Let's discuss the Stealth Mechanics of Mike Force

[Booze_Rooster]

FIrst and foremost, I'm typing this up here first so its visible, then I can copy and paste it in sections into a proper GUIDE so this isn't lost to the depths of Steam. The character limit on the guide section makes it difficult to compose a nice, juicy rough draft to later edit.

TO START, I ran into an interesting gameplay choice in a server last night and wish to use this as a counterpoint to my own argument for the stealth mechanics. Bear with me.

Joined a more populated server last night to shake things up. It was in the new map which we haven't played as much. We were on our way to the second to last AO to capture in the map and saw an odd sight.

It seemed the team had constructed a large FOB (and thats FOB, not "eff-oh-bee" to the civilian squeaker kids...) within grenade throwing distance of a fully intact enemy HQ. Written on the map above it was a note from one of the admins "DO NOT DESTROY HQ UNTIL GARRISON WEAKENED"

I listened in on the chat and read the text chat as I lay bleeding out after getting hit by enemy fire passing through the ineffective bamboo walls around the FOB perimeter.

It seems that in order to "keep the game from getting boring" they leave the HQ intact in order to keep enemy spawn rates high, therefore allowing you to wall-camp a FOB and rack up an impressive body count and thereby reach the kill threshold necessary to complete the "weaken garrison" task.

This totally makes sense, and I get it.

This is also STUPID and I will tell you why:

The reason the game gets "boring" if you destroy the HQ is because the enemy reactively respawns based on what your team is doing. If you are running around the jungle with loud and careless movement, enemy troops will spawn out of sight and begin to converge upon your position. You start more fights, you kill more troops, you weaken the garrison, task complete.

If you build a large FOB and sit in your cozy MG bunker aiming at the jungle through iron sights waiting for waves of enemies to appear, you may get bored. This is because you're not out "triggering" enemy spawns. Sometimes they come and you get the large FOB defense battle you're hoping for, other times you sit and wait, sit and wait, sit and wait and yeah...it gets boring. You're playing TOWER GUARD SIMULATOR 1968, not playing as the DLC is intended- to give you a video game experience inspired by what MACV-SOG did in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos during the war.

So, that's the background out of the way. Allow me to give you my take on the stealth mechanics of the game and how I enjoy playing. I'm not here to tell you its right, I'm just here to pitch my viewpoint and give you the option to decide for yourself. Maybe it will mix up your gameplay experience and give you a new angle to enjoy the game from.




I personally DO NOT enjoy anything to do with FOBs. I was a cavalry scout in Afghanistan. Let me tell you that FOB life is little more exciting than getting signed up for double tower guard shifts when your platoon is rotated back into the wire, and if you're not on that and below the rank of E5, you are spending the rest of the day picking up brass, policing up cigarette butts, PMCS'ing the trucks in the motorpool or getting put on conex or helipad gear hauling details. You're also on the FOB with the mechanics, the supply guys, the cooks and the admin guys, and the only fun you ever get outside of sleep or whacking it in a 200 degree porta-potty is occasionally manning the perimieter after you get a few mortar or recoilless rifle rounds fired at you. Guys who never leave the wire are unofficially dubbed "Fobbits" and are a strange breed who are to be avoided.


So , Stealth mechanics 101. Welcome to Booze Rooster's Recondo School.


There are two ways to play Mike Force. Both are fun. Both have upsides, both have downsides.

First way: Loud and Stupid:

