Leadership Intent

A common term you’re going to encounter through this document is intent. Think of intent as the commander's goal or reason for a task or mission, it’s the thing that you or your leadership wants done at the end of the day.

In any given mission, there are a series of objectives and each has a specific intent. When you are securing a town, leadership’s intent might be to clear out an enemy garrison and hold it. When assaulting an HQ, the intent might be to destroy a weapon’s cache. These objectives are things which are required for a successful mission completion, and the plan is the methodical, actionable series of steps that you’re going to take to accomplish that intent.

The commander's intent is set at the start of mission via the mission leader or mission maker. While plans are malleable and may change, intent will not. Plans can, and almost always will have to be changed in order to accomplish the mission intent.

It’s crucial that you understand this because as an FTL, you will be the first person to encounter problems in a plan, and you will be the first voice that can suggest changes.

If you realize that you don’t have enough tree cover to obscure your assault, you can relay that up with a suggestion to shift the advance. If you see that a position is more heavily fortified than expected, you can communicate that to your SL so that they can requisition supporting fire. The overall goals, reasons and intent will almost never change, but you are always able to try and change the plan.

In order to change the plan, however, you have to understand why that plan was put into effect and what the steps are accomplishing.