(11-26-2016, 08:28 AM)Sputnik Monroe Wrote: [ -> ]Gwyn, in your video I saw you medical menu is a lot different in ACE, what is the option name to use that version?
It's "Use medical menu" (ACE options->medical category). After that, you can set the keybind in controls, H should be default.
One thing I really recommend, even more than the medical menu is to set "interaction animation speed" to 3x (ACE options->interaction menu category). It speeds up those interaction menu animations (text appearing) so you can navigate the menu a lot faster.
Despite rough start, this one turned out to be one of most fun/brutal CSI experiences.
At the mission start Alpha set up on the ridge overlooking the objective. We soon spotted hostiles at a distance (250-400m) and we started trading shots. Den and I scored couple of nice hits with 40mms but the prolonger firefight resulted lots of people running out of ammo. Ammo bearer was suddenly MVP of the match.
Eventually A-actual, Etzu, decided to go around from the right, by the road. During the setup we lost our leader and two more, and soon it was only 4 of us left. Variable took over, and we pushed by the road, constantly out of ammo and supplies.
We took shelter in one of the buildings and enjoyed delicious panic as the opposite force was determined to assault to our position. I was killed upon exiting the house, and my opponent and I killed each others with thrown grenades. In the end it was only two men left, and we won the day.
Proper colours
(TL-ALpha)
I don't particularly enjoy playing my own missions, but this worked at least somewhat as I intended it, save some hiccups with AI spawning/pathfinding at a later phase.
Alphas job was to secure northern side of the road. We came under fire before disembarkation point and took cover by the wall, and started pushing our assigned lane. Our lane was relatively clear but we heard vehicle/Bravo having happy times on our right. Den spotted one beached patrol boat, but our vehicle managed to neutralize it. We didn't have that much to do with securing 1st objective (Savu), but it was still moody experience for me.
Eventually we set up to move to rail yard (2nd objective). We spotted BMP-2 guarding the bridge. It was soon dealt with by our Warrior. We moved to get overlook of the rail yard. Good news was we found relatively good spot at rocks, with a good overlook over the entire yard. We spotted static ZU-23, patrol boat, and some infantry. Bad news was that at this phase one of us (Den) fell through the rocks, and I got partially clipped inside one, and I was soon killed by grenade from infantry squad almost directly beneath us beyond line of sight. I think they also managed to throw RPG at our vehicle. It was Alphas job to take care of that rail yard and thus the error was mine.
I took over Zeus, and spent some time locating couple of troublesome AIs spawned inside containers and one was just stubbornly stuck. That's why rail yard task took longer than expected. I also adjusted friendlies assaulting the town from other direction, and they did actually a bit too good job. Well, COLDM GDS are tough lads, and that's war. Legit assistance.
Friendly helicopter support engaged with a duel with enemy Mi-17 with various results, and guys on the ground assisted, eventually managing to shoot down the pest. However biggest obstacle was static D-30 overlooking the main street. It decimated rest of Alpha, and scored hits on other teams as well. Eventually it was flanked and dealt with, practically endind the mission.
Good fun guys, especially Val for taking the lead.
This was a fun mission. Set up was relatively simple, push through the bridge, but it offered good firefights. First in urban setting, then at the bridge.
It was fun to see air support engaging targets, and I think ground-air coordination worked at least ok. We spotted several troublespots at the brigde/shore, and air assets neutralized the threats.
I still don't know what killed me, but rest of the team managed to win the day.
Stewed Rabbit
(SL)
My 3rd try with this one. On first two attempts I had been killed within first five minutes to mission. This time I lasted 15. Improvement. We followed basically the same plan as before, this time we gave BMP a bit of a head start with harvesting the objective, and infantry dismounted at SW end instead of middle of the town.
Thanks to Manuel's BMP work the infantry got to village safe and sound. Despite thorough pummeling, there were still enough hostiles in the town to give the infantry bang for the buck. McGregors Tea Red took most of the hits. During team Whites push, I got killed by a camper on the grass. I saw AK muzzle, I knew there was a friendly guy to my left, I assumed it is friendly, and bang. Survivors mopped up the town, and all was good until HQ informed us of T72s coming to town.
