Bodge wrote:I would like to say now that the AI puppeteers on roadside felt a little bit dirty. Our actions proved to be a little too co-ordinated.
Vanilla AI (a.k.a. "laser-beam-psychics") with G36's and NVGs is what should make you feel dirty, but the outcome would have been much different if we'd been in actual defensive positions >.>
~ Ferrard
"Take a boat in the air you don't love, she'll shake you off just as sure as the turnin' of the worlds. Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down, tells you she's hurtin' before she keels... makes her home."
To clarify: the G36s were the iron-sighted carbine versions, ARs had the G36 LMG with Holo sight, and GRENs had the red dot version of the XM8+UGL. These selections reduced the engagement range of AI troops - with standard G36s they really would have been laser-wielding Terminators (as I discovered in testing, earlier).
Ferrard Carson wrote:the outcome would have been much different if we'd been in actual defensive positions
In retrospect, I wish I'd opted for just 4 teams of puppets, not 6; but the initial positions of the fireteams on exposed hillsides made it likely that losses would be severe. Scouts on the hilltops are a great idea, but I had hoped to see the majority of the OPFOR platoon placed inside buildings, engaging the puppets up close in the lit areas of the village (where the lack of NVGs would have been less of an issue). The AK-74 is not good in long-range firefights.
It's a shame comrade CO Draakon was killed in the engagement, or these points would have surfaced in his show trial
Brilliant sesh. I mostly focussed on practising the Squad Leader stuff I've been learning in Ferrard's enormously useful pre-session workshops, sticking close to my fireteams and using more tactical maneuvers and formations. Turns out it's pretty effective and, I think, more fun for all involved! I also learned the value of colouring your map markers to match with your squad (L-shift and up/down).
I'm a fan of night missions myself, so that aspect wasn't a problem for me.
Clergyman
Attackers (INDFOR?) Bravo Squad Leader. We were tasked to rescue a priest being held captive in a church by those pesky Russians; Alpha, our APC and the other elements attacked from the east while we hooked around to the west. This ended up working well for us as the enemy was mostly distracted; after getting into a rough V formation we filtered along the treeline until we were within striking distance of the church, taking out a few sentries along the way. B1 then moved out along a line of trees and walls to the church wall, with B2 and B3 covering them from the treeline and then bounding over to join them, culminating in a nice textbook breach into the compound.
Things started getting rather confused at this point, with all the Russians to our north-east suddenly noticing what was going on and starting to pepper us with fire. With casualties mounting, and no real idea if there were supposed to be some NPCs there for us to rescue (there weren't), we eventually dragged ourselves back outside the wall -- fortunately it seems we were in the vicinity for long enough to trigger the win. Goalazio!
A nice mission, possibly a little clarification in the mission notes about what to do at the church would be helpful.
Rolling Bohica 2
Alpha Squad Leader. A heaving Co-Op mission in nighttime Chernarus, with three 3-fireteam squads and loads of assets, including mortars and attack helos, all ably commanded by Bodge (I believe). Our task was to locate and photograph two ammo trucks, one at Green Mountain, and one in Zelenogorsk.
The mission started quietly, clearing a small town before heading north to the foot of Green mountain. Alpha split out onto either side of the east road, clearing buildings quickly and efficiently, while me and the medic, Black Mamba stayed close by in the HMMV, although as the vehicle turned out to have no gun I got out eventually. Once the village had been confirmed empty, we set up at an observation point that allowed us to watch/fret over/point our guns at the enemy patrols to our west, while the rest of the platoon filtered up into the woods, fortunately drawing no enemy attention.
Once at the foot of green mountain we encountered and handily dispatched some contact at a junction. Bravo dug in there to cover the trail leading up the slope, while Charlie headed west to block the enemies we'd seen earlier. Alpha followed Charlie and then struck out North towards the top of the mountain. Things started to get hairy as soon as we hit the trees, with enemies on the road being kept busy by Bravo, while we encountered small groups of them in the woods. Although they were hard to see, all fireteams kept staunchly in formation and we took little damage as we prepared to breach the compound from the south.
Unfortunately at this point things started to go quite badly. With yet more enemies approaching from the west, the ones in the compound also launched a counterattack, and a few enemies remaining on the road started pelting us from the east. I was hit, briefly revived, and then killed for good, just as I heard an unfortunately-angled friendly grenade go off behind us and wipe out several soldiers. Although bravo rushed up around our west to take out the main force of enemies, by this point the squad was down to half-strength or less.
Their fortunes turned around though, as A3(?) FTL Tigershark ably took up the reins, breaching the compound and securing the truck before moving down to Zelenogorsk for the second assault, managing to cling to life despite being wounded many times, and keeping the squad moving tightly and effectively. Good show!
Thoughts: I find it very easy as an SL to forget that I have assets like mortars and helos available. Partly that's down to me to keep track of, but it might be handy in future situations like that if the CO passes down the occasional reminder/suggestion on when to use them. Although I understand in this case the attack helo(s) got taken out pretty quickly.
