[Sun] 13 November (The Not Domination)

[fer]

Missions:

• Domination
• Cratesistance #1
• Cratesistance #2
• Ride of the valkyries
• The takedown

See that cross-out word up there? Well, we're not using it anymore. Earlier, some men appeared in an unmarked car, bundled it into the back seat, and drove off at high speed. It won't be seen again, and if foreign journalists come around asking questions all good comrades are instructed to look uncomfortable and be evasive. We had a good turnout (again hovering around the 20 mark, and that's with the Skyrim factor in full effect), which allowed us to play some killer adversarials. Thank you to all comrades who came along, and specially to comrades Harakka and Joseph for their new missions.

[theG57]

WTF Happened?

[DarkTatka]

Didnt we do The Takedown as last mission? I have nice memories of that, because i didnt die with first contact...

[wolfenswan]

WTF Happened?

we had the best session ever and mere words won't describe it. we bested the map that shall henceforth not be named in a unbelievable time for mere mortals.

[Joseph-Sulphur]

Well, I thought Valkyries went okay. Anyone got any suggestions?

[fer]

Crateresistance #1

CO: Comrade AstuteCat
|- (DC) Medic: Fer

Despite living in an era of airstrikes and drones, it's funny how our instinct is to make a grab for the high ground; but that's exactly what comrade AstuteCat, myself and comrade Draakon's Alpha FT did. Planting ourselves on a high, rocky outcrop at the top of the tallest hill - also the site of a cache - we went firm and waited for the enemy. Comrade Nullkigan's Bravo FT was down in the valley to our south-west, guarding two further caches.

We had left our eastern caches to be guarded by the AI, and it wasn't long before the enemy contacted them. From the outcrop, through the misty forest we soon caught sight of figures to our east. It was exciting stuff, the snap snap snap of rifle fire in the woods, and of rounds from an RPK hitting as many tree trunks as not.

The enemy went right at first, attempting to flank us. We put at least one man down and soon coloured smoke arose from near his location. Though we later learnt it wasn't a deliberate feint, it worked almost as well. When the enemy next broke (to the left), they got closer - but we dropped at least two out in the trees at a distance of around 50m. It was tense, frantic stuff, and over TeamSpeak comrade Nullkigan's team was talking to us as it moved quickly to reinforce our right flank (to our south).

In classic adversarial style, someone had managed to infiltrate right onto our position, and only the quick reaction of comrade AstuteCat caused the enemy - and not us - to be riddled with bullets. However, our leader was soon cut down, and not long after comrade Draakon fell too. Our numbers on the little outcrop were dwindling, and I myself was under intense fire from somewhere (I guessed north). It was a race between our enemies and Bravo FT.

I bought it, and soon after another infiltrator managed to reach and explode the cache we had been guarding. Barely a handful of people remained alive, and of those my surviving comrades were patching each other up. From death I watched as the enemy comrade Unaco squandered the chance at victory by executing our remaining men, and instead ran to the northern cache where he was shot in the face by AI.

An excellent round of an excellent mission. Congratulations to comrade Harakka, its writer, I suspect this may become a staple!

Crateresistance #2

CO: Comrade AstuteCat
|- (DC) Medic: Fer

Having swapped sides (and changed cache locations), we now went over to the offensive. But not before I had patched up our leader, who had spawned in under a truck and been injured (that shit never happens to Scott Bacula in Quantum Leap).

I have no idea what was going on with Alpha and Bravo FTs, because along with comrade AstuteCat, I was walking down a nice country lane with the intention of putting some pot shots into an outlying cache location and stirring up the AI. Unfortunately, the AI (or maybe it was humans?) had the infinitely better idea of opening up on us from both sides of the road. Comrade AstuteCat was killed and I was forced to hug the ground.

By the time crawled back to Alpha FT it was just comrade Draakon, and over TeamSpeak it sounded like Bravo was badly chewed up. Bravo was to our south, I guess headed for the highest cache, with open ground between us and the woods they were in. The rocks comrade Draakon and I were sheltering near came under fire from the east, and it seemed like only a matter of time before we were hunted down. I suggested that it was time for death or glory, and our newly-minted commander agreed.

There's something rather fun about spraying the entire contents of an AK mag on full auto in woodland at targets you can barely see as they flit about between the trees. Over direct VON I could hear one of our wounded men begging for mercy, so I just blasted away at anything that was upright. Thankfully I missed the other friendly who was coming to the wounded man's aid, but not the sneaky enemy that was flanking us to the left (although I can't claim that kill as my own because I'm sure comrade Draakon was shooting at him too, and probably not on silly-automatic mode like me).

And then, amazingly, we had won.



Ride of the valkeries

MMG: Fer

It's never good when your CO jumps from the helicopter prematurely and injure himself during an unopposed landing. But I'm not complaining, because comrade Wolfenswan actually had a nice plan.

