[Sun] 31 Mar 2013 (Friend or Foe?)

[Ferrard Carson]

Missions:

• Crateresistance
• Rolling Matryoshka, Part I
• Cinderella (now with MOAR fog!)
• Roadside, Part II
• Holy Stones
• Chernolo (Afterparty!)

Many glorious thanks to the 58 comrades who came along tonight to celebrate Zombie Jesus Day Easter Sunday!

Crateresistance provided us with a taste of the horrors to come, as one superpowered Bandzai claimed the dominion of Stary Sobor. His mates were unable to keep up with the hard-rockin', chain-smokin' badass, but they did manage to funnel a fair amount of BluFor into Bandzai's killing fields! Rolling Matryoshka proved that Chernarussian Forests have yet to finish slaking themselves with the blood of Comrades, but we managed to seize a hill and scare off all the BluFor around it (who may or may not have been withdrawing for a napalm strike). Cinderella saw a two-pronged human wave assault by the Takistanis. Very few of them made it to the walls, but the few that remained frightened the Bradley so much that they ran out of the Safety Zone and got blown up by an opportunistic RPGer even as the automated UAV was drawing a bead. Roadside II found the Takistani army slowly whittled down by secret 'leet black-ops units who may or may not talk in very stilted accents. "Enemy. Man to our. East. 500 meters. Under fire!" "7 is dead." None survived. Finally, the rivalry of Aziz and Azoz flared into urban combat as brother turned against brother, father against son, and men who had played football with one another in their youth screamed patriotic slogans at one another while the civilians around them looked over in puzzlement.

As ever, please post your thoughts, feedback, screenshots and video here (PM any of the hosts for details of FA YouTube channel); please remember comrade YouTube Hero SuperU's FA video idents, but please also check out the latest guidance on video editing for Folk ARPS from yours truly! Detailed posts in the AAR threads really helps us (the hosts and mission makers), both with understanding how we can improve the experiences, and showing potential comrades what our sessions are like.

~ Ferrard

[Skabooga]

Crateresistance - IndieFor B1 FTL

We received marching orders to take up position on the northwest flank in between two caches. Upon reaching our destination, we found that what was marked on the map as "luxurious foliage" consisted of little more than four anemic trees, and so took an even longer jog along the treeline to a position even further northwest. Well, that put us within spitting distance of the northern-most cache, and just as we were settling down, we got word that that particular cache was being assaulted, and that we should investigate.

So we rolled up to a ridgeline south of the cache and tried to ascertain what was going on. There was smoke near the cache spot, but I couldn't see any movement; I pulled out my binoculars for a better look, but still couldn't see anything. "Where are these guys?" I was mouthing off over VON to my fireteam when a single shot instantly killed me.

My one contribution was getting Bandzai close enough to the OpFor where he could go berzerk on them.

Rolling Matryoshka, Part I - C1 FTL

We set off on foot towards Charlie's overwatch position. After my disastrous headlong rush in the previous mission, I decided to play this one carefully. Maybe a little too carefully (sorry Daf!): by the time I got in position, the other Charlie fireteams had already taken heavy casualties. Still, we opened fire on the factory like everyone else, and with our medic occupied, we took turns pretending to be doctors whenever one of us would get shot. Eventually a tank rolled into view, and we fired 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 rockets at it, and the damn thing was still moving. Antlia loaded up the last rocket in our squad, took aim and fired away.

As the smoke cleared, we saw the tank in ruins and being de-crewed! In celebration, we murderized the crewmen jumping out! Once the fun died down and factory was properly taken, Charlie set off towards the next waypoint. We were all so cautious about giving the enemy tank to our west a wide berth, that we pretty much walked into an enemy squad coming in from the east. My fireteam when from four members to zero in about ten seconds.

Cinderella BluFor CO

As we pulled into town, I glanced over the orders from HQ: "Survive the night in the town. Expect heavy resistance." I positioned fireteams in compounds overlooking the northwest, the northeast, and the south, and put our pride and joy IFV "Cinderella" in a safe cluster of buildings in the center of the village. In a fit of tactical genius, (well, when considered in light of my usual capabilities) I sent my sole Bravo fireteam outside of town to a wooded area by the roads to the northeast. They were to lie in wait, let the enemy pass by them, and then flank the enemy from behind as soon as they engaged our forces in the village. Then we waited.

