A reasonably good little mission, considered in itself, but pretty disturbing in the presented context. They don't give you even a halfway convincing reason to kill all these people; it's not like the fanatical Nazis in the earlier missions, these are just supply troops and pretty clueless ones at that. And the war is practically over; almost certainly they'd surrender if given a chance - or if not, what the hell, leave them alone, let the Red Army mop them up.

The idea is that you have to do all this in order to be able to ambush the convoy in the next mission; but since there's never any explanation of why it's necessary to do that, it still doesn't add up.

As I say, this mission and the one that follows should have been set in France in 1944, during the chaotic days after the Allied invasions as the German occupation collapsed. A real lost opportunity there....

But if you can put the historic context out of your mind, just run the mission without any reference to anything else, it's reasonably good fun. Not all that challenging, but not boring either.

Small town in Czechoslovakia, deserted except for a scattering of Germans. Daytime.

Kill everybody within the city limits. That's the basic requirement; for extra credit you can locate some stolen "treasure" - which is worth doing, because it provides at least a remotely plausible reason for this mission. All the horse shit about the "supply center" is ridiculous, but if you think of the main purpose as to recover the loot before the Germans can remove it or the Russians show up and grab it, then it makes a certain sense. Normally I don't go for these extra-credit items but this one is worthwhile.

First off, I have to warn you that this is a very speculative walkthrough and should be considered a general guide rather than a specific step-by-step. For one thing, owing to the layout of the town and the way the bad guys are scattered around, there are any number of possible ways you could go at this; but also, and this is important to keep in mind, this is one of the more unpredictable missions in the game in terms of the enemy's behavior. There seems to be more of a random factor, at least at certain points; it's not possible to guarantee how they're going to act. What follows is merely the way I've most often run the mission. You might find some other approach works better for you.

At the beginning you're all standing in back of some demolished buildings on the south side of town. Move everybody back immediately, away from that break in the wall to the right; there are some hostiles who'll shoot at you pretty soon if you stay there. #1 (your disguise man; I'm going to continue with this bit of shorthand) drops his backpack.

Run the sniper on down to the far end of the ruined buildings and just around the corner, where he'll see a guard down by the road, pacing along next to a striped sentry box. Or maybe another guy just wandering around, or maybe even see both. Snipe the first one you see and duck back around the corner and hunker down. A couple of Germans are going to come through that break in the wall and get gunned down.

Sniper back around the corner, cautiously, and check for another bastard out there, maybe off to the left. If he's not there, OK, he's not there but make sure.

Take the other men through the break in the wall, through the first room and two men over the wall to the left, by that rusty iron gate, covering the street outside. The other man can go through the buildings till he finds a room with intact windows facing on the street and take up position at a window covering the nearby street intersection.

Now take the sniper on around the end of the building, to the corner by that barrier across the road, and look for a sentry pacing back and forth down by the first intersection. Pick him off and get back under cover. Very likely some of his buddies are going to come running up the street after the sniper and the other men waiting in ambush can chop them.

Move the two men out from behind the iron gate and position them next to the building to the right, where they have a better field of fire. Move the sniper on up the street, pausing frequently to scope ahead. Down the street, beyond the intersection where you just shot that guy, some Germans are bunched up under a tree at the next corner. When you can see them through the scope start sniping at them. This usually will piss them off enough to attack. You might be able to get them all just sniping - you've got the advantage of range and accuracy over anything they're carrying - but if not the other men will bushwhack them.

When that bunch has been cleared away, bring the sniper on up the street, past where the others are standing. (The man at the windows can come out now to join the rest.) Keep looking on down the street. In the distance, just barely visible even through the scope, you'll see a tree and a dirt road and, as you get closer, a big archway. You'll also see a German or two standing around. Snipe them. It's extreme range and you might miss a few shots but that's OK, you're too far away for them to be any real danger to you.

(While this is going on a couple of Germans may come down that street running north-south, off to the sniper's left, but the team members should get them easily enough.)

Keep on moving, as the sniper, in the direction of that arch. More Germans will appear; get them before they can mount an attack.

Leave the sentry somewhere near that tree where he sniped those Germans, and take #1 and go up that north-south street, the one that climbs a little hill along the west side of town. You'll run into a couple more Germans but with the advantage of disguise and surprise you should take them out with little trouble. On the left, as the road goes downhill, there are some abandoned buildings, some of them partly wrecked. Look through them until you find a machine gun facing east. Take control of it and see if you can get that sniper in the top of the church tower. If you can't hit him switch to another man and let the AI control #1; he'll do it on his own better than you can.

