4-1: Gunfighters

4-1: Gunfighters (Day 1)

Team Rocket Attack

Mission Intro

You're the front seater of an AH-64D Apache on mission with your companion aircraft, Gunfighter 11.  Together you will go "switches hot" on Taliban mortar teams, Al Qaeda RPG gunners and AA positions with the Apache's deadly arsenal of high-tech weaponry.

Mission Start

The CS from the previous mission segues from its end to the beginning of the new mission with you sitting in the gunner (front) seat of one of the Gunships, as you are now playing as Captain Brad "Hawk" Hawkins.  This is not a CS -- you are actually in control of the weapons for the Apache you are riding in!  Below you on the ground will be Tangos and Technicals you can -- and should -- shoot!

As you fly along you will see Technicals below to shoot, and eventually you will approach three different mortar sites that you need to take out.  You cannot miss the mortar sites -- you go to a gray-and-white camera mode, and spend a bit of time listening to the net chatter as you get authority to engage -- after which you can use your Hellfire Missiles by locking onto the target with LB for the required amount of time. 

After you take out the final mortar you will see a group of Technicals rip along the road and over a ridge -- I was not able to hit them with my weapons before they were out of sight...  And then you switch back into flying mode.  As you approach the village you will see the trucks -- if you actually listen to your radio traffic your spotter instructs you to take out the trucks with the canon, not your rockets -- I suspect that the idea behind that is to not take out the bridge unless you have to.

Optional Achievement:  There is an Achievement associated with this part of the mission -- if you take out 30 of the buildings using your rockets (RB -- Right Bumper) you will unlock "It takes a village... Out!" in the process.   If you read the chat boards on the official MOH site you will notice that a lot of gamers say that it is not very likely that you will get 30 buildings in one play-through, and that you will have to replay the mission on order to unlock this one -- but that has not been my experience. 

I suspect that the reason why most gamers have trouble unlocking this the first time through is that they are not actually destroying the buildings!  One hit with a rocket does not destroy the building -- it takes two -- but a good guide to go by is simple: if you see partial walls standing and the building is not smoking, you have not taken it out.

If you do not destroy all 30 buildings on your first play through no worries mate!  The count is cumulative -- so you can play through again and take out some more buildings, and then unlock this.  But you do not have to -- you can get it in one pass -- just watch the video for this section and you will see how I did it using methodical firing and tighter aim.

Back on Task

After you unlock the Achievement and swing around to the other side of the now smoking and destroyed village you will come under attack by rockets -- there are three Tangos on the hill a little to your right and in front of you who are shooting at you!  The thing is that hit you just took has partially blinded you, so you cannot see them very well...  What you want to do is start firing your canon NOW, through the smoke, ahead and a little to the right, so you take out the first guy before he can fire again.  By that time your vision has cleared a bit and you can see the other two and walk the fire into them.

If you are going to die on this mission, this is likely where it will happen.  But you do not have to die here -- just do a little spray-n-pray and then targeted shooting and you should be okay.

After you finish off the survivors in the village you will do some nap-of-the-earth flying and take out some more mortar emplacements as well as some anti-aircraft emplacements and an ammo dump at a small camp on a mountain top.

Using a combination of rockets, canon, and Hellfire, you will easily engage and destroy these bad guys, but try to remember that only the Hellfire will take out the bunkers and fixed gun emplacements -- the cannon is only good for the Technicals, the tents and ammo dump, and of course the Tangos.  The final target near the camp is an anti-aircraft emplacement -- and as this is the second place that you are likely to die in this mission if you are not quick about engaging the enemy!  Your best strategy here is to use your rockets in controlled, well-aimed two-shot burst-mode, which will allow you to suppress and then destroy the AA gun.  I know, technically that should have taken a Hellfire, but there you have it.

Once you take out the AA the mission ends, unlocking the Achievement "Bad Guy Jamboree" for completing Gunfighters.  As mentioned above, if you did not unlock "It takes a village... Out!" this time through, you may want to replay the mission immediately to get that out of the way, otherwise watch the CS of the end of this mission and then the beginning of the next... 

The checkpoint save is really oddly placed here so to be safe if you are playing through to rack up a building count, go ahead and play past the CS before reloading the mission, but really if you took your time and worked the rockets you should have unlocked that one already.