Arma 3: Spearhead 1944

Back in the day I played a lot of Iron Front, an Arma 2 derived game covering the later years of WW II. It was kind of janky at times, and received mixed reviews, but honestly, I loved it.  I made custom missions and generally had a lot of fun with it.

Then I fell out of love with WW II and modern wars and spent a few years focused on other eras. I upgraded gaming computers several times and Iron Front wasn't available where I originally bought it anymore. I stopped playing anything the even remotely looked like an FPS game.

Then this year, I visited Normandy. For me, all the old WW II love came back.  I installed the many, many WW II games I have. I started playing WW II board games I've had on the shelves for years now but not played. I am into it. And of course, I remembered Iron Front.  Which turns out to be available on Steam.  I haven't bought it yet, but it is in my Wishlist.

Now I may never buy it. Because soon this will be out: Arma 3: Spearhead 1944.  

The Arma 3 engine, set during Operation Cobra in Normandy? Yes, please. 

Sorry Iron Front. 

A Light Infantry Assault

Yesterday I felt the need for a change of pace away from WW2 East Front gaming. Deciding it was high time I became more familiar with the ARMA III editor, I decided to attempt to create a simple mission reflecting an assault by a Light Infantry squad against a prepared position.

An overview of the map and the mission. This is my first run through of the mission outside the editor and at Regular difficulty.

I like the new editor. It is familiar to me from Arma II and Iron Front, but overall seems less clunky. There are a number of features to really help streamline mission creation. I suspect that after I've had a chance to practice a bit more with it, I could knock out a pretty complete simple mission in under an hour.

Video: Combat Engineers I - Arma 3

This weekend I finally managed to carve out some time to start playing Arma III. The upside is that this is a fantastic sim. The downside is that it's been so long since I played Arma II that I've forgotten almost everything.

What drew me in was JC's latest mission. I gave it a try last night. Note that this is my first time commanding any other troops in the game.