Forgotten Hope Weekly Highlights

[Slayer]

@ djinn: don't forget that new players often have so many things on their mind while playing (to stay alive, for example) that it is a little too much to ask them to be good teamplayers from the get go.

I also wonder how you ask. It might be that the players are unable to understand English, dom't have VOIP or can't read your chat because of massive messaging. So maybe it is not just unwillingness, which you seem to presume.

If you read my report of a battle 3 weeks ago, you can see that it isn't always the case that "new players" are doing lots of stuff wrong.

[djinn]

This is true,

I experienced some stellar teamplay recently. I think it really is just about the mix of people on the server at that particular time. This is especially true on maps where there are two fronts of attack, such as the first flags of Port en Bessin, Point du Hoc, or Vossenack. More so when the two fronts are wide enough to have little or no means for relief to come in from one side or the other, but close enough to impact a single broad-front battle.

I especially like it when my squad decides to be the elite team, and we go on the flanks to cause trouble and blunten the main enemy offensive.

Eventually, a keen enemy may realize the main front isn't their real issue but us, so they turn their full focus on us.

That's when it gets REALLY interesting,

By this point, the fate of the battle is literally in our hands; our assorted weaponery.

Once I feel the brunt of a concerted effort, I decide to fall back to a defensive position (As I'm squad leader). If I'm using a mic, my squad needs to bear witme screaming ever-changing orders into it.

If I don't then I'm furiously banging away command and situational reports on my keyboard while picking off enemy who get through the line. That's like texting from a trench as the enemy come charging you with bayonets, mehn!

Some times, we get the odd tank that catches on that this is where the real war is happening and the it's ON.


The battle can go one of several ways;

1. I make a twctical blunder that gets me killed, my squad is overrun and we lose the flank, allowin the enemy to flank our main force, or we are forced to counter-attack to keep them bottled up.

2. We prevail and the enemy is quickly bled dry to a hasty defeat.
3. We keep displacing while putting up a desdly resistance until the enemy loses taste for the battle and switches back to the main team.
4. We are in grave danger of being overrun despite some stellar teamwork, admirable personal heroics from some teammates. By this time, the battle has degenerated into infantry skirmishes at really close range with many knife battles and grenade contests, THEN, we hear the ominous sound of panzers. Now, we are in REAL trouble.

Almost like a scene right out of Saving Private Ryan, we start blasting away at their infantry usjg their tank as cover to get in close, while sustaining horrendous losses from the tank, usually a Panther smart enougnot to get too close, but postiion itself to bring its hull gun and main cannon to bear.


Then suddenly, a loud explosion and the tank is a black low Res, its turret still turned at an angle,
And we hear it. New tracks, but not panzers.

A few of our guys noticed that our tanks had respawned and begun driving them to the front and here it is, the classic gunship rescue.

5. Our main force, now relieved a bit by our efforts breaks though, and we eliminate the enemy troops now lacking their spawn or see them running back to avoid being cut off.

The battle has ended, and ww look up at the carnage wrought.

[djinn]

Slow week on Forgotten Hope. Half empty serve. Must be the holiday.

Led a team on ramelle. First it was annoying, so many wasted opportunities.

Finally after losing all but the oast two bases on either side of the map,
We sucessfully repeled them as the other squad counter attacked.
And we then took the other base and all begun pushing them bsck to the bridge.

I got the Sherman 76 and plowed through Marder after Marder, finally making
It bwck to the bridge.

My squad kept yelling at me to move up,
But I knew not to show too much of me.

So I fired smoke and got them charging the flag.
Then we just sat tgere and bled the Bosche white.

Mader after marder tried, but each ai blew up in a single shot.

My squad kept insisting I move up. But nein! I remained.

Finally I run out smoke shells. Then HE, dealing with a squad firing zookas from the church tower all the way at me. I had to tell me hull gunner to cut it out with the blind firing since the zooka team was using the tracers to direct their shot.

The zooka team then moved to that all important house on the north of the flag and took an almost fatal shot at me. A bit of patch up later and a hell lotta fire on the house and the team was cleared.


Marders begun trying to come round that corner, but I took them out too.

An agonizing 15 minutes of attrition warfare ensued, afte which a squad actually managed to make it round my position amd tried taking me put witgabeltladung. But my squad repeled them long enough to win the match.

