Republic of Folk

Missions:

• Internecine II Obama Edition
• Ashore
• Swept SE (adversarial version)
• Uprising

A slightly quieter session than usual, but no less fun; the high-point featured 42 comrades. However, for those dutiful comrades who attended there were some treats in store: old missions with new twists, and a new mission with a very cool old-school flavour.

Following President Obama's decision to send arms to Syria, the Party immediately re-mixed FA classic Internecine II, replacing scratchy 1970s vision and AKs with red-dot M4s (although binoculars did not form part of the aid package, as they're clearly 'dual purpose' items). Internecine II Obama Edition was rapid and brutal, with the more accurate fire from both sides resulting in a play-through that didn't trouble the Party-mandated 30 minute time limit. Next, comrade hero mission maker Wolfenswan's updated version of Ashore did not explode our PCs, instead delivering a wonderfully cinematic amphibious landing with enemy artillery rounds exploding in the water around our boats. There followed an excellent display of inter-squad co-ordination, as Alpha and Bravo (supported by 2 LAVs) cleared the main objectives under the command of comrade Toppo. We returned to shooting each other in Swept SE, with a tense game of flank and counter-flank in the dawn fog that was eventually won by OPFOR. Finally, we participated in an Uprising of comrade Kefirz's own design: a very atmospheric, old-fashioned mission in which three separated squads graduate from guerilla attacks on army patrols (in the pursuit of automatic weapons), to assaulting three strongholds and - in theory - the eventual seizure of secret weapons at an enemy airfield. Despite some bravery and skill, and over an hour of hit-and-run attacks, we failed to bring about a socialist agrarian state. Just.

As ever, please post your thoughts, feedback, screenshots and video here - comrade YouTube Hero SuperU's FA doesn't just produce our video idents, but provides leadership and guidance to propaganda artists; more guidance on video editing for Folk ARPS is provided by 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.

Kefirz, Uprising is the best mission I've ever played. Escape Chernarus in multiplayer. It was an excellent round-up for tonights session and I've enjoyed it thoroughly, with Alpha Squad ofcourse being best Squad. We've had some epic and sad moments, such as Dogface bleeding out during healing and leaving Zoo behind for the sake of escaping, but it made me kinda feel like being in a movie. It's essentially Running Simulator 2013, but even then it's extremely good because you get to see locations around Chernarus you didn't see before. And once you get to the action, it's tactical. Tactical as heck. The tension arising from a bunker suddenly firing bursts into 2 guys, or spotting a bunker around the corner and then popping it with a Lee Enfield is just an awesome feeling. And personally I've had a lot of fun with Nimrod, strolling around Chernarus as we tried to escape, and then our heroic charge into a random village. To be honest this was totally tonights highlight and it's definitely worth playing again.

Great session as always chaps.

Internecine II Obama Edition - Indie Alpha FT
Dogface FTL, Bandzai, Aquarius and me

I took up a house with great views north and waited, eventually with nobody moving in on us from the north we were activated as Indie strategic reserve & murder force. We were able to move to the east without incident at least to begin with. I however committed a fireteam bounding faux pas by setting off without my running buddy (I'd not realised he wasn't with me when I started bounding) so when I took cover behind I tree in front of Alpha I was alone. I called the contact shot a few inaccurate rounds towards Iceraiser and promptly died. Stop shooting me in the face Ice, it's like you don't like me any more

Ashore - Bravo 1 FT
Nitram FTL, myself as AR, Zoo as AAR and Dobrynin AT

An excellent mission, slow to start once we were off the water. Sadly Nitram exceeded his lead RDA for his lifetime when we moved to back up Alpha in its clearing of the Factory area. I took command of Bravo 1 and for decided the ground was a dangerous place to be and we should spend as little time in the danger zone as possible. After knocking out a SPG-9 technical with some songs of my people I lead B1 into a multi level industrial. We cleared three or four from the various levels and set ourselves up on the floor below the roof. Deciding the ladder to the roof was a bad idea having killed two guys seconds before I declared the roof a no-go for B1 and we set about spotting targets, with ease. Eventually MMG 2 joined us, Ebass decided to brave the ladder up and soon changed his mind upon seeing how murderous our upstairs neighbors were.. We were able to provide a nice base of fire as two clear points were dealt with and moved up to take part in the assault on the hospital. Once the immediate area was cleared B1 headed up onto the roof and extended the M249 bubble EI killing around the hospital, we even managed to take out guys on the construction site, eliminating the HMG threat before it decimated the next push. B1 joined the final assault on the construction site and I moved west around the building killing two AI from the outside, I did forget how gravity works at this point however when I walked sideways off the stairs and had to be fitted with new legs by daf. At the end of the mission I'd racked up 10 rather satisfying kills. I do rather enjoy being the base of fire and lasers are always super cool...

