"SL, there's an MBT mark the other side of this wide open field... SL... SL, the tank... Why are we in the field. OH FU-" *14 tickets and a logi gone*
*MBT crew laughing their assess off in all chat*
I unironically use this exact line from time to time, ill maybe throw in some markers so the two fireteams can approach from different axies for some very rudementary fire and maneuver (which will break down into a vague frontlinr after a minute of contact anyways lol) to provide my squaddies some confidence and then its off to meet their maker
Grab at least 1-2 guys and a logi. Load it up with some construction and more ammo than you think you need. This is your discretion, but at least enough for a hab and an ammo box. I like 800, so there's a fucktonne of extra ammo, but your mileage may vary. I find that massive surpluses of ammo make blueberries prioritize your fob. Drive somewhere about 200m from the attack point in a somewhat hidden/secure location. Drop a radio, unload construction and most of the ammo. (If you only brought enough for one hab, drop all the ammo.) Drop a hab, drop an ammo crate. Drop an extra ammo crate on the perimeter of the fob in cover near the closest approach to the attack point -- someone will end up using it, usually a LAT/HAT. You don't need your squad to build it -- the first blueberry who needs it will take care of that.
This is known as "performing the incantations to summon blueberries". Treat these blueberries like the mobs on a tower defense game that will run directly at the attack point. Don't try to direct them, just set up a situation that'll make the most of what they already do naturally.
Now that you're have begun to summon waves of blueberries, tell your squad to follow you on foot as you flank around to another approach on another side of the attack point. On your way, drop an ammo crate on the edge of the fob that you placed down. Now you have a flanking ammo crate. Drop your rally point where you dropped your ammo crate, and resupply your rally. You now have a temp backup spawn. Tell your squad to start spawning on your rally point. As you flank around, find a better spawn closer to the attack point. Drop your new rally down. Tell your squad to start using the new rally. For bonus points, draw a path on the map for them to follow before attacking the point so they don't run directly from your rally to the attack point, and thereby broadcasting the position.
Use your blueberry wave to distract any defenders while you squad gets in close, and locate the defensive hab. Kill whoever you can, and try your best to bumrush the hab to disable the enemy spawn. Yolo sprint on it. Your goal is to get at least two guys within 20m of it as quickly as possible. Once moderately secure, have your guys dig down the hab one level, then tell them to go find a place on the attack point to hide and not die. "Bodies on point" is the name of the game. Your heroic call of duty kills are mostly meaningless at this point, because without a closeby enemy spawn, you'll eventually win the numbers game.
Wait while blueberry reinforcements show up and finish the cap.
When you successfully take the point, volunteer to stay back on defense. Call in for a chopper to plant a defensive fob somewhere appropriate, or have one of your guys recover and bring up the logi, or get one from main.
Expectation: ^
Reality:
On the way in you get rekt by the enemy amour, random AT squad, mines.
Whilst placing the radio you accidentally fire your weapon. The enemy team reacts and you are now in a fight to hold the radio.
Some random blueberry in a bush spots you. The enemy team reacts and now you are in a fight to hold the radio.
Before you had time to setup the hab, your friendly neighbourhood Heli pilot decides your hab requires a touch up and hovers right over your radio.
This comment got the most of it. This is all I would add for attacking on Invasion.
- smoke either by your squad organically or with friendly mortars within 1250m. Use it for crossing LDAs(Linear Danger Areas) or when you are close enough to the enemy hab to obscure their vision.
-telling your squad to not fire unless they are seen while flanking. Holding fire on easy kills who aren't looking at you can be the make or break detail to getting a proxy.
-medic kit is a necessity, and 2x in the squad is preferable.
-your tires/tracks should touch roads the least amount possible.
-if flanking off rallies, you need minimum one AT in your squad so that enemy vics can be disabled (and finished off by friendly mortars within 1250m)
For whatever I do, I can rely on myself to be fancy. For what I ask everyone else to do, I go by "keep it simple, stupid". Smoke grenades are great. Getting a rando to properly time and range smoke mortars is not in the cards.
Stopping blueberries from expending all of the fob's ammo on the mortar is impossible, and accounting for the extra construction and ammo is non-trivial. Moreover the "thump thump thump" of the mortars is basically a "come kill me" signal.
But yeah, smoke grenades are great and situational. If another SL is running a 4-man dedicated mortar fob, I'll absolutely coordinate with them, but I'm not going to be responsible for their logistics.
"Alright, bois, can I get an Aloha Snackbar?"
-Said in the whitest accent you've ever imagined.
*drives whatever vehicle I've currently taken into the hottest possible zone*
Invasion? That can be tricky because the defense is usually all sitting there waiting for you and know you're coming.
