[Sun] 25 Nov 2012 (Mutual Support)

[Mamuto]

One of my favorite sessions of the ones I've attended over the past few months, for sure.

BlackFolkDown
Charlie 1 FTL
Being a vestigial element was a bit awkward. Also, being the first mission, I was a bit rusty. What transpired from my POV:
We were late to the party due to vehicles being slower than helicopters. Once we arrived, driver took the wrong turn and got himself killed. Somehow the rest of the fireteam managed to get out and into the compound safely. Followed the glorious Charlie Leader Fer for the next 10 or so minutes until he crawled onto a rooftop and got shot from across the street. Smooth and I followed him up there, I assumed command and then saw enemy fireteam on the other rooftop. Took them out, approached the Mosque from the South, taking out opfor on rooftops and side alleys. Then Smooth got himself killed and I pulled back with Qazi, joined up with Bravo, took and defended the Mosque, and the mission ended soon after. By far my best COOP perfomance. Somehow didn't die, killed lots of bad guys.

Red Snow
Bravo 1 FTL (Mamuto, Cuddlefish, Tink, Smooth)
VERY impressed by the AI on this mission. Was tasked with some objective we never got to... because Berezino kicked our asses. Enemies everywhere, all four of us kept getting knocked down from Chernorussians hiding behind every fence.. We made it to the edge of town but the new problem was no cover and enemies everywhere. Bravo lead went down, I assumed command for a very brief moment as a technical came flying down the road and took Smooth and myself out of the game. I watched as the rest of Bravo very slowly and very painfully was destroyed. I would love to try this mission again, and once again, the AI was surprisingly excellent.

Ashore
Bravo 2 FTL (Mamuto, Cuddlefish, Misho, Smooth)
Followed Toppo's orders for a good half an hour. I guess nobody wanted a repeat of the last attempt at this map (least of all me, I was in the fireteam that ran off to hug the russians up close) Three of us got shot up trying to get into a better position, Smooth taking a bullet to the face, Cuddlefish and I got dragged back to cover and revived. Then we proceeded along through the factory, somehow (again, miraculously) not dying to enemy bullets. Somewhere along the line Toppo was killed, and I, once again assumed command but by this stage the game was won so I just told Bravo to catch up to Charlie and take the construction site. Sorry Alpha, you got left behind, but we were coming back for you, I promise.

ZigZag
Attacking - Alpha 1 FTL (Mamuto, Cuddlefish, Misho, SuperU)
Ah, the only adversarial we played, and boy did Alpha 1 kill it on this one. I'm proud of you guys and I wish I had this mission recorded. We took up our position on the hill to the west of town, and saw the HMG set up in the open field. Then we came under fire by some trigger happy UN man and one of our men went down. As he got patched up, we returned fire. HMG went down immediately (why was he in the open like that?) It was a very intense firefight, bullets wizzed by, rockets fired, grenades fired, but we came out on top with no losses and the rest of the assault successfully flanking around the South. At this point we moved back to the North North East where we suddenly got ambushed by a flanking fireteam. Everyone went prone, and SuperU and myself took out two enemies each. Mission ended with all of us still alive. Hooah.

Cuddlefish, if you are reading this, I had no idea this was your first time playing with us. You played exceptionally well and I'm honored you chose to be in my fireteam for three whole missions. Hooah and hope you come back to play with us more.

See you guys next week!

[wolfenswan]

BlackFolkDown
Alpha SL

I thought "this would make some great footage", started DxTory and got shot out of the heli.

Red Snow
Bravo 3 Marksman

We did some class A sneaking until we engaged our first patrol and intoxicated mike decided it was time for some silenced RPGs. Unfortunately there must have been a cock up somewhere down the supply line and his RPGs where of the "big boom" kind, causing most of the AI we had avoided earlier to move in our rough direction, killing BSL and Bravo Medic. We moved into town, trying to relief B1 and B2 but got chewed up all the same. Ironically we would have need some RPGs by then but mike was all out. Then we died.

