Pre-Game:
Before the Op Barracuda Game, a Qwai river game that was, a few of the 6th members were thinking of switching to US (to be Chinese in Barracuda), so Chrisweb and myself decided that if the unbalance switched we would switch to the to-be USMC side to help make the game even. When we loaded in, we switched to USMC. Unfortunately, the rest of the 69th members left so it was just us two.
Planning:
When Chris and myself loaded into the game and went to USMC, we didn't have a major idea, but decided that we would make two 69th Infantry squads that would work together. My squad immediately filled up, with well intentioned pubbies and |
TG-E1st| (I think that's the tag) Skylark, looking for a good fight. I went through the standard rules, like no requesting kits without asking and so on. I also assigned the kits, right now I didn't want to go too complex, so I just assigned a medic and auto-rifle, with rest of squad as standard rifleman. After spawning in, Skylark asked for a Rifleman AT. I quickly thought it over, the PLA get a good amount of jeeps, and if we weren't prepared one could quite easily mow down my entire squad. So I let Skylark take it. Chris quickly thought the idea of landing in B8, I saw that as: so that we could flank beach-front which was about 400m North-East of B8. It was a common plan that was used quite a bit, but it did work. We would also have the chance to destroy any AA and FOBs that could be set-up near south-rock fortification or the Air Traffic Control tower (note that neither of these 2 were flags in the round).
Into the Storm:
We only had 2 transport helicopters running initially, so Chris's squad was first in at B8, but around a minute later, a new pilot sprung up. So my squad saddled in for the ride, and I hoped that we would make it to B8 intact. And my hopes dashed as I saw the pilot head almost directly to beach front, flying low, he seemed he could handle it, but we took quite a lot of small arms fire. In addition, the enemy knew we were going to flank them and knew that the LZ would be based around the Airstrip area. I checked my squad screen just as we flew over the actual airstrip and we had already lost a man to the small arms fire over the beach-front. the insertion was less than I expected of the pilot, flying directly into the danger zone, but at least 5 of us made it to the LZ, and what was done, was done. I couldn't change it. After touching down, I moved with my squad straight into the nearby bush away from the beach. I then layed down my rally point and the soldier that was killed in insertion spawned in.
Although the plan to move to flank beach-front seemed easy, it would soon be realized that that is not the case. After the landing, Chris's and my squad began to setup temporary defensive positions. And no more than 1 minute later did we encounter a PLA FAV. Obviously alerted to the LZ's position from my Heli's insertion technique, the initial attack of this FAV seemed almost like nothing to me, all guns lit up the FAV like no tomorrow. The crew was dead very quickly.
Contact!:
Okay so just some initial contact, obvious to expect, but then a second FAV rolls up. This attack was more prolonged but we managed to kill it's crew as well. During this, I constantly looked at my map-screen, checking my squad status: no one was killed, not even injured. Yet I heard men dieing around me. And finally a third FAV rolled up, right down the beach around 100m away. It got close enough to me to touch but my Auto-rifleman saved the day. Still, none of my squad was injured. I then realized that my squad was not the only one here, feeling like an idiot I got my medic to help get Chris's squad up. Chris kept pressuring me to get us up as quick as possible, probably because we already over-stayed our welcome, even in a few minutes.
After about 3 minutes everyone was good to go. Chris led both squads South near the ATC tower. And, once again we made contact. This time with an infantry squad. They were right at the end of the airstrip, just in the bush. Even though we were double the strength this squad seemed dedicated, it took us a good 5 minutes or so to get rid of them. All of which both squads took casualties, but my medic did a good job and kept my squad in good order as did Chris's medic with his squad. After dealing with that, Chris made a small push just off the airstrip on the shore-line, which was South-East of the ATC tower. I heard shots going off, and I never knew whether he had made proper contact. I just set-up my squad to guard the north where the enemy infantry squad had been, making sure that both squads would not get flanked. We didn't end up receiving contact. And I took this time to get an overview of the situation, it looked as if most squads were spread from most of the objectives, obviously trying to move in on them. But good news was that we had gained ground; A friendly squad had captured docks. And guessing from the speed the took it in, there was little or even no resistance. Except the thought ran through my head that that could be bad for our squads down at the Airstrip, because if there was little resistance at docks, the only other flag needing defending is beach-front. Most likely meaning that there was heavy resistance there. And we could expect more contact.
Eventually, after another several minutes, the decision was made to move North-West to South Rock fortification. Along the way I kept a close look at our rallies. And, you guessed it, my rally went down.
Immediately I relayed the message to Chris and setup my squad to face south, making sure that we would be prepared for that contact. Chris told me to stay put and wait for the enemy to come to me, not to chase after the enemy. It made sense too. Around 1 minute later we made the contact: 1 PLA soldier with an Auto-rifle. But of course we didn't know that. I believe he managed to kill 2 or 3 of my guys before I unloaded lead into him. We worked to get everyone back up, and I ensured Chris that we didn't need any help reviving. There was one soldier who couldn't be revived, and it turned out that we would need Chris's help. After calling him over, another rabble of an assault force: 1 PLA medic, snuck up behind us and managed to knife 3 guys, including 1 of my own. Even though they were rabbles, it kept delaying us even more, because everytime someone went down, it usually meant 1 more minute to get them back up again.
