In this article we're going to discuss the tactical decision-making behind the Team's performance in our latest video, the "Capture the VIP" game that was played at our home site Section 8 on the 11th of February.
If you haven't already watched the video, we recommend doing so! It showcases the team's movements and decisions as we go blow by blow through the game to dissect what was happening, how we reacted, and how that played out for us.
PHASE ONE - TAKING THE VIP
The opening positions of the game had three teams in play: the Blue Team (us), the Yellow Team (starting on the same side of the road as us but at the far end of the woods), and the Mercenary Team (Site Marshals, starting arrayed throughout the woods across the road).
The objectives for Blue and Yellow were to overrun the Mercenary Team, seize their Commander (who was garrisoned inside a base in the woods), and then move that Commander to Fort Bastard, a base on our side of the road situated between the Blue and Yellow spawns.
Our initial analysis suggested the Mercenaries would deploy to the woodline, and exploit the open ground that the road moved through to create a Kill Zone, allowing them to inflict casualties on both Blue and Yellow as they advanced.
As shown in this image, the area is wide open and could've proven to be a difficult obstacle to cross.
The Team planned to advance until we came under fire, and then advance by bounding fire across the road, with half the team engaging the Mercenaries to allow the other half to make a dash for cover, with each half alternating roles to enable us to close with the enemy position and defeat it.
We anticipated Yellow Team would face similar obstacles and would engage in their own attempt to advance across the road. At this point, our "Main Effort" was deemed to be engaging Mercenary Team forces holding the woodline in order to establish a foothold inside their woodblock.
The assault across the road was successful, and we engaged Mercenary Forces inside the woods (at about 0:58 in the video).
Having made contact with the enemy we determined they had instead situated themselves deeper into the woodblock than initially anticipated, likely in order to remain close to their Commander and to minimise the risk of their screening element becoming isolated at the woodline.
A fixing element was employed to pin the enemy forces in place at their initial fighting positions, while the rest of the team broke contact and advanced up the enemy flank.
This was successful, and we faced only sporadic fire from the otherwise-engaged enemy positions (at around 1:32 in the video). We were able to begin moving largely unopposed up the enemy flank as their forward positions were unable to pivot to engage us, being already heavily engaged themselves by Blue forces fixing them at the point of initial contact.
As we drew nearer to the VIP's position, we observed substantial enemy activity inside Killhouse (at around 3:30 in the video). We surmised that it was likely the screening elements opposing the Yellow Team had been able to withdraw in good order back to the VIP, as the Mercenary Team forces in initial contact with us were still engaged against our fixing element.
Faced with a frontal assault against an entrenched enemy across relatively sparse terrain, the team opted to instead continue the flanking push. By now other Blue Team forces were joining us and attempting to push against the Killhouse, freeing the Royal Huntsman squad to advance further along the flank and potentially open a third front against the Killhouse. With the Yellow Team expected to arrive on the far side of the position at any moment, this would effectively envelop the Mercenary Team entirely.
Yellow Team forces were soon observed advancing towards Pumping Station (at around 4:30 in the video) after having likely reached the same conclusion as us: a frontal assault along one axis would be too difficult, and it would be preferable to envelop the Mercenary Team entirely to overwhelm their defences at Killhouse.
The Team therefore determined to seize Pumping Station, a base deeper inside the woods, and focus on turning back the Yellow Advance. This would not only deny the Yellow Team a more advantageous approach to Killhouse, but also buy time for other Blue Team elements pushing through the woods from both the road and our initial flanking attack position to whittle down the Mercenary defenders and extract the VIP for Blue team.
The assault against Pumping Station (beginning at about 4:58 in the video) was a classic and aggressive advance: a fire support team engaged the Yellow forces as they attempted to occupy the base while an assault element moved fast along their flank in order to close with and destroy the enemy position.
The fighting was fierce but it was quick: pinned in place by heavy fire, the Yellow Team were unable to effectively respond to our assault team until it was too late, and Pumping Station was quickly cleared of the enemy.
With the enemy forces at Pumping Station pushed back, the Team turned to Killhouse and began preparing for an assault (at about 6:05 in the video). One player was left as a sentry near Pumping Station in order to disrupt any further Yellow movement from that direction, and to issue warning to the Team of any Yellow contact that may imperil the assault on Killhouse.