Also, I think I could have avoided or lessened the hilltop massacre if I'd hung back a while for other elements (e.g. Bravo) to come and support us more directly. Having them protecting our west flank would have meant we could react more effectively when the compound started attacking us, which I wasn't expecting so soon.
CompoundIt
Bravo 1(?) Automatic Rifleman. Taking a break from leading, I took part in a rush into an insurgent-held village to destroy some weapon caches. Fortunately bravo took the lucky chopper and we landed mostly without incident at the south of the village, moving up onto a nearby hill and then north-west to the first cache. That assignment seems to have meant another bullet dodged as the rest of the squad seems to have been taken out in fierce fighting after we left. Once we reached the compound, things didn't improve; although we managed to take out one or two enemies inside the walls, we were in turn bloodily mowed down from insurgent positions across the valley.
Despite the death toll, still a very enjoyable mission.
Roadside II
Charlie Squad Leader
Charlie teleported up onto the hillside, got shot at a great deal, tried to pull back into the center of town, and then got shot some more until we died.
Random plug: Hey, remember to check out/sign up for Operation Northern Lights if you haven't already!
Tasked with defending the northwestern hill, Bravo made it up there pretty quickly and dug in. Couldn't really see anything, though, so after hearing contacts to the south and east, the IFV and most of bravo left. I, however, heard the enemy IFV directly north of us, and told my guys to stay in cover and wait. I kept relaying the contact to command, but they didn't believe me, saying it was FF I was seeing.
This was me "THE ENEMY IFV IS 50 METERS NORTH OF BRAVO 2'S MARKER! I SEE IT. STAY IN COVER GUYS. G-Guys? guys? why are you crawling in the open.. oh god why.."
Needless to say, all three members of B2 were dead within a minute or two. I tried crawling around to find Anvilfolk's RPG but thankfully our BMP3 took care of that messy job for me. A crew member jumped out and I unloaded a magazine into his face. Take THAT Vanstrakk! I then proceeded to try to flank from the northwest, but came under friendly fire from our CO. After that was sorted, I kept trying to flank, and opened fire on the guys south of the church, but by then the mission was called.
I liked this one a lot. Wilson, with your fixes, this mission should be awesome. Good job!
Also, stay in fucking cover.
Rolling Bohica 2
Bravo 2 FTL
Mamuto, Walter, Mr.Link, Cuddlefish
I'm super proud of Bravo's performance on this mission. We had great communication (thanks for that Unaco), moved tactically (for the most part haha), covered other squads, provided effective fire, and didn't lose any men. Well... Sort of. Bravo 2 was all men up for 99% of the mission until the very end, when a mounted MG in the church lit us up, instantly killing Walter and myself. One of these days I'll get my fireteam through a mission with 0 casualties. One day.
Right off the bat, I didn't like the sound of the far off explosion and the subsequent [AAAH]s, and I was not looking forward to moving uphill with no cover. Sure enough, we were soon engaged from the east. Orders came down to move on the western slope to avoid that. Which would have been fine, if there weren't enemies on the west as well. We were pinned without cover, unable to return any sort of effective fire. No BOF, no cover, and maneuvering without fire meant a very dead Bravo squad. Oh well.
Roadside II
Bravo 2 FTL
Mamuto, Cuddlefish, Aqarius, Wilbo Baggins
Bravo was tasked with defense of the northeast. I set Cuddle (AR) and Wilbo (AT) to face the northern road and Aqarius and I took up positions to cover the eastern road. Suddenly Charlie was dead and enemies were all over the slopes to our south. I tried to return fire, but doubt I hit anything, and then suddenly there was an enemy squad right on top of Bravo. No idea where they came from (it wasn't the east or south) but we were all quickly cut down. I'm not sure if it was an issue of enemies teleporting too close to us? Sad day.
I had to leave at this point, so I missed out on the rest of the night.
I'll also be missing next Sunday's session, so go make the Party proud for me!
We were put up in the woods with the rest of Bravo to cover against a northerly attack, though Lazer, our AR, was detached to man a sentry post at an area that was previously unmanned. Predictably, this was the primary enemy axis of advance. As Lazer was wounded I lead the team to attempt a rescue, only to arrive to find friendlies occupying the area and our man slain outright. Fire then erupted in the direction of our previous position, so I lead the survivors back; hiding from stray BMP fire for dear life. Just as we were getting back to our old positions, the call came in that the NAPA had seized the church somehow. We turned about and ran for the church - in the confusion as we entered the contested area, I broke off from the rest of the team to flank around the other side of the church. This is the start of my general pattern this session, which was questionable communication while in command and generally ending up pseudo lone-wolfing it because I've lost track of what's going on.