BMP evacuated the infantry, and lived to fight another day.
Good teamwork everyone, especially with vehicle support.
Gamma inserted to southern end of objective by the graveyard. We spotted armed technical and a tactical combat quadbike from the air. We pretty much ran to hostiles right at the start, and eventually took refuge in two story building. Medic, McGregor was lost at this point.
A bit later upon crossing the street we took, I suspect 40mm, too close. It wounded MJ and I got killed. However survivors cleared the village, destroyed caches, and mission win.
This looks like a great replayable mission. Very good starter for coop night.
Without Banners
(Medic - Wolf 3 (Etzu))
From my point of view the mission start, recon, ambush setup, etc went just great. Varanon's recon team provided us intel of the convoys, and Sputnik's plan turned out to be very good. We destroyed lead BRDM-2, troop transport and captured supply trucks and enemy technicals without even a scratch in their paint! I didn't see how the action at rear end of convoy looked like, I just pelted the troop transport with buckshots until someone lit it up with rpg.
I am not sure how we lost Sputnik and Etzu. I suppose one of the crew members / transport drivers got a lucky shot. Another big loss was the loss of TS server just when we were coordinating the return of forces to safe house. Fortunately backup server worked, and heroes of Without Banners linked up at safe house with the valuable trucks.
Variable had taken over and assigned perimeter defense. We received orders from regional commander to guard the precious cargo and await for arrival of other cells. Unfortunately that never happened. We witnessed destruction of our comrades at a distance, and it was soon obvious we were about to receive unwelcome guests.
I was on eastern edge with McGregor. I spotted arriving enemy troop transport from the north, and when I looked back to watch east, unfriendly forces were looking at me with their pointed rifles. I didn't have time even to sound the alarm. Hostiles managed to breach the perimeter and hell broke loose.
From the afterlife of lord of light we spotted remaining comrades put hell of a fight, and in the end escaping with the precious hard won supply trucks. Arriving BTR put several bursts of MG fire after them, but our comrades driving the trucks put pedal to the metal, and prevailed..for now. Unfortunately not entirely without losses. A tank cannon round from T-55 destroyed one of the trucks just as it was getting away! Remaining trucks, Freeman and Variable, continued their escape.
Variable got to view distance of the safe house when enemy forces from nearby crossroads opened fire. Man put pedal to metal, but it was matter of time until truck was incapacitated. Brave cell commander returned fire on foot, sent RPG-7 after enemy vehicle, but unfortunately did not make it. However this likely alerted Freeman that hostiles occupy X-roads, and taking out few of them likely enabled Freeman to drive through.
Now saving the world was up to Mr Freeman. Freeman approached same crossroads, but took out the remaining sentries with a crowbar, and cruised to mission victory with Ural transport like a boss.
Good teamwork, leading, good fun. Sputnik, now we know who we put to driver's seat in our 'unbeatable' missions.
Press Release
(Scout, TL)
Two tries. First one was one of most fun action packed missions for a long time. Upon arriving we noticed multiple hostiles swarming the target area. We put the bird down to closest possible location, the mosque yard, and under Manuels leadership we cleared the mosque swiftly and engaged with multiple hostiles outside the perimeter.
Manuel found the hostages, and started escorting him to helicopter. We managed to neutralize BTR-40 guarding eastern entrance, and got the VIP to helicopter under fire. Extraction and mission win. Fun!
On second try I decided to try the actual fastroping, and put the team down to wall battlement. However it didn't work as intended. The wall was not wide enough for team to insert to unless the bird is exactly in perfect spot. Also as a result some team members clipped through structure and fell through the wall. Teams got separated and I made it to eastern entrance only with 3 men but none of us made it through.
However loss of team is not a big loss while we have Manuel aboard. He dediced that he doesn't need the rest of the team anyway. He single handedly cleared the mosque of hostiles, got to the hostage (again) and took off with the damaged Huey and another mission win (yes, really).