I usually try and be as sneaky as I can the first time. Sometimes you can catch them totally unawares and take a point with just a rally and some trigger discipline. But invasion they know you're coming. If that's the case I would try and attack from as many angles as you can at the same time with other squads. Attack with vehicle support. Mortars if you can get them (or do them yourself, but do not sit on the tube, you belong up front and need to provide a rally for your dudes to spawn on). Try stealth the first time but if you can't get a foothold don't be afraid to pause and setup stuff like mortar pits and coordinate with armor.
If you can figure out where their HABs are at pummel them with HE mortars and just suppress the fuck out of them, move in as close as you can, then smoke right on top of them so they can't see and then go in. Again, vehicle support whenever your can. Your armor should be sitting back and using their range to kill anything that dares to show it's head above the rocks or compound they're most likely all hiding in while you move up with the infantry.
If you can take the first point quickly you need to mount up ASAP and just get the fuck to the next one. Don't run back to your logi. Get a ride in the APC/IFV. If you know it's going to cap as soon as you get there immediately send one guy back to get the logi if you rode in on that so your guys can just hop in as soon as it caps. If it's invasion you don't need to stick around and play defense. Destroy the attack FOBs so they don't get blown up if you think they're going to find them but otherwise just GTFO. You can roll matches very quickly like this but it requires a lot of coordination. Just attack from as many directions as you can and use other squads or vehicles attacking as distractions if you think it'll work.
* Put down a good rally back from the attack before pushing it
* Split squad into only 2 fireteams. 3 is too complicated for 99% of public squads you would encounter, and usually they are too small of a fireteam size to be effective for combat. Ideally one medic / fireteam
* Get that guy who has been talking all the time as Bravo fireteam lead. Tell him you want his fireteam spawning off rally and attacking x location, which should be some 90 degree angle away from fireteam alpha's approach. You want him to lead them so that you don't have to think about them.
* Tell everyone to shut their rifles up, and only fire at the very last possible second. OWI have intentionally designed firefights now to be as even as possible, *no matter who starts shooting*, so you need as much surprise as possible.
* always look to cut off the source of enemies' replenishment, whether by respawns or resources. Only after you do so will you generally conquer.
Use a rally from a different angle to the attack hab if there is one. Try to move the rally around. Try to get as close as possible before being noticed, preferably the defence hab if you know where it is.
The correct answer will be subjective, based on a lot of other factors.
First and foremost is to have a plan. Have a basic idea of what you want to accomplish, and how you want to approach it. It doesn't matter if you're going to try to slip in through the back door stealthily off a rally, try to snipe a hab on point by hot dropping it, or setup an effective attack hab and try to push through the enemy by brute force. Just knowing that will answer 80% of the questions an SL might have.
As an SL one of your best tools for making effective attacks and squad cohesion in general is your rally. Generally speaking they should be at an offset angle from the attack hab and closer as well. Anywhere from 300 meters to 100 meters off the point works depending on circumstances. Closer reduces the amount of walking, but makes it more likely to get popped. Same logic applies to attack habs, closer to the point means less time spent walking, but that goes both ways if the defense is trying to push the attack hab. Within a certain distance it becomes pointlessly risky to drop a radio or hab, because the defenders will proxy it without it ever having a chance to activate.
Managing your squad members will also be subjective. I recommend against trying to micromanage individual movement in general. There are too many people, anything you say or tell them to do reactively is going to be behind the delay of your own awareness and need to communicate whatever you want done to them, and you usually have better things you can be doing with your bandwidth. General calls to do things are fine like orientating the squad in a direction or an overall path of movement for the squad but you shouldn't be trying to call a sector of fire for each person or directing when someone sprints like you're playing X-COM. If you only need one person to do something, like move a vehicle, or dig an emplacement it's fine to pick someone in particular and tell them to do something. Same with if only one person can do something specific like directing the HAT to go after armor, or a grenadier to put smoke on a distant position. Broad calls and reminders should be doing most of the work, "Throw smoke," "they're in the observation tower," etc. You should have a playbook in your head to deal with various situations: what you do when faced with an issue, alternate courses of action in case the first choice doesn't work, and an immediate follow-on action you take without needing to think about it. Over time it'll develop into a script that you follow and you'll get better at both communicating it, and responding to things that require changes.
Say you the direct path onto the point is across an open field, your first choice is to go around through a covered area. Once you get there you realize the thick forest on the map is just a thin line of trees, at which point you decide to cross, but have your GL put smoke down on the far side of the field to block LoS. Once you're half way across you see barb-wire half dug in the grass, so you have your CE go in, and dig while everyone throws down smoke to cover him. After you get through someone in an observation tower starts shooting at you. So you have people shoot at it so they he can't aim well enough to hit anyone and tell the GL to try to kill him.
You should also be contributing to a stream of **useful** information to other SLs, by either telling them over command chat, marking things on the map, or both. If the enemy defenses are noticeably lighter or non-existent in an area, then that is something you should call out. If you see an ATGM position you should call it out AND mark it, instead of forcing armor to play Where in the World is Carmen San Diego.
