[Sun] 13 Dec 2015 (Fun with HMGs)

[Sparks]

Missions:

• Mailman (Extended)
• To Arms
• Hold the Line
• SF Training Ground
• Afterparty
• Weekend Warriors
• HELICOPTERS (rockets only)
• Salt Riders x2
• Shipping Problems
• HELICOPTERS (tank cannons and Zeus AA Buzzards)
• HELICOPTERS (sortof normal)

It was a somewhat harrowing start to the evening for me, as I arrived suffering from PTSD because of the chicken incident. However, 33 comrades joined us during the evening, helping me block out the memories quite effectively.

We began with a nice run of Comrade Eagle_Eye's update of Comrader Tigershark's Mailman (extended), which has never really explained what part of the mailman has been extended, but given that it was Comrade Tigershark, perhaps the answer is something we shouldn't chase too hard...
Comrade Netkev did great work as Zeus, but the enemy AI apparently was terrified of Bravo squad and refused to close the gap and so we were spared complete annihilation, SuperU-style this time. I was taken AFK suddenly mid-mission; my apologies to everyone who needed bandaids or kissed boo-boos in my absence. However, well done all for completing the mission almost perfectly. We would however ask that Comrade darkChozo remember to fill out the paperwork for his ghosthawk properly next time. If you're going to park it facing the right way in the hanger at the end comrade, at least fill out the logbook...

We moved from this classic to another classic, Comrade Carson's To Arms, a mission which has repeatedly punished commanding officers who charge in rapidly; and this evening was no exception. Due to a mapreading whoopsie, Alpha advanced a hair's breadth too far... and were jumped by many, many enemy. Despite Alpha's eventual eradication, the mission pressed on and very nearly succeeded - alas, the enemy cunningly destroyed the medical supplies before we could steal them and in the end it came down to a glory charge against a Mora while being chased by an EI who must have been trying to strangle comrade ZeCatnip...

Given our lack of success against mechanised elements, we went straight on to Hold the Line, a slightly newer version where the server doesn't die instantly from the fps lurgy. I opted to help out as UAV operator and dove into a bush, launched the UAV and spent the rest of the mission acting as the eye in the sky talking continously into the CO's ear to ensure he could never think straight. The attack on the checkpoint went well, if ablatively, but the attack on the town fell due to ... well, lack of participation, what with everyone lying dead in a field. Eventually the two remaining comrades decided to withdraw, swam to and stole a boat, but then foolishly if bravely attacked the overwatching HMG strider, which then killed them both in retaliation. I called the mission at that point without coming out of the UAV terminal view, a decision I now regret, for it meant I missed this:



Since we were now turning on one another, it was time to turn on one another properly, and Comrade Netkev and I faced off in a run of SF Training Ground, with myself defending. Alas, I neglected our MMG team and paid the price as Comrade Netkev was able to clever-girl them, commandeer their MMG and get into a more elevated position overlooking Alpha and we were toast.

After this, it was time for the afterparty, kicking off with a run of Weekend Warriors where I abused my hosting privileges by stealing the North Patrol slot to run an idea I've had for a while with this mission - North Patrol bravely hanging out patrolling to the north, intercepting the enemies and buying time for everyone else to get to their guns. It worked worryingly well, with North Patrol killing a majority of the incoming enemy long before they ever got close enough to do much harm and then we all had to go on an enemy hunt, running about engaging them at close range. At this point, I may have Zeused. It's not entirely clear, records are spotty at best.

From this unsuccessful defence (shut up, you all died, that was a legitimate failure ), we had some fun runs of HELICOPTERS, Salt Riders (guys, seriously, enough with the ramming...) and Shipping Problems (where alas, the no-clothes-gets-a-bullet rule came into play and somehow Comrade Mabbot shrugged off a zuber round to the crotch).



A fun night all round, hope you all enjoyed it!

As is the custom among our people, please post your thoughts, feedback, evidence of perfidy, screenshots and video here - comrade SuperU's wonderful guide to our video branding is here and Comrade Carson has some excellent tips on video editing here. As Comrade Fer put it, "Post in the AAR Comrade, because I know what house you live in...". But more importantly, AAR threads do help us figure out how good our Comrades are becoming at not dying and let us kill them all faster challange them in more well-tailored ways in future sessions.

Also, they're often quite funny.




