[Sun] 06 November 2011

[fer]

Missions:

• Halted
• Cordonblufor
• Highway to Jahannam
• Ivory Hunt

Not quite the session I had planned - I apologise for not getting the Folk take on Domi put together, but it's been a supremely busy week. We had a great turn-out (again), and managed to complete 50% of missions this evening. Thank you to all the comrades who came - I hope you'll agree that it's great to be able to throw 3 fireteams and several attachments at a mission (in addition to the command element and at least one medic), so let's keep working on the playercount. Personal AAR to follow as soon as I've had a chance to type one out on a bouncy Metropolitan line train. Well, not on the train itself. Because that would be graffiti.

[harakka]

Mini-AAR: In Cordon Blufor, I was A1 FTL. We started moving according to the plan, sighted the first M113, and
Ok, so that didn't go too well. Learning from my mistakes, I hid on the roof in Ivory Hunt, and brought you this footage. A thing to note is Wolfeswan heroically MAAWSing the tank at close quarters near the end.

[DarkTatka]

Halted
Not much to say. I think I shot my FTL, but couldnt confirm it. I was shot down by enemy about 3 times, but they had wooden bullets or what so bandaid and a kiss was enough. I stayed on a balcony, shooting down wave after wave of enemies and had nooo idea what was happening until we regrouped at the minaret. Finally we got onto a truck and drived merily away.

From what I gather we were lucky not to be gunned down on spawn, so overall I think it went rather well.

Cordonblufor
I think we were Alpha 2, i grabbed m249. We progressed with other squads and finaly came to lots of open ground. Enemy was behind pipeline, we were hunched in small compound. Our FTL was shot down and died when I was reviving him. We voted for new FTL and it fell onto me. MY FIRST COMMAND, MWAHAHAHA. So I got promptly shot and couldnt walk.

We were told by command element to regroup with them, and found out we had no smokes. Some thoughtfull soul threw one for us, but it bounced away. Plan was for me to crawl first, provide covering fire and Ayam and <dont remember please fill in, lets call him Billy> to cross, then provide cover for me as I would crawl across. Just as we started moving, Billy had one last look to where our FTL was shot and got his head evacuated. As I crawled onto the street I was shot as well, leaving Ayam all alone.

Highway to Jahannam
I was driver for Liquirish technical, and were progressively promoted to the point of column as one after another technicals were taken out. As we drove into the final village, we were hit by rocket/bmp/something and blown to smithereens.

Ivory Hunt
As Fer asked for new players to step up as FTLs, I did. MY SECOND COMMAND, MWAHAHAHA. We were Alpha squad with Alpha Royale as AR, Ayam and Joseph/Sulfur. Plan was for Ayam and Joseph to take RPGs, position themselves with view to ambus area, shoot down Humwees and Alpha Royale to finish dismounted infantry from second house across the street, with me providing rear security for our RPG team. It all went well, but I failed spectaculary when enemy squad got into our compound without me noticing. I called Royale back on our position and he got shot on arrival. We lost Ayam to something, and Joseph revived me about 2 times and then got shot tending to me. So we crawled into compound, with nothing but our bleeding entrails to loose, Joseph dispatched the last enemy soldier and then we lied there and bled. I held onto my worthless life long enough to see mission end, but I couldnt save Joseph.

All in all, I wont be stepping up as FTL any time soon

[wolfenswan]

Reach Zone (old version)

Splat.

Halted

I was CO and had baaaad memories from trying this mission on a ARPS session. So i ordered Bravo and Alpha to form a defensive line while Charlie & Delta flank the respective sides. We apparently lost most of Bravo in the initial onslaught yet we proved to be scarily effective, taking out most if not all of the enemy.

Highway to Jahannam

MMG-1
The first proper attempt at the mission played out as I imagined but the enemy still got the better out of us.