Ashore
Alpha 1 FTL (+Zitron, Qazi, Daf)

*Video follows*

Alpha 1 was a great fireteam throughout the mission, possibly the only FT that was still 4 man strong at the end. Not going to write too much here, it's all in the video anyway. Up until the end the entire platoon did an excellent job, only when all SLs had died the command structure collapsed and it was more of a zerg towards the final building (still, we won!)

ZigZag
UN CO

I put the HMG in a position where I hoped it would be able to cover the hills to our NW, unfortunately it was less effective than I had hoped and was easily taken out. With Alpha 2 pinned down I sent Alpha 1 from the NE to flank the enemy but unfortunately they ran into an OPFOR flanking force themselves. Only got myself to blame I guess.

[Halop]

I'm glad you spearheaded that sprint, halop. I'm sorry i couldnt help.

Yeah I was like "See that burning wreck over there? Let's sprint!" Atleast I discovered the Dishka, too bad that a few guys from other fireteams ran over to my body for some reason and proceeded to get shot by that same MG.
Good thing you prioritised survival though.

Ah, the only adversarial we played, and boy did Alpha 1 kill it on this one. I'm proud of you guys and I wish I had this mission recorded. We took up our position on the hill to the west of town, and saw the HMG set up in the open field. Then we came under fire by some trigger happy UN man and one of our men went down.

Oh so you were the guys up on that hill. My trigger happy finger was so ready to shoot you guys peeking out of those rocks, but we were on hold fire orders at that moment

[Ferrard Carson]

ZigZag
...unfortunately [ Alpha 1 ] ran into an OPFOR flanking force themselves.

That would have been my Alpha 2 fireteam - we spotted some o' you smurfs coming through the forest that we had just vacated, so some of us took two of your dudes from the side, then we bum-rushed the house and I personally executed your Alpha 1 AR at point-blank range It would have been a good move on your part, but we just didn't have the numbers on either side for proper flank security and recon.

~ Ferrard

[SuperU]

I must say, this weeks folk session was an extremely enjoyable session!

[Ferrard Carson]

Workshop
Tiger led us through the standard fireteam drills (spraying enough bullets by the end to destroy a sandbag wall with the stuff that sandbags are supposed to stop), gave us an example mission to plan and practice, and then handed the reins over to me for a few minutes, whereupon I directed our two fireteams into an organized assault on fortifications. Join us next week for more drills, and more fun as we learn the useful skill of Fail Avoidance!
DISCLAIMER: WORKSHOPS ARE ENTIRELY OPTIONAL AND DO NOT HAVE ANY PROFOUND EFFECT ON SLOTTING, FAVORS, OR TIGERSHARK'S TLC. BY READING THIS AGREEMENT, YOU HAVE CONSIGNED YOUR SOUL TO ETERNAL DAMNATION IN THE BOWELS OF MICROSOFT HELL WHEREUPON YOU WILL BE THE DESIGNATED SCREEN MOVER FOR WINDOWS 8 AND HAVE AGREED TO BE BOUND BY AN NDA ON YOUR LIFE UNTIL TIME UNRAVELS LIKE A CHEAP SWEATER

BlackFolk Down
Deployed as That Crazy Yank Who is Out to Get Us All Killed, Take Two (a.k.a. Platoon Commander)
BECAUSE IT WORKED SO WELL THE FIRST TIME!

Fer gave me one objective: Objective One. Also known as The Mosque. Also known as The Middle of The City. Hot LZ required.

Tigershark and Black Mamba took off, Alpha and Bravo packed into their bellies. Special Needs Charlie Squad followed close behind in their unarmored, ungunned Humvees!

I had apparently set the helo staging point too close to the enemy, and we started taking some light machine-gun fire... then one burst of perfectly aimed HMG took out Tiger's engine and Alpha smacked the dirt relatively lightly while Bravo's chopper circled into the LZ, took hits, and never took back off. Suddenly Special Needs Charlie Squad's vehicles looked mighty enticing. We needed to snatch the Warlords first though, so we pushed into the city in a rough line, slowly bludgeoning our way through enemy resistance until we were at the mosque. Upon capturing the warlords, I prepped my depleted squads to push back the way we had come in search of civilian vehicles to commandeer, when the orders came from Company Command: "Secure the Mosque and await helicopter extract!"

We waited. And waited. And waited. And it never came. Like you, last night, when you told your girlfriend, "This... doesn't usually happen."



