The Rescue Mission - MoHAA
How To Earn My First Medal?
You're at mission one, "Lighting the Torch", its second sub-mission: The Rescue. Hard difficulty setting.
First of all, I do not consider earning the first medal a tough part of Mohaa. You just have to be careful. But I decided to write these mini-walkthrough about it for two reasons:
As an alert, to let the newbie know that there is a medal already in the first mission. The first time I played Mohaa I didn't even know that after some difficult parts of the game, you can be awarded medals, so I missed this first one. If you don't know about it, chances are that you're going to keep following Major Grillo without taking the correct path to earn the medal because although there are some clues about it (when you start the level, you can see two prisoners being loaded to an enemy truck and, also, when Major Grillo talks about other Allied prisoners nearby), these subtle clues may not be enough to ring a bell.
That said, let's go to the walkthrough.
You have already found and rescued the SAS agent Major Jack Grillo and now you're following him. You have to steal explosives from the fortress and use them to escape and to destroy a Flak 88. Half your way, though, if you want to earn your first medal, you need to rescue a second Prisoner of War. If you follow strictly Jack's orders, you'll miss the medal.
While you're following Grillo, at some point of the way to the fortress, he's going to alert you that "Shooting the spotlights will get their attention. It's best to just avoid them." Obey him and do not shoot the spotlights, just follow Major Grillo. When it's time to cross the spotlight zone, he'll add: "Stick close Lieutenant, and I'll show you how to avoid detection" (small pic. 1 beside). Easy, just keep following him, after all, this is your current objective: Follow the SAS agent.
Major Grillo will enter the fortress through its left side, using a bunker. Inside the fortress, let Grillo kill the two first enemies. Kill the third one for him and the fourth one that's inside a room where Grillo will find his passport. "Okay, we've found the documents Now let's get the explosives", says Grillo. One more objective completed.
Before heading to the explosive place (downstairs), he'll get upstairs (see the round stairs at small pic. 10, very down below) to grab some health at the end of a corridor. There is health for you too. If you stay near the beginning of this corridor, you will hear, through the walls, the germans interrogating another prisoner, at the room beside. They're speaking english because the prisoner is american but suddenly, they get aware of the presence of spies and they start to shout in german. Well, don't waste much time listening to them, although it's interesting.
Major Grillo stops near the entrance of this corridor and says: "Lieutenant, it sounds like they've got more Allied prisoners." Then, he usually waits a while. Next, Grillo climbs down the round stairs all the way, until he reaches the place where you'll find the explosives, at a back room. But take care: three enemies await you. Kill them all with the help of Grillo. Go to the back of this room and acquire the explosives. Another objective completed. When exiting the room, don't forget to grab two 96 Smg round boxes at a corner, to the left, near the stairs. I bet you need them.
| Now comes the medal part. Grillo will head back to the spotlights zone and, if you follow him, you lose the medal. You must climb up the stairs that lead to an open area full of barrels, a sort of a balcony, near the place where there is a truck parked (pic. 2). |
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If you don't take the stairs to this balcony, then Major Grillo won't enter there either but if you climb up the stairs, he comes back and, if you allow, he'll even take the lead again, now heading to the room where the american POW is being held (pic. 3).
Follow Grillo again and when he finds the prisoner, note that he doesn't rescue him but he keeps looking back at you as if he was saying "Come on, you rescue him. You're the one that's going to earn the medal !". |
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Kill the bad guy (if Grillo didn't) and another german at the room behind. Take care or you'll be shot on your back. "You saved my life, sir" will thank you the american Private Jury. |
| Run to the stairs where Grillo is. Jury will keep following your steps all the time, from now on. Grillo will resume its way to the exit of the fortress. You all should cross the spotlights zone again, now heading back to where you came from. Again, Grillo will stop for a while, before facing the spotlights, drink a health canteen and, when the right moment arrives, he'll run ahead. DO NOT follow him or chances are that Private Jury will be killed. Instead, at the very moment that Grillo starts running, you should also start running but heading to the right and not behind Grillo (pic. 5). Using this path, you and Jury should have no problem at all crossing the spotlights zone. |
Then, you all will get to the gate. "We'll have to blow the gate, set a charge", says Grillo. Just do it.
