HvZ - Human Field Manual - Section II - UNIT SIZE & ORGANIZATION

Overview

This section discusses group/unit size for command and control and the fundamental challenges and goals behind creating a cohesive and effective human fighting force. Rather than jump right into soldier and squad roles or small unit formations and tactics, we are covering WHY this manual focuses on small unit tactics. This section is meant more for Human Leadership; Squad and Fire Team Leaders more than the average Human soldier. (If you are an individual soldier and just want to familiarize yourself with Human squad/Fireteam formations and tactics, skip ahead to section IV and V.)

2.1 Unit Cohesion of Human Soldier

We know from history that even highly trained military forces have trouble with cohesion. The majority of HvZ players are vanilla civilians in a Zombie Apocalypse; realistically, high level military cohesion will never be fully achieved. Due to the fact that Humans in HvZ are not professional soldiers, inevitably some individuals are going to get skittish and the line is going to break, and/or people won’t agree what to do and the zombies take advantage of the conflict, or lacking leadership, humans just turtle up/Deathball and eventually get routed. It is human nature to be an individual; don’t expect every Human player to dedicate months of training (or any training) before each game. 

It takes a lot of time and discipline to train a group of people to work together in a cohesive, organic unit. Most real-world military training isn’t about teaching each soldier individual skills and instead focuses on teaching individuals how to work together as a team. As with the real world, when you attempt to coordinate multiple teams from varying services and execute missions in unison, there is even greater potential for mishaps. Simply put, the larger the force, the more difficult it is to command and control.

2.2 Large Human Group/Human Swarm, AKA Deathball

History has proven that unorganized “death balls” of humans fall time and time again to an aggressive horde; large groups create a lot of chaos. When a massive group of zeds attack, it creates a lot of meat-shielding, a game mechanic that would not exist in an ideal game, but can’t be avoided in large horde rushes. This in turn inevitably leads to a lot of disputes and has potential to make the game significantly less enjoyable for both sides.  Comparatively, although smaller groups generally tend avoid pitched battle combat and this lack of intense action may frustrate some zombie players, it encourages movement and skirmishes by giving individuals more tactical freedom, as well as the ability to utilize more sophisticated tactics because they are much easier to implement on a smaller scale. All weapons can come into play in a small unit, where in large groups the majorities are blocked by line of sight. Where a slow moving or stationary Deathball can be charged and broken the small unit can skirmish and maneuver.  

Larger human groups give players a false sense of security.  Players in large groups aren’t as aware compared to small groups for the simple reason that they think other players are guarding every corner of their little hive.  When a large group of players have this mentality, it makes the entire group weaker as a whole.  This mentality is usually absent in smaller units because deaths are more commonly caused by an individual’s mistakes, and you don’t feel as protected with a smaller number of humans (and less firepower). 

2.3 Pros and Cons of Large Human Group

Pros:
• To a limited extent there is safety in numbers – initially there is a lower chance of any one individual being tagged in a large group.
• You have a lot of eyes and ears in a large group. (although many have FOV reduced due to line of sight)
• A large group can absorb more damage than a small group.
• A large human mob can be intimidating to inexperienced zombies.
• Together, counting all weapons, you have a lot of firepower.
• It’s easier to command and control beginners in a large mass – they can sometimes panic/break in small Fireteams under extreme situations. This means if your group is comprised almost exclusively of beginners, just play the game a couple times this year and come back to this tactics stuff next season.

Cons:
• Huge human groups rarely have one dedicated leader or authority to help command and control – in effect they are large democratic mobs. This means you’ll be stuck debating courses of action with each other as the zombies take initiative.
• Orders and commands / agreed upon courses of action – take longer to reach all ranks. This means all human reactions are slowed due to the communication delay.
• Overall tactical situations are harder to assess in a large group; Leaders have an easier time assessing the rapid command and control of small units. (Basically it’s a lot harder to see what the hell is going on with everyone at all times and make a call on what to do.) This means that even if leadership is present, command and control is much less effective.
• Firepower is greatly reduced due to line of fire in a large human mass – players have to shoot over, through and between each other. (For example in an unorganized Deathball of 40 players, only 10-15 weapons will be trained effectively at any one side at one time)
• More people waste ammo shooting at the same target – communication and calling out individual kills to conserve ammo is greatly hampered by noise and mass compared to a small group.

 

2.4 Initiative and Dynamic Action Based on Unit Size

Human aggressiveness, initiative and the overall amount of action seems to increase when using small-unit organization. Instead of big groups apprehensively creeping around to fight the horde in one big rush, then a lot of waiting for fifteen minutes, small groups can instead perform hit and run attacks to accomplish objectives, distract, divert, confuse and eventually overcome the zombies. In games where you have capture the flag or have multiple control nodes, you have much more tactical flexibility with a larger number of small units. The horde has to decide to either go after each Human group individually, or split forces. 

When faced with a horde, small units can still work together as large group to defend; they are just broken down into smaller, more effective units for command and control. They also work much better in depth than an unorganized mass; where an angry swarming Deathball is jammed shoulder to shoulder in a corridor; squads can spread out in depth easily and dynamically, and actually absorb a meat shield ridden horde rush. “J Squad move 20 feet back!” “Super Awesome Happy Funtime Squad, move 35 feet back!” etc – and voila, you have defense in depth. Where the Deathball falls apart and breaks in panic the squads melt away and skirmish. Worst case you lose less people over all. 

