- Operation Retribution
[Sun] 04 December 2011 (with LDDK and CiA)
[Sun] 04 December 2011 (with LDDK and CiA)
Missions:
Re: Operation Retribution
Hope everyone enjoyed the game, I dare say it was a success. Yes indeed, after a serious firefight the remaining SpecOps and KSK troops finished off Colonel Aziz and completed Operation Retribution. Unfortunately the last remaining LAV, after a heroic drive from somewhere, met its demise at the mosque. Main bulk of LDDK had a slight incident with the Stryker, the driver had a moment of daredevil bravado and decided to drive full speed down a hill. Apparently one of the wheels hit a pebble and the whole tin can went flying and exploded. I was the driver in the M1A2 Tusk and had a easier time but met two Metis missiles just south of Garmsar. The crew survived but perished later in the Stryker. Ce la vie.
Few pointers:
I believe there was something odd about the engineer? When I made this mission I did not in any way touch the initfield of the individual slots. If I understood correctly one of the wheels on the LAV was completely blown off? Im pretty sure the engineer can not repair damage that serious, only a repair truck can. As for the caches, yes I got it, you guys do not appreciate such things. I have made a point of providing caches in the unlikely event something is missing in the individuals loadout, it never happens but with Arma 2 one can never be too sure. I confess I did not bother to check the content of the caches/boxes, I assumed that atlest one of them would have laser designators. Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. If anyone frapsed he whole thing, I am really looking forward watching. Thank you again, the world is now safe again. Or is it?
Few pointers:
I believe there was something odd about the engineer? When I made this mission I did not in any way touch the initfield of the individual slots. If I understood correctly one of the wheels on the LAV was completely blown off? Im pretty sure the engineer can not repair damage that serious, only a repair truck can. As for the caches, yes I got it, you guys do not appreciate such things. I have made a point of providing caches in the unlikely event something is missing in the individuals loadout, it never happens but with Arma 2 one can never be too sure. I confess I did not bother to check the content of the caches/boxes, I assumed that atlest one of them would have laser designators. Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. If anyone frapsed he whole thing, I am really looking forward watching. Thank you again, the world is now safe again. Or is it?
Re: Operation Retribution
Yes, the engineer can actually repair the wheels. As a matter of fact, if a certain part of a vehicle is in red status, the engineer can fix it to orange status. What what probably happened back there, the game didn't register the wheels part being status red.Spinoza wrote:If I understood correctly one of the wheels on the LAV was completely blown off? Im pretty sure the engineer can not repair damage that serious, only a repair truck can.
Re: [Sun] 04 December 2011 (with LDDK and CiA)
CO: Fer
|-- Echo SL: Tigershark
|-- Fox SL: Bodge
Players, and perhaps mission makers more so, talk a lot about immersion. For small player-count missions the practical manifestation is often like the set of a western film: facades designed to give the appearance of being part of a much larger action, or clever briefings explaining why your platoon is alone.
That's all great, but nothing beats throwing numbers at the issue.
At the start of the mission, all three contingents found themselves in the same base. Folk's USMC troops were busy forming up a convoy of LAV-25s and other vehicles. Somewhere else, LDDK's US Army contingent was marshalling its own armoured assets. In yet another part of the base, CiA's KSK troops were strapping themselves into a helicopter transport. Finally, in the background, the sound of the CAS assets spinning-up their turbines added to the sense of being part of a larger (and possibly quite mighty) force. There was a moment just before we set off, when I was standing off to the side of our convoy, and an A-10 flew over; and I knew there was a player piloting that A-10, and that made the difference.
Anyway, we formed-up with Echo in the first 3 vehicles: Tigershark in his M2 humvee, a LAV-25 with the bulk of his men, and an ambulance behind. Next came Bodge's LAV-25, followed by an ammo truck and finally a trailing humvee with a grenade-launcher. After pausing to let the LDDK contingent trundle past us on the main road (in a perfectly spaced-out convoy), we set off.
We were bound for the middle objective, Kakaru, just north of the Darbang pass in the mountains that divide the southern and central areas of the map. Passing through Huzrutimam, the first village on our route away from the base, our spacings were good. My standing orders were to drive through any ambushes, but I suppose the point of ambushes is that they make it hard for the mounted forces to dictate terms.
