Not enough has been written on the strategies and tactics behind employing maneuver gear use. We see soldiers fighting titans in the anime/manga, and it's often clear that certain techniques are being used, but none of its explained in detail, and I thought that I'd center this chapter around exploring what sorts of theories and approaches there might be to using 3DMG against titans. It's partly inspired by the Attack on Titan tribute game, which I am absolutely terrible at!
Chronologically, this story takes place in the days following the capture of Annie in the district of Stohess, while Eren is still recovering from his battle with the female titan. In other words, the story arc in which titans are encountered inside Wall Rose has not occurred yet. Armin has been assigned to review current maneuver gear tactics, which proved virtually useless against the intelligent titan encountered by the Scouting Legion.
After the most recent manga chapter (53 or 54?), which featured the conversation between Erwin and Nile Dok, I found myself very interested by the character of Nile. Once again, this manga series shows that nobody is really black or white.
Fair warning, a significant amount of this story will consist of the text of the maneuver gear manual that Armin is reviewing.
Chapter 4:
An Analysis of Common Errors Responsible for Combat
Deaths among 3D Maneuver Gear Troops
Mike Zacharius, Petra Ral
Approved by Scouting Legion Commander Erwin Smith
January of the year 849
Humanity's experience using 3D maneuver gear against titans was extremely limited before the breaching of Wall Maria in the year 845. Prior to this event, the only employment of maneuver gear in combat had been limited to the nineteen expeditions conducted by the Scouting Legion before the fall of Shiganshima district. The loss of the Wall Maria territories to the titan invasion was a brutal surprise to a military that was largely unprepared to deal with the sudden need to meet titans in open battle. Although human forces suffered greatly in this turbulent time, the crisis ultimately brought about a positive program of military reform that has immeasurably increased the readiness and competence of our soldiery. As of this document's writing in the year 849, a total of forty-seven expeditions by the Scouting Legion have been dispatched beyond the walls, with moderate to fierce fighting occurring on every expedition without exception. In addition, the withdrawal from Wall Maria in the year 845 was also marked by frequent titan encounters as the Garrison defended strategic positions in order to delay the titan advance and allow the civilian population to evacuate. Lastly, the failed effort to recapture Wall Maria in the year 846 was the single largest battle fought against titans by humanity in over a hundred years, though accounts of the expedition are fragmented and incomplete due to the extremely small number of survivors.
As a result of these experiences, our military forces have recently learned a great deal about what to expect from any future fighting. However, current training practices and battle strategy are colored heavily by a degree of hysteria and pessimism. For instance, it is held a fundamental tenet of current military thought that approximately thirty soldiers, on average, must be committed in order to defeat a single 13-meter class titan. However, the Scouting Legion has learned through extensive practice that four or even two veteran soldiers are in fact capable of dispatching a typical large titan.
Through the Legion's experiences, a great deal has been learnt regarding the best practices for small groups or even individuals that are forced to give battle when the option of avoiding titans is no longer feasible. This knowledge, however, has come at a heavy cost, as a Scouting Legion soldier has a 90 percent chance of perishing over the course of four years of service. A large number of inexperienced soldiers are killed in their very first or second attempt to engage a titan, and no more than fifty percent of fresh recruits are expected to survive their first expedition with the Scouting Legion.
This high fatality rate, however, has permitted our branch to better understand the mistakes and errors that are most commonly responsible for casualties. The analysis presented by this document, compiled by three of the most experienced soldiers serving in the Legion, summarizes a list of ten fatal factors that, together, appear to account for the overwhelming majority of human losses suffered when employing maneuver gear against normal-type titans.
This analysis is intended to serve as an aid for future training and the development of improved exercises and battle tactics. Soldiers that survive their first campaign demonstrate a markedly higher survival rate and combat effectiveness, and humanity will be greatly strengthened if it is able to cultivate a large body of these experienced troops. It is the firm belief of the authors of this manuscript that future efforts to resist the titans will be immeasurably aided by a strong effort to educate soldiers and trainees on the most common causes of battle casualties.