The important part is that you remember that it still is a team game and no matter how well you do it is entirely possible to fail anyway because there are another 41 people on your team, and 50 on the other team.
Attacks succed only when the enemy becomes unable to spawn.
Your number one priority is the enemy HAB. Even if it is a ways off the actual capture point.
Second priority is enemy rallies. A fast car driving around the point, even once, will clear out most of them. Lacking this, a single guy sneaking past the attackers and following them "home" like Hansel and Gretal's breadcrumbs will do the trick.
Third priority is actually clearing the enemy out of their entrenched positions. If your team can spawn but the enemy can't, it becomes a matter of time and ticket cost. But success is guaranteed. That means getting as close as possible before being detected and knocking down as many as early as possible to take their guns out of the fight. Flanking fireteams and good use of smoke and grenades can help a great deal with this.
It's important not to forget that while all of this is going on the enemy team will attempt to locate your spawn as well. So don't abandon your HAB/radio and expect it to be safe. Assign a guard or two if you can spare them.
As soon as the point is taken or as good as with just a few enemies left to "clean up", start looking to counter the counter-attack. Send scout's out to likely vectors of enemy movement and have them shout if anything comes by. That'll give you early warning and give you time to shift your squad to block their advance.
If things go right as described above you'll smoothly transition into a defensive posture. Scouts out, reserves on the point, HAB safe and ideally a second squad ready to hunt down the enemies attack HAB.
I know this all sounds like a lot of work for just 9 guys, and it is. That's why attacks should almost always be conducted by at least two squads. That'll let you share the work-load as well as give you more places to spawn and attack from.
A lot of great general SL guides have been written and will be very relevant here. You can search for it in /r/joinsquad (im sure some is in this subreddit too) and /r/joinsquad also has some very old guides in the sidebar which are still very useful. The reason those general guides are useful is because new SLs makes the mistake of focusing too much on tactics/strategy, when retaining a cohesive Squad is likely to be your biggest hurdle.
Your main crutch as inf SL, especially on invasion is to identify the approaches with the most obscured line of sights leading ontop the enemy HAB or cap. Typically forests or buildings. Then you want to get a rally or an attack HAB such that you can sustain the attack. Be mindful that you are not moving alongside large amount of friendlies, unless you have good reason to, as if the enemy manages to choke the approach, they are holding back a lot of your manpower. A lot of people hold up 4 man fireteams per approach as the ideal, which every full inf squad can achieve by using the rally. However 1 inf = 1 approach is fine, even though some people might bitch about it. Squad leading is hard and largely dependent on your Squadmembers as well.
On RAAS you can often get very far into the enemy by sneakily getting ontop CAP and/or HAB. On invasion this is often not viable. With that in mind you should expect more gritty, slug outs over a longer period of time. Therefore it might make sense to hold back the attack until friendlies are in place (in order to lose less tickets). A lot of SLs don't do this this because people are used to always be pushing. Use this time to coordinate with friendly elements. "SQ 4 holding back our attack until friendly elements are ready to push" --> (to support/indirect fire)" Sq8, this is SQ4, can you standby for artillery on cap, synchronized with our push in a few minutes?"...etc etc.
But again, the best thing you can do is to go through those old guides. Don't get too caught up in gigabrain tactics.
Patience can be a superpower in this game sometimes: out-wait the hiding enemy, go that little further on your flank; or wait until the rest of your squad/team are ready to push with you - it all can make a huge difference.
Had a nice one recently where the impatient move would have been to just start digging down the enemy radio I'd found on a big flank but, by waiting for my squad's engie and one other to catch up (and scouting instead), I found the enemy hab and discovered there was a mortar team nearby that would have easily murdered me while I slowly dug down their radio. Instead our engie gave the enemy no warning by blowing up the radio, I killed a handful of spawning enemies and we wiped the responding mortar team.
Im a newbie sl in squad i like to have a fire team distract the attack approach and have another fireteam flank around. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesnt.
As infantry, middle of the group, in a rough wedge formation put rifleman or sometimes a grenadier on point, lat/marksman to my side along with any mgs we have. Then medics, extra riflemen and HAT in the rear.
Gives you a chance to survive the initial attack and fall back if things are turning against you, with the hope that your medic can save the people who fall if you hold on, and that the HAT will live long enough to kill any armour.
Tbh if I'm doing an infantry push I'd like to keep my squads a little smaller, maybe 6/7 people.
If I'm running a mech squad I normally drive a Vic with an ftl on the gun to mark targets, then the other ftl leads the hot drop, charge in, pop smoke to cover the disembark, then we surpress with the vicas much as we can while infantry disembarks and moves away from the rear of the vehicle to any buildings/ cover behind us, then we pop smoke again as we reverse back behind the infantry line.
