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Coalition States Battlefield Operations
  The Coalition States is on the verge of launching the largest military campaign since the Coming of the Rifts, and despite the role that small unit, covert operations and company sized units will play, the wise commander must never forget that all of that makes up the battle as a whole.  Lets begin now, with the preperation:
BEFORE MOBILIZATION
  CHOOSING SUPPLIES-The proper choice of supplies is the number one responsibility of the prepared commander.  If you are going to be in an Arctic enviroment, and you request desert or tropical supplies, you will kill more troops than the battle you are waiting for.  When you order weaponry, try to get weapons that can use the same ammuntion, such as CR-1 railguns for both your heavy weapons emplacements, your vehicle ringmounts, and your heavy infantry troopers.  That way, if the weapon is disabled, the ammo can be split up, and you only have to request one type of ammuntion.  Remember to order the proper ammunition all so.  Vehicles are important, and be sure that you order the correct type.  Power armor are infinately important in todays day and age, since they provide multiple roles:  Air Superiority, infantry, entrenched troops.  Remember food, food preperation equipment, vehicle, armor and weapon repair equipment, extra clothing and supplies for the troops, and area denial equipment.
  ARRANGING SUPPLY LINES-Supply lines are you own worst enemy.  Denied supply lines can wreak more havoc than enemy troops overrunning your position.  Do not arrange supply lines through canyons, heavy woods, or potential ambush sites.  Airdropping supplies can be your best asset, providing you can provide proper cover for the aircraft and seize the drop site.  Air drops, underground movement along the clandestine underground railways, fragmented supply trains to make sure that at least some supplies make it through.
  SELECTING THE PROPER UNITS-Proper units can make the difference.  If you only take 3 regiments of artillery, your going to get eaten for lunch by the infantry.  Mix it up, that what the combined arms theory is for.  Look at your foes.  Are you facing magical opponents?  Artillery, heavy armor, psi-stalkers, infantry, LRPS, SF, supply, maintenance, commo, all must be chosen.  Do not be afraid to choose a green unit, as long as their NCO's and Officers are hardened vets.  Are the officers and NCO's green?  Distribute them through the other units and move some experienced vetrans into the unit.  Prisoner units can be handy.  If the battle promises to be viscous, then put them in front, and promise them a new life in the military.  "What you were is dead, you have been reborn as a soldier.  This is your life, this is your country, we are your family."
  SURVEYING INTELLEGENCE-Do not completly rely on military intellegence(MI), but do not ignore it, either.  As a field grade commander, you should have established your own network of 'undesirable elements' for information.  Check them also.  Check with any troops who have returned from that area recently.  Do not ignore the lower ranks, privates see many things officers do not.  When surveying your intellegence, remember the propaganda factor.  Multiply enemy troops by ten, divide the amount of enemy killed by 8, and count on any locals being hostile forces who will engage in guerrilla warfare.  Examine the terrian, not only what MI has to show you, but CD-EPROMS from vehicles, soldiers and robots that have been in the area at any time.  Not just yourself, but have your advisors go over it also.  Part of command is proper deligation of authority and listening to the advice of the experienced veterans in your command.
  SELECTING THE PROPER TERRAIN-Forest, mountain or jungle terrain is the worst thing you can fight in.  Try to pick hills, grassland or desert.  If the only choice you have is forests or jungle, destroy the native vegatation with Agent Orange (Author's Note: Yes, I know of the neurological, physical and chemical dangers of Agent Orange on living humans, but remember: These guys will be in NBC protection, the CS will not know about AO long term effects)  napalm, fuel-air bombing.  Try to choose terrain that will make the enemy come to you, take the high ground if possible.  Choose troops that have experience in the terrain, and vice versa.  Try to aviod the ruins of achient cities, since the massive amount metal debris, broken glass and other debris will foul up your sensors.  Try to make it so the enemy will have to take the worst possible terrain, if they wish to engage in a war of large battles.
