Hard Core Tactical Mod - Manual feature

Hard Core Tactical Mod

Let me start by saying that if you’re looking for a shooting gallery type gaming experience where you can get plenty of easy kills, this is NOT the mod for you. But if you’re looking for a real challenge, this is your mod. With that said, although this mod has several new weapons, rather than the focus being on the pretty new weapons, this mod focuses on the actual combat aspect of the game. The mod not only features new combat capabilities for the player, the Ai gets to use many of those same features as well. For example, the player can call in artillery and air strikes, and so can the Ai. The player can shoot the weapon out of the hands of an enemy soldier and the Ai can do the same. The player can cook his grenades, and so can the Ai. The player can use his knife, spade or fists in hand to hand combat and the Ai can do the same. The player can switch weapons to fit the situation and so can the Ai. I’ve tried to make it so that if the player can do it, then so can the Ai. With that said, now you’ll have to respect every grenade that’s thrown at you because you’ll never know if it was cooked or not before the Ai released it. The Ai is much smarter now so kamikaze panzerschreck attacks by the ai are now a thing of the past because they now know when to switch from their panzerfaust, panzerschreck, and bazooka or grenade launcher to their secondary weapon instead of blowing everyone up including themselves. If an Ai soldier carries an additional weapon on his back and his primary weapon is damaged, runs out of ammo, or gets shot out of his hands, he will now be smart enough to take the weapon off of his back and use it. And if the weapon that he just took off of his back stops working for some reason or gets shot out of his hands, at that point he will switch to his pistol. And if his pistol stops working or he drops it as well, at that point he will switch to his knife or spade. And depending on the situation, they will even try to pick up the weapon that they just dropped and use it again in some cases. They even know when to switch fire modes. Take the BAR for instance. Just as YOU can switch from semi, auto, and slow fire modes, the Ai can do it too. They will not only fire in semi and auto modes, they will also switch to slow fire mode depending on the situation. Not only can YOU switch to your bayonet, but the Ai can do it too. In some cases you will even have to resort to hand to hand combat where you won’t use guns at all. And while we’re at it, the hand to hand aspect has been greatly improved. Although you may see the occasional one punch knockout, more times than not you will actually have to stand there and duke it out with the enemy until one of you falls. This is far more realistic than in the stock game and although it may be very gratifying to flatten your adversary using nothing more than your knife or fists, they should only be used as a last resort. This mod forces you to think outside the box to get the job done because there won’t always be a loaded weapon conveniently lying around to complete your task so you will have to use whatever you can fine such as rocks, spades, knives and the like. In some instances you will even have to call in a mortar or air strike to complete your objective.

A new random element has been added to the Ai’s capabilities. You will not know if the Ai is a vet or a rookie. Vets can be very quick to fire and rookies can be a lot slower so you will have to fight hard at all times because you will never know the enemy’s capabilities. As stated above this is all random with reaction times that vary from extremely fast which can be as fast as you or faster, to moderately slow and everything in between. Although it’s rare, the Ai will now only pretend to be dead sometime. Since this happened in real life I thought I’d add it into the game. In combat soldiers would resort to sticking the enemy lying on the ground to make sure they were really dead because every now and then an enemy soldier would pretend to be dead and wait for an enemy unit to pass by and then jump up and shoot them in the back. So now you will really have to stay sharp at all times because you’ll never know for sure if the enemy’s really dead or just pretending to be dead. Your squad mates will also assist you in this. On many of the maps, if you run out of ammo you can request ammo from some of your squad mates and if they have extra ammo to spare they’ll share some ammo with you and if not, they’ll verbally tell you that they don’t have extra ammo to spare. This feature is not available on every map because the way some maps are scripted, you and the rest of your squad are mint to be running low on ammo.

