As ever, a fantastic sweshion. We had at least 45 comrades fighting with us, I think!
Holy Stones - Southfor Fireteam leader (A2?)
A nice quick adverserial fought around the market and mosque in Zargabad. We started south of it, the other team started north. Our FT moved into a building, and from there it became a comical magic roundabout of being shot, revived, running up and down stairs, occasionally firing blindly into the night, and as the punchline, dying. Yeah, we got stomped.
Fun though!
Broneys - IFV 1 gunner
A fast and furious puppeteerial. Kefirz took the helm of three squads and two IFVs tasked to clear a valley and town, with a few diabolical puppeteers controlling squads of AI to stop us. The IFVs started south, but quickly hooked around onto a hill-shoulder east of where the infantry was assaulting from the north. The infantry were soon engaged from the center of town, with the IFVs able to thin them out from a distance until we started taking rocket fire. IFV2 went down, and IFV1 moved around to join Alpha on the western slope.
By this time casualties were mounting and a semi-glorious semi-charge was called for.
Low on ammo, we went barreling down the hill and into the middle of the town, taking out a few more enemies with Draakon jumping out of the driver's seat to clear buildings with his trusty MP5. The few remaining troops, grouping under Charlie's command, forlornly called for help from the north, but we encountered a rocket before we were able to get to them. Diabolical puppeteer victory!
We noticed at the end that Draakon (driver) had minus 14 points and I (gunner) had minus 1. I don't remember shooting anything that seemed to have a friendly uniform, and I didn't hear anyone call out that we'd killed anyone with friendly fire (though there may have been a close call or two) -- if we did tag anyone, well... I'll just go stand behind the woodshed. Make it quick.
Into the Sea - Deputy Commander
Tigershark stepped into the CO role for this huge combined-arms assault on some strongholds around Berezino, on the coast of Chernarus, and I acted as DC -- in this case, basically a radio-man. I thought this worked really well! Tigershark was able to bring his magnificent brain to bear on the strategy side of things without being battered by comms chatter, while I did my best to filter and pass on information in both directions and take care of some of the lower-level command and coordination, without having to also make internet-life-and-death strategic decisions on the fly. It also meant Tiger could get to the front, look at things directly and focus on particular elements without without having to constantly talk to everyone -- even taking over tactical control of Bravo at one point when things started getting hectic. It also seemed to make things go a little more smoothly when squads and vehicles talked to each other. All in all, this seems like a really useful setup and I'd love if we used it more often.
We started west of the AO with several possible avenues of approach towards two strongholds, one in the town, and one in a nearby lumber mill. We had three squads, plus two IFVs, a tank, engineers, and an attack helo. IFV2, the tank, and Alpha squad took the central route through some woods, while Bravo and IFV1 hooked around them to the south, the aim being to get everyone into position for a simultaneous assault on the first stronghold, Berezino. The chopper took up a position out over the sea, starting to the southeast of the target AO.
The tank was the first casualty, taking a rocket while bravely drawing the wrath of the forces in the town. Though the metal beast burned, the crew made it out and were able to get some fresh air and exercise while joining the infantry assault, and the distraction was enough to let everyone else get safely to their positions, in preparation to assault the town. By this point, the chopper was engaging targets on the beach, destroying a BMP and two T-90s with their hydra missiles, and taking out smatterings of ground troops with their guns.
Once the glorious attack started, the chopper was soon called on to support Bravo who started taking fire from the east, between their treeline and the beach. With IFV1 also supporting them, Bravo eventually managed to take down everyone standing between them and Berezino, and between made it up into the town as Alpha started clearing the western side of it. By this point another tank had been spotted at the stronghold in the town center, so Alpha moved around its north flank to assault the position while the chopper took care of the armour; the IFVs stayed nearby at all times, taking out every Russian who came near.
At this point Berezino was declared clear and attention turned to the lumber mill to the northeast. The attack helo was cleared for a limited rocket-run on the stronghold, but before they could do so IFV2 had already gotten to a good vantage point and was levelling the place with HE fire -- to the point where Tiger had to rein them in to leave some targets for the infantry. (The distant barrage did sound incredible with the JSRS sound mod, though!) Alpha swung north around them to get to a ridgeline west of the target and prepare for the final assault. Bravo also attempted to move up from the south, but were hampered by a batch of peculiarly fanatical and resilient Russian defenders dug into a few small buildings just east of Bravo's assault route. With the chopper unable to clearly confirm targets so close to friendly forces, and the buildings mostly out of sight of the IFVs, they proved a tricky obstacle. Nothing could stop the might of the FA platoon by this point, though, and once they were dealt with the lumberyard was soon swarming with friendlies. Once the crates of equipment there had been rigged to blow, and enough people were walking away from the explosion in slow motion, the win was declared.
