[Sat] 25 May 2013 (Operation Northern Lights)

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Bodge
Posts: 242
Joined: Wed May 04, 2011 6:36 pm

[Sat] 25 May 2013 (Operation Northern Lights)

Post by Bodge »

Thanks for those that did show, our armoured column was victorious even with great attrition. It showed the mission worked and I will work out the bugs we encountered ready for a larger run later in the summer.

Terminal Boy
Posts: 124
Joined: Tue Feb 12, 2013 4:14 pm
Location: London

Re: Operation Northern Lights

Post by Terminal Boy »

Thanks for making this happen as I had enormous fun (and a steep learning curve) driving the Linebacker Red Palm 2 directly towards the enemies AT assets.

I eagerly await the AAR thread so I can explain my erratic driving to Qazi and Wires..

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Bodge
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Re: Operation Northern Lights

Post by Bodge »

I think this will serve as an AAR thread tbh, i will rename it appropriately.

Terminal Boy
Posts: 124
Joined: Tue Feb 12, 2013 4:14 pm
Location: London

Re: [Sat] 25 May 2013 (Operation Northern Lights)

Post by Terminal Boy »

Role: Driver - Red Palm 2 Bradley AAA "Linebacker"
Vehicle Commander: Qazi
Gunner: Wires

I was expecting a grunt role for Op. Northern Lights as I was very late to the sign up, but was delighted to a spare vehicle slot going begging, so I jumped into the driver's seat of Red Palm 2.

Took me a little while to figure out that the response to directional commands from keyboard and mouse appeared to vary wildly depending whether I was turned in or out. Also, despite turning the VON volume to max and dropping the Effects volume all the way down, I couldn't make out more that a quarter of what Qazi and Wires were saying. Would this be because we used the Group channel instead of Vehicle?

TS comms were clear, so I mainly followed these as well as keeping an eye own the GPS and map to figure out where I should be. We moved quite cautiously along the route to the objective and found out why the moment I tried to hustle things along by flanking off road to the right of our tanks by receiving an ATGM to the face..

No idea where it came from, but the other AFVs and the dismounted infantry soon surpressed the Hell out of the whole town and no more AT threats were seen. A kindly medic fixed up the battered crew of Red Palm 2 up and we waited at the military base for a new Linebacker to be ferried in by our Chinook.

I think the ArmA Gods decided that they needed more iron in their diet as they swallowed the first replacement Bodge dropped up whole, leaving him to make another trip which and he successfully dropped off the replacemnent's replacement just up the road from the base we were waiting at.

We caught up with the rest of the force as they halted to clear mines away from the crossroads at the next town and Wires engaged some EI who tried to disrupt the disarming party. Once the mines were cleared, we all mounted up and moved out towards the final objective. Having dropped slightly behind the other AFVs due to ArmA's entertaining control system throwing a wobbler and not letting me turnout (fixed by Super's sage advice), I had to floor it to catch up and hit almost 100kph downhill trying to catch the M1s which was very hairy as even looking at the mouse made the Linebacker dance all over the road at the speed.

The rest of the force were already engaging enemy infantry, bunkers and IFVs as we arrived and I managed to find us a spot where Wires could bring our cannon to bear on the enemy. Wires blasted every trace of enemy he could see off the map for our hilltop, so it was time to move to our next firing point, this time on the left flank of the tanks.

Again, we found more targets for Wires and again, I got carried away and took us too far forward... I thought the reverse slope ahead was clear as I saw one of the dismounted Paras run through the area without taking any fire.
It turns out that the Para must have a charmed life as a whole enemy FT was just below the crest and I actually saw their AT man turn towards Red Palm 2 (Version 2) and fire his RPG at us, destroying us and our vehicle.

Fortunately, we respawned at the airbase and grabbed a lift back to the action in the Merlin. We joined up with an infantry element and swept the right flank for EI as the armoured group made its assault on the final objective. I found an abandoned Jackal on the hill overlooking the objective, but the mission was successfully completed before we had time to mount up and join the assault.

A big thank you to Bodge and everyone else who made this happen as I really enjoyed the mission and look forward to the next one!

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