[Sun] 29 January 2012 (with LDDK and CiA)

[fer]

Missions:

• Operation Kutuzov

Many thanks to LDDK's comrade Spinoza for organising the joint event, and to everyone who came along tonight. It was especially nice to again be working closely with our friends from CiA. It was a challenging mission - perhaps more so than most we play in regular Folk sessions - but I hope the comrades enjoyed the experience. Please share your thoughts and reports; I'll be posting mine later in the week.

[Nullkigan]

I was in Folk-1 as a recon element/marksman. We were tasked to watch south from a hill just in front of the hangars during the initial attack. After initial confusion concerning enemy Force Recon scouts being immediately on top of us (who I initially thought might be from the CIA squad due to the proximity/time), we were instructed to withdraw to a hardened position. I covered the retreat of the rest of the detachment but was cut off by a LAV firing on the hangars. Sadly I was shot by friendlies who had mistaken me for one of the American scouts. Less than ten minutes in, and with a single kill to my name. I am the best sniper


Thoughts:

• Having the groups so split up at first made me question the reason for making it a joint session instead of two separate ones; it seems that the designers anticipated heavy casualties forcing consolidation by the end?
• It wasn't apparent from the briefing that there would be so much opposition that supplies needed to be stuck in any transports (spare AT, etc)
• The initial confusion due to no crosshairs/no markers/triple strength squads was unfortunate. We had a couple of instances of friendly fire because of it too. Starting off with an urgent defence task wasn't ideal for getting the more casual players like me orientated

Great mission concept though, good to see Chernarus, large forces and combined arms from time to time. Thanks to LDDK for all the hard work on preparing the session and mission. I'm keen to find out their server specs and configs

[Spinoza]

First of all, thank you for showing up in such large numbers. Apparently the game did not go as expected. I take some responsibilty, the enemy attack at the beginning was a total faux pas on my part. I checked the map and noticed you positioned yourselves quite nicely. Im not quite sure what happened over there but apparently you took some heavy casualties?

I suspect you cancelled the attack on Berezino? The triggers work, you may have destroyed the wrong guy and HQ. The markers were not spot on, just in the general area. I assumed you had enough manpower and firepower considering you had folk & ARPS + CiA fighting side by side, not to mention the two airvehicles. I tested the Su25 in editor and had no problem getting airborne, no idea what happened to the Mi24.

Yes, I put you guys and LDDK on two different starting locations beacuse I did not want to "stack" everyone so close to eachother, especially in Chernarus. As for the enemy strenght, Im not in the habit of giving too much information about enemy dispositions. I have noticed that most players appreciate some degree of uncertainty.

I suppose my idea of a good mission differs from most people, I do not care for missions that follow the same guidelines everytime. Sometimes something "new" works, sometimes not. I would say that tonights mission falls to the latter, but some bad luck was to blame aswell.

I hope tonights messy outcome did not cause any bad feelings or similar. As a missionmaker its usually impossible to please everyone. All one can do is to learn from mistakes. Sorry for crappy English, I hope my message got through

[Joseph-Sulphur]

I tested the Su25 in editor and had no problem getting airborne, no idea what happened to the Mi24.

The Su-25 can be taken off on that airstrip, I've done it myself before. But the thing is you need to use the entire length of the runway, and the jet started near the hangars in the middle. Arma taxiing is incredibly laborious, and it takes about 5 minutes to complete the process of moving the Su-25 to the end of the runway and turning it around. There wasn't enough time to do that before the attack started.

As for the Mi-24 I guess it was our fault, I was focused on taking out some infantry who were about 20 metres from a friendly medic reviving someone when an LAV shot us down with its cannon. I do think that the attack came to soon, that LAV assaulted us before the 8 minute mark.

Based on the accounts of people who played it the mission seemed like it was quite fun, so I wouldn't be so hard on yourself. I would say that in the future such joint-joint session might work better if they were in a smaller area, or if you do want to make them span the entire map use air transport so that different units can move about and reinforce each other quickly.

