All Hands On Deck! A Close Study of Foxhole Operations
An “Operation” in Foxhole can be described as a group activity designed to achieve a specific goal.
They fall into 9 main categories, widely ranging in scale, intensity, and scope of planning.
This guide will help you answer the question, “What kind of operation should I organize today?”, as we explore in depth each type of operation, conditions for success, and ways to maximize a rewarding experience for everyone involved.
(Please note, that by nature, the topic is highly subjective and experience can vary from person to person.)
Rationale
Higher anticipated “Amusement” tends to attract more participants, bring friends out of retirement, and breathe flames of activity across the board before and after the operation takes place. Hence, the power of Amusement should not be underestimated. For the purpose of this analysis, we have arrived at this metric through an average “Thrill”, “Satisfaction”, and “Freshness”.
“Value”, on the other hand, measures how much an activity helps the war effort in relation to the effort made for it. This is calculated by offsetting the actual “Impact” of a successful operation, with “Risk”. Risk is further derived from factoring “Chance of Failure” with “Cost”, which is found by averaging “Ideal Size” of such an operation with the needed “Resource Commitment”.
“Expertise” is the required knowledge and experience in the field that allows the commander to organize and direct a successful operation.
As a result, we can see that operations fall within 3 general optimization curves.
C1 (Infantry, Logistics) is the entry level type of operation, which has low input, medium output, and generally considered a “grind” because it can get stale easily. Leave these kinds of activities for casual chill time, rather than scheduling an entire operation for it.
C2 (Partisan, Engineering, Armor, Artillery) represents ideal operations for small-to-medium sized clans on a regular basis. Engineering and Partisan offer very good value for their low cost, and can be satisfying and impactful as long as you have a few people working together. Artillery and Armor require larger groups and higher cost, but the freshness factor is high for many new players and is a great way to rally a large number of new players into an effective fighting force, as long as there are a few experienced vets to lead the way.
C3 (Invasion, Naval Landing, Nukes) involves large scale operations with a hefty cost of men and materiel, with extremely high impact to the war. Value is similar to C2 operations simply because with that much resources and manpower, you could have helped the war in a similar amount spread across many hexes, and queues make very large operations less efficient than medium sized ones over a longer period of time. However, the amusement metric is off the charts for events such as a naval landing or nuke, and you’re guaranteed to get a lot more people showing up than you would have in smaller operations, so in the end, its highly advised to run the “big boi operations” often if you have the mental capacity for them.
Now, here is a rundown on each type of operation and some examples ideas for aspiring commanders to succeed in the battlefield.
Infantry
It’s every new player’s starting role, being easy to learn and difficult to master. While incredible versatile and impactful under proper leadership at a low cost, not many people will get excited over a purely Infantry operation. Hence, most infantry operations become organized on-the-fly with randoms or situationally available crew. In early war, infantry may be the only option however, so a good squad leader would be wise to have a range of viable infantry operation routines in their repertoire.
-Mammon Rush: Timeless and exciting operation that is viable regardless of stage of war. Be sure to keep a large supply of mammons, shirts, and bmats to sustain such an operation for a long time, and you will delete waves of enemy defenses. Gather 10+ troops all carrying 2-4 mammons each and suicide charge into enemy defenses in one big blob (ideally on sparsely defended frontlines). Respawning more often at your friendly base moves the BB tech progress forward, while also destroying all but the sturdiest of enemy defenses. Using smokes, HMG, or FMG to suppress garrisons will work wonders if available. When enemy base is destroyed, rebuild, resupply, and continue the cycle.
-Build Push: Don’t just enter an active frontline with extra infantry. Build forward bases while sapping forward with trenches and pillboxes to significantly bolster progress on the frontline. 3 people carrying sandbags can lay down a sandbag wall instantly. This will increase all friendly infantry defense and respawn time, and allow them to counter tanks and get in range to PVE more effectively.
-Tank Hunting: There are few things more satisfying than wrecking enemy tanks with nothing but stickies. Gather a crew of AT infantry a truck, or direct them in fast moving squads to flank enemy armor, especially at night. Even a small squad of experienced troops with stickies, flasks, ATRs, RPGs, tripod variants thereof, and/or mines will decimate an enemy armored column.
