Note: If you are interested in quite a few screenshots of the map (and map markers) from both the workshop and the session proper, take a look at
this gallery. There may also be some pictures of soldiers and toys.
Crateresistance
DC M: Fer
BLUFOR's comrade CO Ghandisrightoe opted to split his force into two elements. Alpha would hit the enemy from the west, Bravo from the north. Each squad was going after a separate cache, and the plan was for them to link up for an assault on the third, southern cache, afterwards.
As a host I like this kind of plan: it gets the most people firing AKs in the shortest possible time, but as a bumbling amateur tactician it makes me fret. The players were already distributed evenly across the two sides, and even if INDFOR had only one third of its troops at any given cache, the AI INDFOR troops would likely make any individual fight an affair of even numbers. With one side in defensive positions, however hasty, this actually makes for an
unfair fight.
As the spare medic, I was attached to Alpha. We had a very short drive to our forming-up point, and then jogged eastwards, into the misty fields and hedgerows. Up ahead of us rose a wooded knoll, atop which we were fairly certain the enemy would be. Waiting. A hedgerow ran towards the base of the hill to our left, but at least one fireteam, Alpha 3, would be forced to cross the open ground of a ploughed field under fire if the order came to assault.
Seconds later and bullets were flying in all directions. Comrade SL Headspace was trying to co-ordinate the attack but already Alpha 3 was in trouble. Smoke clouds bloomed on the ploughed field and I realised I was needed out there in the open. As Alpha 1 and 2 exchanged fire with the enemy on the knoll from in and around the hedgerow, I ran to the aid of a downed member of Alpha 3. With the swirling smoke between us and the enemy, I dragged him into some bushes and attempted to patch him up. Once the smoke cleared we'd be exposed again - leaves do not stop AK rounds - so the emphasis was on speed.
At this point I remember thinking: "Wait, wasn't that Headspace giving first aid in the field?"
The rest of Alpha was now assaulting, attack becoming the only form of defence in a desperate situation; but the chatter over comms was bleak. "Alpha 3 is down to one man." ... "Alpha 3 is combat ineffective." ... "Oh God, I'm so cold, please hold me?" (that last one may be a lie). I ran forward through the last of the smoke, across the field, but never made it to the knoll.
Roadside
Charlie 3 FTL: Fer
|- AR: Cap,
|- AAR: Dan
|- RPG: Red Sniper
Comrade Ferrard Carson has read
The Bear Went Over The Mountain. If you haven't, you should.
Understanding that, in this terrain, the force that controls the ridges controls the battle, comrade Carson's plan called for Alpha and Bravo to mount the steep sides of the valley whilst Charlie moved directly up the road. Comrade squad leader Bodge's orders stipulated that my fireteam, Charlie 3, would be the left-hand element of the squad. Glancing at the map, I could see that our QRF, Delta, was being sent to the mountain-top to our far south-east.
The advance began at a jogging pace, with fireteams bounding from cover to cover as we made our way up the initial incline. I split my own men into red/blue sub-elements, making it easier to allocate them to the corners of rocks and structures we sheltered behind. The enemy contacted us early on, and as we came up towards the first major cluster of houses we were being engaged from our front and right (the latter contacts being high up on the ridge along which Bravo was advancing). The fire from our AK-74s lacked accuracy, but our numbers guaranteed volume, and the RPKs remain scarily effective for an iron-sighted weapon. Though intense at moments, I wasn't concerned for our safety so long as we continued to make use of the cover available to us and benefited from the covering fire of our sister squads.
Before the second cluster of houses we climbed up a little spur, from which we had a great view up the road all the way to the T-junction. The valley opened out further up, and beyond the junction we saw more enemy infantry and even a tripod-mounted DShKM; to their right, another squad of fighters was entering the valley from the western pass. We opened up, our AR's RPK again proving effective despite its lack of optics. Then we were on the move again, down into a little hamlet and up onto the high ground beyond, still maintaining our advance towards the T-junction.
