Dropshock Brigade - Briefing Room: Let's Get Tactical

Flanking

What is Flanking?
Flanking is the act of manoeuvring around the opposition in order to attack them from another angle. Flanking presses the enemy from multiple directions while not posing much risk to your own team. The most common form of flanking is encirclement; where you attempt to trap the enemy team between members of your own team so that you can easily and effectively put them back on respawn.

Advantages
Flanking provides a huge advantage over the opposing team as if the manoeuvre is successful the opponents will be under pressure from multiple directions, which will severely limit the options available to them. For instance if a power weapon is about to spawn, or a key area of the map is disputed, flanking the enemy will give you the upper hand in the fight, allowing you to secure the key to victory. If pulled off correctly a flanking manoeuvre will not allow the enemy team to escape.

Flanking also impedes the defence of the opposing team as they are being attacked from multiple angles. The most common form of flanking traps the enemy (either one of their members, a small group or their whole team) between two groups of your team, each composed of two members. This extremely limits their defence options as they will have to split their force to contend with you.

Flanking can also give you a variety of angles on the opponents. Once the flanking manoeuvre has been completed the opposing team will have to waste a second or two trying to find out where they are being shot from. This gives you a crucial advantage as you have a time gap where you can get in one or two shots before they can react. This is crucial as it gives you a massive advantage – it’s like they entered the fight already weak. It also gives your teammates an opportunity to finish off the weak enemy.

Flanking can also give you a defensive advantage, particularly in Capture the Flag but also in Team Slayer. In an objective game mode such as Capture the Flag when the enemy pulls your flag and begins heading to your base, it is often a good idea to send a few players to their base once they respawn. From here they can surprise the enemy flag runner, or steal the opponent’s flag. It can also be useful in Assault. When the enemy is arming the bomb attacking the bomb planter from multiple angles gives you a greater chance of success as he has less chance to defend himself, and his teammates can be overwhelmed by your numerical superiority. In objective game modes one person will usually be holding the objective, so flanking can trap their three offensive players between your four players, leaving the remaining opponent defenceless.
In Team Slayer flanking can help you regain control of key areas. Attacking from multiple angles to surround your enemy takes away their placement advantage – they can only shoot in one direction after all. In this way flanking is key to successfully breaking a good setup.

Disadvantages

The biggest disadvantage with flanking is splitting your force. Initially the opponents will be faced with one or two of your teammates who will be keeping an eye on them, calling out their position and keeping them weak. Whilst they are doing this their other teammates will be flanking the enemy using their teammate’s callouts to guide them. During the time whilst they are on route there is a significant danger that the two who are keeping an eye on the enemy will be attacked and overwhelmed. Splitting your force is the biggest disadvantage with flanking as it leaves you very vulnerable to attack should the enemy decide to make an all out push towards one side. To counter this, those that are flanking need to take the shortest and fastest route possible.

Spreading your team thin is another significant disadvantage. Often flanking an enemy may mean giving up map control as you scramble to get into offensive positions. This means it can be a high risk strategy as if you fail you can lose map control. If successful you can quickly regain it, but sometimes the risk is not worth the reward.

When should you flank?

There are a couple of key times when you should flank;

When the enemy is about to capture an objective, flanking can help to prevent this.
When the enemy has map control, flanking plays a key role in regaining it. Attack from as many angles as possible.
When you have the enemy trapped in a key choke point in which you can easily flank and eliminate them.
Whenever you are confident that you can pull it off effectively; go for it. For instance flanking on a map with teleporters is relatively easy as they provide both a means to quickly get into position to flank, and also a means to escape should things go pear shaped.

Role of Flanking

The role of flanking in Halo is to provide a tactical aspect to the game. More tactically minded, opportunistic players will often utilise flanking effectively as a means of ensuring quick kills. It can be used to quickly gain map control, get a shot at an unguarded objective, to ensure power weapon control or simply to further their lead in a kill based game.

Defence

There are a number of possible defences against being flanked. This article will cover the three main options available:

Option 1 – Attack

Your first option is to try to counter their flank. The easiest way to do this is to attack the players directly in front of you and use that hole to escape. This requires some foresight as you need to pull off the manoeuvre before complete the flank. This is often the trickiest to pull off. Most importantly, maintain the speed and momentum of the attack to avoid being flanked. This is known as Blitzkrieg. This is a risky strategy but is very effective if pulled off.

Option 2 – Defence

The easiest but most risky thing to do is to stay put. Find some cover and a good defensible position and stay put. The cover will protect you against bullets but you still need to keep a watchful eye for grenades aimed at you. This will most likely develop into a war of attrition to see which side can keep it up for longer. Either a stalemate will develop and the attackers will have to withdraw, or one side will kill a few opponents and gain the upper hand. Usually the team with the best shooters will win this type of skirmish. However it is advised that this defence is not used as a few stray grenades can ruin your plans. The only exception to this is if the cover you are in is strategically important and is an easily defensible position. For instance if you have the high ground against the attackers, or you hold a position where a power weapon will soon spawn then hold position and use your advantage against them. This strategy is very risky but can have a high reward. Only use this if there is no other option or you hold an extremely important part of the map.

Option 3 – Flight

If you spot a hole and a means of escape, then take it. It is much more important to stay alive. This will help your team much more than holding position and possibly dying. A good flank will be watchful for this strategy and will not provide the defenders a means of escape. This is one of the easiest strategies to take, but because it is so predictable and effective it can be tricky to pull off as attackers will take care to not let you escape. Try taking unused routes to escape and counter-flank the attackers. This can be a very effective strategy as you both stay alive, and put yourself in an advantageous position from which to get kills from and gain the upper hand of the map. If this strategy is possible, it is highly advised you take the opportunity and go for it.