[Panzer Elite] Oosterbeek: Der Hexenkessel - Mission 8

[Akranadas]

Oosterbeek: Der Hexenkessel

Allied Polish Paratrooper reinforcements have dropped across the Rhine in Driel. They are making ready to cross the river. Kampfgruppe Lehr must prevent the Commandos from linking up with the Airborne forces holed up in Oosterbeek.

[Krenshaw]

One of the things of note in this mission is to use the plane ability the Luftwaffe Tactics provides to take out the artillery across the river.

I thought the ability only took out armor, not emplacements, so I had to deal with many extra heavy arty barrages until the end of the mission when I realized a hummel had too much trouble reaching them with it's arty.

[Grov]

The hummel can take them out pretty easily, mine did anyways. I took out 1 with the airstrike, and the other with the hummel.

[Krenshaw]

My hummel got destroyed as I moved it to the beach and started firing. I think the intent was to make you do it via airstrike

[SeniorDingDong]

The Henschell airstrike works best here. When the arty fires it can be seen through the fog of war and then you can call the attack above it.

I even got a lucky 2 at once bombing. ^^

[Hirmetrium]

You will start with Luffewaft support tree mainly researched on normal. I suggest you take scorched earth, allowing you access to hummels and booby traps. Trap the beach points, make your way for hummels and when you finally get access to them, send them north to blow the artilery for your extra medal(this is mainly what you need SE for). Use your initial 4man PG squads to grab heavy weapons, then reinforcement at the infantry halftrack.

Also I suggest some flakverlings.

The river is attacked at 3 different points. The furtherest is easily forgotten, so be careful you don't ignore defending it early.

Also garrison the buildings along the beach. If commandos make it to any of them, they tend to turn into allied forward HQ's and gain MG's inside - something that will make your life hell.

Funnily enough, Wirblewinds are a great help here. Keep adding offensive veterancy bonuses, and their accuracy will increase to a deadly level. I suggest defensive bonus for everyone else, since after all the beach defenses you need to advance.

I left a single Flak88 on the road splitting right from the crossroads you defended in an earlier mission. If you garrison up some PG with G43's/MP44's around it, you can hold off all the allied attacks from the town.

Once you have blown the artilery on the top across the Rhine, send the hummels south, scout the town bit by bit and blast it. eventually you will find the town center, filled with enemy units. Blast it, then the majority will retreat out of the map and you will claim victory.

This mission is attually fairly easy on normal - just watch out for the commandos in the north, careful with your population cap, manage your men and its a surefire.

I have not played this mission on hard though :) I daresay many things change.

[Thrud]

I have played all of the way through both missions first time on expert, and only failed the 2nd+3rd caen missions.

I thought the German missions were more interesting, but easier due to the Armoured units. I thought I had lost this one when I took my eye of the ball for a sec. The bit where they make a last atempt to cross the river. Arty took out my 3 Wirblewinds, and a churchill sneaked roumnd, and I had no AT capability up there. Had to move my 2 panathers and wait for enough pop to summon 2 more. The attack just seemed to fizzle out.

Attacking the base is really easy. Just use arty and air strikes, and then stroll in.

[Susurrus]

I played this on expert and found pretty much the same thing.. I had flakvierlings (one at the entrance to the destroyed bridge, firing both ways, one mid-beach on the left side), but despite numerous fg-42'd fallschirmjagers and assault pgs, by the final assault i was getting destroyed.. I held them off just long enough for the time to run out, then had to struggle to push them back..

As for the artillery, i used a hummel, because you can't normally use the air-strike thingy on locations you can't see, whether they are firing at you or not (I think anyway?).. so i didnt even think of trying.. i just used a hummel..

Easy way of taking the town centre is to just drive the jagdpander into the town square.. I killed the AT gun by just trading shots with it, and then all the units surrendered... Was really easy level :-) Was a bit confused about Wolfgang's brother's death... Or was it Aldritch's brother? I was confused.. :S

[Teh Humungus]

I like to build an 88 on the left beach. it zaps the little boats as the sail merrily across the river. I built another one on the right side just out of range of the 25lber bombardments.


Even on expert a hummel took out (for me) a 25ber with each volley of shots. Maybe it fires more accurately if not into fog of war?

[xboxer]

Are there any enemy tanks landing on the beaches? Or from the town?