At this point, a few very important things happened very quickly. I started to slice the pie around the corner, seeing multiple hostiles with their backs turned. AVG antivirus decided to begin a scan. I saw the world freeze for a brief, critical second-or-so. The screen updated, and I had been spotted. I started spraying full auto across the group, but didn't manage to do any damage that couldn't be healed before I was gunned down. I don't honestly know whether it would have gone any differently without the stutter, but it was pretty frustrating at the time as those still on the Bravo team-speak heard.
Thoughts: Murphy struck pretty hard - both on my individual technical side and in our general plan. Of all the sides of your defense, the enemy will ALWAYS hit the one you've barely covered. It's a rule somewhere I'm sure.
Bohica the Second - Bravo 2, Rifleman AT
Operating under Mamuto's leadership rather than my own devices I was much more on the ball this time around. The dim-but-present moonlight and dense Chernarussian foliage conspired against us, often leading to spitting-distance encounters with previously unseen enemies, but we managed to remain without casualties despite several friendly injuries. That is, until thirty seconds before the end of the mission, when we suddenly came under fire from an fortified Dishka or similar within the Church, cutting down half the fire-team in moments. I and another member of the team survived only because the shots failed to rip through the log cabin which we were hiding behind, a mercy I'm not sure is entirely accurate.
Thoughts: The tall grass is brutal, but the medical model is pretty charitable all things considered. Three to five rifle rounds to the chest at point blank range? Well, let's wrap you up. Have a lollipop. Okay, you're good to go!
Compound IT - British Bravo 2, Automatic Rifle
I was suspicious of the hilltop-no-cover strategy to begin with; and it went pretty well. Which is to say, we were able to disembark our helicopters and get up onto the hill before we came under fire and locked in place inside the killzone, Roadside style. Mistakes were made; and later repeated.
Thoughts: Bravo got wrecked. On the other hand, Alpha got wrecked harder. Not a good day for Queen and Country.
Roadside II - TK Army Bravo 2, Automatic Rife
Sure, we were up on a hill again, but this time it would be different! We had rocks, and also they were going to be coming down the valley and right into our guns, right? Right? After a few minutes of silence on our front and screaming on Charlie's, I looked over my shoulder just in time to see a dude a swanky uniform wearing NVGs walking up the back of the slope. I called out that we had contacts on top of us and put a burst into the one I saw, but then was gunned down.
Thoughts: The 'terminators' seemed to be pretty vicious, but the main thing that doomed Bravo 2 was how well they infiltrated behind us. Whether that would have been possible with lesser AI skill is up for debate, but certainly once they were in that position it didn't matter how good or bad their AI was, we were cooked.
Swept SE - Attacking Bravo 2, FTL
Our plan called for... you guessed it. Going up into a base of fire position on the top of a hill with no cover. To be fair, from the sound of it this is a fairly standard plan for Attack on this map. Still, given the events of the day I made some noise about this in the briefing. It was decided the plan would be held, so I carried it out as cautiously as I could. I only had a three man team, so I tried to keep us as far back and behind the slope as possible without blatant desertion. We got tasked to move up a bit and then came under fire - the SL was wounded and one of my men (forgot your name, sorry) requested permission to go and help him; which I reluctantly gave. Despite some popped smoke they too were killed. I tried to marshal some effective return fire, only to become frustrated as my surviving ally failed to open fire despite much prodding. It was when he text-chatted 'what are you shooting at?' as I tried to provide suppression solo that I realized we were having a VON failure, which both explained much and made me feel kinda silly for not catching it sooner. Shortly thereafter I was hit and wounded, and as he healed me I actually decided to DO the thing I'd been thinking was a good idea for the extent of the engagement but not actually having the guts to enact. I flung GP smoke at every window or gap in sight, and we rushed down the hill into desperate CQB. Lack of VON and my own focus on my building-clearing lead to us getting split up as before, and I was sweeping the upper floor of a building when I saw gunfire from a window across the street and the side-chat informed me my buddy had been hit. I was aiming to return fire when a moment of devious inspiration occurred to me - I tapped the fire selector to GP, pointed, clicked, and was done. Feeling of Badassery: Achieved. I then moved to clear the building, only to be shot by a wounded man in the stairs. Looking at Crocuta's post, I think he managed to get me back. After I fell I sprayed him again [and shot a GP into the wall next to him, though the safety-fuse foiled me there] and he stopped moving. I then crawled about the streets, calling on direct for any friendlies who could help me. I don't think I saw the guy who shot me.
Thoughts: As soon as SL was down and we were under fire I should have made that charge - I'd been thinking the whole mission that staying up there was suicide: Good sight lines and height advantage or not, if the enemy is in great cover and you aren't in any, providing effective fire will be very difficult, as will surviving theirs. I'm convinced there has to be a better way of going about this mission as the attackers, and I have a hunch. Next time we run this I'll try and snag OpFor command and see how it turns out [except perhaps not - see later notes]. Also, when I choose to have an FTL role I need to pay better attention to where my team-members are and how they are doing.
