This is a long one, as Richard the Lionhearted said to the page. Maybe not all that hard, as the page refrained from replying, but plenty tough enough. If you can run it all the way through without taking any losses you're well on your way to mastering this game. It requires planning, patience, and fast responses. It also requires a good competent team; if there's a weak link in your lineup here's where you'll find him out.

Same terrain as the first mission, except you'll be using the roads rather than the swamp. Still dark but getting a bit lighter, and the snow has stopped.

This one is a multi-part job. First you have to get out of the compound and make your way back to the cabin, where you meet up with your pal Sygurd again. There you pick up a shot-down RAF pilot and escort him back to the compound, where an Allied torpedo boat will be waiting. All this in the face of very considerable and often intense enemy opposition.

Nothing really new here, but remember that you've got a man outfitted in German uniform from the previous mission, so don't issue him any giveaway gear. He should already be packing an MP-40 and some ammo, and a German backpack. He should have a pair of wire cutters on his belt at the start.

(I will be assuming, for purposes of this walkthrough, that you - that is, your main viewpoint character - are the one wearing the German threads. If not, adjust accordingly.)

The rest of the men can be outfitted pretty much as you had them for the first mission; just redistribute the ammo and they'll be OK.

When this mission opens you're all standing around near the entrance to the underground lab, where flames and smoke are still coming out. Idiotically, nobody has set up any sort of defensive positions, and now some Germans are outside the front gate about to come in, with more on the way.

If you try to take them on defensively, from where you are now, you are going to get shot up some and you may well lose a man or two. Remember, you're in the same position as those Germans were when you took this place; and you remember how vulnerable they were.

So the first thing to do is get out of there. Switch to #2 - he's blocking the exit path - and turn around through 180 degrees and sprint energetically down the passageway between buildings and through the door into the first big room. Hang a right and run out the window and then left and stop down behind the last building.

Take the rest of the men out the same way. You'll have to run them out one my one under your control, or else use the tac map; if you give them any sort of following command there's always at least one of the stupid bastards who runs out into the street and gets shot. But it's all right, you've got time to get them out one by one. The Germans out in front of the main gate don't do anything yet unless you let them see you.

Once you've got everybody out the window and bunched up on the north side of the buildings, run over and snip a hole in the fence. Give everybody Follow Me and Fire At Will and lead them through the hole and into the wooded area to the north of the compound, between the compound and the foot of the big hill. Just about even with the northwest corner, hit the deck. Take control of your Bren gunner and move him into a position where he can cover the area to the east of the compound, including the road and the gate. Position the other men where they can support him. You have to do all this stuff very quickly, the clock's running.

What you're out to do is nail as many of the bastards as possible before they get inside the compound. To that end, take off in the direction of the road intersection, where you blew up that truck. (Which mysteriously has disappeared; they must have great tow-away service.)

If you've been moving fast enough, you should get there just about the time three Germans appear, coming down the road where it wanders off into the distance. They'll stop beside the road for a minute or so, standing side by side in a neat line.

Yep. You're going to run toward them, from the side - don't hesitate, don't give them time to look you over and see through your disguise - and kill all three of them with a single long burst from the MP40. You can do it; it's not hard at all.

Now wait for your disguise to recharge before moving on to the next bit.

Warning: you may not get to do this. Sometimes there's a man out under the trees to the east of the compound. If you shoot him fast enough you might still be able to go get the Three Amigos; but chances are he'll take a shot at your men and then the Germans who have already entered the compound will come running out the gate and attack, and by the time you get them out of the way the trio will have come down the road and joined in the attack.

And then shortly after that another bunch of goons come charging out of the woods and across the road toward you, and things get exciting. This is when you better hope you've picked a really good team, especially that Bren gunner. It gets pretty wild for a little while there, with Germans coming through the woods at you and lead flying. However, it does get things over with faster.

If you do get the three new kids successfully, run back to where you left your men, swinging wide and staying clear of the road. It's possible you may hear firing break out while you're on your way; this is another point when an attack sometimes develops from across the road, or sometimes just a fire fight with the guards still in the compound; either way you don't want to risk running through the middle of it.

