Guys,

I know this is going to throw over the apple cart but I sat all last night thinking about a campaign while sitting on my thumbs at work.

First the preamble. Due to the lenght and diversity of the 26 year conflict I thought that you guys should pick one period during the war in which the player would be able to expierence the full range of the war and it's diversity. The best period for this is the 87-88 period during operations Modular/Hooper/Packer.

Two ilsands will be required: the Cuito islands albeit enlarged and a island of the border around and north of Ruacana

Ok so here is a rough draft of my idea.

1. Training.

Start with some training on Lohatla. Do the whole Bok Kop thing there including trench clearing which was a speciality of the SAI. (Intresting story about the trenches at Lohatla which I will keep for another day).

2. First Mission

2.1 Intro (Secondary Mission)

Land with a flossie at Mavinga and drive up to a bush camp to join with the Anti Tank element of 32 Bat. Normal chatter on the back of the Samil heading to the laager area.

2.2 First Rumble on the Lomba (Primary Mission)

The next day finds you driving a Ratel ZT 3 as part of an attack on a Fapla Bde. Take up positions with the Combat Group and defeat a crossing of a Fapla bat over the Lomba. (In real life the blokes using the ZT3 during this battle had never fired a missle up to that day so new were the equipment. In fact the four units deployed were all still pre production models.

3. Second Mission

3.1 Recon Patrol (SM)

Go out as a member of a 32 Bat recon team and find an enemy bde and report it's position. Aviod contact.

3.2 Gas, Gas, Gas! (SM)

After the success of the first Battle you are occupying your old position on the Lomba river when you are told to withdraw due to a possible gas attack. Withdraw, and then after a few minutes return and recon the position for gas and beat off an incomming Fapla attack.

3.3 Trenches and Ratels (PM)

You take part in the botched attack on a Fapla Bat in an old Unita base. Using your Ratel or your R4 try and clear as many of the trenches in the old base and defend your self from the incomming attack of Fapla T55s. (During the real battle SA suffered some grevious losses including Capt. Mac Macullum who was a ledgend in 32 Bat.)

4. Third Mission

4.1 Night Combat (SM)

After the failure of the day attack you are send back to your old unit 61 Mech. You and your unit are instructed to relaunch the attack into the old Unita base to destroy all SA equipment left behind.

4.2 OP Duty (SM)

Take up position as an OP and direct indirect fire on the trapped 47 Bde trying to escape. You will have MRLs, M5s and G5s at your disposal.

4.3 The end of 47 Bde (PM)

Take part in the assault that finished off 47 Bde.

5. Mission Four

5.1 Tank Hunter (SM)

Take part in a combined Recce and Unita op to hunt Fapla tanks in the dense Angolan bush. During Modular this operation was not a very big success for the Recces and they withdrew after a few days frustrated when they realised they never could get close enough to the tanks. Maybe the mods should add a Mk 8 AT Mine to the Soldiers kit here and a Milan.

5.2 Protect the Guns

You are send with your sqaud to forn part of the protection element of one of the G5 batteries from roving Fapla patrols.

5.3 Tanks Enter

Take part in the first battle in which the Olifante took part as a TC. Get a feel for the density of the Angolan bush and the difficulties it posed to SA armor

6. Mission Five

6.1 Cuito Bridge (SM choose either or)

Refer to an earlier post for gen on this mission

6.2 Casevac (SM choose either or)

Fly a Casevac Puma to extract a wounded Recce to Mavinga

6.3 The Cambinga Gallop (PM)

Take part in one of the three battles that formed the so called Cambinga Gallop. I would suggest the battle known as The Fishhook.

7. Mission Six

7.1 With Unita (SM)

Take part as in an Unita harrasing attack on a Fapla supply convoy

7.3 Cuito Airbase (SM)

Refer to an earlier post for gen on this mission

7.3 Tumpo I

Take part in the abortive atatck by 61 Mech on the Tumpo triangle. This is your last OP in Angola after this you return to SWA/Nam.

8. Mission 7

8.1 To Omithiya (SM)

You land at Grootfontein and are Choppered out to 61's base at Omithiya. Nice change to enjoy the scenery and maybe get in some practice as a gunner on a Alo gunship.

