How To Plan
From CoCWiki
You make orders, based on how good you and your subordinates are. For example if there is one set of VPs (Victory Points) you usually send one or two (maybe even three) of your best players towards those VPs. With the remaining players you have, you should set them up strategically on the flanks.
If you are good CO, your team has good chances of winning.
Contents |
Planning
Step 1: Identify Your Strengths
This is the first, and most important step of all in forming your plan, as it will decide what the options are in the rest of your plan. You can only work with the team you have at the time, so there is no point in sending everyone into a house, if you have no "house men" in your team. You will simply be slaughtered. Instead you must work out what you have in terms of skills at your disposal, and then use these tools to execute your plan.
Step 2: Identify the Terrain
Carefully examine the battlefield and work out which areas of it you NEED to take, and which areas you can avoid, make note of areas that will leave you vulnerable, and also which areas will leave the enemy vulnerable. Most importantly identify any "kill zones". A kill zone is an area where once moved into can be assaulted from multiple directions simultaneously. Once identified, look to the rest of the terrain, look for ways to avoid stepping into these kill zones yourself, and look for ways in which you can maneuver the enemy into these kill zones.
Step 3: Set Mission Goals
With the knowledge of the terrain and the tools at your disposal, you must now set mission goals, ask yourself, where you want to be? and where you want your enemy to be? Once this is decided you need to start thinking of how to get yourself and the enemy there. More goals... follow a logical sequence of movements, putting yourself in the enemies position can help when trying to predict their movements. You can guess where the enemy is likely to be, so you need to work out how to get them exactly where you want them. It might not always be possible to get the enemy exactly where you want them to be, putting yourself in their position is an easy way to work this out. Remember also, the more steps required by your plan, the higher the margin of error becomes. Ideally you want to come up with a plan that can be executed in 2 to 3 short stages. The margin of error in your plan multiplies with each addition step required to execute it.
Step 4: Assign Individual Objectives
Now that you have a logical sequence that needs to be executed you need to break these steps down into what is required from individual squads and pass that on to them. When passing these orders you need to be very careful, simply telling them where to go is often not enough, tell them WHY they are going there. If the individual members of the team know what the teams goals are for the mission then they are going to position themselves in a much better arrangement to further that plan. In addition, when team members know what is supposed to happen, they are better able to communicate with their team mates. Coordination is an essential element to any plan. For example, there is no point in flanking an enemy thats not already engaged, they simply turn around and shoot back, however, a flank that arrives with the enemy already fighting a squad to its front is in BIG trouble.
Step 5: Assign Weapons
Weapons should be assigned for a particular purpose, and that purpose should be included with orders. There is very little call for a heavy machine gun for a team member intended to assault a house corridor 5 squares long, on the contrary, having such a weapon could even be a disadvantage, as it has a slower rate of fire than the sub machine guns and rifles. Think carefully about where weapons are going to be needed, and pass them with purpose. If you know there is a place that is most likely going to be rushed you should put the MG42 or BAR in cover where you are suspecting the rush. An MG42 is a fantastic weapon in an open field with enemies advancing across it, but nothing beats a mauser jumping up by surprise from a window to ambush the enemy.
Step 6: Make the Chain
Then do the chain (of command). The chain is where you assign your subordinates (usually from best to last) to you so you can have their eyes, and the players below you have the players eyes below them so that the better players can tell the weaker players what to do.
Step 7: Execute your plan
First, make sure everyone will follow orders, if they don't the plan could proceede to chaos.
Yours is a guideline... nothing more, its not a rule, and you would do well to remember that. You will come across occasions when the enemy has done something unexpected and in doing so nullified your own plan... don't worry, just revert to plan B. (You did have a plan B didn't you?).
Communication is essential, you need to identify the enemies plan, and make sure that they are going along with your own (albeit unwittingly). Take some time to locate the enemy, before committing all your resources against what you can see.
Don't be afraid to take advantage of an enemy mistake, the best thing that can happen in the game is to isolate an enemy unit, if you get into this situation use it, and use it fast. you can normally safely eliminate such a unit with 2 to 3 of your own units, while the remainder keep watch for the rest of the enemy.
Take note at the beginning of your expected losses from your plan, make sure you don't let the actual losses get out of hand, sometimes a plan can work to perfection, but it may be fundamentally flawed. If you find losses getting out of control... abandon it, and take another approach. The game is long enough to pull back and regroup.
Don't allow yourself to be maneuvered, if you are being pushed somewhere, its likely not a good place to end up, communicate with your team mates and find another way out of the situation.
Take advantage of the enemy, if you have them pulling back, push them hard, this is when you are able to maneuver them into the kill zones, communicate and coordinate pausing allows them to choose their own path out of trouble, and means you lose the advantage you gained in forcing them to pull back.
One of the best things you can do as a CO is constantly update your team on where everyone is, what movements the enemy is making, their objectives and warning them. This applies to playerstats games and AG games (best to use teamspeak or ventrilo for AG). Every member of your team that is willing to listen becomes useful... whether they're a 2 game private or a SGM.
