[Sun] 12 May 2013 (Not much of a launcher, Tigershark)

[Tigershark]

Which should serve a lesson for everyone. If you are going to take a pilot slot...please make sure you've taken the time to setup all your controllers correctly (including buttons for VON and PTT on TS3 and even CC). Your lack of preparation can mean the difference between great enjoyment and lots of anger for a LOT of players in a mission.

[Rosswand]

I'm going to have to start keeping notes of what roles I play, so I can remember more than just what happened to me!

Internecine II

OPFOR Alpha (3?) AAR - We moved to our position south of the town at the oil derrick, before quickly coming under fire. Then I blew up.

GooseChase

OPFOR Alpha 2 AAR - After heading the wrong way at the start, we bolted towards the castle with a helo circling around above us! Taking up position covering SW in our largely mute FT, I eventually volunteered to be detached to HQ when the call came out. With my trusty map and compass I ran to meet IceRaiser, but had not long arrived and got in my vehicle to drive away when the mission ended.

Finale XL

During the initial briefing I was volunteered to carry the SPG, being the least useful member of our FT. We got it dissasembled with Nitram carrying the tripod and I had the gun. Assembling took a bit longer though, as I frantically tried different options to get it together! I eventually got it up with the battle already going, and fired a few at the incoming armour before being winged by a bullet. Greyeric took over the SPG while Nitram was healing me, but died and got stuck on it meaning we could no longer use it. I scavenged an RPG off the dead body of our 4th FT member, and eventually fired that at the tank that was right at our position. My FTL Nitram died soon after though from a suspected Blue-On-Blue so I floundered around with the rest of ABC until we were told to charge forwards. The other squads were well ahead though so the mission ended before I reached the HQ.

Crash Site
BLUFOR Bravo 1 AAR - We landed in the west and headed to our WP, but were pinned after our FTL got hit and ended up lagging behind Bravo2. Once my FTL got his legs back we met up with Bravo 2 and eventually led the assault on the wreck. We were huddled behind the wreckage when the objective completed, then ran quickly south to the cover of the buildings.

Outpost Bean

Bravo 2 FTL? - I decided it was time to try being FTL, although it soon turned out that there was limited, if any, tactical control required in this mission I set up covering the south, but quickly got hit and watched the ensuing madness from the spectator screen.

Czech Mate

Charlie AR - We landed and regrouped quickly, and took up position scanning for enemies. We bounded up towards the compound like a reasonably well oiled machine (thanks to previous workshop visits ) With the General dead by the time we arrived we waited in cover, only firing at the friendly medic who drove at us from the north. We moved into the compound, but I got hit from somewhere and was left to watch Nitram and Greyeric try to find their way out of the walls. The never did...but lived to the end!

[Crocuta]

I'm going to keep this super terse.

Internecine 2 - OpFor Delta Rifleman: Not much to say. I died chasing my FTL to the Western compound wall.

Goose Chase - BluFor Alpha 2 AAR: After a bit of chasing, one of Alpha's LZs was directly next to an occupied castle, and were all destroyed as soon as boots hit the ground. We really should have waved off and thought it through.

At the beginning, I was riding up front in the helicopter, but wasn't spotting as much as everyone else. I'm running at 1440x900, and also wonder if there are any good tips for spotting from that high up.

Finale XL - Hotel FTL: We arrived at the South-Eastern compound, messing around for a while trying to find a good spot (there were so many of us there, squashed in). In an embarrassing display of ethnic profiling, I shot the guy with the turban running amongst us (I did try to identify). I'm really sorry, Guus.

Crash Site - BluFor Bravo 1 Rifleman: Bravo raced ahead, and practically shared an LZ with the enemy, them taking the Northern wooded hill, and Blu taking the South. At one point, B1 was heavily pinned down (I got tagged a couple of times by accurate fire), with danny shouting "what the fuck's taking you so long, B1?" I could tell where the fire was coming from but couldn't see a thing, or stick my head out for long. (Good show.)