Landing the platoon at two separate locations, and himself on a high point (from which to observe), comrade Wolfenswan planned for us to attach the first outpost from two directions. As MMG gunner I flew with Charlie FT and made up part of the eastern-most force. Off to our left was Alpha/Bravo, and together the two detachments closed on the enemy's nearest position whilst our CO marked out hilltop bunkers beyond. It was shaping up to be a wonderful assault, particularly as I climbed a slope and prepared to rain PKM death on the enemy. Then--

And from death, I watched the rest of the assault unfold pretty well, followed by a methodical employment of Draakon's little Czech fighter-bomber as CAS. Slowly but surely, in between Draakon's rocket pod runs, the platoon edged forward into the enemy stronghold until finally, they overlooked the last BLUFOR troops on a road.

An RPG streaked across the village and destroyed a BLUFOR patrol. We giggled in the dead channel before a second rocket streaked across the village - but this time in reverse, as one of our teams took a TOW missile to the face! Luckily, their comrades survived to finish the job.

Well done to everyone, particularly for two things:

• When everyone was asked to treat the Hinds as unarmed (because I only wanted us to have the one 'toy' as CAS), it was great that everyone played along. It rather confirms my faith that mission makers don't have to spend forever adding scripts / tweaks to prevent people being dicks - we just have to set out the rules and guests respect them. That's something we can be proud of.
• It as nice to see a combined arms situation where the toy added lots of colour to the mission but neither dominated it, nor was its loss pivotal.

The takedown

Bravo FTL: Fer
|- Kelron
|- StrangLove

Yeah. We landed in a yard, ran into a building, and then I wondered why the engine was still running on our Littlebird. So I ran to a nearby window and looked out just in time to see a farmer stealing our helicopter, being shot, and crashing back into the yard. And then the building collapsed on top of me.

[Kelron]

The takedown

Bravo FTL: Fer
|- Kelron
|- StrangLove

Yeah. We landed in a yard, ran into a building, and then I wondered why the engine was still running on our Littlebird. So I ran to a nearby window and looked out just in time to see a farmer stealing our helicopter, being shot, and crashing back into the yard. And then the building collapsed on top of me.

I take no responsibility for this. Blame the farmer.

[wolfenswan]

I had a roommate moving in and being the nice guy I am (read: can't say no to three girls struggling with a coach) I helped carrying some stuff during the session. Apologies if that caused any problems.

Cratesistance #1

I was alone in Charlie and had to provide flank support for Alpha. CO Tigershark wanted Bravo to attack through the woods while we ran through open field. Open field that was overlooked by a high point in a forest. So as unbelievable it is that really went wrong when we got under fire from said highground and I managed to take out one guy. Another wounded me while I tried to flank but apparently I took him out as well while I was going down. The medic got shot while trying to help me and thus I begged Head for help: "No" was the cowards answer. Then i bled out.

Cratesistance #2

I was with Bravo, attacking the cache up high in the forest. We sped up abit as we heard that Alpha was coming under fire. What may have looked like a perfect pincer movement to our opponents was in truth pure accident. I for one had no idea where the enemy was and lost orientation completely while Stranglove was yelling "there's the enemy!!" over VON without any direction whatsoever. When I finally spotted an enemy he shot me.

Ride of the valkeries

Ah well, after Fer was shot i took the MG which apparently upped my threat level and I got shot by an extremly accurate BLUFOR grunt. Splendid show after that though.

The takedown

Me and Joe (my manservant) both took one car and were headed for Yarum where we'd plan the next step. Unfortunately the helicopter then spotted us forcing us to drive into Zargabad. I ran into a nearby building while comrade Tigershark brought up a UAZ. We had a rather comical moment when we made a turn towards the mosque and suddenly faced a building with at least two BLUFOR soldiers looking our way in a perfect shooting position. "Are those enemies?" comrade Tigershark asked, curiously. "YES THEY ARE SHIT SHIT SHIT I'M OUT OF HERE" I replied in the rational and calm manner expected by a Colonel, ejecting out of the vehicle and dashing in a building with bullets whizzing about.

I spotted more BLUFOR at the south-east of the mosque and managed to down one with my scorpion from afar. I considered dropping the weapon but as I wasn't sure I would look like a civilian so I kept it. I took down another BLUFOR guy that was apparently trying to get in my back, sprinted into another building and from there into the safety of the mosque.


I really like the mission idea but I think it could be improved in some way as BLUFOR is a bit too far away. One idea would be to give them unarmed humvees additionally and/or to let them start at Zargabad airport. Aziz and his manslave (or only the latter) could start a bit further away as well, maybe forcing the manslave to pick up Aziz first.

[StrangLove]

I for one had no idea where the enemy was and lost orientation completely while Stranglove was yelling "there's the enemy!!" over VON without any direction whatsoever. When I finally spotted an enemy he shot me.

I was all over the place on sunday, so apologies. I managed to kill three of them, if it's any consolation.

[harakka]

I bring footage from both rounds of Cratesistance. My own audio is missing as usual. That will be fixed the next time I record stuff though, hopefully.