SPEARHEAD Command Reshuffle Complete

In the aftermath of the tragic death of SPEARHEAD Supreme Commander General "Knuckles" McKenzie, British Army in December and with the recall of high ranking Russian Federation officers to Moscow in the wake of the Ukranian conflict, the UNSC (United Nations Security Council) ordered a high level personnel reshuffle to ensure command continuity for SPEARHEAD. The changes were confirmed by the UNSC today.

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SPEARHEAD Acting Supreme Commander Vice-Admiral "Smokestack" Henderson, USN (United States Navy) [left] has been promoted to the grade of admiral and confirmed as Supreme Commander. He previously served as SPEARHEAD Deputy Supreme Commander in 2018 after a year as SPEARHEAD Staff Director. In 2011, then Rear Admiral (lower) Henderson was UNETIDA Director in an acting capacity until his promotion to rear admiral to become SPEARHEAD Deputy Commander for Operations in 2012 and Deputy Chief of Staff in 2013. In 2009, Captain Henderson was the UNETIDA Naval Tactical Support officer for the Pacific region 2009.

Acting SPEARHEAD Deputy Supreme Commander, Army Corps General "Faucon" Davout was confirmed to the Deputy Supreme Commander billet permanently. He will be promoted to Army General later in the month by the French Army as the UNSC has raised the SPEARHEAD Deputy Supreme Commander billet to 4-star grade. Davout had been dual-hatting as Acting SPEARHEAD Deputy Supreme Commander and as SPEARHEAD Staff Director since December 2023. He was appointed to Staff Director in 2017 after serving as SPEARHEAD Deputy Commander for Global Strategic Plans while a division general. In 2013 then Brigade General Davout was SPEARHEAD Regional Operations Commander [Europe].

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Air Marshal "Buzzard" Farington, RAF (Royal Air Force) is the new SPEARHEAD Staff Director replacing Army Corps General "Faucon" Davout who has been elevated to SPEARHEAD Deputy Supreme Commander.  Farington returns after previously serving UNETIDA earlier in his career as a wing commander in the UARF (UNETIDA Arial Reaction Force). More recently since 2021 then Air Vice-Marshal Farington was responsible for plans and policy during the establishment of the UKSC (United Kingdom Space Command).

Major General "Whopper" Creedon, USMC (United States Marine Corps) [right] has been promoted to lieutenant general and appointed as SPEARHEAD Vice Commander for Global Operations and Force Integration. He replaces Vice Admiral "Sextant" White who will retire from the Royal Navy. Creedon was most recently SPEARHEAD Deputy Commander for Global Security since 2018. As a brigadier general, Creedon was SPEARHEAD Assistant Commander for Intelligence and Information in 2013. In 2003 then Colonel Creedon, he served as UNETIDA Special Operations Commander and later as UNETIDA/UNPASID Director of Intelligence.

Zhong Jiang (lieutenant general) "Besra" Hu of the People's Liberation Army Air Force of China was appointed as SPEARHEAD Vice Commander for Strategic Weaponry in 2022 after succeeding Zhong Jiang "Huǒjiàn" Li of the People's Liberation Army of China who returned to his nation's command. As a Shao jiang (major general), Hu was appointed as the first SPEARHEAD Deputy Commander for Operations and Integration [Eastern] in 2017. In 2011 Da xiao (senior colonel) Hu was UNETIDA Air Operations Commander.

The billet of SPEARHEAD Deputy Commander for Satellite and Cyber Systems has been elevated to 3-star grade and redesignated SPEARHEAD Vice Commander for Space, Satellite and Cyber Systems. Air Vice Marshal "Nakshatra" Singh has been appointed to air marshal in the Indian Air Force to serve in the new position. He was previously appointed as the SPEARHEAD Deputy Commander for Satellite and Cyber Systems in 2022 replacing Major General "Circuits" Anderson, USAF (United States Air Force).

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Major General "Shellshock" Hollister of the South African Army remains as SPEARHEAD Deputy Commander for Operations and Integration [Western]. He has held the position since 2018 and previously served as SPEARHEAD Assistant Commander for Recruitment and Selection.

Phon tri (major general) "S̄eụ̄x" Tham-boon of the Royal Thai Army is now SPEARHEAD Deputy Commander for Operations and Integration [Eastern] replacing Sojang (major general) "Sang-eo" Chang, ROKN (Republic of Korea Navy) who has been reassigned as the Republic of Korea military attache to NATO.

Brigadier "Magnum" Pike has been appointed a major general in the Royal Marines and will succeed Major General "Whopper" Creedon as SPEARHEAD Deputy Commander for Global Security. Pike was previously SPEARHEAD Assistant Commander for Security and Surveillance.

Canadian Army Major General "Tucker" Reid [left] remains as SPEARHEAD Deputy Commander for Manpower and Personnel since 2018. He previously served as SPEARHEAD Assistant Commander for Training and Instruction. 

Vice Admiral "Tridente" Carlos of the Spanish Navy, SPEARHEAD Deputy Commander for Global Strategic Plans remains in his position since 2018. He previously served as SPEARHEAD Assistant Commander for Naval Operations [Western] as a counter admiral.

The new SPEARHEAD Deputy Commander for Financial Management is Generalmajor "Freya" Hansen of the Norwegian Army. She replaces Wing General "Altísimo" Hernandez who has returned to a senior position the Mexican Air Force.

Tuğamiral (rear admiral) "Balina" Demirci, SPEARHEAD Assistant Commander for Naval Operations [Eastern] is to be promoted to the rank of koramiral in the Turkish Naval Forces and assigned as the SPEARHEAD Deputy Commander for Civil Affairs. He will replace Aluf (major general) "Jackal" Dahan who will return to Israel Defense Forces.

