Prone To Death

I know the heirarchy of command in BF2142 is Member, Leader, Commander. I understand its important to follow the commanders orders. However, I have run into situations as a squad leader where the commander has ordered me to do something that is either tactically unsound or suicidal. By ignoring the command, or out and out saying no, the battle shifted in a way that helped prevent an early loss. I know the law is hindsight may always be right but you can't have known it before hand, but sometimes their are situations where a commander is overloaded and can't process everything at once. The example that follows is really what got me thinking on this issue.

The map was cerebre(sp) landing. I assigned my squad to defend the church, and told them very plainly it would be our job to hold it as long as possible. However, shortly after the game started, the commander ordered me to lead the squad to the Office Ruins. Looking at the minimap, I noticed that their were approximatly a squad and a half worth of men at the church, and almost everyone else was streaming towards the office ruins. One of my men (a support), layed an ISD and we saw approximatly a squad and a half of enemies moving towards us. I chose to negate the commanders order and hold the church. We managed to hold the church almost half the game before we were finally overwhelmed by a combined artillery barrage/infantry swarm (Literally almost the whole enemy army). However, while we were holding the church our fellow squads managed to grab hold of the south town center, and defend against a swarm tha was heading towards the roadblock. Though we lost the game we certainly extended the time as we held our ground.

So what im trying to ask is, in the face of a tactical decision, where the immediate situation on the ground makes one choice more viable then the commanders order, should we do the tactical choice or stick to the chain of command?

__________________
The Milkman has the key. I am not the milkman. I am the guard.

His milk is delicious, everybody wants it. He will be here soon.
Then the lies will end.

Lorax74

About the only time I will reject a CO order is when we have control of the bleed and the CO gets greedy, sends every squad after that one flag we don't yet control and just tosses us into a meat grinder. What I'll usually do is reject the order and then immediately hop on comms and explain why I am rejecting that order. If the CO insists, follow the order as stated in the Battlefield 2142 - Server Rules.

I did this last week when a CO tried to pull us off Pond to attack Playground, I rejected saying we were keeping the hostile armor at bay and we were also tying up infantry. I followed up saying that we would really like to stay where we were and continue to do our thing. I received no reply, which to me implied he or she accepted my logic and a few minutes later we actually started getting the "Your a top notch crew" verbals.

Here's an older thread about this same subject you may find interesting as well:
http://www.tacticalgamer.com/battlef...uidelines.html

__________________
TG-9th Lorax74

Rali3gH

I think this is key. It's your responsibility as the SL to be CO's eyes and ears on the ground. Let him know that you have contact at church and he will almost certainly agree that it needs to be defended. Then if he chooses a different squad to defend that flag, you wait for them to arrive and then move on to your next objective. If he chooses you, then you're all set.

__________________

Remember to pillage before you burn.
* Meow is Nigh *

Zhohar

Yep, like Lorax said, communication is the key. I'll reject about 40-70% of CO orders on average because the CO just isn't in tune with the situation on a ground. A Sat Track does not give you an accurate description of the battle.

Case in point, Belgrade the other night. We were on EU, holding Monorail, Playground and Comm Tower. My squad was between Comm and Ruins and the CO gives me an order to go attack the Statue.
I reject the order and tell the CO "Negative Commander, this is squad 3, we cannot attack the Statue. My squad is infantry only, we haven't any engineers and a Statue rush across the main road would be a suicide run against the enemy armor. Permission to attack Ruins -- we are within striking distance of the flag and their defences look light."

People won't fault you for not doing their orders if you explain yourself. And same goes for COs -- people will start doing your orders when you put sound logic to them.
"Commander here Squad 4, looks like you're all dead now. We've got some armor in our base -- can you spawn with a few engies and try to cap Statue with it? You're clean on Sattrack, there's only a few ground infantry there."

__________________

ThePromQueen

I'll 4th the sentiment of the above posters. As long as you advise the CO I think it is ok to question his orders. But if you just deny the order and slough him off then I would say you are violating the rules.

As CO we don't always know everything that is going on so it is important to get feedback from our SL's. When I question an order from CO it usually goes something like, "CO, Squad X suggests that we do this instead. We have X reason for not following your order. Please advise."

Ultimately your job is to adhere to our rules. That means:
1) Follow CO's order.
2) Communicate effectively if you feel his orders are faulty or he isn't doing his job.
3) It is your duty to report the Commander if he isn't doing his job.

__________________

MDFubar

LOL,
I will agree with the above posts. Just explaing your situation. I had a CO order us to attack another position, then I responded with the fact that we where under heavy attack and could actually use some reinforcements. You are aware of your situation better than the CO, as they see the whole map and may only be focussing on one particular part. Same goes for your SM's, you may give an order and they may suggest an alternate with the reason why. As an SL you have(hopefully) six sets of eyes, however blurry they may be at times, looking at the situation and listening to them can be very beneficial.

__________________


"No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country."
- General George Patton Jr

Acreo Aeneas

There will be times where you might not purposely ignore his/her order. For example: your squad is pinned down between two points and surrounded by tangos that have already engaged you.

__________________
Acreo_Aeneas
Former 9th Member