[AAR] A Blufor Portside Victory

[Swedge]

We had an awesome Blufor victory on Portside today during this game with 95 players:
ARMA 2 Game Statistics - Pr a&d[l]: portside

I was trying to identify what the key ingredients were and as I listed them I noticed that they were the same three key ingredients I described in my Cheeky Bastard strategy guide.

We dropped and gained 1 or 2 units but in this game, my squad was Spook, Tonto, TrialsLife, Vision, Epoch, Rocha [29th ID], Antimon, and Kurt_Russell.

Other squad-leaders who were vocal in coordinating on command channel were Shakespeade, Unknown, Keithy George, and MadRobert. It's not common to get that many squad-leaders talking to each other, and it made all the difference.

Unfortunately, Blufor started with maybe up to 5 more men than Opfor (I don't have a screenshot showing the exact number). At other points of the game when I checked, the sides were Blufor 43 to 36, 46 to 35, and 46 to 38. This was a shame and I hope to see Blufor win Portside one day with more closely-balanced sides.

SPEED, SPAWN NETWORKS, FOCUS ON OBJECTIVES

EARLY GAME

We had an 8-man squad. We had some confusion on the carrier in the first 60 seconds or so, with guys originally in two different helo's. So, we only had 1 FO crate loaded when the battle preparation timer ran out. We left the carrier immediately, without arming the helo or loading a second FO crate, because speed is absolutely critical on this mission. I went pilot because we didn't have any pilots in our squad.

We landed and deployed South-South-West of South Docks and our 7-men fortified the FO (screenshot) while I RTB'd with the helo. At the carrier, I unlocked the helo and told the other squads on command channel that it was available for use. Then I deployed off the Armament to FO1.

1 x 4-man fireteam defended the FO, while the other 4-man fireteam, including me, attacked South Docks and deployed an RP on the way. We soon captured South Docks then pushed up and, after 3 attempts, finally took North Docks with the assistance of another squad. While capturing North Docks we coordinated with another squad (Keithy George) and they were ready and waiting at what would be the next objective - Lumber Mill. See screenshot.

Our 4-man fireteam continued to defend FO1 while the other squads spawned off of it. There was excellent teamwork and you can see from this screenshot the other big sign that squads know what they're doing - 5 RP's were deployed!

Depending on how hot various objectives were, different squads offered to either move to assist capturing an objective, or to bound ahead to the next one. Generally, this stage of the game was so fast that they were generally bounding past and setting up shop at the next objectives.

Our 4-man objective squad bounded past and were waiting at Suburbs when that came online. We captured it within minutes, encountering light resistance, and that 4-man objective fireteam swapped roles with our 4-man FO fireteam. The 'new' objective fireteam captured Flats and Dairy Farm. Other squads assisted on all of those and captured Berezino.

At this stage, I moved to FO1 to defend it and the remaining 7 units began pushing down in two fireteams to capture Cottages and Railbridge, with other squads.

Our defended FO1 was the only FO and, in total, was used to capture South Docks, North Docks, Warehouse, Lumber Mill, Suburbs, Flats, Dairy Farm, Berezino and Rail Bridge.

MIDDLE GAME

Squad-leaders did a superb job coordinating. Our lone deficiency here was the age-old dilemma - lots of units hanging around at the edges of the caps but not getting into the capture zone. This was a persistent problem. The rapid 'blitzkreig' advance stalled fairly significantly at Cottages but eventually it was overwhelmed.

All squads were focused on objectives at the front and none other were able to deploy FO's. A pilot called CharlieTwoFive, alone in a squad, had loaded 2 FO's into a helo and was offering to drop them somewhere. I suggested he try get 3 other units to join him and deploy them as we were engaged at the front. We redeployed our RP further South. Unable to find other units to assist, CharlieTwoFive eventually landed the helo next to my squad at the rear and, despite 2 RPG's bursting within 10m of him, we managed to get a 4-man fireteam into the bird and get away. We then flew further South and deployed a new FO. Again, our other 4-man fireteam defended it. The other 4-man team RTB'd in the helo and deployed another 2 FO's at locations assumed to be relatively safe to the South, first a safe one, and then a riskier one.

