FH2 Tales from the Front

[pershainovitsh]

I have to tell how amazing today's experiences were. I just looked for a server at 1300 UTC, and there were two choices: one with 20 players, and one with three players. Obviously I took the first one. The lack of players is a bit irritating, but didn't make the game that much worse. Almost everyone in the fireteam was using the in-game VOIP, which worked surprisingly well.

We were constantly updating the situation of each flag to each other, we were calling in airstrikes our pilot was dropping, we were giving advice to each other... It was perfect. The match went on for (two?) hours, since it was designed for 64 players with lots of deaths. Our team faced resistance, but we always managed to defeat it.

We were giving targets to the pilot (mind that there are no BC2 tracer darts or 3d spotting), we just told which flag were the targets closest to, and the relation to the flag. And he destroyed them. Then he was giving us targets: the AA guns and vehicles. We took them out. It was pretty seamless co-operation.

At the end of the game, we had all the flags (at the start of the game they are all on the German side) and were certain of our victory. Then, as we were defending a flag, our squad died one by one. And before we knew it, they had taken all our flags back. (there wasn't enough of us to have much defense on any flag) There were just about 40 tickets on both sides, and our tickets were bleeding. We rushed from our main base to the nearest flag. For some reason, we couldn't capture it (we didn't have time to see if it was the known bug or was there a group of enemies hiding somewhere), so we moved on. Pretty quickly we captured two flags, but our tickets were still bleeding, and the Germans had more tickets than we had. We managed to capture the rest of the flags, even the one we couldn't capture earlier, and started defending. The Germans had about 15 tickets, and we had 10. In the end, the tables turned once again and we won. Now that was thrilling.

But that's not the end of today's adventures. After hitting both my knees on the toilet door(!) and eating my lunch, I continued on the same server. Because the opposing team had complained about team balance, some of our team went to the other side and some of them came to our side. Maybe some people left the game and new came in, I don't know. I didn't look at all the names that closely.
Sadly that meant our fireteam consisted of two players: me and an American player, who had some troubles with getting his voice heard (literally, I could barely hear him), though it might have been due to him playing in the night, assuming he was American.
We still managed to have a good game although I would have needed more men to be ready for any sitatuation, such as tanks coming. I think we lost the game.

Then came the next map, one of the new winter ones. We were once again fighting alone with the same guy, and soon lost a couple of flags. We got one of them back, and the rest of our small team went for another, leaving one for the enemies. We kept losing and getting back the flags. At some point a German entered the team and my fireteam (did I mention I was the leader from the point we were alone with the American). Unfortunately he couldn't understand English, and not even German, although I'm not entirely sure if my sentence was understandable in any way. But we had fun, and the German kept driving tanks, and I guess he was pretty good at it. Later, all of sudden, my fireteam was full. They understood English, though none of them had a microphone (at least they weren't using them). They obeyed my orders, and we defended the same flag for a while. Then I noticed I had been playing for four hours, I was pretty sweaty and my shoulders were quite stiff, so I quit.

But what kind of experiences had I had? I had stormed bunkers and houses with a tommy gun (I'm not exactly sure if that was yesterday), I had flanked a machine gunner with my American squadmate, I had actually survived long enough to have almost used all my magazines, I had hid from tanks, I had destroyed tanks, I had ordered airstrikes on tanks, I had captured numerous flags, I had been the best player on the team on the first round I mentioned, I had done more than I could have ever expected.

Seriously, everyone, download Forgotten Hope 2.4 and give it a try. I can guarantee it offers much more than vanilla BF2, and is more fun. And I dare even to say it offers more than BF3.

Edit: oh, I thought I had written a small war story, but it looks like I've written a small war novel. Sorry for long post.

[swfwebmaster]

Had a good time playing FH2 last night.

Did really well with a stationary German 88 mm gun as a British troop: Shot down the German recon plane with the first shot, blew up a moving enemy truck, destroyed a German tank, and vaporized an enemy infantryman out to get me.

