Choosing your battlefield;
One of the vital asset of the guerrilla tactician is the option to engage the enemy wherever he seems appropriate. Key elements of a good ambush position is:
1-Traffic - You want a road, highway or entrance that will be visited alot.
2-Hiding position - If you wait with your ied running around you will be shot.
3-Cache nearby - You can set up several IEDs by reloading on the caches, best when the enemy as intel on the cache. They do not expect a blast even less a big one.
Be careful not to set your IEDs too close to the cache, my rule of thumb, little further then what you thought was safe. When a cache is underground, set you're IEDs higher then ground level. How to set IED's high in the air? Jump at the exact same moment you place your IED looking up. When aimed properly it will stick as far as 15ft up. This is highly effective on low altitude choppers fly by as well as a great hiding spot for explosives.
Best cover is always further then where your enemy will expect you on the point of collision. But when long range vision isn't available, Rely on shades and imperfection of the terrain, apartments, bushes, rooftops, statics. Do not move around, with experience of camoflage and use of static, the enemy will not see you, always try to keep something between you and the enemy until you see him enter your strike zone.
Sound is another good friend of the ambusher, play with headsets. You will hear the vehicles coming from further or infantry flanking. Do not peek when not necessary. If you did the maths right, they are coming.
Part 2,
Point of collision;
Once you've determined your strike zone, you must put in place the explosives as swiftly and stealthy as possible. First you want to set your mine(s) as they will stay there long time after your death. My preferred spot for mines is always hidden under a rock big enough, but when the road or passage is clear of rocks/garbage, use your imagination. Use the changes in ground levels, put yourself in the drivers position; What will he look for and how will he see it. The best position for a mine in the open will often be right after a small hilltop when the road goes a little bit downhill (you only need a few inches to hide the mine from their view until its too late)
Johnnys tip: Use mines as back up for your IED(s). Place them a little further. When a vehicle will come, the blast of your IED (if not deadly to them) will hide the mine long enough for a moving vehicle to hit it. In case of heavy tanks or APCs, the mine will finish them.
Placing your IED;
First, know you're explosives. An IED, in my book, will be effective up to 2 hummer/jeep lengths. On APC's you're looking for direct hits for maximum damage. An IED on the front side angle will often destroy tracks (so will RPGs). Knowing this, and knowing what is going to be you're target, place IEDs accordingly. One of my favorite spots as said earlier, would be to use a lamp/electric pole for height, however this will mostly be effective on light targets. You can also use this same pole, or building, Highway panel or tree to determine from a long range where your strike zone is. Use the terrain at you're advantage.
Disclaimer: Some people will find placing IEDs on high grounds to be somewhat exploiting, I answer that Explosives are even more efficient when used at some height since the blast radius will rebound on the ground and also hit top armor that is always weaker. Thus making this realistic and actually used in Iraq. (they often use electric wires or poles to hang EFPs and other IEDs high, in order to hit weaker top armor) The fact one could throw an ied a few feet away doesn't seem unreal or exploiting to me in any ways. Give me duct tape, shovels, EFPs and we'll talk again about that
Part 3, Terrain, communication & locations expertise, to be continued...
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which happens not to have a cache but instead an IED on the road.
