So you've shot everything in sight, captured control points in amazingly blisteringly fast advances in which the enemy never even saw you; you've killed helicopter pilots on the other side of the map with a sniper rifle; you've defended your commander's assets armed only with a toothpick and a nailfile.
What else is there to do?!
When I play on public servers, this is almost all I see. Since I've not had the privelige of playing on a server that isn't public as of yet, I haven't seen anything else - except once, on the one map I never expected it (Karkand! SQUAD play - tactical squad play - on KARKAND - okay, you can all get back up into your seats now).
When I say 'this is all I see', I do not intend to paint those who believe they can do the above as all-conquering heroes. Rather, this is what many people seem to think this game is about.
Which leads me from introduction to first part...
Part the First: You Cannot All Be Rambo
"You can't all be Rambo." It's a pretty simple concept. Not everybody can be a light machinegun-wielding maniac advancing through artillery barrages and mechanized advances with only a thin sheen of sweat to show for their toils.
Actually, pretty much nobody can. So forget it. Quit trying to do it. If you're not snorting at this derisively and deciding I'm a moron, you've probably played the game for some time and collected badges, medals, and rank; you know that those servers you've played on that were most enjoyable were those where you were a member of a team working towards a goal.
That goal, of course, is to eliminate the enemy. The most rapid way to do this is to capture all of their spawn points rapidly, but this has a major flaw: if the commander misses just one crucial enemy jeep, APC or tank that breaks through to the heart of your territory, and then fails to arty said vehicle fast enough, then you'll spend the rest of the battle rueing your little attempt at recreating blitzkrieg.
Why is that?
I'm sure you all know, but gosh-darn, I'll tell you anyway. It's because they then have an outlet inside your territory. Their routes of attack are no longer linear and predictable. Therefore the key to defeating your enemy is not to rush forwards as rapidly as possible, but to capture, hold, entrench, and then move forwards slowly and cautiously. Moving swiftly allows enemy forces to rush past and grab capture points behind your team's current path of advance (as described above, and seen on many many servers and many many rounds and every single map, most frequently Karkand). This provides the enemy with a greater range of options. Whether they're coordinated or not is irrelevant; even the most stupid person knows that capturing spawn points that are unguarded is easier and opens up new avenues of attack against the other team. Therefore you do not want them to capture spawn points unless those spawn points are at what is referred to in warfare as The Front.
And that, predictably, brings us on to...
Part the Second: Hold The Front, Watch Your Rear
Although this sounds like a lewd suggestion aiming at anti-social behaviour of some sort, it's really not. I promise. >.>
Imagine a map of Karkand. At the start of the game, 'the front' is a semi-circular area extending just beyond the southern limits of the city. Imagine a narrow band right at the extreme edge. That's the front. Beyond that is the enemy territory; before that is your territory.
You're in Alpha Squad. In fact, you're so damned tough, you LEAD Alpha. So what to do?
The obvious route, of course, when attacking Karkand, is to go for the Hotel and rack up points. This is all well and good, but the Hotel is not the critical CP. Oho-no. In some games, people pick up on this. But not many. The critical CP is over there in the top left... that base nobody really views as important to start with, but then becomes a hotbed of violence later. (In 64/32 player games - who even plays on Karkand in 16 player, anyway?)
The name escapes me because usually I'm too busy watching for snipers to read names from the map, so I'll edit it in later, but that particular CP is critical because it opens up, effectively, a second front. It cannot be attacked from the rear and so is very valuable to the Americans as a western fallback position; the MEC do not see it as valuable (unless smarter than the average bear, which does happen, of course, so don't smack me with a brick if you'd spotted this already) simply because it's "far away" from the major congestion points on the map. (EDIT - The name of the CP is 'Suburbs', thanks to 'YOURDAD' for this little reminder!)
Anyway, capture this point, and you can push for the other two 'main city' capture points with joyous abandon; dividing efforts across the river can also cause havoc, but can be exceedingly ticket-costly against good players on the other team and thus is often very risky. Which brings us on to...
Killing and Death Isn't Just About the Ratio
When you kill someone, they die. This is, thankfully, a universal constant, even in computer games. Well, usually. Hacks aside, they're dead.
But your kill-death ratio isn't all you have to worry about. If you're thinking about winning rounds rather than just getting a Scandinavian rescue ship's hauling tonnage of points, then you need to think about tickets.
