Originally Posted by AFsoccer

There is some great feedback here... so thanks for that. I have to be honest and say that I had to remind myself to be constructive and helpful last night. As mentioned above, Gerardnm (aka colmmlynchplayer) was commanding and had a pretty tough time overall. Not only did his mic not work, but he said he couldn't hear us, so all CO/SL communication had to be done via text. Needless to say, this made things very difficult for both him and the SLs. I know I missed text messages a few times because they scrolled out of view so quickly when trying to fight your way through the jungle. When I had a chance, I tried to type replies or explain my squad's movements, but it was tough. In fact, I died twice because I was typing and couldn't exit out quick enough to engage the target.

But if I could offer some suggestions to anyone that wants to command, here are a few things:

- Have a functioning mic and headset/speakers. This will make your job infinitely easier. It also allows your SLs to provide the constructive feedback that we've been talking about. If we have to type it in, we're are much more likely not to.

- Listen to your SLs' inputs. The CO is in charge (we all know that), but just like in the real military he needs to rely on the expertise of his SLs. When I was a captain on active duty and a Master Sgt provided input on something, it carried a lot of weight. The CO needs to do the same thing. If your SLs are people you recognize as experienced, listen to what they have to say... then try integrate that into your strategy/orders.

- It's important to test different strategies and think outside the box. For example, if only one cache is showing or only one flag needs defending, you probably don't need to send the entire team to that location. Instead, it might be best to have a squad or two search out rally points, find their FOBs, defend key choke points, etc.


Bottom-line, I know that it's not always easy to command 30 different individuals, but it will get easier and more rewarding as long as you learn from your experience and be receptive to feedback. On a similar note, I once again ask SLs to be helpful when at all possible. "Constructive feedback" means asking the CO if it wouldn't be better to do xyz than the order he just gave you. Quickly explain your strategy, thought process, etc. or why another squad might be better suited for the task... but in the end, remember official TG rule #11: "Squad Leaders are required to follow reasonable orders from their Commander, and all players must follow Squad Leader orders."

By the way, we've had a few discussions about establishing a commanders course on TG University (TGU). We haven't figured out how to best do this, since most aspects of learning how to command need to involve a living, breathing game, but if there is interest I'm sure we'll find a way to make it happen.

Thanks,

Yes this was pretty nuts last night, we split into fire teams and AF told me to take my fireteam down towards the Doc's and help defend while he took his fireteam across the river to search for RP's and squads advancing on the Doc's.

well colmmlynchplayer was having a tough time and was questioning WHY i was down there at the doc's and not with my squad,,, well the answer was i was folowing orders from my SL who follows orders from the CO. well there were a few trying to tell the CO what was going on and why but he was so frustrated , im sure trying to type, look at the map, read the text and everything else that goes along with CO'ing when you dont have a WORKING mic is just CRAZY!!!!!!

all though i have never CO'ed and dont believe im ready to do so i do believe a CO should have a working Mic, it would be so much easier on the CO,SL,Fireteams, chopper pilots, armor bergade and so on down the line..

its just to hard to try to ingage the bad guys and read and type back all at the same time. IMO