I. Technical Errors:
Without question, a great number of the soldiers that are killed fighting titans perish as a result of small maneuvering mistakes made under stress, resulting in a speed of flight or path of travel that deviates from what the user expected or intended. Even small differences between the expected and actual trajectory of a soldier using maneuver gear are sufficient to cause collisions with obstacles, loss of control, or simple panic. These positioning and maneuver errors, caused by inefficient usage of gas propellant, poor choice of anchor points, lack of experience, and the general failure to use the maneuver gear in a manner that achieves the expected result, are overwhelmingly the most lethal causes of combat deaths among maneuver gear-equipped soldiers.
II. Failure to Consider Escape Paths in Advance of an Attack:
When executing an attack against a titan of any size, it is of the utmost importance to rapidly formulate a complete plan that includes the approach, the attack phase itself, as well as the intended direction of escape. Experienced veterans perform this preparatory planning instinctively, additionally considering alternative attack and exit routes to account for the unexpected. Failure to account for an escape route is a risky gamble that has cost hundreds of soldiers their lives when they complete or abort an attack only to find themselves either stranded due to a lack of anchor surfaces, surprised by an unseen threat, forced to improvise a clumsy escape at dangerously low speed, or in imminent danger of a crash. Sadly, most fatalities that result from this error are incurred when soldiers execute an unplanned attack in a desperate attempt to save the life of a comrade in danger.
III. Poor Situational Awareness:
Despite their size, titans are often overlooked or unnoticed by distracted or inattentive soldiers until it is too late. A common mistake is for a scout to look back over their shoulder at the target they have just attacked only to be killed as a result of this split-second of unawareness. Similarly, squads have suffered unnecessary casualties in the past when they have elected to engage twelve-meter to fifteen-meter classes without first checking for three-meter to six-meter classes concealed in the shadows or behind obstacles. Soldiers are also often killed while focused on eliminating one titan and failing to notice the arrival of additional threats. These casualties are tragically avoidable, and should addressed with extreme emphasis during training.
IV. Use of the Titan as an Anchor Point:
While the placement of maneuvering gear grapples in the flesh of the targeted titan and the use of a titan as an anchor point for repositioning are both essential techniques for combat in open ground and even in areas well suited for 3DMG combat, inexperienced or less-skilled soldiers often fail to account for the fact that a titan is a moving object that consequently behaves differently than a stationary anchor point. A walking or running titan imparts an additional physical influence on anchored wires that may result in a flight trajectory radically different from the intended path of travel. Additionally, a titan's limbs or its movement behind an obstacle may seriously interfere with wires with unpredictable results, sometimes even preventing proper grapple release. Soldiers firing anchors into titans during combat must account for these possibilities, and should not use titans as anchor points when a safer alternative is available.
V. Failure to Exercise Adequate Caution when Engaging Aberrant Titans:
Aberrant titans are uniquely and lethally dangerous, even to the seasoned soldier. Approximately 40% of total Scouting Legion casualties are inflicted by aberrants, despite the fact that they comprise less than ten percent of all titans. They are also responsible for the overwhelming majority of deaths among experienced veterans. The fact that a titan may appear to show typical behavior when first encountered, only to exhibit unexpected speed and/or agility when engaged, makes them particularly lethal to unprepared troops. Aberrant behavior remains largely beyond our understanding, and their unpredictability often leaves soldiers with no other option but to fight and defeat them. Due to the great deal of variability in the characteristics of individual aberrants, the most reliable method of eliminating them is to disable their mobility through temporary damage to key motor muscles, ensuring a clear strike at the nape of the neck.
VI. Grapple and Wire Awareness:
Maneuver gear is strongest when used to fight a small-scale engagement against individual targets. The chaos of a crowded battlefield requires that all soldiers exercise additional care during maneuvering and combat. Collisions with friendly wires or soldiers, casualties from fired grapples, wire entanglement, and blade injuries are a grim reality of 3DMG combat. Prior to the development of coordinated squad attack and movement drills, devastating mass collisions were single-handedly responsible for the failure of several Scouting Legion expeditions. Advanced team-based training has been found to be the single most effective tool to minimize the likelihood of such disasters. All soldiers should also be intensively trained to maintain a meticulous awareness of the positions of their blades, wires, grapples, and bodies, as well as the implications of their next movements and actions, even under high-stress conditions.
