Tactical exercises

[Kyrian]

I know we've run these types of things before. Unfortunately, with the automatic pruning and the loss of a lot of our old information due to the server attack last year, they've gone away.

I would suggest this format when first setting up a scenario:

I. Objectives (if there are any) and background. It could just be a melee with the winning side being the one that has fighters remaining.

II. Red forces. Enemy order of battle. List:
--a. Size of units
--b. Unit overall experience level
--c. Type of unit (heavy, skirmish, etc.)

III. Blue forces. Friendly order of battle. List:
--a. Size of units
--b. Unit overall experience level
--c. Type of unit (heavy, skirmish, etc.)

IV. Organization/formation. (Pictures help but are not required)

V. How the battle develops. I'm thinking that using timecoding is a good way to demonstrate how the battle plays out over time. For example, "30 seconds: Center has opened. Unit on the right has moved forward to engage enemy. Skirmishers on left side have spread out to cover enemy flankers moving to go around our line. 1 minute: Right-side unit has crushed enemy. Begins pivoting towards the the center." Give as much detail as possible.

V. What would you do? At a particular timecode, give the reader an opportunity to respond as to what they would do if they were in charge. Feel free to use historical battles or ones you've been in in Belegarth. Once you pose the question and a person responds, feel free to start developing the battle, i.e., now that you did that, red forces respond by ...

I'd like to keep the scale to battles that have at least 30 fighters per side. It gets us past the scale of small unit tactics and people have to start looking "big picture".

If anyone has any questions or comments, please let me know.

Kyrian

[Kyrian]

I'll go ahead and start...

I. This is based somewhat on some battles that took place at Octoberfest in 2005. The fighters were divided into two sides. The objective was to eliminate the enemy.

II. Red forces. The enemy was divided into several units:
--a. Small unit of heavy skirmishers/line fighters with high experience (20)
--b. Medium unit of heavy line fighters with medium experience (30)
--c. Large unit of light skirmishers with medium experience (40)


III. Blue forces. The friendly forces were divided into several units:
--a. Medium unit of heavy line fighters with medium experience (20)
--b. Medium unit of line fighters with medium experience (20)
--c. Large unit of light skirmishers with medium experience spread out. (40)


IV. Organization (from blue force perspective)


Red c. Red b. Red. a

Blue c. Blue b. Blue a.

V. Battle development
00:00 Battle begins. Forces begin moving toward each other.
00:30 Blue a. engages Red a. Red c. has begun moving in an attempt to get completely around our line. Blue c. shifts left to prevent this from happening. Blue b. shifts slightly to the right to reinforce Blue a. This creates a gap between Blue c. and Blue b. What commands do you give to the blue forces?

Kyrian

[Black Cat]

...and the loss of a lot of our old information due to the server attack last year, they've gone away...

I remember that. Did you ever find out who did it?

[Big King Jimmy]

I believe I would try to pivot the whole line.

If you have C kinda flank right, and A kinda fall back in, in my head the whole thing just kinda turns counter clockwise.

Our line would hopefully end up with A and C parallel and at slight angles to line B, with no gaps.

Now how I'd communicate that command is a whole different situation.

Unfortunatly we haven't gained anything, but at the same time we're flanking the same way they were, so both sides appear to have the same advantage..... I think.....

or we all die and get up and do it again.

[Kaegan]

First off - if you are on the blue side, I feel your pain. You are severly outmatched at almost every point. Because of this, in order to chance in hell of surviving, let alone winning, you must use some extreme tactics.

to simplify the field:

you basically have two seperate fights. on your left an even one. On your right you are outmanned by say 50%.

also With a unit that outmactes you by 50% in front of you, you cannot engage them or you will lose(being outmanned in 2/3 of the engagements). But if you ignore them they will walk over the rest of your team.

In order to stand a chance this is what I suggest. Your unit on the right must hold off the engagement for a good 15 seconds. your center quikly charges center in front of red B, then splits in two. one half charges the right engagement from the side or rear - helping your right side. and the second half does whatever is neccisary to prevent Red B from participating in the fight.
if your right side wins their fight, they must immediatly attack Red B, assisting what's left of your delaying force. If you win both of these two fights your at a 50/50 chance of wining (depending on which team was the victor of the left engagement.)

[Kyrian]

Kaegan,

That's basically what would happen in the actual series of battles. We knew that we had to eliminate Red a. and prevent Red b. from reinforcing Red a. If we were able to take out Red a. quickly enough, we had a good chance of winning the battle because we were able to keep our forces organized enough to sweep across Red b. and Red c. If we didn't take Red a. out quickly, Red b. would exploit that gap and then turn and begin picking off Blue b. and finally hitting Blue a. from the side and rear. So, in a nutshell, the blue forces had to use superior tactics and command and control in order to defeat a more numerous enemy.

Kyrian

[bo1]

I think i like the idea of having blue c press and a+b fight defesively until they can get the skirmishers around the flank of red. then its mashing time. Maybe putting 25 to 50 % of b with c to speed things up. I have noticed that the army that controls the flanks usually wins the battle, all other things being clos eto equal. Am i correct in this thinking?

[Kyrian]

Bo,

Generally, yes. After the initial meeting, I've noticed that we either lapse into the swirling toilet bowl of doom--the right flanks of both sides push forward while the left flanks back up preventing the enemy from getting completely around the line (also called refusing the flank)--or the battle degenerates into several small pockets of fighting spread across the battlefield. At that point, you have people basically attempting to flank or hit the rear of the enemy groups. Typically, the side that wins is the one that can maintain cohesiveness and that prevents their forces from getting too spread out.

Kyrian

[Osric]

Give us a new one. I call dibs on the first reply.