[Basic] Skill of the week: Strategy and Tactics

[fredtheobviouspseudonym]

As they say, amateurs talk tactics, dilettantes talk strategy, professionals talk logistics.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by fredtheobviouspseudonym

As they say, amateurs talk tactics, dilettantes talk strategy, professionals talk logistics.

I'd say professionals talk strategy, tactics, and logistics prioritizing their conversation according to circumstance(with perhaps a decided emphasis on logistics). Educated amateurs talk strategy, tactics, and logistics with less quality but sometimes have something worthwhile to say and shouldn't always be underestimated. Just plain amateurs talk propaganda and should be tolerated indulgently as long as they are not doing any real harm.

[acrosome]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

The purpose of sealift and railheads and contractors for the chow hall and whether or not the runway is long enough for a C-5 and how much tonnage the airhead can handle, etc is ultimately feeding the squads and their weapons.

And sergeants don't manage any of it. When this stuff is your primary concern, it's strategy. Again, as a rule of thumb.

A company is really the largest unit where you can expect to know everyone well. So, when you are worried about feeding your army, rather than feeding your buddies... that's sort of what I'm saying.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

It was a small band of Ytarrian adventurers, whose leader had Tactics, fighting a couple of Bilit Island priests and the demons that they were riding - keen on blood and guts, less keen on organised warfare.

Really, it was probably too small a confrontation for Tactics skill to make much difference.

I've often given supernatural predators an effective Tactics equal to their IQ or Per (depending on how animalistic they are), specifically for personal combat where they have to make Quick Contests against someone using Tactics.

In point cost terms, it's One Task Wonder and it means they can't lead a military unit or come up with a tactical plan that gives them re-rolls, but they aren't completely hosed when facing anyone with even a modicum of professional training.

[Pursuivant]

Something that I've found confusing about Strategy and Tactic skills is their scale.

At a personal level, tactics is largely subsumed into weapon/unarmed combat skill, at least when using melee weapons or making unarmed attacks.

On the tactical combat map, some of what a real fighter would know via combat or Tactics skills is actually dependent on player skill in knowing which maneuvers or techniques to use and how to move their characters in order to take advantage of things like weapon Reach, Cover, and enemy side or rear hexes.

What I think of as Tactics is small unit tactics, limited to people or units you can actually see or directly communicate with, and limited only to immediately likely or current combat situations. Think squadron leader or platoon/company commander level.

Realistically, the nuts and bolts of moving troops or vehicles in combat is covered by skills like Leadership, Shiphandling, or Soldier. Vehicle skills should seriously influence your ability to engage in any sort of vehicular maneuver combat.

What I think of as Strategy is grand strategy - moving military units composed of multiple smaller units across a map in order to achieve some overarching geopolitical objective or deploying the resources of a country to order to defeat a rival or to achieve some other long-term objective. Think Grand Admiral/Field Marshall level.

In between, there are Logistics and Operations.

GURPS 3E World War II made an attempt to define Tactics and Strategy as I think of them and introduce Operations skill as a mid-level skill between Strategy and Tactics. Military Logistics, critical to anything other than small unit tactics, is presumably defined as some combination of Admin, Soldier, and Strategy skills.

There should be optional specializations of Tactics for various sorts of tactics, e.g., Aerial, Armored, Ground, Police, etc. Like other optional specializations, these would be Average skills. Such specializations are highly appropriate for narrowly-trained combatants, such as vehicle or small unit commanders.

Players who aren't familiar with Tactical Combat, or GURP combat in general, should be allowed to make IQ-based unarmed combat/weapon skills in order to get GM assistance with effective personal combat tactics. A successful roll gives you the benefits of the "Common Sense" advantage for that combat round - like doing AoD when you're injured.

Strategy could allow optional specializations in Operations or Logistics. Operations gives you the ability to achieve short-term strategic objectives using a limited number of units, including combined arms ops. Logistics focuses on supplying any sort of military force under combat conditions for the purpose of achieving a larger strategic objective. Staff officers are likely to have this specialization.

Strategy should take familiarity penalties if you are working with unfamiliar units, staff, command and control systems, or objectives.

Many skills might be complementary to Strategy skill, notably Administration, Area Knowledge, Geography, Intelligence Analysis, Leadership, Politics, and Propaganda, but even skills such as Cartography, Geology, Mathematics (Surveying), Meteorology, or Psychology.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

Tactics: Intercept incoming strikes with fighters and shipborne antiaircraft fire, guided by improved sensory and communications technology. Then execute long range airstrike against enemy carriers.

Below this level, you've got the small unit tactics used by individual units, like shipboard allocation of anti-aircraft fire vs. given sorts of targets and the choice to use AAA to defend one's own ship vs. defending vital elements of the task force. Or, for the air battle, the ability to line up planes in your squadron/group to best achieve their objective while not getting damaged by the enemy.

