V. STRATEGY
PART III. UNIT STRATEGY
6.3. THE BATTLE STAGES
There are different ways to organize a battle, we will propose a model, but others can be followed. In our proposed model, we will differentiate three different battle stages with the purpose to call the different actions to be taken, according the chosen strategy:
At each stage, there are different strategies that can be taken, and each one will require different actions.
To facilitate the work of the Tactical Officer or Battle Master, can be established different battle strategies preconceived by the unit and known by all the members, as well as different or similar phases, so that the TO will only have to indicate in which phase they are, so that each pilot knows what they have to do.
AGGRESSIVE ASSAULT
In the engage phase, all the pilots will strike to their known safe targets, while the risky and avoidable targets will be stalked from a defensive position (not attacking them), to counter attack them if the enemies lost against the defenders. In the chase phase, everyone will attack to their safe (attack and counterattack) and risky (retaliate) targets.
CONSERVATIVE ASSAULT
COUNTERATTACK
FORTRESS
TORTOISE
BLIND CHARGE
The possible actions are:
Return to Strategy Part One: Strategy Phases
Return to Strategy Part Two: Pilot Strategy
PART III. UNIT STRATEGY
Summary:
1. Unit Code
2. Leadership
3. Membership
4. Communication
5. Intelligence
6. Battle Plans
1. UNIT CODE
"When the orders are reasonable, fair, simple, clear and consistent, there is a reciprocal satisfaction between the leader and the group."
The Unit Code is a set of rules and or requirements expected to be agreed and committed by every member, and enforces the chances to reach the Strategic Plans towards the desired success.
While it is not a must be, is desirable to establish a few streamlines with the limits of what is expected (and so, what is not) from the Unit (Faction, Squad or Clan) members.
If the Unit lacks any code or set of rules, then don't expect nor blame any member from not committing a non existent or imaginary set of rules.
The Common Sense is the less common of the senses, so don't expect the members always acting under the logic and common sense. Simply, if you expect a minimum set of requirements to be accomplished by every member, that has to be written and made sure every member know them and agree them before join the unit.
This is also advised that the Clan Code counted always with the full agreement on its text from the whole crew. If there were disagreement, revise it with all of them and adapt it so it may be flexible enough to be comfortable for all members as well as to help to commit the Unit Goals.
You may use it as source of inspiration to create your own Code or just adapt it for your team. Either way, remember to allow all the current membership to give their feedback and collaborate in the creation of the Unit Code, so that they fell it as their own and their compliance was easier.
2. LEADERSHIP
"If the instructions are not clear and the explanations and orders are not entrusted, the fault is of the general."
A unit can be managed with different society systems, but no matter which one was opted, all the Mercenary Mech Units will require at least an Executive Leader to manage the group.
Although it might be a hard or stressful task, it is desirable that someone resolute took the role of leader. He won't be for this reason any better than the remnant members, but he will be certainly charged with some duties if he expect to contribute to the success of the group.
The following are roles and duties that a Leader or an assistant Officer should cover in an elite unit:
- Arbiter or Moderator
- Strategy Officer or Planning Officer
- Tactical Officer or Battle Master
- Tech Advisor Officer
2.1. ARBITER / MODERATOR (CO)
Rather than a Dictator, what a successful Unit requires is an empathic officer that has earned the respect of his Crew as well as to be able to enforce the harmony and teamwork in the unit. He will be like the brain and the heart of the group. As important role requires some social skills like:
Humility. Egocentric Dictators are potential time bombs that eventually will destroy the unity.
Patience. Sometimes clan members or adverse situations will put the leader's patience to the test. Keeping calm will always be beneficial to solve these
Other desirable features are: Empathy, Communication, Availability and Experience.
2.2. STRATEGY OFFICER (SO)
If the unit is expected to achieve a high success degree, it will be mandatory to start tracking the remnant active clans to evaluate their strength and the divisional position the Unit will take to learn about the potential enemy units and gather the required Intel to start making serious plans.
2.3. TACTIC OFFICER (TO)
Guide the Crew during the battle, following an agreed procedure.
A smart and cunning Tactical Officer delivering the necessary indications, and aware of the opponent Intel, can drastically improve the odds of a clan to reach the victory, lowering the mistakes the members may do without any guidance. These indications can be taken as orders or as suggestions, depending on the previous agreement adopted by the unit members.
A fine work of a TO can be decisive if the unit collected the necessary Intel from an opponent to disable any attempted trick performed by the opponent forces, like the use of deceiving tactics and traps, as to learn the right correlation of forces, knowing who could beat to who and so, being able to deliver the proper orders to drastically reduce the attacking loses of his unit.
2.4. TECH ADVISOR OFFICER (TAO)
Advise his comrades about any possible advantage or measures they could follow to let them improve and so, allowing the team to improve as a whole.
This is an optional task, but important to support the unit members to improve their forces, but caution, an inexpert pilot that was pretending to be expert in Mech Tech, could do the opposite to the expected goal and be weakening and sabotaging the crew members instead strengthening them.
3. MEMBERSHIP
"In order to defeat the enemy, the entire military command must have only one intention and all military forces must cooperate."
