Post
by fer » Tue Jun 25, 2013 12:25 am
As comrade SuperU observed when the session was over, 60 is something of a magic number for us. FA is, rightly I believe, an infantry-focused ArmA community; but having 60 comrades on the server means we can venture into combined arms territory whilst still fielding a full platoon and many attachments. That often makes missions epic. Similarly, such high playercounts mean adversarial missions feature multiple squads per side, giving us the flexibility to fight more complex or geographically large scenarios. However, what 60 also does is touch - but not break through - the practical upper limit of our comms structure. It's a sweet spot, and I for one am very grateful to everyone who made it along last night. It was a pleasure to host and play in the session.
Fulcrum
CO: Kefirz
|- M: Fer
Pressed into service by an unfeeling Party, comrade CO Kefriz nevertheless devised a simple but effective plan: Alpha and Bravo would seize the army base and use it as a base-of-fire (hurr) against the fortified positions to the north, whilst Charlie swept around to the right and took the Shapur-2 complex. With luck and a little co-ordination, the squads would then be able to provide mutual support as the platoon moved northwards.
The first phase went according to plan, but Charlie - as anticipated by CSL - got into a firefight in Shaprur-2. As the spare (platoon) medic, I received permission from Kefirz to go forward and provide extra help to Charlie. Hooking up with comrade Ferrard Carson's fireteam, I hugged a wall and thought about the final act of Full Metal Jacket (which was filmed, improbably, in East London). We darted about from cover to cover, slowly pushing our way northwards until almost on-line with the main objective. I took pot-shots at targets of opportunity (one enemy fighter was standing upright on a balcony), but killed only one enemy. Standing in an upper storey window of a small building, a watched a lone enemy fighter emerge from behind some ramparts and raise his rifle to shoot me. My AK was already pointing in his direction, enabling me to strike first. Goodbye, comrade Bodge. After healing CSL Lord Penney, the action entered its final phase as we turned and closed in on the objective. Effective fire from west of the compound meant the final attack was no cakewalk, but eventually we prevailed. Nice work, comrades!
Forest Gateau
CSL: Fer
|- M: Daf
Charlie had to wait for comrade Nitram's Chinook to return from ferrying the first lift, so we were the last squad to reach its staging point (with our MMG team, led by comrade Kale, in tow). Oriented eastwards, my standard squad wedge (with MMG at the rear) was to sweep down a wooded hillside, cross a track and then climb another wooded slope, up to the top of a hill in the south-eastern quadrant of the search area. Along the way, we were looking for enemy mortar positions and bad guys. That was the plan. Then the plan went to hell.
Halfway down the slope, with the track in sight, C3 made contact, and very soon the whole of Charlie was engaged. To different degrees, each fireteam skirmished forward, C3 actually crossing the track in the process. A minute or two into the firefight, it seemed, and to the staccato of automatic fire was added the crashing sound of mortar rounds exploding about us. We might have beaten off the enemy infantry, but their comrades' mortars had stopped Charlie in its tracks. Strewn out across the slope, my fireteams needed time to patch up the wounded and regroup; though for C2 it was almost over already. Comrade Daf went to work, whilst I attempted to communicate with HQ.
No sooner had our medic gone to work, than comrade CO SuperU was informing me of contacts to our north-east in an open field beyond the treeline. Unwilling to give the enemy time to make it to cover, I exhorted all walking squad members to join me at the edge of the field, from where we poured deadly fire onto the hapless enemy squad. It wasn't pretty, or particularly co-ordinated, or even 100% effective (I'm confident 1-2 insurgents escaped), but under the circumstances I was happy that we'd been able to hold our position and do harm to the enemy. Daf continued to patch up the wounded and I ordered us to concentrate on C3's position at the track.
Again, the tempo of the enemy's attacks was higher than my own attempts to marshal Charlie. Infantry once again engaged us from the east, but C3 and C1 mounted a sturdy defence and appeared to be driving them off. However, by this time HQ was ordering me to withdraw north to a rally point just behind Bravo's position, and with the onset of further mortar rounds I didn't need persuading. Ordering everyone to break contact, we hoofed it north. Someone in the squad correctly observed that crossing the open field where we'd recently shot up an enemy patrol was silly, so I changed the orders and had everyone hook left (west), using woodland for basic cover as we converged upon the rally point. Behind us, comrade Bodge had gone down - wounded - and as Daf went to save him I was the ruthless SL, telling Kale to abandon his assistant. I needed that MMG with the bulk of my squad, and Bodge would understand. More explosions behind me, in the direction of Bodge and Daf. I hoped Bodge would understand.
