Ah yes. Brings back cinematic memories; Fort Zinderneuf and all that, or perhaps a certain Bogie classic...or all those Westerns where the handful of brave soldiers or frontiersmen hold off the attacking aboriginal hordes. Anyway this one is a good deal of fun and not too difficult if you set it up right. Mostly the AIs do the work, if you deploy them right, so you better have picked yourself some good men.

Inside the walled oasis/village. Night.

Beat off the attackers. Oh, shut up. Terminate them with extreme prejudice. Defend the place.

All four men get submachine guns, preferably MP-40s. You'll need a fifth weapon; if you forgot to pick up an extra MP-40 in the last mission, that's OK, there should be a Sten in the menu. (Not an authentic weapon for the time and place and unit, but then what you need it for is pretty unrealistic too.) One sniper rifle with one or two clips. No grenades or other explosives, except for those three antipersonnel mines you scored in the last mission - damn it, you did pick them up, didn't you?

With one exception the men won't be wearing their backpacks, but take them along anyway because they'll have their short-term uses. Dump any of the small medical kits you've got left; there's plenty of first-aid supplies available in the mission.

Whoever is carrying the antipersonnel mines (you?) shouldn't be carrying anything else except his weapon and backpack. Somebody else will need to carry his ammo supply at first. He won't need a medical kit either, going in.

At the start you're all standing around on or by the walls. Take a minute to look around, especially up; the sky effects are really beautiful, some of the most impressive graphics in this game. The place is deserted except for you and your team, the doctor down in the mosque, and the mechanic who is sound asleep in one of the houses. (And stays that way through the whole thing, snoring like a son of a bitch.)

You've got plenty of time to make your preparations; nothing will happen until the trigger is activated. So take your time and make your preparations with great care and thoroughness.

Gather everybody in front of the mosque, just for convenience. Go in and see Herr Doktor, who has something amazing to tell you: he's decided to change sides.

Naturally, this being the wonderful world of HD2 rather than reality (or even the old HD, in which you could never trust anybody), you believe him and hand him a gun. This is why you brought that extra one along; all the hardware that was lying around the place at the end of the last mission has mysteriously disappeared. Whoever is carrying the extra weapon can come in and give it to him. If you failed to bring a machine pistol for him then give him the sniper rifle, he'll have to make do with that.

Leave him there for the moment. You've got some mine laying to do.

The mines are the key to success in this mission. I can't overemphasize this. They're the equalizer that will allow four guys to take on a vastly superior attacking force. Nothing you do in setting up for this action is as important as placing those mines.

There are ten among the collection of munitions that have mysteriously turned up in the mosque. You can't carry them all so first you might as well get rid of the three you've already got.

Where to put the extra mines is always a tough question. I usually put them in the gap in the wall on the north side, where that pile of rubble makes a ramp to allow access. It's not often that the attackers will try to come this way, but when they do they're real trouble, so it's worth laying a few traps for them; you're going to have a man covering this spot but the mines will make his job easier.

In the past I've laid mines in the main gate and at the gap at the northeast corner. But nobody's ever stepped on one, even when they come that way, so I finally gave up. The spaces are just too wide to cover without using up a lot of mines, and you need them elsewhere.

Back to the mosque, now, to pick up more mines. This is why you've got an empty backpack; the damn things are heavy and you don't want to have to make more trips than you have to. Leave your weapon and even your helmet, to lighten your load.

The main area to be mined is on the south wall. Of the three broken places in the wall there, the easternmost one - the one nearest the machine gun position - is the chief route the attackers will use. You want to get up there and mine the everlasting shit out of that spot. At least six mines need to go there, preferably more. Move out onto the pile of rubble that forms an approach ramp and lay a couple there, out beyond the breach; then move back and lay two or three more, side by side, and so on. You can even put a couple on the flat area just inside the break. Fix it so even a God-damned lizard can't crawl through there without blowing himself to shit. Be careful, now, and don't step on one of your own mines in the dark.

Of the other breaks in the south wall, the one in the middle is already mined and you're going to have a man in position to cover the other one, so it's not worth mining them. Resist the temptation to try to mine all the possible approaches; you just don't have enough mines and it's better to concentrate them. You'll see.

Go back to the mosque now and collect your weapon and your hard hat. Go over to the good Doctor and confiscate one of his medical kits. Find the man who's carrying your ammo and collect it.

Now you're ready to deploy your men. Which one draws what assignment, is up to you; by now you should have a pretty good idea of the strengths and abilities of your team members.

First off, one man has to go up on the western wall, near the northwest corner, with a bazooka. This is the man you're going to have to control directly; he's got an absolutely vital job to do and you can't trust an AI to do it. Since you're going to be controlling him, you might pick one of your less brilliant men; in particular marksmanship isn't going to be any big deal for this man. He needs to be fairly strong, though.

