Kind of silly stuff considered logically, but so much fun you won't care. Dead easy except for the very beginning and even that doesn't amount to much.

Fairly large desert airbase. High winds, blowing sand enough to reduce visibility though not in the sandstorm class.

Locate Schumann, take him prisoner, get everybody aboard the designated aircraft, and fly away.

To run this mission the #1 character has to have a German uniform. The selection menu will say only that one person has to have it, but in fact it's got to be #1, even if all the others are already kitted out.

It gets very buggy about this, too. It insists on supplying the necessary disguise, and if #1 is already wearing one then it becomes confused; when you go to start the mission it will refuse to start, saying that one person has to be wearing a Luftwaffe uniform, and will not recognize the one that's already there.

This is why I said to leave #1 in British uniform even if a fourth disguise becomes available. It's too much hassle to be worth it.

However, if you disregarded my advice (you damn fool), and you run into this problem, try hitting Automatic Replenish and usually that will get things moving again. Do that, though, only after taking care of other equipment.

Everybody else at this point should already be in enemy uniform - you've had plenty of opportunities - and in any case they're not going to need any supplies, so get rid of any remaining backpacks. Each man should have a compass, a first-aid kit (actually only one man is at all likely to have any need for it, but what the hell), and a few clips of ammo. That's all.

When the mission opens you're all standing at the end of a long tunnel or supply bunker, where presumably you've just parked the truck you got at the oasis. Behind you, back at the far end of the tunnel, are a couple of Germans.

The first thing you need to do is get your men out of the way and settled down; otherwise they'll start a massive shootout that will alert the whole base. The easiest way is to pull up the tac map and give commands to move them to the right, into the spaces next to the parked truck, out of sight of the tunnel. Put them in Passive mode while you're at it.

Then as soon as you fold the tac map and return to yourself, turn around and run down the tunnel past those two, moving quickly so they don't get a chance to see through your disguise. Get off to one side, in one of the supply bays, so you can get them both lined up, and then shoot them quickly through the head with very short bursts, as few shots as you can manage. The less noise you make at this point the better.

(It's been suggested that the De Lisle carbine should be carried for this purpose. But the De Lisle wasn't available at this time, and anyway carrying it would destroy the disguise. I did succeed once in taking them both out with a knife, but it was a very intense business and I wouldn't want to try it again.)

When they're down, bring your men back up the tunnel, well out of sight of the entrance, and park them. Go to the entrance, close the door behind you, take a deep breath and open the door and run outside and turn right.

The next part is where it gets a bit harder. You have to run along next to the hillside, in the direction of that large low structure you can see through the blowing sand. Not directly towards it, though, that would be disastrous. You're aiming to wind up at the right side of the structure.

Besides, there's a man walking around nearby, by the hangars in front of the bunker you just left; he sees you and already your disguise is starting to slip a little, so you sure as hell don't want to get any closer to him. So run along parallel to the foot of the hill, till you come up even with the structure, and then hang a quick left and dash over next to the structure's wall. If your meter is still dropping or fluctuating, hit the deck and lie quietly while it recovers.

Watch that son of a bitch over toward the hangars; chances are he's looking in your direction, maybe crouched down in a watchful position. If so, wait till he turns and heads back toward the hangar before you move again. The fewer eyes are looking at you, the better your chances.

Stand up and go into third person view and you'll see that the structure is one of a set of camouflaged bunkers or sheds. Three of these contain Tiger Mark I heavy tanks.

Or rather they did. Depending on various factors - mostly, as far as I can tell, just the luck of the draw - one or two of them may have pulled out of the bunkers and be sitting in the open nearby. You'll have seen this, of course, as you approached; you may have thought oh, shit.

But it's OK; it's not a disaster if they're out of the sheds. In fact it makes things a little simpler.

When your stealth meter is showing full charge again and your wind has recovered, sprint around the corner and up along by the back of the row of tank sheds. There's a sentry halfway along but just run past him without pausing and he won't have time to get a look at you. More dangerous is the man on top of the building up ahead, and another one you'll encounter just beyond the last shed.

Ignore them all. Run around the last shed and into it. By now your stealth will be dropping to zero if it hasn't already bottomed out, so you haven't got time to screw around. Just get into that last shed and next to the tank there and hit the Use button a couple of times to put you in that tank.