Every member in the Unit is equally important in the common efforts to achieve success.
If every member does his best, the team will improve as a whole. But by every member lacking and being careless about the basic expectations towards the team success, will make his team vulnerable.
The following are some basic expectations for elite members of any unit attempting to be successful:
- Attendance
- Communication
- Optimization
- Keep updated the main force
- Keep updated specs
- Performance
- (Keep On Formation)
- Filling Honour Guard
- Dodge Boost
3.1. ATTENDANCE
Every member should agree to commit the required attendance during community events, like Faction, Squad and Clan Wars (events that require some presence along five days with three interpolated battle days, once a month)
There are other ways to benefit the common good of the unit, like to keep participating in the galactic Senate Lotto. The higher participation increases the chance that all your clan may acquire some Niodes.
Clan Raffle. For clans in which the members were normally levelling, there is a raffle that grants a double upgrading kit to every teammate. The odds to get this upgrade kit increase with the higher tonnage killed.
A member without any or with low attendance is nothing but a sandbag and a weakness for any unit, that will probably drop him as soon as possible to hire any available new member if the replacement were even needed.
3.2. COMMUNICATION
Within attendance, this is the second most important feature that a member must fill.
A member could be more or less Smart or cunning, but those who keep being in communication with the Leader as well as with his teammates, will benefit from a valuable feedback to learn and improve as Mech pilot.
Also, it is very important to notice any indication give by the Unit Staff or the Leader, as the success of the team as a whole will often depend on the membership following those indications.
3.3. OPTIMIZATION
The Unit members must update their forces frequently enough to avoid going to combat with forces less than they could have:
Reorganize the Mechs by consolidating strong lines if new additions have been incorporated.
Rearm units if they obtained new weapons modules or equipment that can be installed.
Check specialists' formations updating them when possible.
3.4. PERFORMANCE
In the common effort, the performance of every Unit member counts into the account of a successful campaign or operation. In the same way, the cumulative lack of performance will undermine the common efforts.
Keeping on Formation
Make sure to stay in formation during the battle rounds, well with your unlimited and main force if none spec was assigned, or well with the proper spec if any was assigned.
Fill Honour Guard
The Honour Guard supposes a great advantage when filled, as a big disadvantage when empty.
A full Honour Guard can boost as much as a 58% (once reached the proper level) of your Mechs' damage and guarantee a 8% of additional Dodge.
If you forgot to fill it, opponents who usually are unable to beat you, might win against your weakened force, especially if they made sure they have the proper fulfilled Honour Guard.
Dodge Boost
In battles specially hard where the victory could go on either side of the battle, every Little thing counts to bring the victory to your side.
One of those Little things, and not as Little yet, is the Dodge bonus from a level up. After acquiring a new pilot level, there is a guaranteed boost of an extra +5% Dodge, that has been proven to be definitive to defeat opponents against whom we are usually tied.
The boost last longer as higher was the pilot level:
- 1 to 10: 1 Hour
- 11 to 20: 6 Hours
- 21 to 30: 12 Hours
- 31+: 24 Hours
4. COMMUNICATION
A good communication is essential among the Unit members, in order to share the feedback that will guide them and support them in the path of victory.
This is a must that every member kept in touch with the Unit Crew to ensure every bit of worthy data were aware by every member.
A good practise followed by the elite units is to keep a com channel for battle orders. Avoid using it with social purposes as might disorient the pilots from noticing the important stuff. There can always be created another chat for social Exchange.
Immediate Orders and Feedback >>> Battle Chat Channel
Sharing Intel, tech knowledge and other stuff the long term >>> Unit Group
5. INTELLIGENCE
"Secret operations are essential in war; through them the army is based to make all its movements."
In the pursuit of success, the unit must have eyes to detect any adverse circumstance:
"What division will be your unit land in a Clan War?"
"How strong are the members of your own unit?"
"Is an opponent out of formation during a battle?"
"How strong is the enemy unit?"
These and more questions can be answered by keeping some Intel work, tracking every question that your Unit may benefit from acknowledging it.
5.1. DIVISIONAL PLACEMENT
The units participating in every new Clan, Squad or Faction War can be tracked with some work, and if necessary, your unit could transfer pilots to other affiliated or allied units in order to adjust the average level and join the targeted division.
6. OPERATIONS
"You can make sure that your attacks always hit if you only attack the unprotected points."
Once the preparations to increase the chances of success are completed, the time comes to the execution of the carefully designed Strategic Plans.
It is time for action, the moment of truth.
6.1. THE TACTICAL OFFICER (TO)
Ideally and optionally, a member of the unit will serve as a tactical officer or combat master. Who will direct the operations to make sure that the plans pass with fidelity, although always prepared to alter them adapting to new and unforeseen situations.
The Tactical Officer (TO) can supervise the course of operations and give the necessary indications to those members who need it.
- Giving the appropriate indications.
- Warning of sudden vulnerabilities in the enemy.
- Notifying of the deficiencies in the preparation of the members, so that they correct them (incomplete HG, erroneous formation)
- Dotting targets to attack if the unit agrees to proceed in this way. This practice is highly effective when the unit is disciplined and the Tactical officer has current information on the balance of forces between the unit itself and the enemy unit.
