Mail Man
- AFTL: Mort
|-- AR: ???
|-- AAR: Jeepo
|-- Medic: Fer
Headspace's plan was straightforward: one bird would fly Alpha and Charlie in to provide overwatch, whilst a second would fly Bravo in to retrieve the PC. Confusion over pilots meant Alpha and Charlie were late to the scene, but eventually we found ourselves high on a western hilltop, overlooking the crash site as Bravo went in; meanwhile, our last-minute pilot Bluescuba hovered nearby, whilst Tigershark orbited.
Sporadic exchanges of fire had robbed us of our AR, so I took up his SAW and engaged distant targets on the other side of the valley. It was going okay: Bravo had initiatied the download and no tidal wave of enemies had crashed over us. Then, as we prepared to extract, Bluescuba calmly informed us that he was going in. Mort led us to investigate, but the downed huey was engulfed in flames. Loading into Tigershark's bird with Charlie, we now understood that two extraction runs were required.
The flight back to base was spent listening to Headspace and Bravo holding the LZ; like a radio play about a firefight. From the relative comfort of the airstrip tarmac we heard things begin to go wrong when an unexpected RPG disabled Tigershark's bird. Seemingly undaunted, Headspace declared his belief that the enemy had been driven off, and that his team would safely exfil on foot. Moments later, we heard he had been killed (or something to that effect).
Swept LE
- MMGG: Fer
|-- AMMGG: Solitaire
Cell moved the platoon to a defensive line west of our starting position, ordering me to a rooftop and covering both sides of the main road with fireteams. Soon after the army birds overflew us, we were in action: firing at the sweeping forces as they moved towards us across the whole width of the valley. I think I accounted for half a dozen or more with my PKM, but eventually the practice of firing from an exposed rooftop led to my death.
Watching in spectator mode, I noted that despite suffering nearly 50% casualties, Cell had successfully elminated the sweeping forces. Turning his attention to the blockers, he led the survivors of the platoon eastward, methodically grinding down successive lines of army infantry and punching through to victory. It was very nicely done.
Downed
- CO: Fer
|-- M: Spirit
Once again, we had the luxury of a Russian-speaking air crew, led for the second time by Messiah, and this time incorporating Solitaire (who has some Russian skills). I can't stress enough how lucky we are to introduce language into the gameplay mix!
As the guerrillas, we threw up a cordon that was an inverted triangle. I sent Alpha south to cover the approaches to the army outpost, and Bravo to high ground in the west to stop anyone fleeing towards the northern objective. DC Feesh and his medic were sent to the southern T-junction to act as a back-stop, and my own CO element hovered on the road between them and Alpha.
After 3 minutes the first markers suggested our prey were concentrated in the woods near the centre of the triangle formed by our cordon. The pointers suggested a northward direction of travel, and I [over-]reacted by asking Alpha to leap-frog me and move back to our starting location. As they moved, however, Spirit and I saw something in the trees ahead, and moved to engage. Sure enough, at least one man was running, but now towards the south.
Alpha's truck was level with the man when I called out for them to stop and bail out, but in the ensuing firefight the fireteam appeared to disintegrate. A grenade flew from the woods and did more damage. Caught up in the moment I ran after the man, who by now was crawling. I put a round into his back but he crawled out of sight. On comms I could hear Bravo was having success, and I ran after the man, searching for him in the undergrowth.
He found me first. From a prone position only feet away, he put several rounds into me and down I went, writhing in agony. Spirit was down too, and as we coughed and gurgled helplessly, the man crawled past me saying something in Russian. Terrifying, as I thought he was going to end us. Instead, I heard him crawling away, then what I imagined was Alpha's truck starting up (I couldn't turn my head), then darkness.
Outstanding job, Messiah!
First Time
- AFTL: Fer
|-- AR: Spirit
|-- AAR: Feesh
|-- RRPG: Jeepo
I don't know if I mis-read the briefing, or it was deliberately inaccurate (if so, nice touch Solitaire!), but by the time we got to the hangers I was thoroughly confused. My fireteam had been tasked with blowing the enemy vehicles, and after a rapid entry to the airfield (led by our pathfinder, Jeepo), I left Spirit and Feesh on a northern corner to engage distant targets whilst Jeepo and I cleared the hangers.
