[Sun] 13 Sep 2015 (Where did that come from?)

[Soviet]

You forgot to mention that they're both wearing blue caps...

Eagle isn't worried whether you're wearing the blue cap or not

[Sparks]

I think he's more worried about what I'm wearing it on...

[Sparks]

AA2: Sofia offensive
MMG1 Gunner with Gills (EL)



Kindof a mix, this mission. Lots of slogging along on foot, interspersed with moments of sheer terror

Started off rather oddly, with Bravo's IFV deciding that gravity was for wusses, but once the gods had sorted that out, and AJAX had demonstrated the "Squishies? What squishies? I'm going this-a-way!" school of driving, we pushed to the crossroads with the little dirt road we were meant to drive along. Which had ambush carved into the dirt. So BSL had Bravo dismount and clear, and the IFVs and MMG1 followed on behind. We got to the forest, IFV cut off-road and came out of the treeline and straight into a line of tracers and he hurriedly slammed it into reverse. We - in a far more hurried state - backed right the feck up as well and as soon as we'd gotten clear of our IFV (which was the real danger), bailed from our hunter and legged it up to try to get a bead on whomever was firing on us. Apart from one near-hosing-down of Alpha though, I never saw any enemies from the camp area, Alpha, Bravo and the IFVs had them taken care of before we got to them.

Or, at least, almost all of them...



With BSL down, MMG1 hooked onto Bravo 1 and tried to stay there for the rest of the mission, more or less. We pushed south over the hill and into view of the town and started getting sporadic fire. While I was prone checking my map and trying to bipod but finding it was awkward on the hill, Netkev snuck up on me in Bravo Vic and almost ended my game prematurely I pushed down the hill to join the rest of Bravo, set up on a nice little wall and started hosing stuff down with the big gun, while command bombed the crap out of the town with the bigger guns.

Eventually we pushed up and into the town, Netkev tried to sneak up on me in the IFV again so I shot a rabbit to put the fear of Sparks into him, and we pushed on and cleared the remains of the town. We hit little enough contact there; apparently bombing the crap out of a town will kill most of the people in it, who'd have thunk it? So MMG and Alpha pushed along clearing down the MSR, during which I used an IED for cover and we encountered nobody except another rabbit anti-Party sympathiser MRE supplement.

The town cleared, we moved on to the final base. Alpha and Bravo hit enemy early on and we'd lost one UAV somehow by this stage. Some reinforcements made a bad life decision and rolled up on us; MMG hosed them down good and proper, then some kill-stealing git in a UAV bombed the bejeepers out of them (but I'm not angry, it was a pretty cool sight). MMG then hoofed it over to join the assault on the base, but as we ran up, we heard a contact call with an IFV from an AT-poor Bravo 1. We struggled to the top of the nearest hill to set up a base of fire (those big guns are heavy), but just as I got to my intended position, the IFV rolled around the other side of the hill from where it had been reported and I came face to face with a rather ticked off IFV.

Said IFV tried hosing me down with HMG fire while I cowered behind a rock considered my tactical situation from heavy cover. I figured I was dead anyway, there being no way to get off that hill with the IFV there (and even if I could, there was nowhere to go). I could hear Bravo setting up for an infantry AT shot, which seemed my best chance to survive, so maybe I could disable the turret with the MMG or maybe just even keep it looking in my direction while they shot it from behind. So I popped up, bipodded and threw a box of ammo at the thing.

Not a feckin' dent. Grrr.

Then it got mad and I ducked again, moved a little to one side, and since I could now see Bravo getting into position 50m upslope from the thing, decided to rinse and repeat, popped up, threw another box downrange and had the same effect, but at least this time I got its attention and it switched up from HMGs to something VERY LOUD AND EXPLOSIVE and I decided to investigate the underneath of the boulder again a bit more carefully. Did you know there's a fascinating wealth of species of lichen in this part of the island tovarich? It's remarkable what you can learn while someone's trying to stop you learning using 20mm cannon fire. Concentrates the mind wonderfully.

Silence followed on from this, and I could hear Bravo's AT had been unsuccessful so I figured third time was the charm, but why be dumb, and I threw smoke between me and the IFV and then popped up to hose it down again - and it wasn't there. I had a moment of disorientation and then the damn thing crested on top of the hill it had been on the slope of, now 30-odd metres above me and I was very very shy of cover; but finally someone in Bravo hit it hard enough to dismount the crew and I popped up again and opened fire... and then heard that lovely click... click... click that translates to "you're screwed buddy" and dove for cover again and let Bravo finish off the crew.

