A Better Resistance Mod For ARMA Reforger!
Starting Again, But With A Mod That Works...
I can't blame all of my failure in the OVERTHHROW mod on the mod's (now) obvious failings, a lot of my failings trying to play this was because of my being a complete newbie to ARMA.
This is my first real attempt to learn how to play in the ARMA ecosystem, of which both REFORGER and the OVERTHROW mod is a part of, so they all share the same underlying game mechanics. So trying to play a game and learn a game at the same time - particularly when it's a game a complex and deep as ARMA - was perhaps a bit of a recipe for failure. That's my excuse anyway! 😏
Anyway, OVERTHROW does have it's bugs and disadvantages, all of which I discuss in the third part of my ARMA Reforger Playthrough series...
Playing FREEDOM FIGHTERS...And SHANKS' PONY...
If I have one tip for anyone like me who is new to either ARMA Reforger or the Freedome Fighters mod it would be... Have plenty of patience, take your time and be methodical!
I learned this in the first handful of video that I did in my ARMA series. Boy! Did I learn that lesson the hard way. 😆 ARMA is definitely NOT Battlefield or Call of Duty! You realised this the very first time you get one shot killed by the enemy AI!
Everything takes time, and this is no better illustrated by the amount of time it takes just to travel to objectives (especially in the early game where you have to rely on Shanks' Pony [walking], at least until you work out what other travel systems are available to you)!
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| Above: The island of EVERON, where I chose to start my ARMA experience. The world has a rich back story and you can read about the island on the Armed Assault Fandom Wiki. |
Whichever ARMA Reforger island you chose to start your adventure on be aware that they beautiful maps are BIG. In Battlefield or CoD, if you lose your vehicle between objective points it's no biggy as they are so close to each other, but in ARMA if you are driving somewhere and your car runs out of petrol (yes, that's a thing and yes, that happened to me) then you quite possibly face a good long walk to the next village or town which *might* have a bus stop or where you can snag another vehicle!
Note: Map reading is a important skill in ARMA!
The Mindless Monotony Of Early Game Activities
Realism is the tone of the game as it creates a world where you feel immersed in. I could not help but frequently compare my experiences in ARMA Reforger more closely to those I had playing GTA5 than I those that I had in Battlefield.
Bohemia Interactive (the ARMA developers) have tried very hard to create a backdrop for their game that makes you feel like you are experiencing a real wartime life and not just a military 'shooter'. For example, my early experiences as a new low level resistance member entailed a 3 minute (real world time) walk/jog from the resistance HQ through the countryside to the nearest village bus stop so that I could start my activities for the day!!!
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| Above: Everon has a pretty good bus network, which in the early game is your best friend! This is the next best thing to 'fast travel' in the beginning. |
Think about this - 3 minutes doesn't sound a lot but in a game world that's quite a bit of time.
There are maps in other shooters where a 3 minute jog would take you from one end of a map to the other! But in ARMA that's just a short stroll!
The upshot of this is that everything takes time to do... Don't think that ARMA Reforger - particularly when you are playing a campaign - is just something you can jump into for a 15 minute session. Time flies playing ARMA and although I feel I have just been doing 'short game sessions', taking on one or two 'missions' at a time (at most), say goodbye to time measured in real world HOURS!
(A common early game mission would be to put up resistance propaganda a posters in local villages and towns. Carrying just 5 posters at a time you can easily spend a whole in-game day doing this, but this is all part of the game's role playing immersion.)
Strategies For Play (A Beginner's Perspective)
Once you get over the culture shock of the playing realities of an ARMA based game and start to get the hang of the mechanics, the game's foibles and it's pace and you settle into beginning to play the game properly, you then have to start thinking about a playing strategy.
I have - after doing 5 videos on playing ARMA resistance mods - only now began to think that I am ready to start playing the actual game of Freedom Fighters!