Fast roping is fun, but some tips for later efforts:
- Prepare system in time during flight
- Make sure everyone knows how to operate (ACE interaction - fast rope)
- Assigning one rifleman as door gunner is probably a good idea.
I still want to try the landing to mosque roof, as author intended!
Mousetrap FHQ
(TL)
Another well executed convoy ambush. Varanon set us up for ambush near X-roads, and again, we secured the critical assets intact, this time terribly evil dread pirate Colonel Aziz.
After a brief personal purgatory we spent fair amount in vehicles escaping annoyed Chedakis. Good firefights enroute, including one potentially hairy encounter with Mi-17. Variable babysitted HVT in Uaz and survivors put offroad capacity of Land Rover to use.
Upon approaching enemy AAA camp our HVT was killed in crossfire, failing mission. It was real bad luck. He wasn't even intended target for them, it was just unlucky stray round. However it was good fun action packed mission.
lol Stag " Freeman approached same crossroads, but took out the remaining sentries with a crowbar, "
I'll write my first(i think) debrief post for a mission. I just tend to forget the details: leaders, players,sides, casualties, map,mission name etc. But this one was memorable and stayed vivid in my head (maybe because i slept for 5 hours before the co-op hour) and also gave me palpitations (too much for a game, i need to control myself more ).
I will add some roleplay inserts for the immersion; bare with me : ). Its more like a story then a debrief.
Without Banners (Stagwine mission)
Mission : Ambush the convoy and steal the supply trucks.
The ambush part went flawlessly . We had some scouts that informed us of the composition of the convoy, so we knew exactly how to attack. After the ambush everyone boarded either the supply trucks or the technicals.
While on the way to the save house we lost radio signal with the other teams. Soon after i had to give up the steering wheel as i lost my baring. While getting close to the save house, fortunately radio signal also came back.
We needed defend the trucks while we wait for reinforcements. Inside the safe house camp there was a a BMP wreckage which gave me good cover from the NW so i announced my defending position to the leader: "Covering NW"
Within minutes hell broke loose and friendlies dying left and right. Some enemies i engaged from my position but the main fight was going on at the entrances(i think). It happened pretty fast. Latest order came from Variable, now the leader of the remaining force " Get in the trucks and move EST to the new safe house". No reinforcements will come.
I grabbed the first truck in sight and after a minute of back and forth with Variable, i floored the pedal, existing from the north of the camp. "The same direction the enemies came from" i was thinking in my head. Fortunately my now dead comrades gave a hell of a fight. All i saw was dead bodies and an exploded vehicle.
I took the first road to the East, but i soon realized this road was deviating farther and farther from where i was supposed to be going. I called Variable for some map readings. He shouted " east Freeman , east ! " . "well no road leads to east from my position" i said to myself. One or two more back and forth with Variable then i pulled on the wheel off road, to the east. I was going uphill, through the woods. Its east alright.
After couple of hundred meters of climbing in a truck, I finally got to dirt road. I also saw a landmark so i called Variable once more: " I see a landmark, its a castle, looks more like a ruin . Any idea where i am? " .
He managed to pinpoint my position before saying that he is being engaged.
I check the map and finally i know how to get to the new safe house. I guess i should have payed more attention in the briefing. I arrive at a first crossroads and i spot a bunker. I stop the truck to look in the distance if the bunker is occupied. Got lucky this time, it was empty. Two more crossroads passed and no enemies in sight. I guess getting side tracked at the beginning did help after all as no one was expecting me from this side.
So now i'm on the main road that leads me to the safe house. As i approach, i see some houses on the side so i decide to stop the truck, and do some recon ahead. I get one last call from Variable. With his last dying breath he says: " Don't rush it, take your time". My heart starts pumping like crazy. I can't control it. I need to finish this; my comrades need these supplies.
I soon spotted a technical parked on the right side, near a house 100-150m away. That couldn't be the only enemy i thought to myself. I barely made few steps further and i heard one guy patrolling meters away...
