[Sun] 08 August 2010

[Xiathorn]

Our first AAR thread!

Note - I have always been utterly shit at remembering mission names. If someone can get a list up, I'll correct these.

MailMan
Bravo FTL

As Bravo FTL, I was ostensibly in charge of the squad & support elements for the mission. My intent was to have Tigershark & Fer circle as air support in one chopper, with Medve further out performing recon and providing intel on enemy movement. Headspace's fireteam, Charlie, was to be placed on the western side of the ravine, providing overwatch while Bravo secured the laptop and performed point-defense activities until we could extract.

Mounting up went smoothly, as one would expect, but unfortunately I crashed just before Tigershark placed Bravo on the ground. I'd love to hear about what happened next, and if my decision to split our forces by 200-300 meters was what caused our cause's eventual demise.

Fer's odd mission that involved defending a town
MG Lead

Suffix and I found a lovely little Takistani house to set up shop in, and pondered the merits of binoculars in the situation we found ourselves in. I heard the call about contacts, noticed the fireteam to my north opening up, and attempted to engage targets west. And then I crashed.

Escape & Evasion
Insurgent - Alpha RPG gunner

After discovering I couldn't mount up in the truck with Alpha FTL, I stole a motorcycle and refused to give it up when the other transport turned out to be a 'love truck'. Following the Alpha FTL pickup, I turned around as soon as we got the first contact report and dismounted when I saw an OPFOR pilot running right in front of me. I subsequently lost him in the trees, chased after him, and announced my location to the rest of my team. At this point my eyesight failed me completely, and it turns out that the entire time I was listening to Russian comms chatter I was in fact sat on top of the man doing the talking. Eventually Bit shot me. As I fell, I pressed the trigger and got one round off. Which crashed my game.

Convoy Ambush
Bravo Rifleman
Moving with 'Russian Team' was awesome. Listening to the chatter was truly atmospheric, even if I had no idea what the fuck was being said Messiah tasked me (in English!) with engaging one of the trucks once we were in position, and I hovered my sights over the driver's canopy. Once the order was given, I fired. And crashed. Pattern emerging much?

MailMan #2
Bravo Medic

We all bundled into the chopper, subject to the cruel and unusual machinations of Fer's mind. Housemaster and I dismounted and took up position at the front of the C-130, covering the forward section. Once Housemaster had called contacts, I moved around the nose of the aircraft and engaged an insurgent squad at long range. Click - Bang - Success! I got an entire magazine off without crashing! Reload! Click! Crash.
:nerdrage:

Despite my frequent crashes, however, I still really enjoyed the session. It was great to play with you all, and chatting with some of you for the first time really makes me feel this is a good place to be. Looking forward to next week! Hopefully BIS will roll out a hotfix.. Or at least fire their QA team.

[messiah]

Very well made missions I must say. They are simple, but objectives are very interesting. It would be even better, if we completed them all successfully of course

Mail Man



I was in Charlie and from my perspective the problem was in big distances to the enemy and we had no cover at all. It was hard to shoot at anything without scope, so we were taken out very quickly. It was a bit better second time, when we all landed near c-130, took cover and assigned sectors.

Swept



I was leading Alpha this time. It is a bit hard to do it in English and I liked that, because it makes up new experience and makes my brain work harder. Mort and me took position on the roof of the building. I expected to assist him and adjust fire, covering his left at the same time, but unfortunately I was shot from somewhere and my brain just , when I heard, that our squad leader was dead and I had to step up.

Downed

We decided to split up at marked position. The plan was, that Suffix goes to south base and Bit goes to north with me. When we reached this position, Bit heard car noise and stopped, actually I don't know why, but I kept running. Later he said, that some man was standing near him with pistol and he didn't know what to do. After a brief pause and some discussion concerning shooting that man, he actually pulled the trigger.
Don't know what happened to him (I even suggested to give up and be a prisoner), but Suffix and me successfully reached our bases.

Halted



Was shot pretty quick by UAZ, that was below us to the right.

