Now many of you will have read my other works talking about various matter of command.
Some of my prior treads if wish to read.
Let's ramble about Fear RP.
The dichotomy of Low Vs High pop and the knock effects of attritional losses.
But something that must be talked about is the issue inherent about viewing all matters through a strategic lens. That being even if ones strategic theory appears to be logically correct it will not lead to victory even if applied.
But doesn’t that just mean your idea is wrong?
Not necessarily.
Then why is the use and understanding of strategic theory failing to obtain victory?
Frankly its because the marines and xenos are not machines and have there own agency. It doesn’t matter if you lay all the plans to perfection or are able to identify issues when they arise and take the appropriate course of action as per the strategic theory.
Of course this is good don’t get me wrong but the marines are not going to have the skill nor the willingness to follow through on any given order. Nor will the xenos take the appropriate and correct actions according to what theory would dictate.
Yes this may sound odd but if the xenos take what should be a idiotic move at least according to how the logic of the theory would tell you… some time it works out better. Why is this you may ask? Well first off the marines can be readily pulled into a bad fight believing that they have the tactical advantage at the given time.
This can lead to detachment and fragmentation. Let me to give you a example of this happening. There has been many cases i have seen of Xenos Pushing over open ground that isn’t walled or weeded and has been lit bright by flares.
As you can expect it’s a very dumb move do this. But some how it in the end works out in the end for the xenos. Why is this the case? Spontaneous False rout! Yes many times the xenos pushing out get utterly shredded and are forced damn near into crit and fail to do any significant damage what so ever to the marines.
This where a understanding of Fear RP and lack of cohesion is critical to understand what happens next. The correct move on the part of the marines is push out on mass to finish off the near dead xenos Then falling back to the open ground again.
But this doesn’t happen! Few issues here is A. command is not going to able to get the marines push out in timely matter due to ether a poor willingness to follow orders, or not being able to get the order out in time. B. or command is not even going to see this happen in the first place.
So what usually happens is that a few marines with little to no Fear Charge… But issue is that not all xeno are dumb and not willing to rush open ground without weeds or drone back up. SO the xenos that are missing a few brain cells when/If they make it back to the xeno lines they will have dragged a small detachment of marines into prime range of the fresh xenos waiting for weeds.
This in the ends leads to the marines ether being capped or killed forcing the USCM to ether push into the dug in xenos lines to save the bodies or leave them for dead.
But wait isn’t that just the xenos doing a risky but sound tactic?
It would be if the xenos are doing it intentionally, but most the time this happens it just because some of the xenos are getting impatient for the weeds to get pushed up so they start pushing without them. They didn’t mean to draw in the marines half the time, if anything they are banking on the marines TO NOT RUSH AFTER THEM!
Again it works out in the end less due to intent but do to luck and skill! This get onto my next point.
Does following orders based off sound strategic theory obtain victory?
It can but doesn’t guarantee anything. Even if you have all the correct info and the willingness to follow orders on mass by the marines you can still fail! Why you may ask? Simple failing to take in account player skill.
The queen can be down to 1/4 Health most of the hive can wiped out, they can even be boxed into a corner… One last push to crush the Xenos before they can heal up is ostensibly the correct call… but you know what can happen some times?
…some times you are leading the most butter fingered marines in all of history! The pyro for some reason tries to flame the queen with green fire blocking the assault, The Demo forgets they in fact don’t have IFF on their rocket launcher and instead of nailing the queen they gib a poor marine that was in the way.
The Smart gunners are for some reason front lining and not shooting from the back, a PFC with OT nade thinks now is the time prime the nade and toss it at the queens and hive…
Only for the queen to hear the primeing and screeching at prefect time leading to the Nade fragging the whole frontline, The zurker damn near crit lands hit after hit taking out the Frontline Smart gunners and wiping much of the front.
In the end the marines rout and are cut down by highly skilled xenos that are barely cling to life!
Isn’t that just a fantastical unrealistic hypothetical?
You would think that! But no, stuff like this happens more then you would think. Yes it rare for some many fuck ups to happen all in a row but it has happen. Some time your marines under command are just frankly are just BAD AND NOT ROBUST! While the Xenos will have every damn prime warrior murder machine under the sun!
Ok some times you are dealing with sub par troops, what can you do about it?
First off don’t berate them for being non-robustos, that will just make the marines hate you! Also this is just a game for fun so no need to get so mad!
Second off you need to change your plans to account for the lack of skilled players. Even if you have made the best plan from the point of view of logic. You must understand those under you simply lack to skilled needed to fight head off with the xenos, so your plans must account for that.
Third off, you need to take care to baby your bald specs and smart gunners if you have time. Identify their failings and inform them of the issues, but the key thing is too not be hostile simply tell them how and why they fucked up in a calm and matter of fact way. If the players are of good character they will take the criticism to heart.
TL;DR:
Some times the marines under your command are just bald and lack skill while the Xenos just have better players. Plan accordingly to your teams given skill level and not to the meta analyzed theory.
