Over the course of our years of existence, the 11th Marine Division has attempted to answer the question of how best to approach military simulation and how best to harness the potential interference in such a manner. The Armed Assault series has stood out as an incredibly deep and rewarding simulation, one deserving of the time we've collectively poured into learning, refining, and enjoying.
This is our rendition of ShackTactical's Arma 3 guide. This has been created with the intention of spreading this knowledge beyond the confines of our organization, with the hope that the lessons we've learned and the doctrine we've created for ourselves will help to bring better gameplay experiences to anyone else operating in the environments of military-oriented simulation. Having our guides – which we refer to simply as "the Handbook" or fully as "Tactics, Techniques, & Procedures" – has allowed us to acquire a community-wide understanding of military operations within a universal environment, regardless of whether any given participant had a military background. This has given many communities fantastic gaming experiences for many years, and it's our intention that this iteration of TTPs will help to spread this potential to a broad new military simulation playerbase.
This guide is available for all who have the time to read it - it is offered up warmly, with the hope that everyone can take something from it in some capacity. A strong community benefits us all, and if this guide helps facilitate that in any capacity, we will consider it to be a great success!
Note that this guide is not "the only way to do it". It is, however, the way that our organization does things, and it works exceptionally well for us. Hopefully you can find a use for this guide in your gaming as well!
Summary
Throughout the years of various experiences in many military simulation environments established the inspiration to craft and integrate lessons we collectively learned and both refine and expand the content to cover not only Arma 3, but other game possibilities as well.
Our members and prior organizations have had years worth of experiences to learn and grow from. We've made use of real life military applications and manuals and have adapted our own methods accordingly to maximize the effectiveness of our organization.
This tactical guide covers operating from the basic buddy level all the way to company level. Arma 3's infantry-centric improvements manifest themselves most strongly in the Basic Infantryman chapter, which goes into detail about the new inventory systems, weapon and gear modularity, stance adjustments, and much more. That doesn't stop there - each chapter has been carefully reviewed and refined, with obsolete techniques culled and new ones introduced. You'll see a set of roles emerge such as the Company Commander, as well identify how our Fireteam, Squad and Platoon Leaders operate and how our attachments and crew-served weapons teams are employed.
Additionally, you'll find expanded information containing several more advanced concepts - from a guide on Survival, Escape, Resistance, & Evasion, to a role breakdown of Combat Engineers, Paratroopers, and Combat Divers, as well as information on Guerrilla Warfare, Reconnaissance, and how to Fight at Night.
All told, this guide has ended up as about 150,000 words worth of content, with hundreds of pictures and illustrations to further flesh it out. Every topic covered is truly relevant to the series - whether in the vanilla game or in one of countless community modifications or missions. To this end, the guide also extends to other games that allow for similar application.
Theory vs Practicality
The point of this guide is to convey material that truly is relevant to our style of realism and military simulation. This is the sort of information that every player can use to work as a well-oiled and diverse team. We have maintained a very pragmatic outlook on responsible military simulation (milsim) and have taken every measure possible to create a realistic military-oriented environment while doing things only "because the real military does them" and thus becoming what we call "impractical milsim". In our eyes, impractical milsim is chock-full of "tactical fluff" that is irrelevant to the games at hand. Impractical simulation typically presents itself through extreme rules, regulations, attempted recreations of full military structures far beyond what is relevant and what works in the scope of a virtual environment, doing things only "because the real military does them" regardless of their actual application to the game at hand, and other things are extremely consequential with little to no benefit and trade.
This guide reflects that mindset as well. Prior to the establishment of this guide, tremendous research has been put into understanding the proper orientation of military-game guides. From experience and research, it's been established that many military-game guides commonly fall victim to two pitfalls - the first being the recitation of actual military publications, without any attempt to separate the wheat (info relevant to gaming) from the chaff (military or real-world procedures that are irrelevant or not simulated in games). That being said - there are many things that can be learned from military publications and field manuals, and this guide benefits heavily from being referenced against a number of such manuals. However, this is not a recitation of them word-for-word, as that would be a waste of time. The information presented here is what is truly relevant to the games we play, as we have experienced throughout our years of operating in our environments.
