truck around and allow it to automatically restock each unit's ammo. This method is a bit tricky. Supply trucks resupply units that are shooting at a very slow rate. So what usually ends up happening is the Supply truck being stuck resupplying a single unit, while the rest have exhausted their ammo reserves and are sitting, doing nothing. I suggest checking on your units every couple of minutes - order them to stop firing if they are low on ammo in order to allow the supply truck to resupply them, and then order them to resume firing. (THIS METHOD OF RESUPPLYING IS EXTREMELY USEFUL FOR SEVERAL INSTANCES OUTSIDE OF TRAINING)

The second one, and my personal favorite, is to order your units to shoot and then (with the shift key) order them to resupply their ammo from a nearby Ammo Box (provided you have one). This way, units will fire, resupply and fire again automatically through the power of string commands!

SNIPERS
The same method can be applied with the snipers.
BUT. What I usually do is use my snipers to clear buildings in enemy territory. Soon enough they will be fully experienced without me having to waste time to train them.

There are two categories of unit types in SS1. General unit types, which are shared among all Nations (German, Russian, British and American), and Unique Unit types, which are exclusive to each Nation.

Differences however exist among the general unit types of each Nation (for example the Russian AT gunners will fire a laser-like shot which is much faster than the RPG shots that German and Britsh/American AT gunners fire, making it much harder to dodge)

In this section we deal with the general unit types.

General Unit Types

INFANTRY

1) Riflemen:
Rate of Fire: Low
Line of Sight: Medium
Range of Fire: Medium to Wide
Damage: Medium to High (per shot)
Special Weapon: Mines

Riflemen are a strong anti-infantry unit, with the potential to one shot enemy units at a decently long range. At large numbers, they can create deadly minefields for defensive purposes. They can also be used for scouting due to their medium Los, if there is no alternative.
An overall good unit.

2) Submachine Gunners:
Rate of Fire: High (ish)
Line of Sight: Short
Range of Fire: Short
Damage: Piss poor
Special Weapon: Grenades

Submachine Gunners are pretty damn awful. Their Los is too short for effective scouting, and their range of fire and damage are inferior to that of the Riflemen, making them a terrible anti-infantry unit. Their grenades can prove effective against medium-light armored vehicles, but their firing range is too short and they tend to miss against moving targets.
Subgunners are often used as cannon fodder or meat shields to protect your more valuable units.

3) Anti-tank Gunner
Rate of Fire: Low
Line of Sight: Medium (?)
Range of Fire: Medium to Wide
Damage: High (per shot)
Special Weapon: Anti-tank rifles or rockets/bazookas

As the name suggests, ATs are best used to destroy enemy armored vehicles. ATs are at a disadvantage against enemy infantry, but excel against medium armored tanks, which aren't as fast as the light tanks, nor as tanky as the heavier ones.

4) Heavy Machine Gunner

He is basically a Submachine Gunner with more damage, but without the grenades. Due to their short range of fire, I wouldn't recommend them as an anti-infantry unit. They simply get outranged by Riflemen and Anti-tank gunners.

5) Sniper
Rate of Fire: Low
Line of Sight: Very Wide
Range of Fire: Very Wide
Damage: Very High (per shot)
Special Weapon: Sniper rifle which one shots everyone

The sniper is the most disgustingly powerful infantry unit in the game, by FAR. I've completed entire missions using just a couple of snipers and a light tank. He is excellent for scouting, while due to his extremely wide range of fire and ability to one shot enemy units, he is the best anti-infantry unit in the game.
That means that you have to treasure your snipers. You won't always have them, and when you do they will be small in number. Protect them at all costs.

A small tip for scouting purposes: Snipers crouch when they fire (as opposed to all other infantry units who will fire without crouching, unless they receive damage). While crouched, sniper's Los actually increases by one tile. Therefore, you can order your sniper to shoot at an empty building or friendly HEAVY tank (lighter tanks might actually receive damage) before moving him forward, increasing his los for a short period of time.
While crouched, a fully experienced Sniper has the widest Los of any unit in the entire game.
As I said, snipers are overpowered.