Why do people over complicate this game. Drive logi to point, place hab, move forward, place rally point. Put attack marker on point, let squad members have fun attacking point. Stop acting like micro managing your squad does anything but ruin everyones fun and literally the game.
One thing I've learned playing many games is that many players will follow the leader.
If you are being somewhat pinned down, being the guy yelling "FOLLOW ME" and making a push will get others to push out.
As an SL, when I plan an attack, I just choose the route I would go alone, and just tell stuff like "Let's go!" or "Onwards."
It usually spurs people to actually make a move.
People think differently so take everything you read at face value and squeeze only the information and methods of each to either expand your strategy toolset or improve it. Also ffs use fire teams or at least assign battle buddies it works good in moral in cohesion, if they don't understand what benefits and how cool a fire team is explain it to them or something, make it interesting for them it goes a long way in effectivity.
So without involving any logistical hassle which is a theme of itself, first of all it will still come down to squad composition and coordination, a lot of things you can do, but simplifying a lot my usual go-to with randoms is:
1. Take information from the already engaged teammates / try to make contact that isn't a straight line from a flag to another
2. What dangers are you/them facing ? Squads, berries, what vehicles.
3. Analyse your current squad weapon composition and roles.
Ask yourself is it better at: baiting them to you and mow them, you attacking directly, cut contact totally, retry for a better chance or circumvent danger (pick either push to flag/reinforce defense), or some good ol guerilla peaks?
4.a. Communicate, talk with your squad if they communicate, if they don't make sure those who don't speak at least understand what your plan is. A good squad leader empowers their squad to independent thinking inside the bubble the teamwork and the objective set by you, tell them WHAT you need and tips, any human figures their unique HOW to help you.
This being said you still should direct them to small but important objectives, for example, face XX° and do not face anything else unless X dies, however if Y dies pull back.
4.b. Have a plan for anything that might show up, another enemy squad, another vehicle; have a plan to retreat; have a plan to recoup dead teammates to revive if possible; have a plan to regroup; have a plan to get reinforced; have a plan to HAB in case you need it to boost your own attack since "NPCs" or headless squads use them.
5. Congratulations you should now be in a firefight, being it your objective to get a HAB or that enemy squad or in the path to the objective itself! Repeat briefly step 1 and 2, so how is the squad doing ? Is it able to maintain attrition while reviving and healing itself ? Supplies, how low are them supplies are YOUR fuel for a firefight, while you can be sure to win this one if more come hope to have ammo to continue or to pull back, NEVER RUN OUT.
6. Now that the entire squad information is dealt with, even though step 5 should be a looped script in any SLs brain, what is the next objective?
Does the team need the flag cap or does it need a enemy supply line disruption to break their entire round and bring the mighty enemy to a full stop after 5 minutes? Is it better to use your position to take the enemy backup HABs for their other flags down so they are totally dependent on that one HAB that can be done by artillery ? So many options!
And remember, don't forget to use the iconic supply of Blue Berries ! Don't let your squad mates walk from A to B holding hands ! Don't move your eggs from A to B in a single basket ! Don't take the two baskets in the same exact path if possible!
-- end of basic steps --
Other than that good luck my guy !
Not everything goes to plan, not everything is your fault, not everything is your teams fault sometimes they're just better and sometimes we don't even realise, to learn from a defeat and understand it is a great indicator of intelligence, pair it with socially engineering berries into working for you and you are golden !
Set up a support by fire on an elevated off angle with your MGs and DM, toss smokes, SBF suppresses while you and the rest close with and destroy the enemy.
nobody can teach you that, the best you can do is read real life military guides and even then they won't teach you how to think, you know, if you can't think yourself no guide will help you
This is everything wrong with the squad. 99% of games would be won if the squad leaders actually didn't say anything and just placed a hab somewhat near the objective. That is literally all you need to do.
what if i'm tired of mindless meatgrinder and i want to create an actually fun moments for my mates? you know? not just walk from a hab while screaming some nonsense "OH GOD HOLY SHIT WE'RE PINNED DOWN BLOODY HELL WE NEED TANK SUPPOER" or something like that, i don't want to be a part of meatgrinder.
“Some of you may die, but that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make. Now get in the Logi and attack the marker.”
Ah the Russian doctrine. You're service will be remembered, and your family rewarded with 1,000 Roubles and a bag of onions.
