Endurance
Long deployments are won on pacing, load discipline, and sleep taken in short, guarded blocks.
Survival Tactics
Guides on surviving hostile environments and combat situations — strategies for enduring long-term deployments and adapting to hostile terrain and enemy tactics.
Stay Sharp in Hostile Ground
A black-ops team only survives a long deployment by reading the ground before the enemy reads it. These notes cover the habits that keep Expendables operators functional far from friendly support.
- Read the terrain first. Hostile ground gives away positions: broken brush, fresh tracks, and abandoned equipment all narrow down where a target is holding.
- Adapt, do not improvise. A plan drawn for open country fails in a village or a jungle corridor — rebuild the route around cover and speed of movement.
- Account for enemy tactics. Expect traps and ambushes laid along the obvious approach; choose the path that costs more effort to watch.
- Keep the pace sustainable. Long deployments punish exhaustion. Alternate hard movement with rest windows so the team still has hands when contact starts.
- Stay medically ready. Carried supplies only help if the team knows what to do with them under pressure.
The first and most important rule of combat, per Jean Vilain: Kill First. Every tactic below assumes that mindset.
Survival Priorities
Ranked in the order a team works them when a mission goes sideways.
| Priority | Focus | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cover and concealment | Break line of sight before engaging |
| 2 | Movement discipline | Cross ground without telegraphing the advance |
| 3 | Water, food, ammunition | Sustain the deployment without resupply |
| 4 | First aid readiness | Keep a wounded operator fighting or moving |
| 5 | Signal and extraction plan | Get the team out without a firefight |
Field Notes
Survival is not a solo skill. Stonebanks and Ross form the EXPENDABLES, a special black-ops team sent on missions by the CIA too dangerous for any other team — the tactics only work when every member reads the same ground.
Hostile Terrain
Urban ruins, jungle corridors, and open ground each demand a different route and a different pace.
Enemy Tactics
Anticipate ambush points and prepared positions before the first shot, and move accordingly.
Recovery
Injuries get stabilized, not ignored — see the triage notes for field protocols.