There are over 150 missions to choose from now. This includes missions from stock maps as well as maps from the CoD2 community, and all of them have been re-scripted in some form or another to either de-bug them, make them much more of a challenge or put a new twist on some of your favorite maps that you’ve already played. There are some very good community maps out there but a pet peeve of mine is that although the fighting aspect might be good in them, they can still fill lifeless. In most cases this is because they expect you to fight as a one man army, the ambient sounds are missing or there is not much dialog in them which makes them seem sterile. So a great deal of scripting has been added to already good maps to make them even better. Now your squad mates will fight alongside you in most cases and a lot more dialog has been added to these maps to make them fill more alive. In most cases you will not have to read onscreen text to find out what your objective’s are because your squad leader will verbally tell you what to do to achieve your objective. As for the Russian campaign, in addition to winter missions, there are now missions that are set in the summer time as well. There are also missions where you fight against Italy, Poland, Russia, Great Brittan, America, the Vichy French and French Army and most all of the soldiers speak in their native languages in these missions. In addition to that, there is a ten mission campaign where you fight as an Axis soldier for Italy and another twenty seven mission campaign where you fight as a German soldier for the Third Reich against Poland, France, Russia, Great Brittan and America. And all of the Axis soldiers in these missions speak in their native languages throughout the entire campaign. I realize that some players may not wish to play as Axis so the Axis campaigns have been left independent of the rest of the campaigns. But if a player wishes to play all of the missions in the HCTM, I would recommend starting from the Axis campaigns and then going to the Allies campaigns since the Axis campaigns generally started out strong early on and then stalled out leading to the defeat of the Axis Powers in World War II.

There are also additional missions for the Axis where you fight as a German tank commander. And while we’re at it, a great deal of research went into making the maps as historically accurate as possible. Keep in mind that none of the maps were made specifically for this mod, so along with the massive amount of re-scripting that went into this; I had to change a few other things like renaming some of the maps or change some of the back story/story line. This makes the maps flow better and makes them more immersive. And to the original map makers don’t worry, your contribution to the mod has been listed in the credits section along with modelers, skinners and the like. Some maps have been re-scripted and added more than once to allow the player to take part in missions that multiple countries participated in. For example, there were several countries that took part in Operation Market Garden so the map has been added a second time so that the player can experience the operation from both the British and American points of view. Another example would be The Kiev map. In one instance of this map the player fights for the Germans as they take the city from the Russians and in the other instance of the map the player fights for the Russians as they take the city back from the Germans.

And while we’re on the subject of maps, have you ever wished that you could be the player in the credits map? Well now you can. In this mod there is a new map called Saving Privet Ryan. In this map you, along with Captain Miller and the rest of your squad go to Ramelle France to find Ryan and bring him back from the front, but there’s a plot twist. When you find Ryan he has been taken prisoner and it’s up to you and the rest of your squad to bust him out of the German camp. Linking up with the squad and sneaking into camp is pretty cool but when all hell breaks loose and the bullets start flying it gets super intense. If you’re the type that likes a challenge, I think you’ll enjoy this one. BTW the Leningrad map has been fixed now. It will always end without fail and the pucker factor has gone way up in the last counter attack so you’ll have to use everything you can think of to keep from being overrun by the enemy. And this same level of intense combat runs throughout the entire game.

In this mod no consideration has been given to any other mode other than veteran mode (AKA fu mode). With that said, go slow, move from cover to cover, try not to expose yourself, and if possible displace after you fire your weapon, and turn your thinking cap on because (all Rambo’s will not last… AT ALL) in fact, you can absolutely be overrun by the enemy so you may have to fall back in some cases because the Ai soldiers are much smarter than they were originally. BTW although it might be hard to resist the urge to hop on a machine gun to try and mow the enemy down, keep in mind that staying on MG’s for prolonged periods of time will probably not work out to well for you because as in real life, you will become a prime target for the enemy. The drones have also been fixed. They will no longer run into battle without a weapon and they will all carry a mix of random weapons. Although it’s rare, fat Germans are still in the game but they are mostly officers and don’t generally show up on the front lines. A lot of the missions that you have already played will be like playing them again for the first time because they are much more intense. In some cases calling in artillery or air strikes may be the only way to get out of a jam. Keep in mind that artillery or air strikes will not be available 100% of the time so don’t just chuck all of your grenades right away because you might need them later on in the mission. If there is no artillery or air strikes available you will have to wait a while before requesting another strike.

