[Sun] 06 Apr 2014 (Do you know who is in command?)

[Bodge]

• Caravel
• Pancho
• Laying Plans
• Goat Ridge
• In Denial

Up to 38 fine fellows exercised due diligence in exploding expensive hardware, unloading many rounds of ammunition and generally making sure the taxpayers kept needing to pay their taxes.

Thanks to MDeath for the quote from goat ridge and thanks to fluffeh for his rambo antics.

Thoughts and reports below.

[thekev506]

Will be adding my AAR tomorrow, but just wanted to say I'd really appreciate some feedback on Caravel as I want to put some time into making changes to it this week!

[Bodge]

Caravel
BSL
With an under strength Bravo squad we were tasked with flanking the town to the west and moving straight for point caravel. The early manoeuvres went off without a hitch, the fireteams moved quickly though the waypoints and we arrived at the edge of the town seemingly unspotted. We entered the town and moved through to point caravel, again without any resistance, we could hear the gunfire of Alpha engaging the enemy so we moved from point caravel to assist. After a few tense and rather brutal encounters the defenders were cleared out.

FEEDBACK: Straightforward ADV in good location, not sure if a time out on occupying caravel, or a requirement to have a couple of defenders in it might be an idea. Just speculation really, worked fine as is.

Pancho
IFV1 Driver.
Interesting one this, we were requested to wait on the beach while the infantry gained a foothold. So we did and eliminated a few hostile parasols while we were at it. We were requested forward so edged up to the edge of the sand to get eyes on the first target, we suppressed a few dudes and took a couple out before moving up another 10 metres or so to cover our front with a building. Waffley (gunner) cleared a couple more targets before switching to engage a few guys pinging bravo with heavy fire. We eliminated these and soon after we strangely turned into a fireball. Was pretty good fun to watch the other teams moving up.

FEEDBACK: The IFVs all exploded a few metres from the beach, might be an idea to consider the location of the first few AT dudes or composition of those teams.

Laying Plans
Bravo SL
This was rather interesting too, we picked up some explosives and mounted up to follow Alpha. The plan was to follow them in close then swing round close to the headland so we were hidden from the Opfor that were probably on the other side. This would shield us from fire for the longest amount of time and possibly allow our landing zone to be a bit of a surprise. The approach worked like a dream, unfortunately we were pretty surprised to find an enemy fire team at our LZ, between the guys on the LZ and the guys up the hill Bravo was chewed up in short order with penny being the only guy left carrying explosives. The rag tag bunch that was left eventually managed to infiltrate the compound and blow the tower for a win.

FEEDBACK: Was good stuff, maybe make the explosive location be clearly marked on map for attackers. The boats are a nice asset as they can provide brutal fire support but the ammo runs out fairly fast. Wasn't alive for too long so can't say too much.

Goat Ridge
Alpha SL
With Ferrard directing the support element I was tasked by him to move my teams North across the hills to the target ridge. We spent a little while clearing contacts from the first ridge and with MMG set up we could move on with cover. On the ridge ahead was an MG bunker and we knew there was an enemy patrol further inland too so we dropped down to the coast to get below the bunker's traverse. This allowed a pretty much perfect assault on the bunker from the side taking it out with co-ordinated fire from close range. This was great apart from when we took rifle fire from the valley behind us. At first I thought it was stray rounds from the support team but a quick inspection revealed a team of hostiles on the valley floor that had moved in from somewhere behind. We turned and unleashed a barrage of fire on them and I managed to silence them with a GL plum in the middle of them. The movement across the Northern ridges was solid with sporadic contacts moving in on us from the valleys to the East. Eventually we reached the target ridge and set up with eyes on a Marid APC and a bunker just ahead of us. This what when stuff fell apart slightly, namely my face when I popped round to get a better look at the bunker and a couple of enemies took exception to it.

In denial
ASL/CO
We reached the NW side of the starting settlement and began taking fire from the roadblock up ahead, return fire silenced a few of the enemy rifles so I moved a team up on the left flank to take a compound further up. With it secure the other team followed and I went to investigate a possible route to the West. There was still heavy fire coming from our front through the reeds and bushes ahead of us and I managed to find a few in the reed filled ditch to the front of the teams. The teams responded with a barrage of grenade fire and an advance into the reeds. By this time I was dead as anything but the rest of the squad did much better than I did managing to eliminate the x-ray goggle wearing AI.

