Battalion Operations, Section A - Preparation for Battle

Company Practice Nights:  Briefings, Drills and Protocols

Friday & Saturday nights are Battalion Combat Operations.  This is when as much of the battalion as possible will gather for a variety of reasons, but mostly to have fun playing MWO with our good Liao friends!  Combat Ops officially begin at 10pm CST.  Make sure you are prepared for battle by familiarizing yourself with the following concepts.

Things are a little more serious on these nights, however - just as sanctioned matches, scrimmages and CW drops will be.  During company practice, briefings will be conducted on MapTactic.  Be sure to sign up over there, and set your "clan name" to House Liao Gatekeepers.  Here, you'll be able to access all our strategies, and the Command Staff will go over each one with everyone, including individually when necessary.

If you have been sworn into the battalion and received your rank of Sao-Wei or higher, attendance is MANDATORY if you are online playing MWO.

After the briefing, the Command Staff will organize Pub Drops or scrimmages with allied units.  Group Challenges hosted by PGI will be pursued, but Solo Challenges are no longer supported by the unit.  Those will no longer be pursued during active company practice times, but a player who is in the lead on a event can receive special dispensation from the practice coordinator (highest ranking officer online) to represent House Liao and the Gatekeepers for that event.

All protocols must be followed during company practice, including all new Tactical Revision material.  Please make sure you are caught up on the latest Tactical Manual updates, especially the Battalion Combat Primer.  If you need help in game, don't fret - we don't expect you to absorb it all at once.  Rather, these drills will become second nature over time.

Non-Gatekeepers are not allowed to attend briefings or drills, but certain allies may be picked up for drops if they are not disruptive to our plans and otherwise behave as a Gatekeeper.

Standard Equipment

The battalion uses a certain set of 'mech chassis during all deployments.  Attempting to deploy a non-Gatekeepers 'favored' battlemech during a combat drop is frowned upon greatly, especially Clan 'mechs that may be in your arsenal.  On some distinctively relaxed periods, the commanding officer may elect to allow non-standard 'mechs - but do make sure you can tell us what your role is.

The method we recommend to those who do not have any of the Favored 'mechs is this:  get one.  If you like the unit, get at least one in each weight class.  You can then easily vary the role to be able to fill gaps in the unit composition with little effort.

Our Technical Guidelines articles will cover all the information you need on specific roles and how to configure your 'mech to fill that position.  We don't ask you have a specific build, only that you fill certain criteria.  Being able to identify your 'mech and role to the drop commander requires you adhere to these guidelines.

A few general rules apply when outfitting all 'mechs for duty here on the Fringe.  

1. XL Engines
• Only light chassis may carry XL engines.
2. Strike Modules
• Light chassis should carry Air Strikes since their maneuverability can make better use of the vectored damage path.
• All other chassis should carry Artillery Strikes due to the way we employ strikes as a unit.

Company Discipline

The Gatekeepers could pride themselves on their discipline and reaction time, if they saw such as noteworthy.  From being able to turn and focus the company's might on the enemy weak spot with but a moment's notice to selflessly taking firepower for the team's victory, our MechWarriors are some of the most highly drilled in the entire galaxy.

We can break down our most basic rules on personal conduction during a combat drop into five basic ideas, or disciplines.  A combat drop is any drop the ranking officer has taken command of.

1. Maneuver Discipline
• Move when and to where ordered by the Drop Commander, immediately and without hesitation.  
• Do not move unless ordered to.  
• Do not pursue enemy units unless ordered to.
2. Fire Discipline
• Do not fire weapons at ranges more than 500m unless ordered to do so.  
• Do not fire Long Range Missiles at ranges of more than 800m.
3. Stoic Discipline
• Respect and defer to the drop commander.  
• Direct all complaints against Gatekeepers or allied personnel to the Zhong-Shao privately.  Facebook is currently the fastest and most direct way to do so.
• Do not respond in-game to any taunts or threats.
• Do not taunt or threaten enemy players.  Use Positive Troll techniques.
4. Intelligence Discipline
• Share ideas with officers on Facebook, via email, or just hanging out in Actual.
• Combat Drops are not the place to argue tactics.  Doctrine has been meticulously prepared.  
• Your ideas may be selected as doctrine, and they may not.  They will be considered, and investigated if necessary.
• Do not allow secret battalion strategies to fall into enemy hands.  
• Do not allow non-Gatekeepers to hang around the TeamSpeak if they show no interest in joining and do not belong to an allied unit.
5. Comms Discipline
• During combat drops, only the commanding officers are to be on voice comms to eliminate needless chatter.  
• Do not call enemy locations unless ordered to.
• Do not call targets unless ordered to.

