Tactics for whoever.

[Guest Leftfield121]

Tactics for the Combat Mission Virtual Battlefield.

Many newcomers to the Combat Mission forum have asked for guides to tactics over the past weeks in an effort to improve their gaming experience. Many of these requests have been responded to by a variety of well-meaning posters who either suggest purchasing Rommel’s works, Guderian’s works, the inevitable Sun Tzu or suggest various tactics which work in their own experience.

I feel that most of these answers, though well-intentioned, fail to meet the needs of the person making the request. Sun Tzu is of far greater help to those wishing to learn strategic thought and operational realities. Rommel and Guderian’s works are too advanced to be useful for beginners IMO and the presentation of “killer combinations” or “ things that worked brilliantly in a battle I once had” also fail to meet the needs of a beginner who doesn’t know the basics of fire and maneuvre, how to deploy, whether or not a reserve is a good idea etc.

So, I decided to write these articles since I felt there was precious little other hope for people to begin increasing their understanding of tactics in a deliberate and proscribed manner.

Introduction to Tactical Concepts: ( The validity of a doctrinal approach.)

Tactics on the Virtual Battlefield come in many shapes and forms. Some can best be summed up as variants of the immortal maxim” Find them, fix them, kill them.” Whilst others are steeped in arcane nuances, feints and so on and so forth. I personally find the overly complicated variants useless and disdainful as I feel they only make tactics seem far more complicated than they really are. In reality one’s decisions on the battlefield are usually quite simple and the answers to the problems the enemy sets you are usually self-evident. Most opponents only fail to see these answers because their mind is clouded by inconsequential side-issues and variables which they should be ignoring.

I feel that, until such time as you can all command by instinct and can “sense” the ebb and flow of the battle that a doctrinal approach to decision-making is not only valid but essential. It will prevent you from becoming overloaded by information and provide you with a rigid framework within which you can identify all the non-essential variables and information, screen them out and make your decisions based only on the essential information.

One should never abandon a doctrinal approach but, after some time, it becomes innate and instinctive and one doesn’t even realise one is using it anymore. This is the stage you are aiming for but it will, almost certainly, take many months if not years for you to achieve. So, the sooner you start the better.

As I see it any commander seeking to kill his or her enemy in as efficient a manner as possible must keep in mind a number of factors which can be divided into the following categories:

1. The Objective.

2. Economy of Force.

3. Friendly Capabilities.

4. Enemy Capabilities.

5. The Initiative

6. Force Multipliers.

7. Avoidance of Errors

8. Simplicity.

The order of these factors is very important and can be remembered in a little mantra I’ve made up. “ The Objective is our goal. We will gain our goal by using Economy of Force along with knowledge of Friendly Capabilities, Enemy Capabilities to gain the Initiative. Once we have the Initiative we can capitalise on our Force Multipliers whilst Avoiding Errors and initiate a simple plan to achieve our goal.” I suggest that you memorise this as it provides a simple and effective framework for action and victory against which your plans can be checked..

Those are, in order, your goals.

1. You must identify the objective. Unless you have a clear idea of WHAT goals you need to achieve to win it will be impossible to ACHIEVE those goals.

2. You MUST practice economy of force. This means that you commit the minimum amount of forces necessary to accomplish each of your intermediate goals. If one platoon can hold a hill and you commit one company to that hill then you have just robbed either your reserve or another portion of your line of two platoons.

3. Friendly Capabilities. Know your force and its capabilities. It will determine what you can and cannot do.

4. Enemy Capabilities. Know your enemy’s possible force and its probably capabilities. It will determine what you can do to maximise your advantages and what you most do to minimise your disadvantages.

5. The Initiative. Destruction and/or disorganisation of enemy forces and plans will win you the initiative. Once you have the initiative you can utilise it to maximise your use of force multipliers.

6. Force Multipliers. Anything which increases the effectiveness of your forces, such as surprise, numbers, enemy disorganisation etc can be referred to as a force multiplier. An ambush is a force multiplier also but for our purposes force multipliers will NOT include defensive measures such as an ambush. Force multipliers must be exploited aggressively to gain maximum effectiveness and thus they are the preserve of the side with the initiative. It is with this cant that I will discuss them here.

7. Avoidance of Errors. Don’t misidentify the objective, don’t gift the enemy the initiative, don’t over-estimate yourself or under-estimate the enemy, don’t lose the initiative, don’t let the enemy prosecute your forces under the boon of his own force multipliers and don’t over-complicate a plan so much that it becomes unworkable.

8. Simplicity. The simpler a plan is the less disorganisation will occur amongst your troops when you try to carry it out. Disorganisation leads directly to a loss of initiative, cohesion, force multiplier effect AND a huge increase in the number of errors you make. Complicated plans are best avoided.

As you can, hopefully, see by now the doctrinal approach to battle has great utility insofar as it ensures that you won’t make many of the elementary mistakes which currently doom you to failure or, at least, lesser victories.

Next article ( if you want it)

Application of a Doctrinal Approach to Combat on the Virtual Battlefield.

So, comments, discussion?

[Formerly Babra]

Have you reposted this in the Tips and Techniques forum? I'm too lazy to check

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It's a mother-beautiful bridge and it's gonna be THERE.

[Dirtweasle]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Leftfield121:

Tactics for the Combat Mission Virtual Battlefield.

Many newcomers to the Combat Mission forum have asked for guides to tactics over the past weeks...

...Next article ( if you want it)

Application of a Doctrinal Approach to Combat on the Virtual Battlefield.

So, comments, discussion?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Please, I'd read it for one.

[Los]

You can go to CMHQ-articles section for very detailed information on this.

Los

[The Commissar]

Excellent post Leftfield!

Although I do not consider myself a newbie, nor am I clueless (most of the time ) I did find your post very informative and easy to understand. Ill keep your rule in mind during my next battle, and look forward to your next writing! Keep up the good work.

Los, the CMHQ only has like 2-3 articles that I can see on tactics in the "Articles section". Is there some way to access older articles which are not shown?

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...Every position, every meter of Soviet soil must be defended to the last drop of blood..."

- Segment from Order 227 "Not a step back"

[Los]

Commisar, That'll have to wait for Matt to get back from vacation. I'll forward the thought to him.

Los