Deception

[wulfir]

I think Sun Tzu is to have said "War is based on deception".

The Russians are crazy about it.

How do we employ deception?



Would it be "unethical" to spread disinformation about intentions, capabileties, fears etc?

[Artur]

Good idea! Comrades, any ideas?

Artur.

[Vesku]

I recommend to create false HQ and let the enemy to capture it with its "valuable" info. Also the artypositions I've suggested fall into this category. And the same goes with the idea of sending something along every road and let the enemy find out which is for real. So I'd say that we should use deception to our advantage ... and plenty of it.

Vesku

[Pannonicus]

Yes, use it as much as you can.

-fake HQ capture is a good idea - DD can you assist in that? (we will give you the false forum messages they will find)
-We could simulate fake radio transmissions - most armies do it. For this we also need DD to give them their "intercepts"
-Recon screen - I advise to cross-attach units, especially types that are unique. For example, Hungarian FUG (D-422) recon vehicles
-False artillery smoke, generated by infantry units
-SAM traps for helicopters (we let them IN the pocket, but not OUT)

DD - can we intentionally burn villages and forests? If I was a commander then, with the enemy coming with TI, I would surely order my men to light fires everywhere! (So we would get the map already burning for deploy, in the area we already control.)

-rename units, especially artillery, so they do not know what is shooting at them. (Once I renamed my 203mm guns to 400mm atomic artillery - my opponent first thought the end came :devious: You can also give false names to squads and vehicles, so that they dont know which is the command unit

-rename RPG team to Fagot team, and vica versa. First you scared the ... out of them, second they have a nasty surprise when they think they are safely close :D

-DD. what about flooding an area? Can we blow up dykes and such? It worked well in Seelow in 1945, channelling Russians on roads.

[Double Deuce]

-fake HQ capture is a good idea - DD can you assist in that? (we will give you the false forum messages they will find)
-We could simulate fake radio transmissions - most armies do it. For this we also need DD to give them their "intercepts"
-Recon screen - I advise to cross-attach units, especially types that are unique. For example, Hungarian FUG (D-422) recon vehicles
-False artillery smoke, generated by infantry units
-SAM traps for helicopters (we let them IN the pocket, but not OUT)This is stuff you could do BUT it would need to be closley refereed

DD - can we intentionally burn villages and forests?No.

-rename units, especially artillery, so they do not know what is shooting at them. (Once I renamed my 203mm guns to 400mm atomic artillery - my opponent first thought the end came :devious: You can also give false names to squads and vehicles, so that they dont know which is the command unit

-rename RPG team to Fagot team, and vica versa. First you scared the ... out of them, second they have a nasty surprise when they think they are safely close No renaming of units.

-DD. what about flooding an area? Can we blow up dykes and such? It worked well in Seelow in 1945, channelling Russians on roads.None in this area that would replicate that.

[mr_clark]

Right deception is very important.

If the campaign allows for intel gained by 'radio intercepts' or Aireal Recon, it might be a possibility to actually create a false info for the enemy, that is given in the initial recon information given by DD.
Question is how we should implement it, can/must we detach platoons in the planning phase and order them to start to play radio games? Can we order engeneers, or even other units, to 'construct' fake positions. My Dad says that even they in the tank platoon, regularily trained for preparing badly camouflaged stationary positions, while they kept there T-55s in mobile position, covered around the supposedly defence point.

[Artur]

Deception makes the enemy believe someting that is not(/will not) happening.
I see the best idea of deception to make NATO believe that we are goung to flank them through the woods.

How can we do that?
-We make the recon forward layer transported my the Mi24s more dense in the hills.
-Mass the helos & air for 1-2 turns there so they can see that we are probing there.

Since that route is quite obvious they may believe it.

The other opportunity for deception may be that we have to make NATO believe that we are coming out aggressivly so thet want to sit and wauit to ambush us. While they are doing that we dig in in our defensive line. Our initial recon operations can help doing that + good propaganda from which they would conclude someting like that.

Artur.

[Vikhr]

"Propaganda" role made me think about spreading false information on forums as "war coverage". It's unlikely that they'll swallow the bait once they realize the trick, but it could bring us a couple early victories, especially if they are overconfident about their weaponry :devious:

[Vikhr]

So, the battle is at it's beginning, and we'll have a lot of room for very potential lies!

However, before starting to babble on the forums or anywhere, I'd like to hear your opinions on how to handle propaganda. Since we cannot rename our troops, or do anything else that affects the battlefield itself, I see some sort of forum 'news' posting as a way of spreading misinformation about the campaign. If you have ideas how to spread more disinformation and confusion, post here.

But, concerning forum posting, should we go for a comical, overblown old Soviet-style with lots of rhetoric, or cynical war coverage in which our troops will be considerably (falsely) underestimated, or more serious, BBC-style but still misleading, reporting about the events on the front. Also, on what forums should propaganda be posted? SZO forums, Shrapnelgames MBT forums, Wargamer forums, etc.?

But as I said, if you have any ideas, post them! Apart from misleading and disinformation, this might make the campaign more interesting to bystanders, and give the campaign new, unseen dimensions.

[Vesku]

Would you like to take my place as a propaganda officer? I have my hands full at the moment with everything else.

Idea of starting a bogus discussion on some other forum is great, I know that there is quite a number of Blitz players here and if Jad, Stonefire etc would start a thread there the news certainly would reach the enemy at some point (probably sooner than later, I'm playing against one active Blitzer). Did you mean a news bulletin like "The mighty Russian army has crushed the weak NATO forces at the area"? I could be able to feed "information" because enemy does not know what I have on the field at the moment.