The middle and southern hangers were empty, and it took me a minute to realise our objective was inside the northern-most hanger (which I hadn't actually been inside). After locating the explosives I went back to Spirit and Feesh, making an ill-advised traverse of the north hanger's northern side (which was under fire). Spirit crashed out, Jeepo was wounded and in the midst of this I
very belatedly realised that Headspace was down, and that as AFTL I now had the platoon.
Oops.
Awesome leadership skills.
I orderd Bravo and Charlie to mount up in the vehicles we had been sent to retrieve, and prepare to move out. DM, the medic, came up to patch Jeepo, but by now the enemy fire on us was intensifying. I told Bravo and Charlie to thunder-run out without waiting for us, and Jeepo, DM and I made a dash for the explosives. Jeepo lit the fuse and we again found ourselves running for our lives, this time towards the southern-most hanger, calling out desprately for the other fireteams to send a vehicle. Jeepo took a fatal round to the back, whilst DM and I ran head-first into American infantry. DM didn't survive the clash, and I barely clambered onto Bluescuba's lorry alive, noting with dismay two heavily armed humvees approaching us on the tarmac. Bluescuba gunned the engine, then there was an explosion and we appeared to ram an enemy vehicle. Next, the truck was driving around in circles, so I bailed and began running but was cut down in the open.
Intense fun indeed, and great to see a first mission for folk from Solitaire. I thought it perfectly captured the
guerrilla style.
Daring Raid
- CO: Tigershark
|-- M: Fer
We hit the checkpoint from opposite sides of the high valley, but the shooting started on the enemy's terms and soon we were running short of ammo. Handily, an army soldier was making his way towards me up the hill, and as he neared me I killed him with my revolver and took his FAL. When an army truck full of soldiers rolled up and began to disgorge its cargo a minute later, I was already prone in the grass next to it with my rifle. As a result of our collective efforts, none survived.
After dealing with an unarmed UAZ we set out on a cross-country drive, reaching a position that gave us overwatch of the army base. There had been a moment of excitement as we drove upon a 3-man patrol, but Tigershark seemingly lept from the vehicle and gunned them down before they could return fire. Importantly, the army units in the valley below were not alerted to us.
Again, Tigershark's plan was to hit the base from multiple directions, sending Bravo out to the left flank and Alpha to the right, whilst he and I used our FALs from a central location. Bravo's crossing of the valley saw it reduced to one man (Jeepo), but the attack continued regardless. As Tigershark, Jeepo and I concentrated on the base, Alpha had moved down to the road and successfully destroyed at least two large foot patrols. Quickly, all three elements closed up on the base, and after a little scare with an armed UAZ that came racing up the road, we had secured the compound.
Whilst we took it in turns to load up with AT weaponry, we also engaged a 3-man foot patrol in the hills to our north. Then, in two UAZs, we struck out for the final target area. Again we surprised an army foot patrol in the wilderness, but Jeepo (on the DShKM) tore them apart and we pressed ahead to our drop-off point, high on a spur to the south of the village.
We could see two tanks, but Azim had mentioned three. Tigershark sent Alpha out to the other side of the valley to our right, whilst Jeepo (armed with a Metis) scrambled further down the spur towards the village. Soon Jeepo had eyes on the third tank, but as we prepared to engage an unseen patrol got the drop on us and began grenading the spot where we'd parked our vehicles. Tigershark bought it, and the alerted enemy tank crews began to mount up.
Realising we were about to lose our advantages of position and surprise, Messiah ordered everyone with AT weapons to engage the tanks, and soon all three were ablaze. Jeepo and I then fell back to the two UAZs and set off for a new RV point with Alpha. As I pointed the nose of my UAZ down an especially steep hill I spotted a patrol and engaged them with my mounted DShKM. Then I shouted something excitable about "EXTREME DRIVING" and set off down the cliff to my death.
Everyone else made it out alive. Excellent leadership from Tigershark and Messiah, and great performances all round. The session ran over by nearly an hour thanks to this one mission, but I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did. Well done to Housemaster, it's author.
I vowed revenge and got plenty - twenty two confirmed kills as we made our way east through hamlets, slaying infantry and UAZ teams with extreme prejudice....
