Outnumbered: Playing to Win

[DX]

People always seem to complain about being outnumbered. In the minds of many, outnumbered means gloom and defeat. However, there are situations where being outnumbered can yield huge victory and massive lead margins. You could come out of a battle severely outnumbered, yet win with a lead, and without ever needing to control the Initiative! Here's how:

This is the most important part: You must be in the correct positions to accomplish victory. Meaning do not try to hold in the wrong types of places. Get out of the open and into any of the following:

A: Large, semi-dense woodsy area [best option]

B: Thick, dense grove of bushes, reeds, trees, etc.

C: Defensive Fortification [worst option]

Say you are a force of 2, with 6 enemies after your souls. Both teams are of great experience with similar weaponry, but the 6 enemies are getting arrogant due to their numbers advantage. I will explain what to do in each of the three option areas.

A: You have retreated to a semi-open forested area with large trees and small shrubs scattered about. Take up defensive positions and wait for the enemy. You don't need to hide or keep your location hidden. Those who give you that advice are outnumbered playing to lose. Here, we are outnumbered playing to win. Ths is not an ambush, this is a move in plain sight. The enemies will see you and rush up. Don't retreat. Let them come up, let them begin moving on a flank. Suddenly hit them, and hit them hard. Move around a lot, keep the enemies spread out. You are aiming to get at least 2 kills, and you are playing in a nothing-to-lose style. You are basically already dead. But if you get 2 kills, you are even, if you get 3, you are one up, etc. The enemy can only score 2 kills because there are only 2 of you! Say you do manage 3 in your bold, aggressive, all or nothing attack. You go off to respawn/come back in, then realize what you've just done. You are in the lead 3-2, severely outnumbered! Now, a few minutes go by, and you are back in. The enemy will come for you again. Repeat your past action. Attack, hit the enemy head on and go for those 2 or more kills. This is not a time for hiding, it is a time for aggressive attack. This is what really separates the boys from the men. Do you have the guts to attack in the face of a superior enemy? Do you have the guts to fight like you're already dead? If you do, you will start racking up kills, and each time, you cannot be more than 2 in the hole. So you see how you could build up a sizable lead? As long as you stay in the same kind of place, and refill during your grace period before coming back in, you should win a huge upset. Or you could move to either of the other 2 types of positions, as detailed below.

B: You have retreated to a thick, dense grove of something. Reeds are ideal. Make your presence known. Most enemies will be cautious, but you should be aggressive. Again, you are playing as if your 2 lives are already on the enemy's scoreboard. You MUST extract at least 2 kills in the reeds fighting before you both get hit. That way, you will be either even or ahead when out. Go refill, then use the rest of your grace period to find another dense grove or one of the other 2 good positions listed earlier.

C: You have retreated to a defensive fortification. Not a great choice, but say you were running under heavy fire and had no real choice. This doesn't have to be a fort, it can be any kind of defensive position. Preferably, something small on a high hill in a corner of the battlefield. You want your rear flank against something like a huge boulder, an out of bounds line, a big fence, anything. That way, the enemy is forced to approach on 2 or 3 flanks. It is easier to defend this way, and the same philosophy applies. You and your companion are already dead and the enemy is already up 0-2. Make that 2-2 or better before getting swamped. Even if you manage only one kill, that is still progress. While you are out for however many minutes are in your rules, refill and then try one of the other good outnumbered positions instead of defensive ones such as this.

So you see how you could rack up scores of 5-4, 6-2, even something huge, like 17-6? This has been proven to work. The Ridgewood Militia has real examples such as a 2v3 battle that we won 5-2 and a 1v4 battle that I tied 3.5-3.5.

You can win easily outnumbered, it can even be a big advantage for you, as long as you are playing to win, and mean business!

Join The Revolution and Soak On!

[Silence]

This is a very interesting concept, and I'll need to spend quite a while thinking about it. I like how you also embedded the "taking the initiative" concept, which works in all types of wars too.

This is yet another good article, and it seems like they'll just keep on coming !

[DX]

This was originally going to be part of the "Defensive Offense" and "Everything has a Counter" articles, but I decided to split it off into just an Outnumbered article. I'm going to condense the information in those other two future articles, since there's a lot I could write about and long articles scare users away.

[Silence]

Hmm...it's not too big a problem to have many smaller articles, and though they don't scare me away, they can be easier to read. That's the opposite of books--when you call out, "I just want to finish this chapter!" you can use as large a chapter as possible .

I feel the need to point out the fact that this only works (1) when there are no mission objectives and (2) when it's 1HK respawns. For the former, if there actually are objectives--that is, anything from CTF to the less conventional scenarios--you should want to have somebody still alive to guard the flag and whatnot. If it's just team 1HK, the other team is just standing around and doing nothing.

In the second case, if it's 1HK elimination (I believe elimination is the term for when you can't respawn), this doesn't work, as the other team will have people who are still alive and your team won't! That should be somewhat obvious, but it's just another thing to point out...after all, the point is that if you use good tactics and if you know what you're doing, then you can easily win, even when outnumbered.

[DX]

Most articles I write assume "Standard 1HK" as played locally. Our standard 1HK is Lives. In fact, if I don't specify a gametype, it is implied that it is 1HK Lives unless the article is universal [such as Taking the Initiative].

Thanks for reminding me about all the articles I have to write about other gametypes!

[WaTer FigHt NoOb]

Yes, but think about the other teams tactics. Im sure that you could come up with something for the larger team that would beat them pretty easily. like for the 6 v 2 the larger team splits in half and each half takes one person etc.

[DX]

You have to assume that the other team will do that, and you have to come up with a counter for that move. Even with 6v2, you want to come at them head-on, as long as it is in the place of your choosing. Two people can make a stunning display of offense, as long as you know what you're doing and have the right guns for the job. Being up by 4 also magnifies the impact of mistakes by the larger team.

The theory for scenarios like this is difficult to explain, it is easiest to explain right on the field in real time.