Yes was my decision to send 2 infantry squads plus an APC to move up and clear out all enemy presence from that hill position, then immediately move to capture the swamps.
There was a number of reasons for this coming from a commanders perspective, most of it probably wont make sense unless you have commanded alot of times so you understand the challenges with commanding in PR. Commanding in PR is prety complicated in that there is a mix of real life strategy involved but much more than that you need a deep understanding of the mechanics of the game combined with the abilities of your squads.
Heres some breakdown on the psychological, logistical, tactical and strategical reasons to make an attack on an area that is not currently a Control Point but has an enemy presence that is engaging your current defensive Control Point:
Psychological
- Commander needs to first gain the trust and respect of the units under him. When entering a round of PR that is already well underway, there was no way to lay down an over arching strategy upon immediately moving up into the command seat. Without any kind of overall strategy, commander usually gets little to no attention from the squads as they are already well underway doing what they want to do.
- Friendly Squad Leaders HATE when they are in a defensive stance, and being attacked from a fixed position some distance away, but are unable to attack this position because that would move them off the objective position and as well would tie up their squad doing something seen as "not useful" by the rest of the team. However if the Commander gives them the go ahead to do this, its assumed the Commander is on the ball and already has a squad lined up to take over defense while they are out dealing with the enemy fixed position. This will in turn boost the confidence/trust level between this squad leader and commander.
- If a Commander simply orders squads to attack next, ignoring other enemy activity and planning, this gives squad leaders a very gungho attitude and also means Commander has not much control over the whole team, which will result in alot of needless casualties. If the round comes down to KDR (which it did) it does not bode well for the team that didn't pick its battles but rather just rushed the next flag each time.
- Last but probably the most important psychological reason for myself to make these "Non objective assaults" is: Fun. Yes you can play the map everytime by rushing the exact same flags, taking the same routes, getting herded into the same bottlenecks and either winning the fight or (more often) losing and trying all over again, OR.... you could mix it up and have some fun, while helping out your team.
- Morale plays a big factor when your team is forced to hold a position indefinitely while all attempts at assault completely fail. One successful coordinated attack is usually much better than several small fast attacks with fewer numbers. This is especially true if all squads are disciplined and none are attacking, it lures the enemy into a false sense of security, makes the enemy defenders less attentive as nothing is happening so they start goofing around, and if your squads are all on the ball because they have made several coordinated secondary assaults, it will greatly increase the chances of catching the enemy offguard while your own forces are on the top of their game.
Logistical
- Enemy logistics to the swamp were being fed by the road leading from the Hillside supply that was assaulted. Taking out a supply route is good way to weaken the enemy, ESPECIALLY if its in conjunction with area attacks and CAS strikes, enemy will feel weakened, low on ammo and no chance of supply, really helps to turn the odds when the objective assault is executed.
- Friendly supplies could quickly be ferried to the Supply hill to make a temp FOB (although this didnt happen because of time restraint). Also denying enemy AA here meant that helicopters were free to quickly ferry troops from the swamps to next objective once captured.
Tactical
- In this particular scenario, already there was 2 previous attempts to attack the swamp objective (that I witnessed before stepping up to CO). Both attempts failed completely, with 12 friendly KIA and unknown enemy casualties. The route along the beach or through the swamp did not offer ideal cover against a fixed dug in enemy.
- Moving through the swamps while having to deal with both shooters on the ridgeline and on the beach would be perfect situation for the enemy and very difficult for friendlies to fight through
Strategical
- Sending more men through the obvious route did not seem ideal and would be a problem with the squad leader to commander trust situation (see psychological paragraph above) should those attacks continue to be unsuccesful.
- APC coverage would be ideal from the high ground supply hill, however sending a lone APC against a squad with AT support would probably end in a lost APC (and again) a weakened trust between the commander and the APC crew.
- At the time of attack, it was unknown what strength the enemy had at the supply hill. An alternative to a full out assault could have been sending a sniper team for recon of the area, however that option was not really avaliable at the time, but infantry squads WERE avaliable so you use what you got
- Sending 2 squads versus 1.... is a valid concern as over-deploying excess troops could mean needless casualties as well as taking away defense from the main objective... however defense was setup back at the trenchline and getting 2 squads to work together to clear an area is an important 'training' step to do before a major assault on the main objective that WILL have lots of enemy. Letting the 2 squads do a "mockup" assault on a secondary objective gives them time to iron out the kinks and work out the problems before doing it on a main assault where if any major mistake is made, will doom the whole operation.
Anyways those are just a few points there was alot more to it than that, but there is alot of Commander tactics discussion in the tactics section of these forums.
Im not saying I did extremely well as commander, I enjoy playing commander but dont get to do it as often as I like, but please if you see a commander trying to get something done that might not be what your used to, give him a try and try to work with him as its not an easy job, but could pay off greatly and offer you some new experiences besides the standard "each squad rushes at the next flag seperately and gets killed over and over until something else happens" which is sadly happening all too often these days
Like I said, its not about the rushing. If it was ANY other server I would have just tried to make it work or left and found another one. But you dont go make a scene and yell at us for doing this, while you are allowed to do it.
