08-15-2014, 12:15 PM
Game of Drones
Very much liked the premise, with various ways for us to choose how to achieve the objectives. A few nice engagements on the way to the ruins and being constantly buzzed by the drones made me want to destroy them all the more and felt like they were directing the enemy towards us. Was pretty much impossible to tell if contacts were NATO or enemy without long-range optics, so we pretty much just shot at whatever shot at us. Shame the drones killed most of us with missiles they weren't meant to have (naughty drones!) but looking forward to playing this one again once that's fixed.
Foothold
Leading the partisans, I was at a bit of a loss without a GPS. The armour near the beach seemed to be shooting away from the landing point and we weren't within range to destroy it before the other teams landed anyway, so we just avoided that. Very atmospheric though, with the planes flying overhead and everything. I ended up holding my team a bit further back than we should have been, due to lack of GPS, so if we'd been at the marker we might have been able to engage the Ifrit and patrol which would have been a bit more interesting for us. As it was, we didn't have any action until we moved up the hill to the chapel, where we spotted two Artillery pieces in the town. My two AT guys targeted one each and got three good hits in but they didn't move for the first couple of hits, whilst the third hit destroyed one and pissed off the other, who decided to come looking for us, so we pulled back to safety as we were out of rockets by then. Crossing the road on the way to the ammo camp to resupply, we came under fire but I think it was just one guy who we easily killed. After that, we didn't encounter any more enemies until the couple at the hanger at the end and there were none at the northern compound, so it was a bit quiet for my team, especially my two MG and medics and it sounded like the other teams had most of the action at the ammo camp. I wouldn't say it was terribly boring, unlike some missions where a squad might just be sitting in one place away from the frontline for ages but leading I probably had more to do to occupy me and I can see that the rest of the squad might have been rather bored. Probably only needed four (leader, two AT, one medic/rifle) rather than seven in the squad.
Clear Marina
I think our big mistake was to move onto the enemy depot, when our task was to clear the town within 20 minutes, before reinforcements came. It seemed quite likely that said reinforcements would be coming from the depot. I don't particularly like these "hunt the last man down" missions but the town was fairly small and we probably could have done it if we hadn't been pinned down for ages by fire from two directions.
Escape Drakontas
Could have been OK if there'd been more enemies and they'd managed to get closer and actually threaten us, maybe along with some sniper support to pin us down. I think I only came under fire once so the rest of the time we must have killed them before they were in range to return fire. Incoming artillery was nice as it's large radius posed a threat and forced us to move far away. Incoming smoke was a bit strange when it landed on us, as it forced us to reposition so that we could see but also hid us from the enemy, so it was much better when they smoke landed near the enemy positions, making it hard for us to see them and they could have used that to push up on us. With about 8 minutes to go, the enemy got bugged and stayed hidden behind a hill, so we just had to wait it out until we could escape in the repaired boat, which was never under any threat.
Very much liked the premise, with various ways for us to choose how to achieve the objectives. A few nice engagements on the way to the ruins and being constantly buzzed by the drones made me want to destroy them all the more and felt like they were directing the enemy towards us. Was pretty much impossible to tell if contacts were NATO or enemy without long-range optics, so we pretty much just shot at whatever shot at us. Shame the drones killed most of us with missiles they weren't meant to have (naughty drones!) but looking forward to playing this one again once that's fixed.
Foothold
Leading the partisans, I was at a bit of a loss without a GPS. The armour near the beach seemed to be shooting away from the landing point and we weren't within range to destroy it before the other teams landed anyway, so we just avoided that. Very atmospheric though, with the planes flying overhead and everything. I ended up holding my team a bit further back than we should have been, due to lack of GPS, so if we'd been at the marker we might have been able to engage the Ifrit and patrol which would have been a bit more interesting for us. As it was, we didn't have any action until we moved up the hill to the chapel, where we spotted two Artillery pieces in the town. My two AT guys targeted one each and got three good hits in but they didn't move for the first couple of hits, whilst the third hit destroyed one and pissed off the other, who decided to come looking for us, so we pulled back to safety as we were out of rockets by then. Crossing the road on the way to the ammo camp to resupply, we came under fire but I think it was just one guy who we easily killed. After that, we didn't encounter any more enemies until the couple at the hanger at the end and there were none at the northern compound, so it was a bit quiet for my team, especially my two MG and medics and it sounded like the other teams had most of the action at the ammo camp. I wouldn't say it was terribly boring, unlike some missions where a squad might just be sitting in one place away from the frontline for ages but leading I probably had more to do to occupy me and I can see that the rest of the squad might have been rather bored. Probably only needed four (leader, two AT, one medic/rifle) rather than seven in the squad.
Clear Marina
I think our big mistake was to move onto the enemy depot, when our task was to clear the town within 20 minutes, before reinforcements came. It seemed quite likely that said reinforcements would be coming from the depot. I don't particularly like these "hunt the last man down" missions but the town was fairly small and we probably could have done it if we hadn't been pinned down for ages by fire from two directions.
Escape Drakontas
Could have been OK if there'd been more enemies and they'd managed to get closer and actually threaten us, maybe along with some sniper support to pin us down. I think I only came under fire once so the rest of the time we must have killed them before they were in range to return fire. Incoming artillery was nice as it's large radius posed a threat and forced us to move far away. Incoming smoke was a bit strange when it landed on us, as it forced us to reposition so that we could see but also hid us from the enemy, so it was much better when they smoke landed near the enemy positions, making it hard for us to see them and they could have used that to push up on us. With about 8 minutes to go, the enemy got bugged and stayed hidden behind a hill, so we just had to wait it out until we could escape in the repaired boat, which was never under any threat.