Now you're safe from small arms fire, but you've still got a couple of problems - namely those two other Tigers. They'll blow you out of there with no more chance than a sardine in a can if you don't get them first. So use your Use key again and select the "Main Weapon" position.

If they're already out in the open, or if one of them is, then you'll see what I mean about this making things simpler. Just take aim and blow the bastard away. If the first shot doesn't do it, reload and try again; they don't respond all that fast. Notice, though, the slow reloading process. That's something you'll have to allow for.

Most commonly there'll be one sitting out in the open and one still in the shed. Get the exposed one, reload, and watch and wait; the other one will pull out of its shed pretty soon and come rumbling across your line of sight, and then you can destroy it at point-blank range. Very satisfying.

Now if they were both still in the sheds when you arrived, and if you did a really good sneak and a fast approach so that you got inside the Tiger without your disguise ever being totally blown, then it's possible they're both still in their sheds. In that case you'll have to winkle them out and bust them. Use second person view to determine if they're still in the sheds, and if so switch back to the driver's position and pull out of the shed. There are several ways you can go after them, but the best I've found is to turn sharply left and circle around in back of the bunkers and then up between them. Then as the two Tigers pull out - which they will, by now they've got the word that something's not right - you can bash them from behind.

Once you've destroyed the two Tigers - and what a rush that is - you might as well save. You are now done with the risky part of the mission; from here on out you hold all the cards.

You can't operate weapons and drive, so there's not much you can do until you get your mates on board; but you can, if you like, drive around a few minutes running over people. This is great fun of a sadistic sort; kind of a heavy-metal version of Grand Theft Auto. They'll run but you can get them. Occasionally some idiot will stand there firing at you with a pistol till he goes under the treads.

Once one of them tried to surrender. Stood there with his hands up while the tank rolled down on him, then at the last second he realized what was happening and tried to run but too late. Too late by at least three missions....

When you're done having cheap laughs, though, you need to go pick up the rest of the team. Drive back to the bunker entrance and back up to it. Your remaining men are in disguise, of course, but still it's best to limit exposure, so get close as you can. Switch to the machine gun in case targets present themselves while you're bringing up the boys.

Go back and take control of a man, any man, and run him up to the entrance and open the door and pop him into the tank. Do this with the others and don't worry too much about where they go. Once everybody's safely inside, you can shuffle assignments. I suggest giving yourself control of the big gun, otherwise whoever has it will waste the few remaining shells on trifling targets.

From here on it's just fun and games. The situation is really pretty improbable, considered realistically, but who cares? After all this time of skulking around the desert and hiding in ruins, fighting these bastards and always at a terrifying disadvantage, finally you've got the upper hand. You're absolutely safe against anything they can throw at you; they're at your mercy, which had better be nonexistent.

Because while it's a lot of laughs driving around killing people, it's also something you need to do. Later on you're going to have to leave the tank and move the team, and a vulnerable prisoner, across a very exposed area; anybody who's left alive will be a threat. So take your time and cover the area carefully and get as many of the bastards as you can.

Work along those lines of trenches at the perimeter of the airport; there are a good many vict - uh, enemies holed up in there, and usually they'll panic and start to move around when you approach and your machine gunner can get them. Work over the area around the hangars, too; shoot up those fuel storage tanks - use the few remaining cannon rounds if you like - and the parked planes.

BUT - fix this in your mind, now - DO NOT NOT NOT DO ANYTHING TO THAT JU-88. That's the twin-engine plane sitting on the runway near the main building. Don't so much as scratch the paint on it. This is your getaway plane. If you harm it you will fail the mission. It's very easy to get carried away so don't forget. It might be useful to know that this is the only twin-engine plane on the field; anything with just one engine, you can blow up with impunity.

Not all your enemies are out in the open. Some are indoors and need to be winkled out. Pay particular attention to that odd low-roofed structure next to the main building, the one with two smaller buildings joined by a roofed walkway. There's a bunch of Germans in there and you need to get them because they're in a position to threaten you as you board the plane later on. Drive around the buildings and come at them from different directions; spray the windows and doorways. Drive in between them; some guys will come out onto the walkway and you can cut them down.

