Tuesday 06-26-07 Evolution

[Strag]

Tonight was the fullest I've seen our Evolution server -- we hit 30 players for a while, and we held steady at 26-28 for quite some time. Hell, even at 2:45am EDT we had 17 players onboard. Good stuff.

Some excellent games tonight. The platoon structure was in use, and it seemed to work fairly well. At one point we had three squads going, along with a full air element. By the time we reached Masbete, the air element was in full swing, with a Cobra and Harrier laying down some heavy firepower.

Thanks to all who came on tonight. Fantastic games....

[Brennus]

Had a great time! I can't wait to do it all over again!

S!

[John CANavar]

[Barnaby]

I say that was grand.

Thanks again for taking Barnaby Brit into Battle with the US forces.
I was only in action until mid-point of the battle at which time I was relieved and RTB for some well earned R&R.

It is excellent when the SL system is active as it was again last night. It makes the whole experience that much more exciting - tense - awe inspiring - amazing.
When as last night we had multiple sq'ds & air assets it really is a great experience watching individuals work as a TEAM, fantastic well done all.
I'm still learning your tags so I've not got many names to call but you all worked well.
Thanks to Vendi [?spelling?] who drove & positioned our 113 with consumate skill keeping me on targets as gunner & alive all the way to just South of Delores when he got called back to base.
We parked it up and I joined Able/Alpha section of squad #1 led by JohnF.
We had a 2nd Section with this being led by Jeepo.
There are some great SL's out there, carry on the good work as you make this ArmA experience much more interesting and I for one are thankfull you all are about.

Cyaz l8'er
Get "R" dun

Barnaby out

PS Comms
Sorry to who ever I talked across last night but it is the norm for me when comms are up that if a critical situation arises I call BREAKER - BREAK or BREAK - BREAK - BREAK to clear comms and then deliver my message. ie last night we were moving East down a road with me as a "tail end Charlie" when an enemy trooper steped out into the road 20 yds away West. He could have cut us down, so I called BREAK - delivered message - fired a short burst which took him down - job done.

[UnDeaD77]

I had fun.

[loyalguard]

Last night was fantastic. It was only my third time playing ArmA/Evo but I am hooked forever. It was awesome clearing Delores, meeting up with another squad and working together. Right after destroying a radio tower on a subsequent mission, our medic was killed so we were able to call for med support from another squad...Shafik arrived just in time to heal a couple of us and move back to his squad.

[tHa_KhAn]

Excellent jobs everyone. Special thanks to my squad for putting up with the pauses to do some admining. I apologize if I miss your name but for most of the night Squad 2 had Shafik, Undead, Fiddlestix, Pepper, Pfiel, Tam Lin, Rev plus his short bus A.I., Blacksheep, and Atlas as well as a few others throughout the night.

Shafik and Undead were our medics, I believe it was Undead's first time out and became our mash placing expert. Atlas provided sniper overwatch and recon as well as bringing supplies. Fiddle, Tam Lin, and Pepper were our point team. Fiddle and Pepper had silent weapons and Tam Lin had an MG. Fiddle started out at point with very close Tam Lin right on his six. Pepper hung back a little way. I established the procedure that if fiddle goes down Pepper immediately takes his position and Tam lin forms up on him. The reason I chose to do this is the silenced weapons while extremely effective against 1 or 2 non-alert targets, they are not that great against groups. If a group of hostiles were encountered, Tam Lin would be able to suppress until the rest of the squad could move into firing position and allow Fiddle to fall back and make better use of his weapon. This system worked out well. Having the 3 man point also helps when armor is encountered. When armor is spotted/heard it allows the 3rd man to bring up AT and have 2 rifles to cover him. The point team could thus engage armor by themselves in a pinch if there is no time to move the others into better firing positions and keep the majority of the squad out of harms way. Pfiel was our fearless rear guard who was as trustworthy as ever. We never once suffered a rear flanking attack that led to casualties. We essentially were using a modified staggered column formation. The formation and execution worked well. We only lost our point man once and the rotation was pretty seamless to the next.

A few special thanks. DaChevs, 4evar, Switch, and Evil Koala did great jobs in the air element. DaChevs thanks for getting on TS finally and you were excellent at getting my squad where they needed to be. Also, John C I wish I had more time last night, I really liked the level of immersion using the in game time contact schedule. I informed my squad of our contact time and they were aware and mentioned that I had not given them a new update on your position when the time was missed. Great idea, great immersion. Great comms earlier in the night John Flenaly. It was interesting to meet up in the middle of Ortego to provide inter squad medic services.

[Shafik]

I had a blast last night. I think I'm coming around.


Kudos to DaChevs:



And here are some MIPs taking a break in house rubble:

[Strag]

Originally Posted by John CANavar

I'm glad you got a shot of this, JohnC. Setting this up was a fairly involved process among the three squads, but also a lot of fun.

As I recall, the initial plan was for SQ3 to move into Bagango via the SW road, while SQ1 and SQ2 moved in together via the SE road. However, before the squads moved in, SQ2 established a two-man(?) Observation Point (OP) in the hills high to the east of Bagango. This OP reported a lot of armor on the east side of town, so we all decided to shift our attack and hit Bagango from the west side.