Logistics
Similar to Infantry, while important, pure public logi is not an “amusing” activity, except for very new players who wish to learn by doing. Milage may vary, and many people find logi quite satisfying, especially since you can still help the team in a chill, stress-free, and often social environment. This makes logi most sustainable as a casual pastime rather than a full-fledged operation. That said, some advanced logi operations are viable as worthy of brilliant strategists and thrill seekers.
-Blockade Running: Organize a major relief mission by charting a safe path to bring large amounts of needed supplies to encircled friendly positions. Use all means necessary, from off-road vehicles, naval vessels, even tank or backpack inventory with as much armed escort as necessary to sneak past enemy lines and deliver shirts, bmats, gsups, etc to help stranded allies hold out.
-Tech Gathering: Scroop for tech mats with the purpose of obtaining iron, copper, aluminum, etc. to get prototypes of the next big item in the tech tree. The more people working together, the faster you will reach the objective and get to play with a tank or other cool vehicle even before it is researched, and thus offers thrill even despite being a backline operation.
-Big Scroop Night: Oftentimes, clans would hold regular “scroop nights” where a large number of players get on at the same time to gather salvage. Pit masters direct the scroopers and drivers in a well organized and efficient manner resulting in an endless flow of freighters, truck convoys, and trains full of scrap that will be turned into b/emats for both public and clan use. It overcomes the tedium of solo logi by making it into a social experience that is also incredibly satisfying to witness.
Engineering
Base building is perhaps the most robust activity you can do on foxhole. There is very low risk because it costs almost pure bmats and a small crew of 2-6 people with at least one knowledgeable architect who lays down the blueprints, and you are 99% guaranteed to contribute to the war effort in some way, since by simply existing you add to the stability in the region. It is a low risk, high return activity that can even be quite enjoyable if done together with a handful of squadmates. The main downside is upkeep costs in garrison and bunker supplies. Many clans can afford to upkeep one or more large storm cannon bases to serve as center of staging and pride of the regiment, but the faction can benefit from numerous of smaller and simpler bases to hold chokepoints, protect logi, and serve as fallbacks. The key to successful public facing engineering operations is seeking areas that are in most dire need of protection not immediately obvious to the general public, and using the activity itself as an opportunity for learning and camadarie for newer players.
-Invasion Clean Up: Following a large and successful friendly invasion into enemy territory, regions are taken and operatives have logged off, but often the place is not fortified, and progress is easily lost by the next day. To secure these gains, look for areas that have been recently conquered and are lacking in friendly defenses. Often, there will be a bit of undestroyed enemy defenses left over as well, that can be used against us if enemies hop inside. Bring bmats, mammons, and starter kits to these locales and clean up the enemy defenses, and replace them with your own. It doesn’t need to be fancy. Layers of simple but robust 1x3 Tier 2 infantry garrisons and even pillboxes should be enough to fill the gap until the next friendly wave. If the area lacks Small Garrison AI, then use walls and gates as needed to prevent a mammon truck from driving in to destroy and reset the base or town hall.
-Anti-Partisan AI Seeding: Sometimes you don’t have the time or resources to protect every backline partisan hotspot. In this case, just seed AI for the future by laying down encampments where you want a base, and this will gradually get tier 2 AI over a few days without decaying (as long as 80m away from another base). With a bit of help, you can set down walls and gates to protect the encampment from partisans, and a few pillboxes to protect logi. Even better, for heavily partisaned highways, build walls on either side of the road like a “highway noise barrier”, which proves extremely useful keeping partisans out, and allowing truckers to run over partisans that get inside.
-Bunker Renovation Service: This mission is aimed at improving low effort bunker bases built by previous engineers near frontlines or recently captured territory. Forward megabases are rare without proper clan support, so public engineers tend to build small bases of varying levels of completion on risky territory, in the hopes that randoms will supply and build it up. Specifically target bases that have already teched tier 2 AI (small garrison), since permanent AI is valuable in such regions, and progress will be lost if enemies succeed in resetting it. Bring a truck or two full of helpers and bmats, then dig out necessary improvements depending on preexisting tech., If there is nothing, build rifle and MG garrisons to protect the base. If base has AT garrisons teched but didn’t use it yet, modify bunkers to include AT coverage. To solidify your hold, make circular trenches and bring EMG or EATs. Once you think you did enough work, move onto the next less-than-stellar base and give it some love.