Chernoltrio
Bwowwawawawoww! Bwowwawawawoww! Bwowwawawawoww!
Thoughts: I really hope someone was recording this, not for the round content (it was unremarkable. I got my whole little pack wandering in circles the first time through. I really thought that building was the factory we were supposed to raid, and knew it must have a door somewhere!) but for the teamspeak. Also, bwowwawawawoww!
Fuel Utopia - Raider Command
I'm sure I had a brilliant plan when I picked the slot. By the time I got the slotting screen, it had left my brain entirely. Instead, the Raiders would charge wildly with their only attention paid to ensuring they were shooting at less awesome dudes than themselves, while their Mi-8 would provide support fire until such time as the engine needed to be wound back up, at which point it would fall in a burning heap of glory. Wreck shit! Maim kill burn! Maim kill burn!
As far as I know we only had a single FF incident [I was wounded by an automatic burst from a startled friendly, but he was able to patch me up and all was forgiven.] That's a dramatic improvement from last time, though whether anything we did differently beyond being aware it was a problem was a factor in that change is up for debate. Though now that I think about it there was a fatal traffic collision on the way over as well. Raiders care not for your 'rules of the road'!
By the latter segment of the match, there were two members of my team left, myself and another guy whose name I forgot. We went back to get the fuel truck, and tried multiple avenues of actually driving it through the town. Twice we had to turn back because their was just no possible way (the only reason that was possible was thanks to my nameless ally talking me out - it would be nice if the truck had mirrors rather than matte-finish silver plates.), and as we were setting up on the third path we took fire, and that was that.
Thoughts: Actually being in command put me in a pretty severe 'ohgodIcan'tthinkofanything' state, despite having done last week's workshop exercise. Methinks I really need to practice my FTLing and then graduate to SL and get used to that before I command a mission with more than a dozen people. Also, the town needs better truck-movement routes, because we spent at least five minutes completely out of contact just struggling to figure out how to navigate our fuel truck to the town center.
Overall summary: I think I did pretty well at the manshooting, but was missing three key things whenever I went into a leadership position - communication was spotty; my attention to detail was lacking; and most importantly I didn't take action quickly enough when the situation called for it. But, hey, there's always next time.
For the workshops, I'd like to see some sort of exercises involving fire-team level practice focusing on "you are in a situation that is unexpectedly going to hell and need to react quickly" as a companion to the commander training. Whether that should be codified reaction drills or just focus on general principles is outside my experience to judge, but I think the main thing that would help me and possibly others is working though the time pressure and lack of forewarning as to nature and timing of the threat that you encounter in real play, particularly adversarial missions, in a more controlled environment.
It's been a day since playing and already the fog of memory has settled on my mind, so some of my reported roles within a mission may be inaccurate.
Clergyman - Alpha 2 FTL of attacking force
We were tasked with leap-frogging up the road with Alpha 1 and attacking from the east while Bravo circled around and attacked from the west. Things were going pretty well at first: we made swift progress up the road, and were able to attack the defenders from positions of good cover. We had no casualties by the time we entered the town.
But then, things started to get a bit trickier. We were moving to engage contacts to our east (who I think were hassling our BMP), and then were trying to pull back when their bullets turned to us. As I was crossing the main north-south road to get to the west side, I glanced up north and saw this most frightening warmachine with all sorts of guns mounted on top. I was later informed it was something called a BMP, and not a "big-ass tank to our north coming right for us!" that I yelled out over comms before it mowed me down in the middle of the road.
Overall, really fun mission. Quick and to the point adversarial, with no marching for kilometers to slow things down, and just enough menacing war-vehicles to make one cautious. Also, really great atmospheric weather and lighting.
Rolling Bohica Part 2 - Charlie Squad Leader
Reprising my CSL role, we started out scouting out and holding the woods to our north on the path to Green Mountain. Alpha and Bravo moved on ahead of us, while we took up positions on the western edge of the trees and scoped out the clearings to our north, west, and south. Soon, we were up to our neck in enemy contacts, most of whom we were fortunately able to engage from our position of cover.
After our successful first encounter, I got cocky, I ordered one of my fireteams to cross the field to our west and take up position in the stand of trees there. We might as well have kicked a hornet's nest with the amount of enemies we stirred up, and the fireteam just as quickly had to retreat back out of there. At this point, I called in for helicopter support to prise us out of our increasingly beleaguered position. The helicopter gave us the respite we needed, but was severely damaged and had to make an emergency landing far to our south.
Small confession: even after playing Arma for around a year now, I'm still terrible at recognizing and differentiating different types of weapons and vehicles from each other. So when some kind of vehicle with guns on it was incoming on our position, I ordered our HAT1 attachment to target it and take it out, not fully realizing how big the vehicle was, or what exactly a HAT1 wielded. Attachments are there for taking out things bigger than a human, right? (Probably not). Anyhow, the fireteam with whom I'd attached HAT1 asked for confirmation that I really wanted to be using them to take out this angry metal beast headed our way. "Shoot it down!" I proclaimed, not realizing how much overkill we were talking here. It sure looked pretty seeing that rocket/missile speed off into the darkness and explode something, though.
