What goes up makes others go down

With a decent GroupLink-script, you can do just about anything. Seriously. The majority of the ridicolously long 12-hour session today was on the training mission. Mix exercises with theory. Add a few thought-up-on-the-spot operations and you have an entertaining and highly-educational playground. U_U, h3adache, Stealth, Ices and Quicky all learnt today. From the nervous and uncertain commands of Stealth when I put him in command to the cross-country hike from Levie to the Everon Airfield. Just as before, I had help from a few OFP-vets who came and left on a regular basis.

We started off with a few exercises, one of them ending in chaos with nobody listening to me. I lost my temper for the first time during an excersise and forced them to run across the runway as punishment. After that some of the lads went on a patrol with the OFP-vets available at the time, while I stay back with h3adache and Stealth and teaching them the GRT (M203) attached to our main rifle the AK5.

The session's first OP ended with disaster. Our objective was Levie and we took it without any concerns, no casulties and OK on the ammo supply. Our aerial scout and transport was however forced down due to fuel shortage, leaving us stranded just south of Levie, forcing us on a several-kilometer hike cross the country back home. We had a contact on the way, but everyone performed outstanding and everybody made it back in one piece.

Well, almost everyone performed outstanding. One of the OFP-vets (whose name I will of course not mention) behaved in a manner I do not recognise him as on the forums. His way of responding to orders was laughable as he down-right ignored and/or made up his own just for the fun of it. He distracted my lads away from the patrol and had a negative impact on them, an impact which made my job much tougher even several hours after the OFP-vet in question left the server. And when he started firing upon friendlies in the middle of an engagement I was this close of kicking him off the server. I am truly ashamed of his way of acting, as he otherwise is a respected member of the community and an excellent player as he showed before he started going rebel on me. I do not want him to participate in the project anymore.

Next up was orientation. I was sick of people not even being able to drive a car to Montignac without getting lost. This had to change. I took them out on a patrol in the more secluded areas of Everon and asked them each in order where we were. They all got it right, and just when we were about to head back our aerial scout/transport spotted BMPs in the vicinity of Entre Deux. We loaded up and headed out. While we were training orientation I thought it might be a good idea to train parajumps as well and see if they could locate the rendevouz without getting lost. They all got there, although not very fast. It still surprises me how the hell I could've gotten there first when I was the guy who jumped the furthest away from the rendevouz...

This Op was a disaster too, as they seldom come alone. Only this time we didn't turn it into anything good like making it back in one piece. Stealth and U_U got whacked during the assault on the BMPs and h3adache was injured badly. Since h3adache also was our medic we were in a tight spot. Quicky stayed back to cover h3adache while I went for a transport out of the area (our aerial scout/transport once again crashed). I got toasted just 500 meters from the link-up point by a russian RPG. h3adache and Quicky got killed just 20 minutes later by a russian patrol.

Next up was command. I put Stealth in charge of a Shilka-hunt patrol. Stealth clearly wasn't prepared for this as he repeatedly asked the same questions to me over and over again, had no idea what to do, got lost, asked his squad for suggestions a billion times and used their aerial scout/transport way wrong - which ended up with the pilot (me) getting shot by the very same Shilka they were after. Stealth had to go in the middle of the patrol and OFP-vet Redkid siezed command. Once found out that Stealth had forgotten to bring along AT-weaponry on a Shilka-hunt Redkid ordered a withdrawal without any further casulties.

Next out was U_U, who led a standard seek & destroy-patrol in the area N/NE of Entre Deux. Although making good use of cover/concealment and taking it slow and careful U_U really had no idea where he was and where to go. We never saw action on this patrol.

The thing we did next was a simple yet fun and effective orientation/co-operation excersise. The rules are simple; the players are paradropped with big leaps between themselves into hostile territory with only simple weaponry and one smoke shell (green) each. Their job is to toss the smoke shell once the aerial scout/transport appears, which is combing the area. If they've chosen a safe and easily spotted LZ they will get picked up, otherwise they will lose and probably end up dead behind enemy lines. No communication what-so-ever with the pilot is allowed of course, although the players will have voice comms. Then the players have to decide, do they want to link-up so they together get more smoke shells to use and cross enemy-filled territory or will they work alone and take a safer route? It's simple, it's fun and it works as a training exercise no doubt.