[thekev506]

Caravel
FEEDBACK: Straightforward ADV in good location, not sure if a time out on occupying caravel, or a requirement to have a couple of defenders in it might be an idea. Just speculation really, worked fine as is.

Cheers Bodge. My aim with it was to have AAF spread out and make themselves as much of a pain as possible rather than a toe-to-to slugfest; CSAT should have to be nervy about every building they pass in the town. Indfor did a pretty good job of being nimble and elusive, but there was a lack of direction - a time-out on holding the church would help fix that.

Caravel - B2 AT
Took a low-ranking spot in this one to see how things turned out. Bravo took a very wide wheeling flank manoeuvre to approach the town from the west, whilst Alpha engaged directly from the north. Though there was plenty of noise relatively nearby our fireteam we didn't come across anyone apart from a rogue RPG strike on my building. Scratched but still standing, we ran around a little more checking areas out, then CO killed CO and boom, game over.

Pancho - A2 FTL
A2 lines up, crosses the threshold and immediately the doo-doo is hitting every fan within a 5 mile radius. My team suppress the building directly ahead of us for A1 to push up and clear it. With A1 in place we leapfrog to the next building and come under very heavy fire, most of my time getting wounded in the process. Needing to seize the initiative, I tell my AR team to hold the top floor of the building and provide covering fire as me and AT guy run up to the next wall and assume a better viewpoint. That was the plan, but instead, on my 'go' the fireteam all hid in the back of the building and I ran out into the foray alone, getting a kill or two before I was overwhelmed.
FEEDBACK: As Bodge has said, losing 2/3 of the IFVs right at the start probably didn't help our situation. I died too early on to really give any detailed feedback but level of threat seemed well picked for the mission; it's scarily large but in the right way.

Laying Plans - BLUFOR Medic
Dropped into the medic slot as my CBA was giving me grief and I kept getting kicked from the server. I took on the job of boat driver and chauffeured the CO up and down the coast while he shot things up. Things started going south, so we beached and disembarked, then immediately got shot to pieces.

[Aqarius]

Pancho
BLUFOR C2 RAT
Somehow managed to miss the first mission. Dropped into charlie, and ended up grouped with SL when half the fireteam died. Then with IFV3 when they got blown up. Then with SL again when the crew died. Then lumped together with the rest of the squad when everyone else died.

Then got killed and spectated Fluffy

Laying plans
OPFOR B1 FTL
Spawned in ( ) and saw I got an ARCO ( ). The whole of bravo piled into a truck and drove off to the target, with the blaze on the hill lighting the way. I took cover halfway along the main tower, with the rest of the fireteam laying low along the construction site. Got to see some awesome fireworks from the seaside, as well as the AI glitch out and bounce along the side of the tower. Then got completely suppressed, overrun, and somehow still living with the tower colapsing on top of me. And then staying there because the trigger borked ( ). Then had to bail for the night.

To be perfectly honest, the whole thing started with "Fires look pretty at night", so whatever thoughts you may have are welcome. Also: did that second truck in base blow up or something?

[Dogface]

Caravel - Attackfor A3 AT (Gaius FT)

Once again tasked with capturing port "Caravel" from the north, we again took up residence on the big old hill overlooking the town. This time Bravo went ahead of us to move down the east flank of the town and sweep into the southern part of it, while we lay on the hill plinking away at the town with a good long round of suppressive fire.

Once they had made it to their objective we ran down to follow them, taking some fire as we sprinted to a warehouse but managing to survive. We then moved west to enter the northern section of town. The enemy ended up pinned in between us, and as we closed in at their back, Alpha wiped them out from the front. Huzzah!


Pancho - Bravo SL

Quite the hectic fight, this one! Having landed on a beach, we were told to move north into a valley to clear it out, expecting contact pretty much immediately.

We were on the left/west side of the beach, and I noticed a ridge up to the northwest. It turned out to be a little less substantial than I'd thought but we lined up along it anyway, pouring some fire down the valley while Alpha and Charlie, to our right, both dealt and received a hellstorm of intense fire. Hunkering down and moving fast, we hustled our way up to the building about 100m into the AO, which was our first objective. By the time we got there we'd already lost a casualty or two, and as the IFV rolled up to join us it too got blown up, along with both (?) of the other IFVs.

By this point, the platoon had managed to dig ourselves in to our footholds at the south end of the AO. CO Tigershark prompted us forwards and we all tried to advance, but along with fire from the front we were also being engaged from the hills on the left and right. We in Bravo therefore decided to take a hike up to the one on our side and clear it out. Once we reached the high ground, we took out a couple of troops but the rest seemed to have already been taken out by Charlie.

