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CiAs ArmA TTPs - Mjolnir - 06-01-2021
The TTP Document (version 1)!
So after a little bit of work, I have finally put together a TTP document, read, and enjoy.
Quote:So for a while, I've wanted to write something like this. But that already exists, so I'll just settle for addendums for it.
There are a few things I really want to talk about, and I'll possibly add stuff in the future. I'd add something like "I'm not an expert so don't @ me", but I was in the Infantry for 8 years, I'm still a soldier, I have like 4000 hours on ArmA 3 and probably close to the same between ArmA 2 and OFP, so I'm about as close to an expert as you're ever going to get.
Contents
Friendly Fire/Firing through friendlies
Bounding/Combat Movement/Cover
Medical procedure
Picking up weapons.
Command and Control
Tanks
Friendly Fire
This has been happening a lot. Like a lot, a lot. Essentially, its a discipline issue. Don't shoot unless you are 100% sure its the enemy. In a choice between shooting a friendly and getting shot by an enemy, I'll get shot by an enemy first. If you are properly positioned to engage the enemy, then you should have cover you can duck back into if you hesitate and it turns out to be enemy anyway. I get that sometimes we are in fairly similar outfits to the enemy, but then it means you need to sort your situational awareness out. Ask the team leader where friendlies are if you don't know where they are. Don't shoot unless you are 100% certain. If you have to, get a second opinion. If we the scenario permits it, and we have lasers on and the enemy clearly doesn't, then don't shoot the dudes with the lasers.
As a sub subject on this, firing through/over friendlies. No, don't do it. I am guilty of this as well, and I need to get better at it. When you get into a fight, get on a line with your friendlies. If there are friendlies within the centre half of your screen, don't fire. Don't take that opportunity to fire over someone's shoulder, because they'll step into it. Gunfights are done from linear formations, otherwise friendly fire happens.
And one last thing on this section, if you are passing friendlies, pass behind them. It is your responsibility to stay out of others line of fire. If you absolutely have to go in front of friendlies, tell them about it. Just a call of "Coming through" on local is enough, just remember tunnel vision is a thing and you might not get friendly fired.
So in summary:
Don't fucking shoot unless you know they are enemy.
If you aren't sure, take the risk and wait until you are sure. If you get shot because of it, remember that you didn't ruin someone else's night.
Bounding/Combat Movement/Cover
Bounding is a thing we don't do nearly enough. It should be something as simple as the team leader saying "bound by colour teams" and it should happen. One team stays in position, and tells the other team "covering" or something the like, and the other team bounds to the next bit of cover, where they tell the first team "covering". The bounds can be as long or as short as you feel necessary. You can scale it up as far you need to. If you need to, it can be done in pairs, or between squads.
Combat Movement. Really, there should be 2 sorts of combat movement. Move to, and At All Costs. At All Costs is the standard ArmA multiplayer movement, you go there and try and force your way there no matter what, and its what we generally use everywhere. However, the default should just be Move to I totally need a better name for this). Under Move to, if you come under fire, then you should stop, move into cover at your position, or back up the route, and then work out what is happening. If the opponent is something you can fight through, say a single AI rifleman, then you can fight through it (probably by bounding. If however, any time anyone sticks a nose out they get suppressed, then you should withdraw and find another route. Now this has happened a few times recently, but the most of the time, we just bull through. In reality, infantry combat is 2 sets of soldiers suppressing one another, trying to find a route that is unguarded so they can get close to the enemy, or get to their objective. Our nights tend to go pretty well when we do this, but we don't do it often enough.
Also, if you are defending a position, and you get completely suppressed, then your next choice should be to withdraw to another position. There is no point staying in a position where you are just going to get killed.
Also SMOKE. Smoke everywhere when you need to withdraw, or assault.
Finally, Cover. Use it, but also when we stop, take whatever cover we have. Rocks, trees, the ground itself, don't just stand in the open.
Medical procedure
If you aren't a medic, then don't crowd round a casualty. The closest person who can reach should go, pull the wounded into some form of cover, and then provide first aid until a medic arrives. Everyone else should fight. If you are the last person, and everyone else is down, don't go to help people, you keep fighting. Unless they are lucky, those who are down are already dead, don't join them. If you manage to not join them until help arrive, they may survive. The first part of combat medicine is winning the fight. As the person first aiding someone, all you need to do is stop any bleeding and give them a heart rate, if they aren't bleeding but their heart is going, then you can leave them for a medic. It might be worth marking them with a light stick if its night.
