Tactical Theory: A Summary

[DX]

The Tactical Theory: The ability to achieve victory in water wars in any place against anyone anywhere at any time in any situation can be acquired through the mastery of a specific set of ideas based on unconventional logic and innovative reasoning.

Tactical Theory is no longer just the study of fighting water wars. The lower levels have been consolidated into a "Novice" level and "Novice" caliber. The Theory is no longer here to give you an objective breakdown on how people fight. It's purpose now is to change the way things have always been done. This Theory will get you to think like a pro faster than you normally would reading other guides. Elimination of Shot Time, Position Switching, Specialization of Sidearms, and even things like Rotative Refilling are now Novice options. I've had new people jump three calibers in a single war. If you think a new player can't handle advanced information, think again. There is also a new modification to the Progression that allows this Theory to apply to a soakfest. Welcome to OSF, the Organized Soakfest. Now only the Free For All is excluded, and I have no intentions of bending to include more for it. The splitting of the Soakfest game type has utterly solved what was a major problem.

The 4 "pillars" of the Theory consist of Progression of Tactical Evolution, Caliber of Teams, War in the Physical Reality, and War in the Abstract Reality. The first two give you a context, the last two give you the tools to crush your enemy in that context.

Tactical Progression places your battlefield, rules, and general attitudes [basically your battle settings] on a scale. The scale goes as follows:

Novice Level
Firepower Level
Progressive Level
Fluid Level
Professional Level* [only appears in tournaments/leagues]

Each level comes with a set of tactics, attitudes, etc. which are commonly used within it. A team/individual starts at the Novice level by default, but can immediately advance. You can also advance more than one level at once [jumping] or slide more than one level [reverting] . It may take a few minutes, a few wars, or even a few years. Depends on how you fight, who you fight, where you fight, and why you fight. For an example of the Progression, here's a short summary of what you might expect at the highest normal level:

Fluid Level:

-Naturally strong positions that are open or semi-open have been ditched
-Actual bases and forts have been ditched
-The ubiquitous position and ubiquitous rank are used [all others have been ditched]
-Stock guns are very effective
-Modded guns are very effective [due to high battle practicality, especially the mid-size CPS's]
-Small homemades are somewhat effective, large homemades have been ditched
-All but the most practical WBLs have been ditched
-Water Balloons have been ditched
-Few to no engagements take place in the open, except by accident
-Outnumbered teams should decisively win most if not all of their wars
-Traps have been ditched
-Effective defense requires man-to-man coverage, and often is not so effective
-Ambushes are very common, but not very effective
-Trick tactics are linked with others to create deadly combos
-The role of "Commander" is semi or fully ubiquitous in the Fluid or Full Fluid Command Style
-Teams are able to invent their own tactics or new uses for old ones to solve new problems and counter enemy tactics
-Battle Action can be broken down into action-reaction pairs, such as your move, enemy's counter, your counter, enemy's move, your counter, enemy's counter, etc.
-Cheating is almost totally unheard of and Parley is rarely necessary

It is important to note that game types heavily affect Progression and vice versa. It is most natural to select rules that complement your Progression level, though most choose rules that conflict with or restrict the opportunities in their level, usually because they don't know that the Progression exists. The Tactical Theory puts all game types into 4 families:

One Hit Kills [1HK/OHK]
One Hit Scores [1HS/OHS]
Organized Soakfest [OSF]
Free For All [FFA]

Each family may contain infinate variants and some game types may span all four [such as Capture the Flag]. The Tactical Theory primarily deals with the organized three and less with Free For Alls. It gives FFAs only one Progression Level [Firepower Level] and three calibers [Novice, Normal, Advanced]. There is no Pro option in an FFA, nor do any team-based tactics apply to one.

Tactical Caliber, like the Progression, consists of a scale. However, it applies to you and your team:

Novice
Normal
Advanced
Advanced [Pro]
Hardcore
Hardcore [Pro]
Extreme
Extreme [Pro]
Again, you start at Novice by default, though you can immediately advance, end up anywhere, jump, or revert. And again, it may take a short time to advance, or a long time. Some teams are happy with where they are and choose not to advance.

