Punitive Expedition
UAV operator and a tacticool marksman
I had several exhilarating moments in this mission. The first was when I was left on top of Charlie's vantage point to provide sniper cover fire for the attack on the enemy camp. A team of three insurgents ran past me, not far than 5 meters. I considered opening fire or throwing a grenade (can AI magically detect grenade throwers?), but I decided to forward (a rather panicked) report to Etzu that the enemy is at his rear. When the battle ensued, I already lost contact with that team, I suppose my comrades in Charlie took care of them. After a while I was ordered to regroup with Etzu, and encountered more enemy forces in the woods on my way to the camp. I was detected and fired upon. Honestly, since I was at the same direction as the enemy I thought my chances to get fratricide were as high as getting hit by enemy fire. I marked my position with smoke and begged for the friendlies to not shoot at me. I managed to take out one insurgent, Alpha killed another, and I moved and regrouped with my team.
When we got to the island I got the chance to use my beloved UAV. It was gratifying to provide real time intel on the enemy positions. Later on I participated in the attack on the camp and I think one of my hand grenades killed our target, which felt good. The enemy counter attack had them running down the hill right into our crossfire. All we needed was light to be able to mow them down, and light was given. I removed the silencer (really just to to enjoy firing better) and scored hits on multiple enemies. It was cool, I thought I'd be watching through the Darter's EOD throughout the mission (and hear his damn buzzing- why? why would the operator hear the engine sound of the UAV? It's not like he's next to it. The damn thing makes it hard to hear the radio, and radio + UAV is a lethal combination). I like of course using the UAV, even for whole missions, but getting to combine that with some sniping is even a better combination.
It was gratifying to direct the boats into the inlet by the radio tower, and it was wonderful to watch you sail them from above.
Stag, as always, solid leading, and SPhoenix, you are my hero.
(06-20-2016, 05:18 PM)Stagwine link Wrote:Another downside was that radio transmissions (which were great!) were very silent while inside boats, and due kbTell issue, it all blurted on my screen at once. I.e what ever intel I might have had in that transmission, was lost.
To scroll through previous text-radio messages, open your chat box (/ key) and hit page up to read the text messages history.
I have to admit I did not know there were friendlies in the wood on the first camp in Punitive Expedition and I shot at you until you popped smoke and I heard on the radio that white smoke was friendly.
Good hiding behind that tree, and my apologies.
In my defense I killed a guy c.15m from you!
Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk
Air Supply
(Command+APC commander+some dude on ground)
Whew. Finally beat this. First try was over soon but second was the charm.
As usual, the ground crew holed up in the building and waited for the air cavalry to bring in supplies and engineers. Variable and Mjolnir were flying the jets. Variable was escorting Alwarrens transport and MJ remained closer on station to provide CAS.
Few tough firefirefights for the ground crew as we waited, but this time we kept our heads down and all of us actually made it. Our jets kept the airspace clean and provided spot on CAS. It was fun to watch jets turn the town into a new parking lot. Awesome job guys, you likely saved our hides. Alwarren's transport dropped the supply pod and engineer team (Freeman, Stick) to ground. We spotted several hostiles when we were regrouping by APCs but lads in the air cleared the trash.
Unfortunately our APCs were out of fuel and we had to go fetch fuel truck from nearby fuel station. Again under air umbrella we pushed to fuel station on foot. Due preemptive air strike to nearby enemy outpost we met no resistance, and returned the truck. With a bit of trial and error we managed to refuel and eventually rearm our precious Marids. I wish the rearming process were less frustrating.
Alwarrens transport was refueling and rearming and Variable and MJ sweeped path clean to the east and softened our planned exit /breach by the outpost. At this point we lost MJ. APCs started the long march from Syrta and Alwarren shortly rejoined to provide helicopter support.
The march itself was uneventful. Freeman, Stick, Hellhammer manned the 2nd APC and me, Etzu and Blinddog were running the first. We encountered no resistance and due our effective air support, our planned breach by the FLOT was clean. We followed coast to friendly side of FLOT and mission was won.
This had one of the best mission ideas I have played. It had rifleworks, logistics, cargo lifting, helicopters, fixed wings, repairing. Much more than just pulling the trigger. The drive home was longish and there wasn't really that much to do except land navigating (which is fun!), but that happens and it didn't bother me. I was just happy to get home alive. Zeus on station would have been perfect, but apparently our god ran to some troubles with interface. Great work Etzu, look forward to replay this on some TT night in future.
