Reason: I always see commanders using individual squads who get pre-maturely whipped out in almost a single attack.
Attack/Defend strategy: Marines are weak. They lack the powerful weapons and tend to have marines who wonder off alone and get killed almost instantly. Xeno's will always have the upper advantage against marines. They can see through walls and depending on the path they choose to evolve in they can be fast, tanked, and just generally be hard to kill. I have seen one fireteam element of 3 xenos ambush a whole squad sized element of 16 marines and just completely kill them in a matter of seconds. My idea is to have 3 squad move as a platoon instead of as individual squads. Have a squad who is suited to sit behind and set up constant FOB's behind the assaulting platoon. The FOB will be used for members of the front lines to fall back to when they need to rearm. So squads setting up these FOB's would need to constantly communicate back to command regarding supply drops and other commodities that may be needed such as health supplies, ammo, food, etc. Once a squad on the front line begins to become weak or wounded send them back to the FOB and have the squad who was previously in charge of setting up the FOB and have that squad join the frontal assault DO NOT send them back into battle assuming they are not combat effective. Marines who landed at the LZ should wait until there is at least a fire team sized element (4-5 marines including a combat medic) to push towards the FOB and rally with there respective squads. If the frontal push begins to waiver or deter due to a xeno assault order the attacking platoon back to the FOB and defend a static position until the xeno push is weak and wounded. The idea behind defending a static position is no matter what, a static position will always be harder to assault then a moving position
Once the xeno's begin to fallback, send the platoon back too the front lines to execute and eliminate any of the fleeing weak and wounded. Use CAS strikes to try and deter any enemy assaults on the flanks and OB to help with the frontal push. Things your going to need. Constant communication between bridge officers and XO/CO, XO should be in charge of either watching the assault on the ground or be in charge of manning the Almayer. As for the CO he should be doing whatever the XO is not doing. This will relive stress off both the XO and CO so they have more time to concentrate on what they need to be doing. SO's should only be watching what their respected squad is doing. If their squad begins to become combat in-effective they should tell whoever is in charge of the ground assault that they need to change their squad out for FOB duty to rearm and regroup.
If the XO/CO is watching the Almayer, they should be in constant communication with both Medbay, Req, PO's, CL, And engineering and should be ensuring that these stations are doing their duty and sending what is needed to the squads below. If the XO/CO is watching the ground assault, they should be in constant communication with the SO's ensuring that they are pulling squads back from the front lines and having them do FOB duty and ensuring they are not being sent out on front lines when they are not combat effective. Make sure to constantly be moving the FOB around and always have the squad who is in charge of the FOB to have enough supplies to leave the old FOB and set up a new one. This means you should only start setting up a new FOB if the squad tasked with setting up a FOB has the combat strength and effective members to set up a new FOB.
I never see any commander do this. They always have maybe 1 or 2 squads doing a frontal attack with another squad constantly in charge of watching an FOB witch is miles away. This will fix the issue with smaller FOB's and a larger assaulting force while you have a small defending force sitting behind the lines of combat, and they would be watching to ensure no enemy force is sneaking behind the front line to assault from the rear.
Commanders Breifing: With this type of tactic your briefing should be short and simple 1.1)Before your briefing gather your CMP, SO, and XO and describe to them what you want them to do before you brief you marines. Make sure you tell the CMP that ground insubordination should not be tolerated and that if reported MP's should be ready to arrest any marine brought back ship side and be charged for their crimes since they are directly effecting the ground operation. 1) List off the squads who will begin as the assaulting platoon and order them to begin clearing out any buildings and look for survivors. If the comms are down order them to push with the FOB squad to comms to repair comms. 2) Tell the squad who is in charge of setting up FOB that they want to use as little material as possible since you will be constantly changing FOB positions. They shouldn't ever use static weapons or to much material to early since you want that for the final assault FOB. 3) Once all buildings are clear assuming your on a map with different buildings tell your men that they will be in constant push to clear out anything hazardous that may be lurking around the colony. 4) Finish the briefing.
Use of your Normandy and Alamo:Make sure you order your PO's to have one ship set up for combat and another set up for transport as usual. Personally I would have the Alamo set up for transport and the Normandy set up for direct combat but this should be changed if the map depends on it. Combat ship should also be used for constant medivac. The transport ship should never be used to medivac since the assaulting platoon would be too far away from LZ's to push back alone.
Use of MP'sInsubordination on the ground should never be tolerated. SO's should be reporting these marines for insubordination and these marines should always be charged for their crimes. They won't learn if they arn't punished for it. MP's should be in constant patrol looking for wanted marines wondering the Almayer and if they are wanted for insubordination they should be arrested and charged for it. Optionally if the commander chooses insubordinate marines can also be charged for Neglect of duty & Desertion (if insubordinate marine effects combat that much.) as Insubordination during an operation is a serious offence. This will give MP's a reason to patrol the Almayer instead of going SSD after briefing. Remember being to harsh on insubordination could lead to a mutiny or lack of effective men on the ground. You are trying to reform them not get you men killed and its in the best interest to have as many men on the ground as humanly possible. You still want to charge them for their crimes though since they won't learn from it if someone stole from you I highly doub't you would say "Well looks like they got away with it." When using this tactic these marines should only be arrested if they have been medivaced alive.
Visual of formation:
Made in MS Paint (Don't judge)
Note you can change the formation if wanted like if you wanted a platoon wedge simply ask Charlie and Delta squad to move down or ask Alpha squad to push forward. Be careful that squads aren't engaging in friendly fire.
What are your thoughts on this attack strategy? Things you think might go wrong with this or things you feel we just lack to effectively execute this strategy.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
And remember your best offense is always your best defense vice versa.
EDIT: Changed spell'ing a grimmer mistakes and included commanders briefing, use of Normandy and Alamo, use of MP's, And made bullet points GLOW
PS: Did you enjoy how Use of MP's looks like pol-ice lights.
Much love to you all
The best tac0 in the west.
-Del_tac0
