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The setting: Every relevant part of the world is bathed in a thick, soupy, magic juice fog (visibility hovers around a hundred meters on most days). Among other effects, it makes firearms extremely unreliable and short-ranged: your average M4 has an effective range of maybe 50 meters and often jams at least once every magazine, most .30 caliber rifles can reach out to 75 meters and pistol rounds rarely spit past 20 or 30. Heavy weapons are more reliable, but even more gimped in range: past 300-ish meters, most howitzers become pointlessly inaccurate, and even the best tank guns rarely hit past 200 meters. The environment is mainly made up of endless deserts, dotted with ruined old world towns and extensive trenchlines dating back to the start of The War(tm).

The nation: Blue is a deeply collectivist state, existing primarily to enforce its leader's will and eliminate its sworn enemy, Red. Forged by war, backed by years of shared hardship and prodded by a masterful propaganda machine, its culture is thoroughly steeled for conflict - whether through tireless labor or sacrifice in battle, all must contribute without question and without negligence, dissenters be damned. Lives, zeal and basic war materiel are plentiful and expendable, though shortages in up-to-date weapons and anything electronic are chronic and severe. Their military doctrine considers advanced tactics, complex maneuvers or grand battle plans superfluous and inapplicable at best, actively confusing and harmful at worst within their circumstances - in training, they are thus largely neglected in favor of making the recruit more reliable than their rifle - no hesitation may be accepted, no cowardice is even conceivable.

The army: The standard motorized platoon (40-ish men) is made up of 4 squads (plus the platoon commander, his second in command and a medic): two weapons teams, with an autocannon, a mortar, a lightweight 75mm gun and an HMG mixed and matched as the platoon leader sees fit, and two rifle teams with 10 men, an SMG or two, an AKM, a GPMG and several .308 bolt-action rifles each. Hand grenades of various types are common, sometimes rifle grenades are available too. Nobody but NCOs wears significant body armor, usually, and radios are very rare - usually two or three per platoon. For the purposes of this question, we may focus on just a rifle squad (with how slow communications are and with how messy the fighting is, it's perfectly plausible for a squad to fight alone anyways).

The enemy: Red never had the industrial capacity, manpower pool or public support to sustain a war of attrition - but they do have access to the finest technology around, including the ability to conveniently harness magic juice, easily assemble precision components and field fog-resistant electronics at comparatively little expense. For the common infantryman, this mainly manifests in the M4 they carry, the ubiquitous personal radios and access to recon quadricopters even at the squad level. Ammunition shortages are common and morale is typically subpar, however - few will willingly fight to their death and suppressing red units isn't much of a challenge -, which often forces a more conservative fighting style than ideal.

OOC background and The Question: I've done a bit of study on IRL infantry tactics, but a lot of it is stuff that would make no sense for the setting - who needs detailed instructions for advancing on an enemy position 500 meters away if their rifles will only reach you at a tenth of that distance? -. The obvious solution would just be to ignore everything up until the final assault sections and emphasize bayonet and grenade training, but that seems... too obvious. Am I missing anything? How would squad tactics differ, under these conditions, from tactics used IRL by similarly equipped armies?

(EDIT) Due to a multitude of reasons, most infantrymen can only throw grenades up to around 20-30 meters, and their lethality is somewhat hampered (10-ish meters of wounding radius). Same goes for other ordnance - a mortar shell is mostly harmless after 25 meters, a 30mm HE shell can wound up to 6 meters away, a 75mm can maybe do 20. Bows and crossbows have fairly good range, roughly comparable to a full-power battle rifle, but due to their low firerate and ease of use I can't see them being too popular with line infantry. Vehicles are a mixed bag - generally, if the most complicated piece of electronics in it is a spark plug or a headlight, it'll be fine, but on-board computers or advanced sensors require very expensive shielding to not fry in the fog (Red can do this for much lesser expense though). Thermal imaging does function, though with very limited range (good optics, like those mounted on Red tanks, can see up to maybe 200 meters) and price is still multiplied by the need for expensive shielding - same goes for radar, though sonar fares a little better. Factoring in the shielding, though, neither are compact (or accurate) enough that they would be relevant for a standard infantryman.

(EDIT 2) This is a very hot, bloody conflict. I apologize if my request for simply squad-level tactics was misleading but, in retrospect, it's quite likely - considering the troop densities and level of entrenchment - that most scuffles would escalate quite drastically, pulling in fire from neighboring units and generally just making straightforward bayonet rushes or flanking maneuvers not always practical. Actual fighting in the open desert isn't terribly common and is mostly left to vehicles - if infantry is being deployed, at very least there will usually be a trenchline or forward operating base to assault.

