The A-Team: A 6th SWARM Assault Infantry Doctrine

The Infantry fireteam consists of the basic building block of assault infantry strategies.

The following is called the A-Team, because it has a good balance of all the elements needed for a group to face all threats in a jack-of-all-trades manner, suited for almost all purposes and situations. It is also scalable to larger scope missions due to its modularity.

Size

The A-Team consists of 6 men, the ideal size for semi-autonomous functional unit, fitting inside most common carrier vehicles such as dunnes, cnutes, barge, APC, and half-tracks. An extra 1 or 2 men can be added but it’s recommended that a fireteam stay between 4-8 players for maximum efficiency. Every member must have 1 bandage for patching up bleeding.

Composition

Commander: 

Needs to be able to fight as well as call out shots, and lead the way. 

Standard infantry kit with a primary firearm that’s not too heavy but fully functional in the field (sampo, blakerow, fiddler, etc). Binos, radio, wrench, 1 sticky.

Combat Medic:

Needs to be able to fight as well as revive teammates. Medic uniform with First aid & Trauma Kits with 5x stacks of bandages & Plasma, Primary weapon such as rifle or smg, and 2 spare magazines. Optional sidearm (loaded pistol with no spare mag is fine)

Machine Gunner 

HMG has practically unlimited ammo and can beat any infantry from decent range as long as you’re pointing in the right direction and covers are flanked, so it works well with an organized team. Standard infantry battledress with HMG, Pistol, bandage, and 6 spare 12.7 mags.

RPG Specialist

It can be said that the rest of the team exists to keep your specialists alive. They can be different things depending on the nature of the target. Carnyx is better suited for AT, while cutler can carry more shells and can knock out watchtowers and pillboxes with ease. 

Rifleman

Basically the bodyguard for the rest of the team. Needs to be able to run around quickly and engage in PvP. Uses a primary weapon of choice (7.62 or 9mm), 3-5 spare magazines. 3 sticky grenades. If the RPG specialist tracks an enemy tank the rifleman can suicide sticky rush and finish it off.

That’s 5 people in the team. The 6th person can be any 1 of the above. Extra medic (survival), machine gunner (180 degree fire coverage), RPG specialist (heavy AT or PVE), or rifleman (versatility) depending on needs of the mission.  

Movement

The most challenging part of organized infantry operations is managing chaos. Chaos is both a strength and weakness of infantry. On one hand, the enemy will always have a hard time facing multiple, fast moving targets, especially if they’re all being smart and running from cover to cover. On the other, the commander of an infantry outfit will need great patience and foresight to make sure the team is not scattered and disorganized, and focused on the mission, especially when the members die and respawn at different times or get lost or lose focus. When on foot, make sure the commander keeps eyes on each team members so they’re not left behind. 

Vehicle

Having some form of vehicle to travel together when possible is extremely important, providing a semblance of unity and control. Of course, if the front is right next to your spawn, don’t worry about it. 

On fronts with a lot of abandoned trucks, a simple dunne is excellent for areas with road access. The large inventory space lets you bring tripod weapons, extra rpg shells, mammons, stickies, satchels, etc that are cheap yet useful. The landrunner tracked dunne even better, and is a de facto an all-terrain APC without armor. 

Cnute has anti-rifle protection and is very good if you can keep it away from AT fire. You can also bring a cheap push gun (68mm, 250mm) for extra punch.
The half track is the king of mechanized infantry strategy, even in late-game, and deserve its own in-depth guide. It works especially well with an organized crew that uses PVE/AT weapons under cover of an MG cover fire. 

The battle bus is probably the most fun infantry carrier around, fitting up to 12 people, which is large enough for 2 fireteams. The bus is irresistible in nature, and a random friendly infantry magnet if you need to fill your ranks.

The bottom line is, try to find something on wheels to transport your troops when possible. 