VII. Persisting in a Failed Attack:
Even experienced soldiers occasionally fail to cleanly cut away the nape of a titan on the first attack. However, it is a grave mistake to immediately re-engage the titan, either as an individual or with a team, following an unsuccessful strike. The decision to engage a titan in the first place requires careful consideration of attack and escape paths, nearby threats, the area of combat, and an assessment of the necessity of eliminating the target. Following a failed attack, one or more of these factors have often changed, and continuing to engage the titan may be prohibitively dangerous or even unnecessary. The pursuit of vengeance, in particular, is a particularly irresponsible reason to continue attempting to kill a titan that has already caused casualties.
VIII. Gas Management:
Especially over the course of a long engagement or several successive battles, gas efficiency is the single key to long-term survival. Given suitable terrain and anchor surfaces, soldiers are capable of outrunning and avoiding even large numbers of normal-type titans indefinitely for as long as their gas supplies and physical stamina last. It should be unnecessary to explain that an exhausted set of gas cylinders constitutes a death sentence, but to current knowledge, no soldier has ever survived fighting a titan on foot. Fighting when low on gas should be avoided unless as a measure of extreme last resort, and soldiers should make all efforts to use their maneuver gear as efficiently as possible, exchanging gas cylinders whenever the situation permits.
IX. Failure to Account for the Danger Presented by a Titan's Head:
Among new recruits, technical mistakes and poor planning and battlefield awareness are responsible for the large majority of casualties. The most common tactical error, however, is failing to maintain a safe distance from a titan's head during combat. Few mistakes are so immediately fatal. Titans have been shown to exhibit some rudimentary ability to predict the trajectory of moving objects, and are well capable of catching careless soldiers with their mouths and teeth. For this reason, a titan's head should be treated with the same respect as its hands and arms. An attack maneuver that comes close to the front or sides of a titan's head should never be executed under any circumstances.
X. Poor Battlefield Positioning:
Due to various factors, such as the treatment of casualties, resupply of gas and blades, miscommunication, fatigue, the rout of supporting friendly squads, the loss of horse transport, and simple combat stress, medium to large-scale battles against titans often result in squads or platoons that find themselves surrounded or cornered. Often, groups naturally cluster on safe terrain such as tall buildings, only to realize too late that all paths of retreat have been cut off. Given sufficient time, titans will scale even formidable obstacles and structures, therefore safe havens often offer only a very temporary respite. The longer a surrounded group hesitates, the greater the likelihood that they will be forced to fight a final, desperate battle in order to escape. To avoid the inevitable losses that result from such disadvantageous combat, squads should constantly endeavor to reposition themselves in a manner that always leaves one or more options for retreat available. Soldiers should also be encouraged to take initiative and deviate from issued orders when necessary for the safety of the unit.
Armin looked up from the bound manuscript to glance at the row of tall windows set into the wall of Stohess's military library. The sun's rays shone directly through the glass, spilling across the aisles and bookshelves and tracing long shadows that stretched along the length of the library's main hall. The afternoon had begun its dramatic transition to the dusk. Within a few hours, the sun would set, and Armin would have to retrieve a lamp from the recorder's office if he wanted to continue to reading and writing through the night.
Gazing at the dull glow of Stohess's apartment roofs and bell towers beneath the sun, Armin thought that this part of the city looked almost as though the chaotic battle between two titans had been just a thing of the imagination. The only sign of the catastrophic destruction that had consumed the district's eastern quarter three days ago was the haze of dust that hung in the air, infusing the sunlight with a dirty tone of sepia. Beyond the rooftops stood the dark outline of Wall Sina, its great protective height seeming to scrape the clouds. Once, Armin had found the commanding presence of the walls a source of comfort—a sign of humanity's resistance against the terrors that threatened them. Now that he knew what horrors stood, dormant, inside them, Sina's height and grandeur served only to underline the nightmarish doom that had befallen mankind, the absurdity of the hopelessness of their struggle to stave off the inevitable end.
With the defeat and capture of the female titan, humanity had eliminated one dangerous existential threat to its existence. But with the revelation of the colossal titans within the walls, it seemed that their very existence had always been a lie—a death trap of a sanctuary, worse than any cage.
