If you know my PR playing style well, you'll know that I love to get good with the least used and most obscure weapons and assets in PR, things that get rejected by most players. The ATGM Gazelle, the A-4 Skyhawk, The MV-22 Osprey, the SMAW, the M72LAW, Mk.19 grenade launchers, Shotguns, Claymores etc.
The latest fetish I've had in PR has been dedicated RHIB squads. They are assets no one takes seriously, and most often serve as disposable transports at round start on amphibious assault maps. I think they are much more valuable!
The RHIB
- RHIB stands for Rigid-Hulled Inflatable Boat.
- They count as a light asset.
- They move very quickly across water. RHIBs can be beached, but generally will slowly slide back into the water in their own time.
- RHIBs are typically armed with 7.62 medium machine guns, occasionally with heavier weapons.
- This weapons system has a 360' rotation and a healthy vertical traverse - you are unable to harm your crew and passengers by turning this weapon on them while they are embarked.
- They appear on almost every amphibious assault map, generally on the BLUFOR side, if not on both sides.
- A single RHIB can carry 8 people. A driver, a gunner, and 6 passengers who can utilise their personal weapons and equipment while embarked.
- As a light asset, RHIBs can be repaired with the combat engineer's wrench.
- Like some of Realitymod's lighter vehicles, using the 'shift' key activates a slight forward boost in the RHIB's speed. It is both expended and replenished within seconds.
- For some reason, RHIBs move unbelievably quick when they use their boost in the most shallow of water. It is unknown why this happens.
RHIB Advantages
- RHIBs are highly mobile assets that move quickly across deep and shallow waters. Compared to insertion by APC/IFV or helicopter, RHIBs are comparatively quiet vehicles, making them discreet and a rarely considered threat.
- RHIBs are cheap and have short spawn times. Costing no tickets whatsoever, a daring raid in a RHIB is notably cheaper than that in an armoured vehicle or a helicopter.
- Usually, the RHIB is armed with 7.62 MGs (M240, M60, Pecheneg etc). On some maps, you will find RHIBs capable of taking out lightly armoured vehicles, equipped with either the 50.cal M2 Browning or the Mk.19 automatic grenade launcher, making them formidable weapons platforms. In formations, RHIBs can commit thunderous suppression, and with heavier weapons, withering firepower.
- They are rarely used, meaning that they are readily available and that the enemy rarely prepares to defend their waterways from RHIB insertions. At times, you will find airborne threats too preoccupied with searching for in-land targets to notice you.
RHIB Disadvantages
- RHIBs are highly vulnerable vehicles. The RHIB offers little protection to passengers, who are bunched on an open deck. Similarly, the boat's hull is susceptible to small arms fire and requires little attention from heavy weapons to sink it completely.
- Most AAS map resign RHIB units to light infantry and special tactics, leaving the heavy fighting and the majority of flag capping to the rest of the team.
- When left alone for a while, RHIBs have the habit of self-destructing. This is a double-edged sword, as those RHIBs left in the field will return to the main like a boomerang without need for retrieval, but it also means you wouldn't want to stray from your rubbery, buoyant friend for too long.
RHIB Tactics
- Both Vadso and Saaremaa have proved excellent maps for RHIB squads.
- Light Infantry Tactics revolve around disruption of enemy logistics and installations. This usually translates in PR as lightening assaults on enemy FBs, mortars and bridges, and occasionally on enemy transports/logistics vehicles and flags themselves.
- Tactics will vary hugely on how many RHIBs are available to your force and what weapons they have. It will define an aggressive or passive style of play:
Aggressive RHIB tactics generally involve boats in direct fighting, providing fire support for assaulting boats. The assaulting boats almost always land directly on-target. Support boats will move steady and parallel to the shore to suppress the enemy from mid-long distances, making use of the heaviest weapons (Mk.19, M2).
Assaulting boats will typically be evasive, moving to the shore to deploy infantry to engage the enemy at close range. The objective will typically be to eliminate all enemy in the area, reviving as they go, then complete the objective and retreat.
RHIB Squad Loadout Chart
1x Boat Passive (4man):(1)
SL, Medic, AutoRifle, Breacher/Engineer
2x Boat Passive (6man):
(1)
SL, Engineer, Rifleman
(2)x
Medic, AutoRifle, LAT Alt
3x Boat Aggressive (8man):
(1, Mk.19)
SL, Medic
(2, M2.50cal)
RifleAT. Alt, Rifleman
(3, Assault)
Grenadier, Medic, AutoRifle, Engineer
When employing an aggressive stance against ashore contacts, I find employing the evasive manoeuvres that Rudd has outlined to either be lifesaving or damning and it is something of an art to know when and when not to do it. For a passive stance, evasive manoeuvres are generally preferred.