By now Killhouse was under heavy pressure, and we observed a number of Mercenaries leaving the position holding dead rags. Blue forces were already pressing the position hard, so we moved fast to open up another front against the overstretched defenders.
The position was all-but overrun by the time we arrived, with our main contribution to the assault itself being engaging the last few Marshals holding out in the rear of the base. The Blue Team had acquired the VIP.
Phase One Analysis
The Team's initial planning was vital, and something all Airsoft Teams should do pre-game.
- We knew our objective and we knew the terrain: seize the VIP by crossing into the next woodblock and overrunning his defensive position inside the woods.
- We discussed the enemy's likely course of action: employ a screening force to maximise the utility of the open ground Blue and Yellow had to cross, then withdraw to Killhouse to make a stand in a formidable defensive position.
- With this information we formulated our own plan: fix the enemy screening force in place to allow a flanking move, which will allow us to seize the VIP at Killhouse while his defending force were engaged at the treeline.
Now, "no plan survives first contact" is true and on display here: the plan progressed smoothly until the enemy position at Killhouse itself was observed to be too strong to attack frontally, likely due to the Mercenaries fighting Yellow Team being able to withdraw in good order. It's important to be able to think on your feet and devise a new plan quickly, but the process is the same:
- Our objective hadn't changed. Nor had the terrain.
- The enemy's course of action had to be updated: they had abandoned their position opposite Yellow Team and had consolidated their defence around Killhouse, creating a position more powerful than our initial plan had anticipated. Additionally, we now had a Yellow Team course of action to worry about: they were able to advance through the woods, and we believed (correctly) that they would seek to envelop Killhouse as best they could.
- So a new plan was formulated: we expand our original flanking attack to both spoil Yellow's attempts to establish themselves at the rear of Killhouse, and to open up another avenue of attack for our own assault on Killhouse.
PHASE TWO - GET THE VIP TO FORT BASTARD
Now that we had the VIP in our possession, we had to successfully pull him back to our Spawn and hold him there for a few minutes. In game design terms this was likely to give Yellow a head start on getting to Fort Bastard, the final destination for the VIP.
With a large and well-coordinated team it would've been advantageous to send a small force to Bastard at the start of the game to secure it in advance, but the Huntsmen were only 6-strong that day out of a team of 40+, we did not have the manpower to pursue multiple objectives.
The advancing Blue Team forces were used as a covering force to allow us to withdraw the VIP in the face of a large Yellow advance towards our position. We ceded Killhouse without a fight, opting to withdraw to the edge of the woods where our initial flanking attack would've appeared from. This was for the same reason we abandoned that flanking attack when we saw Killhouse was garrisoned well: the terrain between Killhouse and our initial flanking position was fairly open and would be difficult to attack across, and that applied both ways.
The withdrawal (at about 7:00 in the video) was done in a peeling series of bounds. That is, the Team took it in turns to move leftwards along the line of contact so we always had people shooting at the advancing Yellow Team, but the whole Team were steadily shifting our own line leftwards towards the road.
The road itself was the last significant obstacle in our path, but Yellow were not positioned well to make it difficult for us: their main force was still engaged in a push towards Killhouse (perhaps not realising yet that we'd taken the VIP already).
Crossing an open obstacle like a road can be dangerous, especially against an enemy using that obstacle as a kill zone. You can see in the video (at about 8:25) Blue Team forces taking up positions on the VIP's side of the road, providing overwatch into the treeline where the enemy were known to be.
This gave the Huntsman the cover needed to take a few players across, and we established a position on the far side to engage the Yellow Team. With both sides of the road secure, the VIP was moved across successfully under covering fire from both sides of the road.
With the VIP securely in our spawn, we held a quick brief in order to prepare our next move (at about 8:58 in the video). One man was left behind in order coordinate the effort to delay the advance of the Mercenary Team, who had rejoined the fight when we crossed the road.