6) Officers
Rate of Fire: Medium
Line of Sight: Very Wide
Range of Fire: Very Short
Damage: Who cares
Special Weapon: Small water squirter

Officers are useful for one thing and one thing only: Scouting. Their Los is comparable to that of the sniper's.
A very common strategy is to order your officers to shoot at a target (empty building or heavy tank) and keep resupplying their ammo, until they reach full Exp. Their Los increases significantly when they are fully experienced.
A very useful unit that should also be protected.

7) Flame throwers:

I've never used them. Ever. They have very short range of fire and they always die before they manage to reach their target. I don't really recommend to bother yourself with them

8) Generals:

Generals are an extremely rare unit. Only a handful of missions provide you with a general (one, not more). All his stats are terrible - I don't even know if he is capable of firing a pistol.

BUT. Generals have the ability to reveal a very wide target area using their Goggles (default hotkey D Ι believe). For that reason, they are extremely powerful and can basically trivialize any mission. Just like the officers and the snipers, Generals are extremely valuable. Keep them very well protected.

VEHICLES

Vehicles (except for Trucks and Supply Trucks) are specific to the nation you play as. Meaning that each nation has a variety of unique light, medium and heavy tanks. No two tanks are the same.
That being said, in this section I will be mentioning the main categories of tanks and armored vehicles in the game, as well as the special vehicles, and ways you can effectively use them.

GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT TANKS

After receiving significant damage, tanks will be rendered immobile. Their turret will be able to rotate around and shoot, but the tank won't be able to move.

Tanks can fire while moving. So simply make sure to get your tank in range to the enemy target, and it will shoot automatically (unless you have disabled Autofire obviously).


1) Heavy Tanks.
Line of Sight: Short
Range of Fire: Medium to wide
Damage: High against all unit types
Speed: Slow
Armor: Immune to all types of gunfire

Heavy tanks are an excellent tool for defensive purposes. Position infantry in front of your heavy tanks to provide los, order them to stand their ground, and create a defensive line capable of dealing both with enemy tanks and infantry.

Their slow speed and short los render them useless for attacking purposes unfortunately. Enemy at gunners and even submachine gunners, can usually out manoeuvre heavy armor and take it out relatively easily. For that reason, sending your heavy tanks into fog of war in order to attack the enemy, is usually not a great idea.

As with all tanks, heavy tanks are vulnerable to anti tank artillery. But, unlike all other tank types, heavy tanks have higher damage resistance on the front. For that reason, if for whatever reason you feel the need to attack enemy artillery with your tanks, make sure they are facing the enemy canons in order to absorb more damage.

2) Medium Tanks
Line of Sight: Short - usually a bit wider than that of Heavy armor
Range of Fire: Medium to wide
Damage: Medium against other tanks, high against infantry
Speed: Medium
Armor: (most of the times) Immune to all types of gunfire

Just like Heavy tanks, medium tanks can prove to be effective for defensive purposes. Unlike heavy tanks however, medium tanks' speed allows them to attack enemy infantry relatively safely.
As long as the enemy isn't using at gunners or artillery, your medium tanks can deal a lot of damage.
A common strategy is to order your tanks to move in a (relatively straight, uninterrupted) line in front of the enemy ranks. While moving your tanks will be dealing significant damage. Just make sure not to move your tanks too close to enemy infantry and their pesky grenades.

3) Light Tanks
Line of Sight: Medium
Range of Fire: Medium
Damage: Low against other tanks, medium to high against infantry
Speed: Fast
Armor: Vulnerable to various forms of gunfire (snipers especially)

Light attacks are useful almost solely for attacking purposes. They are very fast. So fast that they can some times out manoeuvre enemy fire. That's right. Light tanks can dodge AT gunners fire and grenades.