Now bring #1 back to join the others and on down the street to the intersection where the sniper is standing. Move the sniper over to the right side of the street and get closer to that arch. Look for a couple more Germans.

When you've sniped everything in sight, it's time for #1 to go in. Just walk up the dirt lane and through the arch, keeping an eye out for Germans. There'll be one in a doorway just off the courtyard. Easy to get him, but if there's a second one in the area better get back out of there and let the sniper move up and try to get him.

When you've eliminated all the Germans on the ground around those buildings, #1 can run up the stairs on the right side of the courtyard and open the first door. There's a German inside, easy to get if you've got a working disguise, a lot harder if you don't. He's got a nice scoped Mauser which you might as well pick up; you might get some use out of it later on.

Now wander around the upstairs a bit and you'll find the "treasure."

Back down the stairs and out to the street, and regroup the team where the east-west road starts to run downhill, next to that little flight of steps to the right. Leave the sniper there for a moment and move the other three men down the street, past the dirt alley on the left and almost but not quite to the next corner. Stop and fan out covering the head of the street to the left.

Run the sniper up those steps and over the fence to the left at the top. Then along the grassy slope and down to the top of that retaining wall, and along that until you can start to see down that street where the others are waiting. Move sidewise carefully till you see a couple of Germans hunkered in the middle of the street. Snipe one of them and if possible the other too, though you probably won't be quick enough to get the second. That's OK, he's going to come running up the street and get cut down by the other guys. Hold your position a minute or so; there's a third one and sometimes he charges and sometimes he doesn't. (This is a very unpredictable point; I've seen them charge into automatic fire and I've seen them throw away their rifles and try to run. Luck of the draw.)

When the intersection is clear, move the sniper on down along the top of the retaining wall till he has a view off down that street. There are some Germans down at the far end; it's extreme range and you can barely see them even with the scope. You may have to come down to the sidewalk and move out into the street a little before you can see them clearly. (It's not necessary to go all the way back up to those stairs; just go on down the hill a short way and there's a place where it's low enough to jump down.)

There are at least four Germans down there and they're not easy to hit, and sometimes they run toward you when you start to snipe, but you've got the range on them and if you stay cool and shoot straight you can get them all without getting hit.

Now move the team back up the hill to that dirt alley and along it as far as the first power pole. Deploy the men across the alley, covering the area ahead - in particular make sure they all have a clear shot at that archway just ahead - and then as #1 move a little farther along the alley, over against the wall on the right side.

When you start to approach the corner a German will run out of that side alley to the right and get shut down. More Germans will appear up at the archway; help your boys gun them. They may keep coming for several minutes. Let them; it saves going and looking for them.

When they stop coming, move a couple of men through the arch a little way so they can cover the end of the path leading up the hill to the left. Bring the sniper on through and have a look up that path. There'll be some Germans standing up there - one, two, maybe three, not many - where they can be picked off.

Deploy the team to cover the next archway. You're going to run a couple of errands and probably nothing will happen while you're gone; all the same, there are some Germans down the road past that next arch and it's possible they might attack, so have the boys in position to take them on.

(Incidentally, in this area there are some wire fences with some interesting-looking stuff just beyond. You might be wishing you'd brought along those wire cutters. Don't. You can't cut the wire in this one. And I don't think there would be any advantage in doing so, beyond simple curiosity.)

Run up that path, keeping an eye out for anybody the sniper failed to see, and up to the church. Go around the front - that's the north side - and in the side door, and shoot the machine gunner in the back. (Or knife him.) Hang around a little; there may be another German skulking about the area. Go up the stairs and make sure the sniper in the tower is dead. He's got a nice rifle but there's no point in taking it; you've already got more sniper rifles than you need for the remainder of this campaign.

Now you may as well go back and pick up your pack, so you don't have to go so far for it later on. Rejoin the others and if they haven't had any action while you were gone, then start moving them cautiously in the direction of that next arch. Chances are there'll be an attack as soon as one man approaches the arch. There are four Germans down that lane and they're very aggressive so you may take some hits but you shouldn't lose anybody if you've got them deployed right.

