America's Army/Stealth Tactics

originally written by Phantom

Introduction
Stealth is an important part of any combat situation, especially when outnumbered. Without stealth, your enemies will know every move you make, and will be waiting for you to make your move.

Movement
Moving quietly is the most important part of stealth. The general rule in AA is, the more slowly you move, the more quietly you move. One very quiet example is the crouched, slow stance, pictured below.



This stance can be achieved by crouching, then pressing the shift key so there is only one outline as shown above.

There are several advantages to this stance: First, foot steps will be very quiet on most surfaces. This means not only will the enemy not hear you, but you will be able to hear them. Second, you become a smaller target. The smaller target you are, the harder you are for the enemy to hit. Farohar: And third, using this stance your hit probability will increase compared to standing or running as well.

Know your terrain
By knowing your terrain, you will know all the hiding spots you can use to your advantage. The easiest way to find hiding spots is go into single player mode, and explore a map and look at the good hiding spots. If you find one that’s possible to use, get in your crouched position, then use “freecamera 1” in the console and circle around your character. Take note of how visible you are from what directions. Switch back to first person using “freecamera 0” to look for more spots.

There's also another way to find some good spots. When you die, you can cycle vision trough your teammates. Some times, you'll discover some good spots; use them and see if they're really efective.

Frag Grenades
Frag grenades are effective when used properly. Each time you throw a grenade, the enemy can hear the pin being removed from the grenade and the spoon being released, as well as possibly see where a grenade is being thrown from. It is important to never throw more than one grenade from the same location, unless you are relatively sure that no living enemies heard or saw your last grenade. Remember, grenades should never be used when it is possible there is a friendly in the blast area.

Don't forget to "cook" your grenades! After you pull the pin by pressing the primary fire button, release the spoon by pressing your fire mode button. You will have approximately five seconds before the grenade explodes. The less time the enemy has to run after the grenade lands next to him, the better chance he will get hit by the grenade. If you don't cook your grenade at all, there's a very good chance he will have time to move to safety before the grenade explodes, wasting your grenade, and giving away your position. Learn to adjust for the distance and height of your throw, and cook it so it explodes right when it lands next to the enemy (or even airburst it over his head, a useful tactic on the Bridge ledges).

Smoke Grenades
Smoke grenades should be used as a distraction. If a room has multiple entrances, throw a smoke grenade at the entrance you are not going to use. While the enemy is watching that entrance for incoming enemies, you can sneak in another entrance and throw them off guard.

Smoke can also be used as cover. Sometimes, such as on Bridge, smoke is very necessary for the assaulting team. However, remember that smoke can be shot through. The enemy may shoot randomly through it, and if you are moving through the smoke, you can be hit. Note: this tactic can also work very well for the assulting team, as long as you make sure to look for the enemy positions before you throw it. Furthermore, this is also very effective against armored targets. if you throw one, you can shoot at the tank, but it is unlikely they will return fire.

Flashbang Grenades
Flashbang grenades or stun grenades can blind and deafen anyone within their blast radius. The closer a player is to the blast, the more blind and deaf they will be. If they are at the edge of the blast, they may only be partially affected. Flashbangs' blasts are much more intense indoors than outdoors. Flashbangs also cause players' CEM to go down, an effect which lasts for a while after the blindness and deafness wears off. This lower CEM makes it much harder for the player to hit targets, especially at distance. Flashbangs also do a minimal amount of damage to players' health rating; if a player is very nearly dead, a flashbang may kill them. Because of the bright flash, loud sound, and short fuse, it is usually easy to tell where one of these grenades was thrown from. They should only be used when no friendlies or noncombatants are known or suspected to be in the blast area.

Generally it is not a good idea to cook a flashbang grenade. They have very short fuses, and you could end up flashing yourself. However, if you know what you are doing, cooking flashbangs may have advantages.

Flashbangs can be very effective if used correctly. If you think there is a sniper nearby, try throwing a flashbang at the suspected position. If you were correct, the sniper will be incapacitated and an easy kill.

Weapons and Firing
Outdoors:

The preferred weapon for outdoors stealth is the sniper rifle, due to its long distance accuracy. The next best weapon is an M16-A2 or M4A1 in single fire mode, preferably a suppressed M4A1. Only a few rounds should be fired from the same location, to prevent the enemy from locating you by the sound of your gun.

Indoors:

The preferred weapon for indoors stealth is the M16-A2 or M4A1 in burst or auto mode. However, weapon fire should be limited to only when a clear shot is available, and there is a 90% chance of hitting the target. Using iron sights should help with this, especially with the M4A1 Auto.

Stealth Healing
If you are the medic, when it is time to heal your teammates press the slow walk key. Then when you say stop it will be a whisper instead of a shout. Same goes for if you need a medic, press the slow walk key before you call for the medic and it will be a whisper, but you will show up on medics hud.



You can also use the "I'm hit!" radio call, and then report in, which the enemy will not be able to hear.

Even better here is a way to call for medic and report in location without saying anything. You can either code this into Keybindings.ini or add it to your user.ini file.

Code: callmedic | commoradio | commosendmessage 28 | commosendmessage 99

(This is legal for TWL, I talked to an Admin on IRC today.)--Ldog187

''I'm not sure either. Don't think it would get incorporated into PhantomScript though, I prefer the "silent medic" call already programmed in which doesn't show up on the medic's compass. Encourages those with need of medical attention to STAY PUT. Just my $.02'' --Phantom 20:57, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)

The Door Trick
To open a door without making noise use the slow walk mode as described above, and you will open the door slowly.

Enemy Communication
It helps to know what your enemy is shouting, so you can know if you have been discovered, having a nade thrown at you, or if the enemy is wounded. OPFORian TranslatorOPFORian sounds

Camo-in-a-Can
Drop a frag just in front of a wall (be sure that no friendlies are around). This will create a black blast mark, and since your OpFor clothes are always dark colours or even black, you will be hard to see if you stand in front of the blast mark. This works especially well on night missions like Insurgent Camp or SF Pipeline.