M4's Tactical Exercise #3: All Out Attack

[marauder]

Objective:
Your arch nemesis is defending their team leader's farm. Intel reports that 30 of their team members have shown up for battle. You have assembled your own team at the local park behind (A5) behind the farm. You are waging an all out assault on the enemy base. Take control of the enemy HQ (H5) in order to claim victory.



Map Recon
Each grid square is 250 ft x 250 ft. Rocks, hills, and ridges provide excellent cover. The forest is dense. The N stream can be crossed easily via a ford on the path at D2. The 2 tributaries of the N stream (C7 east) can easily be crossed. The river can be crossed by bridge, at the dam, or via the RR tracks (G10). The enemy HQ (H5) is a very large deer stand converted into a tree fort. Blue Xs denote water spigots.

This is going to be one of the biggest, if not the biggest, water war you've ever attended. You have 25 soldiers at your command. Your team has the following weapons at your disposal:
Douchenator style WBL
Hydrocannon (Jeffman3 modded)
CPS 2000 mk1 (ghillie cover)
CPS 3200 (painted black)
CPS 2700 (painted camo)
Blazer
2 Vindicators
2 CPS 21k
CPS 1200
CPS 1000
3 Max D 6000s
2 Flash Floods
3 XP 150s
2 XP 270s
3 SS 100 mk2s (painted camo)
4 Pythons
4 Goblins
200 waterballoons, any carrying devices you need


How will you assault the farm? Destroy the enemy? and seize the base?

Feel free to ask additional questions. Feel free to be creative. Game is OHK capture the base.

[atvan]

I'm expecting a pretty wide defense, so will play off that. Do we need to eliminate the enemy or just take over their base? My plan assumes that only takeover is needed. Also, I'm hoping your scale is wrong and the map is longer than 160 ft.


First off, I'm gonna get everybody in position. Runners will be sent to all crossings of the river with pythons or 150s. The rest of the light weapons will move in behind them and hide to protect against the possibility of an overrun. The heavy units will split up to the different crossings. One heavy gunner will stay at each of the bridges, and a third to a half of the light troops will join each strike team.

The east strike team (50 balloons) will move in behind the ridge, by the dam. If executed well, the enemy should be unaware of them there. One of the troops should be carrying binoculars, as well as a camoed periscope which, if possible should be dug into the hill. (We can have these, right?) The western strike team (25 balloons) will move into the woods at I1, prepared to clear hidden enemies quickly if required. The center strike team (100 balloons) will fall back in reserve to the trailer and commece artilery fire, with as many spotters with binoculars as possible. The remaining balloons are left with the bridge holders.

The western strike team will slowly approach the enemy base. They will draw enemy fire, while firing little. They fall back, hopefully drawing a few enemies out of the base. They will draw them as far as possible, and then shout a war cry as loudly as possible. This will serve to intimidate the enemy, call for the cease of the bombardment, and call for the east strike team to rush in as fast as possible. The western strike team will rush in, overrun any enemies they drew out, expecting heavy casualties, and fire as much water into the fort as possible before they are eliminated. The eastern strike team should get within range with water balloons as the last of the western strike team is eliminated. When the eastern team gets within range with the balloons, they should approach another ten feet or so, and draw fire as the bridge gaurds also rush. The center strike team will begin to approach, and when they arive, and both strike teams will hold their position until they run out of water balloons to throw at the base, after which they will send in a man from the north as the other strike team sends in a man from the east, and they will continue to send two man waves until the base is taken or everybody from the strike team is eliminated.

[marauder]

I'm expecting a pretty wide defense, so will play off that. Do we need to eliminate the enemy or just take over their base? My plan assumes that only takeover is needed. Also, I'm hoping your scale is wrong and the map is longer than 160 ft.

You are correct, you only need to control the base. The tree fort has a ladder you have to climb to get into. The enemy are heavily armed. the map is 250 ft x 10 = 2500 or roughly half a mile from end to end.

First off, I'm gonna get everybody in position. Runners will be sent to all crossings of the river with pythons or 150s. The rest of the light weapons will move in behind them and hide to protect against the possibility of an overrun. The heavy units will split up to the different crossings. One heavy unit will stay at the bridge, and a third to a half of the light troops will join each strike team.

Which river bridge? There are 2.