The core of all modern military doctrine for infantry is Fire and Movement. For HvZ, to me this means the core of the game is maneuver. You can place survival as a greater priority than maneuver, but then you risk “turtling” somewhere, trapped in a safe zone, and eventually Bad Things are guaranteed to happen. “Fortune Favors the Bold” In order to secure maneuver flexibility, to keep going and keep fighting, a serious measure of human aggression is needed. It’s hard to be dynamic and aggressive in a huge mass. 

Many human victories have occurred when relatively small groups of humans charged the zombies first. For example you can send Squad groups to distract, isolate and pincer some zeds and pick off portions of the main horde, while supported by several “Security Squads” that act both as rear security and a reaction/relief force. This accomplishes two primary objectives; firstly, it reduces the “effective” size of the horde that can charge at once. Secondly, it should (in theory) get zed stun timers de-synchronized, which prevents the entire group as a whole from creating an organized rush.

 

2.5 Smaller Groups Can Be Trained

One of the most important reasons/arguments for small units is that it is a lot easier to train a group of 4-5 people to work together and become a cohesive Fireteam than to train a large group of people, simply due to coordination of schedules. Don’t try to create the entire army, instead create some solid Squads and Fireteams as the human backbone.

 

2.6 Recommendation for Squad and Fire Team Organization

With the above points in mind the recommendation is that all human forces should be organized into small Fireteam and Squad sized groups with guided instructions at the Human mission brief. For context, Squads traditionally consist of 8-16 soldiers, broken into Fireteams/Striketeams and have one designated Squad Leader (SL). Fireteams are traditionally comprised of 4-5 members, with a designated Fireteam Leader (FTL). This is HvZ so there are no strict rules to this concept; choose a size that works best for your group or what you are most comfortable with. (Branches Vary: Currently, US Army rifle squads consist of nine soldiers, organized into two four-man Fireteams and a Squad Leader. In the United States Marine Corps, a rifle squad is typically composed of thirteen Marines, organized into three four-man Fireteams and a Squad Leader.)

 

2.6.1 Fire Team Composition

Choose a few key people for each group, optimally based on players in the same dorm or general area, or groups with similar schedules. This is especially important for security reasons; staying safe and escorting each other outside of missions. Attempt to spread the veteran players among all units. Optimally each group should have at least one experienced player. These are the heavily tooled masters of their weapons be it blasters, melee or socks - and they’re usually carrying a lot more ammo than the less experienced people around them. They’ve also “been there, done that” and help educate, guide and lead inexperienced beginners. The goal is to avoid groups comprised of “all vets” or “all beginners”. Simply put, spreading vets among groups will greatly increase combat effectiveness and human survival - vets are “Force Multipliers”.

 

2.6.2 Include a Variety of Classes or Roles for Each Fire Team

Try to choose a variety of player “types”, “classes” or “roles” for each Fireteam or group. Traditionally a Fireteam consists of a Fire Team Leader (FTL), Rifleman, Squad Automatic Gunner, Grenadier and/or Asst Automatic Gunner. For HvZ players this means try to spread the scouts, heavies and riflemen out among the squads, as opposed to having “Heavy-Only” Tank Groups and Riflemen Only Teams. In some instances it may be beneficial to have specialized units such as a dedicated Recon Team – essentially a Fireteam made up exclusively of Scouts or Sock Ninjas, or a “Heavy-Only” Tank Group for a defensive position or Security Detail. In general balanced teams with a variety of strengths seem to do better that those comprised of one specific player type. Human players, Squad or the FTL will need to make the call on the scene as situations and missions demand. (for more information on Soldier Classes and Squad Roles, see section III)

 

2.6.3 Summary of Recommendations for Unit Size

• Organize into small groups consisting of 3 to 6 person Fireteams; several Fireteams together form a Squad. Remember to name your Fireteam. (Create some badass unit names and have fun with this part!)
• Pick/elect a designated Fire Team Leader for each Fireteam. Designate a backup leader at the same time.
• Pick/elect a designated Squad Leader for the Squad. Designate a backup leader at the same time. For HvZ this means between 2 to 4 Fireteams led by one Squad Leader. Remember to name your Squad. If you don’t want to assign an additional person specifically for SL, make one of the FTLs be Squad Leader at the same time.
• If you want to create platoons and higher ranking command structures, knock yourself out.
• If you have no individual higher ranking leader, Squad Leaders are designated as a “Strategic Counsel” during Human mission briefs and will vote/decide on a course of action, then communicate the plans to Fireteam leaders. (You can call this the “Jedi Counsel” if you want) Squad Leaders are responsible to communicate orders to FTL – FTL is responsible to communicate orders to their Fireteam members.
• If at all possible, try to make time to train with your Fireteam – maybe even an entire squad. Practice formations, fire and movement, escorting, securing objectives/nodes, etc. (sections IV, V)
• Designate primary and secondary points of contact for each Fireteam and Squad.
• Remember to compile and share a list unit names and contacts with FTLs and Squad Leaders. 

You will never convince the entire human group to form Fire Teams – during missions leave the unorganized mass as a central force while using the more versatile Squads to satellite out as a screen and perform dynamic actions.  

Note on Fire Team Size: Keeping unit size uniform helps Leaders know exactly how many human soldiers are in each Fire Team/Squad. This way they won’t call in a Fire Team of 3 people thinking they would have 5 – or a Squad (two or more Fire Teams) totaling 6 people when they expected 10. If you do prefer to vary group sizes, agree on some definitions ahead of time. (For example call yourself “Recon” if a small team of 2-3, and “Cavalry” if you are an oversized Fire Team of 6-7, etc.)