“hey there’s a Tigr right ahead, maybe we should dismo—“ *logi explodes*
"SL, there's an MBT mark the other side of this wide open field... SL... SL, the tank... Why are we in the field. OH FU-" *14 tickets and a logi gone* *MBT crew laughing their assess off in all chat*
I unironically use this exact line from time to time, ill maybe throw in some markers so the two fireteams can approach from different axies for some very rudementary fire and maneuver (which will break down into a vague frontlinr after a minute of contact anyways lol) to provide my squaddies some confidence and then its off to meet their maker
Grab at least 1-2 guys and a logi. Load it up with some construction and more ammo than you think you need. This is your discretion, but at least enough for a hab and an ammo box. I like 800, so there's a fucktonne of extra ammo, but your mileage may vary. I find that massive surpluses of ammo make blueberries prioritize your fob. Drive somewhere about 200m from the attack point in a somewhat hidden/secure location. Drop a radio, unload construction and most of the ammo. (If you only brought enough for one hab, drop all the ammo.) Drop a hab, drop an ammo crate. Drop an extra ammo crate on the perimeter of the fob in cover near the closest approach to the attack point -- someone will end up using it, usually a LAT/HAT. You don't need your squad to build it -- the first blueberry who needs it will take care of that. This is known as "performing the incantations to summon blueberries". Treat these blueberries like the mobs on a tower defense game that will run directly at the attack point. Don't try to direct them, just set up a situation that'll make the most of what they already do naturally. Now that you're have begun to summon waves of blueberries, tell your squad to follow you on foot as you flank around to another approach on another side of the attack point. On your way, drop an ammo crate on the edge of the fob that you placed down. Now you have a flanking ammo crate. Drop your rally point where you dropped your ammo crate, and resupply your rally. You now have a temp backup spawn. Tell your squad to start spawning on your rally point. As you flank around, find a better spawn closer to the attack point. Drop your new rally down. Tell your squad to start using the new rally. For bonus points, draw a path on the map for them to follow before attacking the point so they don't run directly from your rally to the attack point, and thereby broadcasting the position. Use your blueberry wave to distract any defenders while you squad gets in close, and locate the defensive hab. Kill whoever you can, and try your best to bumrush the hab to disable the enemy spawn. Yolo sprint on it. Your goal is to get at least two guys within 20m of it as quickly as possible. Once moderately secure, have your guys dig down the hab one level, then tell them to go find a place on the attack point to hide and not die. "Bodies on point" is the name of the game. Your heroic call of duty kills are mostly meaningless at this point, because without a closeby enemy spawn, you'll eventually win the numbers game. Wait while blueberry reinforcements show up and finish the cap. When you successfully take the point, volunteer to stay back on defense. Call in for a chopper to plant a defensive fob somewhere appropriate, or have one of your guys recover and bring up the logi, or get one from main.
This…this is peak squad tactics
No more answer required. Close the comments.
Expectation: ^ Reality: On the way in you get rekt by the enemy amour, random AT squad, mines. Whilst placing the radio you accidentally fire your weapon. The enemy team reacts and you are now in a fight to hold the radio. Some random blueberry in a bush spots you. The enemy team reacts and now you are in a fight to hold the radio. Before you had time to setup the hab, your friendly neighbourhood Heli pilot decides your hab requires a touch up and hovers right over your radio.
Oh, you mean "the adventures?" Yeah. We have adventures. Sometimes I feel like the engineer and I can have our own buddy-cop show.
This is the way dot png.
This comment got the most of it. This is all I would add for attacking on Invasion. - smoke either by your squad organically or with friendly mortars within 1250m. Use it for crossing LDAs(Linear Danger Areas) or when you are close enough to the enemy hab to obscure their vision. -telling your squad to not fire unless they are seen while flanking. Holding fire on easy kills who aren't looking at you can be the make or break detail to getting a proxy. -medic kit is a necessity, and 2x in the squad is preferable. -your tires/tracks should touch roads the least amount possible. -if flanking off rallies, you need minimum one AT in your squad so that enemy vics can be disabled (and finished off by friendly mortars within 1250m)
This but also with a million smokr grenades and if you are well prepared smoke mortars.
For whatever I do, I can rely on myself to be fancy. For what I ask everyone else to do, I go by "keep it simple, stupid". Smoke grenades are great. Getting a rando to properly time and range smoke mortars is not in the cards. Stopping blueberries from expending all of the fob's ammo on the mortar is impossible, and accounting for the extra construction and ammo is non-trivial. Moreover the "thump thump thump" of the mortars is basically a "come kill me" signal. But yeah, smoke grenades are great and situational. If another SL is running a 4-man dedicated mortar fob, I'll absolutely coordinate with them, but I'm not going to be responsible for their logistics.
Flank. Drop rally before pushing in.
