[Sun] 19 Jul 2015 (Getting harder)

[Mabbott]

Cordova just make sure it doesn't happen again or



Squirrels, a somewhat lackluster performance by IFV, despite Eagle saying "we're better then those scrubs"

Had a video for hedgehogs but it was kinda eh nothing interesting in the footage really.

[Dabbo]

My highlights of Sunday's session:

[Ferrard Carson]

"Has Carson just... killed everybody?" "Yeah, a little bit."

~ Ferrard

[Raptoer]

I think that 1.48 broke the wound system script a little. In Landing I got into a state where I could move and shoot, but not interact and moved very slowly. In Dabbo's video you can see me very slowly walking back behind that building, then a second later I'm flopped over dead because I bled out.

[SuicideKing]

I think that 1.48 broke the wound system script a little. In Landing I got into a state where I could move and shoot, but not interact and moved very slowly. In Dabbo's video you can see me very slowly walking back behind that building, then a second later I'm flopped over dead because I bled out.

Yeah that's what happened to me in Squirrels too. I thought I had died, switched to limbo and got back to the game, realised I was still alive. I was moving very slowly, everything blurring to red and no option to treat myself.

Worst part of Squirrels was that I my PC did a mysterious hard reboot after I actually died, and I couldn't rejoin fast enough to see who all I killed (3 or 4 people).

No one seems to have got footage of the mad guerrilla skillz I was using against FIA (irony). How sad.

I died because I rushed to check whether the dude I shot in the end was AAF or FIA, couldn't tell through all the red blur.

Anyway, I was surprised how outflanked we were by BLUFOR after I landed in the spectator screen.

p.s. Aquarius I was driving the vic behind you, not the APC...

p.p.s. why does have an M16?

[Aqarius]

p.s. Aquarius I was driving the vic behind you, not the APC...

Well, I did ask who's driving the alpha vic.
Who was driving the alpha vic?

p.p.s. why does have an M16?

He was funded by the CIA to fight the Soviets

[SuicideKing]

p.s. Aquarius I was driving the vic behind you, not the APC...

Well, I did ask who's driving the alpha vic.
Who was driving the alpha vic?

Yeah I don't know why I replied to that. I think I assumed you wanted to know where the other MMG team was or something, and I suspect I did correct myself but was too late to prevent the joke.

p.p.s. why does have an M16?

He was funded by the CIA to fight the Soviets

Ah yes, of course!

[Bobo]

VON Issues were the "highlight" of the evening for me, and as such my services proved more of a liability than anything else!

I was a little confused as to why all my sightings were going unheeded in Landing, and then my fears were confirmed in Bees when I could not even fulfill the basic requirements of the "Co" part of "Co-Pilot." My deepest apologies to Ralian for being so slow on the ball in realizing my predicament.

I was thoroughly confused as to why name was appearing on the VON Speakers list when I hit PTT but nothing was going through anyway? Has anyone had similar issues? I'm thinking I'll just reinstall ArmA3 and see if it helps. I'll make sure to get it all sorted out before joining the Folks again and subjecting you to the horror of Battlefield Mutism.

And, @Ralian, again my apologies. I got a severe case of confusion when we landed, and was pulling out wounded from the chopper when I should have been inside! There was one live A2 on the bench, and I'm pretty sure I saw two wounded as well. If I ever crew-chief for you again, I can promise I'll be a more talkative and useful comrade!

[Sparks]

I was thoroughly confused as to why name was appearing on the VON Speakers list when I hit PTT but nothing was going through anyway? Has anyone had similar issues?

I've had it happen once because my microphone cable was physically unplugged, and I've also had it happen when steam was running in the background and had the wrong input selected for audio input (these days I just turn off the steam-client-in-the-background thing, it eats fps anyway and all you really get from it is screenshots and there are easier ways to get those if you're not already recording your session.

[fer]

Big shout out to the new faces from Reddit - thank you for coming along, and I hope you'll join us again (or, and this is just as appreciated, drop us a note here to let us know if something sucked enough to put you off returning).



LANDING

Bravo Vic CO: Fer
|- G: ?
|- D: ?

Apologies to my crewmates for not noting down your names!

Comrade BSL Eagle Eye had drawn the short straw in comrade CO Audiox's plan: along with Alpha, we could cross the water directly and land on the eastern side of the peninsular, but unlike our sister squad, we would assault the enemy base. Charlie, which was full of malingerers and desk-jockeys, and led by comrade CSL Tigershark (who we all know was probably making his troops watch pornography in the back of their vic), would go to a nearby island and have a little rest.

