[14 August 2023]
This is often one of the most difficult/unbalanced missions in Ardennes Assault. You just aren’t given the tools for the job, and your chances of getting gold—even on level 1 difficulty—depend on the map, and on dumb luck. So be ready to terminate the COH2 program in Task Manager at any time to start over.
Also, if you start a campaign and find that you’ve been assigned the Watchtower mission at level 3 difficulty on the Bastogne Outskirts map (the hardest map because it’s big and there are few buildings for cover), and you’re using un-upgraded companies, consider starting the campaign over or editing the campaign file—it can be impossible to get gold on that map with that mission and level of difficulty, even if you are an expert player, and your casualties are likely to be high regardless of whether you succeed.
The concept in “Watchtower” is that you have to capture German aerial supply drops, which come every few minutes, starting very early in the mission, near one of three watchtowers. If you hold a given watchtower, you can see the surrounding area better, and can spot the supply drops before “Jerry.” Each side’s victory points tick down relentlessly unless it captures one of the supply drops, in which case its points go up a bit. So by capturing more supply drops than the Germans, you can force them to go to zero before you do. To win gold, you must capture the first six supply drops—if you do that, the Germans will hit zero points before the 7th drop comes. If the Germans capture any drop at all . . . no gold for you. Thus, the key to winning gold is capturing and holding all three watchtower points, or at least keeping units close enough to each one—preferably in buildings, or otherwise in cover—to snag any drop before “Jerry.”
This is not always easy or even doable, since you have to be ready to cap and contest all three watchtower points immediately, and almost any American unit that you can get out in significant numbers at the outset is, of course, going to be pathetically weak. Even Rangers when unupgraded will take heavy casualties or be snuffed completely in close-quarters battle in the open against (SMG-equipped) sturmpios. Also, the map is crawling from the start with kubelwagens, against which unupgraded American companies have no good early-game defense. Worse, it sometimes happens that on some maps and higher difficulty levels, the very first drop, just a minute or two into the mission, lands just outside the German base, near a watchtower that you have zero chance of holding at that early stage. (When that happens, just start the mission over.)
Another big problem hampering your ability to do well in this mission is the fact that you have to focus on capping and holding all three watchtowers, which leaves you initially with no ability to hold other points to get munitions and fuel. You can choose instead to devote some early-game manpower to capping points for resources, and sometimes that works out, but you run a bigger risk of missing that first or second drop.
Added to all that is the fact that this is a quick mission—if you get the first six drops it always takes exactly the same amount of time for the Germans to run to zero points—so even though you may take heavy casualties, you won’t be able to build significant veterancy. (There is no side-mission.)
All that said, if you can get that first drop, then—certainly on difficulty levels 1 and 2—you should be able to build up your strength to get the next five, most of the time. The German units are sometimes (unrealistically) slow to grab the drops, even when they are right next to them (I have seen a drop land on a German unit, which responded by retreating). The Germans also tend to make raketenwerfers and HMGs easy to capture. Using Fox Co. Rangers or Baker Co. cav riflemen, which have better-than-average close-quarters battle capability, and RE squads and riflemen to crew German weapons, is probably your best bet on most maps. Note that German armor, in the form of a Panzer IV, usually arrives only for the last couple of drops; my own experience is that it’s not that hard for your infantry to avoid it (instead of going for a tank-kill) and grab the last two drops.
Note also that, once you cap a watchtower, your infantry unit can sit in it. In that position, when equipped with SMGs, LMGs, or an HMG, your unit can quickly liquidate most enemy infantry that approach across open ground. However, units in watchtowers are usually very vulnerable to tank, schreck, and ranged rifle fire.
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