When you die, your team loses a ticket. When someone else on your team dies, your team loses a ticket. When you kill-
Well, it's an obvious pattern.
But what gains the most ticket loss of all is an artillery strike. When you see a tank, an APC, and some infantry all in one spot, then don't just call in a strike and run.
Find cover before firing. Then fire on them - even if it's useless - while maintaining cover and surprise. They'll stay still and dig in, especially if you lob a few grenades from a couple different angles (simulating a greater number of enemies) - allowing your Commander to send them all back to the spawnpoint of their choice courtesy of some big booms and bangs. This gives you fifteen seconds to advance.
Of Timing and Toil
So you're in a squad, and your buddies are all dead. Blimey. You're a bit screwed, aren't you?
But wait! You're assault. This means that you have a weapon which can do the enemy significant damage (and probably have them swearing in rage).
No, no, not flashbangs.
I must admit to confusing you a touch there with misdirection, but that's rather the point. From much watching of people during games, I've noticed a pattern: supply drops act like beacons to the enemy. Drop a supply crate, and watch them dash for it to grab some kills.
So ask for a supply crate... waaaay over there. Few people have the sense to ask their commander to check the location, so you should distract at least a couple of enemies low on ammo or health. Second, you have a grenade launcher. You don't need to kill with it to delay the enemy so your squad can respawn on you. What you can do is create explosions some distance away; this is useful to convince the enemy that a hapless moron is flinging grenades at them from another direction. It's like waving a flag with
HELPLESS MORON DESIRES DEATH
on it.
Essentially, distraction is one of the greatest tools of the soldier. Wield it well, and you live. Fail to, and you'll be winging your way back to the spawnpoint - and will need to advance all over again, allowing any of the enemy you killed on the way to begin their advance again as well.
Squads and Formation
Moving in squad formation would also be good. If you're in a squad, be in the squad. Don't wander around haplessly wondering where everybody else is: USE YOUR MINIMAP.
This does NOT mean moving in a tight-knit little group - this will just attract artillery from eagle-eyed commanders with the ability to figure out your destination.
Spread out. Take alternate routes through streets that allow you to keep covering at least one other member of your squad at all times.
Advance in phases, with support kit-wielding types covering your ass supported by accurate medics who can dash forward and revive friendlies with a hail of bullets covering them.
Taking Routes Nobody Expects
This is a tricky one, because lots of people try to do it and end up running into each other when they pick the same route. But there are a few locations that seem to be almost 'secret' - there's one in particular on Sharqi Peninsula, at the Construction Site.
The flag is at the top of the building-in-construction, right?
There are stairs. People run up these stairs. I still don't know why. Last night, I spent an entire round returning to the Construction Site to defend it periodically; every single time I used a secret entrance that nobody picked up on for some time...
It's called a 'ladder'. There's a ladder at the back of the building facing out towards the Alleyway; in crowded games it can be tough to get up there without a sniper putting one in the back of your head, but it's well worth it to find the crowd of hostiles sitting around the flag on the top of the building... and then kill them while they whirl to face the stairs, the building opposite, the other buildings around - but never where you're crouching, tittering to yourself with evil glee...
I racked up 146 points this way just last night. Much fun.
But the trick really requires an on-the-ball commander. Knowing where the enemy is means that you can sneak up on them, and kill them before they know you're there. If you're not a sniper, closing distance is your goal. You want to be so close that you can smell the BO that hours of soldiering in the hot desert/jungle has produced. You want to be able to see the flakes of hairgel in their hair as you gut them from behind.
To do this requires advancing from cover-to-cover in quick bursts. This is the staple of all military operations, in fact. It's amusingly termed 'hurry-up-and-wait' but the real technical term is 'OODA'.
OODA!
or
"Enemy Submarine Spotted!"
OODA stands for 'Observe, Orient, Decide, Act' and is THE basis for any successful military or civilian operation involving armed action. Whether you're in an attack helicopter or an APC, a ground-pounder or a die-hard special ops who chews bullets for giggles, you need to follow the four basic rules in the correct order. Do this and victory SHALL be yours... unless the enemy does the same.
Let's run through a little scenario.
Squad A is on the Red team. Squad B is on the Blue team. Squad B has advanced and captured Mystery Spawn Point Gamma.