Feeling calm and peaceful now were literally far above the battle, we took a look at the AO in front of us. Alpha (middle) and Charlie (right) were still fighting hard to work their way forwards; we had eyes on our own next objective but there were a few bad guys in the windows of the buildings there, as well as a ZSU on the far side of the valley, ahead of Charlie. Fortunately Alpha had found a nice safe reedbed and were able to move in and clear a path for us, so we scampered down to join them.

By now we were close enough to the town that the contacts there were starting to wake up and pelt us from all directions. Tigershark bought it, and the rest of us were losing men fast. By the time we worked out that command had fallen to me, HQ was calling for a last glorious charge into the town. We carried this out, and died swiftly and with honour.


Laying Plans - BLUFOR (ATK) CO

This one was a lot of fun! In this adversarial, we had to make our way to a solar collection plant on the (I think it was) on the coast and destroy some towers there, while the other team tried to stop us. It was night, and we had a variety of assets at our disposal including trucks, unarmed Ifrits and armed patrol boats.

Choosing the boats, I put one squad in each and me+medic in another. These weren't your grandpappy's patrol boats -- they had big engines, miniguns and automatic grenade launchers. Alpha, under Ferrard, as the closest, set off first with the aim of landing at the western bay, moving up onto the hilltop, and getting eyes down onto the towers. Meanwhile Bravo hooked around to the smaller eastern bay, moving north to the towers along a road while Alpha covered them. Lastly my boat patrolled along the coast to provide some fire support, and check the large ridge to the east, where the enemy were starting.

As soon as our boats got within range there was quite the fireworks show, with a huge volume of tracers and AGL rounds spreading across the eastern hillside like deadly butter, in response to the enemy engaging us from there. Hard to say if we hit anything, but damn if it didn't look good. From there Alpha successfully secured their hill, but Bravo got hit much harder being closer to the occupied ridge on the east. Lord Penney took over, luckily having some explosives with him, pulling back to join up with Alpha; meanwhile my boat went round to the east coast, to try and cause a distraction.

Tracers were still flying from the ridge; it was clear we'd need to do something about the dug in enemies in order to approach the towers. I therefore laid out a route for the main force to get there by hiding in defilade, while me and the medic headed for a landing point at the base of the occupied eastern ridge. The aim was to ninja our way uphill and conduct a surprise attack, but in fact is was we who were surprised and attacked, dying almost as soon as we stepped foot on land.

Alpha moved forward to lay down some suppressing fire on the towers, while Bravo snuck down to blow them up. Lord Penney got damned close, but got shot at the last moment. Tigershark went for the flank, taking out a few enemies, but eventually fell too. Somehow, new face LaKroy was able to make it to Penney's body(?), plant some charges at the base of the big tower, and blow it up, winning the game for us. The ending trigger didn't fire, giving a chance for lone BLUFOR survivor MDeath to charge out from his bush with guns blazing and die a glorious death along with his enemies. However, he declined, and for his cowardice, he was transformed into a bush forever by the angry gods.


Goat Ridge -- MMG Gunner, Ferrard commanding

Reprising this classic, we again moved north up the coastline to assault the east-west "goat ridge" at the north of the AO. This time however we took it both more slowly and more destructively; at every ridge we crossed, we formed a good solid base of fire and rained destruction down on everything we saw, then waited for more things to come to us and rained destruction down on them as well. Turns out that firing from prone, with a laser and decent spotting, the MMG is pretty effective even out to 600-700m! (I've never really liked the idea of the 'long range shooting without sighting in' that Arma encourages, but the laser makes it a bit more plausible I guess).

Eventually we found our way up onto the western shoulder of the ridge, but our remaining force got slowly decimated as soon as we crested over. A glory charge was called for, so I stripped down to my keks and sprinted forwards pistol first. I confronted a Marid and it exploded; I ran screaming towards a bunker and threw myself through the entrance, and got shot in the face.


In Denial - Something something FTL?

This didn't go as well as it normally does. We advanced, but soon started losing folks. Eventually command fell to me and I gathered us into a small and fierce little group; we cleared through the delicious chocolatey outskirts of the town, but the hard toffee center confounded us and we died.

[Satire]

Pancho - A1 FTL

Probably the most intense fighting I've seen since A3 came out. Awesome.