Azura

This is something that has been bugging me as of the late. When I run squads and ask for a Support volunteer, I've noticed many people jump up for it. Which is a good thing, I know many people like to take the support role to change the routine assault kit, the bad ass Clark, and also the Support kit truly brings a lot of power to the user...

But with power comes great responsibility!

In a nut shell: Support is very versatile, it has great anti-infantry load outs with the much needed use of intel, also it can hold it's own against enemy armor pretty well. (Of course with the help of an Anti-Tank Turrets or Engineers) For many of your who did not know this, Support also has the ability to summon unlimited bullets! I know, what a surprise, how dare DICE not notify us of the magical abilities of Support, endless ammo, who would've guessed!? In all the amounts of serious, most players who jump the gun do forget about ammo, until they begin running low. Let's break down the kit:

Part 1: Basic Loadout of Support
Main Weapon: Bianchi Fa-6 LMG (EU), Shuko K-80 LMG (PAC), Ganz HMG, Clark-B Shotgun

The Support weapons just like Assault, boil down to the user, which ever weapon they feel most comfortable with. There are times however, where a Squad Leader would call out a specific weapon because he may be running a specific tactic that may require a Ganz or perhaps a Clark. In my opinion, as much as we all love the Clark, it would be a good idea to get a feel for the Machine Guns.

Unlocks:
V-5 Emp Grenades, IDS, A-12 Sentry Gun, IPS Shield, DysTek Pulse Meter

There has been many conversations about which unlocks are best for the Support player. There are also many squad leaders that selectively want certain unlocks, but I think it's safe to say that there is one unlock that the Support player should ALWAYS carry. The V-5 Emp Grenade, this little baby has the magic to lock down a vehicle entirely! Set up a Supply Box and keep chucking this little wonders. Refer to Lyramion Guide for Complete Instructions: http://www.tacticalgamer.com/battlef...m-love-em.html

Any map with even just a "hint" of armor should have all supports packing Emp Grenades! But, before we go any further with the secondary unlock, I would just like to remind everybody, don't forget to actually use the Emp Grenades! Well, the IPS Shield is pretty much a joke, unless it can protect your whole squad, let's keep it on the shelf. The Dystek Pulse Meter is obselete now with the emergence of the IDS. The Sentry Gun is good at killing me, plain and simple those things tend shoot me from 100 meters all the time! The Sentry Gun can land you a couple kills, but the IDS is a lot more helpful to your entire squad than a little lone shooter.

Part 2: Responsibilities of the Support Role

First off, the Support role is usually designated by the Squad Leader or may be equipped by the Squad Leader, but it really comes down to Personal Opinion. There should be more of a generalization to the kit, just like how our Assaults are laid out.

Supportive Fire? --- Supporting Squad Leader? --- Intel Support? --- Vehicle Support?
The above are only a small list of questions that revolve around the Support Role.

The first and most obvious responsibility of the Support player is AMMO! Any time the squad all pulls out their Medical Hubs, the Support player should pull out his Ammo Hub. Prior to engagement the Support player should drop an Ammo Hub, perferably on the Flag or near the Squad Leader. Remember, ammo does burn up a lot faster than health, the Support player should be aware of that and continuously replace the lost Ammo Hub.

A squad made up of five assaults and one support will have a lot more revives than three assaults and three supports. That means ammo will run out a lot quicker with people living longer!

Secondly, the Support player should stick close with the Squad Leader. The Squad Leader is generally in a safer area than the rest of his squad while they assault that flag.

1) Watch the Squad Leaders back
2) Form a Healing/Ammo "Tent"
3) Support is not a Survivalist Kit like Assault (You can not provide unlimited Health for yourself)
4) Bodyguard the Squad Leader - Mow down all enemies in the way!

With the mighty Shotgun, it truly seems like a good idea that the Support should charge in and lead the way. Well, you are very weak to the range of the rifles and you really hold your best against one verse one. The assaults should move in first, they begin the engagement taking down targets and becoming "Enemy Number One." The assaults can very well keep each other going while the Support player moves quickly and basically cleans up the area. The Support role is like the "Dogs of War", while the enemy is caught up in the battle, you release him in the flanks. Like a dog and very hungry, they will mow down the enemies, knock out "Selective Targets" (Squad Leaders/Beacons), and in the end clean up any medics that manage to survive.

