Gameplay tactics: Comms

[ShermansWar]

Author Topic: Comms
shermanswar
Officer
Member # 3

posted December 29, 2003 16:03


I posted a format and set of procedures for comms a while back.Let me re-iterate for those new to the unit, and those who don't bother to use it.

To report a contact:
1)Identify Person you are addressing
2)Identify yourself
3)Identify subject or object
4)Direction
5)Range
6)Identify unit you are referencing
OR
7)Coordinate

For example:

"MM,this is Sherm, T-80,NNW,1500 mtrs of 2/2-A"
OR
"MM,this is Sherm, T-80 at 247 135"
.................................................
Short, sweet direct.takes 2 secs. other situations may require more info.such as
................................................
SITREPS:

8)Querry, such as request for support, or request for a BP or route.For example:

"MM, this is Sherman, T-80's attacking my pos at 247 135, requesting assistance."
OR
"MM, this is Sherman, have arrived at 247, 135, where you want me , am under fire, where you want me to proceed to?"?"
...............................................
9)Report of action taken.For example:

"MM, this is Sherman,T-80 at 247 135, engaging"
................................................

10)Report of movement of units, either embarking, or arriving.For Example:

"MM, this is Sherman, 2/2-A arrived at 247 135"
OR
"MM, this is Sherman, 2/2-A leaving 247 135, heading towards Obj.
OR
"MM, this is Sherman,2/2-A heading towards 247 135
.................................................

Report may be a combination of an enemy contact and course of action or querry such as:
"MM, this is Sherman, enemy tanks assaulting my pos at 247 135,requesting assistance, engaging. Moving 2/2-A from 233 175 to 247 135 in support."Command may discuss strategy and tactics,enlisted should not hold discussions on the net. Officers may offer observations and suggest course of action as situation develops.Radio net should be kept clear of unnecessary dicussion or comment.
DO NOT USE CLOCK DIRECTIONS FOR REPORTING CONTACTS.Use compass direction or map coordinates. Gets confusing, guy may not know whetjer you mean turret bearing or hull bearing, especially during a battlesight engagement if you use clock direction.If you dont know how to read a map, learn.
ACKOWLEDGE RECEIPT OF TRANSMISSION OR ORDERS. No need for a guy to repeat himself or get stressed out and distratced wondering whether or not he is following your orders.

This system should serve us well, Try it.Use it.

[Cobra2]

this is good stuff and all, but you missing a few:

1st of all, what you are discribing is a TC with a mike in his mouth. we are not yet ready to play like that. we are in reallity over glorified gunners. the reason the TC is not removed from the tank crew because he is tasked with comms. it used to be the job of a radio operator, but technology done away with the 5th tank crewman.

2nd point, and this is very important. what tank are you in? we will always have sevearal tanks under the control of one guy. IRL you get one tank. thats it. you know your place and so does everyone else.

the only way RL comms may work is if you keep constant eye contact with the tank you are talking with. this does remind me of the time Elf wanted to teach me how to man all the tanks of a platoon, but long befor that i played with 2 tanks and both i and my guy tried to move together and shoot together. it was quite enjoyable i must confess. yet i doubt it could be done on the scale of a company. you need more guys and they need to have dicipline. no one goes out of his AO and everyone needs to know how to report. then you need a coordinator, a Co to command others into action. almost no one follows orders as expected. when they do they will act very liberally and go well out of their AO.

IRL, the military has strict rules that hold you in place. its a matter of CCC. command control and comms. to simply report a sighting is useless. you would need to train every body and retreain them every so often and train new comers and its a whole can of worms.

do it the old way: TH, tank west of 21A....i got him....
it seems to work.

[ShermansWar]

If you will observe, the name of the thread is GAMEPLAY TACTICS.

This is no way has any bearing on real life comms. This is rather a suggested workable system for an SB game, not real life.I will state further, it is a style reccomended for those who play the game to win, as opposed to those using the game as a sim for training, or trying to replicate real,life situations.( This was the reason I wanted 2 seperate sections, so we dont get constant cross discussions between game and real life tactics wothout differentiating between the 2)

We are all on TS, and we all use comms, and most of the time a player has a platoon af tanks and a platoon of brads, thats not uncommon. most of the time most players cant tell you a map coordinate of a particular unit, and i find myself, that i can have thee name of a unit called out and I mat not immediately recognize it is mine. but most players do know where their teamates areas of responsibility are. true, sloppy SA on my part to not know or immidiately react every time a unit under my command is called on, but I find, and I think those I play with find it is much easier to call out the player, then communicate with him than trying to call out the name of a unit and wait for someone to respond.