Another thing that must be kept in mind is that the kind of missions most commonly found in games like Arma – in the real world – require a massive amount of planning and preparation by well-trained professional military personnel well before the first shot is ever fired. The goal of groups like ours is to be able to play to the best of our ability without requiring such extreme time-sinks in the pre-mission planning. We want to get the best results we can without having to spend hours in advance planning out each operation. Planning is great, but we strive to keep the initial planning short and sweet - minutes at most - and further develop our plans as we carry out the mission. After all, no plan survives first contact. The second pitfall is that of being "meta-gaming". "Meta-gaming" guides are those that take any approach to a game that transcends or operates outside of the prescribed mechanics of the game, uses external factors to affect the game, or goes beyond the supposed limits or environment set by the game. With exceptions, this involves guides that are oriented around giving very precise info about things in a fashion that takes advantage of knowledge that would not exist in reality - for example, a list of tanks, their armor values, and the precise 'damage' values of anti-tank weapons. These "meta-gaming" guides give tactics that are meant to exploit the game itself and ruin the experience for other players. Our guide does not render shelter to those forms and tries to maintain a simple, efficient and effective form.
The Ultimate Goal
Finally, it is worth reiterating that we are playing games here. The point is to have fun - in our case, we strive for organized, disciplined, military-styled fun. We are not trying to represent the military - many of us have already been there, done that, or are still there and doing that. We are here to strive for practical military simulation and playing to have a good time. We're a community of brothers and sisters, ultimately, and this guide is written in that spirit.
what is arma 3?
For those of you new to Arma, the basic premise is that it is a military combined-arms simulation with an incredible scope and a second-to-none ability to convey large-scale modern military combat. In addition to that, it is a fantastically configurable and moddable game. It comes with a robust mission editor and scripting language, and tools are available to allow any manner of units, weapons, vehicles, terrains, etc, to be created for the game.
Arma 3 follows in the footsteps of Operation Flashpoint, Arma 1, and Arma 2 to provide the most realistic combined-arms from-the-infantry-up experience around, bar none. It is a military sandbox environment that can be tailored exactly in accordance to what you want from it. In addition to that, Arma 3 supports a robust set of multiplayer features. It has the capability to handle up to a hundred or more players in a single mission at a time, playing against each other in teams, together against the AI in cooperative scenarios, or any imaginable mix. The mission design possibilities are almost unlimited - if you can think it up, you can probably make it.
Like the other games in the Arma series before it, Arma 3 is the game of choice for our organization, the 11th Marine Division. The experiences we have had in these games for the past many years have been unlike anything else available in gaming, and it continues to pull players back week after week in large quantities into ever-changing and new scenarios. We play the whole range of missions, from serious to not-at-all serious, and all of it is an utter blast. It is our enthusiasm for this sort of group-wide "Build Your Own Adventure" method of content and mission creation that has allowed us to thrive for many years.
I hope that anyone who is looking into the multiplayer facet of Arma 3 is able to find a place to play where the vast possibilities of the game can be appreciated with a quality group of players. I also hope that this guide is able to provide the base of knowledge to help players work together throughout the community, if not exactly "by the book," then at least more informed because of it. And hey, who knows? Some of these things might benefit you in real life...
Disclaimer: This guide is written with a forward-looking mindset, intended to still be applicable years after release. Because of this, there are some references to features and concepts that may not apply to the original release version of Arma 3, but are grounded in reality and commonly encountered in modifications and scripted missions created by the larger community.
Any inclusions of such features are based solely on our own experiences, and you can reasonably expect to see everything mentioned in this guide when combining Arma 3 with additional community modifications - one of the biggest strengths of the series. Our personal view is that it is better to write about things that you know will be available to a series that continually grows after each release, than to avoid the topics and deprive people of valuable techniques that will serve them well when said functionality appears. We hope you agree!
Moving on...
With the introduction out of the way, let's go ahead and get to the dark arts of warfare.