Beach Boys
Bravo SL: Fer
|- M: Stoner (Dr Kevorian)
I like this mission. I like it for two reasons: it's always fun when there are two distinct formations of players (provided we have sufficient comrades in the session), and whilst the mission throws plenty of heavy assets at the RM platoon, it rewards inter-squad co-ordination and methodical movement plans, making successes feel 'earned'.
For this playthrough, Bravo's role was to secure the southern approaches to our landing area, and then proceed south, dominating the coastal road and beach. Our corridor of operations was a little too narrow to simply plough along, two fireteams abreast, as I originally planned. Instead, Bravo's two fireteams moved in bounds: one on overwatch, perched on the top of the slope that rose up from the beach, the other moving quickly along the waterline.
Our initial engagements were at the landing area itself: infantry and technicals both to our west and coming up the coastal road from the south. Once given the go-ahead to move off south, our next engagements were at the petrol station, and a roadside bunker just beyond it. In both cases, Charlie's position to our north-west meant the enemy was nearly always caught in a moving version of an L-shaped ambush. It was very effective.
As we approached the road bridge north of the town, the coastline kicks out a little before the river outlet. Rounding this outcrop, we spotted a DShKM and spotlight on the docks further south. Whilst Bravo 1 kept an eye inland, Bravo 2 took out the enemy emplacements in a volley of rifle fire. The enemies never had a chance to rotate their heavy MG.
Moving fully into the river outlet, we used reed beds to cross over to the southern bank, always using overwatch. On the other side, Bravo 1 covered the docks to our south, whilst Bravo 2 crawled upslope to the roadside and began to get eyes on the town. MAT, which was attached to Bravo but had been sent off on another task, re-appeared through the reeds and joined me on the little slope by the bridge. This proved extremely fortuitous.
A BMP-2 came motoring up the coastal road from the south end of the town. Most of Bravo would have been safe, but my second concern at that moment was if the IFV crossed the bridge: assuming Charlie and Alpha were still in the relatively open ground north of the river, this would be a bad thing. My first concern, in all honesty, was that I was prone at the side of the road, pretty much where its tracks were heading. As I prepared to meet a squishy end, I heard a rocket being fired behind me. The BMP-2 fireballed not 10m from my position, sparing me the shame of being first SL to die.
We resumed our push southwards shortly after: Bravo 1 now sweeping the docks, whilst Bravo 2 moved along the road (with MAT trailing a little way behind). A block along, and Bravo 2 reported an enemy T-72 west of them, down a side-road leading further into the town. At a similar time, Bravo 1 spotted another BMP-2 further south along the coastal road. The tank was the more immediate threat, so MAT got ready to engage it - however, I think it moved off before we could get a shot off, so we had to leave it to the other squads. Meanwhile, Bravo 1 got ready to put a rocket into the BMP-2.
It didn't die. However, it did roll off to a position behind the storage tanks at the south end of the town, so we didn't die in a hail of cannon rounds. Now Bravo was continuing southwards, and Charlie had materialised just to our west and begun sweeping the yard where the enemy munitions were kept. This was great, right up to the moment when ZU-23 fire obliterated part of that squad and sent Bravo 2 ducking for cover. We would push on, using the yard's wall for cover and flank the mounted gun. Only the yard wall had great big gaps, which Bravo 2's FTL was none too keen on - so I told him to move very quickly!
With Bravo 1 keeping in line, we did reach the southern-most corner of the yard, but didn't have to enter it because our CO had gone all commando and killed the enemy gunner. Instead, Bravo now pushed even further south to engage the BMP-2 we knew was loitering there. And then a funny thing happened: the enemy BMP-2 flew about 10m up into the air, and came crashing back to earth. Bravo 2's make-shift RPG-7 gunners didn't like this at all, and put two rounds into it anyway. It was the only way to be sure. Then we spotted more tanks to out south, and over the next 5 minutes - and with help from MAT - we successfully engaged a T-72 and a T-34, whilst slowly shifting to the south-west corner of the town. There were a few enemy fighters in the woods too, but we dealt with them.