He was too close , I had to kill him. I drop him and quickly turn towards the technical to kill the gunner. I rapidly advance further. Another enemy pops from the woods, i try to aim at him but i can't steady the rifle, i'm too tired. I loose contact, so i retreat back , and covered behind a tree, i wait for him to pop up again. "I think he didn't spot me". Sure enough he appears again and i drop him. More enemies skyline on the hill and a firefight ensues. I mange to survive but my luck can't last for much longer. So i retreat to the back of the truck to check the map again. Its a straight line all the way to the save house. I hop in the car and floor it. Few shots i hear from the back but they are getting farther away. I see the safe house. I'm safe.
Good post, Freeman! I liked that style. Too bad I'm not a story teller....
Anyway, yesterday:
Hindu Kush Milk Run (Ops Lead)
This was a pretty frustrating start for me as Ops leader. First of all, some of us had problems with ACRE not connecting, the rest had problems with ACRE not working. Literally standing next to Alwarren, he couldn't hear me. It was quite a mess.
Unfortunately, my leading suffered from that. So I'm not going to say too much about the mission, except for one thing: When you are under fire, you take cover, without the team leader telling you to. This is true for infantry, and it's true for any vehicle. So when you are under fire as APC crew, get the hell out of the line of fire, and don't wait to be orderd to get out of fire. The ideal way is to go backward full speed, or, as I suggested, taking cover behind the rock formation at the ridge. But standing in the open is definitely not a good idea.
The Bomb (Spotter)
Not really much to say. The sniper team started on a flat roof about 200 m out from the target. Since one team was immediately detected, we opened up, shot a few guys, and then were out of targets. Then a nuke went off and everybody died.
This Land
(Alpha Grenadier)
Alpha was taking a long way around the target area to cut off a possible retreat by the HVT. To that end, bombs were planted on the roads leading out of the village. We then tooke cover on top of a small hill overlooking the scene, and waited until we heard the alert klaxon go off. We heard a car door close, and at the same time, a patrol came up the small hill, and then the car suddenly appeared. Variable ordered the bomb to go off which Freeman promptly answered, but the slight delay in communications was enough for the car to speed past the bomb and escape.
We dispatched of the patrol and went into the town to find transportation. We lost two men in the process, including our team leader Variable, with Alwarren replacing him as team lead. We found a truck, but at that time, we knew we'd never reach the HVT, so we drove northward towards our extraction. After a short incident with a few stragglers, we reached the link-up point, and escaped towards the Afghan border.
Neutral Zone (Alpha Medic)
This was an awesome mission. We came in from the hillsite and distributed along the rocks, then opened fire on the enemies in town. After a short firefight, the town was ours, and then, the real meat of the mission began. We had word that enemies were incoming, so we were tasked with setting up defences. Everyone was after a general that was in the base in cricital condition attached to a life support.
I was manning the mortar, which I made frequent use of, until the ammo was out.
There was a UAZ on the road with an SPG-9, which I manned afterwards. That's when the air assault started. An MI-8 and shortly thereafter an american Chinook appeard, as well as an unknown black Hind. Luckily, we also had UN air support in form of another Hind. The enemy Hind was brought down by ours, the Chinook and Mi-8 by RPG fire from Bravo.
The latter nearly crashed onto me:
Luckily, no harm done (except a 100 year old minaret tower destroyed).
Finally, we had word from command that the US dispatched two F-22 with Napalm bombs to incinerate the place. We took the general loaded everyone into a truck. Mish was absent-mindedly inspecting daisies blooming on the roadside, so he obviously didn't hear the order to get into the truck, which delayed us quite a bit and endangered success of the mission. We got out with a truck that was half dead and had to be repaired along the way. While reparing, we heard the planes approach... then, this:
Shortly after, we go back to base and had our well deserved beer. Hell of a mission!
Bravo heads toward enemy from the south, AI didn't listen to Etzu's command and open fire early. So I guess we end up getting their attention to the south while Alpha clears them from the North.
Obamacare
From what it seems to me despite BIS fixing convoys so its easier to have convoy ambush missions, it seems that convoy defense mission seems more problematic. Not sure how careless waypoints goes, but if Zeus can't override them and they go FUBAR after being engage, that'll be problematic. I'm curious if AIs still behave properly in a convoy after being engage, or is it only before they are engage.
