Securing your position...

[Ramjam]

When I lived in Cornwall about 10 years ago I sat down one weekend and tried to plan out if I was placed in the command of the defence of the village I lived in, how would I go about doing it. I came up with quite a long list of things to consider, including :

1) What man-power would I need to secure to the village.
2) What man-power would be available.
3) What ordnance would be needed and how easy would it be to obtain.
4) How available would fresh and clean drinking water be.
5) Was there any land that could be used for crops etc.
6) Was the village on a major road/rail etc (I know maybe not a major problem but there again if you don't wait everybody knowing you have a tiny piece of heaven in a world of hell).

And many more of the question already posted in previous posts.

I also considered if the village was not suitable to be secured or the man-power requirments were just to big, was there another location in the area (say within 50 miles) that could be used.

In the end I worked out that my village would be a pain to secure due to be in a open location, on a semi major road and with no local water supply (ie a river or lake etc).

But I did think about a little village down the road which was right on the coast with a tiny harbour in a quite valley. Depending on the number of people the village had to support I thought this was a much suitable and defendable location.

[Jason]

You have to have some farmers on the payroll, locals if possible, and a civilian workforce to engage in the numerous time-consuming steps needed to grow large amount of crops.

I always liked the Stout Yeomanry concept from the sample encounters section of the book. It is an example of a farm that can be found anywhere except an area that is devastated. It says an average farm consists of 20-40 hectares of land, centered on the pre-war buildings with added fortifications surrounded by an earthwork. The example in the book has 22 civilians including 13 adults. The barn, grain bins, cattle enclosure, and other animal shelters are all inside the perimeter.

Added military patrols, small contingents of soldiers, and beefed up perimeter security forces should secure most areas in non-harvest seasons, but none of that is crucial to long term sustainability.

The Greek city-states marched to war almost exclusively during Harvest Season so they could seize or destroy each others grain reserves. Their three staples were wine, wheat, and olive oil, and it turns out that grape vines and olive trees are hardy enough to survive a quick burn, and also resist being harvested quickly. Wheat on the other hand, is easily harvested by anyone with basic tools, can be trampled by horses or be burned down with ease.

Post-apoc crops are going to consist of wheat/corn/soy, potatoes/yams, and vegetables/fruits. Similar to modern America, there will be a Harvest Season, and that is when every marauder scum from 3 counties will be menacing the farmland. It is going to take a concentrated military force and a large civilian workforce to get in a significant amount of those crops.

A smart military commander would make/get a detailed survey of all the farmland in question. There are going to be numerous creeks, irrigation ditches, rivers, lakes, marshes, etc, that will make great natural barriers. Any farmland out side this broad natural perimeter gets scrapped, and the farm families in those areas are given support to move inside the secured area.

Next, enhance those natural barriers, build new barriers where they are needed, set up check-points on all roads (or better yet just blow the bridges), add listening post on your most vulnerable approaches and train up some CIDG. Now, some strong outposts are needed. Convert a handful of small towns/villages into fortifications if available (much easier), otherwise some type of fortifications should be built. These need earthworks that are high and wide, and several reinforced strongholds inside (potentially huge project).

Come harvest time, you are going to need troops to guard your civilian workers, and several rapid reaction forces. Use the CIDG to free up your least vulnerable garrison troops. The Rapid Reaction Groups (RRGs) will the key to defeating a determined attack by an either an organized marauder group, or a huge mass of starving humanity. The RRG’s need to be fast enough to get around your defended farmland and well armed and trained so they can meet multiple threats. Did you A-team some busses and boats? You did secure those old junkyards right?

Ok, there are two credible threats, the Marauders and the Starving masses. Expect marauders to be very clever; maybe they have a train, or an old steam tugboat, or some Mad Max semi’s, or a howitzer, that they use to project force. Marauders in T2K usually have some means of carrying away their booty, and a large-scale raid must be supported. Your RRG’s need some kind of hammers, like anti-tank weapons to pound those toys into fiery masses of negative morale modifiers on the evil invaders. You also need some snipers to pick off the leadership elements. They hate when you do that. Clever Marauders will also try everything to infiltrate your workforce. Better get some Secret Police.

If the Starving Mass of Humanity were clever, it wouldn’t exist. Human wave attacks are not unheard of in T2K, so you might as well knock together some quad 50’s, and keep those M214 6-pac’s greased up and very well supplied with ammo. No one wants to mow down thousands of pitiful civilians, but if they are coming right at you like that, what are you going to do?

Worst case scenario in either attack is that all the crops are burned/destroyed in the fighting or out of spite, so you need multiple RRG’s that can hit very hard individually, or be used as a group as needed. Enemies large enough to attack your agricultural base will usually back down after suffering serious losses in a concentrated counter-attack.

So, do you have the resources to secure, establish, maintain, and defend a fortified agricultural base that is large enough to sustain itself?

[weswood]

Probably been said before but:

Fire bases spread around the perimeter, close together as pssible depending on manpower.

Aggressive search and destroy patrols.

Small recon patrols further out from the village.

Farm workers given basic training and firearms, required to carry weapons while working fields.

[jester]

And lets not forget my irrigation trenches that also act as a form of moat or obstacle. Make them deep enough that it is difficult to get out of, wide enough to keep vehicles from crossing or other vehicles without bridging, and of course fill them with water to act as a moat and further deterent, but also to keep fish in and to provide water to your fields, you can also add stakes or punji type sticks.

