Project Reality Forums

I dont SL much these days. When I did younger ppl started calling me "Sir"....and I thought why would they do that? Guess I'm way too authoritative and it can spoil the fun sometimes, and make conflicts, so now I just join some squad and do a NCO stuff. Like adviser of some sort. Find myself better in that spot.

I like to be a defense sort of guy, and letting my squad think for themselves in certain situations.

All around. Authoritarian. As a squad leader you are not leading a discussion club, nor is it a democracy where everyone gets to say their opinion. You follow the orders given to you. A quote thats often heard and used among the elite units in the western world is the following : ''Lead, follow or get out of the way!''

It's that simple.

I like to give my squad members some freedom when I'm squadleading, allowing people to express their opinion and give suggestions, even though it's my call at the end. Whilst I do not usually become upset or angry if my squad and I die aslong as they do what they are supposed to, I do get a bit pissy when people totally ignore my orders, or does something stupid which ends up with the death of everyone.

Recently its been "have fun, kill bad guys"

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The best way to squad lead.
I gauge the skill of my squad and issue instructions based on their ability.
Good players receive few orders, only updates as to intent, bad players get micromanaged.

On 64+ it becomes Delegation/"Sheep" IE
Somebody do this, somebody do that, somebody grab this kit, we're all going over here, half you load up in the chopper, and so on.

I'm a Dictator when leading public players and I delegate when I have squad members who know what they're doing.

I use the Dictator style where they need to ask almost everything and they need to follow every order the only space they have is the space to do some heroic acts but even still then I will execute them. It is just so goddamn annoying to have a squad member constantly running away with a random kit without any target or order.

I usually Delegate, and sometimes i describe myself as a Squad Leader as mostly Defensive, or in my words, a hold back "let's do it right" type of a Squad Leader. also i like to babysit other members of other Squads who has their Leaders either missing, or ineffective.

I call it the "Vietnam NCO method".

Move close to the rest of the group, direct fire via your own fire and order people around a lot via local.
I call it the Vietnam method because its oldschool like that. Less map reading, more fighting.
Its not micromanagement, though, I could care less what my guys do as long as they're doing it right and it helps my cause, I trust the grunts enough. But if one guy does something I don't allow, he's gonna stop. He better stop.

In my experience, it's necessary to use all the methods above in the poll. Every person learns differently.

Delegation can be useful because at times you do not have a good awareness of the situation because you are not in position where your squad member is, and most players do not have good communication skills to effectively help you understand what they are seeing. It's not just a video-game thing, this is what armies have been training soldiers forever to perfect. The same problems that persist in real life are present in PR.

Authority is necessary as well because one important soldier may be lagging behind or off in his own when he needs to be regrouped with the squad and doing his important role, this can be that AT soldier not with the squad when a enemy IFV comes rolling down the street. Or the AR not in position & set up to lay that base of fire that could of saved many men. It is good to always check on the status of your men and ensure they are doing their roles properly, but you have to remember that their effectiveness is limited and never to rely entirely on them for the safety of the squad.

For example, when I command my AT member to get in position to take out the IFV, I also always tell the rest of my squad to get behind cover and spread out in case my AT guy misses his shot.

One key thing I learned about squad leading, you never revive another downed squad member, you have to let them learn their lesson. When you tell them to take cover in this building and they fail to do so and the result is all of them dying. When they cry for you to come out of the building to grab the medic kit and revive everyone. You have to put your foot down and say no. They learn real fast when they are forced to travel back with the long scenic walk to you and other surviving squad mates who actually listened to you who are now in a defensive position at the building.

As a squad leader, you must be patient and have the best awareness to survive. This includes getting Intel from other nearby squads, the commander using the UAV. You cannot rely on other squad leaders to mark enemy positions on the map, many of them do not. Always check your map for updated information, when you see another squad 200 meters wiped out north of your position, find out why and enemy strength. There's a reason why you have the radio, use it. Always let pilots know ahead of time you need a pick up and tell them a estimated time needed to pick up.

You have to be aggressive, but never eager. Strike quick with precision and silently. Your job is never about reviving, it is about attacking. Let the lifesavers worry about that.

Yes... Squad leading is a lot of work, but if you have a competent subordinate, you can delegate duties of what a officer does downwards, you can authorize a lower chain of command and his job is to enforce squad formations and ensure soldiers are constantly checking their fire sectors. This would allow you to focus on communications with the rest of the team without worrying about your sector; However this doesn't always work out, but the potential of it working is there.

In my opinion, you need to appoint another competent superior within the squad, fire and maneuver tactics do not work out well without another person in charge of the other element. It can be done, but a leaderless attacking element usually does a messy approach resulting in many casualties or the firepower element ends up getting hit from behind while your attack because there is no leader ensuring security.

Don't forget about your side arm, as in real life for officers, it's only purpose is to execute negligent, wounded, retreating soldiers and soldiers bringing the team down. There's a reason why you can conceal them and only the officer gets them in the military. =)

If there is a new player or two in a squad.... Authoritarian
If there is experienced Players in a squad... Delegation
If there is my buddies in a squad... Laugh

usually just medium of these things

I guess I'd say I'm sort of authoritarian, but forgiving and accessible at the same time.