  SELECTING THE PROPER WEAPONRY-This sounds like a no-brainer, but too many field grade officers seem to think one type of weaponry/armor is the end all be all.  Don't be an idiot, the reason the CS supplies you with so many different options is because there is no "One tool fits all" in the real world outside the academy.  Remember air power, anti-air weaponry, area denial munitions, artillery and armor.  FASCAM artillerty will keep the enemy from moving through an area without massive casualties.  Get the proper weaponry.  Line of sight only heavy weaponry in canyons and mountain terrain are next to worthless at best, dangerous to your own troops at worst.  If you are not expecting supplies to get through, take non-projectile weaponry like lasers, since E-clips and E-canisters can be recharged off of RPA nuclear power packs.  If you expect to meet up with air mobile foes, make sure you bring plenty of anti-aircraft weaponry.  Even a Balrog demon has a tough time flying after being hit with a set of Ahab-7 Anti-aircraft missiles.  If your expecting wave attacks, bring weaponry to be put in fixed positions, but is still man portable, to aviod another Newton Wall incedent.
DURING MOBILIZATION
  Mobilization is the most dangerous part of a battle.  Moving from base to field area is when you can get hammered.  Expect smaller forces to slash at you, but at all costs, do not persue these forces, they will only draw you into an ambush.  Larger forces will try to catch you and demolish you before you can become entrenched.  This is the most damaging section of your battle.
  MOVING OUT-When it comes to moving out, be ready for half of your equipment to not work, soldiers not show up (personally, I would shoot them, but it's against the CSUCJ, so hey, just bust them in rank, so the troops see that you mean business)  Once everything is ready to move out, move out.  Take it slow, go no faster than the slowest vehicle, and any vehicle that breaks down, don't stop to repair it, tow it.
  PROTECTING TROOPS DURING MOBILIZATION-This is one of the most difficult things you will have to do.  The enemy will attempt to slice you to bits and pieces as you move out.  If you are moving out airmobile, expect enemy forces to use Surface to Air Missiles, Black Market SAMAS, Juicers on Icarus flight systems, air mobile DB's & whatever else they can scrape up. Do not allow units to break off to chase enemy elements when attacked, that is a sure way to get hammered in an ambush.  While moving overland, use patrols on your perimeter to give you advance warning.  Follow the routes chosen, and try not to do any exploration, that's a good way to find trouble you weren't expecting.   If it appears the enemy is trying to commit a hit and run arrangement to bleed off your strength, group up and send out flanking units to trap any attackers between them and the main body.
  PROPER ARRANGEMENT OF UNITS-This not only applies to when you arrive at your destination, but during the movement to your site.  In an age where teleportation on a massive scale by a mage corps can drop several hundred magically armed soldiers into your midst, surrounding the non-combatant units with infantry gives you a soft underbelly that the enemy may tear out.  You must mix your troops together.  Have infantry and armor companies move out and provide security for supply brigades during the march, veteran SAMAS pilots escorting intelligence units, and so on.  Mixed troops can ensure that the loss of a company or brigade sized unit does not cripple you in the uncoming battle.
  SELECTING THE PROPER SITE-This kills more idiots than snipers.  Do not set up in cities, the debris will foul sensors, and there are too many hidey-holes underground that you do not know about for guerrilla forces to hide in.  Make sure that there is no enemy forces all ready entrenched in the site you have selected.  Look for defenseable areas, water supplies, good ground, moderate cover than can be removed, terrain advantages, and areas that can be utilized against the enemy.  Select five possible sites at best, two at worst, that have as many advantages as you can get, but are within striking range of one another, that way if your opponent has gotten there first, you still have a back up site.  If you get there, and your other choices are still untaken, feel free to booby trap them, pound them into uselessness with your troops, or make retreat plans to take advantage of the sites you have not chosen.
  SELECTING PROPER FORTIFICATION-Having no overhead cover in an artillery storm will get you just as dead as a snipers bullet, but having the Newton Wall during the Juicer Uprising appears to have been next to useless.  Wrong!  Our troops were outnumbered five to two, and the majority of them were not even dressed in powered assault or defense armors, and still the wall took a hideous toll on the attacking Juicers.  The commander fought bravely and intelligently, dealing with a bad situation and adjusting his fortifications as necessary.  Have your units decide at a Battallion level what type of fortifications they will be using, from berms to mine fields to fox holes to static vehicle emplacements to crew served weaponry positions.  Ensure that all of the fortifications support and enhance one another, not work against each other.  The very ground provides the most effective protection against everything, even tactical nuclear weapons, use it.