That I think would do alot to keep the starving masses from getting to your fields, or at least slow them up long enough where your reaction forces can be deployed and deal with them.

Remember, a mob is like a herd and if they are rushing for your crops it will be like a stampede. The first few may reach the edge of the trench and probably go over. But, the rest will stop, they stop, they actualy think and move. If they stop you can rain down fire on them well that will cause them to further scatter and break up.

And if you had LP/OPs outside your trench/moat perimeter then you can even harrass them before they reach your perimeter and potentialy disuade them or at least some of them. At the very least, the LP/OP can give a warning of a force, its composition and direction which would be invaluable to the reaction force. And your LP/OP can be nothing more than a guy or two with binoculars and some carier pigeons, its that easy.

Its always good to have choke points or other obstacles manmade or natural to break up an enemies advance, their route of aproach and coordination. A good one is, ifthe enemy is comming via a road, have an area of the road that is sunken that is easily flooded which will bog them or their vehicels and mounts down causing much more effort. A high area with rocks or logs ready to roll down on the attackers, discuraging them, eliminating a few, damaging some of their vehicles or mounts and blocking or at least creating an obstacle on the road/aproach path.

Those are some of the things one can do to disuade unwanted guests.


I would also add SEVERAL excavated trenches or pits on narrow areas. Each with a bridge YOU built. When you are not using it, the bridge is taken up, or at least the boards making the roadbed, how many of them is an attacker or a mob going to negotiate or build to get to you? And if they are that determined, how long will it take them to get to your enclave? And what would you be able to do to them to further convince them before they gat to your village?

Another idea is to make the ground of your field uneven. add rocks, boulders, tiny trenches about 2 feet wide and a foot deep, small berms of a foot tall. The crops will cover them, so when the forces try to attack well their force in like a human wave will be broken, some groups will slow due to the obstacles and lag behind. And you will have ALOT of injured ankles and banged shins further discouraging people.

Another thing to add, make a perimeter of thorn bushes and brambles, blackberrys are good since they can be used for food as well as a obstacle and almost improvised barbed wire.

Just some ideas to help defend an enclave.

[kalos72]

Some good points...

Question - Guard towers / bunkers as needed but on a rubble wall or trench line? Which would be easier to defend?

[jester]

It depends on the terrain and climate as well as the threat. But hey. all of the above!

As the others have said "firebases" eh not so much a firebase as a fixed fortified position or strong point with a rifle fire team or MG team.

Maybe a position atop a rise or hilltop.

And then what are essentialy men in trees or deer stands with sniper rifles to pick off solo folks who would enter the fields. If you have men in trees, they stand out much less than an actual tower. Although a tower or two can be a good thing inside the field, thus they can extend their control in so many directions.

As for the bunkers, on hills, or even rises made from rock and rubble but definitely on high ground.

Now, if you put a berm around the exposed portion of the field, then a trenchline on the military crest if best with firing positiions along its length, figure three firing positions per man so the enemy can keep wondering where they will fire from. I am an advocate of the berm because it offers cover and concealment to not just your defenders, it also allows movement of the men as they go from one position to another, like the 1 man to 3 firing positions mentioned, where does the enemy aim, where will you fire from.

It also blocks the enemy from seeing what is happening in your village or your fields to see what you have, or who is where doing what.

And then on the outside of this berm you can build your canal providing a supply of water and adding an additional obstacle a moat, and you can also fish from it.

For Berms and Ditches, how long willl it take for a man to dig a section? The dirt excavated from the moat/ditch becomes the berm, so it does two things at once. One person should be able to dig a good 10X10 section in a day without much issue.

I would also think that small hamlets of a half dozen or more huts or other dwellings can be made along the edge of the fields at regular intervals. These initialy would have the berm and trench and stakes for their own defenses. And as they are able and time permits they expand the trench and berm and moat system to connect each cluster of dwellings until they do encircle the farm field. And by farm field I am talking of the communities LARGE field of grain or potatoes or peas and beans, as stated in an earlier post each familiy would have their own garden for other crops.

The key to these clusters is that they will be within rifle range of one another so one cluster can fire on attackers of other clusters from the safety of their own compound, basicaly each cluster can provide supporting fire for the cluster on their left and right.

And as stated, toss in a machinegun or rifle team atop a hill that has a comanding view of the area and maybe a couple less elevated positions but still strong points with a handful of sniper teams roaming around and heck even one or two fire teams roaming able to hit the attackers from any ddirection as well as harassing their rear and flanks you would be able to withstand most marauders as well as any mass wave of refugees. As for orghanized equiped military force that is another storey, but you would surely bloody them greatly and in the end, would it be worth it to them to take your community considering they would suffer a good loss of men and material. And such losses could result in their inability hold power or defend against any new group or force who would challenge them.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

All of the information presented here is very good. However, how do you translate all of that to a built-up city environment such as New York City, where Kalos has his game set? The principles are the same but the execution is different in a city.
Not a lot of land immediately available for agriculture, lots of highrise buildings for observation of you by the enemy, those same highrise buildings obstructing your line of sight, lots of underground areas available for people to hide in or sneak up on you, lots of buildings/roads/tunnels channelling you as much as they do the enemy, a lot of material for making fires (for either setting you on fire or creating smokescreens etc. etc.), a lot of material for making walls or obstacles and if the enemy really wants to conserve ammunition, they can just drop rocks on you from on high.