Baby steps is the moral of early game play. You have to start small, as a former Battlefield player there is nothing more tempting than thinking you are a one man army who can overthrow the occupiers by assaulting the nearest enemy base or checkpoint guns-a-blazing, but to do so would be suicide (even on a lower game difficulty).
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| Above: If you are lucky you might find a car that has been - foolishly - left unlocked and this makes for a ideal run-around as you jaunt from village to village distributing propaganda posters. BUT, be warned, don't get used to having a car - the game has a habit of 'disappearing' vehicles that are left alone for too long. After all, that's how you got yours in the first place! LOL ...You can also break into locked cars if you buy a set of lock picks from the Resistance Leader (always carry a set.) |
So while surreptitiously pasting up resistance posters might not seem to most exciting of jobs, it has to be done in order to gather the support of the local population in order for them to give you the platform that you need to kick off the revolution. There are no short cuts! (And this is where the average Battlefield and CoD players quit the game!)
As you get your feel for the game you start to perceive potential strategies. For me it was recognising 'my patch' - as slice of the island where I could reasonably operate to begin to build the swell of civilian support for the resistance. My patch was based on a area of geography that was easily circumventable within a reasonable time, that did not involve overly long road trips to circulate 'the message'.
This involves looking at the map - in my case of the island of Everon - and identifying an area that included some easy pickings (villages and a small town or two), but which were withing striking distance of more advanced objectives (miliary outposts and maybe even a enemy base). Be thinking of slices of cake, not the whole cake!
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| Above: My chosen area of operations in the North Eastern corner of Everon. This encompasses a couple of medium sized towns and several villages for me to work in, but are all within striking distance from the Resistance HQ. |
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| Above: The small town of Gravette marks the southern most border of 'my patch'. Here you can see - by rolling over the town icon - how successful (or otherwise) I have been in 'turning' the town's population against the occupiers! This tow is currently 68% supportive of the Resistance, at 80% I can start thinking of establishing a hideout (a safehouse I guess), where I can begin stocking supplies so that I can think of 'taking' the town by force - but that's a bit down the line as yet! |
I picked the North Eastern sector of the island for my first attempt at the game. I did cope out a little by making my patch include the actual resistance HQ for convenience sake as you will be continually traveling to and for from this HQ to conduct a lot of your work. (A more realistic scenario might have been to start my campaign in the south of the island, well away from the island's capital city in the north. And from there to slowly trudge northward taking control of the island knowing I did not have to worry about my flanks or my rear.)
Next Early Steps... Ambushes!!!
Always keeping an eye on the progress of you resistance campaign - which can be monitored by hovering over the villages and towns on 'your patch' - you'll see how you (should be) slowly garnering support among the populous.
The idea is to raise support in a town to over 80% (I gather) so that you can actually establish a 'hideout' (safe house?). Once you do this you are apparently on your way to 'turning' and taking over the town on behalf of the resistance! (I'm not sure yet what kind of pushback this would then get from the occupiers though, we shall see.)
But, in this early stage of your career the mission path sorta goes like this:
- Join the Resistance
- Distribute posters (not an unimportant job - and don't get caught!)
- Assassinate occupiers for Dog tags
- Take on jobs from the Resistance leader
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| Above: Another thing you can do is to talk to local townsfolk and try and convince them to support the resistance. Quite what effect that has on 'turning' the town I do not know as yet - I am still experimenting with this. If you are really short of cash you can also extort these civilians but this will - obviously - have a negative effect on the towns support for you. |
...I am now at the third of these - getting enemy dog tags (killing Soviet soldiers). But this in itself entailed some hard thinking about the best (and survivable) way to do this.
Early game you are very weak!
In the beginning all you have is a 9mm pistol which is not conducive to offensive operations! It is a peashooter and as the majority of occupiers are armed with AKs (and are deadly shots) you do not want to start taking on combat operations until you are better equipped.
