Operation Ilium is a Huey mini-campaign of 4 missions in Syria.
In April of 2022, a Brazilian journalist has been kidnapped near the Ba'ath Dam. You've been hired by a Private Military Company to provide helicopter support and transport to help locate and rescue the journalist.
The campaign has full voiceovers with kneeboard pages. It's not meant to be a difficult campaign. As long as you can start up, take off, and land the Huey in FARP-sized landing areas, it will be fine. The difficulty ramps up through the 4 missions, however.
April 16, 2022
al-Raqqa, Syria
After the withdrawal of US troops fr om Iraq in 2010, the terrorist group called the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or, previously known as ISIS) quickly spread across northwestern Iraq and southeastern Syria. Using the money from captured oil wells in the area, and the destabilization effects from the civil war against Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, ISIL grew to be a major threat by 2013, and controlled an area similar in size to Great Britain. Coalitions consisting of the US, Russia, Syria, and Iraq, among others, attacked ISIL over several years, and in 2019 it was claimed ISIL was defeated. ISIL reverted back to its insurgency operations and bombings, even managing to kill 2 Russian pilots.
With the new Russian invasion of Ukraine, attention has shifted away from Syria. Russian support of Assad's Syria has diminished, and US arms support has been diverted to Ukraine. Within this vacuum, ISIL has increased their terror bombings and attacks, and has managed to claim remote pockets of Syria that they call their own. Last week, ISIL brought back kidnapping to their list of terrorist activities.
Luis dos Santos is a Brazilian journalist for Reuters, and was reporting on the increasing attacks of ISIL against the Assad's Syrian Arab Armed Forces (SAAF) and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighting against Assad. He was based out of Raqqa, and was kidnapped crossing the Ba'ath Dam, just west of Raqqa. With the lack of Russian and US support in the region, Brazil has turned to Deimos, a small Private Military Company (PMC) in the area, to track down and locate the missing journalist.
As a smaller PMC, Deimos doesn't have the massive resources of government agencies or even of the larger PMCs. That means no satellite imagery, no $500,000 Lamborghini bribes to everyone, no NSA-like snooping on cell phones, and no shock and awe air support if the shit hits the fan. It means boots-on-the-ground investigative work, which requires swift transportation to and from locations of interest. As a Huey pilot, you've been recruited by Deimos to assist in their task of locating and rescuing Luis dos Santos.
Designer's Notes:
I don't get notified of comments in the User Files section, so for questions, comments, bugs, etc., please post here:
https://forum.dcs.world/topic/338177-operation-ilium-a-new-mini-campaign-for-the-uh-1h/#comment-5331963
To install, copy the folder to your DCS Saved Games location:
C:\Users\%userprofile%\Saved Games\DCS\Missions\Campaigns\en\
If you use Open Beta, the “DCS” folder is called: “DCS.openbeta”
This is a mini campaign of 4 missions with voiceovers. I made it because I love flying the Huey. It's a relatively easy campaign. It's more focused on the story than seeing if you can land the helicopter on the edge of cliff at 10,000 feet in 100 degree weather. That being said, you will be shot at...so be careful once the bullets fly.
This campaign uses the in-game system for un/loading troops into the Huey. This is done through the Radio Menu → F7. If you're in range, they will confirm the embark order and run towards you. If this doesn't happen, try landing closer. Generally speaking, the embarkation zones are relatively large (over 500 feet), so you don't need to land on top of them.
Getting the ground troops to behave properly can be frustrating, especially after major updates. Dropping them off isn't a problem, but picking them up can be an issue if they get stuck somewhere, don't follow the correct path, etc. Generally speaking, there should be a workaround if you can't pick them up, usually through a scripted Radio Menu item under F10.
The Huey doesn't have GPS, and there's nothing worse than feeling like you don't know wh ere to go. I've tried to give directions through the kneeboard pages, the briefing, and through dialogue in the mission. If all that fails, however, feel free to use the F10 map. I've labelled the drop off points on the map for each mission.
The mission uses the following excellent skin from Eight-Ball, but will run fine without it:
Worn Huey Skin
https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3313000/
2023/11/22 Update:
Fixed a trigger in the first mission that fired when it shouldn't (Thanks MikeRomeoSierra1974!)
2024/4/16 Update:
Fixed a bug in the final mission that triggered a Mission Failed unexpectedly (Thanks, S3ntinell!).