The aforementioned attack strategy works even better with light tanks. They can be used even against AT gunners. The secret is to keep them moving at a safe distance from the enemy.

VEHICLES (continued)

ARMORED VEHICLES

Armored vehicles are faster, weaker and more vulnerable versions of the the light tanks. Instead of canon turrets they are equipped with machine guns, which means that they can't deal damage to medium/heavy tanks.

What makes them particularly useful though, is their los. Armored vehicles usually have the widest los compared to any other vehicle type in the game. (German motorbikes are a great example of this)

They are great for scouting and can be used for attacking similarly to the light/medium tanks.

SPECIAL VEHICLES

1) Trucks.

Trucks transport units, crates and artillery. Simple as that.

2) Supply trucks

They resupply your units with ammo and repair your tanks and artillery.

A supply Truck has 15000 worth of Resupply points. Each time it replenishes a unit's ammo, it spends some of these points. Some units, such as howitzers and rocket launchers, require more resupply points, while others, such as infantry or light tanks, require less.
Supply trucks passively regenerate their resupply points, so you needn't worry if you spend them all. BE CAREFUL THOUGH. Passive regeneration works for trucks that remain still. As long as they are moving, supply trucks won't be regenerating points. That's why I order my supply trucks to stand their ground (Hotkey R) when they are low on pts.

They can also build and repair bridges and create obstacles.

When building makeshift bridges, click on the icon to see where you can build them on the map. (they highlight blue on the map)

Be careful when setting up Pyramid obstacles. They can't be destroyed by artillery/tank fire.

It goes without saying that supply trucks are extremely important for any mission.

3) Anti Aircraft vehicles

There is a variety of anti aircraft vehicles (some more heavily armored and some lighter ones).
What's important to note is that the firing pattern of anti aircraft vehicles and artillery is very inaccurate. They usually fire a short barrage of 4-5 shots at the target area.
Against infantry and vehicles alike, their damage is mediocre.

BUT, what's interesting is that they have a ridiculously wide range of fire (for a vehicle/artillery). That makes AA vehicles excellent candidates for clearing terrain such as trees and obstacles from a safe distance.

4) Rocket Launchers.

Possibly the coolest unit in the game. Each Nation has its own variation, but I think most of us will agree that the Katyusha is the coolest of them all.

Rocket Launchers fire a barrage of missiles at a relatively wide area.

While potentially an extremely powerful unit, capable of reducing armies to ashes, their resupply cost is very high. You have to choose when and where to use this unit carefully, in order to not exhaust your supply reserves.

DEFENSE

1) Place Ammo boxes next to your artillery canons and they will automatically refill their ammo while firing.

VISION

1) Garrison buildings with your troops and order them not to fire. Garrisoned units are not visible to the enemy, as long as the garrisoned units do not open fire and the enemy doesn't attempt to garrison the building for himself.

Garrisoning buildings is an extremely useful tactic for providing LOS in an otherwise exposed area of the map. A very common tactic is to position a line of defense a safe distance behind your garrisoned units (with tanks and artillery). The garrisons will reveal enemy attacking units before they get a chance to get close enough to your line of defense, allowing your canons to obliterate them at a safe distance.

NOT bombing every single house in the vicinity therefore, can prove useful in some cases.

TIP: Because Building Vision is buggy in this game, sometimes garrisoned buildings will stop providing LOS for some reason. To counteract this, simply garrison multiple units in each building (I'd say more than 3). This usually helps maintaining a more consistent field of vision.

2) Some buildings will provide wider LOS than others when garrisoned. A notable example is the Guard Tower.

3) For regular buildings, their LOS will depend on its garrison's LOS. Garrisoning experienced officers will provide more LOS than riflemen or submachinegunners for example.

