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Single Player Campaign Guide

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Introduction
The goal of this guide is to help you with playing through the single player campaign. Additionally, this guide will help you to unlock all the medals and ribbons for the campaign. We at COH2.ORG advise you to make two runs. To obtain all the ribbons in the fewest playthroughs possible, play the campaign on General difficulty first. This will grant mission completion medals for the General, Conscript, and Captain difficulties, and you will probably pick up a few easily achieved ribbons along the way. Take the first playthrough as an opportunity to enjoy the campaign, with the intention to replay missions later to complete the remaining achievements.

For the second run, select the Conscript difficulty for each mission where you still have to unlock a few ribbons to make it way easier to obtain them. Note that you will have to turn up the difficulty to General to complete some achievements!

General notes about the campaign
Order 227

In most missions in the campaign, you will have the option to call in infantry squads for free. Initially, you receive Conscript squads. As you gain experience during the mission, these will be replaced by Frontoviki squads that can be upgraded with PPSh submachine guns. Finally, you will be able to call in Penal Battalions that come equipped with better rifles, can throw explosive satchel charges, and may be upgraded with flamethrowers.

The free squads you receive all have the Merge ability. Use this ability to reinforce weapon crews, veteran infantry squads, and expensive-to-reinforce squads like Guards Rifle Infantry and Shock Troopers. This will allow you to conserve manpower and to keep your fighting units at the front lines, instead of retreating them to base to reinforce. As you advance further into the map, the spawn points of the free squads will move closer to the front.

When you use the ability to dispatch these squads a message will appear on the screen, "Order 227 enacted! Commissar dispatched to HQ!" This Commissar will execute any infantry squads that are retreated for the next 60 seconds.


Population Cap and Transfer Orders

You may find yourself, at certain points of the campaign, unable to build more units or reinforce squads because you have reached your population cap. Use Transfer Orders to remove any unit from your army. This is useful, for example, if you have built or captured an immobile howitzer that can no longer reach the front lines. Use Transfer Orders on the howitzer to retreat the crew and free some population cap.
Missions
m.01 Stalingrad Rail Station
The first mission is all about retaking Stalingrad. Losses will be high. Use your Shock Troops wisely and try to keep them alive. Grenades, smoke, and flanking should aid you in completing this mission. Good luck, commander!

M.01 - German Engineering
Kill a German tank with a German AT Gun
Killing the German tank is one of the primary objectives of the mission, so you'll be getting this medal no matter what. The AT Gun is located in the middle of the map on a small ridge. Recrew it with your soldiers and turn it to shoot the Panzer IV down.

M.01 - Compassion in War
Rescue the trapped civilians
For this achievement you have to kill all the German troops surrounding the house on the left. Send a few Shock Troops and clear the area and you'll receive the ribbon.



M.01 - Soviet Zeal
Complete Mission 01 without calling in additional Shock Troops
This is a hard ribbon to obtain. Replay this mission on an easy difficulty setting to save yourself the headache of losing all your squads halfway through. The key is not to lose any squads. Find the safest paths, use cover, use grenades and use smoke grenades constantly to avoid damage. Troops will not fire at enemies that they cannot see, so use smoke to block line of sight wherever possible. Grenades cause damage to friendly units, also, so be careful of the positioning of your units when you throw them. Remember that munitions are unlimited in this mission!
m.02 Scorched Earth
Your next mission is to defend Moscow's outskirts. This is a vanguard mission where you have to delay the opponent as long as possible. Try to earn some veterancy early on and protect your Engineers with your other troops. And beware of the air strikes!

M.02 - What's Mine is Mine
Defend the train-yard without placing any mines on the roads
As the description says, don't plant any mines. You can win on any difficulty by holding to the HQ with MGs (steal them from the Germans in north by flanking them or using smoke grenade before the final assault begins), your ordinary infantry, and the healing upgrade available at the HQ.

M.02 - Invaluable Resources
Keep the Shock Troops alive throughout Mission 2
Keep them alive by merging conscripts with them constantly and using them carefully. Later on you can get healing at your HQ and reinforce them there so you can actually use them in combat as shock troops.
m.03 Support is on the way
Even though you have effectively stalled the enemy in the last mission, the Germans still have the advantage. They'll throw everything at you they've got. Make sure to grab every piece of equipment you can find once you fall back to the river line. You'll truly need a sturdy defense capable of holding back the Ostheer. Use mines, explosives and whatever else you got, because you'll need it. Once you've held back the attack, simply push forward with everything you've got and reclaim the high ground.