Squad B takes up defensive positions, expecting a swift counterstrike. They are aware Squad A is nearby; in fact they have a UAV overhead watching them.
Squad A, in this situation on any BF2 server that I've been on, will usually rush the cap point as quickly as possible in the hope of 'catching the enemy by surprise'. Or something. Actually, I have no idea why people do this, but anyway.
The real trick is not swiftness. It's efficiency. There is no point rushing a cappoint if you do not know where the enemy are, what their strength is, and whether you occupy the best position to attack them from. Without comms, this becomes very difficult, but it is still possible to individually identify the needs of an assault - each soldier figuring out the best route of attack simultaneously feels GREAT when it comes off in this game, which I've sadly only seen in play several times now.
Squad A knows that it needs to attack from cover. It therefore needs to locate the nearest cover to the defensive positions of Squad B. That might be a burnt out APC from the battle the day before, or a civilian car overturned by the armoured division that passed through this way a few hours ago; regardless, every soldier needs to identify his preferred cover before he advances. Two people can take cover in the same place - this is even preferable, since one can reload while the other keeps the enemy pinned.
So, knowing where the enemy is (Observe) and knowing where to attack from (Orient) allows us to Decide. The decision is simple if the planning is right - go or wait for support. If the planning is not right, there will be no time to decide: the enemy will force your hand. And once the decision is made, we Act.
OODA.
Cradle it to your bosom at night and whisper sweet nothings to it; for those five little words will earn you more points than tankwhoring could ever do.
(No, that had nothing to do with submarines, but I'm a witty soul, and OODA reminds me of submarines. Also, I was always a fan of spotting submarines on El Alamein, in BF1942. >.>)
What To Do (And Not!) When Your Team Captures All Cappable CPs
DO... guard the nearest base to the enemy.
DO... take positions enabling the swift decimation of an advancing force.
DO... slaughter them in every way possible.
DO NOT... sit on the enemy's doorstep with four tanks and two APCs.
DO NOT... rain artillery down on the one remaining uncapturable spawn point to try to gain a better kill streak.
DO NOT... carry out constant airstrikes against said uncapturable spawn point.
Why?
Because it's stupid, that's why. There's no other reason. It's just innately stupid. Yes, you'll win. But half the players on the other team will leave waaaay before the end of the game, which means you get less points. Further, the God of Game Fairness (were there to be such a thing) will give your cat fleas and shave your dog. It's NOT fun to die the instant you spawn. Nor is it fun to twiddle thumbs because nobody is spawning because they don't want to die the instant they do.
The Whirlybird and It's Proper Use
Helicopters.
We all love/hate them. I love being a gunner; I love flying them, too, but my own lag often prohibits this. Still, through observation of online playing, I've noticed some - err, shall we say issues?
Firstly, what is a helicopter?
It's a mobile gun/missile platform designed for before-the-horizon engagement (in BF2), to provide cover and suppression against infantry for advancing troops - and destroy enemy armour. So it's a combination of a support kit and an AT kit - in the air.
Pretty scary, yes. However, the helicopter is seriously vulnerable from directly underneath. This means that I, with my humble PKM, can use cover and positioning to remain directly beneath your aircraft and pump a constant stream of bullets into your belly. That is Not A Good Thing (NAGTz0r!).
This is what I see most with those 'chopperwhores': they keep at a fairly high altitude, making attack runs before dashing back to base in a panic of smoke and fire. Granted, there are some awesome pilots out there - I've had the good fortune to play gunner to a few - but for the most part, even they misuse the wonderful piece of hardware they otherwise control so well.
A helicopter gunship is not impervious nor anywhere near impervious to enemy fire. It is also very, very visible. You can't fail to miss one coming your way. Ever. At least... in BF2 you can't.
This is preposterous, since gunships are designed to 'pop up' on targets - from behind trees, a hill, a building - and make a 'stealth' onslaught. You can hear it. But you shouldn't see it until your dying breath.
On the rare occasions my lag is less enough to enable me to fly*, I follow a more realistic piloting doctrine. I fly low, slow, and easy, hugging the ground and popping up on targets so my gunner can pound them with fire. I do not fly high, fast, and open. Making yourself visible from range is begging for someone to hop into an AA emplacement and pop two missiles into your face.
