Flippin' eck, this was a bit of a hectic session, but fun!
Zigzag - INDFOR (defense) CO
Us blue-helmet types found ourselves stranded around a small fortified zone in a village in the hills of Chernarus, with some Takistani badmans approaching down a road to the north. Ay caramba! With nothing but contempt in my mind for those weaklings who would resort to such measures as defense in depth or use of fortifications, I spread my forces out very finely amongst the trees. Specifically I sent Alpha out to the northwest to lay in wait along a twisty section of road for ambushing purposes, while Bravo got more defensively placed atop two hills just to the north and south of the defense zone. I myself headed out alone towards a wooded hilltop north of Bravo and east of Alpha, in order to make scout.
Alpha soon reported sightings of an enemy convoy coming down the road, but they stopped before reaching the designated killzone and melted away into the trees. However I promptly found them again when my solo scouting expedition ran me almost immediately into the faces of the enemy. Fortunately my Camo Index was at 95% and I remained unseen, able to perform a tactical roly-poly down the hill and into cover. It soon became clear that I had encountered the entire badman force, and they were heading in Bravo's direction, south along the broad, wooded ridgeline.
Alpha were quickly attracted by my incoherent screams of terror and I led them back up the hill to the site of my previous encounter. The enemy weren't there but at this point we started hearing furious gunfire to the south and radio reports of bravo getting their shit taken away from them, repackaged, rebranded and handed back to them at lethally high velocity. Assuming scorpio formation, we followed the enemies south. Since they were still engaging Bravo and we were approaching from their rear flank, defeating them was as easy as taking candy from a baby after shooting it in the back. Time and again we came across an enemy fireteam, hit the dirt and obliterated them with minimal casualties. (Apart from Bravo.
)
By the way, this whole bit really reminded me just how effective a true, unexpected flanking maneuver can be, as opposed to just shifting some of your dudes to a slightly different sector. Food for thought!
By the time we'd massacred our way to the makeshift Alamo in the village, Bravo had been reduced to just Ferrard and Phoenix, holding the line. A brave but tiny counterattack from the south was quickly crushed, every shot of theirs met by a volley of ours. I then sent our remaining forces - i.e. most of Alpha - to sweep the south and west while I put a brew on in the fort. This turned out to be my undoing as the last surviving OPFOR member, Kalelovil, popped a bullet into my head, but only after I'd managed to call out his location to the rest of the team. They all turned around, swarmed him and killed him, ending the match in great victory. I didn't see my score but apparently I got 7 kills. Alhamdulillah!
Running Rabbit - Rabbit commander
Deciding that I had well-earned a go with a toy, I leapt into the top-turret of the tank along with a slightly nervous Sek and an extremely exuberant Ebass. Being put into the middle of a convoy with the engineers we mostly followed their pace, pausing occasionally while their truck careered off into the hills to rescue downed helicopters from tanks in a heroic fashion, or when the engies got out to de-mine mines and de-IED barricades. All the while we engaged distant groups of enemies in the hills, plus an SPG technical that showered rockets down on us but couldn't hit us due to the quick wits of driver Sek, and was soon defeated by the yelling and wildfiring of Ebass.
Threatened by reports of various armour approaching but mostly being taken out by other elements, we nonetheless eventually pushed forward into the sights of some kind of filthy rocket-havers and were blown up. Boo!
Fulcrum - OPFOR(?) (attack) Alpha SL
With SuperU taking charge to implement a plan that he'd previously recommended to me when I CO'd this mission/side, we were sent up to the west edge of Shapur to approach using the cover of almost the only substantial sandbank in this particular blasted stretch of desert. After I lead us in a slightly wobbly interpretation of SuperU's intended route we all drew up behind the ridgeline and promptly charged forward to the wall, taking minimal casualties but apparently waking up the hornet's nest of enemies in the factory complex ahead. Alpha took the south side of the compound, and Bravo the north.
As soon as we'd crawled under the wall, we started hearing the pings and whines of incoming fire from the east. Ducking and weaving around some silos we soon found the nearest site of resistance was a large warehouse behind another wall, resulting in a furious close-range firefight that we eventually won.
However as soon as we entered the warehouse we realised it was not much of a prize, being directly exposed to heavy automatic fire and spotlights from the objective bunker.
As we pulled ourselves together around a bombed-out building, preparing for our final push and attempting to rescue SuperU from outside the wall, we got flanked from the southwest and promptly, tragically wiped out.
Fritz Frenzy - CO
Oh good jesus, this mission. Never have I experienced something that felt like such a total clusterfuck, but ended up turning out so well.
The basic idea was to rescue a small force of krautfor KSK kommandos who were holed up on a hillside in the east. The rest of us, of the US persuasion, started in the west with some humvees and a truck, along with an A-10 and a UAV drone on standby. Between us, a couple of long roads dotted with occupied villages.
The first problem that presented itself was the old ORBAT and resulting lack of force structure. I had 5 fireteams, plus a small mess of command-element types as well as the A10 and KSK guys. So, first task was to politely shove the germans into their own channel to look out for their own defense. Second was to assign the grunts to the brass in a vaguely sensible fashion. Ebass, the squad-leader, therefore took control of A1+2, dubbed red group. The 'platoon sergeant'/DC and 'platoon rifleman' took A3+4, dubbed blue group. I myself took nominal control of A5 along with the A10, dubbed green group.
I laid out a basic plan which involved a 'main force' of red+blue groups taking the southern route, over a hill and through some orchards to meet up with the KSK just south of their outpost. Meanwhile green group would take the north route in order to scout, spot for the A10, and possibly act as a distraction or BOF force. I myself stayed back at base as I was the only one with a drone-operation scout badge. Unfortunately this badge was ill-earned as I had no idea how to actually operate the drone...
Following exhortations from Fer I then assigned vehicles with extreme painstakingness, with me moving from one vehicle to the next calling out individual fireteams to jump in. Following some kerfuffle we got everyone loaded up and rolling out, while I hopped inside the drone control laptop to try and determine what the fuck.
Unfortunately I completely failed to discern what the fuck and the drone ended up careening madly about the AO, rewarding my incompetence with precisiely zero useful information or utility. At the same time I realised that I had no map-markers to see where everyone in the team was, and was in general basically fairly useless. Luckily, the team comported themselves with badassitude of the highest order. Ze germans shot down all attackers with clockwork-like efficiency, while our troops found themselves a high-ground approach and powered their way to the beleaguered OP in what felt like no time. The A10 received no useful response from me to his request for targets but still managed to rain fire down on bad guys and avoid raining it down on the good guys. Before I knew it, blue group had stormed their way into the designated orchard and picked up all but three of the KSK.
Some minor confusion followed during which I decided to take some initiative and drive my way out to the front so I could be less completely useless. As it happened I stumbled across the last of the KSK standing folornly on a hillside - or maybe it was the ones who got left behind so the last defenders could be picked up - in any case, I made myself into a taxi and carried them to home sweet home while ordering everyone else to do the same, even having some time for some uproarious victory fire before the mission was called, by some miracle, as a resounding success. Yay!
CHazarLO (after-party) - Cop
I sauntered onto the balcony, enjoyed a croissant and a glass of orange juice, blasted some unpleasant-looking long-haired types with my shotgun, and then got killed. Such is the circle of life!