ATTACK

1) JEEPS

Jeeps can be a powerful unit - if used correctly. I believe Jeeps are the fastest units in the entire game (apart from German motorbikes) and this alone is very important. Speed allows jeeps to evade enemy damage (even from certain types of artillery) and that is what makes them so great.

What makes Jeeps so useful is the fact that their garrison can fire from within the Jeep while it is zooming around the map, evading enemy fire.

There are several garrison combinations you can try, but my three favorites are:

[a] Officer - Heavy Machinegunner
The officer (potentially) provides extra LoS and the heavy mow down enemy infantry in seconds. Order your jeep to drive in front of enemy infantry and maintain some safe distance.
Be especially careful against submachinegunners - their grenades can one -shot you.


Offier - Snipers
This group utilizes the Jeep mainly as a means of convenient transportation - I like to use this combo when I'm infiltrating deep into enemy lines and want to disengage quickly in case enemy tanks arrive.
I suggest carrying a meat-shield along to buy your jeep some time during the escape.

[c] AT Gunners
I've only used this strat when dealing with isolated and immobilized heavy tanks.
The AT gunners range when inside the Jeep is quite short and that makes it very dangerous to go after mobile enemy vehicles.
An example of when this strat might prove to be useful is when dealing with sturmtigers (still risky due to the sturmtigers' blast radius) or low hp heavy tanks that can't move.

Now that we have familiarized ourselves with the basic game mechanics and unit types, it's about time to talk about how you should go about completing each mission.

MISSION CATEGORIES

There are two major categories of missions you will be called to tackle.

1) Passive Missions:
In these missions the enemy is passively occupying areas of the map. Your goal is to eliminate the enemy and capture some of those areas.

2) Active Missions:
During these missions, the enemy launches scripted attacks against you (either after a certain time period elapses or after the player performs a certain action).

Unfortunately, there is no definitive method of discerning which category the mission you are playing falls under. There are a few hints you can be mindful of, though

First tip: Pay attention to the mission introduction - the narrator might straight up tell you that the enemy is expected to perform a major offensive (or counterattacks).

Second tip: Pay extra attention to the mini map in the mission introduction. During the narration, white and red arrows will show on the minimap. Through these arrows the game devs are basically hinting at the player where (and when at times) the enemy is going attack you (as showcased by the red arrows). The white arrows represent the devs' proposed route of attack for the player - and they made the game, so they probably know what they are talking about.
So, if you see red arrows moving towards your starting positions, expect enemy attacks.

Third Tip: (not very reliable, but possibly useful)
Take notice of your starting army and the terrain you control. In missions where the enemy is expected to attack your position, you will usually be in control of bunkers or other buildings and several cannons, AA guns and so on. Another big give away for these kind of missions, is when your position is fortified with barbed wire, pyramids and other forms of fortification.


That being said, there will be missions where it is impossible to discern whether or not the enemy will attack (and where he will attack) beforehand. Sometimes, you just have to be prepared for anything and hope for the best.


GAME PLAN FOR EACH CATEGORY

Before I explain how i personally handle each mission category, it's important to highlight some universal, basic steps you need to be performing in order to be successful for any mission.

1) BASIC STEPS

a) Evaluate your army.
You need to discern what troops you control. I always start by checking my infantry units. Do I have snipers or generals? Do i have officers? Lastly, do I have commandos and riflemen?
Afterwards, i check my tanks. Do I have heavy/medium/light? Do I have any armored vehicles? Jeeps?
Then I check for artillery. Do I have cannons (short range artillery)? Do I have howitzers? (long range artillery).
Lastly, I check for my trusty supply trucks. Most missions will provide you with some. But not all.

b) Organize your army.
Select important units (snipers, officers, jeeps/motorbikes etc) and group them together.
If you are expecting an attack, set up a line of defense (this process will be explained in a different section of the guide). Group together your long range artillery. Garrison nearby buildings for vision control. Lastly, start training your troops (if they are not sufficiently experienced).

