01-22-2016, 08:54 PM
Lost Squad
I joined this one just in time to get in the chopper and watch the fireworks (OK flares) out the window as we were carried to safety. At least I didn't have time to do anything stupid here ;D. What happened with the other chopper that exploded as it came in to land though? It seemed to just explode in mid-air for no reason.
Wood Run
I decided it was time I tried leading a mission but was rather unfortunate in getting one where I had no GPS and a convoy mission. I dream of the day the slot screen is integrated into the briefing screen so that I can see what I'm letting myself in for! I don't mind convoy missions but compared to missions where you have the squads spread out on the map with different objectives it's much harder to involve everyone, so I did what I could by letting each team have a turn on point.
I don't think we could have tried to steam through, as apart from the roadblocks there were a fair few RPGs, not to mention mines, that would have probably taken out vehicles if we'd ignored them. It was unfortunate that we lost too many vehicles to continue but I think a lot of people were getting rather fed up with the mission by then anyway. It would have been better if I'd split Alpha between two vehicles, as I did with Bravo and Charlie to provide an extra one but then we'd probably have only spent another 30 minutes doing stop and go before losing another vehicle and having to abort. I can't remember exactly how many vehicles there were available, so if there were nine it might have been possible to split each team of 5 into 3 vehicles and keep three vehicles with only a driver at the rear of the convoy as backups.
I was generally happy with everyone and it probably wouldn't have changed how it turned out but there was a notable lack of comms from team leaders at some points. If your team spots a serious threat then of course your first priority is to neutralise it but then let the other teams and the leader know what you're doing, so that he can send the other teams to assist if it's a priority target or task them to something else if not. Near the start of the mission I spotted one team up on the hill to my left when I hadn't told them to disembark and nor had they asked if they could go up there, so they were lucky they didn't all get shot. If I'm leading and you think there's something useful you could be doing that I might have overlooked then by all means suggest it but don't just go running off without asking.
Ammo Run
This was a nice mission, it just went rather pear-shaped in execution! I didn't actually see Stags sideChat about taking flares so unfortunately didn't have any when they would have helped the sharpshooter team (Delta). I'd suggest in future if you know we'll need flares and the leader hasn't told people to take them that you talk to him and then he can make sure people grab them.
In any event, after dispatching the artillery spotter who started bombarding us when we got near the base, Delta did a great job of taking out a lot of the threats in and around the base, which allowed me to lead Bravo up the hill and kill the remaining stragglers, several of which were glitching and probably impossible to kill from a distance even if they could be seen. Once the base was clear I called Delta in to sit on the tower where I hoped they'd be able to assist by taking out any nearby enemies but it seems there weren't any, so they didn't have much to do from that point.
Unfortunately our driver had crashed our vehicle on the way in, so we had no way of transporting the ammo back to base. I can understand going dark to avoid being spotted but if you're going to do that you need to drive slowly or else you're bound to hit something, so please be more careful in future. Variable came to our rescue by sending a boat to take us as close to base as possible but we still had a bit of a walk which was made worse by the fact we were all loaded down with ammo and once we realised how much of a chore it would be getting the required amount of ammo back we all decided it was time to abort. I definitely want to try this again though and now we know there's an enemy chopper we can plan to take that out before it threatens our vehicles. There were several AA missiles at the base Bravo took (only 3 of the 5 required AT missiles though) and I think there were launchers there as well. It might be better if there were one or two spare vehicles, as Stag suggests, just in case but it seems it should be possible with just three if we're careful and sensible.
Jackals
This went better than last time I played it but oh my god, how many times did I need to be revived and I was the medic! I couldn't even tell where I was being shot at from half the time and it seemed we were surrounded or I was being shot at by enemies through the walls, so I ended up hiding in an alcove until someone needed me. That bug with Psycho's Revive is very annoying when you've been revived and need to move quickly to avoid being shot again straight away but can only walk slowly because you've got 50+ first aid kits!
Even so, it was a fun and fairly short mission, which was just what we needed after the previous two. Can we pay a bit more for a better pilot next time though, preferably one who flies us to the extraction point and not back towards the enemy?
