BF2S Forums A few questions regarding Commanding

1.  I'm not sure if it's a cheat since I only played IO a couple times, but for future reference, the boats don't have 50cals on them.  It's just an m249 SAW.

2. Yes.

3.  Depends on the map size and how many people are playing.  If it's a small map with only 16 players, then I fight.  Sometimes one extra soldier can make the difference.

1: only on Iron Gator, map only has a Carrier, island and water, you need boats. But not realy i just drop them on the deck to use the guns. never heard of a hack letting you choose what things to drop (you'd see the odd J-10 drop i'd reccon.)

2: favoratism/knowing where to drop supples for most points Wins games and gets you 100+ command points.

3: I go engineer, find a quiet spot near the command assets and only go down if someone's taking out my stuff/just walking though the base. Commanders in vehicles = barely any drops, and the things that are droped are usually for Their own benefit. Although sitting in a car helping repair armor while commanding i view as acceptable.

if it's true and you can drop boats that would be cool
i'd take a ride down the tv station or something hehe

and if i fight or not depends on the number of players
i began commanding only 3 days ago and i was sitting in a apc to defend my assets (there were about 16 players at that time)
and nobody complained about that i think with less than 24 people i will fight sometimes and more than 24 i'll pull out a tent where almost nobody expects me (warlord tv station 4 or 5th floor) or near my assets
and when commanding i usually am an engineer so my team can get the supply drops if they need them)

pebblebash wrote:

T.Pike wrote:

1) on a no vehicles map (Warlord I think) the other commander kept dropping BOATS into the middle of the map.  I guess so his side could use the 50 calibre machine guns.  I didn't have the ability to drop any vehicles including boats.  Was he cheating to get the boat drops?

Q

Right Click

Left Click

Read the post before posting. He was talking about dropping, not spotting.

And yes, boat dropping is possible on Iron Gator, but I'm not sure about IO.

1.
Pike, did you actually see the boats on the map, or just the flashing red icon on the minimap?
If it was just the icon then it probably wasnt a boat. Sometimes people feel like spotting enemy boats on city maps. (As pebble wrote before, you can do it, when you bring up the command menu, (default Q), then press right click on the "Spot" option and choose the unit you wish to appear on the minimap).

2.
It is not always good to give always the assets to the same squad, even when the others are not following orders. I.E.: when there is a flag sieged heavily as you can see by the scan, and your favourite sqad is capping a flag where are no enemys then its best to give the UAV,supplys or maybe arty to the flag being attacked.

3.
When there is a map (be it 16, 32 or 64) with just a few players (meaning <15) then it is good to fight as a commander. When you are on a full 64 server, that extra one soldier you'd provide will probably not make a difference.

I dont play commander much, but when it happens i usually go by it like this.

- Stay close to the main spawn, as its often left ungarded and killing that one guy that want your main can make a big difference. Like when commanding as MEC on jalalabad, i like to stay on the roof of a building between the main and the next spawn so i can cover both with spam or frags.
- scan constantly to pick up anybody who goes around the frontlines to get bases far from most of the troops.
- Pay attension to requests for supplies
- Usually keep an eye on where the friendly armour is and the anemy armour is so i can drop supplies to help them out.

Its important to command alot more that you fight so you can support your troops with UAV, scans and supplies and even spotting infantry in close combat fights. But as i said killing a guy that tries to take a spawn near your can make a difference in keeping the bleed going or keeping your main spawn and thereby your armour.

On any map with water if you do a vehicle drop over water it will be a boat instead of a transport.

I always take myself out of battle if i'm commander, in my opinion, you really need to watch the flow of battle to be effective.

My best advice is to be smart with your UAVs.  Nothing irks me more than a commander who will lay a UAV down where NO teammates are.  Who care's if there's enemies halfway across the map if nobody can fight them?  To me a high priority flag deserves a UAV much more than a huge melee fight. A good example is the US side on karkand.  A squad going for suburb or factory gets a UAV over the hotel melee anyday anytime when i'm commander.

Look who's asking for supply drops before you drop one.  A lone sniper who's been in the same spot the entire round with two kills should not warrant a supply drop so he can reload and get more misses.  And dropping crates takes a bit of accuracy it usually drifts north by a crate length or two from where you click.  If you're dropping for armor, try to anticipate where he's going.

People will hate you but SPOT CONSTANTLY.  The UAV almost never covers the entire area of enemies, so once you lay down a UAV just right click and spot in places where your teammates are whether you see anyone or not.  If you're close enough to an enemy it will spot for you.

I find that the best thing to do before you think about applying for commander in a 'live game' is play it first in a single player, and the best map I can suggest for this is Dalian Plant, USMC, Medic spawn at main base and head up to the third floor where the TOW is and jump in as you can help take out stragglers and tanks.  I've found this the best as the opposing commander can't see you so doesn't try to Arty you every 5 minutes for being in the same place, and the reason I suggest medic is that you might get the odd straggler that might sneek under your nose and try and take you out while your busy in the console, but you can tell as you start groaning etc so get out your TOW and finish him then heal yourself.

This is purely so you can get a feel for the console and used to its commands like dropping Arty, Vehicles, UAV's, but because it's single player maybe not supplies, but you could do that anyway for the sake of it.

Pike, read both of these and listen to what they're saying. It will make you a much better commander and you won't do stupid things like putting a UAV over an empty flag in hopes that someone will go there.

http://wiki.bf2s.com/tactical-guides/co … ide-part-1
http://wiki.bf2s.com/tactical-guides/command-reference

Thanks for all the Great advice!

