The Vierville mission is a bit of a chore and has too many disruptive cutscenes. But it is not particularly difficult, especially since the American paratroop units involved have some powerful—if ridiculous—abilities, including unlimited reinforcement from the air.
The mission goals are to cap three points along a road, to destroy five flak-38 guns, and to defeat a large counterattack once you have capped all the road points.
Success here requires a long sequence of movements and firefights. The following provides an example of how to conduct this sequence:
1) You start with two partial-strength airborne units standing in shallow water near a German flak-38 site, at night. Reinforce these two units to strength 5 or 6 (I generally prefer unit strengths of 5 or even 4 for this mission—less than 6 allows extra units for a given pop cap). Move them within sprinting distance of the flak-gun emplacement, about as shown below.
Use the Airborne “Fire-Up” ability and run these units to the lower and left sides of the flak gun emplacement. They can use grenades, satchel charges, and/or their ordinary firearms to de-crew/destroy the flak gun and dispatch any remaining German infantry.
2) Now move forward to the munitions point beside the destroyed flak site. Cap it and build an observation post on it.
3) Just above you on the map, at another muni point, another American airborne unit is in a house, surrounded by howling Germans. You will now receive an extra manpower cap so that you can “drop in” a new airborne unit. Drop it just behind the house (well away from the German troops/vehicles on the nearby road).
There should be two panzerschrecks lying on the ground at the drop site—the new airbone unit should pick those up. Now use the Fire-Up capability on all three of your units so they rush the cluster of German troops (priority targets being the HMG and LMG-unit) and grenade/satchel-charge them to oblivion. When done, the previously besieged airborne unit will become part of your force. Reinforce your squads as needed and cap/cache the muni point. One of your airborne units should pick up the German LMG that should be lying on the ground. Another should crew the German HMG. Upgrade at least one of your units to carry the recoilless rifle.
4) Move to the other side of the house, to the area next to the road. Put up some sandbags for protection, and have two units lay mines on the road–4-8 mines total, initially, is OK.
Destroy the road patrols as they try to pass. It’s not very difficult, and the UI will inform you when this phase has been completed.
5) Cap the road point shown in the upper right of the above image, and send your units towards the flak gun site as shown on the map. About a third of the way between the road point and the flak gun, there is a sandbagged area with a half-strength German infantry unit, and (running up behind it) a crewed HMG. Your LMG unit should be able to dispatch both pretty quickly.
The rest of your units can move to the flak gun site, using their Fire-Up capability when needed. Basic tactics apply: use cover, use your grenades on German infantry units, and use satchel-charges on the flak guns to demolish them. Note that there is another airborne unit to the right of the flak gun site, under fire from German infantry. It comes under your control when you select it. There are also German infantry units just beyond the flak gun site to the right, and before it to the left.
6) It is possible to go around the entire area on the north side of the road, killing Krauts, capping points and grabbing loose weapons—including mortars, which you would need to complete the mission from that side. You also could add the munitions point (with firefight) to the east of your starting area to your to-do list. But to finish the primary and secondary mission goals, and get the medal, it is faster to proceed as outlined in this guide—which means that, after you destroy the flak gun and cap the point next to it, you should just bring your force straight back to the road point you capped earlier.
7) From that road point, move west along the road until you have passed the hedgerow that bordered your starting area.
8) Move south along the western edge of that hedge/tree-line, using massed fire to quickly kill the 1-2 German infantry squads you encounter
9) Take the munitions point in the flooded area
10) Charge the flak emplacement with at least two of your units, using grenades/satchel-charges to blow up the flak gun and HMGs. When the flak gun is blown up, the rest of the German infantry there usually flee anyway.
11) Take the next munitions point to the north, and take out the German infantry unit lurking against the W side of the map nearby.
12) Take the nearby road point. It is usually guarded by a small German infantry unit, but has reinforcements including an HMG crew behind it, hidden in the fog of war. When one of your squads is capping the point, it should stay right on the point, at the road, and should not move into the darkness beyond—also maybe a good idea for it to lay mines right there before moving back across the road. Cover this capping squad with an HMG or LMG squad.
13) Charge the next flak gun emplacement. This one is covered by a German HMG and LMG squad just to the north, so beware of that and be ready to retreat, or to have squads ready to charge those other German units beyond the flak gun. At this point and anywhere near it, your units will be in range of a mortar at the major flak-gun emplacement just ahead on the road—so do not linger, and be prepared to take some casualties.
14) Go around behind the big flak-gun/bunker strong-point, taking the munitions point to the west of it against the edge of the map.
15) Then swarm in on the thin path through the woods and grenade/satchel-charge the flak-gun, HMG, mortar, bunkers, etc.
16) When finished and you have healed up, re-crew the HMG and mortar, and bring in all your units to this strong-point area. Send at least a couple of units to the W/NW through the woods again to take the non-muni/fuel point near the road (not the last road point)—this should reveal a US sniper as an addition to your force. Now cap the muni point at the top of the map, and lay lots of mines on the road (and road verges) leading from the top of the map to your newly occupied strong-point. Kill any German units across the road from the strong-point, and also lay mines in that grassy area to catch vehicles that veer off the road.
17) When done with mine-laying, cap the last road point. Within a minute or so, a large German convoy/patrol will come down the road from the top of the map. Between your mines and your forces at the strong-point, you should be able to terminate them all fairly easily to complete the mission. Watch out, though, for German infantry units crawling up to the north side of your upper bunker and grenading its occupants.
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