At this point comrade squad leader Bodge ordered a change of plan. Behind us, to the north-east, a wooded gully led down from the mountain on which Delta had landed and ran back towards the rear of the convoy. Comrade CO Carson had ordered a block-and-sweep operation to deal with an enemy squad reported to be in amongst the trees, with Charlie acting as dustpan to Delta's broom. We formed a line at the base of the forest and waited for a wave of retreating fighters to break upon us. Privately, I wondered if shooting up the gully would be at all dangerous for our comrades in Delta (and vice versa). No fighters appeared, so with Delta we wheeled once more and descended the hill towards the original ambush site.
The operation was winding down now - though we took some half-hearted fire from enemy stragglers to our south, both the transport helo and BRDM were able to pick up the majority of Charlie and Delta at points between the ambush site and the T-junction. My fireteam was the final rearguard in Charlie, and as we jogged back towards the junction the mission ended in success.
Mission maker's note: Roadside was never meant to be a Wolfenswan-grade hard mission, but it was supposed to emphasise the perils of staying down on the valley floor amongst the vehicles. So whilst it was sad to see the whole platoon massacred first time around, it was equally satisfying to see us complete the mission with almost no losses when using a different plan. In particular, the power of mutually supporting squads was in evidence here, but the late-mission block and sweep operation mounted by Charlie and Delta also demonstrates that we're not slaves to the 'platoon wedge'. Congratulations to everyone!
Rolling Bohica
JIP / CO Element AR
Actually, because we effectively
ran out of slots I ended up in the JIP element. After managing to run over comrade Brown (very, very sorry!), I drove up to the CO's position and became his minder for much of the mission. It was great being comrade CO Bodge's minder, because I got to sit in the back of a HMMWV eating crackers and marmalade, and taking many screenshots of the map (see
this gallery). This was a slow mission, but one that was great to watch unfold on the map. There were also some comedy moments involving the MTR team and their lost tripod.
It was also
not true that the CO element was always safe: one of the Kamovs came down barely 20m from our position, forcing us to open fire on its crew (I'll post video of that later); a little later, we also took fire and were forced to drive into the safety of a village. When Charlie reported a man down in our vicinity, comrade CO Bodge and I set off into some very, very dark woods. Just as I began to make out some shapes in the blackness, there was a power cut and my house was plunged into absolute and very real darkness. And that was effectively it for me - but I look forward to
continuing this mission at some point soon.
Swept SE
Bravo SL (effective)
I didn't start out as BSL, I just wound up in that position due to various comms-related SNAFUs whereby the
real BSL (effective), comrade Ferrard Carson, asked me to step up. Actually, I was B2's RPG guy. Let's just not tell my FTL, okay?
Anyway, near the start of the mission, possibly just after we had exited the helos and made it to out first position, comrade Ferrard Carson asked (of comrade Kaleovil's plan): "Hey, isn't this the exact same plan we ALWAYS use as OPFOR?". He turned out to be wrong, but really this is best done with a map!
- ArmA2OA 2013-01-29 00-15-43-60 A.png (428.54 KiB) Viewed 12560 times
Super session, thank you to all the comrades who came along. Hope to see all over you again in future sessions!
I was on OPFOR, and after a tense but uneventful advance into the first section of the village Alpha found itself in a veritable shit-storm of fire. My services were called upon at A-1, and while I was tending to my wounded comrade, a cowardly insurgent grenaded the hell out of us and I think single handily wiped us all out. It went downhill from there.
Also, though, I have no idea why we even went to the village, it was almost out of our AO. *shrug Some trucking shenaniganry happened and that was the mission!
) When we reached the town, C was ordered to run north and clear a nearby forest of EI, with Delta supporting from the other side. We saw no contacts in the forest - met up with Delta and assaulted the last enemy positions together. Patched up a friendly who didn't see a BRDM reversing into him, boarded a chopper and left. Success, no casualties in Charlie. I imagine v2 will have 10x enemy infantry and tanks. 
Unfortunately, we promptly used it to accidentally fire on Bravo and disable the BRDM they had salvaged. Super-duper sorry, Bravo 
.