The Fighting TTLGers present: Arma 3 (a TTLG Coop Saturdays spin-off) - by Thirith
Thirith on 3/8/2024 at 18:21
Another pretty successful game today, joined by henke, Jeshibu and demagogue - though the successes were harder won than those from the previous week. We took the last enemy outpost in the area of Altis that we're pretty much controlling, though the start of that attack didn't go particularly well. We didn't count on the base having guard towers with static machine guns, so our approach was shredded pretty quickly, and even the AI diversion from the other direction didn't help much. But slowly we advanced, with a couple of deaths and respawns, took out both the bad guys at the base and the many reinforcements that were dropped off by choppers. As a bonus, once we'd taken the base, we also found ourselves the proud new owners of a Strider MRAP... though sadly one without weapons.
In the meantime, the enemy attacked another base of ours, so we went there, hoping to fight back. We did, but boy, it was a close one - and at one point it was Jesh and me in the base's tower while underneath there were five armoured vehicles ready to pounce and kill. Meanwhile, henke and dema were outside, trying to thin out the armoured vehicles.These are still our biggest weakness: we can't take them out with any certainty because we don't really have the weapons to go on the counterattack. We finally survived the armoured vehicles circling us much like sharks; I'm not entirely sure which of them were taken out by henke and demagogue and which by the half-dozen waves of AI-controlled suicide AT technicals we spawned in and sent towards the base. The last of the armoured vehicle, quite possible an actual tank, lost interest and just buggered off.
Anyway, we finished the session by delivering supplies to the town that we'd visited last week, but this time no one was blown up and catapulted into the skies. Jesh killed a bunch of cops (they would've killed us if given half a chance), but sadly this wasn't quite enough to get the townspeople to get on our side. Ah well.
demagogue on 3/8/2024 at 20:26
To be technical about the technical that Jesh was driving, the AI we had manning the machine gun in the back took out the bunch of cops, although Jesh did a good job driving towards them.
The highpoint for me (and Jesh was there too) was when we drove back to the outpost attack on a 4wheeler after getting creamed & had a respawn, and we found a much better point on nearby highground where we must have take out a good dozen or more guys like fish in a barrel. Makes me think that half the battle is location, location, location.
Thirith on 3/8/2024 at 21:49
You're right that the AI took out the police on the way into town, but as we were waiting for the countdown to count down, Jesh spotted and took out a bunch of bad guys before they even got close enough to us and to the supplies. They make for a good team, Jesh and Nameless AI Guy.
Thirith on 4/8/2024 at 14:43
Next time: should we grab some more resources on the map? Another enemy base? Or should we try our hand at getting ourselves another ammo truck (which might more or less automatically also mean assaulting a base)?
Quote:
Upcoming Antistasi sessionDate: Sat, 17 August
Starting time: 3pm UK time / 16h in the Netherlands and Switzerland / 17h in Finland
Quote:
What's Antistasi?It's a persistent whole-map mission in which we play a local resistance on a map where the local military is fighting an invading army, and we take on both of them. Doing small sorties and missions, we slowly gather resources to take on bigger and bigger targets and converting the island to our cause, town by town. Or we get shot to bits trying to race past a checkpoint in a battered old pickup truck. We'll see.
What will you need to join?* An updated installation of
Arma 3 (possibly including the
APEX DLC, depending on which map we want to play on)
* An up-to-date TeamSpeak 3 client
* The mods in (
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3148668505) this collection, all fully updated
* Here's (
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2154094306) a list of
optional mods tweaking your
Arma 3 visuals and sound
On the days of the Antistasi sessions, I'll get the server for
Arma 3 and TS3 started beforehand and will send everyone who'd like to join the IP and password at the beginning of the session. Looking forward to seeing a bunch of you ready and willing to liberate Altis/Stratis/Malden/Tanoa!
Thirith on 8/8/2024 at 08:14
For those who haven't seen it on the Steam chat: my Saturday 10 August freed up unexpectedly, so I'll be running an additional Antistasi session then (usual place, usual time), though probably one focusing more on smaller missions and guerrilla incursions than on the bigger assaults we've been mostly doing. The main session on Saturday 17 August is still taking place though.
Thirith on 10/8/2024 at 16:29
It ended up being just henke and me for today's impromptu session. We thought we'd try to do some missions for Petros, in the hope that these would be less gruelling than the assaults on map points we've been doing. Funnily enough, they weren't - we tried to hijack an ammo truck but were pretty much massacred by a teensy weensy enemy base -, but when we then switched tack and went into nearby Kavala with an AI squad just to do some guerrilla-style hit and run on the enemy patrols, we ended up taking Kavala seaport almost by accident! So we've now got a harbour... and probably not all that much to do with it, but this means that we've got all the map points surrounding the enemy base in Kavala Castle, and that should make for a fun upcoming task.
Thirith on 12/8/2024 at 06:16
P.S.: We're two PCMLs away from having an infinite supply of them - and once we do, I think we'll be slightly less vulnerable to MRAPs and the like. I don't know if PCMLs hit harder than the RPG-42 launchers we've been using, but it definitely helps that they're guided, which also makes them easier to use at a distance. I'm thinking of cases such as the attack on that base where Jesh and I were stuck in the tower while below us the armoured sharks circled: in such a case, it would've been easier for henke to go back to base, grab 3-4 MRAPs and thin out the attackers from a distance. I'd not use these yet, because the sooner we've unlocked them the better, but I could imagine that one or two NATO crates and we're there.