[Kelmola]

So, after 6½ years and countless of hours of playing FH2, I finally noticed something.... the backgammon board (found at least on Alam Halfa, on the table at the command post of the southernmost frontline flag). For one reason or another, it stood out as a particularly nice touch.

Another proof that there's always something new to find in FH2!

[djinn]

Always nice to be rewarded by the notion, communication - WORKS.

After something like a 4 month hiatus, I decided to play a few rounds, ending with El Alamein.

I decided to defend Kidney ridge with my squad, given the Brits armor cause for pause by keeping our AT guns fixed despite countless shelling and a few direct hits.

Thankfully, their airforce wasn't worth a damn.


Finally decided to complement the last remaining members of my squad with a Panzer III defending at the Meteriya flanks, creating a deathzone for would be British tankers that tried to climb Kidney ridge.

I felt useless for a bit since my standard 50mm shell was doing little else but pinging off 2 Churchill's hiding amidst the dunes and assaulting my hill. I had all but run out of special AP

Finally decided my spotter skills were more deadly than the canon, and got Stukas to take care of both.

By this time, we'd amassed an impressive force of panzers under Meteriya ridge, and the enemy had less than 100 men left.

I called for a charge on Tell El Makh Khad, and when I didn't get a response, I led the charge myself, despite having less than 10 regular shells left.

The tanks followed. 2 Panzer IVs, about 3 Panzer IIIs and a few assorted tank destroyers, firing as we charged hell for leather into the enemy defensive lines.

We took casualties from the flanks, but with perfect coordination of arty by our commander on Tell El, we got our tanks in the enemy base.

A few dismounted infantry helped us cap it, and a lack of decision from enemy tanks lurking in the distance, sealed the enemy's defeat.

All in all, a welcome return to the war 

[Roughbeak]

Last night we had an awesome round with only 20-25 people!

It was on Ramelle, I was on the American side; the Germans were advancing slowly, we had an exceptional defense. Eventually they capped up to the Bridge, we held them there for about 100 tickets (300 for them to go).

Once the Germans capped Alamo, excitement began to pick up, the Sherman spawned in the farthest flag back, I hopped in, moved it up to the front, and destroyed our first Marder III while I was still moving (clutch!). Nonetheless, Tiger I blasted me few seconds after, but I managed to injure him on the side.

The Germans moved confidently to the two flags (Clearing & Historical Center), they capped it and opened up the last two flags which were uncap previously. We had a Sherman 76 at this time, moving to Crossroads flag, he spotted the Tiger and shot it, which made the Tiger very injured - on fire. Unfortunately, the Tiger I managed to shoot him, he succeeded.

Then the Germans had the round in the bag, they moved to the last flag (US Reinforcements) hoping to end it.
To our amazement, the Sherman 76 spawned again, someone hopped in it (I was in the hedgerows at the time out of bazooka rounds and being pinned down by the Tiger).
He moved it up to the road, the Tiger saw him first and fired his round, he missed completely, then the Sherman had his chance, he fired at the presently injured Tiger, and killed it instantly. When I looked up, I was relieved.

This is where it got awesome, the Sherman 76 kept moving up, blasted a coming Marder III, he capped the Crossroads flag with infantry (me included). We dashed to the Clearing and Historical Center, capped them, for about 100 more tickets there was heavy stalemate. Capping those back and forth, fighting off the Germans.

When we capped the Historical Center and Clearing for the last time, I and a few others sprinted to Alamo flag, we capped it. Decimating the Germans. An approaching Marder III came from the Bridge and shot that same Sherman 76, someone did Bazooka'ed him out, fortunately.
Then after that, downfall of the Germans: 100 tickets left, Sherman and a 76 spawned, I took the Sherman, and we defended Alamo to the finish.



That is why I just love FH2, intense moments mixed with teamwork, and this fantastic teamwork was just on a public server! How could it happen on a public server? It just did.

[Ivancic1941]

Nice teamwok there roughbreak

[Matthew_Baker]

Awesome story. Wish I was there for that round. Germans are dead meat once they lose their tigers.

[Matthew_Baker]

Just got off an awesome round of Vossenack leading a squad to defend church for the whole round.