8.2 Revved (SM)

During the night your forward camp gets revved. Now is a good time to get up on the water tower and let them have some Bofors gun.

8.3 With Koevoet (PM)

After the night attack you tag along with a Koevoet team and chase down the spoor of 10 of the bastards who revved your camp the previous nigth. Don't know how you are going to script the tracker but you will have too. During the contact you will have to deside wether to stay in the Casspir or take part on foot.

9. Mission Eight

9.1 Mine Patrol (SM)

Go out on a Patrol to sweep for mines on one of the many dirt roads in SWA. Hit an ambush by three or four terrs and take them down.

9.2 Fire Force (SM)

Chopper in a Parabat fire force into a contact area

9.3 Operation Firewood

Support 32 Bat and 101 Bat's attacks on Swapo camps in the south of Angola from a Alo gunship.

10. Mission Nine

10.1 Foot Patrol (SM)

Take a foot patrol out into the border area. Find a Swap weapons cache and lay up an ambush to destroy the owners

10.2 Harts and Minds (SM)

Drive a Comm Ops Team to various krale to do some harts and minds.

10.3 Fire Force 2 (PM)

Now you are part of the fire force being choppers in. Find, fix and destroy the terrs.

11. Mission Ten

11.1 32 Recon (SM choose either or)

As part of a 32 Bat recon team find the Cubans dug in and gathering around Techipa. You might have to run for your life like the real team

11.2 Hot Extraction (SM choose either or)

Extract the 32 Bat recon team running from the Cubans.

11.3 Last throw of the Dice

As part of 61 Mech beat of the last desperate Cuban attack of the war agianst the Caleque dam. Nice end I think.

Hope this helps some and that I can at least play some of these missions in the real thing

Great ideas Vorster, I like! :)

It's good to have creative ideas for missions and suggestions put out on the table, so during the creation stages we can have a feel of what the fanbase would like to see during the creation of the mod as a whole.

Almost anything is possible and all it takes is the time and dedication to see things through. Dedication is something our team is not in short supply of, and even if we don't get to have enough time to complete all requests and ideas, we are definately willing to take the time and show people how to create vast complex missions with our released addons as they become available.

Right now we are exhaustively testing soon-to-be released addons for the upcoming mini-mod teaser, to ensure the community receives quality, bug-free and user-friendly addons from the get-go. I'm sure you're all as excited about these as we are and 2008 is going to be a very exciting year indeed with our main mod scheduled for the release of the highly anticipated ArmA II.

I for one would definately love to see several of the aforementioned missions come to fruition and just like anything else, we'll only get out of this what we all put in. So anybody feel free to share their ideas and wishlists, but keep in mind that we are currently a small dedicated team by standards... And as this mainly a hobby on the side-line for most of us, we may not be able to touch all the bases of what was known as the 23 year long South African Border War.

Eendracht Maakt Magt

Great ideas, truly awesome list.
I'd like to see a few missions where you track down enemies with something that shows you the recent locations of your enemy (after all, in the real war you often had support who had 'eyes' on your target). I think I know how to get tracking done, in a way that shows the tracked unit as a mark on the map and updates it after a certain amount of time has passed.
I'd also like to see if a multiplayer campaign could be done. I have a bit of experience in that.

starting next week I am going to start uploading add-ons while we wait for the Cuito Island to be completed by Ebud, so within the next 3 months we should have a basic Mini-mod to start with. I am looking forward to seeing some great SP and MP missions.

I can't wait for the release of the mini map. Will this teaser be incorporated in the main mod. If so I would be more than willing to script the campaign for you to be released with the main mod.

On the mini map being released I have two questions. Firstly how far south does it go or is it convined to the area around the Tumpo Triangle? Secondly Falcon you show those pictures I sent you to the rest yet? The reason I ask is that you guys have to make the bush denser. Southern Angola has bush as dense as Vietnam. It looks like a spider's web of rivers with shonas all along the rivers backed by dense bush. Behind the dense riverine forests you will find less dense bushveld like terrain. On google earth this shows up quite well. I will be travelling to Cuito before the end of the year to do research for our book if you guys want pictures.