SESH GOOD. GOOD SESH.
Ashore
Oh look a carrieAAAUUUGGHGHHH UNIVERRSSSSSSSEEEEEEEE IMPLOOODDDINNNNGGGGGGGGG
Rook Valley - Charlie SL
One of the night's 'big missions', this definitely ran smoother than before - although by the time we took the flight to ChakChak, it was starting to become a slideshow again. I know it's bad when half of my footsteps aren't even being registered so I'm moving at half-speed... <:) Props to Ferrard for improving things though.
Anyway, as the platoon moved down the valley into Shukurkalay, Charlie was assigned to the right-hand/southern slope, with Bravo on the other side and Alpha in the middle. Things went very smoothly for us: we saw an enemy squad on the hill ahead of us with plenty of warning, and were able to keep an eye on them as we advanced along the valley keeping Alpha covered and taking out the occasional target on the valley floor. Eventually the weapons team got into PK range and destroyed the hilltop squad, and we moved up to occupy their old position and start raining down precise, targeted fire on the town, albeit at quite some distance.
Alpha were the first to hit the town, and we soon got reports of them getting chewed up at close range. We directed our fire as close as possible without hitting Alpha, then did the same for Bravo as they moved in to reinforce Alpha. Our fire was very effective against the targets we could see from our distant vantage point, with FTLs and spotters directing shots very efficiently with their binoculars. Great work team! Since we kept a safe distance, we also managed to complete this stage with no casualties whatsoever, unlike the much-battered other squads.
Eventually we got word that some sort of cache had been found and destroyed, so glorious CO Draakon pulled us back into the valley for extraction, while Bravo got even more chewed up in the process of retreating.
Our next target was the filthy yanks who had supplied the offending hardware, so it was time for another valley assault, this time into Chak Chak. I bravely/foolishly volunteered us to go along the valley floor this time, and once everyone was in place we started slowly advancing. The first thing we spotted was a couple of HMMWs, so we lined up with our sights on them while everyone else got into position, and listened to the increasingly worried reports of tanks and all sorts of other badness in the town ahead. Eventually someone had an ND which started the barrage, with the humvees soon being taken out of action and our squad being ordered to charge forward.
From here it turned into a jerky but beautiful blitzkrieg as Alpha, Bravo and the weapons teams rained down thunder and lightning (and rockets) from the hilltops, taking out tank after tank as we pushed further and further into the maelstrom, somewhat surprised to see B3 splitting off from the main group on the hills and rushing ahead of us into our line of fire, no doubt trying to steal our hard-earned glory! However at this stage apparently all the pilots had bought the farm, and so the mission was called.
Defense in depth - BLUFOR CO
Apparently this marked the first recorded BLUFOR loss on this mission, but I put this down to the defence-focussed workshop we just had rather than the inconceivable concept of any sort of leadership failure on my part.
Simply put, we had to take a castle on a hill in the middle of Chernarus, surrounded by woods but with clear ground immediately around it. Although it was nighttime and we had NVGs, they had spotlights, flare traps, GP flares, and, well, a giant castle! I split our force into two, with the 2-fireteam Bravo splitting up and approaching from the south with orders to suppress/distract the castle forces. Alpha meanwhile, under Tigershark's leadership, approached from the west, lining up where the treeline came closest to the castle.
We encountered a couple of scouts who were quickly taken out, though we also triggered several flares on our approach. Eventually Alpha pulled up into position and I gave Bravo the order to start shooting. Unfortunately, this is where things started to fall apart. The defenders had set up some great interlocking overwatch positions, and soon started to whittle down Bravos forces, without losing their focus on the flank that Alpha was approaching from. Very quickly, the whole attack force was being torn into pieces. I therefore did the only thing I could and ordered a glorious banzai charge. I found a column of shadow approaching the castle where a tower blocked the spotlights, but the sneaky approach didn't help me as I was efficiently mown down from one of the walls. Even Iceraiser barely made it to the break in the walls before being riddled with bullets.
C'est la vie! I'm not sure what sort of approach would have been more effective, other than maybe concentrating the force more in a straight-up, force-of-numbers charge on the main entrance, where the treeline almost reached the castle. Shruggo!
BlackFolkDown - B1 FTL
Under the staunch command of Dannysaysno, we reprised this classic warlord-snatching mission in Zargabad. Bravo and Charlie were sent to the southern target in a small suburb of the city, while Alpha went north to hit the villa. Charlie did most of the hard work here, with us setting up as a base of fire to cover them as they went in. We had a few nasty surprises with enemy troops in nearby buildings, and then a few skirmishers approaching from the airfield gate to the north, but we took care of them nice and efficiently before following Charlie into town to secure the area.
After this we moved into Zargabad itself (I forget if we walked or flew), to assault the mosque and nab our last two targets. At this point we started losing men more quickly, and before long we were whittled down to six in the squad, two in my fireteam -- though Aquarius jumped on the fallen Misho's M60 immediately, like a high-caliber olympic torch keeping the spirit of the fireteam alive. As we pushed up through southern zargabad to meet up with Alpha, Danny got smished by a bullet and I had to take over. Wolf and Tiger(?) got pinned down in some nearby buildings but managed to HOOAH their way back to us, while Charlie and the CO entreated us to come and join them across a field of machinegun fire. With much trouble caused by the dreaded Rusty Looking Building we eventually made it to the COs position, and lined ourselves up to slog across the road north for the final push on the mosque. However I apparently didn't observe the green cross code as I got instantly obliterated in the middle of the road.
At this point I had to head off. Good stuff all round!