ARU Training

ARU conducts SWAT 4 game training

Armed Response Unit the SWAT 4 game co-op simulation team conducted "stack" training last night at its private LAN Hamachi training facility. The newly formed unit practiced stacking, corridor and entry tactics in two man teams with good results.

Inspector Rob "Rockape" Lee said about training "we are one big family here, although some do need to think about deploying deodorant grenades or maybe even think about brushing up on their shower drills".

The next training session is this evening at 18:00 GMT contact police.team.aru@gmail.com for recruitment details, and make sure you clean up before attending.

Tactical Basics: Individual movement

ARU SWAT 4 Tactics: Individual movement SWAT 4 Multiplayer

Looking back to our basic training so far we can establish that our duty is to defend ourselves, our team mates, civilians and then attempt to prevent harm to suspects.

How you move in transit, into a hostile confrontation or how you move around inside a security bubble becomes part of the equation when we think line of fire, stable firing positions i.e. aimed rounds at the target and exposure to hostile fire.

An Officer will walk but never run (sorry Sting, bastardised quote from An Englishman in New York)

This section develops the concept further and provides guides on how you can maintain your end of the team bargain. Although not strictly true, on occasions running outweighs the benefit of walking, generally Officers walk and don't run. The validity of walking as apposed to running should be obvious to an intelligent ARU Officer, but we shall digress into the topic for confirmation.

Back to our duty of defending ourselves, team mate etc etc Unless you can return effective conclusive fire from a stable, sustainable firing position whilst moving or static you are not an effective team member.

Thou shalt not pop a cap in the back of my mates head
So we come on to our first real Drill, the Off-set Drill.

When moving as a team we need a requirement to be predictable in our movements to fellow ARU Officers, especially when the rounds are flying. Off-set is a standardised movement in which Officers can predictably assume line of fire clearance to target. Off-set can be used for many contact Drills and forms a core Drill.

Descriptive: All Officers shall maintain a clearance of a minimum of shoulder width (one virtual Officer) to the off-side of the preceding officer. Off-side is defined as the side to which the formation of Officers from front to rear is fanning out too (confused? Lets have a diagram).


Any Officer requiring to go "off target" shall advertise this fact to fellow officers by stepping into Near-side with voice confirmation of the Drill he is about to conduct...

Example STOPPAGE drill (post to follow) Officer: (steps into near side) "STOPPAGE" .

Officers must instantly go "weapons safe" on Near-side, i.e. do not engage targets with fire-arms.

To reclaim his position an Officer must (in order) call "MINE" and then step back into position to engage the target area.

Off-set covers many line of sight (LOS) issues and is used within other drills, for example fire avoidance (avoiding hostile fire) or Stoppage drills (magazine change) where the Officer ALWAYS steps to the NEAR SIDE. Near-side is a no fire zone, Officers should not fire whilst "near-side" (part of fire control Drills in a following post).

Near-side in conclusion is the "working" area for Stoppages, TACAID set-up etc If an Officer steps into Near-side you understand that 1. His likely to be "guns down" or "off target" 2. You may have Added targeting loads or 3. He is avoiding hostile LOS and you should be aware.

Conclusion Off-Set Drill: Off-side fire and Near Side dont fire EVER.

When we do run

The only official time an ARU Officer runs is initial entry off the stage area, following a TACAID in for example. This "running" is only to get in and clear the bottleneck (door) as quickly as possible to allow following Officers to gain entry. This Drill will follow later, but essentially once clear of the bottleneck we drop back into walking for strong stable firing positions.

Movement conclusion

Basic Tenant yet again, remember every Officer has the right to defend him/her self with a fire arm. This right means that an Officer who feels justified to use a fire arm WILL, you cannot assume that the fellow Officer 1. knows your position 2. knows your intentions 3. will hold fire

Within the basic tenant you must fulfill your duty to defend, you must provide a stable firing position to defend at all times. You will find on many occasions Officers will reach the same conclusion at the same time and engage a target simultaneously, you must not impeded that decision.

ARU News - Police shooting three dead

Reports the daily bollox newspaper

ARU SWAT 4 Police kill three after stand-off

ARU, the specialist SWAT4 Armed Response Unit of the virtual metropolitan area of Scumsville, have reportedly gunned down three people in what appears to be a barricaded suspect situation.