We passed the time telling jokes.

Some of us appreciated the jokes less than others.

Suddenly, Bravo reported movement near them! They laid low according to plan, despite the enemies passing close enough for Bravo to catch a whiff of their alluring cologne. Movement also reported to the south: a multiple-pronged attack was underway, the clever devils! The radio reports rolled in one following the other: . . . northern forces engaged . . . Bravo moving in to flank . . . southern forces pinned down . . . ("Cinderella! Aid them!") . . . technical en route . . .

After the dust cleared, I couldn't believe it: we were still alive, although the northwestern Alpha 1 fireteam was taking fire. I ordered them to retreat to the center of town, and tasked the IFV, now taking heavy anti-tank fire on the south side of town, to swing around around the perimeter of town and cover Alpha 1's withdrawal.

Well, ol' Cinderella must have rolled a little too far out from the cover of the buildings, for wouldn't you know it, a passing drone was able to sight it and reduce it to a pile of flaming metal. "Ah, well," I thought. "We should probably be able to manage without it." Then, I noticed a small insert among my orders that had escaped my attention earlier:

SPECIAL ORDER 4097:
BRING BACK CINDERELLA. PRIORITY ONE.
ALL OTHER PRIORITIES RESCINDED.
CREW EXPENDABLE.

Shit, I'm going to get executed for this, aren't I?

Roadside, Part II - Alpha Medic

I decided to attach to Alpha 3, as they seemed to be the most centrally located. Well, the other fireteams got wiped out so thoroughly that my services weren't required. When Alpha 3 came under fire, I ran for cover in a nearby shack, and because they never came out of fire, I essentially had the pleasure of listening to them die. Feeling ashamed of my cowardice, I sprung out of cover to try and heal up our downed squad leader. I was successful in reaching him, and started dragging him back toward cover. Then I looked around, and realized there wasn't any cover, anywhere, for kilometers. We got shot in the middle of the road, and bled out together in the night.

So overall, things went as well as they were expected to go.

[Kefirz]

Mutton Chop Brigade in it's inaugural battle, look at us, don't we look formidable? Huzzah!

[Anvilfolk]

Hahahahahah

I could only make it to Roadside II, and did an absolutely atrocious job as Bravo 2 FTL. I sent Mamuto, Steven and Dan to their deaths very stupidly, then died myself. I'm really sorry I ruined this mission for you guys - have my public apologies

[Dogface]

Crateresistance - A1 FTL.

I was one of the first to be shot, by some lowly but lucky AI as we approached the hilltop with the first cache location. Luckily the mission was timeboxed to 30 minutes, and I got to watch the rest of the team get massacred in fairly short order.


Rolling Matryoshka, Part I - Bravo SL.

Tigershark bravely took on the task of corralling our huge herd of soldiers - 3 full squads, 2 BMPs, and various attachments - in this traditional FA bloodbath. We moved into the first town easily enough, but soon came under fire from the large hill to the northwest. Since we were heading there anyway, we lined up and started climbing with our BMP trailing behind us. After clearing out a few troops among the trees, we came into view of the first place we had to assault, a factory. It started shooting at us, with tanks and MGs. Bad!

We pulled back to the crestline, took up firing positions, and started making bangbang at the badmans while Alpha maneuvered to take the place. Many bullets took down most of the badmans, but by this point Alpha were getting demolished, so Bravo was sent in to have a go ourselves. We moved down to the road, and immediately lost our BMP to the tank(?), which we in turn destroyed with many rockets. With the help of lots of supporting fire, we eventually managed to breach into the factory and clear it out. Alpha, meanwhile, were moving ahead of us to start assaulting the next objective, a hilltop camp.

Once again, their bravery was rewarded with much glorious death, driving them back into the factory with us. This time it was their turn to cover us as we had a go, taking down the blockade after some stiff fighting and then moving up to the hilltop. We encountered an enemy IFV and a T55, but both of them were taken down in short order with the help of Dannysaysno, last surviving crewman of our BMP, who'd been running around looting weapons with mad abandon.