Where previously, squads had been coordinating well to determine who needed help where and who could afford to bound to the next objectives, the problem we then encountered was that we suddenly started advancing too fast without communicating, with the majority of the side at or moving to new objectives such as Factory that weren't capturable yet. This is a problem I sometimes encounter when we have FO's ready and waiting for future objectives. Eventually the squads were able to correct this imbalance and 1 squad remained there while the others came 'back' to Nizhnoye. Nizhnoye was heavily contested and perhaps the biggest sticking point of the whole game. We were unable to move the ticker with as many as 10 or 12 units in the cap, so multiples enemy were dug in there. At this point, there was a fierce battle and Blufor tickets got as low as 12 or 9 tickets. However, Opfor suddenly ran out first and were then unable to use their spawns. Fortunately, coinciding with this, squads moving 'back' to Nizhnoye were then a position to attack the enemy from the rear while other squads attacked them from the front. And we captured Nizhnoye.

With Nizhnoye captured, it was imperative that all squads advanced again as quickly as possible. Many squads did this but one or two remained at captured objectives unneccessarily, looking for kills.

During this time, one squad had used watercraft from the carrier, arrived at the Factory objective, and assisted the squad who were capturing it there.

END GAME

Our 4-man FO defence fireteam continued to defend whichever FO was closest to the objectives, abandoning the rear ones as they became irrelevant. They fortified the FO's, used continual smoke, healed each other under continual attacks, and fought off enemy satchel attacks. Understandably, this felt a bit long-in-the-tooth after a while but they protected the spawn network that was lifeblood of Blufor's entire advance.

During this time, the other 4-man fireteam deployed the final 3 FO's at the Southern-most objectives, placed in such a way that if 1 FO was lost, there would still be at least 1 other FO remaining as an approach on that objective. (Screenshot). Indeed, we did lose at least 1 FO as we didn't have enough men to defend all of them, but we could afford to lose some. With the other 4-man fireteam defending other FO's, that second 4-man fireteam also switched to 'FO defense mode'.

The remaining objectives all fell in sequence.

Blufor would not have won had it not been for the superb teamwork, speed, communications, and coordination, used by the many objective-attacking squads. They played a role in capturing all the objectives.

LESSONS

• Speed. Our helo left without weapons or a 2nd FO crate because we didn't have either ready and speed was critical. That first FO provided a beach-head and a foothold close to the objectives, so the rest of Blufor could speed into the objectives and capture them. By coordinating, squads were able to reinforce where necessary and bound past where necessary and we maintained that initial rate of advance and momentum to keep Opfor off balance as much as possible. On Portside, if you do not establish a foothold within the first two or three minutes, it can be game over.
  
  
• Spawn Networks. The 1st FO was used to capture 9 objectives. It alone was not sufficient. Squads deployed as many as 5 RP's off of that FO. Sometimes maintaining a spawn network is as much about protecting it as it is about setting it up. Fireteams who defended the FO's were absolutely critical. Another 5 FO's were later deployed, with 2 to an objective where possible. I encourage a mixed FO strategy combining FO's deployed in positions assumed to be safe and positions assumed to be risky. Generally more of the latter. FO's sometimes need to advance beyond the front-line and be waiting. If FO's are only ever at the rear of the objectives, there is an excellent chance that the enemy will deploy FO's and RP's to your flanks or behind you and you will start to get surrounded. Your spawn networks need to reinforce your rear but they also need to advance rapidly, creating new fronts, and interrupting your enemy. One disadvantage of that is that the side may begin to push too rapidly and not take rear objectives convincingly. This is a problem that can usually be managed.
• In this mission, our squad was a mixture of objective-capture and FO deployment/defense with the 2nd half of the game being primarily about the latter. I would discourage any side from putting all of their eggs into the basket of one FO squad. I encourage all squads where possible to also deploy their own FO's at the beginning, then their RP's, then capture/defend objectives, then more FO's when their RPs run out. FO's should be defended as required with coordination with other squads. This whole approach, alternating between roles, spreads the burden of FO-deployment across many squads. If we had been able to get 2 or 3 FO's deployed at the outset, I think our advance would have been even faster. The additional FO's would have blocked, disrupted, and distracted Opfor further.
  