Despite the huge number of enemies, through all this we seem to have suffered only about 5 casualties, which speaks volumes about Tigershark's leadership and the competence of everyone else in the platoon. I had loads of fun with this one! I did hear a few reports of chopper fire coming dangerously close to friendlies, but I don't believe it resulted in any casualties so no harm done, I hope.
No man behind - Damselfor 'operator'
Although our numbers went down to 24 after that mammoth of a mission, we still had enough for a quick and cheerful run-through of this new rescue mission. 14ish security contractors found themselves victims of a chopper crash at a randomly-chosen location, with meagre weaponry, but one helo door minigun still operational, able to point between the west and south. A BLUFOR force with a chinook (few in numbers in this run-through) were tasked to find and rescue us before we were overwhelmed by masses of incoming infantry.
With our maps disabled and no clear chain of command, we did some pretty hardcore milling around before eventually sort of scattering ourselves loosely around the chopper, though as were were in the middle of a huge clearing there was precious little cover. Soon enough we started taking fire mostly from the south and west -- beautifully, right in the firing range of the minigun. Finding myself armed with only smoke grenades, I jumped in the gunner's seat, strapped myself in, and started pouring lead into the treelines and the enemy's concealing smoke, soon resulting in a cacophany of return fire hitting the chopper.
More and more rifles and MGs started to appear for every one we took down, but at this point the hum of friendly rotors started to reach us.
Unfortunately this prompted huge volumes of enemy fire directed skywards, followed by a worried cry of "That helo's coming down awfully fast..." Sure enough, with twenty meters to go before touchdown, the chinook's engines started emitting black smoke and died. Thankfully the pilot was able to wrestle it safely down to the ground, and although the chopper was down for the count with no engineers to fix it, the left minigun was at least pointed at the enemy. After blarting out the last of my own minigun's bullets I dashed over from one wrecked chopper to the other, only to catch a fatal bullet in the head right as I ran into the group. So much for safety in numbers!
From here on out there was much weeping and gnashing of teeth, as the two teams enjoyed a reunion tempered by the fact that they were hopelessly surrounded by relentless hordes of armed men, with no chance of escape, and mostly characterised by alternating screams of "No, YOU need to rescue US!" and "ARGHBULLETSTHATWAYFIRE". Needless to say,
Prince Harry and prince Wills swooped in in their choppers and saved everyone and they all lived happily ever after everybody died.
Kefirz's- wip - INDFOR FTL
A fun take on the Dark Business formula. The Takistanis and US forces were tasked to locate and meet eachother in a large AO with no radio contact or mutual map-markers, and only a limited number of flares, in order to load a Stinger launcher with missiles and take down a Russian helicopter. The Russians' job? Kill everyone before that happened, using the chopper to land troops, while also patrolling the area with a gun-truck.
We had the Stinger launcher (BLUFOR having ze missiles), and started high up at the southwest corner of the AO. Moving onto the lip of a valley overlooking a large plain, and catching sight of an unidentified truck moving into the fog in the distance, we hid among some rocks while our SL ventured out to shoot out a flare, hoping to draw in the BLUFOR -- but hampered by helicopter flybys that soon started to zero in on our position. At this point we crossed the valley to the other side, which seems to have saved our bacon as it put us in a perfect position to ambush the chopper as it made a landing nearby. All troops who landed were handily despatched, with the chopper managing to escape, but damaged.
This seems to have caught BLUFORs attention as they reached us soon afterwards -- but not before we managed to send the chopper, returning for a daring CASEVAC mission, spiralling into the hillside under a barage of good old-fashioned AK and RPK fire. We then blew up the rapidly-approaching guntruck for good measure, to stop it spoiling our gunfire-themed victory rave.
Chernolo
We stalwart manly cops defended a factory from the low-down no-good rocker scum who tried to put a cholo on us. We cholo'd like our lives depended on it, but they just had too much cholo on their side, and at the end of the day, the cholo went to them, which to be fair, destiny had already foretold. Short and sweet!
As ever, supermassivebigtime thanks to the hosts, the missionmakers, the movers and the shakers who keep this party rolling, and to everyone else for making this community awesome.