11-17-2015, 03:00 PM
My two cents on this subject:
I made a mission for Arma 2, called Scramble: Ground (There was a Scramble: Air as well, which was the same mission but you played the choppers).
It was on Zargabad, and the setup was as follows: Three Apache gunships, a platoon of Strikers (with the 105 mm cannon), and A LOT of infantry. On the other side, two Hinds, a platoon of t-72s, a platoon of BMP-2s, and even more infantry.
The players were a group of 12 (or 10, can't remember exactly). Mission objective: repell the atack. In Scramble: Ground, the heols were AI controlled (the roles were reversed in Scramble: Air).
Alwarren and me test played the mission several times, and I played it myself several times through. The result was, of course, different every time (it's Arma after all).
However, it was always very action packed. The first thing that always happened was missiles flying overhead when the Apache gunships came in sight of the first armor targets. Most of the time, this wasn't enough to kill all the armor. After the first pass, the Apaches were almost always molested by the Hinds, and usually, the air battle lasted for some times, giving the ground a bit of pressure from the oncoming armor. The strikers could handle most armor, but not all. The player team almost always had to deal with armored targets as well.
The reason why I think this mission worked was, IMHO, the terrain: It was on the outskirts of Zargabad, with lots of isolated farms and compounds. The choppers had a hard time getting the armor because they were always obscured by buildings.
I don't know how good a player controlled helo would do there, but the AI ones were usually quite baffled by the hidden armor.
Most of the time, at least one or two Apaches survived until the end of the mission. In several playthroughs, I also had to deal with a Hind myself (by having my AA guy shoot it down).
Of course, the infantry's main occupation was other infantry. Enemy infantry was taking cover in buildings and courtyards, so it was mostly the infantry that had to deal with those.
Looking at the mission list, the mission is marked as completed on the server, so CiA played it. I wonder how it went down for those that were playing ?
Well, moral of the story, I think there are at least three contributing factors to the whole equation:
I made a mission for Arma 2, called Scramble: Ground (There was a Scramble: Air as well, which was the same mission but you played the choppers).
It was on Zargabad, and the setup was as follows: Three Apache gunships, a platoon of Strikers (with the 105 mm cannon), and A LOT of infantry. On the other side, two Hinds, a platoon of t-72s, a platoon of BMP-2s, and even more infantry.
The players were a group of 12 (or 10, can't remember exactly). Mission objective: repell the atack. In Scramble: Ground, the heols were AI controlled (the roles were reversed in Scramble: Air).
Alwarren and me test played the mission several times, and I played it myself several times through. The result was, of course, different every time (it's Arma after all).
However, it was always very action packed. The first thing that always happened was missiles flying overhead when the Apache gunships came in sight of the first armor targets. Most of the time, this wasn't enough to kill all the armor. After the first pass, the Apaches were almost always molested by the Hinds, and usually, the air battle lasted for some times, giving the ground a bit of pressure from the oncoming armor. The strikers could handle most armor, but not all. The player team almost always had to deal with armored targets as well.
The reason why I think this mission worked was, IMHO, the terrain: It was on the outskirts of Zargabad, with lots of isolated farms and compounds. The choppers had a hard time getting the armor because they were always obscured by buildings.
I don't know how good a player controlled helo would do there, but the AI ones were usually quite baffled by the hidden armor.
Most of the time, at least one or two Apaches survived until the end of the mission. In several playthroughs, I also had to deal with a Hind myself (by having my AA guy shoot it down).
Of course, the infantry's main occupation was other infantry. Enemy infantry was taking cover in buildings and courtyards, so it was mostly the infantry that had to deal with those.
Looking at the mission list, the mission is marked as completed on the server, so CiA played it. I wonder how it went down for those that were playing ?
Well, moral of the story, I think there are at least three contributing factors to the whole equation:
- Terrain: Infantry and Armor was obscured by terrain, so the helos were not always able to engage armor
- The presence of other air threats: The Hinds were able to bind the Apaches into an air to air combat, allowing the ground forces to engage some of the armor before the Apaches could even do it temselves
- Tipping the scales: In this particular mission, I made the enemy armored force a bit larger, while making their air force a bit less effective (two hinds vs three Apaches, but two armored platoons against one). The effect was a longer lasting air battle, while the enemy armor was able to somewhat overpower the friendly armor.