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?