Third, the Support player should have an open eye about enemy armor on the map. They need to be well prepared with their magical Emp Grenades, but also they need to make a habit of setting up and Emping the butt off that Walker. There should be no reason why the Squad Leader needs to constantly call for an Emp Lock! As a Support player, you need to have a little more brains than the regular Assault squad member. The Squad Leader will give you the location of the enemy armor, call in for Engineers, point out Anti-Tank Turrets, and then hope for the best turn out. The Support player in turn should drop everything he is doing, quickly disengage combat, and set up to lock that vehicle down!

Part 4: Closing Comments

At Tactical Gamer, we have many great Support players, who are always on the ball with the kit from providing ammo, intel, locking vehicles, and wreaking pure hell on to the enemies back sides! But, there are also times where we sometimes just forget under all the chaos or perhaps being new to the role. Let us all create some good habits, because a good squad will stay alive and consume much more ammo resulting in a dependance around the Support player, not a frustration!

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JRiop1

Great post!

My first BF2142 player went full support and I loved it. I found my personal preference to be the Clark shotgun. I would move in with the rest of the squad and start mowing them down. I found the shotgun to work particularly well because it would either kill or wound enough that the other squadmembers would have easy kills.

Uranium - 235

My guide:

- Spray
- Pray
- Repeat

I have rather atrocious ping (200+ms from the US!) to the server, so playing anything like Assault which requires precise aim is impossible. I see people stand still and fire three or four bullets from the Voss and kill enemies across the map, whereas when I try it, my bullets go right through them. I could empty all 40 rounds at a guys chest at less than 20 meters and he'd still pistol me down in two shots. Therefore, something that throws a lot of bullets out to compensate for the bad ping is necessary, and why I hate it when someone else plays Support and I'm stuck with my crappy Baur or whatever.

sc1ence

the shield can be used to block corridors in titans pretty well, and critical doorways like on toll station at camp gib.

The ids can be placed on an otus or spanky, get a little practice doing it sometime.

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timusafa

If you're playing SL it is almost always a good thing to put the ISD on your floating pets.

As for the Guide, it was excellent. I'm pleased that you touched on the topic that the support kit plays just that, a support role. Ammo is critical to any squads success, as well as EMPs on any vehicle map.

Well Done!

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Freeboter

you left out the Clark RDX

ThaDoctah

Great post Azura and the responses that followed were more often than not, top notch. I'd just like to go a little further in depth with some of my thoughts on the Support Kit's equipment.

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The support kit has some very interesting choices as far as primary weapon unlocks and gadgets are concerned. Choosing which to use depends on the situation and the options are usually transparent.

If you know beforehand that you'll be hunkering down for some D or taking advantage of a chokepoint taking the Ganz HMG for its superior stopping power and firing rate is a decent choice. There are a few disadvantages built into this weapon though, so mastering the mitigation of each is key to being effective with this weapon.

Firstly, watch the amount of ammo in the cartridge because this HMG will burn through those 120 rounds in short order. Additionally, the Ganz user needs to be careful of the machine gun's overheat bar. Frequent pauses in fire do wonders to make sure the gun doesn't overheat at an inopportune time. Finally, you need to recognize that this weapon has a warm-up period before its recoil settles down so that you can achieve the best accuracy. The last feature causes two-fold problems when taking into account that the HMG overheats with prolonged use.

The best way I found to cope with these disadvantages is to fire the weapon in a prone position (giving you the best starting accuracy before firing) and then warming up the gun to the point where your targeting reticle collapses denoting that you've reached the best accuracy you're going to get. At this point I pulse one or two rounds to keep the reticle collapsed but minimizing the overheating effect. If you need to rip into an enemy just aim for the upper chest/neckish area and hold down that trigger. The only problem you'll have is that you'll run through your cartridge more quickly while pre-firing and keeping the HMG primed. IMO, you still have a pistol so your not completely helpless

This tactic works best when you have some foreknowledge that enemies are inbound.
Some situations that come to mind to use the Ganz over some of the other choices are Defense at Toll or Central on Camp Gib or Defense in a Titan corridor.

