2-2: Friends From Afar

2-2: Friends From Afar (Day 1)

An exercise in efficiency - 1 shot, 1 kill

Mission Intro

The previous night's airstrikes were a success, now you and Dusty move higher up the mountains to hunt dug-in Al Qaeda fighters.  Conceal your movement and watch your noise discipline, or the hunter will become the hunted.

Mission Start

First, I have to say that this is my favorite mission in the game -- for reasons that will become obvious in a few moments...

This is the second -- and final -- mission as Deuce, who is without question a very capable operator.  The mission starts with you as the spotter for a sniper team, taking out the gunner on an AA emplacement.  You know, it is normal for us to feel good about seeing a shot like that made, but were you paying attention to the terrain we were flying over?  Do you have any idea what a bitch it must have been to get that gun up there and assembled, let alone hauling up all of the ammo for it?!  Almost makes me feel bad for the Tangos. Almost. 

When you resume control you are the sniper, and there are some Tangos across the valley that need killing.  This is an intense example of positioned sniping, not really realistic but damn good for  a video game!  You will take out three tourists doing their laundry and a sniper who is starting to scope in on your position, then pull out to the left for another four targets of opportunity.  I must confess this area is a target-rich environment! 

Optional Achievement: If you are not aware, as usual there is an Achievement associated with this mission -- in this case you need to target each of the main body parts with a single shot: head, torso, arms, legs.  Now I know it does not make a lot of sense to shoot at an arm or a leg when you are prosecuting targets but you can still set those up as kill-shots and earn this Achievement! 

When shooting the leg, target a crouching Tango so that you send your shot through the upper leg and into the lower torso, which is almost a center-mass shot so it should kill.  For the arm, target a Tango standing in profile so that you send the round through his upper arm, side, lung-heart-lung, and out the other side for a definite kill.  I don't have to explain the head or chest, since those are our usual points of aim anyway, though to be honest going for a head-shot at this range is kind of ballsy!

To the right is a mortar team setting up -- you may want to be efficient at taking them out because if they spot your location they could make things awful uncomfortable for you!  As you take out this team you should unlock the Achievement "Like a surgeon" for hitting the four body parts -- good on ya mate!

Back on Task

Take out a final sniper to reach your objective, and then you will see some automatic weapons fire flashes from across the valley and high up on the hill.  Before you can really do anything about that though, someone sets off one of your tripwires -- you are not alone on this hill mate! 

The incursion is in front of you -- and you will hold your position and defend until they trip your last trap, after which you will follow your partner to higher ground and defend.  The enemy has grenades and knows how to use them, so be efficient in taking them out quickly.  I used the sniper rifle simply because it is faster and kills quicker than your back-up weapon, even though it fires in burst-mode.

After you take out the skirmish line you move up to search the bodies for intel -- and you learn that these are tourists, not locals.  Dusty spots a blood trail and you follow it to a wounded insurgent -- and wait for his buddies to show up and help him.  This is your classic ambush firefight, and you should use whatever weapon you are most comfortable with, but do not forget that double-tapping Y will arm your pistol!  If you have yet to unlock the pistol kills Achievement this might be a good time to do that.

After the fight you will move to an over-watch position above another camp, and Dusty has you snipe all four targets, after which he marks the camp with smoke for a fast mover delivery, and you continue up the hill.  While you are working your way up you overhear radio chatter that paints a fairly grim picture -- for the enemy that is. 

Assist the Rangers

As you approach the ridge line you will see a large group of enemy below, trying to take out a small group of friendlies.  The friendlies are high, the Tangos low -- so after you deploy your sniper rifle and get comfie start taking out the bad guys!  It will really help in spotting and targeting if you turn on the heat mode for your scope, as that will highlight the targets as white ghosts in your scope, making it a lot easier to see them.  Bear in mind that you are about a mile from the targets, which means there is a two-heartbeat delay from when you fire to when the bullet actually arrives.  This means that you must lead any moving targets, and that stationary targets are probably a better bet.

You should give priority to the RPG Tangos as they present a greater threat to the friendlies, and it would be an idea to prosecute the targets from the rear forward so as not to make them aware that there is a sniper team operating to their six. 

Basically you need to keep the friendlies alive for a certain amount of time and then they will retreat up the ridge line, working the retreat as an RBF drawing out more enemy that you can shoot, but their retreat signals the end of this mission, and the unlocking of the Achievements "Friends from Afar" for competing the mission and "Have a Good One" for completing Deuce's final mission.

This mission closes with a brief CS that serves as a sort of AAR...