I'm not too sure if I want to build any anti armour units.

[Random Person]

There are some that come out of the town, but none from the beaches. On my last play through I think they came out of the town by the map edge near to your base

[SeniorDingDong]

I replayed the mission for fun and I found a nice way to defend the river :

There are 3 landing zones and on each zone you should put a Panzer IV in fast fire mode. It destroys a boat with one hit (!) and the Commandos never put their feet on my side :)

[Rashid]

Was a bit confused about Wolfgang's brother's death... Or was it Aldritch's brother? I was confused.. :S

Spoilers follow for anyone who hasn't completed the mission :P





If you lose a unit during your assault on the town, there will be a scripted dialog where the lieutenant informs Wolfgang (the older brother, I think it was Wolfgang), that Aldritch was in the squad/halftrack/tank that was just killed. Wolfgang curses the Tommies and puts the lieutenant in command of the mission. He then says something in German (I can try to get the text if anyone can translate) and the lieutenant instructs you to take the town ASAP.

Even if you don't lose any units, upon completing the mission you should hear "our comrades have fallen in battle" or some similar indicator that you've lost a unit (you should hear this even if you did lose a unit). I'm not sure why it does this, maybe only to have some in game justification for the final cinematic.

[Shiroman]

Spoilers follow for anyone who hasn't completed the mission :P





If you lose a unit during your assault on the town, there will be a scripted dialog where the lieutenant informs Wolfgang (the older brother, I think it was Wolfgang), that Aldritch was in the squad/halftrack/tank that was just killed. Wolfgang curses the Tommies and puts the lieutenant in command of the mission. He then says something in German (I can try to get the text if anyone can translate) and the lieutenant instructs you to take the town ASAP.


It's cool how you noticed that Aldrich can die differently.

*hint*you can also get alternate speech lines at the end of the last objective.
~M08 Designer

[Rashid]

Cool, M08's designer! I must say that this mission was a lot of fun (and cool that it somewhat persisted from the other Oosterbeek mission). What parts did you work on?

Did you mean the objective to take the Town's VP? The only speech lines I remember for that are that the Tommies are retreating, and to cut off their advance. Also when you take the VP (or win it because all the Tommies have abandoned their positions), you're notified that that town is yours. I'll see if I can get anything different to happen.

Also, would you be able to tell us what Wolfgang tells the Lieutenant in German?

[Shiroman]

Cool, M08's designer! I must say that this mission was a lot of fun (and cool that it somewhat persisted from the other Oosterbeek mission). What parts did you work on?

Did you mean the objective to take the Town's VP? The only speech lines I remember for that are that the Tommies are retreating, and to cut off their advance. Also when you take the VP (or win it because all the Tommies have abandoned their positions), you're notified that that town is yours. I'll see if I can get anything different to happen.

Also, would you be able to tell us what Wolfgang tells the Lieutenant in German?

I scripted all of M03 and M08 of the Market Garden campaign and M03, M04, M09, and M14 on the original campaign.

Taking the VP would end the mission but if you take out the AT guns and bring in heavy tanks, that will force them to surrender. You get different speech lines depending on the number of guys that surrender in Oosterbeek. It will very from "you have spared their lives" to " you have given them no mercy."(don't quote me on the exact lines)

[Dr Dave]

Completed the whole thing now and have really enjoyed the experience, will now be dipping back and forth.

This last mission was not as bad as I expected it to be and again it is heartening to note that work done on the previous mission (Mission 3) is not lost.

Was concerned when I realised I had not got much in the way of forces to start with and you have two fronts to deal with.

I did not really get all of the beach covered or all the buildings occupied so for a while the beachhead was under attack this was not helped by the 25lb Arty (3 of) pounding you. Air-strikes do take out the arty when they fire (FOW opens). Had lost a few points by the time the timer ran out and still had some commandos in my face, but was able to retake these.

In the mean time I was able to get tank-buster squads into previously upgraded buildings spaced around the town (I also got one into a slit trench just into emery territory). Generally these coped with the British attempts to break out. Did have some difficulty on the far right but this too was not impossible. Indeed, this defence managed well while I tried to sort out the beach-head!