And I'm gonna pimp the patches again folks - they don't cost much, all the money goes to running the server (Comrade Fer has managed to buy his own shovel, so we don't have to spend funds on cleanup again like we did last year), and they look like this:



And you can buy them HERE. Go on. Buy two. Make a bikini for your significant other, and then you can post it in /r/lolcats!



Finally, the Party's recommended reading list:

• The Folk ARPS leadership programme
• Comrade Head's new launcher / mod updater (Swifty)
• Folk ARPS tags
• Folk ARPS is moving from Skype to the new Folk ARPS Discord Chat

[darkChozo]

Some physics from the afterparty:

[ZeCatnip]

This session I was attacked by something more deadly than HMG fire, more terrifying that a Gorgon bearing down on your position, more shocking than a hail of grenades.... Comcast! I had some serious lag issues and I am sorry for bailing on my squad during Mailman, anyway, on with the AAR

Mailmain (Extended)

Welp, I decided to take a FTL position for the first time and I was then struck down my some terrible connection issues, so perhaps the universe is trying to tell me something... Nothing really to say about this apart from the fact the squad seemed to get home mostly unharmed.

To Arms
Ho boy, this one got messy. Bravo was tasked with holding the East end of town, which we did rather well, but our numbers were slowly plinked away. Somehow I ended up as the sole survivor and decided to charge a Mora. It ended about as well as expected, but it was a glorious death.

Hold the Line
Good plan, great movement, stupid bloody HMG's everywhere....

SF Training Ground

Defending side. Camped out in a bunker with El_Pasta and TheCatWho. I utterly missed an RPG shot (will need to spend more time with a rangefinder and a whole mess of missiles next pre-session), then plinked at targets. We were eventually flanked from the hill to our rear and got to experience what MMG's can do to a wood and sandbag structure, not fun. After much cowering, sporadic return fire and desperate healing, the bunker was fragged and it was good night.

After this Comcast decided that I had had enough internet for the day and promptly crapped out on me. Still, great night as always!

[Pooter]

Not the best session for me until the last two missions, those were great.

Mailmain (Extended)
AR in A1
After our flight to the LZ we started taking small arms fire on landing. I got out, found the attackers and began returning fire before any commands came from anywhere. After putting about 40 rounds down range I was dropped and that was that.

To Arms
B1 FTL
We were charged with taking the hill just to the south of Alpha's charge, only to discover that there was a Mora and a Gorgon that didn't like us. We managed to clear out most of the infantry, but those IFVs eluded us. My AT man died right away, and while I was able to retrieve his tube I never got a chance to use it, as I never saw the targets. I don't know exactly when but somewhere along the line we lost BSL, and B2 FTL. B2 became headless chickens, but did manage to somewhat follow my directions. I followed shortly after as in my zeal to destroy the IFVs I went back to the top of death hill and... well... died...

Hold the Line
A1 FTL
I managed to find the perfect foliage right along a road to get my team right up next to the enemy checkpoint, only for two of my team to be a little overzealous and go onto the road. They didn't survive. What remained of my team and I made it to the checkpoint only to find out that Bravo had been all but destroyed, CO was dead, ASL was dead, and A2 was under heavy fire. I called for A2 to fall back and then come in along the same path I did. I think instead they went forward to try to come in along the same path, and ran into HMG fire.

Bravo asked for orders, to which I responded that they should try to stay alive, fall back and come in along the path I did. They died in the same spot as A2.
Apparently nobody but me sensed that the area on the other side of the foliage from the road was a deathtrap.

I circled my team around the compound counter clockwise, found an AT tube and used it to remove an HMG strider at point blank. I then entered the compound to attempt to clear it out, and that was my mistake. As I worked my way through the compound a static HMG that was turned 180 degrees from its original position got me without me ever seeing it. That one HMG got so many of us...

SF Training Ground
A1 FTL (the only FTL)
This was the mission that made my day.
After a rather harrowing landing using the IFV equipped with turbo jets my team and I got out and proceeded to a bunker up on a hill. We found the bunker empty, and left MMG there to have fun.
My plan from there was to have us try to get down into the valley to approach the enemy bunkers to our north west. This quickly fell apart as we came under MMG fire from the hill opposite us. I left my ARs behind to engage (400+ meters...) and to distract as the rest of us went into defilade and ran all the way north around the enemy. I then further split my team as I sent AJAX and DarkChozo on ahead to encircle the enemy MMG team and group up with ASL who went around the completely other way in our turbo charged IFV.