Missionmaker's thoughts:
- Less enemies on the way to the first town (we had used most of the technical's ammo by then already and lost a few good people) aka make the first town the first real challenge.
- maybe add a (stationary, no fuel) ammo/repair truck somewhere
- remove the armored columns, allowing the player's their own pace (which seemed to work better)
- apparently friendly AI in Gorka had gone rogue and somehow engaged enemy AI, causing a trigger to fire. no idea how that could happen but I'll try and make it more robust.

Ivory Hunt

If my less than par performance in previous missions had anyone questioning my Comrade Hero Status then this silenced them.

I was harakka's MG goon, tasked to look after his weapon and rip it from his cold dead hands should the opportunity dire need arise.
Being the nice guy I am I wanted Bravo help to carry the static dhskm, dissambeled it and picked up the main bag while I saw Fer picking up the tripod. OR SO I THOUGHT. I don't know what happened, but I think Fer confused said Tripod with the Metis' Tripod and happily made away with it into the night, while I buggered Bravo where the fuck that bag had gone. At the end we were lucky enough that the TK army's equipment is made for the crafty guerilla and I was able to assemble the dhskm from it's main bag and the Metis tripod. Take that MacGyver.

Anyway, I helped engaging the first hummers, mercilessly cutting down anyone who tried to escape. Knowing that a little bird would soon be upon us I started scanning the sky. I could hear it coming closer but was unable to spot it. It dawned me the last second that I may have prioritzed me as a static target when the bastard came flying towards me, misfiring it's rockets mere meters too short. I left the dhskm were it was, set out to help my FTL and hastily left the roof again when I realized that the tusk was around (as documented in the video above). Knowing I would be of low use to the cause I set out to scavenge any AT possible and found a single MAAWS AT (and two HEDPs) on two american corpses.

Trying to get behind the Tusk it spotted me first and pinned me down in a building (you can hear me proclaiming nasty words at that point in mentioned video) but then I got behind it and took the shots. I killed myself with the too close exploding warheads but shit was personal at that point and I couldn't have cared less.

[fer]

Halted

Delta FTL: Fer
|- Some people (look, they all died, okay?)

This is one of the first missions ever written for Folk, and I wrote it. And I hate players, see? That's why I give them bolt action rifles and start them off on the other side of some buildings from a convoy of Takistani soldiers with FN FALs and machine-guns and technicals and a burning desire to kill everyone in the village so they can get home in time to play BF3.

So get this, comrades: you're not supposed to survive. And to begin with, everything went to plan (my plan, not comrade Wolfenswan's plan), because comrade Mort died instantly thanks to a negligent discharge, and most of my fireteam was killed as we moved to the north-east corner of the village. And then a totally unacceptable thing happened: we started to win.

Comrade Wolfenswan had effectively formed us up as a line to push westward, rolling up the enemy as we went. I missed much of the action thanks to a wound, but when I joined Charlie FT on the south side of town the fight was almost over. We engaged some stragglers on the high ground to the south, then fell back to the minaret. With some slight disbelief I realised that the enemy was beaten, possibly completely (though we only needed to kill 50% to meet our mission objective). There was a orderly boarding of trucks and other vehicles, after which we headed to the exfiltration point. Congratulations to all the comrades. Curse your bloody but effective methods!

Cordonblufor

We ran out of slots on the BLUFOR side, but didn't have nearly enough players to do this as an adversarial. So comrade Alpha and I picked slots in the crew of the enemy Huey and zoomed around the city as observers instead. Sometimes that's what you have to do.

From the air we saw that BLUFOR had wasted no time in exploding an M113 to the south of the city, so after a bit of queasy observation from the deck of the Huey, I asked comrade Alpha to set me down in the village just south of Zargabad. From here I hoped to watch our brave comrades assault their way through the enemy roadblocks and onwards to freedom (although I was totally going to shoot comrade Sulphur in the back if he looked like he was even close to freedom, because some people should never be released).

