I shared these on another thread, but figured they may be good from a book standpoint.
I have some fun tactics I'll employ against any force threatening our bug in ranch. I can see these being useful in a story aspect though too.
1) I know my property, so we have certain landmarks that denote range increments. This makes it much easier for us to use scopes and hit our targets. The enemy will have no such references.
2) We're building these concrete planters, that come SHTF, we'll simply scoop out the dirt and plants, and have ready made pillboxes for sentry defense.
3) Use battery operated strobe lights to disorient the enemy, making it hard for them to aim, while lighting them up for us.
4) Footfall traps outside the fence, for a couple feet at the outer fence, a trench hidden by high growing grasses, that has flat boards on the bottom, with lots of 20 penny nails sticking up. Hobbling your enemy before they attack just lets them know that worse may lay ahead.
5) Providing "fake" cover. Come SHTF, we'll have some nice new rocks in the pastures, but they won't be rocks at all. They'll be shellacked paper mache' rocks that will provide no cover at all (so the enemy just exposed themselves, thinking they were making for cover). Rifle rounds will cut right through it. (oh, and the rocks are range markers too).
6) Battery powered motion alerts (think of a driveway alarm) can alert sentries to trouble. (rotate batteries that are charged with a solar charger).
7) If all seems lost, place some poisoned, designated foodstuffs and booze in easy to find, but kind of concealed places before bolting (you know the bandits will have a little victory celebration). Won't say type, but it has onset time of a couple of days (this will thwart our villain using a taste tester, and ensure that most have poisoned themselves, and probably with numerous doses) and no noticeable taste or smell. Death is pretty much assurred (coma at the very least, which is death when we come back days later to then pick off the unpoisoned, and clean up the bodies). An antidote and treatment regimen exist, for any accidental imbibing by us, but highly unlikely.
8) Dogs make great alarm systems.
9) Our interior bedrooms' doorknobs have been replaced with exterior, keyed doorknobs. (I can jimmy open a standard interior door in about 3 seconds, seriously). Outer doors are either metal or heavy wood with reinforced kickplates and top/bottom bolt locks in addition to deadbolts. Windows have decorative iron bars (well, all will in the next few years, only some do right now).
10) As good as the dogs are, we also have a Cockatoo bird, a Malucan Cockatoo, loudest bird on the planet. She's a great alarm too (and uses words, which really ought to throw them, especially as her go to phrase is "Hey Baby!....")
11) To get to the house, from just about any direction, you have to scale or go through at least two levels of fencing (often 3)...(we section our grazing pastures, and have a fenced off area when dogs are out, etc.). While climbing a fence, you're an excellent target. (at a range marker)
12) I have a tractor with a bulldozer bucket on the front. Lots of possibilities here. It's diesel also, so lots of fuel options.
13) False sentries. Sandbag dummies with helmets (I have a few old WWI and WWII helmets I could use) positioned in the right place, will certainly make it look like we have more sentries than we do, and cause the enemy to give themselves away when attacking these scarecrows.
14) House is concrete block and rebar, so pretty much going to stop most caliber firearms.
15) Lots of roof space, and post SHTF, can easily build some good reinforced sniper positions on the roofs of different buildings on the ranch. Everyone is on 8 hour shifts (post shtf), so always some sleeping, and some guarding, while another group cooks, cleans, hunts, eats, etc. Sentry duty is rotated, a couple hours on, a couple hours off, to keep sentries fresh and alert. Can communicate with charged, hand communicators, so they can report anything to others and talk to each other, or scout groups.
16) We have horses for scouting/supply/hunting duty. (currently down to one horse, but post SHTF, this wouldn't be hard). We have the facilities for up to 11 horses, but honestly, any more than 6 would be too taxing on the pastures. So, we'd convert unused stalls to nicer living quarters for those coming here, and those who possibly join up later.
Just some, lots more I'm not recalling offhand....