If you haven't reviewed the primer on our Strategic Principles, you should be familiar with them.  The time will be upon us soon, and we will be a well-oiled machine of destruction when the time comes to defend our home here on Purvo.  Stay with it, Gatekeepers - a slew of events are soon to be upon us, both PGI and independent.

We are the Liao Cháng-Chéng.  We are the Great Wall of Liao.  None Shall Pass.

Patch Review: Rewards System

Stoneblade posted his patch review a few days ago on YouTube!
The October 21 patch brought in the new rewards system, which we really dig.  Also, a few special edition 'mechs were released for veteran players.  Check it out, and subscribe to Stoneblade's channel!

ArchangelKenko and the Absolute Stillness of Mind

Profile; Ken Blackwood
Callsign: Archangel
Preferred Wt: Medium
Chassis: HBK-4G KTO-GB

Height: 173 cm
Weight: 73 kg
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown


Description
Long brown hair usually worn in a braid or ponytail.  Liao colored camo jumpsuit, tied around his waist showing a black tank top when he is in an informal situation.  Medium build, lithe and well-muscled with a pale complexion.  Eyes - upon close inspection - appear to be flecked with gold, often wears dark glasses.  He keeps his facial hair well manicured and styled in a goatee.

Kenneth Blackwood was born on Capellan-controlled Sarna in 3020.  Though his birth parents remained a mystery to even him, he grew up the ward of his biological grandfather - a battle hardened MechWarrior who remained loyal to only the the Cappellan Confederation.  Raised on ancient pre-spaceflight strategies, and a fierce hatred of the Federated Suns who had taken control of the planet.  Often Ken’s days were spent studying the philosophies of wHouse Liao, pre spaceflight battle tactics, and training to pilot his grandfather’s old Archer battlemech.

Unable to afford further schooling, and in dire need of money after his grandfather’s demise, Ken was quick to attach himself to a small mercenary unit.  The unit was all too eager to take on a fresh, new MechWarrior already equipped with his own ‘Mech.  During his excursion Ken was able to fulfil la life-long dream of travelling the Inner Sphere.  His Journey took him through Kuritan, Capellan, and Marik space.

In late 3042, Ken found himself on an assignment with his merc corp on the Kuritan planet of Altair.  Altair, due to its unusual solar activity was requiring additional MechWarriors to defend its populace from pirate raids.  During training exercises Ken’s unit was the first to spy several pirate Dropships cascading to the planet’s surface.  The battle that ensued was intense, claiming many of the merc unit that Ken had devoted so much of his life fighting alongside.  Ken fought until his grandfather’s Archer was in pieces.  Though the fighting had been full of carnage, Ken earned two things that day:

The first of which was his callsign: “Archangel”, so titled for his uncanny ability to sweep in and save a teammate with a well-timed ballistic or laser shot.  The second part “Kenko” was the semi-pejorative but affectionate part of the callsign.  His Kuriitan comrades explained this to Ken as meaning Child of the Blade, or Blade-child.  So named for for his brash and impetuous nature in combat.  Ken wasn’t entirely certain about exactly HOW disparaging this was meant to be, not having any sort of actual command over Japanese.  Never having been an ego driven person, being raised more Taoist than religious he felt he had earned the name and kept it displayed proudly.

The second was his Kintaro.  A ‘mech that had been salvaged and customized by a MechWarrior and his maintenance crew with  the Eighteenth Dieron Regulars who had been saved by Ken’s selfsame laser Shot.  In gratitude for the assistance, the Kintaro was gifted to Ken.  After some frivolity and celebration it was decided by the owners of the merc corp that the company would be disbanded after the heavy losses it suffered.  During the next few years Ken developed close bonds with two other MechWarriors who had fought alongside him.  Doing many mercenary jobs for extra c-bills, Ken came into his own piloting his kintaro.

