America's Army
--- America's Army v2.8.3: Overmatch Strategy Guide --- v0.1
by motbob
I can be reached at burdettb[at]wabash[dot]edu.
Updated: Jun 20, 2008
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Table of Contents [quick tag]
1. Copyright [cpy]
2. Introduction [int]
3. So You're Fresh Out of Training [syf]
a. What maps should I play? [wms]
b. What should I do in-game? [wsd]
c. Why are my teammates so pissed at me? [pis]
4. Basic Movement/Shooting [bmv]
a. CQC [cqc]
b. non-CQC [ncq]
5. Individual Guns [ivg]
6. Individual maps [ivm]
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1. Copyright [cpy]
I own all rights to this FAQ. You may post it anywhere, but unless you're
posting a limited excerpt, you must post it in full without any changes.
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2. Introduction [int]
It's not a good thing that America's Army only has three FAQs listed on
GameFAQs. It's worse that two of those FAQs are limited to getting through the
training portion of the game. I thought I'd fill in the considerable void by
writing a guide on both general and map-specific strategy. Training seems to be
a subject on which enough material has been written, so I won't waste a section
on that. If you need help on training, please visit Bloviator's excellent guide
at http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/file/561551/45333.
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3. So You're Fresh Out of Training [syf]
Congratulations! You've graduated from all of the training missions, including
the challenging SF training. Now you've got a crapload of maps to choose from,
from Pipeline to SF Hospital. It's impossible to determine what the best maps
are for new soldiers (such as yourself) just by looking at them, and even harder
to know what to do when you've joined the server, other than, "shoot the bad
guy." So let's take a look at a couple of basic maps where you can blend in,
have some fun, and learn the ways of the game.
a. What maps should I play? [wms]
Traditionally, the map on which most new soldiers get their bearings is Bridge
Crossing. It's fairly wide open, there are opportunities for both close quarters
combat and long ranged combat, and, unlike maps like SF Hospital, there aren't a
million different things that you can do to get yourself immediately killed.
Pipeline is a much more complicated map, but one in which if you just follow
you're teammates, you should be fine. It's a good way to get introduced to
objective play.
On maps like Collapsed Tunnel and Weapons Cache, there are various choke points
where the intricacies of fighting could warrant a guide unto themselves. Stay
away from those maps until you have some experience.
Insurgent Camp is a map that I never got into, but you should go ahead and give
it a try. Many love it.
Urban Assault is a map where you should just sit out the first minute of play
before moving out. It's very open, but there are lots of enclosed spaces as
well. Give it a go.
Don't try the SF maps until you're qualified to use the SF weapons, which I
believe is at honor 25. SF maps attract all the best AA players, especially
Hospital.
For basic, intermediate, and advanced tips on these maps, check out the maps
section of my FAQ.
b. What should I do in-game? [wsd]
First of all, you should use the radar (the little circle that shows your
position and that of your teammates). It's the most important tool you have.
When it first came out, a lot of seasoned AA players moaned that it was going to
level the playing field like nothing before it. They were right, but it was a
good thing: fewer new players were killing their teammates, running off to
obscure corners of the map, etc.
The radar provides three crucial functions to a new player:
- It helps you to learn the map much more quickly
- It shows you where your teammates are
- It can show you where your enemies are
See that red x on the radar? That means that your teammate's been shot, or blown
up. It means that an enemy was in his general area, or in his line of sight. If
that x is near you, it obviously means that you need to point your gun in that
direction, and fast.
If you are the team leader, you can see all of your teammates on the map. This
is incredibly helpful! It means that, theoretically, you should never shoot at a
teammate who you think is an enemy. If you are the team leader, and you're not
sure if the person in your ironsights is an enemy, check the radar!
In fact, you should always try to be the leader, whether it is of your squad, or
the whole team. You see more people and get more points.
The second important thing to do is to shadow a pro on your team. Follow him
wherever he goes. If he rushes, rush, if he camps, camp. If he gets annoyed at
you, point out that at least you aren't running out, getting yourself killed.
If you don't want to follow a pro, the rule of thumb is to hang back and not get
killed at the beginning. Let the initial firefights die down, and then move into
the fray. There are fewer people to kill you, and the remaining people on your
team will be high quality. Be patient.
c. Why are my teammates so pissed at me? [pis]
Well, it's probably because you killed one of them. Just read what I wrote about
the radar and you should be OK. Remember to ID your targets. If the figure has a
helmet, it's a good guy.
It might be because you're not attacking or defending the objectives. The
objectives are on your radar.
