Originally Posted by Rick_the_new_guy

Some may say, why retreat? If u have bleed on the enemy,

Even without bleed. When out-numbered(and sometimes when even numbers), accommodate the enemy. He wants to attack, let him attack, make room for the thrust, encircle and cut it off. Attacks flank themselves, I cannot over-emphasize that. An attacking enemy is more committed, more predictable. Oblige that choice on the enemy's part and exploit it. When you contradict and stop the enemy's plans, he is forced to change them. A change you won't necessarily understand as well as you are starting to understand this attack. Weaken the attack until when it arrives at its conclusion it is a whithered trickle.

Tactically this means position to overwatch their attack vector while keeping a visual on your immediate right and immediate left friendly:
In front this means:
-Sit in good concealment in front of the approaching enemy and fire at "whites of their eyes" targets that are easy kills
-fall back to the nearest cover, say one half sprint distance, and wait(watch the gap you're opening on your flank between your nearest ally, close it if attacked directly)
-as long as the attack continues repeat, they will re-enter your sights and you can kill one more at a time

in flank position this means:
-sit on the flank of the attack and shoot them in their sides, chances are they will not even seek cover that protects them from your fire(if they do your frontal attackers will see their then exposed side)
-if they do face you as a flanker, immediately withdrawal perpendicular to their attack vector while maintaining sniping contact, if you can suck them to you, you dilute their thrust and scatter its force, possibly redirect it entirely(in this situation it is the frontals responsibility to slide sideways to maintain friendly contact)
-in this way as a flanker the enemy almost can't pursue you without surrendering their objective, keep your distance and they will have to choose between taking steps to staunch the slow bleeding your sniping attacks inflict on their force and abandon their objective or continue on while allowing you almost free reign to attack at your leisure on your terms, seriously, this position is the equivalent of the bouncing flashing invincibility star in mario bros. if you play it right IMO

Let me restate, keep visual with your flank friendlies to your right and left and babysit each other. IF one goes down, the guys on either side should be sliding to close that gap and take flank shots on any attack entering it. If your wing man is moving away from you for some strange reason, 9 out of 10 times this is why, even if he doesn't consciously realize that this is what he is doing. So let him tow you over and fill the gap opening between you as he slides over.

A smart guy realizes this is the moment when your extreme flank man can effectively tow a formation around. And if they tow opposite directions it's usually a problem. Watch out for this SL. Flank men resist the temptation to encircle prematurely, some flanking attacks simply cannot be exploited when they appear. This is like flag hopping to an empty CP while abandoning your primary CP, i.e. your middle which you weaken by flanking. A good point in this brain dump to mention that by their nature flanking maneuvers and frontal static defenses are essentially in opposition and are two tendencies in any formation that needs to be actively balanced by setting clear way points often.

This whole tactic can be defeated by a blitzing overload at one point in the formation(funny how a formation suddenly appears when you just think about the two friendlies on either side of you and position accordingly, an SL doesn't even have to describe some grandiose formation, they just happen with good players). A denser, i.e. shorter distance between friendlies combats this, but is usually ultimately ill-advised and counter-productive, especially while travelling. In such a case SL hot foots to the rear so the respawners appear in front of the blitz, your line collapses laterally to effectively occupy the flank positions of this new blitzing bulge.

If you wanna get ballsy, immediately send your extreme flanks out to attack from the rear and clear out their SL. This is the best defense/counter for an overload blitz, just like in football, throw the attack to the area of the vacated blitzers, i.e. the SL with no support. Even if he joined the blitz he's either waiting patiently in the rear of it to be shot or he spearheaded it and you should've already got'em. If not you guys are all mixed up beyond recognition anyway and its death match time and there's nothing to post in the tactics forum about it. This is no command and control if it comes to this point. If you're SL, my advice is to withdrawal while your boys fight it out and counterattack whatever is left after some people spawn on you.

Anyway, aside from the positioning when you fire, kill one and fall back immediately and repeat as long as they control the conflict, until you regain initiative. The plain fact is that if you want to maintain contact with their enemy element, you need to continue this until you regain the advantage. Even if your withdrawal pushes you back through three CPs you were tasked to defend. It is better to survive and lose objectives until you are reinforced(this will happen as your withdrawal as the enemy generally maneuvers toward your spawn points). You are much more valuable to your team slowing an attack rather than getting run over by it. Maintain contact and keep spotting.

But obviously this isn't optimal and the tactical goal at any moment in your withdrawal is maneuvering to regain initiative. But that's a whole nother topic for a whole other irrelevant brain dump post. Just some rehashed Sun Tzu tactical food for thought.