We didn't win because we couldn't hold the other flags for too long, but we definitely held Voss Church for 80% of that round, and fought our asses off the whole time, we were almost never not under attack

Big thanks to the squad:


donglava
Pellagofio
OskarOses
Menetys
just to name a few, there were a good bit who came and went but we held off the best of the Americans all round.


A burnt out M8 Greyhound sits on the road through Vossenack

[Slayer]

After some problems with FH2 (game froze on Supercharge, and after Gazala my connection got lost - again, so I quit) I played first Bardia and then Gazala tonight. On Bardia I was in $talkker's squad and we capped them out with some 250 tickets to go, nice victory. Highlight was the fight for the big building just south of Italian Hospital.

Then Gazala came on and somehow I got teamswitched. I always love to defend Sidi Muftah, so I spawned there and went into one of the 2 Pounders. With one of my first shots I blew up a car with three guys in it who wanted to Blitz their way through the desert. One of them was $talkker iirc. Then an all out attack came on the hill and I got shot from behind because there was infantry who had scaled the hill from the north. Soon the flag was lost and I spawned in Knight's Bridge with the plan of retaking Muftah asap. I walked towards it and when I got close I created a squad. I typed "Join 1 to retake Sidi Muftah" and a few seconds later Hetzenhauer joined me, and after him came Yehiel_feiner. I shot an MG gunner and one other infatryu guy before I hid in one of the bunekrs in the flagzone. I neutrlaized the flag, my squadmates killed some more infantry and just after I had capped it a German stood right in front of me! Fortunately my rifle vs his pistol was a win for my rifle. Then we started setting up defense, manning the AA gun and the 2 Pounders. I shot a bunch of tanks with the 2 Pounder, by now the squad became full. We had some great teamwork going on, with VOIP, and guys running back and forth with ammo and repairing the guns all the time. Only when commander arty blasted us, things got a bit tight. This happened a few times, but we managed to keep the enemy tanks at bay and a few infantry attacks were fought off successfully. On both sides we got support from light tanks, and we even countered the German mortar shelling us regularly with a kortar of our own. Never again, the Germans set foot on the hill of Sidi Muftah!

We ended the round with a big victory, ours was best squad and I hereby would like to thank all squadmemebers that I remember, sorry if I forgot you were part of the squad too, no offense meant:

Hetzenhauer
Yehiel-Feiner
Redbadd
SABOTEUR
jurlol12
x6.0utlaw

and also some of the other guys on the hill helping us out

Remdul FH
SWIZZ Kettcar

and I'm sure there were more, but the battle was a bit too intesne to keep track of all names

I love these rounds, they make me keep playing this mod till I die.

[Captain Pyjama Shark]

In an incredible development today, I saw the minesweeper used for its actual purpose for the first time in recorded history, rather than just for jousting in jeeps.  During a round of Sidi Rezegh our squad, led by Graf_Radetzsky, was attacking the blockhouse as the Germans. 

The Tommies kept mining the road there, and after a few failed sallies, two of my squad, Ombustman & Freak2805, actually used the mine sweeping kit to find and remove the mines.  In fact they found one just a couple meters in front of our tank and saved us from a grisly demise.  Bravo!

Also got to use the motorcycle for the first time ever.  Who cares about the fighting, I want a motorcycle race map!

[Matthew_Baker]

Big shout out to this crew:


The_Thracian
Yehiel_Feiner
IJustLoveBFDeuce
Whitey.from.Blighty
ROLO
Fives
IgelVI

Top squad on Siege of Tobruk. We gave the rats a good name

Earlier I jumped on a round of St. Vith and our American team was promptly getting their asses kicked, BAD. Almost 20 unassigned ppl the whole round and a host of 1 man locked squads. I think the Germans won something like 600-0.

The next round was Giarabub and worse. Our team (the Italians) again got their asses kicked. I'd never seen anything like it. That is a hugely Italian biased map and I got to spawn twice before all of our flags were capped out.

The next round was Siege of Tobruk which, with a team like ours, would easily get rolled over by the Germans. Luckily some people jumped off and switched so the teams were mixed well to make it more even. But we wouldn't have done won it without our squad.