We also practised how to respond to being fired upon when in unarmoured vehicles. U_U, Quicky and Ices learnt quickly and used cover fire, 40mm grenades and smoke shells efficently after just a few tries. Eventually the only serious threat I could pose as an OPFOR was them having a go at each other as they constantly drove over each other and crashed into one another. Vehicle training tomorrow kthxbye.

After that we just had a go with some co-op missions and also had a few rounds of Bjällbo. They co-operate extremely well when I lead them but as soon as I die or split them into smaller groups they get nothing done at all in a weird state of democratic anarchy where they all have to agree before they do anything and it still won't go as they plan. If one guy takes the leading role until he goes asking the others for advice again he goes through the orders way too slow. Rest assure this is something I will beat out of their heads with a butt-stock. How you beat stuff out of heads with a butt-stuck is beyond me, but you get the picture.

This state of democratic anarchy eventually led up to one of the most hilarious session of OilWar I've ever seen. As always in that mission I kicked the bucket in the beginning. Don't know what that mission has against me. When U_U, Quicky and Ices snatched the UAZ to drive to the Fuel Depot they went way off-target. "OK, just drive off-road to the south round these woods and we'll find it", Ices advised. "Bah! There's a road here, I'll just follow it and I'm sure we'll end up right", Quicky replied. They were oblivous of the columns of russian tanks that rolled by them, just meters away from getting spotted. They drove past patrols and didn't notice them, not even when they started firing at them. Quicky soon gave himself the nickname Rally-Quicky. It wasn't until 7 PM when Quicky remarked that he probably had to go to bed now since his parents were going up and he didn't want them to notice that he had been playing all night long that the 12-hour session ended.

Now for the results; h3adache and U_U are still the top players. They may not be leader-material (yet) but they are the players that are most willing to learn and least interested in whining. They are mature and learn from their misstakes. It's a joy fighting with them under my command as they are bright enough to react and adapt without me baby-sitting them but they are mature and responsible enough to see past things like most kills and being the front man. Put them in support and they can sit and watch a direction for 15 minutes without a word, still doing their job with 100% concentration at times when even I get impatient enough to let my guard down.

Ices and Quicky are very similiar when it comes to OFP, but very different when it comes to personality. They are both active and keen to point out issues and they are both hungering for command. They may not be as good as h3adache and U_U on taking commands, but they are still easy to command and play with. They do what their told. These are the lads that don't want to play with the big guns, these are the lads that want to play with the big responsibility.

Stealth. Right, here's an issue. Part of me says he'll learn, that he's just nervous and has probably not done anything even remotely close to this before. And he really means well, is eager to improve and play. He's the lad that goes on MSN, pushing me to start training at 16.00, before I've even had time to eat breakfast since last night/morning's gaming. The other part of me says that he's a hopeless case. He lacks the patience and the quick and tactical thinking that OFP-players must have. His range-estimation is laughable, his leadership skills are non-existant, he gets nervous and unreliable in OPs and exercises. During engagements on patrols I don't even know if he's in a firing position or if he's running about trying to figure out what the fuck he's supposed to do. I sure as hell ain't hearing that KSP90 putting down covering fire, that's for sure.

But then the first part of me says "I was once where Stealth is right now, wasn't I?"

Bad Jokes & AirCav

The third training session. Phew. Well, let's say some of us don't have a life. The last creatures to leave the server was U_U and Quicky, at 6 AM after 10 hours of gaming. Some screenies by Hornet85, those with Dxdll and other fancy stuff.

We started off rather slow, I'd finished the training map which now meant there were russians in the area, and even though there was a safe zone it could still have a slight chance of being attacked. We took a Tgb11 (Swedish jeep, sort of, only butt-ugly) and drove to a base with Quicky, h3adache, DoGGo and Flashpoint-veteran JW to help us out.