Picking up weapons
Unless your commander says yes, don't do it. I cam across a G3 and 8 magazines on a mission the other night. Someone, who had a full combat load, decided they needed to pick up an AK. You don't just leave your rifle lying around on a battlefield because you wanted something better. You only pick up another rifle if you are out, or you are armed with something like a pistol or Mac-10. The mission maker chose those weapons for a reason, and frequently it helps with IFF. In the same mission I watched someone gun down 2 friendlies who were armed with enemy weapons.
If you start with G3s, but fancy an AK, then so help you god you'd best have less than 20 rounds left for that G3 when you pick it up.
On a somewhat related note. The missions give you a shitload of ammo, start using it. That 200 rounds of 5.56 is doing exactly zero good in your magazines, and if you run out, either someone else has more to share with you, theres a resupply point, or there is plenty of ammunition lying around. And even a miss helps, as the AI definitely get suppressed. Even if you can't see the target, shoot in the general direction everyone else is shooting. It helps. Your guns have automatic, use it! What are you saving that ammo for, Christmas?
Command and Control
If you need to, nominate a pointman and also a second in command. There's no point getting overwhelmed if there's 7 other people you can drop tasks onto.
Also, I have started trying to be more mission command focused. I like to tell my team leaders what I am hoping to achieve and a vague outline of how to do it, if you have a suggestion on how better to do it, then go for it. If I want to destroy a position, then alpha and bravo are good to work together independent of me to decide one is suppressing while the other flanks. If one of the AFVs decides to move through the breach in the minefield to help hold the bridgehead and provide cover for the infantry, go ahead. The commander shouldn't be almighty all the time.
Tanks
Overpressure is a thing, the main weapon should be held under strict control whenever infantry are near. Also, don't take cover behind or near the tank without letting the commander know. The first thing a tank crew does when taking fire is full reverse, and if you're there, you have nobody to blame but yourserf. I did have something else but I don't remember right now.
RE: CiAs ArmA TTPs - Mjolnir - 10-04-2021
From Varanon:
Quote:1. Fireteam cohesion
We had the following situation: I was leading fireteam charley in the Stargate mission. We were on the southern end of the wall. One of our guys, the medic went down because he was shot from within a crack in the wall. Happens. One guy was bandaging him. I looked around and couldn't find #3. I heard him from around a corner, moved there, but was immediately surrounded by three Russians that killed me. The fireteam was completely wiped out.
Why ?
The first mistake is on me. When the medic went down, I should have one of the team pick him up and move into safety. We were behind a wall, so it was not immediately dangerous, but close to the enemy. However, this was already a no-go since one of my fireteam was suddenly gone off to god knows where.
So, what do we learn from this ? First of all, the usual "retreat is an option" that never comes to our collective minds. Secondly, AT ALL TIMES, stay in the vicinity of the team, within VISUAL RANGE. You can easily see that by checking group info: If you can see my number (1, team leader), then I can see yours. If you don't see me, come back.
So, STAY WITH YOUR TEAM AT ALL TIMES, WITHIN VISUAL RANGE. Otherwise, the team leader will not have any idea where you are, and all attempts at organizing anything will go down the drain.
2. Squad cohesion
Somehow, any attack mission we do follows the same general scheme: Approach, then divide the fireteams and assign sectors to each. Why we always use this tactic is beyond me (and I did it myself), because it's the most braindead approach that we can have. Let me give an example: We have three fireteams of 4 each. We do not know the amount of enemies we face normally, but let's assume we have three distinct "sectors" and each is guarded by two fireteams (so, 8 each sector). So, each fireteam faces 8 guns in their sector. Which means they die. If OTOH you attack the same sector with full strength, 12 guns will face 8 guns, and chances are good that this will end up in our favor.
Even in cases where there are only few defenders, splitting the teams can go south quickly. As happened to my team today. Losing one man is not losing one man. It's losing two men: the man that's down, and the man that'll bandage him. So one man down means your team is down to half strength. In today's mission, there were at least 10 guns directed at us. As the one man went down, we suddenly faced a 1:5 superior enemy.
Bottom line, this approach will not work. Never. We just do it all the time.
3. Ignoring terrain
When we attack, not only do we divide up our fireteams, we also let them attack from directions that are totally unsuited for attack. As an example, a few weeks back we had a situation where we had to attack a small hamlet. As usual, we divided up the fireteams and had them approach from different directions. And one of them was from high up towards the hamlet with no actual visibility.
The correct approach was luckily carried out later in another mission where we had to attack a radar station. Our squad leader lead us around the installation to attack from a better angle.
But in general, we plan our attack from convenience: We approach from the south, so we attack from the south, even if the approach is shit.
