Fuzzhead's Squad Leading Tips for Project Reality v0.8

[[R-DEV]fuzzhead]

Squad Leading Tips for Project Reality v0.8
by fuzzhead

1. Communication Check.
   Always do a comms check with each new member of the squad. This is absolutely essential to having a decent squad in PR. Whenever someone joins your squad, ensure that they can understand you on VOIP. Directly ask them by name to verify their comms are working and that they can hear you. Something like "This is fuzzhead, John Doe do you read me?". If there is no response, Ask on VOIP if he can send you a text message. If there is no response, KICK THIS PLAYER FROM THE SQUAD. I cannot stress this enough, if you have no comms with your squad mates, your squad is fubar and it makes the rest of this entire guide irrelevant. Following this step is the most crucial in order to have an enjoyable squad leading experience, it will save you tons of time and frustration during a mission, forgetting to do this step will cause you squad to break down. You must do this step whenever a new guy joins the squad. If you are in the middle of a firefight, wait till the action is in a lull to do the comms check. You may have several squad mates cycle out throughout the round, you need to keep on top of the new players in order to keep your squad working as a unit.
   
   
2. Squad Members Subordination.
   This is the second most important thing to remember as a squad leader. If squad members do have a comms working, but refuse to obey orders or follow your lead, KICK THIS PLAYER FROM THE SQUAD. Your squad is fubar unless you have at least some control over your squads actions. This does not mean they have to rigidly follow your orders perfectly, but if they refuse to go to move commands, move off on their own out of your squads area of operations, then they might as well not be in your squad in the first place. Failure to kick these wandering squad members will only make you a less effective squad, and will make the other squad members less likely to follow your orders, causing the entire group's cohesion to drop considerably. You must keep on top of this throughout the mission, any new players, just like the comms check, you must make sure are obeying orders.
   
   
3. Squad Cohesion.
   In an infantry squad, you need your squad members to be in relatively close proximity to each other. Being spread across several hundred meters is not considered good practice, as its very hard to react to threats quickly and turns your squad into essentially a long line of lone wolves. You want to keep in close proximity so that you can react to threats in unison and able to put to bear the entire squads weapon arsenal against a threat, ensuring you get maximum killing power. A good rule of thumb is to have all squad members within name tag distance (which is 50 meters). Unless you have tasked squad members to do something specifically, there is no reason your squad of 6 should be further out than 50 meters. Telling all squad members "Stay within name tag distance of the squad leader, if you dont see my name tag, that means you are out of position" is a good way to quickly let squad members know how you are running the squad.
   
   
4. Spacing Intervals.
   Just as its important to keep squad members in close proximity, its also important for them to keep a minimum spacing when moving in a formation. You must CONSTANTLY remind your squad member to keep their spacing, as they will quickly forget about this in the middle of a firefight. Always be observing your squads movements, and if you notice them bunching up, make sure to quickly report "keep your spacing!". A good rule of thumb is always maintain a 5 meter spacing between each other, this way if a grenade lands at the feet of one squad member, it wont have much impact on the next in line.
   
   
5. Squad Leader Command Markers
   A very important tool for squad leaders is the squad leader marker. This can be placed by either using the "T" Commo Rose or by using the CAPSLOCK map and right clicking. You have several commander markers you can place, I will go over each one and how I use them. Sometimes squad members will have this marker turned off in the 3D HUD. Default button to turn it on/off is LEFT ALT, be sure to do a quick check with all new squad members that they can properly see the SL Command Marker, by placing one and asking them if they can see it. If they cannot, explain how to turn it on/off as they wont be able to operate efficiently with it off.
   
   Attack Command - Use the attack command for indicating enemy positions. Make it clear to your squad members that when you place an attack command, you do not want them to MOVE there, rather you want them to be aware the enemy position and fire/surpress the target depending on the circumstances.
   