Assaulting Manoeuvres
For the assaulting craft, the primary objective is to deliver as many combat-ready marines/commandos/'swimmer canoeists' to shore as fast as possible, who then go on to employ infantry tactics to overcome threats and achieve the primary objective. Depending on both the intelligence on enemy activity and the level of your unit's experience available to you, the quickest method to achieve this is to make a straight and direct dash for the shore line to close the gap as quick as possible, reducing the water-borne exposure time to potential incoming fire. This would only be recommended in circumstances where it is likely that the enemy presence is null or sparse - remember, even a single Automatic Rifleman, or Heavy Anti-Tank, or TOW/SPG emplacement has the capacity to wipe out the occupants of an assaulting craft.In the presence of a larger enemy threat, assaulting craft are advised to employ evasive manoeuvres with the aim of reducing the risk to both the craft and its occupants. As exposure time is a factor, assaulting craft should employ less erratic movements at greater distances from the target (see this post). As the gap is closed, more erratic movements are needed, such as a serpentine motion.
While maximising volume of fire is important in suppressing defenders, indeed is reloading personal weapon systems before disembarking, several passengers are able to deploy smoke grenades to the shore immediately before reaching the target area. Creating a smoke screen, this can prove useful for target zones that offer little in the way of cover or concealment. Passenger grenadiers may wish to target enemy positions with smoke munitions, blinding them to the assaulting element's movements.
It is unadvisable in almost every circumstance to assault enemy fortifications that have been deployed as costal defences. It is advisable for passive craft to deploy troops further up or down the shore line without detection, mounting a land-based assault.
However, it is more common for enemy defences that are deployed on or near the shore line to be prepared to fight in-land threats, with their MG nests facing parallel along the shore-line or away from it altogether, making them poor deterrents (and prime targets) for amphibious assaults, providing obvious targets for supportive elements and suppressive action from assaulting units.
Supportive Manoeuvres
Unfortunately, viable supportive boats (M2.50cal, Mk.19 AGL) are few in Realitymod, while viable assaulting craft (M60, Pecheneg, FN MAG) are relatively common. This presents the unit commander with a dilemma between risking all assets to ensure the success of assaulting elements (at the loss of supportive elements to enemy fire) and the preservation of supportive craft to maintain the aggressive stance as a tactical option.Since the priority of a supportive element is the suppression and destruction of enemy forces, combat manoeuvres differ greatly from that of assaulting craft. Depending on the angle from which the RHIB force approaches the shore, supportive craft will act differently. Especially for those baring a Mk.19 AGL, pilots must be highly conscious of their decisions, as the movement of the craft creates inertia that must be calculated and overcome by the gunner to hit his mark. With that said, straight and steady allows the gunner to do his best in this effort.
If the force is direct in it's approach to the shore (90', directly at the shore from the water), a supportive element should remain 40-70m at the rear flank of the assaulting element, following its general approach. When a comfortable distance from the shore is reached, the support craft will proceed to maintain a holding pattern parallel to the shore line; pacing back and forth along the same route, or extending out form a box in either clockwise or counter-clockwise movement.
For a supporting boat, a passive, up/down shore deployment does not necessarily exclude the involvement of supporting fire. A supporting craft may wish to remain just out of view of the combat area, either utilising the fog of war (beyond view distance), cover (container ships or docklands), or natural terrain (rocks and hills). Upon the assaulting element making contact, supportive craft may consider waiting a short while after the engagement to enter the fight, ensuring the enemy's attention is fixed on the assaulting element, engaging the enemy at the extremities of the weapon system's range to suppress the enemy and sew confusion.
Encountering enemy craft
Surprisingly, a frequent and formidable threat to RHIB operations comes from other RHIBs. At long ranges with a good distance of water between the craft, simply disengaging and executing an evasive exit is most worthwhile. At closer ranges, I personally find the best procedure is to stop the craft as quick as possible to give your gunner superior accuracy over your opponent, targeting the enemy's gunner first. These RHIB-to-RHIB contacts are especially dangerous in riverine environments, where contact can be made within mere meters and last only seconds. Make sure to appease your chosen deity on a regular basis to maximises your chances in this scenario.Feel free to add ideas and criticisms!
