Internecine II Obama Edition
Deployed as OpFor Bravo FTL
What are these shiny new weapons? They're... black. They shoot smaller bullets. Why the hell would we want a gun that shoots smaller bullets? Oh, because Azoz says so? Okay - glory to America!
Well, more like glory to ever-so-slight defilade and me forgetting the words for "military crest," then forgetting to mention to Command that I really wouldn't advise charging Bravo right across this open ridgeline-- oh, here we go-- *SCHWACK!*
Not my finest moment of FTLing ever.
Ashore
Deployed as Alpha Squad Leader
There were a surprisingly lessened number of bad dudes present on the shores of Chernogorsk tonight, and careful, considered movements from both squads meant that we survived the entire way through the factory complex with no significant loss of life. What? Competency? In my Folk ARPS platoon?
A LAV breached the outer wall for us, and myself and Alpha 2 flooded into the factory complex, followed by 1, with 3 bringing up the rear. We went firm on the other side, with Alpha 1 and myself climbing a ladder to achieve fantastically powerful heights while 2 and 3 secured the perimeter of the building and turned the train depot into a deathtrap for Chedaki bastards. We shot the ones with legitimate fathers too. A higher power can sort them out.
After Bravo filtered in and took up positions ahead of us, I consolidated the squad on the left side of the tracks, with the intent of using some large silos to flank around the next position and come at it from the side... only to find Bravo already there and pouring a fusillade of fire right across the tracks. Not about to cross such a withering stream of tracers, I elected instead to press Alpha forward along the left side of the tracks, and we finally reached a two-story building with a very commanding view of Northeastern Chernogorsk. There was very little cover atop the roof where myself and A2 were stationed, but with A3 on the perimeter and A1 probing ahead, I felt confident that we would see, engage, and neutralize any enemies before they even knew we were here.
Like those six that approached us from the north. Through foliage. And houses. And shot us.
Ah, that's more like it
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Swept SE (adversarial version)
Deployed as OpFor Alpha 2 FTL
Welp, not much to be said about this one. You either rush the town in the hopes of attaining cover and hope they haven't already occupied said cover before you get there, or you skyline yourself on the hills and hope you can snipe them out of their windows before they can play shoe to your cockroach-&-dinner-plate impression. I chose the town. My Fireteam was a picture-perfect example of coordination, with the lot of us advancing through the compounds in a smooth cohesive team. My battle-buddy and I cleared compound after compound while blue team followed and zoned our flanks, and we finally found ourselves in the middle of an incredibly stretched out Alpha Squad.
With Fer's Alpha 3 to our Southeast pulling Bravo's ass out of the MMG fire, I arranged for Blue team to make it to a small house in the middle of a field so we could move to support Alpha 3, but when I and my AT rifleman attempted to dash out there, I was felled by bullets. Thanks to the bravery of my comrades, I was yoinked back into cover amidst the pinging of rifle-fire, and patched up (rather painfully) by people who may have heard the words "first aid" for the first time back in the chopper when they were asking what the hell a "medic" was. It's a miracle I was still alive to hear of our glorious victory in the name of Azoz.
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Uprising
Deployed as Charlie Squad Leader
An...
interesting mission that basically begins as "Escape Chernarus: Lee-Enfield edition," placing a huge emphasis on the Squad Leader of each disparate platoon element. With squads this far dispersed, the scope of my responsibility as a squad leader both narrowed, due to the absence of other squads to coordinate with, and intensified, as we were 10 men with 9 Enfields and a pistol, with no friendly support whatsover. A much more intimate experience than we are used to, what with our tendency to prefer a much more mutually supportive "Platoon Wedge."
Our first task was to upgrade our firearms. A quick scope of the town of Msta from a concealing (but highly advantageous) treeline, showed a patrolling fire-team of CDF, armed with AKS-47's. A suitable upgrade, but only for four of our number, and only if we could bring them down. Three concentrated barrages of somewhat accurate fire felled the entire group, and both fire-teams found themselves with a two-man automatic element. Total casualties: three bullets each.
Cross-country-hiking for a good two kilometers, we deployed in the forests above Dolina, where another patrolling fire-team wandered into our withering (and much more accurate) fire and was snuffed out in short order. Total casualties: two bullets each. Now, everyone who wanted an AKS had one, and those who chose to go without were doing magic with their Enfields.
Polana was a no-go, there being scattered infantry within the mass of buildings and nary a useful object in sight. A roadblock set up just south of it turned up no useful unfortunates, as apparently word had gotten out that some crazy guys in track-suits were wandering the countryside, shooting people up for fun and profit! Finally, we reached the outskirts of Gorka, and we got cocky.
One of our number dashed ahead of us and started agitating about seeing a bunker and wanting to shoot the dude inside it. At the same time, at least two patrols of four dudes wandered into the fields in front of us - way too many people than I wanted to take on at once, in such poor cover, and with little preparation. Then, to top it all off, another person dashed ahead to try and link up with the first rogue, and inadvertently stumbled across
six more dudes with guns, alerting them to our presence. In the absolute
worst way to have made contact, he was fired upon, and in order to save the two rogues, the other eight of us were forced to abandon the stealthy crawl we had adopted and rush to advance to contact.
The "advance to" part went well, but when the contact part came about, I was too out of breath from the crawl-and-sprint to aim, and I was shot in the head by one of the six dudes rogue #2 tripped, and the squad progressively fell apart from there. Granted, Charlie was still the only squad of any appreciable strength left at the end of the run due to having taken no casualties whatsoever on the way up, but all forward progress ceased from that point onward, as individual members roamed across Gorka only to be cut down by stray enemies and a second, psychic machine-gun nest.
All in all, this mission was very, almost excessively, reliant on good squad leading, especially when it comes to filtering out comms. Channel Commander was a constant buzz of noise, and to be honest I began completely filtering it out by ten minutes in, and seriously considered switching it off for a while as I set about the objectives given to Charlie. Neither the CO, nor either of our sister squads could really do or say anything to help our local situation, and the constant noise was messing with my intra-squad comms (though thankfully, not my map-reading).
A final mission note to cap this all off: cross-country wanderings are a bit novel to us, but they get boring really, really fast when there's absolutely no chance of contact outside of the cities and towns. Let's see some random-ass patrols! Let's see vehicles moving on the roads! If we want a mission that big, let's actually make every part of it interesting!
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~ Ferrard