Mortar/artillery and air strikes each have their pros and cons. While Mortar/artillery strikes can be quicker and more precise, they cover a much smaller area than air strikes which will take longer but cover a much greater area. When calling in mortar/artillery and air strikes you will hear yourself call in the coordinates. Once it has been confirmed the strike is underway, you will see a flare planted on the ground for mortar/artillery strikes and a flare that comes down from the sky for air strikes. The flares are used as a visual cue to remind you of the type of strike that’s underway.

NOTE: Pay attention to your squad mates because they will verbally try to inform you that an enemy strike is underway. The enemy will also do the same for his squad mates. When calling in an air strike, be careful with your coordinates because bad coordinates might create a situation where friendly fire occurs. But if friendly fire dose occur, the mission will continue because the function that ends the mission when friendly fire occurs has been done away with. Also, enemy air strikes are extremely deadly so as soon as you are aware that an enemy air strike is underway, take cover immediately because you won’t last long out in the open.

Some will think that this is the best mod ever and to others, not so much because this mod takes the training wheels off so to speak in that it forces the player to think a great deal more than in the stock game. For example, the convenient little mine field signs that let you know the placement of all of the land mines are no longer in the game. No enemy would place a sign over the mine he just planted so the mine field signs have been done away with. Like I said, no more training wheels so watch your step. There is no zoom on any of the weapons except for sniper rifles and you also have to keep track of how many shots you fired because for the most part, the HUD is no longer available. There is no crosshair, friendly names, weapon names, ammo counter, friendly fire indicator, stance indicator, sprint indicator, health indicator or things of this nature. For the most part the only thing you will have access to is your compass which can be turned on and off as needed. You will also see the countdown timer that shows up when explosives are planted but that’s about it. For tank missions the HUD has been greatly reduced as well so you will have to use your binoculars to aim at another tank. I know some will just hate that all of the convenient features mentioned above are no longer available, but in WWII they did not have visors that came down over their faces with a HUD showing all of this info, so it’s not in the mod because I wanted the experience to be a lot closer to what the soldiers back then had to deal with. It might take a bit of getting used to for some, but the game can absolutely be played successfully without all of the visual aids. It’s the only way I play the game and in my opinion, it’s more challenging and far more rewarding to play this way. So before any of you start to wine about how hard the mod is, you’ll probably have to put on your big boy pants for this one because that’s the whole point of all this. As for the actual combat, to create more of a challenge I made the Ai SMARTER not stronger because in my opinion It is unrealistic to raise the Ai health way up in order to make the enemy more of a challenge so that’s not the direction I took with this mod. There are no longer any Ai super men in the game because none of the Ai have been given any extra health. In fact, the health is exactly the same for both the Ai and the player alike and this runs throughout the entire game.

A great deal of work went into the sound aspect of the game with hundreds of new sounds including weapon, pain, death, ricochet, whiz bys, battle chatter, voiceovers, ambient battle sounds and the like. Now you can hear your footsteps no matter what surface you’re on because the footsteps have been fine tuned for both the player and the Ai alike. You can even hear your adversary reloading his weapon if you’re within range. The new sounds and volume adjustments really add to the realism.

Ground impacts from weapons such as mortars, artillery, air strikes, grenades and the like have been re-scripted to have a much more realistic feel to them. Not only will you see the explosion but you will feel it as well because the ground will shake on impact and sparks, dirt, debris, and smoke will be seen from the explosion. Similar effects were already in the game but were either over done or nonexistent in some maps. Now these effects happen throughout the entire game and the intensity of the effects are much better in my opinion.

World effects such as fires on burning vehicles like tanks, cars and trucks can now be heard as well as seen. The same goes for dead animals. If a dead animal is on the ground you will not only see it lying there but you will see flies around it and if you’re close enough to it, you will hear the fly’s as well. If a mission is set in the summer and at night, it will sound like it because you will hear insects such as crickets and the like that you hear on a summer’s night. These effects add to the realism and run throughout the entire game.

