Troop Deployment
"A good soldier never questions orders. This is both his greatest strength and weakness." ~ISF Director Subhash Indrahar, Wisdom of the Dragon’s Senses
<<August 1, 1999>>
Three hours ago, your Commander finished with his briefing. The plan was simple: stage an ambush along the forest path; you and three other men were to lie in wait while the rest of the unit lured enemies past, and then you fall in behind and start raking fire through their unit.
Two and a half hours ago, after you had all your camo on and the tree branches and bushes shifted around for cover, you were lying in wait with orders to maintain radio silence. However, your radio (on low power) crackled to life and re-ordered all of you to deploy another, more difficult ambush: out of dense bushes at the edge of an open field, a short distance from a path leading into the woods. It was probably still along the same route. They probably just wanted everyone in a less likely position.
Two hours, ten minutes ago you decided you were in the best possible concealment for your newly-assigned position and settled down to wait again.
One hour, fourt-five minutes ago your radio interrupted your stealth campaign once again with a quick, hushed voice. "Squad three!" it proclaimed, "all of you get over to the 'picnic site' and spread out into cover! HURRY!"
One hour, thirty-five minutes ago you arrived at that location and quickly fanned out into some of the best locations on the entire battlefield to be in for a firefight.
One hour, twenty-five minutes ago those positions paid off as a small enemy unit stormed through. They must have been prepared, because they quickly targeted your positions. Still, your squad had one man extra and was quite experienced, you took all five of them out with only one casualty. Convinced that must not be the brunt of the attack, you assumed new positions and prepared to fight again.
One hour ago, ten minutes after the skirmish, your radio intruded into your thoughts once more as a whisper urged speed from you on your way to a new ambush. The orders had all the information you could hope for -- time, direction, and number of enemies to be trapped. They were going to be chased in and fired upon from point-blank. Muttering under your breath about distinguishment between ambushers and snipers, you signaled your remaining teammates out of cover and sprinted to the new target.
Thirty-five minutes ago, you braced your CPS 1500 against a small log and peered through a light bush from the cover of the dense ferns you were lying prone in, prepared for the winning ambush.
Ten minutes ago, that ambush was supposed to take place.
Fifteen seconds ago, you relaxed your guard.
Suddenly, your discerning ears pick out the sound of soft conversation down the path from the wrong direction. You peer through the thick underbrush and see four heavily-armed soldiers heading toward your position, bragging quietly about past victories from other battles. You scour the faint glimmers of sight you get through the leaves and branches, but can't make out any team-identifying marks. The battles they talked about didn't sound familiar, but you were one of the newest additions to your team, so that didn't mean much.
You glance over at your radio, half-expecting it to interrupt again . . . DRAT! You must have turned it off reflexively after receiving that last message!
You peer through the foliage again, this time toward the other two surviving members of your squad, bearing weapons identical to your own. They hadn't seen the approaching soldiers . . . yet.
You glance quietly at your watch again and curse yourself silently for your carelessness with the squad's only communication link and try to decide what to do . . .
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I take a large rock/stick and huck it away from my forces to distract the ambushees, and while they were distracted, I would chuck small sticks at my guys until I had their attention.
IF there are any appropriate projectiles lying around, with all the plants around that you're using for concealment throwing them is likely to create as much of a disturbance at your location as at the target, and if you compound that by throwing more to get the attention of your teammates they're much more likely to target you than the disturbance.
Then I would signal to shoot at the guys on three. Count to three, drop the suckers.
They're COMING. If you want to shoot them before they actually get to you, that means you've got to jump out onto the path (or at least climb to your feet), and since you don't know the size or armament of their force, that seems like a really stupid idea.
Also, HOW exactly do you plan to convey a message like "shoot on three" to your teammates through the foliage without talking? Are you just going to hold up fingers from 3 to 1? You'd have to point out the enemy force first. While you're distracting your own teammates with hand signs, the potential enemies can creep up and drench all of you if they saw the bushes rustle when you started throwing things.
As for the question of if they were good or bad guys. I would assume they were bad guys. If they were good, then my excuse is I was acting defensibly during a communications blackout.
~jcool
Yes, yes, we all know you were acting defensively by leaping out of the bushes and shooting blindly at a bunch of soldiers passing you on the path which probably wouldn't even have noticed you if you'd stayed down, because you turned off your radio, making it impossible to contact you no matter how able your team was and how hard they tried, an then panicked when you realized that maybe you weren't even supposed to be there and were costing your team a victory simply by not being somewhere else.
Your team's already got enough reasons to blame you even if they're enemies and you do kill them, so even if they do buy that lame excuse its not going to get you anything.
I feel that some one else was giving the messages. Weren't orders not to have the radio on? I would call in to see what was going on. A spy could have been watching my unit's every move to find out where we were going to hide, then ambush the ambushers.
Orders were NOT to have the radio off, they were to maintain radio silence -- that means, don't call in until further notice. Apart from the fact that that order is still standing, checking in would be a great idea.
If I were told that they had not sent any orders or men down the path, then I would alert my men to the people walking by.
And . . . how exactly do you intend to do that? Telepathy?
I would also wait to see team idenifying marks before making any hasty judments. If it were the enemy, I would alert my unit about them and to stand guard. If any of the oppenents come to close to one of my unit members, they may engage him/her. Then go after the other(s).
