Last night was a blast! It was funny though - on just about every map I was on, I started the pre-round planning thinking I was on the other team... "ok, I'll try getting in the littlebird and heading.. oh... uh yeah, we're on defense.. lets see where everyone else spawns and fill the gap "


I joined at the end of Carpathian, but Odessa was really the first map for me. I started a squad, which surprisingly filled up in about 3.5 phemtoseconds - After seeing the squad, the first words out of my mouth were "ohhhhhh boy - this is gonna be fun!"... We weren't close to top-squad, but I'm positive we had a huge impact on that map.



I asked everyone to hold spawn, and that we were going for Dock Yard. We ended up taking it and holding it the whole round, although, to be honest, we never really saw many organized assaults... a few 3 man jeep rushes.. a lone armor unit rolling across the bridge every few minutes.. a few 1-2man parachute attacks, etc... Anyway - it was a great round - some of the best teamwork I've been a part of in a long time. People communicated very well (citing strength and direction of contacts, anticipating ammo and med needs, etc).

I spent much of the round on the roof of the flag building, bothering what little UKR air we saw with the SA-7. Robo and Rhino worked together on the tank, MiloPanda was INSANE with the TOW... taking out everything from armor to helicopters(!!).. Bench was dedicated AT and did a great job getting mines down and keeping them in place for the whole round. Fallen was jack of all trades, mainly rotating between specops and support (keeping our AT, tank, and SA-7 Stingers well stocked)

(We also had a CO which was very helpful. The only thing worse than Robocop in a tank is Robocop in a tank with a crate or two nearby).



Next up was Kerch. Thinking I was on US, I started a TG Assault squad. After the squad filled up, I started issuing orders and then realized we were actually UKR, and not US! D'oh!


Anyway - after seeing the initial spawn, we started at Slum. We were immediately ordered by Xcannon (who did a fantastic job of CO'ing the round) back to City Hall to help defend. We rushed back and got to the flag just in time. Lokka ended up in the tank, and we basically defended City Hall and disco for the whole round. With that tank, you can lock down both flags pretty well actually, since theres a road that goes between them which offers really good protection.



Berezan Island was next. Is it just me or do these rounds seem to last a LONG time? Anyway - we started at lighthouse and defended there most of the round. After we lost it about 2/3 of the way through, we regrouped at Listening post and staged an attack on camp:

I decided to do a two-pronged attack on the flag to capture it. We all approached from the woods to the southwest of the flag. Before we were in visual range of the compound, I sent the APC on it's own to the northwest approach, outside the sandbags. I then had 4 infantry with me and we moved around the south entrance. Everyone held fire and followed orders VERY well here!! Once we (infantry) were at the south east corner of the compound (by the cliff), I told the BMP to pop smoke and make a lot of noise to draw their attention. It worked like a charm, as my four guys all got on the flag which rips it down almost instantly. We defended Camp for another 10 minutes or so before loosing it just before time expired.

This time, we spawned at UKR main, I grabbed a jeep and we raced around the north side of the island - We drove down onto the beach using the "down ramp" northwest of camp, followed the beach all the way to the "up ramp" by lighthouse. I drove directly to the flag where, again, almost everyone got on the flag and immediately turned the flag. We defended there for the rest fo the round. I didn't get a shot of this round, but GREAT job to everyone in the squad - followed orders to a T and made it a real joy to SL on a map that can sometimes be a little boring.




Snakey Eyes. This was the final map of the night for me, but it was a doozy. Win or Loose I love this map... it's such a challenge, and the atmosphere is just amazing. Big props to Magonushi for stepping up in the CO chair to guide the artillery and coordinate our assault. Artillery support was fantastic most of the round - they really did a good job clearing the hills to the north and helping us get up and over... Once mantis' squad broke through, most of our team spawned on shore, and I saw this as an opportunity to take the beach ("Outpost") flag. This flag is sooooo important for US because it spawns not one, but TWO M1A2 Abrams. We took an APC along the southern out-of-bounds line, and hit the beach. "Got Smoke?" was the name of our squad, and that's just what we did. We basically used the tactics Bane laid out in his post, moving quickly, and dropping smoke and ammo-packs like it's your job. With great medic work we ended up taking that flag, and securing the tanks for our side. From this point on, we defend outpost, while leaning on Lobby to the north and helping defend hotel to the west. I don't remember everyone in the squad, but I do remember some great medic work from Axis and davinci. I think Ristin was eng for this round and did a fantastic job riding shotgun in one of the tanks, wrenching constantly. Towards the end of the round Elmeistro was key in taking the Lobby flag when he stole the enemy APC and pretty much cleared the whole south side of the building of enemy infantry.

(Also big props to bane, pick, and ? lokka? - the arty squad - at least a couple times, they saved the day.. one really cool moment is when a full squad was high on the hill west of Outpost, raining down AT fire. I started to ask Mag for help with arty, but before I could, shell after shell started exploding along the ridgeline! It was a sight to behold... )


anyway - GREAT games last night guys!! Thanks!!