So as we rounded a bend halfway down the road to Chak Chak, the enemy opened up on us from a little encampment to the south. Echo had pushed around the spur and into cover, but now dismounted and came up over the high ground to the aid of Bodge's squad, which was engaged in a stand-up fight from the roadside. We won, but comrade Headspace, the gunner in our trailing humvee, had been lost. And soon we were taking harrassing fire from another group of enemies to our north-east. I didn't want to get bogged down so ordered us to re-mount and disengage at once.
So it was at full speed that we hit Chak Chak, and it was perhaps inevitable that in the dust and confusion some vehicles would miss the turning. Fortunately, the village contained no hostiles, as LAV-25s doing 3-point turns would have made juicy targets for anyone with an RPG-7. Still, we were soon formed up again on the north side of the village, ready to strike out to the next waypoint: the Sar-e Sang pass. Looking north across the flat valley, we could see the road rising into the mountains. I didn't want to linger in the wide open spaces, where we'd have time enough to see a Metis crossing the fields towards us - but not to leave the vehicles. We pressed on at high speed.
In retrospect, an ambush at the pass was to be expected. I shouldn't have let us burst over the crest into the pass area without first doing some recon: Tigershark and his companions didn't stand a chance, killed in their humvee by a volley of Lee Enfield fire, their LAV-25 escort disabled at the same time.
I ordered Fox to disembark short of the crest, and stream over on foot with its LAV-25 in support. We knew there were survivors in Echo, but it was clear that they'd lost their SL. As I crested, I saw the motionless humvee and a strangely listing LAV-25 (wheels shot out). To the left of the junction there were trees and bushes, and I asked Fox to make for them and go firm. It wasn't immediately clear where Echo had been engaged from, but instinct told me to get men higher up. Fox was asked to send a detachment up the slope to our south, while I attempted to get my bearings and work out how to get us moving again. Then I saw a BTR-40 rushing down towards us on the road from the Darbang pass. And then I was dead.
Huge congratulations to comrade Bodge for stepping up to lead the Folk contingent to near victory, and certainly salvaging our honour!
As a mission maker, I take my hat off to comrade Spinoza for some truly wonderful placement work. I crashed and had to re-join, so spectated for hours as a bird, loosely following the action and soaking up the enemy dispositions.
In terms of constuctive feedback, there are a few aspects I'd like to tackle in a different way should we get the opportunity again:
|-- Echo SL: Tigershark
|-- Fox SL: Bodge
Players, and perhaps mission makers more so, talk a lot about immersion. For small player-count missions the practical manifestation is often like the set of a western film: facades designed to give the appearance of being part of a much larger action, or clever briefings explaining why your platoon is alone.
That's all great, but nothing beats throwing numbers at the issue.
At the start of the mission, all three contingents found themselves in the same base. Folk's USMC troops were busy forming up a convoy of LAV-25s and other vehicles. Somewhere else, LDDK's US Army contingent was marshalling its own armoured assets. In yet another part of the base, CiA's KSK troops were strapping themselves into a helicopter transport. Finally, in the background, the sound of the CAS assets spinning-up their turbines added to the sense of being part of a larger (and possibly quite mighty) force. There was a moment just before we set off, when I was standing off to the side of our convoy, and an A-10 flew over; and I knew there was a player piloting that A-10, and that made the difference.
Anyway, we formed-up with Echo in the first 3 vehicles: Tigershark in his M2 humvee, a LAV-25 with the bulk of his men, and an ambulance behind. Next came Bodge's LAV-25, followed by an ammo truck and finally a trailing humvee with a grenade-launcher. After pausing to let the LDDK contingent trundle past us on the main road (in a perfectly spaced-out convoy), we set off.
We were bound for the middle objective, Kakaru, just north of the Darbang pass in the mountains that divide the southern and central areas of the map. Passing through Huzrutimam, the first village on our route away from the base, our spacings were good. My standing orders were to drive through any ambushes, but I suppose the point of ambushes is that they make it hard for the mounted forces to dictate terms.
So as we rounded a bend halfway down the road to Chak Chak, the enemy opened up on us from a little encampment to the south. Echo had pushed around the spur and into cover, but now dismounted and came up over the high ground to the aid of Bodge's squad, which was engaged in a stand-up fight from the roadside. We won, but comrade Headspace, the gunner in our trailing humvee, had been lost. And soon we were taking harrassing fire from another group of enemies to our north-east. I didn't want to get bogged down so ordered us to re-mount and disengage at once.
