Arma 3 Adds Free ‘Warlords’ Competitive Multiplayer Mode

Arma 3: Going Strong After 5+ Years

Hard to believe but popular mil-sim Arma 3 is more than 5 years old now and is still going strong. In fact to keep things fresh, its developer Bohemia Interactive launched a massive update today. This update introduces the new large-scale ‘Warlords’ competitive multiplayer mode. Best of all, it is completely free for existing Arma 3 owners.

How Does the Warlords MP Mode Work?

To get players up to date, Bohemia Interactive has prepared a short video providing an overview of features:

In Warlords, there are two competing teams, and their goal is to capture the base of the opposite side. Players start the match by joining either the NATO or CSAT faction. Both teams then need to start conquering sectors across the map, belonging to non-player AI forces from the AAF faction. By establishing a chain of linked sectors, opponents can plan a route from their own base to their enemy’s base. Once they reach their destination, they can stage an assault against the opposing side’s base to win the game.

During the match, players can also earn Command Points. The better an individual’s performance on the battlefield and the more sectors held by their team, the greater number of points they will have available to them. These can be used to request airdrops with additional vehicles, special weapons, superior gear, friendly AI reinforcements, or strategic advantages such as fast travel and sector scans.

What Other Changes Come with This Update?

Aside from adding the free Warlords multiplayer mode, Bohemia Interactive is also adding a host of new features to the game. This includes the ADR-97 weapon pack, directly added to the base game. This means players, content creators and server hosts can make use of this weapon family without subscribing to the mod on Steam Workshop.

There are also new characters and are getting special heads modeled after five prominent Arma developers. These are to show off Bohemia’s new photogrammetry rig, and should help make the process of texturing faces more detailed in future  updates and Bohemia games.

The complete changelog is available at Bohemia’s website. Meanwhile, the whole 1.86 patch itself is around ~1.9 GB / ~483 MB in size.