This left me and the AT man on a hill east of the enemy bunkers in a valley and south east of the enemy MMG team. I managed to put a few UGLs on the MMG team and got them to retreat into defilade from us, but they still were engaged with the MMG and my AR team. My AT man managed to put two near perfect rockets into the enemy bunker and house, but I doubt they did anything. From there the enemy MMG team was removed by the ASL and so my team went back the way we came into the valley in order to approach the enemy bunkers. After clearing one bunker I put a grenade into a house and that was that. I did love all the calls to begin and end suppression on enemies as we approached their positions.

[Sparks]

Wow but does this xmas thing get in the way of writing AARs comrades. We should be glad that the Party's official celebrations involve a bottle of standard issue vodka drunk on the solstice and then an extra shift in the fields to celebrate the joy of labouring together on a common task. A joy which, alas, Comrades Fer and Aziz miss out on annually to their great sorrow, but someone has to oversee the Great Endeavour and they do not enjoy their toil comrades, nor do the caviar and blinis dull the pain of the loss, nor are the dancing girls even a pale shadow of your company in the fields and the joys of innocent honest work...

We started this evenings great endeavour with some training for your host as he provided challenges to our pilots and some target identification for our soldiers (and comrades, in the Party, a sheep, a goat, they are all equal in the eyes of the Party so long as they are not despicable OPFOR sheep or goats. Those troublemakers must be rooted out and exterminated with all due haste.



Mailman (Extended)



We then began our efforts in anger and under the godlike gaze of Comrade Netkev, we engaged the enemy before they could steal the Party's precious data, for we do not hold with their laws on Safe Harbour or have any confidence in their Data Protection Act comrades; the Party believes in data protection through the practice of using party-issued makarovs on anyone who tries to touch our USB keys and we see no reason to downgrade this policy!

Regrettably our competence and prowess on the field scared our enemy so much that they refused to engage us properly, and while I was not there in spirit for a portion of the mission comrades, rest assured that watching the return of Comrade darkChozo and his chalk made my heart swell. Or it could have been a mild allergic reaction to the peanuts, but I prefer to believe it was the sight of a Folk ARPS pilot parking his helo correctly in the hanger before forgetting to fill out his paperwork.



To Arms


Ah, but comrades, ever must we be vigilant for while we are the baddest motherfuckers in the valley, we are in the valley with ourselves and thus are are own worst enemy. We proved it in this mission when we overreached and overran our mission plans, and Alpha squad charged between an enemy fireteam on one side and a GMG strider on the other and even as a squad medic, I had not enough ziploc bags to bring all the remains home again. Even comrade BeforeLife couldn't hold on for a few precious seconds to let me revive at least one member of the squad. And with Alpha gone, Bravo was hard pressed; while they did manage to make it to the objective, they were mown down by HMG fire before retrieving it. We must remember comrades, that while we push forward aggressively, we must watch our flanks!



Hold the Line


If you fall off the horse comrades, you execute the horse for treason against the Party and attempting to harm a Party official, but after that, you get back on another horse who you ensured watched the first horse's trial and execution. Therefore, having charged the enemy head-on and been flanked, we chose to charge the enemy head-on again. With our Party scientists' latest in unmanned aerial observation tools at our disposal, we had advanced intel on their positions and made our plans accordingly. But the enemy had developed sophisticated countermeasures to our aerial observation by suspending matter above their heads somehow. We took heavy losses on the first roadblock and the remainder and their reinforcements attacked the town from the west; but the enemy had ninja HMG striders in reserve and soon the remainder of our forces were down to two men who opted to take their intel and return to base by commandeering enemy boats, swimming underwater to bypass the striders performing security over the bay. And they almost made it but at the last minute, the Party spirit overwhelmed them and they had to attack the strider; but the enemy does not maintain their boats well and they were unable to kill the strider before it killed them and the mission ended.



SF Training Ground





Afterparty



Weekend Warriors

Comrades, I knew we could make this plan work! Even when they laughed at me and said it was certain death, that it would be suicide to do what we did, I knew it. And finally tonight, we proved it!

...and then I died.



HELICOPTERS



Salt Riders