FHQ Plant your fields
Whew. Finally this is completed. Mission started well with Sithis (cmd) and Rundll (driver) in the APC. We scored hits on helicopter, some infantry at radar dome, and destroyed one light victor near town. We moved a bit closer to hull down position and spotted a thermal of Kamysh turret in town at 1 klick (I originally misidentified it as AAA). Commander Sithis (that has a Star Wars tone to it somehow..) promptly ordered to engage rebel scum. Now, in hindsight, having played this mission of horror 5 times, I probably should have given discreet commentary that 'Uh, sir, it might not be the best idea'. I didn't for two reasons. 1) It was a direct clear order. Imperial APCs don't question orders and in general I prefer 'boss says-grunt does'. 2) We were in partial hull down cover in relation to town. I thought we can make it back if we spot further threats. I didn't pick any infantry with launchers, nor any other clear threat on my scanner except the Kamysh.
30 secs after we had lit up the BTR we were took a guided proton torpedo and mechanized infantry turned to just regular stormtrooper outfit with funky helmets. I still don't know what hit us. It was instant one-shotter so my guess is guided AT or tank cannon.
Rest of mission included lot of walking back and forth. We lost our tank mid to mission and all teams were ordered back to staging area. From there we went to radar station, and took out AAAs with guideds in town. Not much to see for Delta but I knew we had very very good reasons to stay back. In general I didn't mind lack of direct action. I knew what was going on around me and had a feeling that my team was gear in a machine. It might not be most exciting job at all times, but I felt my team contributed. Air support decimated lot of threats, and in end we assaulted final objective on foot after Hunter transit. Some nice infantry action in the end and chance to use battlefield capture UBL.
From grunts viewpoint, great leading from Variable (overall) and my team leader Sithis. Very clear orders. What I liked was that Sithis frequently kept team informed of whats happening. 'Ok, Delta..we're about to get our orders shortly, hold this ground for now', etc, etc. Due our alternate channel setup it might have been technically redundant, I heard what was going on in command grid, but I liked it. It contributed to mood/immersion and it was good leading.
Jihadi Jesus Superstar
This mission had certain unique Phantomesque theme with lot of tracers, explosions and political incorrectness. Teamwork gave way to general chaos and lightshow (with considerable penalty to fps). Several foiled attempts. In first one my team leader got KIA in landing, in second one our plane was shot down and in last one I missed my teams dropzone and joined other team. I had abysmal FPS and in general lot of confusion. My STHud didn' show my new teammates and I got taken out by Blackhawk which I thought was friendly.
Sure, this is 'different' kind of mission, but there's still no reason not to play it co-operatively. In general I'd prefer that missions like this are rare spice now and then rather than everyday event.
I'd like to try this mission in Entebbe raid style.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Entebbe
We go around from south, wide distance, and approach airfield directly from west. We fly nap to earth, and I mean low. We do not crash the C-130. We LAND it to the taxiway, or strip between taxiway and runway. Teams led by Charles Bronson and Lee Marvin will make a mad dash to Bradleys / MRAPS parked 20-30m away. Teams commandeers vehicles and go get some. Plane can take off again and crash itnto preset target, or we just destroy it with vehicles.
Yeah, I'm aware there are launchers, threats, but I' curious to see if it is doable. If nothing else, just for sake of trying it.
Harvest Moon
I was first going to join you in ground but then I thought that curator on the sky will probably be needed (besides I like curating. Remnant from my RP DM days). I was right. FATA is a great map, but it is designed with PVP in mind. AI is probably ok on flat ground, but in this particular mission involving canyons, ravines, rocks, and caves, it had its share of trouble. My hunch is that it simply didn't recognize some obstacles and it got frequently stuck and simply refused to move.
Another headache was the cave system. Most of my surprises and ambushes didn't work in dedi server. AI placed inside tunnels was ejected outside and some left their position to engage you when you entered village. Mines were clipped to rock floor and didn't detonate. I checked in start that AI seems to be roughly in right spot, and didn't notice that caves were actually empty. I had to run some guys there manually, as placing AI to cave through Zeus interface didn't work. At this phase you were also getting close so it would have looked silly to spawn enemies from thin air.
I think teams did very well. In the end you missed the cave entrances narrowly and at this phase I started to give discreet hints. In the end I had to run one of the insurgents outside of the cave and bumped to bunch of you guys. Was fun to listen the local WTF comments. I just managed to lob a grenade before you cut me to pieces : P