Once there I put h3adache on guard while I went through formations with Quicky. Once we'd done that we went for a patrol and got raped by Shilkas. Bleeding things. Anti-air my arse, more like anti-everything. I bet they were bulliers in school.

U_U joined short thereafter, Quicky crashed and JW went to fetch OFP-veteran and real-life Swedish military Hornet85. So the line-up changed to me, h3adache and U_U. We did a one-hour patrol of the area east of the Everon Valley. This gave them a good chance to practise formations and co-ordination, and it went fairly smooth although they have not really gotten the hang of the whole orientation thing. Nothing happend on the patrol but it didn't seem to bother them, at least not until the end and they were patient lads which glad me.

Once Hornet85 came in along with JW and Quicky I noticed JW was a pilot in his clan so I decided to show them how a real OP should be done. JW did a quick scan to see if the LZ was secured, then we loaded up and went on a 1-1.5 kilometer hike before reaching the edge of the forest and our target; the town of Provins. The lads had some SERIOUS problems following formation in the woods and we had to stop 3 or 4 times just on that short stretch. Hornet85 ran round trying to round up the lost lads. He probably doesn't need his annual jogging-trip now.

The Op went fairly smooth after that until we had to blast a BMP. That I had missed giving them GRG-training (AT-weapon) was quite clear when the GRG-gunner missed a 75-meter still-standing shot. That eventually led to the death of us all. Even though we died, Hornet85, being our real-life military guru of the moment was pleased with both the CS-players efforts and mine, with a few remarks. We did good and you can't win them all. Winning one would be fun though.

After that we played some Bjällbo - a versus map where one team defends Bjällbo and the other attacks. Hornet85 and me against the lot. We got beaten up pretty bad. I don't really have an excuse, I just played bad. Or wait, I have an excuse. I trained these lads so well they became so good they could beat two guys that had played the game since 2001. Yay. So I am the winner in the end after all.

For a few hours after that we had a few laughs at the training map when we mixed down-right absurd convoys with relatively serious AirCav-patrols a lá Vietnam. During these patrols I noticed some key points that were missing in the players. Some things you just can't help, they come with experience, but if I shout "GRT! GRT! GE-ÄR-TE! What the hell!? Can't you understand? 40mm grenades! Now! What the hell? THE BLOODY GRENADE LAUNCHER ON YOUR DEATH-STICK!" (GRT = Underslung Grenade-Launcher, the weapon name is AK5 GRT) and the GRT-gunner just stands still on the spot spinning around not even firing his AK at the russians, while the rest of the squad gets massacared, that's not good.

So the last few hours we actually had pretty rough training. I taught them indirect-fire with a forward-observer but when people say the target is 800 meters away and it's really about 200 I know it needs a lot of work, the kind of work I can't bother with at 4 AM. I also noticed that the sense of direction (we use degrees, i.e. 0 = N, 90 = E, 180 = S, 270 = W, etc) was below all expectations, to say the least.

To round it off we went through some cover training, camoflauge training, GRG-training, hand grenade-training and smoke shell-training. I was about to start something new when Quicky started making puns. It was 6.00 AM and Quicky asked U_U (aka Coffe) if he went on Coffe-in. The bad jokes had started coming at 1 AM already in the form of sex-jokes, but when the puns start rolling in it's time to shut down the server for the night (or morning). Seriously. On the picture smoke/cover-training, excersise inspired by my time in the 23rd. Thanks Griff if you read this for all you've learnt me.

Now for the results; U_U and h3adache. Hands down, top-notch. I'm impressed really. While lacking basic playing skills (which is understanding since they haven't played much) they are keen to learn and even keener to put what they've learnt into action. They see their misstakes when I point them out and they realize what they did wrong and use their errors to improve. They have more patience, more maturity and more discipline than many Flashpointers that I've played with.

Quicky, being his first session was shocked of how serious the training was. He didn't quite get into the whole "whaddya mean standing in line, what we need that for?"-environment but he learnt and in the end of the session he did good work.

