Mortain Counterattack

Mortain Counterattack is the thirteenth mission in the invasion of normandy campaign of Company of Heroes.

Mission Description

Having survived the night and stalled the Panzer Division's initial attack. Able Company braces for a stiff counterattack on Hill 317

Mission Objectives

Primary Objectives

1. Capture and hold 3 Victory Points

Able's orders are to push the Panzer formations out of Mortain. Capture and hold the Victory Points surrounding Hill 317 to secure Mortain

Secondary Objectives

1. Destroy Flak 88 batteries

The Axis have set up a number of 88 batteries. Destroy them all.

Medal Objectives

1. Win with more than 250 points

The Allies Victory Points cannot fall below 250 to earn a decisive victory

Walkthrough

Dawn has arrived, after a short cutscene showing P-47s strafing a battery of 88mm Flak 36 AT/AA (which the germans will simply re-man as you learn later), the mission starts.

Important note: this is the first mission that allows you to choose which company to use, I recommend remaining with the infantry company due to gaining the howitzer barrage which in my opinion is the most effective support power there is for this mission.

First off, it's a new gamemode, rather than simply defend you now have to take and hold a series of victory points to win, you start off with one point already at the top of the hill, now you just have to secure 2 more for an advantage.

You now have reinforcements! An M4 Sherman, M4 'Crocodile' Sherman, M10 Tank Destroyer and a rifleman squad have joined you, unfortunately however, considering that the germans have now established Flak 88s positions around the map, your armor reinforcements will do little else except overeat your population capacity (which remains the same) and make reinforcement impossible.

Important note: The Flak 88 battery aren't the only Flak 88s around, 1 more is emplaced at the end of the road on the eastern edge of the map, the other is in-between the fuel and ammo point directly north of the hill, both are easily within range of your howitzer if it still exists.

The main way to alleviate this issue is to sacrifice all your vehicles in a headlong charge against the Flak 88s, this can work if you also choose the infantry company and use the howitzer barrage to take out the Flak battery.

At the same time, assuming your forces on the hill did not take too much damage last mission, you should continue to hold them in place, mortars and vehicles are now a much bigger concern though, build a few Machine Gun Emplacements in case your HMG teams have difficulty surviving.

Important note: There are a german bases at the extreme Eastern and Northern ends of the map, this is where most of the german forces come from, destroying them will help greatly although be warned, the entire area is littered with mines and AT guns.

While this is happening, take what spare infantry squads you have move out to secure the points, lock them down with mines and a HMG team to hold off any attacks until you can reinforce them, if you still have your M2 105mm Howitzer then use it liberally to keep your points secure and fend off German attacks. The initial german attacks will bite the hardest though once you survive them the rest will primarily be stragglers that can be mopped up easily.

Completing the secondary objective seems simple although the germans have apprently learned from the previous mission, so they've managed to base their Flak 88s just outside the range of your 105mm howitzer.

Completing the medal objective requries you to move fast, generally speaking the 2 points you should focus on defending are the hilltop (obviously) and the abbey to equalize, take one at the bottom of the hill and hold there, while it is possibly to take all four, you need to be careful of spreading yourself thin.

Trivia

The difficulty of this mission is factaully variable, determined by the last one. It is similar to Mission 4 "Carentan Counterattack" in that a default loadup and territory will be granted unless played sequentially from the last mission. However, only this time the 'default loadup' might be more advantageous for players who barely made it through the last level.
German forces in this level are finite, as they are based out of the 2 seperate bases instead of being respawned by script. So if both German bases are destroyed, attacks will gradually come to a halt, and in the end an American-only battlefield is possible. At the beginning of the mission, it is relatively easy to destroy the 2 german HQs with available forces with "rush" tactic.
The entrances to both German bases are protected by low-density minefields.
While all the German units are marked as elements of the 7th Army Regiment, notificaitons for destroying the bases at the Northern and Eastern ends of the map will report 2nd or 3rd Panzer Division bases been destroyed respectively.