ArmA II Operation Bulldog

Zelenogorsk, Chernarus: An insurgent stronghold at Zelenogorsk has been under observation for several weeks and intelligence has determined that it is a central processing site for the illicit drug trade that has crippled the region. This is a work-in-progress alpha mission at the moment that lacks an intro or outro cinematic, but does contain a fully working briefing and objectives/tasks.

The player is the Team Lead for a US Marine Corps Force Recon Team which is attached to the Chernarus Defense Force and is tasked to participate in the raid on the village containing the insurgent forces and their drug lab. Two assault groups and a reserve component will be in the area of operations to secure the four identified combat sectors. Once all sectors have been cleared, all groups will proceed to the extraction zone north of the village.

The CDF regular infantry platoon is divided into Assault Group 1 and Assault Group 2 consisting of two squads each. A Weapons Group is in the area and is on call to support the operation if needed. The enemy consists of a mix of regular Insurgent infantry and militia in the area of operations, and is dispersed in what appears to be a high alert tactical posture.

Intelligence indicates that the insurgent forces have been tipped off to our operation; however they are still in Zelenogorsk and appear to be making no effort to exit the area of operations. It is possible that there is an insurgent agent in the CDF hierarchy that has provided the enemy intelligence on our assault.

The scenario is in an alpha state and there are a lot of things on the map that I use as aids that are typically cleaned up and removed before publishing as a single player mission. While there is no current intro or outro cinematic sequence, there is a fully functional briefing with tasks/objectives.

The score set for the minimization objectives still needs to be fleshed out, but I usually save that for last. While there is an Ambient Civilian Module in place, I need to set additional civilian units to get a headcount for collateral damage.

While the advance of the two Assault Groups and the Force Recon Team is masked by these woods, once we clear the slight rise ahead we are on a downward slope of a wide open plane.

Too many markers – the Drug Lab and the Power Station are actually the same objective.

This not a tactical approach by any means, however the mission was hastily thrown together by Command and planning took a back seat to urgency (and location of forces).

My Force Recon Team advancing on the suspected Drug Lab while I let the CDF units enter first and take the initial rounds (note Delta Squad taking casualties). 

The AI can only do so much however, so some of the entrenched enemy combatants had to have a human play intervene to flush them out.

The bots swarm the compound of the Drug Lab as I prepare to move up to the Power Station.

Murphy!! (Actually I don’t know the name of the avatar). A sad case of friendly fire where I enter a room to clear it and lose situational awareness of where my Team is, and end up shooting one of them. I was able to use the First Aid Module to heal him.

The approach up a slight rise towards the Power Station is fraught with danger as the CDF Alpha Team is taking casualties up there.

The bus is part of the Ambient Civilian Vehicles Module and in this instance is blocking some enemy combatants from our view.

This one insurgent caused a great deal of pain to the CDF.

One of the downsides of the First Aid Module (if you are trying to hurry up and move on to the next objective) is that the AI uses it as well to heal their troops.

Here I am wondering why the CDF are loitering around, and it is because they are waiting for me to go resolve one of those human-required situations.

While my Assault Group 1 is dicking around at the moment, Assault Group 2 has taken their objective of South Zelenogorsk (Sector 2) and is moving towards North Zelenogorsk (Sector 3).

You have got to be kidding me…

…guess not.

After I kill the enemy unit the AI couldn’t resolve (inside a building I guess), the Drug Lab and Power Station objective is cleared and Assault Group 1 can move into North Zelenogorsk (Sector 3) to assist in clearing it.

I utilize the terrain to mask the approach of the Force Recon Team heading towards the church.

Nothing really here other than I thought this was a nice looking screen shot (see the bottom of this post for a better image and explanation).

Once Sector 3 is cleared of the enemy we all haul ass to the extraction zone.

The fuel depot up the road a bit from the village is where I intend to have trucks come in or possibly some extraction helicopters, but just for the visual (the mission will end 10 seconds after reaching this point).

I hate how the game puts the objectives in reverse order in the after-action report (or debriefing as they call it in this game). The developer was made aware of this on multiple occasions by several mission designers but never bothered to correct it.

I am not sure why some of the final screen shots are extremely washed out – those scenes were much darker in game and in the screen shots that I have saved on my drive, however when uploading them to Picasa for this post they become really light.

This is how the pics should look (using a free site that is better than Picasa apparently).