Republic of Folk

Missions:

• Inter IV
• Citadel
• Ghost Hawk Down
• Raidolo (after-party)
• Weekend Warriors (after-party)

This evening, 32 comrades were issued with re-conditioned M14s and sent out into the night. To kill each other. Contrary to projections by the Party's scientists (which were for a failure rate of at least 25%), all of the venerable weapons operated correctly resulting in many, many deaths. Depending on feedback from the frontline troops, the Party may seek to procure more such weapons from Aziz (who has set up a new arms dealing business).

We started with Inter IV, the first Arma 3 port of the Internecine missions that featured heavily during our Arma 2 era. This mission hadn't been played in a while, but when I updated it this weekend, I added a parameter to equip everyone with iron-sighted M14s. The attacking force (OPFOR) won, although it took casualties, and from my perspective the rifles seemed to slow down the action. As both the mission maker and session host, I'm very interested to see how others found this DLC weapon in-game. Next up was another newly-updated mission, Citadel. Comrade CO Kendit was given a fully mechanised Bravo, Alpha 1 as recon, a tank and the option of a fully-mechanised Charlie as wave 2 reinforcements. In the end, despite the early loss of Alpha 1 and surprise appearance of two BLUFOR mechanised squads and a tank just as Bravo was clearing the last of the town, the reinforcements were hardly required. Slow and steady support from our armour, regular updates from UAV, and a careful movement by Bravo delivered victory. And victory was almost ours in comrade Eagle Eye's new mission, Ghost Hawk Down. We successfully located and destroyed the downed helicopter, eliminated the enemy HVT, and were just about to extract safely when an enemy rocket slammed into a fully-loaded helicopter, killing or fatally wounding everyone aboard and nearby. And yes, they were waiting for me after I'd downed the Orca ... a shot that Charlie 1 FTL comrade Kendit had authorised. So, you see, Kendit is responsible for everyone's deaths. I've already signed the arrest papers.

As ever, please post your thoughts, feedback, screenshots and video here - comrade YouTube Hero SuperU doesn't just produce our video idents, but provides leadership and guidance to propaganda artists. We also have a new YouTube channel that he manages so if you have any content you think should feature then let him know and he will sort you out, for more info check out this thread!; more guidance on video editing for Folk ARPS is provided by comrade Ferrard Carson. Posts in the AAR threads really help us (the hosts and mission makers), both with understanding how we can improve the experiences, and showing potential comrades what our sessions are like.

Finally, some recommended reading for all comrades, new and old:

• The Folk ARPS leadership programme
• Comrade Head's new launcher / mod updater (Swifty)
• Folk ARPS tags

Inter IV

Role: Opfor A3 FTL

After taking my trusty M14 and teleporting to the target location, I was assigned OP duty. We sneaked up and spotted some baddies, notably mabbot through a window. We were then given the unenviable task of starting off the assault, so I started plinking away as my red team moved in. Mabbot killed me, however, before I could kill him. Shoutout to eerm for carrying on the legacy of Alpha 3 and killing two bad men at close quarters, stopping to reload between them.

Citadel

Role: Tank commander

I had a complete blast in this one. Hopping into the tank commander seat (and going slightly mad with power) we moved along behind bravo (after I remembered to turn cc on, oops). Sadly, turning out did not grant me my smg and sweet posing option, but I did have a giant 50 cal machinegun instead. So we moved along, blowing up infantry with the 50 cal. We went over to where alpha had died, killed some more infantry and set up overwatching the town. Many more infantry and three technicals (and one house, but we don't talk about that) perished beneath our deadly gaze. Then a rocket hit us, took out our track and we jumped out. Audiox repaired it in record time, and we were overwatching once more. Bravo secured the town and all seemed well, until a mysterious message heralded the arrival of zeus. Zeus is a vengeful god and it wasn't long before the first BLUFOR IFV showed up, and began lighting us up. Mabbot took a millisecond too long with the ranging and the tank was knocked out. We bailed out as the tank exploded, and we were simultaneously engaged by an AGS. Amazing, both audiox and myself survived (Mabbot was not so lucky, RIP) and managed to make our way into the town. As I went to link up with B2, a nato soldier strolled out of a house and took me out. Luckily, BSL patched me up and sent me on my way. Shortly after, I was shot whilst taking a piss, by a blufor team that had been missed in the centre of town. And thus, ended the tale of the tank commander. I killed like 30 dudes though.