Stealth, who, if I forgot to mention in the text, hopped in during the small hours. Although the guy love the game and really want to improve he just lacks the patience. He wants to learn how to become a sniper but with that patience I always put him as a MG. I'm going to learn this kid the virtue of patience the next few days.

It just keeps going up and up and up.

Right, to start off, I've found two replacements to replace marsi and another one to replace Nicla7 who has been refusing to answer me on MSN the last 48 hours, even though I've been chasing him like he was the elixir of eternal life or something. Please welcome Bob and Quicky!

Today's training has been a long one, the session lasted a good five hours. The players were all new; Stealth, DoGGo and uWiSH. U_U tagged along as well, even though he had already done the basic stuff. The OFP veterans Redkid (aka Redkid Joker) and ZiP also went along for the fun of it, and because they were interested in the project.

We started off just like yesterday. DoGGo and uWiSH had some problems getting the game to run so we were delayed at first, but after getting uWiSH's copy to work they took turns of playing since they were both on the same LAN-party. Although the ambitious U_U was with them and showed them the ropes, these lads weren't as into the game as h3adache, U_U and Ices had been. Although I still think they enjoyed it, at least Stealth (and of course U_U).

During my assault on the castle I used, just as yesterday, guerilla tactics. I took potshots of their heads sticking up. Naturally this took time, and although Stealth enjoyed the game overall, patience wasn't one of his greatest attribute. He complained several times that I "never attacked" and the like. I actually laughed when I saw U_U writing "Patience, Stealth!". Now there's someone who has learnt about Flashpoint in 24 hours! :D

I used ZiP and Redkid's UH60 Blackhawk as an aerial scout and also used them to drop me off at different locations between the pot shots. I didn't use this 'cause I needed really (it was kind of stupid really on the tactical side, since they could read the side chat) but I did it just to show them how co-operation between aerial and main ground forces should be done.

All in all the skirmish took about thirty minutes, and it taught Stealth a great lesson I think. As he was getting more bored and bored, he eventually got into a discussion with ZiP and Redkid. I shot him while he was typing, just to show him that he couldn't let his guard down even 5 seconds when on guard duty.

After that we had some formations training, ZiP left but Redkid stayed and gave some good advice about formations. We also practised relay as yesterday and it went fairly smooth.

After that it was time for the first escape & evade excersise of the project. DoGGo, U_U and Stealth were all paradropped east of the Everon Valley. Redkid and I acted as OPFOR. Their goal was Levie. Redkid and me got Stealth and DoGGo (DoGGo giving up and throwing some smoke shells so we could spot him from the air and pick him up). I also showed them that you could mix in roleplaying elements to make the game more enjoyable. We had a few laughs when I shouted "SOVIET SWINE!" at the two captured CS-players, and threatend to execute them unless they'd reveal where U_U was.

After that we had some fairly co-operative co-ops, better than yesterday at least. Redkid was there to back me up when I needed an assisting leader or when I split us into two teams. It went fairly well, and they enjoyed themselves, although DoGGo/uWiSH had to go.

And now to the evening finale. A round of car-golf! For those that don't know, car-golf is just like regular golf only you replace clubs with satchel charges and balls with cars. It gets boring fast, especially when playing four but it's worth a try if you haven't checked it out already. Remember though, over 5 satchels per fore is considered cheating!

The last we did was have a go at the choppers. DoGGo came back and learnt how to handle the chopper fairly well, U_U and Stealth improved as well.

Right, there's still four players who hasn't come to training yet. At least two of them (the replacements) will probably show up tomorrow.

Castles made of Bullets

Yes, the title is a bad reference to the Jimi Hendrix song. :P

Alright, first I am to announce the departure of one of the players due to technical difficulties. Unfortunately, marsi found his connection to be too bad for him to play. I personally didn't mind, but hey, it can't be fun to play with a lousy ping. He's sad about his departure and when I told him about the improved netcode in Armed Assault he was really interested, so I'm sure he will pop up in the future.

