Being aggressive in PR

[ThePieSpy]

More and more I've found myself appalled at the lack of initiative and common sense when people operate as a squad in PR. It seems like a combination of widley available optics on rifles and especially LMGs, deviation, and other factors seem to contribute to this notion that going prone with your ACOG/SUSAT/Whatever equipped rifles is the be-all-end-all infantry tactic.

Here's just a list of things ive found that not only usually puts my kills in the double digits by the end of the round but more importantly achieves movement towards an objective on the battlefield.

1. Stop using scopes for EVERY situation. When playing as a rifleman or squad leader, don't immediately pick the scoped rifle because it gives you a better picture of the person you want to kill. The aimpoint/ironsight rifles will give you the edge in one on one (or even more) firefights at medium (by BF2 engine standards) and close range.

2. Keep Moving. This is paramount. If you are using close combat optics while the other guy has a scope he is going to need to keep distance between you if he wants to keep any advantage he has. Movement towards him forces him to react to you, more often than not that means falling back and giving ground or getting killed if he decides to stay. Likewise if under fire, for the love of god unless you have cover, don't drop prone in the middle of the open and try and pick the other guy off. Chances are he jumped the gun and is still trying to get his deviation settled which gives you a few seconds to sprint to cover.

3. Stay unpredictable. Never let the enemy pin your location down if you can help it. A small force can appear as a much larger one if they keep popping up in unexpected locations. Take a few shots at an enemy until you kill him or he retreats into cover then move before the rest of his buddies can react.

The other day while playing Barracuda I managed to kill 6 people while alone in the docks just by using tactics like these. By all means i should have had no chance if there were even two of them, but because they dropped prone everytime a shot came in their direction, however poorly aimed, they were unable to kill me until i had managed to inflict a good amount of damage on them. I always keep a rifleman specialist in my squad because the grapple hook allows you to multiply the options you have when attacking substantially.

4. Grenades. Oh wonderful grenades. They are gods gift to people who need stubborn bad guys removed. Other than the obvious uses such as clearing our rooms/bunkers, and killing bunched up enemies they have other uses. Along with damage the grenades also have the effect of stunning anyone nearby and blurring their vision. Whenever making the last stage of an assault always throw grenades for good measure, anyone nearby will either be dead, wounded and trying to frantically throw down bandages, or vision will be blurred and at a disadvantage.

5. Keep fighting. Just because you caught a fragment from a grenade does not mean you are suddenly combat ineffective. If your enemy runs out of ammo move up and kill him, even if your weapon is empty, thats why you have a damn knife.

Here is a common situation i encounter, im exchanging fire with an enemy at moderately close range and we both hit each other. Neither wound is particularly bad (i.e. black and white) But 20 seconds later im standing over the corpse of said enemy because he ducked down to administer a bandage when he should have been more worried about the other person trying to kill him.


I'd like to hear what other people think/ what strategies work for them. Obviously the things listed here do not apply in all situations. Sometimes things dont go to plan and you have to pop smoke, pull back, and try something else.

Thats my advice, happy hunting.

[martov]

1) pin them down before they do.

1b) if they do, do not by any means stand your ground, move asap.

1c) if moving is not possible, coordinate with your squad to COUNTER-SUPRESS the enemy by starting to shoot the enemy with the whole squad at the same time, trying to fight with the enemy as an individual will get you killed.

2) create controled chaos without losing control of your squad. pop smoke to interrupt the line of sight of your enemy, use it to go arround his possition, create random explosions with a granader if you have one and smoke their cover.

3) force the enemy to get out of their cover without having to expose yourself. force them to have to watch multiple possible places where you may aproach, force them to have to pay attention to buildings. the ones who tryes to deffend everithing defend nothing.

4) higher ground means that the lower grounds are ineffective cover, but only if you have superior firepower, also means that you may be flanked easily.

5) APCs, tanks and jeeps draw the attention of all enemies, you will be invisible while they are in the scene.

[TomDackery]

I would agree with everything you have here. I don't even use ACOG sights anymore, (except on gigantic maps like Kashan) because Red Dots work just as well at medium range, and twice as good when in CQB situations.