All other screenshots: http://armedassault.kiev.ua/folk/2010-08-08/

[Tigershark]

Guys...all great games and Fer and I appreciate the feedback on the missions. Great to see the good turn out!

To messiah, thanks for bringing in a few of your friends. I appreciate very much the international aspect of this and appreciated that you and your friends felt comfortable around is to speak your native language in various situations. Feel free to invite more. They were a great bunch of guys.

Fer and I hope, really hope, this inspires you all to keep coming AND to write and submit some missions yourself. As messiah mentioned. They don't need to be complicated, they don't need tonnes of scripting. Just develop a simple concept thoroughly and feel free to submit your mission to either Fer, myself or Xiathorn. We can all access the server.

Missions using the Folk version of Fer's F2 framework would be nice though. There is a whole lot of cool functionality in Fer's framework that comes out of the box. For more info on this feel free to contact Fer or myself.

We need missions guys. They can realistic, or fun type missions like Fer's russian pilot mission. But we need em. So polish up those rusty editor skills

Perhaps even when Lor emerges from the alley he is passed out in after a drunken orgy of alcohol and male escorts he might entertain writing some mission. Miracles could happen.

In summary. Great games. Great bunch of guys. Nice casual atmosphere and Xiathorn needs a new rig.

[messiah]

Feel free to invite more.

There could be problems with that, because not all of them even know any English at all
So it can only lead to a lot of miscommunication.

[LiddleFeesh]

Never had so much fun not actually hitting anything

Good games, thanks to everyone who attended and especially to Fer & Tigershark for organising the event.

[fer]

I want to begin by thanking everyone who came along, and expressing the hope that you all enjoyed the session, will come again, and consider issuing a few invites. The success of the folk concept rests almost entirely on the people involved, not a doctrine. So all of the preparatory work Tigershark, myself and others have done in the last few months was only going to matter if the guests created the atmosphere. I think you all did that (and more), for which I'm very grateful. Special thanks to messiah for his last minute addition of Bit and Suffix, stepping up to lead in English, and for a standard-setting AAR post. Also, thanks to Headspace, Xiathorn and Feesh for taking leadership roles with a new and sometimes unfamiliar crowd.

Tigershark rightly flags the issue of new missions, for which I'll try to start a fresh topic; getting more mission contributors would certainly be ideal. In the meantime, I'll be working on a few more, and we still have a few uploaded ones to complete!

Mail Man (Attempt #1)

- BFTL: Xiathorn
|-- Op: Fer

Bravo was actually the lead FT in this mission, making Xiathorn the overall platoon CO. I volunteered to remain in Tigershark's Huey as a doorgunner. After a great insertion, we took off and began orbiting the area. I was injured soon after, and the combination of red-screening, speed and altitude made my support fire ineffective. Eventually, Tigershark was riddled with bullets from ground fire and our bird ploughed into the mountain.

Being dead was as much, if not more fun: the whole mission should have had Barber's adagio for strings playing throughout, and have run in slow-motion, as we watched our comrades being cut-down by enemy fire. But the moment I knew this session was going to work out was when Medve landed the only reminaing Huey on a slope next to the last 2 survivors, and then all had to watch helplessly as the damaged bird slid uncontrollably away down the mountain. Welcome to folk.

Swept (LE)

- BFTL: Fer
|-- AR: DirtyJ
|-- AAR: Bit

Headspace's plan was to stall the sweeping force before punching through the blockers, so initially Bravo found itself as the south-end of our line. Whilst army helicopters overflew us, DirtyJ and Bit found excellent positions on the rooftops and were soon engaging the approaching troops. Meanwhile, I was covering the meadow from behind a rocky wall, but later joined Bit on a rooftop just as it came under sustained fire.

