M A N D A T O R Y I N T R O D U C T O R Y
Hello everyone again, this time I have decided to drop the cliché idea of a Afghanistan-esque combat mission screenshot storytelling attempt and instead focus on something more original and perhaps rarly seen before. In short: Italians on mediterranean islands. Using about 5GB's of mods I decided to go for a rather unknown faction in the Armaverse which is the Italian Armed Forces. Historically in the Armaverse canon they took part in joint NATO operations aganist the communist Sahrani Liberation Army during the times of the Arma I and later had a small role in Arma II's Harvest Red and of course in various Afghanistan-themed missions. In spite of them being a large force in the NATO, they still are somewhat a rare sight. I dare say somewhat in the style of modern Macedonian or Bulgarian army featured in Arma II of which also has a small footprint in the history of the game. This blog takes place in the Sahrani islands which were the basis of Arma I and had been long time ago converted to work under Arma II.
Sahrani, 2007.
The pacific nation of Sahrani was once a British colony now self-ruled and battered by the political strife between the largely poor Southern Saharani and the rich Northern Saharani. Somewhere in the beginning of 2006 the country split apart between two governments one of which was British-influnced democracy the other a questionable Maoism-Leninism type government. Shortly after that the Sahrani Liberation Army was founded with the role of uniting the country under one banner. Tensions flared and a war erupted with the border city of Corazol being the first laid to waste as both sides scrambled to defend their vision of unity, vision of stability. The conflict did not caught the eye of the World's media and was largely forgotten by the outside. In response to the crisis a small contingent of NATO forces was dispatched to help the Royal Armed Corps of Sahrani in taking down the insurrection thus unifying the already weakened island...
Operation: Eagle's Nest, June the 10th of the year 2007.
Plans for the retaking the city of Corazol have been stopped in their tracks thanks to a recent shipment of two Fullbacks from a unknown source friendly to the SLA's political cause. They are currently stationed in a shoddy makeshift military airport in Pita. These two are threating our ill-prepared Harriers in CAP duties, the monetary and political issues resulting from losing some of our planes to a rag-tag bunch of insurgents playing like an regular army cannot be allowed to happen.
Two teams will suffice. Team codename "Alpha" is composed of our newest arrivals, the Italian Gruppo Operativo Incursori unit which is known to be green in this region. The second team codename "Bravo" will be in lead of the operation and is composed of our "D-boy" operatives from the SFOD-D known to be one of the best fighting force in the whole World, obviously quite outclassing that GOI unit. the third team, SEALs will provide logistic support and transportation. All teams are now in pre-combat inspection stage and here are the photographs of what we are looking for to get rid of nicely, quietly and effectively:
As always, the photographs don't really have that information what you all were hoping to find. Suprise, suprise. That airport is guarded by some crack elements of the SLA's 1st Parachute Assault Brigade the X in the HQ command of the North-East Sahrani chosen ones. No more combat with pushovers or douche bags with guns from the Seventies this time. As you can also see there has been a Hokum B spotted operating in the vicinity and might be even belonging to the bodyguards of the commanding head in there. The Hips and the Hokum obviously pose a threat to over silent approach should an alert be triggered or should the pilots suddenly feel an insatiable urge to go flying over the water with searchlights active wondering if they could see the reflection of their machines in it.
Upon entry, first objective is to neutralize an enemy mechanized patrol composing of some soft-skinned vehicles plus a BMP-1. They're suspected to be right on patrol duty throught the roads leading to the target area so make sure to give that a hot welcome with Mr. anti-tank mine. Remember all that the main objective is to render those two Fullbacks FUBAR. Any further questions or problems should be directly consulted with the briefing & SITREP files. If there any problems with understanding resulting from the files being written in Italian; please talk about it with your nearest translator. If somehow any of you realize the fact we never had one in the first place remember golden rule: "In doubt, follow the group". Italians will be leading the op to destroy the BMP patrol.
Dismissed!
It was the first taste of fire outside the offical NATO exercise operations for the relatively young and handsome Capitano Filippo Mancuso from the Gruppo Operativo Incursori. Few minutes before the start, he would look at the darkness that enveloped them and their speeding RHIB in this cold midnight hours thinking "am I really ready for this one?" and "why it is soo cold" while at the same being grateful to himself for gettting to know all about the enemy strength and dislocation in the briefing files. On paper, Eagle's Nest did not look that scary especially with the company of well-experienced American "D-boys". They provided the leadership and firearms so it must and will go smooth.
Mounting on and turning on his NVG's as the time suddenly stopped a while for Mancuso. His purpose is a major one. Consequences will be severe should he fail to place the AT mine at the right spot or even fail to avoid detection. The entire BLUFOR units could end up being swallowed by tidal waves.
