An example of a good squad leader

[USNCaseySmith]

A few nights ago I jumped in on a game in Kashan Dessert I belIEve and jumped in on a squad in which the SL was fairly organized. What he said to us all made a lot of sense and got us all to work together better. What he said was "Any squad member that doesn't speak up, is a dead squad member. Communication is key, if we don't communicate, we die or become innefective" Which is true, I can count the number of times where a squad was working together and only 2 were talking, 2 others who weren't happened to trail off every once and a while or get the squad anhialated because they saw a contact and instead of reporting it decided to wait until AFTER they were dead to say "Oh yeah, I saw a BDRM at 120 there"

Just my 2 cents on something I haven't been seeing stressed AS much in a lot of these guides in this thread.

[DDS]

Your right. I don't know why that is, maybe people are distracted or whatever. You hear shooting nearby but no one say's anything. I usually say "should I be concerned?". And I'll get a reply.. "oh I'm dead.. enemy is close by." Communication is key in this game. Think as a group instead as an individual.

[CallousDisregard]

Mumble
FTW

[USNCaseySmith]

Mumble
FTW

Honestly, mumble would be great if everyone used it AND there was some way to like auto mute the SLs or something with a push of a button and then as soon as you let go theyre un muted. Reason being, I had mumble up and it was working great. Only problem is, the Sl's were having so much chatter between them I couldnt hear my own sqaud talking to me. It was quite annoying so I took it off and chose to type to other Sqauds instead.

[dtacs]

That is possible, what I do is have my + and - keys on +10% volume and -10% volume, so I can deafen everyone whilst still being able to talk.

Its possible to also set up mute/deafen keys, except its not as simple since you can't be deafened without being muted. Can someone post on how to properly set this up?

[KillJoy[Fr]]

If your squand leader was =PrkL=Aeagus that's normal lol

[DDS]

I use that too Dtac's. My only minor problem is I deafen mumble between maps to avoid the chatter and forget to raise the volume. Mumble is a must in the game. Can't count how many times mumble has kept me and my squad mates alive ingame.

I also use the overlay feature in mumble for the last 6mos without any problem. Squad leaders are setup color coded (red) so I can differentiate who is who. To get it to work you have to always run mumble before starting up PR.

[USNCaseySmith]

I use that too Dtac's. My only minor problem is I deafen mumble between maps to avoid the chatter and forget to raise the volume. Mumble is a must in the game. Can't count how many times mumble has kept me and my squad mates alive ingame.

I also use the overlay feature in mumble for the last 6mos without any problem. Squad leaders are setup color coded (red) so I can differentiate who is who. To get it to work you have to always run mumble before starting up PR.

You mean they appear in game as red to see who is speaking?? Thats great because now I will know who it is that is speaking. Ill also need to set up the Deafen keys, it really does annoy me when I have SL's talking and then because of that I cant hear my Squad. Like I said, if there is a way to Deafen the squad leader channel Im all for it.

As to what echo said. Your absolutely right too, I'm not tunnel visioned on having a good squad leader though, I'm just pointing out one aspect. Just to make that clear. Having good squad mates is also essential, last night I was on the Insurgent team in, well I forget which map it was, but its the huge city with the airstrip the US starts at at the bottom of the map. Any ways we get all organized and end up getting tasked by the commander to defend the known cache in the NW corner of the map by ourselves, for the whole game.. With one techie, a sapper and some good placement of my troops, we held that cache the entire game pretty much by ourselves (Save a gary taking out a stryker, which wasnt even coming near us, just trying to get away from the gary). So yes I absolutely agree that a good squad is essential.

On top of that, how do you guys deal with unruly squad members?? I am a bit new to squad leading but I like it alot and I know what to do. Last night I had one who wouldnt throw the rope when I asked him to (Specialist), I had to ask 50 times and he TK'd a guy. Then I told him in a very aggravated tone, because I was aggravated, that A) When I need something done he does it, no questions and B) NO teamkilling. If he disobeyed either of those from now on he would be kicked. He then proceeded to follow orders until he left off on his own and wouldnt go where I told him to again so I kicked him and filled his position with a new squad member.
Basically, I call it a 3 strike rule. 1st was the rope, 2nd was the TK, 3rd was not listening again and that was it.

Sorry for the long post.

[Cavazos]

A few nights ago I jumped in on a game in Kashan Dessert I belIEve and jumped in on a squad in which the SL was fairly organized. What he said to us all made a lot of sense and got us all to work together better. What he said was "Any squad member that doesn't speak up, is a dead squad member. Communication is key, if we don't communicate, we die or become innefective" Which is true, I can count the number of times where a squad was working together and only 2 were talking, 2 others who weren't happened to trail off every once and a while or get the squad anhialated because they saw a contact and instead of reporting it decided to wait until AFTER they were dead to say "Oh yeah, I saw a BDRM at 120 there"

Just my 2 cents on something I haven't been seeing stressed AS much in a lot of these guides in this thread.

That's a good philosophy. It really enhances the squad situational awareness and your more mentally active when your communicating back and forth among each other. As for the unruly squad members, there are two factors to take into consideration: the squad member, and yourself.

Most players are generally behave in a teamwork fashion, but some players are just a different type of player you will not be able to work with. Other times the squad leading style of the guy in charge is just ineffective, or it can be both. If your not micromanaging and your squad leading is good, you should be fine squad leading anyone.

[USNCaseySmith]

That's a good philosophy. It really enhances the squad situational awareness and your more mentally active when your communicating back and forth among each other. As for the unruly squad members, there are two factors to take into consideration: the squad member, and yourself.

