[Tue] 08 Jan 2013 (Tanks for the memories)

[StrangLove]

Glad to see so many old and new faces together today, thanks for making the session so pleasant to both host and play in.

• Running Rabbit - A US platoon attempts to smuggle a tank through to UN forces, with predictable results
• Khalid Pass - The darkness! The charges!
• Wideola - A10s buzzing on an open fire, BAF dying in the snow
• CHernOLO - A (factory) complex plan leads to much death

What did you do in the good fight? War stories below!

[Ferrard Carson]

I joined late and didn't record a single byte from this session, but t'was fun nonetheless! I was hoping to witness first-hand what carnage my editing powers had wrought upon FA, but unfortunately someone let Rabbit explode before I could get into the game!

Just about as planned

Khalid Pass
Deployed as INDFOR Bravo 1 FTL
We soared across the rocky hills towards the northern edge of all the ruined fortifications, only for our truck to meet a rock with its engine block

Climbing a hundred meters on foot sure was tiring, especially when we spied dirty Russian bastards on the crash site already! Bravo laid down some lead to little effect - our M4's couldn't do much at 500m, though our RPKs might have done better. We found a decent spot on a bluff, the four of us tucked away behind some convenient H-barriers. It was around then that a huge fusillade of fire erupted, with some Russians even stumbling into our midst (maybe?). Bravo 1 poured buckets of fire down into the two-story checkpoint below us, using our superior position to eviscerate at least a fire-team of Russians as they huddled for cover. When I was told we had Russkies behind us, I wheeled Bravo 1 around, only to see nothing but friendlies. Thankfully, my dudes had the good sense to hold their fire until they were certain who we were looking at. No friendly fire today!

And then a minute later I realized that their good sense might have come from them being... well... dead. Yep, I was the only guy left from Bravo 1, the others having been shelled by a GP and murderized by incoming RPK and AK fire. From my tiny shadow of cover behind the H-barrier, I peeked out under the harsh duel of red and green flares, snapping off hurried strings of 5 or 6 shots before rolling back behind the comforting wall of wire-meshed sand and dirt. At one point, I was putting shots into a bush behind which I knew someone had ducked, when I spotted a guy going prone in the middle of some open ground. He was staring right at me, no doubt waiting for my next muzzle-flash so he could drill me through the head. I drilled him instead, and a bullet interrupted his higher thought processes.

As the action lulled, we heard rumblings of a potential wide flanking maneuver by the Russians, then the voice of Allah himself whispered in our ear that there was no glory in wriggling on the ground like worms. No, the glory was to be found at the crash site! Filled with revolutionary fervor, we scrambled forth, bursting down the moonlit hillside only to come under fire from the hills to the south of the crash. I was hit and patched up twice in quick succession (Thanks IceRaiser! And maybe someone else, I'm not sure) and then I slowly worked my way up to the two-story checkpoint my team had made mincemeat out of earlier. From there, I murdered an RPK-ist who was giving Alpha fits, then I waited for one of the Russians to put down his wounded comrade before executing him. Elsewhere, an M4 barked, and the Russians broke and ran, leaving us Takistanis as the undisputed owners of Khalid Pass! Total score: 5 kills, including Washington and Dannysaysnoo! Aww yeah

This Takistani win puts the official score at:
Takistanis: 2
Russians: 1
Meaning that the campaign will canonize a Takistani victory at Khalid Pass, with 50% casualties and no major assets committed or lost on either side. Strangely, every time we played this mission, I was always on the winning side... >.>

Wideola
Deployed as Charlie 1 AR
After a hair-raisingly questionable flight, Charlie's chopper finally landed on some semblance of the ground, and just about everyone in Charlie spilled out into the field, puked our guts out, and ran as far away from x25killa as we possibly could. We made our way through the forest, watched Bravo get cut up from a distance, and then found a barn, where everyone piled inside. And then got shot inside. I found a corner outside and SAW'd two guys in half, but the AI was insane as usual on this mission, and I was pinned against a wall by the third guy, whose bullets finally found the gap beneath the door I was hoping would cover me from his bullets. From beyond the grave, I watched Macaco obliterate a truck and the surrounding 10m of real-estate... with friendly troops 20m away and the cannon shells headed towards friendlies. This was after we had spotted the JTAC wandering way off on his lonesome for no apparent reason, apparently getting shot and killed along the way some mere minutes into the operation.