Victory!


Cinderella (now with MOAR fog!) - BLUFOR A1 FTL

Us BLUFOR had to defend an IFV against some OPFORs, while staying inside a small village. Our FT was assigned to the northwest corner of the village, while the vehicle stayed hidden in the centre. After a long, tense wait, swinging our targetting lasers around through the dark, we started hearing reports of movement in our sector. A single contact started harassing my northern dude, followed by a swarm of badmans suddenly appearing at once out of the fog. I shot some men, I was shot by some men. Eventually the clever blighters managed to flush the IFV out of the village where it blew up!


Roadside, Part II - BLUFOR (AI) puppetmaster (w/ 8 puppets)

We puppetmasters were told to use our AI soldiers, equipped with nightvision and all sorts of hi-tech weaponry, to take the small town of Falar from the main team. We took up positions in the surrounding mountains, with me in the north. I hid next to some high-up rocks where I could observe from, and split my guys into two teams, sending one down to the road and one across the slopes. They soon started engaging players -- one group on the west side of the road, and one who'd taken the same high ground as me, but further south. Although my AIs were slowly whittled down, they managed to take a few people with them, with myself taking roughly-aimed potshots at people when they weren't suppressing me with accurate MG fire.

Unfortunately it's very tough for the players to contend with the lack of nightvision(?) and they were all wiped out!


Holy Stones - Aziz

I communed with the wisdom of the ancients, and they gave me a vision of a swarm of bees. I commanded by loyal Azizianites to scatter wildly throughout the marketplace like unto the very bees, and wreak havoc as they willed. I meanwhile hung out in the party house. It worked!


Chernolo (Afterparty!) - Angry Cop

Us factory. Them cars. They drive fast, I shotgun at car. They sneak around warehouse, I sneak around them. I shoot man, I look in hut, then man shoot me. It was...................,..

BAD Hut

[Terminal Boy]

Rolling Matryoshka - MAT 1 attached to Charlie.

Comrades, was there a Classified auto-slot script/mod in use last night?

I ask as the "Please fill up the Fireteam now" slotting for Rolling Matryoshka seemed to take only a few milliseconds and I was unable to select the humble AAR slot I was after despite hovering the mouse pointer over it. Cause my fading old person reflexes...

So, I ended up being voluntold to slot as MAT-1. Which I knew would end badly as I couldn't hit Jo Brand with an RPG if I was up her.

The mission got of to a great start with my Assistant Kefirz and the driver of the IFV we spawned into (tryteyker?) having something of a spat over who should be in which vehicle. Anyway, we moved off towards Orlovets which was supposed to be the dismount point for all the various elements. One of my rare in-game consultations of the map showed that a bunch of callsigns already moving out towards there initial markers, so we decided to leave the IFV and attempt to catch up with Charlie.

Which turned out to be a very good idea as the IFV met its doom shortly afterwards.

Now, I do try to read all the map notes so I have some idea what the Big Picture, but I must have missed the part that stated "You'll be running towards your squad marker surrounded by AI wearing the exact same uniform as yours". This was very nerve-wracking as my normal experience being within touching distance of AI is being shot in the face one hundred times.

Not an excuse for my only achieving 2 hits (taking out a BMP and annoying a T-55) while engaging the enemy vehicles at the Factory. I'm not sue what happened next, I think from the radio chatter I heard while switching TS back to the Limbo/Slotting channel that someone had turned the AI around Charlie unfriendly and I received exactly one hundred bullets to the face.

Cinderella - OPFOR Suicide Unit Echo.

Because a frontal assault across open ground on a heavily defended village in low-light without NVG is always a good idea. Some amusement was had at Zergra's repeated bush induced self-harming, but missions where you spend more time in the CO's briefing than you do in-mission aren't much fun.

Roadside OPFOR Bravo 1 AAR : FTL - Bandzai

We defended an isolated compound. Our FTL died. We took fire from the hills and then GP and grenades from up close. I found a great position where I could cover the East entrance in safety. And then I fired at the enemy who ran in using the crosshairs for the ever in Arma and shot a lot of wall. The enemy shot me. FMAL.

