[Aquila]

Hi all, im quite new to this game only about 60 hours in.

Ive played the SL role once during the heat of battle i liked it, but i dont feel secure of myself further trying it because i feel like if make misstake or miss something i will get all kinds of heat thrown against me.

Do you have any tips regarding that role?

Should i just practice and practice or should i wait to be more experienced?

Regards, Aquila.

[SaltyDead]

First of all, welcome to PBS and hope you will enjoy your stay.  So far I haven’t played much as SL Myself but what I could recommend is to play a few games with some of the experience SL from powerbits see how they handle certain situations and then try those tactics yourself but I do recommend not using a random squad for learning since they are more likely to be negative and do there own thing but instead use our discord and put up a messege there will be plenty enough people there who would enjoy helping you without the negative feedback. Besides the normal play PBS also Host a good amount of training days for you to learn from experienced SL’s and perfect moment to ask question and have feedback. so you might wanne start there

 

[BonsKi]

Hi, I totally understand you, I felt exactly the same way when I started playing as a SL.  I would start by suggesting you to always create a locked squad and do a mic test, secondly I always ask for the joining members to take the roles that I need,  MG > AT > Support > Engineer .  I normally mark everything in the map and also report back to commander. Your team can only see your markers, so in case there’s a tank reported by other team you will have to mark it so your squad can see it too. Have fun and GL ^^

 

[Anonymous]

Hey there, you can always start with the spotter role to get used to the command chat. Just keep your ears open. There is so much to learn in this game.
As long as you are communicating you can squadlead. But you can also ask a experienced SL to give you some help and just work in a squad together. If you want I can help you out some time

[BonsKi]

Aquila wrote:

Hi all, im quite new to this game only about 60 hours in. Ive played the SL role once during the heat of battle i liked it, but i dont feel secure of myself further trying it because i feel like if make misstake or miss something i will get all kinds of heat thrown against me. Do you have any tips regarding that role? Should i just practice and practice or should i wait to be more experienced? Regards, Aquila.

Quote

 

You’ll have to be vocal about every move you do as a team ( some people get lost in there own little battles lol ), use the markers ” move” ” attack” ” observe” to give instructions to your team to where to go and what to do.

[Anonymous]

Sometimes it is nice to start with just a 3 man squad and just focus on 1 task, so you get a feel for leading a squad

[Anonymous]

there´s a lot to learn and to do as SL and the more u understand the game the more complex it gets and the more experienced u get (also in other roles) the better u will be.

For someone new on SL communicating, placing OPs and garrisons is the base line. U want ur team to be able to play the game and spawn in in useful places and relay info to them like enemy positions so they can do their job.

When it comes to more experienced SLs u wanna give ur squads objectives like building stuff or fighting for critical positions. And always mark stuff! U don´t need to see it urself. If ur squad sees a tank, mark it! U also wanna work together with other squads to achieve goals.

I think the last step would be ordering ur mate to do certain stuff like hepling out def while u get a new OP up somewhere else. U don´t even need to fight to be a good SL that´s what ur gunners are for. U can also assign a squad mate to open a new squad and get a new op up where ur squad can spawn for quicker attacks and defensive. Part of that to me would also be ordering ur squad to redeploy for other roles needed to for example build red zone garrisons.

A lot of that only works with a decent squad tho.

 

Even that i feel like is probably just the surface. Some people are just amazing SLs and u can learn a lot of them. I for example couldn´t do o lot of that because my brain shuts down when i have to deal with to much stuff. But maybe that´s also just an experience thing.

Hope that helps a bit and be free to take every info u need out of it. it´s just the gist i get from playing with different SLs and playing it my self.

[DeadByDefault]

Its strange that some of you suggesting to try out leading with an experienced and/or closed veteran (PBS) squad.
For me, it was always easier to work with random guys. Around lvl30-80 players, they are know the basics, and most of the time willingly following my ideas as a squad leader. Sometimes I make (stupid) mistakes, but I try to learn from them, and always apologize from the squad members. They understand, never heard anybody complaining… and think about this: SL is the most hated role in the game. 😀 No one likes to play it, so they are mostly just glad if anybody create a squad and they can join in.
Also, when I started to play as a SL, I usually asked my squad on defending around objectives. First, as no one likes to stay on defense, your squad 95% sure will be in the middle of some good fight. (no ones blaming you about a boring game) Second, its easier to handle that many information when at least your surroundings wont change. Third, you can buy some time for yourself just asking them to hold the line around some point.
On the other hand, whenever I played with veterans (PBS) in my squad, I felt myself as an “OP placing and commander-squadmember relaying machine”. Everyone just headed where he thought. When I started to think about a garrison placement, they are already split up to build nodes. And I was prompted every moment to mark something on the map. (The worst thing is, that I see this behavior patterns on myself as well when I play with a green leader.)
So, speaking for myself, I preferably play with randoms or less experienced players as a squad leader.