Yet at the same time, with the discovery of Eren's titan shifting power, humanity had never felt a greater hope…
He turned his attention back to the sheets of blank paper that he had stacked next to the Survey Crops manuscript he'd been reading. Dipping his pen in ink, Armin positioned his hand at the top of the first empty page and wrote:
Recommendations for the Combat Use of
3D Maneuver Gear Against Intelligent Titan Shifters
Armin Artlet
He left some space for Commander Erwin's signature and seal of approval, then added:
September of the year 850
Armin didn't feel particularly qualified for the task he'd been set with, though he understood why he had been chosen. Still, while theoretical questions were certainly his strength, his performance with the maneuver gear was worse than mediocre, to the point that he felt that he lacked the necessary personal experience with its combat use to arrive at any new tactics or conclusions. He could list all of the technical specifications of the 3DMG gear and harness, describe the elements of a perfectly delivered nape strike, and analyze the steps required to execute a slingshot turn, surface-anchored climb, or emergency directional change, but his performance in combat and on the training courses was abysmal. Routine maneuvering was already something he found relatively challenging, yet most of his friends seemed to take to it naturally, almost instinctively.
He didn't delude himself when it came to his ability in actual combat. Should he ever find himself forced to fight a titan alone… it might likely mean the end of him. He shuddered as he recalled the all-consuming terror and despair he had felt as he'd slid down a titan's tongue, fingers struggling to find a grip on something, anything—and then Eren's hand had closed around his own…
He'd felt as though he'd died and lived and died again in the space of minutes that day.
Armin didn't understand why Mikasa or Levi had not been assigned instead with compiling this list of considerations for fighting titan shifters. Mikasa was highly intelligent, after all, though her mindset tended to favor a brutally pragmatic focus that sometimes missed the strategic or long-term picture. In addition, she was an expert with the maneuver gear, and she and Levi were the only soldiers of the Scouting Legion that had been shown to be remotely capable of challenging the female titan alone. Levi was currently recovering from his ankle injury and consequently had ample free time, and his long years of experience with the Legion as well as his combat abilities and formidable cunning seemed to make him an ideal candidate.
Then again, Levi had not participated in the creation of the manuscript he'd just read either. In fact, his name did not appear on a single one of the numerous Scouting Legion publications, reports, and documents that Armin had consulted so far.
Upon further reflection, Armin remembered that Mikasa had actually asked Levi at mealtime once why he seemed to keep his approaches and strategies for fighting titans secret instead of teaching them to the rest of the Scouting Legion. Levi had simply replied, "They're no secret. It's just meaningless to talk about them. Every soldier has a different physique, weight, strike characteristics, and level of comfort with maneuver gear, as well as different personal habits. My abilities are matched perfectly with my temperament and what I am physically capable of. Each soldier must learn how to survive and fight in the way that suits him or her best—forcing others to adopt and conform to my techniques might end up killing them."
Armin was still unsure of what to make of humanity's strongest soldier. From his limited knowledge of the man, Levi was highly rational, capable of ruthlessly pursuing any course of action that he deemed efficient, even if the choice might have shocked a more empathetic individual. His qualities hardly seemed suitable for leadership, yet he was completely trusted by everyone that served with him. Cool and collected in even the most chaotic of situations, keenly aware of his mortality yet confident in his abilities, it seemed that Levi inspired trust through brutal honesty.
Bringing his mind back to the matter at hand, Armin realized that the sun was now setting in earnest behind the inner wall to the west. The library's hall had dimmed considerably. He ought to return to work if he wanted to finish in time for dinner.
Intelligent titans.
He had heard from some of the other soldiers that Annie had killed her victims with a casual cruelty—ripping soldiers limb from limb, dragging others to death behind her as she ran. He didn't know the truth of the stories—some of the scouts were almost certainly exaggerating. A few soldiers were claiming that the female titan had breathed fire at them like some mythical drake of old, while the sole survivor from Darius Baer-Varbrun's destroyed squad swore that she'd had four arms. All Armin had witnessed of Annie's handiwork had been the deaths of Ness and his assistant Siss during the last expedition, both dashed violently to pieces against the ground by their 3DMG wires, as well as her defeat of several squads of soldiers during the Stohess operation. From what he'd seen, the killing had been accomplished quickly and efficiently. He still wasn't quite sure what to believe.