Holy Stones

Who are these Aziz/Azoz buggers that keep ordering me into this dump to die? It's dark and everyone looks identically ragged. I shot at people. I GP'd people. Some of them might have been enemy. People shot at me. One person hit me. Some of them might have been enemy. I was still alive, but laying in a pool of my own blood when we were declared victorious.

A pox on both their houses.

[Bandzai]

Crateresistance - IndieFor B1 AR

After nice long stroll in the nature, we arived at our newly planned destination south of some town (from what I now know it was Stary Sobor. For non russian speakers it stands for Old Church or Old Gethering (to do with orthodox religion). We actually have a Sobor in Lithuania in Kaunas old town built in 1895). To my fault I was not looking much at the map, just keeping up with our FTL Scabooga. We positioned ouselves at the tree line above the town and noticed some enemy movement. I saw two guys running towards the buildings and took an oportunity to shoot at them. I think it was my first mistake, as it was too far, they were too close to cover, and we revieled our positions. Moments later our FTL got shot, my FT mates were lying wounded and I was retrieting for a better cover under scarse fire.

I managed to patch up Willem in time, but it was too late for Nimrod. It was a good time to study a map a bit, as I was supposed to be in charge now, but Willem had a great idea to charge and flank the enemy, as they were engaging someone else.

We ran down the hill in to the town, crossed the street, and slowly went eastwards. Willem was some 50m. north from me behind different building when I've heard that he engaged an enemy and annouced that there were three of them. I did not reply, being afraid not to give out my possition. I stepped out from my cover behind some shack and saw my first victim. He was in the open, one meter away from building corner and shooting at Willem. I aimed at him and fired, and fired, and fired. And he was still standing. I stopped, aimed again and fired small burst. He fell down. (OMG small bursts, who could have known that they work!)

At that time Willem was dead or wounded. It might have been my fault, as the enemy had to be dead after my first couple of shots, but I managed to hit him only few seconds later. No time to cry about it. There were at least two more guys behind the building. I approached the other side of the house and decided to go around the opposite side of the building, as they might be expecting me on the side where the firefigt went down.

As I looked behind the building's edge I got shot at from quite far away. It was enemy next to a fence down the road. Luckilly I managed to down him first. Made a quick mental note to myself, as there could be more of them there. At the same time a tango behind my building decided to crawl towards the street or to his friend, as I saw another body there. Few shots and he was not moving anymore. I turned around, ran to where my first victim was laying, and saw a kneeling man playing with himself. I did not ask what he was doing. I shot him (You don't play with yourself at Sobor on such a holy day!).

There were four dead guys lying at my feet, and one further down there road. I thought I heard someone moaning, and since I didn't think I was wounded, I had to double check if all of them were actually dead. No need for this to turn out to be DayZ. Come on, is it such a bad thing to shoot dead people? It was all for the greater good.

I finally had a relatively safe moment to check on Willem. Unfortunatelly he was no Jesus either. There was nothing I could have helped him with anymore. So I decided to retreat a bit, changed my comms channel to speak to Alpha. Couple of seconds later I saw a man near the church (Sobor?). I shot couple of shots at him, and he politely asked to check my fire. I begged for forgiveness. He was like a saint and raised his hand. This was a happy moment. I found my new old friends.

Alpha was very organised. They knew where they needed to go. I wasn't even shure where exactly the weapons stash was. Again Alpha kindly advised to check my map

So we moved east again. Alpha was on the other side of the street, near the church, I was about to go back to the pile of dead people. Few steps later Alpha got engaged accros the street by a single enemy, who happened to be located in front of me. He actually might have been a friend of the guy who died near fence further down the road. Luckily he was not looking at me. He was my last kill. Mission complete. Epic win.

I'd like to thank my Fire Team, especcially Willem, for the initiative and grerat communication.

I need to start recording this stuff.

[Crocuta]

Craterresistance: INDFOR - Alpha medic. Bravo seemed perfectly happy taking on the entire enemy force, so for the most part we left them to it, only charging in at the last moment.

