[Pyros]

Hi Remco,

If you decisively lose this secondary mission you won't be able to play the primary mission and you will be redirected to the after-primary link where you will get the same replacement points as if you have played the primary.
Why this happens?
The answer is simple.
If someone lose the secondary with a Decisive Loss then either his performance was terrible (which means that he lost many of his units) or he did this on purpose in order to lose very few of his unit (simply never engaged in the combat; he won't score anything for the primary). Either way he shouldn't be allowed to proceed to the primary with such a performance (better thing to replay the mission).

Concerning the artillery:

I had 3 choices:

1. make use of half ammo NVA mortars which will give to AI side the ability to inflict many casualties on player's army, which is a bad thing...(he will have to play the primary mission without taking replacements).

2. make use of NVA mortars with 8-10 ammo which gives to the AI 2-3 shots against the player (still will inflict him at least 10-15 casualties)

3. make use of what I did. The ammo capacity of the mortars is 5 ammo which are spent on turn 0 (suppose that the NVA try to demolish the bridge...in order to prevent the US advance). In reality the mortars will have for the rest of the game a 0/5 ammo. But from turn 20 next to each mortar (6 entrenched NVA mortars) an ammo depot will arrived as reinforcement (which means that the ammo from 0/5 will be from now on 5/5).
What this means?
From turn21 (if the player hasn't already destroyed the mortars) there will be 6 NVA mortars that will attack the player (up to the end of the game). And believe me this is a very big firepower. The logic of this technique is to force the player to take out/disable the mortars and the ammo depots. For this task he will have 20 turns wich give him a primary objective. This also will force him to make decisions concerning the allocation of his support assets (he must divide them).

The objectives on this mission are:
A. move quickly through UPPER corridor one in order to avoid being caught in VC ambushes (VC units are coming from the north direction south)
B. The force from the UPPER corridor should encircle the NVA camp, assist to the destruction of the NVA mortars and taking positions for the NVA counter-attack at turn 30 from 2 directions W & NW
C. The other task group (LOWER CORRIDOR) will have 3 objectives:
C1. move to the village and establish a line of defense along the river in order to reppel the NVA Co that is coming after this task force (first elements of it should attack the village at turn15).
C2. elements (scouts) of the lower task force should engage (faster approach)the NVA camp and start the destruction of the mortars
C3. elements of the lower task force will have to create strong points in order to defend against the VC units that will come out from their hiding pits from inside the VC village (turn 15-). The player will be able to see this hiding pits from turn7 but the VC will arrive on the from turn 12-15 at a probability 10%. In the first design these VC units came into the game as passengers inside the hiding pits with an entry point of 7 and probability of 10%. But this method created a BUG with the displayed kills of the HQ, so I had to bring (as reinforcements) separately the pits and the VC units (the pits are there to alarm the player).

NOTE: The player may destroy the mortars/ammo depot without engaging them with infantry; only with the use of artillery but this will not grant him a decisive victory because he will not contest the VP locations.
NOTE: The player should try to avoid casualties as this is the secondary mission and he will also have to play the primary without any replacements.
NOTE: A decisive loss in the primary will give a bonus mission to the player with extra replacements; while on the other hand a decisive victory on the primary mission will force the player to play a penalty mission (ambush) with no additional replacement points.
NOTE: The AUX SV allies are the "meat" for the player since these units should be used as the "bullet eaters".

cheers,
Pyros