Seeing as we got them shot down, and that we were holding the engineers, command tasked us with rescuing the helicopter. I sent the engies with C3 to go fix them up, and the rest of the chewed up squad tried to regroup and get healed up so that we could join up with Alpha and Bravo with their push west towards Zelenogorsk. We spotted some more contacts to our south along the road on the way, but thinking about the last entrenched fight we had gotten into, I opted for the squad to try and sneak past them. That didn't work.
Battered and bruised we finally pulled into the camp Bravo and Alpha had set up on the western edge of the forest overlooking Zelenogorsk. For the plan of attack, I tried to have C1 and C2 bound into the forest south of the road we were looking at while C3 headed directly southwest from our position in the current forest. Well, turns out the spot I was sending C1 to bound to was basically devoid of cover. And there were enemies in that forest south of the road. Reeeeeeeaaaallllllll sorry guys . I sent C2 to try and salvage as much of C1 as they could, and then meet up with C3 at an ammo truck parked at warehouses near our position that the other squads had reported seeing. We took some tasteful black and white photographs of the subject before blowing it to pieces, accompanied by the sounds of victory fire gunshots!
CompoundIt - Alpha 2 AT on Indiefor
I distinctly remember in the briefing off-handedly making the remark that, because I was AT, I hoped to take a pot-shot at a landing helicopter, but was doubtful I would get the chance. Turns out Tink got my wish, but like any good monkey's paw wish, got more than he bargained for. Otherwise, our fireteam was positioned at the northern cache by the road, but quickly charged south to the hills to ambush the incoming attackers there.
Determined not to squander the toys I was given, I crested a hill where the enemy had been reported with my RPG drawn. I launched one right into the middle of a group of four Blufor, and then raised and lowered my weapon repeatedly over my head in while shouting, "HURRRRR! HUUR HUUR! HURRRRRRRRRRRR!" Turns out not everyone was caught in the blast, and I had a bullet put through my head in mid-HURRR.
Spectating from heaven, I was amazed by pilot Zitron's dramatic Ramboing of a cache all by himself, blowing it up with his dying breath. Good show!
Roadside II - Charlie 3 something or other
As much of a slaughter as this was, I did have a pretty fun time playing it, if only because of the sheer terror. I managed to make it off the hill to the relative safety of town, were I was cowering away under fire for a few minutes longer. Our squad lead or CO (can't remember which) was eventually hit, and when I ran out to try and heal him, I was shot dead by an unseen assailant.
Tink wrote: I ordered the charge and left my building with AK firing wildly, maybe a little too wildly as it turned out because in my excitement I stumbled off the steps and broke my legs.
I was watching this from heaven, and nearly died again laughing. At least you had a memorable death, Tink, which is certainly more than I can say.
Swept SE (adversarial version) - Attacking force (Blufor?), Alpha 1 FTL
My team and Alpha 2 pushed into the first section of town along the road, going from building to building and clearing them while Bravo provided support from the hill. About halfway through that first section, I turned out of cover and was leading a charge to the next building when someone in said building fired a rocket right at my feet. I thought I was a goner, but managed to survive and get pulled back around the corner and healed up while others engaged.
Back on my feet, my team pressed forward again, and as we neared the eastern edge for the first section, everything went to hell. Our squad came under fire, Bravo squad came under fire and was massacred, and our squad lead was killed while I took a bullet to the leg. Also, I think our CO must have died somewhere in there too because when I came to, I was in charge.
I was completely unprepared to take command, and it showed, as we cowered behind buildings as bullets pinged all around us for what must have been 15 minutes or so while I gave no orders and just tried to stay alive. Eventually, we got our wits about us, and one of our watchful members was able to pinpoint the location of a defender in the second section of town east of us. I had the remaining Blufor to provide covering fire while I sneaked around to the south and east.
Reaching the compound where our contact was located, I asked for someone to pop out of cover, so that the enemy would fire on him, and then I would know exactly where he was. The plan worked! (I sure hope my teammate didn't die, but things were starting to move fast and I didn't have time to ask.)
Just then, the order came from on high to charge for glory. I switched on the grenade launcher function of my gun and lobbed three or four grenades into the open doorway where the defender was ensconced. I felt pretty cheap doing that, but we were charging for glory at that point, and I didn't have time to fight honorably. Moving along, I stuck to the northern side of the road and just ran east as fast as my legs could carry me, moving from building to another. I fully expected to get shot at any moment, but such was the price of glory.