Ghost Hawk Down

Role: Charlie AR

Taking the heroically surrounded role, I found myself on a roof. Machinegunning two technicals later, alpha had landed and we linked up. We moved through the town towards the militia HQ, shooting from towers and top floors. We killed the militia leader and his complement of technicals, before sweeping up to link with bravo. The crash site destroyed, we ran back to our initial plaza to extract. But Fer just couldn't lead without some glory, and shot down a low-flying orca with a PCML. This lead to the extract helo being on the deck for...some time, and gave another orca a chance to lock on with a DAGR and blow us all to kingdom come. An ignoble end to such a successful mission. Still a load of fun though, and one hell of a PCML shot.

Raidolo

GLORIOUS BLUFOR FREEDOM FIGHTER

Foolish police ran down my corridor, and I gladly ventilated them. Bigfoot held off the remainder and killed them all, winning a victory for freedom and justice!


Weekend warriors

Role: FTL for...something. A2, maybe? It didn't matter much.

We held, we shot, we died. Was entertaining watching people trying to find guns and ammo at the beginning. How we laughed.



All in all, a cracking session.

Tank crew sentiment as we made it to OP Zulu :




Tank crew sentiment after we had been attacked by the NATO IFVs :

Argh, the BSOD I had during ghosthawk down corrupted the avi file so completely that it was unrecoverable First half of the mission video lost. Booo.

Tank commander sentiment at the beginning of the mission:

Tank Gunner at start:


Tank Gunner after failing the party and dying:

I find that while the heavy vehicles can make things fun, they also can make things slow.

The orders for the IFVs tend to be conservative so that they don't explode and the orders for the infantry tend to be conservative because they feel tied to the IFVs and are expecting heavy resistance due to the presence of friendly IFVs.

Inter IV
Deployed as Orino DefendFor UAV-team buddy (with a medkit)
I had an M-14. M-14 sights are surprisingly crappy, especially against poorly lit targets obscured by trees. Not one kill to my credit, but I did survive the entire mission, so obviously I am the superior soldier! (at hiding).

Aside from that, LowerBigfoot the UAV operator pinged me with everything he saw, and I relayed the most pertinent information to the Squad Leader, which was okay until we tunnel-visioned on the active enemy and didn't warn IndFor Alpha 1 about some dudes on their flank until they were lit up as they crossed an open field.

Oops.

Citadel
Deployed as IFV 4 Commander
With Raptoer behind the gunner's yoke and Dabbo on the steering wheel, IFV 4 set off into the annals of history! We trundled forward a hundred meters... vomited our passengers into the roadside, and waited for the squishies to clear out of our way. Then we waited for the squishies to clear out of Tank 1 and IFV 3's way so they could move so we could move.

LOGISTICS!

Once Bravo had cleared out of the way (and friendly-fired the lone survivor of Alpha's fireteam ), I set IFV 4 about the valley, Dabbo jinking nimbly from cover to cover while Raptoer eliminated anything that looked at us funky. Once, we spotted a trooper very obviously laying in wait within a shed. "Will our machine-gun punch through that tin?" Raptoer asked (no, it doesn't). "Put two rounds of 30 mike-mike AP into that building." THUMP, THUMP "He's dead now."

Sometimes at the behest of Bravo Squad Leader, sometimes of our own initiative, IFV 4 scooted around the valley behind Bravo as they advanced, providing a huge avalanche of fire on anything and everything that poked its head out. Between us, IFV 3, and Tank 1, we had Abdera locked down while Bravo advanced slowly across the valley.

Upon reaching the outskirts of town, we rolled right in, keeping pace with Bravo as they cleared building after building. "Raptoer, see that body in the shack down there?" "Yeah." "That's the guy you nailed through the wall with an armor-piercing round." "Sweet." And then we spotted a NATO spec-ops trooper (complete with silenced rifle) wandering up the far hillside. A burst of 6.5mm settled him, and we heard the call from the tank: "NATO IFVs moving in!" and Pop! went Tank 1's turret, spiraling into the air.

From a heavily fortified position nestled between a wall and a 2-story house, we held court over the valley below before the call came, "Hey, IFV 4, go get IFV 3 off of a guardrail. They're stuck"

We tore past an active Marshall. We drifted past a bunch of NATO infantry, armed to the teeth. We blasted away with 30mm HE the worries of a comrade in Bravo saying, "IFV, stop, there's enemies right there!" IFV doesn't care about the squishies unless they've got a rocket launcher, and we weren't in the open long enough for any rocket launchers to matter!