So it was at full speed that we hit Chak Chak, and it was perhaps inevitable that in the dust and confusion some vehicles would miss the turning. Fortunately, the village contained no hostiles, as LAV-25s doing 3-point turns would have made juicy targets for anyone with an RPG-7. Still, we were soon formed up again on the north side of the village, ready to strike out to the next waypoint: the Sar-e Sang pass. Looking north across the flat valley, we could see the road rising into the mountains. I didn't want to linger in the wide open spaces, where we'd have time enough to see a Metis crossing the fields towards us - but not to leave the vehicles. We pressed on at high speed.
In retrospect, an ambush at the pass was to be expected. I shouldn't have let us burst over the crest into the pass area without first doing some recon: Tigershark and his companions didn't stand a chance, killed in their humvee by a volley of Lee Enfield fire, their LAV-25 escort disabled at the same time.
I ordered Fox to disembark short of the crest, and stream over on foot with its LAV-25 in support. We knew there were survivors in Echo, but it was clear that they'd lost their SL. As I crested, I saw the motionless humvee and a strangely listing LAV-25 (wheels shot out). To the left of the junction there were trees and bushes, and I asked Fox to make for them and go firm. It wasn't immediately clear where Echo had been engaged from, but instinct told me to get men higher up. Fox was asked to send a detachment up the slope to our south, while I attempted to get my bearings and work out how to get us moving again. Then I saw a BTR-40 rushing down towards us on the road from the Darbang pass. And then I was dead.
Huge congratulations to comrade Bodge for stepping up to lead the Folk contingent to near victory, and certainly salvaging our honour!
As a mission maker, I take my hat off to comrade Spinoza for some truly wonderful placement work. I crashed and had to re-join, so spectated for hours as a bird, loosely following the action and soaking up the enemy dispositions.
In terms of constuctive feedback, there are a few aspects I'd like to tackle in a different way should we get the opportunity again:
- Unified comms: ARPS uses Mumble (like LDDK), so we should consider trying to get everyone on the same server next time. Language (and noise) is not necessarily an issue as we'd still split the players over multiple channels.
- Less parallel tasking: although it's great to see different contingents working on tasks in parallel, we might have taken it a bit too far in tonight's mission; I was hoping we'd work more closely with each other from the outset.
-
Joseph-Sulphur
- Posts: 47
- Joined: Sun May 01, 2011 12:12 pm
Re: [Sun] 04 December 2011 (with LDDK and CiA)
So I just watched Black Mirror, Charlie Brookers new drama, and I need something to take my mind off it. So, AAR!
Corpsman (Bodge's squad)
After some (very short, all things considered) faffing about at base getting organised, the convoy moved out. Being in the back of the LAV with no third person was nerve-wracking, especially when bullets began pinging off the side. During the first ambush we bailed out no more than 20 metres from the enemy camp. I saw green tracers and explosions, and started shouting excitedly about an enemy cannon. Turns out it was just the LAV engaging combined with PKM tracer fire. We mopped the camp up in short order, including a dishka gunner who spawned three corpses before he was finally shot to death. I turned around to see a corpse slumped against the Mk19 mounted on the rear humvee, and announced that Headspace was dead. Finding the bullet-riddled bodies of friendlies would turn out to be a common theme for me in this mission, although its only fitting that I be the one to take their dog tags and stare forlornly into the distance, since I am the medic after all. Anyway, I healed katars and we went on our merry way.
Further on we bailed out on the reverse slope of a steep hillside, and it became clear that Tigershark's squad had gotten chewed up quite nastily. We pushed on ahead, and as I was climbing a hillside a BTR-40 came charging before us, and I heard the death rattle of a dishka burst before both LAVs blasted it with their 25mm cannons. As I walked back towards the road I saw a body sprawled by the roadside, and realized it was our glorious leader, Fer. I informed Bodge that he was now in command. He took it rather well, regrouping us and marshaling a new advance. I covered wolfenswan defusing a mine, taking out a few enemy stragglers with the .50 on Tigershark's lead humvee (the original crew was killed in the ambush).
