Bedtime
We've actually beaten this one before, but every time since I've wondered if I dreamt that outcome (and if so,
why was Tigershark in my dream?!). Sadly, our angel on the hill (WolfFlight) effectively CTD'd early on, and it wasn't long before only mort, DM and myself remained, holed-up in the mosque compound. That said, DM had fulfilled his wish of blowing up the UAZ with a satchel, so it wasn't all bad. We began defending our little area, with DM and mort covering the entry points and me up in the minuret pouring (rather ineffective) fire onto the attackers below. It was all a bit medieval castle defence - all I was missing was some boiling oil! We were actually holding out reasonably well, but more guests were beginning to arrive so I called it.
Vintage 01
Bravely, we let our AI allies go in first, and then followed, moving first to the relative safety of the village. Splitting our band into two, I sent Banshee's Alpha fireteam ahead to the bunker by the road with instructions to clear it, and then to wait for the rest of us to get into position on the southern hill before collectively engaging the command post. Banshee led his guys effectively, and were ready to open up on the command post long before Headspace, DM and me were in position (on our way to the hill we got distracted by a shiny tank, and then by being shot). Finally, we got into position and began firing on enemy troops clustered around the trees behind the command post.
What happened next wasn't totally clear to me, but as Headspace and I moved into the compound from the south I saw a sustained stream of MG tracers heading in the direction of Alpha's attack. I suspect it came from the final bunker, and that it accounted for Alpha, because comms was rather quiet thereafter. Carefully, Headspace cleared the compound, but I lost him for a moment - only to find him dead just beyond the eastern-most wall. As I knelt to check he wasn't just injured, I was shredded! From death, I watched in horror as DM sucumbed to the same fate; my guess is that the final bunker had mounted a heroic defence against us.
Vintage 02
Our positions were the usual suspects: the low walls north of the compound, the big rock, and the compound itself (although strangely Housemaster didn't want to go up on his roof this time). Though we lost a handful of men, the enemy attack seemed pretty half-hearted. We could hear armour roving about in the valley below, and braced for its onslaught at any moment; yet nothing crested, and soon we began to wonder if we should go over to the offensive.
From the low wall, where I had been keeping mort company, I sauntered over to the rock, thinking that I might peek over the edge. Instantly, I was pinned by enemy fire and wounded shortly after. To my horror, through my blurry red vision I saw a tank lumbering up the road and turning towards me. Then flames as mort fired 2 RPGs at the metal beast (it exploded when the second grenade hit). However, my joy was rather short-lived, because against the flames something didn't seem quite right: the outline was of a T-34, and that meant we managed to kill a friendly tank.
Housemaster appeared and carried me to safety, patched me up, and we all went forward again, hoping to renew the attack. Just beyond the crest the enemy were waiting in force, and soon we were all either cut down or injured beyond hope. The last thing I remember was throwing a grenade at a man standing mere feet from me, and hoping that I'd at least take him with me. However, I take if from the laughter in the dead channel that I was shredded before the grenade could leave my hand!
Hunt for Azim
Cracking first run through of this new mission from Housemaster. Azim was played gamely by Tigershark, whilst the Takistani Army detachment (read:
everyone else) was commanded by Headspace.
Loading up into two UAZs, we took the road to the first village, stopping just outside to run a two-fireteam sweep through the buildings. Above us hovered banshee's helicopter, with with our sniper, DM, acting as temporary door gunner and spotter. Almost at once we engaged and destroyed a small group of militants at the main intersection: Alpha hit them straight on, whilst my own two-man fireteam (Bravo) was able to fire on them from an elevated position on our right flank. It was a short and one-sided firefight, and no sooner was it over that WolfFlight spotted what he thought was Azim, leaning (as only human-controlled entities do) over by a road junction further up the valley.
Alpha raced along the valley floor towards the junction, whilst WolfFlight and I took a high-ground route to the right. banshee was sweeping the valley in his helicopter, but militants at the junction were now putting rounds into the belly of his bird. I can't be sure, but I think that it was at this moment that DM took a fatal round, though it would be a while before we knew that. From a hillside position we assisted Alpha with contact reports and fire, and soon the junction was cleared. However, Azim was nowhere to be found. Guessing that he might have doubled-back to the first village, we returned and began to search buildings. Meanwhile, banshee flew through the pass, extending his search towards the second village.
It was whilst we were fruitlessly clearing individual buildings that we heard the chopper go down, prompting a rapid change of plan. Alpha found its UAZ first and raced off into the pass, WolfFlight and myself following a minute behind. It was possibly a fatal minute, because Alpha appeared to run straight into an ambush: by the time WolfFlight and I arrived only Headspace remained alive, and I was forced to kill at least 2 militants who were barely feet from him! We patched Headspace up and moved out to investigate the wreck of banshee's helicopter, but the mission timer had run out. Azim had outsmarted the army (and probably not for the last time).
Great mission from Housemaster, and well done to Tigershark. Minor point, but it was kind of nice to have a lumbering Russian-built helicopter on our side too!
More to follow tomorrow ...