[MrWeed]

The session went down for me like this:

I spawned with the rest of my squad, 2 minutes into the game Bodge ordered me to move west, onto the road near the airstrip. When I arrived there, my game crashed.
After the game had finally restarted, the AI solider in my slot had died, I couldnt reconnect and our squad had one Metis less.

I really think defense style missions are not the perfect choice for big co-op missions like this, as there is lots of stuff that can go wrong and you cant really set the pace of the gameplay, as the enemy attacks after a set ammount of time and then you need to be prepared and there is no time for a break.
Therefore I prefer missions in which we have to attack, as there is enough time for preparing and FF incidents or being killed too early in the mission is less likely.

Keeping everyone alive as long as possible to ensure happy times for everyone involved should be number 1 priority during those missions.
And dont get me wrong, Im not asking for an easy mode mission.
I enjoy a good challange just like everyone else, but I think 10 casualties in the first 15 minutes is a bit harsh.

Zargabaddies was a good example on how to do it and I think the other big missions should take it as an example on how to balance big joint sessions properly.

[Bushcat]

Was really looking forward to this game.A large Combined Arms Operation!
I lost connection as soon as the game kicked off!Once back in i realised there were no map markers enabled for squads/units!
Thinking i may be bugged,i ran around to orientate myself and proceeded to move BTR's off the airfield to a safe spot as ordered.
Regrouping with the squad at a Bunker, we engaged an enemy squad attempting to flank us using a treeline to our left.We took 2 SMAW shots but i dont think anyone was hurt.
I suppressed the treeline with my trusty RPK,then we hooked around the treeline to a farm,discovering dead enemy on the way.

After collecting some assorted IFV's, we moved out.Now,driving a BTR only using first person view through the view block is a pain.More of a pain was the lack of markers.If we had markers i could navigate by the terrain,but not knowing where i was positioned i couldnt.
I must admit to not having a clue were i was or any one else.Some sterling navigation by (i think) Unaco got us to were we were supposed to be.
I sat through an interesting sounding fight peering out the view slit..After a pause for medical assistance we moved out to probe a village.
Lost connection again!!

When i got back we were regrouping to move out.Our column was moving uphill on a steep wooded road,when (i think)a TOW blasted one of our BTR's.
After some confusion and attempts to find the threat we prepared to move out.Another missile destroyed another vehicle,in the ensuing panic i think a BTR collided with the burning wreck.An allmighty explosion wasted me and i think many others.
After that i had to go to work, so will be interested to see how the rest of the game panned out.

[Grizzly]

Although the mission setup in itself was quite cool IMO - although I didn't get to do any shooting . Its weird: All the big co op missions we had so far, all three of them, ends up with me either driving stuff or manning a mortar. And distinctly not shooting anyone (I have died more then I actually have killed people in these sessions).

What I wanted to say was this: Please please please, let us set our own terraingrid and viewdistance. I don't have a spectacular computer, and the performance I got made even the driving a great challenge, even though I normally get rather smooth gameplay on Chernarus. Half the reason I joined the agrarian revolution is so I could get a less-agrarian PC .

[Spinoza]

12.01.29
MBT-squad after action report.

lieutenant Psykoisi
corporal Stellar
pfc Spinoza
pfc Shuko

MBT squad was equipped with T-90 MBT and Tunguska AA-tank.

The MBT squad was the only one which consisted mostly on the players from the actual roster. This gave the MBT squad a certain advantage over other squads which were lead by more inexperienced leaders as part of the training mission. Operating had a certain relaxiness in it due to experience.

Both tanks were located in the north part of the airfield during the defensive stance in the start of the game. Unfortunately the enemy dispersed, most likely due to our aerial activity and never really made a push for the airfield.
Our plane downed an enemy chopper on the south side of the airfield and the crew took a walk towards the field with revenge in their minds but short work were made of them by the T-90.

After this the T-90 acted as a towing vehicle and pushed a jammed fighterjet back to the strip. While doing this an enemy Harrier entered the airfields airspace but was dealt with by the Tunguska´s ground-to-air missile. The pilot did not eject.