That all done, I ran up and found the remains of Gills, who'd bought it saving our remaining asses by helping kill the IFV, found he had no more MMG ammo on him, ditched the MMG for a carbine and a PCML scavenged off the many, many, many, many corpses on top of that hill, checked in with the new BSL and found we were at the "oh, feck it" stage of the game and were running straight at the enemy base. I joined in, managed to finally catch up to Alpha and Bravo in the final part of the base assault, put a PCML into the last tower, and then the mission got called right in the middle of the noise from the PCML hit.

As missions go, I'm torn evaluating this one. It had more foot-slogging than was really fun, but also had some of the coolest combined-arms action I've seen outside of a helo, and had a bloody memorable fight with an IFV.

Think I'd have to put this in my "would play again" pile...




Gamey mission
Alpha 1 AR on Blufor with Eagle_eye (FTL), Tigershark (AR), Stoner (RAT), Cardova (R) and Ferrard Carson (R); guest starring Pickers (Medic)





Honestly Fer, you're being too hard on this one. We didn't give it a fair run because we were way too focussed on shooting each other rather than doing the mission itself. Let it run once or twice more till we get used to the idea, then we might get a good sense for it.

This time though, we had a little discussion at the start about the possibility of working as a cohesive whole, a sort of union of soviets, so to speak, but then Eagle pointed out that if we acted more like capitalist pigs, we could get to kill Kefirz. And Tigershark was intrigued by the possibilities access to Kefirz's corpse opened up. His tastes are very... arma. So cooperation went out the window and a codeword for betrayal was agreed on.

An exchange with the treacherous Reds was agreed on. A few unarmed Blues would bring the red trucks to the meetup and oversee the handover. The rest of us armed ourselves and took up overwatch positions. A very tense exchange took place, we all armed up as fast as we could and headed to the base, stopping and dismounting to retrieve a straggler who got arma'd from an offroad along the way. This did not help the Blue-Red tensions any, and by the time we dismounted at the base we were on a knife-edge.

Then we discovered Red forces on the overlooking hill where they shouldn't be and someone fired the first shot and the Curly-Wurly call went out.

A minor digression for our US readers. This is a Curly Wurly:



And when deep fried it is possibly the greatest chocolate bar in the UK.

Annnnyways, right as Blue-Red tensions broke out into open warfare, the AAF noticed we were there as well and we were all now fighting everyone else. Tactically, this may have been an error. Ferrard and I wound up engaging an AAF patrol 300m out; I bipodded to try to return fire, couldn't elevate because of the slope of the ground I was on, moved to flat ground to engage, then got shot in the spleen before even getting a single round off. Carson couldn't get to me in time and I bled out.

Then I respawned as AAF. And by this point, yes, I'd lost the run of myself and was in full-on battlefield 4 mode. My bad. Which is why I hopped in a strider and went pelting round the place like a mad thing and tried to run over that last Redfor guy. But Eagle brought me back to my senses and I backed off un-run-over redfor, bailed out of the strider and went to finish him off with rifle fire and grenades. Alas, he clipped me first. Then Kefirz, who'd respawned as AAF as well, ran up and shot me in the face.

I think perhaps Kefirz, that you might not have fully transitioned from your role as Filthy Red Leader to Loyal AAF Member in that respawn

Then, in confusion, I respawned again. This was not in the mission plan. And that might be added to the notes for next time. On realising this, I tried to grenade myself - turns out AAF only get smoke grenades. Cue me running around shooting in the air and throwing smoke in order to attract incoming ordinance. That didn't work. So I dropped my stinger and ran around waving my arms for a while. That also didn't work. Then Soviet had been shot, so I went to help him. Bang, right to the lungs. Works every time - no good deed goes unpunished in Arma.

Maybe there's a lesson in that for future missions...



Salt Riders (premature after-party)
Whoooooooo! Brumbrumbrum...



Well, this was fun

However a few of us thought we had enough numbers to run one last proper non-afterparty mission, so...