Swept SE (adversarial version) - Opfor Bravo Medic

Not much to say for this mission, I stuck with Bravo and Nitram all the way up to the GP rounds started exploding in the trees around us, I avoided getting hit by shrapnel and went to drag BSL Nitram out of the line of fire, I was shot mid drag (first Bravo death) and so the area around my body was granted a moon moon magical medicine +5 to minor wound recovery buff area of effect bonus... In other words everyone around my dead body ended up getting wounded in one way or another..

Uprising - Alpha Medic

In this mission Ebass drove me around the woods in the worlds slowest UAZ, someone clearly fitted the tyres with velcro as it was going so very slowly off road. I patched up the minor wounds Alpha took in clearing the two villages we passed through and was with the main Alpha element on the attack into Zelno, I've no idea who was in front of me when the MG nest opened up. I tried to get you out of there but we were both shwacked with a second burst of fire.. Someone better have gone for the golden revolver once Ebass died the honour of Alpha is tied into that majestic weapon!

Give me a tall building high up and away from the MG nests any day!

Internicine 2 - Opfor Alpha rifleman. We opened fire from the East, but soon I was the only survivor and got told to go guerrilla and meet up with delta. I completely misread the map and ended up in a lone house far North of the village, and picked off two EI.

Ashore - IFV2 Driver. We were disabled by enemy AT right near the beginning, so had to join bravo on foot. I barely saw any EI.

Swept SE - Indfor Alpha 2 AAR. I saw a whole bunch of you guys in the South, just before the grenades started raining down on you. Then I opened fire on some smoke, because there's usually someone stood right there, healing or dragging. This was right before taking heavy fire from EI on the hill to our West:



Eventually I was hit, and Guus teleported through a wall to heal me. "I'm Jesus! Dude, let's find some water."

Uprising - Peasant in Charlie 2. We stalked our prey in the first village, took their AKs (although, IceRaiser refused to part with his Enfield.) We hit up a second village, all good. We reached the area that Rolling Matrioshka is set in, and approached Gorka from the South. Ferrard ordered us the sneak to a barn on the outskirts of town by crawling through a field. We made it, then took heavy fire. Stealing a truck, we withdrew and met up with command. It was a lot of fun, but we lost steam towards the end.

Internecine II Obama Edition
Deployed as OpFor Bravo FTL
What are these shiny new weapons? They're... black. They shoot smaller bullets. Why the hell would we want a gun that shoots smaller bullets? Oh, because Azoz says so? Okay - glory to America!

Well, more like glory to ever-so-slight defilade and me forgetting the words for "military crest," then forgetting to mention to Command that I really wouldn't advise charging Bravo right across this open ridgeline-- oh, here we go-- *SCHWACK!*

Not my finest moment of FTLing ever.

Ashore
Deployed as Alpha Squad Leader
There were a surprisingly lessened number of bad dudes present on the shores of Chernogorsk tonight, and careful, considered movements from both squads meant that we survived the entire way through the factory complex with no significant loss of life. What? Competency? In my Folk ARPS platoon?

A LAV breached the outer wall for us, and myself and Alpha 2 flooded into the factory complex, followed by 1, with 3 bringing up the rear. We went firm on the other side, with Alpha 1 and myself climbing a ladder to achieve fantastically powerful heights while 2 and 3 secured the perimeter of the building and turned the train depot into a deathtrap for Chedaki bastards. We shot the ones with legitimate fathers too. A higher power can sort them out.

After Bravo filtered in and took up positions ahead of us, I consolidated the squad on the left side of the tracks, with the intent of using some large silos to flank around the next position and come at it from the side... only to find Bravo already there and pouring a fusillade of fire right across the tracks. Not about to cross such a withering stream of tracers, I elected instead to press Alpha forward along the left side of the tracks, and we finally reached a two-story building with a very commanding view of Northeastern Chernogorsk. There was very little cover atop the roof where myself and A2 were stationed, but with A3 on the perimeter and A1 probing ahead, I felt confident that we would see, engage, and neutralize any enemies before they even knew we were here.

Like those six that approached us from the north. Through foliage. And houses. And shot us.

