[AAR] Kashan Desert, the Canadian Apache
Posted: 2009-02-22 18:40
What do you get when you outfight a US Army AH-64D Apache Longbow with two crazy canucks? You get pure win...
Switching maps to Kashan desert 32 after a victorious game as the Taliban on Konrengal Valley, Canuck CO and I create a 2-manned Apache squad.While waiting for the Apache to spawn, we help DB get his squad to the bunkers quickly with a Bradley, which we decide to bring back to base. This sets DB and his squad up with ammo in the bunkers for his AA and HAT kits.
We are returning back to base to leave the Bradley for another squad, since the Apache's will spawn soon. Unfortunately, we are killed en route, meaning we couldn't keep the Bradley.
We respawn, though, and grab the Apache as it spawns within the minute. Knowing full well that the Havocs are warming up as we are, we decide to play it safe and stay at an altitude of 1000 meters, rather than just above the clouds or low to the ground. At this point, DB starts requesting CAS on vehicles moving in on his position, in the South Bunkers. This is a tricky situation, since going too low would render us vulnerable to enemy eyes, their AAVs, and the Havocs. We wait for a lase, and then dive on the coordinates given. I lock onto the target, and as I fire I tell Canuck that the ordinance is released, and we can bail out of the area. DB reports that the hit is good, confirming a kill.
At this point we are only 300 meters high, so we quickly descend to hide behind the hills to the East of the bunkers. We get to safe ground, and then start climbing again.
Patrolling again, we find a Havoc under the clouds, and kill it easily. The other one is on our tail however as we try to evade it. Canuck does his best evasive maneuvers, getting us low into the hills by the North Outpost. We don't know what's been engaging us yet, but as I see the 30 mm Tracers raining down from slightly above us, I confirm it to be the other Havoc. We continue to try and evade, however we are facing the other way from the enemy. I scan the skies and tell Canuck to do a quick U-turn to the left, and he does so expertly. We can now face our enemy, which we manage to kill with some hydras and 30 mm fire.
The Skies are now ours, and we are able to support DB's squad easily through the Mumble radio in the SL channel. He lases a target whenever possible, or at least its whereabouts, tells us any possible threats in the area, and gives us the coordinates. What a great guy
. We use our tactic of flying high and diving on targets with great success. Here's what it looks like from a gunner's POV at North Outpost:
"Missile Away!"
You can't see it with a pic, but we were much higher before hand, and we came in fast, and exited faster. The enemy didn't know what was coming.
We continue this tactic on all targets, vehicular or not.
Later, we manage to live when we should've been killed easily. Coming out of a CAS run, we RTB to reload our flares, since we only have a few left. We're both on the Team 1 SL channel, and I guess Colonelcool forgot to switch out of it when he was teamswitched. Anyways, as we're RTBing, we pass south of North Village. I hear on Forced position mumble Cool yelling out "Look south of us, quick! BlackHawk heading East!" That's when I noticed the BH ahead of us. We were following in it's path, when I hear again "BlackHawk AND an Apache! South! Quick, look around and fire!" That's when I tell Canuck to GTFO, and then within a second we hear the lock tone. We drop the last flares, and knowing they were north of us, we were able to out maneuver them easily
Unfortunately, after an hour of effective work with our Apache, in which we counted exactly 29 combined kills, with 4 downed Havocs thanks to us, and maybe another 5 downed armour targets, and 2 full squads taken out, we get killed by a BMP3 in hostile territory. I had seen it barely in my field of view, and he's moving out into the fog. I launch a manually guided Hellfire, but I can't confirm it to be a hit, since he moves out of view just as I launch it. We move closer to get a look, but he wasn't destroyed, and was able to shoot us. I barely had the time to see the tracers and say we've got to bail from the area when we're destroyed. I mean it took less than a second of continuous fire to down us
Here are some screens from before we died, though.
With squad 3 taking the other Apache, we decide to tank it a bit before the next Apache spawns. We don't get the chance to come back, since Canuck CO, who's gunning, manages to get 2 more havoc kills within 2 minutes of each. We also kill some infantry, the BMP3 that killed us (incidentally, I found out I had disabled it's tracks at least, since it wasn't able to move, and had to have a logistics truck drop a repair crate), the logistics truck by the BMP-3, and damage a tank headed for DB's squad, where his HAT dealt the final blow.
In the end, we finish the game in first and second. Canuck has ~2600 points with 20 kills, and I have ~1600 points with 16 kills. Both of us had only 2 deaths each. We nearly make it to the best squad spot, only a few hundred points behind the TankVoip squad with 6 members in it. I unfortunately don't have any ending score screens, though I'd love to see some if any one'll post them. Just the two of us probably inflicted as many as 100-150 tickets worth of damage, with the help of good spotters like DB.
One thing I can take from this is that as an attack heli crew, you are under a **** load of stress. There wasn't really one moment where we could simply loiter. We often had as many as 4 different requests for CAS at a time, which would impair and confuse us. We had to slow ourselves down, prioritize, and get the right coordinates for each lase.
Also, having any SL to SL voip like TS, Vent, or mumble on is the biggest advantage you can have.
Thanks to DB and his squad, and any one else on the US team. Special thanks to [DM] Colonelcool for saving our lives, and the biggest thanks of all to CanuckCommander ([Canuck] C.O. ingame) for a great round.