Red Snow
Deployed as Bravo 2 Fireteam Leader
The Armies of the Russian Federation are poised to strike deep into the heart of Chernarus, and their vanguard is a swarm of Elite Spetsnaz troopers, parachuting into the Northwest Airfield in search of beans, a silenced M4, and hopefully Night Vision Goggles! This leaves the brave reserve 4th Platoon of Spetsnaz to destroy a vehicle park, disrupt the Chernarussian AA network, and seize a set of docks vital for the resupply of the eventual Russian invasion. Onward, comrade! Our political connections may have gotten us here, but our complete and utter lack of proficiency shall see us through to the bitter, frostbitten end!

Bravo landed and headed mostly southeast into the edge of Berezino. Bravo's 1 and 2 moved slowly and methodically into the outskirts, working our way forward whilst Bravo 3 and our esteemed squad leader got waylaid by an enemy patrol investigating a strange flower of sub-sonic 5.45mm rounds that had floated down into a field some minutes earlier.

All was well until we reached The House of Doom, got pinned, and were slowly whittled away one by one as we sang glorious praises to The Party on high... Also, I'm terrible with RPGs!



Ashore
Deployed as Alpha 3 Fireteam Leader

Glorious Leader Fer took the reins on this one, and proceed to test our collective patience as far as it would go. Amidst all the grumbling of "I can't see shit," and "Ahh, I fell off the roof!" we suddenly discovered much to our surprise that squads mutually supporting one another into the next position via bounding overwatch and security somehow improves our survivability... and netted us an inexplicable win in a mission where we had previously been swiss-cheese'd every step of the way by bullet-wielding landmines. Maybe the good ol' fashioned weed-whacking the locals were nice enough to do helped a little bit too...

I, unfortunately, was told to climb a tower partway through. I led my fire-team gloriously up an enormous ladder... on the wrong tower. With no cover on the midway platform, we were toasted by the guys we were supposed to have snuck up behind. Sorry Alpha 3!



ZigZag
Deployed as Takistani Alpha 2 Fireteam Leader
Our boots hit the ground, and we boarded a bunch of different trucks - me at the wheel of a freakin' lorry, with two itty-bitty UAZ's zipping about my heels. We drove on down to the bend and assaulted the dominating terrain in the area only to find that the UNPROFOR didn't give it the same importance as we did. Not a soul to be found atop the hill, although Alpha 1 apparently skylined themselves nicely along the crest and got lit up by the Smurfs, meaning that we have much to learn about how not to be seen.

Meanwhile, however, yours truly had been leading Alpha 2 in a wide endaround to the south, positioned to come up on the flanks of a possible enemy position. The sight of dudes in MARPATs and blue helmets wandering about the woods told us that we were right. We shot at least two of their number from the side as they advanced into the ground we had just cleared, and a third died from my personal attention at arm's length. I bathed my rifle stock in the blood of my enemy and drew satanic designs in the ground with it, summoning a friendly RPG to peg a Smurf in the face and end the engagement in our favor.



Mission Notes: As a Taki in the woods, I have to say that the Smurf helmets didn't actually let me see UNPROFOR any easier - I only noticed the helmets after I had seen the dude wearing it moving through the brush. It certainly helped with target ID, which is, methinks, a good thing.

Quite the enjoyable session. Thanks to everyone who came along, thanks to Fer for hosting, and thanks to all the dudes I get to boss around in the workshop when Tiger isn't looking!

~ Ferrard

[Black Mamba]

I had apparently set the helo staging point too close to the enemy, and we started taking some light machine-gun fire...

That's when you see the difference between perfect private Tigershark (Hey, here is the marker, let's hover right above it. *takes HMG fire*) and good ol' yours cowardly (Hey, look, there's a giant ass moutain half a click behind the staging point. Let's hide. *doesn't take HMG fire").

Then again, I still landed right on the LZ, which happened to have a .50cal technical 20 meters away. And lost my engine. Still, I landed it right on top of the helipad. That's got to count for something, right? Right?

