Back in the day when Basrah was new

[Shadow51585]

This little story happened a long time ago. Well.. kind of. The .7 patch had just come out, and I was just starting to get into PR seriously. I had messed around with it before, but my clan was showing an interest. This happened on the battlearena Al-Basrah server. I was a lil old PFC on their ranking system (At GSgt now) and I dragged a clan mate in by the name of CeeBee.

CeeBee and I doubled up on the Challenger. We had gotten in some practice on Kashan with the Abrams, so we had a good idea how to use a tank. Or so I thought. Open land warfare in armor is quite differant then urban combat. He drove, and I was the turret gunner. Crewman kits, of course. A third squad member got in the machine gun with an Engineer kit.

We had a full squad, and our SL set up a rally in the southern city in the suburbs by the NW bridge out of the Palace. We were sweeping those rows of buildings looking for caches (back when they were all active of course). Our SL asks us to take the tank in for some close in support. Prior to this, we were hanging back by the southern highway providing long range cover and preventing them from taking technicals or bomb cars out of the base. Yes.... we did not blow up the bridges. One more mistake.

We roll down the street at the same pace as our 3 other squad mates on foot. They are on the north side of the street and we are looking over them and sweeping around with the turret, looking for threats.

We must have missed something, because as we got to the East end of the block, right where the bridge comes from palace, all hell breaks loose.

The tank shudders three times. We took 3 RPG hits to the turret in about half a second. That Insurgent squad was using their VOIP expertly to coordinate.The fire came from the south side of the street, so I turn the turret to lay some fire down. Halfway around (turret facing NE), we take another RPG hit. This time, the turret freezes. Our machine gunner Engineer jumps out to take cover behind the tank and start to repair it so I can move the turret.

At the same time, our 3 other squad mates who are in the buildings to the north start to return fire. By now we establish that the Insurgents have a pair of RPGs on a roof south of us. CeeBee and I are still in the tank. Our Engineer falls back and joins the other squad members in the buildings so we can get the tank out of there. We'll worry about repairs later.

Just then, another RPG hits us and must have broken a track or something similar. We steer right into a wall, and CeeBee can't maneuver away. So, in an act of sheer stupidity, we abandon our tank to save our lives. At this point it is on fire, and even though now I know that in PR that doesn't necessarily mean it will explode, we are in a BF2 mindset.

While this has been happening, a pair of Insurgents flanked the rest of our squad and took them out with grenades, a PKM, and AK-47 fire. The Engineer got away though and is with us. We are taking cover between our burning tank and the walls on the side of the street. Just then, a technical sets up southeast of us and opens up with the 50 cal. The Engineer is killed, so I grab his kit and start wrenching the tank so CeeBee can drive it away. As CeeBee tries to get in though, he gets killed by some AK fire. Now I'm all alone with a burning tank, surrounded.

So, I decide that the best thing I can do is to C4 my tank so they can't keep it hostage from us. I plant the C4, beat a retreat and then...... I get grenaded.....

So we are all dead and our tank has been captured. They can't use it, but now they have it. Those Insurgents executed one heck of a joint assault on us, I have to give them that. Taking on a fully crewed Challenger with 3 other infantry suporting it and WINNING ain't easy.

We did eventually get it back, but as we drove it away (after repairing it just enough to extinguish the flames), we caught a flurry of RPG fire and didn't make it back out. It was a long 20 minute wait for a new tank. >.<

[Phoenix.86]

Nice story and always great to hear of good teamwork, even if it's the enemy who's working together to good effect


One thing though: Al Basrah wasn't new in 0.7; I do have lots of good memories of the 0.5 version of Al Basrah - I spent way too much hours having tons of fun on that map

[Smuke]

Great Story, Poor CeeBee, must have been one hell of a good Insurgent Squad.

[Shadow51585]

I termed my title incorrectly. Basrah was new to me at that point. I realized the title didn't reflect that after I posted it. Ah well.

I still try and emulate similar ambushes with Insurgent squads that I am a part of today. It's worked once or twice and we've been successful in taking out a few Scimitars and the occasional APC, but half the time you squad up with folks that think they are playing Vanilla *eyeroll*

[Shadow51585]

Kind of.

I still referance it when leading Insurgent Squads. An amazing amount of people actually get baited into driving into the city where a combination of coordinated IEDs and RPGs takes care of them.

So, thanks for the valuable PR lesson.

Additionally, I NEVER bring the Challenger into the city anymore if I am driving. Hang back and provide some cover fire to support your team. Heck, I don't even take Scimitars and Warriors into the city. Just jeeps, and even then, it's a drop off or bail on the outskirts and work in kind of thing. The city is not vehicle friendly

[WeeGeez]

Great story mate, not too short nor too long..

Got to love it when the enemy in the form of insurgent capture a tank...

[The Great Danton]

Basrah was much more fun in v0.5 than it is now. Reality sacrificed the gameplay.

[DavidP]

Wait a minute was this on a saturday?

[paco]

Basrah was much more fun in v0.5 than it is now. Reality sacrificed the gameplay.

Not really. The fighting was always around the central CP. After 6 months of playing, there were places on the map I had never visited. Now, the whole map gets used and is way more flexible.

I suspect alot of pilots miss the A10- and Cobra-raping. It was just boring for the players down on the ground who wanted to enjoy killing in an urban environment.

This is what I like about PR. The devs have the guts to do some radical changes to show people how much better things can be, if you just give it a try.

[Shadow51585]

Might have been on a Saturday. Not too sure.