[Sun] 21 Oct 2012 (Tactical Barn Action)

[fer]

Missions:

• UNnecessary Violence
• Crateresistance
• Westside

Thank you to all comrades who came along tonight. We were a little lighter than usual, peaking at 37 for most of the session; but if we were a little short on numbers we were long on competency and all round epic fun. UNnecessary Violence saw most of the platoon survive for a frighteningly long time in an epic 90-minute mechanised assault on Zargabad. Crateresistance allowed the first wave of dead to witness the horror of two squad-sized enemy elements separated by a single building, before an absolute master-class of spotter/flanker work from comrades Tink and Immy. Finally, Westside had highs (comrade Ferrard Carson's Judge Dredd-like clearance of the second police station's main garage) and lows (comrade IceRaiser murdering an innocent AI, Billy Hill, whose wife and children will now be cared for by the Party).

A wonderful session - thank you all - and also to comrade Tigershark, and all who have participated in his Folk Workshops. Being shot at by comrades Tigershark and Ferrard Carson is certainly beginning to pay off.



PS In case you need one more musical hit from Westside:

[Unaco]

UNnecessary Violence.
Gong 2 Driver (under Kefirz. Later attached to B1, under Tigershark. Also, attached to Strang's wife... but the less he knows...)

We started with a picturesque nightmare drive through the (entirely too) verdant outskirts of Zargabad, in support of Bravo squad. I had some Canned Heat playing too loud (to drown out the screams of any compatriots unlucky enough to end up under our tracks) and Ghandi's VON wasn't working. From the first contact it didn't look good for us, with HMG fire coming from bushes and trees all around us, several Radar contacts we couldn't get solid visuals on, and the constant fear that I'd crush an unsuspecting UN Soldier while trying to push slowly up through the shrubbery. The BMPs need a horn.

Eventually, at the first compound Bravo (1) were to attack, we rolled up in support... and got knocked out by ZU fire, or a rocket... or both. From somewhere. Tracks gone, and turret unable to traverse on the Y axis. We bailed, and joined up with Tiger's Bravo 1 squad for the duration of the mission.

Bravo were an intimate bunch, all in all... With B1 regularly moving up to a position, and then B2 and B3 following shortly behind to cluster up around us. Good job one of those SPG or GL technicals didn't open up on us. Or a Tank. Or anyone wielding more than a pistol. Me and Strang were also quite intimate, on account of the mutual acquaintance that was his wife. We bravely fought our way to the Southern edge of the airfield, and cleared out the sandbags and emplacements around there. While attacking a small bunker, just to the East, surrounded by a BMP graveyard, Tiger went down just ahead of us, likely to fire from the road just 25 meters down the slope. We threw some frag nades, but couldn't be sure if the threat was dealt with, or what the threat was indeed. I stepped up as the courageous soul, to run across the road to get into cover level with the threat. I made it across OK, despite those sonic cracks flying overhead, and got into some cover while still under fire. I had caught 1 enemy in my peripheral vision while running, so crawled to another piece of cover, and popped out to take him down with my trusty FAL. Unfortunately there were actually 4 of them, looking straight at me, about 40 meters out. I think I got 2 before they opened up and that was it for me. I died with Strang's wife's name on my lips. And a hand in my pocket.

Cratesistance.
Independent, Alpha MG (under Tink(?), I think)

Alpha were to watch the Alpha cache, to the North, while Bravo and Charlie and the CO were to... do whatever it was they were doing. Playing Canasta and jumping at Ghosts I think. I volunteered for Scout duty, to the farm complex North by North East of the Alpha cache, were I could get eyes West, North and East, in case BluFor came from any of those directions. Unfortunately, I couldn't watch all 3 directions from the same spot, and keep hidden/covered... so I was running up and down the barn every 30 seconds to get eyes on the other direction.

Not that we expected them to the North... Bravo squad got eyes on the enemy South of the B cache, moving through cover. They started to move round, to try and come in behind them, or in their Eastern flank, and moved all the way to Pavlovo... but didn't find anything in the end. They fell back to the B cache, and we all went back to frantically scouting every direction... knowing they must have been close, and ready to move in.