We made our way slowly down the winding road towards the town, proceeding with caution after I spotted an enemy squad in the far distance. Wolfenswan, commanding the remnants of Tigershark's squad, killed the enemy patrol from the highground. As Bodge planned his attack on the town, I moved forward and upwards to a rocky outcrop which gave me a perfect view of the entire town. We easily wiped out a big enemy group moving towards us, but started taking fire from a Zu-23. Wolfenswan's squad took it out with a perfectly placed SMAW shot. I then spent the next 10 minutes shooting every enemy I could see with my DMR, including a craftily concealed AGS-30. I wiped out most of the defenders in the town while the main force took on a couple of patrols on the outskirts. We then moved in to the town, reinforced by the CiA squad.
Bodge told me to go and heal the CiA force, and I moved up the hill and met their squad. I found the moustachioed KSK operator who needed patching up, and then joined the search in the middle of the town. After some headscratching and wild speculation on my part that the Warlord might have fled into the hills Bodge wisely ordered us to do a full sweep of the village, and SvDvorak found the target in a house which we hadn't checked. I took a trophy picture of him posing with the open-mouthed, bloodied body.
After some waiting around and a couple of Takistani Army elements moving in we shoved off towards the final objective, Colonel Aziz himself. Unaco and I were cooped up inside the LAV and were slightly concerned by shouts of "TANK! THERES A TANK RIGHT THERE!", but we apparently just drove past them. No such luck at the next tank though, Bodge was killed at the wheel of his ammo truck before the LAV could take out the main gun on the hull-down T-55 guarding the road. I bailed out of the LAV and bravely cowered behind a wall, and was then ordered to get back in by Unaco. For some stupid reason I failed to click on "ride in back" and instead starting getting a frag grenade out the back. I was promptly shot. Unaco tried to revive me under the cover of the LAV but somehow an AI replaced Draakon in the driver's seat and motored off somewhere, exposing us both to a grisly death.
That was great fun indeed. Re: Fer's point about cooperation, we probably would've been able to pull of a very nice coordinated assault if we hadn't been taken out before a chance to attack the last objective. I do think that it would've been a good idea to add a respawn or two in, it sucks that people such as Headspace who died very early on didn't get much of a chance to participate.
Corpsman (Bodge's squad)
After some (very short, all things considered) faffing about at base getting organised, the convoy moved out. Being in the back of the LAV with no third person was nerve-wracking, especially when bullets began pinging off the side. During the first ambush we bailed out no more than 20 metres from the enemy camp. I saw green tracers and explosions, and started shouting excitedly about an enemy cannon. Turns out it was just the LAV engaging combined with PKM tracer fire. We mopped the camp up in short order, including a dishka gunner who spawned three corpses before he was finally shot to death. I turned around to see a corpse slumped against the Mk19 mounted on the rear humvee, and announced that Headspace was dead. Finding the bullet-riddled bodies of friendlies would turn out to be a common theme for me in this mission, although its only fitting that I be the one to take their dog tags and stare forlornly into the distance, since I am the medic after all. Anyway, I healed katars and we went on our merry way.
Further on we bailed out on the reverse slope of a steep hillside, and it became clear that Tigershark's squad had gotten chewed up quite nastily. We pushed on ahead, and as I was climbing a hillside a BTR-40 came charging before us, and I heard the death rattle of a dishka burst before both LAVs blasted it with their 25mm cannons. As I walked back towards the road I saw a body sprawled by the roadside, and realized it was our glorious leader, Fer. I informed Bodge that he was now in command. He took it rather well, regrouping us and marshaling a new advance. I covered wolfenswan defusing a mine, taking out a few enemy stragglers with the .50 on Tigershark's lead humvee (the original crew was killed in the ambush).
We made our way slowly down the winding road towards the town, proceeding with caution after I spotted an enemy squad in the far distance. Wolfenswan, commanding the remnants of Tigershark's squad, killed the enemy patrol from the highground. As Bodge planned his attack on the town, I moved forward and upwards to a rocky outcrop which gave me a perfect view of the entire town. We easily wiped out a big enemy group moving towards us, but started taking fire from a Zu-23. Wolfenswan's squad took it out with a perfectly placed SMAW shot. I then spent the next 10 minutes shooting every enemy I could see with my DMR, including a craftily concealed AGS-30. I wiped out most of the defenders in the town while the main force took on a couple of patrols on the outskirts. We then moved in to the town, reinforced by the CiA squad.
