Wargame Red Dragon Theory on Special Forces

About Me.

I'm just one of many Wargame Red Dragon players who stick around the place, playing from time to time when I'm not busy. Since I'm situated in Asia, my timezone is really out of sync and thus have a hard time finding matches as the larger playerbase are from Europe or America. Nonetheless, the Asian community (and Russians) are still nice chaps to face of against.

I have 400h worth of Wargame Red Dragon Experience and 250h on Airland Battle. Therefore, I consider myself somewhere in the middle of the community and confident enough to share my opinions with you.

This is my first guide ever, and would appreciate any feedback, be it positive or negative, so I could improve in the future when I decide to write more guides.

I also wrote a review on my opinons on Wargame: Red Dragon on the store page:

http://steamcommunity.com/id/FeliciaFreedom/recommended/251060

Who Are These, "Special Forces" ?

Special Forces are soldiers who have undergone rigorous training to become the best of the best in their country. Their jobs include Sabotage, Hostage Rescue, Intelligence Gathering, Hearts and Minds, Training of local Militia, Assassinations, Search and Destroy and in Wargame, a total annoyance to your opponent.

The earliest of these are the S.A.S, founded during WW2 by Sir David Sterling to help the allied effort against the Germans in the African Desert. Though they had the word "Air" in it, they decided to give up parachuting after finding out that it was too risky, and instead hitched rides on vehicles (Long-Range Desert Groups). One of their greatest soldiers, Paddy Mayne, is said to have taken out the most german planes during the whole war compared to any RAF Pilot, albeit while they were still on the ground.

Post-WW2 and into the cold-war, every country began experimenting on the idea of "small groups of men causing havoc behind enemy lines" and thus almost every country with an army has these so called "Special Forces". Rumour has it, some are so Special that their existence is unknown to the world.

In a nutshell: Special Forces are Special people who do Special things (behind enemy lines in war) and help the war effort in some substantial way.

The Special Forces Of Wargame: RD

In Wargame RD, there is a clear distinction between regular infantry and Special Forces. One of the main differences are their price. Regular Infantry would normally cost a player 10pts - 15pts to deploy, while SF would cost between 20pts - 35pts. Other differences includes their veterancy, with Special Forces coming in either Veteran or Elite Veterancy only.

However, it is wise to note that while SF receive their own category, "Infantry: Commando" , Some infantry from the other tabs could also be considered SF, albeit under the category of shock or airborne infantry, an example being the Gurkhas. Do note that the Recon tab also contains SF units, incase you were wondering where the other "X" famous SF is.

Besides their price, The amount of SF teams you get in a card is also very limited, with an average of between 8 - 11 in a National deck being common, whereas one could bring more than 20 regular infantry teams in 1 card.

I do want to voice out that in normal circumstances, SF would operate in very small teams, like the S.A.S who would patrol deep into enemy territory in small patrol groups, at most 4 men. In Wargame however, The vast majority of SF teams come in groups of 10 and 15. There are several units of two-man recon teams, one may argue, but thats the only exception to this rule.

SF Weaponry And Specialization In Wargame: RD

In Wargame RD, some SF units are different than others. What I mean is that some are better suited at fighting infantry than others, some better at taking out armoured vehicles, and some being equipped with Anti-Air weaponry. Therefore, it is important to identify them to prevent sending the wrong ones on the wrong job, eventhough SF are trained to handle almost every situation imaginable.

1. The Balanced SF Units

We will start with these types of men first. They are equipped with a primary weapon, be it Assault Rifle or SMG, followed by a simple Anti-Tank weapon, like a Carl Gustav or PzF, and finally a squad LMG. These guys are very suitable for roles such as clearing out troops in the jungle. Why? because there are normally IFVs accompanying them and one would be wise to have a good Anti-Armour vehicle at hand. It is always a good idea to use them to spearhead assaults through cities too.