Ah, that's more like it

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Swept SE (adversarial version)
Deployed as OpFor Alpha 2 FTL
Welp, not much to be said about this one. You either rush the town in the hopes of attaining cover and hope they haven't already occupied said cover before you get there, or you skyline yourself on the hills and hope you can snipe them out of their windows before they can play shoe to your cockroach-&-dinner-plate impression. I chose the town. My Fireteam was a picture-perfect example of coordination, with the lot of us advancing through the compounds in a smooth cohesive team. My battle-buddy and I cleared compound after compound while blue team followed and zoned our flanks, and we finally found ourselves in the middle of an incredibly stretched out Alpha Squad.

With Fer's Alpha 3 to our Southeast pulling Bravo's ass out of the MMG fire, I arranged for Blue team to make it to a small house in the middle of a field so we could move to support Alpha 3, but when I and my AT rifleman attempted to dash out there, I was felled by bullets. Thanks to the bravery of my comrades, I was yoinked back into cover amidst the pinging of rifle-fire, and patched up (rather painfully) by people who may have heard the words "first aid" for the first time back in the chopper when they were asking what the hell a "medic" was. It's a miracle I was still alive to hear of our glorious victory in the name of Azoz.

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Uprising
Deployed as Charlie Squad Leader
An... interesting mission that basically begins as "Escape Chernarus: Lee-Enfield edition," placing a huge emphasis on the Squad Leader of each disparate platoon element. With squads this far dispersed, the scope of my responsibility as a squad leader both narrowed, due to the absence of other squads to coordinate with, and intensified, as we were 10 men with 9 Enfields and a pistol, with no friendly support whatsover. A much more intimate experience than we are used to, what with our tendency to prefer a much more mutually supportive "Platoon Wedge."

Our first task was to upgrade our firearms. A quick scope of the town of Msta from a concealing (but highly advantageous) treeline, showed a patrolling fire-team of CDF, armed with AKS-47's. A suitable upgrade, but only for four of our number, and only if we could bring them down. Three concentrated barrages of somewhat accurate fire felled the entire group, and both fire-teams found themselves with a two-man automatic element. Total casualties: three bullets each.

Cross-country-hiking for a good two kilometers, we deployed in the forests above Dolina, where another patrolling fire-team wandered into our withering (and much more accurate) fire and was snuffed out in short order. Total casualties: two bullets each. Now, everyone who wanted an AKS had one, and those who chose to go without were doing magic with their Enfields.

Polana was a no-go, there being scattered infantry within the mass of buildings and nary a useful object in sight. A roadblock set up just south of it turned up no useful unfortunates, as apparently word had gotten out that some crazy guys in track-suits were wandering the countryside, shooting people up for fun and profit! Finally, we reached the outskirts of Gorka, and we got cocky.

One of our number dashed ahead of us and started agitating about seeing a bunker and wanting to shoot the dude inside it. At the same time, at least two patrols of four dudes wandered into the fields in front of us - way too many people than I wanted to take on at once, in such poor cover, and with little preparation. Then, to top it all off, another person dashed ahead to try and link up with the first rogue, and inadvertently stumbled across six more dudes with guns, alerting them to our presence. In the absolute worst way to have made contact, he was fired upon, and in order to save the two rogues, the other eight of us were forced to abandon the stealthy crawl we had adopted and rush to advance to contact.

The "advance to" part went well, but when the contact part came about, I was too out of breath from the crawl-and-sprint to aim, and I was shot in the head by one of the six dudes rogue #2 tripped, and the squad progressively fell apart from there. Granted, Charlie was still the only squad of any appreciable strength left at the end of the run due to having taken no casualties whatsoever on the way up, but all forward progress ceased from that point onward, as individual members roamed across Gorka only to be cut down by stray enemies and a second, psychic machine-gun nest.

All in all, this mission was very, almost excessively, reliant on good squad leading, especially when it comes to filtering out comms. Channel Commander was a constant buzz of noise, and to be honest I began completely filtering it out by ten minutes in, and seriously considered switching it off for a while as I set about the objectives given to Charlie. Neither the CO, nor either of our sister squads could really do or say anything to help our local situation, and the constant noise was messing with my intra-squad comms (though thankfully, not my map-reading).

A final mission note to cap this all off: cross-country wanderings are a bit novel to us, but they get boring really, really fast when there's absolutely no chance of contact outside of the cities and towns. Let's see some random-ass patrols! Let's see vehicles moving on the roads! If we want a mission that big, let's actually make every part of it interesting!