Into the Void
Awesome firefight with a lot of guerillas engaging us from everywhere. Misha and I got lucky with the BMP when we took cover in the house. So yeah, I was completely lost on my navigation on this one. I was thinking of heading down the road and move to the right of it then orientate a bit east-south-east to find the compound, but it turns out I'm going the wrong way. I prefer teamleaders with GPS if they're specops. I tend to have no GPS for guerillas or poor armies, but prefer them as SpecOps teamleader. I thought the first compound I was taking cover a bit by was the beginning entry point to the compound, but I might be a bit more north than Alpha? After engaging the loads of infantry there, we nicked an RPG to engage the disabled BMP since we already fired our AT4 at the BMP and took out the wheels. The troops stayed in to fire machinegun at everyone, but Misha destroyed it in the end. After that, Alpha pretty much took out both the compounds, we flew out with a lot of bullets behind us, follow Alwarren and raid the compound with some nice fast pace CQB firefights. Problem is tasks didn't tick, but it was an awesome action pack mission.
My second time in helm of Bravo with this one. This time we attempted entirely different tactic.
Bravo was to set up additional ambush site further west of Alpha. During march we encountered one patrol but were able to avoid detection. Good spotting.
Our explosive specialist, Freeman, set up explosives near road bend and rest of team took overwatch. Soon my team spotted vehicle approaching. Consensus in team was that this is the HVT, and Freeman lit up the parcel. Scratch one HVT. At this point we heard Alpha being engaged, and my team received orders to set-up and approach next objective, vehicle yard, from the west.
During push we encountered multiple hostiles and got to hairy firefight at our set up point, including one BMP. However brave survivor from Alpha (Alwarren) managed to eliminate the threat. Situation at the buildings got hot, and we had to keep moving. We got to vehicle yard, and as we took positions to assault the compound I was killed.
However my lads managed to win the day and mission was complete.
Missing in action
(Medic)
Good fun run. Village was familiar to us from previous missions and due unforeseen radio issues, it took a while to establish contact with air. Good job for coordinating with air Phantom after we sustained casualties.
(Red smoke = poor man's frag)
Wolf and the Lion
(Easy rider)
Thou shalt not motorcycle without helmet.
Freedom Run
(Grenadier-ad hoc tl)
This had excellent balance, good unit placement, and there was good action and credible opposing force regardless of the route chosen.
We started our push in darkness and used flares to illuminate the path. Eventually in one firefight we lost our valiant TL, Variable, and I took over. Initial plan was to push south of main highway and see what we come up against. Action at bunker cost us more casualties, and I spotted vehicles and static MG nest in our planned route. We had no good weapons against them and we diverted to another route to north, then west to Old bridge. In the end it was only four of us left. Hellhammer, McGregor and Valhalian. Good teamwork, especially in the end and great pathfinding and marksmanship from HH.
We played hide and seek between buildings and got to couple of tough situations. In one of them I got wounded and had to crawl from open street to cover inside buildings until McG patched me up. Toughest nut to crack was to figure out how to cross Euphrates. Bridge head was guarded by static HMG, bunker with full squad and BRDM-2. We had no weapons against them so our choices were grim. We decided to take our chances in the river, swim under the bridge, and use bridge concrete pillars to shield us from the enemy. We dropped helmets, vests, heavy gear, and swam only with holstered pistols across the river. Wondrously we actually pulled it off, and escaped from Fallujah!
Simple mission with tons of fun. Very moody and in the end quite stressing 'escape from' style mission. Look forward for more from Evans.
Well, that was a bummer. The spot I chose was mediocre at best, and we all got brutally murdered in the course of the operation. Except of course Gwyn who did his own murdering, piling up bodies outside of the building he was in. MJ did some great flying, landing the chopper pretty much smack in the middle of the base. Unfortunately, the area was pretty clustered and a slight gust of wind was enough for a rotor strike. They tried to get away from the crash site, but there was just too many opposition, and our stalwart heroes were brutally murdered.