You hop off the chopper. Somebody's got Fortunate Son blasting through an open mic. You sprint as far as your stamina bar allows into the bush. Everybody's going full cyclic with unsuppressed weapons at anything that moves. The first VC you see in the woods gets hit with three different WP grenades and half a magazine from the first guys in your tactical "clump". Then you get surrounded. There's VC behind you shooting you in the back. You're trying to push forward but you get hit. Now you're waiting to withstand, watching your buddies and teammates dump mag after mag into one VC only to see six more rushing down the hill behind him. The enemy mortar teams are now targeting your group with alarming accuracy. The bushes are screaming in Ramen Noodles. Next thing you know you get blown up by a careless CAS strike from a player overhead. You respawn and this time....this time you're gonna be smart, so you change to ACAV, grab a shovel and get a pilot to sling some building supplies into an LZ marked on the map cleverly as "LZ ALPHA". You land again. There's sporadic shots in the jungle still as the last survivor of the first clump to head to an objective tries to hold his ground. Then...silence. You build your nifty little situation room, your nifty little spawn point and then you start throwing up your trench walls and bunkers. Pilots start slinging in a disproportionate number of ammo crates to food or meds. People who get to the FOB by helicopter start clumping up on the walls. To make progress, you start using your own mortars and Radio Support to destroy the AA guns and HQ while aircraft overhead keep getting shot down by AA that hasn't been destroyed because nobody's in the field to find how far off the map marker the objectives actually are. Now the few people to leave the wire are making slow progress and keep getting ambushed or killed by friendly fire. What fun. MACV-FOB.



The Second Way: Silent and Smart.

You start a new AO. You look at the map. You ID an area on the periphery of the sector devoid of AA. You mark the spot and coerce a pilot to fly you and a few guys there. You are loaded to the hilt with explosives and ammunition for at least one of your weapons which is suppressed. The bird touches down, you get off, run three steps and fan out in the prone. Once the helicopter takes off and the noise dies down, you get up and toggle your combat pace to a painfully slow walk. Everybody gets into line and follows a point man. You head to the first AA objective, creeping along. The pointman is looking forward, the anchorman at the back keeps checking your trail. If you are a mixed group of ACAV and MF players, you use the direct chat sparingly and in in hushed tones. If you find there's a VC on your trail, anchor points it out and you go prone in the bushes. Somebody tags the two VC on your trail with a minimal number of suppressed shots. Go back to the bodies and "HIDE" them.

Continue mission. Oddly, for the amount of time on the ground and the amount of ground you've covered you've encountered few enemies. Everybody is alive and alert. You see five or six VC running, but instead of initiating a large fight, you get prone and behind a tree and let them pass. Once they're out of sight you pick up and continue.

Coming up on the AA gun. You hear voices. You get on line, not forgetting to check for VC following the path of crushed grass behind your group. You locate the gun, drill the gunner in the head with a quiet shot. You either crawl up and place a charge on a timer, or silently dispatch it with a well aimed thermite grenade. Gun is gone, or you hear it detonate minutes later as you're already on your way to the next objective. Type to the pilots that the first gun is down. They now have more freedom to operate. You continue this, circling the AO to knock out the AA batteries and the mortar teams, who haven't fired a shot at you. Pilots are slinging supplies into the first AO clearing, but they're not to build a FOB. Instead its to turn that LZ into a localized POL point and mortar pit to support this and the next AOs. No need for a respawn, towers, a maze of walls, floating bunkers, carelessly overturned supplies dropped from the stratosphere etc.

You shoot at a VC and miss. He is alerted. He tells his buddies in loud and angry Cup Noodle voices. they're onto you. So you go loud, beginning a sloppy, but effective break-contact drill. Leaving a guy to mag dump, then fall back and set up behind another tree. A curtain of WP grenades blocks the enemy from view. You group up and run loudly for 100m and group up in the trees. Now that you've knocked out the majority of the AA in the area, you can now have the pilots move in for what they are waiting for. You mark the map and as they begin to unleash the entire divisional stockpile of rockets, bombs and mortar rounds on your point of contact, you are silently falling back into line and moving out towards the HQ.

Now you do destroy it. You crawl up and pop the DSHk gunners with well aimed shots. You sprint up and place demo on the supplies and quickly hotdog roll out over the berms. Trigger the explosives and the HQ is down. Instead of heading to a large FOB to wall sit and watch pilots dive bomb the jungle, you now group up in the old HQ and use its walls for cover as you begin to draw out the enemy in the area with loud gunfire. You keep the map updated with marks on the latest enemy contacts and allow the pilots to let loose with all they have.

If the enemy contact drops off and you still haven't taken the sector's garrison down, you now begin patrol operations. Instead of the silent walk, you can now move at a normal pace through the jungle believe it or not, you will trigger large groups of enemies to spawn and attack you. Once the sector goes green, you fall back to the HQ (which is almost always a perfect LZ and call for an extract, killing the last of the VC who trailed you there. Head back to base and rearm for the next AO.