It was during this time when Ken, flying his Liao flag high began to make a name for himself within the Confederation.  Fixedly, he devoted himself to the Korvin Doctrine, and wholly was devoted to the notion that mankind required the solidarity of being united again under one flag.  His loyalty was not overlooked, and he was approached by the Maskirovka.  Asked to join the fight against the newly formed FedCom menace, Ken was all too eager to throw in his hat with the Liao Gatekeepers.

Personality
Possessed of an almost preternatural calm, Ken spends a lot of his off time  deep in meditation, in a fierce attempt to  quiet his own restless mind.  Often in conversation, he expresses a distaste of excess, citing examples of his time spent in Kuriitan space when his unit disbanded.  While he enjoyed the lavish attention MechWarriors were paid there, he felt like it lost its shine quickly and was all too happy to beat feet back to his native Sarna.  When not in isolation or combat it is difficult to tell if Ken is betraying his true personality, or simply putting on another costume.  While he tries his best to remain inscrutable, he seems to be at his core, a charmer and a skirt-chaser.

In combat (and in dealing with the Gatekeepers) Archangel is a very different person.  It becomes more apparent where Ken’s desire for mental stillness comes into play.  Too eager for the thrill of the hunt, Archangel has devoted much time to learning discipline in his maneuvers in hopes that it will instinctively keep him  in the formations he has drilled.

Basic Strategic Principles

Welcome Officers, to the first section of the Command Primer.  This section will be devoted to material the Command Staff will all need to become familiar with and put into practice.  We will draw on a lot of different material from across the span of military history to present this to you, from ancient texts, historical examples and (of course) modern 'mech specific documents.  By familiarizing ourselves with actual military principles, we will draw closer to a full mil-sim unit - a professional Davion kill-squad.

Terminology

Military doctrine is the official set of concepts that delineate the ways and means to achieve military objectives.  Capellan doctrine differs largely from Fed-Com doctrine in that Capellans always consider the political interests as an integral component of war.  Officers should be familiar with the entire system of thought and routinely express themselves in these terms.  This allows quick thinking and decision making using these concepts.

Military science is the study and analysis of the diverse psychological and material phenomena relevant to armed combat for developing practical recommendations for the achievement of victory in war.  Unlike doctrine, science is characterized by controversy and debate.  In military science, there may be several points of view, diverse "scientific concepts", and original hypotheses that are not selected as doctrine and therefore are not accepted as official state views on military issues.

Military art is the primary field within military science and is the basis for all strategy and tactics.  It is the theory and practice of conducting armed conflict.  The principles of military art are the basic ideas and the most important recommendations for the organization and conduct of battles.

Ancient Principles of Military Art

Gatekeepers military theorists consider the following points to be the general principles of military art.  These concepts apply to all three levels of military art:  strategy, operations and tactics.  Each level has it's own specifics, but here we will regard tactics as the primary level of art.

• Be prepared to accomplish the mission regardless of the conditions under which the battle begins or must be conducted.
• Chief objective - the enemy's army.
• Achieve surprise whenever possible.
• Operations must be characterized by decisiveness and aggressiveness.
• Design actions to preempt the opponent and keep him reacting to situations you control.
• Strive to continuously seize and hold the initiative and achieve dominance over the enemy's will.
• Make use of all assets and capabilities to achieve victory.
• Concentrate strength where the enemy is weak.
• Maintain continuous and reliable command and control.
• Ensure that major formations effect thorough and continuous coordination to maintain unity and simultaneity of action.
• Detailed, exacting preparation must precede an attack.
• Select principle objectives and the best routes for attack.
• One should not be diverted by geographical objectives, but should concentrate on the destruction of the enemy's military forces.
• Make a decisive concentration of combat power at the correct time, with emphasis on extreme exertion of force at the very beginning of an engagement.
• Be determined and decisive in achieving the assigned mission.
• Reconstitute reserves and restore combat effectiveness as quickly as possible.

Modern Tactical Principles

A melding of contemporary writings and those of the recent past, along with the influence of classical principles, results in the following specific Capellan principles of art and tactics.