Try it in game sometime, you may find you are waiting quite some time for an acknowledgement. Very often a unit is called on for 10 minutes and no answer, until you hail the owner directly.As ar as players going out of there AO and not responding, i recall you were pretty good at that.Not everyone freelances, and the game we played last night was a prime example, radio comms worked well, it was essebtial for the mission to succeed, as it was an excercise in command and control, and most players did what they were supposed to and went where they were supposed to, despite the fact it was a non VU team, and the players dont play together all the time. still, discipline and comms work well.


As for the rest, when I CO, I CO, and I am the coordinator. many guys dont CO like i dio, and some dont apreciate the style, but I am "hands on" (as far as getting players to react). I think when you play with a team that responds to the CO, you have a definite advantage, particularly if the CO can recognize an opportunity to get inside the enemy commanders decision cycle, and if the enemy is playing a loose style( typical orders being, "OK, you go east, I'll go west and he'll take the middle"), it is even easier to exploit, when you dont have a unified command to outhink, but simply have to react to enemy forces operating as independent task forces, with no real unified hands on command. Good comms will beat that team every time.

Another thing about comms, and reacting is, you dont have to have a very detailed plan and fancy comms, but a team that REACTS, and reacts to the direction of a CO who is on top of the situation will usually win, all other things being equal, simply because they are in a position to exploit, and capitalize on what the CO is seeing develop during the game.You and I play a very different style.I give clear mission orders, make the players aware of the general concept of how we intend to defeat the enemy, and leave the players to handle their units themselves, whilst retaining the ability to redirect units to a crisis area, or to an area that can be exploited as an opportunity presents itself, good command and control puts you in a better position to capitalize on the enemies mistakes.

[ShermansWar]

I posted that in 2nd dragoons forums almost 4 years ago now.Was an internal effort to improve comms after , we, 2nd dragoons first instituted teamspeak as a comms system, finding that typing orders during engagements left many of us losing gunfights every day because we were typing. Frederick Georges ( Bluewings) insisted that we , as a VU, at least experiment with TS. At one time before i joined the community , it experimented with Roger Wilco ( I tried it) and , like everyone else found it to be inadequate and used typed comms instead.It was an abandoned system long before I got here. There's probably still a link for it around somewhere, maybe on 1st CADs site.

We used it, and gave us such an advantage in situational awareness that the rest of the community was forced to adapt and get it's own TS server.

Understand 2nd dragoons , has more active and current US military serviceman on it's roster than any other VU.Ther w was a desire, an intent , and a plan, to adapt US Army SOP as far as comms went when the unit was founded. That was Renegade's intent ( May he return to us unharmed).

Is was found that, to play the game competitively with the group we had, ( who drilled weekly for 3 years, BTW)even with as many members as we had with real life experience, many players didnt have enough SA to respond fast enough to real life commms) which was desigend for a net of trained personell within a unit to use proficiently. even as a unit that trained, with comms as good or better than anyone else, is still proved to slow to allow players to respond rapidly enough in an engagemenet, especially when on any given TGIF night we may get many more casual players( the game was founded to be a casual game, a place where first time players and vets could meet in a relaxed atmosphere , where people could get together, have fun and kill tanks.There were only 2 prerequisites, That it be a first run scenario, meaning it had not been played publicly beforehand, beyond any testing, and that all scenarios were to be submitted by the members, of the community, anyone can submit one, and most were played. now, it has become a beta testing ground, where a particular group of players is trying to impose a particular playstyle on the game, that by definition, and our own experience as a unit that had experience, and played and fought and trained together, that the comm system you suggest will put off most but the most experienced players,and annoy many longtime players who suddenly lose their SA and intel that they've played with for years .

Adopt it, please.We'll eat you for lunch.

[ShotMagnet]

We never use this format. We do just fine; the 29th has been using TS for four years or so, itself.

...you dont have to have a very detailed plan and fancy comms, but a team that REACTS, and reacts to the direction of a CO who is on top of the situation will usually win...That's what's relevant; reacting quickly to commands, and drilling with the team so that you know what works best for your team.

My advice would be to find that format which works best for your team, and go from there.


Shot

[RENEGADE-623]

We use it in 2D and works good. Sherman is not saying everyone has to use it. He saying it can improve your coordination and communications within a unit. I prefer that because you get precise info on what the player is talking about. If someone says tank west of 21A, well, if it has moved to many dif locations, now I have to sit there and find out where 21A is and then where the tank is whereas if I get a grid, i can just go to that grid spot and see the enemy tank. 8 more months and I will be home again wooohoooooo