Generally negotiable
Alpha 2 Rifleman with Soviet (FTL), Ccracus (AR), darkChozo (AR), Bobbero (RAT) and Pickers (R)



This is a nice little mission. Clear-cut and direct. Me, I prefer more flying, but I'm weird. I slotted as a lowly rifleman for a change to let others get the big gun, and after some rather anti-Hague-convention comments from my FTL, we engaged the first enemies. I pushed forward as red team are supposed to, turned to the left and *WHUP* right through the forehead. Not two minutes in. Ouch. Oh well. And my fireteam lamented my loss which was funny

Spent the rest of the mission spectating as three AI in a gully made a right mess of an entire squad; two leet operator snipers got snuck up on first by a civilian in a sweet hat who just ran right up to them, and then an AI who nearly hosed them both; watched Tiger take refuge in a chapel which ironically did not call down lightning bolts...



... then watched as Tigershark's car got parked outside an occupied hut with an EI right there in the window who didn't react for four or five minutes... watched them move on safely and do the negotiations, watched the last reserved reinforcements eat a PCML and die in a fire while Fer bolted for the border with Tigershark bundled up in the back seat of the Hunter, and they made it all the way back to my still-cooling corpse before victory was called.

Nice one.



AFTERPARTY
HELICOPTERS (actual after-party)

AH-9s? In neon colours? Everyone gets one? We do Salt Riders that way? Meh, how could that be worth doing?



Oh dear, I appear to have made a mess in my trousers.



Shipping Problems (after-party)

D'ya know, I think we're actually having more fun with the broken version of this?

Also, there are now Sparks-specific Folk ARPS rules regarding clothing. I think y'all are just... worried?



Glub Glub Glub (after-after-party)

Damn. Note for next time. ALWAYS SHOOT THE CORPSES...

[Tigershark]

Some footage from last night. Sparks...I returned the favour.....you give a little...you get a little.

Soviet is a MAD bastard


Sparks narrowly misses a lead enema.


Why shoot when you can ram?

[Sparks]

Some footage from last night. Sparks...I returned the favour.....you give a little...you get a little.

Bow chica bow wow...

Sparks narrowly misses a lead enema.

Pffft, that wasn't a narrow miss, that was metres off.

Why shoot when you can ram?

Now that was a narrow miss (and then he jinked the wrong way and we swapped paint).

[Pooter]

[
Silence followed on from this, and I could hear Bravo's AT had been unsuccessful so I figured third time was the charm, but why be dumb, and I threw smoke between me and the IFV and then popped up to hose it down again - and it wasn't there. I had a moment of disorientation and then the damn thing crested on top of the hill it had been on the slope of, now 30-odd metres above me and I was very very shy of cover; but finally someone in Bravo hit it hard enough to dismount the crew and I popped up again and opened fire... and then heard that lovely click... click... click that translates to "you're screwed buddy" and dove for cover again and let Bravo finish off the crew.

Bravo vic actually came around the hill to the left and got in between the IFV and the enemy base. From that position I shot enough 40mm gmg into the IFV for the crew to reconsider their lives. I almost killed a few friendlies who were huddled up next to the bunker hiding from the enemy IFV.

[Ralian]

All my videos are up, check em if you wouldn't otherwise notice them
Take a look at how I died in Altistan
And sparks, I had a great view of that which you missed in the start of shipping problems

[Soviet]

All my videos are up, check em if you wouldn't otherwise notice them
Take a look at how I died in Altistan
And sparks, I had a great view of that which you missed in the start of shipping problems

After watching an hour of people running away from you while you try and heal them, none of us getting to you in time is doubly tragic

Also, after watching your video, I henceforth resolve to be an even more aggressive FTL, as the tapes clearly indicate that Alpha was not the tip of the spear at all times, which simply will not do. There is only so much glory to scrabble for!

Still! The battles were great all around this weekend.

AA2: Sofia Offensive: A1 FTL

A gorgeous sweeping offensive in which we managed to see all of the ArmA greatest hits, including scenic destinations such as "forest thicket encampment," "dangerous city," and "enemy death fortress." Though there was a generous amount of hoofing it, contacts were consistent enough that it never quite got to the long-march feeling.

On approach to the forest campsite, having only a vague notion of where the enemy even was or if they even existed, Alpha Fireteam executed a beautifully hellish grenade bombardment, so intense that someone thought there was a GMG shooting over the hill. We swept up the camp like clockwork, enjoyed blowing everything to hell only slightly too much, and bound our way down to point Arkansas (WPS) after watching a brief UAV-delivered fireworks show.