Lay barbed wire to limit the movement of infantry. Mines are also effective at slowing the enemy advance. Use the Barrage ability on the mortars you capture to destroy the ice on the river and limit the number of approaches available to the enemy. Watch out for enemy infantry attacking with grenades. If you see "Firing Rifle Grenade" appear over an enemy squad or a timer suddenly appear in the midst of your units, move your infantry to safety!

To make the attack on the ridge, you will be provided with several T-34 tanks. Use them in conjunction with your infantry for maximum effectiveness. If you are in danger of losing a T-34 you can use the "Soviet War Machine" ability, which will replace tanks that are destroyed while active.

M.03 - Something Borrowed
Capture at least 3 enemy weapons on the Ridge
The Germans will send in various weapons to try and break your position. Kill the crews and take the weapons behind your own lines to use them against your enemy.

M.03 - Mtsensk Mine Field
Place at least 10 mines before the village defense
The Germans will attack from all directions using all 3 river crossings. Place the mines on the middle of the roads for maximum mayhem.

M.03 - Hardened Armor
Re-take the Ridge without losing a vehicle on General difficulty
There are some German vehicles and Anti-Tank units out there so be careful with your tanks. If you're afraid of losing them, keep them at the back. Infantry and support weapons are able to break the German position even without tank support. Focus on one side first. Kill the machine guns and then overrun the position with your infantry. Once you have captured one point, you can steal the howitzers there and use them to soften the other point before attacking.
m.04 The Miraculous Winter
Finally a mission where you can grab the momentum and push forward. But there's a new threat: blizzards. Preventing your troops from freezing to death (besides dying to enemy fire) will be the key to winning this mission. Use campfires and half-tracks if needed and scout with your snipers. Units will warm themselves in buildings, near fire pits, and inside half-tracks. Units that are in yellow or green cover will not lose warmth.

M.04 - Revenge
Destroy all 10 tanks in Mission 4
Use your Guards and upgrade them with anti-tank weapons to easily kill them. Use attack move to target the tanks and destroy them. You can also use halftracks to get around the map faster.








M.04 - Cool Efficiency
Take all three German outposts in Mission 4 using only snipers
To obtain this ribbon you can't use anything else than snipers to capture the points. However, you can use your infantry to fight and to kill the enemy. Use cover and use hit-and-run tactics to keep your snipers alive. Don't forget to reinforce them at a half-track when they lose one man.
m.05 Stalingrad
It's time to reclaim the rest of Stalingrad for Mother Russia! You will start with a small amount of troops and a Halftrack. Garrison the Halftrack with flamethrower-equipped combat engineers and/or Shock Troops and make your push. Repair the Halftrack if needed and take any MG or AT-gun you need from the Germans.

M.05 - Some Room to Breathe
Locate and destroy the enemy howitzers in Stalingrad
The Howitzers are separated from each other. Check the screenshots for their exact location:




M.05 - Help from the North
Secure the Northern bridge in Stalingrad
Kill all the enemies guarding the strategy point and capture it afterwards. See the screenshot if you're not sure what point you have to capture.



M.05 - The Silent Organs
Complete Mission 5 without firing the Katyusha rockets
Don't fire any Katyusha barrage at all during the game and you'll be awarded the ribbon once you finished the mission. If you are going for this medal, consider purposely losing your Katyushas in order to free up population cap for more units.
m.06 Stalingrad Aftermath
This mission is all about saving your captain, Lev Abramovich from death. You will be forced to push out and secure a forward HQ. After that, your positions will be assaulted by many German troops and Tanks. Be prepared, and obtain plenty of anti-tank weapons and machine guns.

M.06 - Scout vs. Sniper
Kill at least 3 snipers with an M3A1 Scout Car
This is not just for a ribbon, it's actually one of the most effective ways of clearing the map. Put an Engineer squad with a flamethrower or Shock Troops in the M3A1 and hunt down the enemy snipers.

M.06 - Repel and Repair
Complete the mission with at least 50 percent HQ integrity on General difficulty
Defend your HQ at all costs. Make sure you have a strong line of AT, machine guns, and mortars to stop the enemy. Also, don't forget to repair your HQ if needed.

