I like this mission. Pretty absurd if you let yourself get to thinking about it but what the hell. At least there's no loony stuff as in the previous one. And it's difficult enough to be interesting without being so hard as to kill the fun.

An "oasis", actually an old and partly ruined walled town, consisting of a lot of small low-roofed houses and an improbably large mosque, surrounded by the usual dunes and hills and other desert-type real estate.

Mission:

Kill everybody, with one important exception, and take over the place. Locate the one functioning vehicle on the premises and speak with, but do NOT harm, the mechanic working on it. (The aforesaid exception.)

Special Notes:

The opening part of the mission is pure sniping and quite a lot of it, so when you do the setup supply your riflemen with the appropriate ammo and leave the MP-40 clips in their packs for now. At this point you should have one Springfield and at least two scoped Mausers (if you don't then you did a lousy job of scavenging at the end of the first mission) and at least two men in enemy uniform, more likely three; make sure their weapons are appropriate.

For once you get to open the mission by improving the odds at little risk to yourselves. Just deploy your men and start sniping.

A third man can run around over the dunes to a spot somewhere out to the east of the oasis. The cover isn't too great out there but if he lies down he shouldn't be in too much danger. Note that a couple of soldiers may come out to attack him, so he should be able to see and cover the ground between him and the oasis.

If you've got a fourth sniper rifle then use your imagination as to where you put him; just don't bunch your men up so as to provide the Germans with an easy target. If your fourth man has an iron sighted rifle rather than one with a scope, he can still harass the enemy and might even get a few.

Take over your viewpoint character and pick a target - no shortage of possibilities, if you're in a decent position; the walls are crawling with the bastards - and take a shot at him. Chances are you'll miss, but you never know. Anyway it doesn't matter; the main thing is to start the action. You may need to take over the other riflemen in turn to get them to start shooting. Once the bad guys start shooting back they'll be all right.

(Oh, and don't worry about the airplanes that occasionally fly overhead. In this mission, they don't bother you.)

The return fire from the walls isn't really very dangerous, though now and then it comes distressingly close and you'll probably get a few injuries. It does happen, very occasionally, that a lucky shot kills one of your men, in which case there's nothing for it but to restart the mission - or go on without him, if you prefer to play it that way.

But watch the area outside the walls; that's where the real action is. A few heroic types will rush out through gaps in the wall and move toward the shooters. This is where your man out to the east gets his chance; the counterattackers generally move toward the men up on the hillside, and they're easy targets from the flank. But one or two will probably charge the man on the east, so he'll have to be alert and protect himself; the others should cover him but you can't depend on that.

You should get anywhere from eight to ten of the enemy during the first exchange, which is a great improvement in the situation from your viewpoint. But don't be in a rush to move on to the next phase. Spend some time watching and waiting, carefully scanning the target area. Almost certainly you'll spot a few more that you can pick off. The AIs don't always pick up on these targets at this distance, so you'll have to take control of your shooters one by one. Look along the top of the western wall, that's a good place to find them. There's usually one at the southwest corner; he's very difficult to spot and hit but patience will pay off.

When you've finally run out of targets, bring your men one by one down into the collection of ruined structures to the east of the main wall. Bring them around in a big swing, coming into the ruins from the east; don't get too confident, there may still be a rifleman or two up on the walls. Use the ruins for cover and get three snipers into position where they can cover the area to the south of the walls, in between the row of ruined houses and the partly broken south wall - out where they've strung all that barbed wire.

The fourth man - preferably your man with the highest endurance rating - will now swing around over the dunes and work his way into the ruins on the south side. Have him go around to the start of the wired area and approach the entry gap in the wire, and then turn and run like hell and take cover in the ruins. Some Germans will come out through the breaks in the wall to get him, and the snipers can pick them off. If the attack doesn't materialize he didn't go far enough; try again. This isn't really an important action, just a chance to eliminate a few of the bad guys and thus improve the odds.

Your #1 man now circles wide around the oasis, through the dunes, to a point to the north. Bring your main sniper along for backup; you won't need him yet, but you will later on and you might as well keep him with you. Somewhere out to the north of the oasis, you should be able to spot at least one enemy up on the wall, and knock him off. Leave the two riflemen out there to the north - you can even move them farther out, up the rocky hillside, where they have a better view - so they can shoot at targets of opportunity.

Two of your Axis-uniformed men should now move down close to the east wall. These should be your man with the highest stealth rating and the one who's only got an MP-40. (If everybody's got sniper rifles, then the second man should be the one with the highest endurance rating.) Have them drop their packs and let their stealth batteries charge, and then move them down to the break in the wall at the northeast corner.

Stand one man where he can cover the area inside the wall, along the nearest row of houses, and take the other man in through the gap just a little way. There'll be a German standing just inside the gap to the left; shoot him and get back out of there and under cover. At this point one or two enemy types may come out of the houses and be shot down by the backup man.

Now your man with the highest stealth rating needs to do a little scouting. This is a pretty ass-puckering business, since it involves moving around among a lot of people who want badly to provide you with extra body orifices, but if you keep moving and don't let anybody have an extended look at you you'll be all right. The idea is to find out where the bad guys are, so you can plan your next moves.

The first thing to check out is the area in front of the mosque. There may be some men standing around there. If they are, then get out right away; it's time for something different, which we'll get to in a minute. Probably, though, they won't be there yet. In that case you need to concentrate your recce on the cluster of ramshackle mud houses on the north side of the oasis, particularly the northwest. You'll find that there are men in several houses, singly for the most part, though there are two guys in one building. Make a mental note of where they are and, again, don't let anybody see you for more than a second or two. Above all, resist the temptation to shoot anybody just now. It's pretty weird walking through a door and finding yourself eyeball-to-eyeball with an armed enemy, but just say, "Oh, pardon me, old chap," and haul ass back out the door, and you'll be all right. Keep an eye on your stealth meter; if it starts to drop somebody's looking at you and you better get out of sight pronto.

