Retreat

[Tirak]

I played a match tonight where the Commander seemed to do all the right things, but was still wrong. He talked to his squads, he took charge and he did the things good commanders do, but he did not do one thing that I thought was worth sharing, he didn't know when to give ground, and because of that we lost the match. So I've written this little piece of advice to Commanders.

There are times when a position is untenable, when no matter what you do, you're losing people for nothing at all. I know it can be hard, but there are times when you just have to give up that position. There's no sense pouring more lives/tickets into a position, no sense getting caught up in dropping assets and watching them be destroyed immediately. Fall back, regroup, and come at it from a different angle, it is better to retreat and rethink, than just go smashing away until something gives, because more often than not in situations like these, you are the thing that will give.

[Raic]

Agreed, too many times on pubs the commanders doesn't realise to fallback and give ground when facing enemy on ground you are at heavy disatvantage.

[IAJTHOMAS]

Trying to get some squads to retreat on pubs is like trying to get water to run up hill. Getting them to sit still and defend is difficult enough.

[[R-DEV]fuzzhead]

Yea agree Tirak theres many time where a fall back and regroup order would go a long way to keeping the ground you already have.

Alot of times you will see a team capture many flags in quick succession, but they spread their lines too thin too quickly, and then all of a sudden the enemy is taking all those points back, and they do the same thing *smack*

A wise commander will know when to consolidate the team after a major offensive and hold up a bit to catch a breath, before making that next major offensive.

[Cassius]

I would only retreat if I would be seriously overpowered, like if armor would be involved. If Infantery has a hard time ill just send 2 more squads to support them, or a tank or something like that, beats trying to get a bunker down.

[Dr2B Rudd]

I consistently find three commands that squads simply cannot get their head's around

1) Suppressive fire, they only want to fire if a bullet has a 70% chance of hitting the target....
2) Hold position so that another squad can move to support them
3) Retreat, they won't do it, its simply beyond them.

And if there is a particular reason they won't retreat, they won't even tell me!

TALK TO YOUR COMMANDER GOD DAMN IT!

[cyberzomby]

Im sorry but a commander whos doing all the right things shouldnt take charge right?

But I gotta agree. Retreating and surpressing fire is hard to get in there minds :P Usually when you tell you saw gunner and rifleman surpress that area they fire of a whole mag but than go silent again :P

[smee]

retreat, rather like to think of withdraw to better position. It's amazing when you say that to a squad they think your insane. Can't take an APC out hide or withdraw. Can't capture a point disengage and move on. CO love some hate some very few are good at organizing a coherent battle plan.

[Chimpanzeeee]

we're not a retreating! we're advancing to future victory!

totally agree with tirak but i think the problem lies with the squad leader.

since the commander cant move with the troops, he's totally dependant on the minimap and voip messages which are vague at the best of times. unless he's counting the kills and deaths of individual squads, you can't expect him to have a perfect understanding of the situation.

although you have to admire the determination of some squads, the SL should be the one make the decision of pulling the hell back rather than duking it out around a spawn and stripping their teams of tickets.

v0.8 removed the scrappy and costly fights around rally points but the same still happens around bunkers and firebases (perhaps change necessary?)