A new random weather system has been added to most maps. In some of the stock maps the weather already changes but if you notice it always happens at the same point of the mission. With this new random weather system the rain and snow effects happen randomly or it might not rain or snow at all. In addition the rain effects can be much heavier in some cases. The same goes for the snowy conditions. It could be a light snow or it might be a blizzard or it might not snow at all. You’ll never know because it’s all random. This effect really adds to the fog of war because it’s much harder to fight in a blizzard than the light snow that you’re used to seeing. In the American campaign some maps were added a second time but set in winter conditions since there are no winter missions for the Americans that I am aware of.

NOTE: No consideration has been given to low end PC’s. CoD2 is over a decade old and I would think that by now most people would have a rig that could run this game on max without very many problems.

New prone and sprint animations have been added. Your weapon will no longer disappear when going prone or sprinting. You will see your weapon at all times. Now this looks like it should have looked out of the box.

NOTE: I could not add the new sprint animations to all of the allied and axis weapons alike due to game engine limitations, but if sometime in the future I can figure out a way around these limitations the code is already done and in the mod for both the allied and axis weapons to have the new sprint animations. So for now, if you’re an ally, all of the allied weapons will have the sprint animations and only a few of the axis weapons will have it. And if you’re an Axis soldier, all of the axis weapons will have the sprint animations and only a few of the allied weapons will have it.

If you don’t like the weapons load-out you have for a particular mission, you can change it in the combat options section of the main menu. And if you select a pistol as your secondary weapon it can be a lot more practical now because you can switch to it much quicker than you could in the original game. And if you want to spice things up a bit, you can select random weapons and let the computer pick your weapons for you. And while we’re at it, weapons that you pick up in game will now have a random amount of ammo in them. So if the soldier that had the weapon before you used all the ammo except for one bullet, that’s all you’ll have when you pick it up. If the soldier falls before firing very many rounds then you’ll have much more ammo when you pick the weapon up. It’s all random so you’ll never know how much ammo is left when you pick up the weapon. This adds to the fog of war as well. And although it’s extremely rare, the guns can even jam or misfire now. You’ll pull the trigger and all you’ll hear is a click. In rare cases like this where your gun happens to jam or misfire, simply hit your reload key and you’ll be back in business.

Not only will you be able to fire your weapon in semi auto, full auto, and slow auto modes (if the weapon has all of these modes), you will also be able to switch to your knife, fists, or bayonet (if the weapon has a bayonet), as well as melee bash using your rifle, pistol or spade. In addition to punching or cutting the enemy by hand, you will also be able to throw knives and rocks at them as well. Also keep in mind that any rifle that is able to have a bayonet attached to it will be less accurate when the bayonet is attached because the bayonet will influence the weapon's accuracy.

NOTE: The available weapons modes are semi auto, full auto, slow auto, bayonet, knife, melee, and fist. And in some of the missions you will start with nothing more than your fists so you’ll have to use your wit in situations like that. And if you choose not to use knives at all, you can simply disable them in the “Game Options” menu.

There are two types of grenade launchers. Type one is used by the player only. You are either loaded out with this at the beginning of the mission or picked up and fired like any other grenade weapon. Type two is used primarily by the ai but can be picked up by the player in the same manner you use to pick up any other rifle, and fired by hitting your fire key.

NOTE: There are three types of M1 Garand’s in the Hard Core Tactical Mod. The first type is a standard M1 Garand that uses a bayonet. This M1 Garand has a brown wood color. The other two types are the Scoped M1 Garand and the M1 Garand Grenade Launcher. The Scoped M1 Garand and the M1 Garand Grenade Launcher have a red wood color.

So for example: if you have an M1 Garand that has a red wood color to it, you’ll know that you have the Grenade Launcher because it’s red.

Likewise, if you have an M1 Garand that has a brown wood color to it, you’ll know that you have the M1 Garand that uses the bayonet because it’s brown.

The AVT-40 and the SVT-40 look identical. And since there is no text in the HCTM, the only way to tell the difference between the two weapons is to simply hold the fire key down. If it fires only once, you'll know that you have the SVT-40 but if it fires in auto mode you'll know that you have the AVT-40.

With that said, even though the AVT-40 and SVT-40 use the same ammo in real life, in CoD2 they can't share ammo. There is nothing I can do about this. This is just the way CoD2's game engine works.