[ConcreteOtter]

Didn't write an AAR for last week but I did remember I took this screenshot during Red Snow which sums up the end of that mission pretty well.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... =110125621

[fer]

BlackFolkDown

Charlie SL: Fer

Nothing says 'hello' like a pair of helicopters full of angry men landing in your city, particularly when their leader, comrade Ferrard Carson, calls for their visit to be both rapid and violent. And nothing says 'come in!' like an HMG round to your engine and the sprinkling of your cabin with deadly small arms fire.

The landings weren't catastrophic (by Wideola standards), although Alpha's bird came down hard some 100m north of the designated compound. My own squad, a rather bijoux Charlie of 6 men, had taken the entirely safer option of driving to the compound in our unarmed HMMWVs. By safer, I mean of course, that only 2 of our number were killed arriving at the compound where Bravo's bird had become a permanent feature.

For a little while we remaining 4 attempted to provide 'security' for this compound, and I had high hopes that we would sit out the mission in relative safety, perhaps having tea and playing cards with Bravo's pilot. Unfortunately, this was not to be, and instead we loitered at one of the gates trading fire with a variety of unhappy locals. At one point I poked my head under the wall to find a technical had driven up to us, so I shot its crew to death.

Anyway, my plans for tea and cards were completely screwed when we were ordered to fall in with Bravo and assist them as they advanced westward to the mosque on the southern-most of the parallel streets heading out from our LZ. We reached Bravo at point Phoenix and then moved slowly west, often taking up positions in the upper storeys of buildings,

Eventually we reached a building kitty-corner (is that still a phrase?) from the south-east corner of the mosque. I clambered onto to the roof and went prone, staring down the street at two clusters of angry men with guns to our south. Bravo had clearly sent at least one fireteam to our position, because when we opened up the fire on the enemies to our south was withering. Unfortunately, much nearer enemies (probably on the roof of the mosque) managed to riddle my body with bullets. Which serves me right for not checking, really.

Afterwards, comrade Carson's platoon successfully took the mosque and went firm there, awaiting the rescue helicopters that command had promised them. I want to say I felt terrible, lying to them about 'birds already in the air, comrade'.

But I really didn't.



Red Snow

Charlie 2 FTL: Fer

I for one am glad that for this mission the Party chose to provide us with automatic parachutes, because it meant I didn't smash into the ground at something approaching terminal velocity. Instead, Charlie 2 floated down serenely, coming to rest by some woods and road, which Charlie 1 promptly mined. After we'd formed up, we moved eastwards through some woods towards the coastal road, which was just beyond the coastal railway line on a rather exposed strip of flat ground.

Because large open spaces scare the hell out of me, we initially went firm in the treeline and waited. Which was just as well, because at almost the same moment a truck drove along the road, heading north in the direction of our main target. We all froze in the undergrowth or hugged trees, knowing that where one enemy vehicle is, the likelihood is that there will be another. Sure enough, a technical came whizzing by a minute later, headed in the same direction.

When we were sure that the vehicles were long gone, we crept out to the railway line and took up positions on its raised form. Charlie 1 was covering us from the woods, so we sent our sapper forward to plant some mines on the road. It reminded me of a moment from Hidden & Dangerous, but with more polygons. Then our sapper returned and we fell back into the relative safety of the woods.

The next phase of our advance saw us pushing northwards to a wooded hillside overlooking the town adjacent to the port facility we had been ordered to destroy. Taking up positions to the right of Charlie 1, we sat for a short while, observing a large-ish enemy foot patrol that was moving slowly away from us through the centre of town. Mindful that our weapons left us ill-equipped for a long-range firefight, comrade Kefirz (CSL) has us go down into the town and begin creeping northwards through the buildings.

At this stage we became detached from Charlie 1, but initially that didn't appear to be a problem. The houses provided adequate concealment from enemies to our north, and also the truck and technical from earlier, which now passed us by going in the opposite direction. As we froze behind walls and fences we heard an explosion down the road, and our sapper, comrade Syn (in his first ever Folk session), was able to take pride in the fact that his mines had dealt the first blow to the enemy in our little sector (when the mission ended we learned Syn had been credited with 12 kills).

