Ghost Stalker

I agree. Today my squad defended toll station while the rest of the team defended Harbor. The commander kept tell us with defend this flag command and I told him that the rest of the team were doing a good job at defending the flag and that my squad where keeping the placed mined to keep buggies from getting by. He stopped for a bit, but then he started again and I explained to him it again.

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Bagheera

It's far more discipline oriented, especially on pubbies. When you can get a squad of pubbies to listen, and defend (and not play whack-a-mole) your squad ends up loving you as an SL, and you usually get a buddy request from every single one of them. It's a nice feeling. Often on pubs when I SL, I'll usually make a push for only one flag (two if I feel it's necessary) then sit back and defend a choke point or a flag with my squad. However, you will invariably have 1 or 2 guys that run off and try to play whack-a-mole. Ah pubbies.

Did he ever get it? Sometimes I'll be in a situation with a commander where he's constantly ordering my squad to attack a flag, when I know it's going to be suicide, and where we're better off simply defending and letting the enemy grind themselves on our bullets.

Ghost Stalker

No he didn't the harbor flag got captured and then he told us to attack. The rest of the team had beacons placed near by and kept up the attack and defenses, those who didn't used toll station to spawn. The PAC team never got past Toll station at all the whole game.

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Zhohar

It takes a relatively marginal bit of experience to understand if to attack or defend.
It takes significantly more deaths and loses to understand when to attack or defend.

Timing your actions with the CO, other squads, armor, and the strength and location of enemy forces is crucial in the success of any squad action. And that kind of information is fully available and more easily processed by a CO than a SL.
A lot depends on the CO. And it's only what you make of it: you can sit back and click the buttons when the bars become cleared up, or you can actually play as a CO.

(+rep to Reaper for making me think about this -- he made some comments about timing after a scrim against ACR last weekend.)

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big-eye101

I think I was in your squad that round! And our team did an excellent job defending!

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Superfast

It's all very difficult to have just one answer for this as it all depends on map, situation, ticket count, squad, team-members and who you are playing against. You have to try to adjust your battleplan underway and do your best for the team to win. So it's all about knowing the maps, the bleed and where/when to attack/defend.

Did you know that your name "takk" actually means "thank you" in my native toungue? Well now you do. You are welcome.

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Bagheera

It depends on the server, and the CO, Zhohar. On TG servers, I know the CO's are more experienced, and wouldn't send squads to a meat grinder just because they want "just one more flag." On other servers, where the CO's simply want "just one more flag", I've seen a winning round turn into a losing round simply due to stupid ticket loss, whereas simply holding flags would have won the game, either due to bleed, or superior positioning on the battlefield.

COs require a lot of info from the SLs, because although the CO has that handy little map to show him troop movements, armor, etc, in addition to his nifty bars, the CO has less of an easy time showing elevation of units, enemy loadouts, explosive placements, and enemy facing, whereas the SLs have this info in spades, thanks to being right there in front of the action. SLs giving info to COs can help the CO better relay a mental 3d map image to other SLs, and that's where SLs can get a better picture from their CO.

Vortex421

I admit that I'm more of a defensive player than an offensive one (Hold those jokes, folks ), but when playing I try to strike an even balance between the two.

It all comes down to that wonderful thing called "situational awareness". I've found that being on offense at the wrong time can lead to massive loss of tickets, but if you are too complacent on defense you'll get overrun pretty quickly and have to play catch-up to get back in the game (unless you're lacking an uncap... then you'll find yourself quickly out of the fight).

When I'm SLing and dealing with a "hands-off" commander, I will try to place my squad where I feel we will do the most good overall. On defense that may mean "backstopping" a point (spawning in at the next point back and pretty much keeping anything from crossing the line there), or it may mean that I go for the more mundane tasks (while everyone's out grabbing the walker on Belgrade, I'm on foot with my squad pushing up towards Com Tower), but the point is that I try to get into a position where my squad can provide the most support for our team.

Obviously, with a "hands-on" CO, it's different. Following orders and trusting that your CO knows what he's doing tends to negate any "offense vs. defense" talk because it's a matter now of following orders.

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"Remember to pillage BEFORE you burn!"
"Rule 35: That which does not kill you has made a tactical error."
"Rule 36: When the going gets tough, the tough call for close air support."
"Rule 39: There is no such thing as "overkill". There is only "open fire" and "I need to reload".
(Rules compliments of the infamous Schlock Mercenary webcomic.)

Augustus Gloop

Personally I like being on the attacking side, because my favorite role is a tight squad of friends behind enemy lines forcing them to pull soldiers off the front lines to deal with us.

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Rasta-GR

Oh, yes, we did forget that.

Good point.

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