An easy way to get on the first step of being equipped for aggressive missions is to buy ('trade') a basic SA58 rifle. a few magazines and maybe a 'nade or two from the Resistance Leader. This will at least give you a chance against Soviet soldiers. But even so you have to pick your fight carefully.
I gave this some thought, and bearing in mind my weakness I had to think of some easy targets to go for to begin with. Things like isolated foot patrols (especially low numbers), lightly guarded outposts (radio stations), and best of all, AMBUSHES!
Above: Easy pickings! A lone Soviet transport with just two occupants on an isolated bend in a country road. Suprise Mo'Fo!!!
There is plenty of Soviet traffic on the roads, and in rural areas single vehicles - jeeps, vans and supply trucks - are fairly common and as I found in my first combat mission can be easy pickings IF you chose you ambush site very carefully.
Places where enemy vehicles have to slow down - like tight curves in the road or junctions - are ideal and can be even better if you add barricades to their progress like a strategically abandoned car over the road!
Taking cover nearby - that has a good overview of the oncoming road traffic - means you can take advantage of the enemy's hinderance to pepper the vehicles cab with a hail of lead. The idea is simple, you want to eliminate the occupants of the vehicle and give them no time to get out and return fire.
Fighting as a Resistance member is always about leveraging the unfair advantage!
Dirty tricks are the name of the game when you do feel confident enough to take on more dangerous missions. Direct combat should only be taken when you have the upper hand and conventional warfare is something best left until the later stages of the uprising.
The Next Steps In Bandit Country
I am just about at the stage where I am ready to think about more direct action against the occupiers. And although this increased the danger level for me - the one man army - I will only do so where I feel I have a bit of an edge.
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| Above: Quite apart from arming yourself there are a few bits and pieces I feel you - as a beginner - should pick up as soon as possible from local shops. I've customised my appearance with cloths, which is just a personal preference BUT some items, like a flashlight, compass and watch should be part of you gaming EDC (every day carry). 1980s rural Everon can be a dark place and trying to operate at night without a torch is neigh on impossible. Aside from this, increasing your inventory space with a good backpack is a wise expense early on. |
First things first is equipping myself, as I mentioned trying to take on fully armed Soviet soldiers with just a pistol is sheer madness so let's gear up! 😃
There are two ways to get better guns at this stage of the game - take them from the enemy or buy them. Catch 22 here is that to take them from an armed enemy you kinda need to be well armed yourself, so buying should be you go to way of arming yourself.
The easiest way to do this is at the Resistance HQ where you can talk to the Leader and 'trade. Most things will probably be out of your price range at this stage, but if you have been completing you poster campaign and raising awareness among the twos folk you might have a bit of income.
The entry level automatic long are is the Czech made VZ. 58, a AK47 look-a-like which uses the same 7.62x39 ammo as the soviets - a hard hitting cartridge.
Just be aware: As soon as you start equipping yourself with long arms like this you are then seen a combative if you then carry them about opening - you WILL be shot at!!!
Carrying 'illegal' equipment openly (which even includes things like propaganda posters, binoculars and even 'liberated' items of Soviet clothing) will - obviously - mark you out as a 'terrorist'. So if you want to tote this stuff around 'incognito' stash and of this hot stuff in your bags or the trunk of your vehicle. Make sure it is not seen.
That done - and for goodness sake make sure you have enough of the right magazines for your gun - off you go to take on your first offensive act!
For me that is the low level ambush operation but I am just on the cusp of doing something a bit more tricky - either an attack on a Soviet radio outpost or one of the first offensive jobs given to me by the Resistance Leader...
This is a bit scary but is at least a hit & run action where all I have to do is alert the Soviet camp as a distraction. I can then disengage if things get hot and just irritate the garrison until they set off an alarm!
And that's where I will leave this. In the next post I will up date you on how that went and outline some more of the slightly more advanced tasks that I have to perform!
"Vive la révolution"
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Link to the Freedom Fighters Field Manual Wiki
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