Just a quick update guys,
I've plowed through the first two missions on campaign (basic training mind you, but hey i gotta start somewhere) I've started getting the hang of things i.e letting the artillery do the risky work for the infantry and using tanks WITH support rather than some invincible piece of metal that uber pwnnwnnn1112111!!! syria in the blink of an eye. *ahem.
As in all conflict, i've taken casualties. I'll list them so far:
Mission One :1 man killed, 4 men wounded
Mission Two : 14 men killed, 26 wounded (* will explain in a second)
*Well I'll explain what happened in the second mission....
I was tasked with taking an abandoned airbase, occupied by irregular fighters and syrian special forces(I'll get to those guys in a second). I opted to go around the back, rather than assault the front entrance and proceeded with 1 humvee (sniper team) 4 strkyers (2 Inf sqd , command + 2 mg squads and a 105mm gun armed variant).
Now everyone gets about half way until a cheeky little sharmuta (arabic for prostitute) decides to fire his rpg 7 at the lead stryker.
He misses, I call the 105mm to a halt and have him fire a few round onto the roof of the control tower Abd'allah ya sooryi fired from. Poor old abd'allah screams drops his rpg and dies on the roof. I make it to the compound wall. I move the 105mm into a decent postition as to cover the storming of the control tower which i decided was a nice place for my FO and Sniper team to take residence. Clearly i wanted these guys to be safe, so i sent in one infantry squad to cover furthermore while the other assaults the building.
Heres where it all goes wrong.....
The squad that is covering the assualt and the 105mm start engaging hostiles anywhere from around 300m to 1km away (the 105mm taking more of the latter.) Fine and dandy. I pop some smoke from the transport strykers (which are also laying some cover and supressive fire) and out pops the door and in go the first fire team of the infantry while the other holds. They get to the door.....Then BOOM horrendous explosion ensues and kills 5 infantrymen from the assaulting squad. After that initial loss everything goes smoothly; I recover and with a foothold established begin ferrying in the remainder of the troops which are still in the deployment zone.
FO's take position as well as sniper team, command and the two MG's (the building had 8 floors and the surrounding area was fairly clear, why not eh?) I won't bore you with the rest but safe to say....syrian special forces.... those guys arn't pushovers like the fedayeen that were surrounding them.
A few questions:
What in Gods name killed my 5 guys in the doorway of the control tower?
(Btw, there was no tracer fire or report fire...absolutely nothing to indicate a round of ANYTHING came into the doorway)
The apache (i had two in support), how should it be used most effectively? What should and shouldn't i be engaging with it?
I am loving every minute of this now, planning on getting myself the marines module tomorrow and can't wait for the British. Good lord the mix of irregulars and SF threw me off. I'd laugh off the attacks by the Fedayeen, then end up assaulting buildings full off Syrian SF that in comparison were absolute hard as nails.
Regards
Salam