M.06 - Get Out of the Truck!
Destroy all the German halftracks
There are multiple half-tracks patrolling the area. Hunt them down with AT Guns or other AT units and kill them all. There are 5 half-tracks to kill in total before the liberation. The achievement unlocks at the liberation, not when all the half-tracks are killed.







The half-tracks will move around a bit, but these are the general locations where you can find them.
m.07 The Land Bridge to Leningrad
You might already have played this map before in the per-release builds, so you know the drill. Crossing the ice will result in heavy casualties, but once you've established your HQ on the opposite side of the river, you're good to go and break the siege of Leningrad and free its citizens. During the initial river crossing, throw smoke grenades with your Shock Troops to block the line of sight of any machine guns and give yourself the space to mop up the infantry and mortars without being suppressed.

M.07 - Suchka Specialist

Earn three ranks of veterancy with an SU-76
Simply try to kill as much as possible without losing it. Repair the SU-76 if necessary and keep it behind other troops and use the barrage ability as much as possible.

M.07 - Point Blank Demolition
Destroy the German strongholds from close range on General difficulty
It's not clear how close you exactly have to be, but just get really close and only then destroy the strongholds.

M.07 - Direct Fire
Complete the mission without capturing or deploying a Mortar
Simply don't get any mortars. You'd better not get them anyway, since if you use them to destroy the German strongholds you might not get the Point Blank Demolition ribbon as well.
m.08 Panzer Hunting
Quite an orthodox mission compared to the others. This mission is all about killing the German Tiger Tank and, trust me, it's hard. You'll need to find all the AT-guns available on the map and make sure you don't lose your squads to the Tiger. Hide your troops from the Tiger until you are ready to engage. Man AT-guns with conscripts and try to maneuver so that you are firing at the Tiger's rear armor. Attack the Tiger with Guards to lure the Tiger over demolition charges and mines and into your AT-gun's arc of fire. After you have inflicted enough damage, the Tiger will deploy a smoke screen and flee to the north. Follow it, and finish it off.

After you have destroyed the Tiger you have to re-crew and repair it and get it back to your Russian base. Form a column and defend the Tiger with your other units.

M.08 - No Help Needed
Complete the “Hunt” without calling in any additional troops
Well this is tricky on high difficulty and probably one of the few missions reducing the difficulty is actually helping a lot. On easy difficulty it's actually doable in 10 minutes total since the Tiger is much weaker, there are more AT weapons, and resources. On General difficulty you'll almost certainly need to call in additional troops.




Try to find the AT Guns and use them to shoot the Tiger from behind if possible. Use AT grenade and demolition charges to do additional damage. A good tactic is to put a squad in a strong house to soak up damage while the rest does the damage and tries to kill the Tiger. Try to not lose full squads. After you have killed the Tiger you get a half-track and a base, finally allowing you to reinforce your wounded squads.
m.09 Radio Silence
The Germans are well prepared for your assault in this mission, and if you're not careful, they'll even be as bold as to attack your HQ while you're attacking them somewhere else. Plenty of armour supported by mortars and other ranged units should do the trick for you.

M.09 - All on Your Own
Complete Mission 9 without reestablishing radio communication
Don't capture the radio point on the right side of the map (one of the secondary objectives) and you'll be awarded with this ribbon once you complete the mission.

M.09 - The Spice of Life
Create all available types of tank in Mission 9
This means you have to build both the Tankoviy Battalion Command and the Mechanized Armor Kampaneya buildings in your base and get every single tank possible: T70, T34, SU-76 and SU-85. You will get this ribbon at the end of the mission, not when you build the last tank.
m.10 Lublin
Fighting in an urban area with lots of narrow streets and alleys will pose a new challenge for you. Armour is the most effective answer, but the Germans will have some nifty anti-tank units ready for you, so be careful!

M.10 - Glass Cannons
Destroy an Elefant or all Pak-43s before they destroy a vehicle
I would advise to go for the Paks, and not the Elefant. Below are the Paks locations, kill them with infantry and support weapons. You could use T70s since the accuracy of the Pak is quite low, but be careful not to lose one.





Here is the Elefant location.



M.10 - Gate Crusher
Breach the gate without losing an ISU-152 on General difficulty
Defend your ISU-152 with other tanks and infantry. Keep them at the back and use them as a support gun and take the gate down.