Turns out I severely overestimated how many Opfor were left. I nearly ran into Shukurkulay and I still hadn't been fired upon. I checked my map, saw where I was, and crossed to the south side of the road and began running back in the direction I had come from. I heard gunshots, and reoriented to the north a bit to investigate. I rounded a corner, and there were two of my Blufor buddies! Happy day! We were finally reunited!
As I ran towards them, they were riddled with bullets coming from an open doorway opposite them.
I couldn't stop myself in time, and skidded to a halt right in front of said open doorway. I saw the Indiefor guy there, and he saw me, and we shot each other. Luck was running with me this mission, and somehow, I was left standing while my opponent fell. I entered the building and committed a warcrime on the last remaining Indiefor to end the match!
From this mission, I learned that there is no tactical problem that cannot be solved by throwing wave after wave of your own men at it.
A postman is seen putting a letter down on the table. There is no information on said letter about who sent it. However, upon opening the letter, the title reads: AAR report, 10th Feburary 2013 by Draakon. PS: I know the party might be looking for me because of happenings in Roadside II mission. Word of advice: Don't!
The glorious soviet BMP-2. What a wonderful machine. Although I would have preferred the more spacious and powerful BMP-3. Oh well.
Tasked as a lone flanking unit due North, we had a bit of a trouble. Our objective, Mogilevka, where apparently a clergy man was hold captive by the Russians, was uphill from our initial location. CO wanted us to bush further due NW, up the hill and onto another hill behind the Russians, behind them. Did i say alone? With no infantry support?
Upon getting on that hill, we were greeted by few infantry. I think they didn't know about us, because after killing a few, they still acted oblivious to us. Afterwards of engaging a few of them, I ordered Vanstrakk to maneuver around onto anther position. Then we saw the enemy IFV. What could be said on this point was a unique match between us and them. Before Waffly could even fire off a rocket at them, the enemy IFV backed off behind some trees. We still had infantry around us, so Waffly loaded HE rounds. Killing off a few more infantry, and then, unknowns to me, the enemy IFV decided to shoot with its auto cannon trough the trees. They were very accurate I might add. The first few shots hit us without me noticing it we were being engaged by the BMP-3. Before I figured out, our tracks were already dead, so I ordered Waffly to shoot back trough the trees. I think trough the mist of chaos, he didn't have time to switch to AP 600rpm mode on the cannon (I blame the bloody old Russian tech). Knowing he even couldn't shoot ATGMs and they had the advantages with infantry support, I ordered a bailout. I don't know what happened after that, because I was shot when I made into cover by the nearby tree. Did I already said we were without infantry support?
Spectating, I saw the BMP-3's cannon was damaged, so I think we did some damage at least. Lucky for independents, it was still inside the town, so they had no problem taking it out and then after a while, save the poor man in the church. VICTORY! So I guess our flanking maneuver due N worked in our favor.
Did I say we went alone, with no infantry support?
Personal notes:
1) Don't send an armored vehicle alone. Because the enemy BMP-3 had infantry around itself, they were probably able to give accurate reports about our position as well as the effectiveness of their fire.
2) Don't send an armored vehicle alone. Even with their fancy optics and whatnot, their field of view are still limited. If it wasn't for the boundaries for the Opfor side, they could had easily hugged the hillside, went past us due N and then come flanking right behind us.
3) Don't put your armored vehicles alone on a position they can't help you out. For short as life as it was for the BMP-2, all the time, we couldn't actively support our own troops. If you are planning around and thinking where to put your attachments and whatnot, look at the terrain! In theory, if the terrain was level or went uphill from our position, we could had helped friendly troops a bit from the other side of town. Alas, we couldn't.
Rolling Bohica Part 2 Medium AT Team.
Gunner - Kaleovil
Assitant gunner - Draakon
A night time ops, continuation from last Rolling Boica we did 2 weeks ago, where I witnessed Fer driving over a fellow man (his fault really for getting out of the truck when not told do) and I accidental hitting respawn button early on the mission. Aaaanyway....
MAT was attached to Bravo for this mission. The initial BSL, Head, mysteriously decided to disappear, thus Unaco from B1 had to take command. Me and Kale for most of the time tagged along, until we reached the hill that is Hamburger hill or whatever the other guys decided to call it. Once in that forest, we got guys coming from our behind, left and right. Before I died, I managed to shout out that info to whole Bravo.
Notes:
1) Forest fighting 101: Assign sectors you're fireteams should cover in forest environment. It easy to be flanked if nobody is watching there. Especially from behind.
2) Did mortar fire a shot?
CompoundIt Alpha Squad
ASL - Draakon
ASM - Unaco
Alpha had 2 tasks: Guard the eastern cache and cover the rocky area due east, out of down.
I sent A1 to guard the cache, splitting up them in the process as well. 1 half directly at the compound where the cache was and the other half due SE, into another compound. A2 was tasked of covering the rocky areas. I ordered to split them up as well, 1 half due S and the other due N.
