Mission: Bitter chill

[JRD]

Your last mission was a success, but UN decided to quit the negotiation and leave it to Russians peacekeeprs.
Razor team will be the last team to leave Chernarus. You are supposed to assist the withdraw and secure FOB Manhattan.
As a last task, you have to hurry to Spukayev's house... he defected OPFOR and has some documents at home that can prove the Chedaki involvment in the Red Square bombing. Get the documents before OPFOR reaches the location and destroy any other evidence

Easy to accomplish... he lives at Kraznostav. Approach his house from the east, stay uphill and you'll get all OPFOR with no stress

When you go back is when things go downhill... FOB Manhattan is destroyed, whoever did it is after Razor team and his leader... you!

The remaining troops are in Elektrozavodsk, being deployed to the aircraft carrier offshore Chernarus... you have less than one hour to reach the last transport and leave Chernaruss

You can call a chopper to ferry you out, but the area is full of SAM's so I chose the groud route

I grabbed a Humvee with low fuel and drove through the woods heading south. Enemies are everywhere, you just keep driving son, south or bust  ;D ;D

As I was getting close, The game decided to stop me... I was 3 km away, with 25 minutes left... could make it in time.
Somehow a tank I couldn't spot keeps shelling me over and over, so I go one save back and try again on foot...
2 km away, 20 minutes to the last transport... ok, I can make it...
As I run throught the woods, someone I can't spot either hits me... my men never reported his position...
OK, Revert and try again... as I look back I see some guerrillas coming my way, open fire and realise they are friendly... again, nobody reports an enemy soldier, nobody fires, but I hear a shot very close to me and get shot in the head... over and over, as if the game had a code to prevent the player to get at Elektrozavodsk in time.
I too think this is a level you can't win... you are not supposed to make it to Elektrozavodsk in time or the game is over.
So I sit and wait... 2 km away, 20 minutes left...
Next thing I know is I'm surrounded by at least 30 guerillas... running around me... no shots fired whatsoever...
Time's out and I get a choice to try my last exit(again):
- Go north and try to reach a NAPA camp controlled by father Malya (whose weapons cache I reported) who might have a radio I can use to contact Cpt Shaftoe or

[smg id=1190]

- Reach CDF base in the westernmost area to try an extraction...

[smg id=1191]

I chose NAPA

I managed to go to Staroye and took a civillian crappy car.Reached the contact at Novy Sobor - beaware, the area has enemies and armor NW of town - and headed to the NAPA hiodeout. Drove through dirt roads to avoid enemy patrols and were successful till near the NAPA camp where a bunch of enemies were patrolling the western area. I then sneaked through the woods from the east and found NAPA in there....

They'll help me despite what we did to their weapons.... they know I had no coice (liar  ;D ) and want to see me out of the country asap

You finish the mission being assigned as covet ops in Chernarus... you are officially MIA and will now help NAPA, find out what the heck is going on on Chernarus and what are the Russians doing there...
You are the last US soldiers there and the government will deny your presence,no matter what.... Russians are supposed to be gearing the insurgents with the help of some Spetznaz....

====TIP=====
For the next missions you won't rearm at any base, so be prepared.
When you get to FOB Manhattan after the attack you'll see USMC bodies around. Rearm or change weapons. I found a dead sniper and took his DMR rifle, that proved extremely useful indeed

[PZ]

Great story JRD - it is really nice to be able to read in advance of some of the missions I plan to do in the future - makes for a handy reference so I don't become "bogged" down in the game.  :-X

[JRD]

Thanks... I'll add some screenies of locations to make it esier to reach NAPA or CDF camps when you play... didn't think it was necessary til I see the post...

[PZ]

Indeed - ARMA2 is so jam-packed with things to do it is difficult at times to keep track of it all.  I must have -7 or more ARMA2 shortcuts on my desktop now, loading various combinations of mods to achieve desired effects.  There is so much to do in this simulation.  :-X

[Art Blade]

nice read, good references...  :-X

I think it is really annoying if a game "plays dirty tricks" on you. One, the artillery problem, two, can't get out quickly (hey, I'd be about to kick something if I had to sit and wait/get shot all over!) Which reminds me: you can speed up time in ArmA2, I think its +/-, just check your manual. Like that, you could go x5 making it less tough to sit it out.

