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H&Ders, I've been experimenting with different approaches to take the ammo and arms dump in the first Houndsmith mission, mosty in carnage mode/very hard, and was impressed by the depth of choice you have, and how the enemy react differently in each. Would love to hear how some of you approach this....if poss in hard or very hard cos the easier modes you don't really need a strategy, just a loaded gun!!

I dont know what it is, maybe I haven't played it enough but I get my arse kicked in SS. The only mission I am good at is... errr forgot the name. The bridge mission! I find that easy to be honest although my fellow SAS soldier tend to always get shot.

Funny that, cos thats probably the mission that I found the hardest. At the risk of sounding repetitive, I play on very hard, and as you know its very unforgiving. If you're not on the ball, or don't keep your squad on a tight rein they are killed very quickly. The things that make the mission do-able on the easier levels disappear, such as being able to shoot the tanks across the valley with the PAK38. I've sussed it now but not until after dozens of attempts.
Houndsmith is the operation name for the last three missions set in France. The one I'm talking about is the first, in which your squad has to assault, capture and destroy a base comprising barracks, watchtowers and a bunker complex containing a fuel and ammo dump. On easy and medium you can just go steaming in and kick it off with whatever kraut shows his squareheaded mug, but as with all the missions this approach doesn't work on hard/v hard unless you're prepared to lose a couple of men. I've been trying it using stealth, different entry vectors etc etc. with varying degrees of success and wanted to get others' war stories on how they go about it.

if poss in hard or very hard cos the easier modes you don't really need a strategy, just a loaded gun!!

I *am* tactician myself, so even when I play medium, Il try to use more tactics and stretegy than run?gun

One way is to eguip yourself with DeLisle and Thompson, one with Enfield no4, one with Garand\Carbine\sniper\something like that, your choice and fourth with BAR (no Bren avaible). Also take flare gun + full flares with you, and also pliers\wire cutters.

When you start the mission, talk to that guy near you, so you have 5th man in this mission, armed with Enfield no4.

After that, sneak down to the road, use hold fire for your mate, then use DeLisle to take guards down carefully, if you do this correctly, no-one knows what happened. When the truck comes, keep hiding til it far away. If you killed the guards\enemies at the road carefully, the truck just passes the bodies like they wouldnt be there.

Then link up with rest of your squad at the house, and remember to give hold fire order.

Then sneak quite much to south to the fence, remember to keep yourself down to avoid detection. Then make a hole to the fence, move through it and keep moving at the south edge of the forest. You will find some random patroling soldiers but shoot them when you are close.

Then keep moving on, you soon find a campfire with 3-4 Germans, shoot them also with your DeLisle.If you do this once again correctly, no-one knows what happened - again.

Then clear the random guards at the forest, approach the depot from the eastern edge of the forest.

Then I suggest using tactical map to create a plan, that your rifleman moves to a good position, then when you give signal, it moves abit and crouches, this is good to watch your left flank.

Then with BAR, use same thing expect for prone, and so that he can see the gates. As you give signal, he opens fire. So in other words, I suggest using passive mode for all waypoints, and the final one after signal should be aggressive.

Then your Garand\Carbine\Whatever you have, depends on a weapon, but commonly you should make him move to the tower in the eastern part of depot from a signal.

Yourself, with your 5th guy, you should follow your Garand\Carbine soldier, Il explain later.

So now you have a plan, so I suggest making save if possible.

Then fire a flare over the base, and give signals to all your troops. As you shoot flare, half of the base rush to the gate and your BAR and Rifleman can take them out. Then follow your Garand\Carbine soldier, make 5th guy to have follow me and fire at will commands, and move to the fence, make a hole to it, and you and your 5th guy, clear the depot area, so no-one can defuse the bombs. After doing it, take the truck, drive close to your other soldiers, use "return" command and then "follow me", so they are in a truck. If possible, another save here.

After the save (if possible), rush through the checkpoint to the area where you eliminated those guys with DeLisle, quickly get out with your squad to safety, wait a moment, enjoy the show and rendezvou with the Resistance fighters.

I have tested this with normal and hard, and in both it worked fine. Only matter you may find that you have to time everything precisely or your whole operation may fall in few seconds.

As you play carnage mode, simply clear the whole base before escaping and when you rush through the checkpoint etc, get good positions so you can take them out from distance.

SWow!!! I was out of breath just reading that!!! :D
There's some similarities with some of the ways I've approached it, but a lot of new shit to try too. Thanks fellah.
My approach has always been to ambush the krauts supervising the prisoners using tactical mode, getting three men to sneak in from the ruined bulding side, and then the 1st and 5th man come in from the forest side...always a good little fire fight, then ambush the truck.
I do the same as you clearing the woods surrounding the compound with a silenced weapon (prefer the sten)....i love shooting the pissed kraut :D

There's only so much you can do in silence mode though, the watchtowers make silent entry into the base almost impossible.....I snipe the watchtower guards, then put a good sniper (usually Jenkins), and a BAR man in the woods on the entrance side of the compound with a clear view of the barrack huts and the bunker entrance.