Once the mission began, me and Unaco took a white pickup, drove up to the N side of the rocky areas we been ordered to cover, while A2 took a land rover. Right after we arrived there, I heard a chopper. Taking out my binoculars, I saw the enemy helo land on the end of a mountain tip, that separated the eastern and western cache (where B1 was). A whole freaking squad got out! After having a bit of trouble reaching CO and asking for further commands, we were ordered to come up from behind the enemy. Going back to our car and trying to link up with A1, who I told to head straight west to take out the enemy while A2 went due SW and then North, flanking them from their LZ.
Upon reaching the mountain, I saw bodies. Lots and lots of bodies. And dam mike almost shot me with an RPG-7! Lucky for him, the round landed right behind me.
I left Unaco do deal with the A1 wounded, while I (& Ebass) charged down towards B1's compound (where they died and which the enemy occupied by now). Apparently, they blew up the cache already by now. About 20 meters away from it, I hit the dirt. I saw 1 guy trying to come out from the small opening in the wall. Took him out with GP-25. Saw another dude on the 2nd floor of a ruined building. Shot him in the head. Saw Ebass go past me so I decided to charge in as well. I still saw the crates there, by the ruined building. Then CO ordered to sweep the compound clear. Upon reaching the final building, I got spooked by a friendly, who I shot by reaction instantly once and who payed back by wounding me. Luckily, we both didn't die and I just needed a bit of medical help.
BOOM! came the sound of an explosion due north. I ordered my men to go North, in hopes of blocking off Blufor from trying to reach the eastern cache. Meanwhile, I went from western cache directly due North into the town. Hearing on TS3 that some Blufor dude retreated from the eastern cache's compound, I ordered A1 to go towards the cache compound (Hint: Never sent a guy into a compound you know holds a cache and where an enemy infantry retreated from. It might have an explosives set down there. Luckily for this time, whatever that Blufor guy did there, no boom went off) and A2 into the tip of the hill, to cover. Once they were in position and I reached the Western side of town, I ordered for suppressive fire. Meanwhile I ran around the buildings and I had this moment happen from Band of Brothers:
And that won us the mission!
Roadside II
CO of Opfor forces.
Assume. Never, ever assume.
Being a continuation from the previous Roadside mission, our objective was simple: HOLD.THE.TOWN. Or so I thought. Knowing the parts of the terrain did have cover around the mountains, I ordered Charlie and Bravo to take the Eastern side of the town on the mountains, Charlie due South side and Bravo due North side (the mountain there was split in half by the leading road into the town). What I failed to tell them was for them to take cover behind the rocks, in an ambush position, because that's what I hoped to happen. I also set up a fallback position in the middle of town (surrounded by 4 satchel charges on the 4 corners of the town) once the initial engagements started. The BRDM was stationed by the market stalls in the town, in hopes of covering Alphas mountain.
Things went very bad once the mission started. I didn't expect it to be this kind of darkness (more on that later in the notes). Anyway, Charlie was first to be engaged (which they barely made out with few men alive) followed by Bravo, who also only managed to barely make it alive by few men. Alpha was entirely wiped just on the edge of the AO, where there was plenty of rocks to take cover. Being ashamed of my plan failing, I took towards the mountains due East, where Charlie was. I only managed to barely make out silhouettes. I did kill a guy, but that was because he was firing by dead bodies. Had he held fire, I wouldn't see him, because it was hard to different takistani army dead corpses and live blufor. And I got shot from god knows where.
Notes:
1) Off all the darkness missions before this one (Clergyman and Rolling Rolling Bohica) this one was the worst of them. Although the first mission was dusk (or dawn) and the 2nd full moon night time, I could clearly see the terrain, the objects and the enemy without NVGs. Apparently, on this mission, it was not the case and perhaps the reason why people got killed on the mountain. Yes, perhaps if they were back in town, things were different.
2) Cover. There was actually cover from what I saw from the mission test and playing around that part of Takistan before from many other missions and whatnot.
3) AK and it's range shooting. People say that with the weaponry we had, I shouldn't had placed my guys on the hill. Contrary to popular belief AK47's can shoot up to 400-500m in Arma. I have done it before (and even shown by Opfor on the next mission and by some Ind. defending) . Yes, it's hard, that's the nature of the weapon. But for the purposes of suppressing the enemy at least, it gets the job done. Besides, with so many missions featuring Takistani Army faction, it is hard to know what weapons we are using this time. Perhaps, under administration section on the notes, it should be said what is the primary rifle being used? For all I could had known, we were using M4's or worse...Makarovs.
Swept SE Alpha 1
FTL - Draakon
AR - Kefirz
AAR - Zitron
RAT - Kaleovil
Alpha 1 due North, covering the western flank, Alpha 2 on the compounds by the only road going trough it and Alpha 3 at the end of the town.
From my 3 story building, I saw enemy forces moving on the hill due north and then on the road itself. I don't know much on what happened on that hill (DAM IT TO HELL!) and A2, but after some point (we did receive a round or two of GP-25 fire), A1 was ordered to move West. Wrong move. We got killed by the enemy forces on that dam hill! DAM IT TO HELL!
