- [X]B. Lawless, Squad Leader
- Mastec, Rifleman
- Mantra113, Sniper
- Raponi, LAT
- |TG| ChefMoto1, Rifleman
- SGT 22.GRN|RARF-MAXSOM, AR
I have just finished a gaming session of about 2 hours and I would like to talk about the transition of three leaders during the time period. This included [X]B Lawless, Raponi, and myself under the alias of SGT 22.GRN|RARF-MAXSOM. From the mature and wise Lawless, to the direct and demanding Raponi, to the detailed and anal me.
Lawless
While I would get my practice using infantry, I was under the leadership of Lawless who had clear plans at the start and was good at getting things done. His demeanor was relaxed, calmed, filled with military jargon and slang, and commands that were basic and sound.
As time went on however, progress by the squad in terms of movement, action, and accomplishing objectives slowed down. Orders were not as clear, not heard, and the SL not being very talkative. The morale started getting low. Raponi has taken up some leadership in the middle of the squad session under Lawless, but his style was definitely different.Raponi
Raponi was a direct and demanding. When he stepped up it felt like a car slamming on the brakes suddenly out of nowhere. It was simple and effective, one of the easiest ways to command a squad. He started taking up command while the regular SL was away on supply runs.
Even though he started out strong, I think the momentum we had built in the beginning that we lost started to drag on him as well and he left before Lawless left. I wanted to leave to, but alas, I felt some strange and weird feeling of duty to stick with the remaining two members that consisted of mantra113 and |TG| ChefMoto1.
Me and Chef got along in a tactical manner very well and immediately started working together which mantra113 started to do as well after having his run as sniper. After this we got an entire new squad and things were on a roll. Momentum was back up, objective was in mind, and we knew what we had to do.Myself
Unfortunately we lost, but we gained a lot when the squad was back running again. The next round was great too, but I had worries because we were going back to Kokan and since we just played the British side in Bashrah, that meant playing insurgents in Kokan. For me, having the quality of teamworking squads that you have on BLUFOR is just uncommon when compared side by side.
I had experienced doing this however and figuring out ways to keep the morale and interest somewhat high. I don't know how well I did, and my leadership isn't as good on insurgent, but I think I did ok. We had some pretty cool plans, at least I did. I tried to communicate my best to them with the squad and keep them away. We were going to build hideouts everywhere, set up a false cache location complete with RPGs, and use a base firing team to fix an enemy while the other half of the squad flanked a FOB.
Things went generally along these lines, not too smooth, but it was done. There were other ideas to keep the squad momentum, purpose, and activity high. However, the server crashed and the game ended short with the enemy maybe getting the first cache.Conclusion
All in all, it was a learning experience. I didn't want to squad lead, but I do have more fun when I do it. I learned from Lawless that even if things drag and get bad, you still got to keep a good spirit. I learned from Raponi that his leadership style is far from mine. I learn from myself that even though I want to be a better rifleman, i'm always a better squad leader.
I enjoyed gaming with Chef, Mantra, [UJI]CJAC, cwmastackow, tactix, and TOTWA. I know Burrito was there for some of the time, but I didn't enjoy his company only because he made me walk to him when I was medic for a bit. Yea, not a good reason at all but I don't want to lie and say I enjoyed his company. I just had a grudge I couldn't get rid of. lol
Oh and rpg'ing the hell out of that Humvee that ambushed us.