I’ve talked about being in control of your environment. And today we’re going to talk about having the tools to control the area you are working in.
We need to be able to effectively cover an area with our influence. This comes from the same ideas that exist for combat zones but equally applies to our work environments. With that in mind we’re going to take examples from a few games, but mostly War Thunder.
We jump right in now. War Thunder has finally gotten their naval warfare mode sorted and they have released maps for all the modes. However, there is a problem in that there are a number of maps in the rotation that are obviously designed for larger ship to ship confrontations.
That’s amazing and great but at the low levels I’m currently playing at it can be very frustrating. I lost at least two games because of the maps size alone. I’m not complaining that it was unfair or that it gave an imbalance to game. What I’m saying is that I didn’t have the tools to effectively try and compete in those maps.
Now the naval and air modes of War Thunder are large. we’re talking 5 to 8 km or more. For the non-metric system we’re talking about roughly 2 to 4 miles. A fit individual can walk that in an hour or two but we’re playing games that last at most thirty minutes.
And even with high speed boats it still takes a while to get any where that is 5 km out. You might be going 100 km per hour but that’s an hour. That’s going to multiple minutes of travel in game.
I had a situation where I went and tried to capture the distant point. It took me maybe five minutes to get from my spawn point to the capture point. Meanwhile my comrades fought over the nearest two points. They got cut to pieces. We lost a lot of our resources and I’m over there just puttering along trying to get to the point.
This added a lot more of a tactical approach but the problem is the map had maybe four total small ship spawns and four to six battleship spawns. What does that mean? That means that the map was perfect for battleships. The reason is a properly functioning US battleship has an effective range of 13 nautical miles. That’s roughly 24 nautical kilometers.
Battleships and other large ships have a much greater area of control than the boats I currently have access to. Now I can effectively hit most enemy boats with my machine guns and auto-cannons at 1.5 to 2 km. The sweet zone for me is 1 km and in. I can absolutely land most of my shots at that distance. Even with some of the larger guns I recently unlocked, the range is only about 2km for me.
Combine this with the large maps and you have the recipe for wasting time and resources. I could not effectively cover a specific area, nor could I attempt to control the vast open areas on the ocean.
Sometimes we find ourselves in situations where we don’t have the right tools for the job. The small torpedo boats and cruisers that the low tiers have are perfect for tight areas and close in combat. But a battleship in the same area and it will be devastated by torpedoes, machine-guns, and cannons because it would not be able to move effectively.
So having the greatest reach isn’t necessarily the best tool to guarantee success. You need to know the most effective range of your tools. Mental and physical tools, the areas of influence that you have, and the necessary effect that you need to have in order to succeed.
Know the ranges you need to operate in and make sure you have the tools to effectively cover them. Whether that’s enough snacks in the offices or the right binoculars to watch you backwoods property, make sure you have the tools you need to control your area.
Think about it.
Sincerely,
The Irreverent Gentleman
gentlemansuniversityofmanliness 