Although the AVT-40 is an automatic weapon, you can get it to fire in semi auto mode by tapping your fire key once “very quickly”, or you can switch between semi auto and full auto modes by hitting your fire mode key.

The shotgun is fully functional and although you can use iron sights, without using the sights you’ll probably hit something just by shooting in the direction of your target. Most of the weapons are true to the time period but there are a couple left in the mod just for fun and they are the scoped m1 carbine and the m134 mini gun. If you prefer not to use the m134 mini gun, it can be disabled in the options menu.

When facing MG34’s and MG42’s you’ll have to outsmart the enemy because the MG’s are far more deadly. The convergence times can be much quicker and the suppression times can be much longer. This is all random as well so use extra caution when taking on MG’s because they fight like they actually want to survive now. Out of the box, the sniper rifles in the game were basically esthetic for the Ai. They did not function at all like the players sniper rifles did. So in effect they functioned like any other rifle but with a scope on it just to look like a sniper rifle. That has all been fixed now. Ai snipers can fight from much greater distances when using a sniper rifle than they can when using an ordinary rifle. They are far more accurate and depending on the map it might be very hard to tell just where the sniper is without using binoculars or a rifle with a scope on it. For the player, the weapons sway has been greatly reduced (it made me feel like I had Parkinson’s or something so I dialed that way back). The sniper hold breath function has been done away with and you will no longer be able to re-chamber your rifle while looking down the scope, and scoped rifles that fire in semi or full auto mode will have quite a kick to them so you will probably have to wait until the recoil is done before taking your next shot. And as for the rest of the weapons, they are all far more deadly. In the stock game, some of the weapons were scripted to inflict less damage to the player on the first shot to give the player time to recover. This has been done away with. Now one or two well placed shots are all it takes to take you out. The ability to jump down to the ground from high distances without receiving any damage has been done away with too. Now you can experience pain from a jump like that and in some cases it can even kill you. Although it’s rare, from time to time Russian soldiers will use German weapons and vice versa in the Russian and German campaigns. This happened in real life sometime so it’s in the mod as well. Another new feature is that you will be able to drive new tanks. In addition to that the tanks have working MG’s and you will also be able to jump in and out of the tank you are in. This could be used to call in an air or mortar strike without exposing your tank to enemy fire. There have also been new tank missions added into the mod, and some of the tank missions that you’ve already played have been re-scripted to allow you to fight as tank commander in the Sherman, T-26, T-34, Panzer II, Panzer IV, Tiger I, and King Tiger II tanks as well as the Crusader. Sherman’s verses Tiger’s in the desert will prove to be quite a challenge so you’ll probably have to bring you’re “A” game for this one. In the air, there are lots of new planes to bomb both the axis and allied soldiers alike, and they all have much better fly-by sounds attached to them.

It might be unsettling to some, but death in war is gory business so gore effects are included in this mod. There are over 1000 Ai characters and they all come with different ranks on their uniforms, and gore effects are attached to them as well. There are lots of new blood pools, urine pools, bloody uniforms with bullet holes, bloody heads, head decapitations, blood splats, blood squirts and so on. Wounded soldiers in maps like (The battle for hill 400) and (Prisoners of war) now look far more realistic because in addition to the wounded animations that they do, they now have bloody uniforms to go along with the wounded animations. Now they actually look like they’ve been wounded in battle. There are even new pain expressions on the faces of dead soldiers now. If the mission is set in the summer time and a dead soldier’s body is on the ground you will not only see it lying there in a bloody uniform, but in some cases you will also see flies around it because the remains of a dead soldier can now attract flies. And if you’re close enough to it, you will hear the flies buzzing around the soldier’s dead body as well. A lot of work went into the gore effects and I think that it turned out just right in my opinion. And while we’re at it, shooting a flame thrower directly in the tank will get a huge explosion leaving only a decapitated head and a bloody mess on the ground. And on the flip side any enemy soldier on the business end of a flame thrower or a Molotov cocktail will go up in flames and burn to death. It’s all pretty gory stuff, but that’s how it was, so that’s how it is in the mod. BTW, take care when running through fire because you could burn to death as well. A save/load feature has been added to the main menu and you will be able to quick-save your game during the mission by pressing F8. You will also be able to quick-load your game during the mission by pressing F9. In addition, you will be able to disable/enable in game music, via the options menu and if you choose to have your weapons refilled at the next level, you can do this via the menu as well.

