Armed Assault (showcase)

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Experience Arma 3's large-scale combined arms gameplay. Support the assault and secure the enemy position. Mission Description

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Armed Assault
Time	06:00 AM
Date	24-06-2035
Location	Western Altis, Republic of Altis and Stratis

Armed Assault is a playable showcase mission in ArmA 3.

Overview

The player controls U.S. Army infantryman Corporal Ben Kerry, callsign Alpha-5. Kavala, the largest settlement on the west coast of Altis, is now under NATO control but allied forces pushing north are being held up by stiff fortifications.

To open up a second flank in the south, another ground offensive has been planned and is primarily aimed at neutralising CSAT's fire support capabilities.

Role/class:

• Infantry / Demo Specialist

Default loadout:

• Primary weapon: MXC (6× magazines)
  • RCO
  • IR Laser Pointer
• Secondary weapon: P07 (3× magazines)
  • No attachments fitted
• Equipment: NV Goggles (Sand), Toolkit, RGO (2×), Chemlight (Green) (2×), Smoke Grenade (White) (1×), Smoke Grenade (Green) (1×), Explosive Charge (3×)
• Backpack: Kitbag (Green)

There are no alternate pieces of equipment to choose from.

Objectives

Primary

• (1) Move to Staging Area
• (2) Seize Outpost
• (3) Neutralize Artillery
• (4) Neutralize AAA
• (5) Seize Factory
• (6) Seize Road Block
• (7) Clear Minefield

Optional

• (8) RV with Logistics

Mandatory

• Avoid collateral damage/friendly fire
• Obey your squad leader's orders
• Do not leave the combat zone
• At least one member of your fireteam must survive

Walkthrough

Primary 1: Move to Staging Area

You'll start off in an Armoured Personnel Carrier en-route to the target AO. Shortly afterwards, you'll be ordered to disembark from the vehicle near the outskirts of the enemy outpost.

Hop out of the APC and follow your squad leader along the trench. You'll eventually arrive at the staging point and the objective will be marked as complete. Along the way, you'll also receive some live footage from a friendly drone flying overhead as well, though unfortunately it'll get shot down not long after.

Primary 2: Seize Outpost

Continue following your squad leader until you get close to the outpost. Take cover in the ruins of the small hut overlooking the outpost, and start firing away at the sentry in the watch tower. Remember to avoid exposing yourself to enemy fire and only pop out of cover when necessary unless you want to become worm food.

Your AI squad members should be able to assist you in eliminating the hostiles with relative ease. You'll also receive fire support from the APCs which dropped you off earlier, but don't rely on them to finish the objective for you.

Also, be aware that on some playthroughs of the showcase it is entirely possible for the entire squad to die on first contact. If more than half the squad is killed within the first few seconds of battle, it is highly recommended that you restart the showcase straight away; simply to avoid wasting time.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to predict or to prevent this from happening - other than to eliminate the outpost's defenders as quickly as possible.

Primary 3/4: Neutralize Artillery/Neutralize AAA

NOTE:

• Remember to use Explosive Charges and not Explosive Satchels. The vehicles are scripted to explode instantly only when they receive damage from Explosive Charges.
• They will only take "normal" blast damage from the Explosive Satchel. As you will require more than one satchel to blow them up, this could potentially cause the objective to fail due to Kerry running out of time.

Once all the enemies in the firebase have been killed, you can safely move in to destroy the artillery vehicle parked behind the H-barriers with your demo charges.

If you have none on you for whatever reason, you can grab more from the ammo crates near the Quadbikes. Do the same for the ZSU-39 as well, then stand clear (minimum 150 metres or more) to avoid being injured by the blasts.

Note that if you take too long to destroy both vehicles, the task will automatically be cancelled and you'll skip onto the next primary objective.

Primary 5: Seize Factory

You will now have control of your own four-man fireteam. It's time to take that small factory complex just over the hill from the outpost, while the rest of your squad flanks around to the other side of it.

How you attack the outpost is dependent on your own preference:

• Attack via hilltop
  • This method is fairly straightforward and gives you a nice vantage point overlooking the complex. Move up the hill and past the outpost fences (there should be a gap that you can go through at grid 054-153) then through the treeline. You can now see all of the sentries below along with the anti-tank fortifications, and can snipe them all one-by-one with a few well-placed shots.
  • As you have a clear view of the entire outpost, this method will take you the least amount of time and effort since you won't have to clear out the complex and risk injury/death from a poor close quarters engagement. Bad news is that you leave yourself vulnerable to the enemy tanks on the other side of the valley; usually these tanks will ignore you and continue fighting your allies but in other cases, the AI gunners/commanders will prioritise attacking you and your fireteam instead.
• Attack via road
  • Slower but safer route. The process is identical, but you follow the main squad instead of going up the hill. Divert right once you reach the T-junction rather than continuing in their direction. You will now have to clear out the entrenched defenders by yourself.
  • Do be aware that even though you don't face the same risk of the enemy tanks engaging you like with the hilltop route, they may still occasionally divert to attack your team should they spot you in-between the factory complex walls.

If playing with third person enabled, be sure to look carefully over the walls before moving in to attack the guards (especially in the walled compound with the trucks parked there).

If third person is not enabled, always peek around corners or if that's not possible, then toss a few grenades over the walls to soften up the enemies first. Eliminate the remaining survivors with gunfire.

You need to have at least one team member left alive for a successful completion of this objective (and the following one). If all team members are KIA, you will not be able to continue on and will instantly fail the showcase no matter how well you performed.