Have him go into the mosque and pick up a bazooka and a single spare rocket. He'll probably have to dump some MP-40 ammo to let him carry the rocket, but there's no help for that. Run him back across the courtyard to the stairway against the western wall, to the right of the main gate, and along the top of the wall to a position close to the corner tower. He should have a good view of the area just beyond the barbed wire barriers at the northwest corner. Have him hold his bazooka in his hands.

Now you or one of the other men can go in and pick up another bazooka and a couple of rockets - if you can't carry all this you'll just have to make extra trips - and carry them up to the top of the western wall and drop them on the walkway by the head of the stairs. Whoever has the sniper rifle should bring it up there too and leave it, along with its ammunition.

When your bazooka man has been provided with all his supplies and all the remaining ammo has been distributed, take one man up to the southwest corner of the wall. This is a little awkward to get to; you might try that ladder to the left of the main gate, but be careful crossing that broken area. You want this man up in that little boxlike structure at the corner, lying down and facing east.

Now this man's job is extremely important. As noted, most of the attack will come through the gaps in the south wall; and the mines won't stop all of them, only reduce their numbers. So this guy is going to have to take most of the responsibility for taking them out as they come over the wall; and he's going to have to do it on his own, because you're going to be busy elsewhere for much of the time.

So you better pick a damn good man. Shooting skills are important, but less so than reactions and aggressiveness. For example, I've had very good luck with Hendry in this position, while Czakowski hasn't worked out so well, even though if you look at their numbers you'd think it would be the other way around. Because Hendry will shoot, and do it right away, while Jackoffski tends to hang around with his finger up his ass and let them get by him or get himself killed.

When you've got your man in position, make sure his belt pouches are full - leave him his first aid kit, he's probably going to need it - and then take several clips from his backpack and dump them in front of him. If he needs to resupply in a hurry it'll be faster grabbing them up than screwing around with inventory, though of course you'll still have to take control of him to do this.

Another man should go on a rooftop to the north, covering that broken spot in the north wall. Chances are he won't be needed - as I say, it's pretty rare that they come that way - but if they do mount an attack from the north he'll be the only defense; and my experience is that leaving that spot unguarded makes it much more likely that they'll try it. However, if you've got a weak link in your team, this is the least risky place to put him.

At this point all the men in German uniform should dump their backpacks. The disguise factor isn't really very important under the circumstances, yet it can now and then slow the enemy's reactions down a little; you don't want to throw away any possible advantage. The one exception is the bazooka man, who needs his backpack to carry his spare rocket.

Now the remaining man - who should, if possible, have a good resistance number; he's very likely going to get hit a few times - goes back into the mosque and gives Herr Doktor the Follow Me command, and leads him to the area of the northeast corner, to the gap in the wall. Here it will probably be necessary to use the tactical map to get him into a decent defensive position; like all the AIs, he's pretty vague about that Follow Me business, and he's got no concept whatever of taking cover.

(For that matter you could just use the tac map to move him all the way from the mosque, if you prefer.)

Leave him there to cover the remaining possible attack route. I've never known them to make a serious incursion through there but now and then one or two will try it. It's not worth putting a good man there, though.

The remaining man now returns to the mosque and approaches the radio, and at this point I strongly suggest you save.

Having done so, go over to the radio and use it. There will be a brief exchange (in the clear, great communications security there) but you don't have to hang around and listen to it if you don't want to. You've just triggered the attack. Run back out and over to the right side of the main gate, and crouch down where you get a little cover from that low wall, facing south so this man can cover anybody coming in the gate.

Now switch control to the bazooka man, first person, and wait.

And wait, and wait. This next part is very stressful; it seems to go on and on, though actually I suppose it's only a minute or two. Gradually you'll hear the sound of internal-combustion engines. In particular you'll hear a tank, and it'll get louder and louder and actually it's pretty damn frightening, you have to think that if this were the real thing it would take a pretty good-sized pair of ballocks to stand there listening to it and not run and hide.

But actually the tank isn't going to be a problem; it stops off to the north, out of your sight. It just sounds as if it's coming right for you.

What does show up, a moment later, is a truck. This is your target. Bust that son of a bitch right away. It's a dead easy shot; the range is short and anywhere you hit it it'll blow up.

Since that truck was full of Germans, you've just made a major contribution. Drop the bazooka (unless you missed, in which case you better reload and try again very damn fast) and get out your MP-40 and run back along the wall and down the stairs to join the man next to the main gate. He needs all the help he can get because he's not only bushwhacking the Germans coming in through the gate, but also taking out some of the ones coming over the south wall. As soon as you get a chance ditch the backpack.