There is a host of other features, bug fixes or changes that have been incorporated into the mod that I could tell you about, but then you would be reading this for another twenty minutes so to make a long story short, here’s a list of some of the features and an explanation on how to use them.

1: If you select "NO" for "Next Level Ammo Refill" in the game options menu, when you get to the next level, you will keep the same weapons from the previous mission. And the ammo that you have will be from the previous mission as well.

NOTE: Although you will be able to carry your weapon and ammo from mission to mission for the most part, in some cases you will be resupplied. For example: In the German campaign you start in Poland and then you are redeployed to France. So obviously your unit would have gone back to base before being redeployed to France, therefore you would have been resupplied. So in cases like this the weapons will not carry over. Another instance of weapons not carrying over would be going from a regular army unit to a paratrooper unit and vice versa. Weapons will also not carry over in this case as well.

2: Mortar/artillery strikes can be called in by first looking through your binoculars at your target and then tapping the “USE” key for less than 0.5 seconds.

3: Air strikes can be called in by first looking through your binoculars at your target and then hitting and holding the “USE” key for more than 0.5 seconds.

4: Sprinting occurs when hitting and holding the “USE” key while running.

5: To select your knife or fists, tap the “USE” key without running. To switch back to your primary weapon, tap the “USE” key again without running.

6: To punch or cut the enemy by hand, use the melee key.

7: To throw knives or rocks at the enemy, use the fire key.

8: To select your bayonet you must first have a weapon that uses a bayonet, then tap the “USE” key without running. To detach your bayonet, tap the “USE” key again without running.

9: To switch from full auto to slow auto mode, you must first have a weapon that has slow auto mode, then tap the “USE” key without running. You will hear a single click to indicate that you are in slow auto mode. To switch back to full auto mode, tap the “USE” key again without running. You will hear a quick double click to indicate that you are in full auto mode.

NOTE: You will not be able to switch to your knife if your primary weapon has slow auto mode. To get around this limitation switch to your secondary weapon, then you should be able to switch to your knife.

10: To switch from full auto to semi auto mode, hit the “E” key. To switch back to full auto mode, hit the “E” key again.

NOTE: Keep in mind that the “E” key is a toggle key. In other words, it only toggles between semi auto and full auto mode. That said; if you’re firing a full auto weapon but it only fires single shots, you will have to hit the “E” key again in order to fire the weapon in full auto mode again.

NOTE: For your convenience, you can click on the HCTM Default Settings option in the game options menu and all of the settings mentioned above will be added to your game automatically.

There are also some settings in the HCTM Default Settings option that are needed for the HCTM to even run at all, so It is highly recommended to use the HCTM Default Settings option to get the most out of the Hard Core Tactical Mod.

NOTE: Before clicking on the HCTM Default Settings option, be sure to make a backup of your current “config.cfg” file.

Tips & Tricks:

1: From time to time you may be unsuccessful getting ammo from a weapon that’s lying on the ground. This could mean that the weapon is out of ammo, or that the weapon is different from the one that you are carrying in some way. You will have to have the exact same weapon as the one lying on the ground to get ammo from it. This is just how the game engine works. There is nothing that can be done about this. But with that said, sometime you will be able to get ammo by switching fire modes.

For example: Let’s say your current weapon is the BAR. Switching fire modes may allow you to get ammo from an identical BAR that’s lying on the ground. If you switch fire modes and still can’t get any ammo, this means that the BAR that’s lying on the ground is out of ammo.

2: The way the Silo and Back to Beaumont – Hague maps have been re-script, there’s a whole lot more going on than in the stock version of the game. The whole town is under siege now with lots of mortar attacks, snipers, MG’s, and a lot more German soldiers that attack from all sides of the town.

According to the story line, after the Americans take The Silo in the first assault, the Germans re-occupy the town a second time so the Americans have to go “Back to Beaumont – Hague” and take the town again. The Silo and Back to Beaumont – Hague are basically the same map that have been re-scripted so that they play differently. And they really do live up to the Hard Core Tactical Mod name. They are very challenging maps.