Once you have a context [individuals/teams of a certain caliber in a certain level], you are ready to move on to the more interesting part of Tactical Theory.

War in the Physical Reality is the actual fighting portion of the Theory. The manuevers, tactics, and other fun stuff is here. Tactical Theory currently recognizes ~97 tactics. *Not every tactic works or works the same way in every game family or game type*

Flanks:

Flank
Diagonal Flank
Hill Oblique [textbook example: The storming of Cemetery Hill by the Louisiana Tigers, Gettysburg]
*Double Envelopment [textbook example: Union defense during Pickett's Charge, Gettysburg]
*Lightning Double Envelopment
*Diagonal Envelopment
*Progressive Envelopment [textbook example: CSA attacks at Little Round top, Gettysburg]
*Lightning Oblique/Fast Flank
**Triple Envelopment/Full Encirclement [textbook example: Hannibal's massacre of a Roman Army, Cannae]

Ambushes:

Basic Ambush
Split Ambush
False Ambush
Defenders' Ambush
Positioning Ambush
Troll Ambush
Ambushers' Retreat
*Trap Ambush
*Flank Ambush
*Artillery Ambush
*Progressive Ambush/Multiple Ambushes in One
*Sprinters' Ambush/Pursuers' Ambush
*False Trap Ambush
*Staggered Ambush/Echelon Ambush [textbook example: The RM's "perfect ambush", Waterbridge 2006]
*Distraction Ambush [textbook example: Patriot massacre of Hessians, Bennington]
*A Light in The Dark/Light Trap and Ambush
**False Base Ambush
***Real-False Ambush
***Armageddon Ambush/Firepower Ambush

Charges:

Charge/Blitz
False Charge
Sprinters' Pursuit/Running after retreating enemies
Adrenaline Charge/Running Riot
Lightning Ford
Positioning Charge
Kill Exchange/Suicide Charge
*Push/Press/Punch-Through
*Progressive/Echelon Charge [textbook example: Longstreet's attack on the Union Line, Gettysburg]
*Swinging Gate Charge [textbook example: Chamberlain's defense of Little Round Top, Gettysburg]

Pincers:

Basic Pincer
*Ambushers' Pincer

Trick Tactics:

*False Primary Guns
**False Commander
**False Confusion
***Commander Roulette/The most bizzare tactic of all time

Artillery Tactics

Snipe/Pick Off
Artillery Bombardment
False Bombardment
*Mortar Bombardment
*Strategic Bombardment
**Ambush Bombardment

Offenses:

Line Offense
Cluster/Squad Offense [textbook example: the re-taking of Fallujah by American forces, Iraq]
Split Offense
Angular Attack
*German Offense [textbook example: Hitler's taking of France in only 2 weeks, Battle of France]
*Defensive Offense

Defenses

Line Defense
Cluster/Squad Defense
Geometric Defense
Flank Defense [textbook example: Chamberlain's defense of Little Round Top, Gettysburg]
Mirror Defense
Split Defense
*Swinging Pendulum Defense [textbook example: RM's outnumbered victory, Goffle 2006]
*Anti-Artillery Defense
*Anti-Vehicle Defense
*New York Defense [textbook example: Patriot delaying of British invasion from Canada, Upstate NY]
*Russian Defense [textbook example: Hitler's failed attempt to conquer the Soviets, Western Russia]
*Swiss Defense
*Offensive Defense [textbook example: The Union storming of Missionary Ridge, Chattanooga]
*False Front Line
**Outnumbered Defense

Manuevers:

Advance
Retreat/Fall Back/"Advance in the Opposite Direction"
False Retreat
Tactical Evasion
Sweep
Screen [textbook example: try watching football]
Cut
Cut and Run/Tactical Retreat/Get the hell out of there/French Defense [textbook example: French warfare]
Line Refusal [textbook example: Chamberlain's defense of Little Round Top, Gettysburg]
Rotative Refilling [textbook example: Stand-off at the Upper Dam, Goffle 2006]
*Hit and Run/Guerilla Campaign [textbook example: think Vietnam]
**False Positioning

