Wargame: Red Dragon – SPOOK TACTICS: A LEGACY OF TERROR

SOME EASY BASIC TACTICS

 
SMOKE ASSAULT 
If you don’t have overwhelming firepower to support your offensive push (which is usually the case), you should always be using smoke to cover the assault; preferably one led by infantry supported by vehicles, etc.. Not only does this cripple the enemy’s ability to engage you directly ,as you walk forward through open terrain, it can keep the size of the assault mostly veiled till contact is made. 
 
SHELLSHOCK AND AWE 
Artillery doesn’t have to kill to be effective. Stunning and panicking the enemy before launching an immediate assault can easily make the difference between success and total failure – Cluster artillery was built for this type of maneuver. 
This practice translates toward anything you prefer panicked and helpless (IE. Super Heavy Tanks), but some tools are better for the jobs than others depending on the target. Combine this tactic with smoke assault for some real professional brutality.  
 
SENTRIES & GARRISON 
You should never lose a game because of an enemy ambush at your home base. You should never lose your CV because some guy in a ski mask got the jump on you. 
30-60 Pts of base defense (cheap AA, recon, troops) can easily make the difference between losing your artillery, fobs, AA, CV, or incoming supply route. 
Helicopter rushes on the flank are very real and do work. Regardless of how good your recon is, have an insurance policy. Those harmless 5 pt trucks your boys roll into battle in? They are perfect to use as tripwires and early warning systems for a possible flanking enemy. 
 
DEPLOYMENT 
90. of games are won/lost in deployment. Mark up on where you are attacking, and communicate with your team about what you are bringing and may need. Know what zones you need to take and hold. If everybody brings planes or other expensive toys, you’ve already lost the game considering you won’t be able to reliably hold any territory for income. 
Understand that the route you deploy may be smerched, bombed, shelled or otherwise harassed. 
 
If you do find yourself driving into smerch, try to emergency deploy all your inf vehicles caught in the rain before the transport is destroyed with the troops still inside. If the artillery is of heavy explosive variety, you’re generally much better off keeping them inside their transports and trying to drive out toward the opposite direction of the incoming fire radius. 
 
COMMUNICATE 
Teamwork is being more than the sum of your parts. This one should be self explanatory, but I’ve still seen entire defensive wings collapse without a peep being muttered by anyone there. 
Call out enemy targets you need eliminated. Ask for support. Point out the fact there is enemy incoming fire on the inc supply route. Let your team know there is a SEAD patrolling or enemy ASF behind your air spawn. Vocally identity the fact 15 helicopters just passed on the far left nearly undetected and are heading for your rear. 
 
These are some basic tactics that come to mind. I’ll add more later. 
 
 

SPOOK TACTICS

 
These are some of the tactics I’ve created/employed over the years now passed down to those who wish to learn. 
 
FORMATION ROTATION 
Okay, so this concept actually goes back to the ancient Romans/Greeks and how they would circulate their troops in battle to keep them fresh/alive. Let’s say you have a group of five squads of infantry who just engaged 5 other enemy squads of infantry on equal footing. Your top 1-2 units that are taking the heaviest fire should pull back behind behind their allied counterparts to try keeping them alive. This will force the enemy to either shoot at the enemy it can still fire at, or force them to push forward deeper toward your own firing line in an effort to get a kill or keep them from escaping. 
 
Essentially, you are forcing the enemy to fight your battle. As long as you keep your units engaged and fighting, while protecting and kiting/rotating away those who risk being KIA, you will overcome the enemy – often easily if they do not try compensating. 
 
TANK SKIRMISH 
So this is a pretty basic tank tactic just used in an rough terrain setting. 
Essentially, you’re using the Attack move key to bring a vehicle/tank up out of cover to fire a shot at an enemy, then reversing back into cover as soon as you are able to fire. The idea is to use the tank to ambush an enemy, then quickly reversing back out of LOS to avoid a possible counter attack. 
 
Now, you’re going to take this same tactic and apply it to the vehicles supporting your infantry in jungle/forest terrain. When your group of 5 infantry squads engage the enemy, you should bring your tank forward and use the same ambush move to fire a shot into the enemy before quickly pulling back before the enemy can fire a counter shot. Rinse and repeat safely but don’t risk the tank and get greedy and be aware of your flanks. Infantry are tough and generally cheap. They should be screening your every move. 
Support vehicles good armor/autocannons/nadelaunchers shine is this skirmish role, but can be countered by heavy tanks, etc… 
 
Combine this tactic with Formation Rotation and you will be extremely hard to deal with for the enemy. They will either have to overwhelm you or nuke you from orbit.  
 
BAIT N BURN 
This goes back to my early discussion on smoke. Here, you’re going to convince the enemy that you’re about to launch a major offensive assault generally on a hardened choke point. You’re going to lay down some artillery fire, then a massive amount of smoke, etc… giving the impression your push is coming. You might even bring a few troops out into view of the enemy – to add to the illusion. 
Once this is done, you should have a massive burst of artillery, generally burrito napalm etc, primed and coordinated on the zone you’re pretending to be attacking. The incoming salvos should be timed to land as the smoke reaches its apex. We’re baiting them into a hardpoint and then burning them alive for their trouble. Ideally, we want to catch as many of them as possible in the most destructive burst possible. If the fire pushes them out of position into our crosshairs – even better. 
 
GIVE EM A WIGGLE 
Deception is important to keeping the enemy guessing. If your enemy is trying to snipe your CV with artillery spam and blanketing the usual areas of the zone, try WIGGLING your cv around to make them think they are very close by to your cv when the next salvo comes ini. A minor wiggle or two can effective or a prolonged move back and forth to make them think you are relocating in case the shells are closer etc, etc… The idea is to fool them into thinking their shots are close and to keep distracted with wasting their FOB supplies on a wild choose chase. 
 
PSYCH WARFARE 
The last two points have already touched upon this, but the concept of morale translates to the real world. Trash talk is a great way to take the heart out of the enemy if you’re know what you’re doing. You don’t have to be cruel or malicious. Just convince the enemy that there’s nothing left in the game for them. 
 
Shot down a 150 pt Longbow or Nighthawk? “Hey nice Noobhawk/Longblow, was that expensive?” 
Killed a 200 pt plane with 20 pt aa? Let them know about it. 
Completely ambush and annihilate an incoming attack? “Thanks for showing up though.” 
See the game has 45 minutes, while you have double income and are up 2k in points? Let the enemy team know the circumstances. 
Often times, a little nudge is really all it takes to make people realize they have better things to do. This won’t work on everybody, but in a group of 10 it can wreak havoc very quickly and turn into a snowball effect – just like in real life. 
 
Give the enemy an out. Let them know they have no chance and will face a miserable experience playing it out for no gain. Take the incentive out of their reason for hanging on. Cut their heart out and savor the flavor. Break their will to go on. The less they realize that you are directly trying to do this, the better. 
 
Thanks for reading. I’ll try to add more later. 
 

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