Once we successfully rammed IFV 3's rear into gear by repeatedly ramming their rear with our gear ( ) we returned to the front line. IFV 3 returned the favor by poking its head out and being one-shot by a NATO tank, and we poked the ass of that Marshall from earlier until it exploded. Then a bunch of cool stuff happened, and we victory-fired a pair of Titan AT missiles into a hillside as we won!

More seriously... this run of Citadel demonstrated one of the greatest issues with Mechanized forces and Folk ARPS. Bravo Squad Lead was receiving information from: CO, Tank 1, Bravo 1, Bravo 2, Bravo 3, IFV 3, and IFV 4, while giving orders to Bravo 1, Bravo 2, Bravo 3, IFV 3 and IFV 4. That is a pretty insane comms task to ask of any of the comrade guests, and quite often IFV 3 and IFV 4 exercised our own discretion, operating virtually independently. This tends to work well enough as long as the IFVs act in support of their squad, but this issue of command overload is why I will eternally advocate for the consolidation of an entire Mech unit's armor into a bronegruppa placed directly under the CO or DC. A Squad Lead's attention is typically maxed out at around 3 different elements, 4 or 5 if they're really good and have good element leaders.

Ghost Hawk Down
Deployed as Bravo 2 FTL
Obvious inspiration is obvious... but incomplete mission objectives are frustrating. "Kill the warlord!" Okay, done. "Destroy the crashed chopper!" Okay, also done. Now what?

Bravo 2 followed Bravo 1 into town, ditching our Hunters to instead work through the city on foot. We did so, tracing the flank of Alpha's footsteps and dutifully clearing out the town they bypassed. And then we reached the crashed chopper, and suddenly Bravo Squad Leader's Hunter brewed up in a ball of flame, taking him and his medic with it. (And you were wondering why I hate those damned things, Pepper? That's why!) Since Bravo Squad Leader was also the overall Platoon Commander of this mission, this threw our forces for a bit of a loop while a trio of CSAT choppers repeatedly buzzed us with miniguns and (guided) rockets!

Eventually, a lack of cohesive leadership made me seize the reins. Alpha and Charlie were to fall back to the Gov't compound and get picked up by TH1. Bravo would fall back to our motorized vehicles and skedaddle. In the end, none of this went according to plan:

Alpha and Charlie were completely mounted in their chopper, standing nice and still on the ground when an Orca DAGR'd them into the sky atop a flaming pyre of wrecked chopper bits. Bravo was all mounted... until it came out that 2 of Bravo 1 were unable to mount. As Bravo 2 was waiting in our Hunter for Bravo 1 to un-fuck itself, another Orca DAGR'd us into the sky atop a flaming pyre of...

Seriously though, some mission feedback: There is no victory condition left after you kill the warlord and destroy the crashed Ghosthawk. An indication as to what we are supposed to do from that point would definitely be in order. Another thing that would be in order? No enemies with guided missiles. DAGRs are ridiculously overpowered against ground vehicles, and if I recall correctly, there is a dumb-fire DAR equipped Orca introduced in one of the DLC's - use that one instead!

Other than that... a very ambitious mission. I like it, but I also think it's got more moving parts than it needs to.

Raidolo (after-party)
What was I deployed as again? I don't really know, all I know is I WANT DRUGS!
Many drugs were had! Not by me! DAMNATIONS, why must all your corpses pile up in the hallway and trip me as I stumble into the room and get filled with red hot lead by my opponents?

~ Ferrard

Inter IV
I was assigned the brave role of UAV operator, so after getting to grips with my faith I decided to give the device a whirl. Takeoff was a great succes with me almost beheading a few friendlies due to confusion about which control was the collective, but that was soon fixed after a few people lost their arms.

I quickly made my way to the silly village where I started marking targets on the map and relaying all the information to command.

It was good fun although the Weapon DLC was very annoying, constantly showing a commercial for it on the right side of my screen and every few minutes plastering logo's over the whole screen obscuring the view.

Citadel
I was once more UAV operator, now offcourse being a well trained veteran! So, i once more more made by way to a stupid village and started to engage in a good game of eye surgery with the laser.
To my surprise this didnt do much, but atleast I found a few technicals to mark. I watched the game go on for a bit and every now and then pointed out new troop movement.