Rescue (FHQ)
(David Armstrong)
After so many years we return to Everon. Unfortunately we suffered certain technical issues at the start. Etzus AT team was to take care of T-72 while my ragtag band of guerrillas was to assault nearby village and save some civvies from the appointment with a Dentist (Not Unnamed)
We had misfire incident at mission start which partially alerted the village. Etzus team opened up at a distance so we joined the fray from treeline. We were up against three full rifle squads, and after a while a BMP joined in. Our AT missed and we were out of AT, under heavy fire. Our position at tree line was impossible to hold. Two choices. Disappear to forest and hide from BMP there, or make a dash to barn to hide in buildings and to grab some hardware. As our objectives were at the village anyway and the BMP was temporarily moving away, I ordered a dash across the field, but was hit and never made it. BMP returned shortly and enjoyed a target practice. EOM. Great mission and look forward to try again.
Shopping Mall (FHQ)
(Autorifleman - Falcon (Etzu))
Fun NAPA mission which turned out to be one of the 'long march' missions! I was autorifleman in Etzus team. At mission start we held back as two other teams cleared village and procured trucks, our targets. Next we had to move those two trucks to preset meeting point. Losing the trucks would fail the mission. Trucks started moving to west and infantry covered the flanks.
We had few short firefights during our push, and soon my team was oredered to provide recce of enemy guard post. We moved in north side, spotted team of hostiles at some 400m distance. Other infantry teams pushed closer, and after a bit of waiting, we engaged the enemies. RPK isnt a sniper rifle, especially with irons at 400-500m but who needs accuracy when you have bag full of 75rnd drums. Short controlled bursts, Blinddog spotted hits, and outpost secure as Variables team did close quarters customer service. At this point we also suffered one loss due battlefield exhaustion.
Soon we had change of plans. Our meeting point was compromised, and we had to divert to alternate location. T-72 and BRDM blocked the way. We had a choice to go around or put RPGs t use. Not surprisingly Variable chose the latter, and my team was to set up and take a shot at T-72. We moved to forest, got our eyes on targets, and waited for other teams to get to position. We got order to fire and we took the shots at 200m range. We scored hits but it wasn't enough to destroy the tank. However our combined hits destroyed both vehicles and roadblock was secure. Great ambush.
We commandeered UAZ with hmg, scouted the path to new meeting point. We heard friendlies taking fire at a distance but we were too far to assist. However our trucks survived and they made it to meeting point. A great but long mission was won. Great teamwork and leading by Etzu and Variable.Â
Since SWEC is down, here's the mission log of the last coop nights (members, you can view it by clicking the ML (Mission Log) button on the server instance.
2016-06-26
co@10_all_the_kings_men.zargabad
co09_air_supply.altis
co@12_fhq_rescue.eden
co@12_fhq_shopping_mall.chernarus
2016-06-24
co10_kahvalti.altis
co07_operation_steelbaby.altis
co@08_sf6.porto
co@06_summer_sweep.chernarus_summer
co@06_six_degrees.chernarus
Flying Dutchman
Team Leader Bravo
Insertion went well, we got in undetected, but found the contact dead. While gearing up, we were detected and had to leave quickly, leaving two of my team without ammo. Unfortunately, I was distracted and forgot to address the situation, which allowed the enemy to overwhelm us and kill us in the next encounter.
Lost Pilot
Operation Lead
The missions start off badly, we were ambushed in the forest and lost one of the vehicles and Alwarren. Subsequently, we lost another vehicle, killing the Operation Lead.
Winter's Pack
Alpha Grenadier
We took a slightly different approach than before, approaching the target not from the coast, but from inland through the wooded hills in the east. Unfortunately, we were surprised by a Shilka driving through that forest, and had to take it out, which started a chain reaction that eventually lead to the whole team being wiped out. I died early (wasn't my day, really).
Ex Oblivione
Alpha Marksman
Very solid leading by Stag. Unfortunately, the crossroads that we wanted to mine where patrolled, which lead to an early detection by enemy forces. Luckily, the factory wasn't alarmed, so no reinforcements were dispatched. Alpha proceeded to disable the comms tower, which by the way worked, it was just stupidity on my part that the task wasn't ticked. However, the reinforcements where not dispatched, and Bravo cleaned up most of the factory, blowing the poppy truck in the process. Mission successful.
CSAR Jolly Green 28
Ghost Hawk Doorgunner
Luckily, the crash site was near a damn, which is a rare thing on Altis. Once this was communicated with the rescue team, we knew where to go, and could touch down while laying some motivating suppression fire in the enemy's general direction.
