In the continuing series of analyzing real-world military strategies to improve our AoS aptitude, we will be taking a look at a specific concept: defeat in detail. Many brilliant commanders used this technique throughout history to destroy numerically superior enemies with their quick wits. The concept is straightforward, calling back to simplicity, a principle of operations we discussed in the previous article. Simply put, defeat in detail is focusing your resources into smaller pieces of your opponent’s army instead of spreading out. But the enemy always gets a vote. They won’t allow you to just focus your combat power into their valuable resources. So again, you need to think about how you can set conditions to give yourself a position of advantage. So let’s use some more doctrine to explain how to analyze the battlefield.
There are two subcomponents to operations. The decisive operation and shaping operations. There is only one decisive operation and this is a helpful framework for you to consider as well. What piece does your opponent need (known as a center of gravity in Armyspeak) to be successful? Destroying, defeating, or neutralizing (and yes, these all mean different things) that piece is often going to be your decisive operation. Your shaping operations can be numerous and are the means by which you will shape the battlefield to complete the decisive operation.
Shaping operations can include a range of things in combat: gathering intelligence, creating obstacles, indirect fires (artillery). For our purposes, let’s focus on two concepts: delaying and disrupting. Delaying is imparting onto your opponent a problem to deal with before they can put their resources into what they really want to, usually by creating a physical barrier with a unit. Disrupting would be more like tying up a unit that wants to be able to do the most damage with a certain ability, or maybe their utility comes from shooting or the charge phase. Sometimes this is a matter of understanding that your opponent’s units need to charge the nearest unit, or have other limitations they have to observe.
The totality of these shaping operations should funnel into setting conditions for your decisive operation. Sometimes discerning what your decisive operation ought to be is pretty simple, such as removing your opponent’s most damaging model from the game. Other times it is destroying a piece that creates an economy of force for them, like a hero that buffs battleline units. This is called target priority and helps you weigh the centers of gravity across the table.
Back to defeat in detail. A common approach to the game is to distribute your forces uniformly across the board to provide maximum coverage and the ability to reach objectives and meet the enemy in combat. I propose, instead, to reevaluate how you think about this. Let’s check our assumptions and see the value of arraying our forces in a more unconventional method.
First: is your army more elite or horde-oriented? If it is the former, it struggles to maintain a broader frontage because there are fewer, though more quality, resources at your disposal. Horde-oriented armies can maintain a larger frontage because they are a tool suited for a different purpose: overwhelming the enemy and excelling at scoring primary points.
Second: are you screening in such a way that you are losing out on opportunities to score points and, therefore, winning the game? Armies that can deepstrike or perform movement shenanigans inflict a psychological effect on opposing generals. It is an easy trap to fall into. Before you cover up every single inch of every flank, consider what position your opponent would be in if they tried to exploit that gap. Would they be able to inflict so much damage that you’d become combat ineffective? Would they get into your screens and that is all? Would they pose the risk of losing a valuable resource if they take that chance? If you can screen in such a way that they may get into your chaff but nothing else, and you are posed to strike back and destroy their attacking unit, that is very often a worthwhile trade to take. So just in your deployment, you have performed a shaping operation and created a dilemma for your opponent, “do I take a swing and put my resources at risk, or bide my time?” This puts the initiative back into your hands to continue to analyze the battlefield and continue to execute or adjust your plan.
Third: Can I score the same amount of points deploying in an asymmetric fashion as I can if I deployed uniformly? This is a matter of understanding the scoring mechanics of the battleplan (one, two, more, etc) and the number of objectives there are for you and your opponent to fight over. If you know that you can likely score more battle tactics or achieve your grand strategy and deny your opponent’s, you may not have to get max points every turn.
When you are able to deploy asymmetrically, you are performing a technique called the “deny flank,” you are trading that space for time or another valuable resource, such as points or a position of relative advantage. Again, this guide is not a linear, processual approach to winning. Such a thing does not exist. We are trying to retrain ourselves to think with a broader perspective and understand how to analyze developing situations.
This technique isn’t limited to deployment, either. These are situations you can make into shaping operations with your movement. You can isolate, delay, or disrupt your opponent’s pieces to maneuver yours where they need to go. And finally, we get to the meat of today’s lesson. Create situations where you are performing feinting maneuvers or otherwise to overwhelm your enemy in piecemeal (make it look like your intent is to go straight at something, but charge in an unexpected direction, use your rapid movement to quickly flip the board, deploy in a deny flank fashion).
Then it is simply a matter of you having more war dollies than they do in a local firefight as opposed to a 1:1 ratio. People that win in combat don’t take fair fights. The US Army doctrinally will not willfully engage with a foe unless they have a combat ratio of 3:1. It is your job to create those situations so you can overwhelm your opponent in combats that you know you can win. Thank you for following along with me. If you've enjoyed this article then we'd appreciate any feedback or shares you'd be inclined to make. Stay sparkly.
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