By this time you may already have heard a few explosions, and cries of "Enemy killed!" and "He's gone!" from whoever laid the mines. As the attack intensifies there should be more of these, and your man up at the southwest corner will start shooting at people. Now is when things get intense. The AIs will handle most of the action, and you should let them; their reflexes generally are faster than yours and they shoot straighter.

Pretty soon you'll hear another engine somewhere outside the main gate. An armored halftrack has just arrived. (If you're an HD veteran you'll have fond memories of the vehicle. If not, you missed some good shit.) Run back up the stairs and grab the second bazooka and demolish it. The range is longer than when you got the truck, so you might need one or two shots to nail it. No big deal; it never really does anything, just sits there looking badass. There's a man who gets out, if you don't get it fast enough, but he doesn't do anything but stand around and he's easily picked off - he's why you brought the sniper rifle.

Toss the second bazooka, and the backpack if you've still got it, and hustle back down the stairs to back up the man by the gate again. At this point you might want to switch to another character. If one of your blokes has been hit you could take over and give him some quick medical treatment; or if somebody seems to be in over his head you could take control of him. In particular if the guy up at the southwest corner is letting too many of them get by him you might want to take charge and spray some lead for him. On the other hand if he's doing a good job and isn't getting badly hit then leave him alone.

Eventually the attacks will slack off, but don't relax; after the main assault peters out there will still be individuals trying for the Iron Cross, and you'll need to stay alert and in position to qualify them for a cross of a different sort. When you're pretty sure they've stopped coming, wait a little longer and then walk around the premises - using one of the disguise men - looking for any who made it in; now and then they hole up in odd places. This is when you'll probably find the mechanic still making Zs. You could also go and see about the doctor, if you're curious, and check out the scenes of carnage to see what the mines and gunfire did. It's pretty impressive - and if the sight of those piled-up bodies bothers you, think for a moment about the much bigger piles of bodies at places like Auschwitz and Dachau.

Once you're absolutely certain the infantry has been disposed of, all that's left is to deal with those two tanks outside the walls. This sounds much scarier than it is; in fact it's the easiest part of the mission.

Before you do, make sure everybody is set up for the next mission. Each man should have an MP-40, a large first aid kit, and a compass. Fill the rest of the belt pouches with ammo - which shouldn't be needed, but it feels funny not to take any - and leave the backpacks off, except for your own character. If any of the men has lost his helmet, scavenge up a replacement from one of the stiffs you've been accumulating.

Give your own character's MP-40 to one of the others to carry; you won't be needing it any more this mission. Give somebody your medical kit, too; if you make a mistake and get blasted by a tank cannon first aid isn't going to save you. Hang onto your backpack, though.

Go into the mosque and collect a bazooka and two or three rockets. If you've got a save left, this is as good a time as any to use it.

Time to go out into the big wide world now. You've mined some of the approaches, and others are likely to expose you to the tanks; the best way out is through the front gate. If you disregarded my advice and mined the gate, then you can get out via that broken place in the west wall, between the gate and the southwest corner; it dips down low enough that you can climb down.

Either way, stay close to the wall and head south. There's a small gap between the barbed wire and the wall, big enough for you to get through. Move on south beyond the ruins, and then swing left in the direction of the spot where you began the last mission. (The truck, by the way, is no longer there. Parked in a towaway zone, no doubt.)

The tank you're after is sitting out in the open to the southeast of the oasis. It's easy to spot; just look for the glow of its twin exhausts. Circle around wide till you can come up behind it. Get close; get really close, the bazooka isn't effective against armor over any range. There's no need to crawl or crouch. It can't see or hear you.

Your target should be the big white A on the back of the turret. You'll probably need to move a bit to the right, rather than standing directly behind the tank, to get your shot lined up properly.

When the tank blows - as it will if you did this right; and if you didn't it's going to kill you, it's very unlikely you can reload fast enough to get it first - wait a moment and then try taking a few steps. At this point you'll probably get a completion message. Even though there's still one tank remaining, evidently the assumption is that you've proved you could get it; or, more likely, there's just an error in the programming.

On rare occasions you don't get completion at this point, but have to go after the other tank and destroy it too. No big deal, just time consuming; but that's why we took the extra rockets.

The other tank is off to the north, out away from everything. It's facing more or less west, so go on around the outside of the oasis circling counterclockwise, and look for the exhaust flares. It's a bit of a walk getting to it, but the view is gorgeous, especially the night sky. Once you get there just wipe it out the same way you did the other one.

It's very unlikely you'll have to do that, though. Far more probably you'll get your completion after the first tank; and you're off to the next adventure under desert skies. Hi de ho.