Operation: Anchorage



Operation: Anchorage is the first downloadable content (DLC) pack for Fallout 3, and was released on January 27, 2009 for the Xbox 360 and Windows versions. The DLC costs 800 Microsoft points.

Story
In this DLC pack, the Brotherhood of Steel Outcasts are trying to acquire advanced military tools, and the only way to enter the vault containing these relics is by completing a military virtual reality simulation. In the simulation the player fights in one of the greatest battles of the Fallout universe: the liberation of Anchorage, Alaska from invading Red Chinese troops. The simulation is set between June 2076, when the T-51b Power Armor was first introduced, and January 2077, when Chinese forces were completely driven out of Alaska.

Once the DLC is downloaded, the quest objective for Operation: Anchorage will be activated by a radio broadcast stating, "This is Defender Morrill, any Outcasts listening on this frequency report to sector 7-B, Bailey's Crossroads. This is a high-priority message, backup is needed at our location. Any personnel listening on this frequency please report at once." A marker will appear on the world map but the player cannot immediately fast-travel to the location to begin the simulation. The DLC can be played at any time after the player exits Vault 101 at the beginning of the game. After completing the simulation, new equipment will be unlocked for the player to use in the rest of the game.

In the simulation, the player is stripped of any equipment and weapons (excluding quest items) and forced to utilize the resources supplied throughout the simulation's environment. The Chinese Red Army is everywhere, and the player first has to secure the surrounding mountain side and then fight their way into the Chinese base. The player has to use a lot of their standard combat skills, along with several new tools that are only available in the DLC. These include interactive strike teams under the player's command as well as unique armor, weapons, and other exotic gadgets. Throughout the simulation various pieces of intel are also hidden that yield the Covert Ops perk when all are collected.

Accessible outside the simulation

 * Gauss Rifle
 * Trench Knife
 * Chinese Stealth Armor
 * Winterized T-51b Power Armor
 * Jingwei's Shock Sword
 * Neural Interface Suit
 * Outcast Specialist Robe

Simulation-only items
Items which do not appear outside the simulation without the use of glitches or console commands:
 * Winterized Combat Armor (can be equipped outside simulation with glitch, see below)
 * General Chase's Uniform (worn by General Constantine Chase)
 * General Jingwei's Uniform (worn by General Jingwei)
 * Army Mechanic Jumpsuit (can be equipped outside simulation via glitch.)
 * Winterized Chinese Jumpsuit
 * Winterized Chinese Hat

New perk

 * Covert Ops (obtained by gathering 10 Intel Suitcases in the simulation)

New allied NPCs

 * Benjamin Montgomery
 * General Constantine Chase
 * Lieutenant Morgan
 * Doctor Adami
 * Quartermaster
 * Strike Team
 * American Soldiers
 * American Grease Monkeys
 * American War Correspondent

New enemies

 * Chimera Tanks
 * Spider Drones
 * Chinese Soldiers
 * Crimson Dragoons
 * Chinese Inferno Units
 * Chinese Launchers
 * Chinese Snipers
 * Chinese Technicians
 * General Jingwei

New areas

 * Bailey's Crossroads Metro
 * Bailey's Crossroads
 * Outcast Outpost
 * Contains the Anchorage Reclamation simulation
 * If you have a follower, they will not be able to accompany you into the zone.

Trivia

 * The quest title "The Guns of Anchorage" is probably cribbed from thriller author Alistair MacLean's "The Guns of Navarone", where a small, elite group of Allied commandos are tasked with destroying a series of Nazi gun emplacements.
 * The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System actually doesn't end at Anchorage but at Valdez Alaska. The map shown by General Chase when he given out missions, the topography confirms you are located near Valdez which is east of Anchorage.
 * The simulation includes a reference to the miniseries Band of Brothers. One of the American Grease Monkeys in the Anchorage camp mentions that his kid brother wants a Chinese gun, and fulfilling that request "could get ugly." In the miniseries, Lou gets a Luger off of a German messenger and is killed when the Luger goes off in his pocket severing his Femoral Artery. Malarkey was the person trying to get one for his kid brother and was eventually given the Luger by First Sergeant Lipton.
 * The quest title "The Guns of Anchorage" most likely refer to the novel "The Guns of Normandy" as well. Which is a George Blackburn book that gives "the most realistic and breathtaking account of what front line action was like in World War II."

Gallery
 Image:Fallout-3-20081210103254094.jpg|An artillery battery firing Image:Fallout-3-20081210103221985.jpg|General Chase surveying a map Image:Fallout-3-20081210103247375_(1).jpg|American Grease Monkeys and a soldier in a set of Winterized T-51b Power Armor Image:Anchorage_Gauss.jpg|An American Soldier with a Scoped Gauss Rifle Image:Fallout-3-20081210103232438.jpg|The Trans-Alaskan Pipeline Image:Fallout-3-20081210103229031.jpg|A Chimera tank Image:Screen08B.jpg|A Chinese Stealth Suit Image:Chinese Base.jpg|The Chinese Listening Post Image:OA Vertibird.jpg|A VB-02 Vertibird Image:OA PA.jpg|Soldiers equipped with Winterized T-51b Power Armor and carrying Miniguns Image:OA General Chase.jpg|General Chase addressing the player Image:Screen07B.jpg|The Lone Wanderer in Winterized Combat Armor