Originally Posted by jason taylor

Logistics: Prepare full scale airstrip on Saipan with mass engineering as soon as enemy are cleared.

Or, more broadly, get sufficient fuel, ammo, food, replacements, etc. to the task forces in time for them to launch their operations and keep the supplies coming at a sufficient level to sustain the desired tempo of operations. As a smaller objective, have sufficient personnel, equipment, and supplies available to quickly construct and supply multiple airfields on Saipan sufficient to allow USMC and USAAF units to conduct ongoing operations.

Originally Posted by jason taylor

Propaganda: Vulgarly nickname battle after an Appalachian blood sport.

That was more the spontaneous reaction of USN fighter pilots who expected a hard fight and were amazed and delighted that the enemy mostly turned out to be hapless targets.
Propaganda is newsreels, training films, and newspaper articles which trumpet the victory, designed to make U.S. civilians buy War Bonds and to make green U.S. troops feel invincible.

[Eric Funk]

Originally Posted by Icelander

I've often given supernatural predators an effective Tactics equal to their IQ or Per (depending on how animalistic they are), specifically for personal combat where they have to make Quick Contests against someone using Tactics.

In point cost terms, it's One Task Wonder and it means they can't lead a military unit or come up with a tactical plan that gives them re-rolls, but they aren't completely hosed when facing anyone with even a modicum of professional training.

I am facing this dilemma with my party as well. In the typical Dungeon* crawl, only the PCs will have Tactics. In this case it is the wizard with high IQ and the Born War Leader Talent.

I'm reading Tactics for this 6-10 member group will mean they are fighting as a unit rather than a bunch of "murder hoboes" (as one player puts it) who kill all monsters they see as fast as they can and then loot whatever is shiny or magical.


Example Case:
Wild Boars: IQ 5, Tactics Default: roll vs IQ -1 ! . Typical roll of 10 means fail by 11 !
Wizard: Tactics 14, average roll of 10*** means pass by 4, so margin of success: 15


So i'm going to try it just a basic roll against wild creatures (the barrier of "Animal" vs "Mind" spells M29).



* Here GURPS Dungeon Fantasy.
** With allies, familiars, mounts, hirelings, etc.
*** (And that's not taking into consideration using Luck to reroll...

[Jareth Valar]

Originally Posted by Icelander

I've often given supernatural predators an effective Tactics equal to their IQ or Per (depending on how animalistic they are), specifically for personal combat where they have to make Quick Contests against someone using Tactics.

In point cost terms, it's One Task Wonder and it means they can't lead a military unit or come up with a tactical plan that gives them re-rolls, but they aren't completely hosed when facing anyone with even a modicum of professional training.

Nice idea. Clean and simple. Will probably start using this from time to time. Thank you.

LOL, this just struck a cord...image of where the animal has better tactical skill than a PC are the Doberman Pincers in the Remo Williams movie. 😂

[Eric Funk]

Originally Posted by Jareth Valar

Nice idea. Clean and simple. Will probably start using this from time to time. Thank you.

LOL, this just struck a cord...image of where the animal has better tactical skill than a PC are the Doberman Pincers in the Remo Williams movie. 😂

A night's sleep reminded me that in 3e Bestiary they assign a number of templates "pack tactics" pp.76 & 94, Tactics under Naturally-learned Skills p. 118, and explicitly in the fleshed-out full "guard dog" template on p.104 with the skill Tactics-12.

[tbone]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Strategy is the IQ/H skill of ...

A fine overview of these skills. They're rather all over the map in what they do, according to different books; it's a complex picture. (I wasn't even aware of Operations in WWII.)

I'd like to see the system settle on more standardized mechanics for each skill, but it's expected (and fine) that details differ somewhat by genre and setting.

Whatever the differences by book, Tactics has pretty clear uses that players can exploit. If nothing else, there's one use that's always obvious, simple, and fun: When players dither over actions, positioning, etc, in combat, roll Tactics; if successful, the GM makes a simple suggestion. That's not so useful for experienced players (who already know combat), but for newer players, advice via Tactics can really make a difference in fighting intelligently.

Strategy is a tougher skill to make meaningful at the typical PC level. Me, I'm increasingly taking it to be a range of broad "planning" skills, with the listed Strategy actually being Strategy (Military). Strategy (Business) would be another example of real-world skill for big-picture, high-level planning. Strategy (Politics) is another perfect example (but one we already have: it's the Politics skill).

Sticking with that focus on planning, I'm trying out a way to make Strategy more useful in DFRPG: Let it be the skill for mission planning & prep. That is, make a Strategy roll at the prep stage; on a success, the GM offers suggestions on gear, hirelings, etc. Again, this isn't so great for experienced players who know what they need. But for newer players, it can be a huge help. ("You're all weighed down; who's going to carry any treasure? Do you even have bags or containers for loot? Does everyone have a backup weapon?")