[atvan]

Whoops, my wording was a bit weird. Basically, a big gun will park itself at each bridge. Fied it in my post too.

I read the post as saying each square was 250 square feet. Whoops.


I actually like this scenario better than the previous ones, and the map is better too. One question- why do all these maps have creeks? I also just realized you never stated the gametype. I assumed OHK.

[marauder]

I actually had 250 sq ft, but then after reading your post I realized that's not what I meant so I changed it! Haha. Yeah, OHK. It's just too difficult to wargame anything else, except maybe respawn with super faraway spawn points. I always use creeks because almost everywhere I've ever fought, there's been a creek. It's a key terrain feature. You can fill up your guns (if its clean). You can sneak through the creek, below the bank, and use it kinda like a trench to get somewhere hidden, or ambush someone. You can use them as choke points if people can't cross them easily.

I really like your plan, it's gutsy. I don't think know if it'd work against a veteran team, but I'm pretty sure it would work against a team with green players, as they'd be entised out of the fort to attack your people like you want them to. Some of this scenario comes from Vermin War 1: http://hydrowar.com/V1.html and V10? If you take out the lake, the silo, and the dam, everything from row D down is the battlefield we had. I'm going to modify this to make a battlemap for the V1 war story later. Most of us were super green, and people got caught up looking at all the noise and commotion, and then we got flanked; almost like how you planned to do. The picture that is used on the Hydrowar logo was from V10 I think. I have some really cool photos from this battleground that I need to put online once I get home.

So, if I understand correctly, you are leaving the CPS 2000 and CPS 3200 at 2 bridges (F2 and G6?) one at each, for rear security? Then you are splitting the rest of your forces equally (but with the WBL in the center), between East, West, and Center?

[atvan]

The big guns at the bridges don't have to be big big guns, a vindicator or 1200, or even a 6k would work fine too. There is one at the railroad bridge as well, btw. They aren't there to make kills, just preseve knowledge of the location of the enemy- most of the enemy side of the creek thing is fairly open. It would suck to be assaulting the fort and suddenly have half your troops be shot in the back by people who infiltrated the woods and hid there, waiting for endgame. The runners at the beggining are so that nobody slips through before there is a chance to block the bridges. If an enemy comes, their primary objective is to avoid confrontation and keep tabs on them until the heavy gunners arive. The light troops would only help to keep watch, or contain enemy enemies until the long range weapons can easily dispatch them. A troop that crosses that quickly would at least be seen by the runner unless they are carrying extremely light weapons and acting alone, in which case they pose little threat, hopefully. That is also one of the advantages of staggering the advances of the strike teams- they can watch each other's backs.

The most effective counter-strategy I see to my plan would be to send a runner or two across each bridge, and have them split up. The douchenator would be an easy target, and would draw enemies to the sund. Between the sound and the distraction of spotting the shots (guns would be down to hold the binoculars) even a few XPs could cause a lot of damage. If the bombardment stopped, confusion would likely cause the east strike team to spring from hiding early, and Without a reliable flank from the north, even if the confusion died down and the plan was carried out, the human waves would be easily defeated if they only came from one direction.

edit: post 789! I can count!

[SEAL]

Before I start, I just want to say, I love the artwork! What program did you use?

*AHEMHEMHEMHEM*

First of all, I see absolutely no reason to leave anyone at the base, so everyone's going to move out at the start of the game. Basically I want to set up troops everywhere we think the enemy might go. I think I'll have 3 men hide in the trees near the stream crossing in C-7, with oh, maybe a Flash Flood, a Vindicator, and the CPS 1000. 3 more men will take up residence inside the house, one carrying the WBL, along with a Python for backup, while the other two will guard him with the CPS 2000 and Hydro Cannon. 10 guys will populate the forest near the F-2 crossing, as this seems to me like the most likely place enemies will go for. The 10 will be armed with: The CPS 3200 and 2700, a Vindicator, a 21K, the 1200, two MD 6000s, a Flash Flood, and an XP 150. I'll have 2 people set up an observation point in the old trailer, with the Blazer and a MD 6000. 5 more will hide in the woods near the dam at G-9, wielding a Vindicator, the other 21K, an XP 150, and 2 SS 100s. The last two people will be scouts, and armed with an XP 150 and a 270, and will sneak over to the trees around the bottom of the 1 column, and report enemy activity to the other squads via cell phone. The remaining Pythons and Goblins will be given out to people on the 10-man and 5-man squads as sidearms, and water balloons will be distributed as evenly as possible.