BEFORE CONTACT WITH THE ENEMY
  PUTTING OUT PATROLS-Patrols are the most important thing you can do, since they will come into contact with the enemy before anyone else, with any luck.  Patrols should be 5 experienced vets to one green troop, a twelve man team.  A good patrol is: 2 dogboys, 1 psi-stalker, 2 SAMAS, 5 troops.  They should be able to pull back while laying down suppressing fire to cover their withdrawl.
  TERRITORY RECONISANCE-Top speed SAMAS overflights, ground troop investigations, siesmic charge scanning, all of it must be used to accurately recon the territory for mission.  Knowledge of the area will enable you to properly secure it.  Expect your recon teams to come under fire, and so create several Quick Reaction Teams to go and assist any recon forces that come under enemy fire.
  SECURING THE AREA-This is commonly overlooked by field commanders.  They secure their own area, and then get overrun and die, usually without warning.  In an age where one man dressed in black market power armor can decimate a squad of normal men, we must have advanced knowledge and effective coordination.  FASCAM artillery barrages in an area can give you advanced warning, utilizing sensors planted about, everything from thermal, to chemical to pheromone to siesmic sensors.  Set up Observation Posts and Forward Observation Posts.  A troop of five skelebots in a foxhole with a fiber-optic link to computers to watch their obsevation can be invaulable, despite how stupid it sounds.  Securing your own area is important to.  Interlocking fields of fire where 3 weapons can train on one target, foxholes with overhead protection, automated weapon slaved to fire control computers, minefields, popup weaponry, all of it, combined, can make a place a tough nut to crack, but always remember, if they can not get in, you can not get out.
THE BATTLE
  The battle, what every troop fears and some desire.  The ultimate contest for two prizes, live, and the mystery of what lies beyond.  During this time, your preperation, and the units you have taken responsibility for will be tested to the ultimate.
  PROPER UTILIZATION OF TROOPS-Many commanders lose by underestimating the opponent, and putting troops into a meat grinder.  Vampires require specialized troops, and juicers require specialized troops also.  While the enemy is charging through the outside FASCAMed area, do not drop artillery.  That will simply blow big holes in your carefully crafted mine field.  That is a good time to drop more FASCAM munitions, or perhaps even some chemical weaponry.  Use everything at your disposal, show them the might of the CS, but hold some in reserve for another punch, just in case your forces are insufficient, but don't hold on to them till too late.  Have your special operatives maintain a link out, because if there is one thing those boys can do is fight, but don't waste them in a grinder, use them effectively.  Dog-boys combined with psi-stalkers, backed up by RPA units agress mages, artillerry hammers opponents vehicles and heavy monsters, strafing runs on command vehicles identified by covert ops earlier.
  KNOWING WHEN TO WITHDRAW-OK, so you are getting hammered.  Most of your command structure has been decimated, you better be wounded, and most of your men and material are blown to scraps.  It's time to withdraw.  Never let the enemy force the direction of your withdraw.  If you've been paying attention, you should have several ways out planned.  The worst I have been, I could not withdraw, so I advanced, into the teeth of the enemy, broke through them, siezed thier own supply dmps, and dug in.  Did I withdraw?  YES!  Withdrawl is many forms of leaving the area, but above all, discipline and moral must be maintained, pull out before your people have been decimated.  It is better to temporarily give up the objective with 70% of your troops, wait for them to fortify your old position, and counterattack on familiar terrain than to retreat to Chi-Town with less than 15% of your original forces.