Rolling Matrioshka: Charlie 2 AT. I unloaded both of my RPG rounds into a tank, but it didn't seem to want to die. I don't know how many it took in total, but eventually it gave up on life. Then we went on a suicide mission to see what happened to another Charlie fireteam before our entire squad was overrun at point blank.

Cinderella: OPFOR Delta AR. I was looking forward to playing as Opfor on this mission. Damn, was it dark. At one point we were told to cover, but all I could see was black beyond a range of 20m. Doooooooomed. At least I made a lot of loud noises before my demise.

Roadside II: OPFOR Bravo 1 AT. I spotted EI near the road East of town, fired upon them, and was eventually wounded. Things heated up after I'd retreated into the compound, and our FTL died. I killed Tigershark, then was killed by Tigershark. Goddamn clone army.

The theme for the night was being the last in the fireteam to die.

[lwlooz]

Crateresistance
NORTHFOR - B2 FTL

Our job as Bravo in this mission was to setup a BOF in Stary Sobor protecting Alpha doing their cache-clearing business. This went well. After some time we were ordered to run back to Alpha's cache. Halfway there we stopped and were ordered to go in the opposite direction again. Sadly my team was on slope with no cover now going back into a town that had be claimed by the opposite team in our absence. Clinging to some bushes which provided spiritual cover, I spent the following minutes getting patched up or patching someone up.
Issus's legs didnt make it. This was lucky for him tho, because I as I got the rest of my fireteam to run to a factory for more cover, the enemy had the exact same idea.
I spotted some enemy walking towards me,try to get my aim on him,but was quickly put down.

Rolling Matryoshka, Part I
COOPFOR - B2 AAR

I spent the first half of the mission First-Aiding people who were being shot in long range engagments on the front of the slope, the second half avoiding being friendly-fired at the factory and the third half trying to find someone to First-Aid me after being shot from flanking forces from the S.

Cinderella
NONVGFOR - F FTL

After some car-sharing we found ourselves charging a compound that I couldn't really see. My team was assigned to attack it by fire, which sadly resulted in me grenading some friendlies in fog of war ahead. Sorry . The charge itself ended as predicted. But I am glad at least 2 man of my fireteam made it to the walls before lying down to rest for a bit.

Roadside, Part II
HUMANFOR - B SL

I was assigned to defend the SE sector of the town and its neighbouring slopes. My plan included sending one recon man up the hill and telling my other squads to hide in compounds covering the eastern and the southern road. Sadly, I had no real time to organise this defense as german engineering not only enabled our enemies to teleport to positions where they could get to us very quickly,but also gave them superior weaponry. Vorsprung durch Technik. My recon guys kept getting shot up, so I had to keep sending guys up the hill. I don't know if that ever happened as my southern defense line was getting decimated a lot and I couldn't really make out on the radio what happened. Why is everyone speaking , and how am I supposed to hear anything above all this shooting noise. Squadleading is the worst.

Holy Stones
I don't really know - A3 FTL

I setup my fireteam on the NW corner of the market in buildings overwatching the very same. I saw couple of enemy guys with rifles, fired grenade-shells at them, shoot at them, several times, but ended with only one civilian kill.

[Walter]

Crateresistance: INDFOR A3 AR - There were some communication issues, but we managed going in a straight line well enough until we started receiving fire. Many people, including me, died quickly. Wasn't really my best mission.

Rolling Matryoshka: IFV1 Driver - After winning an IFV knowledge quiz I got the honour of driving IFV1. "Yay", I thought, "this time I'll be invincible". But it seems I forgot that IFV stands for Immensely Flammable Vehicle. After some confusion regarding who should be in our vehicle, we set off, powering through villages and going offroad in the end. I felt a bit like a rally driver because of the way I was instructed. It felt good. Then we got shot by something. As our IFV burnt our commander asked for a medic and we were told that he's coming. After a few minutes of burning we realised that there are more pressing matters for the medic, so we went on to proclaim our last wishes if anyone manages to get out from our deathtrap alive. I was the last one to remain alive and spent the final minutes talking to myself on chat. I didn't really notice when my two comrades passed.

Weirdly, it was fun for me.

I sadly had to go after that mission, but it was very cool to see so many people.