Hang around a minute or two, just in case you need to help them fight off an attack. If all remains quiet, then it's disguise time again; go inside the compound and look around, being careful not to let anybody have too long a look at you. Try over behind those unfinished brick buildings on the south side; there's a slacker who sometimes hides out there. There might also be one over to the right of the gate, near where you started the mission, crouched down by that wall, and there's very likely to be someone manning that machine gun in the gate tower. (Sometimes he crouches down so you don't see him unless you come up behind the tower.)

Take your time and be careful; before shooting anybody, make sure there isn't anybody else who can see you do it, and stay under cover until your disguise recharges.

However, if those shitheads from across the road haven't attacked yet, you can just about be sure that as soon as you start killing people inside the compound, that will definitely set them off. You'll hear the shooting and the yelling and you might feel the urge to go help your mates, but the odds are it'll be over before you can get in a shot.

This is the toughest part of the mission, fighting off those attacks out there to the east of the compound. Let your men do it, though; resist the temptation to switch personas and take over that Bren yourself - the AI can see better than you, in this dodgy light.

It's possible you may lose a man or two this way. If you do, you'll just have to restart the mission, because you're going to need the full team for some of the action that lies ahead.

As soon as you get a chance, run back across the dock area to that hole you cut in the first mission, and go through.

Out there past the trees there's a rifleman crouching down. Run up and shoot him, fast, before he sees through your disguise. You'll find he's got a nice scoped Mauser. Help yourself to it, and take his ammo; you're going to need this later on.

When the fighting outside the compound is over, you can cruise around checking to see who if anybody is still alive on the premises. Eliminate them by whatever means seem appropriate. Once you've eliminated the bad guys and secured control of the area again, look around for the supply box up near the road - it's not hard to find - and let whoever needs it most go pick it up. (The Bren gunner won't be able to carry it.)

There's an ammo box up by the gate. By now everybody but the rifleman and the Bren gunner should be carrying German weapons, for which ammo can be ghouled up off the numerous cadavers lying about - and be sure and collect plenty of rifle ammo for that scoped Mauser, you'll be needing it - but this is the one chance to replenish Enfield and Bren ammo, so use it.

Now go out the gate, alone, and turn right down through the woods, and walk eastward along the edge of the swamp, looking carefully ahead. Somewhere up there, probably near the side road that runs north-south, there may be a lone rifleman. He's easy to spot against the snow; snipe him without getting too close. Get up and walk on around the shore of the swamp and look for a truck parked next to the side road, up just past the end of the swamp. There's a man hunkered down beside it. Shoot him - he's easy, he's only got a pistol and he's pretty thick - and go on up to the truck. Walk past it and scout around in the woods behind it, just in case there's another one.

Start the truck and drive it forward far enough to block the road. Don't shoot or blow it up, just leave it there. Now bring the rest of the men up.

Once you've got everybody together there by the truck, you might want to use one of your saves. Things are going to get tricky pretty soon and you don't want to have to go through all that business again, do you?

Now lead your team through the woods between the hills and the swamp, moving more or less northwest. Stop at the top of the first hill and leave them there, in defensive positions, while you go on ahead to scout for the enemy. The trick is to have the disguise man walking point; he can locate the Germans without getting shot at, if he's discreet. Take your time and be careful. You're going to run into quite a bit of opposition, and it shouldn't be anything a good team can't handle but you'll need to stay alert.

You may encounter a lone man first, in which case you can pop him. Soon afterward you'll run into a pair of goons coming your way through the woods. Run over by the swamp and hide; let them go on by. They'll keep going till they run into your mates, who will terminate them.

Soon enough you'll see the smoke from that campfire at the crash site. Watch out, now. A couple of Germans are going to come through the woods and you'll need to run over toward the swamp, out of their way, before they get too extended a look at you. Use the trees for cover and follow them. Eventually they'll come to a stop and you can run up by them and hack them down with the MP40 in the same way you got those three at the start of the mission.

