12-05-2011, 01:41 AM
Folk's AAR thread (visible to everyone): [Sun] 04 December 2011 (with LDDK and CiA)
Also, here's my own AAR post:
Also, here's my own AAR post:
Quote:CO: Fer
|-- Echo SL: Tigershark
|-- Fox SL: Bodge
Players, and perhaps mission makers more so, talk a lot about immersion. For small player-count missions the practical manifestation is often like the set of a western film: facades designed to give the appearance of being part of a much larger action, or clever briefings explaining why your platoon is alone.
That's all great, but nothing beats throwing numbers at the issue.
At the start of the mission, all three contingents found themselves in the same base. Folk's USMC troops were busy forming up a convoy of LAV-25s and other vehicles. Somewhere else, LDDK's US Army contingent was marshalling its own armoured assets. In yet another part of the base, CiA's KSK troops were strapping themselves into a helicopter transport. Finally, in the background, the sound of the CAS assets spinning-up their turbines added to the sense of being part of a larger (and possibly quite mighty) force. There was a moment just before we set off, when I was standing off to the side of our convoy, and an A-10 flew over; and I knew there was a player piloting that A-10, and that made the difference.
Anyway, we formed-up with Echo in the first 3 vehicles: Tigershark in his M2 humvee, a LAV-25 with the bulk of his men, and an ambulance behind. Next came Bodge's LAV-25, followed by an ammo truck and finally a trailing humvee with a grenade-launcher. After pausing to let the LDDK contingent trundle past us on the main road (in a perfectly spaced-out convoy), we set off.
We were bound for the middle objective, Kakaru, just north of the Darbang pass in the mountains that divide the southern and central areas of the map. Passing through Huzrutimam, the first village on our route away from the base, our spacings were good. My standing orders were to drive through any ambushes, but I suppose the point of ambushes is that they make it hard for the mounted forces to dictate terms.
So as we rounded a bend halfway down the road to Chak Chak, the enemy opened up on us from a little encampment to the south. Echo had pushed around the spur and into cover, but now dismounted and came up over the high ground to the aid of Bodge's squad, which was engaged in a stand-up fight from the roadside. We won, but comrade Headspace, the gunner in our trailing humvee, had been lost. And soon we were taking harrassing fire from another group of enemies to our north-east. I didn't want to get bogged down so ordered us to re-mount and disengage at once.
So it was at full speed that we hit Chak Chak, and it was perhaps inevitable that in the dust and confusion some vehicles would miss the turning. Fortunately, the village contained no hostiles, as LAV-25s doing 3-point turns would have made juicy targets for anyone with an RPG-7. Still, we were soon formed up again on the north side of the village, ready to strike out to the next waypoint: the Sar-e Sang pass. Looking north across the flat valley, we could see the road rising into the mountains. I didn't want to linger in the wide open spaces, where we'd have time enough to see a Metis crossing the fields towards us - but not to leave the vehicles. We pressed on at high speed.
In retrospect, an ambush at the pass was to be expected. I shouldn't have let us burst over the crest into the pass area without first doing some recon: Tigershark and his companions didn't stand a chance, killed in their humvee by a volley of Lee Enfield fire, their LAV-25 escort disabled at the same time.
I ordered Fox to disembark short of the crest, and stream over on foot with its LAV-25 in support. We knew there were survivors in Echo, but it was clear that they'd lost their SL. As I crested, I saw the motionless humvee and a strangely listing LAV-25 (wheels shot out). To the left of the junction there were trees and bushes, and I asked Fox to make for them and go firm. It wasn't immediately clear where Echo had been engaged from, but instinct told me to get men higher up. Fox was asked to send a detachment up the slope to our south, while I attempted to get my bearings and work out how to get us moving again. Then I saw a BTR-40 rushing down towards us on the road from the Darbang pass. And then I was dead.
Huge congratulations to comrade Bodge for stepping up to lead the Folk contingent to near victory, and certainly salvaging our honour!
:clint:
As a mission maker, I take my hat off to comrade Spinoza for some truly wonderful placement work. I crashed and had to re-join, so spectated for hours as a bird, loosely following the action and soaking up the enemy dispositions.
In terms of constuctive feedback, there are a few aspects I'd like to tackle in a different way should we get the opportunity again:
Unified comms: ARPS uses Mumble (like LDDK), so we should consider trying to get everyone on the same server next time. Language (and noise) is not necessarily an issue as we'd still split the players over multiple channels.
Less parallel tasking: although it's great to see different contingents working on tasks in parallel, we might have taken it a bit too far in tonight's mission; I was hoping we'd work more closely with each other from the outset.
To close, thank you again to LDDK for being such great hosts (again), and to CiA for being great to play alongside once more. I hope we'll see you all on the battlefield again soon.
:v: