Originally posted on American Partisan on March 9, 2021
I am starting this new series, TDG (Tactical Decision Game) Tuesdays, to get you more in the mindset of how you could potentially handle a given tactical scenario with a limited amount of resources and manpower. My goal is to get you to read these scenarios and think about what resources you have available, what sort of scenarios you might encounter, and what gaps you need to fill in your equipment/training.
I will use the basic 5-paragraph operations order format, or SMEAC, to present the scenario as follows;
- Situation: Disposition of all friendly, hostile, and adjacent forces.
- Mission: What we are trying to do.
- Execution: How we are going to do it.
- Admin & Logistics: Who/what is getting where and how.
- Command & Signal: Who is in charge and how they are communicating.
TDG 1: Antifa Roadblock
Situation: Partial collapse scenario, National Guard are caught up trying to maintain order in the large population centers due to BLM/ANTIFA riots and civil unrest.
- OPFOR Situation: Communist insurgents from the group “Redneck Revolt” are taking advantage of the chaos and have started setting up armed road blocks to check for “fascists” in some rural areas, the nearest one at crossroads “Alpha”. They are harassing, beating, and sometimes robbing anyone with any sort of pro-Trump or pro-America stickers on their cars. Our scout team has observed them wielding a mixture of AK/AR type rifles, shotguns, and handguns depending on who is currently on the rotating shifts. Their strength is normally about a fire team (4-5 shooters) and they rotate watch every 8 hours.
- BLUFOR Situation: You and your 3 buddies are thus far ordinary citizens who occasionally meet and train together but have not yet conducted operations. However, armed communists setting up roadblocks on American soil is a crossed line for you and you will not allow it to go unanswered.
- Independent Elements Situation: LE is reluctant to do anything about the roadblocks due to political pressure and the press is praising the insurgents as “freedom fighters.” However, most of the population resents the roadblocks but are unwilling to act for fear of retributions from LE. Average response time for 911 call is roughly 10 minutes.
Mission: Clear the roadblock at crossroads “Alpha” in order to demoralize the enemy and discourage them from manning roadblocks in the future.
Execution: (Up to you!)
Admin & Logistics: Also up to you. You have the following resources:
- 4 shooters (including yourself)
- 3 AR-15s, 1 Mosin Nagant, and 1,000 rounds of ammo for each
- 2 pickup trucks, 1 mini-van, and 1 jeep
- 2 Baofeng UV-5R radios
- 1 PVS-14 NVG
Command and Signal: You are the team leader. Your comm plan is up to you. Remember to use a PACE plan.
Feel free to post your answers in the comments and discuss. Keep in mind, the more complicated a plan is, the more potential points of failure.
Edit: The recap is up! Thank you to all who participated!
Von Steuben Training & Consulting 
Reblogged this on Tactical Wisdom and commented:
Outstanding Tactical Problem to resolve here.
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There is a clear answer. You have 4 people and two radios. That means L shaped ambush, two man each side. set up security, wait for a shift change and no civilian obstruction. use radio to confirm who is shooting what target, weapons free after I engage with the first shot.
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Sound decision. Technically this is an “attack by fire” instead of an ambush. In an ambush you are lying in wait for the enemy to come to you.
You’ve got the right idea, now consider where you will place your people and what route you will take to get there. Then decide what you will do with the enemy after the attack.
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Also, as I point out in TW-04, with only 4 guys, L shaped is not needed. Run it linear, perpendicular to the long axis of the roadblock (enfilade fire).
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I would attach from the east with 2 2man fire teams on either side of the dirt road when there was no one traffic at the check point. Vehicles would be a mile away with each team infil/exful independent of each other. Minimum use of radio so have have a hard, be on site ready to fire rime and then use radio to signal when to shoot. Comms plan is simple, key word for shoot after I start and an abort. Come up with secondary escape routes. Whole tempting to do it during a shift change to maximize casualties, team is untested so do it at least 1 hour before or after a shift change.
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Good use of your radios. I didn’t brief that the enemy had SIGINT capabilities, but it’s always best to assume that they do.
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One man with MN and radio distracts with long range fire. Main mission is to engage enemies’ attention. Enemy casualties are secondary consideration. Remaining team members come from offset direction (to minimize friendly fire risk) and cut enemy to pieces.
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Topography looks flat, so unfortunately no way to exploit high ground, but there does look to be woods as we approach east to west.
8 hour shifts, call it 8-16 16-00 and 00-8
Primary insertion using St Rd 1145, Alternative being Bennett Siler. We want to use night as our ally, as no reports of Opfor having NODs. Pre-dawn also serves best, as it would be the time of least activity, best chance Opfor is tired and bored. Also probably not their best squad, as the thought process is to use your more competent people when they will see the most action.
Using either approach, stop half mile from Alpha, establishing staging area and rally point for infil and exfil. Meet up time would be 2 hours prior to mission start. (3:00am) Roads look arrow straight, so light discipline for vehicle(s) beginning at 3/4 mile from Staging Area.
The extra time will allow everyone to get kitted up and allow eyes to adjust to low light. Team lead will take the NODs, step off 3 hour before shift change (5am). Allowing plenty of time to quietly approach from the NE using woods as cover. Use radios to monitor chatter, (learned from Brushbeater’s manual!) Team members will communicate via simple hand signals.