Watching from the ski again showed how aggressive the new AI is, and how clever they behave (even leaning to the side and dropping on their side so they get a better angle at you... great)
Hostage Rescue (Medic)
Most of the time, I didn't even see the enemy in the high grass. When we finally reached the top of the hill and searched the buildings, the hostage was dead. I wonder what happened. I heard multiple bullet impacts near me, but no shots, so I have no idea what happend.
The Nameless City (Zeus)
From the sky, all men look like ants, and things become clearer. When Bravo moved in towards the small hamlet, they cleared it, but when Alpha finally arrived, a Syndikat group has reached it investigating the noises. Going from there, you got lucky, Redstone and Syndikat have already decimated each other on the hilltop fighting about the supplied. Redstone won.
Then came the APC... it caught you a bit unaware, although I don't understand why you didn't shoot. I stopped it at the crossroads for quite some time. Ok, Alpha AT guy was bugged, so it was harder than necessary, and ultimately lead to the death of over half of the teams.
Castle Black (First attempt) (Medic)
The approach was interesting, moving around the castle instead of through the breach. In previous attempts, this is where we were mostly murdered. The beginning was great, the tower was quickly neutralized and we moved unmolested around the castle (only once did the enemy try a mean trick by dropping a burning truck onto us). Unfortunately, an armed offroad caught us at the castle walls close to the entrance and mowed us down.
Castle Black (Second attempt) (Medic)
On to the second attempt. After a bit of faffing about at the beginning with the AI clutching the gun close to his breats, for the night is dark and full of terrors, we finally got on our way, only to hear gunfire from the castle. We knew immediately that Variables cover was blown. Once more unto the breach, my friends, with guns blazing, and lobbing holy handgrenades over the crumbled walls. We made it inside, but soon noticed that the fight was not going in our favor. Nevertheless, we prevailed, in the end, only Manuel and me, to clear out all the enemies.
By then, the enemy was forming up for a counter attack, and we stood on the walls and towers, and it took two helicopters and an APC to take us down.
And then, our watch has ended.
Patrol Ambush (Machinegunner)
From our vantage point on the building, it was basically a turkey shoot. I spent all my ammunition, so Alwarren passed me his pistol, which I used to kill an enemy and take his gun, which I then couldn't use anymore because someone killed the remaining guy. Lot's of 'splosions from Sputnik's OG-7 shots.
Wrecking Crew (multiple tries) (Engineer and MRAP gunner)
First attempt, the tank was destroyed along with the crew.
Second attempt was little better, the tank was lost, but the crew survived long enough to be "rescued" (in MASSIVE quotes) by us. Unfortunately, a patrolling BMP parked on my face (after shooting me). The survivors made it back to our MRAP, just to be mowed down by some dude that was thankful that we let him have our MRAP. He thanked the survivors by giving back pieces of it... little lead pieces... (video coming up)
The third attempt was working out well. we made it to the tank, blasting anything we encountered with machine gun fire, but the tank was lost to us. What followed was a high speed ride through nightly Fallujah with a lot of cursing and machine gun fire. (Video coming up)
At the first attempt we got spotted prematurely, which nullified the explosive placement and led to a bloody firefight that ended in our demise.
In the second attempt we positioned Bravo close to the bridge and Alpha in a vantage point, which was too far too my liking but provided unobstructed overwatch on the ambush site. Bravo placed explosive charges at the end of the bridge, hoping to trap the convoy by destroying the lead escort.
We were able to clearly identify the objective vehicles we had to snatch and the escorts as they rolled in. Bravo detonated the explosive, ignited the lead off-road and kept quiet while Alpha opened up with AK and RPG fire, and scored good hits. One of the drivers that was trapped on the bridge jumped to his death. The road was sawn with burning vehicles as the command was given to Bravo to move out of hiding and snatch the vehicles. We covered them as they moved in and saw them put several rival cartel fighters out of their miseries. Bravo captured the vehicles and started to move out to the hideout, leaving Alpha to move on foot to the vehicle stash.
Alpha had a lot of trouble on the way to the hideout. We reached the vehicles but soon after we were ambushed on the road and had to ditch one of the vehicles after replacing one of its wheels. I was shot dead during one of the firefights but gladly the rest managed to brake contact, reach a pier and steal boats.