2) PASSIVE MISSION GAME PLAN:

Firstly, train your army - namely, your officers and possibly riflemen, motorbikes or armored vehicles if you have them.

Secondly, establish a viable attack route. Scour the map and watch out for any visible defenses and terrain. Avoid dense forests, hills/cliffs, villages. Open fields are the easiest to conquer because there is no terrain to block your vision or buildings to provide hiding places for enemies.

Thirdly, select an attack squad. These usually consist of:
a) A VISION UNIT (officer, commander, sniper, a fully experienced rifleman)
b) mobile tank (light/medium tanks have the perfect combination of high ammo and fast move speed)
c) meat shields.
d) attack units (snipers or commandos)

Fourthly, proceed to clear surrounding buildings and trees. It is highly advisable to avoid destroying buildings. Use snipers to shoot and clear any garrisoned units (TIP: snipers will - usually - stop firing at the building on their own when its garrison dies. So pay attention to your snipers to see whether or not its safe to approach the buildings of not.)

Fifthly, commence the attack! Always send forth your meat shields first a few steps ahead of the rest of your units. If the area is clear, move the rest of your units forward. If the area isn't clear, your meat shields will be shot at. Pay attention at the trajectory of enemy projectiles - they usually hint at the position of enemy artillery.

Take small and careful steps. Don't overextend. Clear trees and buildings in the surrounding areas always. Eventually, you will win.

3) ACTIVE MISSION GAME PLAN:

Very similar with the passive mission game plan. With the exception that you have to set up defenses at the beginning and at every proceeding step after that.

Some general tips for a successful defense line:

Your main defense tools are tanks and artillery. (snipers are also nice for clearing enemy infantry) A defense line consists of a sufficiently large number of canons. Position that line BEHIND BUILDINGS whenever possible**(2). Buildings provide LOS without betraying your garrisoned units' position. Your cannons have (usually) very wide attack range and can shoot the enemy units which are revealed by your buildings without being seen by the enemy.

Also, if you have time and ammo, set up minefields in choke points. They can be instrumental for a successful defense.

**(2) Always order your garrisoned buildings to NOT FIRE. If they fire they immediately betray their position.

USA

Mission 1:

The toughest part is dealing with the initial attacks. Here's what I did:

[1] Clear all the forest on your corner of the map, including the trees to the north and east of your position, without getting too close to the enemy town. As long as you don't kill any enemy soldier, you should be fine (enemy attacks commence after you kill an enemy unit, I think). In the meantime train all your officers and group the rest of your army as close to western edge of the map as possible. This is to avoid the first aircraft bombing.

[2] Use your riflemen to place a minefield in front of the lakes, covering the area above them all the way down the border of the map. If you do this correctly, no enemy tank coming from the east will be able to reach you.

[3] After the bombing the enemy will immediately send a wave of infantry and a wave of tanks from the north. (I am assuming that your minefield will be a sufficient countermeasure to the tanks pouring from the east). The tanks can be dealt with easily (either by setting up another minefield - if you are patient enough - or by using your superior LoS from your officers and destroying them with your tanks/bazookas). The infantry is the problem. What I recommend is to set up a line of defense close to the edge of the map by placing a mixture of submachine gunners and riflemen in front of your officers and your tanks (always leave space between units). Your two snipers should be positioned right behind this line. Queue your recon planes (in succession, as needed) to scout the area north of your position right after the enemy bombers arrive. This will provide full vision of the enemy attack. Additionally, you can send your Steward light tanks to take out as much infantry as they can using the attack strategy I've described in my guide - order them to travel in a straight line parallel to the enemy. You might lose a few but they will thin out enemy lines.

[4] That should be enough for the initial attacks. After you deal with the infantry from the north and the few tanks that come afterwards, use your jeep (general, two snipers) and a few scrap units to scout ahead and clear the garrison of the town. As soon as you see a red cross on the map, retreat until enemy recon is gone and repeat.