The last objective to achieve was the capture of Fort Bastard, where the VIP had to be taken and held for a period of time. This was a dangerous task, as Yellow could seize the VIP while he was in the fort and claim victory for themselves. The fort itself is weakest facing Yellow's spawn, but that wasn't an advantage we could secure as Yellow already held the position, leaving us with three angles of approach: directly from our spawn, an attack from the road side, or an attack from deeper inside the forest itself.
The layout of the terrain around Bastard presented only one real avenue of attack. Bounded by a drainage ditch and an open area from the direction of the road made an assault from that direction a poor plan, especially as it would be vulnerable to flanking counter-attacks from Yellow's spawn and attacks from the rear by the Mercenary Team. Coming from deeper in the woods offered only light tree coverage, and on the day was boggy as a result of recent rain, making an assault from that direction likely to be slow and thus making us easy pickings.
There was, however, thick undergrowth and fallen trees on the other side of the drainage ditch, between us and Bastard. This would provide us cover to advance on the edges of the enemy position, negating much of their defensive advantage by depriving them of clear lines of sight on our forces.
Using suppressive fire from our DMR-equipped players, we were able to push close to the enemy position and establish a foothold inside Fort Bastard. We did not need to clear the position entirely, we needed only enough space to situate the VIP inside the perimeter in order for his countdown to commence.
The assault was a classic push and was successful: a fire support team of Huntsman players kept the enemy heads firmly down with suppressive fire, allowing the rest of us to get in close and push them into the fort's interior.
The fort was only fully occupied by Blue forces after substantial fighting, with the enemy retaining a toehold in the far right corner (from our perspective) for the majority of the battle.
We were able to push in far enough that the VIP was entered into the fort to begin his countdown. From there, it was simply a matter of ensuring he stayed in our possession.
The Huntsman team were not content to rest on that, though: we continued offensive action against Yellow in order to deny them the breathing space to properly reorganise and attempt to counterattack in force. By continually contesting the Yellow-held side of Fort Bastard, in what might be known as "spoiling attacks", we ensured the enemy could not consolidate their own position and threaten our own.
This granted us the win: the VIP declared himself timed out and was escorted back to Blue spawn, winning us the game.
Phase Two Analysis
This phase was more straightforward than Phase One, but still presented tactical challenges to overcome. The method, however, remained unchanged:
- We knew our objective: to get the VIP into Fort Bastard.
- We analysed the terrain, choosing the best approach to Bastard for both uncontested and contested access.
- We assessed the enemy likely course of action, and determined they were likely already entrenched in Fort Bastard, and meant to at a minimum force a game draw by denying us the ability to time out the VIP. Their most dangerous course of action would have been to engage in an aggressive counter-attack towards Blue Spawn, to take the VIP off of us, and a contingency was devised and implemented: we held the VIP at the rear of our position, only moving him closer when we already had a foothold within Bastard.
- We also had the Mercenary Team to consider, and determined their likely course of action would be to pursue the VIP. This would mean crossing the road on Blue's side of the game zone and attacking us from the flank or rear. We left one man at Blue spawn as it had excellent lines of sight on all these approaches, allowing him to both coordinate a delaying action and communicate Mercenary Team movements to the team engaged against Fort Bastard.
- Thus a plan was formulated: an approach via the slower, but better covered, undergrowth under suppressive fire to allow us to close with and push back the enemy. Once a foothold was considered secure, the VIP would be brought in to start his countdown.
The Blue Team won the day and the Huntsman team played a key role in delivering that victory by spearheading the flanking attack on Killhouse, defeating the Yellow Team flanking attack on Killhouse, and spearheading the assault into Fort Bastard itself. This was all made possible through coordinated teamwork and a planning framework that quickly allows a practitioner to understand their objective, the terrain, the enemy, and therefore the best plan to deal with all three.
If you want to explore this gameplay more, consider reading some of our articles, such as:
- Makeup of an Airsoft Team, where we explore the internal team organisation you need to move and fight tactically.
- 5 Airsoft Tactics to Improve your Teamwork, where we explore some of the tactics seen in use in this video.
- Suppressive Fire: A Guide, where we explore the absolutely critical art of delivering proper suppressive fire, without which almost all the advances and assaults seen in this video would've failed.
You can also check out our Youtube Channel, where there are many other videos showcasing tactical airsoft gameplay.
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