Combined Arms (showcase)

NOTE: This article is about the Combined Arms showcase in ArmA 3. For other similarly named articles, you may wish to use the following links instead: ■ For the storyline mission in ArmA: CWA, see Combined Arms. ■ For the multiplayer scenario, see Combined Arms (multiplayer, Stratis).

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Get a taste of Arma 3's combined arms gameplay. Seize an enemy encampment with the help of motorized infantry and close air support. Mission Description

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Combined Arms
Time	05:30 PM
Date	06-07-2035
Location	Off the coast of Stratis, Republic of Altis and Stratis

Combined Arms is a playable showcase mission in ArmA 3.

Overview

The player controls U.S. Army infantryman Private Bennett, callsign Bravo-8. Following NATO's successful invasion of Stratis, both the airbase and Agia Marina have been captured. Remnants of CSAT forces, surrounded and understrength, have withdrawn to an isolated compound in the east.

With the initiative now on NATO's side, an opportunity to push further inland has presented itself. Together with the assistance of close air support and mechanised armour, Bennett's squad must execute a combined arms assault on the compound and seize it before the enemy can regroup.

Role/class:

• Infantry / Rifleman (AT)

Default loadout:

• Primary weapon: MX (6× magazines)
  • ACO (Red)
  • IR Laser Pointer
• Secondary weapon: P07 (3× magazines)
  • No attachments fitted
• Equipment: PCML (3×), Smoke Shell (White) (1×), Smoke Shell (Green) (1×), Chemlight (Green) (2×)
• Backpack: Assault Pack (Green)

There are no alternate pieces of equipment to choose from.

Objectives

Primary

• (1) Seize the Compound
• (2) Repel the Counter-attack
• (3) Secure the LZ

Optional

• (4) Retreat to Point Gamma

Mandatory

• Bennett must survive
• Golf-1 and Golf-2's helicopters must not be shot down
• The number of units on Bennett's squad and all allied forces must not drop below 4 units total
• Avoid collateral damage/friendly fire
• You must not take more than 6 minutes to reach the LZ and board the extraction helicopter
• Remain within the combat area

Walkthrough

NOTE:

• This showcase can be quite punishing if the AI's skill/precision settings are set to maximum values. It may be wise to reduce them and adjust your profile's overall difficulty settings prior to starting the showcase.
• The performance of your friendly AI in the first phase of the showcase is widely variable. Get used to restarting or reloading from a checkpoint if friendly forces take more than 50% casualties.
  • Although it isn't necessarily impossible, the second phase of the showcase will be very difficult without the help of your allies. Unless you have progressed more than halfway into the showcase, just restart and try to keep at least the friendly IFV intact on your second attempt.

Primary 1: Seize the Compound

You'll start off inside a transport helicopter on the way to the LZ. Disembark and wait for the rest of your squad members to unload once the helicopter arrives.

Push forward through the valley towards the compound at grid 042-053 alongside Bravo squad. Whisky-6 should also be flying in shortly to provide some CAS, though depending on your playthrough, they may or may not succeed in destroying the garrisoned CSAT APC.

LEGEND
Red: Enemy spawn points
Orange: Enemy APC spawn point
Violet: Enemies with AT weapons
Blue: Allied assault route (You)

When you're roughly ~ 300 metres out, you'll come into contact with the first groups of enemy infantry. Find a suitable position behind rocks or trees and begin laying down fire. If Whisky-6 did not destroy the APC, switch to your launcher and destroy it yourself, though make sure there's cover for you to hide behind first so that its HMG doesn't turn you to shreds after you launch a missile.

By now, Echo's IFV should be arriving at the AO, so try to keep it alive for as long as possible. More importantly, focus on any RPG-armed soldiers inside the compound. If Echo survives the initial gauntlet, they should be able to finish off any remaining soldiers. If they didn't survive, then you'll have to secure it the hard way and move up alongside what's left of Bravo.

To finish this objective, all thirty one of the garrisoned soldiers must be eliminated alongside the APC. Once the last soldier falls, the compound will be secured.

Primary 2: Repel the Counter-attack

If you ran out of missiles for your PCML, grab a Titan off one of the dead CSAT AT specialists and stock up on spare missiles. A counterattack is inbound and the enemy reinforcements consist of the following units:

• Three four-man fireteams assaulting from the south-east (via grid 045-050)
• One APC moving in from the east, starting at grid 048-054 and most likely moving in from LZ Baldy (depending on the randomness of AI pathfinding)

To successfully defend the position, you must eliminate the reinforcements while making sure that Alpha and Bravo's combined force does not drop below four units total (note that Echo's IFV and its crewmen also count towards this).