I apologize to all those who were misled by the original thread title.

Please accept my sincerest apologies.  Thank you, T. Pike

ethrion wrote:

Im sorry if this is another stupid question. And I searched here and google but didnt find anything specifically relating to my question. Basically, how do commanders earn points. I mean do they get a point if a squad follows orders or do they get one for a flag capture etc... On average I usually get 30-40 command points per round and then those are 2x if we win.

Would someone please explain or link me to somewhere with a concise explaination of how the command point system works. Thank you in advance.

Commander Score
The commander score is the sum of all commander points earned. The commander points are every point earned by a member of your team during your reign as commander divided by the total of living team members at the given time. This is multiplied by two at the end of the round, when your team wins, and only if you are still active commander at the end of the round. Artillery kills or any personal achievement does not add up to this number. Personal achievements besides artillery kills are added to your points in the round, and count as combat or team points.

T.Pike wrote:

1) on a no vehicles map (Warlord I think) the other commander kept dropping BOATS into the middle of the map.  I guess so his side could use the 50 calibre machine guns.  I didn't have the ability to drop any vehicles including boats.  Was he cheating to get the boat drops?

Certainly sounds like it, however I've never played an expansion map, so i'm not sure if a boat drop is a feature of these maps. If it was an IO map I believe, and I stand to be corrected, that boats are the only transport available -i.e for maps where the USMC needs to get onshore (Dalian, Operation Clean Sweep)

Dropping a vehicle near a squad on foot while their are capping or have just capped, a flag is a good idea as the mounted gun makes mincemeat of teh enemy, and it's a good getaway vehicle too

T.Pike wrote:

2) I kept suggesting for players to "Squad Up" but only had two squads form up.  The team 1 SL did almost everything I asked of his team.  As a result they got almost constant UAV coverage & supply drops whenever they requested them & they were available.  When Commanding do you show favoritism towards SLs who follow your orders?

Unless the side if full of exeprienced players or players who know each other I find it's very rare that people will form squads if they havent done so when the game starts. As my BF2 community is reasonably small, I know a lot of the players and which squads are full of the sort of players who will use to their benefit the assitance I give them, so I do favour the squads who will use to the best advantage the commander toys. You'll find most games you'll have maybe one good squad and all the others are sitting around either exchanging 'nades with the enemy in one place, focus on the squad that is helping actually win the game and you'll stand a much better chance of winning. One good squad can totally own a map with the right commander help (keep an eye out for people capping other flags and send your good squad to take them out, that sort of thing)

T.Pike wrote:

As a side note I kept encouraging my teams & I think we won 4 games in a row!

I find that keeping your SL's aware of the general state of play and giving them a bit of encouragement (ticket standings etc..) really helps. Also if the ticket drain is getting a bit much, asking the SL's to ask their squads to spawn medic and revive like their no tomorrow. The amount of times i've been in a team that being pinned by armour and the noobcakes who think spawning sniper is the way to save the day. See whats going on and ask ppl to spawn in a kit that suits the situation.

T.Pike wrote:

3) I now have a totally different opinion on Commanders who use vehicles, especially Helos & planes.  In my short experience I learned as Commander it's better for me to find somewhere to hide & just keep spotting the enemy & dropping supplies.  I can't imagine how Commanders think they can effectively fight & keep a good watch out for their troops.  When you Command do you fight or find somewhere to hide-out?

There is only one time a commander should be in any vehicle or air asset. TO STOP THE ENEMY STEALING IT! Not to ride off on some rambo mission. If the MEC T-90 for instance on Sharqi is sitting doing nothing i'll hop in an drive it to some friendly troops and give it to them. Better than letting it do bugger all, or worse, getting stolen. (our servers allow stealing etc..)

If you like, hop in an APC if your engineer and tag along for the ride, but never forget, as you pointed out, that you should concentrate on helping your team out by using the assets available to you and not driving around in vehicles. Tanks, APC's and things I can sort of understand if things are tight, but the idiot commanders in jets? Noobcake fucktard FTL.

Mostly when commanding I have favourite places to go and hang out, but try and be near to a flag incase it gets attacked (in the case of a cappable flag) Even though you are one man, you have a big advantage being comander.


You seem to have the right attitude towards commanding, stick with it and you'll find it can be a very rewarding pasttime. It can also suck hairy man balls, but it's down mostly to the teams you play with. Good players make commanding fun and easy, noobs make it suck.

If you want to try a last ditch sneaky thing as commander on say Jalabad, if you are downstairs at Hotel, go and hide in the wreckage, when an enemy troop turns up, call RT ON YOUR OWN POSITION, have a few pops at the guys so they know you're there. Make sure you remain on your RT strike. They will hear the RT firing, but won't move, cause what noob drops RT on himself? RT comes in, exit one squad stage left. I've got tons of RT kills this way, of course it costs you a death and 1 ticket, but if the trade off is sometimes (as has happened in the past, 8 kills) then IMHO it's worth it.


Commanding, excellent way to spend a few hours. Try and go commader when you know the ppl on the server to being with, it makes the learnging curve so much easier. Also I find commanding urban maps to be easier than Vanilla.

In terms of score, it's a calculation known only to the gods Actually it's a reasonably simple thing, but it's best explained this way. Fewer players = higher score for you. On games with say 8 or 9 a side if you win you should come out at least sliver, or most times gold.