Economy of Guerilla Warfare
As a rebel leader against a corrupt regime, your most valuable asset is your fighting force. If all of your soldiers are dead, you are just about done as an effective solution to the government’s corruption. Other important resources are the funds you have, the drugs you can sell, and the ammunition and fuel used in your weapons. All of these can be purchased from the black market as listed below, but you may have better luck raiding government supply lines and depots. You can also forcibly impress people into your army from neighboring villages or otherwise extract the materials you need from the countryside. How you wish to gather the resources you need to thrive is up to you, and I would recommend researching historical rebellions for ideas on financing a guerilla war.
Structures and Bases
As in other games, your factions are divided into a number of bases throughout the map. They are listed by grid location on the map, and can be improved with a variety of structures. The more bases you have, the harder you are to destroy by the government or other factions. Bases do not require any finances to establish, but without any defensive improvements, your base will be a sitting duck for strikes by other organizations or the government. You will have to deploy forces to establish a new base, and they can be intercepted in the process, so be careful on the routes you take to expand your operations. Other structures provide different opportunities and bonuses, and they are detailed further below.
Notoriety, Legitimacy, Fear, and Popularity
Legitimacy is how valid foreign powers view your leader as ruler of Chernarus. If you can achieve 100 Legitimacy, you will be recognized as the true president of Chernarus and find yourself able to receive direct foreign military aid. The higher your legitimacy, the easier it is to receive support from the United States or other foreign powers with an interest in Chernarus. You gain +1 Legitimacy for every town or village you have 100% influence in at the end of each turn. You will receive +5 Legitimacy per turn if you have 100% influence in one of the three major cities.
Notoriety is a separate stat that relates to how much interest the government has in stopping your rise to power. The higher your notoriety is, the more likely the government will do its best to destroy you and everything you hold dear. The more direct actions you take against the government, the higher your notoriety rises. You also will receive +1 Notoriety a turn for every town or village you have 100% influence in. The following is a chart on government responses to varying levels of notoriety.
0-10: Government doesn’t care about you.
10-20: Checkpoints will be established in grid sections you are known to operate in.
20-40: Retaliatory measures will be taken against towns and villages you have influence in.
40-60: Active patrols will be launched in areas you are known to operate in.
60-80: Airborne operations and bombing runs will be launched against any encampments you have that are exposed.
80-100: Government forces will prepare and launch a full scale offensive against any territories or encampments in your possession.
One of the most important parts of winning a guerilla war is winning the hearts and minds of the public. Or, instilling a deep sense of fear in all that would oppose you to establish your dominion over the feeble masses. Every town, village, and city has its own stats and population. All factions will be rated by popularity or fear, and based on that, you will receive new recruits every turn. The Fear-Popularity scale is rated from -100% to 100%, with the negative number being the most terrified and 100% being the most popular. If you achieve 100% in either direction, you are deemed to be fully in control of that town or village. You can take whatever actions you believe would be effective to push that community one way or another, but both end with the same result. The primary difference between the two is that you will receive more recruits by forcible impressment if you have a high fear rating, while if you are popular, you will be more likely to receive willing volunteers from that community.
Updates and Opportunities
For each update I will expect spending orders and action orders. You can spend whatever resources you choose, and launch attacks or other operations. A soldier can only be used once in a turn, and there will not be room for multiple attacks or operations by any soldier, weapon, or vehicle. If you miss two updates in a row without giving a reason, your faction will disappear from history as though everyone was simultaneously abducted by aliens.
Scouting is a very important part of guerilla warfare, and you will want to launch scouting operations to find opportunities for future attacks or political victories. Opportunities are much like Challenges in BOTWAWKI or EBE. The difference is that these ONLY emerge if you undertake scouting efforts to find them. There are no guaranteed Challenges for each faction, only Opportunities that emerge when you send out scouts to look for them. Also, you can receive multiple opportunities per update, dependent on how much scouting you undertake. Similarly, there can be “global” events that open up new chances for action within a turn.
The Armory: Costs and Recruitment
Resources
Resources cannot be sold, with the sole exception of drugs, which require a helipad or airfield for transit to the larger world. The sale of drugs will raise your notoriety and put pressure on the government to act against you. You can trade resources with other factions, assuming you are able to find a way to transport them between you without being intercepted by the government.
Personnel: 100 Credits, 1 Legitimacy, or 10 Drugs for 1 person.
