Arma 3 Preventative Diplomacy – The East Winds Campaign – Secure and Defend Kalochori

Introduction

 
For some, this stage of the operation is a walk in the park, for others, like myself, it’s a 3-day pain-in-the-backside; the kind of stuff nightmares are made of. After 67 relentless reverts, and a whole lot of reading and watching after, this level is finally done and dusted. 
 
Here is my take on how to get through this level and, if you’re struggling mad on this level like I was, please don’t be demotivated, cause I gotcha covered battle-buddy. 
 
 

TASK: Secure Kalochori.

 
1. Assault the Solar Plant (Objective Gamma). The previously killed snipers are on the two highest towers on both solar stations. Make sure you thoroughly clear the station to minimize the risk of KIA on your team. 
 
2. Obtain ammunition from the first tower (the tower furthest away from Kalechori) and proceed to the second tower and swap out your weapon with the Lynx rifle on the floor, next to the dead sniper and take up position on that second tower facing Kalochori. 
 
3. Establish connection with the UAV and tap ‘N’ twice to switch to thermal optics. Assess the situation in Kalochori, getting a rough idea of what you’re up against. There should be a mass of infantry in the heart of the town, where the AAF bunker is, flanked by two observation posts. 
 
4. They’re roughly 700m out, so you can go ahead and zero the Lynx to 700m and start picking out targets. I’m not sure if this makes a difference, but I noticed that, the faster I pick out the targets, the more they scramble into a panic and accumulate in the corner facing you, enabling you to pick them out more effectively. Do note that there’ll be some squirters running out toward the direction of fire, running out about 100-200 meters toward your position, so be aware of this. Be quick, but be smooth, don’t ammo dump – always good to finish the job with extra ammo than leave the job undone, running out of ammo. 
 
5. When you’ve taken care of as many of the AAF infantry as you can, what I did next was move the Lynx optics to my assault pack and switch back out with my MXMGL3 and changed out the optics on that. The MX is now my designated marksman rifle. Keep your RCO and don’t leave it behind though! 
 
6. Ensure that each of your team pickup any PCMLs laying around from the firefight and rally them together on you. I sent my machine gunner to dissassemble an HMG .50 – doubt you’re gonna need it, but, I’d rather the gunner carry something too if everyone else is carrying extra. 
 
7. Next, find an AAF corpse laying around and grab their 5.56 – it’d have a reflex scope on it which you can discard, or keep – up to you. Grab extra ammo as well, then fit your RCO on it. As you know, it’s got a 2x magnifier and a reflex on top, so, best of both worlds, depending on your playing style. 
 
8. Now, link up with Delta 3-4, being mindful of the IFV you’ve left roaming around the township. At this point, I only had two AAF soldiers left running around, and an IFV stuck in a compound struggling to back up, which really remained in my favor – but it might not be the same for you, so be aware. 
 
9. Run up ahead of Delta 3-4. I placed my team in a diamond formation at this point to keep it tight, but this’d be your preference really. Approach the town from the pathway of the 3-4 Marshall IFV, so, ahead of the original link-up point, and proceed carefully. I had two AAF soldiers run up 200 meters out, so I went prone and got the MX out and took them down with the help of the team. 
 
10. Checking the UAV thermals, I saw one guy left standing by the AAF bunker and went it with the 5.56 on reflex to take him out. You don’t have to use reflex, but it helps in urban areas, giving you a little bit more situational awareness on your peripherals, just in case any target IDs were missed from the air (hard to tell at first glance – a dead soldier and a prone soldier – through the thermals). 
 
11. Once you’ve secured Kalochori, take up position in the bunker for cover – you’re gonna be calling in some Artillery strikes cause QRF’s inbound. Apart from the IFV I left roaming around, there should be two Mora IFVs coming in with AAF troops, as well as a couple of MBT-52 tanks. Now, it’s time to defend Kalochori from the impending AAF reinforcements. 
 
 

TASK: Defend Kalochori.

 
1. Hunker inside the bunker and assign your team, in pairs, around the bunker compound, telling them to stay low and find suitable cover. Don’t put each pair too close together, spread them around the compound to get all-around coverage of the area when AAF begins to encroach on your position. 
 
2. Meanwhile, open up your UAV turret controls and tap ‘N’ twice to switch to thermals, locating the IFV still within the town limits. Press ‘T’ or ‘R’ to designate (or, whatever you’ve mapped) and keep the aiming reticle on the target – not sure if this makes a difference as I haven’t observed closely, but I tend to get a hit when it’s on the target, and a miss when I lock and just stray around. Depress the fire button (left mouse button, or what you’ve mapped) and launch a Skalpel toward the IFV. I’ve fired a single Skalpel at both Tank and IFV, and can confirm that both blow up on one impact each. 
 