A tip: when you are overwhelmed, just tell your squad that “sorry guys, the commander channel is crazy right now, i need some time”. They cannot hear that channel anyway. 😀

[Anonymous]

All above and just doing it. Your own way. Communication is the key.. and speed (band of brothers). If some one dont fallout the lead, you can ignore them or just kick them out. I normaly dont care if someone random goes their way and dont listen. He/she have to spawn somewhere, like my op. Opies, there is many ways to use them, but normaly it is a spawn. If you dont want to loose it, you have to figure where the enemy wont come or go. Map reading is something to learn all the time. Where is the friendlies, there no enemies, may be one or two. If commander gives oders try to follow them best as you can. Form a line or push it wont matter, doing what you can its enough, you will learn when you do. Dont be affaird of failures, it happens. =) There is always the next time

[Aquila]

Thank you all for the response 🙂 i will sure be ready for the next training or maybe able to join in squads with so i can get the feel for it 🙂

[DrBlergh]

I find that so many things must click for it to be fun to play a SL. You might have an amazing Squad with polite and good players, but have a “broken mic” marathon mixed with a political discussion coming from “officer chat”.  OR the “command structure” might be superb, but you have 5 guys in your squad looking for “The Fountain of Youth” all on their own in different parts of the map. If there is a total collapse of the “command structure” I tend to just ignore them and focus on making the guys in my squad happy, most of them will understand that you have to deal with 3 voip channels and sometimes you have to ask them to repeat questions or pings etc Put down OPs, update your squad on when you move an OP etc bino everything and mark everything. Also, if you get flack from someone, politely ask them to take over as SL. We all have our own styles I guess and this is how I roll. Good or bad, you have to ask the people I lead.

[-Bullithol-NL]

Maybe take a look at those 2 YouTube movies from mono.

Even though you are not a newb:

And more tips on how to squad lead:

[Royal-Douche]

try it out in a comfortable enviroment, like with friends, you’ll  get the hang of it, if you want, i can help you aswell. im a level 9 SL!

[Aquila]

Sounds good, i look forward to it!

[Qverner]

I just jumped into it once I found people not wanting to take the role, either through not starting squads at the start of a game or by leaving the office role after creating the squad.

A squad is always better if there is at least an officer in it that places outposts (that’s the minimum you should do), failing that and there is no excuse to play SL. To be a good SL there are more than just placing outposts though, such as:

• Placing garrisons, which may mean requesting supply drops or getting a support to drop you some
• Guiding your squad – There are different levels of interactions that you can go into here, but this could be telling people “we are on defence” or similar, or directing them to roles, postions or where they should move etc.
• Hunting enemy garrisons and OP’s – This should be something all players have in mind, but as a squad leader you have more weight behind bringing team mates with you as per the point above
• Communicating with the other SLs and commander – This means sharing relevant information with other squads and commander about enemy locations, air drops/supply drops, squad intent (defending, attacking, flanking, garrions hunting etc.)
• Relaying information to your squad – Making sure important information like air drops, bombing runs etc. are shared with your squad

Personally, the thing I find the most challenging as a SL is controlling my squad. In general, I try not to tell people what to do, other than maybe giving overall orders/intents. Placing an OP often promote certain behavior though, such as placing a defensive OP would promote your squad to focus on defense etc. But for the ultimate level SL a combination between giving direct orders and allowing your squad mates to improvise within certain parameters might be optimal. This would both take a lot of training and experience, but also a squad that is familiar with each other (aka not something you find with a bunch of random squad members).

[ChipTheMayo]

Youll get better over time, that confidence comes with time and when you have a squad that listens no matter how well you do or bad you’ll still be helping the team!

[Author]

Posts