2. The Tank Hunters

These are SF units like the FSK and Kustjagare 90 who possess a superior Anti-tank armament. Very well suited for punishing opponents who did not cover the flanks of their tanks with infantry.

3. The Search and Destroy Units

These are normally Recon SF, they have superior optics to those in the Infantry tab, and thus are well-suited to hunting down specific units who are hiding or in hard to spot places. They're also useful at providing vision in an area, but their main use would be to hunt down High Value targets such as CVs, Artillery, Anti-Air Systems, or even that expensive T-90 your opponent forgot about and parked behind his lines... I swear that did happen in one of my ranked games.

4. The ones with Anti-Air Weaponry

To my knowledge, only 3 of these SF units are in the game, that is the S.A.S, the LStR-40 and finally the FJB-40. These remain by far my favourite, since like any other infantry, they are very squishy to grenades and unguided rockets from Helos. These units however, could take out half a dozen Helos, ambush unsuspecting vehicles, and finish of panicked regular infantry with their superior primary weapon, no LMG needed. One should always hide them next to a communication line to wreak havoc.

5. The Two-man recon Teams

Personally, I don't like them, but to each their own. A commander has to pay 25pts to deploy them. The only plus side to them is their Exceptional Stealth which makes them difficult to spot, even with the help of proper recon units. But their downsides always outweight the benefits for me. They cost 25pts, eliminated easily by even mortar fire, won't survive Napalm, have outdated anti-tank weapons (with only 2 rockets!) and finally, occupy a unit card.

6. The Anti-Infantry SF

These include the Li Jian 90 and Spetsnaz.They ditch their anti-tank weapon for an Anti-Infantry one, a High Explosive Incendiary Rocket Launcher. These guys are good at dispensive infantry and are capable of taking on 4 groups of Regular Infantry in the forest and winning. Their weakness? a 5pts armored carrier. Always provide fire-support for these units, or bring them in an IFV with an autocannon to get rid of pesky APCs.

The Plan: How They "not" Help You Achieve Objectives.

I would like to start of with the worst possible way you could use these expensive and limited SF Units, as mere line infantry. I see this quite commonly in games as a commander thinks that bringing SF to the field will help them win against their opponents regular infantry, create a breech, and ultimately win the field. This is wrong in several ways and why:

1. They are expensive and limited, their lives shouldn't be wasted in the place of regular infantry.

Special Forces are expensive, and if they die, that's 35pts gone. Why not instead of having them die to hold the front, replace them with 3 groups of cheap 10pts infantry? When it comes to Infantry on Infantry battles, numbers matter more than quality. A group of 10 SF units will almost certainly lose to a group of 30-40 cheap men and that is because the 10 SF will panick.

2. SF are squishy people too.

Just because they're SF doesn't mean they're immune to Napalm, HE Bombs, Tank Shells, IFV Autocannon fire, and mortar. Just let regular infantry soak in the munitions and let the SF bypass the the rest.

3. They cover a smaller area.

Deploying 1 group of SF means you cannot deploy 3 groups of regular infantry who could hold of more sections of the map, and thus this makes the task of bypassing your defences easier as you won't be able to detect breaches nor have men in the right places to hold them of while reinforcements speed in to plug in the gap.

4. It shows your opponent that you are concentrating your main forces there

Seeing a large group of SF tells your opponent that something is up, and thus they will reply in kind...

The Plan: How They "do" Help You Achieve Objectives

Now, these are my ideas on how they should be used properly to their full potential.

1. Exploit their Stealth

Like all infantry, it's easier to sneak them through sections of the map undetected. Use their great stealth to sneak around the map and get them into important sections of the map. These include, directly behind the enemy reinforcement zone, a busy and vital road, a bridge, and finally a random town in the middle of the road. I once halted my opponent from reinforcing his troops on the frontline for 3 full minutes with just 2 groups of S.A.S. I lost them in the end, but they took out 4 transport helos, 2 attack helos, 6 transports incl. their infantry, and 2 napalm tanks. He was even forced to call men from the frontline back to help.

