Oil Protection Services
I wasn't able to do much more than spot enemies on this one, as my weapon wasn't really suited for long-range engagements, although I sent a few rounds in their direction and hopefully helped suppress them a bit. Totally shocked when an enemy vehicle suddenly drove right in front of me from my right, as I had a shed or something I was using for cover on that side, so I didn't see it (or hear it) until it was on top of me.
For anyone who had trouble hearing comms over the noise, try the attached TS3 plugin (just put it in your TS3/plugins folder). You can set how much it drops the game volume whilst someone's talking and the delay before it returns the volume to normal and I've found it quite helpful.
Blood Runner
With hindsight, Variable's probably right that I should have let Bravo engage the tanks, despite HK's order to hold fire and stay concealed. It wasn't clear to me that the tanks were coming for us rather than just circling though, so for future reference, squad members need to make sure they give their squad leaders a clear picture, as "there's a tank that's spotted us and is coming for us" is obviously different to "there's a tank and I've got a clear shot" (apologies if anyone did say more but that's all I recall hearing). I probably would have still wanted to clear it with HK before engaging (unless the tank was actually firing on us) but I would have done so with some urgency.
The big C
As Alwarren said, I completely misread the situation and thought that the compound I spotted with an enemy on the roof was the first area we had to clear. There were some solitary enemies walking around in between us and them and I wanted to take care of the bloke on the roof before we engaged them (in fact, if that had actually been the first compound, I would probably have ignored them completely and moved on), in case he was alerted by us engaging them and then had the height advantage to seriously threaten our wellbeing.
So we moved to the other side of the road, where we had some cover on our right flank from the patrolling enemies and moved up towards the compound (whilst doing so I was getting messages about the other teams clearing their first compounds, so I knew we had to pick up the pace a bit). Once in range, it was easy picking off the roof guy and the single guy patrolling the perimeter. I think there was just one guy left who surprised us a bit when we went to enter the compound but he didn't stand much chance.
It was only then that I realised we were at the third compound and had to backtrack to clear the other two, one of which was an almost flattened ruin and the other was more an orchard than a compound, so I don't feel too bad for overlooking them
Hopefully the other teams didn't get too bored waiting for us to catch up and get into position to begin the main assault. Great job everyone clearing that without shooting each other, it could have easily got messy but good use of comms to update on everyone's position helped avoid that. I'd say it wasn't really much of a challenge at any stage though and would have welcomed a tougher defence at the main town at least.
Revolucioni
Seemed like a good mission, although I didn't see much action and got killed by the Tigris before all the fun started. Might well have been my own fault, as I positioned myself with a rock to my right, between the Tigris and myself, so that I could keep an eye on the enemies to our left flank but perhaps I accidentally moved out of cover and got spotted. I initially thought we were being fired on from behind, as most of the Tigris' shots were hitting the hill behind us and panicked and probably ended up making myself even more of a target. Anyway, if it was my fault we got spotted, sorry!
Operation Stonefish
I didn't recognise this mission until we were about to land and I saw the area and Etzu said he was alone on a mountain somewhere, as I'd only played it from Etzu's position before. I don't really understand why it's setup that way, as he's meant to be a spy or something preparing the way for us, so if there were a couple of guards on the beach for him to take out before we could land it would make sense but as it is, he just has to walk to the beach. As there's not even room for everyone who gets dropped from the helo in the single boat, it would be better IMO if we all just started together with two boats.
Shame we lost Variable so early on, always a pain in the arse when that happens after spending 10 minutes getting all the gear sorted. Anyway, Alwarren stepped up and did a great job of leading us (and as the medic, patching me up repeatedly. I seemed to be a bullet magnet on this one!) The tasks were a bit confusing, as I found the table with the laptop and picked up the codes but it didn't say anything or tick the task and it was only on the way to the extraction point that I found my radio menu had a "Open laptop" entry, which just brought up a picture of a map in the middle of the screen. Maybe I needed to do that straight after picking up the codes, whilst next to the laptop? Everyone tried the "Call for Extract" option but that just kept bringing up the map picture as well, so as we were at the extraction point, we called it completed. Hey, it ain't our fault if the ride doesn't show up
A general comms point, which I've said before but it doesn't seem to have been picked up on, so I'll say it again. If we've only got SR radios and we need to split the team, it doesn't make sense to put one squad on Ch.1, the other on Ch.2 and then have each squad set the opposite channel as their alternate, as then the team leaders just get bombarded with the other teams intra-squad comms constantly. Just have both teams use Ch.3 (which is probably set to the same freq. for everyone already but if not, just pick something that's not used by Ch.1 or 2, e.g. 200) and set that as the alternate and then each team leader will only hear the other when they transmit on the alternate channel by pressing T. Simples
Oh and the speaker on the radios isn't usable for me at present, as I can't hear the comms properly myself when it's enabled. I've asked nkey if he can make it so it still sends to the earpiece when speaker is enabled but until then, I won't be using it, so if squad members want to hear the LR comms, they'll need to set the alternate channel on their SR to the LR frequency.
If anyone doesn't know how to set the alternate channel or has any other problems using the radios, just ask me next time I'm on and I'll take you aside at the start of the mission and talk you through it (assuming it's not a mission that we need to hurry up with).
