So you a Poor aCO or XO are stuck up in your fancy chair and believe you need to order a fallback for what ever reason. There is Three things you must keep in mind and have drilled into your skull.
First: Marines hate dying but they hate boredom even more.
Second: Marines are blind and deaf half the time.
Third: Xenos will take any chance to pick off small groups they can.
WITH THESE THREE THINGS IN MIND ASK YOURSELF DO YOU REALLY NEED TO CALL FOR A FALLBACK?
I know this may sound odd but most the time marines lack both the cohesion and the awareness to retreat in orderly and timely manner. This in turn means that Any fallback order given can and will cause fragmentation of your forces as some will not follow orders while other will not even notice the orders. This will in turn cause casualties as the forces that failed to follow orders ether gets dragged off into the dark or dies.
THIS DOESN’T MEAN THAT YOU SHOULDN’T ORDER A FALLBACK!
It just means that you should be mindful of the willingness of your forces to retreat and weight that against the necessity of calling for a fallback. If there is imminent flank being done by the queen do go right ahead and order the fallback as in such a case the risk that is caused by fragmentation is lessened considerably.
This is due to the fact that most queen flanks means that most of the high tier xenos are along side the queen… which in turn means the xenos your forces are currently engaging are under strength and are most the time only a skeleton crew there to skirmish and hold you there. As such even the stragglers from the fallback order should be able to hold their own long enough to get it through there thick skulls that they really need to link back up with the main force.
Now i could go through many more hypotheticals but belive you dear reader understand the point. Weigh the need with the risk!
HOW TO MITIGATE THE ISSUES WITH ORDERING A FALLBACK!
Look at the first key thing you must always keep in mind! Now if you order a full fallback to FOB many will be rather hesitant to do so what’s more the long way back to FOB can and will cause Fragmentation!
As such unless falling back all the way to fob is necessary like in cases of the main front line geting wiped out. You should instead pick a more near by spot to dig in at. That way the marines will be much more willing to go to the designated spot. After all most marines don’t much care for a FOB siege. It will also have the side effect of lowering the amount of Fragmentation that will happen.
Just try to pick a spot that grunts will be able to find their way to… better yet use the tacmap to mark the location if you have the time to do so!
NOW LOOK AT THE SECOND KEY!
Its no secret that marines are quite bad at both fighting and keeping track of the chat! As such you should employ multiple means of conveying the order. If you have SO that are free, order them to relay the order over on overwatch. Also if you have the Tacmap off cooldown, update it with the holding point!
Next Order the Squad leads to Order the fallback out in the front line, the big text smack damn in the fight will snap a lot of lads in the zone into following orders. Now if your Squad leads are ether being obstinate or are blind and mute, simply change the Squad lead to someone able and or willing to follow orders!
Even if the new Squad lead is mute themselves just having the Tracker pointing to the right spot can help a lot more then you would think!
Last of all if you have the time to explain why the fallback is necessary, of course in not to many words. But you will be able to convince many of the more obstinate to follow orders if they know the WHY.
HOW TO DEAL WITH THE LAST KEY
Its simple really just don’t give the xenos a ripe target! This can be done by doing your due diligence in convoying your orders, As long as you get enough marines to follow orders then the Battle hungry marines ( A.K.A ungaloids) will fall in line and join with the fallback. After all they don’t want to get round ended so if its clear there is going to be no backup THEY! WILL! FOLLOW!
Next…but keep in mind what i am about to tell you will likely not work unless you have skilled players willing to be a teamplayer! But you can form a Rear guard whos job is keep the xenos at bay while also not giving the battle hungry marines a inch to keep going at it!
I Recommend making use of the pryo, As walls of fire does wonders at halting xeno while not allowing the battle hungry marines any room to push! Now i must stress trying to form a Rearguard in the field will likely not go well. As such if you do plan on forming a Rearguard do it before the drop. After all echo squad is there for a reason but frankly you will likely will not need to make use of it.
It should be enough to inform the given fellow picked as to their duty, If they are in the right place and you picked well they will do their duty when the fallback order is given.
Last Matter of note is being diligent in having a predetermined Rally and or fortified points as well as being clear in communicating the Rally point that you want your forces to go to when you call for a fallback. While i did touch on this matter briefly It is very imported to stress this matter as second biggest cause of fragmentation is confusion as were They are to fallback to.
What this means in practice is having the marines build fortified operating bases at key points. a prime example of this is Building a base at Hydro on LV624.
Closing notes
I do hope this Guide will be of some use, much of this is my own thoughts as such you dear reader should take a look at the many other Command guides here on the forms.
I for one would recommend taking a look at What THEY Don’t Teach You in XO Guides: from Good XO to Great XO quite nice while not being hard to read.
Addendum 1: What Fragmentation is.
Although i believe the concept of Fragmentation is self-explanatory if you know what the word means. It still behooves me to clarify.
SO WHAT IS FRAGMENTATION!
noun
- the process or state of breaking or being broken into small or separate parts.