When the B1-3 squads and the IFV's made their way into objective citadel I started giving detailed instructions for the killing of bad people, it looked really cool seeing all those tiny white dots sweep through the town!

Ghost Hawk Down
I got assigned the driver seat of one of a troop transport, with a SL that hated using it, so we had to ditch it just outside of the city. The journey in and out was uneventful with only me blowing up a gaggle of friendlies by accidentally dropping a grenade. All in all a good day!

After completing the objectives we made our way back to the glorious escape vehicle, in which we say for a few minutes waiting for B1 to stop killing important people(something with a vehicle). Just as we're about to move a hostile avian rotary comes swooping in and takes out the squad in one big explosion. Hoorah!

Raidolo (after-party)
As the magnificent police commander I gave stringent orders that would guide us to victory, if not for 80% of the team ignoring a big pile of boddies on the floor, presuming no harm that it could mean!

Atleast I crashed the vehicle, so that was nice.

Weekend Warriors (after-party)
Once more hath the comrade leader role befallen on me, orders are to hold up inside the barracks and lob insults to those waiting outside!

Turns out as commander you dont need weapons, so among the explosions and gunfire I went to search outside for a gun. Found one in a truck but couldn't reload it so out I went again lobbing grenades all around. Eventually I stripped a treacherous comrade of his munitions(Desertion by death!) and off I went to lob those bits of munitions at high speed.


All in all, a successful night where I've had plenty of opportunity to decide who lives or dies! I AM THE BEHOLDER, I AM THE EYE IN THE SKY! I AM... THE UAV OPERAAATOR!

Inter IV
A grunt in AttackFOR

The mission started pretty ok, but when we got closer to the town we lost Ryn1u. Getting closer and closer, the fire intensified and at one point me and the FTL had a little derp moment, which allowed DefendFOR to shoot us. Our FTL was dead-dead, however I was still conscious, but bleeding out. Fer kindly patched me up and we proceeded to move through the town. Both of us cleared some houses, threw some grenades and cleared courtyards, but at this stage my memory is fuzzy and I know that I died, but I don't remember the details of it. Oh well, at least I got one


Citadel
Bravo Squad Leader

A lot of people are saying this and that, but I want you to have a little insight on my perspective. First, I was juggling comms between B1, B2, B3, IFV3, IFV4, CO and the UAV (thanks pepper for all the intel you gave us) and that is quite a demanding task. Second, when this mission was played before, in almost all instances, all of the armored vehicles died in the early stages of the game, so I was explicitly told that this cannot happen.

Anyway, yes the pace was slow-ish, but I wanted the IFV's to cover Infantry and Infantry to cover the IFV's. Essentially we were bounding as fireteams through the valley.
After all, in the end most of you made it to the town, didn't you? The brutal house to house fighting isn't on me. A squad leader shouldn't start to micro his fireteams, let the FTL's do that.
IFV's you did great, though getting stuck on a guardrail was a derp move (looking at you IFV3 ), but you got what was coming to you.
Sometimes many of you might have wondered, why are we just siting here, doing nothing?
Well, during your sitting, other elements were moving and I was waiting on those other elements to finish their task, before giving you another. Besides, this isn't a running simulator, you wouldn't be any good to me if you arrived at the town fatigued and started fighting from house to house.

After all, we did very good. So good, that a Zeus had to be spawned in, to thin our lines (We had quite a lot of people still alive, when the Zeus logged in).


Ghost Hawk Down
C1 Fireteam leader

It was an interesting mission, I liked it. And it was cool to utilize a new element within my fireteam, the sniper team. Before we knew it, we already done all of the objectives and didn't know what to do (a mission end trigger would be nice, to minimize the overall time wasted, when we are not shooting). When we ran back to our starting compound, I was told to setup security, so I immediately ran to one of the houses to take positions, but as it turned out, we were really needed at the LZ and the chopper was waiting on us. I told my guys to just come down and run to the extract, but Fer, didn't move at all, as we waited for him to do his boomstick magic (that nobody recorded, so it didn't happen) an Orca was closing in on us. After some more waiting, we saw Fer run out of the corner and he was 10m away. I thought we were finally home free, without any causalities...
The Orca had different plans and we took a missile to the face