I wasn't able to do much more than spot enemies on this one, as my weapon wasn't really suited for long-range engagements, although I sent a few rounds in their direction and hopefully helped suppress them a bit. Totally shocked when an enemy vehicle suddenly drove right in front of me from my right, as I had a shed or something I was using for cover on that side, so I didn't see it (or hear it) until it was on top of me.
For anyone who had trouble hearing comms over the noise, try the attached TS3 plugin (just put it in your TS3/plugins folder). You can set how much it drops the game volume whilst someone's talking and the delay before it returns the volume to normal and I've found it quite helpful.
Blood Runner
With hindsight, Variable's probably right that I should have let Bravo engage the tanks, despite HK's order to hold fire and stay concealed. It wasn't clear to me that the tanks were coming for us rather than just circling though, so for future reference, squad members need to make sure they give their squad leaders a clear picture, as "there's a tank that's spotted us and is coming for us" is obviously different to "there's a tank and I've got a clear shot" (apologies if anyone did say more but that's all I recall hearing). I probably would have still wanted to clear it with HK before engaging (unless the tank was actually firing on us) but I would have done so with some urgency.
The big C
As Alwarren said, I completely misread the situation and thought that the compound I spotted with an enemy on the roof was the first area we had to clear. There were some solitary enemies walking around in between us and them and I wanted to take care of the bloke on the roof before we engaged them (in fact, if that had actually been the first compound, I would probably have ignored them completely and moved on), in case he was alerted by us engaging them and then had the height advantage to seriously threaten our wellbeing.
So we moved to the other side of the road, where we had some cover on our right flank from the patrolling enemies and moved up towards the compound (whilst doing so I was getting messages about the other teams clearing their first compounds, so I knew we had to pick up the pace a bit). Once in range, it was easy picking off the roof guy and the single guy patrolling the perimeter. I think there was just one guy left who surprised us a bit when we went to enter the compound but he didn't stand much chance.
It was only then that I realised we were at the third compound and had to backtrack to clear the other two, one of which was an almost flattened ruin and the other was more an orchard than a compound, so I don't feel too bad for overlooking them
Hopefully the other teams didn't get too bored waiting for us to catch up and get into position to begin the main assault. Great job everyone clearing that without shooting each other, it could have easily got messy but good use of comms to update on everyone's position helped avoid that. I'd say it wasn't really much of a challenge at any stage though and would have welcomed a tougher defence at the main town at least.
Revolucioni
Seemed like a good mission, although I didn't see much action and got killed by the Tigris before all the fun started. Might well have been my own fault, as I positioned myself with a rock to my right, between the Tigris and myself, so that I could keep an eye on the enemies to our left flank but perhaps I accidentally moved out of cover and got spotted. I initially thought we were being fired on from behind, as most of the Tigris' shots were hitting the hill behind us and panicked and probably ended up making myself even more of a target. Anyway, if it was my fault we got spotted, sorry!
Operation Stonefish
I didn't recognise this mission until we were about to land and I saw the area and Etzu said he was alone on a mountain somewhere, as I'd only played it from Etzu's position before. I don't really understand why it's setup that way, as he's meant to be a spy or something preparing the way for us, so if there were a couple of guards on the beach for him to take out before we could land it would make sense but as it is, he just has to walk to the beach. As there's not even room for everyone who gets dropped from the helo in the single boat, it would be better IMO if we all just started together with two boats.
Shame we lost Variable so early on, always a pain in the arse when that happens after spending 10 minutes getting all the gear sorted. Anyway, Alwarren stepped up and did a great job of leading us (and as the medic, patching me up repeatedly. I seemed to be a bullet magnet on this one!) The tasks were a bit confusing, as I found the table with the laptop and picked up the codes but it didn't say anything or tick the task and it was only on the way to the extraction point that I found my radio menu had a "Open laptop" entry, which just brought up a picture of a map in the middle of the screen. Maybe I needed to do that straight after picking up the codes, whilst next to the laptop? Everyone tried the "Call for Extract" option but that just kept bringing up the map picture as well, so as we were at the extraction point, we called it completed. Hey, it ain't our fault if the ride doesn't show up
A general comms point, which I've said before but it doesn't seem to have been picked up on, so I'll say it again. If we've only got SR radios and we need to split the team, it doesn't make sense to put one squad on Ch.1, the other on Ch.2 and then have each squad set the opposite channel as their alternate, as then the team leaders just get bombarded with the other teams intra-squad comms constantly. Just have both teams use Ch.3 (which is probably set to the same freq. for everyone already but if not, just pick something that's not used by Ch.1 or 2, e.g. 200) and set that as the alternate and then each team leader will only hear the other when they transmit on the alternate channel by pressing T. Simples
Oh and the speaker on the radios isn't usable for me at present, as I can't hear the comms properly myself when it's enabled. I've asked nkey if he can make it so it still sends to the earpiece when speaker is enabled but until then, I won't be using it, so if squad members want to hear the LR comms, they'll need to set the alternate channel on their SR to the LR frequency.
If anyone doesn't know how to set the alternate channel or has any other problems using the radios, just ask me next time I'm on and I'll take you aside at the start of the mission and talk you through it (assuming it's not a mission that we need to hurry up with).