At some point while you're wandering around in there, you might as well make contact with the mechanic. It's not an urgent matter, so don't expose yourself to any risk; but if there's nobody around, go on over and speak with him, since this is a required part of the mission. He's the bloke in the blue coveralls, and make damn sure you don't shoot him, or create any situations that might put him in the line of fire, because if he gets hurt the mission fails.

Bring your scout back out through the gap and park him for the moment. Return to your snipers out in the hills to the north - who, by now, may have taken out a target or two within the walls, or at least scared the shit out of them - and move them westward to the top of the big dune northwest of the oasis. There will probably be a couple of men just outside the main gate where they can be picked off. Wait a minute or two after doing the job, in case anybody else comes out the gate, and then go back to your men by the gap.

You might want to use a save here, if you've got one; the next part can get tricky. Certainly it's a very high-pucker-factor business.

What you have to do is go in and kill people. You kill them one at a time, and you make damn sure you don't get involved in any shootouts; this is pure butcher's work. Use the MP-40 and make sure and keep it fully loaded; if you've got a knife you might be tempted to use it but it's definitely a risky thing to do. Use your high-stealth man for this part; leave the other bloke by the gap where he can provide cover if you have to make a fast retreat.

The technique is simple and really not that hard if you've got a good disguise. Just walk in the door, shoot the occupant immediately, and dash over into the corner or against the wall where you can cover the doorway. Lie down or crouch so you can't be seen through the windows, if any, and reload fast and hope nobody shows up before your disguise recharges. Once it does you can get up and walk back out, cool as shit.

In between hits, check that area in front of the mosque and see if those guys are there yet. If they are then get out quick and go back out the gap.

Leave the room with the two guys for last; things tend to happen when you shoot them - the Germans in the other rooms nearby come out and rush you. If you've cleaned out the other rooms on the north side, though, and if those bastards still aren't there in front of the mosque, then you can walk in and shoot them - you better be fast and you better be accurate - and then take cover and reload and watch the door and your stealth meter and pray.

At some point those guys will show up in front of the mosque. There might be anywhere from three to five of them; three if you got those two outside the main gate, more if you failed. When they appear, it's time for some more sniping, this time a bit risky. If you've got a save left, this is a good time to use it.

Trot on around the perimeter of the area and into the foothills to the west of the oasis. Pause frequently to check the main gate through your rifle's scope. As you start to get where you can see - and be seen - through the main gate, get down and move with caution; you may be shot at. The cover isn't great out there but use whatever's available.

Make sure your other sniper has a good clear shot at the area outside the main gate, because there's an outside chance when you start shooting at them they may come out the gate after you. If your man on the inside hasn't yet done much to reduce the enemy numbers, bring him back out and run him around to join your sniper with his own rifle, just in case. On the rare occasions that they do charge out the gate, it's a great opportunity to get a lot of them quickly; or, if you're not ready, to get your young ass shot off.

Now you can go after those jokers in front of the mosque. If you have a choice, give priority to anybody with a rifle; the ones with the MP-40s are no real danger to you at this distance. Move laterally very gradually, so you're engaging only one of them at a time.

Once they've been taken out, you can move back to your hilltop - it's as good a place as any - and let your inside man continue with the cleanup work. When everything on the north side has been cleared out, you're almost home.

Not quite, though. For one thing there's a man in one of the houses along the east wall, and another one in a room on the south side, both of them uncomfortably close to where the mechanic is working on the truck. Be very careful in taking these two out; don't do anything to endanger the mechanic.

There's also a man in a house up near the southwest corner. Once you've gotten these three, check your status sheet. If you've done everything right then it should show success on the enemy-killed line.

If not then you have to go hunting. Be methodical and careful, and don't overlook any possibilities. These bastards turn up in the damnedest places. I found one once halfway up a ladder, God knows why. Another time I found one standing inside the doorway of the minaret. (That's the tower of the mosque, infidel dog.)

When you've finally got them all, everybody can gather in front of the mosque and do some rearranging and resupplying. First off, don't forget to have your men go pick up their backpacks from where they left them.

Toss the Springfield and the Thompson, and their ammo. Pick up an MP-40 from the copious supply lying around; with its greater magazine capacity, it's a better weapon than the Thompson for the mission that lies ahead. Somebody pick up an extra MP-40, too, you're going to have a use for an extra weapon. Have all but one of the other men ditch their sniper rifles and ammo, but hang onto one, with a couple of clips. Dump any grenades and any small first aid kits you've got left.

Now it's scavenging time. Scour the area for MP-40 ammo; don't bother with anything else - with one exception: one man, whoever has a lot of available load space, should go out and around to the area outside the south wall, and look for a box containing three antipersonnel mines. Be very careful in this area and DO NOT try to climb up through the gap in the wall next to the box of mines; that area is already mined. But get them, because they'll be worth anything in the next mission.

Otherwise, you're just trying to stock up on MP-40 ammo. There's a supply box in that room where you shot those two guys; empty it. Check every stiff in the area, though most will be riflemen and therefore useless. You're going to need a lot of this stuff very soon so be thorough.

When you're done ghouling, you can go into the mosque - the designers of this game, by the way, must not have been inside any real mosques - where you'll meet a German doctor with an attitude. Don't shoot him, even though he's asking for it; he's got his uses, as you'll see.

Also inside the mosque, to the left of the entrance, is a radio. Go up to it and use it, and the mission will be completed.