Responsible Armor Deployment

[Kastrenzo Benelli]

Many are probably unaware, and I had nearly forgotten myself. But back in the day when hit-point armored vehicles were in their infancy. With the deployment of the Merczateer Legion MBT, Originally it was only given to Officers and Veterans of their Trooper Class, it was a very vague issue policy, and albiet unfair as it was for the most part only used by Officers, whom also had access to practically everything. I along with several others in the Merczateers divised an "Armoured engagement policy", an FYI of sorts, a guideline for responsible armor deployment.

Not days after it was first deployed in the 10th Mountain Division, guidelines of deployment had to be drawn out for both offensive and defensive. Armor was typically only used on offensive operations as a brute force tool. and had to be extremley careful not to break any rules with the vehicle.

Defensive deployments on the other hand were very controversial, it all boiled down to the judgement of the Commanding officer, which was extremley unreliable as some people would enstate a "no mercy" stance of defense. And initiate ten kinds of retarded tactics. Tanks were being used to fight off lone attackers. And the second an enemy tank appeared.

Three tanks appeared on the Merczateer line.

Now enter 2011, Armor is no longer posessed by just Mercz, Ordo, Vanguard and the rest of the "great powers" of the combat community. Thanks to the efforts of Companies like Titan Industries and Ironsight Armaments. And No-thanks to FRAG. Armor is available to practically everyone. (I am not propagating the Ordo Approved vendors, I simply find it a BAD Idea to be distributing a tank for free, in the case of FRAG. I do like the idea of equipping groups that otherwise would not be able to script their own, It's just I worry about the half dozen Brazilitards lone wolfing Titan, whom all decide to pull out a FRAG BMP-Razer and tank rush the line and crash the sim)

The point of this article is that of Responsible Armor deployment, and Anti-Armor policies. It is by no means an attempt to critisize officers and NCOICs for making "a bad call". But some things need to be realized and considered when deploying armor.

Situation: Titan has roughly 15 Terra and 5 Astra Personnel on sim, and a force of four Attacks the sim, one deploys a Tank, the OIC's immediate response is to deploy a tank to counter that. MBTs are generally the most common vehicles deployed, they are normally used as an offensive weapon, and are used to match the firepower of an entire squad or so. When the Ordo defending force deploys a tank based on the justification that "Oh there's another tank out there we're going to get slaughtered" isn't a true justification at all,

A. It's just making it more unfair for the attackers, we're not trying to give them a red carpet to our gates, but We're not supposed to be hammering them too hard either. If we did, no one would ever come here, and Ordo would be blockaded from most every military on the grid... Like Vanguard. We are forgetting that alongside the tank, there are still 20 some defenders. So statistically That would be something like 3 soldiers and 1 tank VS 20 soldiers and 1 tank.. I'm sure you see my issue.

B. There are many aspects of ground combat that are often unused and/or forgotten about, Anti-Tank launchers and artillery can be deployed by infantry. Grunts on the ground work hard for their QP Points. And when they spend them on weapons, they're hoping to use them. And when Milites Bob unpacks his SRAW, Pilum, whatever. And sees a tank coming over the ridge. His eyes light up hoping to pop a tank with his new toy, only to have an Ira come blasting out of nowhere and blowing it up with a spam of machinegun rounds.

C. Astra has a hard enough time finding valid air targets, I am grossly unfamiliar with all of the capabilities of our aircraft, but it is to my understanding that some of our craft have EMP, AGM and bombing abilities? I really musnt need to explain this very much. But Why not Bring in an Airstrike on the vehicle? A tank is a legit ground target for an aircraft in almost any situation.

In short, there are much more responsible solutions than just "fighting fire with the same kind of fire". Granted in the current sim build, Armor does not perform very well on the terrain anyway. I am suggesting to would-be Defensive commanders, Lessen the Blitzkriegs on defense, and get some Infantry rockets and/or Aircraft bombs on them instead. It's quite frustrating to see the sight of a tank coming over the ridge and having the officer's first reaction "X, Get in a tank and go kill that thing"

Armor should really only be necessary on Titan in large battles or where manpower otherwise cannot be matched.

Lastly, on that note, I'm unfamiliar with exactly how many people are qualified to pilot Armor. And I will not mention specific names, but there are roughly 30-40 people at least, with access to the armor. And 90% of these people rarely if ever get to deploy them. As it's always the same 5 or 6 people either asking to bring out tanks, or being "chosen" to deploy. While this may be because these people are more experienced with the vehicles, this logic is flawed because how will the other 75-80% ever gain experience in combat with these vehicles?

Myself, I'm not whining "baww I never get to drive", I don't even care. I'm just as happy on foot. But it just seems very pointless to have so many people qualified for these vehicles, but never get to deploy them.

These have just been some of my thoughts on some of the developments I've noticed recentley.