Partisan
Similar to engineering, guerrilla warfare is a highly efficient use of your time and resources, but with plenty of adrenaline to boot. Even with a small squad and minimal investment of materiel, you can wreak tons of havoc to the enemy backlines while having endless amounts of fun. The main lynchpin to the number of partisan operations hosted is the lack of skilled and experienced partisan vets who are willing to lead groups to do them. Most good partisans tend to be independent and fast moving, and new players who want to help can easily get left behind. However it’s highly encouraged to keep providing new partisans field experience by being patient with them and being forgiving of mistakes. You can afford to. And in return, when you release newly trained partisans in the wild, they will do the devil’s work without needing to tell them to.
-Pillbox Partisans: This is an operation most impactful in the first few days of the game when there is little in terms of anti-partisan defenses on both sides, and few items are teched that can counter the strategy. In addition, it’s newb friendly as long as you have a commander that knows what he/she is doing, it will be an exciting, high-value, and learning experience. Load up a truck with 700 bmats, at least 6 mammons, and a few helpers (3-6 players). Then, chart a safe path to a border area with a road being used by enemy logi to supply the frontline. Destroy watchtowers and build 2-4 pillboxes near the road in the rapid decay zone, as well as one watchtower of your own. Hop inside the pillboxes and this will create a partisan checkpoint that stops enemy logi trucks. You can add tier 1 walls, storage boxes, trenches, etc to bolster your defenses depending on your levels of success.
-Motorized Partisans: Use all manner of motorized vehicles from motorycles, LUVs, and even scout tanks to raid enemy backlines. Prior recon of vulnerable areas is highly recommended. Map out enemy logi routes, where anti partisan bases area, holes in the lines of defenses that you can sneak through, unprotected resource mines, etc. Then bring your squad in force and stay on the move as you dart from target to target, never remaining in one place for more than 2 minutes. In this way you can destroy fuel trucks/containers, logi trucks/flatbeds, harvesters, watchtowers, and most importantly, the enemy’s morale and willingness to do more logi. QRF will waste their time chasing you, taking troops away from other areas.
-PVE Partisans: Well organized partisan groups can delete entire concrete storm cannon bases from the map overnight. Know what you are capable of depending on the size and experience level of your crew, and plan accordingly. Satchel teams assisted by HMG gunners to suppress enemy garrisons can plant charges and destroy the strongest of enemy defenses before QRF arrives. In the early war, teams of cutler RPG or flamethrower partisans using small, fast personal transportation and ammo carrier make quick work against tier 2 bases. Bringing a CV to reset destroyed bases is highly encouraged to render their tech progress useless. The key is to target bases that lack active player defenders at the current moment.
Armor
Tank operations are highly attractive to new players, but can quickly go south from a myriad of reasons and lead to loss of valuable equipment, morale, and wasted time. Tanks in Foxhole do not function like their counterparts in the real world. They are squishy, expensive, require lot of fuel, and take a long time to stage. Hence, tanks tend to be very conservative in pushing and quick to retreat when facing any AT resistance. And so, pure tanks can achieve very little, and tank lines facing each other for hours without decisive action are a common sight on the battlefield. (The exception to this rule is the Battle Tank, which can take quite a bit of damage and punch a hole in any front just by itself, and so allows for more aggressive moves.) Veterans tend to shun tanks because they feel they can get more done for the war in other ways. However, the power in tanks lies in its ability to organize large numbers of players of all skill levels into a devastating force instantly if the commander knows how to make decisive plays in the chaos of the battlefield.
-Standard Armor Push: Lead a column of tanks and armor to an active frontline with friendly infantry advantage. A tank convoy should have around 3 tanks and a fuel truck, with optional antipersonnel vehicles such as half-tracks or scout tanks. The objective is to assist friendly infantry in pushing the front by targeting MG/Rifle pillboxes and garrisons. Don’t chase enemy armor too far into their defenses, and make sure flanks are covered by infantry or antipersonnel armor to guard against sticky rushers. Don’t expect to get decisive results or armor kills when the enemy has good AT defenses, but your presence will press the advantage on fronts where friendly infantry is having trouble getting through enemy antipersonnel defenses.
-Romp and Stomp: To overcome the vulnerability of tanks against enemy AT infantry, you can maximize its PVE potential by selecting quiet targets with no infantry on either side. The key is to be quick and discreet. Lead a column of 3+ tanks assisted by fuel truck, CV, and LUV to give radar intel, and blow up bunker bases or town halls that have no AT defenses or defending infantry. By the time QRF arrives, you will have finished the job, reset the base and moved onto the next vulnerable target. Continue this cycle, making trips back home to replenish ammo and armor as needed, and you will make incredible amounts of progress to the war effort with minimal losses. Adding a pair of 250mm siege tanks will get the job done even against considerable amounts of enemy AT defenses, since they can 1-shot AT pillboxes.