I suspect that they would be "close" before you could make out any identifying marks, if your cover is any good at all. You'd pretty much have to alert your teammates immediately to have any chance of not being detected while doing it.
If they wre teamates, I would signal that I'm there and what they were doing. Then re-pick positions and wait if we were ordered to. Or go back to base if that were the orders.
~Anthony
What's all this jibberish about SIGNALING? If they're friendlies, can't you just TALK?
I would let them pass and hope they don't see us and then return back to base or if they could see us when they passed I would try and take them hostage and then ask them whose team they were on and if they were on I would ask them were everybody else was and if they weren't I would take there guns and pump 5 times then dump the rest of the water in my teams guns and shoot them in the back of the head
~Your Name Here
You seem to have some interesting delusions of invincibility. Let's see, if they manage to get right in front of you and see you, being in such an immobile position, then your first move is going to be to TRY TO TAKE THEM HOSTAGE? If I were you, I would be worried a little more about SURVIVAL at that point!!!
Further more, by the time they're right in front of you, you should be able to tell which team they're on without ASKING. And if you DID take them hostage, which team do you think they're going to say they're on? And do you think they'd just stand there like imbeciles while you shot them in the backs with their own guns?
And if they pass, what makes you think there is necessarily a base? Judging from the original plan, you weren't leaving anybody behind to guard it if there was one, and if you did they probably wouldn't know anything more than you.
First off, I'd forget about that stupid radio. I'm about to get blasted by 4 potential hostiles, I'll worry about the radio later. I'd wait till the 4 newcomers came about into range, switch to 10x, stand up, and say something like, "Howdy." When I stand up, if they're friendlies, no problem. If they're hostile, I'll be able to ID them from they're team marks, get their attention, and alert my other two guys to the situation if they're not already.
Well, there's one potential difficulty: if these guys have good reflexes, and you startle them, they're liable to shoot you whether they're friendly or not, and probably before you manage to figure out whether they're friendly or enemy and react yourself. You may want to address them from just OUT of range.
If they're hostile, I'll run like the wind and shoot my CPS 1500 in their general direction. Even if I don't hit them, they'll be delayed from chasing me right away because of the 10x spray. As I'm running away, I'd yell "Get 'em!" or "Get out of here!"
Um, don't you think that's just a tad obvious? If you shout a command to your teammates, that'll give your position away to ANYONE within earshot, and also lets the enemies (if they are enemies) know that you've got help nearby. If the enemy is still at or before their position -- which, if you yell immediately, is likely -- they'll have only a few seconds to scramble to their feet before they get pinned down by a fierce volley from the hostiles, and you may not even notice. Hopefully, your teammates can be trusted to act intelligently without orders.
Since the enemy focused their attention on me, my other two guys will have at least a couple seconds to either come up behind the enemy and surprise them or get a head start and run away (personally, I'd have them attack).
Not if you yell a command to them! Besides, if they're lying in cover, it'll take them a few seconds just to get up, assuming they don't have to dodge or fire in the process, and unless they take a LONG time getting up, they'll probably make enough noise to give away their position.
Since my team is experienced, and hopefully with a little
luck, we'll be able to take the enemy with little or no casualties. Now, about that
radio, I'd file a complaint about that radio silence crap to my superior.
~Joker
Did it occur to you that having a radio signal while you're trying to be stealthy can be deadly? Or that enemies might intercept your radio traffic? Or that the rest of your team might be having a separate conversation that it would be a bad idea to interrupt? Issuing commands in a water fight is already far more tedious that one would like, the last thing you need is another delay at a critical moment.
Because of the dense ferns the thought of signaling by using hand signals and other methoods of communication is complete lunacy so i would let them walk by until they were out of earshot and then WHISPER to my teammates of what had happened, Then call on the radio to the base to find out about them if they were teammates let 'em go if their enemys there are two plans with scenarios
Scenario#1-They have a CPS higher than 1500- I would order my men to fan out and set up snipering positions and take them out one-by-one
Scenario#2-They have XP or a CPS lower than 1500- Follow them to a good spot and Drench them
-=Don't Stop Soakin=-
~Psyco
Well, first off, if you're not going to signal your teammates until after these other people have gone past, you'd better cross your fingers and hope that they don't start shooting without orders -- or get suprised and accidentally give away your position. Also, if the incoming soldiers happen to see you on their way past, you're in serious trouble, because that means that they now have the advantage of numbers and you've lost your chance to surprise them. Because prone isn't a good position to be in at point-blank and because they are described as being "heavily-armed," I'd say that if they were enemies that'd get you killed awfully fast.
Then you whisper and tell your teammates what happened -- as if they didn't notice four careless soldiers thundering past your position -- and radio back to 'base' (by which I assume you mean your commanding officer, since the rest of your forces are theoretically trying to lure the enemy to you) and ask whether these four people who just passed your position are friendly or not. Why don't you try radioing them directly? If they're not teammates carrying radios, your commander isn't going to know who the heck they are any more than you do.
Then, if they are enemies with bigger guns than you (by the way, you neglected to mention what happened if they had a mix of heavy and light weapons, or if they had exactly the same weapons as you) you are going to somehow get further down the path than them to set up for an ambush -- which means you are moving faster than them, off the path and out of sight, but quietly enough not to attract attention. I don't think so.
If they're more lightly armed than you, even slightly, you're going to follow them down the path until you find a good spot, and then open fire. This would also require st