[Sun] 26 Apr 2015 (Death from a fog)

[Mike [MDS]]

Yeah that was me Fer, thanks; I wasn't expecting an unarmed transport to cook off... *reports in for Remedial Burning Ammunition Truck Identification Training*

Though who set the damn thing on fire in the first place? was somebody throwing explosives at Alpha?

[Sparks]

Though who set the damn thing on fire in the first place? was somebody throwing explosives at Alpha?

No, but Alpha popped up on that ridgeline to the southwest of the farm (Objective Alabama) and Charlie popped up on the ridgeline to the northeast of the farm and we both assaulted at the same time...

Honestly, I'm a bit surprised we didn't friendly fire each other quite badly. I think the buildings were defending us as much as they were defending the enemy

[Ferrard Carson]

Hold the line
Deployed as MMG Gunner Juliet 1 FTL
: "I can't see anything in this fog!"
: "I think it lightens up as the mission goes on."
: "Om nom nom, pea soup."
: "Hey, I'm a .50 cal and I'm going to f*** you up from within this pea soup!"
Spectator Script:
Respawn!
FPS:
Victory!(?)

Apologies, but I really don't have much to say about this mission - it was either wandering through pea soup with nothing to shoot at, or playing "Hold The Line.pptx". As a side note, have all the thermals been disabled for the enemy vehicles? It seemed that most of the fire I received was either a flanking autorifleman (yikes) or vehicle weaponry being fired out of the fog.

Gator Raid
Deployed as Platoon Commander
Ah, this is more like it. A series of daunting problems and plenty of warm bodies to toss into the grinder in order to solve them!

In my opinion, there's no sneaky way to run through this mission - I imagine that if attempted, the outposts would cut us up from above while the patrols ambush us piecemeal at close range because there's little ability for squads to support one another within the valleys themselves. Besides, sneaking's really not my style of platoon maneuver. What is my style, you ask?

: Initiate Operation Steamroller

What we have are a series of somewhat isolated and understrength outposts. As a whole, the entire outpost network covers the valleys below with lethal efficiency - if we were to charge straight through the valley, we'd probably be cut to shreds from all directions. Individually, however, each outpost has significant deadzones in the shadow of their hills - with smart maneuver through low terrain, the entire platoon could get within a stone's throw of each outpost.

The basic plan was thus: The platoon would advance with two squads in concert with a third in reserve. The Assault squad would overrun an outpost, then consolidate themselves and transition into the Reserve element for the next outpost. The Flank Security squad would protect the Assault squad's rear, then transition into the Assault element for the next outpost, and the Reserve squad would perform "other duties as assigned" then transition into the Flank Security element. This rotation was supposed to ensure that we maintained a grueling but relentless pace as we blasted through each outpost in turn and immediately slammed into the next one.

My biggest mistake this time 'round was that I didn't share the overall intent and concept with my squad leads - this plan was entirely in my mind. Between the audacious unspoken plan and some loss of leadership, I won't say that we ever fell into the proper rhythm - my Squad Leaders ended up being less responsive than I was hoping, though I can't tell whether it was due to me demanding too much or them being overwhelmed by something else (information overload from their Designated Marksmen?) - I would appreciate feedback in this area.

Regardless, the assaults worked - we blasted our way through each outpost in turn and only got overwhelmed at the end when I had ordered a Glory Charge(tm) on multiple .50 cal machineguns and large-caliber autocannons. Also, screw that ammo dump - we blasted that helicopter out of the sky and into an ignoble secondary explosion, so I call that a complete win in my books!

Crateresistance
Deployed as AAF Alpha 1 FTL
Ah yes, dinner-plate terrain, with the enemy in a heavily fortified position and no real avenue of assault through which to unseat them. Almost organically, our squad went wide, with the three fireteams spreading out and surrounding the FIA compound to bring them under fire from every direction. AJAX's A3 had taken off to the north right from the start, and after I realized that our fire was completely ineffective from 600 meters, I realized that theirs would be worse and took my fireteam around the south.