I then take a rifleman and my other sniper up to the back of the base, where the two watchtowers are, cut through the fence and enter across the grass over the bunkers. Sniper takes up position covering the compound, and I crawl the rifleman over to a point just above the secondary bunker entrance, where the lorry is parked, drop a few grenades over the ledge and kill the Sunlounger Stealers there. At this point squareheads start appearing from all over the place and my covering men open up.......usually make Wurst of the Huns leaving my rifleman to enter the bunker and begin the process of making sure there is a free sunlounger for every Englishman on the Costa beaches :D

the watchtowers make silent entry into the base almost impossible

Me and my friend nearly succeeded in this in coop, reguired hell of a time but it was worth it

But yes, otherwise it is nearly impossible, but point in firing flare is to attract enemies to the gate and give your BAR and No4 guy to take them out, making your task easier, and when you *follow* your third guy, make sure to take the tower out.

IMO this tactic is nice in own ways because you can cover the gate with two men, the east fence of the base with one man while securing the actual target with two men. And if done correctly, this is really effective.

Oh, and my own lineup in this mission was:

Robert Czakowski - *me*.
Douglas Lauer - My rifleman.
Paul Tatnell - medic and the Garand\Carbine guy.
Pete Sullivan - my BAR guy.

Dunno why but that has been always my lineup while playing H&D2.

And one other approach is to follow the same plan, expect going from North. This one is much harder but in own ways more beter way, as you dont have to deal guards at the checkpoint.

Follow the same thing; taking guards, towers etc out if necessary, make hole to the fence in north, approach the base from north (be sure to eliminate enemies around there), make a plan that one guy looks to the west fence\west side of the fence, one look the east, and your BAR looks to the base itself, while you and your extra soldier does the same as earlier.

Also the flare thing is nice once again, since they come out to the middle of the base after shooting, your BAR guy can take them out quite easily.

Oh I forgot this: In this plan, you escape from north via holes you made with pliers\wire cutters.

This plan is much harder, but it proves also effectivity if excecuted correctly.


By the way, the flare gun idea was born originally when me and my friend tested the first plan (expect that had Bren, I had DeLisle), and I got idea "Should we try flare gun" and a good way to attract enemies to LoF was born :D

Quite hard to belive this hasn't been mentioned yet, but has anyone experimented with the brick structure just west of the main fence (before you make them all alert, there's a guard leant against it dozing)?

There's a 'Switch' on it (similar to the phone lines you can cut on the mission prior to the Adler Castle) but picking 'Use' doesnt seem to do much.

I have a feeling that this switch (which appears to have some kind of telephone cable running from it, up a pole and onto the telegraph poles) if 'Used' disables the sending of the motorcycle/sidecar reinforcement down the dirt road that runs north-south. Not proved it yet.

-x-

Anyhoo, my typical strat is to approach in southerly direction, from the north-north-west. Don't bother with the manned checkpoint until heading to meet resistance fighters. Head all 3 guys in the south to the wooden bridge and dispatch the two guards with delisles or a sten. When the truck heads my way I'll either let it pass and wait until it's out of sight, or try and provide the driver and passenger with an additional facial orifice with a delisle (or two). If they jump out, dodge the bloody truck because it seems to have cruise control and, naturally, homing devices aimed at your squad. Head north and slightly east, cross the dirt track, climb the hill and get on your belly, as you approach the north-western corner of the complex.

Sneak in and hide alongside the barracks buildings, slot any krauts that appear around the edges of the fence or in the line of sight you get, then spread out from there: two guys go left and go through the fuel and ammo depot (don't forget to plug the guy in the NE tower as you head over there), killing enemies with silent stens where possible (then kill any suspicious ones who follow), then head into the woods and kill the drunk guys.
The other two hook around to the right and go through the mess hall and (once all the relevant guards have been dealt with using a delisle), cross over to the other building (if you've obtained a G43 by this point, it can be quite fun >:]), sneak in then make noise that lures gerry out of the bunk rooms, once they're all in that little corridor, burst through the door and empty the G43 at crotch height (ie, be crouched).
God I love that gun.

Once the base is cleared head the guys at the camp fire to the wrecked hours, and have the other two work back, slotting the guys at the checkpoint (and the cross roads if neccesary) and heading to the house/meeting point.
I don't normally bother with Ashley to be honest - his gun is too loud and he's non-controllable so will inevitably do something cretinous and die.

Finally, move all guys to the house, which completes the "Assemble the squad" objective, then go to the resistance fighters.

Worth noting also that the truck that drives past the prisoners being supervised fixing the road is triggered when you kill the guy wondering up towards the ruined house. I think the scripting for this is messed up, because this guy is talking with one of the guys who is sat by the road... my thinking is that the actors for the walking guy and the 2nd guard are mixed up ... anyway ...
As soon as you fire a weapon the prisoners  go to 'alert' and run. I find that if the weapon was a gun then the guards pick up the 'alert' too, and shoot the prisoners, which kind of ruins the stealth for the rest of the mission (even when the other german's AI returns from alerted state, they don't go back to their scripted actions [eg talking to each other]).
If you kill the guy that wonders by the house (a) instantly [1 hit] and (b) silently (deLisle to the head, knife to the back of the neck), the civvies run off, the guards wont shoot them, and the truck will just drive past the two guards who sit on the verge.

Make sure the corpse is hidden from sight or the truck will stop.