Post by Demski on Jul 21, 2010 23:39:14 GMT -6
(From ChaplainGrillSgt from To Be Marine)
As mentioned briefly in my thread on noise, but I thought they deserved more than a quick reference in another thread. There are 3 Main elements of a successful attack. They are: Violence of action, Surprise, and Mass. It is possible to win with only one or two of the elements, but the best chance of success occurs when all three are used in harmony.
Violence of Action(VOA): Violence of Action occurs when an offensive force applies extreme violence quickly to one specific area, which creates an unstoppable forward momentum. For example, if your team comes under fire from a defensive position, what are your men going to do? They're going to hit the deck and "button down", which creates a battle of attrition. This type of warfare is almost always won by the defensive team. So, the offense needs to regain it's momentum and change the battle from attrition to maneuver, where offense shines. So you employ VOA. You gather your troops and strike at one specific area. You may only kill one or two enemies, but the action has caught the enemy off guard, because 2 seconds ago they had the upper hand, suppressing you, and now they're vulnerable.
Surprise: Surprise doesn't necessarily mean that your enemy doesn't know where you are, though that is helpful, especially when your force is smaller than the enemy's. In the example above, surprise was gained by doing the unexpected, and taking the enemy out of his comfort zone. The last thing the enemy would have expected would have been an offensive action, especially a coordinated one. If anything, they would have expected a last ditch effort with one or two guys. Always remember, the ability to choose the time and place of the attack is the offense's single greatest advantage.To have the greatest chance of success, an attack needs to occur on the least expected area of defense, or at the least expected time, possibly both.
Mass: Mass is the amount of men dedicated to your assault. A good analogy I remember when thinking of mass is to that of a car. The more mass(# of men) a car has, and the faster it goes(VOA), the harder it is to stop.
Another thing that is overlooked is to look beyond your immediate objective. Inform your men of your intentions, this will raise moral and give them a direction to pursue even after "bunker A" or "soldier B" is neutralized. This allows you to retain your forward momentum and seize targets of opportunity. Say you attack the enemy HQ building. On one side, there is only 2 guards, so you order those two men killed. after it happens, the HQ will be on alert. If you haven't informed your soldiers of what they are doing, they'll kill the 2 and hesitate, giving the enemy time to pull back COs and VIPs, and reinforce the area you attacked. However, if your men know that the objective is to seize the HQ and CO, they can swiftly follow up on the death of the 2 sentries to exploit the weakness.
by: To Be Marine
As mentioned briefly in my thread on noise, but I thought they deserved more than a quick reference in another thread. There are 3 Main elements of a successful attack. They are: Violence of action, Surprise, and Mass. It is possible to win with only one or two of the elements, but the best chance of success occurs when all three are used in harmony.
Violence of Action(VOA): Violence of Action occurs when an offensive force applies extreme violence quickly to one specific area, which creates an unstoppable forward momentum. For example, if your team comes under fire from a defensive position, what are your men going to do? They're going to hit the deck and "button down", which creates a battle of attrition. This type of warfare is almost always won by the defensive team. So, the offense needs to regain it's momentum and change the battle from attrition to maneuver, where offense shines. So you employ VOA. You gather your troops and strike at one specific area. You may only kill one or two enemies, but the action has caught the enemy off guard, because 2 seconds ago they had the upper hand, suppressing you, and now they're vulnerable.
Surprise: Surprise doesn't necessarily mean that your enemy doesn't know where you are, though that is helpful, especially when your force is smaller than the enemy's. In the example above, surprise was gained by doing the unexpected, and taking the enemy out of his comfort zone. The last thing the enemy would have expected would have been an offensive action, especially a coordinated one. If anything, they would have expected a last ditch effort with one or two guys. Always remember, the ability to choose the time and place of the attack is the offense's single greatest advantage.To have the greatest chance of success, an attack needs to occur on the least expected area of defense, or at the least expected time, possibly both.
Mass: Mass is the amount of men dedicated to your assault. A good analogy I remember when thinking of mass is to that of a car. The more mass(# of men) a car has, and the faster it goes(VOA), the harder it is to stop.
Another thing that is overlooked is to look beyond your immediate objective. Inform your men of your intentions, this will raise moral and give them a direction to pursue even after "bunker A" or "soldier B" is neutralized. This allows you to retain your forward momentum and seize targets of opportunity. Say you attack the enemy HQ building. On one side, there is only 2 guards, so you order those two men killed. after it happens, the HQ will be on alert. If you haven't informed your soldiers of what they are doing, they'll kill the 2 and hesitate, giving the enemy time to pull back COs and VIPs, and reinforce the area you attacked. However, if your men know that the objective is to seize the HQ and CO, they can swiftly follow up on the death of the 2 sentries to exploit the weakness.
by: To Be Marine
