Republic of Folk

Missions:

• Clergyman
• Crash Site (limited to 30 mins)
• Vanguard SE
• Internecine DC

A superb showing by the comrades saw 60 brave souls take up arms in support of our socialist agrarian revolution. The Party thanks all comrades who came along tonight, and helped us stage a super session with a mix of meaty adversarial missions and a truly epic play-through of comrade Hero Mission Maker Wolfenswan's classic, Vanguard (slightly remixed to reflect recent donations to our fund for equipment and vehicles). The after-party is still raging with over a third of the comrades still in play!

We kicked-off with a slightly tweaked Clergyman, in which a brutally efficient OPFOR garrison absorbed INDFOR's assault and murderised its surviving members at the church. Next, Crash Site saw the definition of a hot LZ, as OPFOR's helos landed right at the crash site, fighting a vicious scrap against AIs and human enemies alike before finally succumbing to the main part of BLUFOR's landing force. Then 59 comrades under the command of Stranglove and SuperU, most on foot but some in M113s and one T-55, mounted an epic assault on enemy positions to the north of Zargabad in Vanguard. Despite attempts by counter-revolutionaries* to spread conspiracy theories to the contrary, the platoon was victorious (pictorial evidence of the surviving heroes will be posted shortly). Finally, a quick round of Internecine DC provided many of us with a final helping of death before the after-party.

As ever, please post your thoughts, feedback, screenshots and video here (PM any of the hosts for details of FA YouTube channel); please remember comrade YouTube Hero SuperU's FA video idents, but please also check out the latest guidance on video editing for Folk ARPS from comrade Ferrard Carson. Posts in the AAR threads really helps us (the hosts and mission makers), both with understanding how we can improve the experiences, and showing potential comrades what our sessions are like.



* Counter-revolutionaries will be arrested and shot.

Clergyman - OPFOR Bravo 2 FTL

So in the pregame chat Mamuto and I, each leading opposing Bravo 2 fireteams, were exchanging some jokes/mild trash-talk re: who was going to utterly destroy whom. As he put it, it was "on now". I had Willem, Whitesymphonia and Daf backing me up - each of whom I've worked with before and are pretty cool dudes. Combine that with the Sweet Flanking Bravo was supposed to do, and we'd easily take him and his.

Well. That was the plan.

We stalked through the woods, doing our best to avoid detection - and got within a hundred yards or so of the church when we saw movement by the wall. We started putting fire on it, and the squad lead was telling us to get to our positions (I was still 10-20 yards short of my team's objective marker), so I sprinted towards a tree for co- BOOM, HEADSHOT.

The team at the church proceeded to not only stop Bravo Squad's assault dead without losing a man, they inflicted heavy casualties in the process - and then Stranglove came around the back and mowed the survivors down with ruthless efficiency. Not a good showing for the One Bravo T(w)o Rule Them All, right? Well, it gets even better / more embarrassing.

The team that smoked us so bad? Was their Bravo 2. The guy who popped me in the head as I was running while under fire? Mamuto.

Well played Sir, well played.

Crash Site - BLUFOR Bravo 2, AAR

Having re-attached the hindquarters that had been so graciously handed to me, this time around I decided to roll with Mamuto. This mission is, of course, helicopter insertion / air support mayhem. As our chopper started to pull in the screen was filling with [UGH] as Alpha took fire. We disembarked, only to immediately (and unsurprisingly) begin taking fire. What *was* surprising was how viciously accurate that fire was. Seriously, whoever was laying that down should be proud, I was more effectively suppressed in terms of 'fuck if I'm getting back up' there than in that AIdversarial a few months back where Bodge was walking a goddamn PKM across my window in forty-fifty round bursts every minute or two.The only reason I survived the landing was because I was sprinting for nearby trees the instant the shots started cracking past, along with a fair spot of luck.