   Move Command - Use the move command to indicate where you want the squad to go. This can be used to map out routes or place fall back positions or positions for the next RP placement. Be sure to update this frequently with the latest position you want the squad to travel to.
   Defense Command - Useful when you need to rally the squad and hold up at a current position. Often a good tactic to use is put down a Defense command at your current defensive position and say to the squad "Take up defensive position here, stay within 50 meters of the defense command".
   
   Repair Command - Useful for placing deployable assets. Put this down to indicate you will be placing a defensive asset there. Ensure squad members know that the repair command means they will need to use their shovel. Also good use is to indicate to squad engineers where they need to deploy or remove land mines, or repair bridges.
   
   
6. Deploying Assets
   Placing Forward Outposts and other assets should be done when not under fire. IF your position is under fire, DO NOT place assets as you will most likely not have the man power to defend against attackers and coordinate construction, plus your construction plans will be hampered by the enemy fire and asset placement will not be optimal. Plan WELL AHEAD for your forward outposts. Remember once the FOB is built, you can deploy the 50cal's, sandbags, wire 200 meter radius around the FOB. Placing a Repair Command on the FOB will give you an indication how far out you can build.
   
   A good tip to remember when placing ANY deployable assets, is that you need to be on level terrain in order for it to deploy properly. If your trying to place it on a cliff, it wont work so well. Be on flat level terrain and it will work well.
   
   Remember that you can very easily squish/kill squad members if they step in front of you while placing assets. Remembering to place down a repair marker before placing the asset, and then warning your squad you are deploying defenses and to step back is key in avoiding unnecessary casualties.
   
   
7. Squad Contact Reports
   Spotting and communicating enemy targets is essential in order to bring to bear your your squad on targets. Giving non descriptive reports of the enemy like "Bad guy over there!" "Hes at the tree!" is unhelpful, creates squad confusion and generally causes unnecessary amount of useless comms chatter. Try to always maintain a consistent reporting convention, even if your squad members do not use it, they will take the tone of your reports and hopefully beging using simular reporting conventions. Its up to YOU as the squad leader to set the tone for the rest of the squad when reporting enemy contacts.
   
   There is several different methods of reporting contacts. You can use a clock system when moving on a known bearing, you can use a quarter system as well (half right quarter right, quarter left, etc). Most popular and easiest method is to use compass system. Using compass bearings gives precise coordinates, but depending on the situation, you may only need to say "North East" and not need to give an exact bearing.
   
   Always remember to state in the contact report WHAT you are spotting and APPROXIMATELY what range the contact is at.
   
   For examples:
   "Contact! Enemy infantry North West, 300 meters!"
   "CONTACT! INFANTRY DANGER CLOSE QUARTER LEFT!"
   "Contact! 3 vehicle armored convoy, moving from north to south, bearing 265, 450 meters"
   "AMBUSH LEFT!!!!"
   
   Depending on the circumstances you may need to add more or less details, but always keeping the information concise and to the point is the key. Dont add unnecessary filler, try not to stumble on words and ensure your tone of voice corresponds with the threat level. A supply truck with 1 driver being spotted at 800 meters is a very low priority threat, but enemy infantry 20 meters away from you that are about to spring an ambush are HIGH priority, use common sense and convey the urgency of the threat in your voice tone and intensity.
   
   
8. Commander Contact Reports
   The trick to getting commander contact reports working properly is to always place an attack command BEFORE using contact report. For whatever crappy reason, it will most of the times "snap" to the attack command marker. so if your marker is in the right area, you should have no problems.
   
   

[GoArmy117]

Very good guide, fuzzhead. Thanks!

[Wellink]

good stuff fuzzhead, Id love to see some more Squad leading in the field from new players.

If you dont mind i would like to some things .

-Tell squad members to save alteast half of the sprint bar for emergency situations, I cant tell how many times I see people walking cross streets while sprinting would be better.