So that's pretty much all I have to say; with this many people, there are zillions of possibilties, so my team will just have to react accordingly to whatever happens. Since we have fewer numbers, I'd be playing it more defensively.

[atvan]

How are you going to capture the base if you play defensively?

[SEAL]

We're supposed to capture the base? I thought it was OHK.

[HBWW]

Apparently the trailer is just over 250ft long; that's a bigass trailer lol. I suppose I'll ignore that though, and stick with the 250ft estimation.

Since no game rules were specified, I'll make some assumptions:
The game type is simple elimination using HBWW hit rules. (20 droplet approximation) Attackers spawn at the Picnic Shelter and defenders spawn at the building occupying (I4, I5, J4, J5). This is where the teams are at the moment the game starts.

My first move is to make note of, and take control of key fallback points. I divide into two groups of squads; one moves and attacks from the east, and the other from the west. The west group gets all the ghillie coated or camo/black painted blasters and will use stealth to move through the woods from the (B2 to F4) range. This is assuming that the stream through the woods is narrow enough to cross without too much trouble. (i.e. Via leaping across, or stepping over rocks/fallen trunks and what not.) If the stream cannot be crossed, then the west team will move with the east and cross the bridge or tributaries

The east group is geared for more open, solid cover based combat and is less stealthy. They will split three players off of them after crossing the bridge; the three will head to the barn to setup a small base or fallback point with supplies, and the rest will head to the trailer to establish as a small control point for the fight to happen later across the train tracks crossing at (F6/G6). A scouting team armed with painted camo SS 100's can break off and move to the dam.

The west group will split off 2 or 3 scouts to check how well the bridge and gate at (F2) is defended.

The WBL will be tricky to use, but will primarily be used to take potshots from across the river to see how many defenders can be eliminated with it. If direct firing is not allowed, then it will be used to bombard key points on the map, such as defensive positions across the bridges. It will play a key role during and after the main attack to push across the river.

The first goal is to scout the three chokepoints and come to a consensus on which one to focus the attack on. If any of the bridges are rather poorly defended, the majority of the attacking team will move there and push the main attack. The remainder of the team is in stealth mode and will try to sneak across anywhere they can. If a crossing is achieved, a control point must be established ASAP; the gate and trench for the bridge, or the Silo for the train crossing. Any crossings made from the dam will not have a base established; they will instead move along the ridges and sneak along the southeast instead of fighting in the open.

At this point, it is very difficult to predict what will be going on, but the main plans of action are to establish control before moving up to take control of the defenders' "home" area. This part will arguably be the most intense part of the game, possibly even more so than the fight to push across the river.

Also, good ideas for Project Soaking Trident!

[marauder]

We're supposed to capture the base? I thought it was OHK.

Yes, but also...

Objective:
Take control of the enemy HQ (H5) in order to claim victory.

You can win without eliminating everyone on the other team. You actually set up your attack plan like you were going for the base anyway, you just stopped short. You could make a 2nd part of your plan about how your different teams go for the base from where they are at. Your plan is very interesting, and I'm eager to throw out how it goes against my defensive plan, but I want to give ppl a chance to respond to this first.

3 more men will take up residence inside the house, one carrying the WBL, along with a Python for backup, while the other two will guard him with the CPS 2000 and Hydro Cannon.

I'm guessing you mean the barn on C/D9?

Oh and I used... paint

[marauder]

Apparently the trailer is just over 250ft long; that's a bigass trailer lol. I suppose I'll ignore that though, and stick with the 250ft estimation.

hahahah yea I was waiting for someone to notice that mistake.

Since no game rules were specified, I'll make some assumptions:
The game type is simple elimination using HBWW hit rules. (20 droplet approximation) Attackers spawn at the Picnic Shelter and defenders spawn at the building occupying (I4, I5, J4, J5). This is where the teams are at the moment the game starts.

The defenders are defending the farm, and since their team leader owns the farm, they can be anywhere on it; however, my game plan goes along well with your spawn points. The defenders can just run to particular areas instead of starting off there.

Now, my big question to you is, what if all the chokepoints are evenly defended? Do you attack all? 2? Just 1?

