A look at some ways video games can improve your field training exercises.
By: Dain Kennison
With a new generation of Tactical Practitioner, comes a new generation of tools. Many of us younger guys have grown up with video games, and our love for all things MILSIM has a lot of us spending plenty of our free time fake-killing fake-badguys on the screen. Is it really just another time vampire? Maybe not. Will it turn you into a fat slob? All things in moderation.
A little history on yours truly. I was always a fan of First Person Shooter games, or FPS’s. Back in the day, I was playing a Tactical Simulation Mod for Unreal Tournament called “Infiltration”. I got very involved in the project, and began playing around with making missions, giving feedback, etc. One of the guys I ran into online was Lee Shu, an avid Airsofter. He started talking to me about Airsoft, and sent me some links to Airsoft Extreme and the SoCal Airsoft yahoo group. I was immediately hooked and the rest is pretty much history.
I’ve always been a fan of games, and I’ve played ones from CounterStrike to America’s Army, and everything in-between. There is something about the challenge, especially in online play against real people, that draws me in. That challenge to me is a battle of wits, the same as it is on the field.
There’s been some times, where gaming gets pretty frustrating. When you combine real-world training and experience, and try to get your character on the screen to do what you would do in real life, there is a bit of a disconnect. Some games are obviously further than the real-deal than others, and purposefully so. If every “tactical” game was just like real life, well no actual playing would occur, and everyone would spend hours (if not days) in training, mission planning, etc. etc. It would take too long, and just wouldn’t be any fun.
There is a light at the end of the tunnel for the hardcore tac-junkie. It’s called Armed Assault. Also commonly known as ArmA, this game is geared for realism. Built by Bohemia Interactive Studios, it is basically a civilian version of their combat training simulator “Virtual Battlespace 2” (VBS2). BIS has been doing this for a while, some of you may remember their older title “Operation FlashPoint” which started it all and what the original VBS was built off of. Since these simulators are designed for and used by the military, they are as realistic as possible. There’s no “bunny hopping” or “dolphin diving” here.
BIS just released a huge update to the series, ArmA 2. For you gamers out there, imagine Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare, on steroids. Not only does this game look absolutely amazing, it is on a scale so massive that it rivals MMORPG games like World of Warcraft. Just going from one end of the a level to the other could take hours in a jet aircraft, and I personally haven’t actually been able to find the end of a level to date.
That’s right, I said “Jet Aircraft”. This game lets you fill just about any roll that is needed on the modern battlefield. You can be anything from a Pilot, a Tank Commander, a Special Forces Operator, an Engineer, or more. The single player campaign will take you through many of these roles, with computer generated characters helping you out along the way.
The enemy AI is a pretty formidable force in ArmA 2. They will use tactical maneuvers to take you down like bounding overwatch, suppressing fire, flanking, etc. They will run in zig-zag patterns to avoid sniper fire, and move along avenues of cover and concealment vs. out in the open. They are not to be under-estimated.
The multiplayer aspect can be a bit more unforgiving. Unlike most other online experiences, it’s pretty much impossible to be a “one-man-army” (yea, even for me). You are forced to rely on your teammates to complete the objectives, which adds to the realism of it.
Relying on someone you don’t know to watch your back is never a good idea. This is why I looked around for a while for a group that actually “trains” together as a team. This wasn’t hard to find in ArmA, because you just don’t get very far without real teamwork. I came across a group of guys with various backgrounds, many prior service or active duty military. They refer to themselves as a “realism unit”. Their goal is to be as realistic as possible when it comes to their training, operations, and even chain of command. They hold formations, create OPORDs, and conduct themselves in a highly professional manner. This discipline helps them as a team to complete missions successfully in the game.
Some of the members have the real-life experience and honor of having served with the US Army Special Forces. Their training is reflective of their role, employing highly specialized skills to complete specific objectives that don’t fit in the “conventional” mission category. They do some cool training in everything from HALO school to Land Navigation (you can even navigate off the stars in this game, it’s pretty slick).
They have members who fill support element roles such as CAS/CAP, Rotary wing units, and Indirect Fire support. All of these roles and more are available in the game, and each of them is highly dedicated to realism. If you’re into flight simulators, or even a real pilot, you’d love working with the realistic aircraft controls. And not only do you get to fly some kickass planes and choppers, you get to help out your buddies on the ground, all in the same mission.
I first joined this group years ago before the first version of ArmA was released. Since then I have had some of the best “video game” experiences ever, and to my surprise, have actually learned quite a few things. There is an added benefit that this has brought to me, which has been to get many different points of view from individuals from many different backgrounds. Much of the training I do in real-life, I have been able to apply directly to the game, and many of the movements can be duplicated. We train on combat formations, bounding overwatch, peeling, crossing danger areas, rally point security, even “scroll the road”. Those are just very small fraction of the things we do, and much of the training can be directly applied to real life.
Don’t believe me? Consider this scenario: You want to try out some new movement techniques, but your guys aren’t in town, or you want to make sure there aren’t any holes in the maneuver. Or you just don’t want to look like an idiot when you get out to the field to conduct your class. How could a game like this help? You can block out your movements step-by-step, in 3D. You can get multiple angles of the same movement and identify possible problem areas. You can get input from other individuals with military experience from many different units, even from different armies. If I wanted to get a Canadian Infantryman’s input on a movement without ArmA, I’d have to drive up to Canada and find one willing to speak with me. Instead I can just go online tonight and speak with one, show him what I think, and be confident that he’ll give me his “NO-B.S.” assessment. If you’re really lucky you may even get a few “golden nuggets” of feedback on your movements from real-life SF operators.
So if you’re addicted to training like me, always looking for creative ways to better yourself, like video games, and enjoy finding creative new things to stick into your MILSIM/TACSIM toolbox, then you should really check out ArmA. For more information check out these web sites:
http://www.armedassault.com
http://www.arma2.com
If you do this stuff for a living and are looking for some high-tech ways to train your troops, check out Bohemia Interactive Studio’s VBS2 here:
http://www.bistudio.com/simulations.html