2. Avoid having them go for unimportant objectives

Rather than having them spearhead an assault and get "stunned" by groups of regular infantry, have them go around and take out rear-echelon units, like the CV behind the zone, Anti-Air, ATGM vehicles, lightly armed helos with thin armour who are conveniently flying above a forest, and mortars (heavy artillery if you manage to sneak em all the way to their spawn zone)

This is a screenshot I took from a replay. In this match, a single team of Spetsnaz GRU took out 1 Jeep CV, 3 AMX-30 Roland 3, 1 MAN KATI 6x6, and 1 M109 Howitzer, all of this done at my opponent's spawnzone.

3. Exploit their fast running speed

In Wargame: Red Dragon, they can run 30km/h without stopping for a rest and are not slowed down by the terrain such as the forrest. Therefore, they are more suited at reaching their positions compared to regular infantry who run at 20km/h. Don't ever be afraid to airdrop your SF units slightly farther away from an ambush point to avoid detection, They can walk the way there and be ready to ambush anything before the game even reaches a quarter since it started. Often I airdrop them in the middle of the map and have them run through forests until they eventually reach the enemy's main spawn zone.

As you can see, SF units are 50% faster than regular infantry when it comes to movement.

4. Do not overdeploy Special Forces

Avoid deploying too much SF units, neglecting other essential army units to win the war on the front. I normally purchase 2 - 3 SF units and fly them around to important ambush points. All in all costing 140 pts avg.

How all of these factors tie in to Success

One can consider that their SF units have done a good job when they have destroyed many valuable vehicles such as Anti-Air and Artillery, paying back their units 4x. Not only that, it causes the opponent to waste time to hunt down these units, effectively delaying response time on the front line. It also forces your opponent to pay attention at the back of their front rather than on the frontline itself, creating an opportunity on the front for your troops to exploit tactical mistakes by your opponent. It also forces your opponent to spend more points to deploy units for the sole task of keeping his rear safe, thus there will be less troops on the frontline itself to do real harm. Finally, it just annoys your opponent, threathening his composure and make rash decisions, after all, wouldn't you be mad to see your own SuperHeavy and PATRIOT smoldering in your Spawnzone?

So to sum it up:

1. Wastes opponents time and attention

2. Annoys your opponent

3. Pays back their cost 3x - 4x

4. Diverts troops from the front and into the rear

5. Important units destroyed without even seeing action

The Plan: Mapping For Success

The map heavily influences the chances of success for your SF units. On some maps it is near impossible to sneak SF to important parts, and one some, difficult to stop them from inevitably reaching your spawnzone.

These are my own personal methods of getting SF into their positions. They are by no means the only way, I'm just showing you to help give you a general idea of how to insert them. I took the map pictures from Razzman's Updated Maps Guide.

Solid Lines = Airborne Helo Movement.

Broken Lines = SF walking by foot.

Odd Wavy Lines = SF transported in vehicles.

Circle = Landing Zone

Map: Mud Fight

Map: Paddy Field

Map: Tropic Thunder

Map: Wonsan Harbour

Map: Plunjing Valley

Map: Death Row

Map: Nuclear Winter is Coming

Notice how in all of them, the Helos move and insert them by the sides and edges on the map. That's because they provide the highest chance of not being detected. Avoid flying the Helos too close to their zones, as they might have placed MANPADs or Recon Helos to thwart your plans.

After dropping of the SF at the landing zones, you can either send the helos back as to not betray the presence of SF in the area, or after expending all of your SF's munitions (or lives), send your Helos with unguided rockets to mess up the area even further.

The Plan: The Counter-Plan

So, now you have a general idea on how to exploit SF a lil better, but that doesn't make any of us immune to these cheeky buggers.

Countermeasures must be made to prevent your own forces being sabotaged. You would either prevent the SF from landing and getting into position, or if they are, flush them out without taking any serious losses or time.

