I have a boxed copy of ArmA II, I somehow picked this up on clearance or something about a year ago or it was given to me. I honestly cant remember why I have it. I opened it and thought about playing it, but never did. I need to find the actual disc for it thought. Anyways, from what I've read I now need to get Operation Arrowhead.

So how do I go about this? Can I buy OA via download from somewhere like http://www.gamesrocket.com/download/Arma-II-Operation-Arrowhead.html

If I didn't have ArmA II I might have gotten Combined on steam, but if I can just bu OA for $12 that would save a lot of money. Although this plan is contingent on me finding the disc for ArmA II first, unless there is a way to register my key and download it.

This is the best guide I could find so far http://dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=2085

But I still cant tell if it will work if I buy the gamesrocket digital version. Will it work like the steam version?

There's another guide here

http://i.imgur.com/l7jG1.jpg

Here's also a great video tutorial:

I think it should work in a combined arms set-up if you just have both installed, but I can't promise anything.

Ok, so after some reading I think that this should work. Also I saw that video above, didn't watch it all the way. I'll take a look again.

I'll try and buy Operation Arrowhead from gamesrocket and report back later once I get everything up and running (if i do).

Also as a note for others many people elsewhere have noted that you can use Arma 2: Free and OA. So if the gamesrocket version works, you can play this mod for about $11.30ish. You'll get crappy textures (not sure what that means exactly), but you should be able to play the mod. Can anyone on here confirm this works? Since I have a legit copy of ArmA 2 I'm going to try and get it running that way.

@MrOldboy said:

Also as a note for others many people elsewhere have noted that you can use Arma 2: Free and OA. So if the gamesrocket version works, you can play this mod for about $11.30ish. You'll get crappy textures (not sure what that means exactly), but you should be able to play the mod. Can anyone on here confirm this works? Since I have a legit copy of ArmA 2 I'm going to try and get it running that way.

Yes this does work, but the textures are much compressed in Free to make the file size smaller. It's still totally playable and you can try ArmA 2 Free first to see how it looks and works on your system. I tried it first to make sure it actually ran on my iMac and then bought the Combined Operations version on steam since I didn't know you could play it with Free + OA. Totally worth 25€ anyhow.

Well I eventually got everything to work out. For those in my situation the process is.

install ArmA 2 --> patch to 1.05--> patch to 1.11 --> install OA --> patch to 1.60 --> install day z (I used the dayzupdater) --> Move addon folder from the ArmA folder to the OA folder--> Die

Played about an hour. Found some good stuff right away, winchester, bunch of shells, beans, etc in a town I spawned near. I accidentally shot my pistol trying to drink water and attracted a horde of zombies, went into a house and shut the door. But apparantly they can open the door or I shut it wrong because 15 of them rushed the house.

If anyone wants to try and run in a crew let me know as I have to agree you need people watching your back.

@MrOldboy said:

yed about an hour. Found some good stuff right away, winchester, bunch of shells, beans, etc in a town I spawned near. I accidentally shot my pistol trying to drink water and attracted a horde of zombies, went into a house and shut the door. But apparantly they can open the door or I shut it wrong because 15 of them rushed the house.

Yeah they open doors and they can also hit you through walls and even run through them. Climbing ladders is a better idea when running from zombies. They will climb up but you will have an easy time shooting them, as long as you have ammo obviously. The controls are a bit tricky and when you mess up it can be catastrophic. You get used to it.