ArmA II Steam Sale

Steam is currently having a sale for several ArmA products, and there are a number of bundled packages available. In terms of ArmA II content the lead bundle on that page is for the ArmA X edition, which oddly enough is missing one of the DLC packages (but includes older ArmA series games). You would have to do some searching to find a complete ArmA II bundle offer for the price of $7.99 (80% off of retail).

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.

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.

Oперация Тернопіль

This is the first playable mission that I am releasing for Iron Front: Liberation 1944. The scenario is a fictitious engagement between a German Panzer Company (ten Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. B King Tiger tanks) and a platoon of Soviet anti-tank forces that consist of four AT teams, three 76mm ZiS-3 guns and a small anti-aircraft platform.

Oперация Тернопіль is Russian for Operation Ternopil, which is a city in the western Ukraine where the village of Ivachev is near and what the scenario map Ukraine Ivachev 1944 is loosely based upon. The scenario begins on Sunday August 5, 1944 at 5:35 AM. The Soviets have a small tactical advantage in that the sun is rising behind them.

ArmA II: BM-21 Artillery Demonstration

Russian Federation Airbase, Chernarus: Today’s training mission is to utilize the Artillery Module in the game to setup a group of BM-21Grad multiple rocket launchers so that we can place an effective fire mission on the port and surrounding industrial area of Chernogorsk. This area is known to contain at any time a large number of insurgent forces which have been fighting the Russians in recent months.

There is a great deal of information on the internet regarding how to employ artillery in various settings within the game, and no resource is more in depth than the Artillery Module wiki document which goes into exhaustive detail about how to set up artillery as real, virtual or with the Secop Manager. In my honest opinion the level of detail provided is overwhelming and difficult to follow.

ArmA II: Army of the Czech Republic

The Battle of Bystrica lasted all of two minutes, if that long. Russian Federation forces in the form of an armored probe (one BMP-2, three T-72’s and one BRDM-2) moved into the area from the west at the same time a Czech unit of similar composition rolled in from the east. The only technical advantage that the ACR forces had was their MBT’s were T-72M4CZ variants.

Tactically however the Czech’s enjoyed approaching in a depression, with the Russian units cresting over a slight rise along the main road through the local village. This allowed the ACR armor (I was the gunner in MBT # 2) to pulverize the enemy units without mercy. At the end, the Czech’s were using machine guns to mop up the tank crews that were bailing out.

Operation Futile

The following screen shots are from a couple of testing sessions of a short mission I am working on where three squads of American infantry are to move into a town to neutralize an ad hoc artillery battery and remove any hostile forces. The setting is early morning and the weather conditions are miserable.

I have a love hate relationship with the ArmA 2 engine (and all iterations of it). A seemingly colossal mission of utmost elegance can be utterly abandoned due to some bug or behavior with the AI that cannot be scripted away. Hours, if not weeks of work can be lost if sequential saves during mission creation and/or tedious unwinding is not done to find the offending elements.

Battlefields (Repost)

"Battlefields" is a classic single player mission from Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis. It is perhaps one of the most remade missions in the history of the series. There is nothing quite like charging a machine gun nest across an open field with armor support, only to then be counterattacked in strength by mechanized infantry.

In my version of the classic, I pit the United States Army against the Takistan Army. The US forces are comprised of a Stryker platoon supported by howitzers, mortars and A-10’s. The Takistan forces are holding a desert outpost and are very well entrenched. Their reinforcements consist of local mechanized forces and are supported by antiaircraft platforms and howitzers.

Marine Platoon Assault

Stary Sobor, Chernarus, South Zagoria: A United States Marine Corps mechanized platoon is tasked with a hasty assault on a village suspected of holding a rebel warlord that is responsible for a rash of recent IED attacks in the Western Sector. To make matters much worse than they need to be, Stary Sobor is also being sat on by a detachment of Russian mechanized infantry.

The Marines are supported by a flight of Cobra attack helicopters and three P7A1 Assault Amphibious Vehicles. The Russians are known to pre-register checkpoints with indirect motor fire (even civilian populations such as those that exist in the area of operations). Normally a Force Recon unit would be called in to evaluate the situation on the ground, but some MAGTF officer back at command sent my detachment out on his own personal vendetta (with disastrous consequences).

Battlefields

"Battlefields" is a classic single player mission from Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis. It is perhaps one of the most remade missions in the history of the series. There is nothing quite like charging a machine gun nest across an open field with armor support, only to then be counterattacked in strength by mechanized infantry.

In my version of the classic, I pit the United States Army against the Takistan Army. The US forces are comprised of a Stryker platoon supported by howitzers, mortars and A-10’s. The Takistan forces are holding a desert outpost and are very well entrenched. Their reinforcements consist of local mechanized forces and are supported by antiaircraft platforms and howitzers.

Smash and Dash

The following screen shots are from a work-in-progress mission in ArmA II using the CDF against the Russian Insurgents. The premise is a surprise air assault at platoon strength against an airfield held by the enemy. The area of operations will be prepared by rocket fired artillery from a battery of three Grads, as well as covered by a flight of Su-25’s.

The platoon will embark on four separate Mi-17’s and parachute into a clearing just to the southwest of the airfield, where they will form at a designated location before commencing the sweep of the airfield. This platoon is going up against approximately four mechanized infantry squads outfitted with BMP-2’s. Once the airfield is swept of insurgents, the platoon will board the helicopters for a fast extraction.

Weapons Cache Infiltration

Situation: Elements of the ChDKZ - The Chernarussian Movement of the Red Star have obtained several crates containing 9K38 Igla man-portable infrared homing surface-to-air missiles which constitute an immediate threat to civilian and military air traffic in South Zagoria.

Mission: Call-sign Mist, class Force Recon DAP (Direct Action Platoon) operator will insert via local contact civilian heavy truck at grid square 051-104 (approximately 2 grid squares north and elevated from a known ChDKZ checkpoint) and make way to an Threat Observation Point at grid square 054-107.