Flanking Maneuvers

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Over 2000 years ago, an outnumbered army far from its North African home handed a crushing defeat to the seemingly invincible Roman legions at Cannae. The general of Carthage, Hannibal, led his front-line troops backward in a carefully controlled retreat, which drew the aggressively pursuing Romans into a killing field. The trap he created, now termed a double envelopment, or “pincer” movement, may have cost the Romans 85,000 men against only 6,000 casualties for the invading Carthaginians. In military lore, “Cannae” has become synonymous with annihilation by encirclement.
 

At War Robots University, our research has concluded that many winnable battles are lost by overzealous pilots who believe the center beacon is the only pathway to victory. Some players will waste robot after robot against enemies who patiently gun them down as they approach. You have undoubtedly fought battles in which you saw a lead on the beacon bar evaporate and disappear after encircling opponents finally destroy your team, exhausted by its effort protecting the center of the map. Don't. Center should be your killing field. It’s time to bring some real-life military expertise to your game!

FLANKS - NOT JUST FOR STEAK!
In military parlance, “sides” are called “flanks.” Flanking is intended to avoid the most dangerous elements of the enemy force, instead attacking the weakest (like a Noricum/Zenit Natasha camped out near a home beacon). The red team, of course, will not invite you around their unprotected sides. You have to move there against opposition that can see you and understands what you are up to! Sometimes it’s the raw speed of a Gareth that will get you there, or perhaps the stealth mode of a Stalker. Sometimes you can walk all the way home in a Leo or a Lancelot. Any robot can flank the enemy if your teammates keep them occupied on the front lines of battle. Your job: recognize where you are needed, and flank when you have the opportunity.

CANYON, MOON, AND DEAD CITY
These symmetrical maps all work in the same way. The blue team should engage the enemy at the center without wasting robots while sending a force toward one flank. Once a side beacon is threatened or captured, the enemy must decide whether to keep fighting for center or protect their flank. It’s War Robots heresy on par with mixing weapons, but you can win on these maps without ever holding the center beacon.

Here’s an example video of flanking on Dead City - I work both sides of the map in the Lancelot, making sure that my teammates are supported and the enemy is stuck in their spawn area.

SHENZHEN/DREADNOUGHT
Shenzhen is the perfect place to execute a “double envelopment,” or complete encirclement of the red team. Possession of your home plus both flanks means you have three beacons AND control of the “exits” from the enemy’s home street. Use this position to wipe the enemy out at center or, even better, at home. If you can engage the enemy as he tries to leave his street (marked with the red X), you will dominate the battle.

Here, I’ve moved to BRAVO, capturing it as teammates simultaneously capture DELTA.  As lagniappe, someone on my team has captured ECHO in the face of the enemy team!

If the whole enemy team is still on their home street two minutes in, it’s subtantially over.  A four to one beacon advantage will result in a battle that’s only about three minutes long.  I’ve had a very brief skirmish over DELTA, but I’m simply holding the position.  No advance is necessary.

Too little, too late - the enemy team has escaped to the opposite side of the map (BRAVO) and captured the beacon.

Pilot Canada2000 has brought the annihilation up close - he’s walked his Trident Fury up the left side to close the door on the enemy.  In the final minute, red dislodged blue temporarily from ECHO and permanently from BRAVO.

The pincer movement, or double envelopement, was so successful that I didn’t have to enter the battle in any way beyond capturing my side of the battlefield.  Shenzhen is perfectly suited for this tactic - and any team that fails to exit its home street will lose horribly.

CASE STUDY in ADVANCED BEACONOLOGY: SPRINGFIELD

Our research shows that Springfield’s flanks are dependent upon spawn location.  If the teams spawn in the riverbed, beacon BRAVO is the best place to flank.  If the teams spawn up on the docks, beacon DELTA should be your focal point.  Regardless of spawn points, you must make the enemy worry about both beacons.  If you see they have amassed their forces on one of the sides, try to keep them engaged there while part of your team changes sides.  Your objective is to get your enemy scurrying back and forth between B and D, unable to defend both.

In the examples below, you will see a battle on Springfield after the initial effort succeeded in capturing B (teams spawned in riverbed).

After dispatching an enemy, a quick survey of the field shows the red team bunched at center.  Red has conceded BRAVO and two are headed toward ECHO.  

The blue team destroys the reds who had attempted to cross open terrain toward ECHO, and has the enemy encircled. The best course of action is to attack DELTA conservatively, wearing the enemy down and preventing escape.

Advancing from the flank toward the amassed enemy in the center.  Note the blue team’s use of cover here - no need to throw robots away while you have the advantage.

An Inquisitor with Ember is a formidable opponent, but the better tactical movement would have been to spawn at home and work toward BRAVO, far from the fighting at DELTA.  The Inquisitor was able to destroy me, but he fell to my teammate shortly thereafter.

Blue captures DELTA, closing the door to any kind of comeback from red.  Now, the enemy can only spawn in an encircled position.  The battle ended by beacon control very shortly afterward.

“A battle of annihilation can be carried out today according to the same plan devised by Hannibal in long forgotten times. The enemy front is not the goal of the principal attack. The mass of the troops and the reserves should not be concentrated against the enemy front; the essential is that the flanks be crushed. The wings should not be sought at the advanced points of the front but rather along the entire depth and extension of the enemy formation. The annihilation is completed through an attack against the enemy's rear... To bring about a decisive and annihilating victory requires an attack against the front and against one or both flanks…” - Alfred von Schlieffen

And who doesn't like "decisive and annihilating" victories? Here's to more of them for you, and happy Wednesday!

Your humble servant,
Doc Yat

PS: This post also appears in an abridged version at Pixonic's War Robots page.



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