We crossed the water and took damage from the enemy artillery barrage along the way, but we successfully delivered B1 and BSL to the beach. Albeit a bit wounded. Still, nothing that the medic couldn't patch up, much like my driver fixing the wheels of our vic. During the crossing, my gunner had done a sterling job of killing most of the immediate threats on the shoreline, so for a few moments after landing our vic sat motionless and underemployed. This did not last.

Whilst B1 fought its way into the compound, we moved forward until my gunner could see the row of park MLRS vehicles that we'd come to destroy. There then followed a scientific investigation into just how many AP rounds we could fire at one of the MLRS vehicles and have it NOT explode. And then an enemy AAA vehicle drove right in front of us!

Panic! More rounds were fired at point blank range, but we couldn't even get a mobility kill. The enemy vehicle's turret was disabled, which is why we didn't die, and eventually it disappeared aroudn the other side of the base. Then another enemy AAA vehicle came into view, this time on the north-western edge of the base. We attempted to fire a missile at this one, but that only impacted on a rock immediately in front of use. More cannon rounds, I think, but we couldn't make this one explode either. Thankfully, it too seemed to have lost the will to fight, because it never fired back. That said, by now we were out of all ammuniction except LMG rounds.

Which is the PERFECT time to be told that a) you are the last vic left in the platoon, and b) an enemy mechanised force is coming right up the peninsular towards us.

Fuck. Oh well.

Gamely, we moved to a westward-facing position, readied our LMG, and exploded.

Feedback: I love this mission for its cinematic qualities, but I wouldn't mind seeing three small tweaks: the artillery barrage could be less intense and/or feature less powerful shells, as it's no fun for the infantry to arrive injured; fewer enemy IFVs/AAAs and/or Titans for our RATs; satchel charges (many satchel charges) for destroying the MRLS vics.


BEES

A1 FTL: Fer
|- AR: Ninja Demon
|- ??? x 5

Note: The awesome and ever-active comrade mission maker Eagle Eye has updated Bees (which I wrote originally), to use our new 2015 OrBat.

Comrade Ferrard Carson, our CO, had a simple plan:

1. ST1 locates the tanks
2. Alpha (in the LBs) lands as close to the tanks as possible and blows them up
3. Bravo lands on a hill NW of the village to support Alpha and slow-up any QRF
4. We all extract to safety

Finally, after about 4 run-throughs of this mission, I was going to see it played the way I had envisioned it: that is to say, like a miniature version of the Air Cav assault in Apocalypse Now (perhaps complete with comrade Ferrard Carson dropping death cards on the enemy corpses). Of course, I also knew that landing directly on the village might result in high levels of casualties and many burning helicopters.



Well, part 1 of the plan went okay and both MBTs were located on the western side of the village. Ater some discussion during our approach flight, comrade ASL Audiox ordered the LBs carrying A1 and A1 to land on the west side of the beach, and I ordered my FT to make for the large house at the edge of the sand. Loading my UGL with smoke rounds, I prepared for the landing (I was going to drop smoke on the house, in an attempt to screen our 10-15m dash to the cover of its compound walls).

I took a round as we came in to land and, wounded, was unable to disembark. Our pilot, comrade Head, was already lifting off so I called out to Ninja Demon and told him he had A1 now. My hope was that I could survive until TH1 reached a loitering zone, and get patched up there. What actually happened was that we 'bounced'. I'm not sure if TH1 took damage, but comrade Head was fighting the controls for what may have been 10 agonising seconds before we came back to earth, hard, about 20m further west on the beach.

Someone - the co-pilot? - must have pulled me from the LB, but through the skids I could one of the crew lying on the ground, motionless, and rounds were impacting all around us. It didn't seem fair to request a medic, but I think I told ASL I was effectively a goner. I bled out quickly.


SQUIRRELS

TECH1 D: Fer
|- G: Grumpy (?)

Technical 1 was held in reserve for the first half of the mission, but was eventually sent on a long flanking movement that saw us approach the town from the south-east - almost exactly as part of the enemy force had done. By this point, I believe the enemy IFV had been destroyed or disabled, it should be added.

We didn't see any contacts as we re-entered the town, but could hear all sorts of small arms fire up the street to our north. Cautiously, and with one eye always on the rear-view mirror, I drove slowly northwards towards a compound where we believed the enemy was. Technical 2 was vectoring in on the same point from the north-east, and A2 was up to our north-west. I kept getting out to check the most suspicious houses, with my gunner covering me; but the crackle of gunfire was always further up the road.

As we neared the marked compound my gunner spotted movement in a building and lit up the windows with punishing .50 cal fire. Using my best Technical Crew School of Somalia training, I then reversed back down the road in case the enemy had ideas about retaliating; but it was quiet, so after a little delay we moved up the road again, my gunner moving the barrel of his .50 cal to face the suspicious compound. My gunner shouted and at the same instance there was an exchange of fire. I looked right and saw an enemy body crumpling, but in the corner of my vision I could also see my gunner wasn't at his station anymore. I reversed, fast.

