Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures for ArmA

[dslyecxi 23]

Tactics, techniques, procedures, and more. This is the definitive ArmA tactical resource as of this moment. (Oh, modesty! )

http://dslyecxi.com/armattp.html

I hope you all enjoy it. It's a whopping read, over 60,000 words, and it took me from December until today to write and illustrate it. I think the time investment was worth it, though... but please, do feel free to let me know what you think of it.

Here's what Marek Spanel, CEO of BIS, has to say about it:

Quote[/b] ]In our debut PC title Operation Flashpoint and now after a few years in ArmA, we tried to deliver a complex tactical experience, and this guide provides the best summary and advice how to play it in such manner and not only as just another first person shooter. We focused very much on many aspects of simulation that may not be obvious instantly and it's great to see this explanatory and informative resource. This guide also does great job in staying in the boundaries of tactical computer gaming and does not try just to repeat excerpts of real world field manuals which are not always so valuable in the realm of tactical gaming. It is definitelly the most comprehensive overview of various aspects of the simulation provided in ArmA published to date and we at Bohemia Interactive are delighted to see it published just in time for the imminent US release of ArmA.

As I said.. feedback is welcome! And, again... hope you guys enjoy it.

http://dslyecxi.com/armattp.html

[OrLoK 20]

Hello,

after looking at Dslyecxi's nice site and other squads, I see an emphasis on using real world tactics, commands, formations etc in Arma.

Now, I can see these things acting as a great aid in immersion and keeping folk together, but when pitched against, say, a squad of hyped up 13 yr old Counter stike players, Versus a squad using in game comms formations etc. who comes off best?

I have played with some nice chaps from well known arma squads on occasions, but i found that much of the time teams were wiped out trying to get into a "proper formaton".

Whereas, i see the "rambo's" scooting off, killing everything and getting max scores (with unfortunatly few deaths).

I know scores mean nothing and it's about gameplay but are we shooting ourselves in the foot trying to make the game too realistic by implementing realworld values?

IMHO the best games i've played are where folk know how to "play" together, give support and cover etc, without too much regimentaion. This makes the game far more fluid.

Again, I know many of these tecniques are used because they work and are proven to work.

But do they translate to the Arma Universe?

Again not knocking it, if you do use em, but do they help in arma combat situations?

Rgds

LoK

[Scrub 0]

BooYAA! Tks!!

*hurries off to dig in*

[dslyecxi 23]

If they didn't work, I wouldn't waste my time writing about how to apply them to a gaming environment.

[Banzai! 0]

I find the best tactic is to get an mg and fire at the enemy until they are dead. Either that or go by myself with a sniper rifle and camp spawn. It takes ~20 mins before they figure out where I am.

[Bracken 0]

Thank you very much, I am very new to Arma and have felt well out of my depth the whole time. But after reading up to "Wounds & What to Do" I already feel much more confident in my abilities to lead my squad

Thanks for taking the time to write this.

Anyway must get back and read the rest!

[max power 21]

Hello,

after looking at Dslyecxi's nice site and other squads, I see an emphasis on using real world tactics, commands, formations etc in Arma.

Now, I can see these things acting as a great aid in immersion and keeping folk together, but when pitched against, say, a squad of hyped up 13 yr old Counter stike players, Versus a squad using in game comms formations etc. who comes off best?

I have played with some nice chaps from well known arma squads on occasions, but i found that much of the time teams were wiped out trying to get into a "proper formaton".

Whereas, i see the "rambo's" scooting off, killing everything and getting max scores (with unfortunatly few deaths).

I know scores mean nothing and it's about gameplay but are we shooting ourselves in the foot trying to make the game too realistic by implementing realworld values?

IMHO the best games i've played are where folk know how to "play" together, give support and cover etc, without too much regimentaion. This makes the game far more fluid.

Again, I know many of these tecniques are used because they work and are proven to work.

But do they translate to the Arma Universe?

Again not knocking it, if you do use em, but do they help in arma combat situations?

Rgds

LoK

The 13 year olds would get worked.

[Shifty-16AAB- 0]

thank you very much, m8. we both share pretty much the same views on arma's infantry, but i've given up on that game.

[Colossus 2]

Best as always, Dslyecxi

[jerryhopper 286]

i love his modesty....

and the stuff he comes up with everytime... amazing!

- i've taken this news up on the Sahrani Press Agency and Armedassault.eu.

Now for me lies the task to wrestle through this monsterous amount of information...

[Maximus_G 0]

Now, I can see these things acting as a great aid in immersion and keeping folk together, but when pitched against, say, a squad of hyped up 13 yr old Counter stike players, Versus a squad using in game comms formations etc. who comes off best?

There's an old story about such an experiment. Real infantry guys and CS players had a bet about who's tail is longer. And they fought in a paintball game.

The "infantry" were wiped out. And the main reason is about their "cautious" real-world tactic, which is intended not only to defeat adversary, but to keep the soldiers alive.

"CS" guys, on the contrary, didn't take much care of their "lives", which is usual for them. They were "dying" often, but they were able to overwhelm the "infantry" positions.

Now that's just a fairy-tale, but it has its common sense. There are situations when some action would mean a certain death of several people, but it would lead to the victory. It happens at war sometimes, but it's not normal, and it's not a routine part of military training.

And when we just play it, we value our lives so much less. It's one of the reasons why a strict attachment to the real-world tactics does not fit very well in a _game_.

[opteryx 1562]

Pure gold!

I hope the guide continues to expand as ArmA grows, I'm really looking forward to ACE!