We lost our AT-Rifleman outright, and Mamuto was hit - we managed to heal him over the course of a tense minute or so, locked behind trees where if you even *thought* about moving there were bullet impacts all around you. After Mamuto was up he lead us in a retreat, which saw him wounded and healed again but the three of us made it to the safety of Bodge's position in the forest. At this point we still had no idea where the hell the fire was coming from, and there had been heavy casualties - We moved down an airfield wall, using it to screen ourselves from being spotted until we could get into a good position. Eventually we found a good vantage point with a view to the C-130, and could see several of the enemy's helicopters parked by the wreck, men milling about near them. Our team opened up, scoring a few kills between us and causing the enemy to have to pop smoke and hunker down - this then let the other friendly elements get into a good flank position of their own, and both groups then moved into a close assault.

At this point I had my greatest display of competence of all. Mamuto had been wounded in our rush, and I had been down to only a mag left before I found an OPFOR corpse and stole all of his - hurrah for using the same guns! We moved behind a small hut/shack type structure to patch him up. I was wandering about that position checking sides when I saw a wounded OPFOR officer-type on the ground, maybe ten feet away, pointing his gun at me. I had been space-scanning a distance measurement, so when I quickly pointed at him to shoot and started clicking, it just was in the command interface. After an all-too-long period of flailing, I managed to actually get back into controlling my gun, at which point I put half a mag of semi auto into the wounded Macaco and surrounding two meter radius, ending the match.

The only reason, and I mean *only* reason I wasn't completely ventilated is that Macaco's ammo situation was even worse than mine had been (perhaps he'd been one of the ones pounding us earlier), and he was left to point his gun at me and produce click noises in defiance. He must have 'shot' me at least a dozen times by the time I actually engaged him, and that's just counting the time when I was watching him. Full credit for that kill, Macaco. On the plus side, I was credit for one other kill, presumably as we were pouring fire on the C-130. Useful!

Vanguard SE - Bravo 2 Redshirt

So we got in a truck, and my camera was in the middle of the aisle at knee height. Rather strange, and the view was not the best, but whatever, it got me where I needed to be. After a few starts and stops we were ordered to bail out - and quickly came under fire. I ran for cover, then dived prone and was looking for the - BOOM, HEADSHOT. Elapsed Time Since Initial Bravo Contact: ~5-10 seconds.


I almost wonder if I'd be better off not attempting to find cover, given that I tend to find a way to cover a bullet with my head in the process.

Cuddlefish wrote:The only reason, and I mean *only* reason I wasn't completely ventilated is that Macaco's ammo situation was even worse than mine had been (perhaps he'd been one of the ones pounding us earlier), and he was left to point his gun at me and produce click noises in defiance. He must have 'shot' me at least a dozen times by the time I actually engaged him, and that's just counting the time when I was watching him.

I had already run out of ammo completely by the time I was shot (for the 3rd some-odd time). When I got to you I was crawling away just waiting to bleed out. I had just ordered a retreat in that general direction as I saw you guys approach from that direction. it's like that scene in movies where you live just long enough to watch everything fall to pieces. I honestly thought you heard the clicks and just pitied me enough to watch me struggle to kill you with my mind.

But we had collected the documents before trying to leave so I consider it a success! I'll get a full AAR going tomorrow when I have some more time.

Cuddlefish wrote: The team that smoked us so bad? Was their Bravo 2. The guy who popped me in the head as I was running while under fire? Mamuto.
Well played Sir, well played.

You have much to learn, young padawan. Don't let the dark side of non-party propaganda convince you otherwise.


Clergyman
Defending Bravo 2 FTL
Mamuto, Tink, Mr-Link, Steenkist

Second time defending on this map, and I think I learned very well from the mistakes made the first time around. We were tasked with the same sector as last time, Northwest. My fireteam spread out amongst the buildings on the outskirts of town, watching both the West and Northeast approaches. A tense 10 minutes went by without any action, sporadically hearing reports of faint engine noises and crickets. Finally NAPA decided to attack, and it was from the South. I had Bravo 2 fall back to the church, and a minute later all hell broke loose. I went to the Southern wall just in time to see enemies sprinting to cover within 50-75 meters. I yelled out contacts and opened fire on the first guy I saw (Cuddlefish ) taking him down immediately. The enemy returned fire and I barely had time to hide behind the wall again as I watched bullets impact the cover in front of my head. I was wrong to think I was in cover, though, as GP's started raining down on us, wounding me twice. I was helped back up (thank you, kind sir) and managed another kill as some poor bastard went prone right next to the opening in the wall. Gunned him down, and then the wall collapsed around him and me, so I had to make a hasty retreat back. I think at this point StrangLove came around and wiped out the remaining assaulting force. I threw out a few GP's and MAY have hit you, man. So sorry, I had no idea you were in their midst.