6.2. THE BATTLE CHART
As soon as the possibility to enter into combat against a powerful unit was suspected, a deeper analysis becomes necessary in order to increase the chances of success in the confrontation.
Weaker clans have been able to beat others that were noticeably more powerful, because of a good previous preparation that allowed them to reduce errors as much as possible and to protect their vulnerabilities, while the strongest clan was sentenced for the errors resulting of their overconfidence.
Sequence to create the Battle Chart:
6.2.1. Intel Reckon
We must update or collect the following information:
A ranking of the strength of our unit members.
A ranking of the strength of the enemy clan.
A series of test attacks that allow us to find out what is the relationship of forces between the two clans and ideally, to know what are the objectives available to each member of the clan.
The next step will be to create a combat card or comparative table of forces, which allows us to clearly see what our options are, as well as to determine which member should be protected with specs, in case he has an effective spec.
In order to obtain reliable data, must be respected the following points:
- Same HG: Both, the attacker and the defender have the same Honour guard.
- Same dodge bonus: That both or none has the dodge bonus for raising the level (lasts 24 hours)
- Same formation type: That both forces were the main or the unlimited formation of each one. If one of the two was using a spec or a force different from the usual one, the test will be useless or worse, it will give deceptive results.
Timing. Best time to scout a foe is during a real CW battle round day.
To create the clan ranking, we can make everyone attacking everyone in a Round Robin system, or if that wasn't an available option as being short of time, one or a couple members, preferentially from middle and high levels, can attack twice to everyone and report the results to the Combat Chart maker.
The data to report can be as exhaustive as wanted, but at least the following data should be given, after doing a couple testing attacks against every other clan mate:
If the combat was a Victory or Defeat for the scout.
If a victory, the amount of remnant armour and left Mechs.
If a defeat, the amount of opponent Mechs left alive.
6.2.2. Making the Combat Chart
Although there are different and creative ways to create a comparative table of forces, here this is proposed the use of a base table, composed of rows and crossed columns and defined by cells, each one containing the data we want to visualize and analyze.
In the axis of the abscissas, we will place the enemy clan's crew, and in the axis of the ordinates, our own crew, placing in the crossed cells, the obtained data of our scouting attacks.
6.3. THE BATTLE STAGES
There are different ways to organize a battle, we will propose a model, but others can be followed. In our proposed model, we will differentiate three different battle stages with the purpose to call the different actions to be taken, according the chosen strategy:
- Engage. Starting phase in which either, we, the enemy or both start the fight.
- Sustain. Main phase in which the battle continues.
- Chase. Final stage in which most of the safe attacks have already taken place and in which one of the two sides established an advantage that the other is trying to achieve.
At each stage, there are different strategies that can be taken, and each one will require different actions.
To facilitate the work of the Tactical Officer or Battle Master, can be established different battle strategies preconceived by the unit and known by all the members, as well as different or similar phases, so that the TO will only have to indicate in which phase they are, so that each pilot knows what they have to do.
AGGRESSIVE ASSAULT
CONSERVATIVE ASSAULT
This strategy will avoid the risks taken by an aggressive assault, avoiding any action against "Lose" enemy targets. Against "Tied" enemy targets, will be called a counterattack during sustain and chase phases, without retaliation. This is: attacking only enemies who lost in attack against us.
COUNTERATTACK
Close to a conservative attack strategy, but holding attacks during the engage and main phases and producing the majority of the attacks in the later sustain phase or during the chase phase, in order to acquire the maximum possible fresh Intel from the enemy about viable targets. This strategy can be adopted when we failed to acquire previous Intel about the strength of the enemy, or when we are uncertain about their real power if we suspected they were using deceiving and hiding tactics.
An enforced defensive strategy in which all members adopt a defensively stance, waiting to collect Intel from the enemy. Similar to a counterattack, but more cautiously under the assumption the enemy attempted deceiving tactics to fool our forces and lure them into a fatal attack. After a null activity during the first two battle stages, the crew will suddenly attack the opponents during the chase phase.
This strategy can also be adopted to catch by surprise a lowly trained or inpatient opponent.
When we knew we can win a battle just attacking the safe targets, this is the better procedure if the members had the attendance and patience to hold attacks until the last phase, chase. The "tied" and "lose" targets will be avoided to avoid any chance to gift score to the enemy.
By holding our safe attacks until the last stage of the battle, we allow the enemy to produce mistakes by attacking your safe points, gifting to your unit a certain amount of Defense Wins, before your side proceeded to attack the safe targets.
This strategy can also be taken when we were absolutely afraid of the scouting we performed on the enemy, or when there were a total lack of Intel.
Rather than a strategy, this procedure is indicative of a total lack of it. The unit performing this attack pattern, without a preset battle order, will result in an inefficient and unproductive attack, which may give the battle to the opponent by disregarding any of the available advantages given by the different strategies from above.
Return to Strategy Part One: Strategy Phases
Return to Strategy Part Two: Pilot Strategy
(By GJ - 685605)