There's nothing wrong with the first way. It can be really fun to just unleash your inner Animal Mother and rip your M60 at the treeline. But, it gets tiresome to make the fight harder than it has to be- and to incur unbelievable casualties. This is a DLC centered around MACV-SOG. Read the neat facts and quotes at the bottom of the screen when you're loading in. A lot of detail and care went into the making of this with information from veterans of the Vietnam war who served in this role. You went in, far from the safety of friendly firebases, FOBs, airstrips etc. You moved through the jungle for as many as a few weeks eating cold chow, sleeping in the rain, pulling guard duty and sleeping every other hour and trying to gain and maintain visual contact with much larger units who would ANNIHILATE you if you slipped up and fired a loud shot, stepped on a tree branch, smoked a cigarette within a mile of them etc. Give stealth a try, maaaan!



If you've made it this far and I have your interest, I'll break down the basics of the stealth system in the game.

1. Detection.
I haven't seen it lately, but I have played in servers with a detection meter enabled. It was an eyeball symbol in the upper right hand corner of the HUD. You could see exactly how "visible" you were to the enemy AI.

There were three levels. Red, Yellow and Green. You want to stay "green" as much as you can.

Lighting plays a huge part in this. If you move through the jungle during the day and walk in the patches of sunlight, you'd see your detection meter turn either yellow, or more likely- red. If you are creeping through city streets at night and walk under a street light, you go from Green to red.

If you are prone in a field of tall grass, and scanning with your freelook button, you stay green. You start swinging your body around to look, you will quickly flatten the grass around you and you will be in "yellow" state. If you are in a field of short grass, you are likely to be yellow in the shade and almost definitely in "red state" when flopping around.

In essence, stay as still as you can when you can, stick to shadows. If you have a suppressed weapon, streetlights and lamps can be shot out discreetly and allow you to move in the dark.

A final note. FLARES will turn anybody under them red, including the moment you fire it up and away from you. While the flares are up and burning, Arma does a great job of simulating what flares or other bright lights do to your eyes ability to see at night. Everything gets darker. You think you cant see, so you fire another flare. And another. Not only are you highly visible while they are up, it makes the night look darker than it actually is. That's why in real life when a flare or bright light goes up, you should cover one of your eyes to keep that pupil dilated. When the flare burns out, you'll have a faster recovery to being able to see. However in Arma, just don't use flares. That's some basic line-infantry grunt or POG crap. That's a cherry move.

If you must use lume, I recommend carrying the flare rounds for the XM148 or M79 grenade launchers. You can fire them out and away from you farther before they light up, allowing you to fire past your intended target and illuminate it from behind.


2. Walking Speed/Noise
I set my "toggle combat pace" keybind to a combination of W+S. Rock your finger to hit both and you will toggle the normal "jog" moving speed down to a careful and purposeful walk, or silent crouch.

When you move, if you walk normally, you will trigger enemy spawns. VC or NVA who have already spawned will be more likely to home in on your position, or see you and shoot at you.

If you toggle the slow pace and everybody in your group moves at that slow pace, you'll notice that you can practically traverse the AO without getting shot at- depending on how careful you are. An errant shot, a careless player who accidentally sprints, a bad mortar strike near you will stir that enemy AI right up to full alertness.

The AI do track you. Especially if you leave a large trail through grass. The "hotdog roll" in the prone through tall grass is the largest offender here. It paves a veritable highway for VC to track. If you're not watching your six, they will run up on you and start shooting. Now, you're compromised. If you are alone, keep your head on a swivel. If you are in a group, the last guy should be doing a good job of checking the six. If he sees contact, alert the group and try to eliminate the trackers silently. If possible, hide the bodies. Its like Hitman: Vietnam out here. If they don't find bodies laying everywhere, they'll be less likely to start yelling for their buddies.

Other ways to move silently, the Hotdog Roll I alluded to earlier. It is dead silent, though it does leave a large trail. It can be used to great effect, not only to move faster than the slow walk or low crawl, but to rapidly descend hills or get to cover quickly before initiating an ambush.

