ArmA 2 Operation Arrowhead PMC - Why I am still interested

[...] private military forces offer a level of flexibility and promise of efficiency when coping with threats to global market function. An example of this was see most recently in the havoc created by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. When the federal government, because of bad management and legal barriers using federal forces, failed to act, PMCs stepped into some of the breaches. Companies such as Blackwater and others quickly sent forces to New Orleans to protect high-value for corporate clients (from looters) and provided extraction details for high-net-worth individuals and valuable corporate employees.

From Brave New War: The Next Stage of Terrorism and the End of Globalization
By John Robb

ArmA 2 is an entertainment product, yet oriented towards a niche of the gaming market. It is a simulation of infantry tactical warfare realistic enough that an off-shot of the original game engine is used for training in military forces around the globe. Popularity and media buzz-wise, the Private Military Comapny (PMC) DLC is not the hottest Bohemia Interactive module. When I got it myself I thought -Meh! What will be next ...a  Red Cross refugee-relief module?

There is an entire school of thought that is raising the flag about sovereign states no longer having the monopoly in the delivery of violence against masses of people. Violence at a scale that can tip the political stability of a whole state. John Robb is in the cutting edge of this idea that was originally put forward by Martin van Creveld. Global terrorism and the Mexican drug cartels are two examples of the new actors in this whole new game the world is witnessing. The idea of a state without the resources (legal or material) to cope with non-state threats to its existence is scary. But even more scary is the idea that anybody with enough money can pay to enter the game. And I am not talking about the "10 dollar Taliban" that can't hit a cow in a corridor with his cousin's 20-year-old assault rifle. I am talking about ex-special operations veterans armed with modern weaponry that can bring down a building in their sleep. Enter the private military contractor ...

Although the political, strategic and operational minutia of the fictional war in Takistan are out of reach for the ArmA2 OA PMC player, the tactical grind of the simulation offers a rare opportunity to experience the life of the military contractor. And I say rare not because this is the first "mercenary" shooter in the market but because is the only one that we can hope will deliver the goods in a way more close to reality. Under-manned,  under-gunned, no indirect fire support, tactical mobility not a lot better than your wife's during a trip to the mall, with a huge baggage bogging down the tactical tempo (do we really need to protect these clients? ;) ), the challenge will be there. Unfortunately, the canned missions of the PMC DLC are not that appealing. At least for me, ArmA was never at story-telling and I was not actually hoping anything stellar with this module. But the sandbox is open for mission creators!

And now if you excuse me, I have to finish my read of the FRAGO contract and send my SITREP invoice to my commander client. :)

Cheers,

Harpoon 3 ANW - Fighting the Wrong Battle with the Wrong Warships - Part 2

This is a continuation from this previous entry.

2140, May 15 1995. The green outlines of the Malvinas/Falklands and the continent are spectators to the naval battle to come. The red square icon is Port Stanley. The blue concentric circles are my task forces. From south to north TF02, TF01 and TF06. West of TF01 a Lynx helicopter (blue inverted semicircle with two small "ears") has detected some surface contacts (yellow squares) and considerable air activity (yellow inverted half-squares). One air contact (the one selected) is a fast mover (note its airspeed at 420 knots) and considering its location and bearing (far from land masses) it is possibly coming from the Veinticinco de Mayo. The two surface contacts northwest of TF01 are a bit worrying too, but so far we haven't observed any aircraft in their proximity. They may well be patrol boats. The HMS Trafalgar (blue inverted semi-circle) is west off Port Stanley.

A lone Lynx helicopter scouting some 90 nm west of the main body of our task force has reported surface contacts along with considerable air activity. These contact reports reek with the smell of the Argentine carrier Veinticinco de Mayo.

Information. How many battles lost for the lack of it? Is this the Argentine carrier and its escorts? Is it heading towards the islands? Or is it actually seeking battle with our carrier?

Decision. Is "always attack" such a strong dictum in naval warfare? Should I engage the contacts in a full-blown carrier vs carrier naval engagement? Should I just track the Argentines and relay that information to the Trafalgar for an ambush?