In retrospect we should have avoided the roads, but overall it was a great experience. Good job everyone!
Valhalian or others, how was it from Bravo's point of view?
Bravo was probably bored because they didn't have anything to do. I was stupid, I should have organized something for them via Zeus, but TBH I didn't think of that. I will do that next time someone is "idle". After all, that is one of the great things about Zeus.
Completely open terrain made this a rather difficult proposition. We got spotted and started to engage. At one point, TBH, I started to think this mission might be buggy.
CSAR Jolly Green (Door Gunner)
There is a lesson to be learned from this mission. Either land really REALLY quickly, or circle the site and make sure that RPG's are spent before tryng to land. As it was, the chopper got hit by an RPG and it was Game Over.
Castle Black (Victim)
I fell victim to my own grenade right at the beginning. The ruins of the castle wall did not stop bullets, nor shrapnel.
One thing, I noticed someone running around with NATO NVG's. I can only assume they came from the crate, it was EXPLICITLY said not to take anything but clackers or flashlights from the crate. Please respect the leader's instructions.
White Rabbit (Medic ?)
I was a medic on Alpha team, although I suspect I wasn't supposed to be because I had no medical equipment (It seems Sempri had, since I looted his body later). First part went semi-decent, in spite of crash bugs, and Bravo lost their leader.
Second part became hell. We got spotted prematurely, but managed to get to the guards in time to prevent the killing of the second hostage (apparently, the first one was already dead). By that time however we had been decimated. I tried to get up Varanon on the beach but there were so many CSAT swarming me that I didn't managed in time. In the end, I was the only survivor and managed to get the hostage to the extraction point. Mission completed, but the cost were astronomical.
The mission is good, but it has a few annoying "features" that makes me not very eager to play it again. One thing is that equipment doubles when players JIP (due to the incomprehensible change in the way the init field works in Arma 3), and that ACE settings are enforced by the mission - there is absolutely no reason for that.
Synchronicity (Ops leader)
Another mission crafted out of pure liquid Awesome.
The idea was to detonate three transformer stations on the Chernarus south coast simultaneously. No long range radio, so I had two choices:
Try some form of non-verbal communication
Go for a fixed time
Since I wasn't sure that the rifle flares could actually be seen from so far away, I opted to go for the fixed time. I ordered the bombs be detonated at 0030 hours, 30 minutes after mission start.
The night was dark and full of terrors when we set out from our camp. I stopped the car a bit too early, although I was scared we might be detected. We managed to sneak up on the hill next to the power plant in Elektrozavodsk, and assessed the situation. Much to my surprise there was little in terms of guards. A road block further down the road to Elektro and a patrol passing by the power plant were the only things we spotted, plus an occasional helicopter passing overhead. When the patrol had cleared the area, I ordered Variable and Freeman down to the station with Varanon and myself saying on overwatch. Things went smoothly, and we retreated slightly up on the hill towards better cover. At 0030, I ordered the explosives set off. Much to our surprise and excitement, it had actually worked and the other teams had managed their task as well.
Retreating back to the car, I decided to follow the road up until Castle Rog. The roads were supposedly patrolled, but I figured that a field road like this one would only be of minor concern. We left the road at the intended point, and Varanon confidently navigated us in pitch black darkness through the forest at night, while I took care to bump into every tree on the path there. On the road to Staroye (I think) we got shot at, but I just floored it and we lost them pretty quickly.
As we were approaching the exfil point, we managed to make contact with Bravo team via short-range alternate channel. They were a bit ahead of us and had just arrived at the church in Kumyrna. There, they found that the NAPA cell there was murdered and got attacked by enemy troops. We came to their help, and used the radio there to contact our command.
Turns out that there was a bus parked in the church ruin, which served as an emergency medical vehicle. Our new orders were to deliver that vehicle to a safe house in the Black Forest. While still considering the route to take, we were attacked by a massive force of enemies and surrounded on nearly all sides. Once we started to lose men, I ordered everyone into the bus and decided to just try to get out. The road ahead, it seemed, had the least enemies. I ran over one guy shooting at us (must be painful to be hit by a bus - literally), and we followed the road towards Guglovo, intended on crossing the field over to another field road leading through the Black Forest.