If Echo survived the first phase, you shouldn't have much trouble fighting off the reinforcements. Just find some cover, blow up the enemy APC as soon as it shows up, and wait for Echo (plus Bravo and your own squad) to gun down the rest of them.

The major difficulty spike arises only if Echo was destroyed as Whisky-6 will no longer be around to provide CAS for you. Wait for the APC to show up first and destroy it. Ditch your launcher once that happens and grab a Zafir LMG off one of the dead autoriflemen. Then try to find an elevated position that overlooks the south-east; specifically where the infantry are coming from.

Where you decide to bunker down is up to you, but one decent position is along the hill slope at grid 042-054 as there's a few trees for you take cover behind. If you managed to grab an ARCO/RCO and paired it with the Zafir, you can spot the enemies long before they get into position and start suppressing from afar.

Alternately, there is also some flat ground further up the hill at grid 043-056 where you can deploy the Zafir's integral bipod. Don't worry about your squad leader yelling at you to regroup; you are still within the mission boundary and won't fail so long as you don't go too far out.

Keep in mind that it is not actually needed to kill every single one of the reinforcements. So long as the APC is destroyed and you see the enemy soldiers start fleeing from the area, this objective will be marked complete.

Primary 3: Secure the LZ

Discard all unnecessary weapons and equipment. There shouldn't be any further combat from this point onward so having more stamina to sprint is more important. Move straight to LZ Baldy and board Golf-1 once they arrive. The objective and showcase will end once the last member of your squad gets into the helicopter.

Note that you have only six minutes to accomplish this objective. The showcase will still end in failure if you (or your squad members) take too long to mount up.

Optional 4: Retreat to Point Gamma

If Echo's IFV has been immobilised (or outright destroyed) and the total number of allied troops in Alpha and Bravo drop below four units during the initial assault or the second phase of the mission, the mission will be aborted and you will be forced to pull back to Point Gamma.

This results in mission failure, so try not let too many of your allies get gunned down early on.

Tips

• Consider salvaging an ARCO from one of the CSAT team leaders or grabbing an RCO off your squad leader's corpse if they perished in the initial assault.
• Reduce your difficulty settings if you find yourself having too much trouble getting past the first phase of the showcase.
  • Unfortunately, other than reducing the difficulty, there are several factors related to your friendly AI's performance which are completely out of your control.
  • One such example is Echo's crew; because of how the mission's waypoints are set, Echo's IFV will simply drive headlong into enemy fire and will almost always get blown up by RPGs within the first two minutes of the attack.
  • Whisky-6 is similarly useless for CAS due to the way in which its waypoints are assigned.
    • Whisky-6's gunner may destroy the CSAT APC with DAGRs on some playthroughs but will not do so in other replays.
    • The biggest issue with Whisky-6 is that the crew will be forced to Hold Fire automatically once they fly above the compound. The moment they reach this waypoint, they will cease to attack any further targets...even if the APC was not destroyed in their initial flyby.
  • Your own squad (and Bravo's) are not that much better either.
    • Due to changes and additions to AI behaviour in the Marksmen DLC's platform update, the chances of them being suppressed by the compound's defenders is quite high. Once they are forced to go prone and take cover, they will effectively become useless and more likely than not, get gunned down shortly afterwards.
• You don't have to worry about the reinforcement APC's RCWS turret having access to 40 mm grenades. These munitions are removed by the mission's script, meaning you only have to be concerned about being hit by its 12.7 mm heavy machine gun (which is slightly less dangerous to face since they lack splash damage).

Trivia

• Combined Arms was one of the four showcases that were added to ArmA 3 following its transition from the Alpha to the Beta in Game Update 0.70.
• The reinforcement infantry units do not have their usual optical sights attached as they are removed by scripts.
• In early versions of the showcase, the time limit for boarding the extraction helicopter was much stricter and only allowed a meagre four minutes as opposed to six.
• Prior to Game Update 1.00 (ArmA 3's full release), it was still possible to kill friendly units without failing the mission instantly, though this did not stop friendlies from turning on the player once their point score dropped to negative (due to them becoming a renegade).
  • However, it was still possible to kill Golf-1 and Golf-2's pilots/crew chiefs without punishment. This too was eventually patched after Game Update 1.02.
• The showcase was prominently featured as one of the highlights of the E3 2012 Stage Demo, where footage of the mission (played by project lead Joris-Jan van 't Land) was previewed by former Bohemia Interactive developer, Jay Crowe.