Unfortunately, it looks as if someone had a team kill to their name, so some people couldn't enter the chopper, and we had to take off without them. Technically, we beat the mission.
The Deathly Veil
Some grunt in Alpha
The sniper team on the hill was able to deliver good intel, making the cleanup of the town a pretty easy affair. Nevertheless, we saw some action, but were able to exfiltrate safely. Not much to say, was a straight forward affair.
(06-28-2016, 10:02 AM)Variable link Wrote:Since SWEC is down
Note to all: they are
up again
I wanted to thank Stag for his work as Zeus.
The Takistan mission which name eludes me was so incredibly immersive.
A good Zeus makes all the difference, very obviously. Thank you.
Sent from my HTC 10 using Tapatalk
I second that!
And check mission names at the SWEC link in the OP of this thread.
Technical difficulties
(Spectator)
Big thanks to FHQ and especially Varanon for tuning the server.
A dance with dragoons
(Red god/HQ)
This mission had also its share of small technical difficulties and my co-curator Alwarren didn't have Zeus interface due my typo. Thus my co-curator gave you divine assistance by joining Dragoon-1 (or 2) on the ground.
Mission itself is relatively simple, but it has fair number of random occurrences, locations, and I arranged few others.
Varanon leading Dragoon-1, two teams of Royal Scots Dragoon Guards departed FOB Haggis with Jackals. Their mission was to conduct deep recce behind enemy lines and locate two Grad launchers. Night was bright and full of..um..hmm. Bagpipes.
First challenge was the destroyed convoy. You avoided hitting a minefield (I am not sure if you spotted them, but at least you didn't hit them) and survived ambush. Nice job there! You also accurately identified enemy troop transport (Mi-17) and shot it down with Stinger.
Next stop was Mulladost. Again nice work. You dispatched two militia teams, BTR-40 and truck full of reinforcements. Especially intercepting the truck was good move. It was carrying two RPG gunners. Encounter with BRDM-2 was more hairy. It managed to fire several bursts your direction but it was dealt with.
Dragoons pushed forward and observed strange aerial phenomenon. I was informed they had spotted enemy Su-25. My superiors back in HQ didn't want to believe me. Runway of Rasman AB was long ago destroyed by RAF Tornadoes and it was full of Area Denial Munitions. I told my dragoons on the ground are pros. If my lads have spotted Frogfoot, by God ser, there is one. Bloody hell.Â
However I soon received confirmation from Sentry. Negative enemy aircraft. American AWACS operator was laughting at us. Again. Then RAF Harrier in recon configuration reported two Jackals on the road. Mystery solved and my lads decided the Air Force isn't worth the paperwork. Better save the Stinger.
Our heroes continued the patrol, and established observation post on a hill near crossroads south of Nagara. They soon reported Grad launchers at two kilometer distance. Theyalso spotted recon Harrier being shot down (No, not the Stinger). Good map reading, grid refs were quite accurate. Shilka guarding the Grads was dealt with a Javelin but enemy patrol nearby spotted the missile launch.
The BTR was patrolling on road between crossroads and Grads. It went to investigate the missile launch and approached you directly head on at least 800m in open terrain. At first I couldn't believe you didn't do anything about it. When it was 100m away from you it flanked and hit you from behind and fried you. I checked area with camera and apparently it was just behind a small hill and managed to approach in cover.
This was fun mission to curate. Teams on ground played along nicely and there were plenty of opportunities to spice the mission and act as HQ entity.Â
(FHQ) Party Crasher
(Bravo TL)
This was a fun mission! Our 3rd Tanoa mission had nice setup. Our job was to intercept money shipment of drug money in a van. We put AT mines and charges on road, and soon a convoy was approaching. We did apparently very thorough job as nothing survived the ambush.
Simple convoy ambush now turned out to be something else as we received radio message of our target moving to nearby airfield.
A-actual (Variable) told me to plot course and chase. I decided to cut through the forest near the mountain to shorten distance. I tried to keep pedal to metal as much as I dared and Stick was reading the map. We actually managed to get to destination near airfield with vehicles intact. We soon spotted target truck and the DC-3 in the airfield. We didn't have much time to set up as DC-3 started its taxi run! Varanon and Stick hurried to get the Humvee and firepower to front, but despite our efforts, the DC-3 managed to take off, failing the mission.
