Enemy Within -- Marathon Mode: General Peter Van Doorn Target Extraction

[Zhorge]

I am finding the it difficult to beat the Target Extration (General Peter Van Doorn) on Classic Ironman while playing in Marathon Mode. (I have come close.)

And while I've watched a number of YouTube Videos and read some stratagy guides, the people that are beating this mission have Mechs and rather advanced squads that I can't obtain thanks to the vastly slowed down pace of the game.


So, if anyone has beaten this mission under Classic/Ironman/Marathon (I've come close, but (in the end) it's always come out badly) I'd appreciate any tips besides the "Overwatch" stratagy which I've been trying.

Also, can I just ignore this mission? Let the chips fall where they may? And, if so, what's the penalty? Because this mission (so far) seems to come just too early and is too hard for the gear and squad I can use.

[Incunabulum]

You can ignore any mission. In this case the penalty is you don't get whatever the council was promising you for its completion (and a bad mark to add into your EOM grade).

I don't play Ironman, but I've done this in Impossible.

Are you rushing in to the General? Or are you proceeding slowly and clearing out everything before you approach him?

I've found the latter approach works best, take an extra sniper (for two) to help handle the alines that like to sit at the far end of the collapsed road.

Once everything's dead, reload and set your guys up to take care of the incomming adds. *Then* head on over to the General. Only move him in blue moves and into full cover then hunker him down. That way you get the minimal amount of adds per turn.

The other problem that you'll just have to endure is getting people shot out from under you while they're in full cover - nothing to be done about that except grit your teeth and hope for some lucky rolls.

[Zhorge]

I'll try your advice on cleaning it all out first. It's got to be better than my 'hang back with the squad' and rush assualt person in to trigger the General and then have him run for the plane stratagy while I try to win with Overwatch.

And I can see where a two-sniper squad would be better than a one-of-each squad.

Thank you. I'll give it a shot tonight.

[ElJansConJ]

One thing I noticed about this mission (and every council mission for that matter) is that some events only trigger when you move the person that you need to protect, regardless of what you do with your troops. Also, these events involve lots of Thin Men falling out of the sky on overwatch in the same fixed positions.

So, as an aditional advice, once you reach Van Doorn and you need to get back to the Skyranger, don't move him, only move back your troops and put them in the middle of the map, with more or less the same distance between Van Doorn's position and the Skyranger's, because that's where the thin men will appear. You can take as many turns as you want positioning your troops as long as you don't move Van Doom.

Once you have your troops in position and on overwatch, move Van Doorn towards the Skyranger, and the last group of Thin Men will appear next turn very close to your troops, but overwatch should take care of some of them, and then you will have a turn to finish off the rest with good odds due to the close distance (or just use explosives).

Good luck!

P.S: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV2HHweihq0