I've been playing some of the excellent Pilgrimage scenario in ARMA 3 again recently, and it's really damn good. Here's some pictures and thoughts.
The premise of Pilgrimage is that your brother, Philip, ventured to Altis to undo something that your father left on the island, and was killed in the attempt. So you swiftly head over to Altis, with minimal equipment, in order to reclaim his body and bring it home. The only intel you have to start with is that your brother's body is near a church in Altis. Which is very useful, because there's 218 of them on the island.
There's quite an array of settings for the scenario, which really adds to the replayability factor. You can have quite an easy time of it, starting with rifles and a medic, loot everywhere and fewer enemies, or go very hardcore and start with nothing and have to deal with hordes of enemies with artillery and air support. Personally I tend to go middle of the road, starting with an SMG but having to deal with a fair number of enemies.
Upon starting my Pilgrimage, I find myself on the south-eastern coastline of the island, wearing civilian clothes and carrying a rather pathetic Sting 9mm SMG. But at least there's a lovely rainbow to enjoy.
My first task is to find a better weapon. Altis, being quite the wartorn island, has them in abundance, so that shouldn't be too hard. I set off to the north, hoping to find something of use at the surf club, as well as checking my first church. Loot is randomised, and can be found in almost any building, or only in certain military controlled areas, depending on the settings. It greatly varies in use, sometimes you can find a box with a pistol and a nice cap, other times you can find a crate loaded with heavy weapons and explosives. So it's always good to explore.
Turns out that I do find something useful. You occasionally get little messages, pointing out patrols and hideouts. In this case, it's very good news. I should be able to get the drop on two hostiles and take them out, even with my peashooter. These patrols are all generated at random, and can consist of either of the two factions on Altis, CSAT or the AAF. They can even engage each other in combat.
I sweep through the surf club and find nothing, before proceeding on to my first church. Unsurprisingly, I don't find the body there. Nor do I encounter the enemy yet.
Undeterred, I push further north, eventually finding one of the hostile soldiers on his own. I very carefully stalk him for a while, hoping to discover where his buddy is. However, before I can do that, I get spotted and end up in a rather brutal close-quarter firefight. Luckily I manage to take him down and grab his Katiba 6.5mm rifle, worriedly scanning the area for his comrade. I don't see him, but I do see a MSE-3 Marid APC driving quickly towards me from the south. Lacking any method whatsoever of damaging the vehicle, I run like hell to the north, towards a small settlement, hoping to lose the enemy there.
Fortunately I get lucky and evade the enemy, and even more fortunately, find a very helpful civilian who's able to give me some intel on my brother's location. The game doesn't expect you to check every single church, but rather, it gives you various ways of obtaining intel as to your objective, ranging in usefulness from a general direction or eliminating some churches from the search, to narrowing the search area down to a relatively small circle. That top level intel can only be found by interrogating one of the two warlords on the map, located in one of the two strongholds on the map. Usually though, you're left interrogating soldiers who surrender, or taking intel from the bodies of NCO's/Officers, or as in this case, bribing some civilian to give you some intel. Very, very useful intel really. Check to the west you say? I'll get right on that!