I suppose we need the 40mm Humvee to seriously damage the plane. We also would have needed few extra minutes to set up properly. I even considered driving the Humvee to runway to block the plane, but didn't think fast enough.
Bridge of Harcourt
This was marred with technical difficulties and we had to do multiple restarts. Mission itself is again, relatively simple, but you had bad luck, and framerate issues which led to confusion and early stop.
I see what I can do to improve the framerate.
KitKat Boom
(Kenny)
I had a blast, I had a parachute, and I had early death. I can't believe the guys on the ground actually finished this! Finally!
Nice work and great outro Phantom!
Pirate lane
(Autorifleman who dodged Team Blue lead by millisecond)
Simple. Clean 3 islands, and enjoy big paycheck. I was autorifleman for Team Blue under contractor Alwarren's excellent leadership. Landing to small islands gave me Far Cry flashbacks, and we had couple of tough firefights.
I also liked that there were civilians present in islands. You had to obtain PID before spraying the jungle full of lead (which, under certain circumstances, is also perversely fun). Good opener.
This was a nice, although a bit repetitive mission. One island less and mission would have been a peach. Author had invested to LOTS of small details, interior decoration, which is always nice and gives the mission a polished feel.
Flaming dart
(Sniper)
Mission experience for our pilots was apparently short and violent. Sniper team under Variables command had relatively fun mission, which was rendered impossible after losing our air assets.
We set up at slope overlooking the town. We identified MANPADs, infantry, and several armored targets. We were able to eliminate infantry and, most critical, MANPADs, but after our air was lost, there was little we could do. We boarded the beach bug, switched sniper rifles to MGs for aesthetic and artistic effect, and cruised down the slope like bosses. Aimed shots were forbidden, only full auto (sprayed from the hip) was allowed. Our new mission was not to kill the enemy. Our job was to look good in the movie. We cruised around the harbor reaping down the hipsters until T-100 ended the fun.
Co-op between ground spotter and air is great fun when mission is done right. This had nice idea, but requires a bit more polish.
A Dance with dragoons
(The usual)
Start of mission was similar to previous attempt. This time you had random encounter with fireteam relatively quickly but were able to eliminate the ambush.
Encounter with convoy and minefield was more hairy this time. Dragoon-2 missed AT mine by 1.5m. Enemy ambush was again dealt with without friendly casualties.
Mulladost was a bit more tough. Like last time, you had to deal with insurgents in fortified house, and incoming BRDM-2. Truck delivering more troops made through this time. From my point of view this could have gone south pretty quickly, but RPG gunners getting stuck to ruins/defenders clipping through the floor leveled the odds. Couple of militiamen traded shots with you for some time but solid firepower and .50cal/40mms dealt the trash.
Next random encounter of the day was the helicopter. You identified it correctly, and after a dice was rolled, it was deemed as important. Wayward colonists, our US allies, had lost a helicopter to wrong side of FLOT, carrying battalion XO with sensitive documents. My lads saved the day by eliminating militia investigating the wreck, and by destroying the Takistani Army BTR which arrived with more troops (very same BTR which caught your kilts down in last mission)
Next job was to find Grads. Enroute a static MG next spotted you, and opened up with Dshk. Resulting firefight ticked hidden bonus, eliminating enemy officer at command post. The most hairy encounter of the mission was with the Ural ZU-23. It opened up on the other Jackal. It could have turned ugly easily but you took out gunner (with small arms fire?)
You soon located Grads, and called in firemissions. First MLRS salvo missed the site by 700m, but second firemission was spot on. It destroyed launchers, ammo trucks, and guarding Shilka.
Enemy reinforcements from Rasman AB were now enroute. Two trucks arrived to deliver troops, but you were out of effective rifle range. One M47 was fired after you but it missed the target. You did the Smart Move ™ and lifted the clutch. You missed date with T-55 section, and ride back home was uneventful. Mission win.
Through the Looking Glass
(ascended to godhood)
This is a tough mission, and I certainly didn't envy Varanon's task. I do think he did a good job, but a couple of things went wrong in the mission.
First of all, as a god you can see the laser marker target with the name of the guy projecting it, as well as who is possessing what UAV/Designator. I kept seeing Freeman's laser marker on their own position most of the time, so it means that if any of the LGB's had picked that one up, Bravo would have met an untimely end.
Also, FAC's need to direct planes, not the other way around. Alias was asking the planes for guidance, while it should be the other way around. Also, don't address "Air". Address a team. For example, if you are trying to engage a hard target like a tank, you call for Fury and tell them that tank is lased at position X and request a bomb run. For soft targets, call on Viper.