The best part of the whole mission? My whole fireteam somehow lived through that brutal assault! Very proud of you guys, good job! Achievement unlocked!

Crash Site (limited to 30 mins)
Blufor Bravo 2 FTL
Mamuto, Joe, Cuddlefish, Steenkist

After a lot of confusion on where we and the other helicopter were going to land, we touched down on the Southern end of the AO and came under immediate and highly effective fire from somewhere to our North. Steenkist was killed instantly (while still inside the helicopter ) while I was wounded in the open terrain. I was ready to die there and then but the Arma gods had other plans for me. Joe and Cuddlefish threw out great smokes, got my ass back up and I had us pull immediately to the South to get as far from the machine gun of doom as possible. Only, we didn't fall back far enough, and I was wounded again. After some bush hugging, and the magical healing powers of Joe, I was back up and we made it to Bravo Squad Leaders position to the Northeast. I had us keep running, though, for I was (correctly) worried that the enemy would grab the documents and leave before we could muster up enough of an attack to stop them. Alpha by this point was pretty much gone. We ran up North along the airfield wall until we were due East of the crashsite. From here, I had Joe, Cuddlefish, and myself open fire on the enemies milling about at the site. I think I killed the guy manning the helicopter gun. I was pleasantly surprised at how effective our suppressive fire was. A lot of smoke was popped, and watching them through my binoculars I saw more than one enemy bleeding out with the rest of them scrambling about for cover.

Then the message came that they have gathered the documents and without hesitation I charged forward determined to prevent them from taking off in the chopper. As we got closer, I peppered the area with GP. As we got within 100 meters, I saw an enemy and was promptly reminded about the fact that I was not in any sort of cover. Thankfully Cuddlefish and Joe (as well as the rest of Bravo) were close enough to end the mission in our favor.

Vanguard SE
Bravo 2 FTL
Mamuto, Joe, Steenkist, Cuddlefish

Having the same people slot for Bravo 2 was pretty awesome What wasn't awesome was losing Cuddlefish in the first 10 seconds of the first engagement. We drove way too far forward and then parked the truck out of cover, so a lot of people were wounded or some killed The next 15 minutes were mostly uneventful. We cleared the factory, charged through an open field, then we lost Joe to a technical, so I ended up with the M60 and only Steenkist in Bravo 2. I climbed to a rooftop and put some great effective fire on the stationary emplacements on top of the hill (love that gun) We then proceeded up North where most of Bravo got pinned down but Steenkist and I were on the left flank so we pushed up and took care of a dozen enemies including a technical (still love that m60) Then we had a tank to deal with, so I dropped the M60 and picked up a RPG and went full heroics mode, charging straight at it with complete disregard for my safety I hit it about twice, watched 4 RPGs hit it at the same time, and it still refused to die. As I was running back for cover, I was finally put down for good. Great run, though, so much adrenaline and epicness that mission.


Internecine DC

I'll keep this one short. I watched the enemy charging from the North, managed to kill one or maybe two before they were out of my line of sight. Then came a hail of grenades that somehow managed to knock down my entire fireteam. I covered as Wires was medic'd back up and then decided to flank around the back of the attackers only to be shot by Ferrard The party Politbureau will hear about your war crimes!

Great fun was had this mission. I'm loving the high player counts we've been getting in 2013! I'll see you guys next Sunday!

Mamuto wrote:

Cuddlefish wrote: The team that smoked us so bad? Was their Bravo 2. The guy who popped me in the head as I was running while under fire? Mamuto.
Well played Sir, well played.

You have much to learn, young padawan. Don't let the dark side of non-party propaganda convince you otherwise.

