Infantry formations

[Pirate]

After years of Zen-like training, Killer perfected the defend-the-T-building formation.

[Tiger1]

There will without doubt be times where your 'social fuckup formation' might be working, and working well in PR. At other times using certain formations would have the upper hand.

I don't bet, but let my results speak for themselves over the past 2.5 years. Not bragging, no need to enforce my views on how PR should be played, simply knowing the way i've trained my boys works. To me there is more fullfillment this way. We do it our way, you take a different approach. That is your full right, after all this is a game.

To me the individual score of a person in PR comes secondary to teamwork, anytime.

Luigi You willing to make a bet on the civilian social fuckup formation being able to overpower your little formations? Personally, I think realism clans cant play for shit, but then again this game allows people to play it the way they think is the most fun, even if it means sucking badly.

OD-S for example doesnt train formations or any of that bullshit at all, its about knowing your role, shutting your mouth and shooting the enemy in the face. Simple as that.

[Sgt.BountyOrig]

Formations can be practiced over and over but it will ultimately depend on the situation as it develops, not all squads will have a grenadier but some will, so sitting in windows is bad sometimes

[dtacs]

You willing to make a bet on the civilian social fuckup formation being able to overpower your little formations? Personally, I think realism clans cant play for shit, but then again this game allows people to play it the way they think is the most fun, even if it means sucking badly.

OD-S for example doesnt train formations or any of that bullshit at all, its about knowing your role, shutting your mouth and shooting the enemy in the face. Simple as that.

Too fucking right. OD-S are probably the most dangerous clan in PR, take what they say as gospel..

[RedWater]

Too fucking right. OD-S are probably the most dangerous clan in PR, take what they say as gospel..

I dont know why, but your latest posts about OD-S make me think your mad.

Did we kick your *** lately or do you just dislike certain members?

[dtacs]

Wtf? I love OD-S, there was no sarcasm in that post, meant every word.

[gaurd502]

Practicing formations is useless IMO. You can do that all day and as soon as you'r put in an unfamiliar spot your done. I think the best thing to do is make sure your good at killing people, good at covering your buddies and different directions, and once your all set on that "formations" aren't all that hard to do, its just a matter of putting people in there spot and trusting them to have your back.

[Rudd]

I wouldn't say formations are completely useless, the way they are portrayed here isn't so good but I find there are some simple formations that help the squad, and the faster you can move in to them the better you'll be.

E.g. Skirmish chain, a long sparse line of troops designed to clear areas, good in areas of low cover or forests.

I'd like to simply say "form a skirmish chain on me" and my squad move forward arranging themselves to me left and right, which means everyone can fire without hitting friendlies, and won't get taken down in one explosion or MG burst.


Formations themselves aren't that useful, since they are on paper with no other variables. How your formation is supposed to interact with different tactics and different setups of cover is where the skill comes in.

E.g. walking down a road, should everyone be on the same side of the road? - I say no, since if you are engaged you want a significant part of your squad to be in a better position to get in to cover, also it spreads the troops out in case of explosions. It also increases the situational awareness at corners.

General guidelines work best for pubbie games, however well drilled formations and tactics can work. E.g. fire and maneuver works great, spread your guys out, each one firing a mag and moving - the trick is coordinating it to have a constant stream of fire to pin the enemy. Works great on enemy occupied buildings.

But when you are ingame the paramount objective is to use your cover effectively.

[Wicca]

If you attack an enemy "blob" with all of your squads guns pointing at them. You will most likely win, unless your squad sux at shooting.

So a line formation, or a formation where all your guns are fixed on the enemy, aswell as in cover. Is better then say a column of troops towards an MG nest

[Tiger1]

It all comes down to the individual skills 'n drills gents. That's all it comes down to. It all becomes a second nature and you will respond to different situations correctly at that point in time. Formations are being used for a reason in our armed forces in the past, present and future. Thus in PR they can be usefull aswell.