Technical 2 had lost its driver, so the gunner announced he was coming to join me. This was a good idea, but I was thirsty for revenge and none-too-keen on driving alongside that compound again. So I grabbed my SMG, switched to fully-uncontrollable fire, and moved up to the compound on foot. Passing through a gap in the wall, I spotted someone coming in from the other side and squeezed off a burst of panic fire. At a friendly. Who dropped me.



Feedback: I really enjoyed this mission, and would love to see it played with more people.


HEDGEHOGS

CO: - Fer
|
|- ASL: Ferrard Carson
|- BSL: Eagle Eye

The map is not your friend. The map will lie to you. The map will not tell you about important features. Trust only your eyes, or the eyes of your element leaders. But not the eyes of traitors to the Party, which you keep in a plastic box at the bottom of your pack. Those eyes will lie to you. Because they are lying eyes.

This mission is a platoon scale corridor-shooter. That's not a criticsm - missions like [i
Hedgehogs[/i] are a test of the basics: observation, bounding, fire and manouvre, BOFs, moving from and to hard cover, smoke as both concealment and a means of blinding the enemy. Above all, it's about using all of these skills and techniques to make the best use of the terrain, because as far as movement options go there's really only route #1: into the teeth of the enemy.

With that in mind, I didn't see the need for a complicated plan. Moreover, I wanted to see the terrain in front of the RV/FUP before giving my SLs specific orders. However, I did have a basic idea in mind: 1-FT Bravo would be augmented by the MMG and form my BOF element, which would provide covering fire as 2-FT Alpha closed with each of the enemy's defensive line. MAT was to tag along with me, since a) I didn't know where I'd need them yet and b) the CO should always have 1-2 rifles for close-protection, seeing as he can spend a lot of time looking at the map or through his rangefinders.

So it was that after being dropped off by the AI trucks - after the most wonderfully cinematic drive through friendly positions, culminating with an awesome pass by a future-A10 (brrrrrrrrrt brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrt) - we took up our starting positions: Bravo, MMG, MAT and CO in the RV compound, Alpha in some buildings to our left (east). As we moved up to these positions, I asked ASL to look for a next waypoint south as soon as his squad was set.

The terrain in front of Bravo had some bushes that obscured our view south, and in any case sloped away too gently for them to adequately see Alpha's intended movement. Bravo was sent south by 50-100m, until they found some low rock walls at which to set up. With MAT in tow, I joined Bravo, and gave the go-ahead for Alpha to begin its bound. In theory, Bravo could cover Alpha's movement. In theory.

This is where it went wrong, and it's my fault. Bravo and Alpha were too far apart - I couldn't really see what was going on with Alpha, despite them being no more than 100m away. I guess the same must have been true for Bravo and MMG, which quickly became absorbed with its own contacts front and found its position too exposed for comfort.

ASL went down, though I was able to talk with A2 FTL comrade Sparks until comrade host Aquarius became the new ASL. The map suggested a shallow gulley close to Alpha's position, and I asked the squad to go firm there. I don't know what happed to comrade Aquarius, but soon I was talking with comrade Sparks again, and at some point comrade Kefirz may even have been ASL. In any case, Alpha's FT markers were hovering near the gulley and I could only hope they had managed to find refuge there (and that it was indeed a gulley).

Meanwhile, Bravo and MMG had displaced further to my right (west), in an understandable move by BSL to seek more cover. However, by allowing them to move even further from Alpha I made a catastrophic mistake. Both squads were now isolated, fighting their own plinking battles with the enemy. With our Holo sights we were badly under-equipped for this kind of open-country contact, and now my squads couldn't even cover each other.

Belatedly, I ordered Bravo to break contact, fall back, and come back in on a position that was closer to Alpha; but it was in vain. Almost everyone in Bravo died in that retreat. After allowing MAT to take a few shots at a distant IFV, I gathered all the survivors in Alpha's little gulley (which was something like a shallow trench). There was nothing left to do but follow the Party's standing orders for such situations.

We formed an orderly line, left the safety of the gulley, and walked forwards to Glory.



Feedback: The briefing could be trimmed down, with some of the back-story content moved to a custom tab. Magnified optics would be a great addition to the loadouts. I'm also not sure the availability of support fire was very clear in the briefing, so that would be worth checking too. However, the overall atmosphere was amazing - some really great use of pre-placed friendlies, fly-by and on-rails insertion. Nice work, comrade Eagle Eye!