There's another man who'll come along in a minute or two; he'll probably be over on that trail by the base of the mountain. You can pick him off with the sniper rifle or just sneak up on him and shoot him in the back.

Now you can bring the rest of the team up, moving cautiously and hitting the deck every now and then to check for any enemies you might have missed. Deploy them where they can cover the area of the fire and the crash, but leave them back under the trees; don't bring them out into the clearing yet.

Off to the northwest of the crashed plane, between the mountains and the swamp, there are three Germans you need to deal with. They may or may not attack but you don't want to leave them at your back. Run on past the crash site and along by the swamp and into the trees, where you'll find them, probably already on the move. Watch but don't shoot; let them get where they're going. They'll position themselves along that long clear strip between the woods and the mountainside.

Go back to the crash site and then work your way very cautiously toward them until you can just see the nearest one through your rifle scope. (If you can see more than one clearly then you're too close; back off.) Pick him off, let your disguise recharge, and crawl forward until you see the next one; shoot him, crawl, find, shoot again, till you've gotten all three.

Stay put for a minute; let your disguise recharge. About this time a man may come running out of the woods toward the crash site and your men can get him.

You're near the cabin now, but stay clear; don't go any closer. There's something you need to do first.

There are Germans lurking in the woods to the north and west of the cabin. When you go there and make contact with Sygurd the Heroic Resistance Fighter, they'll come boiling out of the woods and attack. It's possible to fight them off but it's risky, and unnecessary. There's a better way to do it.

Because they're not bunched up. They're standing or walking around the woods individually, and so you can nail them one at a time.

Which is what you're going to do now. Move your men up to the crash site, where they can cover the woods - there's a snowbank that makes a good position - and leave them there and move very cautiously and slowly into the area north of the cabin. Stay low; drop prone a lot, because that makes it a lot easier to spot them - if you stand or crouch you can't see shit through the trees.

Most of them are over along the foot of the line of hills to the north and northwest. Work your way along that side of the valley, pausing and looking frequently. The Germans really aren't that hard to spot against the white background, and they'll usually be moving around a little, so you'll see them in plenty of time if you're alert.

Don't try to get too close; you're liable to come under fire from the next man up ahead. The last one is way down at the far end of the valley, up on a hillside, but he comes down into the valley and walks in the general direction of the cabin, so where you find him will depend on how long it takes you to do the others. When you've gotten him, make a swing through the woods and check for any you missed, and then head for the cabin.

Do not go around to the front of the cabin. Stay away from Sygurd; don't get anywhere near him. He's a trigger you're not yet ready to pull.

Instead go to the back of the cabin, by the southwest corner, and face uphill toward the little saddle at the top of the hill. Keep the Mauser in your hands and make sure it's fully loaded. Bring in another man to stand beside you, and the Bren gunner to lie down next to the two of you, both of them facing up that hill.

Now have the remaining man come in from the woods and walk up to Uncle Syggy. Who will launch into one of his windy rants - Christ, you wonder why we're bothering with the war, just let him talk the Germans to death - but you don't need to listen unless you're just curious; he doesn't have anything of interest to say. Walk on past him and go into the cabin and meet the RAF pilot. Who looks like hell and talks like an idiot, but you don't have to listen to him either. As soon as he starts talking you can go back outside; you've now completed the part about finding him.

What happens next is that a German rifleman appears at the top of the hill and the men behind the cabin shoot his young ass off. It's kind of neat; his rifle goes skittering down the hillside but it's usually impossible to reach because there's one of those Invisible Barrier things about halfway up. (Now and then, though, it does slide down far enough that you can collect it. Lucky you; it's scoped and very nice.)

Now Syggy starts another speech, this time about how you saved his life. He takes off up the mountain, pausing to pull out a pistol and fire several rounds at no detectable target - son of a bitch really is a head case - before disappearing. So much for Syggy; and so much for another of your objectives.