We were told to run up to the wreck. Got there, and was taking fire from the North on both sides. After the data was collected, we were stuck in place. Noticing that I had 3 smokes, I prompted a withdrawal by placing them in the field on both sides of the plane. Victory came soon after. No kills, but I felt like I took part.

I took Alpha which, in true sleep deprived fashion, I called Bravo for the first couple of minutes.

Meanwhile, Bravo thought it was Alpha.

Outpost Bean - Alpha 2 AR: Waffly was getting super excited. I also discovered that it was a Ferrard mission right after the plot twist. And then I dicked around by swimming in the ocean while we were out to sea.

Czech Mate - Alpha AR: Bodge was having a few technical issues. We also ended up in a pretty bad place. Soon, we were all writhing around.

[Nothun]

First thing's first.

I really enjoyed the workshop, I found it to be well structured and (even though it was a training mission) very entertaining. Ragarding the Leadership positions on missions: This was only my fourth time playing with FA, but I felt already comfy playing as an FTL, and I have to say that the workshops helped me out with the Comms Structure. To be honest, after two or three sessions, I had my volume settings "optimized" for the better part, and could actually understand what my SL was talking about.
I can only recommend that new players (like myself) step up to higher positions. I managed to keep my whole FT alive the first time I was FTL (It got back to me this time though).

Internecine II

INDFOR Chalie - the mobile one(FTL Headspace, Issus, dencemoox, Nothun)

We got further south into position then Sl wanted us to, but as it turned out it was a great move. Although I did not always listen to Headspace as I was daydreaming, I always managed to pretend that I was.... Sorry.... When our MMG opend fire on the Oilderik and pinned two fireteams down, Headspace ordered us to flank. being in a superior position, we grenaded the place (mortars couldn't have done it better) and opend fire to everything that moved. Spreading out to investigate the corpses, Issus was killed by a sneaky cat hidding under the Oilderik. Having killed off all, we went to retake our MMG position that had been taken by the enemy, and victory was followed.
I felt really effective under the command of Head, and can only say: "Excellent Leadership!"

GooseChase

BLUFOR Alpha 2 (FTL Audiox, Crocuta, Anerag, Nothun)

All was good, had some pretty scenery flying over Chernarus, and got dropped of by the Heli presumably close to EI. Having found nothing but getting contact reports from Bravo, we got picked back up by Alpha Heli to be moved to a better location. Well, that new location was a Castle, and our Helo landed so close to it, that (all?) alpha was shot to flimsy bits. I only fired half a Clip that mission.
Someone on Slotting/Dead channel described it as "Normandy landing, D-Day"

Finale XL

Fox (Foxyfox was it? ) (FTL Lord Penney, Syn, Sadistic One, Nothun)

The music is Awsome!
I had an M60 in this Mission, but I cannot handle it as well as some comrades on FA.
Well I essentialy always poked my head out at the wrong time, and Penney fixed me up twice... Thank you kind Sir! We somehow managed to survive quite long, and just as I was talking to Penney how great it is that we are all still up, I took a Bullet to the Head. End of Story.

Crash Site

BLUFOR Aplha 1 (FTL Nothun, Syn, Pickers, Bones)

My second time as a FTL, and the second time that I died no more than 50m next to the Helo just after Landing.
When we first started of, we somehow managed to get a rough pilot, with some TopGun moves I believe.... Our Helo had just started to Climb when we got the Order to turn around and had a rather Hard Landing, causing the engines to fail. well we all survived so we got into the next Chopper(except Bones. Bones somehow couldn't). We landed at Alpha LZ, but took heavy fire from EI, my fellow FT members Pickers and Bones dropping next to me. As I tried to hastily drag Syn into cover I was shot too, ending the mission for me. But it was great, not to fire a single shot towards enemy positions, since I just could not find them!