Bodge told me to go and heal the CiA force, and I moved up the hill and met their squad. I found the moustachioed KSK operator who needed patching up, and then joined the search in the middle of the town. After some headscratching and wild speculation on my part that the Warlord might have fled into the hills Bodge wisely ordered us to do a full sweep of the village, and SvDvorak found the target in a house which we hadn't checked. I took a trophy picture of him posing with the open-mouthed, bloodied body.
After some waiting around and a couple of Takistani Army elements moving in we shoved off towards the final objective, Colonel Aziz himself. Unaco and I were cooped up inside the LAV and were slightly concerned by shouts of "TANK! THERES A TANK RIGHT THERE!", but we apparently just drove past them. No such luck at the next tank though, Bodge was killed at the wheel of his ammo truck before the LAV could take out the main gun on the hull-down T-55 guarding the road. I bailed out of the LAV and bravely cowered behind a wall, and was then ordered to get back in by Unaco. For some stupid reason I failed to click on "ride in back" and instead starting getting a frag grenade out the back. I was promptly shot. Unaco tried to revive me under the cover of the LAV but somehow an AI replaced Draakon in the driver's seat and motored off somewhere, exposing us both to a grisly death.
That was great fun indeed. Re: Fer's point about cooperation, we probably would've been able to pull of a very nice coordinated assault if we hadn't been taken out before a chance to attack the last objective. I do think that it would've been a good idea to add a respawn or two in, it sucks that people such as Headspace who died very early on didn't get much of a chance to participate.
-
wolfenswan
- Posts: 1238
- Joined: Wed May 25, 2011 4:59 pm
Re: [Sun] 04 December 2011 (with LDDK and CiA)
Engineer & AT, Echo Squad (Tigershark)
After loading up the LAVs with additional ammo we got comfy in the rolling steel coffins, joking nervously to overcome the claustrophobic atmosphere.
The ride was uneventful until shortly before Chak-Chak when I suddenly heard bullets whizzing and realized we where speeding up. Shortly after our FTL ordered us to stop and disembark where the first thing I saw was the lifeless body of a comrade in the rear humvee's gunner seat. We had no real idea where the enemy was engaging from so we took high ground and spotted an enemy dhskm when from nowhere I was hit and injured. Our medic got me back to my feet, we retreated to our vehicles and legged it.
In Chak Chak our LAV missed it's turn but luckily no enemies where around to exploit that mistake. Though shortly after we had passed the valley north of Chak Chak I heard the humvee gunner pointing out enemies, followed by a sudden burst of incoming bullets and an explosion too close for comfort - the LAV we where inside had been hit. We disembarked at once, taking positions and scanning the surroundings. The lead humvee had been hit badly, all three passengers dead. Things looked quite for a while when suddenly our Element CO - Fer - pointed out an incoming BTR from East. This might sound a bit cheesy but my heart literally skipped a beat as i realized that that BTR was not more than 20m away from me. It opened up on my comrades further away while I took out my SMAW (I had never realized how long those animations take). In hindsight I should have just my rifle grenade launcher but luckily the LAV reacted fast enough, blasting the BTR to bits. Unfortunately it had lost us Liquorish and Fer. Echo was reduced to 5 as we had lost our FTL, AR and driver due to the initial ambush. In consequence, I took command of the squad with Bodge stepping up to lead the element.
We continued along the hillside, engaging a patrol far off and taking a position on an OP, overlooking the target area.
A hostile patrol was walking towards the mechanized infantry down in the valley so Echo got into an ambush position and the LAV prepared to engage. We took out the patrol without problems but a ZU-23 opened up on the LAV which barely made it into safety. I took a shot on the ZU with my SMAW and managed a lucky hit on the driver. Echo then proceeded down into the valley but I slipped on the slope and broke my neck.
Watching the rest of the mission unfold was great though, especially the carnage at the end. Kudos to everyone involved and LDD for having us.
After loading up the LAVs with additional ammo we got comfy in the rolling steel coffins, joking nervously to overcome the claustrophobic atmosphere.
The ride was uneventful until shortly before Chak-Chak when I suddenly heard bullets whizzing and realized we where speeding up. Shortly after our FTL ordered us to stop and disembark where the first thing I saw was the lifeless body of a comrade in the rear humvee's gunner seat. We had no real idea where the enemy was engaging from so we took high ground and spotted an enemy dhskm when from nowhere I was hit and injured. Our medic got me back to my feet, we retreated to our vehicles and legged it.
