Hero
"A leader takes people where they want to go; a great leader takes people where they ought to be." ~Anonymous
This Solved P.O.W. is identical to P.O.W. #13: Hero
<<June 27, 1998>>
You walk to the area which you were pointed at and assay the troops assigned to you. Suddenly, your eyes fall on one individual. You sigh. It was just going to be one of those days.
A young, smiling soldier shouldering his prized CPS 2500 looks back at you, next to four other people brandishing a CPS 1000, a 275 AS, an XP 110, and an XP 70. You yourself carried an XXP 175.
Well, it could be worse. At least this was only an intra-army practice.
"All right," you say dully, "let's get to base camp."
* * * * *
Your unit follows you as you enter your assigned base, a small (and currently empty) shed with two doors on opposite sides and no windows. You look around the room to find your supplies; a crudely-drawn (and error-riddled) map, three pens, several spare sheets of paper, and a small bucket of water carrying 15 water balloons. You had made sure everyone had air-loaded their guns, as this was all the water you got unless you could steal some from another team.
"All right," you say, moving toward the map, "my plan is for --"
"I'll attack this base here," the soldier with the 2500 says, with a speed you can never quite get used to, "I'll beat them all and steal their supplies, then I'll bring them back here and use them to attack another base!!!"
You sigh again. Someone really had to put this kid in his place, he must think he's invincible . . . either that or suicidal . . .
"No," you say firmly and with more calm than you feel, "you will be in a group of three people which attack this base and attempt to draw their defenses out while--"
"No, no, NO!!" the soldier interrupts you again, "I'm attacking this base, alone, so that I can beat them all with my CONSTANT PRESSURE SYSTEM TWO-THOUSAND AND FIVE HUNDRED!!!" with that, he leaps up and starts running for the door.
"STOP right there, private," you say, asserting your superior rank. "I am in command of this unit and you will follow my orders!"
Never slowing down or flinching for an instant, he quickly retorts "But your plan is stupid!"
"You cannot possibly know that," you point out, "because I haven't finished explaining it."
He walks over to his chair again and slumps down into it, a glare on his face pointing directly at you. At least you had his attention.
"Now, as I was saying," you begin again, "you three will attack this base from here in an attempt to draw out their defenses so that he" you gesture with you hand, "can move in and--"
"NO!" the soldier with the 2500 jumps up again, "NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NOOOOOO!!!!!!! I want to go in and kill them all and take the supplies!! Me, me, me, me, ME!! And I won't do your stupid plan!"
That was the last straw! Decisive action had to be taken now, before your base fell under attack with your plans unfulfilled . . .
<<April 22, 2000>>
To begin with, let's analyze this guy. He is young, inexperienced, overconfident, and compulsive. It would stand to reason that in combat he will attack with wild abandon and no sense of self-preservation, but will also lack discretion and patience.
In order to use him, I need to get him enthusiastic about whatever plan we're going to use, and I should minimize the necessity for him to have patience, discretion, or skill during the mission. That rules out drawing enemy fire, laying in ambush, garrisoning the base, all forms of espionage, and in fact pretty much everything else except a suicidal charge. Of course, I have no intention of simply allowing him to commit suicide.
Unfortunately, it seems I won't be able to reason with him, so to get him as enthusiastic about my plan as he is about his own, I'm going to make him think that we're using his plan without actually devoting a single soldier to it. I will have him explain his plan to me, and I will listen attentively, make encouraging comments, and if at any time he seems uncertain about something I'll make a suggestion but phrase it like a question -- hopefully if he doesn't have anything in mind it will sound good and he'll incorporate it into his plan.
When he's done, I tell him that its a good idea, but that we want to help (at this point I expect I'll need to cast some silencing looks towards the rest of the team). I ask him if we can be the first wave of the assault and distract them while he charges, and then we'll run away and let him kill them all. Somehow, I find a way to get him to agree to this.
I then swap my 175 for the 70 and begin organizing my team. The first thing to do is hide the map supplies in some dark corner or something and take the bucket of water balloons and put in somewhere nearby where it is unlikely anyone will look. We leave the base and never return -- if someone "captures" the base, so be it, I'm going to blitz the enemy base and establish my HQ there. If I fail in the assault, it doesn't matter much if I have a base to go back to.