(EDIT 3) The fog's effects, aside from the visual range reduction, are due to the magic juice in it, not any conventional physical properties - aside from long-term mental damage (averted by a simple gasmask or, with the utmost seriousness, some damn willpower) and the occasional magic tumor it's perfectly safe to breathe.

(EDIT 4) Flamethrowers were brought up - uh, my brain somehow managed to actively scrub their existence from my mind, but, yes, I don't see why those couldn't reach similar ranges as they do IRL. If they get too dominant, I might consider making up some reason why they can't be too effective, but I will definitely consider expanding their prevalence, thank you!

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    $\begingroup$ The infantry use hand grenades, but how does the magic soup atmosphere affect them (and other explosive payloads)? How far can they be thrown? Is blast range reduced? Is fragmentation range reduced? How are bows and arrows affected? (If bows and arrows are reliable, then...) How are vehicles affected - apparently they are still motorised and have drones. Can thermal imaging, radar and/or sonar penetrate the fog? $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 8, 2021 at 9:54
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    $\begingroup$ Tactics are entirely dependent upon the the specifics of an engagement such as the terrain, resources, and strategic objectives of the combatants. Perhaps you mean to ask a question about doctrine? $\endgroup$
    – sphennings
    Commented Jul 8, 2021 at 11:36
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    $\begingroup$ Uh, maybe? I will not claim to be perfectly familiar with terminology in this area. What I'm after is, well, guidance on how infantry would fight under these conditions - any special techniques, maneuvers or common considerations that would make sense in this setting, any battle drills or standard responses to typical scenarios. If that falls under doctrine, then yes, I guess I'm looking for doctrinal advice. Thank you for your time, sorry if I'm not perfectly clear. $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 8, 2021 at 11:46
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    $\begingroup$ Can we somehow breath this fog? It seems that the fog is "thick" enough to effectively end range combat due to its viscous nature rather than as a result of the loss of visibility. If that is the case, how does your infantry not suffocate or at best be reduced to labored minor activity? $\endgroup$
    – JonSG
    Commented Jul 8, 2021 at 13:33
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    $\begingroup$ Note that if this magic fog covers the entire planet then it needs to be magically emitting light to support photosynthesis, otherwise there's no humans alive to do any fighting. Also consider the effects of a 100m visibility limit on transport - too unsafe to operate any manned aircraft, no high speed driving and therefore very limited ability to supply an army or even maintain even a mid-20th Century industrial base. $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 8, 2021 at 14:43

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Your Armies are ill-equipped for their environment

Partial frame change. I believe your equipment is wrong, and equipment influences tactics. Your guys are loaded out for a modern battlefield, when instead a WWI trench raid might be more accurate.

The setting: Every relevant part of the world is bathed in a thick, soupy, magic juice fog (visibility hovers around a hundred meters on most days).

This visibility barrier will be fundamental to your small unit tactics.

The "average" man can run 100 meters in about27 seconds. While my google-fu failed me for finding military requirements for sprints (US armed forces and all the others I saw do runs of between 2 and 5 kilometers) I did find that to score points (ie: pass but it's a bit more complex than that) on the FBI Special Agent test a male needs to run 300 meters in less than 52.5 seconds, and a 5pt (average) score is 46 seconds source. As the FBI otherwise has similar basic fitness requirements as military organizations I'm assuming a soldier can reasonably be expected to do a 100 meter dash in 17.5 seconds unencumbered. Even if we say it's 3x harder to run with a rifle/ammo/helmet/food/water, that's still less than a minute between "hey there's something moving in the fog" to "oh crap I've been stabbed."

This visibility problem essentially means that you will not get beyond a 1870s-level battlefield visibility until you can get every single person some sort of infrared. Which means that a whole host of weapons, notably long-range artillery, machineguns, and rapid-fire small arms are significantly hampered. The perks of all of these weapons (though less so with small arms) is that they can kill the enemy from a long ways away. The reason 1914-era officers thought machineguns weren't that great before war wasn't because they had some notion of chivalry or sportsmanship. it's that they'd been trained on smoke-drenched battlefields where visibility was garbage, and machineguns were too bulky to ensure they'd be at the right place and even if they were, they'd only be able to dominate a very small area of the field. Unfortunately for soldiers on all sides smokeless powder made battlefields insanely more open than in the past, and machineguns could and did kill swaths of troops up to thousands of yards away. Heavy artillery was likewise scorned by most armies pre-war because it was thought the added range was useless because spotters would never be able to see through the "Fog of War" far enough for their extra range to come into play. in your universe, this Fog of War is 100 meters and can't be penetrated by infantry-held infrared. So artillery is no longer "King of Battle." Machineguns can't scythe down whole battalions 500 meters off. Which means...

