Villers-Bocage: Birth of a Legend

Villers-Bocage: Birth of a Legend is the first mission of the Tiger Ace campaign of the Tales of Valor DLC.

Hauptmann and his Tiger Crew — Hauptmann Voss along with his Tiger Tank Crew

Mission Description[]

Tank Commander Hauptmann Maximillian Voss and Gunner Feldwebel Joseph Shultz ambush an unsuspecting British convoy from the famed Desert Rats!

Mission Objectives[]

Primary Objectives[]

Stop the Convoy
Destroy the enemy panzer units
Destroy the Sherman Firefly tanks

Medal Objectives[]

Destroy four anti-tank guns

Characters[]

Maximillian Voss and his well-trained crew (Shultz, Litzke, Berndt, and Schroif) first see action in the eastern front, against Soviet T-34 tanks. Now redeployed to the western front, their mission is to repel the Allies force by engaging the British 7th Armoured Division. As they join the battle of Viller-Bocage, however, their Tiger tank experiences engine trouble.

Player characters
Role	Name	Rank	Notes
Tank commander	Maximillian Voss	Hauptmann	Later promoted to Major General in Operation Market Garden
Gunner	Joseph Shultz	Feldwebel	Later becomes a tank commander fighting in the battle of the Falaise pocket and is killed in action
Loader	Alfred Litzke	Schütze
Radio operator	Dieter Berndt	Schütze
Driver	Arno Schroif	Oberschütze

Tiger Tank "205"[]

Hauptmann Tiger approaching Villers Bocage — The Tiger Tank "205" approaching Villers-Bocage

You have a single Tiger Tank "205" to command. Your task is to cripple the British 7th Armoured Division, famously known as the Desert Rats. You can take control of the tank's turret via the Direct Fire ability.

Destroying armed units yields experience points. Accumulating experience awards you with command points. Use the command points to upgrade the tank. Some of the upgrades enable you to repair the Tiger (requires the hull MG upgrade), deploy smoke screens, and fire the S-mine launcher. These actions consume munition points. You gain munition points by destroying enemy units, including unarmed convoys. The tank also receives a number of free upgrades. The first allows the tank command to open the hatch and spot targets. The seconds highlights off-screen threats.

One of the tank's upgrades enables you to switch between high explosive rounds and armor-piercing rounds. Because of a glitch, however, this ability might not work. The root cause of this glitch is in the Graphics settings. The following graphics settings are glitch-free. You must restart the game after applying them.

Setting (left)	Value	Setting (right)	Value
Shader Quality	Ultra	Physics	High
Model Quality	High	Tree Quality	Medium
Antialiasing	8x	Terrain Detail	Medium
Texture Detail	Ultra	Effects Fidelity	Ultra
Shadows	Medium	Effects Density	High
Reflections	High	Rain Detail	High
Post Processing	On	Object Scarring	On
Building Detail	High	Model Detail	5/9

Walkthrough[]

The mission begins with the Tiger opening fire on a British Staghound Armoured Car, which attempts to flee warn the others. Move up to the road, destroying the Staghound and convoys on the road. At this time, the Tiger tank suffers an engine failure and stalls out. Repel the incoming British attack while Schroif repairs the tank. When the Tiger tank can move again, continue to destroy incoming enemies. Once you're done with the initial wave of the enemies, you'll be tasked to drive the 7th British Armored Division out of Villers-Bocage.

There will be two areas highlighted on the map indicating British armor in that area. The bonus objectives is to seek out and destroy all four anti-tank guns. At this stage, the Tiger tank will receive a free upgrade, allowing Voss to open his hatch, significantly increasing the tank's visual and firing ranges.

Tiger knock out a Cromwell Tank — A Cromwell Tank being ambushed and destroyed by the Tiger tank

Hauptmann's Tiger ambush a Staghound — The Tiger crashes through a wall to attack a Staghound Armored Car

As you continue to hunt down the British armored force, the Tiger breaks down for the second time. British Cromwell Tanks will attempt to take advantage of the situation. Keep the smoke canisters ready for this situation. Once the tank stalled out, deploy a smoke screen and use the Direct Fire ability to counter the incoming British onslaught. You should have completed the bonus objective by this time. If not, you only have a small window to do so.

After destroying most of the armored targets, British Sherman Firefly tanks enter Villers-Bocage. Destroying them effectively cripples the British 7th Armored Division. After that, driving the tank into the northern portion of the map ends the mission.

In the closing cutscene, Litztke reports a kill count of 38, 39, or 40 (chosen randomly), even though your actual kill count could be in excess of 80+.

Aftermath[]

Tiger hit by a 17 pounder — The Tiger tank is struck by a British 17-pounder anti-tank shell and immobilized

With Villers-Bocage cleared of the enemy armor, Voss orders a return to point 213. A British 17-pounder anti-tank gun, however, ambushes the Tiger tank, which loses on of its threads and is immobilized. Although an overeager Shultz is to determined to fight in the immobilized tank, Voss overrules him, commanding the tank crew to abandon the tank, grabbing weapons, munitions, and med packs in the process.

Mission notes[]

On Expert difficulty level, self repair is disabled to increase challenge, but the line from Voss "time to start field repairs" remains unchanged.

Historic precedence[]

This scenario is based on the real-world Battle of Villers-Bocage on June 13, 1944, in which the German tank expert Michael Wittmann destroyed the 22nd Armoured Brigade of the British 7th Armoured Division (nicknamed "Desert Rats”). Wittmann destroyed 14 tanks, 15 personnel carriers, and two anti-tank guns within 15 minutes before the losing of his tank. Unlike Voss, however, Wittmann was killed in action on August 8, 1994. After the war, he became a cult figure for his accomplishments as a "panzer ace."