11. The Vantage Points – (With apologies to Carl Von Clausewitz, and my father – both of whom gave me ideas regarding the Vantage Points.) This may indeed be the most controversial of the entire series of entries I have thus far made to the Tactical Repertoire. However it is an important aspect of combat to consider; how to take the most advantage from the natural disposition and prepared position of your enemy or opponent. In combat there are basically two opportunity targets of attack, or targeting methods of striking at your enemy. You may strike at his strength, where he is most well defended, or you may strike at his weakness, where he is most vulnerable. Logically it seems that it would always be best to strike at the vulnerabilities of an opponent. But this is not always true. In order to truly dominate the battlefield, and in order to resolve any combat to your best advantage, it is often extremely important to know both when and why and where to strike at that which is insecure, and when and why and how to strike at that which is seemingly most impregnable, potent, and powerful.
By way of an introductory note to this section let me give you a bit of background as illustration of exactly what I mean. My father once told me of a fight he had seen as a kid. It was a professional boxing match. (I liked boxing and I used to spar with a friend from church who was a boxer.) In this fight a young kid, technically very well trained and very strong fought an older man who was far more experienced, but at the time considered a heavy underdog. Not as strong, as fast, or as capable as the young buck. From the first round the old man began hitting the kid in his arms. Hard. Repeatedly. Not his face, not body-shots, didn’t dance around with the boy, just kept hitting his arms. Plowing in without relapse. Not striking a vulnerability, or so it seemed in any case, but hitting the kid where he appeared strongest. His arms were large and well developed. He was muscular and powerful, but the old man kept hitting him where his blows did no apparent or overt damage. Until the fifth or sixth round. By that point the kid could no longer hold his arms up to even defend himself, much less to strike back at the old man who was far better trained and far better conditioned to take a blow than his younger counterpart. By the end of that round the fight was over. The kid was cleaned out, his arms wasted. In this simple fight, basically executed, in this combat technique of hitting a man where he is, instead of where he ain’t, you find the seeds of victory. When, that is, such a tactic is well and cleverly played. That being said, now, on to the Vantage Points.
I. When Fighting a Superior Opponent That You Outnumber – Hit him hard and repeatedly at his strongest point. The odds proclaim that someone among your group will strike and score successfully. What effect will this have? Twofold. First, it is a psychological victory on your part, and the value of that kind of victory can never be underestimated in combat. Especially as the course of a combat progresses over time. It is psychologically devastating for someone, full of the confidence of their own invulnerability and power, to suddenly and painfully become aware that they are vulnerable in the one spot, or one area, in which they consider themselves most secure. It plants the seeds of doubt in the heart of your opponent where before only confidence bloomed. Additionally it sprouts new growth of morale among your own kind. Morale builds upon itself, and can often level any other apparent advantage. Secondly it weakens, over time, your opponent’s ability to fight effectively. As with the kid boxer described above most creatures and most people rely upon their major strength as both their first line of defense and their most powerful offensive capability. They rarely adapt to new tactics or employ effective variety (and that is the point of this entire thread, to demonstrate ways in which diversifying your overall tactical repertoire can not only radically improve your odds of survival, but also your general effectiveness as a combatant) of capability unless absolutely forced to do so. Most are, to a great degree, creatures of habit. They possess a strength and they rely upon it, often to the unnecessary exclusion of other capabilities that might be far more effective given a particular set of circumstances. DO NOT BE THIS CREATURE. Be the other man. But remember this too, many others are not you. If you hit them where they are strongest, and begin to whittle away their confidence and their capabilities you bend the outcome of the combat to your favor. It seems counter-intuitive, but it is also highly effective against some opponents. Such as the very strong and tough, but lone one.
II. When Fighting a Superior Opponent That Outnumbers You – Strike at the weak points of the strongest individual of the party or group you oppose. The reasons are simple. When one is outnumbered one cannot afford to win combat through sheer force, or even to exchange time for some other advantage. Time is the advantage, that is, for the force that outnumbers you. They know that their superiority of numbers weighs in their favor, over time. Therefore it is extremely important to cripple or hobble the effectiveness of your opponent in the most expeditious manner possible. Strike hard, swiftly, and at weakness. Exploit vulnerabilities among the leadership and the strength of your adversary. Imagine that you fight a group of men who outnumber you. You identify and quickly disable or dispatch your most dangerous opponent and the most powerful adversary in the group. What then is the effect upon the opposition? Doubt, disorder, loss of morale. If we can lose our strongest and most effective man this quickly, they think to themselves, then is it possible they can kill or capture us all, despite our apparent advantage of greater numbers? Smart opponents recognize serious threats. Even dumb ones can be made to understand fear. Instill enough fear rapidly enough and many wiser opponents will disengage, flee, or possibly surrender even when the advantage still rests numerically in their favor. Because battles are really as much about what can be imagined, as what can actually be done. So when you are outnumbered, find your most dangerous adversary, strike him at his most vulnerable point, do so repeatedly (concentrate your fire) until he drops, and then move onto the next man in line. In that way the weaker, and the weaker-minded, will see less an advantage, and more a reason to abandon the field to a more efficient and effective force.
III. When Fighting an Inferior Opponent That You Outnumber – Hit him where he is strongest. Break him quickly of his resolve and the psychological impression that he has any opportunity of successfully overcoming you in combat. Whittle him away slowly and ineffectively by attacking his weaknesses in this situation, and he may continue on into the fight far too long, convinced that his “real strength” or “secret weapon” has yet to be brought to bear, and that when that happens he’ll show you. Then you’ll regret what he can really do. A good analogy is the German Army at the conclusion of the Second World War. Believing in their miracle weapons and secret arms, strengths that had yet to be employed, they continued on, hope against hope that they could either prolong the war to some material advantage, or snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. And by so doing they killed countless Allied soldiers and innocents as well as many of their own number, both combatant and civilian, in an ultimately bootless and senseless effort. Do not allow your inferior opponent to believe in the capabilities of his own best strength(s). Break his strengths rapidly, effectively, and with ruthless efficiency. You can often humble an inferior opponent and force him to surrender quickly by reminding him that he is not nearly as strong as he would like to believe, or like you to believe. And you will save yourself and your comrades the possible danger and potential disaster that he might just get lucky after all. Break his strength quickly and you break his will entirely. And when his will to fight is broken then the fight is over.
IV. When Fighting an Inferior Opponent That Outnumbers You - When fighting opponents who outnumber you, but those who are obviously your inferiors in capability, the one real advantage the enemy possesses is numerical advantage. Therefore attack such a foe immediately at his most vulnerable point. Find the weakest member in his group and kill that individual at once. Then the next weakest, and so forth. In a very short period of time, if you concentrate your fire, then you will have rapidly eliminated his one true advantage, numbers. Once he has lost his numerical advantage you may then approach the battle in any way that seems most fit, and that gives you the most on-going benefit. But by that time, most smart opponents will have realized that their sole advantage has already been wasted by superior tactics and has therefore entirely evaporated, and if they have any sense at all then the survivors will surrender.
Vantage Points give you a new tactical advantage in addressing the composition and nature of the forces that you oppose. Play to your own advantages and systematically exploit both the apparent strengths and obvious weaknesses in your opponents and you become both fierce and effective in combat, and more importantly capable of winning in nearly every circumstance.
Now go out and win those fights worth winning.