  
• Focus on objectives. We advanced rapidly whenever squads were able to mass their force at the objectives, and get into the capture zones. Generally, squads did not wander off into the hills looking for trouble, or get distracted by other enemy units or positions. They were so focused on objectives, that they were thinking 1 or 2 steps ahead about what would be the _next_ objectives.

Thank you for your time.

Cheers,
Swedge

[Simio1337]

Very nice posts, Swedge.

You can see me on top of the score board, I think that's a first for me in PR:ArmA.

I happen to be in the other squad with Keithy George leading it, he did a good job making us push to the objective capture zones sometimes completely ignoring the enemy fire just to be in the cap radius. Overall a very good game and fast paced, at one point we completely pushed Opforce into the forest while everyone else capped Dairy Farm and Town. Cottages was hell, it was wide in the open and directly in line of sight to the forest and no where to hide, Opforce kept spawning there like an Ant hill. I don't know how I didn't die so often in Cottages, I got shot about 6 times and eventually ran out of field dressings at the cap radius. After being in the cap radius for a while we finally have the progress bar to 100%, I check on the map and I see that we haven't captured it, this means no one ever got to to 'physically' touch the flag alive because we were still taking heavy fire from the forest. Keith tells me over comms to make a run for it even if it costs my life, I then 'heroic-ly' get out of my hiding spot behind a house and ran as fast as I could in the open towards the flag while hearing loads of MG fire towards me. The last 5 ft left to the flag I jumped prone and capped cottages and somehow I escape uninjured.

After we got Cottages we set up new rallys north of Nizhnoye and then we moved in. This flag was absolute hell, at times we had it captured about 50% and then suddenly Opforce was winning it back to the point where I was in the cap radius with a full squad and the progress bar was missing, that's how heavily defended it was. Meanwhile I was hiding behind a wall of a house for maybe 15 minutes hoping no body would see me, I suddenly got the urge to do something about it and I peeked around the corner near the railway warehouse and picked 2 guys laying down on the rails and a then a vodnik gunner just spraying people down, I then ran back to my hiding spot, the progress bar appeared soon after and we overwhelmed them with our presence. I moved out of my hiding spot and reunited with my squad into a big building. This building was a railway warehouse and inside there were about 15 of us inside taking cover while we were capturing. The last 2 flags"factory" and "solnichniy" were a quick breeze to cap but not as memorable as the previous ones. This was the first time I saw Blues win in Portside.

[Keithy George]

This was a great game, one of my best PR experiences, awesome squad and great cohesion between the team at all levels, I remember that dive for the flag Simio, legendary stuff! Nice post Swedge.

[Swedge]

Yeah you guys did awesome. Well done Keithy George and Simio I reckon those scores you put on the board were fought for tooth-and-nail with capture-tickets

Great to see that mixture of hiding and aggression!

Sometimes I try to get my squad to hide indoors or all stack up on a wall and not pop their heads out. We're in the cap and they're not! Why give them something to shoot at? Make the enemy come to us!

Other times the situation just calls for pure aggression, putting your balls out there on the line, ignoring MG fire and heroically charging positions

Awesome work.

Cheers,
Swedge

[A. Reaper]

Man, how come I never got to have these kind of wins and things?

On another note, nice. Thanks for the lessons too, though I haven't played Portside as BLUFOR. OPFOR, only once. Good to hear about teamwork and things in pubby servers.

[Swedge]

My pleasure mate. I'm sure you'll have some good games in there if you keep playing

Cheers,
Swedge