Call of Duty 2/Fortress Stalingrad

Downtown Assault
Difficulty: 8 out of 10

The last three missions in this campaign all take place over the course of one day, and is about the struggle to capture the Stalingrad City Hall. In this mission, you start in an apartment. If you are playing right after the Railroad Station No.1 mission, you start out with whatever weapons you finished that mission with. However, if you have loaded this mission from the Mission Select menu, you will have a PPsh and a TT-30 pistol. In this case, exchange a Mosin-Nagant rifle from a fallen comrade with your TT-30 as soon as possible after you go outside.

Taking cover behind the rocks and the burning car, advance toward the bombed-out apartment building on the right side of the street. Go up the stairs, and eliminate the machine-gunner at the balcony of the top floor. Now, stay up there and wait for a tank to come and shoot at the building across the street. After you are ordered to find an anti-tank weapon, move back to the burning car, then to the building that just got shot at. If the tank is pinning you down, throw a smoke grenade, but watch out for German infantry that charge at you from behind the tank's position.

Pick up the sticky bombs from the bathroom on the left. See the burning train? Enemies will constantly shoot at you from there. Trying to kill them all is useless, as they'll just keep coming for a long time. Instead, focus on the grunts that actually come to you. They're a lot more dangerous. With the bombs (and possibly a smoke grenade), approach the tank. It will back away as you do so; just stick the bombs on its tracks, like you did at the Repairing the Wire mission. Once destroyed, it will be at a position that blocks the narrow alley. Go back into the place where you found the bombs. A previously barred door will open, revealing some Germans.

You will come to a large room. The building across the street contains a lot of enemies. First, take out the MG-42 gunner behind the sandbags. Shoot as many Germans as you can from here, then either climb out or continue down the hall, where you will come to another window you can climb out of. Either way, watch out for the soldier at the far left window. He's almost impossible to kill from this building, so climb out and get inside that one. Once in the building, watch for somebody upstairs dropping a grenade (unless you've killed everyone before you climbed out).

Go upstairs, turn right, and you will come to two MG-42s. Use the one on the right. Volsky will get on the other one, and tell you to shoot at the ammo depot on the left while the other boys attack it. Before you do, though, take a moment to mow down everyone on the right side, using the fuel barrels. Then start shooting at everything that moves inside the ammo depot, being careful not to accidentally kill one of your comrades, in which case (if you haven't discovered it yet) the game will flash at you a big "You are a traitor to the Motherland!" at you. Also, a halftrack will arrive during this; try to kill all the passengers before they get out. During this attack, Lieutenant Volsky's muttering gets really intense. The things that he says shows the tragedy of war, but can be a bit funny.

When a tank comes rolling, it's time to let go of the gun and lie prone. After the tank blows a big chunk of the wall out, jump out through that hole. If you have a PPsh, there's some ammo lying around here and near the ammo depot (if you have a MP40, you know you never need to look for ammo). You will be ordered to destroy the tank. From here, the mission is up to you. There will be a few waves of enemies coming at you, and there is an enemy that will keep damaging you up on the balcony behind the area. You have to out-smart the tank's AI here, as the tank will keep running from you, while destroying the walls that protect you. If you let this go on too long, you'll hardly have anywhere to hide. The easiest way to stick the bomb on the tank is to follow it around, circle around the other way once it starts running away, and cut across the middle of the clearing when it's near a corner. Once you stick the bomb, get as far away as you can from it without getting mowed down by the tank's machine gun. A good hiding spot is the broken wall behind the ammo depot. After the tank blows up, follow your comrades into the apartments and out onto the next mission.

Stalingrad City Hall
Difficulty: 1 out of 10

This mission picks up right after the previous. Notice that a sniper has joined your squad--you'll probably be using his gun in this mission. Walk out into the enclosed area. A German will climb over the low wall, and you know what to do. After killing everyone you see on the other side of the wall, climb over. Enemies will come out from behind the wasted truck; use the structures littered here as cover. By this time, the sniper would probably be dead if you took too long killing these enemies. Pick up his Scoped Mosin-Nagant and take cover behind the truck. There are lots of enemies in this wide street, and the sniper rifle comes in handy (if the guy is still alive, your default rifle should work well still). If this is your first time (which probably means you're new to the shooter genre), here are the instructions: Right-click to look in the scope, and hold down the melee attack button (on the PC, default is the shift key) to hold your breath. Steady your aim, and fire. Repeat as necessary.



After you have dispatched the waves of enemies, walk down this street and turn right. Immediately Germans will start shooting at you. Take cover behind anything you can find (even the low walls) and take them out one by one, leaving the MG-42 gunner for last (he can't shoot at you if you stay on the right side anyway). Go past the MG-42. Notice the train car on the right side. Lest the two Nazis behind that backstab you, go and dispatch them. Now go on to the street, and fight the enemies that advance toward you, taking cover behind the crater or rocks. Advance, but when you get to the MG-42, either throw a smoke grenade or take cover behind the overturned car and try to shoot the gunner. After that threat is gone, look for a PPS42 dropped by your comrades, since you keep your same weapons in the mission after this one. Plant the charge on the door, and once it blows, go on to the next mission.

Comrade Sniper
Difficulty: 5 out of 10

The first thing to do in the last Russian mission is to move out of the short hall that you are in, lest anyone gets the idea to chuck grenades. Enemies will appear from the other side of the room you come out to, and you can dispatch them with your PPS42 (hopefully, you didn't restart the mission). After clearing out the whole floor, jump downstairs, where your comrades will be. Now, a guy will get sniped, and you will be ordered to pick up the sniper rifle leaning on the wall. Next, the Lieutenant will call out the position of the lone sniper (different every time, but in the form of "Red/gray building, xth floor!"), whom you should (naturally) snipe.



Now, don't leave your sniper rifle. Instead, take it instead of whatever rifle you were previously using and climb up and over the broken wall. You can attack the last part of City Hall either downstairs first or upstairs first--the AI will know to flank you no matter what. After you have cleared the whole building comes the order to defend the Hall against a ridiculous torrent of Germans. If you stay downstairs for this defense, you'll have to deal with that ridiculous torrent of enemies climbing inside from every single window; if you stay up, you get to snipe at everyone. Usually, this approach is more fun. Volsky will call out positions of MG-42 gunners in both the two faraway buildings and on the ground (should you run out of ammo, there's a scoped Kar98k rifle upstairs). Also, when he orders you to take out the halftrack, use the Panzerschreck rocket launcher in the central room. Two shots will do the trick. When the waves of enemies begin retreating, you have completed the Russian Campaign. On with the British!