And so we waited. And waited. And I don't know what BLUFOR was up to, but breaking out didn't seem to be part of the plan. The OPFOR AI at the roadblock were busily firing at something, but I couldn't see what. Gingerly, I walked up towards the front line and loitered around a machine-gun team. They were angry about the Eurozone crisis and worried about their pensions, and told me so in between sending bursts of hot lead downrange at unseen human enemies. Or possibly that was only in my head.

Anyway, comrade Alpha actually landed his Huey near the BLUFOR positions, dropped his weapon and began walking towards them. Probably to see what they'd give him to fly them out of there. They riddled him with holes. Around that time they did the same to me, as I was absent-mindedly walking towards them. However, for all this, BLUFOR remained pinned at the southern edge of the city and never broke out. Comrade Nullkigan had restored failure to its rightful place at the heart of the session.

Highway to Jahannam

DC Medic: Fer

Actually, comrade Sulphur had clearly learned something from our past failures, because in place of misguided thunder run in open topped vehicles (which should surely be called the 'Kennedy option'), came a measured, slow approach that saw us combine our gun trucks with dismounted infantry and something scarily close to co-ordinated action.

Three fireteams made up the broad front at the head of our column, with the more exotic attachments filing in behind, to be brought up as require. And the mission itself became the story of three firefights:

1. At the tractor roadblock: we were quick to get much of the platoon firing on the defenders, and quicker still to rotate left and then right to deal with foot patrols emerging from the forests. I raced forward a few times to see if anyone needed patching up, but felt rather underemployed as a medic. In the end, we mounted up again and pushed on down the road, having comprehensively dealt with the opposition.

2. At the bus roadblock: things became tougher. We bunched at the roadblock itself, and the lack of open spaces to our right and left (the woods come up to the road at this point) reduced the advantage of our technicals. In the cramped space between two woods the fighting became very intense. I can't provide a lot of detail, however, because it was at this point that comrade Sulphur ordered me to seize control of the bus and perform a three-point turn. Under fire. It was tougher than when I failed my first driving test, but only just (you wouldn't believe the amount of angry men with AK-47s that could be found in Berkhampstead during the 90s). I also patched someone up.

3. At the first town: we were cut to pieces. I really don't know what happened, except that we came under heavy fire from our left, and I was quickly required to use my medical and smoke-throwing skills. The enemy had better bullet throwing skills.

Ivory Hunt

FTL: Draakon
|- AR: Fer
|- RPG: Egg

Ah the anonymity of the ranks! I could just hide in this fireteam and eat my beans on toast whilst the great and the good hunted down the infidel M1A1. We had about 20 comrades for the ambush; what could possibly go wrong?

Wait ... you want me to what? .... you want me to carry a tripod? .... you want me to carry a tripod and operate a METIS launcher? ... and shoot at the tank? But ... beans ... and toast.

In the end I couldn't use the sights on the launcher, so comrade Draakon allowed me to find a rooftop location for my trusty RPK. I had a lovely view down the main north-south MSR, and watched the hits go in on the hapless Hummers. Thanks to the wonder of object clipping my rounds never found their way to the dismounted Americans, but comrades closer to the action seemed to be doing a fine job of finishing off the ambush, so I turned my attention to the west, just in case any patrols were coming our way from the direction of the airbase.

Through the fog I saw a handful of figures emerge, and knew at once that it was my socialist duty to fire at them wildly from the balcony, RPK at my hip like some 1980s action film goon. Frankly, the only cliched thing I didn't do was fall forward off the balcony when they hit me. Instead, I writhed around on the floor a lot and wondered if our friends at BIS really see near death experiences as a rave in a brothel (lots of red flashing lights). Not that I have ever been to a rave in a brothel.

Anyway, comrade Draakon came to help me but was also shot; it was odd, because he could still walk around, but was unable to bandage my wounds. So my near death experience became an actual death experience.

From the afterlife I particularly enjoyed the succession of hits that went in on the seemingly invulnerable tank, until finally its crew decided that running away was the better part of valour. Congratulations to the two comrades who survived (bleeding, on the floor of a compound). The mission was accomplished with a mere 90% losses. Who says farmers can't be elite, eh?