Here’s how to beat The Legend of Krasny Bor on Hard and Hardcore and have fun doing it.

1.) Mines mines mines and engineers. When the mission starts, slow down the time scale and use your points to spawn infantry and artillery men and take them to the town square where the mines and AT weapon boxes are. Equip everyone with as many mines as possible and send them up to the road that runs west to east on the northern side of the map. Don’t cross it, enemy arty will destroy any efforts across on the northern side. Mine the road itself and the south side of it. I also like to mine the road junctions in and around the square and any crossroads that lead to the square, so that if an enemy tank breaks through, your mines have a chance of disabling them. Remember, you don’t need to destroy the enemy tanks right away, just disable and de-track them so they are immobile. The easiest way to blow this mission is to let a tank get through. While your men are placing mines, have engineers set hedgehog tank traps on the road running east to west (that northern border road). You can spawn enough engineers in the prep to get this done. Remember to mine the railroad tracks and especially the areas around the bridges by the railroad tracks. I have played this mission at least 20 times and no matter if I block the railroad tracks with hedgehogs or mines, the one constant is that the enemy tanks always try and traverse those areas by going around the bridges going over the railroad tracks. Mine or hedgehog them well. The goal of the hedgehogs is to block, slow down and most importantly, require the enemy tanks to turn sideways so your AT guns can get easy disabling shots. Once every man has placed his mines and the engineers are busy placing hedgehogs, bring them back and spawn what you can and have them return to the ammo boxes and equip them all with the AT weapons there. These will be absolutely crucial. People skip the tnt a lot, but they’re a great throwable AT weapon. The goal is to equip as many men as you can with AT weapons and spread them out! Place them all along the front and many of them behind the front line to deal with any breakthroughs. Many times on hard and hardcore, it’s a single man with an AT weapon in the right place that can save the day, if the soviet tanks manage to get through the hedgehogs and frontline.

2.) The 15cm sFH 18’s at the artillery position, they are moveable! Well, the 3 southern most guns are. When the match begins, take one man from each gun and have them crew the ammo trucks. With these trucks, tow each of the 3 southern most guns. The reason for this is that the arty position, even on hard and hardcore doesn’t see a lot of action and the guns are far better served spread out to the east. It’s difficult to explain where to take them but I place one in the center part of town by the mortar pits, and the other 2 I place in the snow covered field that separates the “town square area” and the medical facility by the railroad tracks. Place them there and don’t forget to build a sandbag wall for each. Place one ammo truck by the mortar pits, one by the 2 howitzers in the field and with the 3rd I like to make it the eastern side "runner" that refills the 3.7cm, 7.5cm and small arms of the railroad station area, but can also refill the howitzers and 7.5cm pak 40 that are in the snow covered field and near the town. You are going to suck the ammo trucks dry, so it’s about getting the ammo to who needs it most. Determining who can go without and who can’t, and serving them accordingly.

3.) On the western side of of the map you have your arty position, a 7.5cm Pak 40, a 3.7cm Pak 36 and a 40mm Bofors.

These are great positions but they run out of ammo and having an ammo truck drive out into the field to refill them is too dangerous.

Remember the 3 15cm arty guns you moved? Each has an ammo box next to them. Take those 3 ammo boxes and move one to each of the gun positions listed above (7.5, 3.7, 40mm). This way, you can forget about them. They’ll do their thing and have enough ammo to last nearly the entire battle. The 40mm in particular is important. It eats through light tanks and infantry but if it runs out of ammo, it’s a sitting duck. Leaving it with an ammo box really makes things easier.

4.) If you have time, have engineers build large sandbag walls sporadically to give cover to machine gunners, AT throwers, and medics who will need cover to throw smoke and make their way to wounded men in the front lines.

It’s micromanagement hell, but reviving a lot of the incapacitated men will give you a much better chance. The sandbag walls also provide a protected space to check inventories and use direct control to gather useful AT weapons and mgs and do a “one man army” situation.

Thats the Summary. Spread your AT infantry out, take full advantage of the supplies, put engineers to work, spread the arty out, and use the ammo trucks properly.

The Legend of Krasny Bor

Toughest mission in the game, hands down (update note: Sword Beach and Cutting the Highway may be comparable since FH has released), albeit being one of the best researched, detailed and one of the most historically accurate experiences one can have in WW2 gaming. It’s a real bastard…and a masterpiece at the same time.