There was a wooded map with minefields and I got 7 kills being sneaky.

This gaming experience will be even better with a bunch of Spartans. I can imagine calling out targets and working as a squad would be really fun in FH2.

[pershainovitsh]

I can guarantee it's a lot more fun playing with a squad in FH2. Either join or create a squad named "Teamwork" or "VOIP" and say in the chat that you need team playing/microphone-using people for your squad, and there you go, survival and winning chances, as well as fun, are multiplied by ten. I'm amazed how well you can play with random people.

I remember when I played a couple of weeks ago with strangers, and one of the squad members was flying a plane. I was capturing a flag, but then I heard an enemy tank approaching. I requested air support and my heart was beating like crazy. Seconds felt like minutes, and finally the bombs hit the tank precisely, destroying it instantly.
Now that is the great feeling that separates Battlefield from most of the other games. The feeling of mixed desperation, (forgotten) hope, and then relief. The feeling when the team works as a team, defeating almost every challenge in their way. The feeling of war movies, where no man gets left behind, where Tom Hanks shoots at tanks with a pistol and then the air force arrives. This is gaming at its best.

[swfwebmaster]

Played several rounds last night. The first round was already under way. I joined a Fire Team with a Swedish player. We were losing the whole time, but the gap kept getting smaller. Me and the gentleman from Sweden were watching the tickets closely and counting down toward the end. The enemy had 7 ticket left and we had 1. We were cap-ing a flag and hunkering down to avoid being the player killed for the loose. The enemy 6 and good guys 1 ... then 5 to 1 ... 4 to 1. I tell the other player there is enemy to my front. He drove up in a car. Oh, damn! He is heading right for me. I shoot and kill him. We are now down to only one ticket per team.

... Our team won!!!!!



It was fantastic. I finished with 10 kills and 3 deaths.

Next round was a Winter armor map. Had some good fights, but initially did not know how to get the reticule to show-up. Press "X" to get the reticule while in a tank.

The next map was an infantry desert map and had fun as a British soldier.

I am liking this mod.

[pershainovitsh]

I knew you'd like it!

Now, out of curiosity, how many of the Spartans have the mod installed? I know that at least I, sfscriv and Rache (Rache14?) and yet one I can't remember have it.
We really should play it together with a full fireteam of Spartans. The best I've seen was three Spartans, including myself, on one side. We had fun, although we didn't do very well if I remember correctly.

[pershainovitsh]

I'm not sure if I should put this here or in the war stories -sub forum, but I'll just put it here.

I was playing the map Villers-Bocage as a British soldier, when I noticed an amazing opportunity to help the team. We were holding most of the flags, and I was defending the Farm flag. It was very quiet, no one was attacking it, but soon I started hearing loud firing noises from the German tanks. There were two Tigers and one other tank in the North-Eastern part of the map. But they weren't moving, they were just pounding our positions. But not the Farm. I was an engineer, and I noticed that I had two satchel charges (surprisingly, they are a Finnsih invention, at least if you believe Wikipedia) and a very good tactical position: there were lots of bushes to hide in, and the tanks were looking in the opposite direction.

So, I snuck through the bushes towards the Tiger that didn't move much, but I feared that I had gotten discovered when the other Tiger, who had been moving more than the other, started driving towards me. I was hiding in a bush and not moving a finger until it had gone past me. By some miracle, the oblivious tank driver drove past me and stopped just a couple of meters away from me. I readied the satchel charge, fearing that I would either get shot from behind or would get driven over by the tank, but I managed to place the explosive just behind the Tiger. I ran along the bushline as fast as I could, and after a few seconds I heard an explosion. The charge had completely destroyed the fearsome Tiger and everyone inside.