Lately I started to set the tone with something like: "Alright lads, this is how things work when I'm your SL. I accept every mistake and screw up you can possibly do. But if you disobey my orders, you're getting your *** kicked from the squad ASAP."

And it works really well. I try to sound confident and authoritive in everything I say and do to keep the morale up, and I try to promote communication and teamwork.

From my experience, briefing and setting a tone for your squad at the begginning of a match always has good effects. Everytime I did it, the squad performed well, most of the times that I didn't, the squad performed badly.

At the moment I use the dictator style. Seems only retarded people are playing this game and when they play they join my squad (few exceptions though). So I always have to push them to do what they are supposed to do, which is fighting and not hiding and crying for a medic. I brief them in the beginning, set the rules which are quite simple. Follow my orders, fire when being fired upon, head for cover and use all firepower we have have. But as soon as we come in contact the AR often runs for a bush and hides, two riflemen run into an enemy MG and the medic is stuck healing a guy asking for medic even though he just had a small flesh wound. Then we got the remaining bloke and he is the only one whom is able to return fire.

I rarely squad lead but when i do i just delegate roles and trust them to do the job. I find most people don't respond well to the authoritarian approach unless they are mindless squad members, that are so noobish they cannot make decisions on they're own. In that case they enjoy you telling them what to do every single second and step of the way because when something goes wrong(always does) you can't blame them(unless they totally screw up the role by not following your orders). It allows them to not have to think but just robotically execute command. I think everyone will enjoy the game more and improve more if some of their own decision making skill set is used. It forces people to adapt over time and as experiance is gained. Just my two cents.


All that said, i try to let the people who've been playing PR for the last 8 years SL. You take a semi experiance SL and give him experianced veteran PR players as members and nine times out of ten they will "Back seat lead" instead of allowing the SL to lead and make mistakes and learn from them. I can understand a suggest or pointer here and there but "Back seat leading" is irritating.

When not in a firefight its just follow me while I supply politically incorrect jokes. When we are in a firefight I micro the f out of the squad. Had once a round with 0 deads in the squad and 25 ish kills on the offense, sadly the rest of the team did not do so well and we bled out out before I was able to redeploy.

However when there is apathy and lethargy in the squad



could you please and if you may just dont cut it sometimes.

I try my best to squad lead every now and then, but i'm to much of a chicken shit and rarely dear to speak up (working on it) and much rather fight under an alpha male authoritarian persona (you guys are the best) at least that way we get things done by the book without having to think twice and don't get slaughtered in the first few minutes of a game.

I'm not frequently in command of squads, but from my first times leading up to now, i kinda have some practices when it comes to leading that work from time to time. I prefer delegating roles.

I like to look for things that constitute to my squad's strengths or weaknesses by asking them first before assigning them roles and kits, but in the case that they aren't too sure themselves, i try to read their personalities and mannerisms in and before combat and kinda hope that it matches them right.

(I.e. a rifleman who isn't exactly good at accurate fire but seems to work extremely well at suppressive fire i may give them either role of Autorifleman or Machinegunner, or if they at least have a cool mind under pressure, I'd give them a Combat medic, Breacher or even Combat Engineer roles to best maximize their strengths or what i perceive as their strengths at the time)

As for communications, i allow my squad mates to openly speak in friendly conversation with one another so long as they aren't trying to insult or intimidate each other and if they're willing to go radio silent when i need them to pay attention. The rest is just patting them on the back if they do well and telling them to do better next time if we manage to fail an objective or get gunned down en route to an objective and just generally getting social with my comrades.

Be with your squad and be one of em. An optimistic squad is a determined squad!
And as the saying goes, "Willing Obedience is better than forced obedience"

C150ut_Cadlum15theoutcast wrote:I'm not frequently in command of squads, but from my first times leading up to now, i kinda have some practices when it comes to leading that work from time to time. I prefer delegating roles.

I like to look for things that constitute to my squad's strengths or weaknesses by asking them first before assigning them roles and kits, but in the case that they aren't too sure themselves, i try to read their personalities and mannerisms in and before combat and kinda hope that it matches them right.

(I.e. a rifleman who isn't exactly good at accurate fire but seems to work extremely well at suppressive fire i may give them either role of Autorifleman or Machinegunner, or if they at least have a cool mind under pressure, I'd give them a Combat medic, Breacher or even Combat Engineer roles to best maximize their strengths or what i perceive as their strengths at the time)

As for communications, i allow my squad mates to openly speak in friendly conversation with one another so long as they aren't trying to insult or intimidate each other and if they're willing to go radio silent when i need them to pay attention. The rest is just patting them on the back if they do well and telling them to do better next time if we manage to fail an objective or get gunned down en route to an objective and just generally getting social with my comrades.

Be with your squad and be one of em. An optimistic squad is a determined squad!
And as the saying goes, "Willing Obedience is better than forced obedience"

Imo that's a better way of squad leading. I like this way of thinking