Many readers have asked about how Quantum Corps nanotroopers go about their business.  What sort of tactics are effective in combatting enemies in the world of atoms and molecules?  The following list details some of these tactics and maneuvers.

Operational Strategy and Tactics

1.    Deception and concealment:

Nanoscale assemblers and robots with quantum processors have the ability to make relatively quick configuration changes.  Swarms can look like clouds of dust, rain storms and hordes of flies or bees, even structures like buildings, cars, etc.  These config changes provide a ready-made source of deceptive countermeasures for concealment, allowing a typical ANAD unit to infiltrate and spring a surprise on even the most suspicious adversary.  The Russians call this tactic maskirovka. 

 

2.    Feints and Diversions:

The Chinese general and strategist Sun Tzu claimed that “all war is based on deception.”  Feints and diversions are part of the same toolkit.   Quantum Corps uses swarms to conceal a main axis of assault, or to confuse an adversary as to where the main assault will be.  This is a relatively straightforward task in nanoscale warfare.  Just replicate a few trillion bots, configure them into something the enemy expects and send them in the direction the enemy is anticipating.  If your intelligence is good, the enemy will react to these moves and weaken himself along another axis.  The ability to replicate quickly and form swarms to resemble any structure or form gives ANAD-style units unbeatable capabilities.

 

3.    Swarming attack (mass):

The use of replicated mass in nanobotic warfare is one of the simplest tactics to use.  Just slam atoms together like a drug-crazed brickmason on steroids and overwhelm the enemy with sheer mass.  Nanotroopers call this a ‘Big Bang.’  The trick to succeeding with this tactic is to be able to out-replicate the enemy and fend off any defenses he may have up his nanoscale sleeve…like electron bond disrupters, etc.  Although it’s often said that the best way to defeat a swarm is with another swarm, a High-Energy Radio Frequency (HERF) gun doesn’t hurt.  With enough blasts of rf, any swarm can be shattered and turned into clouds of french fries falling out of the sky.

 

4.    Dispersal

One of the great advantages of using swarms of nanobots in combat is the ability to pulse.  Pulsing means that the normal state of affairs is for the swarm to be dispersed or scattered to resemble or blend in to the local environment.  With the right signal, the dispersed bots can quickly gather together into whatever configuration or formation is needed, and slam the adversary from multiple directions at once.  Bees do it.  Birds do it.  And now ANAD nanobots do it too. 

 

5.    Entrapments and Ambushes

An ambush is a form of deception.  The point is to draw the adversary into a space where you have the advantage of mass and position.  Ambushes can be ridiculously easy when your swarms have the ability to configure as just about anything, a mountain, a cloud, a body of water.  But all nanobotic swarms require vigorous atom-slamming to maintain structure, and thus give off acoustic, electromagnetic and other atomic effects of this activity.  Thus masking your signature and controlling emissions is critical to an ambush.  As Sun Tzu put it: “Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.”

 

6.    Managing Configuration Changes

Quantum Corps tactics succeed when the proper swarm configuration can be deployed in a tactically effective manner.  This means the config templates and drivers have to be up to speed.  It also means the bots that make up a swarm have to be designed from the outset to replicate commanded configs quickly and without error, often under combat conditions.  A lot of this depends on intelligence…what do you know about your adversary?  Good intelligence, good communications and effective configuration management…every tactic used by Quantum Corps has all these elements, in abundance. 

 

These are just some of the basic tactics and maneuvers used by ANAD-style formations in Quantum Corps engagements. 

 

I hope everyone has a happy holiday and look for the next post in mid-January 2015.