There are some Germans in an underground bunker down next to the one where you started, but it's not worth the trouble and risk of going after them. (They may already have attacked while you were loading the guys into the Tiger, in which case you will no doubt have annihilated them.) A few more may be inside the hangars but again it's not worth rooting them out; they're not going to be a problem. I think you get some extra points for killing everybody but I never pay any attention to that extra-credit shit.

But do make sure and clean up any resistance that might threaten the area around the control building and the parked bomber. When you're sure you've got that done you can go in after Schumann.

Drive the Tiger up toward the front of the main building. At this point there may be a series of rifle shots; there's a sniper in an upstairs window and if he hasn't already been hit he'll take shots at you. (There's one on top of the control tower too, but he's got better sense than to pop at a Tiger with a Mauser.)

You can use the tank's machine gun to get the sniper, if you can spot him; he's just to the left of that long upstairs balcony. If not, it's OK, you're in disguise.

Get out of the tank and run over to the front porch. Ignore the big central doorway; use the wooden door to the right, down by the end of the porch. Go through this and up the stairs to the next floor. Go through the door there and hang a left. You'll come out onto that long balcony, overlooking the parked tank. Run along the balcony to the far end and through the doors there.

Take a right and then immediately left. There's a large room on your right and that's where the sniper is, or was. Check him out and kill him if he still needs it.

Now if you go on down the hallway and keep opening doors, you will find yourself a whole bunch more Germans. They're mostly clerical or technical types doing mysterious things in a big air control and planning room, and mostly they've only got pistols, but there's a guard or two. It's all quite interesting and well designed, and worth seeing; but there's not a damn thing down there that's in any way essential to the mission, and you stand a fairly good chance of getting shot. My advice is to leave it alone. They won't bother you if you don't bother them.

Just go get Schumann, all right? Take the second door on the right off the hallway, go through an outer room and there he is.

Walk up to him and sit out the scripted exchange. He'll give you some shit, you'll give him some - if it amuses you you can fire a few rounds into the floor or the ceiling or the furniture or something just to intimidate him - and then he'll surrender. Not in the usual way, though, you don't get to capture him, just give him orders.

Order him to follow you, and lead the way back down the stairs. Move fast or he'll get past you and block your way. When you get to the bottom he'll probably stand there on the stairs like an asshole; you may have to do some work to get him out onto the porch.

Once he's on the porch, leave him there - get one of the unoccupied lads out of the tank and station him on the porch for extra protection, just in case of stragglers - and go back up the stairs, all the way to the top this time, to the control tower.

Where you'll encounter one of the game's more pleasant features: a couple of babes. Authentic hotties, in fact, in natty little uniforms with fetishy black boots. I'll go ahead and disappoint you now, so you don't waste a lot of time trying: no, you can't see up their skirts.

You don't want to harm them, of course; they look kind of pathetic cringing like that. (Though one of them sometimes acts the snotty bitch and strides about ignoring you; but a burst through the nearest window changes her attitude very fast.) Leave them alone and go on outside. You'll find a ladder going up to the roof.

The sniper won't pay any attention, since you're in disguise. Just shoot him and go back down the ladder. When you go through the tower you might be tempted to try shooting up the radio. Don't bother; I've done that, used up clip after clip and even tried grenading it once resulting in the sad demise of the two hotties. No matter what you do it won't make any difference at all in what follows.

Go on back downstairs and collect Schumann and get your men out of the tank and give everybody Follow Me, and haul ass over to that parked Ju-88. When they get there it will trigger a cut scene. The mission is essentially completed; this is just some stupid shit setting you up for the God-damned unforgivable garbage that comes next.

You see the plane take off, fine. Then here comes this wounded Kraut, up in the tower - Christ knows where he came from - staggering over to the radio. No sign of the two babes, let alone any explanation why they couldn't have made the call; but anyway there he is, choking out his dying message into the microphone, melodramatic as shit.

Then you get Mission Completed; then you go directly to the next "mission." I use quotes because I don't even consider it a mission. It's just some stupid, incompetently done shit that some God-damned fools stuck in, that you have to get through to get on with the game.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.