Past Guglovo, we crossed an open field until we approached the T-Junction in the field roads north of Guglovo. There I spotted a land rover with Taki soldiers just in time. We snuck up on them and dispatched them. At the same time, though, a BRDM-2 from the Guglovo-Sobor road started to open up on us, but they didn't pursue so we could save our RPG-7 and just waited until they were out of sight.
With our new Land Rover, Varanon and Variable took the lead. I drove the bus behind them. There were two more incident with similar road blocks as the one we left. At the first, the V² team successfully eliminated the guard, but the second one (literally 20 meters away from the last crossroad) claimed Variable's life.
We delivered the bus, Mission Accomplished, but we lost a lot of people, including the entire Charlie team. But the mission was simply awesome. I loved every bit of it!
I'd be interested to hear Bravo and Charlie's perspective as well.
Started off well, not being able to work out where we were until we started the mission.
Our night was also dark and full of terrors, so I switched on my lights so we could see. We made our way cross country through the woods to just north of the transformer, going further than I planned, but it worked out well anyway. Before moving off, I made sure to mark the vehicle so we could find it in a hurry if we needed to. From here, we moved down to where we could get eyes on the transformer to recce the place. There was no movement at all, and several prominent gaps, so we flanked round towards the south got in, and we set a whole shitload of explosives. From here, we saw some patrols nearby, so once the explosives were in place, we withdrew to our recce position, I set a timer and we had a chat to pass the time. At the allotted time, we sent the transformers into orbit and ran for the vehicle. Just as we were about to arrive, the objective went off confirming success.
With Spunik navigating, we drove towards the extraction point. The only real problem we had is when we drove into a BMP, but some reversing and boxing round, and we made it away with some tracers trailing us. As we came into the extraction zone, we bordcast our imminent arrival and flashed our lights so everyone else wouldn't hose us down as all signs pointed to bad things. We got there, found lots of dead bodies and immediately got on the loot train, destination Mo Firepower, and got onto contacting the other teams. We got in contact with alpha almost straight away, as Sithis got on the M2 on one of the technicals. At this point, I was on edge because this is a Stag mission and as far as I know, only a dozen or so rounds have been fired, and none hit us, and this just isn't right.
Anyway, keeping in comms with Alpha, I work out what to do next but don't plan to do it until they are ready and Charlie are here (though by now due to no comms so far, I figured that they may have met with some bullet shaped problems), when as Alpha are coming to the village, Sithis goes Full Retard with the M2. I turn round, green tracers are going back and forth, bouncing up into the sky, gunfire and muzzle flashes everywhere. My first thought? We are boned. Its at this point that Alpha get here, and so we quickly dispatch the enemy and Alpha get on looting.
Anyway, we make the call to the commander and immediately shit goes down hill. A helicopter arrives, technicals and dismounted infantry arrive from all directions. Gunfire from everywhere, death everywhere, at one point I figured I'd stay behind and die gloriously. I went to deal with the helicopter and the squad it dropped off, shot like 3 people and realised how many people it had dropped off. My plan to die gloriously went out the window when I worked out how long I'd last against the 20 plus contacts we were fighting against, how close they were and the fact that Alwarren was yelling at everyone to get in to the bus.
From then on, it went the same as Alwarrens account, except I really didn't do much.
We made our way cross country through the woods to just north of the transformer, going further than I planned, but it worked out well anyway. Before moving off, I made sure to mark the vehicle so we could find it in a hurry if we needed to. From here, we moved down to where we could get eyes on the transformer to recce the place. There was no movement at all, and several prominent gaps, so we flanked round towards the south got in, and we set a whole shitload of explosives. From here, we saw some patrols nearby, so once the explosives were in place, we withdrew to our recce position, I set a timer and we had a chat to pass the time. At the allotted time, we sent the transformers into orbit and ran for the vehicle. Just as we were about to arrive, the objective went off confirming success.