1: Bayonet Charges still might work. The Vast majority of bayonet charges don't end in hand-to-hand combat. instead, if the defender thinks the attacker is actually going to "charge home" the defender breaks and runs. That's an effective tactic when your opponent can only be shot for less than a minute. Plus with your magic fog the defender knows "if I can get more than 100 meters away from the guy with the bayonet he can't see me to kill me" making running a safer option than ever! The bayonet charge failed historically at the point where battlefields became so deadly that sticking your head up 300 meters away could get you killed via aimed fire. If that never happens, the bayonet is gonna be relied upon for a longer period. Basically guys arrive out of the mist 100 meters away, charging. Your infantry (and I'm sorry I don't have the link this is just memory of many years of American Civil War/Franco-Prussian/Napoleonic reading) will break and run from a charge at the 30-40 meter mark. So they have 20ish seconds to make up their mind. Can you kill enough guys in 20ish seconds to make THEM quit? No? You run.

2: Shotguns are your friend. Automatic weapons jam, firearms in general jam. Solution? Bring a weapon that has the ability to hit a guy first time. Flamethrowers likewise may hang around as a viable weapon, since the shortened engagement range means they're less likely to be shot 200 meters before they could douse the enemy in fire.

3: Machinepistols could become primary weapons. The main problem with pistols is that they're short-ranged. But if you can only see the enemy 100 meters away anyway that's not that big a deal. Submachineguns might be handy, but things jam "once a magazine." Solution? Take a leaf from the 16-1700s and festoon yourself with pistols! One jams? Don't fiddle with it in the middle of a fight, that's how you die. Instead drop it and go for pistol 2, then pistol 3, and so on. You also then have a hand free for some sort of close combat weapon.

4: Grenades are great! In a world where artillery is effectively useless to an infantryman on the attack, grenades let him bring his arty with him! These would be widespread, perhaps with designated "grenadiers" a-la WWI assault formations.

If I was making an infantry force in these conditions I'd equip them with machinepistols and some sort of close combat weapon, with squad support weapons being either shotgun or flamethrower and short range anti-tank weapons like a Panzerfaust because again, no point in being accurate to 5 kilometers if you can only see a target 100 meters away.

Mechanized warfare gets interesting once you have the optics, since they can "See" enemy infantry 2x further than they can be seen. This should (in my mind) lead to the development of tanks with quick-firing small guns, similar to 3" "pom-pom" guns. The fog of war means that speed is likely to be chosen over armor, as it's much better to simply not be where the enemy is. 200 meters in incredibly close in terms of even WWII armored warfare, and if you're invisible at 210 meters to even the most advanced tanks it's better to "shoot and scoot" than rely on heavy armor to shrug off rounds. Of course the downside is your comms are garbage, which would make coordination hard. My guess is that your armor would function much more as "infantry support weapons" because of the danger in massing all your tanks together for a breakthrough.... only for them to hit the wrong place because of the fog, or have a hard time finding the enemy because you can't re-direct your spearhead towards a threat. As infantry support they could at least rely on runners etc from the infantry passing along orders.

The lack of comms makes things REAL hard for you. In the end I think WWI "stormtrooper" tactics are probably the order of the day for infantry. Small units trying to bypass strongpoints and overwhelm weaker forces quickly while sticking to an overall goal. But wave attacks could also be remarkably successful because visibility is so bad. As an added bonus stormtrooper/trench raid units were largely equipped as I've described above. (troops would often sub out rifles for pistols, there'd be designated grenadier troopers who carried nothing else, and shotguns were so effective in close quarters battle the germans tried to have them labeld a war crime!)

ADDENDUM: I just realized, traditional cavalry are also likely to still be a thing in this setting. Or some modernized version of "guy on horse with a lance." Shock cavlary at the the charge travel approximately 20mph. That means they can cover 100 meters in about 11 seconds. That's... real fast. Imagine trying to shoot 100 charging horses in less than 11 seconds, with a gun that could jam at any moment. Do you hang around to find out if your gun fires long enough for you to do it? Or do you run into the mist and hope they don't catch you? They could also become an answer to tanks, since they could theoretically ride by, affix a anti-tank weapon to the tank, and be gone before the tankers could properly see/shoot them.

