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.

Race to the Volga AAR Soviet Union

Chris over at The Sharp End Gaming has provided me and Doug from Cry Havoc! an early build of his new Stalingrad scenario, “Race to the Volga”. This is a companion scenario to “Operation Hubertus” that Chris released on his blog on Monday. Doug has typically played these as the Germans, and I have been playing them as the Soviet Union.

I am in command of the Soviet 62^nd Army with 9,351 personnel, 55 armored fighting vehicles, 1,281 non-armored fighting vehicles and 153 guns with a combined anti-personnel firepower rating of 3,519, anti-armor of 31,474, bombardment of 666 (pure evil), armor of 348 and an infantry value of 4,809. These 113 total starting units are facing a German press into the city that I must repulse or delay as much as possible to collect the Victory Point locations my forces are presently arrayed upon.

PACOPS: Type 97 Chi-Ha Medium Tank

The 9th Armored Regiment of the 1st Tank Division was reassigned to the 31st Army in April 1944 and sent to Saipan where it was effectively annihilated and not reorganized. Commanded by Colonel Tadashi Goshima, the unit consisted of 31 Type 97 Medium Tanks (modeled below), 4 Type 97-Improved Medium Tanks and 12 Type 95 Light Tanks.

Just after midnight on June 16, 1944 the Japanese forces made a large counterattack against the US 6th Marine Regiment on the beachhead near Charan Kanoa and were soundly repulsed due to inexperience in mounting tactical armored engagements. The Marines were able to concentrate their firepower on the assault and were augmented by naval gunfire.

Pressure Cooker

The following after-action report is for a new scenario I have created for Command Operations: Battles from the Bulge which utilizes my Marine Corps 2.0 mod which must be installed for the scenario to work (please refer to the download links listed below). The scenario was designed with the current public beta build for Command Operations which is 4.5.264.

The scenario is a battalion sized engagement of semi equal forces that are tasked with seizing a ferry crossing in the Renkum area of operations. Both sides are supported by a tank battalion and an engineer contingent. As with the Operation Thunderclap scenario, this is an alternative history story line set in the year 1947 after the defeat of the Soviet Union.

Invasion 1944 Mod

I downloaded a mod yesterday for Armed Assault: Combat Operations called Invasion 1944. It is a pretty decent mod that has some bugs and issues (to be expected, for any mod). The install process is a pain in the ass and should have been easier. The installation path assumes a Bohemia Interactive directory so North American users of Combat Operations need to move the add on and campaign files to their Atari directory, update the short cut (plus find the icon – very lazy on the mod developer) and delete the Bohemia directory from the C: drive as it is not needed (unless you have something else already in there from another game).

I am hoping these gents will patch this release for ArmA I before they start in earnest with ArmA II. I love OFP and ArmA, but to be blunt there is nothing I see in ArmA II that warrants me having to pay full price for it. I can wait for it to tank on Amazon and get it brand new on the cheap. We PC gamers have that distinct advantage over console freaks. One thing I do like already is that one Tiger tank can rip to shreds two or three Sherman tanks while taking only moderate damage.