In Chak Chak our LAV missed it's turn but luckily no enemies where around to exploit that mistake. Though shortly after we had passed the valley north of Chak Chak I heard the humvee gunner pointing out enemies, followed by a sudden burst of incoming bullets and an explosion too close for comfort - the LAV we where inside had been hit. We disembarked at once, taking positions and scanning the surroundings. The lead humvee had been hit badly, all three passengers dead. Things looked quite for a while when suddenly our Element CO - Fer - pointed out an incoming BTR from East. This might sound a bit cheesy but my heart literally skipped a beat as i realized that that BTR was not more than 20m away from me. It opened up on my comrades further away while I took out my SMAW (I had never realized how long those animations take). In hindsight I should have just my rifle grenade launcher but luckily the LAV reacted fast enough, blasting the BTR to bits. Unfortunately it had lost us Liquorish and Fer. Echo was reduced to 5 as we had lost our FTL, AR and driver due to the initial ambush. In consequence, I took command of the squad with Bodge stepping up to lead the element.
We continued along the hillside, engaging a patrol far off and taking a position on an OP, overlooking the target area.
A hostile patrol was walking towards the mechanized infantry down in the valley so Echo got into an ambush position and the LAV prepared to engage. We took out the patrol without problems but a ZU-23 opened up on the LAV which barely made it into safety. I took a shot on the ZU with my SMAW and managed a lucky hit on the driver. Echo then proceeded down into the valley but I slipped on the slope and broke my neck.
Watching the rest of the mission unfold was great though, especially the carnage at the end. Kudos to everyone involved and LDD for having us.
Last edited by wolfenswan on Sun Dec 11, 2011 3:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
My ARMA3 Missions - to download select a branch and pick "Download ZIP".
Re: [Sun] 04 December 2011 (with LDDK and CiA)
Im sooo sad I couldn't make it to this one. We had 48 hour special Il2 Sturmovik session and I was not "ready" for folk when we ended on sunday 18:00. But it was kinda worth it. Those damn yankies disembarked in Normandy once again, but we sure gave them hell of a fight.
Re: [Sun] 04 December 2011 (with LDDK and CiA)
LAV gunner, Fox (Bodge)
Having intended to get a role with as little responsibility as possible I somehow would up in charge of the biggest gun in the squad. The first engagement went well enough (apart from the sad demise of headspace who might disagree). I was able to find and hit some targets amongst the trees to the right of the road without killing any of my comrades. Our convoy proceeded on through another village and up the pass until it became clear that Echo had got into a bit of trouble as they crested the pass. After breathing a sigh of relief at being in the trailing squad our LAV held position while investigations were conducted and casualties assessed.
Eventually we moved on over the pass toward the suspected location of our target and after infantry cleared the major resistance in the town our LAV cautiously advanced to within site of the target location. I spent the next 10ish minutes firing at various enemy patrols on the hillsides around the town and on the road to the north until it was safe for infantry to move in and do a house to house search.
After moving the LAV down into the town there was a brief period of confusion regarding whether the search had covered everywhere or the target had fled until it came over the radio that our target had been killed. By now the LAV was running low on HE rounds so Draakon drove us both back up to the location of the earlier ambush to collect the supply truck that had been abandoned there. On the way the HMMV ahead of us came under fire and was very quickly disabled. I'm not sure where they were engaged from seen as we'd come down that road 5 minutes earlier. Despite this mishap we pressed on to the supply truck which I then drove back into town.
After rearming the LAV and returning to the gunner's seat we formed up and headed off toward the final objective but things soon went wrong. The main issue a LAV gunner has is that, between a narrow field of view and a very slow turn speed, their situational awareness is awful. Shouts started coming over comms about hull-down tanks so I started frantically swinging the turret round until I found a tank and then proceeded to pump AP rounds into the turret until it stopped moving. Meanwhile the comms had gone crazy with reports of incoming fire but without clear bearings and not being keen to accidentally open up on friendlies I wasn't able to spot targets to engage. At this point I was somehow dumped out of the turret and then promptly died before I could figure out what had happened.
To echo Fer's comments: I enjoyed this mission a lot and our initial objective was really well designed but, because the whole force was split over four objectives, it played out pretty much the same way as a standard Folk mission. Either reducing the number of initial objectives or making those less time consuming to achieve would have meant that we could have spent more time working with LDDK and CIA which would have given more of a feel of being part of a large force.