[HBWW]

Good question, and it also leads to one important point; if the chokepoints being defended have very well hidden defenders, that can lead to a disaster in an attempt to attack. In this case, it is really up to the judgement of the attacking team's leadership, because I get the idea that the attackers will still have a higher chance of success if they channel most of their resources into attacking at one of the river crossings instead of trying to operate on all three. At best, a small stealth team should be deployed to a crossing that's not the one as the main focus of the attack. The small team could mount a mini-attack, or false attack, in an effort to divert more of the defense over to it so that the bulk of the attacking team can make a crossing elsewhere.

Anyway, my spawn points changed everything. If the opposition can be anywhere along the farm, that means the defense has to be much more careful and cannot simply take over the barn. Should've caught this mistake earlier. But in this case, it actually can make the attack on the river easier if the enemy is spread out with some of them at the barn and hay bails. The attackers can mount an attack on the bar from the hill and should be able to take over the barn without too much trouble depending on how heavily defended it is. With the camo'd/ghillied blasters, it is possible for the attackers to send some forward stealth team to the barn (given how close it is to all that cover; the trees to the north and east of the barn) to attempt to infiltrate the building, and if that can be done cleanly, the rest of the team should have little trouble taking over that area. The WBL may be needed here to clear the open areas and rain water bombs upon those who may still be hiding amongst the hay bails when the defense team falls back.

In any case, my attack idea still focuses on a similar, progressive method to take control of the different key points of the map one at a time. Open areas need to be used to the teams advantage, not against them. Real stealth (ghillies, etc.) can be extremely useful if pulled off properly, but is extremely difficult in water warfare when considering just how short the combat range is. I don't think the attackers should have too much trouble taking over everything to the north of the river (unless part of the defending team is from the Ridgewood Militia or something with really good outnumbered defense strategies), but the river is definitely a place where they'll have to band together and get serious.

If I were the defending team, I'd probably just round up all the best and camp the chokepoints of the river crossing. Sneaking troops past the attackers' lines will also be helpful to cripple them a little bit. In any case, unless the utmost stealth is required, teams should operate in no less than groups of two or three.

Anyway, this scenario runs very typical of many video game single player or co-op levels. Patrolling is stereotyped as a menial task and one that a small stealthy team can always find a solution to around. Patrols are also stereotyped to be walking around in plain sight and easy to sneak up on to attack, but this may not be the case on a careful defensive team that does not want to make their presence known.

[marauder]

This thread has been very useful in identifying a few themes that I want to touch on in a later tactical article. Your identification of chokepoints and critical defensive areas will help your team out. Also, when you think about "what would the enemy do?" all 3 of you have done, is what we call "red gaming" in the army. You think about what the enemy's most likely course of action would be, and then you incorporate that into your plans.

The old adage, "No plan survives first contact intact," which I believe you (CA99) quoted in a thread last year, looks like it will definitely hold true in all 3 of your strategies... for some you will stumble upon good luck... for others luck will be against you. Nevertheless, having a strategy and identifying key strategic points, will definitely benefit each of you in the long run.

I've also realized a critical flaw in my own plan, which I will use heuristically (to teach/make a point) later on. I'm going to give this a few more days, I hope more people respond. There are ... several different ways this could turn out, depending upon how you attack.

[HBWW]

I have to say that at least some, if not a lot of my plan, was influenced by excessive Battlefield 3 gaming over the past week. BF3 Rush (a large-scale attack and defend game which has inspired HBWW games) on certain maps is entirely ALL about maintaining swift and brutal control over chokepoints and that defense strategy has been a staple to many Rush games in both Bad Company 2 and BF3. Of course, it works a little different in water warfare given how close range everything is, but much of the ideas still hold true.

But hey, I'm just a gamer at heart when it comes to water warfare. I hope to never have to apply tactical strategies outside of video games, water warfare, and other mock combat. It's an interesting way of thinking though; an interesting way of observing one's surroundings and seeing how things can flow about it.

[SEAL]

We're supposed to capture the base? I thought it was OHK.

Yes, but also...

Objective:
Take control of the enemy HQ (H5) in order to claim victory.