Once visual sighting has been confirmed of Opfor, team will move to an L shaped assault formation, with the Mosin at the pivot. Using an agreed upon “click” signal, the Mosin will fire on the furthest target. With the other members firing after. Once all targets are eliminated, primary exfil will be back to the rally point via the treeline as a squad. If resistance is alerted, team will utilize alternative exfil, retracing steps through deeper cover.
Contingency of more organized Opfor or reinforcement is to fall back to rally point where extra ammo and magazines would be staged with the vehicles and radio for help. Crisis would be a hasty withdraw under fire. Not ideal.
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Staging area is #2’s garage near Franklinville. Prior to any action, I want to determine where they are basing out of, and the route taken to re-up the roadblock, who’s calling shots, and other info to lead to others we can interview. Know route from their crash pad is N/S from Bennett, 3 minute response. Primary plan is distraction and assault. Drive in from NE at 4hr before sun up and shift change, park beyond line of sight/sound. Active element 1-3 disembark w/nvg, approach from wooded area, #4 holds and removes one headlight lead, attaches hook rope dragging metal scrap to hitch. Active element sets LP/OP, gets observation of hostiles, adjust and final engagement plan positioning. At set signal via radio clicks, 1.5 hour prior to sun up, #4 drives slow with hazard lights on until just in view, pulls into ditch like a drunk. #4 gets out, moves out of sight and away from truck to cover enemy flank “blind” side, takes firing position from behind cover. Radio in “set”
Assault element engages enemy from cover, (SE side pines) NVG guy is closest and takes hardest threat target to begin action. #4 has flank cover from N/NE. Bounding fire and movement. It would be nice to capture one, not required.
If successful, gather all items from enemy, strip bodies, mutilate/ deface per vietcong (“Apache”) standards as allows and if atrocities committed prior would make it appropriate to local community members. (Don’t take it too far, but make it clear to the enemy that its gonna hurt to stay..). Hook and drag bodies (keep around 15-25mph or they slide to easy). Affix on stakes, hang, scatter, etc. Destroy or disable vehicles, leave misleading propaganda.
If possible, ambush relief team member(s), or inflict as much pain as possible.
Alternate is 2 fire teams at 100-200m, set apart 90°, on command take as many out as possible. Burn bodies on the spot.
Contingency- sniping shots, hit one or 2 and leave. Repeat. Make being there costly.
Emergency- if enemy reaction team is called or enroute, if casualties taken, do a tactical retreat and leave. Sun Tzu the time and place.
Partial prep to the story- Truck with #1, 2, 3 follow #4 van to chicken farm NW of that coner, we’ve bought cull chickens there, and they are forced to pay “protection fees” for passage through the roadblock, so they are the underground support. We park there, it becomes the emergency rally point and bug out vehicle, we do last minute prep gear, coms. Prior setup includes: Authentication, channels, action and reaction words. Test radio distance on low power in terrain, set lock key. Weapons check, hydrate, piss break, walk through the plans, sandbox, etc
1-3 run ARs, we run 6 mags in fighting rig load out, 1 in gun. Turn and burn mission, so lightweight- speed, Agility favor plates and packs. Whoever has tactical lead runs the NVG.
#4 is Mosin carrier, least agile or lacking tactical skillsets, 40-60 rounds depending on shooter.
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A few things I would consider before engaging: What could be the expected response from the parent organisation? Would an attack draw further forces into the area making the situation worse? Would making the situation worse be to our benefit?
If an analysis determined that this is both a good target and a good time: I would plan an ambush at least 5 minutes drive away from the checkpoint. I would pick a spot that has good natural cover, or where expedient cover can be rapidly constructed. The spot would need a good exfil route, requiring concealment from approaching road traffic. Close to an expected shift change I would litter the road in the ambush area with obstacles to force the shift change to slow down / stop. At which point I would ambush the shift change using semi-automatic weapons. If the ambush was swift, realign 3 team members to ambush the old shift if they respond while 1 team member gathers intel (their radios would be good), weapons, and ammo. Then exfil.
At this point I would conduct an assessment as to attacking the old (and now possibly isolated) shift. If I do I would wait a few hours, let them get tired, let them run out of food and water, let the worry settle in a bit.
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How about follow the personnel leaving during shift change, and “remove” those from the equation while they are sleeping or otherwise occupied and not expecting an attack. Don’t attack where an attack is expected…
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Agreed, but then attack the checkpoint to make a statement..
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Set up Mosin shooter in cover at appropriate distance across open field. Have Mosin shooter engage and drive insurgents behind cover or into woods. Set up 3 man team in woods on insurgents flank. If they take cover from Mosin fire at vehicles, advance from rear and engage. If they retreat from Mosin fire in woods engage as they come to 3 man team. If they advance across open field leaving their vehicles, 3 man team advances to vehicles, use as cover and pinch insurgents in open field.
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Just a thought, but one major factor for riflemen (or -women) is that of skill, and a possibly interesting variable set would be to establish a quick hierarchy of ability for these… Skill Level (SL)1 being “can identify the correct end of the rifle” and SL10 being “terminal-leave Ranger.”
Sure, pairing would make sense, but what if the above scenario was three SL1s AR shooters and one SL10 MN artisan? Liabilities like this would seem to add a bit more to consider:
Me [to SL1s]: “Linear ambush anchored on the NE corner…”
SL1s: “…Wut? Which way is north?”
MN guy: ” Отыебис от меныа!”
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A diversion before the attack might work. I am thinking of using a dog to run up there right when someone goes for a bathroom break. So one guy is caught with his pants down and then the others are picked off quickly and then the 4th guy is nailed as he comes back. Tom E. Hawk
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