PS: A PDF version of this would wet my pants (literally)!

[Scrub 0]

Just finished page 1. Nicely done. Good info and insights, a bit of humor, and a breadth of illustrations and video. I can't wait to see this fleshed out with all the ACE content. Now to wipe up the drool and head back.

[dslyecxi 23]

Pure gold!

I hope the guide continues to expand as ArmA grows, I'm really looking forward to ACE!

PS: A PDF version of this would wet my pants (literally)!

It will. I intend to do stuff about ACE in the future, at the very least. There are also sections that I never put in due to running out of time, so they may show up in the future as well.

I need a break for now, though. This has been dominating a great deal of my free time for quite awhile. It's time to actually play games instead.

[AimPoint 0]

Scary work!! you deserve my full respect Dslyecxi

The TTP is....mmh no words!!

Almost 5 AM here,must stop reading and go to bed..shame!!

Thank you for this Arma Bible!!

[Maximus_G 0]

Tactics, techniques, procedures, and more. This is the definitive ArmA tactical resource as of this moment. (Oh, modesty! )

Now THAT is a piece of WORK.

Thumbs up!

[4 IN 1 0]

i remembered there was a test about VBS1 (sorry) that how a gamer different from a trained soldier, dunno where to find it through

[Turkmenbashi 0]

Now, I can see these things acting as a great aid in immersion and keeping folk together, but when pitched against, say, a squad of hyped up 13 yr old Counter stike players, Versus a squad using in game comms formations etc. who comes off best?

There's an old story about such an experiment. Real infantry guys and CS players had a bet about who's tail is longer. And they fought in a paintball game.

The "infantry" were wiped out. And the main reason is about their "cautious" real-world tactic, which is intended not only to defeat adversary, but to keep the soldiers alive.

"CS" guys, on the contrary, didn't take much care of their "lives", which is usual for them. They were "dying" often, but they were able to overwhelm the "infantry" positions.

Now that's just a fairy-tale, but it has its common sense. There are situations when some action would mean a certain death of several people, but it would lead to the victory. It happens at war sometimes, but it's not normal, and it's not a routine part of military training.

And when we just play it, we value our lives so much less. It's one of the reasons why a strict attachment to the real-world tactics does not fit very well in a _game_.

Silly CQB paintball or paintball in forest over semi-large area? :P

[4 IN 1 0]

hats down to you

thats one guide too end all

i cant wait to get back home ASAP!!!!!! (still in work BTW)

[TheReddog 0]

Good stuff mate, excellent guide, I am going to force all my coop buddies to at least read the basic rifleman part!

[dslyecxi 23]

Quote[/b] ]There's an old story about such an experiment. Real infantry guys and CS players had a bet about who's tail is longer. And they fought in a paintball game.

The "infantry" were wiped out. And the main reason is about their "cautious" real-world tactic, which is intended not only to defeat adversary, but to keep the soldiers alive.

"CS" guys, on the contrary, didn't take much care of their "lives", which is usual for them. They were "dying" often, but they were able to overwhelm the "infantry" positions.

Now that's just a fairy-tale, but it has its common sense. There are situations when some action would mean a certain death of several people, but it would lead to the victory. It happens at war sometimes, but it's not normal, and it's not a routine part of military training.

And when we just play it, we value our lives so much less. It's one of the reasons why a strict attachment to the real-world tactics does not fit very well in a _game_.

Silly CQB paintball or paintball in forest over semi-large area? :P

Comparing paintball to combat is not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison to begin with, after all. There are a whole slew of paintball-specific tactics that have no place in real combat training or real combat, and the same can be said in reverse. Take paintball people, give them real guns, real gear, put them in an environment where they have to move more than 50 meters to find let alone shoot at the enemy, and so on and so forth, and I'm sure you'll see different results.

ArmA and OFP's combat environments are much closer to "real world" combat than paintball, too.

I would happily challenge a similarly-sized group of CS:S players to a ShackTac style adversarial ArmA mission. Put us in ACE and it'd be an even more lopsided battle in our favor.

Really, as I said... I wouldn't have wasted my time going as in-depth as I did in my guide if it weren't for the fact that those things really do come into play with realistic scenarios, and utilization of such tactics provides a significant increase in lethality, combat effectiveness, and survivability for the team using them.

[Beagle 684]

Unfortunately I Never found a advantage in using the very few "real world" tactics that are possible in ArmA...because the dumbest Soldier is more flexible than the ArmA A.I.

Multiplayer seems not unlike other Shoot-em-ups not very much different to CS or any other FPS.

[Törni 0]

Well here is what is missing.

- Units do not pass info outside their own group

- Organisation beyond team/squad does not thus exist

- AI vehicles cannot select correct ammo types at times

- There is no suppression nor suppressive fire

- AI units cannot enter buildings or fight in a decent manner in urban environment

- Vehicle damage model is just odd. You can actually destroy tanks with small arms fire (a lots of it)

- Indirect fire is non-existent -> not even mortars, which are standard infantry stuff

- Building damage model is... well...

- Physics model is somewhat questionable too

[richard_dean_anderson 0]

I agree with Beagle.

The AI is not worth playing with. It would be nice if a couple hundred human players could play at once. Unfortunately, you need to play with a bunch of AI in order to have the "large scale" mutiplayer games which I always thought were the only reason one would want to play Arma/OFP instead of other FPS games.

[dslyecxi 23]

I guess those of you that are complaining about the ArmA AI never play with the more intelligent AI scripts and such. They are most certainly capable of providing a challenging fight to even the best and most well-coordinated teams.