NOTES:

(a) It is very important to NOT destroy the town's buildings. Use your snipers to clear enemy garrison from a safe distance, but don't destroy them. You need those houses to garrison your officers in the next mission, in order to fend off the attacks on the village.

(b) Taking over the town is a tedious process - the enemy has heavy artillery and will send waves of armor and infantry towards your snipers/jeep frequently. You will have to weave in and out of the village at a moment's notice in order to avoid getting bombed. That's why I recommended a mobile task force comprising of ONE of your two snipers, a general, an officer and a scrap unit in a jeep coupled with a light tank (steward preferably) and some anti-tank unit.

(c) The attack is comprised of the following phases:

(ci)
Attack from the south - clear the enemy artillery positioned at the fringes of the town and all patrols. Enemy light and heavy tanks will be attacking at waves during this phase, accompanied by recon planes - place your scrap unit in front of your attack team to buy you some time in case you react too late and the enemy tanks reach your position.

After the recon plane leaves, return to your position and clear the enemy tanks using bazookas or one of your tank destroyers - be careful though; once an enemy vehicle is destroyed, its crew spawns and reveals the area around the tank for a very brief period - due to the relatively small range of fire of both your bazookas and tanks, this means that right after destroying enemy vehicles your units will be visible to the enemy and thus will be targeted by artillery. Queue them to attack and retreat immediately after to avoid the artillery rounds.

** You can 'train' your tank destroyers by damaging them with your light tanks/sub-machinegunners and repairing them repeatedly. It's a lengthy process, but an experienced tank deals a lot more damage and is much more accurate.

(cii)
After the artillery and the patrols are gone from the south, clear the houses using your snipers and move to the northwestern side of the town, towards the road. Again, clear trees and use snipers to clear infantry and artillery and your bazookas/tank destroyers to clear enemy tanks.

There are several anti-AA guns inside and around the town, making it difficult to scout using recon planes. Still, you can try sending multiple recons at once if you are confident that you have neutralized most anti-AA guns.



Mission 2:

The second mission follows the basic principles of the first, the difference being that now you are in control of the west village.


The enemy attacks the village from three directions: East, North-East and South.

[1] East Attack:

Waves of infantry and heavy and medium tanks will attack the east side of the village, coupled with recon planes (if I remember correctly). From what I understand all attacks are triggered by your actions, so theoretically speaking, you have as much time to prepare as you like ( I have not tested this however, so be careful).

My defense plan was simple: (clearing all trees surrounding the village and on the nearby hilltops should be a given by now)

[1a] (optional) Set up a minefield in front of the village (don't move too close to the enemy lines which are indicated by the bunkers and barbed wire - that can trigger the attack to commence)

[1b] train your officers and garrison them in the buildings on the east side of the village - that's your primary source of LoS for your defense.

[1c] Gather all artillery pieces and position them IN the village, BEHIND the east-side row of buildings where your officers are garrisoned.
Leave some distance between artillery and each house - you don't want your units too close to your vision-buildings in case enemy artillery zeroes on your position; the buildings must survive.

Position your heavy tanks-tank destroyers next to your artillery units - create a compact line of defense behind the buildings, along the main road crossing the village from South to North.

[1d] Gather a few pieces of artillery along with officers, bazookas and riflemen on the hilltop south of the village. You can place your general there to provide vision for the southeast portion of the village.

[1e] place submachine gunners infront of your village and spread them out - they will take care of the initial wave of enemy officers and will soak up a few artillery rounds. Additionally, in case a recon plane comes, the enemy howitzers will attack your forward submachine gunners instead of your defenses within the villages, giving your AA vehicles enough time to take out the recon plane (that's a strat you will be using frequently on this mission - i got 18 plane kills by the end of this one this way)

[1f] Lastly, place your riflemen in front of your artillery and tanks (again, leave some space between units and don't position them too close to your buildings). Your riflemen will take out enemy infantry that gets too close to the defense line and will also soak up enemy artillery damage, 'shielding' your more valuable tanks/artillery pieces.