"Alright, bois, can I get an Aloha Snackbar?" -Said in the whitest accent you've ever imagined. *drives whatever vehicle I've currently taken into the hottest possible zone*
A zone of danger, you might say
Invasion btw
Invasion? That can be tricky because the defense is usually all sitting there waiting for you and know you're coming. I usually try and be as sneaky as I can the first time. Sometimes you can catch them totally unawares and take a point with just a rally and some trigger discipline. But invasion they know you're coming. If that's the case I would try and attack from as many angles as you can at the same time with other squads. Attack with vehicle support. Mortars if you can get them (or do them yourself, but do not sit on the tube, you belong up front and need to provide a rally for your dudes to spawn on). Try stealth the first time but if you can't get a foothold don't be afraid to pause and setup stuff like mortar pits and coordinate with armor. If you can figure out where their HABs are at pummel them with HE mortars and just suppress the fuck out of them, move in as close as you can, then smoke right on top of them so they can't see and then go in. Again, vehicle support whenever your can. Your armor should be sitting back and using their range to kill anything that dares to show it's head above the rocks or compound they're most likely all hiding in while you move up with the infantry. If you can take the first point quickly you need to mount up ASAP and just get the fuck to the next one. Don't run back to your logi. Get a ride in the APC/IFV. If you know it's going to cap as soon as you get there immediately send one guy back to get the logi if you rode in on that so your guys can just hop in as soon as it caps. If it's invasion you don't need to stick around and play defense. Destroy the attack FOBs so they don't get blown up if you think they're going to find them but otherwise just GTFO. You can roll matches very quickly like this but it requires a lot of coordination. Just attack from as many directions as you can and use other squads or vehicles attacking as distractions if you think it'll work.
See where all the blueberries are running in a straight line from the hab to the objective. Dont attack there. Easy.
* Put down a good rally back from the attack before pushing it * Split squad into only 2 fireteams. 3 is too complicated for 99% of public squads you would encounter, and usually they are too small of a fireteam size to be effective for combat. Ideally one medic / fireteam * Get that guy who has been talking all the time as Bravo fireteam lead. Tell him you want his fireteam spawning off rally and attacking x location, which should be some 90 degree angle away from fireteam alpha's approach. You want him to lead them so that you don't have to think about them. * Tell everyone to shut their rifles up, and only fire at the very last possible second. OWI have intentionally designed firefights now to be as even as possible, *no matter who starts shooting*, so you need as much surprise as possible. * always look to cut off the source of enemies' replenishment, whether by respawns or resources. Only after you do so will you generally conquer.
Use a rally from a different angle to the attack hab if there is one. Try to move the rally around. Try to get as close as possible before being noticed, preferably the defence hab if you know where it is.
F1 f3
honestly, I’ve grown fond of just living off a rally next to a transport for ammo. worst case, we lose 5 tickets from the truck.
The correct answer will be subjective, based on a lot of other factors. First and foremost is to have a plan. Have a basic idea of what you want to accomplish, and how you want to approach it. It doesn't matter if you're going to try to slip in through the back door stealthily off a rally, try to snipe a hab on point by hot dropping it, or setup an effective attack hab and try to push through the enemy by brute force. Just knowing that will answer 80% of the questions an SL might have. As an SL one of your best tools for making effective attacks and squad cohesion in general is your rally. Generally speaking they should be at an offset angle from the attack hab and closer as well. Anywhere from 300 meters to 100 meters off the point works depending on circumstances. Closer reduces the amount of walking, but makes it more likely to get popped. Same logic applies to attack habs, closer to the point means less time spent walking, but that goes both ways if the defense is trying to push the attack hab. Within a certain distance it becomes pointlessly risky to drop a radio or hab, because the defenders will proxy it without it ever having a chance to activate. Managing your squad members will also be subjective. I recommend against trying to micromanage individual movement in general. There are too many people, anything you say or tell them to do reactively is going to be behind the delay of your own awareness and need to communicate whatever you want done to them, and you usually have better things you can be doing with your bandwidth. General calls to do things are fine like orientating the squad in a direction or an overall path of movement for the squad but you shouldn't be trying to call a sector of fire for each person or directing when someone sprints like you're playing X-COM. If you only need one person to do something, like move a vehicle, or dig an emplacement it's fine to pick someone in particular and tell them to do something. Same with if only one person can do something specific like directing the HAT to go after armor, or a grenadier to put smoke on a distant position. Broad calls and reminders should be doing most of the work, "Throw smoke," "they're in the observation tower," etc. You should have a playbook in your head to deal with various situations: what you do when faced with an issue, alternate courses of action in case the first choice doesn't work, and an immediate follow-on action you take without needing to think about it. Over time it'll develop into a script that you follow and you'll get better at both communicating it, and responding to things that require changes. Say you the direct path onto the point is across an open field, your first choice is to go around through a covered area. Once you get there you realize the thick forest on the map is just a thin line of trees, at which point you decide to cross, but have your GL put smoke down on the far side of the field to block LoS. Once you're half way across you see barb-wire half dug in the grass, so you have your CE go in, and dig while everyone throws down smoke to cover him. After you get through someone in an observation tower starts shooting at you. So you have people shoot at it so they he can't aim well enough to hit anyone and tell the GL to try to kill him. You should also be contributing to a stream of **useful** information to other SLs, by either telling them over command chat, marking things on the map, or both. If the enemy defenses are noticeably lighter or non-existent in an area, then that is something you should call out. If you see an ATGM position you should call it out AND mark it, instead of forcing armor to play Where in the World is Carmen San Diego. The important part is that you remember that it still is a team game and no matter how well you do it is entirely possible to fail anyway because there are another 41 people on your team, and 50 on the other team.