Everyone lunged out of the RHIB with the Bravo team leading the way. Mancuso proceeded to spice up the action a little by barking out movements orders in Italian to the U.S. units present while his Alpha team was counting up itself. Everything seemed good & clear after the landing. The time for boom-boom mining is nearing for the GOI unit.
As everyone took up the perimeter defense positions before moving up the road ambush point our operative was in final stage of preparing his AN/PRC-343 derivative personal field radio. Once the comm link is established, the boom-boom initial stage of the mission can proceed unhidered.
Comm link has been established and both Alpha and Bravo teams can finally begin to kill neutralize some sovereign country armed forces terroist threats with a tint of Communist ideology.
Somewhere between the hectic radio chatter, the sounds of battle, the bad words being spoken and the general feeling of being at the rifle's range one can hear the second Mi-17 Hip's flight engineer talk to his co-pilot. "Oh, I haven't suspected such creatures to come out of the water during our daily stroll to the reflective water, right Ivan?".
Two days later, Central Sahrani city of Corazol, June the 12th of the year 2007.
Operation: Corazol Raid with the intent of disloging entreched SLA positions from the former DMZ area is in effect.
Capitano Peter Marchelli's tank hunter unit of the IXth Rgt Col. Moschin is tasked to bring down the well-prepared Sahrani Liberation Army' 4th Armoured Division defences and bring the city once again under joint RACS/NATO control. Luckliy, he won't be alone at it with his buddies as some armoured CDF peacekeepers will be spearheading the assault with support from the Carabinieri Paracadutisti.
Naturally, it all starts with some smalltalk with the squad to ease up on the tensions resulting from suffering an incurable death because of being hit by SLA'a HE-FRAG D-30 suppresive fire or even worst like being torn to pieces by those BRDM-2's equipped with AT-4's tank hunting armoured cars.
Deep inside, everyone from the IXth Rgt Col. Moschin unit here knew the truth, who has the bigger balls and who shots farther and more accurate wins the battle. The NATO troops are vastly outnumbered but they got the skills of the AT4's and Javelin's of a IXth Rgt Col. Moschin tank hunter squad, a power of a mechanized CDF platoon on Italian IFV's, and a misguided Carabinieri Paracadutisti patrol with aerial helicopter CAS provided by the USMC while the bad guys only have some entrenched mechanized infantry positions, a platoon of outdated T-72A's, one BRDM-2 AT-4 and some stranded Shilkas with a D-30 howitzer half-battery poised at the front in camouflage netting. The outcome of this engagement is almost certain in their minds.
"Everyone out of the vehicle! Let's move! Go go go!" "The CDF wankers are faster then we are and we are short on time here!"
Radio chatter signaling everyone is OK to begin the forced assault on the city of Corazol. Time to get those weapons hot and the Javelins locked on enemy armoured units. The battle is expected to last about 5 hours.
Guided rocket against a Soviet ATGM armoured car, Unguided rocket against an hidden Soviet D-30 howitzer nest. The first line of SLA defense crumbles under intense pressure from the IXth Rgt Col. Moschin tank hunting squad. With the key elements neutralize and the frontline breached, Novemeber CAS was called in and the hail of FFAR strikes striked uncontrollable fear in the hearts and minds of the defenders. Two sectors were already conquered before the main attack force closed in at 200m to it. Sadly, the entire CDF platoon was destroyed along with the Italian IFV's supporting them, November ended up badly damaged and had to RTB after the failed attack on the second Shilka position. Carabinieri Paracadutisti patrol had to retreat on safe distance because of suffering major physical & psychological during the second phase of the assault. Capitano Peter Marchelli's squad suffered slight casualties and two fatalities but heroically managed to overcome the odds allowing the Kingdom of Sahrani to democratically regin once again in Corazol. Marchelli succumbed to exhaustion after single-handedly by himself cooridinating and firing howitzer barrages from a capture D-30 onto suspected enemy positions and moving enemy combat vehicles. A recommendation for an award is suitable in this case I believe.
CONTENT USED :
Latest (June 2013) version of ASZ's PedagneMOD featuring the modern Italian Armed Forces played in PedagneMOD mini-mission pack 3 operations on Sahrani. CAA1 Project Module used because Sahrani is Arma I and CAA1 ports Arma I into Arma II basically. JSRS sound improvement mod used but not visible in the screenshots and CBA: CO because of mod requirements. PedagneMOD by ASZ, missions by CimaleX. SLA pack by D@VŁ also was used but not really visible though.
SOME WORDS :
It might generally look very low-res and LQ comprared to standard Arma II becasue CAA1 turns the graphics down a little since it is Arma I converted in a Module form in laymen terms. I won't say sorry because of that but I probably will not use CAA1 next time.