• Units must be mobile and capable of rapid movement.
• The planning and conduction of an operation must involve the full coordination and cooperation of all Command Staff involved.
• There must be a unity of command, a single commander for any operation.
• Deceive the enemy.  Attack from an unexpected direction at an unexpected time.  Use terrain and weather to your advantage.
• Strike early and with great force.  Constantly strive to pre-empt and dominate the enemy.
• Attack the enemy violently and simultaneously throughout his depth.  Carry the battle to the enemy rear with swift penetrations by maneuver units, artillery, aviation and unconventional means.
• Be bold and decisive.  Seize the initiative.
• Prosecute an operation relentlessly, without pause, under all conditions of visibility.
• Keep the enemy under constant pressure and off balance.  Do not allow him to react effectively.
• Maneuver first with firepower.  Firepower is maneuver.
• Maneuver forces should attack the weakest points in enemy defensive.  Bypass enemy strongpoints to strike deeply into his rear.
• Avoid frontal attacks.  Whenever possible, strike the enemy in the flanks or rear.
• Maintain security of your own flanks and rear.
• Maintain sufficient follow-on force to assure achievement of the mission and to deal with contingencies.
• Maintain effective, continuous command, control and communications.  Loss of communications leads to loss of control and defeat.  Maintain redundant communications at higher levels.  Rely on audio and visual signals and well-rehearsed battle drills at lower levels.
• Command Staff must have the equipment and skills necessary to collect and analyze information quickly and to develop and disseminate orders rapidly based on the commander's decision.
• Employ radioelectronic combat to deprive the enemy of effective command and control of his combat forces.
• Adhere to the spirit and letter of a plan.  If the plan fails, use initiative to accomplish the mission.
• Be prepared to react quickly to a rapidly changing battlefield.  Develop procedures to deal with numerous contingencies.  Think quickly and be decisive and resourceful in accomplishing the mission.

It should be noted that these principles are idealistic.  They are what we strive to achieve.  They show what we would like to do, but not, in all cases, what we may be capable of doing.  However, any examination of operations and tactics must start with the principles as a basis.

Much of this information and text comes from the U.S. Department of the Army Field Manual - The Soviet Army: Operations and Tactics; Headquarters, Washington D.C., 16 July 1984.  This material is unclassified.

Technical Guidelines & Weapon Systems Overview

Technical Guidelines

In the near future, we will be replacing the old Intramecha Tactica articles dealing with battlemech configurations with new material that reflects our strategic overview.  The upcoming series of articles (Technical Guidelines, as they will be called) will contain all the updated information needed to set up a 'mech chassis with the equipment we want to deploy in that role.  The entries will also talk about specific Gatekeeper 'mechs and the most standard uses for those chassis.

As the Technical Guidelines become available, we will be increasing our dependence on our strategies by going entirely "by the book" - in this case, the Gatekeepers Tactical Manual.  We'll be making sure everyone is familiar with these new guidelines by going over them during briefings on Friday and Saturday night.  These Technical Guidelines will be "living" articles as well, and will be updated as needed as time (and patches) march along.  However, they will always be available in the Tactical Manual.

Note that the old configuration articles are still available, and are still quite viable as instructional material.  However, the new guidelines will focus less on generalities and more on Gatekeeper specific builds and roles.  Those configuration guidelines are gleaned from Battletech itself, and ran through an "early-game" filter that contained ideas similar to our Strategic Revision, though not as expansive.

Weapons Systems Overview

In an effort to make things easier going forward, we're going to lay out specific weapon categories for our new role system.  This is a quick overview that does not go into individual chassis tactics for deploying these systems.  Instead, this is just a quick overview of the weapons available to the Inner Sphere in-game and where they apply now that we've in Strategic Revision.  Here they are broken down into new categories and matched to the applicable roles.

Main Weapon Systems
A main weapon is defined by its' optimum range.  Any weapon with a range of 450m or greater is a "main" weapon, even if you mount a dozen other systems.  It is categorized thus because of the importance of long range fire in several of our map strategies.  Battle Line 'mechs should mount at least one of these systems to qualify for that role, though Battle Line 'mechs will also carry a fair amount of Defensive or Ancillary weapons as well.  Direct Fire 'mechs will focus on weapons in this category with less emphasis on close range weapons.