She had spared him on the day of the expedition—not once, but twice… Yet at the same time, she had aimed to kill when fighting first Jean, then Reiner, then Mikasa. And during the battle in Stohess, she hadn't held back in the slightest.
It had been his plan, after all, Armin admitted. In retrospect, he had been foolishly naïve to ever believe that it would succeed—everything had hinged on Annie's willingness to trust him, and as events had proved, that assumption had been doomed to failure from the start. And he had completely failed to predict that she possessed a backup method of inflicting self-injury… Eren's sudden inability to transform had almost been the last nail in the coffin. Had it not been for Erwin's insistence on a monumental level of preparedness—additional net traps, the deployment of the entire Scouting Legion—Annie might well have scaled Wall Sina and escaped.
Armin frowned and leaned back to stare at the ceiling. In the ceiling above him, a great painting of the Scouting Legion's crest stretched overhead, marking this section of the library as the area dedicated to that branch's materials and records. He felt strangely cold. How many scouts' lives had he, Armin, doomed by remaining silent after he'd seen her present Marco's 3DMG gear as her own that day? Why hadn't he spoken up then? They hadn't had the slightest idea at the time of the kind of power she possessed, but they would have had the advantage of total surprise… Annie would not have even suspected that her cover had been blown. Eren, still recovering in his quarters, was still consumed with guilt at his decisions during the battle in the tall trees, at his initial inability to transform three days ago, and at his moment of hesitation that had allowed Annie to escape into her crystal. Armin could easily understand and forgive his friend's errors—they were human mistakes, involuntary and well-intentioned. His own voluntary silence, however, had been incomprehensible and inexcusable, even at the time.
He would not make such a mistake again.
Armin fidgeted as he sat, pen in hand. Where could he begin? The female titan was such a formidable enemy that Eren in his titan form had barely been sufficient to defeat her. There was hardly any guarantee that Eren would necessarily be present the next time the Legion faced an intelligent titan shifter, but how on earth was it possible for them to defeat one with human soldiers alone? He'd read all the reports of the 57th expedition. Of nine known attempts by various squads to engage the female titan, only the special operations unit had even succeeded in inflicting so much as a single wound. Seven of those squads had been left with just one or two survivors. The other two had been wiped out completely.
Suddenly, Armin heard the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps. The boy, conditioned since his youth to conceal whatever he was reading whenever others neared, instinctively slammed the manuscript shut and looked up defensively in the direction the newcomer was coming from.
A figure wearing a dress uniform marked with the green unicorn of the military police stepped into view from around the nearest bookshelf. Catching sight of Armin, the tall man stopped, and Armin recognized the thin, black-haired officer from Eren's trial—the Chief of the Military Police Brigade, Nile Dok. Armin put down his pen hurriedly, stood from his chair and saluted, his initial nervousness at being disturbed quadrupled by the knowledge of who he was standing across from.
The man narrowed his eyes at Armin without returning the salute. "What are you doing here? This building is restricted."
"I am conducting research on behalf of the Scouting Legion under the orders of Commander Erwin Smith, sir!" Armin exclaimed, maintaining his position of attention. "I have a letter of authorization if you wish to see it."
Nile made a neutral sound at the mention of Commander Erwin's name, "Hm." He waved a hand, giving Armin permission to be at ease. The policeman looked over Armin briefly with a critical gaze, his eyes resting briefly on the Legion's emblem sewn above Armin's heart. "Rose… Erwin must be desperate for recruits by the look of you. How old are you?"
"Fifteen, sir."
"So you were one of this year's graduates, then," Nile reasoned aloud. "In which division of the 104th Trainee Detachment were you trained?"
Armin wondered if he was being cross-examined. It appeared that the chief of police did not recognize him as one of Eren's childhood friends who had been present at the trial. Looking Nile Dok straight in the eye, Armin replied, "The Southern Command Region, sir."
The implications of that statement were clear on both of them. Some members of every trainee class, irrespective of region, never returned home—unlucky victims of the harsh lessons of the military forces. Never before, however, had so many recruits from a single region been wrapped in bloody cloth and buried side-by-side beneath the crossed swords flag of the trainee corps. The whole of humanity had been given pause by the bloodletting among this group of youths. A memorial to the 104th was already under construction in Trost.