Primary 6: Seize Road Block

NOTE:

• Consider taking a Nightstalker optic from the supply crate inside the factory complex.
• If you have access to the Marksmen DLC, the Cyrus DMR is also viable as its 9.3 mm round is a one-shot kill at these distances.
• However, be sure to drop unnecessary items like grenades and Explosive Charges from your inventory to free up stamina if you opt to take the rifle.

Once all enemies in the factory complex are dead, you must now move further up the road to take the enemy roadblock. Several more defenders are stacked up here; some are positioned in the watch tower, others are manning static AT turrets, and the remainder are loitering around the roadblock.

Unlike your first attack, you will not be running solo for this objective and will now have fire support from one of the friendly APCs (callsign Echo). They will move into position at the factory and wait for your radio signal to assault the roadblock.

However, do not attempt to send Echo yet. Two anti-tank mines have been placed over the road and will instantly destroy the APC if driven over. Prioritise disarming the mines first. You don't need to worry about your stance as these are magnetic based AT mines which cannot be triggered by humans.

Once the mines are disabled, give the all-clear signal to Echo and move up alongside them. They should be able to easily dispatch the roadblock's defenders with relative ease. Should Echo fail to mop up the defenders for whatever reason (...or if they were miraculously destroyed by the static AT turret), you'll have to do it the hard way.

Regardless, once all enemies at the roadblock are dead you can move in to secure the position and complete the objective.

Primary 7: Clear Minefield

NOTE: This objective is automatically skipped if you do not have a Toolkit in your inventory at the time of the previous objective's completion.

A minefield has been planted by retreating enemy forces, and is now blocking a friendly logistics convoy from moving ahead. You must disarm all of the bounding mines planted on the stretch of road leading to the newly established FOB.

Unlike the two AT mines at the factory complex, these mines are anti-personnel and can instantly kill you if you trigger any of them. Toggle your mine detector and move forward carefully.

You can choose to either disarm them by hand or destroy them from afar:

• If disarming them by hand, be particularly careful to avoid standing up as the mines are both motion and proximity sensitive. Stay prone and crawl slowly close towards them (not above or right next to each one) and use the Disarm action when it appears.
• Alternately, you can also shoot each mine to detonate them from afar without having to risk manually disarming them by hand. Make sure you remain at a safe distance before attempting this, and do not position yourself within the 20 metre kill radius of the mines. Throwing a few RGOs/RGNs can also accomplish the same feat if you can't land any hits.

Once all mines are destroyed, the convoy will move up and the showcase will be over. Mission complete!

...but if you dropped your Toolkit for some reason, this objective will be aborted and will cause the showcase to end abruptly. It will not be considered as failing but result in a partial victory instead.

Optional 8: RV with Logistics

This objective isn't actually achievable as the minefield will prevent the convoy from moving forward. It will be cancelled shortly after you move towards the convoy (or when the vehicles trigger the mines).

Tips

• On some rare occasions, your squad's AT rifleman will destroy the ZSU-39 with their missile launcher. Should that happen, you will automatically skip having to do the "Neutralize AA" objective.
• Do not hesitate to send your fellow team members to act as bullet magnets if you're not confident with engaging the enemies at the factory complex. Remember, you only need to have one left alive; the other two can be treated as disposable cannon fodder.
• The ammo crates at the factory complex (next to the parked trucks) contain a few useful weapons like the RPG-42 Alamut, which you can load with TBG-42V HE grenades to bombard the roadblock's defenders with satisfying results.
  • You can also utilise them to trigger all of the APERS Bounding Mines planted on the road for the final objective. Just watch out for the blast radius of the grenade explosion.
  • Likewise, this applies to the Vorona ATGM. Its HE missile is even more powerful than the RPG-42's grenade but is significantly heavier to wield. Be sure to take this into account when factoring in your stamina load.

Trivia

• The "Corporal Ben Kerry" featured in this showcase is a completely different character from his canon counterpart.
• On some playthroughs, the Greyhawk streaming footage during initial assault will not be engaged by the ZSU-39 and will continue observing the outpost until it is seized. Because the drone isn't scripted to do anything else however, it will continue flying around the AO for the remainder of the showcase.
• Just like all other pre-release Alpha/Beta showcases, the Armed Assault showcase was made prior to the release of the final game (and the main campaign itself). As such, the AAF are not featured as enemies and are "replaced" by CSAT forces instead.
• Before the release of Game Update 1.46, it was still possible to complete the mission and not fail instantly if the player shot at and killed the crews of the logistics trucks.
• Depending on the AI's behaviour, it was previously possible for the ZSU-39 at the first CSAT outpost to turn its guns onto the player's squad after it shoots down the Greyhawk (the AI are scripted to auto-eject from the ZSU-39 once the player's squad comes into contact with the outpost). This essentially made it impossible to progress any further into the showcase.
  • This was corrected after Game Update 1.50 so that the ZSU-39 no longer has enough ammunition to shoot at the player's squad even if the AI refuse to dismount from their vehicle.
• Following the release of Game Update 1.84, several changes were made to make the showcase significantly easier compared to its release version. Most notably, the tank battle was changed so that the CSAT crews no longer prioritised the player's squad when they attempted to clear the first checkpoint.
  • However, despite these changes and a follow-up patch in Game Update 1.86 that further tweaked the behaviour of the tanks, it is still possible to get into situations where the CSAT crews will completely ignore allied tanks and continue to hunt down the player's squad instead.