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~ Ferrard

Internecine II Obama Edition
INDFOR Alpha 4
So much for that peace Nobel, eh?
Hunkered down on a rooftop west, scanning the horizont. As the enemy approached, we were ordered to move, but for some reason the ladder wouldn't trigger for me. So I stayed put, taking potshots, until I decided to screw it and jump down. Apparently someone in OPFOR was watching, because I never reached the ground.

Ashore
BLUFOR A3 RAT
Holy crap, the carrier is still there! And the world didn't melt! I can't believe we've actually reached the shore! Wait, is that a technical*BLAM*yes, that was a technical.

Swept SE (adversarial version)
INDFOR A2 RAT.
Scrambling to find a suitable unoccupied firing position, I was relocating until GPs started falling. FTL decided to 'try something', moving up the hill to face them, but to no avail. We were trapped, and flanked easily

Uprising
INDFOR C1-4
Enfields are awesome. One of the rare guns that just drops the blighter right away. We cleared Msta and Dolina skulking along the outskirts, scrounging for equipment. For reasons unknown to me, half the team elected to downgrade their guns. All geared up, we moved on to looking for transport. At this point, something was up with Bravo, SL was playing news anchor, so I switched on CCNN to hear the news. A lot of chatter, but low info density. And in the game. Polana was useless, so we dropped down to a crossroad and waited for a passing truck. That didn't happen, so the order was given to run to Gorka. Really, it's moments like these you truly see just how awesome Arma is with sceneries. Makes you wanna walk around the game for no reason whatsoever. We reached Gorka from the south, and crawled uphill, with Iceraiser scouting ahead, mumbling stuff about tanks, DShKMs, bunkers and the occasional "can I shoot him". Soon enough, someone stood up, everyone started shooting, Carson got killed, and the rest of the team consolidated and captured a fuel truck. Unfortunately, the ensuing firefight also cost us out medic. With lead element down, we scrambled out of Gorka, circling around to meet CO on his bitchin' dirtbike. He even gave me a ride...right back into Gorka. The fight went on, we killed more militia, CO got shot and the mission was called.

Ferrard Carson wrote:
A final mission note to cap this all off: cross-country wanderings are a bit novel to us, but they get boring really, really fast when there's absolutely no chance of contact outside of the cities and towns. Let's see some random-ass patrols! Let's see vehicles moving on the roads! If we want a mission that big, let's actually make every part of it interesting!

That is why the UAZ's were added, to partially eliminate the cross country hike as it holds 7 people and can be used as a maneuvering element.

As to the patrols... The first part (the push for the cities) was supposed to be easy, you didn't even get to the airfield, which has it's own little surprises


From my perspective in Uprising as a spectator, Alpha and the last survivors of Bravo made a valiant attack on Zelenogorsk, but sneaky EI dudes got them from behind.
As to Charlie, you guys were good until Gorka, but the combination of a nasty bunker and a patrol got the best of you. (Which can be said about Alpha also, as I saw 2 or 3 guys dying on a barren field due to bunkers and a group of Alpha died near the gas station because they thought the bunker was facing the other way )

Internecine II Obama Edition.
INDY CO

Overjoyed with the prospect of a shiny new rifle I volunteered to lead the forces of freedom against the forces of… erm… freedom too™?

Splitting the village, as Obama has split the electorate, we camped out and waited for the pickets to spot our opponents. We didn't have to wait long until the rounds poured in.

Confused by the accuracy of our new weapons, and the fact that they shipped without Takistani language instruction manuals, I spent ten minutes on hold whilst Kathy in customer services attempted to resolve the issue.

Unfortunately by the time I got off the phone, the team was mostly dead and SuperU had shot me in the face.

Did he need to desecrate my body? Probably not, but that's just how he rolls...


Ashore
CO

As a result of a Makarov promotion (like a shotgun wedding but without the farmers daughter) I found myself in command of a USMC platoon, Yay!

Planning to Stevie Wonder's "Heaven Help Us All", and given that the centre of town was secured by our CDF allies, I decided to attempt a strategic left hook into the factory complex and down to the construction site.

My intent was to move squads in bounding overwatch, with the IFV's as roving support, to minimize causalities and keep the momentum going.

Fire and maneuver went well despite a couple of early casualties and one of our IFV's being taken out of commission by a "love-tap" from an RPG. It wasn't until we had secured the factory that the casualties really started to mount.