Jonny (stuts)
Having intended to get a role with as little responsibility as possible I somehow would up in charge of the biggest gun in the squad. The first engagement went well enough (apart from the sad demise of headspace who might disagree). I was able to find and hit some targets amongst the trees to the right of the road without killing any of my comrades. Our convoy proceeded on through another village and up the pass until it became clear that Echo had got into a bit of trouble as they crested the pass. After breathing a sigh of relief at being in the trailing squad our LAV held position while investigations were conducted and casualties assessed.
Eventually we moved on over the pass toward the suspected location of our target and after infantry cleared the major resistance in the town our LAV cautiously advanced to within site of the target location. I spent the next 10ish minutes firing at various enemy patrols on the hillsides around the town and on the road to the north until it was safe for infantry to move in and do a house to house search.
After moving the LAV down into the town there was a brief period of confusion regarding whether the search had covered everywhere or the target had fled until it came over the radio that our target had been killed. By now the LAV was running low on HE rounds so Draakon drove us both back up to the location of the earlier ambush to collect the supply truck that had been abandoned there. On the way the HMMV ahead of us came under fire and was very quickly disabled. I'm not sure where they were engaged from seen as we'd come down that road 5 minutes earlier. Despite this mishap we pressed on to the supply truck which I then drove back into town.
After rearming the LAV and returning to the gunner's seat we formed up and headed off toward the final objective but things soon went wrong. The main issue a LAV gunner has is that, between a narrow field of view and a very slow turn speed, their situational awareness is awful. Shouts started coming over comms about hull-down tanks so I started frantically swinging the turret round until I found a tank and then proceeded to pump AP rounds into the turret until it stopped moving. Meanwhile the comms had gone crazy with reports of incoming fire but without clear bearings and not being keen to accidentally open up on friendlies I wasn't able to spot targets to engage. At this point I was somehow dumped out of the turret and then promptly died before I could figure out what had happened.
To echo Fer's comments: I enjoyed this mission a lot and our initial objective was really well designed but, because the whole force was split over four objectives, it played out pretty much the same way as a standard Folk mission. Either reducing the number of initial objectives or making those less time consuming to achieve would have meant that we could have spent more time working with LDDK and CIA which would have given more of a feel of being part of a large force.
Jonny (stuts)
Re: [Sun] 04 December 2011 (with LDDK and CiA)
Engineer, Fox Squad (Bodge)
As an engineer in Fox squad my duty was supposed to be repairman and AT using the SMAW I was ordered to grab from the ammo-boxes. Sadly, I would have not have any use of neither skill throughout the game.
Our orders were to kill the Warlord in Kakaru and after stocking up the LAV with machinegun- and AT-ammo we rolled out with Echo in front and Foxtrot behind, with me in the Foxtrot LAV. All was quiet until shortly before Chak-Chak were we were opened fire upon from an unknown direction. As I jumped out I was quite confused on which direction the enemy was in, I thought I heard some contradicting reports. Yet, I survived and we managed to clear the threat with help from Echo firing from higher ground. Sadly we lost Headspace, the gunner in the last Humvee, so I was ordered to take over the Mk19 with Kataras still as the driver.
The column continued on through Chak Chak which luckily did not have any hostiles since that would have been a problem considering we were blasting through the town at high speeds. We continued on north, going uphill, and it did not take long until panic broke out as the lead humvee and LAV were hit by what I believe was RPG-fire as they came over the hill into the valley ahead. I did not see this engagement since Foxtrot was behind the crest of the hill but from what I understand small arms fire killed the humvee and it's crew while the LAV survived the RPG-fire yet with some damage and a lost wheel (which I could not repair it turned out). Foxtrot pushed up and helped secure the area... or so we thought until a BTR-40 came rushing from the east. Fer only had time to call it out before he was gunned down, but he was avenged since pretty much everyone just opened fire and decimating it in a few seconds. After that the area was considered clear and we moved out east towards are main objective.
