Whistler's Pass
"People rarely succeed at anything unless they have fun doing it.." ~Anonymous
<<December 11, 1999>>
The winds howl through the canyon, bringing for a moment a biting cold. You pull your windbreaker tight around you. Normally you hated the way some people actually preferred getting hit, just to cool off, when it was hot; right now heat seemed like the better of the two alternatives by far.
Apparently, most of your troops had thought so, too, because they hadn't shown up. At least that meant you had no shortage of weapons. Still, you were told to hold "Whistler's Pass" -- so named for the screeching sound the wind made as it wound through it on days such as today. You fully intend to keep the enemy out.
Your five remaining green troops look up at you expectently from the bushes where they had taken cover from the wind and you remind yourself that you have to hurry. Your other five troops, all veterans, stand with you, watching for any sign of the enemy.
You take another quick inventory. You had been given 15 CPS 2000s, after vehemently arguing that you should get them on the premise that they were "old-model weapons." You also had available a dozen XP 35s for close-range combat.
As for the pass, it was riddled with thick bushes and large-trunked trees, with a single path made of small, irregular stones winding through it. The pass's width varied between 20 feet at its widest points to 5 feet at its narrowest bottleneck, which was almost all the way through toward your team's side.
The canyon walls, however, provided an interesting element. Along most of the length of Whistler's Pass, there was a narrow stone shelf running about 8 feet above the pass's bottom. There were no ramps or stairs leading up to this shelf, and because it disappeared for some stretches, it didn't make a very good path. It was only about 3 feet wide in most parts, but that was plenty wide to fire down from.
The jagged rock cliffs were also nice in combat, because there were a great many outcroppings and grooves in which people or supplies could be somewhat hidden. At the top of the cliffs, 30 feet above the ravine's floor, was barren rock. To get up to this would require a five-minute run or a fifeen-minute hike around on either side of the pass.
You stare out towards enemy territory again and wish that you knew what you would be facing.
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Near the far end (our perspective) of the canyon, 3 veterans, 1 with a CPS 2000, the others with XP 35s, will be hiding in the brush. They are your first line of defense. If they see anything, one eith a 35 should get a report to you in enough time. Closer to you, 1 veteran will be hiding in the rocks with a 2000, sniping to take out any enemies that get past the first line. 2 greens will be with me, all of us armed with a CPS 2000 as our mains, and XP 35s in holsters, if we have any. The remaining green trooper will be in the rocks or in some thick brush( preferably rocks), guarding the remaining weapons, plus any extra supplies we might have, extra water, water balloons, etc. He will be close enough that I and the other 2 greens can defend him very quickly. This plan probably needs some work, so feel free to criticize.
~ Joshua Altom
First of all, you have 5 greens, 5 veterans, and yourself -- of which you made use of 4 veterans, 3 greens, and yourself. That leaves 3 people standing around doing nothing, who you should definately use for something.
Next, you've spread your forces fairly thinly. Generally, you want to keep your troops bunched up fairly close together so that you can try to get the advantage of numbers. If you had placed greens on the front lines, there would be a significant chance that they would retreat if pressed too hardly, which might be a good thing -- a veteran soldier is much more likely to follow your orders even if he doesn't think its a good idea to do so. Since you don't know what you'll be facing -- nothing, sporadic attempts by small parties to get through, or a concerted rush by a huge enemy force -- you have to be ready for anything.
The lone green trooper guarding the weapons at the back simply doesn't make much sense. First of all, if he's behind you you shouldn't need to defend him, because your goal is to make sure that no enemies get past you, and since they had to advance to your position, you should have more energy than them and be able to give chase if anyone breaks through your lines, regardless of how far before your trooper.
The bottom line, however, is that if the enemy can punch through your first three lines -- a total of 7 troops by your organization, at least 4 of which were veterans (probably five, including yourself) -- then one green will probably not keep your supplies safe, and in fact, should not be trying to -- he should destroy your supplies (that is, empty the weapons of all water and hide them) to keep the enemy from using them, and then either guard the pass with his life or run like crazy back to your main base -- wherever that is -- to report your failure.
It says that it is about 5 feet wide in some places and that this was closer to your point. so at the far end of the bottleneck i would put 2 snipers each having 2 cps 2000's and a 35(one green one vet)up on the ridge above the path. these would stop any small group of 3 or 4 people with the range advantage of being higher. Then at the closest part of the bottleneck i would put 2 vets each with 2 cps 2000's and a 35 on the ridge. The reason for the snipers having 2 cps 2000's is becuase the 2000's have a very short fireing time. That gives me 4 snipers which could probaly kill anyone before they were within range since they have height advantage. about 20 feet after the end bottleneck on our side i would have 3 greens set up in a V formation behind cover each with there own cps2000 and xp35. 1 green would be at the far end of the bottleneck on the path loaded with a xp35. The last 3 people which is me and another 2 vets would be the last line of defense each with 2000's.
So it would look like this
_________
_____________
\_G_________V__/ G
V
G
_______________ G
V
_________/ V
V \______G______YOU
Admirable effort on the diagram, but ASCII pictures don't work on web pages. I've said that before, but apparently not in a sufficiently obvious place. Also, everyone views them with a different font, so they're traditionally done with an equal-width font to preserve the correct image when using the Internet to send them.
In any case, the diagram helped me a little bit, and
everyone else will have to live with just the description, which is more useful anyway.
So with that in place the goal would be if a large force is coming
is for the green at the far end of the bottleneck to retreat through the bottleneck and
try to get the group to charge after him. Meanwhile the 2 farthest snipers would be hidden
as well as possible. when they attackers get past the first 2 snipers those 2 will fire
upon them while the other 2 snipers will also fire. this would create a bad cross fire of
4 2000's since the group would be stuck in the middle with almsot nothing to hide in.
Actually, you don't KNOW what they have to hide in. There are bushes and trees around, remember?
Also, from a distance, there is a certain risk that your advance snipers would bee seen and fired upon -- this would be especially bad if they were already oriented the other direction.
Furthermore, I'm not sure I would use a green to conduct a tactical retreat with an XP 35. That just doesn't sound wise.
Since the snipers have 2 cps 2000's they would be able to hold the group in the middle longer.
No, they'd be able to FIRE longer. If the group in the middle has any common sense at all, they won't allow that to hold them there.
Meanwhile the 3 greens at the end could also get to the bottleneck and take potshots on the group which by now would be disorganized since they are fighting on 3 fronts. Those 3 greens would prevent the group from charging past the snipers.
If they're in the middle, the rear snipers and your
charging greens are the same front. I admit that they'd be disorganized temporarily, but I
expect they'd get a retreat underway in short order, and then work on your snipers just 2
at a time.
If they do happen to get past that they would have to have lost
enough of there party that the 3 remaining vets could finish them off. The reason why i
didnt use the high ridge that is 20 feet up is that would eat up my resources since if
they couldnt get a shot i would lose people since it would take them 5 to 10 minutes to
get down and help. This plan would only fail if the group doesnt follow the bait through
the bottleneck. Then they would have to fight through each line which would be pretty
tough to do.
~Intel
You should have a contingency plan more carefully outlined in case they don't take the bait. Also, I'm not sure you can cram those 3 greens into a five-foot-wide bottleneck, especially with the retreating green pushing past them. You also don't know how wide the bottleneck is, which could ruin your plan before you even start getting set up.
Doesn't seem like too bad a plan -- even if it fails its not much worse than just turning your unit loose to begin with, so there's not a huge risk, and it does have a chance of causing some major damage. Could be better, though.