3. Around the bunker, there’s a few soldiers that your team will take care of whilst you operate the turret. Do a wideview scan of the town perimeter and you’ll be able to pick up a squad of AAF heading toward Kalochori, along with a tank not too far off. There should also be an AAF IFV en route as well. Don’t fire at these just yet, just observe for the time being. Both the Tank and the IFV will eventually come to a temporary halt, which more effectively enables you to keep your reticle on the target, post-designation, and get a successful hit in. The Tank will stop first, so target that as your primary target at this time. Note, you should already be designating the target well before it stops, just to knock one thing out of the way, so you can focus on tracking. 
 
4. When the tank comes to a stop, hover the reticle over the tank and don’t move it away until the missile has a confirmed hit. You can switch off thermals and opt for regular camera view if you want color-definition in the show you’re about to watch when you hit the fire button (LMB, or whatever you have mapped). As soon as the tank is destroyed, locate the IFV inbound, track and designate the target before it enters the town. If all goes well, not too long after the IFV enters the town limits, it’ll come to a temporary halt, in which case you repeat the previous procedure you did for the tank and that’s splash one IFV. 
 
5. Now, to take care of the AAF squad. I suggest you call in an Artillery strike for this one, selecting a salvo of two rounds of cluster munitions, to get a wide strike area around their area of movement. You have friendlies operating in the area as well, so switch from thermal to regular camera before you pull the trigger, or you mind risk launching a salvo of shells to your own side (which, naturally, will result in mission failure). A good tip is to track them until they’re not attempting to sprint long-distances, perhaps searching through some buildings, and, if you can, attempt to figure out where they’re going to be next. There’s a lag between designating the targets, calling in the strike, and the artillery shells actually impacting the target area, so, if you try to target them dead-on it’s highly likely they’ll be long gone from the kill radius when your shells hit the ground. 
 
6. So far, we’ve fired two missiles (hopefully) and used up a single salvo of artillery fire to deal some damage to the Greenbacks, leaving the straddlers as slim pickings for your team and Delta 3-4. I think you have about two more artillery salvos, for a total of three salvos, before you can’t call in anymore artillery – but you should still have your Ghosthawk CAS (Close Air Support) option if things go south real quick. 
 
7. At this point, more AAF reinforcements should be inbound, and if you do a widefield, thermal scan of the outskirts of the township, you’ll be able to pick up an AAF IFV with a team of about four soldiers (assuming, the rest is inside the IFV). The earlier you can catch these targets, the less chance your side will have of failing and dying, and you’ll be able to plan the attack strategy, which should more or less be the same as we’ve been doing up to this point. So, lock it up, track and fire a Skalpel to that IFV. If the AAF soldiers are close enough to the IFV at the moment of impact, then they’ll befall as casualties to the strike as well, which deals with that problem. If not, they should be easy to pick out with the boots on the ground, but not worth wasting your second artillery salvo on it. 
 
8. You still have two salvos, as we just mentioned, along with an ample supply of Skalpel missiles left. Guess what, if you haven’t noodled around until now, that second tank never saw the light of day, cause it’s ‘MISSION COMPLETED,’ and you wouldn’t have to deal with those four infantry soldiers that lived, if they did after your strike. 
 
 

Conclusion

 
If you’re wondering about what happened with that second tank that was supposed to come in, the answer is this: you basically have to have more soldiers and gound assets on your team than the opposing force, which, if you never dealt with in the first place, would lead to another wave of AAF reinforcements, attempting to re-capture the city, and more IFVs and tanks coming in. 
 
You might also be wondering that all the work you did re-arming your team with PCMLs, setting them up for a defensive assault and all, was all for nothing – not necessarily. We prepared for an eventuality, plan B. If things didn’t go according to plan, if you couldn’t lock onto your targets or you ran our of Skalpels in missed shots then you have a backup, and trust me when I say, and I’m also sure you know this from your own ArmA experiences: MBT-52 Kuma tanks and PCML rockets, unless you can hit that sweet spot, take a while to wear down. 
 

Here we come to an end for Arma 3 Preventative Diplomacy – The East Winds Campaign – Secure and Defend Kalochori hope you enjoy it. If you think we forget something to include or we should make an update to the post let us know via comment, and we will fix it asap! Thanks and have a great day!