[JRD]

That's true... but I was watching those 30 + guerrilla AI around me like fishes in a bowl  :P ... pointlessly running and pointing their guns at trees.

[JRD]

After some research at the BIS site...

No, you can not make it to Elektrozavodsk... no matter what
Some guys reported the same things I experienced... an RPG sent from God hitting you out of nowhere... an invisible ninja sniper shooting you etc... so it wasn't a bug, just bad scripting.

Now for good news:

The side you choose after you are left behind in Chernarus determines how the story develops from this point on.
I chose NAPA, which was closer to me, so I'll be playing along with the guerillas.
If you choose CDF, you play the other side of the story.

As far as I know, reporting father Malya's weapons cache in the Manhattan mission does not affect how the game plays afterwards. I reported them and they are helping me (or am I helping them?)  ;)

Will try it with a God mode cheat someday to see what would happen in Elektrozavodsk... maybe nothing, there shouldn't be any NPC if you are not supposed to be there.

[JRD]

Quoting the "Latest content" thread...

@JRD ... As to the script errors, what are they and in which missions do you get them? (this might be related to a steam download issue)

STEAM seems like a nice tool regarding updates and patches. Don't think it's related to them.

Mission is Bitter Chill.
After 17:00 hrs you realise you've been left behind and must reach a NAPA location in order to finish the mssion and  "choose" one branch of the story.

For the next two missions you are left with the same loadout and ammo. I had my rifle, which despite being an excellent gun for mid-range / close quarters combat is quite useless at long range.
I never bothered getting a new weapon at Bitther Chill (thought it would end soon) and couldn't get one in the next mission, so I reverted back on Bitter Chill to get a better weapon.
My problem is: when I reach NAPA... there are some russian / OPFOR dead bodies (one of them had a SVD Dragunov  ;) ) and the NAPA guys that were there last time just don't show up... To make things worse, there are some 15-20 enemies at the hillslope NE of the area... I'm afraid I'll have to clear them before the NAPA guys come out of their holes............. last time I just got there unnoticed and a cutscene took place... not sure what's wrong this time, but seems like trigger fail  :(

Anyway... I have earlier saves and will try again latter this week (if I can put FUEL aside for a while)

Fixed.........
Restarted mission... again...
Went to Novy Sabor and spoke with NAPA contact, grabbed a truck and drove straight to NAPA location west of Gorka...
Last time, all I saw was dead bodies... for some reason (time trigger, maybe?) NAPA guerrilla was attacked by OPFOR  (hence the dead bodies) and left the place. By the time I got there, it was too late..... I took some long routes though, walking through the woods to avoid unexpected enemy patrols and that might have taken me precious time to finish the mission.
Playing again (for the 4th time actually) and knowing in advance what was coming I could do it straighforward... after contacting NAPA at Novy Sobor, I ambushed OPFOR (with a sniper rifle taken from a dead body at FOB  ;D ) before they could reach NAPA and managed to escape the chopper patrolling the area (yes, there is one... which I managed to bring down and another one appeared  :( )

In short... as long as you reach the area in time to help them fight away OPFOR troops, you get the cutscene where they decide to help you out!!!


There is no countdown though, or even a cutscene to tell you you screwed up.... you have to figure it out by the bodies scattered around  ;)

[PZ]

That's great JRD, thanks for the report!  :-X

[JRD]

Thanks... I also updated the original posts with some maps of the location of NAPA and CDF camps.
I'm moving forward finally. Apparently what got me stuck wasn't a trigger fail after all but rather a chain of events that ultimately would lead me to CDF instead of NAPA.
The problem is I had no clue as what happened then because no cutscene or dialogue between Razor took place. 

[PZ]

What was unfortunate for you turns out to be a blessing for the rest of thanks to your excellent reports.  I often give up too easily when thwarted by a game, and then will likely not pick it up again.  Good job, JRD  :-X