Infantry formations

[sell]

I want to show you some squad formations, probably the most of you know them, or similar formations already, but maybe there is some use for it.

The most of this formations are self explaining, and like always don't walk to close to your squad mates, a distance between 3 and 5 meters is OK, but if you have more space why not use it...

lets start her you see what the different Colors mean, on my great paintings




Staggered

not a lot to say to this one.
yellow and red covering the front, the other guys cover the right and the left of your squad, brown also covers the back.




Then we have the 2 L formations.
With the L formation, you have to Speer tips, one of them is covering the SL and the medic.

L Right



L Left



and my 2 favorites

The Y formation, is good for urban areas.



Lets say you have to retreat backwards, red throws smoke (if needed)
yellow fires on the enemy ( the best is 2 shots break 2 shots break and so on) after yellow fired a couple of rounds, he moves back to the end of the formation, now Green is in the front, Green covers red, while red moves to the end of the formation, and so on and on till you are all in cover, if you retreat this way, you will always have suppressing fire on the enemy, and you have plenty of time to reload your weapon.
Of course you will go for the nearest cover, but I did take backwards as an example.

And if times get hard there is the Hedgehog
fire power to all directions for the last stand, or just to set a rally.


I hope it wasn't to bad, and sorry for not writing more about the other formations, but I think it should be clear, if not feel free to ask,maybe I will bring up some more, but I am not sure yet...

dose any one of you have formations to share, and when do you use them?

[L4gi]

Imo, formations in PR are useless. You can stack up on a corner in a really fancy formation, np, but then you'll just get killed. It takes way too much thinking to stay and move in any formation. Out of interest, we tried using formations and then compared a squads performance in battle, and when not using any special formations, the squad always did better. The amount of coordination and thinking you have to spend to keep every single guy in formation(especially on a pub) should rather be spent on shooting the enemy in the face.

Dont take it personally, I just really dislike this kind of stuff.

[Brainlaag]

Ugh I hate it but gotta agree with L4gi.

[TheComedian]

Agreed. There was once a great man who said "All plans fall apart at the moment of the first shot".

[L4gi]

One formation does work tho, its called the infantry blob.

[Cossack]

Well, what L4gi is saying. Only thing you need is keep distance from each other, know what you and your teammates doing and you are good to go. Formations in PR are not so effective like in ARMA. Of course you must know some basic stuff witch one is not making you a random guy who dies every time because he is in wrong place but a real, natural killer who survives.

[PLODDITHANLEY]

Forced to agree soldiers practice, practice, practice so that certain things such as this become automatic first nature so they don't have to think about it in a firefight. Plus they generally have the same role for years at a time.

In theory if a clan squad could do this so much it became totally automatic then and only then it might work out better.

In PR if you manage to get your long range (AR, Grenadier) covering the others advancing you're already doing well.

[Saarna]

I always keep two riflemen on point at least 50 meters ahead of the rest of the squad, whom I'll keep in line behind me. Requires practically no effort even with pubbies and keeps the whole bunch from getting shot up at once, generally resulting in a rather small death toll for the squad. Occasionally a rough line abreast is useful as well, again requiring little conscious effort while bringing the obvious benefits of sweeping a larger area, presenting more immediate firepower and what have you.

[Smiddey723]

Formations in PR are worthless, tried and tested many times. as many others in this thread have said, it takes far too much communication, awareness, looking at map and concentration to keep in the formation when all of them things could be used to look for enemies rather than worry about falling out of a pointless formation

Only thing concerning you squad members and where they are is spacing, if you keep spacing, your going to do well


in theory...

[Cavazos]

The focus shouldn't be on the formation, but on watching your flanks. Formations are for maintaining spacing and firepower in the appropriate sectors. The only way you could effectively use them is by practicing it with the same squad members over and over again.

[MaxBooZe]

The focus shouldn't be on the formation, but on watching your flanks. Formations are for maintaining spacing and firepower in the appropriate sectors. The only way you could effectively use them is by practicing it with the same squad members over and over again.

Maybe, but that won't change the squads performance. Even though PR has changed a lot from BF2v, Individual skill in a firefight is more important. You can watch every flank but it still won't ensure you win the fight. Besides, all of that takes long even for a trained squad of people.

I have witnessed numerous times where a squad using realistic tactics to the point of formations and stacking up on corners etc. have been mowed down because they weren't able to kill when they were designated to themselves only.

[Cavazos]

Stacking up needs to not be mentioned as associated with formations. Stacking up is a level all on it's on and I haven't seen much evidence for it being useful.

I think the best way to implement a formation is to have a group of people or one man behind you about 25 meters as you move for covering your rear. It is difficult to watch your left, right, and rear sectors as you move in an FPS game.

The only thing to worry about at the front is spacing and getting as many guns up to the front as possible to fire on the enemy.

[Mikemonster]

i have three formations, blob, column and line abreast. Blob/column is the usual for moving (people do it automatically), but line abreast is fairly good if you want to surpress or have time to set up. Bus in a pub server it's fairly impossible to co-ordinate any formation, much better is just to go somewhere good and hope they co-ordinate fairly well around you.

[Herbiie]

One formation does work tho, its called the infantry blob.

"Tactical Blob"

Occasionally some formations are helpful, going forward in a line when crossing open ground is always helpful (The tactical blob makes a nice target), especially on Al Basrah when the caches could be in those fields, a line helps to find them.

Column is also helpful, apart from those two nothing else really works.

[L4gi]

a breast.

Trolololol

[Mikemonster]

phnarr phnarr!

[Salvo]

Infantry formations are not all useless in PR. On such maps as, lets say, Qwai River, or Al Basrah for arguements sake, formations can and are incredibaly useful.

I for one was on a UK server running Al Basrah, I was SL for an infantry VOIP squad. There where 3 other infantry squads as well. Our squad was using formations and fire and manouver, and didn't once get killed, the other squads got raped by ambushes of RPG's becaue there spacings where shite and didn't allow effective return fire to suppress the enemy and got annihilated.

Therefore, formations are important, but not so much in the sense that you over use them, they then become standard for you and the enemy are not idiots, they find ways around things like that, but you should really use formations. When used properly, and I use that word lightly, they can be very effective on the virtual battlefield, more so than you think.

Just my 2 cents...

[Tiger1]

''Tactical Blob''.. jesus christ. This is also called ''brocoli formation'' or ''civilian social fuckup formation'' in the military.


Like some individuals have already mentioned in this post. You need a team, you need that team to train together for months and eventually years together so it becomes a second nature. Tiger Platoon is such a group, set the standard and trained together for 2.5 years in Project Reality. Formations are usefull in PR, and yes it requires thinking. Assuming we're not dealing with people with IQ's lower then 90 in PR, thinking should be an acceptable requirement from your PR squad members up to Platoon level.

[L4gi]

You willing to make a bet on the civilian social fuckup formation being able to overpower your little formations? Personally, I think realism clans cant play for shit, but then again this game allows people to play it the way they think is the most fun, even if it means sucking badly.

OD-S for example doesnt train formations or any of that bullshit at all, its about knowing your role, shutting your mouth and shooting the enemy in the face. Simple as that.

[killer_01000]

^ well said

you can camp, you can rush, you can look, you can spot, hell you can even shoot...

but if you cant kill what is trying to kill you.... you will lose.

Think outside the box formation.