I had to go sleep after that, so that's it for my AAR!

Nothun

[Terminal Boy]

GooseChase

OPFOR Alpha 2 AAR - After heading the wrong way at the start, we bolted towards the castle with a helo circling around above us! Taking up position covering SW in our largely mute FT, I eventually volunteered to be detached to HQ when the call came out. With my trusty map and compass I ran to meet IceRaiser, but had not long arrived and got in my vehicle to drive away when the mission ended.

Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

Here's my top tips for when a "never FTL'd before" Meatshield 3rd Class finds himself thrust into a position of responsibility by The Party:

1. Look at the Map and figure out the general direction to head in to reach the 1st Waypoint from where you spawn in.
2. Comms check with SL (TS3) and FT (VON) on spawn.
3. Check on Map and GPS that you spawned where you thought you would and get a bearing towards your first WP.

I managed none of these and died after shooting a Marine near the castle keep shortly after BLUFOR landed to the East of the castle.

[Aqarius]

Sadly had to bail a bit early.

Internecine 2
INDFOR Alpha RM
Not Shabaz Deployed behind some walls. As the northmost part of a cascade of FTs, there was little to do until we were pulled back to the town. Huddled behind a house with bravo(?), we kept receiving fire from the west. The situation was promptly resolved by the remaining fireteams.

Goose Chase
BLUFOR B21 RAT
Never did play this one as the hunters. After some flying, we landed on a meadow, and my fireteam got separated by enemy fire. Soon enough we took the village (why is AI counted as negative in statistics?) and were airlifted east of Vishnoye and stormed Zub. Under fire and sticking to cover, we advanced up the hill, and just as we were storming the gates, the mission ended.

Finale XL
Kilo RAT
Nearly depleting the alphabet, CO divvied the fireteams into 4 squads- 2 for the bridge, 2 for Shabaz. ABC got the SPG, DEF got the BPM, GHI got the MAT, and JKL ran out of three letter acronyms. As soon as the last two squads hit the buildings, we could hear the carnage from the other side, roaring against the background music of Radio Freedom. We were holding the easternmost flank, hiding for the push. After the holding force was depleted, MAT and GHI were let loose, followed by us. The invaders turned back, we advanced in bounding and took the HQ.

Crash Site
BLUFOR B1 FTL
Why I don't lead, in the words of a crappy scifi movie:"All he can do is walk point and take the first hit". Repeatedly.
Bravo got the western route to the crash site, and found to our surprise that the enemy had apparently done the same thing we did, only slightly north. We moved eastward, AB1 in the gutter by the road and B2 on the hill above. As soon as we entered the operations area, we found ourselves under heavy fire. By the time I crawled back and got up again, we were lagging behind. We moved up to less than 100m from the wreck, crossed the road, and found ourselves under more fire. By the time I crawled back and got up again, the rest of Bravo arrived. Reinforced by our glorious CO and medic, AB1 stormed the wreck, taking fire both from both enemy groups. By the time I got up again (no crawling, stuck in a rock), the info was retrieved, and a tactical retreat ordered. We ran downhill to the clearing, and with a fantastic line of fire on the peak, awaited the helicopter that was not coming. Luckily, comrades from Alpha had pressed on, and OPFOR was soon no more.

[Dogface]

This session felt super busy, with lots of new players, which is great! I agree with everyone else that it's much better to have a go at leading even if you don't do perfectly, which really isn't that important anyway -- we play for fun, not victory -- rather than us all sitting at the slotting screen waiting interminably for people to step up, or the same handful of people filling the leadership slots all the time.

Anyway!

Internecine II - DEFENDFOR MMG gunner

We were ordered to find a good spot to set up on along a ridgeline west of the village, and spent some time faffing about as I ran back and forth trying to work out the best place. Then I spotted some distant movement in the corner of my eye -- an enemy vehicle approaching from the south! We hastily set up where we were and kept our eyes open.