(It's just possible - if your men aren't quite fast enough - that the sniper may get Syggy first. If that happens the mission fails; so you probably ought to save before starting the sequence at the cabin.)

Leave the pilot in the cabin for now and the rest of the team by the cabin and go comb the woods to the east and northeast of the cabin. Chances are you'll find at least one German skulking around out there somewhere. You have to be really sure you've cleared the area because later on you have to bring out the pilot, because if you lead him anywhere near a live German he's sure to get killed; he has no sense at all and it doesn't take much to kill him - and then you've failed the mission.

Don't bring him with you at this time; he's nothing but trouble. Just leave him at the cabin - what the hell, he's inside, it's nice and warm - while you take care of the next business.

Move the team on back the way you came, watching for Germans though it's not likely you'll meet any at first. Somewhere along there you'll start hearing some gunfire from the direction of the compound. The torpedo boat has arrived to pick you up, and they're having it out with the bad guys.

(Once, just out of curiosity, I left a man back in the woods behind the compound while the rest of us went to the cabin - you can do the job with a three-man team, though it's a bit tricky at a couple of points - and periodically paused to check out the scene back at the camp through his eyes. It was very odd. The PT boat pulled up at the dock - rather than waiting out to sea for the team to send some sort of signal; that would be the logical way BUT IT WOULDN'T BE THE HIDDEN AND DANGEROUS WAY - and began blazing away with fifty-caliber machine guns in the general direction of the camp. It kept doing this even though there weren't any targets in sight and nobody was shooting back. It was quite a spectacular show, though.)

None of this is your problem right now. Your next spot of opposition is in that last little patch of woods up ahead, on top of that last high rise of ground before you reach the road. There are three Germans hanging out up there. They aren't very good but they do have to be removed.

Station your men so they've got a good field of fire and then go around and up the side of the bluff over the swamp. This will trigger the Germans to move in your direction - well, at least one of them, the other two aren't very brave - and be shot by your men.

You can move in then, in your disguise, and try to get the others. Often as not, though, they run away. Don't pursue; you've got much more important game to hunt now and if you go much farther toward the road you'll trigger something you're not ready for.

Come to a stop on top of the rise of ground; don't go any farther forward. Bring your men up and position the Bren gunner over by the edge of the bluff, where it makes that sort of prominence above the swamp, where he's got a good clear view of the wrecked truck blocking the road. Lay your best rifleman a little way behind him, far enough back that the Bren gunner isn't blocking his line of fire. If your other man has an MP-40 he can crouch down a little to the right of the Bren gunner to cover the tree line ahead. Do all this pretty fast; you don't have unlimited time.

Now move your disguise man gradually along the rise of ground in the direction of the road. There's a kind of sudden dropoff up ahead and when you reach that it should trip a trigger. If you're not sure, pause frequently, because it won't be immediately obvious that anything's happened.

When you've tripped the trigger, in just a moment you'll start to hear a low droning sound, quickly growing in volume. When you hear that, haul ass back to where you left the others, running just as fast as you can, and turn and face back to the road and crouch or lie down.

Now take control of the Bren gunner. This next part is going to be fun.

A truck will appear on the road. It won't be stopped by the truck you left to block the road; it'll either swing past it or push it out of the way. That's OK, you were only trying to slow it down. As soon as it moves far enough along to give you a clear shot, blast it with the Bren.

If you hit it just right it will blow up and kill everybody on board and so much for that. If not, you'll still kill at least some of them. Keep hosing it down till you see it start to catch fire and when it finally blows it'll still probably get another one or two.

By now everybody will be shooting but it'll be over in a short time. Take your disguise man down to the road to see what's going on. Chances are he'll find a German or two lurking behind the wrecked truck. He may find one behaving very peculiarly, too; the explosion sometimes makes the AIs get weird.

When everything gets quiet again and you're sure the Germans are all dead, bring everybody down to the road and across to the eastern side, and dispose them under the trees, lying down and facing north. The next part can be pretty damn tough.