-If the squad members are playing good split up the squad in 2 fireteams. One fireteam can supress the enamy while the other fireteam flanks around. With 0.8 supressive fire and flanking is even more importand.

Il post some more when I think of them.

[[R-DEV]fuzzhead]

yea this is a WIP, go ahead and make suggestions and I will add to the guide

[vilhelm123]

Originally Posted by [R-DEV]fuzzhead

1. Squad Contact Reports
   Always spot targets using a compass bearing, what the threat is, and the range. Try to encourage squad members to do the same. Example: "Enemy infantry 230 from our position, range 200 meters".

I actually tell my squad members to not shout out exact bearings myself, particularly when on the move. Instead I get them to call out more general directions e.g. North or north east, that are relative to the squads position. In contacts, or even when just on the move, people can sometimes get spread out very quickly and when someone calls out an exact bearing everyone is looking different ways. However with a more general direction its tends to keep the squad members from getting tunnel vision and staring at the one enemy thus making them more likely to spot the enemies friends (if he has any that is).

[daranz]

Originally Posted by vilhelm123

I actually tell my squad members to not shout out exact bearings myself, particularly when on the move. Instead I get them to call out more general directions e.g. North or north east, that are relative to the squads position. In contacts, or even when just on the move, people can sometimes get spread out very quickly and when someone calls out an exact bearing everyone is looking different ways. However with a more general direction its tends to keep the squad members from getting tunnel vision and staring at the one enemy thus making them more likely to spot the enemies friends (if he has any that is).

I find descriptive spottings better than simply calling out exact bearings. Bearings are generally different for everyone, especially when the squad isn't on top of each other such as when in buildings. "Behind the dumpster at 240" is better than "Contact, 243." Once I spot the contact, I will usually throw an attack marker over it to show the entire squad.

On the topic of SL markers, I am pretty much guilty of only ever using two markers: move and attack. Attack generally goes on enemies (whether I want to engage them or not), and move goes on positions I want to move to. I generally use markers only to point out an exact spot when I tell the squad to do something over voip. I guess it makes sense to frequently update the markers regardless, for things such as asset deployment or setting up defensive positions.

[[R-DEV]fuzzhead]

updated a bit more

[SocketMan]

I liked you APC guide btw, will there be an update for the 0.8 in particular ?



P.S.
Any tips on getting a server license before the 0.9 ?
Applied over a week ago - no response.I know it's not the right place,
but desperate people do desperate thigs

[Edward]

Thanks for the above notes, and others kicking around.

The compass direction, as useful as it is when close, is still difficult to follow over more tangible directions. When I'm moving with a squad, we keep up on the physical objects in sight (ridges, bunkers, roads, debris, etc). I'm a bigger fan of the less-precise descriptors like 'Contact, smoking wreck right, APC and infantry X-yards'

Perhaps it's a transition issue-given that PR is still bringing in vBF2 fans-it'll take more time to get squads tight enough to where a compass degree really does mean the same thing, within a degree or two, for other squad members. Those starting out with PR could have an easier time since they lack the Rambo habits of vanilla.

[daranz]

Originally Posted by Edward

Thanks for the above notes, and others kicking around.

The compass direction, as useful as it is when close, is still difficult to follow over more tangible directions. When I'm moving with a squad, we keep up on the physical objects in sight (ridges, bunkers, roads, debris, etc). I'm a bigger fan of the less-precise descriptors like 'Contact, smoking wreck right, APC and infantry X-yards'

Perhaps it's a transition issue-given that PR is still bringing in vBF2 fans-it'll take more time to get squads tight enough to where a compass degree really does mean the same thing, within a degree or two, for other squad members. Those starting out with PR could have an easier time since they lack the Rambo habits of vanilla.

The thing is, in an urban setting, compass bearings are not gonna be the same for everyone, unless your squad likes being taken out with one grenade. when covering a street from both sides, for example, it's easier to call out a descriptive contact report rather than a bearing, even for longer distances.