Seeing the sudden look in the police chief's eyes, Armin suddenly added, "I fought alongside my trainee corps at Trost during the operation to recapture the city. I have since served in my first expedition with the Scouting Legion, and I participated in the female titan capture operation that took place here several days ago."
Armin had predicted that the military policeman's eyes would widen at the realization that this frail recruit had more combat experience than he did. He had anticipated an embarrassed or shame-filled reaction, perhaps some acknowledgement in the chief of police's expression that would hint at a grudging respect for humanity's most battle-hardened military branch. Instead, Armin was surprised at the slight relaxation of Nile Dok's frown, followed by an almost invisible thinning of the lips that might have passed for a smile. The older man's eyes glinted with a look of genuine, open esteem.
"What is your name, soldier?" he asked.
"Armin Artlet, from the Shiganshima district, sir."
Nile blinked, his face hardening again. He glanced at the table Armin was sitting at, covered in stacks of documents and reports from the history of the Scouting Legion. Finally, the older man sighed and looked away.
"Carry on, Armin Artlet," he said. His expression was suddenly distant, as though he was revisiting something of the past. After a short pause, he added, "Just remember this—your bravery is equal to the Legion's reputation… but if bravery were all that really mattered, then Erwin and the rest of them would have reconquered the world a hundred times over by now…"
Chief of the Military Police Nile Dok inclined his head in a small nod, then turned and left. The click of his boots against the oaken floorboards filled the empty hall for a long minute. A door opened and closed, and Armin found himself alone in total silence once more.
Armin sat down and pulled his chair towards the table. Reaching for the Scouting Legion manual, he opened it again. He read the title and list of authors once more.
Mike Zacharius, Petra Ral
He hadn't known the redheaded special operations scout particularly well, but her death along with the annihilation of the rest of her squad apart from Levi had hit Eren hard. Nor was this the only document authored by one or more soldiers who were now dead. Squad leader Ness had written a piece on equestrian skills necessary for operations in titan territory. The 11th commander of the Scouting Legion had pioneered the system of smoke signals just before the expedition that had culminated in his death. Then there were the expedition reports themselves, each ending with a casualty list of the wounded, dead, and missing…
Suddenly, Armin understood. He thought he knew now why Erwin had chosen him for this task, not Mikasa or Levi. A skilled soldier asked to devise a plan to defeat an intelligent titan would try their utmost to formulate strategies that might work, and they would throw themselves at the foe without hesitation during any battle itself, but a weak soldier would question the very decision to fight or attack where a hardened veteran would not.
A strategy had to be within the abilities of all of its participants, not just those who were the most capable. The long-range scouting formation employed poor fighters as messengers and horse relay members. His own plan to kill the titans in the basement of the Garrison headquarters in Trost had utilized the less-skilled soldiers as bait to allow the seven top trainees to strike.
Levi or Mike Zacharius or Mikasa might stand a chance against an intelligent titan, but they were exceptional. The typical soldier, or one who was merely above-average, stood no chance.
And from Armin's perspective, that made it clear what the single deadliest mistake was.
Recommendations for the Combat Use of
3D Maneuver Gear Against Intelligent Titan Shifters
Armin Artlet
September of the year 850
When confronted by a hostile human-controlled intelligent titan, the most fatal mistake that can be made by maneuver gear-equipped soldiers is the decision to engage at all. Only an exceptionally skilled maneuver gear user, capable of executing wildly unpredictable attack paths and possessing almost inhuman talent and reaction speed, can have any hope of defeating an intelligent titan.
Without a well-designed ambush, it is impossible to kill or capture a titan shifter in titan form, even with the participation of elite veteran soldiers. The combination of an aberrant titan's strength, speed, and vitality, together with the human operator's intelligence and awareness, dooms any attempt to fight an intelligent titan with maneuver gear to failure. The shifter's ability to protect its weak points, harden or regenerate parts of its body, understand maneuver gear tactics, manipulate grapples and wires, and predict the likely path of fast-moving objects together make its titan all but invincible.
Armin sighed, then grimly added:
A single intelligent titan, fighting largely without assistance, was able to quintuple the highest casualty total ever experienced at the hands of an individual titan in the entire history of the Scouting Legion. Unless the situation demands a massive loss of life, combat against a titan shifter should be avoided at all costs.