Your snipers can be positioned anywhere really, I chose to put them on the hilltop in order to keep them completely safe.

(continued in next section)

(USA campaign, mission 2)

[2] Northeast Attack:

This one consists of infantry only and will commence from the forest north of the village - I believe the trigger from this one is attacking the enemy lines opposite the village (But again, I'm not entirely sure - it could be that each attack occurs after a specific period of time).

Your primary source of defense is the lone house on the side of the road north of the village. If this house is destroyed from the previous mission, you can probably set up your defenses within the main village.

[2a] Set up a defense line of artillery and heavy tanks behind the house (a great deal behind it, in fact).

[2b] Spread out a lot of riflemen and submachinegunners in front of your tanks.

[2c] Get your general and snipers for extra vision/damage.

You can use your light tanks to thin the incoming onslaught of infantry as well.


TIP:

Before the attack commences, enemy infantry will take over the forest and sit there for a while. During this time you can use your general/snipers (in a jeep preferably) to take out as many units as possible.


[3] South Attack:

The last attack will take place on the two hilltops on the south (you begin with a couple artillery pieces and scout cars in those hilltops).

Just clear out as many trees as possible and place as much artillery'/tanks along with riflemen/bazookas on those hills as possible. Not really that difficult to deal with.

~~~

After successfully defending against those attacks you are free to roam the map and carve a way to that damned factory in the north.

There are many possible routes you can take - my approach is a bit unconventional (and extremely time consuming) but yields many advantages (especially for the third mission).

The general outline of my approach is this:
***
[A] (optional but useful) cling to the north side of the map and infiltrate the enemy lines on the far-north side - capture the mortars on top of the far-north bunker and retreat.

***
push towards the south - below the East village (the one south of the factory) there is a strip of elevated land which overlooks the barbed wire and bunkers to the south. This strip of land is surrounded by dense forest and is heavily guarded (officers, snipers, long range artillery and mortars) - BUT, it's not impossible to infiltrate it and capture the beautiful light-howitzers which are positioned there.

The howitzers are not necessary at this stage, but you have to clear the piece of land anyway in order to advance towards the airport.

[C] Advance towards the airport, avoiding the village to the north - always check for mines, every step of the way.

There, you can find the elite German heavy artillery completely unprotected. We will be using that to take care of the factory.

[D] Take out the guard tower below next to the railway-bridge heading towards the factory and cross to the other side.

At this point you can attack the factory any which way you like - no matter which you choose, stick to these rules:

- Don't destroy infrastructure on the south-edges of the factory (ie the edges that point to the village/airport).
- Don't destroy guard towers on the north side of the river (factory-side)
- Be careful of enemy units spawning from the north side of the map - for me, this triggered after destroying a panzer within the factory with my howitzers. These units should move towards the south to fortify the positions opposite your village, so they do not pose any threat (to the extent that you are not in their way, that is)


All other buildings within the factory are fair-game. In fact, I urge you to blow them up - one by one. It makes the process of capturing the factory a lot easier.


A few departing comments for this mission:


[F]
Taking control of the airport yields two major advantages that any other route does not provide.

Firstly, you get to take out all guard towers/buildings within the airport in advance (you have howitzers in mission 3, so this isn't that important) and (most importantly) secondly, you can set up minefields all over the place - in SSF add-on missions mines persist between missions, meaning that enemy troops spawned on the airport in the third mission will step on those mines.


I don't recommend you do this if it's your first time completing this campaign. My route is definitely not the way the devs intended players to beat the second mission and a huge minefield taking out most tanks/vehicles in the third mission would significantly mitigate any sense of challenge and (thus) accomplishment.

As I am in the process of redoing these missions myself, I want to see how the third one plays out with and without the minefield - I suggest you do the same.