Commanding isn't that easy

[Tartantyco]

(Epic Paint skills ahead)

-Seeing as some players have limited comprehension skills I will try to explain to them(And you) something about commanding. The following is a rendition of the final stages of a game played on Fool's Road where I commanded the Militia side.

-After fighting for the majority of the game around Train Depot and Hilltop Estate we had finally managed to neutralize Warehouse and were trying to cap it fully. At this point we had a little over 100 tickets and the Brits had around 180. The majority of the Militia Squads had advanced to Warehouse and were about to cap it but we had Brits advancing to the north and east and were barely holding on to the flag(I had to go there myself a little earlier in order to keep it neutral). This is how it looked(Blue is Militia and Red is Brits):



-At this time the aforementioned player(s) started whining about my order to have everyone defend Warehouse. Here's the first lesson you need to learn: You don't know everything the Commander knows. The blue dot on the right side of the map is a Firebase and Squad 4, who were positioned there. I allowed them to go to the Village and try to cap it if they were able to do so without losing the whole squad. If they lost the squad they would have to fall back to Warehouse and defend. At this point we had 97 tickets and the Brits had 177 tickets.

-Next lesson: Activating the enemy's ticket bleed isn't cost effective if you lose too many soldiers while trying to take the objective.



-The Brits were pushing on Warehouse and I needed as many people there defending it as possible. I couldn't have just 2-3 squads defending because the whole damn British Army was attacking Warehouse and had I done that there would have been way too many tickets lost due to deaths as a smaller force can defend against a smaller force but they will lose more soldiers in the process. Also, a larger defending force means the enemy will lose more soldiers in the process of attacking. We had two options; defend Warehouse and win on death count or cap Village. However, a frontal assault on Village would not be cost effective as it meant we had to push through the entire British force. Spawning in a large force at the Firbase on the right side of the map was also impossible as the loss of defensive forces at Warehouse would mean that the Brits could take Warehouse(They were Brits all over the slope north of Warehouse and some inside the flag cap radius at all times). Therefore Squad 4 was allowed to take Village provided they didn't lose the entire squad.



-And this is how the plan worked out. Squad 4 moved into Village while the other squads stayed on defense at Warehouse, taking out any advancing Brits. I had assumed that the Brits would have someone on the last flag to defend it and the main plan was to hold and defend Warehouse, but as luck would have it they seemed have everyone at Warehouse and Squad 4 managed to cap Village(Without any casualties I think). At that point the British army turned around and started moving on Village and I sent all the Squads defending at Warehouse East to attack their rear.



-Now we could attack on several fronts, inflicting heavy losses on the Brits. That, along with the Ticket bleed from taking Village caused us to win the game with something like 19 tickets left. If you have a basic grasp of math you should be able to understand that "OMGZ ALL ATACK VILAG" would have failed miserably as we would have lost a lot more than 19 people pushing through the Brit army. Aforementioned person(s), do you comprehend?

Please do respect your Commanders as what you see is rarely the full picture and the CO has to take a lot more into consideration than you do.

[Eversmann]

Thanks for this post, i learned one more thing in the road to become a better commander.

When you're in the battle trying to keep the track of it giving orders, it's very hard to make good decisions with all the pressure of the battle itself and the people moaning about your decisions (and btw fighting by yourself and setting assets here and there doesn't make it easier).

That's why we need this kind of post. One more lesson for the "being a good commander on PR mod" book

[Waaah_Wah]

Problem is, that sometimes some squads (Usually those in the same clan actually) wont listen, and attack costing your team loads of tickets.

[Michael_Denmark]

Originally Posted by Waaah_Wah

Problem is, that sometimes some squads (Usually those in the same clan actually) wont listen, and attack costing your team loads of tickets.

That is true.

[Zodiaccup]

Tartantyco, I was there on your side and with your help we had a pretty nice comeback. You did a great job there no doubt. I remember a guy was moaning about you, like "our com is numbnut, don't listen to him...", what a fool('s road).

Thanks for that game it was so intense to the very end that not a single comment or "gg" where to see in the chat.

Awesome game last night,

Zodiac

[Cassius]

Yah it was particularly bad for me on 10th. Iam sort of agressive as a co and I usually wrap up games pretty neatly ending them at or in the enemies main.
But one time on said server on Barracuda I didnt bothered with building a bunker on swamps seen as there was a firebase on docks (not a flag that time) and I focused on the offense building a firebase on the south end of the map to take the 2 flags which became avaiable for capture, which worked out nicely. However the one squad at swamps got overrun and their side bothere with setting up a bunker.

Long story short we couldnt take the flag back untill we had jdam (wonder what they always waste HAT on) and while particularly the pilots where pretty content to have played with a co to set markers and divert them to squads, one of the guys was bitching after the defeat you might have thought you were in the führerbunker.

[Royal_marine_machine]

Originally Posted by Zodiaccup

what a fool('s road).

Noooo D: Awful pun lol

Anyway, I agree, most Sls don't appreciate how hard being a commander is.

For example, I had 3 out of 5 (i think) infantry squads In the north east attacking one cache on operation archer, and the other two attacking another cache in the village. One of the squad leaders in the northeast kept on jabbering in my ear about "needing urgent support" when all of my squads were engaged in heavy combat (due to a mistake I made earlier and took full responsibility for, abandoning the castle to ge more troops in the North east) and then when i withdrew a squad from the northeast to support the atack on the village, he got furious, even though there where 2 caches in the Village and 1 in the NE.

In the end we did lose the game but it was on the last cache, and ebcause the Taliban side were very good and shoot down one of my Hueys.

[0blivi0us]

That's a nice gameplan you had there.
I have to say though, as i am a squadleader most of the times i sometimes find it hard to listen to a commander. Espescially if he tells me to stay put when my squad is being gunned down.
From your story i can judge you are someone who knows what is going on and can judge the situation. But sometimes CO's are ignorant and think they can judge what's going on down there.
My best example is when my squad was pinned down in muttrah and i told my squad to move 100 meters. But still on the frontline, just to get some better cover. Whilest i had the commander yelling into my ear i had to go back to my previous position.

[scope]

You just can't tell sometimes. I've had great rounds with commanders that really know their stuff...and i've also had some commanders that just don't get it. Once on Falluja(sp) I had one commander that wanted my squad to grab the HAT kits and try to take out an insurgent Firebase and cache in the Hospital - Strike one. There was no vehicles available at the moment so he wanted us to run all the way there - strike 2. When I refused he called me and my squad a bunch of fairy's - strike 3. Commander out and offically a douche.

[Bunnyman]

Now I'm not a commander but I think I'm a pretty considerate player- I consider the commander's overview- ever since playing vanilla BF2, where I was a good commander (when you could get people to actually follow orders.) Overall I just think rear flanking is always best, with a single unit. It usually takes time for them to move the vast distance in an an arc around the enemy, which means you have time to keep defensive and gather your troops and even set up a forward base. The enemy is all prepared for a head on fight, when you start to finally move with your main forces, you can go slow and steady but quick in the rear (oo-er!). Logically, a force that is being attacked on two fronts will usually lose.