You can "bump" the sprint key on every other step of your slow walk if you need to catch up to the guy in front of you. It doesn't seem to put you "in the red" but it will if you hold it down and go flat footing through the jungle.

Lastly, and this one is kind of a cheat, but if you turn sideways to your direction of travel, crouch and look over your shoulder with free look, you can hold the A or D key and your sprint key and achieve a kind of "crab jog" that keeps you silent, but covers ground a lot faster than the hotdog roll. If your weapon is at the high ready, you sustain a pretty blistering pace that doesn't drain your stamina. In the low ready, your guy does a kind of awkward shuffle that looks painful. I find it useful for crossing over roads or large clearings that are too much of a detour to walk around. Its kind of a placeholder for the concept of a quick and quiet burst of speed you'd use in real life to cross a dangerous place, like trying to get past a sleeping dog with a bag of chips in your hand at 2AM.

[Booze_Rooster]

3. Sound and Suppressors

Yep, they're not just there to look cool. They WORK. They also work differently based on the weapon you are using.

The suppressed M14 and M16 are great, but if you fire too close to a large group of enemies, you will still "compromise" yourself and your team. I don't know the exact number of feet or meters, but I'd say if they're within pistol range, they're gonna hear your suppressed rifle shot and be on the alert.

The suppressed SMGs seem to do a good job of keeping your shooting discreet, though again, id say if they are within grenade throwing range, your single shots going into VC #1 are going to alert #2 and #3.

The suppressed pistols are a go-to for keeping your extreme prejudice on the down-low. Though I do have to point out that there still seems to be a bit of a bug with keeping pistols with suppressors as attachments...attached. More than once I've pulled a suppressed M1911 and tried to eliminate a lone VC only to hear a loud gunshot echo through the woods, only to look down at my weapon and see my suppressor has disappeared. The workaround, when you build your kit, put the suppressor in your pack. On spawn, attach it and switch back to your primary.

The other solution and the most effective in my opinion is to carry the HD(S) pistol on any and all kits you wish to stay silent with. Its a mean little integrally-suppressed .22 target pistol that has enough punch to drop enemies with little more than a "plick, plick" noise drowned out by the scream of a crumpling commie. You can shoot from almost point blank range and kill VC #1 and leave VC #2 wondering why his buddy decided to take a nap. Its also great for taking out AA gunners and mortar crews to disable the threat from the weapon without triggering a massive firefight.

I do not recommend the Welrod, as its "bolt action" style of manual chambering makes a follow up shot clumsy and slow. AA gunners and mortar crews have a slight "armor" effect when seated in the gunner seat, so if you try to shoot the gunner with a Welrod, he'll have that thing swung around and firing at you before you can eject your empty case. Use the HD(S). Controlled pair at anything you shoot at to be sure you kill it.

Like I said before, the thermite grenades (AN/THC M-14 INC no idea what the difference is between the red can and the white/purple can variants in the game is as they work the same) are highly useful. They can be used to destroy an AA gun from a distance, both killing the gunner and destroying the gun without a sound. Not only that but once you destroy an AA gun or mortar, any associated troops that spawned with it will despawn. If you blow a gun up, they may get alerted and fire at you before despawning, starting a massive fight you didn't want.

If you lay demo, ALWAYS set at least a 40 second timer as a deadman switch, so even if you and your team are killed, you at least got the gun. If you're not about to be compromised or getting shot at, put a nice long fuse on that breaching charge (lighter than the satchel and just about as effective, you can carry more of them)

You can load your pack up with "toe popper" mines as well. They are light and numerous. In reality they should seriously injure anybody who steps on them, but currently all they do is make a bang. It does let you know you're being trailed however. Trip flares work well too, however once you get too far away, you may not hear or see the flare going off.

I do like the claymores, though they are heavy and eat into your pack's load. If everybody in your group has one, you can leave them facing your direction of travel as you break contact and keep large groups at bay until you can reconsolidate a few hundred meters back.

Lastly, F-1 tripwire traps are great. They are fairly light and can be periodically placed on your route. They will kill anybody on your trail or at the very least alert you to somebody following you.