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  • $\begingroup$ Hi! Thank you so much for your comment, I've made a couple edits and clarifications since. There's a lot to unpack here, so let me know if you'd like to message in some other way. That said, there are a few things that I'm not sure if I find reasonable. 1 I doubt that machine pistols would be the norm - not only has sight range been affected, effective range has also shot (no pun intended) through the floor. A .308 bolt action rifle might not reach out to 500 meters, but it can still go at least twice as far as an SMG, which I don't think is a nothing advantage. (continued in another comment) $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 8, 2021 at 13:37
  • $\begingroup$ 2 I'm not sure why you think that artillery would be useless. While you might have to use it differently, it's still a good way to cause a lot of explosions in the enemy lines, assuming they hold still long enough for you to find your platoon leader (they usually have a radio) or send a runner (or, hell, even a pigeon) over. Arguably, this would be even easier than in real life: your howitzers will rarely be more than a few hundred meters from the front, and you will probably invisible to the enemy after a good dozen-second sprint if you need to ferry a message back and forth. (continued) $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 8, 2021 at 13:43
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    $\begingroup$ Artillery would be mostly useless to attacking infantry because it'd be extremely difficult to have anything but a timed barrage during an attack. If the range of arty is a few hundred meters, it's also very vulnerable to being overrun which also limits use. It'd also have difficulties even if longer-ranged, due to the difficulty in spotting targets behind enemy lines that would be worthy of firing on. In WWI they fired literally millions of shells for 10s of thousands of casualties. And that is a situation where you can see for miles. Your guns would be even less effective. $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 8, 2021 at 14:32
  • $\begingroup$ I didn't quite grasp your sliding range problem, but pistols still seem the way to go. Larger-bore maybe for increased range, but in a world where your ammo jams regularly it's better to have 3 guns with 1 mag each than 1 gun and 6 mags. But depending on how you the worldbuilder handle it a magazine-fed shotgun may be superior. My concern with an SMG is that, with ranges being what they are, you might find yourself in need of an edged weapon and an SMG-with-bayonet is inferior to a shotgun with bayonet or sword/ixwa for hand 2 hand. $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 8, 2021 at 14:35
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    $\begingroup$ Keep in mind that the corollary to hand grenades being great is that mines are great too, especially command detonated. The rules of this world give a major advantage to the defender who can stick some Claymores about 50m in front of their position, covered by fire to stop anyone turning them around. However, need to be quick on the clacker to initiate given how quickly an enemy can approach. $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 8, 2021 at 14:40
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Chaotic melees

Since weapons and reconnaissance capabilities are both so short-ranged and unreliable due to this literal fog of war, most of the time opposing forces won't know that each other are there until they're right on top of each other. As such, most combat will be short, deadly melees a la Rattenkrieg.

Although I can't say for sure, tactical doctrine will probably be something like this:

  1. If you see the enemy first and he's advancing towards you, hide and set up an ambush.

  2. If he's staying in one spot, encircle him and then toss in some grenades.

  3. If you're ambushed, duck and cover. Also, Mr. Hand Grenade is your friend.

  4. If you and the enemy see each other at the same time, firefight.

Relative to your equipment, I'm not sure it's quite realistic. The main reason why bolt-action battle rifles such as the Kar 98 and Garand were developed was to allow infantry to accurately fire at long ranges. Your literal fog of war effectively negates that advantage. Most troops will be armed with sub-machine guns, shotguns, and other close-range armament. Also, hand grenades will be much more common, as troops will be using them constantly.

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    $\begingroup$ Hi! Thank you for your answer, though I'd like to clarify a couple things. 1 Long-range rifles do still have an advantage - as stated in the question, a .308 rifle in this setting still has an effective range of 75-ish meters, much more than the 30 most SMGs can push out. 2 This is very much a high-intensity conflict - the most brutal (and most central) front has fairly well estabilished frontlines, with overall high levels of entrenchment and very high troop density. Flanking isn't always an option, there's a lot of concentrated firepower - hence the frequent... (continued in another comment) $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 8, 2021 at 13:22
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    $\begingroup$ ... need for mid-range exchanges of fire to whittle down enemy resistance. While I'm sure most Blue NCOs would love to try, bayonet charges just aren't always practical. Still, your feedback is appreciated, I'd love to hear more, let me know if you'd like to message in some other fashion! $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 8, 2021 at 13:27
  • $\begingroup$ @EngineerB-7214 The thing is, it's very hard to whittle away the enemy's forces when they're dug in. During WWI (when such attrition tactics reached their pinnacle), most infantry combat was in the form of raids on each other's trenches. This will be even more exacerbated in your setting, since the fog of war seriously reduces the effectiveness of artillery. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 8, 2022 at 1:42

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