1stMIP Coop Session AAR / Jan 4, 2007 / Clearing Somato

[John CANavar]

Somato, South Sahrani.

Mission: ArmA Demo Coop Mission

Objectives

1) Eliminate enemy presence in South Sahrani town of Somato.
2) Use proper planning and extreme caution not to lose a single team member until the mission is complete.
3) Accomplish the mission in the first attempt.

Briefing from session 1.

Roster

Session 1:
Bhack
BigGaayAl
Coridon
John_C
Wimpinator

Session 2:
BigGaayAl
Candyman
John_C
Mosely
Shakey
Strikeman
tHa_KhAn
Wimpinator

Squad Setup

Fire team Alpha: SL
Fire team Bravo: FTL (Rifleman) / FTM (SAW) / FTM (AT)
Fire team Charlie: FTL (Rifleman) / FTM (SAW) / FTM (AT)
Fire team Delta: FTL (Sniper)

Column formation at fire team level. Bravo 1 (FTL, right) at point, Bravo 2 (middle) covering 6 and Bravo 3 watching 12...

SL Report

• High risk associated with Military Operations on Urban Terrain (MOUT) was the first thing that came to my mind when I received the mission from main HQ. Enemy forces had opportunity to set their defense in and around the town. I had to find the safest way of achieving objectives without losing any one under my command.
  
  
  
  Sweeping a main road with two fire teams advancing by successive bounding...Bravo on left, Charlie on right side.
  
  
• A two-staged plan seemed applicable. In the first phase, we were going to clear as many targets as possible from outside, without entering the town by circling it. Four main waypoints set, starting from SE main road to west field hospital. Second phase of the mission was entering the city from west, after clearing the hospital and guard houses.
  
• Phase I was completed with high efficiency, better than I expected. Majority of enemy targets eliminated without setting foot in town.
  
  
  
  Three fire teams advancing north on eastern side of the town by covering each other.
  
  
• There was minimal enemy resistance during Phase II. Town was cleared once we hit the first intersection towards the city center.

SL injured...

Result

Success. All objectives accomplished with the exception of the second. Casualties were minimal but not zero.

Comments

Props to all under my command for their dedication, discipline, suggestions and patience. Keep up the good work gents.

[Chappie]

Great report John!!

Nice pics and presentation!! good stuff...

Chappie

[BHack]

sweet. Good squad leading John.

[Strikeman]

I had a blast playing with you guys. Good job SLing John.

[Coridon]

We were at the end of the round and standing on the enemies flag when I realized I hadn't fired my weapon once during the assault. I then made two mistakes:

1) My TS "talk" button is on my Num pad and I need to rebind it so I can call out contacts more easily. Right now I have to stop what I'm doing to speak.

2) I saw an enemy on the flag and since I thought a kill was assured I opened up with two bursts from the M4. It was my first time using the M4 and since then I've been told the burst is horribly inaccurate for that weapon. Lesson learned. I died.

So, in the future I'll rebind my TS key to my spacebar so I can announce the contact before opening fire so the entire squad can concentrate on bringing him down. Also, semi is the way to go with the M4.

Great squadleading as always, John. Looking forward to playing again this weekend, hopefully...

[John CANavar]

@Coridon

In fact, I realized that your fire team was not involved in a fire fight while we were still on the east side and that's why I ordered charlie (positioned further east, on the hills) to hold fire and wait.

I was hoping that inbound enemy patrol was going to end up in front of you guys so you could also keep the trigger finger warm and happy...

But that patrol decided to turn back before getting into your line of fire and I had to contact Charlie giving "Drop 'em" order.

[Wimpinator]

Yeah that was some serious fun. Those rounds seemed to have many cool "movie" moments. I loved seeing the squads moving slowly down the street. Great fun!

[Wimpinator]

hehe Coridon when I blew the tent I saw the guy laying in the middle of the encampment. I was flailing at my keyboard to get to better cover and let you know he was there. I also need to remap that key.

[Coridon]

Originally Posted by John CANavar

I was hoping that inbound enemy patrol was going to end up in front of you guys so you could also keep the trigger finger warm and happy...

I really don't mind being "out of the action". In fact, since I came sooooo close to completing the mission without firing a shot, I'd actually like to be able to do so at some point. I mean to say, I'm not going to let the rest of the squad get mowed down just so I can feel accomplished, or anything, but if I can do it I would feel some satisfaction.

[BigGaayAl]

It was a lot of fun, the column formation in urban environments is definitely very workable. One thing about it which proved important is that the middle man needs to be one stance higher then the other two, so he can shoot over the heads of the other two. Otherwise the third member is constantly in the line of fire of the second.

The bounding worked really well with the two fireteams.

The most dangerous part is I think when e.g. bravo reaches the end of a wall, B1 peeks around the corner. as he ends his slicing of the pie, 90° from the direction bravo was moving in, the area he has already sliced past, is a great danger to B1 (area is at 10-11 o'clock while slicing left, 1-2 o'clock slicing right). He has checked the area, but an enemy that was concealed can pop up from his concealment out of view from bravo 1 because he has sliced beyond that point. It is hard for B3 to cover the area of danger I indicated, because B2 is in the way.

When I encountered this as B1 (there also was a bush obstructing my view around the corner at the end of the wall), I notified John, and the other fireteam advanced, with Shakey taking out multiple e's with his saw in exactly the area of danger I was fearing.

This was one way of solving the problem, but I feel It left Shakey there with too little cover, and a lesser marksman might have died there. One other way to solve this might be to have B2 temporarily (you are stationary at that time anyway) look forward to cover the area of danger, and have B3 take the rear.

The bush added a serious problem to the situation as well, but mainly because the AI can look through them. Vs humans this isn't really a problem because the concealement works both ways.


One other thing I learned is to trust your instincts. Whey you feel advancing somewhere is a leap in the dark, when you just don't feel right about it, stop, notify command and try to find a different solution. Doing this saved my butt a few times, as in the example where instead of me taking one for the team, Shakey got to show off a bit .

When people died in the squad I really felt bad, a level of immersion that was quite new to me.


To finish I'll add that I do hope that when half of the team is dead, and the objective is not close to completion, the game will be restarted quick enough. Losing a lot of men could be considered a failure anyway and people only have limited time for gaming. PLz don't take away the seagulls.

[shakeyjake]

That was my first run through a game the way the MIP plays whether it be BF2 or ARMA. I'll have to admit that while it may slow down the pace alot, it puts a whole new level of immersion into the game and I enjoyed the hell out of it. Thanks.

[Jusb]

Ah nice to see the 1st procedures up and running in demo. You guys need to get that English release so we can get moving. I call D1...

[enigma6584]

Excellent report. Nice job.