NCD Tactics and Strategies

Tactics and Strategies
Tactics denote maneuvers, formations, and combat methodoligies utilized on the unit-scale (i.e. individuals, squads, platoons, companies, battalions, regiments). These are concerned with the elimination or avoidance of an immediate threat in a specific, geographical region in order to proceed to accomplish a larger, strategic, goal. Examples include the utilization of line formations and the Lanes-of-Fire doctrine in a tight alleyway in order to efficiently eliminate a horde, and regular fire-and-cover tactics used against armed human opponents.

Strategy denotes the objectives, policies, and maneuvers on a command-wise scale (i.e. militias, the whole NCD army). Strategies are concerned with the policies of engagement in an entire command theater (or alternatively, for a specific unit). For example, the implementation of a defensive strategy means that units will not actively hunt down and engage opposing forces (OPFOR), with the goal of either keeping some piece of territory under friendly control or drawing in the OPFOR for the express purpose of its termination.

All tactics and strategies have their inherit merits and drawbacks, and as such, both must be considered when facing an opponent. The NCD, in particular, has made effective use of tactics and strategies when it comes to dealing with zombies. Its armed branches differ in their use of tactics and strategies, as these branches have differing goals in mind.

Confederate Defense Taskforce
Both the Civil Defense's and the Militia's tactics' roots can be traced back to the Confederate Defense Taskforce. In the emergent days of the NCD, each district contributed men to constitute the CDT, which was a mechanized infantry force instituted in order to defend the NCD from large hordes. The theory went that each district had its own local security forces, which would hold off a horde long enough for the CDT to respond. The CDT was composed mainly of volunteers, but they had received little to no training (except for some of those who came from Outpost 1) before they had volunteered for service. The CDT met with initial success, fending off sizeable hordes composed of 500-800 individuals, with only minor casualties.

Months passed, and the horde sizes grew drastically. The CDT then began experiencing unsustainable casualty rates, so much so that half of its fighting force had already been killed by the end of the first quarter of 2015. The CDT was reformed by the Directors of the NCD, organizing it into regiments. The local security forces of each district were also reformed, retraining detachment upon detachments of them into combat engineers and marksmen. These security forces were named as the "Civil Defense". The directors set about recruiting more men and women for the reformed units, first advertising the new reforms, the new defensive scheme, and then training all of the recruits with the new tactics.

The reforms were tried-by-fire with a horde that attacked District 4, numbering 12,700 individuals. It only took a single regiment and the local guardsmen stationed there to beat back this large horde (which is small, by today's standards).

CDT-originated Tactics
The most widely-known tactic developed during the days of the CDT is the Lanes-of-Fire doctrine (not to be confused with an actual doctrine). This tactic applies only to semi-automatic-capable weapons, and is often used in line formations. Infantrymen in line formation aim their weapons parallel to each other. Their aim is their lane of fire. Targets that are within their lane of fire are the only targets permissible for their engagement. Any targets that are not within their lane of fire are not to be engaged. This tactic was developed in order to increase the kill-to-bullet ratio, as it was an extremely common occurrence that two men would shoot the same zombie at the same time. Although this does mean that, occasionally, one infantryman would have to engage more targets than the guy beside him, the difference is negligible as hordes very commonly bunch together tight enough that any shot at even roughly head level will guarantee at least one kill (due to the fact that high-powered rifles are used by some battalions, a bullet may even pass through two heads before stopping at the third). Until today, this tactic is employed by almost all branches of the NCD Army, save for the Hunter Brigade.

The Lanes-of-Fire doctrine is utilized mainly for street-to-street combat, but for rooftop combat, where troops may have to fight roof-to-street or roof-to-roof, the game changes. For root-to-street combat, troops may prefer to use throwable weapons instead of rifles, due mostly in part of the fact that zombies have a smaller profile when viewed from the top, plus the fact that they are moving, which makes them all the more harder to hit. Grenades, molotov cocktails, or pails of gasoline (which are followed up with molotov cocktails) are favoured when taking on hordes from above. Roof-to-roof combat usually utilizes short weapons, like carbines and pistols, as well as melee and the occasional, well-timed grenade. Snipers are usually perched on top of the highest rooftop possible in order to pick off zombies that are yet to approach the main roof fighters. Roof fighters eventually learned take advantage of gaps and elevated roofs, enabling a dozen men to hold off against a hundred parcour zombies.

Modern NCD Army
The tactics initially developed for the Civil Defense and the Militia were mostly a mishmash of ideas thrown into one notebook in the middle of a Directors' meeting. Over time, these were tested, improved and professionalized. The resulting work--the first NCD army combat manual--was rigorously copied and distributed.

A known exception to the conventional militia and guardsmen is the Hunter Brigade, an all-volunteer taskforce with no strict chain-of-command. Hunters use varied weapons and tactics to their own personal tastes, but all fresh hunters undergo the same, specialized training.

NCD Strategies and Doctrine
Previously, the policy adopted by the Directory of the NCD was to keep each outpost defensible using a sizeable, rapid-response task force (the CDT). Once the CDT had completed its first two objectives of clearing out the immediate areas around each outpost and incorporating scattered survivors into the outposts, it was given the responsibility of keeping the trade routes between each outpost open. It was presented the additional problem of increasing horde sizes. It soon took insurmountable casualties within months.

Once the CDT had been reformed into the Militia and the Civil Defense, the NCD Directory adopted a "purge" doctrine. The entire capital region was to be purged of undead and hostile human elements alike. This effectively expanded the influence of the outposts, cementing the NCD's grip over the capital region's converging metropolitan cities.

After this had been accomplished, the Directory adopted a defensive strategy, defining several district borders as frontlines. The frontlines are normally located at least 3km from a district's borders to allow the frontline to move back, as frontlines frequently shift. Long-range early warning operators can operate from up to 20km from a district's borders.