Truly an amazing and impressive little two-mission campaign. Impressive from a technical viewpoint too; the graphic work is stunning, the effects overpoweringly convincing, especially in the first mission.

In fact it's so well done that it's not really much fun. The atmosphere is very oppressive; the claustrophobia of the jungle, the ferocious intensity of the open battle, the poor visibility, the sense of extreme and imminent danger - what Raymond Chandler called the "smell of fear" - is so strong that it can be very stressful just getting through the mission. This is where HD2 quits kidding around and gets tough; from here on out it's not a game for those with weak nerves.

Burma. Which the fascist dictatorship now in charge of the place wants us to call Myanmar. The two missions are unrelated, except as a chronological sequence; there's no single locale as with the first campaign, nor any unifying long-term objective as with the second.

Once again it is inconceivable that the same men from the other campaigns would be taking part in this one; once again it's not an SAS mission. So I use a different team. If you don't want to do that, what the hell, it's your game.

(However, you should know that in the second mission in particular it's very easy to lose one or more men, and a real bastard to complete it without losing anybody; so you might not want to jeopardize your A team.)

The ranges are short, so expert marksmanship isn't all that important - there are indeed some sniping jobs to do, especially in the first mission, but you'll need to handle that yourself so the AI's skills are irrelevant - and stealth doesn't come into it at all. Endurance is much more important, and first aid skills too, because these guys are almost inevitably going to get hit.

The team I use is Cunningham, Turner, Foreman, and Dean. They're all good men; they'll all shoot without hesitation and they're steady as rock. Foreman in particular is a joy to work with.

For the first mission you have to have three explosive packages. Actually you only need two of them to complete the mission, but the damn stupid thing won't let you proceed until you've got all three.

That's the only special requirement. Otherwise, you need firepower. Thompsons are excellent for this campaign. However, I always give one man an M-1 rifle for its power and accuracy - and because I carried one for a time in my own army days and have never gotten over my love for the beast.

(I know, I know, I'm the one who talks about historic authenticity. But in the National Army Museum in London I saw an M-1 on display, in the section on the Burma campaign, with a note that said the British forces did make some use of the American rifle in that theater, and they should know.)

One man will need to have a sniper rifle. You wouldn't think this would have much use in the jungle, but you'll be surprised; in fact your sniper is going to be your Most Valuable Player in the first mission. Take the Enfield; it's correct and it holds more ammo so it doesn't have to be reloaded as often.

It's a bit cumbersome in a short-range fire fight, though, so I also give the sniper an American carbine; it doesn't weigh much and it's handy and reasonably effective close up.

Take plenty of ammo for everything, because in this campaign there are no resupply opportunities and the enemy equipment is shit.

And grenades. Take lots of grenades - strictly the frag kind, the contact grenades are worse than useless for this job. You won't have much need for them in the first mission but they'll be beyond price in the second.

They only offer you one big first aid kit, damn it, so give that to your man with the best medical skills - he can treat the others - and distribute the small kits to everybody else. It might look funny to be carrying two or more first aid kits, but believe me, you're going to need them.

That's all. You're not going to have any chance to use a knife. A pistol might come in handy in certain spots if you feel like carrying one and have the load capacity to spare, but don't skimp on grenades or ammo to make room for it.

The SAS never operated in the Far East during World War II; they only got into jungle warfare years later, during the Malayan campaign. So this will have to be some other outfit, of which there were plenty operating in those parts.

The first mission features Japanese soldiers holed up in one-man machine gun bunkers, half buried in the ground and made of what appears to be concrete. This is absurd; not only would such structures quickly flood in the heavy rain, but why would they go to such lengths when fortifications just as strong or stronger could be constructed from locally abundant logs and earth? (As in the second mission.) Anyway there's a ridiculous number of the damn things set up around a small encampment and a pissant supply dump. And they would have employed two-man crews; a machine gun isn't an individual weapon.

The second mission is a good deal more authentic, in that the defensive structures are more believably constructed and more effectively laid out. Whether the Japanese ever built anything that elaborate in Burma I truly do not know; I tend to doubt it but I could be wrong.

Really I think both missions must have been influenced by reports of the fighting in the Pacific, where the Japanese did build elaborate earthworks and fortifications on some of the islands.

Even with these faults, this remains one of the most realistic missions in the game. Not, perhaps, realistic as to physical details; but realistic as to the difficulties and dangers and the general atmosphere of this sort of warfare. No silly shit about magic disguises or hijacking tanks or taking over U-boats; just stalking and killing other men in terrifying surroundings and hoping desperately that they don't kill you.

You come away from this campaign with a greater respect for the men who fought in Asia and the Pacific in that war. At least I did and I hope you do too.