Soon enough we saw a lot of enemies moving around at an oil-derrick to our S/SE. BLAT BLAT BLAT went the PK, a little too inaccurate to snipe folks, but enough to keep them suppressed (though I did get 2 kills in the end), as I saw them running back and forth as well as peppering me with increasingly accurate fire. The comms in this team was very good and Charlie squad was soon dispatched to advance on the pinned foes. With a little shooting and a little grenade-chucking, they wiped them all out and secured the derrick.

At this point Mamba sensibly pointed out that it was probably time to move, so we decided to go up onto the peak of the hill to surprise any reprobates who tried to hit our old position. Unfortunately it seems the enemy had the same idea as we crested the hill-top at the same time as eachother, and being only two, we were soon wiped out.


GooseChase - BLUFOR Bravo Squad Leader

Each squad loaded into a helo and we started orbiting around OPFOR's starting town of Mogilevka in order to scout out where the hostages were headed. Bravo were assigned to the green blip which seemed to be slowly heading east, so we started flying around between them and the nearest vehicle depots, hoping to intercept them. Eventually we saw some movement at one of the vehicle depots and touched down just east of it to make an assault.

It soon became clear that the movement was a mix of AI and (presumably) an OPFOR advance party sent to get vehicles. Taking fire from the trees to the north and amidst some injury-related confusion, we eventually managed to clear the area and close in on the vehicle depot. Although the initial plan was to destroy the vehicles, I decided to put B2 into the PK technical (plus one in a car) and send them north onto the main road, which the blip indicated the hostage might be taking. Meanwhile I piled B1 into the chopper to do some more scouting and try to re-establish contact.

At this point it was clear things elsewhere were going wrong, as we got word that all of Alpha had been wiped out at Castle Zub. Leaving B2 to deal with the green blip as best they could, the en-choppered B1 plus me and the medic rolled out to get our revenge. As we closed in, we started taking fire from the castle and had to wave off to a more distant LZ; on the way back towards Zub, B1 FTL was hit again, so I took the rest of his troops and sprinted across the open ground towards the hill, filtering into the thick trees on the north side of it. At this point B2 had tracked their hostage to Staroye, but the radio silence from them soon after made it clear we were the last ones left.

The chopper was circling the castle at this point, strafing it with the doorguns, and it was clear the enemy were distracted as we heard them shooting while sneaking in through the back. We soon encountered contacts around the keep in the center, with one enemy spraying some fire before running back inside the door. Rather than rush into his line of fire I popped a GL round into the doorway, which apparently was the end of the hostage Danny. Wounded at this point, I took out 1 more enemy who ran round a corner, and forced another, near the curved wall, to retreat south, while calling out directions to the few survivors in Bravo. At this point, though, both hostages were apparently dead and the mission ended.

***

A couple of points about this mission. Firstly, due to the nature of it with a lot of impromptu planning and situation-changes, and having to coordinate between distant groups and choppers, there is a *lot* of radio chatter on CC. So if I was shushing a lot of people in Bravo, it wasn't due to malice. Having said that, as a general rule of thumb, only FTLs should be using squad teamspeak, and it's really helpful if they can keep transmissions short, clear and to the point!

Secondly, Tigershark deserves commendation for his helicopter support. As well as flying beautifully, he responded quickly to requests, asked when he needed more information, gave good advice about landing zones and such, and had great discipline in loading and unloading troops. As he pointed out, chopper pilots can't really read the map while flying, so the most useful sort of instrction is something like "fly 500m S/SE, land at the base of the big hill" rather than "land us in Dolina" or "I've put an LZ marker down".