On the other end of the spectrum, if you're on the move assaulting flags, you can't go wrong with taking the Clark-B shotgun for it's mobility. With the 1.4 patch, this weapon received a very noticable RoF increase making it even more devastating than it was before in close quarters. There aren't many tactics involved with using your shotgun, it's more or less point and click on what you want to go splat. Obviously the closer you are, the more damage you'll do to your opponent, which isn't that far of a stretch when you ponder taking a close range shotgun blast to the face. Yes it would hurt, so yes it hurts when you do it to other people.

Next I'd like to cover some of the gadgets available to a Support Kit player.

Agreeing with Azura, the EMP is probably one of the better choices you could make when deploying. Not only do the little grenades lock down armor in a pinch, but using them against infantry has a devastating effect on their helmet HUDs and weapon reticles.

As mentioned previously, situational awareness helps immensely with the Ganz pre-fire tactic I described. This is where the IDS comes into the picture. Set these on a corner or near the end of hallway and the forewarning you receive of approaching hostiles will give you the time you need to get the gun primed and ready to rock.

During defense in a titan corridor I like to use a combo of the Shield and Sentry Gun. The sentry will let you know when an enemy is coming within range (it will start firing at the wall in the direction of the contact), and the shield is there in-case the baddies on the receiving end are lucky enough to lob a grenade at you. Just drop a Supply box next to you and chuck those grenades when hostiles approacheth.

Thanks for reading!

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<I don't remember which end the bullets come out>

ionpig-A

+rep Azura
+rep Doctah


To add on to what sc1ence and timusafa said:

I've come to love the support kit when running as a squad leader. Why?

Supprt kit + OTIS w/ attached IDS = mobile Intel awesomeness for your team!

Launch the OTIS and pop your IDS on it!

You get the benefit of an IDS centered on your squad lead AND your entire squad gets those beautiful diamonds in the HUD telling you to look up, down, or straight out to the horizon!

To get the full benefits keep one of your SM's as recon.
Still not enough?
Have an SM haul in an Engineer kit and drop a PDS on your OTIS!

You'll want to become a travelling NetBat salesman!
Your commander willl love you!


Give it a shot. You may find it hard to go back.

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Memor Depopulor Pro Vos Exuro

jonathanshifty

i love support its my favorite kit. As a support player i ALWAYS use the Stock LMG like bianchi or shuko lmg or somtimes the clark shotgun depending on the case but mostly LMG. As a support player with a LMG you should be covering ur squad when assualting positions when necesary and always you should put a IDS when defending positions or when you are about to assualt a flag always put a IDS near that flag so you have an idea of where the enemy is. Also, ask the squad leader what other items you will need which is usually the EMP grenade OR Sentry gun. If you do have that EMP grenade call out that you are throwing out the EMP grenade to ur squad so that ur squad members can hop on the a rail gun or shoot if they are enginneers. When you have an sentry gun put it at a spot where you will distract the enemy. the enemy will pop their heads and start shooting at the sentry gun, while the enemy shoots at the sentry gun, you can send some bulletes with ur LMG towards the enemy position. also remember that an LMG is NOT a mobile weapon. I SEE THIS WAY TOO OFTEN. when you have an LMG and you see someone infront of you, NEVER EVER GO PRONE RIGHT AWAY, always crouch first then start shooting because if you do go prone and start shooting you will pretty much die because none of the bullets are gonna go towards the enemy. Also it is important when defending that you are behind some crates and only pop your head up when you KNOW THAT YOU CAN SHOOT SOmEONE LOOKING AT ur MINIMAP. otherwise do not pop ur head up when you know you cannot shoot anyone. also, the ONLY TIME I GO PRONE IS WHEN THERE IS A GUY LITERALLY 1-4 feet away from me because the prone would not matter because all the bullets would go into the enemy beacuse the enemy is soo close to you. THIS is my guide to using a LMG and being a great support to ur squad members.
Source: Me ranked 2nd in the usa with bianchi and 7th in the world with bianchi. (about 22,000 kills with it)

P.S. always remember to resupply ur squad members ALWAYS hope that helps you guys on being a better squad member with a LMG

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GO MANCHESTER UNITED ALL THE WAY!
HAIL CRISTIANO RONALDO
in game name= TG Shifty.P
2nd in the US with bianchi lmg for most kills
7th in the world with Bianchi LMG for most kills
K/D of 31/1 with bianchi
LYra=stop aimbotting shifty

