Just Cause

San Esperito is divided into provinces that can be fought over and liberated to Guerilla control. To gain control of a province you will need to take over Government controlled settlements and army bases within them (usually 3 or less). You can view these provinces and their status on the PDA (back button). There are 34 provinces in total, hence the achievement icon. Unlocking this achievement will be tedious and take time, but I have prepared some tips to make it as painless as possible;

Mission Types

There will also be 3 types of liberation mission. Rural settlement, city settlement and army base.

- Rural settlements are the most common and easiest. You will be required to destroy 3 roadblocks preventing access to the settlement, killing enough people in between each to continue. Finally, you will need to 'switch flags' at the end to complete the mission.

- City liberations can be tough and long winded, but are also few and far between. To win, you will be required to kill government forces and destroy vehicles and choppers until the slide indicator in the top right indicates you that you have nearly won. The slide indicator has a house icon that will move left or right depending on the number of enemy or allied forces have been killed, the green side being the side you are aiming for, showing that you are dominating. Finally, you will need to switch flags to seal the deal.

- Army bases are, as a general rule, the hardest. They are similar to rural settlements In that you will need to destroy 3 roadblocks and switch flags at the end. But once you rise to higher guerrilla ranks these Army bases will become more and more challenging. You will not only have to deal with choppers, but soon armoured cars, and eventually full blown tanks. SAM sites will also be an issue, as they will quickly remove your presence from the sky if you are in a chopper and do not remove them with similar haste (see last paragraph for more info on SAM sites).

Using Maps

On the normal map, settlements that need to be liberated show up as blue square with small spikes (for lack of a better word) on the side and a house icon inside. There will also be an accompanying green exclamation mark, where your Guerilla contact will be located to start the liberation. If the settlement is not available to be liberated yet, the contact will still be there but will only allow you to do side missions.

The political map will show you the status of all the provinces. There will be 3 colour codes.

- Green indicates that you have liberated the province, it is under Guerrilla control.
- Red indicates that the province is 'politically unstable' and there are settlements or army camps available to be liberated.
- Turquoise means the province is Government ruled and you will not be able to liberate any of the settlements. Completing story missions unlocks Government ruled provinces, making them politically unstable.

Methods of Attack & Vehicles

There are a number of different ways to approach the 3 different types. Chances are, though, that your eventual fallback will be on foot. On foot, you can eliminate individual troops and blockades quickly, and as long as you keep moving at all times you will take minimal damage from choppers and troops. Once you have attained a certain level, however, tanks will become a serious issue. While you are on foot you should not be targeted by explosives from choppers or armoured cars unless you get into a vehicle, in which case you will likely be killed. This is not the case with tanks, who will happily shoot you with the turret whether you are in a vehicle or not.

The agency GP prototype (or one of the tanks) will help you quickly rush through the earlier bases in the game where you will only be fighting personnel targets, but will become a no-no once choppers come on the scene. You will find yourself receiving fire from all sides, including missiles from the choppers and shells from armoured cars and tanks. Being in a car at that point will render you a sitting duck... needless to say you will be crispy once they are done with you.

Choppers are the next step up, and will be almost required for the last few army bases and cities. You will need one of the choppers with rockets, either the Jackson Skreemer or the agency Chimaera. Just like when you are on foot, you will need to keep moving. Also, try keep a height of roughly double the treeline; close enough to the ground to lock on to individual soldiers and vehicles, but far enough to avoid damage from small arms fire. You will need to be very cautious of other choppers, so keep an eye on the radar and be aware of the direction you are being shot from.

SAM sites(Anti-Aircraft)

You will find this out soon enough anyway, but if you wish to use any of the aircraft, you must scout the base for SAM sites before starting the mission. Look for the tall wooden towers and the distinct square of sandbags around the ground-based guns. There will be an optimum altitude from the base that will allow you to happily scout the base for SAM sites without setting off the alarm and being attacked. You may need to do some experimentation and allow yourself to be killed a couple of times to work out that altitude. Once you have found them, one clear rocket will destroy it, but feel free to hit it a couple of times to be safe.

Anomalies

As noted by CrazyEyed Jon the 'Presidential Island' and 'Provincia Mendoza City' provinces don't necessarily work uniformly. The Presidential Island can only be liberated by completing the final Agency mission. Provincia Mendoza City apparently doesn't have enough settlements to liberate automatically and requires you to complete a side mission.