Flying low from distance denies the enemy the oppurtunity to see you until you dart up above their horizon - which should be far too late for them to respond. They have no time to do that OODA thing we just mentioned - and returning to that here, apply it to your helicopter. You must Observe the enemy. You must Orient to their position in such a way as to provide a mobile gun platform to suppress and destroy. You must Decide whether or not your attained position is valuable or fruitless. You must Act on your decision.
Your helicopter is far more deadly at slow, low, and easy than it will ever be at high, fast, and open. This is not to say that you can't or shouldn't attain altitude; altitude allows your gunner to zero in on targets. But when you gain it, it should be so fast and sudden that the enemy only see you as you pop up from behind those trees - and the next thing they see should be the flare of guns and missiles slamming into their position.
And A Word From The... Errr... Readers?
Here shall go all the bits and pieces that are said by other people in this thread but really do belong in here.
They may be SLIGHTLY edited, but the edit will be restricted to a simple snip here or there for relevance or tidiness.
From DebonairXcel, on Leadership
"None of these tactics can be incorporated without it, you may get folks to follow you blindly time to time, but it takes role-modeling and leadership to get them to start. Leadership is accomplished not only by thanking the squads, but be being personal with all of your players. That means using the voice option, or typing your players names and thanking them for following orders when designating them. It also means asking certain pubby-lonewolves to make squads and thanking them when they do. Or when someone screws up, saying nothing, making a soft joke, or empathizing with the squad/player, like "that had to really suck going up against the Mi-28 and armor."
Additionally it means congratulating your team for doing what you want, and it is the sqd leaders/commanders duty to make the game fun for their team as well, even if you are losing. That said, even if the sqd-leader/commander has leadership it also requires knowledge of tactics such as Auqakuhs. And finally it requires role-modeling, if you want to lead your squad effectively, you better be about just as good as they are, or at least have some very good tactical ideas. Last but not least, get someone with the same tags to play with you, pubbies and skilled players love to join folks in one clan because it usually means either that they are half-decent or that they plan to work together, a much better choice than joining the one lone wolf who makes a squad of one.
If you want to play as commander, try playing a round as a grunt, do very well, then opt for it, players working under a skilled player are more likely to follow orders.
Anyhow, as I said before nice tips, but nothing is possible for teamwork without leadership and role-modeling."
* * *
I'll add to this as stuff occurs to me.
Random Things As I Think About Them Because My Fingers Are Getting Tired So I'll Likely Come Back and Tidy/Add To This Later And This Will Continue To Be The Longest Heading
Another little point: when in doubt, ask your commander. Or ask your squad leader to ask your commander. Communicate. Don't peer nervously or ask for a UAV when you might not need one; tell the Commander you think that there are enemies nearby, and if he/she's any good, they'll zoom on in and check out the location for you.
If you see a '?' appear at an enemy base, and your commander called it, view this is an excellent sign. The commander doesn't have to click directly on an enemy to 'spot' them, and so if they're checking base out for an arty strike (to see if people spawn there regularly, for example, the devious gits), then they may just 'spot' the base and see if anything shows - rather than spend time zooming first.
This may - MAY - mean that the base is entirely unguarded. It may not, though.
But the key point is not 'I must take all capture points instantly'; in fact you get less points that way. The point is 'I must capture all of the spawn points in a progressive manner which allows maximum damage to the enemy with minimum casualties'. This, believe it or not, will also earn you more points.
[I'd like to add that I am not a Karkand whore. I liked (I hate it nowadays) that map simply because of close-quarters combat (and no jets to bomb me as I spawn), and you can easily see by my stats that I'm actually far better at playing on Sharqi anyway. Further, when the connection was horrific (as is often the case with my ISP but thankfully it's improved of late), just about the only server I found which I could stay connected to was a 24/7 Karkand map. Meh.]
[Editlog: Added new section: stuff from other people. Quite a bit of reorganisation: readability improved here or there; shifted one section to the bottom in keeping with it's heading; added a new heading ('OODA! or "Enemy submarine spotted!") to increase easiness-on-the-eyes; added extra line spacing between sections to break up ungainly long chunks of text. Added new section on helicopters ('The Whirlybird and It's Proper Use'). Edited some typos.]
What else is there to do?!
When I play on public servers, this is almost all I see. Since I've not had the privelige of playing on a server that isn't public as of yet, I haven't seen anything else - except once, on the one map I never expected it (Karkand! SQUAD play - tactical squad play - on KARKAND - okay, you can all get back up into your seats now).