Here are a few tips for when you actually play the maps. Don’t try to be a hero and get all of the kills because the Germans will eat your lunch if you do that. Work as a unit with your squad and don’t forget that you have mortar and air support if you need it. And whatever you do, take cover in the first assault because the Germans are playing for keeps now. The MG’s are very deadly in the first attack so take them out as quick as you can. But remember, stay in cover as you pick them off because if you don’t, you will definitely get blasted. You’ve been warned.

Here’s another tip. After you are in the silo and the Germans counter attack, the stars that show up on the compass to indicate the position of the mortar crews have been done away with. So listen to Braeburn call out targets and keep your head on a swivel. And make sure you take out the mortar teams as quickly as possible because if you don’t, you probably won’t survive.

Also keep in mind that the sniper rifle in the silo will now have a random amount of ammo in it. So if you happen to run out of ammo while sniping the mortar crews, go up to Braeburn or Mccloskey and press the use key to ask them if they have any ammo to spare. If they have some to spare they'll give it to you. If they don't, they'll tell you that they don't and you'll have to use iron sights from your secondary weapon to pick off the mortar crews. If you're looking for a real challenge, this is it, because it gets super intense sniping targets without the stars in your compass to help you. But trust me, it can be done.

Known Issues:

Please make sure that no other mods are installed when using the Hard Core Tactical Mod. I can almost guarantee that your game will either crash or that some other feature in this mod will be broken if you try to run another mod along with this one. With that said, let’s get to the known Issues.

1: In a few of the maps you will have to restart the map because the Ai will not move once you are in game. To get around this glitch, simply hit the “M” key once the mission starts to load.

NOTE: The "M" key is the default "map restart" key.

Here is a list of the maps that this glitch occurs in...

Operation Husky:

Invasion of Sicily:

The Battle of Monte Cassino:

St. Côme-du-Mont:

2: From time to time it may appear that you can’t switch weapons. This generally happens because the player used binoculars at some point but the game does not recognize that the binoculars have been exited. To reset the weapons simply enter into your binoculars again and then exit from them. The weapons will reset at this point and you will be able to switch to your secondary weapon.

3: Another known Issue is that it might appear that you’ve picked up a random weapon by mistake while sprinting. If this happens, don’t panic. Simply keep sprinting without letting go of your sprint key and after 0.01 seconds the weapon will change back to your original weapon.

4: If you would like to toggle your compass on and off in game, hit the “PGDN” key.

5: Soldier and tank icons can also be toggled on and off within the compass. To do this, simply hit the "[" key.

6: The tank orientation can also be toggled on and off within the compass. To do this, simply hit the "\" key.

7: If you would like to use the quick save/load feature in game, hit the “F8” key to save your game, and hit the “F9” key to load your saved game.

8: For more of a challenge you can hit the “F10” key while in game. This will make night time look super dark. To go back to the default setting, simply hit the "F11" key. In addition, hitting the "F12" key will make day time look even brighter.

NOTE: All of the above keys are set by default. You can replace any of them with any key you prefer in your config.cfg file.

There are also six bonus missions that come with the Hard Core Tactical Mod.

To load the first four missions you will have to open the console and type…

map decoytown_day

map holdordie3

map mission11

map moscow3

The last two missions can be loaded from the mods section of the Hard Core Tactical Mod.

The Silo v2

Back to Beaumont – Hague v2

To run The Silo v2…

1: Go into the Mods menu and double click on The Silo v2.

2: The game will take you back to the main menu.

3: Go into the Mission Select menu and select “The Silo” from the Breakout from Normandy Campaign.

4: When the map loads you will have a different version of The Silo mission.

To run Back to Beaumont – Hague v2…

1: Go into the Mods menu and double click on Back to Beaumont – Hague v2.

2: The game will take you back to the main menu.

3: Go into the Mission Select menu and select “Back to Beaumont – Hague” from the Breakout from Normandy Campaign.

4: When the map loads you will have a different version of the Back to Beaumont – Hague mission.