Eventually Alpha squad got contacts to our West, moving in on the cache through the trees... this was South West of me, and my brilliant scouting/overwatch location was rendered ineffective. RedSniper was out alone to West, managed to get some shots off before he went down. Tigershark started moving out that way, trying to get round the enemy to the North, while I also moved in to try and get eyes into the forest, and find a decent bit of ground to rest the MG on. Alas, they seemed to have overwhelming force (3 Fireteams compared to our 1), even with Bravo moving in from the South. Tiger went down, and I got 1 confirmed kill and 1 unconfirmed (he was only wounded in the end), before I had to start running for my life away from GL and small arms fire. I tried to push back into the forest, but as soon as I made the tree line I was opened up on and went down.

Westside.
Bravo Squad Leader (answerable only to God himself! And perhaps the Independent Police Complaints Commission!)

They say that war is 9 parts waiting, to 1 part arse opening terror... Sitting and waiting in the Bravo Police Station, on the ground floor, in the dark, with all of those doors all around us, and few eyes on the approaches was pretty tense on its own. The arse opening moment came while halfway up the tower, coming under fire, dropping to the ground then discovering it was too dark to find the stairs back down, bullets pinging off the walls and windows around me. Also sitting in a corner with just me and Immy up, surrounded by unfriendly voices, too many doors to cover and the realisation the enemy didn't have nice, stand out white helmets to see them by.

I was BSL, tasked with defending the Southern Police Station (a converted Fire Station). I had 1 member of B1 across the road, to watch the main entrance, and 1 member from each of B1 and B2 out to the East to provide eyes to the East and South, with the rest of us holed up in the Station, Tink up the tower and the rest of us in the main garage. In hindsight, the 2 on Overwatch (Macaco and Mojadishu) were perhaps too effective (they both had M16s). I expected them to get eyes while BluFor were still a fair distance away, maybe plink a few shots, shut off and cover a couple roads, force their heads down, fire and move and generally be a nuisance. As it turned out, BluFor decamped from their vehicles ~100 meters from 1, and were pretty open up to being shot while preparing to hit the Alpha Station. I think they killed about 8 of you between them.

I eventually told them to fall back, and regroup with the rest of us at the Station, after BluFor got their positions and started putting fire on them... Unfortunately, I don't think they made it. But by that time Blufor had got our positions as well, and I was opening my bowels while trying to crawl down a steep set of stairs in the tower. We ended up with only 4 still alive and in the main garage... me and Immy crammed into a little cubby room watching the 3 main double doors, Skabooga and (I forget who) watching the other smaller entrances. The only visual on the enemy I got was when Daf pushed in and Skabooga and (?) went down... I managed to get a shot on Daf over a crate, and round the side of the UAZ and another crate. We (me and Immy) then sat in fear waiting for the inevitable to come, doors being opened randomly, smoke blowing in from outside, footsteps, voices and the moans of the wounded. Eventually Immy shimmied out a little and caught another BluFor sneaking in. The mission ended shortly after, and I was still alive. I submitted my resignation the next morning, and went to visit Daf's wife.

Again, apologies to BluFor if you were mercilessly gunned down early on in Westside. And apologies for also losing Gong2 pretty early in UNViolence... but it was easy to do on that terrain. Good session.

[Skabooga]

UNnecessary Violence: Bravo squad medic
Things started off nice and slow, with only a couple of compatriots getting injured now and then. As the mission progressed, the number of casualties outstripped my abilities to heal. After crossing the airfield and taking shelter in a roadside compound south of Zargabad, I remember looking east and just seeing a mass of infantry a couple of menacing vehicles headed our way. I tired firing a few shots at them, but they quickly answered in kind, and I found myself pinned down while the remainder of Bravo squad made their final push into town. Most of the squad died horrible deaths in that push, and I finally caught up with them just in time to join them: shot in the head as I was crossing a street.

Cratesistance: Blufor fireteam A1? rifleman, under Specialsoup's command
We sneakily curved around and came at cache A from the west, crouching and crawling through the forest. As we approached within 100 meters or so of the cache, all hell broke loose, I think from the north, which we were not suspecting. I was among the first to die in that initial volley. At least I was able to watch some incredible barn fighting from the party-approved afterlife.

Westside: Cops' side, B1 FTL
Bravo waited as US troops cleared out our sister station up north. My M16 man, Macaco, dealt death on the imperialist oppressors from his overwatch position, but he was eventually spotted and shot through the leg. I rushed out of my spot across from the station to go heal him, and I got him back on his feet, but as we were making our way back to the station, the enemy caught us rushing between buildings, and put down Macaco, for good this time. I was able to make it back to the station, and was keeping eyes on the south ground floor entrance along with Zitron. After a tense couple minutes of silence, we heard footsteps coming from outside, circling the west side of the station and coming to a halt outside our door. My heart was in my throat. After a pause, the door opened. The next part is a bit hazy, but I think Zitron took out the first guy through the door, but was killed by the second. The second guy through and I hit each other at the same time, and the third one through put me down for good. Intense.