When I say 'this is all I see', I do not intend to paint those who believe they can do the above as all-conquering heroes. Rather, this is what many people seem to think this game is about.
Which leads me from introduction to first part...
Part the First: You Cannot All Be Rambo
"You can't all be Rambo." It's a pretty simple concept. Not everybody can be a light machinegun-wielding maniac advancing through artillery barrages and mechanized advances with only a thin sheen of sweat to show for their toils.
Actually, pretty much nobody can. So forget it. Quit trying to do it. If you're not snorting at this derisively and deciding I'm a moron, you've probably played the game for some time and collected badges, medals, and rank; you know that those servers you've played on that were most enjoyable were those where you were a member of a team working towards a goal.
That goal, of course, is to eliminate the enemy. The most rapid way to do this is to capture all of their spawn points rapidly, but this has a major flaw: if the commander misses just one crucial enemy jeep, APC or tank that breaks through to the heart of your territory, and then fails to arty said vehicle fast enough, then you'll spend the rest of the battle rueing your little attempt at recreating blitzkrieg.
Why is that?
I'm sure you all know, but gosh-darn, I'll tell you anyway. It's because they then have an outlet inside your territory. Their routes of attack are no longer linear and predictable. Therefore the key to defeating your enemy is not to rush forwards as rapidly as possible, but to capture, hold, entrench, and then move forwards slowly and cautiously. Moving swiftly allows enemy forces to rush past and grab capture points behind your team's current path of advance (as described above, and seen on many many servers and many many rounds and every single map, most frequently Karkand). This provides the enemy with a greater range of options. Whether they're coordinated or not is irrelevant; even the most stupid person knows that capturing spawn points that are unguarded is easier and opens up new avenues of attack against the other team. Therefore you do not want them to capture spawn points unless those spawn points are at what is referred to in warfare as The Front.
And that, predictably, brings us on to...
Part the Second: Hold The Front, Watch Your Rear
Although this sounds like a lewd suggestion aiming at anti-social behaviour of some sort, it's really not. I promise. >.>
Imagine a map of Karkand. At the start of the game, 'the front' is a semi-circular area extending just beyond the southern limits of the city. Imagine a narrow band right at the extreme edge. That's the front. Beyond that is the enemy territory; before that is your territory.
You're in Alpha Squad. In fact, you're so damned tough, you LEAD Alpha. So what to do?
The obvious route, of course, when attacking Karkand, is to go for the Hotel and rack up points. This is all well and good, but the Hotel is not the critical CP. Oho-no. In some games, people pick up on this. But not many. The critical CP is over there in the top left... that base nobody really views as important to start with, but then becomes a hotbed of violence later. (In 64/32 player games - who even plays on Karkand in 16 player, anyway?)
The name escapes me because usually I'm too busy watching for snipers to read names from the map, so I'll edit it in later, but that particular CP is critical because it opens up, effectively, a second front. It cannot be attacked from the rear and so is very valuable to the Americans as a western fallback position; the MEC do not see it as valuable (unless smarter than the average bear, which does happen, of course, so don't smack me with a brick if you'd spotted this already) simply because it's "far away" from the major congestion points on the map. (EDIT - The name of the CP is 'Suburbs', thanks to 'YOURDAD' for this little reminder!)
Anyway, capture this point, and you can push for the other two 'main city' capture points with joyous abandon; dividing efforts across the river can also cause havoc, but can be exceedingly ticket-costly against good players on the other team and thus is often very risky. Which brings us on to...
Killing and Death Isn't Just About the Ratio
When you kill someone, they die. This is, thankfully, a universal constant, even in computer games. Well, usually. Hacks aside, they're dead.
But your kill-death ratio isn't all you have to worry about. If you're thinking about winning rounds rather than just getting a Scandinavian rescue ship's hauling tonnage of points, then you need to think about tickets.
When you die, your team loses a ticket. When someone else on your team dies, your team loses a ticket. When you kill-
Well, it's an obvious pattern.
But what gains the most ticket loss of all is an artillery strike. When you see a tank, an APC, and some infantry all in one spot, then don't just call in a strike and run.
Find cover before firing. Then fire on them - even if it's useless - while maintaining cover and surprise. They'll stay still and dig in, especially if you lob a few grenades from a couple different angles (simulating a greater number of enemies) - allowing your Commander to send them all back to the spawnpoint of their choice courtesy of some big booms and bangs. This gives you fifteen seconds to advance.
