FINAL COUNTDWON TIPs ( Battle of Tali-Ihantala challenge mode)

[omarzkie]

For me, this challenge mode in the Finland campaign of Winter Storm DLC is the most difficult to achieve victory. All you have to do is to survive waves of waves of Russian Infantry / Tank assault. Doing this in easy/normal is challenging but doable. In challenge mode, its a different scenario because the spawn time of the waves of soviet assault is halved ( probably at least 40 seconds ). You will get overwhelmed by sheer number of Tanks and Infantry ( soviet infantry will surely out scouted you). I couldn't find a decent guide for this challenge mode. Even YouTube videos doesn't show any tips. Luckily I read a guide from true achievements (xbox) for this mission ( Thanks a lot who posted it). I followed the guide. It took me 2 tries and it works. Probably you need some sure luck and your veteran skills on this. 

 

I used the Armor doctrine for this. Keeping my tanks, AT guns and Artillery alive with sandbags deployed is very crucial. Infantry units is also important for scouting ( revive injured with medics). 

- On your first LEFT defensive line, units form the left move them to the forest below the map ( just above the muddy swamp with 2 abandoned tanks and several trees above). Put infantry units on front in prone position and defensive fire mode. AT guns and sandbag deployed tanks at the back of the infantry. At the back is your long range artillery / self propelled tanks for fire support and repair/supply trucks. On your right flank, move all your units on the lower right map. Make a defensive line over there just like the left flank I mentioned.  Now we have two positions to defend. It needs a bit of luck if the enemy will not attack on the center. 

- When the game tells to fall back to the second defensive line, place your second line units to reinforce the defensive positions above. Immediately, move all your AA tanks to the left to defend against air strikes ( all four AA tanks can take out that annoying aircraft quickly)   I have lasted 40 mins defending until my units ran out of ammo.

- If you are overrun , quickly make a defensive line on the final defense positions ( both left and right). The enemy will not attack at the center. Hopefully you can hold off the remaining assaults about a few minutes left. 

- If things are not according to plan, restart the challenge.