The Commander

Leading the Troops

The primary task of the commander is to coordinate the team and to give guidance and direction to those operating under his command. His role is to monitor situations and engagements and the overall scope to the battlefield to effectively determine a strategy. He can also grant or deny requests sent by Squad Leaders. These include contact reports and area attacks.

The commander can transmit directly to a specific Squad Leader by using the Direct Squad Radio Net - by holding down the corresponding squad number, 1 - 9 digit on the keyboard numpad.

The Commander can confirm or deny request of area attack. If a Squad Leader calls in a request for artillery, the commander can right click the icon and accept or deny it. After which the order will be confirmed to the team. The area-attack reload is 30 minutes. For insurgents and similar to them forces, a mortar strike is instead available, usually with 20 minutes between possible strikes. To see when artillery/mortars are available again you can look at the top left in the commander window (default: Caps Lock) and see the bar with “AREA ATTACK” in it.

To keep the team cohesive it is the commander’s sole focus to deliver orders to each squad. He can alternatively assist team members by keeping them well informed of situations outside their area of operations (AO) confirming intelligence on the map using a variety of markers by right clicking the map:

  • Commands
    • Destroy: Remove friendly FOBs.
    • Remove Marker: Remove unwanted friendly markers from the map.
    • UAV: Deploy reconnaissance drone at the position.
    • Waypoint: Place a waypoint marker. You can place up to 7 of them. Each one is identified with a letter. These do not disappear.
    • Request Mortars: Request the mortar crew to bring mortar fire to this position.

Possible commands, squad orders and icons commander can use.

  • Squad Orders
    • Same markers are available to Squad Leaders. When you select a squad in the left menu you can give them orders. If they accept (PAGE UP) it will replace thats squad’s marker.

The build, observe, defend, demolish and move markers, respectively.

  • Infantry | Vehicles | Emplacements | Misc.
    • Various markers that can be placed to mark enemy infantry, assets and deployed assets.

Markers cannot be placed all the time. At the top left there is a bar showing “MARKER”, indicating how long it takes until the next marker can be placed.

Size of circles change depending on map size. Pictured above is Muttrah City(2km).

When right clicking on the commander screen the commander can also estimate distances using the circles.

If the Squad Leaders believe the Commander is not efficient in his duties, then they have the option to start a mutiny. If it succeeds, a new player can take this position.

Commander Rally Point

The Commander Rally Point can be used by the entire team. To establish this RP the Commander needs at least 5 team mates near him (one of them must be a squad leader) to place the RP. This RP is not available in the skirmish mode and at least 12 players must be on the commander's team. The RP will stay active as long as the commander is within 100m radius of the rally point. All other rules described in the Squad Leader chapter about rally points also apply for the commander rally point (see here).

UAV

The Commander of conventional forces and the militia are able to control an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) from his team's command post or armored command vehicle (ACV). The UAV in PR:BF2 does not reveal enemy positions automatically but gives the commander the means to observe the battlefield visually from a bird’s eye point of view. The commander can control the UAV's camera while it cruises at a constant altitude.

At the start of a round there is a 5 minute delay before the UAV can be fueled. After that, it can be launched by placing the UAV marker on the command map. This can be done by pressing the UAV icon on the top left of the commander screen or by right clicking on the map and placing the UAV icon. Then to operate it you have to enter the ACV vehicle at the main-base of your team.

Armored Command Vehicle.

The UAV won’t be up forever. The UAV loses 0.2% fuel/sec while travelling, 0.33% fuel/sec while operating and refuels at the same rate at base. You can monitor the fuel by watching the “FUEL” bar on the top left of the commander screen.

The UAV can be sent back to base at any point to refuel. Returning to base does not consume any fuel. You can do this by right clicking the UAV icon on the top left side of the commander screen.

The time it takes to deploy the UAV depends on the travel distance. It travels to its destination at 40m/s. It takes 1 minute for the UAV to complete its orbit over the position it's surveiling (around 21m/s). The UAV takes 30 seconds to take off/land.

The UAV camera has three levels of magnification (Right Click) with thermal vision capabilities (hold T and Right Click "DAY / THERMAL BHOT"). The Militia’s and similar forces' UAVs only offer two zoom levels with no thermal vision.

The UAV can be relocated by assigning it a new position on the map. Travelling does not prevent you from operating its camera. The UAV only operates on 2km and 4km maps due to it being too powerful for small maps.

The commander’s UAV Camera.