Of Timing and Toil
So you're in a squad, and your buddies are all dead. Blimey. You're a bit screwed, aren't you?
But wait! You're assault. This means that you have a weapon which can do the enemy significant damage (and probably have them swearing in rage).
No, no, not flashbangs.
I must admit to confusing you a touch there with misdirection, but that's rather the point. From much watching of people during games, I've noticed a pattern: supply drops act like beacons to the enemy. Drop a supply crate, and watch them dash for it to grab some kills.
So ask for a supply crate... waaaay over there. Few people have the sense to ask their commander to check the location, so you should distract at least a couple of enemies low on ammo or health. Second, you have a grenade launcher. You don't need to kill with it to delay the enemy so your squad can respawn on you. What you can do is create explosions some distance away; this is useful to convince the enemy that a hapless moron is flinging grenades at them from another direction. It's like waving a flag with
HELPLESS MORON DESIRES DEATH
on it.
Essentially, distraction is one of the greatest tools of the soldier. Wield it well, and you live. Fail to, and you'll be winging your way back to the spawnpoint - and will need to advance all over again, allowing any of the enemy you killed on the way to begin their advance again as well.
Squads and Formation
Moving in squad formation would also be good. If you're in a squad, be in the squad. Don't wander around haplessly wondering where everybody else is: USE YOUR MINIMAP.
This does NOT mean moving in a tight-knit little group - this will just attract artillery from eagle-eyed commanders with the ability to figure out your destination.
Spread out. Take alternate routes through streets that allow you to keep covering at least one other member of your squad at all times.
Advance in phases, with support kit-wielding types covering your ass supported by accurate medics who can dash forward and revive friendlies with a hail of bullets covering them.
Taking Routes Nobody Expects
This is a tricky one, because lots of people try to do it and end up running into each other when they pick the same route. But there are a few locations that seem to be almost 'secret' - there's one in particular on Sharqi Peninsula, at the Construction Site.
The flag is at the top of the building-in-construction, right?
There are stairs. People run up these stairs. I still don't know why. Last night, I spent an entire round returning to the Construction Site to defend it periodically; every single time I used a secret entrance that nobody picked up on for some time...
It's called a 'ladder'. There's a ladder at the back of the building facing out towards the Alleyway; in crowded games it can be tough to get up there without a sniper putting one in the back of your head, but it's well worth it to find the crowd of hostiles sitting around the flag on the top of the building... and then kill them while they whirl to face the stairs, the building opposite, the other buildings around - but never where you're crouching, tittering to yourself with evil glee...
I racked up 146 points this way just last night. Much fun.
But the trick really requires an on-the-ball commander. Knowing where the enemy is means that you can sneak up on them, and kill them before they know you're there. If you're not a sniper, closing distance is your goal. You want to be so close that you can smell the BO that hours of soldiering in the hot desert/jungle has produced. You want to be able to see the flakes of hairgel in their hair as you gut them from behind.
To do this requires advancing from cover-to-cover in quick bursts. This is the staple of all military operations, in fact. It's amusingly termed 'hurry-up-and-wait' but the real technical term is 'OODA'.
OODA!
or
"Enemy Submarine Spotted!"
OODA stands for 'Observe, Orient, Decide, Act' and is THE basis for any successful military or civilian operation involving armed action. Whether you're in an attack helicopter or an APC, a ground-pounder or a die-hard special ops who chews bullets for giggles, you need to follow the four basic rules in the correct order. Do this and victory SHALL be yours... unless the enemy does the same.
Let's run through a little scenario.
Squad A is on the Red team. Squad B is on the Blue team. Squad B has advanced and captured Mystery Spawn Point Gamma.
Squad B takes up defensive positions, expecting a swift counterstrike. They are aware Squad A is nearby; in fact they have a UAV overhead watching them.
Squad A, in this situation on any BF2 server that I've been on, will usually rush the cap point as quickly as possible in the hope of 'catching the enemy by surprise'. Or something. Actually, I have no idea why people do this, but anyway.
The real trick is not swiftness. It's efficiency. There is no point rushing a cappoint if you do not know where the enemy are, what their strength is, and whether you occupy the best position to attack them from. Without comms, this becomes very difficult, but it is still possible to individually identify the needs of an assault - each soldier figuring out the best route of attack simultaneously feels GREAT when it comes off in this game, which I've sadly only seen in play several times now.
