Names of both people and squads ommitted! I’m not exactly experienced at this game but I think I have just witnessed why the word ‘communication’ is emphasised so much. My last game opened in the manner I’m becoming accustomed to – an apparent reluctance to create a squad followed by a quick stampede to fill the spaces created. I duly signed on as an infantryman and spawned at one of the HQ nodes. Complete silence followed. After a bit of nagging, the instruction from our squad leader was, literally, ‘Do what you want'(!) Cue a few moments aimless wandering, at which point I made the fateful decision to leave the squad and create my own. I have to say that I harboured no desire to be squad leader, but the decision was made and my squad filled. To say I am completely clueless would be a little unkind, but not far from the truth so leadership was in shorter supply than it should have been. Coupled with no Support nor Engineer troopers meant we had no nodes of any sort nor any means to build them. Unsurprisingly then, my squad voted with their feet and I was left trugding the forest alone, taking pot shots at any enemy that dared get too close. I’m beginning to realise that there are several sorts of squad leader – a) the inept (I count myself in this class) who need to get far more experience before trying out the role; b) the glory hunters (follow me to glory! or not just as long as you don’t bother me); c) those that actually have a gift for juggling several communications channels at once and who actually make decisions and tell people. I daresay there are other categories too, but members of c) are obviously in short supply. My experience so far has also taught me that the unsung heroes of the Squad are the Supply troops and the Engineers, for without them the squad flounders. Balance in Squad membership is truly important.
“Why are there only locked squads?”
“Ow common, why is everyone locking there squads?”
“Can somebody please make a unlocked squad”
Most people here probably know me as a salty squad leader/recon player ([OC] TmR^). I’ve been trying to be less salty / sarcastic, but that doesn’t always work. Specially when you have squads that no clue what to do and/or a commander that has no clue what to do. I think yesterdays example on HLL #2 Foy Night was a great example of it.
We had 1 solo tanker at the start of the map, barely any squad leader comms, nobody building garrisons and no commander/commander that had no clue what to do.
We took Westbend at the start which was really good considering that our infantry was pounded by a tank. I was playing spotter in the recon squad and made it to the Bois Jacues to come in on N30 from behind and was able to take down 2 garrisons, 3 outposts while our team hadn’t been able to build a garrison on Westbend. Probably due to the (bad) placement of our first attack garrison which made the location of the defensive garrison on Foy really hard to put in a good spot. But i also noticed there weren’t a lot of support players which lead squad leads to have to wait for commander supply drops. But it’s just 50 supplies. Nobody build any backup garrisons at Cobru Factory, so when the enemy took Westbend, it was a straight line to Cobru Factory and they captured that one too. At this point, i start to get frustrated. That is also the point when salty TmR comes out. Trying to convince people to fall back for defense, tell the squad leaders to have their infantry switch to support so they can build a defensive garrison. Usually along the lines of “Ask your infantry to switch to support temporarily to build a garrison, or just kick them from the squad if they don’t listen”.
Personally i think that is the only way that none-communicative squad mates learn. If they don’t listen AND don’t use comms, get them off the squad for someone who will at least listen and preferably also use voice chat. Communication in this game is key. Not too much (because of the clutter and i do want to hear my ingame sound), but just enough tactical information to be able understand what is going on on the field. Where the tanks at? Where is the infantry attacking our point from. What is the general location of the airhead drop?
Last night Foy game really turned arround once a fella named Jake took commander role. I think almost everyone in text and voice chat was salty / sarcastic at this point, with about 45? minutes left to play the map. I was amazed how our team was still holding on to Road to Recogne. We had some extra tanks on the field by this point and they were just hammering down into the forrest. Trying to keep our garrison alive, which was overrun several times. When i made it to Foy and after several attempts was able to destroy 2 more garrisons in Foy, I think it started to turn arround for our team. The enemy was so focused on getting into Road to Recogne that they weren’t really keeping an eye in the back, like I had seen on Westbend as well. Our team managed to push in to Cobru Factory and take it back while i had hustled my fat legs into Westbend to see they had no garrison at all. It was all the way back in the forrest between N30 and Westbend. I wasn’t able to make locate it right away but i got my hopes up. We might just win this bish.
Jake was proving to be a natural commander. Dropping supplies on requested spots, or move makers i set up. I was back in Bois Jacues with my new-to-the-game sniper and told him where to setup and cover me, or setup and spot /kill enemies while i took out arty. At some point, the commander made a really weird bombing run where people (me) got frustrated again and asked him “What the hell was that Jake?” at which he replied “This is my first time commanding”. The guy had literally picked up commander role for the first time in his life to save this team from a loss. After we took N30 Highway back and I had setup my new sniper friend on the right spot in Bois Jacues to snipe at the enemy on Road to Bastogne, the commander dropped a bombing run no where close to my garrison marker. I told him as a tip, to zoom in on the point next time, as there was a garrison marker and he understood. Thank you Jake (if you ever read this) for picking up commander!
Conclusion:
I totally agree with Lokisdad. Communication is key. There are also certain key roles in the game your squad cannot do without. I have 2 macro’s i use ingame, that i can use when we have no garrisons and usually at start or during the game when we have no nodes. I saw a PBS member reply to it (maybe in sarcasme?) that the “tutorial was too long”. So maybe we can improve them together if at all?
Garrison macro
Guys, we need at least 3 defense garrisons. To build one, you need 50 supplies in blue zone or 100 in red zone. Needs to be 200m away from other garrisons. Pull out your watch and scroll to the big table. Place it on the ground, easy as that.
Nodes macro
Build nodes guys! Free XP entire match on every class you play afterwards. Support players drop your supplies in HQ, engineers build the nodes
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