Squad Leader Archive
Thread: A SQUAD LEADER'S ROLE (DISCUSSION)
Being one of the few squad leaders on Chimera, (and the only MSL that I've seen on Chimera) I'd don't have much time to discuss the squad leader's role.
One of the reasons, I'm not a big fan of new attack moves for squad leader is that I don't have time to use them! Like they say, "Lieutentant, if you're firing your weapon, you're either not doing your job, or you're the last man standing." I feel that this is true for not only for platoon leaders, but also for squad leaders.
I lead Rebel raids against Imperial positions on a daily basis, I usually have a small team. Usually two commandos that are consistantly doing raids with me, and a tag-along Anchorhead contingent. We are usually successful when I lead the mission, yet when other impromtu raids happen they get slaughtered. If you are a squad leader, then you have to lead. As the team gets larger, it becomes more and more important. I am providing some of my tips, I'd like to here yours.
(1) PLAN YOUR ATTACKS. Many group leaders lead an attack by running straight from the gathering point, straight into the battle. Here is a way to clean it up.
a. Without going into complicated military planning (although I wish the server engine could handle large scale battles), I'm going to review my standard raid procedure:
(1) Establish the patrol base. Predetermine a point where your group will form up before the attack. Ideally this would be about 1000m from your expected first contact. 1000m is far enough from your enemies supply route (e.g.cloning center, faction recruiter) where you can easily repel any attack.
(2) Predesignate important waypoints: This including the cloning centers andfaction recruiters. Control these two points and you effectively control the city temporarily. To have complete control of the area, you need to control the shuttleports as well as the starbase. (These multiple points of reinforcement are the primary, reason why cities can only be controlled by an opposing faction for short periods of time).
(3) Predetermine rally points. At some point, you will lose so many people as to become combat ineffective. Establishing predetermined rally point help remass your combat power. I suggest the cloning center (proximity where dead people reenter into the game), and your patrol base is another good spot.
(2) CONTROL THE TEMPO OF BATTLE. In general, everyone will want to go in Rambo style, guns blazing, this is ultimately ineffective. First, your general formation degrades into a long stretched out line, where you canbe picked off one at time. I like to keep my group within a 32m radius of my location.
(1) Assign an assault leader. This person serves as the point of focus for beat-and-blaze combat professions. (e.g. commandos, melee, and pistoleers). The assault leader takes command for which target to hit from the squad leader. This makes it easy for everyone to attack the same person. (e.g. /assist <assaultleader>
.
(2) Benefits of ranged combat for MSL. One of the main benefits of stayin ranged as a MSL is that you are weak defensively and weak offensively. Even with keeping my range, I'm usually one of the first people to get knocked off (e.g. kind of like real life i guess). However, staying ranged provides additional benefits: You are able to assess the combat situation better. You understand which targets are easier to pick off, which ones pose an emminent danger, and which ones are prime target opportunities. Between checking the overhead map for opposing forces, identifying the next target, checking the HAM status of my squad, and using the SL specials, I have little mind, nor time to actually participate in the combat itself. For this reason I switch between the laser rifle for ranged combat, and the spraystick for close combat.
(3)Establish a skirmish line for your carbiners and riflemen. While the assault element represents your combat mass, your riflemen and carbineers represent your support element. While I believe that traditionally the squad leader should always go with the support element, here is the main problem. In real combat, there are general signals to lift and shift fires which can be communicated. There is no real analogy to that in SWG and probably never will. It addition, in real life you can shout and fire, in this game, your actions progress in a serial fashion. Now for a squad leader, the shouting (command) is more important than squeezing off rounds. This is best done in the position where you can retrieve the best battle intel.
(4) Set procedures. If you are engaged with an enemy and they run away, don't run after them. Call for everyone to "fall-in on you", e.g. /follow <squadleader>. You can then make another methodical attack on their position. Sure they'll get heals, but this is only a transfer of one damage (action, health) to another damage (mind). If you have commandos, and you let them keep falling back, the black on their HAM bars will give them wounds they'll remember for a while. Remember the black on their bars is what's going to allow you to keep your position, everything else is temporary.
(5) Know when to leave. The worst thing you can do is arrive as victors, and leave as the defeated. Set a goal for the team on how long to stay for a successful mission. You won't be able to hold an enemy stronghold forever. Shout a bunch of faction-oriented cliches for a laugh. Then move out. Nothing sweetens a raid better than escaping the eventual retribution that comes when the defenders call for all their faction buddies to go overt, travel by starport, shuttleport, or vehicle to defend that location. If I could organize a large enough group, I'd hold an Imperial stronghold all day. But unless you have enough people to effectively cover the entrances to the city, the cloning center, the faction recruter, the starport, and all the shuttleport, it reallly can't be done.
(3) RUNNING THE DEFENSE. Star Wars Galaxies and the Galactic Civil War is, unfortunately, completely offensive oriented. While on the offensive, you can group your squad, plan your attack establish waypoints and the such. Repelling an attack is much more difficult. In real life, a 3-to-1 ratio of effective combat power (not personnel, combat power)is needed to effectively take a defensive position. Squads defend against platoons, platoons defend against companies, companies defend against battalions. I'd like to seea lot more defensive options in this game.(e.g. bonuses to damage and defensive based upon terrain/structures, defensive fortifications in faction strongholds - where commando's primary combat advantage would be to destroy fortifications and ignore enemy defensive bonuses). HOWEVER, I digress. In general, your defensive area contains few egress points (e.g. your shuttleport, starport, and the gates of the city. In a defense these points must be controlled. Defenders will suffer casualities almost immediately. I suggest that a squad leader, quickly rally up a team near the cloning facility. As soon as you gather an small impromtu team, secure the faction recruiter and call for your faction members to go overt. Alternatively, you can group covert members, and rely on the TEF flag to draw additional combat resources. I'd like more ideas if anyone else has them.
