Freedom Fighters - First Night Action

Old School Night Warfare Was Complete Chaos!

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I Forgot What Time It Was…

So far - playing this ARMA Reforger mod - I have deliberately avoided any activity during the night time hours. The reason for this is simple, being a game set in the Cold War era (around 1980) the availability of night vision equipment - particularly to Soviet infantry - was somewhat sparse and this makes engaging the enemy in the dark very difficult.

Above: Roof eye view of the factory gate and the adjoining roads. In daylight this was the ideal overview location... But things became a lot more tricky when darkness fell!

As a beginner to this game I was finding just the basic activities quite difficult to master as it was, so adding darkness into the operational mix was far too much for me… Until now.

While I was starting to get confident playing Freedom Fighters and had began to think that I might want to up the challenge by adjusting the difficulty I hadn’t taken on a night action deliberately because of this. This event was a complete mistake on my part as I hadn’t taken lost track of time and undertook an assault on a Soviet factory facility far too late in the day.

Above: The layout of the facility showing the approach road and the main gate. This happened to be one of the largest Soviet controlled factories that I have tackled so far.

I was half way through this operation - and into the ‘battle has started’ phase - when darkness fell. And having started - and into the midst of a firefight - there seemed little else I could do (other than break off the engagement) and so I went for it!

Fighting at Night in Freedom Fighters

As far as I know - historically - the Soviet Army did have limited night vision equipment available to in in the 1970/80s, this was of the ‘first generation’ passive type based on the technologies pioneered by the US Army during the Vietnam war (similar to the ‘Starlight Scope’).

In particular, the Red Army squad did have access to what they called the ‘universal scope - a honking great tube which they could attach to a range of infantry weapons. I believe this was issued sparingly at the squad level and was not a ‘individual’ piece of equipment issued to all members. This maybe why ARMA Reforger has not included this piece of kit in the game (???). 

Above: The Soviet 1PN34 Night Vision Scope. Not exactly compact!

Whatever the reason for this omission, it’s not available in the Freedom Fighters mod, meaning that any night time engagements must be undertaken ‘old school’… Not a pleasant undertaking.

How I Played ‘Old School’ Night Ops

I had no plans for this - I just didn’t the obvious thing, which was to use what light sources were available to me…

Luckily, when this all kicked off, I had already positioned myself in an overwatch perch on top of a building next to the main gate of the factory. My strategy - as I am a solo player - is to act as a supporting marksman for my AI resistance buddies which join me when the battle phase commences. 

I utilise my  Soviet SVD sniper rifle to provide long range support to the FIA (resistance) fighters on the ground and also am ready which some anti-armour rockets for the inevitable armoured counter attack by the Soviets.

Above: The Soviet RPG-27 single use AT weapon. Similar to the US LAW 'toob'. I can pack a couple of these into my XL 'Bergan' backpack... Just in case!

Ironically, because of the fall of darkness I was even more grateful for my AI controlled backup than normal as they seemed to enjoy better night vision than I had. By watching the movement of my FIA buddies I could then at least surmise the direction from which the attacking Soviets were coming.

Overlooking the main entrance to the factory I at least had a couple of street laps to illuminate the main gate which the Soviet counter attack was heading towards (at the end of a short access road leading from the main highway)...

Above: The factory gate at night, a very limited kill zone thanks to the one lamp.

However, on top of this small pool of illumination in the general pitch darkness I was able to make use of some other secondary light sources that came to hand quite by chance…

My first piece of luck was the highway that I mentioned, as despite a military operation going on there were some civilians traffic travelling occasionally down this road. And unfortunately for the Soviet infantry every time a car or truck came down this their headlights lit up the enemy movement. Each time this happened I was able to pop off any unfortunate soldier silhouetted against the darkness!

Above: A very unlucky Ruskie highlighted by the headlights of a passing civilian car!!!

My next piece of luck was the aforementioned armour which tried to storm the factory gates - this was dimly picked out thanks to the lamps at the gate and was made short work of by a couple of well places AT rockets. But the best thing about this was that the BTR70 vehicle then burst into flames which provided me with a nice raging fire by which I could then pick out any following up infantry movement...

Above: Not a good position for this poor Ruskie! The burning BTR gave him away!

Even with these fortuitous means of illumination the overall Soviet assault was still completely shrouded in darkness, but I knew that there was a lot of them out there thanks to all the the near misses that were pinging off the roof near to me. Luckily darkness is a double edged sword and although I could not see them they could nearly see me either. But the weight of fire coming at my direction was unnerving.

So, my next piece of luck was that I remembered that the game does provide you with flares. There are two types, one a ‘smoke grenade’ and the other a which illumination rocket… I checked my backpack and I had ONE illumination flare!

Above: An illumination flare lit up the entrance road to the factory nicely for a short time and I was able to pick off a group of attackers. Unfortunately, this was just a temporary advantage for me. The field was soon plunged into darkness again and the Soviets could come out of hiding.

Luckily for me illumination flare - once fired - drift slowly down to earth again providing a few minutes of light over a particular area. With this I was able to identify the oncoming attack and thin out some of that incoming fire (I’m not sure if the flare hinders the attackers vision any).

With my flare expended I had one last means of identifying targets left to me… Muzzle flashes.

The game does provided you with tracer bullets and this helped give me a general idea where the incoming fire was emanating from. One I knew this general direction I could them pin point the tell tale muzzle flashes from the attackers as they were very briefly lit up by their own fire...

Above: Unlucky Ivan highlighted by his AK's muzzle flash. I'd already wacked his mate, he was next!

This small flash of a target was just enough for me to identify an enemy position and even when they stopped firing for a minute it was enough for me to pepper that general area for my to permanently staunch their fire. I got quite a few lucky hits this way.

And Then Suddenly It Was All Over

This mix of luck and blind firing seemed to go on for ages and it was very, very tense.

My main worry was that once the Soviets managed to enter the compound - as I couldn’t watch every direction - they might get into the building where I was positioned and flank me. While, initially, I did have the support of my FIA buddies on the ground they were slowly being whittled down just as the attackers were and I figured that it was just a matter of time before some Soviets popped up behind me.

Indeed there were several occasions where they came very close to the building I was in. It was all very scary...

Above: Close Ivan... But not close enough, and I spotted you!

But just as I thought I was about to be overrun - though I did change my position on the roof repeatedly - the firing began to trail off. For a brief moment there was a very unsettling and spooky quiet which was then broken by individual shots from what I presume was the final stragglers. Then it stopped all together.

PHEW!!!

And that was my first night action.

It was about 3am by this time and this left me in a bit of a pickle as I knew the game does like to throw sporadic stragglers at you from time to time so where or not to move was the big question. I had to wait a good long time to be sure that the attack was over before coming down from my perch.

Normally, after an attack like this it would be time to clear up and gather dog tags and loot. But still being night time I couldn’t actually make out where all the victims of my fire were. I did have a small torch to see where I was going but the ground I had to come re to retrieve the ‘goodies’ was very large and I didn’t want to walk right into any other Soviet patrols.

Above: Picking my way through the night to find fallen enemy for their dog tags (for which you can turn in to the resistance HQ for a bounty). I also needed to restock my ammunition as it was depleted and look for other useful goodies - like RPG rockets.

So I didn’t what I could before parking up and making my way to the nearest safe encampment for the rest of the night before returning to the factory in daylight.

Another piece of Soviet territory liberated!

Above: One last look back towards the factory at night from the highway. This would have been the attacking Soviets perspective and you can see why they found it hard to pin down my location (on the factory roof).