Commanding in Al Basrah
Posted: 2007-03-16 17:34
As I'm an admin now, I'll be spending most of my time on the Devfile 24/7 Al Basrah server. As I hate seeing USMC constantly lose, I'll be going commander most of the time. So since people don't seem to notice my constant text spamming, I just want to say a couple things about how people should be operating as USMC on Al-Basrah. I'll be using the first person to describe the commander, just because this is how I see things from my perspective.
1) Use VOIP when you talk to me. I'm usually too busy looking for airstrike targets to be paying attention to the text.
2) If you have an A-10, create your own locked squad. One squad for each A-10. And then hit the targets I designate. Much of those targets will be spawn cars and empty tanks and AA statics. You won't get kills from these, but you'll be helping your team out, so bear with it. When I see huge clumps of guys I'll toss you a bone, don't worry. If you're in the A-10, turn your effects volume down to 10% or so compared to 100% VOIP. That way you'll be hearing me saying "target is best approached from the south" or, "target is a tank with lots of side cover: use bombs", instead of your engine sounds. Sometimes I get bogged down helping other squads, so request orders if you need them to remind me to help you out. Especially if you've been reloading or waiting for the A-10 to respawn.
3) If you're in a cobra, create your own locked squad. Don't leave the airport without a gunner. That is the most wasteful thing you could possibly do, yet I see it all the time. Report where you're hearing AA lockon warnings. I'll look in the area to find them so you can take them out. I'll give you attack commands on rooftops so you can take out snipers, but so that you don't keep having to press page up, I won't keep updating it if they move a bit. It's usually best if the gunner is SL, so that I can tell them "OK, sniper's moving to the adjascent roof to the west" or whatever. I'll also give lots of commands like "OK, lots of infantry around the attack command". If I tell you there's friendlies in the area, that means be careful and check out your targets. Sometimes it's best to spend most of your time in the zoomed out color view, and only zoom in once you get a good look at a uniform or see a rocket trail whizz by. It's best for cobras to also turn down SFX compared to VOIP.
4) If you want to go on a spec ops sabatoging run, just tell me. I'll give you destroy commands at the closest ammo dumps. Take a hummer so that you can get it all done quickly. Don't take too many guys. Just enough for a rifleman, a spec ops, a medic, and maybe an officer. Or you can add an extra rifleman and spec ops and send them off seperately on a dirtbike to speed things up. Tell me if that's your plan so I can juggle destroy commands between the two. After you blow one ammo dump, request orders. If you come under fire, tell me and I'll support you with the eye of god, and maybe send a cobra to help out.
5) If you're a sniper/recon squad, keep your squad restricted to just that. And maybe a spec ops escort or something if you can swing it. Follow my move commands. I'll want you overlooking important areas, not just racking up kills behind enemy lines.
6) If you're in armor, form an armor squad. And communicate my orders to your squadmates. If you think the orders are stale, request new ones. I'll send you to areas where you'll hopefully stay alive for most of the time, so you may not be racking up insane amounts of kills. But you will be guarding important routes and getting a steady enough stream of targets.
7) If you've got your boots on the ground, then good for you. You're our most useful squads. But unfortunately there's not a whole lot I can do for you as commander, except keep snipers off the roofs around you. So I'll give you general attack/defend orders, but not much more, unless you request specific help. It's just that I've got my hands tied usually finding airstrike targets.
Finally, I really hope that commanders get some serious punitive abilities. Because when people don't listen to my orders, I get really mad. They are losing us the game, and really disrespecting the fact that I'm taking time out of my day to toss some organization into the team's work.
If you like to command on Al Basrah also, then I'd love to hear some of your preferences for how you like your team to act.
I had a game last night where there was a cobra following orders closely for a short time, and an A-10 (xSSx larme113 I believe was his name) following orders the entire time. It was excellent. The insurgents had virtually no spawn cars, their armor was always getting blown as it came up, and USMC crushed them. During the time that the cobra was being used by a good player, we were able to keep the rooftops around our infantry mostly clear, which really helped them get things done. If all rounds went that smoothly, I think we'd have a lot more fun on Al Basrah.
