So by now you've all probably guessed that waypoints are just an excuse for me to expose you lot to my taste in music... just kidding, sorta.

The waypoint video, as a concept, wasn't something entirely new to us. Some of our members of old put together music montages of singular missions or the particularly cool parts of a mission, which were always really great to watch... but something that we hadn't really attempted before, was a montage of our exploits over a much larger period of time. Thus, the idea of a waypoint was born.

Waypoint One

This was a fun one, and the first time I'd taken a stab at doing something so heavily edited. The idea for the video came from a lot of places, but ultimately became a "Waypoint" video after I'd gotten the backing song for the video stuck in my head... and that's largely how it's been since then, everytime I hear a catchy (oomf oomf) song, the pieces of videos start slotting themselves into place and the idea is cemented.

The context for these clips vary, but as the title states, they tend to cover a period of SAEF's existence - in this case, January 2017 to July 2017. There's some cool stuff in there, like our first "J-WARD" campaign, the "Black Hawk Down" joint operations event with JRAS, the PVP event versus Zulu Alpha, and the introduction of the RS-16 Mark II.

While the initial intention may have been to release one of these videos every 6 months... it didn't quite turn out that way. So I'm comfortable letting them be an unexpected treat.

Waypoint Two

This waypoint video was made by Mr. Fritzle, covering the period from July 2017 to November 2019. Part of the motivation for this video comes from my inability to produce a second video myself... no excuses from my side, I'm a lazy man, but it did encourage me to make a third, which we'll talk about a bit later.

The clips featured here include some really cool stuff, our first venture into "The Rift" a creation of mine for halloween, our missions as British forces in Afghanistan (early war), Fritz's excellent skills as an Apache pilot, a raid into an underground complex and the RS-16 Mark III.

Waypoint Three

Back at it again, following Mr. Fritzle's debut Waypoint, I decided to take another crack at the format. With a bigger focus on editing to the music, and video from more sources than just myself. The motivation for this video, as mentioned earlier, was Mr. Fritzle's own Waypoint video.

The content covered moves all the way from July 2017 to December 2019 in this video. It covers our first ever deployment, another Joint Operation (this time with SABT), our getting used to having on the fly (pun intended) Fixed Wing support, Nittori's spinning fast rope exit and our crazy 13 hour trip to Russia.

Waypoint Four

Once again, Mr. Fritzle comes in clutch with the fourth waypoint video, this a renewed attempt to get more frequent waypoint videos going, and another excellent tackling of the Waypoint format.

The content covered in this video is the shortest stretch of content for a Waypoint video to date, covering January 2020 - March 2020. It comes just short of our movement into lockdown, back before... you know [whispers] the "Medium C" [/whispers]. There's some footage from a campaign set in Sahrani, a very interesting assault on Ghost Hotel, some more of that sweet sweet Pacific theatre, and British combat in the desert.

Waypoint Five (Alpha & Bravo)

So... I actually had too much footage for just one waypoint video. So instead of making some really hard choices, I made two waypoints. SURVIVE. ADAPT. WIN... or something like that. Anyway, It had been just over a year and a half since waypoint four when I decided to put these two videos together, and it was about damn time for another one.

The content in these two videos covers a lot... that might be an understatement. There's footage from the Afghanistan Experience, the Sahrani campaign, the mini-campaign as Bundeswehr in Africa, J-WARD campaign 2, a submarine pen assault as British Commandos in WW2, Castle's "Hearts in Hell" campaign, our "Neptune Spear" raid, the eastern front - Stalingrad, British involvement in Nziwasogo, the "back to basics" campaign set on Altis, D-Day from the perspective of the 101st, Another Nameless Atoll (the mini-campaign), and those are just the ones that made it into the video... phew, that was a mouthfull.

Waypoint Six

This all brings us to the most recent waypoint, so recent in fact that it release today! This video came about quite as naturally as the first waypoint, it started with a song. What I really like about this format of videos is that they're always difficult to put together... and I don't mean that negatively. When something takes effort, it's fulfilling to get out there, and put in front of an audience. I think I'm getting better at them, but I never know with this kind of video. In any case, it's here below, for your viewing pleasure.

The content in this video comes from perhaps a smaller subset of missions than those in Waypoint five, spanning from October 2021 to July 2022. This include some clips from the 24 hour charity event, our first mission in Arma: Reforger, the Tier One deployment, the Ghost Recon campaign, the Mozambique deployment, the WW2 Pacific deployment, and Mr. Fritzle's modern Island Hopping campaign.

So there you have it, a rather brief history of the Waypoint format and its content. If you read all of it, you get some extra SAEF points, you can redeem those with Johnnnnny.

Cheers, and thanks for reading!
Angus