Concerned about our combat effectiveness I pushed Bravo forward to clear the jumping off point for our final assault. This gave Alpha some more time to lick its wounds and pull back from the North.

Restarting the squad-level fire and maneuver we assaulted the factory clearing the immediate areas of opposition before receiving word from command that well deserved victory fire had been authorized.


Swept SE
INDY Alpha Three FTL

Excited by the prospect of camping indoors, instead of in bushes, we took position to the far east of the village and waited for OPFOR to show itself.

After some sporadic contacts against the blocking force, we were sent up the southern hill to flank suspected OPFOR position in the orchards and walls to the south west of the village.

Unfortunately tracers work both ways and, whilst Ice killed several with his trusty PKM, the return fire cut me down before i could deliver the coup de grace with an RPG.

Uprising
Charlie One AAR

Definitely an interesting and liberating mission. I followed Mamba on a rampage/extreme hiking holiday around Chernarus.

The fun ended for most of us around Gorka when the bad dudes actually started to shoot back and scalped our command element along with many of the FT's.

I agree with Ferrard that the mission could do with expanding to include more ambient enemy (and civilians?) as well as some more transport options.

Internecine 2 Obama Edition
Indy Charlie FTL

This mission was kinda interesting since i was given the glorious task of sending eyes out to spy and die in the field. (Remembrances of a past life in which i had defended the same village, and been forced to spy and die were racing in me. Maybe i shouldn't have asked the nice CIA man with the guns for some drugs...!)

So i sent Kefirz out west, because he really wanted to climb that hill, and Astro? out east because i wanted to keep the machine gunner (which i afterwards learned had the same gear as the rest of us) in the village.
Kefirz found diddly-squat, but Astro managed to notice the enemy's advance. Kefirz took a long walk southwards to come up the road from behind of where we thought the enemy would engage us, and that almost worked. By then i was, unfortunately, dead, since smaller bullets still kill, and my spotting is still shite.
I suggest we pay the CIA with goat's cheese next year for their horrible double-cross. Giving both sides equal firepower? The horror!

Ashore
BSL

Veeeery, veeery cinematic indeed. Great mission this, not often so many things go kersplooey in the first minute or two of a mission.
Bravo did what they were told, CCvsTS was a bit of a pain in the neck along the way since bounding requires so much CC-talk. We did our thing and the enemy did theirs. Then i decided to take a peek from the front and got my brains blown out.
Seriously, that tall silo on the left side of Bravos route forward was brimming with EI. I watched in horror as four of them remained on the top floor throughout the mission without doing anything. And this even with dancemoox and another guy on the floor below for eons and eons.

Swept SE
Opfor Bravo 2 FTL

"Hmmmm, awfully quiet out here..."
"Yup!"
"Must be because they are in that two story building to the north across the road getting ready to fire at us."
"Yup!"
*UGH* patchup *UGH* patchup.
"Hey look! A machine gunner in the hills to our right"
"UGH" patchup
"Hey, Bandzai, still alive?"
"Oh, well, apparently not, but that EI right next to you sure seems feisty"
"UGH" nopatchup bleedout


Uprising
Charlie 1 AR
The tempo in this mission is decidedly different, and it is quite fun to hide in forests and then raining down a hail of bullets at unsuspecting guards.

Since i played this last week? as well i'd just like to say that something really seems to go wrong once we hit the big cities. I don't really know what, but it seems we become so accustomed to the freeform movement of the early mission as to forget that once we hit the big cities we should be well coordinated. (Granted, our SL bit the bucket just as we hit the city, which made things trickier...)

The thing about the UAZ is that it is perfectly feasible for us hardy Cherno folk to run alongside it when its driving at full speed!
When it comes to how long it takes us to get to the "main" cities then i found it to be leisurely. Hit two cities to get +3 broadsw... Ak's then run to the nearest town and murderize a larger element before hitting the airfield.

audiox wrote:Seriously, that tall silo on the left side of Bravos route forward was brimming with EI. I watched in horror as four of them remained on the top floor throughout the mission without doing anything. And this even with dancemoox and another guy on the floor below for eons and eons.

I knew from the guys we'd killed on the way up to the floor we were on that there would be guys on the roof, but with only a tiny ladder I decided it best not to go up and get shot mid ladder animation. Ebass did take a quick look and confirmed people and I relayed to your replacement the top of our building had bad dudes on it.

The only building that had the height required to shoot down onto them was one to the south but the single ladder up was under observation by our upstairs neighbours. In the end we didn't bother them and they didn't do anything to us.