Get everybody laid out in a rough line about even with the trucks and use your scoped rifle to check the area alongside the road ahead of you. There may well be one or two riflemen lying on the ground up under the trees. I think they're survivors of the truck ambush but I don't really know. If there's just one, shoot him. If there are two, try to get a tree between you and one of them before shooting the other; the return fire will be instant and accurate. Your men may get in on it and then they may not.

At this point a fire fight may begin. Germans may attack from the direction of the main road up ahead; your men will have to fight them off. Or nothing may happen. This is a very unpredictable part of this mission; that's what makes it so hard.

Assuming nothing does happen, move your team up along close to the cliff on your right. Stop when you can see the log pile fairly clearly. Deploy them to cover the road and the area along the base of the cliff up ahead. Make sure the Bren gunner has a full magazine and a good clear field of fire.

Now leave your team in place and run on ahead, holding the MP40 now. Have a look around before you cross the road; there may be a man crouched down behind the log pile. There may also be one in the machine gun emplacement.

Run on across the road, dive into the machine gun emplacement, and if there's a man there shoot him. Let your disguise recharge and rise up and pop the one by the log pile if he's there.

Now just stay put and watch the road to your left. This is one of those maddeningly unpredictable parts of this game. There may or may not be a bunch of men on up the road to the right, off the map - I mean literally, there's no way to go after them or even see if they're there.

If they are, and they usually are, they're very dangerous; they use excellent tactics and they're aggressive as hell. You definitely don't want them charging down the road and hitting your men from the flank as they move on toward the compound. So they need to be taken care of before anything else.

Usually crossing the road and taking over the machine gun emplacement will trigger them. But it's not necessarily instantaneous; sometimes they take quite a little while before they show up. So just stay there behind the sandbags and watch.

Eventually, if they're there, you'll see them come marching down the road. Don't listen to the voice telling you to grab that machine gun and mow them down; there's no way you'll get them all and they'll surely get you. Just stand there looking innocent - they're too far away to penetrate your disguise - while they move along into your men's field of view.

At which time the shit will hit the fan. (Unless you deployed your men too far back and they don't see them.) Your lads will get a couple of them right off, but they won't just charge obligingly into the fire like that lot earlier on; they'll spread out and use the snow hummocks up by the base of the cliff for cover, and maybe the log pile, and they'll mount a very professional counterattack.

Which is when you can help a bit, but wait until they've committed to their attack and have their backs to you. Then take the Mauser and pick off whichever one seems to be the biggest threat, and instantly hit the deck behind those sandbags - don't wait to see the results - and hope none of the others come after you. You'll only get one shot; by the time your disguise recharges it should all be over.

This is one of the times when you can lose men. It's up to you whether you want to reload and try again; from this point on you don't absolutely have to have all four men to complete the mission, or the campaign. But remember, any man you lose will be forever unavailable for future missions.

If all goes well, you'll have control of the whole area around the intersection and you can begin moving in on the compound. You won't have all that hard a job ahead of you because you've already reduced the enemy's numbers considerably.

All right, but what if the off-the-map boys don't show up? What if the trigger doesn't work?

Then I'm damned if I know. I think this means they've already gone on and entered the compound - maybe while you were jiving around with that truck - and there is evidence for this, in that on the occasions when they didn't show up on the road, there seemed to be more enemy waiting inside the compound.

Anyway, if you've waited and waited and you're positive they're not going to show, then you may as well move on to the next phase.

By this time, or very soon, you'll hear some shooting from the direction of the compound. The torpedo boat is under fire. Ignore it. It's what they get for moving in early, and then not having sense enough to pull back when they started getting shot at.

Have a look along the road now, in the direction of the compound; use the scope and check the area on the right side of the road, under the trees. One or two men may be lying on the ground covering the road. It may be hard to be sure because there will be corpses in that same area, but if you see one who looks suspiciously lifelike, bust him with the Mauser just to make sure.