I settle for a small raid (AKA half-ass attack) on the Argentines. I detach a total of four warships from TF02 and TF01 and order them to a rendezvous point near their former formations. HMS Amazon, HMS Battleaxe and HMS Argyll (all purpose frigates) and HMS Glasgow (area air defense destroyer) quickly get into position and find their way west. I have divested my carrier and land assault task forces of a significant amount of firepower, but I need to know what the Argentines are up to and stop them from getting close to the islands or my carrier, preferably all at the same time.

This is a complicated screenshot and I strongly suggest clicking on it for a better view. The big map in the background ("Zoom Window") shows the big picture tactical situation. The bunched up yellow icons in the center are the surface and air contacts we have detected. Some 60 miles east of these contacts, the inverted blue semicircle is a Harrier conducting a quick scouting mission. The lone Lynx helicopter (blue inverted semicircle north of the Harrier) is still providing intelligence to our fleet. Immediately east of the Lynx helicopter, the blue concentric circles is the new mini-task force, sailing west from the two other blue concentric circles (TF01 and TF02). An expanded view of the mini-task force's formation is in the window located in the lower right part of the screenshot.

Weak everywhere and with more moving parts, my fleet is committed to a tactical plan with a flexibility that has an expiration date of one or two hours. Once the raiding formation sails 30 or 40 nm from the main body of the fleet, it will take them no less than 1 hour to get back in the event of a major Argentine attack. One likes to think that only once you get into shooting distance to the enemy is when the arms of battle won't let you out of their grip. In naval warfare, the vastness of the sea swallows your firepower and your tactical options very easily.

On the bright side, the raiders sailing west to meet the Veinticinco the Mayo need air cover from our Harrier aircraft.I set flights of 3 Harriers into CAP missions just in front of the mini-task force. Unintentionally, these CAP missions ended up chewing up a big chunk of the Argentine naval aviation assets.

The selected unit (blue concentric inverted semicircle) is a flight of 3 Harriers investigating and air contact. Their CAP waypoints are the green "X"s. The area inside the orange lines is a "threat to aircraft" I placed to avoid my own aircraft flying too close to the Argentine ships.

To be continued ...

Cheers,

Real and Simulated Wars Opens a Window

This blog has a total of 431 entries. None of my entries were never mentioned or noted at the forums of the  popular site Wargamer.com. It is very ironic that just one entry would be cross-referenced and generate this reaction at the Wargamer.com forum. I was not surprised to their reaction towards my entry. Nobody likes to be called names. Me calling them "activists" was like a stick shoveled up their digital rights sensitivities. Fair game, forumites ... I wasn't expecting kudos for that.

Yesterday I posted about closing the blog. You may think I was pissed at the Wargamer.com thread reaction, name-calling and other assorted hostilities. Nope. I was actually overwhelmed at the thought that no matter what, playing and discussing games and simulations in some online communities is getting second to chest-beating, demonstrating how awesome you and your principles (?!) are, and over-blowing every iota of imperfection a game has. Grognards! Some may call. Not really. A true grognard would give you an earful of complains, but while on the march to fight the battle of a lifetime. With you, not against you.

In such train of depressing thought yesterday I hastily decided to get over with anything online and close the blog. One day after, I am awed at the support you guys provided in the form of e-mails and comments. Really, really appreciated.

I'm not claiming the victimized hero part in this play. There is no heroics in saying "closed forever" then "well, actually not". It is more of an embarrassment to do so. But more embarrassing would be to let this blog go without a good fight.

I apologize for all of the drama of a false-alarm closing and all of the above ranting. I always want to keep this blog clean of drama and personal grievances. But your involvement in the last day or so convinced me that you deserve a proper explanation.

Let's game something ...

Cheers,

Real and Simulated Wars Closes Doors

Well folks, it was will be a heck of a ride ...

I will leave the blog up a couple of months. Take whatever you want until that time expires. I will remove the blog completely afterwards.