You can win without eliminating everyone on the other team. You actually set up your attack plan like you were going for the base anyway, you just stopped short. You could make a 2nd part of your plan about how your different teams go for the base from where they are at. Your plan is very interesting, and I'm eager to throw out how it goes against my defensive plan, but I want to give ppl a chance to respond to this first.

3 more men will take up residence inside the house, one carrying the WBL, along with a Python for backup, while the other two will guard him with the CPS 2000 and Hydro Cannon.

I'm guessing you mean the barn on C/D9?

Oh and I used... paint

Oh, I read that part when I first viewed this thread, but for some reason I forgot about it. Either way though, my plan's going to stay the same, except once I've eliminated a majority of your men, I'd move in on the enemy base. And yes, I did mean the barn on C/D-9. I thought I mentioned that...

You used Paint?! Wow, you must be an artist or something! How did you make the trees and all the tiny little details?

[atvan]

Probably copy and paste or something.


Why would his troops have any insentive to come and attack you? They have the advantages in number in a fortified point, and their remaining at least somewhat in position is essentially their entire objective. Just putting that out there.

[DX]

Like Atvan, I am expect a spread defense. My largest advantage at the start is that the enemy doesn't know where I will be coming from and they have to cover 4 crossing points.

Before the game officially starts, my faster people will be allocated the heaviest guns and slower people allocated the lightest guns, since speed will be critical in the early game. The moment it starts, I'm taking off at max speed with all 25 of my players down the A row to the A1 corner and down the 1 column to the high ground at D1.

We enter the forest on the creek bank, avoiding the path and then stop dead, concealing ourselves near the edge/D2 corner. Now, we wait. We can wait 30 minutes or more. I want the enemy to think that I'm setting up some elaborate maneuver using up more map. The longer we go with 0 contact, the more likely the enemy is to get restless, explore, and otherwise drop its guard. By the time they actually start to actively scout on my side of the river for my team, that's when it's time to move. The enemy has 0 reason to do so since they need only achieve stalemate to win. Thus, if they are scouting, they are spreading the defense too thin where it matters - at the objective. If they scout down the E2 path, I might even let them walk right by, depending on how many and whether they will make noise when getting ambushed. 1 or 2 is not worth blowing my position for. If they spot any of us, we are moving immediately.

When we judge that the time is right or are forced to go at any time, we move out, ford the creek, and rush the F2 bridge. If the defense is light, we are rushing straight down the path, skirmishers first, followed by core, and rear guard. If the defense is heavy, we moving through the woods on both sides and down the path, skirmishers in the woods and core on the path. Douchenator is on the path and ready to take aim at the bridge.

Now, there is a 99.9% chance that the enemy does not have the numbers to hold this bridge against my entire force concentrated all at one point. We shouldn't even need to fight for this. But, if they have several players behind trees, the light gunners will take out water balloons and lob them across to cover us from beyond water gun range as we take the bridge itself. Someone will obviously also have to check under the bridge before we cross for any attempts at troll ambushes.

Now, two things could happen after the crossing. If I see that the enemy defense within range of the base is too thin, I'm going to call a full team rush and we go for the jugular in one go. If the enemy is able to concentrate enough to foil this plan, we back into the woods at G4/5.

Or, if the enemy is well-concentrated between us and the base, we use sheer numbers to force entry to the woods at F2 and drive the enemy beyond the gate. This is when our position is totally blown, so we have to move fast through these dense woods through F3, F4, and G4/5. When we reach G4, I expect the enemy to have at least 3/4 of its total force within defensive range. However, the bulk of this force is likely to still be between us and the base, in the open. They can't set up their big numbers in the forest on my flanks, else we will full-team rush the base from center. So, they must leave a critical mass between the woods and the base. They could set up one flank in the G5 woods opposite my left flank, but I doubt they'd set up on my right flank, for I could use my concentrated numbers to overwhelm them in quick, brief strikes, never leaving the cover of the woods. This is a danger to any flank they choose to engage in the woods with me. I can bring roughly 2/3 of my force against any flank they set up and if the only place they can afford to concentrate for real is the center.

The river is evidently too big to ford, else there wouldn't be the need for the 4 crossing points, thus my rear is secure. I can also send my players to refill from it, in rotation to keep as large a force as possible in the field. If they go behind to F5 and try to shell my rear with water balloons, I can send a few players to my side of F4 and try to get an angle on them. I can also shift my force down to cut off the bridge so they can't get back. They don't have enough firepower to force the bridge now and if they go around, it will take them out of the fight for long enough for me to press the center.