I will take the youngster with the 2500 to one side of the base that I will arbitrarily call "south" (the actual side would be dependent upon terrain, but a name is necessary to use as a point of reference). The rest of my team will split into two forces, one of which will have the 1000 and 275 AS, and the other of which will have the 110 and 175. They will synchronize their watches and launch simultaneous attacks against the base from the" northwest" and "northeast," with orders to press in just hard enough to be certain that they have the defenders' undivided attention, and to make sure that they don't get killed.
If the defenders organize quickly, they may establish two defensive fronts (one to deal with each attack); quite frankly, I couldn't care less. About 15-20 seconds into the battle, the 2500 kid and I will charge in (I will tell him that army protocols demand that I give the signal to charge because of my rank or some such fiddle-faddle; if he can't sit still for 15 seconds I'll accelerate my plans). I'll allow the 2500 guy to lead the charge, and I will be slightly behind and to one side of him. About the time we get into weapons range, we give a war cry and open fire.
The great part about this plan is that if it works up to this point, it doesn't matter whether the kid with the 2500 is the best water-fighter in the world or the worst, he can fulfill his function perfectly.
The defenders are already facing an attack on two fronts, and have probably not had time to organize particularly well. They'll be constantly looking over their shoulders to make sure they're not about to be shot in the back, which gives my forces an edge.
When we open the third front, the first two attack teams will wait until the defenders look away from them, and then charge in at full force. No single defender can aim at one of my soldiers without turning his back to 2/3 of my force, and since he doesn't know for certain what his comrades are doing unless he disregards my entire force, he won't feel safe about doing that. This will, in all probability, instantly crush the morale of the defenders and totally disorganize them, and if my entire force (which now has them surrounded) presses in quickly, it is unlikely they can defend themselves on all sides from someone getting in so close that they can simply rake fire all over the inside of the base and take out all the defenders.
As for Mr. 2500, his fate is up to my enemies. If they focus on him, they should be able to easily shoot him down, but my other forces will press in and wipe them out from behind while they do it. If they concentrate on defending themselves, its unlikely they'll have the time and concentration to get off an accurate shot at him, and he can barge in and KILL THEM ALL just like he wanted to in the first place.
One important point to remember in evaluating the effectiveness if this plan is that it is unlikely that the entire enemy force will remain on guard duty, so it is quite possible that I'll have the advantage in numbers, although I'm confident in the effectiveness of this plan even if the numbers are even.
Unless the entire team is at the base when we attack, then once we capture the base I evaluate Mr. Hero's mood and decide whether we should try to lay an ambush for them when they return (or when another team attacks) or just go out and attack another base with a similar strategy. In any case, we raid any supplies left at the base, and before we leave, everything that we aren't taking with us or hiding somewhere we will render as useless as possible (spill water, destroy balloons, empty weapons).
In any case, once the battle is over I quietly put in a request to get the 2500 man transferred out from under my command. If my plan fails, I'll argue that I can't work with him, and if I win, I'll argue it was in spite of him, that I'm one of the best commanders they've got and that they owe it to me to help me build a model unit.
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You did in your solution alot of what you say is bad in others. assuming.
You assume the 2500 guy will have nothing in mind, you assume hes completely gulable. You say, "somehow i'll get him to agree". What if you cant. pretending to like his plan would only work on a real nimrod.
Then you assume that attacking from two sides will distract each side making it easy to kill em. My team trusts each other to cover them.
then you say that the 3rd force will make them turn and leave themselves open. this is considering that they havnt killed you, even if you get the element of surprise(which is hard against a good team)you and 2500 would more than likely shot down concentrating their forces on the rest of your team and making force #3 pointless.
you also said that they would be unorganized and have to get set up. now, if i were guarding supplies, i dont think id just be sittin on my duff ready to be surprised. They would almost certainly have lookouts in each direction and the rest of their forces ready to strike. 2500 would have been shot down quickly leaving you alone where you would be picked off rather easily unless you retreat to regroup with the others.
If you regrouped you wouldnt stand a chance, you only have 1 tank on each gun, nowhere near to load and your going against men with a supply depot right behind them. they could hold you off for hours. more than likely, even if you get the supplies (which is highly unlikely) your left with few men to guard them yourselves, but i would bet money you would lose the battle
~ sXorpion _