Notes:
1) Apparently, blocking force was activated when the first shots were fired on that hill.
2) An Ak47 is a killing machine on range.
Last edited by Draakon on Tue Feb 12, 2013 2:00 pm, edited 3 times in total.
CO placed Alpha in a forest just south of the church and Bravo up on a hill to the north. When we got into position, it was noted that our visibility was as low as 400 meters due to the fog, so the two squads couldn't see each other. Bravo made contact to the north, and CO ordered Alpha to move in into the village and take cover. My FTL's positioned their fireteams in barns and houses and we waited. The enemy BMP was north so we all shifted to that direction, not looking to our backs, and for sure the BMP was a diversion as a squad of enemies assaulted the village from the south.
In the proceeding flustercluck CO was killed and I "took" command. I had no idea what was happening to Bravo. In desperation I ordered all units to converge on the church and try a last-ditch defense. I myself was crossing the street when I saw an enemy fireteam. I stopped, fired a volley with my AK - all shots missed and got incapped. Thankfully, the enemy thought I was dead so I crawled to safety. Our BMP was driving by me and stopped to patch me up. As soon as the driver started healing me, I bled out.
Rolling Bohica Part 2
Mortar team leader
This was surely a change of pace, this mission. Me and Danny, my assistant, were mostly chilling back of the main action, listening to gunfire, fireworks, tracers, explosions and the occasional passing by littlebird. When we reached the final objective town, we deployed the mortar and we were ready for the fire missions the SL's would surely send! In actuality, there were no missions, and we only fired one shot at a supposed enemy MG position that Charlie reported. The shot was not confirmed, unfortunately so we didn't know if we hit within 1 kilometer of it. Also there was some action when we were standing around with ENG team lead by Macaco, and we saw as poor Stoner got killed by a stationary humvee (yeah it tends to happen, it was jumping around a little, so if you stand too close there is a chance it will kill you).
Mission notes: what I really enjoyed was the artillery system the mission used. I'm hoping more missions will use it as it requires skill and calculations to use unlike the targeting computer. Basically this system only shows the bearing you are currently facing, the distance which the shell will fly at this angle, and time to impact. You need to use Pythagoras' theorem to calculate the accurate distance to target, and use the map compass to get the bearing, so it was fun to just sit around and try to figure out the data. Also if we got some firemissions, a forward observer would be needed to guide the shots (maybe the assistant drives his humvee to the front, as he has a high powered rangefinder)
CompoundIt
BLUFOR
A1 FTL
I was in the chopper that got RPG'ed. We were flying to the landing point and started to slow down and decrease our altitude. I had no visual on the outside as I was tucked in the hull of the Chinook. Then a beeping sound came signalling that the engine is down, along with the pilot's "OHSHI-". The pilot yelled "BAIL BAIL BAIL", so I got out and fell to the ground form 20 meters.
Now here is what I though had happened at the time. We just landed, but the pilot hit a tree on landing and the chopper started to tilt (it has happened a lot of times in the past), thinking that we needed to get the hell away from the chopper before it explodes and hearing the bail command I got out, but then I realized we were still airborne, whoops. (not your fault pilot or RPG guy)
Swept SE
Opfor
CO
My plan was this, kinda standart in this mission by this time. Alpha would advance into the town, while Bravo provided firesupport from the mountains on the north. I was kinda hoping to be a front line commander on this one, providing recon with my binocs on enemy positions. As I was standing on the mountains, I spotted some enemy guys to the south. I called them in to my SL's and continued to scan the town. I unequipped my binocs to have a look at Alpha. As I was turning around I saw a face looking at my from the crest just 20 meters in front of me. It took me a few seconds to realize that it wasn't anyone from Alpha, nor Bravo. When I recognized the black clothes, it was already too late and that assasin SuperU killed me from point blank range.
Thoughts: If I ever command this as Opfor again, I'll never again send anyone up on those mountains. They are actually pretty horrible for a base of fire, as they are really uneven and the vision of the village is mostly blocked. Not to mention the complete lack of cover over there, I should have just send the two squads in a frontal assault with bounding.
I mostly focussed on practising the Squad Leader stuff I've been learning in Ferrard's enormously useful pre-session workshops, sticking close to my fireteams and using more tactical maneuvers and formations. Turns out it's pretty effective and, I think, more fun for all involved! I also learned the value of colouring your map markers to match with your squad (L-shift and up/down). 
One of these days I'll get my fireteam through a mission with 0 casualties. One day.
. I sent C2 to try and salvage as much of C1 as they could, and then meet up with C3 at an ammo truck parked at warehouses near our position that the other squads had reported seeing. We took some tasteful black and white photographs of the subject before blowing it to pieces, accompanied by the sounds of victory fire gunshots!