It might be because you threw a grenade and it bounced off the wall, killing you
and a group of friends. If that happens, don't worry. You'll get the hang of the
nades eventually.
And finally, it might be because you were trying to be careful and not get
killed, and the timer ran out, giving your assault team the loss. Pay attention
to how much time you have left.
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4. Basic Movement/Shooting [bmv]
First of all, an underrated portion of AA is the way sound affects the game. Buy
some headphones so that you can hear the guy taking the Control Panel in
Pipeline, toss a grenade into the room from the bottom floor, and blow his head
off. Nothing more satisfying than that.
But what does that have to do with movement? Well, using sound to your advantage
works both ways. If you want to sneak past a guy, you have to lie down, or at
least crouch. You can't risk him hearing you. Slowly walking is louder than
doing it regularly. You get the gist.
For a little bit more material on movement, visit spambank's excellent AA guide,
found on GameFAQs.
As for shooting, there are two methods of battle: CQC and non-CQC.
a. CQC [cqc]
CQC, or close quarters combat, isn't that complicated, right? Just point your
gun at the OpFor, click the mouse, and whoever has the better gun/ more health/
better connection wins, right? WRONG.
First of all, if you get the drop on your opponent, 90% of the time you've won.
So positioning yourself to be where your opponent doesn't expect you to be is
key.
Let me give you an example. In the late stages of any given round on the map
Bridge Crossing, the assault team usually has firm control of their side of the
middle of the bridge. They're shooting at Defense, who are usually holed up in
their tower of sitting back in a better position, waiting for Assault to
approach. What smart Defense players do at this point is to sneak up the catwalk
and blast the Assault soldiers in the middle into oblivion. Usually, if there
are three or fewer men in the middle, the player on Defense can take them out no
problem. The reason this is possible is that Assault sees their enemies in the
tower, and don't even consider that someone might come up to their side.
Surprise is the most lethal weapon you have. That's why camping works so well.
Say you don't have the jump on your opponent. Say you're walking along the war-
torn streets and an OpFor pops out of the door immediately in front of you and
to your right. What can you do to increase your chances of winning?
Three things:
-Don't bunnyhop (the game won't let you shoot)
-Take advantage of the fact that the internet connection of your opponent is not
perfect by moving from side to side constantly
-Crouch and uncrouch constantly.
Oh, and practice. And get a better gun. And have more health. But you knew that
already.
You don't always have to use ironsights. Use your own judgement on when you
should.
And for the love of god, don't go prone!
b. non-CQC [ncq]
For the love of god, go prone!
There are a bunch of features of going prone that make that position fantastic
for non-CQC combat and not so fantastic for CQC.
Your gun is much more accurate. This is crucial in non-CQC combat, when your
target can just be a little dot sticking out from behind a wall. Not so crucial
in CQC, when your target can fill up 1/4 of the screen.
There is less recoil. See above.
You are a smaller, less mobile target. "Smaller" is more beneficial at long
range, and the "less mobile" is less harmful at long range.
It is more difficult to track your target when prone. At long range, your target
is not going to be moving much, and if he does, you aren't going to have to
rotate your body that much to shoot him. But when fighting CQC, all your target
has to do is jump to his right and shoot you.
So, go prone when not fighting CQC.
The above tip does not apply when the enemy knows where you are generally, but
not specifically. What the heck do I mean by that? Well, let's take the example
of a battle on Bridge Crossing, between an Assault sniper prone in the middle of
the bridge and an infantryman in the Defense tower.
The infantryman knows that the sniper knows where he is. He knows that if he
pokes his head out for more than half a second, it's going to be blown off. So
he stays crouched, leaning into the windows and firing off a few potshots,
changing positions every chance he gets. He's dead otherwise.
There is a time for static defense and a time for mobile defense. It's up to you
to figure out which is which.
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5. Individual Guns [ivg]
For a wealth of information about individual guns, check out spambank's AA guide
at http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/file/561551/25465.
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6. Individual maps [ivm]
Coming soon! I'll have quotes and advice from the best players to play the game,
so stay tuned.
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7. Acknowledgements
Thanks to the AA team for crafting such a fine, unique game and keeping it free.
Thanks to the Official AA forums and the AA Tracker forums, for helping me
improve my game.
Thanks to all you lazy bums who never wrote a complete FAQ for this game,
without you this FAQ would not exist! (Actually, as of version 0.1 of this FAQ,
a complete FAQ still doesn't exist...)
Feel free to contact me at burdettb[at]wabash[dot]edu for corrections and
questions!