I joined this one just in time to get in the chopper and watch the fireworks (OK flares) out the window as we were carried to safety. At least I didn't have time to do anything stupid here ;D. What happened with the other chopper that exploded as it came in to land though? It seemed to just explode in mid-air for no reason.
Wood Run
I decided it was time I tried leading a mission but was rather unfortunate in getting one where I had no GPS and a convoy mission. I dream of the day the slot screen is integrated into the briefing screen so that I can see what I'm letting myself in for! I don't mind convoy missions but compared to missions where you have the squads spread out on the map with different objectives it's much harder to involve everyone, so I did what I could by letting each team have a turn on point.
I don't think we could have tried to steam through, as apart from the roadblocks there were a fair few RPGs, not to mention mines, that would have probably taken out vehicles if we'd ignored them. It was unfortunate that we lost too many vehicles to continue but I think a lot of people were getting rather fed up with the mission by then anyway. It would have been better if I'd split Alpha between two vehicles, as I did with Bravo and Charlie to provide an extra one but then we'd probably have only spent another 30 minutes doing stop and go before losing another vehicle and having to abort. I can't remember exactly how many vehicles there were available, so if there were nine it might have been possible to split each team of 5 into 3 vehicles and keep three vehicles with only a driver at the rear of the convoy as backups.
I was generally happy with everyone and it probably wouldn't have changed how it turned out but there was a notable lack of comms from team leaders at some points. If your team spots a serious threat then of course your first priority is to neutralise it but then let the other teams and the leader know what you're doing, so that he can send the other teams to assist if it's a priority target or task them to something else if not. Near the start of the mission I spotted one team up on the hill to my left when I hadn't told them to disembark and nor had they asked if they could go up there, so they were lucky they didn't all get shot. If I'm leading and you think there's something useful you could be doing that I might have overlooked then by all means suggest it but don't just go running off without asking.
Ammo Run
This was a nice mission, it just went rather pear-shaped in execution! I didn't actually see Stags sideChat about taking flares so unfortunately didn't have any when they would have helped the sharpshooter team (Delta). I'd suggest in future if you know we'll need flares and the leader hasn't told people to take them that you talk to him and then he can make sure people grab them.
In any event, after dispatching the artillery spotter who started bombarding us when we got near the base, Delta did a great job of taking out a lot of the threats in and around the base, which allowed me to lead Bravo up the hill and kill the remaining stragglers, several of which were glitching and probably impossible to kill from a distance even if they could be seen. Once the base was clear I called Delta in to sit on the tower where I hoped they'd be able to assist by taking out any nearby enemies but it seems there weren't any, so they didn't have much to do from that point.
Unfortunately our driver had crashed our vehicle on the way in, so we had no way of transporting the ammo back to base. I can understand going dark to avoid being spotted but if you're going to do that you need to drive slowly or else you're bound to hit something, so please be more careful in future. Variable came to our rescue by sending a boat to take us as close to base as possible but we still had a bit of a walk which was made worse by the fact we were all loaded down with ammo and once we realised how much of a chore it would be getting the required amount of ammo back we all decided it was time to abort. I definitely want to try this again though and now we know there's an enemy chopper we can plan to take that out before it threatens our vehicles. There were several AA missiles at the base Bravo took (only 3 of the 5 required AT missiles though) and I think there were launchers there as well. It might be better if there were one or two spare vehicles, as Stag suggests, just in case but it seems it should be possible with just three if we're careful and sensible.
Jackals
This went better than last time I played it but oh my god, how many times did I need to be revived and I was the medic! I couldn't even tell where I was being shot at from half the time and it seemed we were surrounded or I was being shot at by enemies through the walls, so I ended up hiding in an alcove until someone needed me. That bug with Psycho's Revive is very annoying when you've been revived and need to move quickly to avoid being shot again straight away but can only walk slowly because you've got 50+ first aid kits!
Even so, it was a fun and fairly short mission, which was just what we needed after the previous two. Can we pay a bit more for a better pilot next time though, preferably one who flies us to the extraction point and not back towards the enemy?