Gang Raid
The concept of an urban corridor shooter is great, especially as a session opener. However, the lack of a briefing meant that I had to rely on the immediate visual cues after spawn. And those were: in front of me (and beyond the sandbag wall), an ambulance and paramedics that might have been unarmed. I hastily assumed we were not in immediate contact, so went forward too quickly and died instantly.
Cretin.
After the Disaster Part One
Since I'd avoided leading in the previous mission, I stepped up to take this one (at a more sedate pace). Fighting in forests and clearings is always hard against the AI, because visibility simulation never feels quite fair. The key, I think, is to maximise the number of eyes and guns pointing towards the enemy at any one time. That sounds obvious, but actually in standard movements - even bounding - the numbers can fall off dramatically with ease.
My solution is a little WW1-ish: pace (slow, guns-up walking advances) and concentration (of men). The upside is that even with not much more than a reinforced fireteam walking in line, we could collectively spot the enemies and put a fair amount of fire down on them quickly. The downside, of course, is vulnerabilty to flanking forces and even - in this mission in particular - enemies getting in behind us. Thankfully, we had Kefirz on the drone, which meant that much of the time we were able to choose which enemy grouping to face - but it wasn't always the case.
The other advantage we had was a gun truck. A HMMWV with an M2 isn't invincible, even with a shield, but it can make a huge difference if used with care. So the opening part of my plan was thus:
- Use the drone to understand the enemy groups around compound/clearing #1
- Use ALL dismounts to sweep through the woods NE of compound/clearing #1 and establish a firing line as close to the nearest treeline as possible
- Bring the gun truck up at the last moment to bring fire from 90 degrees to the line of our infantry assault
- Smoke the compound and assault with infantry
This went off reasonably well, and soon we had control of the first compound. The enemy then counter-attacked from at least 3 directions, including from where we had come. This mean changing tactic: Boberro and I split the men across north and south buildings, and the gun truck came into the compound.
Thankfully, the enemy never managed to quite co-ordinate his attacks such that we were overwhelmed, though we lost our original gunner from the HMMWV. I think it's fair to assume that ASR AI also meant that some of the original defenders of the second compound (with the first cache) were drawn off towards us which meant that even by pulling an 'Alamo' at the first compound, we were grinding down their numbers.
Still, there comes a point where you have to start moving. So we began pushing south towards the second compound, initially to an intermediate line of small trees and bushes, and then across an open field (after lobbing as much smoke as we could). The HMMWV punched a hole in the chain-link and we were able to overwhelm what remained of the defenders.
Again, we switched from offence to defence, our second 'Alamo' being the half-built two-storey structure in the middle of the compound. Effective AR and rifle fire from everyone helped us see off various penny-packet attacks from nearby treelines, and even eliminate a small patrol in a field to our south.
Now finding ourselves in a lull, we took a moment to re-equip and prepare for the next advance. Once more, I had the luxury of making a plan, which was:
- Get the gun truck on the track that ran south to the final compound
- Arrange dismounts in a line to the truck's left, such that they were all in forest
- Advance at walking pace, knowing the gun truck could dominate the open space to its right
And this we did, eventually coming to and overrunning the final compound with relative ease. Then we laid some charges, pulled back, and exploded the enemy's second cache.
Assault
One of the most - if not THE most - effective runs at this mission, though in truth the town was still full of enemy troops when our attack finally halted.
We began with a drive into the hills west of the town, and began by taking the small cluster of houses at the end of a track that leads straight east, down into the town itself. That went pretty smoothly as we had the jump on the defenders, but almost immediately we had to deal with several enemy troops to our right. They had come from the bunker up there and had the advantage of elevation relative to us. We prevailed.
HAT was up above us, with orders to cover the MSR and take out anything approaching from the north. We, meanwhile, attempted to move down-slope and closer to the enemy. What followed next was at least two separate instances of us moving down before being repelled by enemy fire (the second made use of some trees a little south of the track, but the outcome was identical).
We changed tack, and fell back to the higher ground, then moved along to take the bunker. From there, we exchanged fire with enemy infantry still in the town, but it was obvious that we would need to close with them if we were to finish the job. So we moved off to our south-east and almost immediately encountered an enemy on the slope. We made short work of him and reached the woodland, after which we hooked south and took out the enemy road bunker.
Now we were on the same elevation as the town, and forced to push up using the ruins for cover. I didn't realise this at the time, but two BMP-2s and a Shilka had come in from the north and taken up positions on high ground and the MSR itself. One of those - I'm told the BMP on the road - took my head off just after I popped it over a ruined wall.
Za I
Snippers asked me to lead the sniper team and engineers down the hill with the objective of taking out the western AAA position. At the same time, the rest of our force would fire on - but not occupy - the control tower.
We got into position and were ready to fire on the enemy quite quickly. Nixy, my sniper, easily took out the walking sentry and the engineers were just starting to cross the field when my UGLs had an unexpected result: the AAA exploded!
The rest of our force was making good work of the control tower troops, and we in turn began to engage (and kill) troops at the western gate. However, Snippers called for us all to disengage and RV to the north of the hangers; he wanted to pushed east and get rid of the final AAA position and possibly attack the barracks.
Snippers initially wanted us to support from high ground near the hangers, but someone in my element suggested we could actually be ready to storm the control tower once the second AAA position had been destroyed. With only 343s to work with, we agreed the signal would be a green flare. So we waited.
We also plinked a bit.
Then the flare was spotted and we rushed the control tower. Soon we were back in radio contact with Snippers and ordered to mop up our area and join the assault on the barracks. Meanwhile, the VDV were coming in to land.
The western-most helo landed and disgorged its paratroopers. I left Nixy on the roof of the control tower and moved off with the others to clear the hangers and nearby buildings. Then Boberro was wounded by an enemy hiding under a parked helo. I patched him up, but clearly some severe mental damage had been done to him.
Boberro detonated the charges he'd earlier laid on the control tower, destroying it completely and killing poor Nixy in the process.
I told Boberro to drop his weapon, but he just sat on the ground. Obviously, he was overcome with shock. But in the end we cleared the final structures near the hangers and soon had ourselves a sweet ride south in an enemy UAZ.
Nearing the barracks, we joined Snippers in the final attack. Perhaps inspired by Boberro's actions just earlier, he ordered the engineers to place charges against the side of the barracks building. We all retreated behind a steel barn and listened as the enemy structure was blown up. Then we piled into the ruins and executed any survivors. There was a tiny counter-attack from beyond the building, but we liquidated them easily.
Finally, I was able to lead Snippers to a place on the landing strip level with the barracks, and show him the bodies of an entire VDV squad that had died there; his failure to deal with the barracks had left those poor boys totally exposed after their helo put them down.
Snippers and Boberro will answer for their crimes when we return to Moscow.
Oh and SuicideKing, I think I saved your life at that car wreck, because after you got up, a Russian came and I started shooting, I think I hit you first and you went down, and then me and the Russian shot each other and died.