During this part I did not see much of the action since my humvee and the LAV stayed back quite a bit but from what I gathered Echo pushed along the north hill while Fox moved along the south side of the road. We moved ever so slowly but the group were incredibly thorough as to not get ambushed again. After quite a bit of pushing I could finally see the objective with my own eyes but only a few seconds later I also noticed a group of maybe 10 hostiles moving along the road towards us about 75 meters away... they had been spotted by my teammates previously but now they went active so I unloaded an unholy amount of Mk19 rounds into the group. I must say, after such a long time with no action, it felt really good oblitering every man in that squad, only leaving a huge amount of smoke. Though it turns out that woke up the ZU-23 in town which began opening fire upon our humvee and LAV, but Kataras is a man of cat-like reflexes and pulled us out of harms way quickly.
Before we pulled into town we made sure it was clear from hostiles as to not give us any nasty surprises. Since this took quite a while there were alot of talk of the warlord escaping to the north but that turned out to not be the case when whe checked the buildings one more time. I found the warlord myself in a building pretty much in the center of town, the one just meters away from where everybody had been gathering up. Now with the town clear Bodge ordered me to transport a few other fellows back to where the ammo truck was, which was close by the abandoned LAV. But alas, it was not to be, as me and another fellow in the humvee were gunned down when moving south from the town... apparently a patrol had sneaked up to the road we had come from. And I was now a dead man.
Thanks for an awesome event! It was alot of fun and incredibly tense even if we moved very slowly. Though I agree that having more cooperation between the different groups would have been interesting.
//SvDvorak
As an engineer in Fox squad my duty was supposed to be repairman and AT using the SMAW I was ordered to grab from the ammo-boxes. Sadly, I would have not have any use of neither skill throughout the game.
Our orders were to kill the Warlord in Kakaru and after stocking up the LAV with machinegun- and AT-ammo we rolled out with Echo in front and Foxtrot behind, with me in the Foxtrot LAV. All was quiet until shortly before Chak-Chak were we were opened fire upon from an unknown direction. As I jumped out I was quite confused on which direction the enemy was in, I thought I heard some contradicting reports. Yet, I survived and we managed to clear the threat with help from Echo firing from higher ground. Sadly we lost Headspace, the gunner in the last Humvee, so I was ordered to take over the Mk19 with Kataras still as the driver.
The column continued on through Chak Chak which luckily did not have any hostiles since that would have been a problem considering we were blasting through the town at high speeds. We continued on north, going uphill, and it did not take long until panic broke out as the lead humvee and LAV were hit by what I believe was RPG-fire as they came over the hill into the valley ahead. I did not see this engagement since Foxtrot was behind the crest of the hill but from what I understand small arms fire killed the humvee and it's crew while the LAV survived the RPG-fire yet with some damage and a lost wheel (which I could not repair it turned out). Foxtrot pushed up and helped secure the area... or so we thought until a BTR-40 came rushing from the east. Fer only had time to call it out before he was gunned down, but he was avenged since pretty much everyone just opened fire and decimating it in a few seconds. After that the area was considered clear and we moved out east towards are main objective.
During this part I did not see much of the action since my humvee and the LAV stayed back quite a bit but from what I gathered Echo pushed along the north hill while Fox moved along the south side of the road. We moved ever so slowly but the group were incredibly thorough as to not get ambushed again. After quite a bit of pushing I could finally see the objective with my own eyes but only a few seconds later I also noticed a group of maybe 10 hostiles moving along the road towards us about 75 meters away... they had been spotted by my teammates previously but now they went active so I unloaded an unholy amount of Mk19 rounds into the group. I must say, after such a long time with no action, it felt really good oblitering every man in that squad, only leaving a huge amount of smoke. Though it turns out that woke up the ZU-23 in town which began opening fire upon our humvee and LAV, but Kataras is a man of cat-like reflexes and pulled us out of harms way quickly.
Before we pulled into town we made sure it was clear from hostiles as to not give us any nasty surprises. Since this took quite a while there were alot of talk of the warlord escaping to the north but that turned out to not be the case when whe checked the buildings one more time. I found the warlord myself in a building pretty much in the center of town, the one just meters away from where everybody had been gathering up. Now with the town clear Bodge ordered me to transport a few other fellows back to where the ammo truck was, which was close by the abandoned LAV. But alas, it was not to be, as me and another fellow in the humvee were gunned down when moving south from the town... apparently a patrol had sneaked up to the road we had come from. And I was now a dead man.
Thanks for an awesome event! It was alot of fun and incredibly tense even if we moved very slowly. Though I agree that having more cooperation between the different groups would have been interesting.
//SvDvorak