Non-party Propaganda? Perish the thought! Hail the glorious people's agrarian socialist utopia! All counter-revolutionaries will be shot! Then arrested! Then shot again! And also re-educated after that! *looks to see if Fer is taking notes, visibly terrified*

Mamuto wrote: What wasn't awesome was losing Cuddlefish in the first 10 seconds of the first engagement. We drove way too far forward and then parked the truck out of cover, so a lot of people were wounded or some killed

No worries, boss. Not much that you could have done at that point. Also I think I may have been wearing wearing my high-visibility retro-reflective safety helmet. Helps protect me from traffic collisions, the most dangerous threat in Logistics Simulator 2013 aside from doors, stairs, rocks and other forms of level geometry.

Mamuto wrote: Great fun was had this mission. I'm loving the high player counts we've been getting in 2013! I'll see you guys next Sunday!

Unfortunately won't be able to make it next week, and the following is looking iffy. So shoot some mans for me.

Vangüard



Mission led by SüperStrang

T-55 Tank crew, featüring:

• Cdr - Headspace
• Günner - Tryteyker
• Driver - Doofling

ArmA 2's T-55 has a coüple of disadvantages. Spotting as commander is annoying becaüse the commander türret tracks with the Günner türret, büt is independantly moveable. Its state doesn't persist when the günner moves the main türret. So if the günner is moving the main türret, it is impossible to get clear sighting while zoomed. This means that when the commander is spotting, the günner needs to not move the türret. Driving, as with all tanks, is an exercise in tünnel vision. It works better when the commander issües move instrüctions. The driver is able to see enoügh to avoid hitting people in front of him büt other than that his field of view is severely restricted.

For the above reasons, I think we might benefit from a tank workshop. Back to the AAR, thoügh:

Oür tank süffered a mobility kill when we moved to the East of the first village to engage a BRDM-2 that was attacking Alpha sqüad. The RPG strike came throügh the trees. I exited the tank to see what was next to üs and was promptly shot.

There is always a tradeoff for exiting the tank. On one hand, yoü have müch better awareness since yoü can move a few meters from the tank to see what's aroünd corners and throügh trees. On the other, yoü are totally exposed. I lost the bet in this case, büt I probably woüld have sürvived had I not shot at those infantry with my MP5.

To their credit, my two crewmembers did a lot of damage, fighting alongside the mechanized infantry for the rest of the match.

Intercenine



OPFOR led to deaths by Headspace

• A Team - waffly
• B Team - SuperU
• C Team - awaitz
• D Team - Ajax
• E Team - Fer

I broke A, B, and C teams into the assaült element and püt D, E and MG into a BoF element. Approaches ended üp being from the soüth and northwest (for assaült), respectively. The assaült kicked off briskly büt ended üp losing momentüm and becoming bogged down in the end. I ünfortünately died way too early, büt I did notice a few things that we coüld have done better. First, we shoüld have been more consolidated in establishing the base of fire. Delta was too far away from the action and the MG team was all alone on the East side. Second, it didn't seem like everyone had tags on. If yoü have tags, üse them, becaüse there's jüst no way that yoü're going to be able to immediately ID people who look like yoü otherwise.

All in all, it was fün. I like pitched assaülts like that.

I am bad at this whole "memory" thing, so here goes:

CLERGYMAN:
OPFOR Alpha 1 AR

As part of Ferrard's unit we were tasked with repelling invaders from the southern end of town. We got all nice and cozy around a couple of houses, and as Mamuto said, played the waiting game. Soon enough we heard the distinct engine of a soviet favorite BMP2, from the SE.

Danny: "I see the BMP! Get out your rpg! Bearing 180!"
Dan: "...I can't see it."
Danny: "180!! Use your compass!"
Dan: "Oh okay. Taking the sho---"

I think he still managed to get the round off before the Dan's were turned into a fine red mist, though. The rest of that mission was just me and Black Mamba desperately trying not to get murdered at our woefully inadequate position.

CRASH SITE:
OPFOR Alpha 3 FTL

This was our trip in (note to self, Long Tall Sally is the song we were looking for). The idea was to land, take the hill, and then find the C130. Turns out Ferrard psychic'd where the C130 was, and put our LZ right on top of it. So we came in hot, ready to fuck shit up... And I think we all know how it went from there. Still it was pretty wicked the way we deployed though, even if we did get caught between AI and BLUFOR.