At the first rally point C1 and C3 were again exchanging fire, this time with contacts to our south-east. Once again, just as I felt close to having the squad fully effective again, the enemy mortar teams had us dialled-in. Comrade CO SuperU had given me a new rally point to the north-east, and I knew anybody who didn't move now was liable to buy it. The immediate challenge was that we had wounded, and like the good comrades we are, the walking were attempting to help the injured. This was no good, I thought, and forcefully exhorted anyone capable of walking to make for the second rally point. They were my last words before a mortar round ended my command.
Note 1: This was a great mission, and one that I'd like to see us attempt again. It was particularly enjoyable to play a coop in which the platoon could not dictate the pace of the attack completely - enemy mortar rounds forced us to stay mobile.
Note 2: I shall ask comrade Ferrard Carson to turn his brilliant teaching mind to the topic of casualties, and how we deal with them in a squad. It's unlikely the Politburo will validate my general order authorising Makarov wielding element leaders to euthanise the immobile wounded, but we need to find ways to prevent fireteams and squad becoming static when 1-2 comrades are down, as well as conveying more specific requests to medics.
Beach Boys
MAT2 Gunner: Fer
|- Asst. Gunner: Victor
For a horrible minute it looked like I was trapped on a boat without a human driver, and no means of taking control of the driving seat. Thankfully someone - I have no idea whom - worked out how to grab the steering wheel, gun the engine and send us hurtling across the inky black waves, towards the dark grey smudge that was the coast.
When we made landfall it was clear that Delta had been hit hard whilst still at sea, but thankfully we were not even under fire at the beach. Assigned to Charlie, under comrade SL Bodge, my MAT2 team was supposed to be helping the sweep of the village to our south. To our north, Alpha would screen the road, whilst Bravo punched out west to high ground and an overwatch position. In don't know what Delta was left to do in its depleted state, and who knows what the HS/LD types inland were up to. Probably taking Instagram pictures of themselves and their awesome costumes. Anyway, comrade Victor wouldn't get out of the boat, or respond to comms. After a while I had to give up my assistant for a disconnect, and ran after Charlie alone.
Bodge put me to work immediately, moving with C2 down the main coast road. Between us, we put a BMP and a T-34 to the sword, either side of a comedy spell in which comrade Kale and I ran about a yard full of enemy supplies trying to work out how we'd use them in sequence to blow themselves up. When the threat from the south seemed over, Charlie was called back to the west-facing T-junction and told to expect a counter-attack coming down that valley.
I could hear some kind of enemy armour approaching us from the west, but even after I'd climbed halfway up the slope at the corner of the quarry, the fog prevented me from getting any kind of lock with my NLAW. Then, out there in the valley, I saw and heard the vehicle explode - presumably Bravo had got a bead on it? Some members of Charlie moved past me through the trees, seemingly headed for even higher ground, and I opened up my map to see how the rest of the platoon was doing, wrongly assuming the counter-attack had been halted. A bullet to the head disabused me of that notion.
Note: Again, another great mission - and nice to see two distinct formations at work on parallel tasks that eventually came together in a combined extraction.
Holy Stones
OPFOR B2 FTL: Kale
|- AR: Fer
Comrade CO SuperU's plan was for both squads to rush to the square, with Alpha taking up overwatch positions on the south-west corner, whilst Bravo went for the bunker. With comrade Kale, I sprinted towards the south-east corner of the square, but as I crossed an alleyway I saw a lone gunman raising his rifle. Bullets pinged around me (I was winged), so I rushed through the nearest doorway and fled into a small building. Steps led to the rooftop, but halfway up I realised I'd be exposed up there. I spun round and saw too late the feet of my pursuer entering the room below. I was riddled with bullets by comrade IceRaiser (who'd kill me again later, during the after party run of Cholo).
Halted
Echo FTL: Fer
|- AR: Nutty Tec
|- R: Terminal Boy
|- R: Wolfenswan
It was good to be the Third International Fighting Brigade of Takistan in the name of Che Guevara again. Comrade Ferrard Carson's plan was simple: the flank fireteams would dominate the west and east roads, whilst everyone else formed a line that would push north and gradually squeeze the enemy out of the main part of the village. Echo, my fireteam, would attempt to control the west road, and from the start the enemy proved to be very obliging: sending a technical right up to us so that we could have heavy automatic fire support (after duly killing the original crew). Comrade Terminal Boy manned the technical's gun, mowing down soldiers at the far end of the west road whilst I took pot-shots with my Enfield (and later FN Fal) and comrade Nutty Tec squeezed off bursts from his AK. Eventually, Charlie's men began to appear in our lane of fire, so we stopped shooting and waited for the rest of the platoon to mop up stragglers at the far end of the village. As Charlie and the other fireteams returned, there was a nasty moment of friendly fire, resulting in an injury to comrade Terminal Boy, but we were all patched up and extracted without further incident.
.
