fa3_a94_precious_cargo_v1

[Ferrard Carson]

Comrades, gather 'round - I have a favor to ask. Thinking waaay back to this convoy adversarial, what improvements would you suggest? Here are some that I know were suggested, and the reasons that they weren't implemented in the first place:

1) Group Teleport (ala A2's excellent "Highway" and "Bend"): There's two reasons I didn't go with teleport:

• Through extensive testing, I timed it pretty carefully so that if absolutely everyone goes balls-to-the-walls, FIA reaches good positions about when AAF can be spotted from the hill and about when the AAF chopper can reach the AO - it all depends on who is most on the ball and can get there quickest as to who is at an advantage, but in the end, FIA can entrench themselves well in advance of AAF arrival. Sure, the FIA CO doesn't have absolute flexibility of action, but there's definitely enough to play with.
• Between the sheer number of rocks in the area and the drastic elevation changes, group teleport resembles nothing more than a pretty good recipe for death-by-calcification / ankle-breakage.

2) Less AAF assets: AAF has a plethora of armed vehicles to choose from, including a recce chopper with a tiny bit of minigun ammo, against which FIA has AT assets that will take out an MRAP in one hit, and an IFV in 2-3. Between the storm and the briefing telling AAF not to stray from the road, things conspired to cause the cat-and-mouse of IFV / AT to play out exactly as I wanted it to - the IFV was an unholy terror as medium / close range fire-support, but FIA had enough nooks and crannies to shoot from that they could fight back effectively. FYI, all assets are not intended to be taken - hosts tend to cherry-pick which ones to include and which ones to not, and by varying the assets we take, the mission changes dramatically.


3) An actual ambush: Some FIA were lamenting that AAF always knew there would be an ambush and that AAF would never actually be ambushed. That's the point. Though this mission is based on the convoy ambushes from The Bear Went Over the Mountain, it is entirely up to the AAF CO how closely he wants to emulate the Soviet 40th Army - hopefully he doesn't. The ambush site is blatantly obvious even without the hints in the briefing, and the mission is really supposed to be a set-piece battle over that mountain and the pass beneath it. There's no reason for a time limit, because I want the AAF to tackle the problem: How do you actually proceed methodically through a contested mountain pass? I want FIA to tackle the problem: How do you use the terrain and positioning to fight an enemy with far superior equipment?

So, there's my reasoning behind some of my choices. What do you suggest I do to make this mission better?

~ Ferrard

[wolfenswan]

IIrc the technicals need to be moved a bit further back as AAF saw them from their approach. Maybe move FIA as a whole more towards the north and give them transports?

Otherwise I liked it. The IFV is strong but as the first playthrough showed not invincible. Maybe giving FIA a HAT team (static Titan) would be an idea? Considering they'd have to be placed out in the open if they wanted to hit the IFV long-range.

Another idea would be adding wreck objects along the road to add cover, both for ambushers and ambushed. Wouldn't be the first ambushed that happened there?

I think the AI at the checkpoint caused confusion (and engaged FIA?). Might be good to state in the briefing that there are AI friendly to AAF or just remove the units there.