NOTE: Most recruitment will come from merit of your actions against the government and other factions. Similarly, you will receive volunteers each turn from towns and villages where you have a high popularity or fear rating. Purchasing personnel should be a last resort in desperate situations.
Drugs: Cannot be purchased, but can be sold for 50 Credits per unit if you have a helipad or airfield.
Ammunition: 5 Credits per 1 Ammunition
Fuel: 20 Credits per 1 Fuel.
Weapons
Carbine: 1 Credit; old style rifles, some dating back to the Second World War. Available in ample supply from all sources, and are basic weaponry. Expends 1 Ammunition per Battle.
Assault Rifle: 10 Credits; your typical late 20th century mainstay of modern armies, with both automatic and semiautomatic capability. Expends 5 Ammunition per battle.
Battle Rifle: 50 Credits; these advanced weapons have the reliability and punch expected of an advanced 21st century weapon. Expends 10 Ammunition per battle.
Heavy Machine Gun: 100 Credits; a staple of military forces since the First World War, they are highly effective and powerful mankillers with a high rate of fire. Expends 50 Ammunition per battle.
RPG Launcher: 100 Credits; A powerful weapon for use against lighter armored vehicles. Expends 25 Ammunition per battle.
Missile Launcher: 250 Credits; A weapon most effectively used against the heaviest armored vehicles and helicopters. Expends 50 Ammunition per battle.
Howitzer: 500 Credits; A weapon that can shell targets in neighboring grid sections, but is not very mobile and will rapidly raise notoriety. Still, it is effective against all targets and is the only weapon capable of destroying a heavy tank. Expends 100 Ammunition per battle.
Vehicles
Truck: 250 Credits; A predominantly civilian heavy-duty transport vehicle. They can transport 20 people. Will attract less attention from government authorities than any other vehicle. Has no weapons and so expends no ammunition, but it does use 1 Fuel per grid square it travels each turn.
Armored Personnel Carrier (APC): 2,500 Credits; A military-grade transport vehicle that will attract attention wherever it goes, but has onboard weapons that cause a lot of damage to infantry and light vehicles or helicopters. They can transport 10 people. Uses up 50 Ammunition per battle, uses up 5 Fuel per grid square it travels each turn.
Light Tank: 5,000 Credits; a strong armored vehicle with the ability to withstand most attacks and inflict heavy damage on enemy vehicles, but has no transport capacity. They will obviously attract a lot of attention whenever used. Uses up 75 Ammunition per battle and 10 Fuel per grid square it travels each turn.
Heavy Tank: 10,000 Credits; the most powerful weapon in the former Russian arsenal, capable of resisting almost any weapons and fire from any other vehicle beyond other heavy tanks and artillery. They will attract a lot of attention when used. Uses up 100 Ammunition per battle and 15 Fuel per grid square it travels each turn
Ships
Fishing Boat: 1,000 Credits; Fishing boats are common along the Chernarus coastline, and attract no attention from the government forces. They can transport 10 people. They have no weapons beyond those carried by their passengers, and will expend 5 Fuel per grid zone they travel through in a turn.
Patrol Boat: 2,000 Credits; Light and fast seacraft, using with a mounted light machine gun or cannon, and they can be easily concealed along the coast or even carried inland. They cannot carry passengers. They expend 10 Fuel per grid zone they travel through in a turn.
Corvette: 10,000 Credits; a coastal interception naval vessel with light cannons and machine guns, common in international coast guards. They cannot be concealed from government forces and will raise your notoriety. They can hold up to 40 passengers and crew. They will use 100 Ammunition per battle and consume 20 Fuel per grid zone they travel through.
Destroyer: 15,000 Credits; a larger, modern craft that matches the best available in most 3rd World arsenals. They have heavy cannon and highly effective anti-air capabilities. They can hold up to 100 passengers and crew. They will use 200 Ammunition per battle and consume 30 Fuel per grid zone they travel through.
Aircraft
Light Helicopter: 1,500 credits. These are ultra-light scouting aircraft that are easy to land and conceal and will not attract any undue attention. They have no guns and expend a mere 1 Fuel per grid section traveled through.
