Welcome to Waypoint

For those of you out there, that are already conversant with building missions in Gunship, I apologise in advance. Much of what you will find here, you will probably already know. A great deal of this site is a collection of information and ideas gathered from many other sources. Some of it may be new, but much of it you will have seen before. However, there are still many who know nothing of these arts and hopefully they will find some of this useful.

Having first discovered helicopter gunships during the Vietnam era (sadly I'm no longer in my teens), helicopters have held a fascination for me ever since. I must at this point own up to the fact that despite being enthralled, I have neither flown nor even ridden in one (.....maybe one day!). Then, whilst idly searching for helicopter stuff on the net, I typed 'Gunship' into a search engine and discovered the Helipad site run by fng2k. I eagerly downloaded the Gunship demo, rushed the training, dived into 'Men of Harlech' and quickly discovered what SAMs were.........I was well and truly hooked.

Three short weeks later, I found a second hand Infogrames copy in a local computer store............. Somebody up there definitely wanted me to play this game.

I was absolutely amazed by all the action on the ground, in fact I still regularly get distracted (and shot down), watching a ground assault going in. I had previously played Hind by DI and although the game is quite nicely done, the bad guys just sit around and shoot. In Gunship you get a definite feeling that you are just a part of the action and not the whole focus. It's like an invitation to take part in someone else's battle. Eager to learn more, I went back to the Helipad site, downloaded the Mission Editing Guide and kissed goodbye to my free time. What followed has been a great deal of frustration, some disappointment and more than a few rude words.

If you've come here to learn how to fly, then you're out of luck. I can get shot down by trees. In fact I make no apologies for the fact that most of this site is concerned solely with ground units. Yes, I know the game is supposed to be all about helicopters, but its roots lie with M1 Tank Platoon. It's perfectly possible to write Gunship missions without ground platoons and there will be plenty of players out there who see vehicles as nothing more than an assortment of targets. But the legacy of M1 Tank Platoon provided Gunship with an intricate and interactive battlefield above which we could fly. Gunship has had many detractors in the past, but for me its true strength lies in its interaction between the air and ground environment. I think ignoring this unique potential lessens the game.

That said, the positioning of ground units and their subsequent actions, are usually central to most mission building and it's important to understand both the scope and the limitations of these units within the game.

What follows is an outline of the structure of a Gunship mission, together with some tips and tricks used in building them and hopefully an insight into how ground platoons behave (misbehave mostly). I don't want to call this an idiot's guide, because idiots don't play Gunship (...........I just know that will come back and bite me!).

The site is divided into the following sections. Most pages are cross linked, but all pages will return here.

Sources and Links

Gunship Mission Editing Guide

This is the original guide written by FrankD and Gonzo back in 2001. Without this ground breaking work I wouldn't even have known where to start. You can find it in pdf format at the Gunship Helipad link below.

Gunship Helipad

The original site for all things Gunship, hosted by fng2k. Lots of new missions, add-ons and mods, sound patches, new graphics and a wealth of information about the game's structure and file system. This is the site that got me started.

1st Bear Hunter Squadron

Very good and dedicated fan site with Gunship message boards, game tips and a hangar load of new missions.

Will's Gunship Mission Editor

An excellent little utility, which amongst other things can spell check your mission files for command and positional errors. It also allows groups of units to be shifted as a block. If you type like wot I do, this is a huge time saver. Regularly updated with new functions.

Global security Field Manual Index

A wealth of declassified US Army Field Manuals, in HTML or PDF format. The following are my own favourite selection and are a useful source for small unit organisation and tactics. Almost every term used in Gunship will be found in here and I suspect that  Microprose used these FMs extensively. 

FM 17-15 'Tank Platoon'............definitely the one that started it all !

FM 71-1  'Tank and Mechanised Company Team'

FM 19-97 'Cavalry Troop'

FM 17-98 'Scout Platoon'

FM 1-100 'Army Aviation Operations'

FM 1-112 'Attack Helicopter Operations' 

FM 1-114 'Air Cavalry Squadron and Troop Operations'

FM 100-60 'OPFOR Armor and Mechanised Opposing Force'

FM 3-97.18 'Brevity Codes'

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