Also, it might be a good idea to have several extra points marked on the map by the leader. This way, it is easier to say "Target lased near point Gamma" instead of giving coordinates or relative directions to team positions.
Party Crasher
(Zeus)
The mission starts out as a normal convoy ambush but turns into a car chase. For raised drama, I managed the money transport to arrive a minute or two prior to your arrival. They usually take around 15 minutes to reach the airport, depending on how stupid the AI behaves. This time around they took a completely different route, so I had to take over since there was a dangerous bridge in the way.
The attack on the airport, though done with the required haste, was well executed (to quote Ghost Lead from Future Soldier: "Decisive, but not reckless"). You managed to take out both the truck and the plane (I think at that time the money was already loaded onto the plane) and cleared the rest of the airport before proceeding.
(Incidentally, I had another idea on how to stop the plane - if you still have a satchel, you can plant it on the runway while the plane is turning around for take-off and exploded it while it is rolling over it).
On the way to the extraction, however, things went wrong. Due to the Humvee's being too close together and a hasty maneuver of the driver, the Mk30 engaged the second Humvee, resulting in the destruction of both.
The mission end triggered there, although one of you was still up. Seems like I have a miss-by-one in the condition, need to check that. Oh well, third time's a charm
Nogova Blues
(sniper)
The first position on the hillside, while giving a good overview of the town, prevented me from seeing the front of the city hall, so we moved around to the radio tower on the hill to the west of town. Unfortunately, I couldn't even see the city hall from there. Generally there is no "good" catch-all position. I managed to get to a spot were I could successfully engage the DShkM in the entrance (three times, damn AI kept manning it). I did rake up quite a kill count, ended up with 15 kills but that was like shooting fish in a barrel, the plaza in front of the city hall was cramped full of juicy targets.
The incident at the Iron Bank showed why overpenetration of assault rifles can be an issue in hostage situations.
Harvest Moon
(squad lead)
Thanks to the excellent leadership of an extremely handsome officer, we didn't lose a single man on this one, not even the AI. Things got quite hair-raising (well if I had any) on the first objective, since there was a lot of them, but we all kept our cool and things proceeded smoothly from there.
Everybody brought their top game to this, and it showed.
Six Degrees
(gunner on first try, pilot on second)
The first attempt was a short one. Arma showed the middle finger to Manuel's Joystick, in spite of having full throttle the helicopter did not want to climb and ended up in the treetops. I really wonder when Arma will get reliable joystick support, I find it next to impossible to use a throttle in this game.
Second attempt was me piloting the gunship, which went better since I fly with keyboard and mouse (yeah, no kidding). We successfully destroyed two convoys. On the third, however, I ordered Manuel to engage an Iffrit HMG instead of a guard tower, and it turned out the guard tower had AA infantry on it. The time between warning and impact was extremely short. If I were an AI pilot I would have successfully evaded, but since I am only human the missile hit me and I went down. I tired to land on the building, and well, if by "land" I mean "crashed so hard into it that half of the front was missing", then I succeeded in "landing"
I really hate how AI pilots instantaneously react to incoming missiles. It's completely unrealistic.
Through the Looking Glass
(Command)
One of those missions i usually am afraid to lead because I know that at one point, I'll be overwhelmed. I'm just not good at managing more than one or two teams. I get overwhelmed, and stop leading and only react... that's why I'm definitely not the right guy for real life leading.
In any case, almost nothing worked smoothly. Communication between the two FAC teams was mediocre at best (and that's my fault as well as Bravo Lead's fault). In situations like this, it's necessary to communicate exactly what we are doing, or the result is chaos. I'm just not good at that...
So in the end, both teams did independently work on targets, and that probably lead to a lot of confusion.
Party Crasher
(Alpha Automatic Rifleman)
The Ambush went smoothly, and the ensuing chase started well, but I mistook the airport with the harbor which meant we were on a bad route that eventually forces us to cross through the forest (eventually, we always would have ended with going through the forest).
Luckily, the truck arrive just ahead of us, and I could destroy the DC-3 with an RPG-7 we nicked from one of the Syndikat guys. All went well until we drove toward the harbor. Due to enemy contact, the second vehicle with the GMG was firing, but do to the driver doing a sharp turn, the grenade hit our car and exploded it, and the second car crashed into it... result: a bunch of cranky guys rolling on the floor, mission over...