Civilian Utility Aircraft: 3,000 credits. These are basic civilian aircraft that can be used to shuttle around troops to various bases or scout, but lack any weapons. They rarely attract attention from the government, and can be used to bypass checkpoints. CUAs carry up to 10 passengers and expend 5 Fuel per grid square they travel through. Requires an Airfield for purchase.
Transport Helicopter: 5,000 Credits. These are large transport helicopters with no weapons used for rapidly transporting and deploying a large amount of soldiers at once. They can land without a helipad to launch raids, but do require Helipad at a base for purchase and deployment. They attract some attention from the government, but still can be used to effectively bypass any checkpoints or guard stations setup along the road. Can carry up to 20 passengers and expend 20 Fuel per grid square they travel through.
Attack Helicopter: 7,500 credits. These are advanced helicopters that can transport troops and have a good amount of weaponry attached, making them effective tank-killers. They require a Helipad to purchase. They consume 75 Ammunition per battle, and use up 30 Fuel per grid square they travel through.
Cargo Airplane: 10,000 credits. These are massive aerial transport shuttles that can carry a large amount of troops and even armored vehicles. They have no weapons, and use up 50 Fuel per grid square they travel through. They can hold up to 50 passengers or 2 vehicles (or 25 passengers and 1 vehicle).
Jet: 20,000 credits. Very expensive to purchase and maintain, jets deliver a massive amount of ordinance upon any target. They alone have the firepower to destroy structures and buildings, and can only be destroyed on the runway or by other jets. They use 200 Ammunition per battle and 50 Fuel per grid square they travel through.
Robotics
Drone weapons are the path of the future and require a Control Center to be built to operate them. They do not appear on radar and can effectively surprise attack any location with ease. They are expensive to purchase, but are highly reliable when you do find them.
Spy Drone: 5,000 credits. These stealth drones are used to reliably scout enemy positions and by far are the most effective ways to find possible targets. They expend 5 Fuel per grid square they travel through.
Attack Drone: 10,000 Credits. These weapons of war are the best for surgical strikes to eliminate heavy targets like tanks or structures. They cause a lot of damage but on their own are not enough to wipe out an enemy faction or force. They expend 50 Ammunition per battle, and use 5 Fuel per grid square they travel through.
Military Structures
These can only be built in bases located outside of urban areas or villages.
Camp: 1,000 credits. Provides the best concealment and lowest notoriety of a base, but is only a minor improvement to an unimproved location in terms of fortification.
Fort: 2,000 credits. Provides moderate concealment against detection, a moderate amount of fortification, and a low level of notoriety. Requires and replaces a Camp when built.
Base: 5,000 credits. Provides a permanent living facility, usually carved out in a mountain side or abandoned buildings. Provides no real concealment against detection, but is a strong defensive position. Requires and replaces a camp when built.
Helipad: 3,000 credits. Needed for the deployment of helicopter aircraft, but increases your notoriety and visibility to government forces. Enables sale of drugs to the outside world.
Airfield: 6,000 credits. Needed for deployment of larger aircraft, but dramatically increases your notoriety and visibility to government forces. Enables sale of drugs to the outside world.
Control Center: 20,000 credits. A sophisticated center of electronics and devices, allowing the deployment of drone aircraft. Does not increase notoriety.
Rural Structures
These can only be built in bases located outside of urban areas or villages.
Farm: 1,000 Credits. These actually lower your notoriety by acting as a front for your rebel activities. They also produce a measly 50 Credits each turn from selling off crops.
Drug Lab: 2,000 Credits. These facilities produce 20 Drugs per turn, but you will require an airfield or helipad to sell these goods to the rest of the world, as the local market is not enough to pay for it itself. Some locals may accept drugs in trade for other goods or services.
Urban Civilian Structures
These require construction in a base in a zone with a town or city. Be warned, if you come to the attention of the government or more powerful factions that completely control the city, you could lose control of the facility fairly easily.
Recruiting Center: 3000 credits. Provides various amounts of soldiers each turn.
Business: 5000 credits. Provides varying amounts of income each turn, also based on the size of the city in question. Reduces notoriety, as it acts as a cover for your operations.
Hotel: 10000 credits. Provides income, brings in foreign support, and occasionally even gives free volunteer forces from abroad.
A Hiker’s Map of Chernarus
Notes: The map provided below is the terrain and feature map used, as well as for reference in travel time and fuel consumption. A bare-bones MS Paint map will be used for locations of bases and factions. Please use the below map for your planning and operations.