• Large Laser (450m)
• ER Large Laser (450m)
• PPC (540m)
• ER PPC (810m)
• Autocannon-2 (720m)
• Autocannon-5 (620m)
• Autocannon-10 (450m)
• Ultra Autocannon-5 (600m)
• Gauss Rifle (660m)

Defensive Weapon Systems
A defensive weapon is employed only at close range.  A weapon with a range of 200m to 450m is a defensive weapon system, called so even if it is your main offensive armament.  It is categorized thus because these weapons will most readily be used when repelling enemy attacks on our formations.  Close Support 'mechs should mount these weapons (and ancillaries) exclusively to maximize firepower within their range.

• Medium Laser (270m)
• Medium Pulse Laser (220m)
• Large Pulse Laser (350m)
• Autocannon-20 (270m)
• All Short Range Missile Racks (270m)

Missile Artillery Systems
A missile artillery system is any LRM system capable of launching 15 or more missiles in a single volley.  This can be one weapon rack (LRM15) or multiples (LRM5 x3).  Less missiles in a single volley do not constitute a missile artillery system.  Missile Artillery 'mechs should devote most of the chassis' space to LRM systems and ammunition.  Bear in mind that you should carry ammunition that will last through the combat drop, so don't worry about maximizing missile tubes once you find a comfortable fit for your chassis.

• All LRM Racks (1000m)

Ancillary Systems
Weapon systems that do not fall into another category (or whose applications are limited) are labeled ancillary weapon systems.  This includes LRM systems that don't qualify as Missile Artillery and a few other weapons whose optimum range is less than 200m.  Because of the drastic variance in optimum ranges, ancillary systems should only be utilized supporting another weapon system.

• Small Laser (100m)
• Small Pulse Laser (100m)
• Flamer (90m)
• Machine Gun (120m)
• LB 10-X Autocannon (540m)
• All LRM Racks (1000m)

Note that all weapon systems are represented here without any range upgrades.  Range upgrades should be ignored when considering weapon system categorization, i.e. range modules do not change weapon system categories, no matter what the end range is.  The reason for this is simple - not all pilots will have range modules, so we must rely on this basic information.

Hunter-Killers, Electronic Warfare Platforms and Interceptors are special cases and will be thoroughly discussed in the Technical Guidelines.  These 'mechs are more dependent on specific role, and so a mix of specific weapon systems are suggested dependent on weight class.  Stick to your guns, Gatekeepers!

Patch Review: Temporary Match Maker Quaff

Stoneblade's video Patch Review for October 7th, 2014!


Rockin' right along!

Remember, Thursday nights are Stoneblades' RPG night!  Show up for some awesome gaming, and a little story for you to murder by!  We plan to host a new operation to generate some interest as well!

Also, the Command Staff will be on the warpath this week as the Zhong-Shao has begun to demand more combat drop discipline.  Don't take anything too hard - we're striving to be a competitive mil-sim roleplaying unit (a what?) and if this were the real Capellan military, I'm sure some canings would be on the board.  Everyone is working hard on their gunnery and positioning, and it's coming together quite nice.  However, more practice is needed and everyone (especially newly ordained Sao-Wei) need to be brought up to speed on company drop strategies.

Each Tactical Manual article that is published is to be followed to the letter, and officers are to be obeyed during combat without question...you know, like a real military unit.  Yes, there is a "wrong" way to play robot soldier pilot.  Abandon your normal playstyles from the public servers - the new company doctrine is sound, based on real world armor tactics and has done quite well for us the last two weeks.

CW is coming, and Davion is our target.  Everyone needs to understand all the elements of the new tactical overview, so what is not committed to the Tactical Manual yet needs to be conveyed and discussed prior to every drop.  Working together to disseminate this information prior to its' publication on the blog is going to get everyone on the same page and allay the fears of some members that we are not prepared, nor do we have a plan.

We are very experienced, but we need to abandon the "pub run" mindset.  You are no longer dropping alone into a random unit with limited communication and stunted synergies.  For those of you concerned, the current restrictions imposed on company level drops (such as 'mech selection) is not set in stone forever - just until the Command Staff is pleased with response discipline as execution of strategy.

Good Hunting, mechwarriors!  For the glory of the Great Wall and it's Gatekeepers!  None shall pass!