Preventing any pesky SF from landing should always be your first priority. One should deploy plenty of recon, be it infantry, helo or vehicle around the whole map. That way, you could spot any Helos with SF coming through your flanks. This may not be enough as one can be expected to be busy on the frontline and therefore, not spot the helo when it pops up on the map and dissapears. Therefore, one should also add MANPADs around the flanks of your spawnzone, to prevent not only SF, but those annoying Helo rushes (prolly won't be stopped though). For good measure, always dot the sides of your spawn zones with groups of cheap militia or infantry.

An example. Try to keep those defending your spawnpoint as cheap as possible, they're mostly there to alert you and stall them for a minute.

Sometimes, they just make it to your spawnzones and chokepoints, holding out in a very difficult position, be it in a forest or building. If they manage to camp your Spawnpoint, spam a group of 4 infantry at the same time and unload. They will dispense of the SF menace. An alternative way is to use an Attack Helo, but that won't work on SAS, LStR-40 and FJB-40s ... If you're one of the less technologically developed nations, end their lives with unguided rockets from planes, worked on me plenty o' times.

Tips And My Preference

Tips of mine

1. You can tell if an enemy transport is carrying SF units by clicking on it and checking the veterancy on the vehicle. If it's Veteran or Elite, then either that transport has seen some crap or it's obviously carrying SF.

2. SF are a force multiplier, they help tip the flow of the game to you. But as with any multipliers, if the base value is low, then you won't get much benefits... what I mean is that if your frontline is breaking apart then SF Operations wouldn't really be a high priority.

3. It isn't wrong either to send regular infantry by helo to rampage behind enemy lines, by all means they could do it too.

4. If possible, try to send out your SF units as early as possible. They have a higher chance in getting behind enemy lines as not many recon units would be deployed early on around their zones, and the earlier they start causing havoc, the faster you can snowball to victory.

5. If you used a SF unit to clear a town, get them immediately fixed up and load them to take on more action. Garrison that town with cheap regular infantry instead. This is to prevent wastage as your SF should be doing important work rather than guard duty.

6. Avoid flying Helos above SF as their ROF and Accuracy wil chew it apart.

Preferences (My own opinions and will differ from yours)

1. To me, the best SF units in the game are the LStR-40 and SAS. Their anti-air weaponry ensures that a single group of them could take down around 4 helos... and still deal with vehicles. The worst SF units in my opinions are the Spetsnaz and Li Jian because they can't ambush vehicles and can be defeated by cheap APCs without any support, I also rather clear towns with proper assault engineers.

2. If my SF units reach a spawnzone, I would always choose to camp their spawnpoint rather than hunt down their CV. My reason is that it helps the war effort more to take out fighting units rather than kill a CV, alert your opponent of your presence, gets replaced with a new CV and your SF gets hunted down. After all, Why kill 1 CV for a chance to kill a superheavy and a dozen expensive AA units? ... maybe if the guy has 1 CV left?

3. I rather leave my SF units to rot and die after they've expended their munitions. This is mostly because I rather not spend the time and micro to airlift them, get them to resupply, and find a fresh new ambush point. You could also pull them back a little to spook your opponent and reminding him dangerous SF men are lurking in the woods, albeit without ammo.

End Of The Line.

I ran out of things to say...

The Guide ends here, I do hope I manage to pass on some information to you, the reader.

If you have anything else to share on this topic,like more tips, feel free to do so and I could add it in the guide. If you do ever meet me on the battlefield, do note that I will 100% do this to you, and land on the same spot each time but I don't quite care, I've watched my SF units accomplish their missions countless of times, a little information leak wouldn't hurt.

Thanks is given to my senior in college, goes by the name of Zero on Steam. He was the one who inspired me to do random crap like write a guide rather than study. I've always been inspired by his quote to "Go Nuts" ... I got myself stuck in lots of random crap because of that though.

Thanks to another senior, Kirkland, for reading my guide and giving it a random compliment. :3

Finally, have a picture of my cat.

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1295006368

Theory on Special Forces