Edit: I am deeply grateful for your support and sorry for this entry. See my explanation above.

Cheers,

John Tiller's New Self-Publishing Effort Doing Great

Kharkov 43 marked the start of a new era for John Tiller. He parted from HPS Simulations and went solo in a self-publishing effort. Future John Tiller games will be available directly from his store via download.

Kharkov 43 has a mild DRM scheme based in activations. In a thread at Wargamer.com, some war gamers vowed to never buy Kharkov 43 or any future Tiller game because of this. Apparently the "boycott" didn't work very well. This was posted at John Tiller's page a few days ago:

Before this endeavor started last Friday, we had no idea what to expect. I had established a sales goal for the end of the month that I felt would represent undisputable success. I am delighted to report that because of your enthusiastic response, our first month sales goal was achieved Tuesday.

Our second game, a Squad Battles game, is finished and ready for release in the near future. And we have a very aggressive publishing schedule established for the first half of 2011 to populate the store with a variety of games from many different areas.

Thank you for ensuring that my team and I will be able to continue our efforts well into the future.

John Tiller
08 Dec 2010

Tiller has sold a month's worth of games in 5 days. It doesn't surprise me at all. The games are great and the new download distribution venue is just too convenient. So here is to John Tiller for a continued success.

Side notes about Wargamer.com:

1) Wargamer.com news coverage team has either missed or ignored the release of Kharkov 43. I hope is just an omission. Even the most trivial previews of Matrix Games are being showcased with big fanfare (?!).

2) The thread at Wargamer.com about DRMs in Tiller's games is an embarrassment. These anti-DRM activists are convinced that taking a stance against a small guy like Tiller is as heroic as taking it against a corporation like Ubisoft or SEGA. Fortunately, they have absolutely no influence even in a market as small as this one.

Cheers,

Gary Grigsby's War in the East - Released

Just in case you haven't read the news elsewhere, 2by3 and Matrix Games have released today the massive War in the East war game.

I am sure I'm going to play this one. But given the pile of other stuff I have to do, the question is when ...

War gaming is dead, yeah right! :) Good times!

Cheers,

Red Pill's First Video! - Gameplay footage from the highly anticipated naval war game

This just in from Warfaresims.com. Check out the timeline at the original post there. For a better viewing, it is recommended to run the video in HD and at full screen.



Cheers,

Revolution Under Siege - Operational Blunder

I should be writing a review of this game ... Only if I could stop having fun with this thing.



Cheers,

EDIT: Corrected size for better viewing. Check it out at YouTube if you have issues.

Panzer Campaigns Goes Downloadable - Kharkov 43

Panzer Campaigns, the great series from John Tiller has gone the digital download route. The first title available is Kharkov 43 and its from John Tiller's website and store.

All other John Tiller titles are available from HPS Simulations at this time. It will be interesting to see where this goes. Has John Tiller parted from HPS?

Kharkov 43 has some minor differences from the other Panzer Campaigns titles but it is still Panzer Campaigns.

The new game has a moderate DRM device on it: you are given a serial number and with it you can activate it via the internet. Apparently you can only have one copy of the game installed at a time.

Some screenshots follow. Another fine study of the Eastern Front.

Cheers,

ArmA 2 Operation Arrowhead Private Military Company - Ranks no more, we rely on payscale now

I got the Private Military Company (PMC) DLC today. 

It is an interesting module, but I am not as enthused as I am with the British Armed Forces one. I don't know, maybe because it is late at night.

Two contractors pulling security at a remote road in the new "Proving Grounds" map.

This contractor is armed with the good ole M16.

The new map (Proving Grounds) is a bit smaller than the one we got with the BAF DLC.

Despite the dull appearance of the 2D map above, the new Proving Grounds has plenty of very nice tactical landscapes.

Air support is taken care of by this Ka-60.

Thanks, dude. I think I will wait for the next IFV ...

Wait! This one will do. Can I man the gun ... please? :)

Cheers,