Nogova Blues
(Spotter/Designator Operator)
One of those missions I never fired a single shot and still enjoyed it. I spent most of the time observing through the designators. Not much else to say, really.
Harvest Moon
(Marksman)
This went pretty smoothly, although the odds were overwhelming. From our overwatch position we had good opportunities, and Manuel's drone recon waspriceless.
Six Degrees
(2xGunner)
In a mission like this, as a gunner, you just react. And that's sometimes pretty hard not knowing what direction the chopper is facing. Also, I think the gun camera's compass is crap. In any case, we had a good first run but unfortunately, the last convoy made it home.
On our second try, Variable said we were being attacked by a Marid. I searched for it, found it, engaged with DAGR, and destroyed it. Yay. Then the Marid shot us down... I missed the second one, sadly.
Hot Summer
(Pilot)
I need more chopper training as a pilot, that's for sure. I'm still not sure whether I prefer flying with mouse and keyboard, or joystick. I tried both, and dislike both, so maybe I shouldn't fly at all.
In any case, after inserting the troops and returning to base, we set out with the Blackfish. This beast flies like a brick. It doesn't turn when you want it to, but with vectoring enabled, it tilts over like a boss. SO I switched to map for two seconds, switched back, and suddenly the VTOL was tilted forward so far that it picked up speed and crashed.
I hate flying.
Through the Looking Glass
Fury 1, F-35 pilot
All I did in this mission was strafe a BRDM and lose my pride getting my fifth generation fighter shot down by a damn Soviet era ground attack jet that almost belong in a museum because I missed two Sidewinders, overshot it and got into his 30mm sights. Oh, I also spectated Valhalian's Super Cobra and RueLight's awsome attacks and took a lot of screenshots.
On a more serious note. Lasing targets should be performed while following this process:
Spot target > Mark your location on the map > Mark target on map > Call for air asset > Lase target > Provide BDA > Turn laser off > If target destroyed remove its marker from the map
Note that the laser should be on ONLY once you have an air asset that is assigned to hit it. Right after the bomb run, shut it down.
Read Stag's post on Outlawz' Strike Down CAS mission on Sahrani (that we still need to beat!) that discusses command and control in such missions. Another good read for mission makers that consider making more CAS missions (please do!) is the CAS in missions - how to do it right thread.
That was a great mission, I look forward to flying in it again!
Party Crasher
Overall Command, Alpha Lead
The ambush part was conducted perfectly and we even cut down the waiting time until moving to intercept the money shipment by Alpha getting the Humvees to the ambush site while Bravo mopped up survivors and destroyed vehicle that remain intact in the ambush.
Driving to the airport was nerve wrecking, driving the lead vehicle, I felt exhausted when we finally reached our destination. Luckily we picked up an RPG from one of the cartel members that were stupid enough to ambush us, and that allowed Varanon to light up the plane from range. The most gratifying part for me was assaulting the defenders in the airport. We could have bugged out right after completing our primary mission of course, but it felt wrong to leave drug dealers alive when we had the means to kill them, especially given the history of the person behind my nickname hehe.
Part of me is glad that we failed to extract, because that means we will be able to pick this one again, now with FFV capable vehicles (pretty please Alwarren). That way, the people riding at the back will be able to have some fun countering the ambushes along the way. But guys, really, keep your distance when driving in a convoy!
Â
Nogova Blues
Badass SWAT with a shotgun
Nice solid leading Valhalian! The only reminder I wish to give is that leading is often balancing between preserving safety and time. On that mission I felt we lean too much on the safe side. Even if the enemy was not massacring the civilians there, we waited too long until we assaulted.
Harvest Moon
Alpha Team's Medic
That was a wonderful, continuous firefight that was executed perfectly.
Hot Summer
Alpha Lead
That is a good mission with lots of potential, I look forward to trying it again. There are CAS options and a Blackfish gunship to mess with. We need to remember to turn off respawn in the parameters , but in any case, BIS revive is enabled, I doubt we will get to use respawn even if we forget.
Through the Looking Glass
(Red King)
Disclaimers first:
This was a test run, and I consider the mission to be still in alpha. I don't usually release this unpolished missions, but in this particular case I had put HEMTT truckload of work hours to it. I wanted to know whether it is playable in the first place. This mission needs certain redesigns, some of them not so easy. Thank you for your help and feedback everyone, it is much apprecated.Â
Veterans remembers OTL Harrier mission 'Wild Weasels' and FHQ 'Bloodlines'. This mission was combination of both. It involves flying, guiding aircraft. designators. Lots of advanced stuff we don't practice every day. It is definitely one of the tougher ones out there. I salute Varanon for leading this.