Methinks the A-10 might be a tad bit of overkill on this mission, much less two of them >.> We're only facing farmers, y'know?

CHernOLO
There are roles to this thing?
I had 4 dudes, including myself. 4 dudes piled in. None came out. But our comrades in makarov-ing got their industrial lubrication fluid drugs, so that's all that matters!

~ Ferrard

[Siaynoq]

This was my first session - thanks for the warm welcome, guys! You made my confusion a lot bearable with your "sympathy" (I heard the giggles! )

I didn't know most of the times, what the heck is happening, so my "report" will be very short

Running Rabbit

Handicapping B3 with my presence, I started my voyage as a brave AT soldier. "Let's blow stuff!" - I said, but I rather sticked with my comrades and tried not to get shot. I ALMOST knew the objective, I ALMOST spotted an enemy, I ALMOST killed Toppo when not paying attention which house we suppose to clear and I DEFINITELY shitted my pants when a tank shot beside the house we were checking... Unfortunately B3 slowly eroded as we progressed and I couldn't witness the bold failure as I was shot in the head by - presumably - an AK...

Khalid Pass

Impossible mission against the Russian War Machine... plus the complete darkness. It even made things funnier when some of the lads were actually hurt before engaging any enemy by that bloody 40 years old truck while getting out...
I tried to stick with my FT as we bravely pushed toward the russian forces. I knew I had to pay attention not to shoot anyone fighting for our freedom - but I never suspected I will actually see a real russian (whom we passed), behind our lines, slaughtering our fighters mercilessly while I just stared with disbelief! My shock didn't last very long as he turned and before I could pull the trigger, I was down as a dog - crushed by the Russian Bear!
Note to self: if someone shoots at our team, it doesn't matter if he is "friendly" - he deserves to die...

Wideola
(A1)

Oh, the joy of riding in a Merlin with the lads! The indistinguishable voice of the A10 roaming the skies and spitting deadly rain on every enemy of the British Forces! Alpha teams were pushing forward happily and cleared two barns (no animals were hurt during the mission!). After we almost eliminated Charlie (I think) in the forest to the north, we got pinned down from - it seemed - everywhere. Tried to smoke our way out, but most of us couldn't make it. At least I couldn't... Although I saw from Heaven that the rest of us extracted just fine and went home for a pint


I couldn't stay for the last mission, maybe next time Because there definitely will be a next time!
Thanks again for everyone!

[DarkTatka]

Khalid Pas Russian Alpha Squad Lead

The mission was ... what was the mission really? I first thought it was to secure the crash site, then to defend it, but then it turned into regular team deathmatch, russians not maneuvering and getting slaughtered as a result.

First my apologizes for nonfunctional CC, I had not set up CC whispering correctly, but it should work now.

Alphas objective was to secure the left abandoned bunker and hold it. I deployed Aplha 1 directly on objective and Alpha 2 some 300 meters in front of them as a buffer against infiltrators. Alpha 3 was one man strong, so I deployed him as scout on our far left flank.

Alpha 2 came under fire and had to pull back with many wounded. I wanted them to swing back south and go to Alpha 3 position and attack again, but for some reason this plan never came to action, and Alpha 2 was getting brutalized. Alpha 1 was also getting murderized in and around the bunkder from whoknows where. I ordered general retreat to Bravo positions through south and then I bought a bullet.

All in all I did not like the mission as I have not seen any clearly cut objective to complete. But that might have been my fault.

