Heres some basic tactics information. some of you may know most of

this, but it never hurts to make sure.

Principles of Organization

Whenever you enter the field, you have a role to play. Be it sniper,

scout, assault, command. None of these roles is better or worse than

any other. None of these roles is more or less honorable than any

other. A gunslinging expert pilot private is as valuable as a

Sergeant, or even a Major. The simple fact is, you all have skills,

and for the most part, your skills are different from each others.

You may be a great pilot, but poor at command; or conversely a great

commander but a horrid pilot. There is no shame in being a private.

There is shame in doing your job badly, whatever it may be. Positions

within the unit are granted on the principle of abilities, not merit

or time. You are placed in a role where you can best serve the Unit.

Principles of Battle

Sun Tzu once wrote, "All warfare is based on deception." In order to

implement our strategies, and to negate the strategies of our

enemies, we must be organized. That is why there are field

commanders. The position of Field Commander is not a position of

glory, but of duty and responsibility. The Field Commander bears the

brunt of defeat, and the blame for it. If we have two people on the

field attempting to give orders, they will likely be contradicting,

and we will not be organized. If nobody listens and obeys the field

commander, we will not be organized. You may know better than the

Field Commander what should be done. You may have a brilliant idea

that would win the battle, but the Field Commander does not see it.

If you chase after your idea, then the battle will be lost. There is

a saying in Latin:

'Una salus victus nullam sperare salutem' - The one hope of the

doomed is not to hope for safety. Whatever plan the Field Commander

gives, you MUST follow it through from beginning to end. You must not

deviate from it, or change it to your own ideas. Even if it results

in defeat, you must not abandon it. In a unit working as a team, even

a bad plan can result in victory. The instant members of the team

begin to deviate from the plan, the battle is lost. At that moment,

we are no longer a team, but a group of individuals each with his own

agenda. Remember this, and when on the field, live it.

Beginnings of Battle

The moment you enter the field, you should immediately find your

Field Commander and form on him. Then turn your radar off. Be VERY

careful to avoid collisions with the rest of your lance. Collisions

result in damage, and you running into someone before battle even

begins could be the difference between victory and defeat. Once you

have formed up, await orders. Do NOT shoot your weapons, destroy

buildings, or anything else of that nature. A lot of the time,

stealth makes the difference between victory and defeat. A single

shot can ruin the element of surprise for the entire team.

Fire Discipline

Upon entering the field or making contact, the Field Commander will

designate primary and secondary targets for everyone. You MUST attack

your designated target above all others. Why do we designate targets?

Imagine there are two teams of 4. Team 1, the Black Wolves,

concentrates all of its fire on one person from team 2. Everyone in

team 2 shoots a different person of team 1. Assuming identical mechs,

and identical accuracies, by the time the first person of team 2

dies, everyone in team 1 will be 1/4 damaged. By the time the second

person in team 2 dies, everyone in team 1 will be 1/2 damaged. When

the third person in team 2 dies, everyone in team 1 will be 3/4

damaged. We now outnumber the enemy 4 to 1. It does not take a genius

to see who wins from here.

Now while completely concentrated fire can be devestating, there are

times when a field commander may choose to designate separate targets

for people. An example is for fire support harrassment. It does not

do to leave a missile boat sitting happily on a ridge killing our

men. In this case one, two or even three of the team may be given a

different target than the rest of the team. No matter who your target

is, you MUST hit that target before all others.

Now, there will be times in a battle, when perhaps two or three of

the enemy will concentrate their fire on you, and it will be tempting

to leave your designated target and hit the people who are hitting

you. You MUST NOT DO THIS. Alone, you will not be able to take out

any one of the three enemies attacking you before they kill you.

However, if you stick with the designated targets, you can still take

out at least one of the enemies before you die. But it gets even

better, and this is where a good Field Commander comes in. A good

Field Commander will notice that you are being heavily attacked. And

he will name the next kill after the current one as someone who is

attacking you. And lo and behold, before you know it, the whole team

is coming to your rescue, and you may make it out alive. But the

moment you leave the designatd target to try and save yourself, you

doom not only yourself, but the entire team.

"Una salus victus nullam sperare salutem" - The one hope of the

doomed is not to hope for safety.

You must stick with the designated targets at all costs, even if it

results in your death.

Targets of Opportunity

Now that you understand the principle of the fire discipline, you

must understand Targets of Opportunity (TO). It is important that you

stick to the designated targets. However, let me paint a scenario.

Billy-bob is given as the primary target. Your lance is running

around, and they make contact with an enemy scout, named Billy-ray.

There are no other enemy mechs in sight, and Billy-ray has spotted

you. Does it make sense to leave Billy-ray untouched just because he

is NOT Billy-bob? No. Common sense would be to shoot Billy-ray until

he dies, or you see Billy-bob. Now if you are chasing Billy-ray and

you run across Billy-bob, that is the time to change targets. If you

are in the heat of battle, and Billy-bob ducks behind a hill and

there is another enemy mech there, by all means shoot the enemy mech.

But keep chasing after Billy-bob and hit him when you can.

Radio Discipline

Radio discipline is something that is of extreme importance. If

everyone speaks whenever a thought pops into their head, then

commands from the FC cannot be heard, and the whole point of voice

communication is lost. There are two people on a team who can speak

freely on the radio: the FC, and the Scout. Only these two. If you

are not the FC or the scout, be quiet. So when can you speak?

Acknowledge commands with a brief 'roger'. If you make contact or are

hit, you say 'contact, heading blah' where 'blah' is the heading from

which the fire came, or the heading you saw someone at. The last

instance is if you lose all your weapons. In this case a simple

"Merlin here. Lost all weapons." is enough.

'I'm being hit here guys, help me out, I'm about to blow, oh no, I've

lost a weapon, I'm critical, help me, I'm hit, I'm about to blow'

DOES NOT HELP THE TEAM. Unfortunate though it may be, everyone gets

hit at some time. Most good teams use target lists, and at some point

or another, you will be on the enemy's target list. You may not like

it, it may not be fun, but telling the whole world about it and

jamming up the radio will not help the team or yourself in any way.

Forming up

A standard command given by a field commander is 'form up on me'.

What is meant by this? It does not mean we bunch up like a group of

sardines. It does not mean we become like a group of guys rushing to

the keg at a party. It means we make a formation. The standard and

default formation is line abreast. For this and all other formations,

refer to the advanced tactics section. There is a reason for

formations. They do not just keep the team together. They are

designed to give us a maximum field of fire. How often have you run

into a fight and not been able to shoot because your teammate was in

front of you? I'd say often. Formations are designed to keep the team

together, but also provide us space to move and fire. So when you

form up, do NOT stand on top of the person next to you. Make space,

give the team room to breath. Collisions are a bad, bad thing. They

damage our mechs, and do the enemy's job for them. Space out, make it

harder for them to hit us, and harder for us to hit ourselves.

Stealth

Do not run over trees if you can help it. A tree 'crumbling' can be

seen from a very long distance away. This can give away the position

of the unit to our enemies. Also, avoid outlining yourself on a

ridge. Use the contours of the land to stay hidden.

Sacrifice

If you lose all of your weapons you should do one of two things:

1) If your mech is not in too bad of a condition, try to draw fire

from the enemy.

2) If your mech is flashing red, try to collide with one of the

enemy, and catch him in your death explosion.

Shiprapid