Other than that, today we've had our first training session, taking about 3-4 hours (some co-op gaming also included, not just strictly training). The three players h3adache, Ices and U_U were the first that got their Flashpoints to run so we headed out on the training grounds. Unfortunately, I forgot to take screenies.

The first thing I did was went through the basic rules - keeping the voice comms to a minimum so the leader can speak freely, no pointing your gun at others, no shooting out of boredom, how to enter a vehicle correctly, etc. I also went through the controls and a little bit what the advantages of going prone was, etc. After that I decided to take them of to a test, so I loaded them into a Blackhawk and went to the castle ruins of Everon.

Once there, I fucked up. I crashed the chopper, killing the players. It was the most humiliting OFP-experience I've ever had. Except for that one time when in an CTI game when I drove the MHQ into the water because I thought it was amphibious. That was pretty awful too.

Anyway, I took the lads down to the castle ruins successfully the second time. I wanted to see how well they could play tactically, so I challenged them. The castle ruins are an excellent defencive position, so I told them to make a 360-defence while I "was preparing the next excerise". Then I told them I was about to attack.

They actually did a pretty decent job on the defences. They managed to set up pretty decent arches, although they were quite exposed as they favoured using the buildings. A lot. They also experienced that awful experience that can only happen in OFP, when you think a bush is actually an enemy just seconds away from killing you. I had a big grin on my face when I heard desperate gunshots in the distance and was still miles away, preparing my assault. :)

I got two of them. I would've gotten the third one as well, but everyone knows how easy it is to screw up in Flashpoint. I made one silly mistake and that was that, shot in the face. They learnt fast the unforgiveness of Flashpoint.

After we'd had our little skirmish we sat down and discussed what they did and how they thought. I gave them some comments on how they could've done it better and they all listened and learned. When I asked them if they enjoyed it I was quite surprised to find out they had all enjoyed it a lot. When I asked them if they wanted to go play something with a bit more action in it like a co-op map I was pleased to hear that they'd actually rather go on training...

Interesting, I thought. So I showed them a little bit about formations. They all listened very carefully. So I just went, what the hell, might as well show them relaying even if it's still a bit advanced. They all catched it quickly and soon they could perform a relay without me even commenting it. I couldn't believe these were actually CS-kiddies.

After that I went through a bit of practical information such as map and compass, shouting out contacts, etc. It was getting rather late so h3adache had to go. Since he was the only one of the three that had played Flashpoint before I thought I'd go on and show the other two some stuff like vehicles and the day/night cycle. They enjoyed driving Blackhawks and Cessnas, although when I was injured during the tank driving, I discovered that Ices had some strange fetish about being injured. "I want to become handicapped too!" he shouted. Strange kid that one.

After that we just played some co-ops and although they hadn't got the hang of the whole "going prone" thing and using cover effectively they were keen on listening to orders (although we didn't play it too serious because I was too tired) and they had a good time, especially in the essential sing-along to The Rifles of The IRA. ;)

Things are looking good no doubt. Although this was probably the most interested bunch of the 10 (now 9). Some haven't even installed the game yet, so we'll see what happens when the others have joined in.

And we're off!

I'm happy to announce that Project: Flashpoint is off. Project: Flashpoint aims to shoot down prejudices with a big 155mm cannon, or prove them right - that depends on the results.

I've taken 10 CS-kiddies, ranging from a 10 hours-a-day-nerd to someone who has actually tried Flashpoint before way back in 2001. My goal? To train them as a co-op squad, turning them from immature CS-kiddies into patient OFP-grunts. Do CS-players have the gift and patience to become a disciplined Flashpoint-player, or are they just as the myth goes immature little brats that seem to have a problem writing the even basic word "you", without filling it with 0's and Z's?

We'll find out. The players are as follows:

U_U
Nicla7
Ices
DoGGo
uWiSH
h3adache
Stealth
marsi
Bravo
ZorKo

I have the right to discharge any of the players if they are misbehaving. Let's see if they will last. :)

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