4. Breaking contact

I already hit on it, but to finalize my point. If you get shot at, go loud or get compromised in any way- give the pilots something to do and give yourselves some immersion. Call for an extract. Head back to your LZ in a fighting retreat and get picked up. You can re-insert on the far side of the AO and start fresh. No need to stay on the ground and start a massive firefight. Once the enemy are alert, you're unlikely to kill them off and be able to resume a stealthy movement to your next objective.

I suggest at least one of your weapons be suppressed, and if you are not carrying a silent weapon, be sure you have comms with whoever you are with who does. Try not to go loud until you are either compromised, or ready to go loud on your own terms. I carry the HD(S) on every kit that has a "loud" primary weapon, and carry a Hi-Power or 1911 on anything with a silenced primary. If you do use the HD(S), I recommend LOTS of magazines, as the general need to fire two shots to kill means you will burn through magazines fast.

If you do break contact, let those machine guns rip. Toss grenades at the reload. Make sure you are actively bounding backwards while somebody else is shooting. If you don't know what an "Australian Peel" is or the Vietnam era V-break is, look them up. Try them with your buddies. You stand a better chance of surviving to extract if you keep the fire up and keep moving. Otherwise you'll get surrounded by enemy troops and pinpointed by enemy mortars.

5. CAS and Radio Support

I'm not going to presume to tell pilots "ThEyRe DoInG iT wRoNg", because I've played with some seriously **** hot CAS players before. Some can put a bomb right on the bush you want before the sentence is out of your mouth.

What I wish to highlight, is that IF you are in a server that is attempting to keep quiet, if you are a Hog pilot, or a Cobra driver- don't just hover over the guys trying to LRRPLARP on the ground. If you are playing stealth, you are listening for enemy voices. They are directional and can help keep your team out of contact with large groups or patrols until you are ready to engage. Furthermore, if you are trying to enter the AO and start shooting the place up, not only are you risking getting shot down by AA guns, but you're stirring up the AI into a heightened state of alertness.

I suggest as a good CAS pilot whether fixed or rotor wing, to enter a close holding pattern and constantly update your map with a marker where friendlies are. If you keep that visible rally point marker on their position, when they announce they're breaking contact- you have an accurate marker placed to start your CAS runs. If you're "BORED", don't just start indiscriminately bombing the jungle.

Honestly my beef is just with the pilots who want to take their choppers along on foot patrol with you and instead of listening to the jungle all you hear is "whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop" overhead.

Lastly, my SUGGESTION, not my INSISTENCE is to only use Radio Support when you have eyes on the objective. I do this and my buddies do this for immersion. Its too easy to "just call a daisy cutter on the HQ" while you're flying to the AO. Pathetic. Where's the fun in that?

BUT, you get on a ridgeline and see the HQ below you....now you can check its location on the map and set up a call for fire, pull a 360 security perimeter and wait for the steel to drop- man, that is fun. Also, if you have eyes on what you are trying to destroy, you can correct the fire. If you have teammates on the physical mortar systems back at the LZ, you can enjoy the fun of a proper manual call for fire and use your binoculars and map to correct. It feels awesome when you have a competent level of communication and fire discipline to pull this off. I think thats my old Cav Scout roots coming out there...


So in summary.

Booze Rooster's Rules of Discreet Destruction:

1. Stay in the shadows.
2. Stay quiet, shoot suppressed.
3. Stay together.
4. Keep up good communication among yourselves on the ground and with air.
5. Only kill enemies who are a direct threat until you are ready to go loud.
6. Check your Six.
7. Set long fuses, don't be around when they go off.
8. If you're compromised, lay down the scunnion with a blanket of fire and grenades, then beat feet back 100m and call for any support you can. Extract and reinsert on the far side of the AO. If you manage to break contact, deviate from your original course and continue.
9. Rotate out pointmen and squad leads between AO's. The more people who have a crack at this stuff will have a blast.


I hope this was at least something to consider on your next night of Mike Force. If you wish to join me or my friends who enjoy doing this in a proper MACV-SOG style, feel free to add me on Steam and we'll hop in a low pop server and have a blast.