ARU Units rushed to the scene after responding to an unarmed police patrols request for armed officers to attend. A simple single Officer, Sergeant Barclay was first on the scene. Barclay 86, entered the domestic building and confronted 4 armed suspects that had allegedly earlier in the afternoon held up a petrol station at gun point in neighbouring lesser Scumsville.

During the confrontation the ARU Officer fired 6 rounds all striking the suspects killing three. Officer Barclay in a press statement said "All the world loves a clown!"

ARU in a broad statement said "wide"

ARU News - Officer Injured

ARU SWAT 4 CO-OP News

SWAT 4 gaming Officer Injured

Reports have been received that a Senior Officer of the newly formed Armed Response Unit, or ARU, has been injured in a training incident.

County hospital admitted a Police Officer to Accident and Emergency (A and E) late last night with what appears to be lacerations to his buttocks. A hospital spokes person made a statement...

"We can confirm that a Police Officer was admitted to the A and E last night and that his injuries are not life threatening" he went on "The Officer is expected to make a full recovery".

Teresa Green an A and E nurse commented " Three Police cars came tearing in, tearing in they was, and these robo-cops with guns and stuff come flying out with one of them crying" she went on "proper crying, like a little girl" and she went on " The one on the left, oh, he was proper gorgeous" and on "hey, Sharon, one on the left? phwoar !!"

ARU said " A Officer was Injured during training when a Sting grenade was incorrectly deployed into his back pocket, we have updated our ready status accordingly"

ARU Recruitment drive

ARU SWAT 4 clan CO-OP Simulation team begins recruitment drive

Advertising is now underway for the 3 vacancies that are available in ARU. With a bit of luck we will get applicants and it wont be long before we can begin training for full team live ops.

ARU Live ops report -It's real, honest

ARU - A Swat 4 co-op simulation experience.

Barely 4 days after its conception the Armed response unit was called to a live operation authorised by the Chief Constable virtual operational area.

At 21:13 UCT ARU responded to a request for attendance at a domestic address to assist in a barricaded suspect conclusion of a single suspect believed to be mentally unstable.

Call signs Romeo and Sierra attended the scene and entered the building on hand over of authority by Area commanding Officer Inspector John "doughnut" Daily at 21:47.

Locating the nutter suspect armed with a 9mm pistol in room 5 (small bedroom). On confrontation the suspect initially responded with verbal abuse and gesturing hostile acts with a firearm. Officers initiated non-lethal compliance drill CS and subdued the suspect into compliance at 21:58 after a stand-off that that lasted 3 minutes and did not involved any discharge of firearms.

There where no injuries to ARU Officers although the suspect did sustain a bruise to the facial area, internal investigation unit received a complaint from the suspects lawyer, no charges are being pursued.

Sergeant Barclay stated when asked about the bruising to the suspects face "he fell", Inspector Lee commented "Slippy floors those fake wood ones".

Tactical Basics: Team make-up Part III.

Tactical Basics: Team make-up Part III Specialists

As a rule ARU tend not to use specialists per se, they should always be embedded into a fully capable team that is able to provide security "bubbles" for the specialist to work within. In fact a whole mission objective can be based around providing safe transit and working space for a specialist to perform their task.

Specialists in the ARU

The defining a specialist utilized by the ARU, that is to say an operative that is highly specialised to the point at which normal operational functions are hindered.

We set aside rigged for breach, gas, flash, string, Easter, doughnuts... as not being a specialist but an operative that obeys tenant No.1 "Always carrying a firearm" who happens to be rigged for a particular task.

A specialist is an operative that is greatly hindered in their ability to defend themselves against threat(s) in their normal function or enters an operational mission severely under the combat power required to safely operate.

As such ARU attempts to not use Specialists as it breaks our cardinal rule Tenant No.1, but all things adaptable a clause is installed to allow Team leaders maximum scope in planning.

Team leaders should clearly state that an operative is a "specialist" and place them "inside" the transit chain with clear instructions on when they can operate within their designed function.

Note: An example is a non-lethal specialist who after transiting within a chain is released to compliance duties inside a security bubble created by his fellow operatives.

This concludes the team make-up section of the series, hopefully you will see that we opt to be adaptable and flexible to situations yet predictable to our fellow operatives, this is the core values we strive to attain.