1) Use VOIP when you talk to me. I'm usually too busy looking for airstrike targets to be paying attention to the text.
2) If you have an A-10, create your own locked squad. One squad for each A-10. And then hit the targets I designate. Much of those targets will be spawn cars and empty tanks and AA statics. You won't get kills from these, but you'll be helping your team out, so bear with it. When I see huge clumps of guys I'll toss you a bone, don't worry. If you're in the A-10, turn your effects volume down to 10% or so compared to 100% VOIP. That way you'll be hearing me saying "target is best approached from the south" or, "target is a tank with lots of side cover: use bombs", instead of your engine sounds. Sometimes I get bogged down helping other squads, so request orders if you need them to remind me to help you out. Especially if you've been reloading or waiting for the A-10 to respawn.
3) If you're in a cobra, create your own locked squad. Don't leave the airport without a gunner. That is the most wasteful thing you could possibly do, yet I see it all the time. Report where you're hearing AA lockon warnings. I'll look in the area to find them so you can take them out. I'll give you attack commands on rooftops so you can take out snipers, but so that you don't keep having to press page up, I won't keep updating it if they move a bit. It's usually best if the gunner is SL, so that I can tell them "OK, sniper's moving to the adjascent roof to the west" or whatever. I'll also give lots of commands like "OK, lots of infantry around the attack command". If I tell you there's friendlies in the area, that means be careful and check out your targets. Sometimes it's best to spend most of your time in the zoomed out color view, and only zoom in once you get a good look at a uniform or see a rocket trail whizz by. It's best for cobras to also turn down SFX compared to VOIP.
4) If you want to go on a spec ops sabatoging run, just tell me. I'll give you destroy commands at the closest ammo dumps. Take a hummer so that you can get it all done quickly. Don't take too many guys. Just enough for a rifleman, a spec ops, a medic, and maybe an officer. Or you can add an extra rifleman and spec ops and send them off seperately on a dirtbike to speed things up. Tell me if that's your plan so I can juggle destroy commands between the two. After you blow one ammo dump, request orders. If you come under fire, tell me and I'll support you with the eye of god, and maybe send a cobra to help out.
5) If you're a sniper/recon squad, keep your squad restricted to just that. And maybe a spec ops escort or something if you can swing it. Follow my move commands. I'll want you overlooking important areas, not just racking up kills behind enemy lines.
6) If you're in armor, form an armor squad. And communicate my orders to your squadmates. If you think the orders are stale, request new ones. I'll send you to areas where you'll hopefully stay alive for most of the time, so you may not be racking up insane amounts of kills. But you will be guarding important routes and getting a steady enough stream of targets.
7) If you've got your boots on the ground, then good for you. You're our most useful squads. But unfortunately there's not a whole lot I can do for you as commander, except keep snipers off the roofs around you. So I'll give you general attack/defend orders, but not much more, unless you request specific help. It's just that I've got my hands tied usually finding airstrike targets.
Finally, I really hope that commanders get some serious punitive abilities. Because when people don't listen to my orders, I get really mad. They are losing us the game, and really disrespecting the fact that I'm taking time out of my day to toss some organization into the team's work.
If you like to command on Al Basrah also, then I'd love to hear some of your preferences for how you like your team to act.
I had a game last night where there was a cobra following orders closely for a short time, and an A-10 (xSSx larme113 I believe was his name) following orders the entire time. It was excellent. The insurgents had virtually no spawn cars, their armor was always getting blown as it came up, and USMC crushed them. During the time that the cobra was being used by a good player, we were able to keep the rooftops around our infantry mostly clear, which really helped them get things done. If all rounds went that smoothly, I think we'd have a lot more fun on Al Basrah.
). If the US can take Facility the rest of the map is a piece of cake (walls make facility a safe refuge from air and armor).