 Now, enter the next area and take care. There are only seven enemies ahead but since Private Jury is easy to kill, you should be very careful so that he's not shot. Take the left, as soon as you pass the gate, and take cover in the corner nearby. Look to your right and you should see a door far away. Three enemies will get out from that house (small pic. 6 beside). But first, look to your left, strafe right carefully, and you should see a sentinel guarding the area where the two Flak 88s are located. Kill him first. Then, walk ahead just a little and the three guys from the house will appear (if they showed up before you were able to kill the sentinel, then you were too ahead of the right place to kill the sentinel). Kill them all with the help of Grillo and Jury. |
 Head to the Flak's area. Three last enemies wait you there. Kill them. Take care with grenades. "We need to destroy these Flak 88s I'll take care of this one, you get the other" tells you Grillo. Do as he says. Get away and watch them explode (small pic. 7 beside). "I'll cover this area", will say Private Jury, after the Flaks have been destroyed. It means: I'm okay, I'm safe, you can go now. The medal is just a question of finishing the mission. Meet Grillo at the gate and this sub-mission will end. |
 For exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding service, the rescue of both a British and an American POW from a heavily fortified German outpost, and actions that helped secure Allied victory during the landings of Operation Torch, you, Lt. Mike Powell, are granted with The Legion of Merit medal.This is the first medal out of seven that you're certainly going to be awarded specially if you follow my walkthroughs (*grin*). You can earn one medal for each mission, in specific situations. At the end of the game, just by finishing it, you earn the last one, the seventh one. Since the game can be played in three different modes of difficulty, you can actually earn nine medals but I'm not considering the two medals for finishing the game in difficulty modes other than the hard one, the Silver Star and the Bronze Star, since the medal for the hard mode surpass the other two. If you want further and previous (spoiler) information on how to earn all the medals, please, take a look at the page How To Earn All The Medals. |
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Alternate Ways |
The steps above describe one way to earn your first medal and, in my opinion, it's the easiest and most appropriate one, considering that this sub-mission is highly scripted and so, you're supposed to stay near major Grillo most of the time. But, in spite of all the linearity of the sub-mission, you can try alternate ways to rescue the american POW. The differences among these alternatives are basically the moment when you should leave Grillo's fixed path and go for the rescue. After rescuing the POW, you must meet Grillo again. Depending on the moment you left Grillo's path, you obviously will find him in different situations. Here are some possibilities:
Leave Grillo right after he finds his documents, i.e, before he climb up the round stairs (small pic. 10 below).
Leave Grillo right after he tells you about having more Allied prisoners nearby, when he stops for a while listening to the interrogatory that takes place at the room beside or when he is heading downstairs (small pic. 10 again, below) , where the explosives - and three enemies - are located.
 All the options above, or any else, require that you come back to meet Grillo, wherever he may be. Grillo won't wait for you too much. He has a script to follow. You'll also notice that many times he'll get killed during the action and the mission will fail. You won't have a clue about where he got killed. And when heading back to meet Grillo, you'll have Private Jury always following you, in risk of being shot. Also, you cannot skip any objective, like not stealing the explosives, or you won't be able to proceed with the mission, since you need them to blow the gate. Sometimes, interesting things occur like you finding the room with the explosives already completely clean of enemies: Grillo killed them all for you. So, the alternatives can be a shot in the dark. |
The Buggy Enemy
 Last, let me talk about a curious situation that you can go through. It's also another alternate but dangerous way to earn the medal. When following Grillo through the spotlights zone for the first time, before entering the fortress using the bunker, you can kill the guy atop the spotlight ahead of you, the one in the center (small pic. 9 above). Use the M1 Garand or even the Colt 45 and shoot the guy up there, when near the wall (small pic. 11 beside). One shot must be enough. And you must run quickly to the bunker side, very close to the wall, right after the shot, or the guys atop the other spotlights will kill you almost instantly. Sometimes they kill Grillo. |
 Now, proceed with the walkthrough until that part when you enter the corridor from where you can hear the germans interrogating the american prisoner. Follow Grillo until the end of this corridor, where he's going to grab a health kit. Lock Grillo at that corner by staying in front of him and beside a box. He won't be able to proceed until you get out of this position. Then, look to your left, through a small window, and kill an enemy that will appear patrolling the balcony far ahead (small pic. 12 beside). Grillo will warn you about this enemy coming. After killing this guy, release Grillo and proceed with the walkthrough. |
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Now, when you take the stairs to the balcony, to rescue the american, let Grillo take the lead and see what's going to happen. As soon as Grillo enter the passageway to the room where the american is, he'll see an invisible enemy and start shooting at him. He'll keep shooting forever, if you keep looking at him. There is no enemy but he sees one. Let him shooting and proceed to rescue the american. When heading back, the american will also see the same invisible enemy and, also, will start shooting at him forever (pic. 13). Funny, isn't it?
Now, take the way back and head to the spotlights zone, outside the fortress. As soon as you get there you'll here that characteristic sound of a german falling down dead. The invisible guy was finally killed by Grillo and Jury. Soon, both will be near you, to resume the mission. Look ahead and pay attention: there is no spotlight guarding the area! You killed the guy atop the center spotlight but what about the guy atop the right spotlight? He was killed by Grillo and Jury. He is the invisible enemy! Actually, he was indeed crouched atop that pillar but you're supposed not to be able to see him, for obvious reasons (and vice versa). But, due probably to a bug, under these circumstances, Grillo and Jury can see him and even kill him. |
A final important note: sometimes, when trying to rescue the american, you'll find a lot of enemies on the balcony. They come through the two doors that exist at both sides of the balcony. When this happen, you'll have much more trouble to earn your medal. Try shooting the barrels to make them explode and clean the area nearby, but obviously you must be covered or you get blown also. I'm not sure about what event triggers these guys to come outside but shooting the guards atop the spotlights alerts all the enemies inside the fortress and may occasionally trigger these extra enemies to get out the rooms. If somebody knows exactly what triggers these guys to get out, please, I'd be glad to know about it.
That's all, folks!
Obs.: Only pic 3 is a cheated screenshot; all others are real screenshots or cut from real screenshots.
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Hope It Helped !! |
http://www.viol.net/mohaa
Version 1.00 posted on March 24th, 2002
All rights reserved. © 2002 by André Viol.
Note that the american is under torture, a bad guy keeps beating him until you fire the first shot (small pic. 4 beside). After your first shot, Grillo may shoot him and he'll head back to the stairs, near the truck, and wait for you there.