Workshop
Deployed as Glorious Instructor-Dude
The basics emerged once more, as I ran our comrades through the firing-lane bounding exercises, then graduated to the squad-level Fire & Maneuver exercise. Bullets flew, and we discussed the ineffectualness of sparsely-used smoke (a.k.a., "Smoke with an entire FT to make a screen big enough for a squad.")
Then we stared intently at our maps, concentrating on how we would clear the "Crazy-Insane Convoy Adversarial" terrain in reverse, with me tossing out a few obviously hare-brained approaches and asking people to pick them apart.
- Plan #1: Just Drive, Drive, Drive.
Plan #2: Clear the road (but ignore the mountain).
Plan #3: Send one squad up the mountain alone and keep everyone else 700m back!
Plan #4: Ideal case (Alpha clears defilade to the north, Charlie clears mountain to the south, Bravo clears the road and stands by to assist either flanking squad)
Kav
Deployed as Alpha Squad Leader Acting CO
With great gusto,
Tigershark announced his intentions to ride in IFV1, and for IFVs 1 and 2 to charge up the valley until stopping to disembark troops so we could move on a hilltop marked "Recon-Team Alpha". GLORY, for the CO shall be riding at our front, waving a sword to urge all glorious comrades onwards! Don't mind me, I'll be in the back, quietly arranging for ASL and CO to not be in the same vehicle and for A1 and ASL to not be in the same vehicle. No, no reason at all... >.>
"We're taking HMG fire!" I hear from IFV1. "Push through," I respond. "You're free to respond in kind." And
BOOM goes IFV1
"All elements, this is Alpha Squad Leader taking command of the platoon."
From that point on, I maneuvered the squads carefully.
Mamuto's A2 Fire Team were brilliant, achieving the secondary and then primary peak of our original objective with
Willam's IFV2 providing some fantastic fire-support. Upon the hilltop, they found an enemy MMG and that pesky enemy HMG, both of which we then repurposed to form a truly frightening base of fire.
From there, we supported Bravo as they snuck north through a reed-filled ditch, then wheeled and dealed on the Eastern side of the road, clearing buildings until their IFVs bit the dust along with their squad lead and about half their initial numbers. Bravo's remnants went firm before I could tell them to, and we all settled down to await newly-announced reinforcements.
And reinforce they did - Charlie came barreling up the road and dove into the fray with expert leadership from... COMRADE TIGER! I see reports of your death were greatly exaggerated!
Alpha's waves of MG fire had already cleared away most of the patrols in the area while IFV2's MG rattled endlessly to clear enemies from the Eastern Ridge, leaving Charlie the task of clearing out buildings in the Western half of the AO whilst Bravo provided a warning-cordon against any potential mechanized counter-attack from our next objective. After some engineering logistics to get our IFVs back up and running, the entire platoon charged into the next sector as one raging wave of American testosterone. We saw sheets of tracers headed across the valley, with Charlie to the left on high ground, Bravo slowly picking its way forward on the hill to the right, and Alpha charging up the center with most glorious IFV2.
When Bravo announced the presence of an enemy vehicle, I knew what had to happen.
Willem's brave IFV2, the stalwart survivor of all our initial IFVs (not even a scratch on the paint!) crested the hill at my side, and I watched as they delivered point-blank sabot shots into the enemy's face until the vehicle mushroomed spectacularly.
A Friend in Need
Deployed as OpFor Bravo Medic
The understrength Bravo set off to the south of the AO with My Little Ifritini in tow. Upon arrival, we could see BluFor's chopper already landed and disgorging the entirety of NATO's squad. When it coasted over to us, obviously setting up a strafing run, all of Bravo plus our lil' Ifritini opened up. No effect on the airframe, though I believe we must have shot the gunner right out from his seat because the chopper never fired on us again.
The damage was done, though - poor
Waffles had taken a bullet to the brainpan (squish!) and Bravo 1's FTL finally got us moving again after getting a handle on what had just happened. We were charging across the field, nearly-winchester Ifritini still in tow, when the caches blew and NATO won.
More seriously:
Wafflynumber made the right call having Bravo open up on the chopper in its initial run - it was obviously coming in for a strafing run, and needed to be dealt with. More of us needed to shoot at the tail-rotor rather than the main body, for I think we're all still in that A2 mindset of "Shoot out the gunner and shoot out the engine block" when that is no longer a plausible course of action with A3's much more survivable choppers.
On its second run, we fired at it again, but that's when we should have realized that it was safe to ignore from that point on, for
EBass did the whole "pop flares over them" thing that no one does unless their guns are useless. We were slow in transitioning to B1 FTL's command though, and he had his hands full trying to understand the situation from atop the sorriest excuse for a "hill" we've ever seen.
~ Ferrard