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I noticed that the US oftentimes has a hard time on Operation archer and Korengal. Operation Arches is a big map, with the insurgents setting up firebases easily it can happen that the us team is dispersed, with one squad trying to take down a cache defended by 3 enemy squads.


A US Squad is being wiped approaching a cache held by 3 enemy squads, while the next
US squad trickels in, likely to be destroyed as well.

Here is what should happen instead

The first squad should set up within 400-600m from the cache location, insurgents do not tend to stray very far from the cache. Ideally a 5 man HUMVEE squad moves in.


The humvee can create a safezone for the HUEY to drop additional crates and squads, to set up a firebase. If an humvee can not easily get to a cache location an air insertion 600m away from the cache should be low risk.
Ideally the firebase is behind the a hill, so that it is hidden, but close enough to the peak, that Machineguns can be set up on the side of the Hill overwatching the enemy.


The humvee squad toegether with additional squads, get within 200-300m within enemy contact, while 1-2 squads advance and engage the Taliban.


The squads that move into close quarter combat, should not have their whole squad look for the cache, but rather take positions on rooftops within buildings, etc. from which they can hold the cache location, while about 2 soldiers from each squad look for the cache hideouts and rallies.


The squads covering move up as they run out of targets and finally support the CQB if they can not protect the forward squads from a distance. Again the majority should focus on driving the Taliban away from the cache location, holding ground.


Optionally 1-2 squads can set up at a different cache location, build a firebase and engage the Taliban at a distance, to make sure the mainforce is not confronted with the whole Taliban force. Or the team as a whole focuses on one cache at a time.

Nice guide, I havent really played that map yet, but your ideas sounds logical and useful.

I like the detailed step-wise approach in the guide. Need to do more stuff like that my self.

Cool plan and would be even nicer if this would slowly make it in to the gameplay. But its to much planning and effort to see it make it in most games. Maybe for some tournament style of gameplay.

In regard to the tourney, maybe your right. In public this procedure would require a CO.

Has anyone tried these procedures out in public play? (beside Cassius that is)

Yes, I have played a few games where this is done. Might have to do with planets aligning in the right way. But you do not need FB defenses. SAWs and HUMVEES are perfectly capable of covering any position on Operation Archer as the map allows you to easily isolate your objective. The other insurgent maps this is much harder as there is continuous cover (buildings in city maps or the hills and trees in Korengal).

It's also good to setup a FOB (Only if you've a good team) at the castle. So you have some scouts. And place HMG's/AA at the North Edge to supress troops to the north (especially the village). When you've made this you have more firepower to supress the Taliban hiding in the big village, that are defending the caches. But be aware that they can sneak up to the castle. Your team also needs to seal the west flank of the village so they can't get out of your line of fire.

Yeah a good guide in theory and in theory it's not too hard to come up with a solid plan against insurgents, but putting it into practice is a nightmare, because most people who play PR don't want to play someone elses strat, which is unfortunate because gameplay would be so much better if they did.

If SL actually communicated with each other then you could do it without a commander. But again, the SL have to want to listen to someone else.

There's one thing very wrong with your plan:

insurgents do not tend to stray very far from the cache

That's wrong. Where I play, 1 - 2 squads of Taliban are always driving around. That's point 1. Point 2; the Huey, dropping crate and troops, will always be spotted, which almost always leads to a coordinated attack of Taliban on that spot, and it will happen long before your defense is built up properly.
BluFor FBs don't last long on this map, so the better way is to rush in early with supply truck, build a FOB without defenses hidden in some valley, RTB and try to repeat on the other end of the map. BluFor should always be on the move, and don't depend on their FBs too long.

Good points all, it may also be worth noting that the US team should try to avoid getting into unnecissary firefights away from known cache locations.

Individual squads are all well and good for locating hotspots, but having a tactical reserve available to hit pockets of resistance is also vital.

IMO the number of technicals the Taliban has at their disposal makes setting up FOBs around just any cache quite difficult if not impossible. There are really just a few good places. The best one so far, I believe, is on the B6 hill. You can set the FOB in kind of a valley between two hills, so it can't be hit from below and is very hard to take out with mortar fire. The only thing you need to do is watch west to prevent insurgents from coming up the footpath. Once you have the B6 hill, you can overwatch all the cache spawns in and around the village... It's the only way I've seen US win on archer (in recent memory)

FOB on castle could go along with this well; it'd provide an even nicer view over the east side of the map. The only cache spawns you wouldn't be able to hit with HAT/arty could be in airport...

Michael_Denmark wrote:In regard to the tourney, maybe your right. In public this procedure would require a CO.

Has anyone tried these procedures out in public play? (beside Cassius that is)

It wouldnt require a co, it would require squadleaders to think as other squadleaders of their squadmembers. You wouldnt go in without the rest of the squad. On an insurgency map, with multiple squads sitting on a cache, it is necessary not to go in without the rest of the team.

However, if you set a firebase in castle, squads tend to levitate to that location so they can rain gunfire down on the Taliban, leaving normally no or very few infantry actually on the ground trying to hit the cache, and as a death for Taliban means nothing, you'd be better off having multiple squads pushing on the cache to break their lines instead of multiple squads giving dismal suppressing fire from an over watch position almost 1km away.