We held Tobruk HQ the old fashioned way. Stick a squad leader in the bunker and lock down the trenches.  My whole squad did an awesome job of keeping the infantry that did come in off of our bunker. They did mostly what I told them to do when we were in trouble and the Germans never got past the 1st line. It was a pretty sweet victory considering what had happened to us the past 2 rounds.

Awesome game guys, hope to play with you again

P.S. to the arty lovers that can fire at a flag before a spot even comes in because they've memorized the angles. Get a life

[Oberst]

The last two rounds of vossennack and pdh were definetely highlights of the week! Two very close games and two teams, which felt fairly good balanced! It was a clash of dedicated squads, wherever you looked.

My highlight was definetely being bazookaman on pdh, which is something i have never bothered to do before. Oh the feeling of shooting a rocket through a window or into the bunker and killing the enemy squadleader and his mates! Brought a big smile on my face.

[Nerdsturm]

This was actually from a couple weeks ago, but I forgot to post it earlier.

A couple of weekends ago I was playing for allies on Hurtgen during the final advance towards Germeter, with my squad coming up towards the city from the south. There was an M10 trading fire with something in across the field east of Germeter, and even though I couldn't see anything due to the hill there I jumped on the Flak 88 to provide support in the event it was a StuG and moved forward.

Unfortunately, the M10 reversed back behind a house at the same time the Pak 40 (which is what it turns out the M10 was fighting) fired, causing the Pak's shell to miss by just a hair over the sloped frontal armor on the M10. Of course, as if in slow motion, I just watched the AP shell arc another 100m and smash straight into my face.

The Pak was probably about half the width of the map from me, on the opposite side of a hill (even without fog we couldn't have seen eachother) and yet hits me with a misfired AP shell. I couldn't even be mad at that.

[Slayer]

This topic surely needs some dusting, so here goes: I'm a bit pumped with adrenaline because of the last round. I just got off FH2 and I hadn't played public in months (resulting in 3 TKs in my first round on Keren, again, sorry guys). Then after losing Arad, but getting the silver medal with 85 points, Fall of Tobruk came up.

I decided to go SL and try to defend the western flank. First flag fell very soon, one attempt at recapping failed because Officer's Building fell too so with sector push this meant we couldn't do anything there anymore. Defending Town Center was also pretty shortlived, because it fell shortly after I had spawned there twice or something like that. Harbor fell and then Admiralty House. The British were in disarray and suffered heavily under the Blitzkrieg of Rommel. I typed "This is more like Walkover of Tobruk", and it seemed that the round would end in something like 7 or 8 minutes. With only Church left and some flags grey here and there, usually only for a few seconds, this meant that a defense to the last bit was needed. We were bleeding heavily, we were down to below 600 tickets I believe, and axis was in the lead, so the situation looked grim.

I spawned at church, took the back road to Mussolini Piazza and after getting killed twice I managed to get inside and with one, later two squadmates we recapped the Piazza. In the meantime the Admiralty House was grey for a long while, but it fell to our side (I suppose after a hard fight). Harbor and Town Center were still a bridge too far, and defending at Mussolini Piazza was tough: a constant stream of German infantry accompanied with at least one tank and several MGs all the time, tried to wrench the flag from our hands, but they did not succeed. A few times they managed to grey it, but I was always in one of the corridors to spawn in a fresh squad and recap it. I believe it actually turned axis one time, but that was only for less than 30 seconds until we had it back. On the other flank a squad succeeded to capture Harbor. Another wave of Germans tried to take the Piazza, but we held firm. I told my squadmates that they could try and capture Town Center, and after a while they succeeded with some support from the north. The bleed was back on axis! Harbor switched sides a few times, Town Center too, but all the time it was not for too long. By now the British defense was in place and in shape: the German juggernaut was breaking it's teeth upon the King's men. Bleeding and kiling the Germans dry, the round ended in a victory for the Brits with 222 points. It was one of the best comebacks I have ever seen in FH2.

Thanks a lot to all my teammates and of course the members of my squad:

Heinrich_Severloh
KoMBaT713
Bella_Puttanesca
Motta motta22
LeChuckle
robinvang89
x6.0utlaw
t26rider (or something like that, sorry if I misspelled it)

and all others who were in the squad earlier on but not in the end. Best squad, best comeback! Hurray for FH2!




edit: fixed typos