Good comments by FHQ and Variable above. Jet is a platform. It is very difficult for fast movers to pick targets on ground, especially Tanoa, especially night. Talk. Communicate. One JTAC-one jet-one attack at a time, rinse and repeat.
[Spoilers removed]
Party Crasher
(Bravo TL, again)
Mission followed roughly the same plan as before. Ambush convoy, tons of explosives, and chase the truck.
My explosive specialists Ruelight and Freeman did good job with satchels, and we lit up the convoy nicely. Following car chase was quite the experience. I was driving, and Ruelight was manning the GMG. Small roads, lots of speed, and couple of encounters. We pushed through, and kept the momentum. Especially drive through the jungle was nerve wrecking experience. Thanks to my team for helping me with directions.
Action at airfield was short & bloody. My team manned both vehicles, and we put up ton of suppressing fire to plane, control tower, and airfield facilities. Great teamwork there, everyone did good and followed orders crisply.
On way back, we had incident with GMG. It was my fault. We came under fire from right side of road, and yellow tracers were hitting my car and wounded me. Enemy fire team was close, but still within acceptable danger close limits. I put my GMG sights to house wall behind the target. Then my Humvee rocked to left same millisecond I pulled trigger. GMG shrapnel hit close to front car > collision > sad end. If you pull trigger and result is friendly fire, culprit is in the mirror. This time it was me, and I failed the mission.
Reading AAR by Alwarren shows why Zeus slot is a good idea. Now potential AI disaster was averted, and mission continued.
Nogova Blues
(Zeus)
Nogova needs a new town hall, new mayor, and you need retry the mission.
Good work guys, but from my point of view, you took hell of a lot of time before moving in.
If this was a 'normal' setup with regular armed forces, I would heartily appreciate sending scout to get idea what you are up against. However this is not Marines in Takistan. IN THIS MISSION you are police officers responding to active shooter situation. Shots are fired, people are dying, and you must respond rapidly with forces at hand. ESPECIALLY when you hear shots being fired in town! I was about to fail the mission, when you started moving in!
That said, in town, good work with moving in city, and storming the town hall. Sniper team eliminated the most dangerous threats and good urban CQB from Adam 1 and 2!
My guess is Mayor, and additional Zeus placed civilian in bank, were killed by gunfire. I can't be sure if it was your doing, or did they just get to crossfire by being AI. In this map AI can also clip through structures resulting deaths. That said, IN THIS MISSION you are police officers, and you know there are civs. Especially in town hall, and in the bank. IN THIS mission consider carefully if putting rounds through the wall or grenading the shit out of premises is smart.
Due incident with wire, mission will be replayed when new town hall has been rebuilt to Nogova.
Harvest Moon
(Autorifleman)
Very fun mission. Setup was simple and straight forward. No designators, air strikes, artillery or silk gloves like in Nogova. Just grunts on the ground. As a result mission had great firefights and good coop.
Particularly tough encounters for team red were ambush from back and sides when team green went to buildings, and coming under fire enroute to RV with team green. Volume is sometimes as good as accuracy. Plenty of suppressive fire, best guesses, and we made it.
We had good comms, and recce by Manuel. We knew where friendlies are, and what we are up against. Great leading Alwarren and great teamwork. Fun!
Six Degrees
(Gunner)
3 tries. Fun and simple helicopter mission. I have been only couple of times in helicopter, and Valhalian as my skilled pilot I had the fun part to deliver the ordnance. We spotted targets at relatively long ranges, and were able to dispatch them without even coming under fire.
However one of the convoys made it to factory in every try, and mission was failed.
Hot Summer
(Gunner for Brynden Tully VTOL)
I can see benefits of using the VTOL as support, but it requires lot of work. Relatively narrow field of fire for gunner, and the thing handles like beached whale. That said, it can pack respectable firepower, and I have mission in pipeline with idea of using it for support. We had annoying incident with palm trees while setting up. Aircrafts fault. Had it been CUP DC-3, it wouldn't have been even scratched ; )
FQH Rescue
(Machine gunner)
I had only one can of ammo in the start, but we're freedom fighters and ammo is expensive. Short controlled bursts ala Cpl Hicks (USCM). Unfortunately things went south, and despite my short controlled bursts I eventually ran low on ammo.
