Squad Tactics

[Karkianman101]

What are some tactics y'all have, both individual and with a group of players? I'll start.

As Spec Ops: Plant c4 on the artillery cannons, but dont detonate. Instead, wait in a hiding hole within view of the artillery. When the cannons aim up to fire, THEN you blow it up. If the commander isnt about to call in a strike, and you blow up the artillery, all you do is make them use an engineer repairing it, and then they are aware. But this way, you hit them when it hurts.

And heres my idea for squad composition:
Squad Leader: Engineer. This way, he doesnt have to fight on the front lines, and if hes in a vehicle and you spawn there, it wont be about to blow up.
-1 medic: Always stays with the squad leader, ready to revive him.
-1 anti tank: Should stay ahead of the SL, but not on the front lines.
-3 Assaults: This is the most versatile class, good for taking out buggies and encampments, as well as infantry. These 3 can also respawn as whatever else. They are the clay of the squad.

The reasoning behind this is that what you as a squad are doing always changes, but you almost always need an engineer, medic, and anti tank. But if you are doing covert missions, you may want 2 people to go special forces and 1 to go support and supply them with c4. Or you may be defending a position, and want 1 sniper and 2 supports. This leaves the team with flexibility, yet it always has a crutch to fall back on.

EDIT: My my my, this thread was moved quick.

[RandomGuy]

I think the ideal squad requires at least 2 or 3 anti-tankers considering how powerful vehicles are compared to infantry, at least for an infantry-based squad on a wide-open map like the demo.

[Wyzcrak]

Hi, Ski. Welcome!

Ring with C4, eh? Sounds gutsy.

( Edit: ok.. there was a post about this one from Ski. He deleted it. I'm told I'm scary sometimes. )

[Tempus]

You scared him away Wyz.

[kormendi]

lol

My thoughts exactly... If I were him, I would have been a little creeped out.

[Ski-Racer]

No I got bitten by the "you took so long to post that we logged you out and when you pressed the back button on your browser it only saved a portion of your really long and meticulously typed post. Stay tuned.

[Wyzcrak]

Haha! Damn you all!

I'm not scary!

ok, so my cause and effect logic is slightly flawed and/or biased

[><JohnGalt><]

One thing i have noticed is that a squad tends to bunch up making it easy for an art round or nade to casue a lot of damage. I have been looking on line for squad tactics and foramtions.... here are a few links\
http://www.197thguard.com/infantry_squad_tactics.html

http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...-21-11/c03.htm

http://www.combatmission.com/articles/inftac/inftac.asp

[Xen]

Interesting read John. thanks for the links.

[Ski-Racer]

Hello:

My perspective:

I played in a CAL/TWL clan for BF42/DC and in large-scale tournaments (20-40 players per side) for BF42/DC, BFV, and JOTR. I was responsible for company leadership, battlefield command, training, and strategy prep.

There are 4 goals to squadding...

1. Magnify firepower (Firepower is like Xmas...it's better to give than receive and 2 shooters beat 1 shooter)

2. Complement firepower (no, not compliment...don't show us the guns you're strappin'. It means putting anti-armor and anti-personnel players together so each can do what they are good at while having their weakness masked by their buddy's strengths.

3. Cover each other's "six" (it's a 360 degree world and you can only see 25% of it. Buddies can cover the remaining).

4. Ease logistics. (this is a gaming/BF2 specific one...spawn at your leader rather than way back in the rear)


* I would start with 2 medics minimum. This way one medic could revive the other. The optimum is 50% medics. This is a hard-won lesson from Joint Operations (JOTR). The medics in BF2 are the same as JOTR...in fact, the same as DF:BHD as well.

* I would not use the engineer class unless there is a specific need for landmines. Since my experience comes from tourneys with 20 to 40 players split into 4 to 6 companies, I would put the armor into a dedicated armor company who should all be engineers. Tanks need to be at the front, not sitting around guarding a base. The tank squad needs no medics since they should die in their vehicles (theft, repair, and return-to-sender-ammo-first is a big issue in the tourneys I play in).

* I have rarely seen a use for snipers. If anyone in my company spawned as one I would TK them to give them an opportunity to select again.

* If your squad is tasked with flag defense, have one of the non-medics switch to spec-ops. Ring the flag radius with C4 and hide in overwatch. If the flag goes white, a bunch of enemy roll in, or if any of your squad yell "blow blow blow" then detonate. We call this last resort. This guy makes for a good spawnable person.

* I would continue to use TS or Vent instead of the VoIP embedded into BF2. Each side can have up to 9 squads so your side can have up to 9 additional spawnpoints. If you continue to use TS/Vent, you can group two players that are "spawnable" on the same TS channel. That way half of the squad can continue to respawn if one "SL" goes down. I still have decided if the coverman-medic should also be the spawnable leader or someone else. I am leaning towards someone else since no one squad member should be that important.