VANGUARD SE:
Bravo 1 FTL

My first casualty happened moments into the game when Geronimo suffered a heart-attack trying to get off the helicopter. After landing we quickly mounted up and went away to the first OP, with a mechanized Alpha leading the pack. Bravo and Charlie skirted around the North side of the OP to clear the town to the NW of Zargabad, clearing through a factory as we went. There was some serious heavy fire coming our way, and if you looked to the N you could see Alpha rolling through the field swapping tracers with the enemy (very cool!). Fer and Tigershark were a blast to FT with, good bounding and everyone picked a sector and covered it without me having to micromanage a whole bunch. After Bravo was done clearing the factory we all clustered up in hopes of getting mortared (Bravo 1 kept "rear security" to ensure we were out of the way), before moving out across the open territory to the first compound. Naturally, it was full of dudes and from that point forward it was Bravo's personal little war of attrition. Despite the numerous injuries we took from emplacement fire and baddies (this is also where I lost Tigershark), we managed to clear the first compound and proceed to assault the second up the road to the North. Unfortunately half way there we met a very angry Tank, a very angry ZU, and some sparse angry infantry. All of our RPGs were used up trying to kill the tank so Fer and I put on our best impression of cowards and fell back full sprint. Slowly but surely we assembled the remnants of Bravo. Alpha managed to clear the main objective though, so an order was issued for all surviving comrades to gather for a victory picture (let that technical and it's buddy rot in that last compound, for all I care). Seeing as Waffly had long been shot up, it was up to me to ensure Bravo arrived in one piece. We did, and grand times were had by all! I call for party funds to be diverted to a memorial commemorating our brothers who fell in this operation!

INTERNECINE DC:
INDFOR CO

Having a full Alpha through Charlie FT and a half strength Delta to play with, my plan was simple: Charlie (led by the underhanded and cunning Ferrard) was to sneak North, and hide in the only bit of dense foliage I could see. Their designation, "Buttsecks Squad," embodied their purpose quite well I feel. Delta was likewise sent packing to the South, to perform more of a recon role. Alpha covered the North of the town, and Bravo covered the South, spread out in building's at my FTL's discretion. There was also an MMG team I kept deployed in the center of town to redeploy as needed. After a bit of waiting, I found that I had been the luckiest CO in the world. The main host of the OPFOR wound up going right past Charlie, and the rest right past Delta (just as planned! They were positioned along the most logical routes I would take into town as OPFOR). Soon enough, with a bit of rearranging in town, we braced for the attackers and held them off while I called in my Buttsecks Squad. Delta was also repurposed for some back door action. While the fireteams in town valiantly held position, Ferrard and his team rolled in from the North with a crushing flank, while Iwlooz (the lone survivor of Delta's initial contact) quietly crept up from the South to assassinate the enemy fireteam sneaking up on us! Couldn't have gone better. Watching Ferrard and his boys move into town through the smoke and gunfire to start saving wounded people was particularly cool, although I got put down right about then.

This was a fun session. Thanks again everyone!

Comrades, I have a couple of questions regarding the LZ used by OPFOR TH2 that I ride in as Bodge's (keen but hapless) medic.

Had the enemy been sighted at/around the crash site during the scouting overflight? If they had, why was it decided to land in the open beneath them and allow them an excellent field of fire as we disembarked?

Why did the gunner on TH2 not suppress the enemy throughout our approach, debus and dust-off?

Yours,

Confused of London.

Clergyman

Alpha Medic

First time on an FA session, first time on an adversarial mission. These things don't add up. I was pretty much following Draakon around all the time until we reached the second building, where we got slaughtered by an IFV or something. So I thought "why is this AI so smart", trying to save Draakon. Due to me not being able to drag him he died Alpha got slaughtered so I rushed forward, thinking "Well the AI can't be that smart..", BUT DEAD WRONG. I died instantly and then it clicked that it was an adversarial. All in all it was a fun fail from my side, sorry Alpha for being a bad medic.

Crash Site

BLUFOR TH1 Pilot

OH GOD WHAT AM I DOING HERE.. Seriously, I failed as pilot. i tried to land along the forest but noooo, land ontop of the crashsite instead. If that isn't fail enough, I camped the gun and Waffles was infront of me (he was opfor), and I didn't see until he apparently shot Dogface and that's when I emptied my gun into him. Another fail.