After it came apparent that the enemy was not making it´s push to the field the MBT squad was tasked to protect the convoy which consisted of CO´s ambulance Vodnik and Bravo squad´s BTR. The route had been reconned by charlie squad earlier. The convoy reached charlie and india squad´s which had been engaged by the enemies protecting the target village. Enemy sniper was killed behind charlie squad in the woodline by the Tunguska. Casualties had been sustained by the infantry and they were pulling out to regroup.
MBT squad covered the retreat and then the T-90 pushed to the middle of the village. No enemies were visible and communication and coordination with the infantry was limited at best at that point. I ordered the destruction of a village building which seemed to be the only one to be able to hold the enemy commander. This proved to be the right guess and this part of the mission was completed.

After infantry went through their ritual of ripping modern western guns from the hands of the dead british infantry the company regrouped to a new column and headed through the forest southwards for the next target.
The eager lead BTR drove right to the target and was greeted by small arms fire and the howling of dual-barreled AA-guns.
I ordered the MBT squad to drive to firing positions to the higher ground and silenced the second AA-gun and the enemy´s AA-tank inside the base. The other AA-gun ripped one of the BTR:s open which was soon revenged by the T-90.

After that it was like shooting fish to a barrel and the enemy compound was silenced in short order. Infantry secured the site and we drove the T-90 inside and destroyed the enemy command vehicle, thus completing the tasks assigned to LDDK.

It was then decided that due to the late hour the game would be stopped at this point. MBT squad received no casualties and had no need for repairs or ammunition replenishment during the assault.

Edit: I have ~2 hour FRAPS video coming up, stay tuned.

[wolfenswan]

First FOLK/ARPS Squad AAR.

Wolfenswan, Squad leader

Our initial plan was to take positions a bit further south of the airfield to overlook the approach from Krasznostav and ignore the bunkers for now. Unfortunately the enemies were upon much sooner than expected and closing in on my MAT and sniper which I had sent to an overwatch position I thought to be away from the frontline. The rest of my squad was still tasked with driving vehicles to a safe distance but I ordered those who were with me to fall in and rescue our comrades. As we arrived I saw a hostile LAV passing us in less than 50m distance and ordered my MAT to take it out in which he succeeded. At the same time those incapacitated were being helped and I ordered to fall back as soon as everyone was on his feet. Unfortunately we lost one soldier to friendly fire on the retreat, the rest took position in the bunker where we waited for orders from our CO and attacking the slow but steady trickle of incoming EI. During the defense we both lost the SU-25 from a botched takeoff (might be the airstrip that's to blame?) and our hind who's pilot was hit by an extremly lucky bullet.

Later we moved up the hills to the west, no accompanied by our BTR-90. We moved towards Krasznostav and proved overwatch while I sent a recon unit ahead in a UAZ to scout south to Dubrovka. Yet later we formed a column with the other FOLK/ARPS squad and CIA and moved towards Dubrovka. My recon unit was taken out while scouting for a way cross-country to Berenzino. While the recon leader died on the spot his buddy was still alive but bleeding out, inquiring for help and first aid over the coms. Both CO and me knew that there was no way to help him without risking an entire squad or even element and I had the unpleasant job to tell the soldier - ebass - that we wouldn't come for him.

The next step was to cut with all squads through the forests towards Berenzino. I don't know what exactly happened but we got under heavy fire as we reached the town. We lost one BTR-90 but most survived expect for me as I was turned out at the moment, trying to locate what was attacking us.

On hindsight I blame myself for not stopping further up the hill to scan for hostiles but at the time I considered us to be too good a target, skylining etc., to risk stopping.

-----

First of all thanks to Spinoza for creating this mission. I can't imagine what a pain it is to try and balance a mission of that scale for that many players.

Personally I disliked the size of the squads as I'm used to smaller, more focused squads. I tried countering that by using Arma's color coding and designating fire times but that only helped to a degree and I still kept losing overwatch etc.
I think the mission would have profited from not having that defensive part at the beginning. Due to not exactly knowing where enemies would come from and when exactly there was lots of confusion at the start.

[Spinoza]

http://youtu.be/Y5dKiD6IsWw?hd=1
Excellent remedy for insomnia.