Down past the last arch the dirt lane joins a paved street. Take the street to the right and go down to the main north-south street along the east side of town, where you did all that long-range sniping. Up at the northeast corner - the area mysteriously marked "pond" on the map - there'll be one or two Germans walking around.

When you've cleared this area it's time to move in on the final target. Leave the sniper down there by the "pond", back up in the grassy area, and take the rest of the team back up the street to the south and then to the right, back up that side street you just came down. At the next corner - there'll be a pink house across the street - turn right again and deploy the team across the end of the street, where they can cover the east-west street ahead. Keep them all back far enough that they can't see, or be seen by, the sentry walking up and down in front of the white building with the archway.

#1 at this point should drop his pack.

Now bring the sniper around the corner just far enough to spot that sentry up the street and pick him off. As soon as he's down get back under cover. Germans will come boiling out of that white building and through the archway and down the street, and get shot down by the team waiting in ambush. This could go on for a little bit; there are several of them and they're very determined.

When they finally stop coming, #1 can run across the road and up against one of the houses there. The other two shooters can move out past the corner so they can cover the white house and the archway.

#1 now goes through the archway, looking for survivors. There might be one, probably no more than that. If there is you can shoot him or, just to save a bit of ammo -

Move along the front of the white building, listening for inappropriate sounds from within. Unless he's already been spooked, there'll be an asshole sitting near a window playing a piano, evidently drunk or stoned. Act out the title of a famous French film and then leave; there's nobody else left in the rooms within.

Now you've got to find out something. Leave #1 where he is for the moment and take the sniper and run on up the street, past the white building, till you can see clear to the west end of the street. There's a sentry who patrols there throughout most of the mission, and I've been carefully steering you around him because we don't want to hurt him yet. See if he's still there. Almost certainly he isn't; he usually takes off when the gunfire begins down the street. (Smart guy.)

But we need to find out where he is. So take the sniper on up the street past the church and down the hill toward where you had your shootout at the start of the mission. Move slowly east, watching that area around the archway, where you sniped those guys and later #1 went in to find the treasure.

See that little grassy area to the left of the dirt lane, between the lane and the paved road? Right by that little house at the top of those steps? There's a tree, and the grass is pretty high...anyway scope that area, without getting any closer than you have to. There should be a man standing there.

If he's there, leave him severely alone; take the sniper back up a side street or something so he won't see him and open fire. You don't want to hurt this one yet.

See, the problem is that when you kill the last German the mission ends. And there are some things in that supply center that you want to collect before that happens; and when you go in, either you or somebody else will almost certainly kill the last couple of Germans inside. So you're leaving this one in reserve, to keep the mission from ending too soon. (If he's not there then you'll have to think of something creative to do for the next part. Good luck.)

OK, back to #1, through the archway and up the alley. On the left are a couple of big doors; open the first one you come to and go through and then stand aside. A couple of Germans - one in a white shirt and tie, one in camo - will probably come rushing past you and run out the door and down the alley. You'll hear a brief burst of gunfire and that will be that for them.

If you don't meet them going in, they may still be lurking on the premises. Go up the ladder in the next room and check the loft; the camo goon hangs out up there. The white shirt is likely to be in the supply room off the inner courtyard. But this probably won't come up; they just about always make that kamikaze charge.

The supply room, as I say, is just off the courtyard, a little square white structure. It's got some things you need. Go back and collect your backpack, and bring the other two guys as well. There's a supply box; use it to replenish the MP-44 fodder.

You'll also see some mines. Take the two antitank mines - you'll probably have to do a bit of rearranging and swapping around to make room - but leave the antipersonnel mines, they're more trouble than they're worth. You won't need the Panzerfausts in the next mission.

There's also a double-barrel shotgun. It's entirely useless for any possible purpose; there's not a damn thing you can do with it that you can't do with the MP-44 or even the MP-40. If you want to play with it then take it out into the courtyard and blast some windows, but leave the damn thing there when you're done.

You may as well move everybody back into the street. Those barrels in the middle of the courtyard represent the "fuel supplies" and if you want the extra credit you can take a Panzerfaust and blow them up.

Now have the sniper move back into position and shoot that poor bastard under the tree down by the road and the mission should end. If you don't get completion then you've got a straggler on the loose somewhere. Go find him.

And then everybody better get some rest because it's going to be a rough night.