In the revised plan, SQ3 would shift to the NW side of town, SQ1 to the W side of town, and SQ2 to the SW side of town (taking up SQ3's former position). However, as SQ1 was moving into position on the west side (near the SQ1 RALLY marker on the map), SQ3 suddenly fell back rapidly through our line due to heavy contact in their sector. SQ3 continued past SQ2, so that SQ1 became the northernmost element, with SQ2 in the middle (SW) and SQ3 moving to approach the town from the south. These were our final positions as the assault began.

At this point, SQ1 engaged multiple enemy infantry and one BRDM from its position on the west. Then, in coordination, all three squads moved toward town. SQ3 moved in directly from the south, while SQ1 and SQ2 bounded by squads up to the west/southwest edge of town. SQ1 and SQ2 engaged more infantry as well as a Shilka and UAZ, bringing down all enemies encountered. Soon enough, the town was cleared.

I'm not entirely sure of the SQ3 actions, as they were furthest from my vantage point as SQ1 leader. I also missed some of the SQ2 actions. JohnC (SQ3 leader) and Pfeil (SQ2 leader), please fill in or correct anything I missed here.

Overall, I really enjoyed the action around Bagango. The initial plan had to be changed based on intel from the OP, which worked out much better, probably, than attacking the east side of town in strength as originally planned. We had a few tense moments as we all got into our final positions (I got quite a start when I saw all of SQ3 heading toward and through our SQ1 line, with JohnC saying "Heavy enemy contact to the NW! SQ3 pulling back double-quick!" over the Command channel.) Once we all assumed our final positions, though, the action ran fairly smoothly.

The main thing I see that could have improved things further is if we'd had a Platoon Leader positioned with the OP in the east hills. The PL could have observed the town directly so that he could have planned, coordinated, and directed the squads accordingly. I think this probably would have made the SL's jobs easier, as we wouldn't have had to plan the action, coordinate it, and communicate it, all while trying to manage our own squads. This definitely got complicated at times.

During this action around Bagango (and all throughout the night), our air element did a fantastic job of transporting troops and offering support to the ground squads. This is one of the most critical jobs in Evolution, and it's definitely appreciated.

And, of course, kudos to all the squad members who were patient with the squad leaders and carried out the action so well. Thanks for some great times!

[loyalguard]

And here are some MIPs taking a break in house rubble:

Can't a soldier have any private time anymore? I knew deploying with cameras was a bad idea! We'll have to get the Platoon Commander to confiscate them before we move out next time!

[John CANavar]

I thought that map shot was for our Eponia offensive. I guess I might have mixed it. In fact my reason for putting it there was to show the nice coordination between 3 squads, covering each other's flanks while advancing. I cannot remember the details now but just like Strag and others said, it was a terrific experience.

Like Khan said, "Next radio contact at time XXXX" type of inter-squad comm works quite well. It gives you a certain amount of time to finalize your preparations, making the whole process more fun and immersive. It is also a big help to SL to silence his inter-squad channel, focus on his squad and when the contact time comes, take radio in hand.

Other highlights from the night (I hope these become regular interactions on our server ):

- SLs meet, salute each other and work on the planning of next offensive at the staging area.

- SL coming from this planning meeting groups the squad members around and give them a briefing.

[tHa_KhAn]

Originally Posted by John CANavar

- SLs meet, salute each other and work on the planning of next offensive at the staging area.

- SL coming from this planning meeting groups the squad members around and give them a briefing.

For those who can use VOIP...the mouth syncing while talking is great for immersion. Direct Channel...good fun.

[Dslyecxi]

- SLs meet, salute each other and work on the planning of next offensive at the staging area.

I hope you do this in adversarial. Forward observers and snipers will really appreciate it.

It's good to see that you guys are able to get the platoon structure in TS to work well. Switching to that in WGL for us was a real big step towards better coordination, and the only thing better than it will be working in-game VOIP. Speaking of which, in-game VOIP will allow you to do the two things you cited - gathering around for a briefing, basically - via direct-speaking chat, which may prove to be very compelling. I've hypothesized a bit about doing some special communication rules when a WWII mod comes out - very limited radios, operable by only one designated person, with everything else being done via runners and direct speaking chat. I bet it could be interesting, but only time will tell - we're still at least one patch away from the VOIP working right, so it's only theory for now.

If you guys are able to pull ~30 people now, and you want some coop missions that can accomodate that that aren't Evolution, let me know.

[John CANavar]

Originally Posted by Dslyecxi

I hope you do this in adversarial. Forward observers and snipers will really appreciate it.

Who said I would go to briefing myself during an adversarial "Sergeant...where are you? You have a meeting to attend !"

Originally Posted by Dslyecxi

...want some coop missions that can accomodate that that aren't Evolution...

And annual Anti-Darwin award goes to.... We'll get in touch Dsl. We just need some more practice.




I would love to play a WWII mod on ArmA engine, I hope we see one soon.

[Strag]

Originally Posted by Dslyecxi

If you guys are able to pull ~30 people now, and you want some coop missions that can accomodate that that aren't Evolution, let me know.

Evolution has been great for introducing TG folks to ArmA -- it provides easy accessibility and allows for decent action on a large scale, as well as providing opportunities to organize and communicate at the platoon level. But yes, I hope as Evolution wears thin that more and more folks here will start to ask, "So what else does ArmA offer?" And hopefully that's when we'll be able to start moving on to those large-scale coop (as well as TvT) missions you mentioned. Having access to those would be much appreciated.

After all, Evolution is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to ArmA.