Positioning

As an infantry unit, your greatest advantage is cover. Unlike with armor, every nook and cranny can be your friend. Destroyed houses, trenches, husks, craters, rocks, trees, high ground, etc need to always be eyed as potential cover. Cover gives you aiming and defensive bonus. Also, tanks literally can do nothing against you if you’re crouched inside a trench. Think smart. When facing infantry, stay together. When facing armor, spread out. When facing entrenched enemies, encircle them. In any given situation, unless you’re on the move, you should always try to find something to hide behind. If you’re on the field, even a lone jeep can run you all over.

Combat

The A-Team is designed for versatility. Don’t be too focused on formations, protocols, or specifics. Just understand that your unit is equipped to handle multiple types of threats and the rationale for countering them. Also don’t forget that every member of the team should be prepared to fight infantry. Just because you’re medic or commander doesn’t mean you stay behind and wait for your job when your teammates are getting shot at. Everyone is a fighter.

Against Infantry

Probably the most common threat. The 3 troops with a real gun (commander, medic, rifleman) will need to be blasting away to buy time for your HMG gunner to get in position to point his gun towards the enemy. Once your HMG is firing, all enemy infantry in that direction is basically toast unless they’re behind cover. Usually they’ll be forced to hide in cover if not mowed down by the 12.7mm already. In this case, rest of your troops (usually the rifleman, commander, medic, and maybe the specialist with pistol) can flank together and take them out. Even if one of your members gets downed, you have the medic to revive him. Stay as a group and you will win every engagement by using numbers to your advantage. 3-4 guys will always beat 1-2 on even terrain.

If you found nice cover, such as a destroyed ghouse, concrete husks, trenches, etc, then you’re golden. The HMG can cover one direction that enemy is most likely to come from and rest of your troops can cover his flanks.

Against Armor

The curse of being a lone infantryman is, if you have a rifle you get killed by armor. If you grabbed stickies or RPG you get killed by infantry. With the A-Team you don’t need to worry. When a tank is in range, the RPG gunner tracks it and the rifleman and commander can run from another direction with stickies. That should be enough to down 1 whole tank. If there are more than 1 tank, then 1 RPG shot is enough to pretty much scare all other tanks into backing up for miles, giving you enough time to reposition to a more favorable location.

Against Structures

The Cutler can blow WTs and Rifle Pillboxes in 1 shot. Which makes it very good for T1 structures. MG pillbox takes 2 shots, and AT pillbox takes 3. To go heavy on PVE you would need a 2nd cutler gunner, so you can carry 10 RPG shells total, or keep some in the inventory of a truck. If you load truck with satchels or havocs you have the potential to kill a huge amount of PVE damage. Do this if you spot bases or relics without AI.

Against Logi

The A-Team is excellent for logi cutting partisan ops. Find a trench, crater, or bushes by enemy logi road by border and camp. Always go for trucks heading to the frontline, rather than away. That way you kill logi trucks with supplies only. The commander scopes out incoming vehicles and the HMG destroys it with its huge ammo pool. RPG gunner knocks out all WTs in the area. Rifleman disables trucks and marks them for HMG to destroy, while medic keeps the team alive. When enemy QRF arrives, the HMG does a fine job countering infantry, as long as the team is backing him up. If there’s tanks, refer to Against Armor section.

Scaling Up

If you have more than 6 people in team you can add extra riflemen, medics, RPG gunners, or HMG gunners. The same philosophy applies. After more than 8 people things can get chaotic and it is recommended to enlist a sub-commander to lead a second group. This can be another A-Team, or a small armor crew, a team of engineers, demolition crew, etc. 

Final Remarks

A good infantry commander must harness the power of larp  morale and spirit. Treat every member of your team like friends and family and they will stay with you until the end. Make sure everyone is having a good time and keep in touch with their status. Recruit new members from the field and show them the way. Enjoy and make Callahan proud!

An unfortunate Kranesca that got more than it bargained for.