4. Clear communication of the plan
In the Toyota mission yesterday, we had to retreat when we destroyed the convoy. The command was "to go south". And it went south, but not in the good way. Half way up a valley, it was suddenly revealed that one team lost their car. How is it possible that a team is left behind in such a situation.
It went on, we were attacked, and without clear procedure (drive through, stop and fight), one vehicle went on, the vehicle in front of us suddenly stopped, I was driving an unarmed vehicle, so all we could do was catch bullets.
The whole retreat became a clusterfuck in the end. In cases like that, a clear marching order should be given, and clear instruction on what to do in case of fire (drive through, stop and fight). I admit, this isn't easy, but the result was anihilation....
RE: CiAs ArmA TTPs - Mjolnir - 10-04-2021
Variable Wrote:Great post MJ, it was a good read.
Crash Site Red
Heavy Machine Gunner, MJ's team
Our force made its way up the mountain. When I finally arrived, exhausted, to one of the few rocks, I deployed the Navid and provided suppression fire to allow the other teams to advance. Looked like it worked. We reached a structure that looks like the relay of the nearby comm tower and a fierce close range firefight ensued with the NATO team that guarded it. I didn't have a chance to switch to my pistol and took out an AT gunner, firing from the hip. We were in a great position to suppress the enemy reinforcements that were climbing from the other side of the mountain. I think we took out at least two teams worth of infantry. A Marid then attacked and we tried to take it out with a scavenged Spike launcher, but it was too fast and the field of view too obscured. While fighting for our lives we saw the destruction of the UAV, not knowing if we managed to secure its data core. We fought for a long period of time before our team was wiped out. That was a great run.
This here is a good point to support what I am about to say quiet nicely.
Given the recent improvement in AI, we keep getting our teeth kicked in. I've spent some time thinking about it, trying certain things and also meshing it with my real world knowledge (which gets more and more appropriate every time the AI gets better), and there are a number of things that have occurred to me.
- Spacing
- Initiative
- Enemy effectiveness
- Flank protection
First was that it meant I could cover the flank. In fact, because of the position and terrain, we could cover both flanks, and stopped several flanking attempts by the AI. Simply by being spread further apart meant that it was harder to flank us.
Second, it put us in a good position to fight from, allowing us better arcs onto the enemy that was approaching the other teams. It literally made mutual support easier than if we had been together.
And third, it meant that we were more spread out, and less prone to suppression and damage from a single source. Something like a Marid turning up is much less of a threat to everyone when there are 12 of you spread over about 400m of ground.
Normally, we tend to have follow the leader chains, even when in contact, that are relatively easy to suppress, and have no depth or mutual support, making them easy to pin down and overrun. While there are many situations where a single column makes a lot of sense (covert insertions, or just getting to the mission area), if maybe mission commanders start spreading their teams out, the normally accepted distance for this is about half the effective range of your weapons systems, so separate element by about 150-200m for dismounted infantry.
Initiative is a difficult one. In the example above, I took it upon myself to take the compound at the top of the hill and provide support fire from there. This was a case of something I'd seen, that made a whole lot of sense and worked out. The trouble comes when the commander has a plan and needs it executed exactly to work, but someone sees an opportunity that would normally be a good idea. Best idea for initiative would probably be to call it up to the commander, but I know that whenever I lead, I don't really have a problem with team leaders working off their own initiative, because the commander is never going to see everything and be everywhere. Just don't go running off on an ill advised counter-attack on your own.
Enemy Effectiveness. In real life, riflemen rarely kill anyone. Belt fed and crew served weapons are the infantries main killing weapons, mainly because of the number of rounds they put in the air. But when riflemen do kill people, its at point blank range. Close range is the most dangerous form of combat for obvious reasons, and the defenders will go to great lengths to keep the attacker away from it. Generally, the attacker will inflict greater losses up close and take greater when further away.
And it generally been roughly the same in out games of ArmA. When the AI gets to grenade range in any sort of numbers, our casualty rate tends to go right up. The best example of this was on one of the random missions we played a few weeks ago, where you have to clear a town. My group, which came in through the low ground was contacted from close range, rapidly surrounded and overrun, taking several dead from grenades straight off. The other team, who had been shooting from the top of a hill, some 200 or 300m from the village had taken a couple of injuries and only started to take KIA once the AI focused on them and started to close in. Despite the overwhelming numbers of AI, the second team eventually prevailed, having managed to keep the AI mostly out of grenade range.
