[Tue] 21 Jul 2015 (Welcome to success, i guess.)

[Eagle_Eye]

Fuel Charges - Attackfor ASL
A less than auspicious start for my squad leading last night. I thought that keeping my 2 fireteams together might allow us to break one flank of the defenders and swarm the gas station and be back in time for lunch. Each time I had played this mission as a defender it seemed easy enough for the attackers to get a foothold in the barracks buildings to the south and fight room to room toward the objective.

So naturally deciding to try this plan again resulted in complete failure, and we were left struggling to get to hard cover while some good positioning from the defenders cut off any hope of escape.

Armor Graveyard - A1 FTL
I would say that this was the first proper runthrough of this mission that we have had so far, and I have to say I was very happy with it. Unfortunately I took a bullet straight to the head seconds after engaging the motorised patrol that showed up to ruin our day.

Spectating the rest of the mission though was great fun, as Alpha squad swept the valley and the tank along with Bravo rained down fire on the CSAT base. It was nice to see elements keep moving and pressing forward even when under fire. Although the fighting was tough at the base, we eventually got into the base and eliminated the last of the CSAT.

Hillside View - ASL
In all of the missions from a leaders point of view I was very impressed with the COs, SLs and FTLs who kept comms brief and to the point, and followed through on their orders in a nice timely fashion with a minimum of complaint. When a squad leader or FTL can take orders and complete those orders and keep the movement of the platoon forward, then the job as a whole is made easier. Big props to Mamuto and Mabbot/No_croissants (Im not sure which of you actually ended up in command) my FTLs who kept us moving all the time through the valley, clearing out 4 caches in the end. unfortunately we ended up running into a pesky 50-cal technical toward the end who was to be our demise.

Short Straw - CO
Aha, a nice simple patrol. This mission was a doozy, I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did, and it played out almost exactly as I planned when I wrote it. Once again thanks to Ralian and Mabbot for keeping charlie and juliet squads under control. I basically spent this mission sitting back behind the two squads and playing an RTS with my pawns for an hour, and it was great fun (although I did get shot at quite a bit more than a normal RTS game).

Thanks to Madrak also, who after bailing from his tank and losing his crew took over as my limo driver and scavenged some sweet 45 pistols from dead enemies while the rest of you gave your lives for the party.

Seriously though I have to say again our successes last night definitely were enabled by some very competent leading all-round. You can see why its so important to approach leading with a straight head and be willing to commit to playing an RTS for a part of the night, and that by keeping things organised we can have a lot more fun in the long run. Thanks especially to everyone who stepped up and is beginning to take on the reigns of leadership more and more, I think Peasant, Ralian, Mabbot and SuicideKing all took on roles with more leadership than usual, and you all did great. Seriously you might think that you are still new at this or not doing it right but really all you need is a cool head and willingness to communicate. (Also contrary to my usual slotting habits I always hope to see all the command positions fill up super fast so that I can be a lowly rifleman, its up to you guys to make it happen)

[Ralian]

I believe charlie encountered far less trouble than juliet, but I think we only lost mabbot over that extremely long hour

IIRC, C1 was two strong before "success" screen showed up. Or at least on the way to the hilltop I found few bodies, and there were only three of you when I finally got there.

At least I don't remember anybody leaving the teamspeak at any point, but I asked if anyone was down at one point and was told that mabbot died (I think it was mabbot?)
That's probably more accurate though, sorry.

[Reppyboyo]

Usual highlighty stuffs, enjoyed this session regardless of my mishaps.

[Mabbott]

I didn't die, my internet just kicked me out of TS then I forgot to renable CC for a few minutes.

[madrak_the_red]

Thanks to Madrak also, who after bailing from his tank and losing his crew took over as my limo driver and scavenged some sweet 45 pistols from dead enemies while the rest of you gave your lives for the party.

Hell yeah we did

[Peasant]

Well that was exciting.

hillside view BSL

Luckily bravo had the simple job of proviiding base of fire . From our first position, we got a great view of the air support being shot down. Afterwards , we mostly stood on hills and got shot at while alpha did the hard work. Towards the end, we were ordered to move south west to bravo final . I made the questionable decision to go north instead to try and get eyes on bravo final. What this mostly achieved was us being way out of danger while alpha and the CO did a disappearing act into the grave.

I then did my best to deny this fact for about 5 minutes until I decided that discretion was the better part of valour and we called in the air support to withdraw. The LZ was rather hotter than I hoped, but I think evreryone got out clear. Thanks suicideking for being a great FTL and bormanov for being a great medic.

[SuicideKing]

Thanks especially to everyone who stepped up and is beginning to take on the reigns of leadership more and more, I think Peasant, Ralian, Mabbot and SuicideKing all took on roles with more leadership than usual, and you all did great.

Aww shucks, you're too generous.

One day we'll retake Rome.