Wideola Bravo 1 grunt

We were on right flank and after some serious flanking action came under fire. I pulled our leader back, gave him to medic for patching up and came back to watching angry trees. I haven't seen anyone and when I checked on our FTL he was still down, and medic lost his firstaiding abilities for some bug in the game or what. So I patched him up instead. These medics, they always crack under stress...

We came to Bravo 2s aid and got the rest of them out of there, in the meantime I shot some farmers moving into our flanks. We then legged it into a wooden barn, setting up first aid station there, but as it turns out, the farmers are smarter then we thought. They figured out the bullets can go through the wooden barn walls, and that we are in the barn ... So I got killed by stray bullet inside the barn.

And I never heard the A10 burp, damn it.

[Halop]

Running Rabbit
Alpha 1 FTL

That was a memorable and eventful mission. Alpha's objective was to stay on the left side of the road, cover the tank, kill enemies etc, while bravo stayed on the right side. A1's sector was the far left of the line formation, so we had our eyes peeled to the flank. Started killing enemies soon enough, SL Macaco sent A1 to flank round to the town via valley, after A2 got slaughtered. Somewhere along the way SL died, so the burden of command fell to me. We spotted the thing that was shooting our guys - a mortar or SPG don't remember, so my fireteam and CO Ebass took it out. A3 was on the road in front of the tank, so I ordered them to advance with Rabbit, while A1, MAT, the sole survivor of A2 and CO continued to advance on the town.

Later 2 enemy BMP's arrived and pinned us down. Rabbit was ordered to advance and destroy them as MAT had no rockets. Then Rabbit exploded.

Mission comments:
It was a very fun mission, but I think the amount of enemy armor was too much. We had to risk the tank, as we had no AT capability - we used up the rockets on the T-72 that we saw earlier, perhaps have 2 MAT teams? But I don't know, a lot of rockets were wasted that mission too, so maybe we just had to conserve the ammunition better.


Khalid Pass
OPFOR
Bravo SL

We were ordered to take the southern stronghold, so I concentrated all my forces there. Alpha, down north at the crash site started to take heavy fire, my orders were to hold, so I did. I was waiting for another enemy team to come to us, but it never came, looked like the Goat Herders concentrated all their forces in one attack. We waited, and waited, sometimes took some shots on the enemies we saw up north. Then Alpha started to pull back to our position, so we covered them with fire.

Then the charge was called, so I ran towards the chopper. I saw an enemy in the open - he saw me too but he was faster.

Wideola
Alpha(?) FTL

Disembarked from the chopper and started advancing with the rest of Alpha. Other fireteam came under fire, we took cover behind some trees and started scanning for enemies. I leaned out from cover and immediately got shot in the head.

CHernOLO
Delta(?) Gang member (Automatic)
Was fun, but I died early by the hands of Draakon.

Mission comments:
It's Cholo but with a better setting, I much prefer the factory to the police station, not to mention the silenced guns are a welcome addition.

[Black Mamba]

Running Rabbit
A3 AR

That was a really nice mision. Followed Tiger around, shot at dudes, got shot at a bit, sprayed a lot of compounds, saw dudes get shot down in front of me, Toppo get on a Neil Armstrong-like one-way trip to the moon, offered gratis by an enemy SPG team.
Then we went on going around the last enemy strong point, but what I thought was an almost clear village was actually full of angry AK-waving dudes. And I died. Then again, the rabbit exploded just seconds after that anyway. Those SPG teams really are generous, and paid for our holidays.

I really like the fact that we get some missions with ammo trucks and stuff. It might take a bit of time so that they actually become a real part of the plan, but it was cool to be able to rearm mid-mission, thus allowing me to spray enemy positions without ever holding back.

Khalid Pass
B1 AT dude, indy

Was going pretty well, until somehow we got flanked and a friendly panicked and shot me in the face point blank as I was relocating to get a shot.

Wideola
A1 AR (? Under Ebass)

Wild Wideola. As usual. This mission is a blast everytime we play it, and it kinda made me regret we didn't play it for the joint op, seeing the level of epicness we witnessed. Much shooting (I might have shot a bit at Charlie), dragging people from cover to open space, and finally extraction when we did realize everybody else was dead.