Unfortunately, the concealment worked against us as well. Despite knowing the enemy was to our north, we couldn't see or engage him, and only guess that there might be defenders in the white barn 10-20m to our north. Just as we reached the last space before the barn, contacts were called out and I'm afraid I panicked - sprinting forward to rush the barn and exhorting my troops to come with me. I squeaked through but turned round to see the others had not, and my smoke was too little, too late. Fire was now coming in from the port, although I didn't realise at the time, and eventually a bullet passed though a window and into my head.

Afterwards, we witnessed comrade x25killa perform all sorts of war crimes, which he claims were in direct response to the words of God, which he heard in his head. I am pleased to inform you that comrade x25killa is now under the care of the Party's best psychiatric doctors.

Ashore

CO: Fer

I took CO with the express purpose of using this mission as an opportunity to explore the idea of squads supporting each other at all times. So my approach to this mission had a simple plan and a constant mechanic.

The plan was this: as soon as the squads were ashore, the entire platoon would regroup at Alpha's landing area. Afterwards, as a platoon, we would move up to the western edge of the main industrial district, thereby by-passing friendly forces near the docks, and sweep the factories and installations from west to east. If we survived that action, I'd worry about clearing the enemy's second strongpoint.

The mechanic was this: at any given moment, one squad would be assaulting, a second would be providing covering fire, and the third would be providing security for the second. Due to their strengths, Alpha and Bravo would alternate as assault and support elements, and the under-strength Charlie would specialise in security. The mechanic slowed us down, but it also meant that most movement happened either with the enemy under actual fire, or 8-11 weapons static and pointed in the direction of likely threats to the moving elements. Whilst I knew that comrade Wolfenswan had tweaked the mission and probably made it less insanely difficult, I was also adamant that rushing, unsupported, through any urban area was a recipe for heavy casualties - bringing the tempo down a little felt justifiable if it meant more people survived.

As far as the mission went, it ran more or less to plan for the first half hour, IIRC. Alpha and Bravo (led beautifully by comrades Mike and Toppo) alternated in roles, quickly securing the railway station and breaching the first major compound on the south-west corner of the district (judicious use of rockets opened new entrances in the walls). Soon, Alpha's fireteams were on the roof of the factory and ready to support Bravo as they bounded past and pushed through the buildings south of the railway tracks (but still west of the really tall tower structures). It was by no means as fast as red/blue elements of a fireteam doing drills, but in the context of moving squads of 14 players about it was perfectly acceptable, I think.

Bravo's advance was accomplished, but as Alpha pushed through them and into the area just south/south-east of the tall towers, it became apparent that we had not dealt with enemies in the towers themselves. Alpha was in danger of over-extending beyond Bravo'a ability to support. If I remember correctly, I asked Alpha to halt, and may even have ordered it o pivot northwards to attack the towers. Unhappily, at around this time I failed to ensure I was in adequate cover whilst consulting my map, and a few rounds from one of the tower's defenders converted me from CO to KIA. Before I died I had nominated Toppometer as successor - a break from the norm as he was BSL and ASL mike was technically next in line - because with Alpha in the thick of it the BOF squad's leader was probably in the best place (physically and mentally) to take over.

That we won the mission is, I think, down to some great leadership by both mike and Toppometer, but also great co-ordination and skills by all in the platoon.



ZigZag

UN Alpha 2 FTL: Halop
|- AR: Fer
|- AAR: Syn
|- R: ???

Gorgeous location, but we were to do a passable imitation of fish in a barrel. Albeit fish armed with fully automatic weapons and hundreds of rounds.

Comrade Halop took our fireteam to a little non-enterable house near the centre of the village and directed us to watch the hill to our north, which was lightly wooded and had some prominent rocks at the crest. It was a good call, because after a reasonably short period we spotted movement up there - one, perhaps two enemy soldiers peeping out from behind the rocks, from where they must have had a great view of the smurfs in the valley (the smurfs being us).

I began to fire on the rocks, and kept firing for quite some time. Sometimes I fired slowly, sometimes quickly, but I'm reasonably sure I was at least denying the enemy the pleasure of sitting up there and firing on us with impunity. And perhaps I was, but yet other enemies were quietly flanking around us as I wallowed in my tunnel vision. The penalty for being static and fixated on a single target was, of course, death.