Roadside II
Bravo 2 FTL, with Dan, Issus, Zitron
We were ordered to stay inside two different buildings, so we did. At some point we got shot from the north, with two of us wounded, so we consolidated the squad. We also peeked from the top of the building, I shot one guy down, directed Dan's fire for a bit, then back into the building. Then the mission ended.
Crateistance
Bravo AAR, with tryteyker (FTL), INinja32 (AR) and Universal (AT)
Props to killa's blob tactics! I found it worked pretty well, again with having to use limited comms and be concise (since everyone was in the same channel). Killa also kept us moving all the time, generally totally on top of the situation. Very, very nice!
Like tryteyker said, Bravo was behind the main lines most of the time, though we did provide a few distractions and occasional BOF. Not much action.
Unnecessary Violence
Alpha 1 FTL, with audiox, IceRaiser and Aqarius
This mission did not work out at all, I'm afraid. My recording says that it took 30m for me to die, which happened halfway to Zargabad. All in all, it ended up being very boring. I'm going to be a little more openly critical, though in a constructive light, as usual, so that we can try to avoid similar experiences. It'll still be written as an AAR, which should make clear what I feel went wrong and where.
First off, the CO's plan: It was the long way around to Zargabad, but I've heard tales of horror from the straight road in, so I don't feel there's anything wrong with trying it. However, if the road is longer, we must go faster for it to take a reasonable amount of time. And this leads me to what I think was the main problem. Squads weren't pushing at all.
As Alpha 1, we were being micromanaged in ways that made it impossible to get to the best defensive or offensive positions ("stay on the left side of the road, next to the other M113, a little bit forward, a little bit backward", etc). Besides the micromanaging occurring at squad-level, our orders were mostly about staying put. Looking at the map, I think the same was true for most other squads. Two things might've been happening here:
- (1) The CO wasn't aware of this and/or failed to make clear what elements were to be bounding, and what elements were to be providing BOF (and from where!). Again, there was no attempt to flank or get to high ground. Bodge (I think) has a very telling screenshot of 4+ FTs all bunched together, for instance.
(2) If the CO made it clear who was to be doing what, the SL's weren't proactive enough in accomplishing their objectives.
I wasn't on CC, so I don't know what happened, but it seems probable it was one of the two above.
We were being held up by FT-sized infantry for 10m at a time, I don't think contact reports were making it up the chain of command, and it didn't seem like anyone was being allocated to deal with them. We eventually lost Alpha 1's M113 to rocket fire, but fortunately all of the crew made it out alive. Without a toy to be ordered around, this gave us a little more freedom.
I'm again going to be fairly open at this point, but please take it as one POV to be used constructively. By this point both my fireteam and I were getting very bored of sitting around. Without orders to that effect, I decided to flank left. There were some hills overlooking the north, the dam and the little hamlet, with a small valley just west of it into which we could dive into cover easily if fired upon. I took Alpha 1 there. I spotted some infantry and a technical (which I think had been destroying our M113's), so I got my AR on it while I spotted. It was down within 2m of us deciding to "break the shield wall" and flanking. I also had one of my FT members almost inside town by now, and we heard to orders to move up slowly to a point still far south of town, despite the way being clear. Anyway, we eventually made it into the little hamlet.
At this point I spot some bunkers with static emplacements further north, and call them out. The orders that came back were to move up to the treeline on the road. The trees were thin and the only hard cover I found was a low, broken up wall, so I tried to get there. I get shot on my way, though a brave FT member came to heal me (thanks!). I get killed on my run back.
I headed off for dinner after this, but honestly I wasn't really feeling like watching anymore of it
It's normal for one squad to have orders that, for one reason or another, don't give them much to shoot at. I feel this was different though, with the entire platoon grinding to a halt at the slightest contact and so forth.
Remember: a lot of people are relying on the leadership positions for having fun in these sessions. That's a lot of responsibility, and it's also the reason I haven't tried out SLing yet (even though I'd really like to try at some point). The approach I'm taking is to play as a grunt often until I find good FTLs, and I try to learn from the way they handle things. I've started trying FTL positions whenever they take longer to slot, and now I hope to slowly build up to SLing (by learning from the pros!).
You can also choose Alpha/Bravo/etc 1 FTL so that if the SL dies (friendly fire?
) then you get whatever is left of the squad
Sorry for the long-winded AAR! And take all of this with a grain of salt... I'm Portuguese, complaining is in my genes