[Ferrard Carson]

UNecessary Violence
Deployed as Alpha Squad Leader
Thar be boom-boom in da mosque. We be tasked with makin' da boom-boom go boom-boom. We gots ourselves two gongs and two cardboard boxes, all on treads. Heavens knows how we're supposed to make boom go boom with percussion instruments and moving receptacles, but such is life under the General Secretary! Forward! At least this time we've got surplus American firearms instead of surplus Russian. Still nowhere near enough ammo though.

We set off north across wide open fields. A ZU-23 gave us some fits, sending Bravo into veritable chaos as both their vehicles went up in smoke in a matter of minutes. Alpha was cautious, probing forward slowly while our BMP-2 and M113 fired over our heads at targets we couldn't see through the brush. Somehow I repeatedly ended up leading by example.

After some shoddy application of Russian river-crossing doctrine and some M113 SCIENCE!, Alpha secured the far side of the dam. From there, the crazy Italians covered Bravo's move north until the time came for us to assault the airfield from a nearby wadi. With 30mm cannon tracers gloriously flying over our heads, we achieved the military crest and slaughtered Takistanis wholesale. They returned the favor by deleting our two armored-vehicles from our ORBAT, along with spilling jam all over Alpha 1 and 2. Alpha managed to get into a knife-fight with a KORD emplacement before we charged a firestation, got slowly picked off in the outskirts of Zargabad, and then gloriously charged until one of us touched the Mosque.

Unfortunately, warfare not resembling "tag" in the slightest, the Takistani's ignored our pleas of "Base, base, base!" and shot us dead.



Crateresistance
Deployed as INDFOR Charlie Automatic Rifleman
We arrived at The Battle Barn and fortified the position north of Cache Bravo, then we waited. I caught sight of one lone BLUFOR flanking us far to our South, and so Bravo was sent on a massive end-run to try to flank the flankers. As it turns out, the flankers were headed to Alpha Cache, via the long way, and Bravo ended up empty-handed.

I shuffled around pointlessly for minute upon minute, watching south to see if these mysterious ghosts would appear at close range... and then this happened:





But then this happened afterwards:



Westside
Deployed as BLUFOR Alpha 1 Fire Team Leader
After some abortive complex plans, BLUFOR arrived in town to discover that the enemy still had M16's. And us with our hush-puppies. We were torn apart. Our CO died. Two of my guys died. I didn't die. The last guy in my fire team got hit so hard that he turned into an AI. By the time we found cover, there were six of us left, with nothing but open courtyard between us and the Northern structure. So as the ranking dude, I said "F*ck it, bum-rush the southern station." I shot a dude in the face, leg, and arms with my hush-puppy before I was able to liberate an MP5. After suppressing a dude on the top floor of the tower, I wandered in close, taunted the smurfs, and shot two more dudes while invading their personal space and buddy-bonding time. For extra measure, I executed their wounded, writhing bodies before I myself was coup de grace'd by three rounds of buckshot.



In addition, we have discovered a new song to sing, in the memory of a charmed little AI who knew nothing of war, only of peace and free love and marathon running. Only of starry, starry nights and 9mm bullets in the back of his head. This is the Ballad of Bobby Hill:



Enjoy!

~ Ferrard

[wolfenswan]

[Ferrard Carson]

Some random commentary from the perspective of a week later:

UNecessary Violence
1) I'm gonna say it again, I really, really wish we took vehicle commanders >.>
2) Thank freakin' goodness we're increasing the FTL 203 loadout. That knife-fight with a KORD that killed three or so Alpha dudes might have been avoidable if I had even one more grenade - my second shot landed on the KORD bunker, so the third would have killed the gunner. And all those flares were hilariously useless in Zargabad-by-day. I would've shot them off for fun towards the end, but no one would even notice.

Westside
Please, please, please for the love of all that is unholy, take the M-16's away from the UNPROFOR. Shotguns and MP5's are balanced roughly well, and I don't really mind having pistols as BLUFOR - makes it fun. Getting essentially sniped when we're twice or thrice our effective range away because the other dude has a full-on rifle? That's not so fun.

~ Ferrard