After that I headed for the second Tiger, whose driver hadn't noticed the other Tiger getting destoryed just 20 meters away from it. I ran towards it with a satchel charge in my hand, but it started moving, and it moved faster than I could run with my feet. I chased it a long while until we both noticed some British troops. The other one was an engineer, and the other one was an assault with a machine pistol. I was hiding behind a tank wreck (it was a friendly tank, destroyed by the mighty Tiger with just one shot just a few seconds earlier) and saw the horror: the engineer was desparately trying to place the satchel charge, while the other one was trying to get the tank driver's attention by shooting it with his machine pistol. Unfortunately, the tank turret soon turned and they both got wiped out by what I assume was a High-Explosive round. Then the Tiger moved forwards, and I was after him. It was extremely dangerous, I was alone and crossing open fields with an enemy tank in front of me. After about a minute of chasing, the tank stopped, and the turret started turning towards me. I did what my insinct told me and tried to hide against the ground (I had less than a second to think) but then I thought that I would be defintely seen, as I was just ten metres away from him. So I tried to run to some kind of cover, but the Tiger shot me in the back with its machine gun.
If I had gone in the direction the tank turret was turning, I might have been able to hide in its blind spot and possibly even destroyed it, but I couldn't think that much in less than a second. But I still got one Tiger by surprise with a satchel charge, and I'm very proud of it.

[swfwebmaster]

Al,

Great story! I really thought you were going to blow up the second tank. I was cheering for you.

[pershainovitsh]

Well, I thought the same until the turret started turning. I panicked and got myself killed (trust me, you will start to panic if a Tiger's cannon is rotating towards you). After changing my pants I went to defend the little towns the Tiger was attacking. If my memory serves me, we somehow managed to destroy it. It is never easy to destory a Tiger.
...Especially if you take the British Anti-tank kit that has the PIAT rpg launcher. I think the acronym comes from "Pain In the A** To deal any damage". Today I hit a Tiger multiple times in the rear, but I didn't even get a hit marker. Instead I was rewarded with the Tiger getting angry and me getting blown to the sky. After a couple of useless tries with the awful AT kit (it might work against weaker tanks, but the Tiger is far from weak) I tried the Engineer kit and the satchel charge. This time it was even more dangerous, the first time I tried placing the explosive a German came from inside the tank (it wasn't the driver, the engine was still running) and shot me. The second time was only a little better: I managed to lay down the satchel charge, but it didn't destroy the tank. I guess it did some damage, but it took us a long time before we could destroy it.

Hmmm... A small squad with two engineers and a rifleman could probably be very effective against a Tiger. The two engineers place the satchel charges while the rifleman watches their backs. That amount of explosives would hopefully destroy it with 100% probability. We have to try this at some point.

[pershainovitsh]

I played some Forgotten Hope 2 yesterday after a long break. Immediately I started to remember what hooked me with the game. It's the atmosphere and gameplay. At the moment, I can't think of anything scarier than an approaching enemy tank in FH2. Or any better gameplay. One shot is enough to kill or incapitate, but that's with semi-automatic or bolt-action rifles. Submachine guns take more bullets to kill. Also, having read Band of Brothers brought me some new perspective to maps like Bastogne.

So what happened yesterday? Nothing out of the ordinary. I was a German, following my fireteam leader with another fireteam member. We were moving crouched in the bushes, approaching an airfield held by the enemy. Those pesky Yankees! However, soon my leader got shot by a machine gun, so I decided it was best not to follow him to my own demise. So I went back a little bit looking for a better place to get to the flag. But then I saw a Sherman rolling on the street next to me, coming in my direction. I did't have AT equipment, the other fireteam member had fled in terror already and it was a suicide to attack a tank from the front anyway, so I just laid in the bushes without moving an inch. The tank didn't even notice me. Now that's a Forgotten Hope moment.

Later I was going uphill when I saw a tank moving right towards me on the top of the hill. I ran in the opposite direction and behind a stone wall when a tank shell landed 10 metres next to me on a road. I just kept on running along the wall knowing the tank would follow me into the town. I had to go past the gate on the stone wall, which lead to my death. The tank had stayed on the hill, observing the town from an elevated position.





We have to play Forgotten Hope 2 again sometime soon. It's just too good to miss. It also seems that there's a 128-player server running!