Thirdly, although I don't really have a specific point, it would be nice if we could slightly refine how the hostages behave. I know it's fun to mess about, I've done it plenty myself, but having been a guard and really having little recourse to make a hostage move or stay still, it is super frustrating, and it feels against the spirit of the mission beyond a certain point. There's also the matter of keeping them safe, and this might also rest on OPFOR's shoulders to an extent; I know there've been plenty of missions were BLUFOR have killed both hostages but it really doesn't feel like they could have done much differently short of letting OPFOR pass, and they're already at quite a disadvantage because it's so difficult to track OPFOR down in the first place. So, I'm not sure exactly what the solution is, but it would be cool if we could find one. Invulnerable hostages? Not carrying hostages in technicals? Ionno.

Finale XL -- MAT gunner

I didn't really get a chance to shoot this mission, because by the time I got called out, most of the tanks were dead or disabled and we still had plenty of RPG rounds left. Still, it was nice to beat such an infamous mission so handily.

Crash Site -- Bravo SL

After a bit of a dodgy landing in the north, we started rushing down hill towards the floor of the valley. Soon receiving word of the crash site to our west, I started heading that way, but daf reported seeing a chopper landing further south and east. While they were dealing with that, I and most people around me got shot by the AI guards. From then it was a long PvP slog -- I forget who won, in the end!

Outpost Bean -- Soldier in Crazy..SKB(?)'s squad

Bravely stepping up as a new FTL, Crazy did admirably despite the chaos, as we defended a square in Chernogorsk from hordes of hungry survivors. Unfortunately the FPS performance was barely playable for me, as sadly tends to be the case with many of the more AI/script-heavy missions e.g., Arrival, but it was still amusingly hectic and I managed to drag myself onto a departing boat in the end.

[Dabbo]

Internecine II
OPFOR: Echo Fire Team Leader
-- Dabbo
-- Sek
-- daf
-- Pickers

We started off jumping into the nearest truck, there was a bit of logistics issue where two people were in the wrong truck. We moved towards the enemy camp, where most of my team got shot down, I couldn't see where from so I just shot wildly hoping to suppress them whilst I checked on my team mates condition. I died shortly afterwards mostly due to not having any smokes or binoculars equipped at the start, so I was a rubbish FTL for this mission. :/

GooseChase
BLUFOR: Bravo 2 Fire team Leader
-- Dabbo
-- Sek
-- Issus
-- Blastvader

We flew around where OPFOR would have set off from and the last know ping of the hostages. I spent a lot of time just zooming and scanning the trees and roads for movement until we decided to land near a small group of houses that had 3 vehicles lined up (suspicious). I had issues with the "Jump out left/right" menus, it kept jumping in and out of the chopper and the menu's duplicated - so settled for the default Eject option.

Once out, our team started firing North as my fire team were ordered to go West. My fire team had trouble following my lead (keeping up with me) - not sure if I should have been talking them through my actions or that I keep assuming everyone has @STHUD installed (which not everyone has) and its easy to assume they do So as I was walking through the woods, I kept losing members of my team as they kept falling behind. I'm not sure they could see the team diamonds (as I couldn't see theirs), so I'm not entirely sure how to keep my team together with just the vanilla Arma HUD (When the diamond HUD thing fails).

Anyway, we were ordered to take the techincal we found and head to Staroye where we ran into a pretty good ambush, I died instantly - I had a bad feeling on approach and knew I shouldn't have driven through that town

FinaleXL
BLUFOR: India Fire Team Leader
-- Dabbo
-- AJAX
-- HungryDinosaur
-- CrazySKB

I just ran with my team to the compound to the south east of the starting positions. I pretty much stuck with CrazySKB while he scanned for tanks and I took out any infantry threats so he didn't need to swap weapons (all 1 of them). I left AJAX and HungryDinosaur to take cover in a different orientation and they seemed to have more success than me when taking down some hostiles.

I jumped into a damaged tank, in the gunner position, I heard that the enemy were on the hill - I saw them, but rather than check my map, I opened fire and took down 1-2 friendlies


A very positive moment for me from this mission was that I managed to practice reporting my team strength and ammo count up to command, which I haven't done yet since learning about this in a workshop about a week ago. Not that interesting, sure, but it is helping me with command roles.