(From the Oxford Dictionary)
Now that you know what the word means lets us go into what it means in the context of this guide! Simply put when i am talking about fragmentation i am taking about the main marine mass of force being broken down into smaller groups and no longer being with immediate range to render aid to each other.
Addendum 2: The many kinds of retreats.
To retreat is not simple as disengaging with the foe, it can come in many forms!
First: A Rout. This is the worst thing that could happen, as a Rout is a disorganized panicked retreat. Routs normally happen if there is no Command and control to keep the force organized and cohesive.
This happens ether due to the lack of any Squad leads for the marines to gravitate and congeal around Or due to You the XO/aCO failing to give orders clearly or failing to give the call to fallback in time, causing the front line to be wiped and the being scattered as they flee for their lives.
Second: A general retreat. This is the most common kind call for a fallback that is done. It simply is the whole force retreating with little action taken other then just falling back as ordered. No fancy maneuvers just a bog standard organized retreat to the rally point.
Third: A staggered retreat. This is rather rarely seen move done, this is due to the fact its rather slow compared to the others. But it is simply a Retreat done in stages. So instead of the full marine force all falling back as one you first have let say the wounded and medics fallback first then you have any Supplies be carried back.
Then last of all you have the main fighting force fallback! The funny think to note about Staggered retreats is that they tend to happen organically due to the Ungaloids not wanted to leave the front line. Issue with that when its time for the ungaloids to leave they tend… to do so in a Rout…
This is also the kind of retreat having set up a rearguard is perfect for!
Forth: A feigned retreat. Simply put you have your forces act like they are routing to draw the Foe out…Issue is that unless you have some damn good players under your command much like in real life things can quickly turn into a real Rout.
I would not recommend trying this unless you have very good squad cohesion plus comms and sensor tower online as setting the trap will require good timing which in turn requires the ability to communicate as well as having good intel on the Foes movements.
Fifth: Springboard Retreat. I not quite sure as to the real term for this but simply put this kind of Retreat is called only to clear ground for a OB or CAS to land so that you then in turn push into the soften xeno lines afterwards.
This Generally doesn’t need a rally point set for it to work out just having the marines clear of the OB is good enough, After all you want to dive into the xeno lines as soon as the dust settles.
Addendum 3: The marines are fleeing.
Some time marines break rank and take to the hills even without your input, this comes in two main forms.
First: a rout! Routs tend to happen for two reasons first the marines lose too much combat strength and are simply are un able to hold the xenos at bay. This is what tends to happen when the frontline gets wiped.
In such cases its important to let the rest of grounds forces know what is happening and try to get the Routing forces to flee to one point, most the time in these cases to FOB. But if you have Forward base like per say at hydro on LV depending on the number of forces you have left in your reserves (I.E Bravo at fob and comms) you could try to Mass your the remaining forces that have routed with the Fobbits and try a counter push to save the bodies.
Now mind you doing such move is extremely risky.
Now the second reason routs happen is due to broken morale and even though the marines still have the combat strength to hold they still Flee. This tends to happen because of subpar Squad leads who are defeatists who get hit with a queen flank. The shock and awe breaks the marines morale and the subpar Squad leads fail to keep order.
This is bit troublesome to deal with then a simple wipe. But the key thing to do with such Routs is to halt the rout as fast as you can. Your troops breaking and fleeing is what the xenos want as such you shouldn’t give the bugs what they want.
Now this can be done by announcing the to the marines to hold there ground and calling in reinforcements on the given area. Now even if the reinforcements are not going to get there in time… hell even if they never follow orders the very fact that marines dealing with the flank think that reinforcements are coming will aid greatly in fixing morale.
Second: A Squad lead orders a fallback with out your authorization. This matter is bit tricky as most the time there is good reason as to WHY they are ordering a fallback. After all if comms get cut they will be unable to feed info back up to you… and For as much info you can gain from the overwatch you can still miss important details.
First off you should try to find out why the hell the marines are falling back. Next if you notice too much fragmentation happening due to the other squads in part following suit issue a fallback as well. In such cases its important to keep the main marine forces cohesive and together as one.
After all if you find out that Fallback order was for a dumb reason you can simple turn your forces back around. A bit of lost ground is no big deal but a lost of man power is. In such cases replace the offending Squad lead.
Now if you don’t notice too much fragmentation issue a hold order and try to get the offending squad back onto the front line.
The rule of thumb on this matter is that if The non offending squads are following the one who issued the fallback… then that means the fallback order was given for a rather good reason. BUT if they are not following it likely means that fallback order was not necessary.
Editing notes
Thanks to AvalonsGuardian for bring up the matter as to being precise at giving a rally point. (A/N) put in bit more about rally points.
(A/N) clarified what fragmentation means.
Thanks to Up2Something for bring up the matter of staggered retreats. (A/N) Added a addendum about the different types of retreats.
Thanks to rocket2guns for bring up the matter of non command issued fallbacks. (A/N) added addendum 3