From 500m away to their south, A1 engaged in a brief, inconclusive firefight with the tower garrison while A3 blew up an abandoned cache to the north. With nothing accomplished but putting some mental pressure on the two folk in the tower, we moved further and encountered two FIA at extremely close range. In a hasty ambush, we took them out (I think) but drew the wrath of the tower, downing two of our folks. As we picked them back up, Cache 2 went up in a blaze of glory, A2 having used A1 and A3's flanking shenanigans as a distraction from their own frontal assault.

One thing I was very, very puzzled about was the utter lack of contest of the initial hill from which we had observed the battlefield and devised a plan. Honestly, FIA had a virtually impregnable stronghold in that military compound, and the only terrain in the area that was anywhere near comparable was that hill.

A particularly risk-happy or canny FIA commander might have left only a token force of one or two observers in the tower, then taken the rest of their dudes to the hill for an ambush - if AAF approached from the hill like we did (it being the only piece of commanding terrain aside from the tower) then even a single well-positioned FIA fireteam could have cut us apart before we'd even dismounted. If AAF approached from anywhere else, the terrain would have meant that FIA would have ample warning time from just one or two observers to return to the tower and engage in a straight firefight from that fortress, especially if the observers engaged the oncoming AAF.

Regardless, FIA did not roll the hard six and attempt an ambush on the hill, and in the end, AAF's superior concave and multi-pronged attack led us to Victory!

~ Ferrard

[blip2]

A particularly risk-happy or canny FIA commander might have left only a token force of one or two observers in the tower, then taken the rest of their dudes to the hill for an ambush - if AAF approached from the hill like we did (it being the only piece of commanding terrain aside from the tower) then even a single well-positioned FIA fireteam could have cut us apart before we'd even dismounted. If AAF approached from anywhere else, the terrain would have meant that FIA would have ample warning time from just one or two observers to return to the tower and engage in a straight firefight from that fortress, especially if the observers engaged the oncoming AAF.

This would have been excellent however there was a minor *technical* issue when we started:

[Sparks]

This would have been excellent however there was a minor *technical* issue when we started:

An excellent suggestion sir, with just two minor drawbacks...

[madrak_the_red]

Hold the line


A slightly odd one for me, this one, mainly because my microphone decided to stop working as we started, leading to text adventure SAW gunner times. Still, I got to drop some fools with my sweet new bipod, before trying to duel with a 50cal and paying the price when it cleaned out my skull.

Restarting my pc and finding my mics all working again, I hopped in as reinforcements, another AR. I ran around, I shot at choppers both landed and airbourne, before choosing a rather poor spot on the side of a hill and dying to multiple gunshots.

Gattoraid

CSL

I must apologise for my lack of communication as squad lead, I just wasn't all together last night. Still, we successfully assaulted a couple of hills, got plinked at by very distant enemies, and contributed to the demise of a Kaiman. I will take credit for that by virtue of being the most senior rank in the immediate vicinity of the rockets being fired *cough*.

What followed was a brief but entertaining glory charge towards the dump, involving a very close call with an enemy IFV, shooting at vague shapes through the smoke ('Boy I hope that was enemy') and ulimately getting stuck in a tin wall and shot to death. Good fun though!

Cratesistance

My defining moment in this one was my own, personal 'The couldn't hit an elephant' moment. After repeatedly asserting that incoming fire at the current distance would be inaccurate, I took one through the skull. I then must confess I went to bed rather than sticking around, as it appeared I'd died rather prematurely

NATO know how to do a beach landing in style.

King of the woooooorrrllld

[Costno]

Decided to take a swing at recording some of these sessions, so here are two of the three missions from my perspective:

Gator Raid


Cratesistance




Both of these videos are marked as unlisted on youtube for the time being as I was not able to find a working link to download the Folk opening for these videos, and did not want to publicly display propaganda without proper introduction! (If someone can point me in the right direction, I am quite inept, I'll edit these and make them more suitable for public eyes).

[zitron]

iamnotdannyboy shoots down Mi-48 at 550m

[Niwakosan]

iamnotdannyboy shoots down Mi-48 at 550m

I told our AT guy to take the credit for it

It was a nice shot tho (i was the MG who was shooting from the left)

[Sparks]

That was a lovely shot - my FPS was so low that I never even saw the RPG launch from across the valley (mine was the AR fire hitting the helo when the RPG hit), I only saw the explosion and thought I'd killed it