Crash Site
OPFOR: Transport Helo 2 Pilot for Bravo squad.

Another workshop skill kicked in at the start, whereby I informed the Squad Lead that I wouldn't take off without his say so. Allowing him to verify each fire team was onboard before giving the all clear It worked well.

However, on approach to our intended LZ, I came down a little too hard on a sloped hill and completely knackered the helo - most of the squad were injured including myself.


"Sorry guys, but hey! We, survived didn't we?"

I think I died shortly after following Bravo into the trees, soon as they opened up on the AI, the AI nailed me.

Outpost Bean
BLUFOR: Bravo Squad Leader
-- Dabbo
-- awaitz (medic)

I followed our CO's orders to line up my Fire teams along the South East. Bravo 3 seemed to ignore my marker and entered a building the the north west, past Alpha's fixed postiions :/ Anyway, they kept moving away from the cover and getting shot in the open, I was running around like a headless chicken trying to rescue my injured squad.

I was injured at one point whilst 10 people around me, ignored my cries for healing - I guess when people see a guy prone on the ground and no red * in a diamond, they'll think he is fine I guess that's what happens when you lose you medic, I died lonely, on the beach.

--------------------

I called it a night after that, the trauma was too much - I might try and push myself to take on a CO role next time, or some more Squad Leading at the very least.

Good session.

[Lord Penney]

Workshop
A3 FTL

Fer held a very tight workshop, especially when we were unexpectedly attacked by AI. Once we'd cleared them out, it was back to some good old bounding and vehicle loading practice.
I'd also like to give a commendation out to my squad here who successfully executed "operation badass pose" with no prior training. Also, they followed my garbled rantings orders well.

Internecine II
Echo FTL

Didn't see any enemies and forgot to turn on CC.

GooseChase
Hostage 2

I'd first like to thank Bodge for his professionalism; just because he'd been assigned to be my guard doesn't mean that he had to nasty, he was quite pleasant and offered me fruit pastels and biscuits. All is forgiven, how were we to know that a bizon could actually take someone down? But I'll get to that later.

I tried to ascertain why, exactly, I'd been captured. It had passed through my mind that they were after my peerage but Dannysaysnoo, hostage 1, believed that we were sas, whilst the captors informed me that we smelled nice which made a nice change. However, through what appeared to be inane conversation I discovered the real reason I had been captured; they were after my anti-dirt jumper and the pens in my pocket! I presume that they were to interrogate me on where I had bought them since they could have just killed me and taken them, which they likely ended up doing.

On my travels, I frequently hid in whatever vegetation I was near when Bodge wasn't looking so as to make him run off and look for me; sadly, my coveted sweater did not blend in as well as I had intended. I managed to diffuse the awkwardness by explaining that I was a keen horticulturalist.

Honestly it was quite a merry stroll, and I was never shouted at, not once; not even for walking and sightseeing. Eventually, the bravo SL started to get grumpy and informed Bodge that he was to shoot me in the leg should I dawdle any longer; and knowing what a professional he was, I was suddenly more focused on my instructions. I did offer Bodge a nice retirement package if he was kind enough to let me go. He politely refused.

Finally, we happened upon our current objective; two vehicles. These cars were to take me straight to, um, wherever they were taking me. Little did they know, I had been planning for this the entire journey! I would commandeer a vehicle before my captors, who would be momentarily stunned at my sheer audacity, would get in the other car and we would engage in an exciting car chase!

What actually happened? Well, I did manage to get in the car and began to drive off just like I said; but, I did also say Bodge was a professional.

FinaleXL
Echo FTL (look, I just like to FTL alright?)

My final mission of the night.

Lots of shouting. Very sad music. Nothun! Tanks! Man down! Don't die on me Dan, I'll get you home! I made a promise!

Note: There may have been a king leonidas impression here.