I did have some guy come up to me in a game last night and tell me he read my entire "How To Play Mike Force" novel I posted on here a few months back. That was cool to hear somebody read it and wanted to hang with the group!

[Blackened_Angel49]

Good stuff and well received. Now to get enough people on the same page with it is another thing...
Get 3 fellas with the proper mindset, the 4th will be the squirrel from Ice Age...

[Booze_Rooster]

I like when Scrat decides to join the crowd and learns on the fly. more fun than going out with a bunch of guys on the same page

[aK]

now only if the air support lets the ground forces do their thing

[Booze_Rooster]

you mean CAS trying to joust with AA?

yeah. one of my buddies is "that guy". You know, the one who needs to be in the Heavy Hog and can't do anything but rocket strikes and rearm. Scrubbed about three AA guns in a row on me after I shot the gunner and I hear a chopper coming. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Check the map. AA gun gone. Wow. Cool. Fun. But if he gets shot down, he doesn't try to survive on the ground with a pistol and an MRE. He just respawns. What a pleb.

[Huntermist]

old thread but good info. thank you, greetings from 2023 btw

[Booze_Rooster]

Originally posted by Huntermist:

old thread but good info. thank you, greetings from 2023 btw

Finally found the notification for this

[Humpwell]

this is a really good guide! wish more people would read it. I like the stealth approach more then the alloutbang style

[Booze_Rooster]

Originally posted by Humpwell:

this is a really good guide! wish more people would read it. I like the stealth approach more then the alloutbang style

Been hanging out in the Task Force Ronin server. Those are the guys who taught me this stuff. Their server is a little altered from vanilla. Enemies are a tad more assertive. Actively tracking you etc. Objective markers are accurate to a few hundred meters instead of being an exact mark so air cant just wipe everything out. Feel free to join us!

[Humpwell]

Originally posted by Booze_Rooster:

Originally posted by Humpwell:

this is a really good guide! wish more people would read it. I like the stealth approach more then the alloutbang style

Been hanging out in the Task Force Ronin server. Those are the guys who taught me this stuff. Their server is a little altered from vanilla. Enemies are a tad more assertive. Actively tracking you etc. Objective markers are accurate to a few hundred meters instead of being an exact mark so air cant just wipe everything out. Feel free to join us!

is it a public server or invitation only?

[Humpwell]

Originally posted by Humpwell:

Originally posted by Booze_Rooster:

Been hanging out in the Task Force Ronin server. Those are the guys who taught me this stuff. Their server is a little altered from vanilla. Enemies are a tad more assertive. Actively tracking you etc. Objective markers are accurate to a few hundred meters instead of being an exact mark so air cant just wipe everything out. Feel free to join us!

is it a public server or invitation only?

no worries i found it! I will have a look.

[Booze_Rooster]

Originally posted by Humpwell:

Originally posted by Humpwell:

is it a public server or invitation only?

no worries i found it! I will have a look.

Public. Best to join through the launcher and automatically set up needed mods and addons. I know for sure they use the soundscape mod. Much better bass to the explosions, gunfire, helo engines etc. They have a few new scripts too with more realistic grenade shrapnel and sound effects.

[Cryptic]

op, you have way too much time on your hands dude. seriously. you typed ALL that about something THAT unimportant? just enjoy the game for what it is.

[Humpwell]

Originally posted by Booze_Rooster:

Originally posted by Humpwell:

no worries i found it! I will have a look.

Public. Best to join through the launcher and automatically set up needed mods and addons. I know for sure they use the soundscape mod. Much better bass to the explosions, gunfire, helo engines etc. They have a few new scripts too with more realistic grenade shrapnel and sound effects.

how rigid is that server? I saw there are classes on there, like rifleman, grenadier etc. So I guess it means i can only select appropriate gear to use. On the server where I play, I usually play as Spike team member, and make a good use of silenced smgs. Though I have some ANZAC builds (grenadiers, silenced smg etc).

[Booze_Rooster]

Originally posted by Cryptic:

op, you have way too much time on your hands dude. seriously. you typed ALL that about something THAT unimportant? just enjoy the game for what it is.

Thanks for taking the time out of your busy day to remind me I don't give a ♥♥♥♥ about what you think.