Ikeh
Staff Sgt., Rebel Alliance
Master Squad Leader, Rifleman
atl;
though, I'll read it anyways - because I'm massicistic - hey, maybe that's why I like SL so much!
I am VERY impressed with the well thought out strategies and tactics (hmmmm... two of the SL titles I believe
Ikeh has laid out. I know most of my strengths and weaknesses and even more, I know the strengths and weaknesses of the groups I lead. Yet there are somethings against which I have not been tested. The laying hold of LARGE cities has not occured to me till this post. It would need many men and ideally more than one SL... Hmmmm... two coordinated squad leaders is something I believe is as rare as an Ikeemi LLC is about to become. (ahazi reference, but suffice it to say - RARE)
One of the problem with leading large groups against animals comes from the indistinguishable characteristic of animals. I find that designating one unique pet (e.g. graul mauler) of one of the CH in the group is the best person to designate which that primary target is. However, the breakdown in communication in the group comes in destroying the layer. SUGGESTION TO SWG: Provide some type ofability specialsuch as /squadtarget, that will automatically switch the targeting to your target (e.g. the equivalent of the entire squad doing /assist <squad leader>. Alternatively, a special color for squad leader weapons (e.g. acting like a tracer round).
Due to the "grindability" of the lair, you will generally see people continue to hit the lair after a spawn as occurred. Some people will continue to grind on the lair, thinking that they won't get caught. Usually you can determine the person by checking the combat messages tab. I generally give a person a 15s windows between the message to switch targets and the action to switch targets. The turn based nature of the game introduces this lag. Don't be afraid of kicking someone out of the group for disobeying orders, after all it's your group, and people implicitly have a duty to follow directions as part of your group. The person may continue to tag along for the xp (there isn't much you can do about it... whining abouting it will tend to encourage the person for additional griefing), at least he's not splitting the money. Luckily this problem is generally confined to people "grinding a profession", and newbies. My suggestion to SWG: remove the weapons xp bonus from destroying the lair, but retain the monetary rewards for the destruction of the lair.
The other problem is that ranged fighters have a different battlefield view than melee fighters. Melee fighters will not see the spawn unless (1) it is attacking them, or (2)) it is in their field of vision. If a melee fighter is using a tight field of vision (e.g. 1st person mode) they can miss close to 50% of the spawns. This problem maybe compounded more with commando's and smoke temporarily blinding the melee fighter from your /sysgroup messages. Usually a melee fighter will continue to hit the lair (even after getting the message) until they have selected an additional target. So you have to give the melee fighters a little more slack than everyone else.
However, I don't really like fighting animals. Animals don't shoot back. I personally think there is by far too many benefits to animal hunting to soldiering. With killing animals you get hides, tissues, bones, scales, and meat which are all essential to every crafting profession for scouting, artisan, and medical professions. My suggestion to SWG: in the same way that there are Rebel and Imperial faction rewards, there should also be CorSec, Nym, Jabba, Hutt, andValarian (to mention a few) faction rewards.
Brilliant post. It does take a well organized PA to pull this off, though. Which is not necessarily a bad thing. I prefer to run with my PA almost exclusively because they know exactly whatI want them to do and I know how far I can push them.
Conversely,something that I've used a couple of time when I've had an random group of people I dont' know is to put my ground rules in an email that I have sent to myself. I then forward this to the members of the group and make them read it before we head out anywhere. It is quicker than trying to explain things via chat or having to repeat when new people arrive. If they don't like the plan, they can leave the group before you start and avoid problems during the fight.
How come i havnt had any input from you on my post?
"Effective targeting=Effective Squad Leaders."
Id most welcome your input, as a military man myself i feel innately drawn into the profession of Squad Leader and seem to excel at it when others do not. Not saying im any better than the next guy, but i do feel more familiar with the job. I only wish others could be made to understand how much difference a well trained and disciplined SL can make to a group. I think the many holo-grinders without any clue or actual caring about our profession have hurt our "Proffesional Squad Leader" reputation.Commisar Tavian Brae'Monte
--Tempest Server
Squad Leader (2/4/4/3) / Dead-Eye at large(3/4/3/3) / Dabbler (CH 3/3/0/3)
"The Body is the Soul. The Soul is the Body. The two are indistinguishable. Do not fear for the destruction of either." --The Way of the Samurai
--also--
CEO & President of
T & L Mercantile INC. - a resource conglomerate
"Cornering the market, one crafter at a time"
this is great stuff guys I ahve refused to go on raids because there was no organaization and planing before hand I am a SL and when ppl ask me to team up and go raiding I ask a few questons
1. where we going and why (why are we going is very importan specialy if your guilded you doin't want to cause grief for your guild members cause you lead a raid that was nothing more than harassment assult)
2. do we have commandos with rockets if so how many (1 commando using rocktes on 1 turret is not going to cut it)
3 what type healing power do we have do we have buffs and a combat medic?
4 Since i have no idea what we are going against i must assume the people raiding do and shoudl tell me how the attack is going unfold where are we striking the purpose such as destroying the base vs takking out turrets. also should include how many bases are located in one area and size of possible resistance.
I like what everyone has said and hope my some of my guide lines starts taking hold cause I am really tired of seeing half cluster ***edit*** raids