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As the recent battles on the West Coast and in Asia recede, this is a great time to review lessons learned and then move on to the next level. In this article, I will be discussing the basics of tactical movement at the platoon, squad, section and fire team level. If you have not already read the first two articles in this series, you may want to review them here and now:

The first article describes the basic structure of small units and their basic missions

http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/basic-battle-tactics-i-forces-and-missions-1451929/1/20

The second article deals with tactical planning and how you organize for battle.

http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/battle-tactics-ii-mission-planning-and-task-organization-1458503/1/20

I'll be dealing with three basic points in this lesson:

1. How you coordinate and control the movement of your unit.

2. Basic combat formations used during movement

3. Techniques of movement and how they relate to the tactical situation

As we have been emphasizing from the beginning, and others have started to understand as well, when you move and fight, you should never go alone. What I'm going to teach you today is the language of movement, how you issue movement orders to your subordinates, and how you can minimize chatter on the net as you move to the fight and through the fight. Now, as many of you may have noticed, the eRepublik battlefields have a grid with two numbers, that taken together, define a unique coordinate reference for each hex tile. The first coordinate, which we will refer to as the x coordinate or “easting” is the number of rows from the western edge of the battlefield. The second coordinate, which we will refer to as the y coordinate or “northing” is the number of hexes in the row from the northern edge. Therefore, the hex with the coordinate 04, 20 is four hexes east of the western edge and 20 hexes down from the northern edge. So this leads us to the simplest, but also the most time consuming way to coordinate and control movement. We will call this metho😛

1. Direct positioning. When you use direct positioning, you will order each individual player in your unit to occupy a given hex either prior to the commencement of your offensive phase (when you can move and attack) or during that phase itself. If you follow the organizational patterns we laid out in the first article, this may work for you, since if you are operating in sections of two vehicles, or even a four man platoon or fire team,you only have to issue 1 to 3 commands. Let us assume that this takes you 30 seconds. If you can do this right away, then your team has up to 150 seconds left to coordinate and execute attack orders. For untrained units, you may have to do this, but the pressure is all on you as the unit leader, and even then, you need to make sure that the orders are understood and followed. This technique therefore:

- Maximizes control
- Requires the most time
- Generally must be used when you are moving into a defensive position
- Can be used as a last resort when the other methods (described below) are not satisfactory
- Will eventually prove unnecessary when your unit is better trained and the patterns of movement become second nature

The form of the command when direct positioning is [ID#] GO to (x, y) (you can insert any other instructions you have here, such as ATTACK (x2, y2)).

At this point, a short discussion of “bumper numbers” use to identify vehicles and aircraft is in order. I will use a tank unit example, but this holds for all classes of units, and you should consider your own scheme as you build your unit. In the US Army, companies are identified by an Alphabetic identifier, platoons by a numeric id, and vehicles with a platoon a second numeric. Command section vehicles start with the number 6 and and end with a 6 for the (company) commander, and a 5 for the executive officer, Platoon leaders are normally ending in 1 and platoon sergeants in 4. Thus a tank company's bumper numbers look like this

A Company

Command Section
A66 – commander's tank
A65 – executive officer's tank

First platoon
A11 – First platoon leader
A12 – First platoon leader's wingman
A13 – First platoon sergeants wingman
A14 – First platoon sergeant

Second platoon
A21 – Second platoon leader
A22– Second platoon leader's wingman
A23- Second platoon sergeants wingman
A24 Second platoon sergeant

I'll leave it to you the reader to figure out how the vehicles of the third platoon are named. As
your unit matures and becomes a close knit team, here is one way to speed up the process of coordinating movement. Instead of the leaders issuing orders on where to go, the subordinates can echo back in chat or IRC where they are going next. You can put a control on this by instructing them not to execute until you concur, or you can let them move at will. Eventually, you will become so well coordinated, that no echoing or confirmation is needed, Your team members will know where to go automatically, and you can trust that they will go to the right place.

This leads us to the second method of control, which is

2. Combat formations. We will start this discussion with a simple example of the most basic formation, one that you can use at least 60-70% of the time. Stick out your right hand, palm facing down, and tuck in your thumb under your hand. Looking at the tips of your four remaining fingers, you see the positions of the aircraft, tanks or combat infantrymen in a “finger four” or “wedge” formation. This formation has many advantages:

It maximizes ease and control of movement.
It distributes your firepower to the front and flanks
You can concentrate easily to your front in the attack
You can change direction more or less easily to defend a flank

Traditionally, the platoon leader is the lead, where your middle finger is. In the example above, the platoon leaders wingman trails to his left rear. The platoon sergeants section is also echeloned back, trailing to the right rear, with the platoon sergeant to the immediate right of the platoon leader, and the platoon sergeant's wingman where your pinky is.