Now it's time to go after the occupants of the compound. Basically you do this pretty much the same as when you attacked it in the first mission: lead your men in a big swing over by the mountain to the north - staying clear just in case they've re-manned that tower machine gun - and into the area to the north of the compound. It'll be a little simpler this time, in that there won't be any goons out on the dock, but you'll be up against better, more aggressive troops.

Before you do anything, it would be a good idea to find out how many you're up against and where they are. Leave your men in a good defensive position, covering that area with the light and the long windows. Go in through that hole you cut at the start of the mission and peer in the windows and see what you can see. Climb on in, moving fast so nobody gets an extended look at you; keep one eye on your stealth meter and if it starts to drop, get out of sight and let it recharge. Once you know where they are, get back to join your men.

Probably you'll find some of the Germans in the buildings on the north side of the street and some on the south. By now you should be able to devise a suitable plan of attack.

The ones on the south side are harder. There's probably a way to set up an elaborate trap, but generally I just go in and shoot them. Usually there are a couple in between the buildings and you can get behind them and cut them down with one burst; then reload fast and see if anybody else comes to see what's going on, and blast them too. OK, it's cowboyish tactics but by this time aren't you tired of all the fancy stuff?

Once you're sure you've cleaned out the buildings, there's some mopping up to be done. Check the machine gun tower and kill anybody who's hiding there. Go out the gate and look around in that low area down between the road and the swamp; sometimes there's a man lurking there. Go along the south side of the compound, between the wire and the buildings, to the building at the far southwest corner, and climb up the ladder and shoot that bastard in the back. (Lie down before you shoot him, in case there's anybody out there looking.)

All this time you have to stay clear of the dock area, because there are still two or three riflemen down there by the northwest corner, behind those piles of bricks, shooting at the PT boat. (If they're not shooting that means the sailors have had it.)

One fun way to eliminate them is for the Bren gunner to put a couple of bursts into those big storage tanks and blow them up, taking the goons with them. Don't do this until you're positive you've cleaned out the buildings.

After that there's nothing left but to check over the whole place very carefully for survivors.

When you are absolutely totally metaphysically certain you've got the compound clear of enemies, and the woods and the road and everything else all the way back to the cabin, you can send a man to get the pilot, who by now will probably be damn glad to see him. (You might want to use the tactical map to do this; then the other men can be doing things in the meantime. You'll still have to take control, though, after he gets there; he'll have to give the pilot Follow Me, and lead him back. Walk wide around the wrecked trucks; the pilot has a tendency to get hung up.)

While he's on his way, go over to the dock and you'll find a couple of men on the steps beside the pier. One of them may be alive. The other one will croak out some dying words.

Don't feel guilty; it wasn't your fault. It is just nearly impossible to save all the PT boat crew. I got there in time to save all but one of them once - that was the time when they blew up the storage tanks - and even then it was a very weird business: I arrived to find one of the men down on the steps sort of grappling with this German, never saw anything quite like it. I shot the German in time to save the sailor, and there were a couple more sailors on board the boat, but the guy over on the other set of steps still did his melodramatic cashing-in routine. I think that part may be scripted.

By now the Bren gunner will be running low on ammunition. Have him toss the Bren, and any remaining magazines; it won't be of any use in the next mission anyway. Let him take the dead sailor's Thompson, and his ammo supply.

When your man comes back with the pilot, pause and check inventory all around before getting on the boat; go back and scavenge if there's anything you think you might need. (Hint: the next mission is mostly sniping and you need huge quantities of rifle ammo.) The dead guy on top of that structure at the southwest corner has an excellent scoped Mauser; somebody go get it, it'll be invaluable in the next mission. Check the pilot's stuff, too; if you didn't bring a knife along on this campaign, take his, it'll come in very useful at the end of the next mission.

Now everybody get on board. Your last man can give the pilot Follow Me and lead the way onto the boat. The pilot can be a real pain in the ass at this point; you may have to use the tactical map. Don't worry about him falling off the gangway; as soon as he reaches the head of the gangplank you'll get Mission Completed, and I bet you figure it's about time.