-Tank Ambush: Flanking and ambushing enemy armor is tank combat at its finest. Prepare a group of 3+ speedy tanks (Light, medium, assault tanks. No tank destroyers) and observe on the map where groups of enemy-colored triangles tend to appear often. position yourself safely out of enemy view range where you can strike them on the side or rear easily and wait for the enemy to engage friendly defenses or armor before giving the order to strike. Don’t get slogged down in combat for too long and move back to safety to repair once the damage is dealt, so as to avoid the wave enemy sticky rushers that arrive afterwards.
Artillery
Indirect fire operations are highly satisfying, contribute greatly to the war effort, and comes with lower risk of things going AWOL than a tank operation. It requires more specialized knowledge than armor and burns through a great deal of ordinance but offers a great experience for all those involved as long as there is one knowledgably arty commander who can give clear orders. Recommended using separate VC or squad chat text comms for giving coordinates to the gun crew to avoid shouting over each other. Expect to need minimum 2 crew per gun and at least 1 spotter for the whole battery.
-Brute Force Barrage: Deploy 3-6 artillery pieces with an abundance of ammo pallets (120mm, 150mm, or rockets) available in range of a standard busy frontline. The goal is to out-DPS the enemy base repairers and also give friendly infantry a chance to push under arty support. Pick frontlines that are tightly packed on both sides, with lot of base and infantry presence on both sides. This will maximize your damage output and protection of the arty crew itself.
-Shoot and Scoot: Alternatively, you can opt to “surprise” an enemy base that is not expecting combat and suddenly set up a battery with minimal defenses to deploy a number of artillery pieces within range and hope to blow it up before QRF arrives. This can fail if enemy arrives to repair or counter arty before the objective is achieved, so it’s only recommended when a very large and coordinated force is running the task. Gunboat groups and Skycaller rocket HTs are especially well suited for this task.
-Defensive Arty QRF: There is no better solution to a massive enemy invasion than raining down 120mm on them. Even a single defensive arty gun can make or break a fight. Ideally, every front should have at least one 120mm cannon for this purpose, and you only need to bring shells to arty QRF a pressed allied target. If there isn’t, then bring a small convoy of arty and shells and set up shop to save the front that shows a huge number of enemy-colored dots on the map.
Invasion
Frontline assault can be described as a large number of coordinated forces utilizing every means at its disposal to conquer an enemy held region. At least 15+ troops are expected, with enough population to get AI on a new forward base, sustained logistics supply chain, and dedicated engineering force. The difficulty of an invasion over other types of operation is magnitudes greater, because taking over, holding, and supplying new territory requires a great amount of organization, experience, and dedication. This type of operation is suitable for large clans or a coalition of small and medium sized clans. When multiple clans are involved, small clans can specialize in high impact functions such as partisan, engineering, artillery, while medium-to-large clans can organize themselves into modular groups with its own armor, logistics, and infantry detachments to allow for faster reaction times to unexpected situations.
-Combined arms assault employs a mix of armor, artillery, infantry, engineering, and/or partisan forces all working together to achieve the same objective. Standard setup would have a frontline bunker base set up near a fortified enemy position and filled with all supplies needed for the assault. Artillery will shell the enemy position, pummeling structures, infantry, push guns and armor. Friendly tanks will press forward and deal the killing blow to precise targets. Infantry and engineers will remove targets that pose difficulty for our tanks (for example, AT pillboxes and mines), while tanks help the infantry by targeting MG pillboxes and antipersonnel garrisons. Well-coordinated partisan groups can cut enemy supply routes further turn chaos to your favor. Once target base is demolished, it is rebuilt with CV and personnel will be redirected to building up the area with consistent delivery of bmats and basic supplies.