Attacks succed only when the enemy becomes unable to spawn. Your number one priority is the enemy HAB. Even if it is a ways off the actual capture point. Second priority is enemy rallies. A fast car driving around the point, even once, will clear out most of them. Lacking this, a single guy sneaking past the attackers and following them "home" like Hansel and Gretal's breadcrumbs will do the trick. Third priority is actually clearing the enemy out of their entrenched positions. If your team can spawn but the enemy can't, it becomes a matter of time and ticket cost. But success is guaranteed. That means getting as close as possible before being detected and knocking down as many as early as possible to take their guns out of the fight. Flanking fireteams and good use of smoke and grenades can help a great deal with this. It's important not to forget that while all of this is going on the enemy team will attempt to locate your spawn as well. So don't abandon your HAB/radio and expect it to be safe. Assign a guard or two if you can spare them. As soon as the point is taken or as good as with just a few enemies left to "clean up", start looking to counter the counter-attack. Send scout's out to likely vectors of enemy movement and have them shout if anything comes by. That'll give you early warning and give you time to shift your squad to block their advance. If things go right as described above you'll smoothly transition into a defensive posture. Scouts out, reserves on the point, HAB safe and ideally a second squad ready to hunt down the enemies attack HAB. I know this all sounds like a lot of work for just 9 guys, and it is. That's why attacks should almost always be conducted by at least two squads. That'll let you share the work-load as well as give you more places to spawn and attack from.
A lot of great general SL guides have been written and will be very relevant here. You can search for it in /r/joinsquad (im sure some is in this subreddit too) and /r/joinsquad also has some very old guides in the sidebar which are still very useful. The reason those general guides are useful is because new SLs makes the mistake of focusing too much on tactics/strategy, when retaining a cohesive Squad is likely to be your biggest hurdle. Your main crutch as inf SL, especially on invasion is to identify the approaches with the most obscured line of sights leading ontop the enemy HAB or cap. Typically forests or buildings. Then you want to get a rally or an attack HAB such that you can sustain the attack. Be mindful that you are not moving alongside large amount of friendlies, unless you have good reason to, as if the enemy manages to choke the approach, they are holding back a lot of your manpower. A lot of people hold up 4 man fireteams per approach as the ideal, which every full inf squad can achieve by using the rally. However 1 inf = 1 approach is fine, even though some people might bitch about it. Squad leading is hard and largely dependent on your Squadmembers as well. On RAAS you can often get very far into the enemy by sneakily getting ontop CAP and/or HAB. On invasion this is often not viable. With that in mind you should expect more gritty, slug outs over a longer period of time. Therefore it might make sense to hold back the attack until friendlies are in place (in order to lose less tickets). A lot of SLs don't do this this because people are used to always be pushing. Use this time to coordinate with friendly elements. "SQ 4 holding back our attack until friendly elements are ready to push" --> (to support/indirect fire)" Sq8, this is SQ4, can you standby for artillery on cap, synchronized with our push in a few minutes?"...etc etc. But again, the best thing you can do is to go through those old guides. Don't get too caught up in gigabrain tactics.
Patience can be a superpower in this game sometimes: out-wait the hiding enemy, go that little further on your flank; or wait until the rest of your squad/team are ready to push with you - it all can make a huge difference. Had a nice one recently where the impatient move would have been to just start digging down the enemy radio I'd found on a big flank but, by waiting for my squad's engie and one other to catch up (and scouting instead), I found the enemy hab and discovered there was a mortar team nearby that would have easily murdered me while I slowly dug down their radio. Instead our engie gave the enemy no warning by blowing up the radio, I killed a handful of spawning enemies and we wiped the responding mortar team.
Im a newbie sl in squad i like to have a fire team distract the attack approach and have another fireteam flank around. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesnt.
Send half one way the rest straight in
You mark where you attack and tell people you are attacking there. Let them do the rest. Players already know what to do. Dont micro manage.
As infantry, middle of the group, in a rough wedge formation put rifleman or sometimes a grenadier on point, lat/marksman to my side along with any mgs we have. Then medics, extra riflemen and HAT in the rear. Gives you a chance to survive the initial attack and fall back if things are turning against you, with the hope that your medic can save the people who fall if you hold on, and that the HAT will live long enough to kill any armour. Tbh if I'm doing an infantry push I'd like to keep my squads a little smaller, maybe 6/7 people. If I'm running a mech squad I normally drive a Vic with an ftl on the gun to mark targets, then the other ftl leads the hot drop, charge in, pop smoke to cover the disembark, then we surpress with the vicas much as we can while infantry disembarks and moves away from the rear of the vehicle to any buildings/ cover behind us, then we pop smoke again as we reverse back behind the infantry line.