Generale di divisione (major general) "Calzone" Manganiello of the Italian Army remains Judge Advocate General of SPEARHEAD since 2022 when he replaced Air Vice Marshal "Magpie" Brown who retired from the Royal Australian Air Force.

The SPEARHEAD Director for Science, Technology and Research, Dr. "Quantum" Pataal of India [right] will remain in the position held since 2013.

The SPEARHEAD Inspector General Major General "Bugs" Casey, US Army replaced Generalmajor "Schakal" Nilsson, of the Swedish Army who retired in 2023.

Liwa (brigadier general) "Sphinx" Al-Khatib of the Egyptian Army replaced Major General "Sangja" Park of the Republic of Korea Army as SPEARHEAD Deputy Commander for Global Logistics and Installations in 2023.

The SPEARHEAD Surgeon General Major General "Scalpal" Johnson M.D, USAF will remain in the position held since 2018 when he replaced Major-general "Scrubs" Janssens M.D. of the Medical Component of the Belgian Armed Forces.

Mr. B will assume the duties of the Chief of Shadow Directorate when Mr. G leaves service in October. 

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1-star appointments were not available at press time.

20th Anniversary Review - Star Wars: Battlefront [2004]

By the mid 2000's LucasArts had significantly reduced in-house development of their own games, instead licencing to other developers and publishing all games using the Star Wars brand. This practice gave rise to some incredible Star Wars games encompassing almost every gaming genre. These included  Bioware's RPG Knights of the Old Republic, Raven's 1st/3rd person shooter Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, SOE's MMORPG Galaxies and Petroglyph's RTS Empire at War. 

The biggest success story however was Pandemic Studios multiplayer objective-based 1st/3rd person shooter Star Wars: Battlefront. This was a Star Wars take on EA's WWII Battlefield franchise and it hit the market at the perfect time. Battlefield was immensely popular at the time and a marketing tie-in with the original Star Wars trilogy DVD release as well as it being right in the middle of the Episode III hype train aided Battlefront in becoming the best-selling Star Wars game of all time at that point.

Being primarily a multiplayer game I never had much interaction with the Star Wars: Battlefront series. That said I have actually picked up most of them over the years so that one day I might sample their campaign modes just as a curiosity. With the "problematic" release of Aspyr's Battlefront Classic Collection earlier in the year and the fact that it's now 20 years since it launched I felt it was time to sample and on May 4th I tried it out!

From what I know about the original Battlefront, its single player campaign was apparently its weakest link. Basically a set of connected missions from either the Clone Wars (prequel) or Galactic Civil War (original trilogy) era. The player first plays as the Confederacy and later the Republic Army during the Clone Wars and then as the Galactic Empire and later the Rebel Alliance during the Galactic Civil War. My goal was not to spend too much time (or to even finish the campaigns) so I only sampled the initial levels of each campaign. 

For the prequels I played as the Confederacy as various models of Trade Federation Battle-Droids during their battle on the fields of Naboo against the Gungans. The objective was to eliminate the Gungan menace by destroying their Famba (large creatures which carried shield generators) and remove their advantage. I do admit to enjoying killing Gungans with heavy weapons but it was otherwise a simple victory. The next mission was much more difficult, securing the Naboo capital, Theed. Here I used several different types of Battle-Droids, including snipers and heavy weapons variations to eliminate Royal Guards and destroy weapon emplacements. I was defeated during the first of these but succeeded the second time. The third mission with  seemed much longer than the others and also ended in defeat so I turned my attention to the original trilogy campaign.

I was a bit more clued in to how the game was played now when I switched to this campaign. It was much more fun taking control of various Stormtrooper types as they pacified Sand People and Rebels on the deserts of Tatooine. My favourite death was being eaten by a Sarlacc that I got too close to. Once I was victorious in the Dune Sea, the next battle was in Mos Eisley. Here I fought as a Dark Trooper alongside Darth Vader himself and eliminated Rebel resistance in the spaceport, ensuring victory. I tried to save at this point and perhaps continue the next day but I could not actually find a way of doing this! Once I exited the campaign it wanted me to begin the whole thing again, something it was not my intention to do so I left it there.

I must note that I played the Steam version of the game which was released in 2019. It ran flawlessly at 3440x1440 @ 175FPS for the brief time I played. It had load-times for each level that while only mere seconds, still surprised me. The cutscenes for the campaign consisted of woefully digitised clips from the movies to "explain" the battles you were partaking in. It is the most bare-bones effort of storytelling in a game I've seen in a while but I wasn't expecting anything unique or specially crafted here.

Final Verdict: I think today, due to the superiority of it's sequels that this exists purely to satisfy the curiosity of students of game design, fans of gaming in general or to die-hard Star Wars fans. In my brief time with Star Wars: Battlefront and despite not playing against human enemies I can see the appeal of playing this shooter in 64-man battles where tactics were used, objectives completed and victory assured by the side with the best plan and communication. I look forward to similarly sampling the much lauded superior sequel Battlefront II soon enough.

Technicals: 1 hour playtime through Steam on Windows 11 with an RTX4070Ti @ 3440x1440/175

Bugs: None 

Availability: From Steam or GOG for €9.75. Review copy purchased for €5.48 in Nov 2019.

Star Wars: Battlefront series:

Star Wars: Battlefront [2004]
Star Wars: Battlefront II [2005]
Star Wars Battlefront [2015]
Star Wars Battlefront II [2017]
Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection [2024]

SECDEF Announces SPEARHEAD Flag and General Officer Appointments