Our final movement was to withdraw northward, again moving in bounds, until we were in the centre of the built-up area, whereupon we turned east and headed for the docks. The mission was called before our extraction, but for the RM platoon at least it had been a success.
Horse
DC Gunner: Fer
|- Driver: Tigershark, then Ferrard Carson
At the beginning of
Twelfth Night, one of the main characters asks for an excess of something (love), so that his appetite may sicken and die. I think. Anyway, after years of keeping comrades away from toys, I cracked and created this mission with so many T-90s that almost nobody could say they didn't get a chance to fulfil their armoured fantasies. My own armoured fantasy was to watch distant treelines explode with flame as lines of D-30s opened up on our tanks; this I got. And how.
Credit to comrade Danny, this is a hard mission to command - I don't think we've done very much with tank formations, and certainly not in these numbers. Just getting the movement formations arranged was a mini-game in itself, but the ultimate solution wasn't bad (at least in theory): recon out front, a wedge-shaped infantry screen, and then three Napoleonic lines of T-90s (with the engineers and medics following on like some demented baggage train).
At the first enemy concentration, Alpha, and then Bravo, dueled with distant D-30s and a rocket-firing BRDM. It was like watching a game of WALB, right up to the part where enemy infantry appeared from the woods to our right flank and began doing brave (but suicidal) things. Like some kind of Waterloo, battered tanks retired from the frontline and visited the engineers for patching-up, their places taken by comrades from other platoons. I think we lost half of our crunchies in this action, but no tanks.
The approach to the second concentration saw the majority of the platoon fan out, taking positions on a wide slope that led down into a broad plain. It was a commanding vista, but unfortunately it was also not a great place to stop: an SPG-9 on a high hill to our left began putting rounds into one of Alpha's tanks. The hits were remorseless, and though the enemy launcher was eventually knocked-out, we became bogged down.
An engineer repair truck duly appeared, which was fantastic until it exploded in a ball of flames. Comrade Carson (my new driver after Tigershark had departed) jumped out to go save the screaming mechanics, as did I. There was all manner of stuff going on around us and in the confusion I ran back to the wrong tank. Curse you, identical T-90s!
Once back in the tank we edged downslope a little, and took part in some long-range firefights with D-30s in the distant treeline, far to our South. It was like one of those PvP Sniper missions on a public server, only with tanks. The plain below us was littered with burning T-72s: in the earlier excitement, the rest of our company had engaged an enemy tank platoon that had come racing towards us. It was a wonderful scene.
It was also a little too distracting. One, perhaps two enemy T-72s had drawn up to our west, obscured a little by the the trees. Unlike the positively gentlemanly D-30 gunners and their Napoleonic volleys, these tank crews weren't kidding around. They schooled us on the topics of tunnel-vision and side-armour weaknesses. They schooled us
hard.
When all of our tanks were burning wrecks on the hillside, only two brave crewmen could be found still advancing on foot. Comrade Dvl and one other (Zensos?) had been paying attention in another key Soviet armour class: Out of commission, become a pillbox. Out of ammo, become a bunker. Out of time, become heroes.
Unlike comrade AntlerOwl, who ran back to Party HQ, doubtless to report our failure in person. I can assure comrade AntlerOwl that he would have been greeted warmly, given a soothing mug of cocoa, de-briefed in full. And shot.
Changes to the next version of Horse:
- Fix Group IDs and check markers for SL-level tanks
- Provide all crewmen with GPS units
- Exchange RU drivers for Chedaki engineers (so they can fix their own tanks)
- Make puppeteer squads fully-playable and enable Group Respawn
~ Ferrard
)the demo guys cant get to the MLRS like what happened in our run, , then the RPG is very unreliable as a backup option with only one rocket....just saying. 