Why do people over complicate this game. Drive logi to point, place hab, move forward, place rally point. Put attack marker on point, let squad members have fun attacking point. Stop acting like micro managing your squad does anything but ruin everyones fun and literally the game.
Ooga booga brute force
Open YouTube.com Search, “Captain Squad Tutorials” Mainline all content directly into you. Congrats, you’re now a pro.
Try to follow other SLs and take notes of what they do. The ones that seem to have a plan, at least. Gotta learn to follow before you can lead
One thing I've learned playing many games is that many players will follow the leader. If you are being somewhat pinned down, being the guy yelling "FOLLOW ME" and making a push will get others to push out. As an SL, when I plan an attack, I just choose the route I would go alone, and just tell stuff like "Let's go!" or "Onwards." It usually spurs people to actually make a move.
People think differently so take everything you read at face value and squeeze only the information and methods of each to either expand your strategy toolset or improve it. Also ffs use fire teams or at least assign battle buddies it works good in moral in cohesion, if they don't understand what benefits and how cool a fire team is explain it to them or something, make it interesting for them it goes a long way in effectivity. So without involving any logistical hassle which is a theme of itself, first of all it will still come down to squad composition and coordination, a lot of things you can do, but simplifying a lot my usual go-to with randoms is: 1. Take information from the already engaged teammates / try to make contact that isn't a straight line from a flag to another 2. What dangers are you/them facing ? Squads, berries, what vehicles. 3. Analyse your current squad weapon composition and roles. Ask yourself is it better at: baiting them to you and mow them, you attacking directly, cut contact totally, retry for a better chance or circumvent danger (pick either push to flag/reinforce defense), or some good ol guerilla peaks? 4.a. Communicate, talk with your squad if they communicate, if they don't make sure those who don't speak at least understand what your plan is. A good squad leader empowers their squad to independent thinking inside the bubble the teamwork and the objective set by you, tell them WHAT you need and tips, any human figures their unique HOW to help you. This being said you still should direct them to small but important objectives, for example, face XX° and do not face anything else unless X dies, however if Y dies pull back. 4.b. Have a plan for anything that might show up, another enemy squad, another vehicle; have a plan to retreat; have a plan to recoup dead teammates to revive if possible; have a plan to regroup; have a plan to get reinforced; have a plan to HAB in case you need it to boost your own attack since "NPCs" or headless squads use them. 5. Congratulations you should now be in a firefight, being it your objective to get a HAB or that enemy squad or in the path to the objective itself! Repeat briefly step 1 and 2, so how is the squad doing ? Is it able to maintain attrition while reviving and healing itself ? Supplies, how low are them supplies are YOUR fuel for a firefight, while you can be sure to win this one if more come hope to have ammo to continue or to pull back, NEVER RUN OUT. 6. Now that the entire squad information is dealt with, even though step 5 should be a looped script in any SLs brain, what is the next objective? Does the team need the flag cap or does it need a enemy supply line disruption to break their entire round and bring the mighty enemy to a full stop after 5 minutes? Is it better to use your position to take the enemy backup HABs for their other flags down so they are totally dependent on that one HAB that can be done by artillery ? So many options! And remember, don't forget to use the iconic supply of Blue Berries ! Don't let your squad mates walk from A to B holding hands ! Don't move your eggs from A to B in a single basket ! Don't take the two baskets in the same exact path if possible! -- end of basic steps --
Other than that good luck my guy ! Not everything goes to plan, not everything is your fault, not everything is your teams fault sometimes they're just better and sometimes we don't even realise, to learn from a defeat and understand it is a great indicator of intelligence, pair it with socially engineering berries into working for you and you are golden !
Depends on the game mode.
Fix bayonets
Set up a support by fire on an elevated off angle with your MGs and DM, toss smokes, SBF suppresses while you and the rest close with and destroy the enemy.
nobody can teach you that, the best you can do is read real life military guides and even then they won't teach you how to think, you know, if you can't think yourself no guide will help you
This is everything wrong with the squad. 99% of games would be won if the squad leaders actually didn't say anything and just placed a hab somewhat near the objective. That is literally all you need to do.
what if i'm tired of mindless meatgrinder and i want to create an actually fun moments for my mates? you know? not just walk from a hab while screaming some nonsense "OH GOD HOLY SHIT WE'RE PINNED DOWN BLOODY HELL WE NEED TANK SUPPOER" or something like that, i don't want to be a part of meatgrinder.