Switching maps to Kashan desert 32 after a victorious game as the Taliban on Konrengal Valley, Canuck CO and I create a 2-manned Apache squad.While waiting for the Apache to spawn, we help DB get his squad to the bunkers quickly with a Bradley, which we decide to bring back to base. This sets DB and his squad up with ammo in the bunkers for his AA and HAT kits.
We are returning back to base to leave the Bradley for another squad, since the Apache's will spawn soon. Unfortunately, we are killed en route, meaning we couldn't keep the Bradley.
We respawn, though, and grab the Apache as it spawns within the minute. Knowing full well that the Havocs are warming up as we are, we decide to play it safe and stay at an altitude of 1000 meters, rather than just above the clouds or low to the ground. At this point, DB starts requesting CAS on vehicles moving in on his position, in the South Bunkers. This is a tricky situation, since going too low would render us vulnerable to enemy eyes, their AAVs, and the Havocs. We wait for a lase, and then dive on the coordinates given. I lock onto the target, and as I fire I tell Canuck that the ordinance is released, and we can bail out of the area. DB reports that the hit is good, confirming a kill.
At this point we are only 300 meters high, so we quickly descend to hide behind the hills to the East of the bunkers. We get to safe ground, and then start climbing again.
Patrolling again, we find a Havoc under the clouds, and kill it easily. The other one is on our tail however as we try to evade it. Canuck does his best evasive maneuvers, getting us low into the hills by the North Outpost. We don't know what's been engaging us yet, but as I see the 30 mm Tracers raining down from slightly above us, I confirm it to be the other Havoc. We continue to try and evade, however we are facing the other way from the enemy. I scan the skies and tell Canuck to do a quick U-turn to the left, and he does so expertly. We can now face our enemy, which we manage to kill with some hydras and 30 mm fire.
The Skies are now ours, and we are able to support DB's squad easily through the Mumble radio in the SL channel. He lases a target whenever possible, or at least its whereabouts, tells us any possible threats in the area, and gives us the coordinates. What a great guy
. We use our tactic of flying high and diving on targets with great success. Here's what it looks like from a gunner's POV at North Outpost:"Missile Away!"
You can't see it with a pic, but we were much higher before hand, and we came in fast, and exited faster. The enemy didn't know what was coming.
We continue this tactic on all targets, vehicular or not.
Later, we manage to live when we should've been killed easily. Coming out of a CAS run, we RTB to reload our flares, since we only have a few left. We're both on the Team 1 SL channel, and I guess Colonelcool forgot to switch out of it when he was teamswitched. Anyways, as we're RTBing, we pass south of North Village. I hear on Forced position mumble Cool yelling out "Look south of us, quick! BlackHawk heading East!" That's when I noticed the BH ahead of us. We were following in it's path, when I hear again "BlackHawk AND an Apache! South! Quick, look around and fire!" That's when I tell Canuck to GTFO, and then within a second we hear the lock tone. We drop the last flares, and knowing they were north of us, we were able to out maneuver them easily
Unfortunately, after an hour of effective work with our Apache, in which we counted exactly 29 combined kills, with 4 downed Havocs thanks to us, and maybe another 5 downed armour targets, and 2 full squads taken out, we get killed by a BMP3 in hostile territory. I had seen it barely in my field of view, and he's moving out into the fog. I launch a manually guided Hellfire, but I can't confirm it to be a hit, since he moves out of view just as I launch it. We move closer to get a look, but he wasn't destroyed, and was able to shoot us. I barely had the time to see the tracers and say we've got to bail from the area when we're destroyed. I mean it took less than a second of continuous fire to down us
Here are some screens from before we died, though.
With squad 3 taking the other Apache, we decide to tank it a bit before the next Apache spawns. We don't get the chance to come back, since Canuck CO, who's gunning, manages to get 2 more havoc kills within 2 minutes of each. We also kill some infantry, the BMP3 that killed us (incidentally, I found out I had disabled it's tracks at least, since it wasn't able to move, and had to have a logistics truck drop a repair crate), the logistics truck by the BMP-3, and damage a tank headed for DB's squad, where his HAT dealt the final blow.
In the end, we finish the game in first and second. Canuck has ~2600 points with 20 kills, and I have ~1600 points with 16 kills. Both of us had only 2 deaths each. We nearly make it to the best squad spot, only a few hundred points behind the TankVoip squad with 6 members in it. I unfortunately don't have any ending score screens, though I'd love to see some if any one'll post them. Just the two of us probably inflicted as many as 100-150 tickets worth of damage, with the help of good spotters like DB.
One thing I can take from this is that as an attack heli crew, you are under a **** load of stress. There wasn't really one moment where we could simply loiter. We often had as many as 4 different requests for CAS at a time, which would impair and confuse us. We had to slow ourselves down, prioritize, and get the right coordinates for each lase.
Also, having any SL to SL voip like TS, Vent, or mumble on is the biggest advantage you can have.
Thanks to DB and his squad, and any one else on the US team. Special thanks to [DM] Colonelcool for saving our lives, and the biggest thanks of all to CanuckCommander ([Canuck] C.O. ingame) for a great round.