[Ferrard Carson]

Khalid Pass
All in all I did not like the mission as I have not seen any clearly cut objective to complete. But that might have been my fault.

No, that's entirely on me as the mission-maker - Khalid Pass was the first mission I ever made, and it shows in the briefing and the way I had to make seven (7!) iterations of it in order to get everything right

Mission comments:
It was a very fun mission, but I think the amount of enemy armor was too much. We had to risk the tank, as we had no AT capability - we used up the rockets on the T-72 that we saw earlier, perhaps have 2 MAT teams? But I don't know, a lot of rockets were wasted that mission too, so maybe we just had to conserve the ammunition better.

You should actually have 2 MAT teams available, plus the standard 3 AT riflemen per squad, plus the two AH-6J's, plus Rabbit itself. The way you guys were apparently deployed should have given you 6 AT-4's, the MAT team, and any scrounged RPGs or SPGs you could find. That should theoretically be barely enough to deal with everything that comes your way. What I will do is I'll take another swing at the loadouts to make sure MAT is as well equipped as possible, and I'll dump some extra reloads of AT ammo into the engineer's ammo truck. It is, after all, supposed to be filled to the brim with explody stuff.
Aside: Maybe I should make a custom script for the ammo truck that explodes a GBU on its corpse if it ever dies...

I really like the fact that we get some missions with ammo trucks and stuff. It might take a bit of time so that they actually become a real part of the plan, but it was cool to be able to rearm mid-mission, thus allowing me to spray enemy positions without ever holding back.

I like it too! Gives us more opportunity to just plain let loose with massed volleys of fire and revel in the ear porn / destruction of settlements with small-arms fire!

[Kefirz]

Running Rabbit
Alpha 1 FTL
Later 2 enemy BMP's arrived and pinned us down. Rabbit was ordered to advance and destroy them as MAT had no rockets. Then Rabbit exploded.

Mission comments:
It was a very fun mission, but I think the amount of enemy armor was too much. We had to risk the tank, as we had no AT capability - we used up the rockets on the T-72 that we saw earlier, perhaps have 2 MAT teams? But I don't know, a lot of rockets were wasted that mission too, so maybe we just had to conserve the ammunition better.

I think that we need that RPG shooting range more often so less rockets would go to waste
But in all seriousness, I think that there should have been some m136's left in the whole platoon, I mean we were like 2-3 full squads. Seems a bit odd that anyone didn't have any AT.

[Wilson]

The problem I tend to see in most of our missions with regards to vehicles and destroying them...once an enemy vehicle is announced EVERY player with AT rushes to launch a rocket at it, many missing in the process until someone gets it which is where I'd imagine the rockets get wasted!

Perhaps a workshop for AT training - I know we have the explosives range but that is literally just an explosion fest without any real order. In the normal workshop we have training for bounding and advancing on objectives, perhaps have some moving targets and different ranges with the more commonly used AT such as RPGs and M136s so anyone who isn't as accurate with their fire has a chance to get to grasps with the drop etc of the rockets!?

[zitron]

You should actually have 2 MAT teams available, plus the standard 3 AT riflemen per squad, plus the two AH-6J's, plus Rabbit itself. The way you guys were apparently deployed should have given you 6 AT-4's, the MAT team, and any scrounged RPGs or SPGs you could find. That should theoretically be barely enough to deal with everything that comes your way. What I will do is I'll take another swing at the loadouts to make sure MAT is as well equipped as possible, and I'll dump some extra reloads of AT ammo into the engineer's ammo truck. It is, after all, supposed to be filled to the brim with explody stuff

SPGs are locked, MAT uses MAWWS rocket, the ammo truck only had M136. (I was MAT assistant)

The problem with conserving ammo is that because it's the first time we played the mission, no body knew how many amour there will be. I'm pretty sure finishing the mission without shooting all your rockets is an insult to The Party. If we play it again people will not waste AT on the hind now that they know the BMPs are coming.