T-72 (t)rolled past us, and boss wanted us to move. I thought the tank was busy engaging the town, but instead it turned upon us on the field. BMP-2 coming from rear finished the catering. Bad guess.
FHQ Fire and blood
(Targaryen pyromancer)
Great mission, my first in Fallujah. Very nice setup and time of day. I was explosive specialist in Valhalians team. We mostly stayed at back in the start, but got to few interesting firefights during our insertion.
We located the pilots compound, found one shellshocked Harrier driver , and had to deal with trash coming in from the south. Soon we got a task to push south, clear spotted guardposts, and locate the jet. Good fun crawl with some juicy action with heavy ammo consumption (M1911 is a gentlemans sidearm)
We located jet, set up charges, and lit it up. At same time our command element and other teams had sustained heavier casualties. We returned to pilot compound, got ready to move, and bugged out after a few hiccups and one terribly ungentlemanly RPG gunner getting on the way.
During the drive back I admired Fallujah from the outside of SUV with few tracers (the green variety) thrown in. Only in the base they told me there was actually room inside the vehicle. Waah. Wrong aftershave or bad puns. Served me right.
Winter's Beach
(Frozen god)
This mission had fair number of technical issues. Worst issue for me was that several friendly / enemy units weren't properly added to my interface. I.e even if I saw the issues on the ground, I had no tools to help. I was as blind as you were. HAD I been smart, and thought clearly, I would have copy-pasted the unit/object add script to debug console and exec'd on server > solved. Well, I am a god. Not a genius.
Another critical issue was that certain unit spawns were not triggered at proper places. As units were not added to my interface, I couldn't observe nor interact with them. This led to unexpected encounter at chapel. It wasn't necessarily bad, but it was not working as author had intended.
Other issues encountered were missing loadouts for AT gunners, which in this case were critical assets.
That all said, first part of the mission worked fine. Under Etzus command Marines landed with bad attitude and linked up with battered and exhausted Army medical platoon. You were informed of situation at the docks, and had to defend it. Quite straightforward. A bit of time to set up, usual artillery preparation, and enemy forces moved in. Good fight, and you dealt the vehicles very efficiently. Good shooting AT! Catch here (on this play run) was to notice a squad flanking you from the coast. I don't know if you noticed it or not, but Sphoenix's team saved you from being flanked. They had already entered the docks when they were dealt with.
Unfortunately couple of AI got stuck, one under a tree, and one for being, well, being AI. As I didn't have them on my interface finding them took some time. Another delay was the helicopter delivering supplies. It circled around for 5 minutes and refused to pick the cargo. These delays were technical faults, and also my errors as a missions maker.
Delay with crate arrival aside, I think setting up to move took too long. Marines had already engaged friendlies on your eastern flank, and you had orders to push south and maintain momentum. Now the shuffle with ammo crates took quite a while. It is ok to send teams to rearm one by one, if you are under fire. Now things had calmed down and the thing was to move on and haul ass.
In general (not related to this mission nor any person in particular), ammo crates tend to easily create unnecessary delays. Grab extra mag for your weapon, extra rocket if you have launcher, maybe smoke or frag or two, step aside, and let next person in. Don't treat ammo crate as a personal shopping mall and spend hours to see if new cool gadgets are available.
You had 3 working vehicles in docks, but moving on foot was justified too. DIstance was relatively short. For some reason certain units were spawned at a wrong phase, leading you being up against stronger than intended enemy force. Again, these were not in my interface so I was as surprised as you were.
BMP on the road was spotted and dealt with. It had deployed troops to the roadside before it was destroyed, and this encounter wiped out one of your fireteams (Variables?). Things escalated rapidly. Apparently you regrouped at a local rustic country church. Soon I got a hasty report of 50% casualties. Mission would have not been winnable at this point and it would have been a long spectate to half of the players. More casualties, and I ordered last remaining Marines to disengage and evacuate to beach. They were spotted by enemy officer, failed a dice roll (1d10) check and the VDV officer on the ground called in mortar fire. First bracketing rounds landed off the mark ,but fire was corrected for effect and it caught you.Â
Tanoa in crisis
(Semi-medic)
Very fun and simple mission with great firefights in the jungle between objectives. 2nd mission where I had to switch to pistol in emergency. We had to locate two ammo caches and a mortar pit and extract by helicopter. We came under fire from almost all sides during the transit. Good fun. Everyone were sharp and on the same page.Â
Good teamwork and leading by Varanon and Variable, and for once a working helicopter extraction. Nice one Teck!