Now, those trees in front of G4 and 5 will be decisive. If the enemy has launchers and balloons, they will not be too effective in the woods. But, mine will be quite effective shooting from the woods to the open. I am counting on the woods to help muffle the weakness of some of my guns in the range and output department as well.

If I can get those trees, I am going to fight hard to keep them. If I can get Douchenator within 300ft of the base, I can start shelling it with reasonable accuracy. The G5 line is still out of range for hand thrown balloons.

Until something makes the base rushable, I will hold in this position for as long as it takes. There is no reason to leave unless the battle starts going my way and enemies start getting eliminated. If they still have their full force when I get into this position, they will be unable to use their larger numbers as an advantage, as the only place they can concentrate the whole thing safely is between me and the base.

The only problem is if they don't engage me in the woods and pull everyone back to form a line from the sand pit to the silo. My pack is then less effective when I move up to the G4/5 trees, because I risk diagonal crossfire into the salient. They can also use those positions to stop any center rush dead. Of course, I can still attempt a full team rush at the sand pit side, using Douchenator and water balloons to create space in front and make them fall back a bit. The sand pit side creates a better approach than the silo. I could shell from the trees in I4 and use the building as cover. They can't threaten my flank at J4 seriously, because putting too many people away from the base will leave it open to full team rush.

That is my more offensive strategy. My more defensive strategy involves lots of waiting and ambushing and is boring. It could take an hour just to whittle the enemy down to even numbers, assuming I don't take any losses myself.

[martianshark]

I don't have much time to plan carefully, so I'll just make something up real fast...

I quickly send 2 light CPSs, an FF, and an XP 150 down the path at B2. They make their way through the forest so that they're behind the trailer so that anyone near the barn won't see them. They quietly determine if the trailer is already occupied. If it is, they put it under siege without the people inside knowing. If it isn't, they go inside and wait around. Either way, the XP 150 is sent back to report to me. If the XP 150 or someone else doesn't show up after a certain amount of time, I'll assume they were killed.

At the same time, an MD6K and a Vindicator are sent to each place that the forest could be easily entered from the farm (there are two I believe). They hide in the trees and ambush enemies that try to come out of the farm area. I also set two light CPSs at the two entrances of our park while we prepare to attack.

Once we're ready, the 17 people remaining on our team (including me) are sent over to C10 with our heaviest weapons: The Hydro Cannon, the CPS 2000, the CPS 3200, the CPS 2700, the remaining MD6K and FF, the Blazer, the XP 270s, the Pythons, the XP 150s, and the SS 100s with the Goblins as some people's backups. The two light CPSs guarding the park are picked up, bringing our number to 19. A few of these people with lighter weapons run down other paths to pick up our ambushers. One of these runners will be carrying the WBL and about 50 water balloons. These people gather in the trailer, assuming the trailer is under our control. If not, they gather in the forest on the west side of the farm, hopefully with the people I had sent earlier to take over the trailer.

The group at the trailer sends the WBL close enough so that enemies are in range, and he tries to snipe them. He might not hit anything, but it should get their attention, especially if he hits the barn. Hopefully they will send a few people after him. These few people should easily be killed by the rest of the group, which they weren't aware of. The WBL fires more balloons until more people come to get him.

Meanwhile, the group at C10 splits into three groups: One at C9, one at C10, and one at D10, so that the barn is surrounded. When a significant amount of enemies go to attack the group at the trailer, we attack. The C9 and D10 groups go around the front of the barn, while the C10 group attacks the back. A few of my teammates may even climb on top of the barn and snipe from up there. If we're lucky, all the enemies near the barn will be killed. Then we rush over to the trailer to take care of the enemies attacking our trailer group. The end.

[marauder]

I love all the new, different, ideas that people are coming up with. There are a lot of points I can make after this is all said and done.

Martianshark, you have a good plan so far. It looks like you will successfully secure the N end of the farm... but what then? The objective is the converted hunting stand/now tree fort at H5. The enemy will most certainly have some people in the immediate vicinity of H5, so you need to eliminate them and or seize the tree fort, and most likely the enemy will put people inside that tree fort. If they have any sense. How do you attack from where you are at?