Now in eRepublik, the scale of the hexes in the game is pretty much notional, but you know that your range is no greater than one. So how spread out should your formation be ? In order to maintain mutual support, I recommend that you keep your unit within a single move distance in any direction, so that you can converge to attack from at most two adjoining hexes. Thus for an infantry fire team, this frontage would be four (4) hexes, a tank platoon, six (6) hexes, and a helicopter flight, eight (😎 hexes.
So when you issue a command to move your unit in formation, this should be the form

(Unit ID) MOVE to (x,y) WEDGE (formation name) 4 (on a four hex front). Let's look at this with an example more closely. You are the first tank platoon leader, with bumper number A11. You are heading northeast, with your entire platoon stacked at 03,18 and you issue the following comman😛

First platoon MOVE to 05, 17 WEDGE 4. In this case, all your vehicles will reach their positions in a single bound – one move. This is where each vehicle should end up

A11 – 05, 17
A12 – 04,16
A13 – 05,19
A14 – 05,18

Obviously you can order your unit to go to a destination farther away, and you will have to calculate your movement path along the way. You might wish to move faster or slower in which case, you should add a speed value by adding the phrase BOUND (Z) with Z being the number of moves each vehicle makes in a movement turn or bound. Keep in mind that when you change direction, you do need to allow for the vehicles on the flanks of your formation to keep pace with yours.

Now, while the wedge is the simplest and most useful formation, there are others you can use as well.

Combat Column – in the combat column, the unit leader's team or section leads the other. Here is one way to envision this – with your hand spread out palm down as before, try to curl your index finger and your little finger under the other two. In this case the wingman positions are rolled back directly to the rear of the platoon leader or platoon sergeants. If the sections are abreast in the combat column, that's it, or more likely, the platoon sergeant is directly behind the platoon leader in the index finger slot and his wingman trails where the pinky ends up. You use this formation when:

You are approaching the enemy and need better security to your flanks and rear.
The situation is uncertain, and you may need to concentrate in any direction.

Line – this formation is just what it says – all players in the formation are lined up facing the same direction, normally dispersed along a uniform frontage, but within mutual support of one another. The line formation maximizes firepower to the front, but is weak on the flanks. You may wish to use this formation when you are peforming a screen mission and are attempting to maximize the frontage you are covering with a small force. While eRepublik pretty much shows the positions of both sides on the battlefield, a forward screen can come in handy if you are testing the enemy's defenses and trying to detect his plans.

3. Movement techniques. I will only cover these briefly, since proper use of movement techniques is an art and requires some experience and training to do well. There are three basic movement techniques practiced by the US Army.

Travelling Movement. Travelling is the easiest movement technique to understand and execute, since the entire formation moves at the same interval and speed. Army field manuals describe travelling as the movement technique to be used when contact is not expected or likely – typically, units in the assault also move in a similar fashion after contact is made and your unit has broken from the last favorable position to close with the enemy, or you've been caught in an ambush. However, by doctrine, travelling is done when out of contact.

Travelling Overwatch. In travelling overwatch, one section, fire team or platoon moves at a constant rate, while a supporting element moves at varying speed to positions of advantage from which to engage the enemy. While this technique may have some value in providing flank cover when approaching the enemy, the range limitations make it less attractive. By doctrine, travelling overwatch is used mostly when the situation is unclear and enemy contact is possible rather than expected.

Bounding Overwatch. This technique has two forms – a leapfrog movement in which the lead element moves to a position of advantage, then sets up and remains stationary while the following element takes up the bound and leapfrogs ahead. The US Army calls this “alternating” bounds. The second form of bounding overwatch is a snaillike movement, or successive bounds, where the lead element bounds forward to a position of advantage, and once set, the trail element moves alongside the lead element. This cycle may be repeated or transitioned to alternating bounds depending on the situation. Bounding overwatch is the most deliberate and cautious movement technique – while its main design is to make contact with the minimum force forward in a combat ready posture, in eRepublik you will probably use this method to stalk the enemy while positioning yourself in the most favorable terrain based on your weapon or unit type.

This short article covers the basics of tactical movement practiced by armies around the world and especially the US Army. You will need to practice these methods and practice makes perfect. As you encounter different situations and experiment with different unit structures, you are encouraged to adapt as necessary, always remembering the following principles:

1. March to battle dispersed, and fight concentrated.
2. Make initial contact with the minimum force forward unless you are sure of the enemy's status
and intentions.
3. Control your subordinates movement but be flexible and give them room for initiative within
the rules you establish.
4. Never wander around alone, move and fight at least in pairs, and in larger formations as the
situation demands.
5. Maintain mutual support so as to attack together in one movement bound in your squad, section, fire team, flight or platoon.