The Chaos Factor

[Der Kuenstler]

"Hence that general is skillful in attack whose opponent does not know what to defend; and he is skillful in defense whose opponent does not know who to attack." - Sun Tzu


Most of us think of our battles in an orderly way. The men are lined up in an orderly way and marched forward through the most logical terrain, etc. (yawn) If you are a skilled player going against an unskilled player, you can win most battles like that.

But what if both players are equal in skill? They both know their units and sight lanes and hit probablilities, etc. What will get you the win, then? If you both play the standard way, you'll get a draw or luck will decide the win.

Enter what I call the "chaos" factor. The dictionary defines chaos as "a state of utter confusion or disorder." What you do is simply set aside a platoon or an AV or two to do something completely wacky, unexpected, or out of the ordinary. (I've noticed many good players here already do this, but newer players may not know about it.)

CHAOS INFANTRY: During setup you pick a platoon with a good combat rating and excellent stealth, and DO NOT send them to the flags. That's right - don't go there. Start them on some remote edge of the map and have them walk COMPLETELY AROUND the back of the map - as out of sight as possible - walk them through swamps, whatever - as long as they stay unseen. It may take this "chaos' platoon 15 or twenty minutes to get around there, but guess what? Now instead of walking up on fully loaded squads in cover, you are walking up from the rear on enemy company HQs, vulnerable FO's, trucks, guns pointed the wrong way, etc. It is a fact that infantry take a huge morale hit when shot at from behind!

CHAOS AFVS: Your opponent expects you to keep your AFVs back and handle them safely. This is standard doctrine. The first two minutes of a battle (specifically a ME) when he is moving his forward is a great time to go flying down the road BEHIND him with a cheap tank or two, guns pre-pointed to the rear. You may lose the tank, but since your tank is prepared and his aren't, it's highly likely you will hurt some of his much more expensive vehicles.

Let's say you know your opponent has a tank hiding behind a house. You decide to cause some chaos. Zip your tank behind the house with a preset armor cover arc pointing at his tanks behind. Because he wasn't expecting that - his turret still has to turn around - guess who wins? The one who planned it.

PROBABLY GAMEY BUT FUN: Send two high horsepower "chaos" tanks on fast down curvy wooded roads in your opponent's rear. You will often catch his trucks/tanks/halftracks off-guard and can push them sideways, smashed together while your trailing tank shoots them.

Heres a good chaos principle: THE ONE WHO CAUSES THE CHAOS ALWAYS HAS THE ADVANTAGE!

I have found that introducing a little chaos makes PBEM a lot more fun - just the anticipation of "I can't believe I did that crazy stunt - hope it works!"

Anybody else know a chaos tactic?

[Herr Schacht]

That was a great read. Makes me wonder if you have anything up your sleeve for our "Damnation" test!

Schacht

[Cpt Courageous]

Mine would be do have a pilot who actually hits something valuable in the first few turns. Big morale booster for me.

[Copper]

Excellent post... I did try it on a much smaller scale against you in our game (where you are attacking) by charging my tank hunter team out of his foxhole and closer to you... in the hope that you didnt expect him to be there... unfortunatley you cut him down in the open... LOL

[Fullhouse]

I would say that the biggest flaws that I find in good oppenents is that they are over technical, predictable and to cautios.

The above would deal with most of those.

[The Coil]

Especially on a map with good cover, if I'm defending, I often send a 'chaos platoon' out ahead of where my opponents expects to make contact - you can often catch troops still on 'move' orders or out in the open. Don't hope to do a lot of damage, just disorganize the advance and retreat back. It can burn up valuable turns and make your opponent advance a lot more catiously.

[McIvan]

Excellent post. I am often looking, against good opponents, for the "second" best method of advance, on the basis that they will have the first covered. I have been caught out a couple of times by chaos moves, and am always looking out for them these days.....never leave a corner of the map unsurveyed.

[Colonel Talvela]

I agree with a "chaos principle" in principle - but it has to balanced with the much more important principle of - "never fight a fair fight." For me, I dont send my troops/AFVs into FOW land hoping for the best. I would rather get LOS to entire map, and then find a place to initiate the "chaos principle".

So I like the "platoon around the back of the map" maneouver, or the "AFV to the enemy rear" maneouver, but I never do those blind and hope for the best. Because if by sending a couple of tanks down the road, the best you could reasonably hope for is an even trade off, then IMO it is a bad idea. eg. if you have a couple of stuarts and you want to introduce some chaos, dont just send them blind. Find a lane where they have a reasonably high chance of making it through MLR and into the enemy rear. But even that isnt enough. You need to combine that with another concentrated attack, and knock your opponent off balance.

Of course my favorite "chaos maneouver" is the couter-attack while defending. But again, I dont just send a platoon off at the start of a game and hope they run into some unsuspecting heavy weapons teams. I wait and watch and wait and watch for the right moment to do some real damage.

[Ratzki]

I too, agree only in principle. As a "good" commander would never let a situation arise where a platoon or rouge tank would cause much damage by such a manuver. If your flanks are protected and you keep 1/3rd of your force in reserve for the final push if needed, a platoon or tank running around to the rear of a "prepared" commander should quickly become easy points for you. I guess you could use the tactic, but I don't think I would be counting on it to turn the tide of a battle in your favour.
IMO, the chaos comes from the Veteran gun crew that misses broadside shots allowing a tank to pass through the lines untouched, or the lucky 60mm mortar shell that while area firing takes out the platoon HQ and a portion of the line faulters. The chaos that you create by learning to exploit these opportunities is a better bet. Yes you could spend the time and march all around the map looking for a chance to score big, but probably not doing so, or you could get good at identifying the little misses that all players suffer from and go for some better points at better odds for you. There are many things that can cause chaos, but good tactics should outshine acts of random all the
time.

[Der Kuenstler]

Yes Ratzki - I was not recommending that chaos become the main strategy at all. You can never replace sound tactics - only as a sideshow would I recommend it - nothing more. It's a gamble that could swing a close battle your way if executed right.