Disengaging Firefight:
A couple of minutes after the Knife attack, a more co-ordinated force began to attack from the south, that being another infantry squad. The soldier who couldn't be revived ended up spawning on the Essex, I would deal with him later. Right now we were being killed by a force less just under half our size. We had to pull back, we couldn't fight with advantage in the bush, it was just a matter of who spotted who first. So we fought back to South Rock fortification, retreating but keeping up suppressive fire at the same time. Within a minute we reached south rock and began to properly engage the enemy from the south, but we continued taking losses. Chris's squad led a push at the enemy in the bush, but were taken down. We needed to revive them. And it wouldn't be easy, the enemy, now even in force, continued coming, I constantly told my guys to move up but the medic got picked off. As I reached to grab the kit I also got a dose of lead. Unfortunately we could not save Chris's squad, He had to respawn at the beach-front FOB, which was now taken by our forces, but docks was lost to the PLA. I had a rally so I spawned there and kept up the fight. Chris had the idea of flanking around behind the enemy squad to the south, killing their rally and them. But he was being engaged at the FOB at Beach-front. Eventually, it came to the point where my squad needed to withdraw inside the South Rock fortification. We kept the entrances secure, and the PLA made some attempt of attacking, we easily held the fort. And my rally point inside was still intact. A soldier from my squad kept control of things outside, boy was he a good shot. He prevented any PLA from flanking around and killing us from the north entrance of south rock, I.E. killing us from our rear. Also I called in a CAS run just on the main south entrance, it took a few minutes for CAS to perform the run.
Before this time I had realized that we weren't making much use. We were killing enemies yes, but they were killing us too. So I decided that we needed to withdraw out of South rock and onto the beach, from then we would regroup at beach front. But just after leaving the rear bunker entrance, a PLA soldier popped up and began to engage us. the squad immediately became target fixated on him, and the bunker was lit up with a huge amount of fire. I attempted to toss a grenade, but the terrain was not making it easy. I found hardly any use for my scoped M16 so I took out my pistol and shot the enemy in the bunker, just as I turned away I was shot in the back by another PLA soldier hiding in the same bunker. We then began what the PLA tried to do 10 minutes ago: take the South Rock. My squad mates secured the front entrance so that no-one got out, I was revived in addition to 2 other soldiers who were killed by a grenade. After this, I led the attack to clear out the rabble inside the fort, but was quite unsuccessful. 4 men including myself were critically wounded and only 2 of my riflemen were left. But Chris was on his way, coming up from the south. And he had 2 medics.
I began to say that about 2 or 3 guys would be left inside the fort, one of my rifleman killed another one with a grenade. Chris got to our bodies just in-time; I thought I had only a few seconds left on my clock. And once again we were up and running. Chris brought up the idea of building an FOB at south rock, but I passed it. I believed we needed to make more use to the team, right now we were killing and dieing at the same rate. We needed to help the team more.
Deconstruction:
We would help the team, namely our pilots, by ridding them of the FOB and static AA ontop of the ATC tower. Chris flanked along the southern fenceline of the Airstrip while I advanced north, almost in a pincer move. We were at more danger on the north fenceline as my squad was closer to the fighting at beach front, but my squad-members stayed focused. We managed to get up close to the FOB, and encountered a PLA soldier at the FOB, he was killed instantly. Most of my squad searched the ATC tower while I and another squad-mate got rid of the FOB and crates. Mission successful. No more PLA inside the ATC tower and one less AA for our pilots
Now it was time to take the fight to the enemy.
Final Fight:
We began the advance to beach-front. Which was rather quick compared to our delayed flank at B8. Beach front was now taken by the enemy, but mine and Chris's squad were part of the counter-attack force. We sighted the enemy, again it looked like another rabble, but they were just spread out too much to notice. My Auto-rifleman began lighting em' up! and we pushed just to the treeline off the beach. However, whether the enemy planned a counter-attack or whether the FAVs were spoiling for road-kill were we successfully engaged by two FAVs. My squad's rally was also destroyed so we had to be wary of an infantry force to our south. The FAVs were not our friend, they ran us over, they attempted to mow us down. But after a while they left, I'm not sure why. I then myself began reviving downed squad-mates when the round ended. Our team had lost by 60 tickets.
Final words:
Although the USMC team lost, it was only by 60 tickets, which meant it was a good competitive fight, which is how games should be. I'm sure that if I stayed on the PLA side it would not be as much fun as I had on the USMC. The PLA were dedicated, and that payed out. But in the end, it was a great fight, no matter if we lost or won. Losing is good, you learn from it. If Chris's and my squad weren't so delayed we may have lessened the margin of tickets by which we lost or even won the game. Not saying that the 69th made the difference, but we were 2 infantry squads working together. And having that in the direct battle is certain to help the main assault effort of the team. I have learnt from this game. I have learnt 2 things. One being that you have to avoid getting bogged down in fighting. And Two being that you can still have fun on the loosing side. And I would have enjoyed the game, winning as PLA, less than loosing as USMC. If that makes sense.
Acutally I have learnt a third thing. That if you trust public people and give them a try, as I and Chris did on that Op Barracudda round, you'll get a good game out of it. Snubbing pubbies isn't the way to go, try people out, because they could be wanting to join
TG. They are the new, and we, the regulars, should teach them.
