Flanking
From CoCWiki
Contents |
Introduction
In military tactics, a flanking maneuver, also called a flank, is an attack on the sides (flanks) of an opposing force. If a flanking maneuver succeeds, the defending force is attacked from two or more directions, which significantly reduces its ability to defend itself. A flank attack thus gives the attacker a psychological advantage, and also permits it to employ enfilade fire on the defending force.
When outside, it is often very useful or even necessary to flank enemy soldiers. While it is easy to say that if you can surround enemy soldiers, they'll die, it isn't always easy to move into positions that surround them.
Flanking
Motion
The first important principle of flanking is to not be seen to early. If a flanker is seen too soon, the enemy soldiers can often kill him while he doesn't have cover, or at least move to avoid being surrounded. Because of this, it's important to go wide to avoid being seen. When trying to go wide, it's okay to go without cover--cover doesn't matter when enemy soldiers aren't shooting at you, and they can't shoot at you if they don't see you. Sometimes, you may have to go all the way to the edge of the map to avoid being seen.
Another important principle of flanking is to go fast, as you don't have all day to flank. While you're off flanking, your teammates will often be outnumbered by however many squads are flanking. If the enemy can take advantage of this to kill your teammates before you get there, then the flank will probably fail. Enemy soldiers aren't really surrounded if all your teammates on one side of them are dead. Still, when you try to go fast, you take a risk of being flanked yourself. This is sometimes a necessary risk to take in order to go fast enough for the flank to succeed.
If you stop to fire from a distance when flanking (sometimes necessary if you get seen too soon), then if you fire over a wall at an enemy soldier, the wall will provide them cover if it is closer to them than to you and they are facing another wall. Because of this, make sure to shoot through holes in the center wall (if there is a center wall) when firing at the enemy soldiers.
Attack
If you don't get seen too early, you can go right up behind a person and shoot him, as Line of Sight no longer gives you eyes behind your head. If you try to run up to the enemy soldiers to shoot them from point blank, they'll probably turn around and shoot you (although there are certain exceptions). Instead, just stay about 6 squares back and nade them from there (nade 1 square behind them, as you can't throw a nade 6 squares).
When flanking, keep in mind that the first time you fire or nade, you announce that you're flanking, and the enemy soldiers are likely to turn around and try to shoot or nade you, although they sometimes won't realize what is happening and may just cry "cheaters!" instead. Instead, make a dramatic entrance, getting all your soldiers into position before firing and/or nading all at once. This way, you can kill a lot of soldiers with your flank, rather than killing one, then losing all of yours when they turn around to see you. However, if they see you before you are in position, immediately stop to fire and/or nade.
It is just as important to avoid being flanked yourself as to flank the enemy. When there is contact, count the enemy squads. If you know the location of all enemy squads, then there can't possibly be one off somewhere else flanking (unless you know of one flanking). If one or more are missing, they may be flanking, so it's important to watch your back to avoid being flanked. If the other side is blitzing, it may be difficult to accurately count squads, but it is important to do so in order to determine whether there is a flanker. Games have been lost because a side miscounted squads in a blitz and forgot about a flanker.
In addition, it is good to choose areas to defend which are not easily flanked. If a couple sides are occupied by the edge of the map or teammates, then you can't be attacked from there. If the enemy can easily attack you from all sides at once, then they likely will, and if you're surrounded, you'll probably die.
In Case of Emergency
If you get surrounded, then you're probably going to die. If the game is almost over, then you can just lie down on one side of a wall so enemy soldiers can't shoot you from the other side, and then fire at the soldiers you're facing to stress them and hope you don't die before time ends. If there is still a lot of time left, then your best hope is to kill all the enemy soldiers on one side of you so that you aren't surrounded anymore. Stress the enemy soldiers as much as you can, then quickly blitz the enemy soldiers on one side. You'll probably still die, but it's your best hope for survival. If you just lie there and return fire, then you'll almost certainly die anyway.
If you flank and the enemy also flanks, you may meet enemy soldiers when both of you are wide and not close to cover. If you do, then just lie down and return fire as quickly as possible. If one side notices quickly and the other side doesn't, the side that doesn't notice will probably keep running until they die. This is why it is important to watch your screen when flanking.
Stressing
Keep your soldiers close together when flanking. You can't get ambushed and have all your soldiers stunned by a single nade when there isn't anything nearby to hide behind, unless you don't notice the enemy soldiers until it's too late (in which case, you'll die anyway). There's no point in having a soldier die from 10 squares from the enemy, while another soldier is 20 squares away and very unlikely to hit.
Another tactic to use is to have 1 soldier run back and forth across the enemy line of sight to draw attention. Enemy soldiers naturally prefer a moving target to a still one from the same distance (since the moving target is less likely to have cover), so enemy soldiers will naturally target your moving soldier. However, a soldier running across the line of sight is only half as likely to be hit as one lying down, so your soldiers are more likely to survive this way. If your opponents don't use fire at (or worse, deliberately target the running soldier), then your soldier may live a lot longer and you'll be more likely to win such a conflict.
Also, make sure to stress all the enemy soldiers--an unstressed rifle is considerably more accurate than a BAR/MG with a stress of 2. If all your soldiers fire at the same enemy soldier, you might kill that soldier, but you'll probably die. In particular, target the enemy BAR/MG. This gun is by far the deadliest from long distances, and you want to make sure it has enough stress to not quickly kill you, or better yet, kill it first. Just make sure that you don't have all your soldiers always target the enemy BAR/MG. You can tell which gun is which by listening carefully when they fire.
Winning/Losing
At times when you meet an enemy squad wide, it may be possible to call for help. If a teammate can come to help you soon enough, then you can outnumber the enemy and almost certainly win. Ask for help through whisper, however, as you don't want to alert the enemy that you have help coming (or they may run), and you don't want to inadvertently call for additional enemy squads to come help too soon.
There may be times when you meet multiple enemy squads wide of an area, or the enemy has more BAR/MGs than you. If two squads fight one with equal weapons, the two will nearly always win, with minimal (if any) casualties of their own. If a squad with 2 or 3 BAR/MGs faces a squad with none, the results will be similar. If you have very little hope of winning when wide, then it is sometimes best to run away. Run at an angle to the line of fire to reduce your chances of being shot, but just get out of there.
Congratulations, You've Lived!