Unless you are black and white, don't go back behind your cover and pop a bandage. In moderately close/CQB, you don't have time for that. You should be worried more about returning fire (or keeping up the fire) and moving in for the kill than you are with fixing a problem you can take care of when you are in a safer position. Heck, you can use the enemy's kit for a patch if you want, at that point.

If you are with a squad, or group of smurfantry, and you are getting bogged down with the gun fire, look to see if theres any other direction you can attack from, one where you can get closer without being spotted right away. The enemy is often NOT watching that direction, seeing as they are firing at your friendlies (or watching the direction of the friendlies, since no one shoots unless they see you anymore :/), and flanking maneuvers like this can neutralize, or severely disorient the enemy, allowing friendlies to move up. Assuming of course, you do it correctly.

Then my big pet peeve. Suppressing fire. If you know where they are, shoot at them. At moderate ranges, say 100-150m, don't wait the whole 8 seconds to let the deviation settle. Start shooting. A lot. Put as much lead as you can down range, make them put their head down. The easiest enemy to deal with is A. a dead one, and B. an enemy who is suppressed and trying to hide. Once you have the fire superiority, you can have sharpshooters (the people who like to take ACOGs everywhere) take their time with their shots.

Don't drop in the middle of the street when you're taking fire. I suggest that you save your sprint for crossing roads and open terrain, and for running to cover. Don't use it as your main form of transportation, thats what walking is for. When you take those first few shots, dart somewhere where his gun cant fire. Once there, take a little time to figure out your situation and plan your next move. Remember, cover is your friend.

I'm pretty sure I just paraphrased most of what you said, though.

[Duck]

Attack is your best defence imo. Its not WW1 where u sit in cover and shoot back at the enemy who also is in cover and see who dies first. I like playing specialist in squads. In close combat if my squad is under fire, i run and try to flank the enemy. Always works, and if it fails the enemy is dead or running tho i will be dead too. I do this because so many squads are just to slow and only go for fire power and not fast movement and fast attacking tactics.

Im aggressive all the time. Im always the first man at the enemy cache for ex. Sometimes I alone, destroy 3 caches in a round. Because the defending team knows that we got scopes and try to take em from a distance, so most of them are not defending how they should for an assault, and thats why i succeed.

But if you are aggressive your chances of dying are bigger. Your always on the move and you rly dont have the time to scout the area really good. You need to make your squad a fast striking force, and not a slow advancing snail with firepower that doesnt even matter when u get flanked all the time because you give the defenders time to attack you back. Lets say the cache is 500m away, so most of the enemies should be in a 150-250m radius. Im 300m away in cover with my squad, i tell em to get rdy and we rush. I have no scopes in my squad/saw. We rush towards the cache and try to keep cover as much as possible trying to avoid enemy contact. When we get as close as we can and need to clear out the enemy to keep advancing, the distance to the cache is small. Before we know it, we destroy the cache and are retreating out of the area on a different route. Few times we might have problems that a squad member gets hit, but we dont stop. We keep rushing. If we stop to patch him up the enemy has time to reinforce their positions and our swift attack plan is dead.

So yeah, be aggressive and take your enemy by surprise.

[Nick_Gunar]

I agree with your tactics when you encounter enemies. However, when I am SL, I am more on a defensive role simply because all the squads are "agressive" leaving litteraly noone to defend flags lol. Even if the flag(s) is/are "uncapable", I tend to hold the position just to see if enemies are not flanking us or building a FOB on our back (happens a lot in muttrah for instance).

I progress slowly but surely, change positions when spotted by the enemy, avoid like hell high position like roof or hilltop ^^ and use a lot of surpression fire moves. All in all, in other words, like you have said.

But do consider that a very good defensive position can nail every squads trying to take it. Only the fact that sometimes, good defensive position can hold against several enemy squads and give your allies the time to attack them on their flank or attack the flag (then the baddies retreat and you take them sandwich style).

[Arnoldio]

ThePieSpy, you are pretty much right with all of it...

only maybe forgot to mention that if you are under fire first, get to cover and relocate without him seeing you, or hold position if thats possible...

The worst thing you can do is stand back up trying to kill him with his gun settled on your head.