[cyberzomby]

Armed forces are in a completely different league than PR. Its called the real life league.

I agree with Rudd. In the older days when we still had RP's and I SL'ed, I made a line to search a forest for an RP. But thats all the formation you need.

Echelon, square and what not will work against some random pub's as L4gi said but you dont need them to survive. You can play PR like a game or up to a point where it behaves like a milsim. I say behave because it will never be one.

Also agree with Dtacs btw OD-S is one of the best clans out there, clan/tournament competition wise.

[TheComedian]

I'm rather pleased if 3/5 squad members are following/supporting me. I have sucky VOIP so I don't shout to bring them in line.

I think the greatest success that a SL can have is convince his SMs that those 8+1 mags of ammo will never be expended if they don't start SHOOTING IN THE GENERAL ENEMY DIRECTION.

[cyberzomby]

Good point as well

[Tiger1]

Back in the day a well trained squad could have 60+ confirmed kills in a public game. Using formations, fire and maneuvre, communicate etc. Back in those days you could still place a rally without it disappearing after a while.

The good old forest and jungle maps should be played again. Perfect for ambushing the enemy.

[goguapsy]

Well, what we did during USMA's SLS was a simple battledrill 1-A (aka flank).

The formation we used was simple: Arrow formation while moving. If contact is estabilished, get on a line and start firing while another squad (or FT or whatever) flanks.

The arrow formation is there to simple allow for a quicker return-fire in a line effect. I don't think there is any more to it. Just everybody needs to get on a line to maximize fire!

[Mikemonster]

An arrangement of your guys in a Common Sense Blob is generally not what 'formation' means to some people.

Common Sense Blobs work in PR. But a formation requires every person to be able to watch their area and be able to kill the enemy in it. And lets face it, they won't be able to do both. Weight of firepower is PR's answer to good firefight discipline - but they are not the same.

[-.-Maverick-.-]

Back in the day a well trained squad could have 60+ confirmed kills in a public game. Using formations, fire and maneuvre, communicate etc. Back in those days you could still place a rally without it disappearing after a while.

The good old forest and jungle maps should be played again. Perfect for ambushing the enemy.

If you have good players you can still have scores like that very regularly.

The only tactic I use is flanking and attacking from multiple directions, distracting the enemy and so on. You can do a lot of damage with small groups if you're unpredictable.

Shoot one guy, go around, drop smoke, shout "need medic", use the rope, get on the building, kill him from there, or just throw the rope to confuse the enemy and then knife him in the back.

There are a lot of examples but formations dont really work imo the only important thing is spacing and being focused and by that I mean checking around you not just looking in one spot, situational awarness.

A lot of players try to overtacticize everything, I was like that when I started too. But once you start paying more attention to your skills you become much more effective.

squad 2

[nicoX]

If you think formations are useless then you can't do it properly.

[Arnoldio]

Imo, formations in PR are useless. You can stack up on a corner in a really fancy formation, np, but then you'll just get killed. It takes way too much thinking to stay and move in any formation. Out of interest, we tried using formations and then compared a squads performance in battle, and when not using any special formations, the squad always did better. The amount of coordination and thinking you have to spend to keep every single guy in formation(especially on a pub) should rather be spent on shooting the enemy in the face.

For once, i agree. I mean, some kind of vague formation is good, but only so if you say column squad is actually column, not line, but who cares if they are more like echelon, or V or whatever. Stacking on the wall is only useful when SL doesnt say anything, when the players themselves have the urge to stack for some reason. If ordered, it will just result in a mess. So im more like, whoever wants to stack, stack, whoever doesnt, its cool, we will get the job done anyways.

[saXoni]

Back in the day a well trained squad could have 60+ confirmed kills in a public game. Using formations, fire and maneuvre, communicate etc. Back in those days you could still place a rally without it disappearing after a while.

This still happens, without fancy formations and maneuvering. Played with Phlupple, Selemeister and ForceEcho today, altogether we got 95+ kills.