By this point we had lost our CO and the MMG being manned by Xiathorn. Tigershark, our platoon medic, gamely stepped-up to lead until I was able to raise the Alpha FTL, messiah, who despite having to think and command in two different languages, stepped up and took platoon. Sadly, the casualties were beginning to take their toll on our effectiveness, and the enemy soon enveloped us, tossing rifle grenades into our compounds to deadly effect. DirtyJ bought it on his rooftop, and Bit died trying to help me. I took an army soldier with me before I died, but they were all around us by that point. Suffix survived us all, but by the time he was surrounded in a small shack we knew it was time to call the mission. BTW, the LE in the title is to indicate that this was the light (or easy) edition: the blocking force behind us was motorised, not mechanised (as per the normal version).

Downed

- CO Medic: Fer

Messiah's genius idea was to place him and his fellow Russian-speakers in the same fireteam, so we were gifted with a genuine language difference between the escaping aircrew and pursuing guerrillas. On the guerrilla side Headspace led Alpha FT off to the south-east of the valley to cut off the route towards the army outpost, whilst Tigershark led Bravo to the west in a bid to cover the route towards the garrisoned village. There was a lot of discussion about who was taking which love-bus, so as platoon medic I slipped away on a motorbike and holed-up in a building to the south.

When the markers began appearing on the map it was clear that some of the aircrew were punching right through the gap between our fireteams (and headed straight for me). I heard Xiathorn go off to engage them, and the an exchange of fire ... then nothing. After a while I decided to venture out, and as I crept into the darkness heard a familiar voice tell me he was just behind me (and not to panic). Housemaster and I found Xiathorn's body, but by now the aircrew had split up and were racing away in both directions. I think someone in Tigershark's fireteam shot an escapee, but the survivors made it to safety resulting in a victory for the Army. Very well done messiah, Bit and Suffix! From a designer's standpoint, I thought the mission delivered a good atmosphere and hope others found the same.

Halted

- CO: Liddle Feesh
|-- CO Medic: Fer

Feesh drew us all up into the highest part of the village before we engaged the enemy, which allowed us to make excellent use of our slow-firing but accurate bolt-action rifles. Nevertheless, a hail of fire from the halted convoy inflicted casualties on us, of which Feesh was one of the early ones. Headspace, the Alpha FTL, stepped up and took charge of the firefight. At one point I heard Housemaster calling for help on a nearby rooftop, so went up there, dragged his body to a less exposed position, and administered emergency rum. He was to return the favour minutes later when I fell backwards off the building!

Although we had successfully dealt with two DsHK-equipped UAZs on the eastern road, and army bodies were piling up at the entrances to the town, Headspace was worried about running low on ammunition. With all of us providing covering fire, Headspace bravely ran down to the road and stole one of the UAZs, which he then brought up to us. Sadly a mis-communication resulted in him and at least one other being lit up by our own people. When I got to the UAZ I had to pull two bodies from it before ordering the survivors to mount up and head out to our fall-back point. After unloading the others, Housemaster came back to get me and we finished the mission successfully.

Mail Man (Attempt #2)

- AFTL: Fer

The plan was simple, and began well: Tigershark expertly landed us right by the crashed C-130, each pair had an assigned direction to cover, and I started the download on the laptop. Then Xiathorn crashed, leaving Housemaster alone to cover the northern approach; Feesh died to the west, leaving a wounded mort crawling around on a barren hillside. Only the Ukrainian contingent remained solid, covering the southern approach. Housemaster was shot up so I dragged him to the cargo ramp, and leaving him in the care of Bit, I set off up the hill to find mort. Even after popping two smoke grenades it was clear I had to get him off the hill before I could treat him, so I called for Tigershark to land and began carrying his body down the slope (and into the waiting embrace of some enemy 7.62mm).

Afterwards, when I was dead, I watched as Tigershark carefully put his Huey down, but by then the combination of our wounded and danger-close guerrillas meant it wasn't long before bird was too shot-up to fly again. We called the mission soon after it was clear there was no alternative transport available, but enjoyed watching the survivors go down fighting!

[mort]

My first chance to get online since Sunday night so I just want to say a belated thank you to our mission makers. I had a very enjoyable gaming session

Apologies for all my voice problems I will try and get my mic and TS2 sorted out before the next session.