2-man elements
--------------
Medic + Medic.
* Second medic (coverman) is the spawnable player



3-man elements
--------------
Anti-tank + Medic + Medic
Support + Medic + Medic
Spec-ops + Medic + Medic
Assault + Medic + Medic (if you really want to but why not just do 3 medics)
* Either non-medic or second medic is the spawnable player


4-man squad
--------------

(Element #1) & (Element #2)

(Anti-tank + Medic) & (Anti-tank + Medic)
(Anti-tank + Medic) & (Spec-ops + Medic)
(Anti-tank + Medic) & (Support + Medic)
(Medic + Medic) & (Medic + Medic)
* Now I would start using 2 spawnable players...both in the non-medic or coverman slots


5-man squad
--------------

(Element #1) & (Element #2)

(Support + Anti-tank + Medic) & (Anti-tank + Medic)
(Spec-ops + Anti-tank + Medic) & (Anti-tank + Medic)
* 2 spawnable players...both in the non-medic slots


6-man squad
--------------

(Element #1) & (Element #2)

(Support + Anti-tank + Medic) & (Spec-ops + Anti-tank + Medic)
(Support + Anti-tank + Medic) & (Spec-ops + Medic + Medic)
(etc.)

* 2 spawnable players...both in the non-medic slots


I would always put the most powerful infantry weapon first since the most likely contact would be what is called a "bump" --two sides unaware of each other bumping into each other. If one side is prepared (like defending) or is aware of the other then it's an ambush.


As far as formations, I would concentrate on 2...the wedge and the column. They both look the same from the coverman's point of view since BF gives a 90-degree field of view. Simply put your pointman on the side of your screen. Strafe to be in a column formation and don't strafe to be in a wedge formation. More complicated formations seem to break down under fire.

I would break larger squads into multiple groups of 2 to 3. Teamwork is simple at that level as in "buddy them up, go where your buddy goes and shoot what your buddy shoots." The third guy becomes the "kill the enemy that start shooting at your buddies because they opened up on someone else." Again, more complicated stuff seems to break down under fire.

[Tempus]

That was an outstanding writeup Ski. I'm glad you took the time (and effort) to rewrite it.

[Karkianman101]

I do a similar thing as spec ops (I no longer spawn as assault).

I lay down c4 in a pattern where enemy armor is most likely to show up, then find a place where I wont be easily seen. This has saved my squad several times, even if its just because the tank decides not to go that way.

[Arf]

I agree that a medic should be in every squad but I don't think half a team of medics is needed. If the Medic gets shot anyone can pick up his kit and revive the medic or if the medic is *really dead* take his place.

Personaly I like snipers, I think they're effective at gathering the facts about another squad. When I play sniper I've been trying to pick off the guy in the rear. This causes the medic(s) to fall back and try to revive which exposes them. It's just a simple system of baiting but if you can kill enough of them and watch how they respawn you can quickly figure out who the SL is. If you can concentrate on the SL and medics first it's much easier to fight them as they'll have to respawn at a base more often. At the very least a good sniper will slow the enemy squad down.

*I haven't come across a squad with more then 2 medics though, that would complicate things. But there's a 50/50 chance you'd immidietly loose a medic to the sniper who may drop the medic some place exposed to the rest of his team making it very hard to get a revive.

[Ski-Racer]

Being able to pick-up kits is a significant difference between JOTR and BF2. But that requires time and exposure.

One thing to think about is logistics. Your team should fit into 1 vehicle. Infiltration teams should be max of 3 people since that is what fits into buggies.

Line teams can be up to 5 players since APCs and boats can carry 5.

[Phelan Ward]

Great write up ski. Only point I disagree with is 3 vs 2 medics. 3 is pretty much overkill, or overlife, maybe? You might get into (more) trouble when your foot squad steps into a nest of armor. Otherwise 2 medics/6 men should pretty much be a basic squad rule.

Something I would like to add is the general squad formation while in a Humvee.

Driver - The medic. Everyone else benefits from his abilities while he is relatively protected from enemy gunfire.

Gunner - Support, the only exception would be if the bonuses of medics stack. If that is the case then I would say go for the extra medic.

Center seat - Engineer, the perpetual repair machine...He keeps the truck healthy, the truck keeps the medic healthy, the medics keep him healthy.

Rear Seat - I suggest an AT man. You never know when that tank is going to turn up behind you. Atleast you can keep it worried. (Another fun one is Special Forces, drop C4 out the back as you bust through an enemy line. When they chase...boom!)

This makes for a fast machine that hurts and takes dedicated fire to take out. It works very well when the other two men in your squad are in a Gunship because they can use your Humvee as a mobile repair bay.