A1 casualties so far: 0

After we'd reached the city, fortified the main road, shot some wandering opfor thugs, and experienced some confusion regarding IEDs and IED-related activities, we made a clean sweep of the mysteriously ticking alleyways with minimal fuss or detonation. After reaching the RV point east of the city we had a moment to stand and take stock of the situation.



A1 casualties so far: 0

I don't think I need to detail the last attack since everyone and their dog was hoofing it up that mountain, but suffice to say the heroes of Alpha, aka best squad, were the image of professionalism minus the whole medic thing, sweeping into the base and ritually flinging explosives at the last building standing until the win!

A1 casualties total: damn right it was zero

Shout outs to Tigershark for stellar squad leading, Ralian for keeping us alive long, long after our foolishness should have killed us, both Vics for being the only things actually killing stuff most of the time, and of course the brave comrades of Alpha-1 for listening to me ramble about spacing for over an hour!

Gamey Mission: CSAT A2 AR

Et tu, Madrak? I think what impressed me most in this mission was that we didn't all just have a pistols-only gang war the second we all reached the rendezvous. Afterwards under Fer's watchful eye we pushed off single-file, towards what serendipitously turned out to be a northern ambush point on blufor's northern ambush point.

It was then, my comrades, that I eagerly regrettably started a war.

We'd seen NATO on the ridge south of us but were holding steadily for a moment while we set up, until suddenly I was half-smeared across the rocks by what turned out to be a friendly crashing pickup truck (vodka is for when you're shooting comrade, not driving.) Thinking this was some sort of monstrous western vehicular homicide-based strategy, I yelled out that we were under attack and we started lighting up the NATO team to our south. Once it had all gone to hell and I'd taken one to the arm, Fer ran up and saved me, then we all did a pretty nice bounding overwatch through the valley. We pushed on until we'd taken the hill from the western devils and were laying down fire into the base itself.

Then Ccrasus wandered up.

It was so dark and there were so many corpses around that it took Fer and I, the last two up the hill, too long to realize the silhouette crossing in front of us was not dressed in the opfor-regulation Tactical Summer Casual clothing line, and by the time Fer shot him in the back he'd already dropped one of us. We came over and surveyed the damage, picked up the wounded, and then I backed up to a firing position, only for Ccrasus to gather up his burning hatred of pink polo shirts into one last gasp of life, spattering my well-dressed innards all over.

Then I respawned, was shot immediately, and got Sparks killed in a dire portent of things to come. Indfor!

Generally Negotiable: A2 FTL

As has been said, a simple yet elegant mission. There's a town with a guy in it. Your guy talks to their guy. Some other guys don't want that to happen. Make it happen anyway.

This started out pretty ugly when we lost Sparks and Boberro to small arms before even getting past the church, but after a short time reconsolidating and paying our respects, A2 handled themselves well on the final approach into town. Exercising stellar discipline, we pushed to a defensive position watching the eastern approach to the meeting point and didn't have to waste a single civilian who are most certainly not to be trusted our friends. Through some stroke of luck, or possibly simply being wary of the the judgemental spirits of Bob and Sparks, I managed to get the drop on a patrol of EI walking in to the town at point blank range, and shortly afterwards Pickers fired The PCML That Killed The World, handily removing any and all possible enemy reinforcements in one terrifyingly murderous explosion.

As always, to all those who made it (or not) in the fireteam, that was solid work. Y'all always impress me with new and more beautiful ways to wreck up the place

And to all of the mission makers: Thanks and great work! I assure you that whether it's simple and twenty minutes, or it bends the mind and runs for an hour and a half, as long as we're blowing up caches, stabbing each other in the back, and protecting Tigershark's nefarious and possibly definitely-illegal dealings through force of arms, I'm happy

[Sparks]

Bravo vic actually came around the hill to the left and got in between the IFV and the enemy base. From that position I shot enough 40mm gmg into the IFV for the crew to reconsider their lives.

Ah, I was wondering what had gone on there alright. Thanks for that, saved our bottoms.

Take a look at how I died in Altistan

Damn, I think I was shooting right over your head at one point there (and I know I ran past your body afterwards, though not as you were bleeding out, that was Gills I think, I was still cowering at that point wondering if I could throw the MMG at the IFV).

And sparks, I had a great view of that which you missed in the start of shipping problems

That was hilarious

There is only so much glory to scrabble for!

Oh I dunno, I was way behind you guys and I still went toe-to-toe with an IFV, Matt Daemon style...



Okay, maybe not so glorious