M.10 - Zero-Risk Market
Capture the Lublin market squad without losing a soldier or vehicle
This one is quite tricky since losing just a single soldier means you already lost the ribbon. Use vehicles and tanks only to clear the square and you should be able to capture it afterwards without taking any losses. This is possible on General difficulty but you might want to do it on Captain or Conscript if you're struggling with it.
m.11 Behind Enemy Lines
You won't be controlling the Red Army, but the Polish resistance this time. It's all about your sniper micro and how you use them. Move them from cover to cover so you can always keep them cloaked. Use one Sniper as a bait to lure the German squads, then annihilate them with your other Snipers and move forward. If you retreat your squads back to the starting area, you can reinforce them.

M.11 - Snipe the driver
Snipe the driver of a moving Opel truck
Shoot with your snipers at the truck. After a few hits, the driver will be killed and you'll be awarded the ribbon.



M.11 - Armia Krajowa

Mobilize all three types of partisan troops during the fight
Towards the end of the mission, after you freed the POW camp, you'll be able to call in partisan squads to aid you in completing the mission. Simply call in one squad of every type: sniper, anti-infantry, anti-vehicle.
m.12 Poznan Citadel
The fortress of Poznan is one of the last remaining obstacles before the Red Army can move on to German soil, and it's called a fortress for a reason. You'll need all the heavy tanks you can get and crush their defense. Keep your ISU-152s alive since they will be your key to victory.

M.12 - Howitzer Hunter

Destroy all of the German Howitzers in the city of Poznan
Below are the locations of the German Howitsers. All the howitzers are located in the first part of the city and are surrounded by MGs and anti-tank guns. Steal some of them if you clear the place with infantry; they might be useful later on.





M.12 - Solo Commander
Capture both squares in Poznan before Colonel-General Kolpakchi's army does
Colonel-General Kolpakchi's troops will fight alongside yours, but since you're obviously the better commander this shouldn't be too hard for you. This might actually be easier in higher difficulty because the allies will play worse and you'll have to do everything by yourself.

M.12 - To the Rescue

Find and rescue the Penal Battalions incarcerated in the city of Poznan
Don't destroy the outposts with your ISU-152's, but try to clear them with infantry so the Penal Battalions will be freed. Keep in mind that you have to be faster than your ally or you won't get the Solo Commander ribbon.
m.13 Halbe
The first time you are fighting on German soil! Your objective is to surround the German town of Halbe and kill all the troops that try to escape. Their only way out is right trough your troops, and they'll try it en masse. So make sure all your MGs and AT-gun are in position before you close the encirclement.

M.13 - The Might of the Red Army
Complete the Halbe encirclement without producing any additional units
You can do anything but producing new units for this ribbon. Keep your squads and tanks alive and reinforce/repair them at your base. Most importantly, take as many of the MGs, Mortars and AT guns as possible from the enemy because if you want to complete this mission on General difficulty and get both ribbon in the same run, you'll definitly need it.

M.13 - Halbe Massacre
Allow no Germans to escape the encirclement
Gather all your troops and split them over both sides. Don't capture the last point until you're in perfect position to counter them. The Germans will throw a lot of stuff against you on General difficulty so make sure you brought all the decrewed MGs and AT guns you could find. There might be some squads who will try to sneak past by the sides; don't let them get away!
m.14 The Reichstag
Your final mission to end the war. Tear down the Reichstag and claim victory for Mother Russia, but first, you'll have to deal with some Tigers.

M.14 - Before the Winter
Achieve victory in 60 minutes or less.
60 minutes should be more than enough to complete this mission, even on General difficulty, so don't rush anything and don't lose squads unnecessarily.

M.14 - Boots in the Streets
Complete the mission without building any additional vehicles
Try to keep all your tanks alive and repair them if needed. If you capture the tanks from below, you should have plenty of firepower to finish the mission without building any additional tanks.

M.14 - Claimed for the Motherland
Recrew the abandoned StuG, Brummbär and Ostwind
The locations of the tanks can be found on the screenshots below, they will be hard to find and are well defended, so be prepared. Repair them after you have captured them and use them to crush the enemy.



Conclusion
After finishing the last mission you should be awarded with the medals for finishing the campaign. We hope that with the help of this guide you also managed to obtain all the ribbons available in the campaign. If you're still struggling with a mission or a ribbon just feel free to post below and ask for advice and help!
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