Given that we are almost always outnumbered, the AI tends to try and get close. And I think we should be more willing to withdraw so that they don't. It can be quite difficult, but I think that's more a function of the fact we tend to fight in one fairly tight group, rather than spread out like I posited above. With several distinct positions, other positions should be able to cover a withdrawal, ideally causing enemy casualties and preserving our own forces.
Flank protection. The AI is now very flank happy. This is a good thing, it's what we do, its what soldiers do in real life, it makes sense. However, sometimes we seem to forget that they flank, probably due to the fact that for like a decade or more we've been playing this game where they don't really flank you, except maybe a little bit by accident. Really, all you need is one person on each flank looking out. Its a boring job most of the time, but often a life saving one. Probably be a little easier to do in more large scale missions too.
EDIT: One more thing I wanted to mention, which again is showcased quite nicely by the above AAR, is weapon utilisation. Stuff like MMGs and ATGMs, when properly placed can change the course of a fight. Variable in the above AAR pretty much changed the course of the fight. He kept the enemy back from the edge of the hill as the other elements moved up the hill at the beginning, and stopped several attacks from the front while the other teams were trying to secure the drone. An MMG along with ammobearer/spotter on the top of a hill can do roughly the same sort of work as 4-8 riflemen. A lot of the time, they just get used like autoriflemen, in that they are essentially used like riflemen with a bit more firepower. They have the potential to be a lot more than this. This actually segues onto another thing I've just thought of, flexibility of organization. ACE allows us to change groupings on the fly. There's nothing wrong with making an extra team of say, an MMG gunner and an ammobearer and treating them as an MG team. Or the same for a Titan/Javelin team. Both the ATGM and MMGs have a relatively massive effective range, so it can be safetly put in a dominating position further away from the enemy than the rest of the forces and still be more effective than current usage. How many times would having a Titan overlook us from a high point have saved us from "suddenly TANK!"? Or an MMG in a dominating position allowed us to withdraw from an overwhelming enemy force?
RE: CiAs ArmA TTPs - Sputnik Monroe - 10-05-2021
COPIED FROM MY DISCORD COMMENTS FOR ARCHIVAL PURPOSES
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@Mjolnir Reading through your TTP post, just adding random musings here as I read through.
Yes, we should do bounding overwatch much more often.
I'm on the picking up weapons section. One thing I've been wanting to say for a while, it annoys me a lot when people swap weapons with the dead OPFOR because many times they do this they still had some ammo left. If for any reason you are going to be discarding your weapon, take the magazine out first and redistribute your ammo through your remaining team members.
Also, if you have lots of partially depleted magazines, you can ACE self interact and select "top off magazines". I do this whenever I'm riding as a passenger in a vehicle or we are taking a stamina break or other similar short break outside of combat.
Command and control section now, I agree with distributing responsibility. We've discussed this a few times, it is definitely an area we should focus on. Something we might try experimenting with is asking during role selection screen pre scenario is, "Anyone who doesn't normally command want to learn?" We can have some one who's interested take a fire team slot, and have an experienced leader take second role in their team. They can coach them, help them with questions, and if things get overwhelming assume command of the team temporarily until the overwhelming phase has passed and return command.
Just finished Tanks section, a single rule for armored support in my opinion... armored vehicles always have the right away
Their drivers cannot see you if you are on foot, if they suddenly have to reverse direction or take evasive maneuvers you may be run over. Over pressure threat means our infantry are too close to our armored assets not our armored assets are too close to our infantry
We need to utilize HE. More specifically we need to teach newer and/or unfamiliar players the differences and situational uses of HEAT, HE, and APFDS/(AP rounds)
Just finished spacing. I agree we should spread out a bit more, one caveat to that however, we should still be able to see some of our team mates so we can notice if they become unconscious, need support (if you are a assistant MG or Assistant AT soldier with spare ammo for example). I think we should try to encourage battle buddy pairs, spread out as you say, but in pairs.
Also not related but I mentioning the awareness of unconscious team mates made me think of it. We need to start doing head counts before moving after a fire fight, occasionally we tend to leave wounded or dead behind and only become aware much later, this is not a good thing.
Initiative. I agree we should promote initiative, just inform other teams before making an unplanned move to avoid blue on blue incidents and also to give command the opportunity for a quick veto if needed ( example we've got the MG nest flanked we're going to assault it! Commander: "negative, I just called artillery which is inbound on it as we speak.*")
Lots of good points Mjolnir. I'm going to copy and paste my discord responses over as a reply to your post for archive purposes. If you don't like that let me know and I can always delete the reply post.
RE: CiAs ArmA TTPs - Mjolnir - 01-08-2022
I have added a link to the TTP document to the first post.