Theater of War Mission Pack: Case Blue
Mission: Tiger Ace
Difficulty Level: Not worth playing on any level
Commander: None
The “Tiger” tank in this mission has the characteristics of a much thinner-skinned and less powerful tank. And it faces hundreds of AT-nading conscripts, PTRS penals, and PTRS Guards-Rifle infantry, not to mention more than a dozen T-34s, KV-1s, KV-8s, and KV-2s, plus mortars, and Zis AT guns, and mines. It is damaged by everything—I think that fewer than 10 AT-nades will kill it when it’s unvetted—and it can’t even be repaired until it gets to vet-2. At the end it’s chased by three vetted-up Russian tanks plus two or three 120mm mortar teams. Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t have the health or power or maneuverability to survive all that on General, and even on Conscript level you’ll have a tough time winning consistently.
Supposedly, years ago, you could win on General by firing through buildings at enemies (who won’t fire back), but I could never get motivated to play this mission as many times as would be necessary to figure out how to do that exploit. I have played it through to victory on Conscript level, but it was very time-consuming and micro-intensive—you constantly poke and fire and back away, poke and fire and back away, etc. Who wants to waste time doing that? And who would ever assign such a mission to such a weak tank in real life? (A real Tiger tank with experienced crew would have had a chance.)
If you do have a go, try hitting the nearest point first (always back away for a while after getting off a shot or two, to avoid the AT-naders) and then circle the map anticlockwise around the very edge of the map, skirting the minefields—later, with the attack-ground ploy, using those same minefields to blow up Russian tanks that are chasing you.
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