ArmA II The Wrong Tool For The Job

I haven’t done much of anything in ArmA II for quite some time, so I dusted off the cobwebs and started a very simple infiltration mission in the editor using the last official mod produced for the game, the Army of the Czech Republic (Operation Arrowhead is required). The setting is Bukovina, a cropped version of the northwest airfield from the original Chenarus map with some updates such as a CQB/Training course east of the airstrip, and some new vegetation to make the area greener.

The force composition for this mission is a standard OPFOR Insurgent mechanized group, against a Czech Special Forces Saboteur (me).

What inspired me to do this type of blog post is the quality work done by JC over at Real and Simulated Wars, in particular the various vignettes he creates for missions within the ArmA universe (if you haven’t checked out his site yet, you definitely should).

The first thing I should do upfront is apologize for the icons in the top left of the screen shots: these are from the AMD Raptr video recorder application, and I should have turned it off as I was using FRAPS at a 5 second pulse to capture the following images:


So far some basic stuff: insertion by helicopter on the left side, the primary objective in red, and finally the exfiltration point on a hill to the east of the airfield.


The runway lights are visible on the ground below, but so are the navigation lights on my insertion helicopter (I will have to fix that in the editor).


I am quite a distance from the target here and will have some opportunity to scout an optimal approach.


Here I make it to the wall circling around the airfield and can easily make it through a huge gap in the fence line.


This BMP is going to be avoided at all costs.


Presently I have the infantry part of the mechanized group of insurgents broken up as individual units (not grouped together) and placed in certain areas so they can scout approached to the hangars.


There is an automatic rifleman directly ahead of me standing in front of the tree. I quickly dispatch this potential threat with a three round burst from by Scorpion. In real life I would never have done this without some situational awareness, such as if his best buddy were standing three feet away but out of my line of sight.

“Bob, why are you lying on the ground dead?”


The telltale sign of the rotor sticking out from the hangar points me in the right direction. And that truck next to it should provide some fine concealment from the BMP if I hook around from the far side of the structure.


This soldier is already in an alert posture and next to the BMP so I choose to completely bypass and ignore him.


There are actually two more infantrymen on the far side that I wanted to loop around, so I had to take them out one at a time using the building as cover and concealment.


Once up to the side I decided to take out the two units in front of me, one of them was the group leader.


The truck does provided excellent concealment from further detection (I honestly didn’t plan it that way when throwing this together in the editor).


Not thinking that I would make it this far on my first practice run, I frantically search the truck for any satchel charges to use on the helicopter. Without one available I decide to place a mine in the front of the aircraft and another along the side with the intention of shooting at them from a distance.


Not having any experience with mines in ArmA, I am promptly killed when while placing the second mine the first one detonates destroying the helicopter and my future as a Spec Op.

I would like to complete this mission design and possibly package it up as a single player mission if it plays well and I can bug check it for quality assurance.

Oh yeah, and make sure I have some satchel charges on me before I jump out of the helicopter.

2 comments:

  1. Awesome Tim. I've never really played Arma and often wonder about it. Steam just had a great sale on Arma. Perhaps I should have picked it up.

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  2. Now that ArmA 3 has been out for some time, you can find ArmA 2 (and all expansion pack content) on sale for a great price whenever Steam runs a big sale. Although I already had the majority of the games on disc, I bought the whole thing (including the final DLC (Army of the Czech Republic which you cannot find anywhere on disc in the US) on Steam two years ago for $7.99.

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