Revolusinov

Support weopons are more situation than others. I actually don't even know what all do cause im nubtarded, but one opinion that have that differs from the main is the usefulness o sentry guns. Leaving a sentry gun by itself is mostly harmless but if defending an area with it or assaulting a flag, those things are the most anoying thing in the world to deal with. If you don't shoot them down they will rip you to pieces. The trick is don't leave them alone. Fight with them. Nothing sucks more than turning a corner and seeing a senty gun right next to the mg. Between the two shooting at you its hard to duck back behind cover again fast enough, and if you try to shoot one down the other will still kill you and even if you kill the mg and dodge the sentry gun, you still have to deal with the sentry gun which buys the enemy time for ressing.

And about leaving support units in the middle of squad when using a clark, i must disagree. If in close combat, stick them right in the front. If the medic goes down, the support will have swith kits to res him. If support goes down, zap, hes no longer down. In addition since a clark shot gunners can one shot insta kill people, technically they probably wont even get shot. Thats how shotgunners in games like cs strive. There biggest advantage is dropping an enemy before taking any damage. Unlike other guns they don't necessary exchange bullets as often and barly get away, its usually they get away unscratched or not at all.

And for the love of god pay attention to peoples ammo meters and drop me some ammo anytime you planning on being in one place for more than 1 second. 99% of the time I find it easier just to go hunt a new assualt kit down, which on another note is a good reason to learn to use various assault rifles. I drop enough medkits everywhere that environmentalist harass about the litter and plastic waste. You should do the same. We all need to remember our roles and do what we can to kill off the whales.

AND one last note. The ammo meter displays their current weopon selection ammo so if I'm out of grenades or rockets I'm probably not running around with that weopon out to indicate I'm out of ammo in those areas.

Uranium - 235

I occasionally use a Ganz as a point assault weapon. It's risky, and hard, but if I'm feeling good and my ping is surprisingly, unusually low, I can "rape face" as the kids used to say.

RE: Resupplying squad members --- Unless it's very specific, please do NOT waste my time calling on VOIP that you need ammo. Use the voice comm *AND* VOIP. VOIP doesn't tell me where you are, or even who you are. Using both lets me know that someone will be calling for ammo, and makes a pretty icon for me to find you! It's win win!

IOWarrior

I usually go with EMP grenades and IDS.

Sentry gun is ok for a kill or two but those people who die to a sentry gun are usually revived. Sentry gun IMO is a waste.

Clark RDX doesn't do enough damage. Plain and simple. It's garbage.

Shield, good on titan.

Pulse Meter, I use this when my kit somehow screws up and equips it for me. Useless.

IDS, always know what's around you. I hardly ever move into unknown territory unless there's an IDS or a UAV in the air.

EMP grenades, not only do they give you 1/2 a point whenever you hit something, they mess peoples screens up for a short period of time. If you put an ammo hub down, you can lock down any piece of armor and let your engineers tear it up. I like these things better than regular grenades. They make a large blue ball of EMPness and it makes me smile.

EMP Grenades + IDS is the best kit loadout for the support kit in my opinion hands down. The only exception is on titan if you're guarding a corridor.

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Uranium - 235

I rarely remember / get a chance to (honestly if I'm throwing a grenade, the fiery explosive death kind fare better), but EMPing an enemy can give you a TREMENDOUS edge, because most people just can't deal with the visual noise. Hell even I have problems, but it's the one reason I LOVE the Ganz - it has Ironsights, so it's far easier to still use the weapon even when I can't see.

Just today on Cerbere, I pegged two infantry with an EMP grenade, simply crouched in plain sight in front of them, and took them both down. They both fired at me, but didn't hit me once. Felt great!

The thing is, EMP grenades DO take a not-insignificant amount of time to pull out, throw, and switch back to your machine gun, so the opportunity is usually wasted somewhat.

Azura

Thats why the correct form of communication would be for example:

"Squad Leader needs ammo, North of Flag, by the wall!"

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Lorax74

That works, but backing up a call for ammo with the commo rose makes the support's job that much easier and usually gets you supplies quicker. The same goes for needing health, repairs, etc.

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