[10 August 2023]
“Tank Grab” was broken from the start, has never been fixed, and is probably a major reason why Ardennes Assault never became popular. My guess is that it originated as a different mission and then for some reason was reconceived and re-coded without ever being tested properly.
Victory in “Tank Grab” is won not by defending or capturing territory, or even by killing German units. It is won by the unreal achievement of killing German units with your vehicles only.ย In principle, you can achieve this by refueling/repairing/recrewing lots of vehicles that are lying around the map, and using these captured vehicles to kill German vehicles as well as the more plentiful German infantry. Points (5 per soldier or vehicle) are supposed to be deducted from the German score every time you make a kill.
In the easiest/ideal playthrough, you’ll find and fuel a Panzer IV or a Sherman first, then get something like a Stuart, a Luchs, and/or a flak halftrack, and use those to quickly kill lots of infantry for a win.
Occasionally, you do get that ideal mission. More often, though, you will run into frustrating, rage-quit-inducing problems.
On most missions, even on level 1 difficulty, the numerous German volksgrens on the map will magically possess panzerschrecks the moment you recrew a vehicle. So your vehicles, with their terrible pathing and tendency to death-spin, are always at extreme risk of being cornered and slaughtered.
On the other hand, if you somehow start to control the map (easiest on levels 1 and 2), the AI responds by depriving you of targets so that you have to camp outside the German base entrance, waiting for units to trickle out at you. The ensuing time-delay tends to ruin your chances for winning gold. You can get points for killing the crews of base-protecting flak emplacements, and for killing ancillary base buildings, but the base has strong AT defenses including Paks, schreck-equipped volksgrens, and Raketenwerfers. And if you kill all the base buildings to end the mission before the German score is at 0, you’ll be penalized with a bronze medal.
Any vehicle you operate is going to be nerfed more than usual in its power against German infantry and vehicles, and in its own resistance to damage. In a medium tank against a single panzerfusilier unit (which has AT-nades) you can very easily lose.
German vehicles appear to be buffed in their ability not only to kill your vehicles but also to kill your infantry. If one of your squads can see a German Pz IV, it will almost certainly take casualties from it, unless it immediately retreats or otherwise moves out of range.
German vehicles appear to move, aim, and fire more quickly than yours.
Being able to repair abandoned vehicles quickly is essential in this mission, but here again you are nerfed—your RE squads seem to take much longer than usual to finish any repair job. Plan to use 3 or 4 RE squads, minimum, when repairing abandoned tanks.
On difficulty level 3, you’ll swiftly face the scariest German armor (e.g., Tiger Ausf B, Tiger Ace, Sturmtiger, Panther) as well as extremely AT-capable German infantry, even though the mission briefing states that the Germans will have only “light mechanized support.” Levels 4 and 5 are worse, of course, mainly due to swarms of elite infantry.
There are also bugs. For example, the German point total does not keep proper track of your vehicular killing sprees—sometimes your vehicle will mow down all five soldiers of a unit with no change to the German points.
The most annoying bug is that abandoned Stuart tanks on this map are indestructible when re-crewed. They will take damage up to 95% or so, including main-gun-disabled, but can always continue firing their MG and can’t ever be killed by anything.
If you are so inclined, you can use the Stuart bug to your advantage, by capturing all the ones you can on the map (there should be at least one), and parking them at the main exit from the German base or even within the base. They will help you win a quicker victory with their nonstop killing of German infantry. (Note that Stuarts you bring in normally are not immortal.)
“Medals will be awarded based on how quickly you win the missionโ is the condition displayed at the start, but is basically false, since the quickest win, with a base-rush, will get you the lowest medal. The reality is that, to get the gold medal, you need to win with a score of (I think) at least 220, and win very quickly—much more quickly than anyone could ever do consistently.
I have won gold with Baker, Dog, and Fox, but those were fairly rare occasions. Overall my experience suggests that the best chance of gold comes at level 1 difficulty, using Baker or Dog Co., early in the campaign, and on maps that are not too sprawling and give your troops good cover opportunities (Bastogne Outskirts is the worst.) It’s important to start by re-crewing vehicles that are well armored but also good at killing German infantry (medium tanks are best)—use these, in combination where possible, to nail every German infantry unit you can find, absolutely asap.
It’s important also to minimize the exposure of your infantry to German vehicles, since your own point total goes down (almost immediately eliminating your gold medal chances) whenever a German armored vehicle kills one of your units—and, as noted above, German vehicles can kill your infantry a hell of a lot more easily than your vehicles can kill German infantry.
If you’re facing a Tank Grab mission at level 3 or higher difficulty, on a big map like Bastogne Outskirts, you could be facing hours of frustration. Consider starting the campaign over, editing the campaign file so it’s at a lower difficulty level, or resorting to console commands to give yourself extra resources.
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