Naval Landing
D-Day style beach assaults are some of the most glorious experiences one can participate in Foxhole. The risks are very high, for logistics alone can be worth a small fortune. The preparation and planning stage can take days, even a week. Rallying a huge number of players to a single cause, and executing the landing flawlessly is an art that few have mastered. A small slip up or prolonged delay can evaporate all this effort in an instant and render it all in vain. But one thing is for certain, you will have no trouble finding people to join a white whale landing operation. Dreams of D-Day attracts great enthusiasm far and wide, and as long as you make sure to safeguard the important intel of your plans (namely, the target), you will have a blast in which way the operation goes. Even if you don’t achieve your main objective, you will have gained great experience, and will do better next time. There is no such thing as a failed White Whale op, because by nature, simply by existing, it raises morale across the faction, and spurs activity for all those involved, and strikes great terror to the enemy. Even though the scale of resources and manpower committed is great, the payoffs are even greater, so it is highly encouraged to try and continue doing white whale operations as long as you have the spirit for it.
-Pre-Whale Landings: Before WW is teched, you can still do a naval landing using only barges. Seek out a beach that is not defended, especially in the early war, and land a CV with logi trucks full of supplies to set up a BB in enemy territory. Cut off enemy logi from this location and continue receiving supplies from the water route. If you have stronger equipment teched, like HACs, Push guns, RPGs, etc then you can snipe enemy town halls from the water and rebuild it once it’s destroyed.
-WW Landing: Get at least 1 White Whale filled to the brim with every type of supplies, with high emphasis on advanced infantry equipment, ordinance, shirts, and bmats. A large group of tanks is helpful, but don’t fall into the trap of bringing more tanks than you have available infantry to hold the beach. It’s highly encouraged to bring at least 1 APC full of infantry to make first contact with hostile beach, since it gives all around anti infantry protection. Gunboats can assist the landing by bombarding any defensive structures that protect the shores. A normal sized WW operation involve 20+ people, and engineers will need to immediately establish defensive structures to protect the WW while armor and assault infantry push forward into the enemy defenses and towns inland. Pro tip: Use the empty barges and freighters to form a wall around the WW after the landing is complete.
-Decoy WW landings: An even more ambitious type of naval landing would be utilizing multiple White Whales to ensure success, either in the same target or multiple targets. The decoy WWs will have the bare necessities such as shirts, bmats, and basic infantry supplies, and will make it many times more difficult for the enemy to destroy the source of the invasion.
Nukes
The nuke is the ultimate blow in Foxhole. There is no event stronger than the nuke than a server crash itself. It costs a prodigious amount of HEmats to build the warhead itself, while the booster costs a decent amount of rmats. Once 10 people are in a squad, you can build the nuke at a launch site, and begin fueling with petrol, which takes 24 hours to complete. During this time, enemy partisans will do everything in their power to destroy the nuke, so perhaps the greatest cost would be the massive concrete base that will need to be built and maintained around the site. Once the nuke is fueled up, a spotter with radio backpack needs to spot for the target 100m away and survive for 10 minutes while the entirety of enemy faction will learn of his/her location and attempt to intercept the effort. Hence, a large force of bodyguards or an invasion sized force will need to accompany the spotter to make the operation a success. Once the nuke hits the target, all buildings within 100m radius will be permanently destroyed, and if it’s an enemy logi hub, they will be crippled for the remainder of the war.
-Frontline Nuke: The easiest nuke strike can be done when the frontline has pushed to the desired target itself. The main hurdle is the objection from friendly side who want to use the enemy logi hub to supply the next step of the incursion. Always be mindful of fellow clans and community’s opinions and it is advised to discuss beforehand among big clan circles to arrive at a consensus or a nuke attempt can turn into a civil war.
-Armored Column Assisted Nuke: Going deep into enemy territory to land a nuke can be dangerous, but a big column of tanks and mechanized infantry give the job a chance a success. This has been attempted before, but come at a large risk and requires great discipline in avoiding the enemy QRF prematurely.
-Whale Assisted Nuke: When a nuke spotter has the backing of an entire naval invasion force by a white whale landing deep in enemy lines, then this is the best of both worlds. The spotter is protected for as long as he/she needs, and it will be a target far enough away from frontline to not step on anyone’s toes. It requires the greatest amount of commitment of all operations in foxhole (large naval landing + nuke), but it will be an event remembered by Foxhole historians for ages to come.
Conclusion
Congratulations! You have reached the end of this guide and you can start making a name for yourself in the chronicle of legendary Foxhole feats. Don’t let the scale and enormity of some of these operations may daunt you. Everyone was a private once. Stick to the fundamentals, be humble, forever be learning. Make friends along the way and work together with people outside of just your comfort zone.
One day, you will surprise not only the Foxhole world but even yourself.
perfect , well done
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