Thirith on 17/8/2024 at 17:47
Fucking hell, today was a successful one!
Of course it didn't quite begin successfully: I'd suggested making a suicide run to a nearish airfield held by the enemy in order to steal some of the armoured vehicles parked there. Thank god they're not locked, but it is a risk, because we'd usually lose our undercover as we race towards the place where all the armour is parked. Things already started badly: when we fast traveled to the nearest town, we must have spawned into one another, because my car went flying and so did I - the Arma physics catapulted me a kilometre into the air, and it took me about half a minute to get back to ground level. Anyway, we tried again, not exploding this time, and headed up there, Jeshibu and me in one pickup, Henke and Demagogue in the other -and halfway there, we drove past a roadblock, and that was it for our undercover. Jesh and I made it to the garage where the vehicles were parked, but there was a lone guard there that shot us up; meanwhile, the other two were spotted and veered off course, because they didn't want to risk meeting with the same fate as ours.
Okay, so Jesh and I respawned back at base, and Henke and Dema joined us there. We decided to postpone the Grand Theft Auto plans and instead attack the enemy base at Kavala Castle, since we'd taken all of the map points around it. We sent in a few squads of AI first and then joined them - only to be met by heavy resistance. We took out a few enemy soldiers, but we were soon down, while the surviving AI tried to fight off the defenders. Once back at base, we grabbed some more AI and headed in - but in the meantime, the defenders had largely moved out of the castle, pursuing the attackers far into Kavala, so when we got back to the castle, we found that there were lots of bodies but only a dozen remaining soldiers, at most. It was still not easy, because they had the advantage of being entrenched, and there was one sneaky defender who got Henke and me, but Jesh flanked and killed him and took the castle. The enemy had sent some armour our way, but they couldn't get up to the castle and just waited outside the walls to pick us off... so Henke climbed up on the castle walls and took out the armoured vehicle waiting for us in the streets of Kavala.
We bolstered the garrison at the castle base we'd just taken and decided to take out a small nearby enemy base - which had already seen some combat, since their guard tower was mostly in ruins, except for a raised platform from which you could pick off approaching units. We grabbed some AI and started heading up that hill, picking off soldiers slowly - but compared to the Antistasi meatgrinders we've encountered, this felt like a reasonably doable battle. Not too easy, but still manageable and a nice palate cleanser after the castle assault earlier in the session. The enemy sent in two helicopters with reinforcements, but one of them was shot down and we were able to take the base and defend against the one wave of attackers trying to drive us out. Oh, and in the process of taking all of Kavala and outskirts a nearby town decided that they wanted to join us because we're just so damn cool.
... which we then proved by redoing the daring airfield heist, though sadly without Dema - Arma glitched out on him and didn't let him use his middle mouse button, which is needed among other things for entering vehicles. Jesh and I drove up front and henke followed. Again we ran into that roadblock, but we raced past. Jesh drove past the airstrip, turned left, and there were several armoured vehicles, unprotected. Including a tank - that Jesh touched ever so slightly with our pickup, sending the tank flying, but thankfully not that far, and none of the vehicles blew up. I jumped into one MRAP, Jesh into the other, and we drove off, hoping to put enough distance between us and the airbase. Once Henke got there, he got the choicest bit: he grabbed the tank and drove after us. So, for the price of two pickups, we got two armoured vehicles, one with a machine gun, the other with grenades, and an honest-to-god tank!
Not quite sure what we'll do with our toys next time, but it's certain to accelerate the rate at which we can take bases and towns. Chances are that with a tank and one of the MRAPs already, we can take most of the small to medium-sized bases, without having to drag along lots of AI as cannon fodder. We also got quite a lot of gear, unlocking better RPGs and anti-aircraft weapons. All in all, a very successful, and fun, 2 1/2 hours of Arma!
henke on 17/8/2024 at 18:45
Yeah man, it was a good one! Next sesh we gotta put that tank to good use. :thumb:
Thirith on 18/8/2024 at 10:09
Let's see what good use we can come up with! By the way, henke, I think you may have nabbed us one of the best tanks available with these factions.
Quote:
Upcoming Antistasi sessionDate: Sat, 31 August
Starting time: 3pm UK time / 16h in the Netherlands and Switzerland / 17h in Finland
Quote:
What's Antistasi?It's a persistent whole-map mission in which we play a local resistance on a map where the local military is fighting an invading army, and we take on both of them. Doing small sorties and missions, we slowly gather resources to take on bigger and bigger targets and converting the island to our cause, town by town. Or we get shot to bits trying to race past a checkpoint in a battered old pickup truck. We'll see.
What will you need to join?* An updated installation of
Arma 3 (possibly including the
APEX DLC, depending on which map we want to play on)
* An up-to-date TeamSpeak 3 client
* The mods in (
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3148668505) this collection, all fully updated
* Here's (
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2154094306) a list of
optional mods tweaking your
Arma 3 visuals and sound
On the days of the Antistasi sessions, I'll get the server for
Arma 3 and TS3 started beforehand and will send everyone who'd like to join the IP and password at the beginning of the session. Looking forward to seeing a bunch of you ready and willing to liberate Altis/Stratis/Malden/Tanoa!