Once the beach was sorted and I had recaptured lost points I reinforced my ring around the town, pounded emplacements with the Hummel and moved in taking all territory and points around the town square. There is AT stuff around so need some degree of caution although I think I was too cautious. I moved with tanks supported by infantry and tightened the ring garrisoning buildings as I went (as I said cautious!). After a final pounding and a butterfly drop moved in with a force of tanks (including Tiger) and PGs and they gave up!

The end sequence is good and puts a real face on what this was all about. These were real people living and dying for what they believed in and at the end questioning that belief.

Will play this mission like many of the other differently next time but just know that you can achieve the same result in many different ways. My ‘cautious’ approach is how I like to play but a more aggressive approach is good too! Just have fun!

[ZombieBunny]

Few things you can do it you are so inclined.

2 88's by the destroyed bridge can cover most of the entire river.(A goliath or target ground can clear the eastern shrubs to increase firing arcs)


Upgrade the building next to them, and you can have the luffwaffe squad who buillt them re-man them and then reinforce. (or a halftrack)

An 88 on the right shore can reach the British howitzers

If you DON'T pick up the schrecks in the first oosterbeek, your infantry can have plenty of AT weapons for when the churchill comes.

The fun thing about this mission is there are so many ways to do it

[sourav22]

how British paratrooper got Churchill's they can't drop churchill's by glider? historycally inaccurate. :puppy:

[adamsun]

Normal level.
For the right side of the riverside, set defense line at the two houses to get auto-healing. When there is no enemy cross the river, withdraw units to avoid artillery attack.

For the left side of the riverside, use barbed wires to force enemy units to attack the point close to the bridge. Enemy units that have taken the point at the right side of the riverside will attack this point too.

Use air force to destroy enemy artillery. Use mortal to destroy enemy AT.

Hope this is helpful.

[Celution]

I took those Arty out with 88's, if you place them at the far edge of the beach, they can;t attack them directly but just order them to fire in front of them on the ground xD. one shot and they are dead. :rofl:

[DrEvil....EVIL!]

There is a secret to get a StuG IV in this mission: First you have to play the first Oosterbeek mission to where the Opel truck with the Luftwaffe squad arrives. Follow the truck with some AT-units (keep an eye on it, or it will disappear) untill it stops and then destroy it. It,s wreck will be salvageable in the 2nd Oosterbeek mission and then you can use the bergetiger on it. Oddly it doesn't become an Opel truck as it used to be. It becomes a StuG IV!

[simanos]

Pretty easy mission, even on expert, but fun.
Why do the commandos from the boats give no xp though? My troops didn't get any veterancy until I went for the town.
I tried shooting the boats in the water, but no xp. Same deal if I shoot the commandos after they disembark. Oh well I guess then the best tactic is to build panthers immediately and park them on the shores to sink boats. I got 4 panthers and it was a breeze (obviously I killed off my HMG teams and some infantry and the halftracks eventually to free up pop). There's only 2 attacks from the town and they are easy to handle, though the second one has 3 enemy tanks to kill. So be ready. Usually there's no boats to deal with simultaneously.

[hybrid_trooper]

You guys have suggested that the howitzers can be taken out by using the hummel or the air strike. However my hummel does not have the range and the air strike does nothing. Can you guys help me out on this?

[blackthorne]

Did you lock down your hummel before firing?

[adamsun]

To call air support, enemy howitzers must are firing shell and are visible.
If enemy howitzers are not firing, they are invisble, you can not call air support to attach them.

[hybrid_trooper]

Well with the hummel, I didn't lock it down, so I'll try that. I remember that the howitzers became visible on the map after I defeated the raft assault, so the air strike should work then right? Btw, thanks for the help.

[blackthorne]

Thats the problem then. You need to lock it down otherwise it doesnt have the range. I believe you still need to move it close to the coast as well.

[AllRaj]

I have just played this on Normal difficulty, and I could not use air attack to knock out the British guns. The Henschell's only attack mobile targets like tanks. When I waited for the arty to open up exposing themselves I quickly selected the air strike but nothing happens, except wasting resources. Once the river crossings stop, the guns are permanently viewable for some reason.

I'll try the tank option next time, to get the medal. The tank hunter vehicle could not reach them. I even tried to use the Howitzer left on the far east side which was damaged but the PG could not fix or man it.

I found that the armoured cars were very effective in dealing with the commando's crossing the river. I parked 4 of them at the start and left them there. By the time the river crossing stops, they were all wrecked but it did the trick.