Vanguard

Tank Gunner

After initially slotting for Tank Commander I switched with Headspace. My FPS dropped to like 10-15, but considering I never gunned a T-55 it went pretty well for us. Although we had to go pretty straight forward because I was blind we got a few AI and a BRDM(?). Sadly I had to go mid-mission after Headspace died and we had to leave the tank.

All in all a really fun session.

Terminal Boy -- short answer, that's just the way things shake out sometimes in combat. Once we spotted the C130 it seemed like the pilot started throttling down and banking around to lose height, heading for the LZ to the southeast -- but getting helos to go downwards is quite tricky and by the time we were actually close to the ground, we'd ended up banking all the way back around to the crash site. By this point everyone was starting to shout/scream and we were taking fire from below, so we just didn't really have enough comms to come up with a better course of action than just go with it and hope our balls-out close insertion would put as ahead of the enemy. Likewise, the descent was so fast and we were turning enough that the doorgunners couldn't really do a lot.

Unfortunately for us in Alpha, this did result in pretty much all of us getting immediately mowed down... As SL, I tried to rally what people I could, but it was pretty much just a field of bodies. I was able to get the pilot back to heal me and I think one other person, and place them on the door guns of the landed helos, but then an enemy popped around the corner of one with a hearty cry of "Behind you!" and massacred us.


Clergyman - ATTACKFOR BMP driver

We hooked around to the South of the AO and approached it along a road. Slowly, slowly we edged closer into the fog. Then a rocket emerged from it and blew us half-up -- disabling our main gun. As we hastily backed up, another rocket exploded the space we had just been in. We backed up behind a rise, got out and advanced to a building. We could see some enemies moving at another house even further north (so somewhere around the center of the village) and took a few potshots at them with our MP5s, but the return-fire killed our gunner I think, leaving me and the BMP commander. We retreated back behind the house, and watched the TS3 list for our team slowly empty as everyone else was wiped out. When it was down to just us two, we decided to make a mad dash for the church, but as this involved running across an exposed slope, we didn't last that long.


Vanguard SE -- Alpha 2 AR

This was the first major Co-op for a while that I played in a front-line grunt role, and I had tons of fun with it! (Well, apart from the really jaggy framerate -- not helped, I think, by all the wrecked vehicles laying about and the large amounts of smoke grenades used. Other Zargabad missions are fine for me!). Anyway, Strang and SuperU laid out a marvellous, colour-coded plan where an armoured bronegruppe of a T55 and three IFVs were attached to us in Alpha, with two other full squads and an attachment group all motorized as well (not to mention AI mortars at base). We moved to the north of Nango and swept down through it, taking heavy fire from out to the south and east. Our SL Ferrard Carson moved us up into a building and I blasted away at the trees with my M60, which has my vote for most fun weapon ever. Rather than all being massacred like when we usually play this map, we actually managed to mostly clear Nango and move up to a point overlooking the main occupied hill, while Bravo and Charlie concentrated on the other strongholds to the north.

Once again there was much dakka, with Ferrard directing my fire onto the hill at first, and then me just wildly spraying suppression fire when we started getting hit by MGs and a BDRM. eventually we got ourselves back up and operational and started closing in on the hill, though by this point I was almost out of ammo. I lived just long enough to get to the top and start disassembling an emplaced DShK, before taking a round to the head. And lo, there was much lamentation. Despite having been making greedy eyes at my gun for the whole match, I believe I actually saw Iceraiser (my AAR) give it up to another FT's FTL! Marvellous stuff. Anyway, eventually the hill, and all but one of the other strongholds being cleared, a glorious victory photo op was organised. Hurrah!

Internicene -- DEFENDFOR Charlie RPG

I played in Ferrard's FT again, and we struck out north to lay an ambush on the northern road. Tragically, just as I saw an enemy truck swing onto the road ahead of us, right into the sights of my RPG, my goddamn router died, and by the time I was back in the game they had already passed us. We started following them but my router kept going up and down so I had to bow out. Booooo!