  KNOWING WHEN TO PRESS THE ATTACK-Knowing when to press the attack is just as important as knowing when to withdraw.  When the enemy has reeled back, stumbling back through your FASCAM fields, pound them with artillery and air strikes, punish them for their insolence, have stealth modified SAMAS follow them back to their deployment points, have SF and Commando borgs trail them, listening to their commo.  If they flinch back from your artillery, back into your live fire zones, hammer them more, never let up the pressure.  This war is not to break them, but ahnillate them.  Pressing the attack can come if you see a weakness, a chance to go for the leaders, or their mage corps.  A chance lost may spell a loss in these battles.  Remember, you are no longer a commander that only controls several hundred troops, you now control several thousand, and must know who should press the attack and who should withdraw.  Ideally, you could press the attack on the foe, while another unit withdraws into the attacking units position.
  WHEN YOU HAVE NO CHOICE-Sooner or later you will have no choice, and in the immortal words of a commander who had just been handed his unit's death sentence: "STAND AND DELIVER!"  Make them buy your lives dearly.  Let your troops know that for every one that they kill, that is one less that will assault the very walls of Chi-Town to assault thier loved ones, loot their homes, smash the brains from their infants, elderly and spouses, and destroy humanity.  When it is nearly over, you have been overrun, and you are out of everything but the enemy, call in airstrikes on your own position.  Better to be a martyr than a failure.
AFTER THE BATTLE
  REQUESTING THE PROPER REINFORCEMENTS-Don't just get on the radio and scream for backup.  You'll get what you do not need.  Take accurate stock, your command vehicles should have the exact numbers of your casualties, including gear, and request replacement for the losses you take, and 10-30% in addition.  Request ammunition replacement +10%, so that you can resupply and build your ammo stocks.  Send out teams to recover enemy munitions, officers, any possible survivors, and equipment.  If you have lost, and have withdrawn to a holdable position, fortify while awaiting supplies and reenforcements.
  KEEPING UP TROOP MORAL-Troops moral will make or break a victory.  Morale must be kept by maintaining discipline, and rewarding victories.  Appear as a stern father figure, rewarding the just, and punishing the guilty.  If you command has been hammered, your units decimated, do not berate and blame, the fortunes of war strike us all.  The only escaping officers from the Newton Wall fiasco were executed by thier commander.  Stupidity, had he kept them alive, they would have been better prepared to handle the juicer threat thanks to the officers information and knowledge of the terrain.  Executions lower moral, but do not hesitate to kill those who murder, rape or commit atrocities.  It is not an atrocity to kill a DB child, since nits make lice, but it is an atrocity to soak it in liquid fuel and light it on fire.  Execute that man as a sicko, this is a war, not a private torture chamber.  Promote from within units to fill slots emptied by combat losses, ensure wounded troops quick and excellent medical, without regard to rank, and make sure you have good tasting food, even if you yourself have to physically punish the officer of the mess, do not make the officer mess better than the enlisted.  If you must, make it so that all troops eat from the same mess, lowering sapper and sniper problems.
  CLEANING UP THE BATTLEFIELD-Many commanders feel it is beneath their troops to clean up the battlefield.  Never make that mistake.  As soon as you are able, send out teams to dispose of destroyed equipment and dead bodies, gather up weapons and material, and clear away wreckage, mine shell holes, and in general, turn the battlefield into a fire zone for anyone stupid enough to come at you again, and believe it, they will.  Not only will you be removing a chance of disease killing your troops, but by disposing of destroyed vehicles, you remove cover for approaching enemies.  While cleaning up the battlefield, redeploy your sensors, and lay down your booby traps once again.
  REPOSITIONING AVAILABLE FORCES-Many commanders simply leave their surviving troops where they are.  That's cute, but it's wrong and will get you killed.  Now, the enemy knows your approximate troop strength and location.  Put your heavy infantry where the non-combatants who were engaged are.  Take the non-combatants and mix them in with the combat units.  Move around vehicles.  If possible, pull back to your secondary location and begin to set up.  Staying mobile can save you.

Writers note:  Most of this may not seem like it is any help, but when you the GM, are positioning CS forces, remember, they will have better battle doctrine than this little manual, and have the CS troops acts like the professionals they are, not like a group of ragamuffin adventurers. If you really want to know, I included some deadly mistakes that arrogance breeds, good players will find and exploit these doctrine errors, and DM's will have hot shit commanders aviod those mistakes, while by the commanders will make them every time. Good luck.
 

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