Most players are generally behave in a teamwork fashion, but some players are just a different type of player you will not be able to work with. Other times the squad leading style of the guy in charge is just ineffective, or it can be both. If your not micromanaging and your squad leading is good, you should be fine squad leading anyone.

Exactly, for any sqaud to function properly and efficiently, I'd say situational awareness is the MOST important qaulity to be posessed. Along with decision making skills and such.

[Mikemonster]

I suppose there's global SA and immadiate SA, immediate being basically where is cover and where are the shots coming from. Global being 'where are my assets and reinforcements'.

I notice that a lot of squad members have difficulty with the immediate SA - locating the enemy and instinctively being in cover. I may not be able to shoot for shit but if anyone's good at dodging the enemy or fdinding dead ground it's me. Unfortunately I find that my squad members just tend not to have that instinct.

Communication should be vital to provide that, and as such I believe that too much is far better than not enough. A lot of the time squad members will shout 'i'm down' but not something constructive like 'I've got shot on the second floor by a guy who was opposite in the T-Building, third floor'.

I'd rather have a talkative squad than a quiet one. Trouble is the language barrier sometimes in Europe (PRTA) means that very good players are slightly too quiet. And I have an accent that you can float bricks on so sometimes they don't understand but are [understandably] unwilling to tell me.

That said, if i'm SL I feel it's my job to be at the head of the column as well as to be the communicative 'glue' that holds the squad together. That's why I never shut up.

[Psyko]

i have a fairly strict rule that i go by. dont trust anybody. dont trust, your AR guy, or the guy whos supposed to be supplying them with ammo. dont trust your medic, they tend to look around corners while everybody is stopped, dont trust pilots they like to kamikasi with people inside, dont trust your specist, he has a hook and thinks its epic to go over the wall first, dont trust APC crewmen, they leave you in the base without transport. Dont trust your commander, he is never there or he is always a sniper, dont trust the hat guys they are always in the wrong part of the map or dead, dont trust your LAW guy he gets one shot and wastes it on a low priority target, dont trust snipers, now and then they actually teamkill friendlies and believe themselves to be the front line defence, dont trust grenadiers they never check the map, dont trust gunship pilots they never work together and think they own the whole team, dont trust jet pilots they're only there for you to give them easy targets and get blown out of the sky, dont trust tank crewmen, they have forgotten that they are in a teamwork orientated game and only serve themselves, and never ever ever ever ever ever ever trust yourself, you are stupid as hell and you know it.

[Cavazos]

i have a fairly strict rule that i go by. dont trust anybody. dont trust, your AR guy, or the guy whos supposed to be supplying them with ammo. dont trust your medic, they tend to look around corners while everybody is stopped, dont trust pilots they like to kamikasi with people inside, dont trust your specist, he has a hook and thinks its epic to go over the wall first, dont trust APC crewmen, they leave you in the base without transport. Dont trust your commander, he is never there or he is always a sniper, dont trust the hat guys they are always in the wrong part of the map or dead, dont trust your LAW guy he gets one shot and wastes it on a low priority target, dont trust snipers, now and then they actually teamkill friendlies and believe themselves to be the front line defence, dont trust grenadiers they never check the map, dont trust gunship pilots they never work together and think they own the whole team, dont trust jet pilots they're only there for you to give them easy targets and get blown out of the sky, dont trust tank crewmen, they have forgotten that they are in a teamwork orientated game and only serve themselves, and never ever ever ever ever ever ever trust yourself, you are stupid as hell and you know it.

I'm going to ignore this philosophy and use one more constructive, like "Some people I can rely on and there is always luck to help me out".

[USNCaseySmith]

I think basic situational awareness is what is really needed, which is where are enemies at, where are we getting fired on from, not even the cover really but we'll include it. So far the squads I've led have all had that.

As far as immediate SA, I believe thats everyones job to know in the squad and so far I've had nearly all squad members observe that. Global SA however should be the split(between immediate and global) priority of the Squad leader, the rest of the squad needs to be focussed on immediate SA. After all, the SL is calling in the airstrikes, transport, etc and etc.

Last night we were playing as the MEC on =HOG= Muttrahs server, and not only was my squad situationally aware, but they were not just robots waiting for my each and every input, I liked that. Now thats not to say if it was enemies they asked if we should open fire or not, but as far as getting to cover and what not, they did it without asking, when I got killed in the middle of a fire fight, I told them it was their duty to hold ground until I spawned at the FOB and got there. What happened? Our side crushed the USMC all the way to the docks then took that, and our squad ended up being the top squad with over 6800 points. We build a FOB near every Cap Point and fended off a few APCs by ourselves and such.

Thats why I'd say another important thing to have in a squad is people who DONT need you to tell them what to do. Because if you die and you have to hump it back out there, you cant command because you cant see the situation, they need to be able to decide for themselves and not go "Doh! What do we do ?!?!"

[Mikemonster]

I'd say that personally my experience in that regard is that sometimes you have 5 guys in your squad who are downright incompetent.

If you've had good rounds as an SL, then don't worry about it. You just have to wait for the right day again.

By all means there is room for improvement, but it can happen that as an SL you get your squad into a hugely advantageous position and they completely fail to kill or hurt the enemy.. And then you have to run away with only a few of them left. It happens and it can't be helped to be honest.

I generally try to take another approach if we've got wiped out.. Go to a different FOB on the other side of the map, instead of getting frustrated and flinging the same situation together. And learn to withdraw (I need to do this more!). If you learn to withdraw and then stick a rally down and regroup your guys in the next compound you never know, they might learn something. Sometimes that's as simple as them not running off.