Abstract Reality Tactical Actions:

Taking the Initiative
Wielding the Initiative
Taking Back the Initiative
Ignoring the Initiative
Yielding the Initiative for a Trick
Speeding up the Tempo
Slowing down the Tempo
Gaining Momentum
Wielding Momentum
Recovering Momentum
Gaining Morale
Wielding Morale
Destroying Morale
Preemption/Reading the Enemy
Closing the Book
Using Instinct
Applying Pressure
Reducing Pressure
Wielding Time

That's a pretty exhaustive list. However, to be a true master of tactics, you've got to be able to combo these when necessary. Quadruple combos are not unheard of. Linking trick tactics with ambushes and others can be extremely effective. Switching up your combos and linking totally unrelated tactics together can throw even an experienced enemy into chaos. There are thousands upon thousands of possible combos. No mortal man can possibly counter all of them. Which brings me to the last part of the Physical Reality. Counters are of vital importance. When your enemy throws something at you, you've got to know what to throw back and how. Sometimes complex attacks have simple counters, sometimes simple attacks require complex counters. Most counters are other normal tactics. A few are "reactions" designed to counter any of a certain type of tactic. For example, a Counter Charge works against charges, regardless of the type of charge [provided that it is executed well in the right situations]. An example of a normal counter is a Sprinters' Ambush, which is deadly against a Sprinters' Pursuit or Adrenaline Charge.

The last part of Tactical Theory is the most difficult to "grasp". War in the Abstract Reality is in your head. This covers tactics of the mind. You can't exactly execute these like a physical manuever. Stuff like the Initiative, Tempo, Momentum, Morale, Preemption, Instinct, Pressure, Enemy Reading, Timing, etc. This is without a doubt my favorite concept within the Theory. The ability to control and manipulate these non-physical ideas is what separates the boys from the men. If anything in water warfare is capable of leveling the playing field, this is it. If you want victory against a tough enemy, you'd better be just as proficient at waging war in the mind as on the battlefield.

The Tactical Theory no longer conflicts with the Soakfest game type because of the new classifications. Organized Soakfests and Free For Alls are very different things. The advice for 1HK and 1HS is similar to OSF and therefore gives that type justice.

So there's my short summary of the Theory. I probably missed something, but whatever. You'll get the full details of Tactical Theory when my book comes out in a year or two!



Edited By Duxburian on 1170964040

[Adrian]

Great summary. Can't wait to read the book.

Adrian

[WaterWolf]

Very sweet.
I cant wait to read up on all of the tactics in that water-warfare book you've been working on.
BTW, how is the ultimate source of Water-War knowledge and understanding coming along?

[DX]

Very slowly. Writing Theory articles guzzles time like an SUV guzzles gas. And unless you've been under a rock for the past month, it's obvious that I have severely limited free time. And even when I do, there are a billion things which compete for that time.

[forestfighter7]

Nice,
I can't wait to see the book. I also enjoy seeing The WaterWar put onto a completely different perspective than most people think. To me the WaterWar is a deep thing (especially when I read your articles ) .

[DX]

Just wait until I get into physical tactic combos and the abstract tactics. I just attempted to do the math for how many tactics and combos there are. When you add up the possible matches of double, triple, and quadruple combos, you get data overflow. My TI-83 can't handle the sheer size of the number. Of course I'm not going to write about every combo and might not even detail any combos. They'll have a chapter, but I'd have to write for eternity in order to cover them all. :p

The abstract stuff will be really fun. How about strategies designed to make the enemy frustrated? Strategies to simply see how your enemy will react? Strategies to poke fun at them? There are ways to get inside an enemy's head and play them like a fiddle. How do you create pressure on the enemy when there really isn't any? Why might you want to change the battle tempo? How can you trick the enemy into changing the tempo in a way that suits your team? When do you want to purposely give away the initiative as part of a trap/trick? Why might you want to actually raise enemy morale rather than lower it, and how can you use this as a weapon? How do you trick your enemy to appear at a certain place at a certain time? How do you tell what your enemy will do next, when, and where with scary precision?

Hopefully Tactical Theory will satisfy almost everyone. I say "almost" because this all goes bye-bye in your typical non-score-based free for fall/soakfest game.

[SilentGuy]

Jeez...almost all of those "abstract tactics" sound like they've come right out of a good chess book. Except for poking fun at them. I'd like to see how they'd be adapted for water war, though, and your explanation of it...

I think the title itself should reach out even to the typical soakfesters, though. Sounds like most of the psychology stuff would be mainly in the professional stages/calibers.

[HBWW]

I haven't advanced onto 1HK games and don't have formal teams, but I'm certainly very interested in reading that stuff. I do indeed want to have some 1HK fist size kill games, but I highly doubt most are going to play fairly, many of the people don't know each other and their last water fights were long ago backyard free for all soakfests. (plus tap shooting makes Max-D triggers break easily. : p )



Edited By C-A_99 on 1162855632

[DX]

Funny you should mention chess. I haven't played it in roughly 6 years, but the abstract stuff would make sense in a match. Football is another area where much of this would work. The psychological stuff is effective in any stage. Heck, my team is nowhere near the Professional Level, yet we've worked the psychological aspect since day 1. We have always been particularly good at frustration and preemption. *Disclaimer* I don't actually read other things when coming up with TS stuff. Some of it comes from observation from movies and the such, but the vast majority is literally off the top of my head. Hence, this will be a book without a bibliography, since I have used no sources.

I could try to think of ways to incorporate the Theory into soakfests, but it's not easy. The Theory's tactics are designed to be gun-blind. Your gun matters a LOT in a soakfest. Many tactics are designed with lives in mind, whether it's one, three, or infinate. In a soakfest, some enemies will keep charging straight through your stream to soak you with theirs. That never happens in score/kill games and there is no way to incorporate that into the Theory. TS does not glorify the individual, it glorifies the team. Suicide rushes of any kind are few and far between.

All soakfest tactics are less important, since you just need is a good gun with high output and high range. If you've got that, you can sweep aside enemy tactics with sheer firepower. The reason you can't do that in 1HK is because you are equally mortal, regardless of your gun. TS naturally prefers the reduced impact of firepower. Less need for a good gun redirects that need to a good mind. And that's the part of wars where the Theory thrives the most. You don't need the end-all homemade, body-builder strength, marathon endurance, or even a strong personality. All you need is a gun that you know how to use to its full potential, intelligence, and creativity. Old values which are hard to find in a world which glorifies the personal ego, material posessions, and brawn over brains. In TS, no matter the power of the guns you've got, you are just an ant. And if you don't use your head more than your gun, you'll be squished like an ant.



Edited By Duxburian on 1162861449

[DX]

Revised with major changes, notably the splitting of soakfests into Organized Soakfest [OSF] and Free For All [FFA], allowing the Theory to apply to a soakfest! Also, the Progression levels and calibers have been altered. No more multiple lower levels. All of that is now simply Novice, a respectable term unlike "Developing" or "Below Average". "Average" is now "Normal", a more respectable term. One new goal for the Theory is to encourage Novice players and teams to advance at the very least to the Normal Caliber and Firepower Progression level. The Professional level has now been reserved for tournament and league battles only, while you no longer have to be at the top in Caliber to become a Pro.

These new attitudes in the Theory reflect how much I myself have advanced in thought and how I view those of lower Progression.

[DX]

5 new Tactical Theory articles have been posted at WWc. While future articles will only be posted there, you can also read the originals [which are identical, at least now] at SM's Theory section.

[WaterWolf]

I just finished them.
They were great, a must read for any commander or even the individual solders, so they can understand some of what their leader is doing and can offer educated opinions.