Squad A knows that it needs to attack from cover. It therefore needs to locate the nearest cover to the defensive positions of Squad B. That might be a burnt out APC from the battle the day before, or a civilian car overturned by the armoured division that passed through this way a few hours ago; regardless, every soldier needs to identify his preferred cover before he advances. Two people can take cover in the same place - this is even preferable, since one can reload while the other keeps the enemy pinned.
So, knowing where the enemy is (Observe) and knowing where to attack from (Orient) allows us to Decide. The decision is simple if the planning is right - go or wait for support. If the planning is not right, there will be no time to decide: the enemy will force your hand. And once the decision is made, we Act.
OODA.
Cradle it to your bosom at night and whisper sweet nothings to it; for those five little words will earn you more points than tankwhoring could ever do.
(No, that had nothing to do with submarines, but I'm a witty soul, and OODA reminds me of submarines. Also, I was always a fan of spotting submarines on El Alamein, in BF1942. >.>)
What To Do (And Not!) When Your Team Captures All Cappable CPs
DO... guard the nearest base to the enemy.
DO... take positions enabling the swift decimation of an advancing force.
DO... slaughter them in every way possible.
DO NOT... sit on the enemy's doorstep with four tanks and two APCs.
DO NOT... rain artillery down on the one remaining uncapturable spawn point to try to gain a better kill streak.
DO NOT... carry out constant airstrikes against said uncapturable spawn point.
Why?
Because it's stupid, that's why. There's no other reason. It's just innately stupid. Yes, you'll win. But half the players on the other team will leave waaaay before the end of the game, which means you get less points. Further, the God of Game Fairness (were there to be such a thing) will give your cat fleas and shave your dog. It's NOT fun to die the instant you spawn. Nor is it fun to twiddle thumbs because nobody is spawning because they don't want to die the instant they do.
The Whirlybird and It's Proper Use
Helicopters.
We all love/hate them. I love being a gunner; I love flying them, too, but my own lag often prohibits this. Still, through observation of online playing, I've noticed some - err, shall we say issues?
Firstly, what is a helicopter?
It's a mobile gun/missile platform designed for before-the-horizon engagement (in BF2), to provide cover and suppression against infantry for advancing troops - and destroy enemy armour. So it's a combination of a support kit and an AT kit - in the air.
Pretty scary, yes. However, the helicopter is seriously vulnerable from directly underneath. This means that I, with my humble PKM, can use cover and positioning to remain directly beneath your aircraft and pump a constant stream of bullets into your belly. That is Not A Good Thing (NAGTz0r!).
This is what I see most with those 'chopperwhores': they keep at a fairly high altitude, making attack runs before dashing back to base in a panic of smoke and fire. Granted, there are some awesome pilots out there - I've had the good fortune to play gunner to a few - but for the most part, even they misuse the wonderful piece of hardware they otherwise control so well.
A helicopter gunship is not impervious nor anywhere near impervious to enemy fire. It is also very, very visible. You can't fail to miss one coming your way. Ever. At least... in BF2 you can't.
This is preposterous, since gunships are designed to 'pop up' on targets - from behind trees, a hill, a building - and make a 'stealth' onslaught. You can hear it. But you shouldn't see it until your dying breath.
On the rare occasions my lag is less enough to enable me to fly*, I follow a more realistic piloting doctrine. I fly low, slow, and easy, hugging the ground and popping up on targets so my gunner can pound them with fire. I do not fly high, fast, and open. Making yourself visible from range is begging for someone to hop into an AA emplacement and pop two missiles into your face.
Flying low from distance denies the enemy the oppurtunity to see you until you dart up above their horizon - which should be far too late for them to respond. They have no time to do that OODA thing we just mentioned - and returning to that here, apply it to your helicopter. You must Observe the enemy. You must Orient to their position in such a way as to provide a mobile gun platform to suppress and destroy. You must Decide whether or not your attained position is valuable or fruitless. You must Act on your decision.
Your helicopter is far more deadly at slow, low, and easy than it will ever be at high, fast, and open. This is not to say that you can't or shouldn't attain altitude; altitude allows your gunner to zero in on targets. But when you gain it, it should be so fast and sudden that the enemy only see you as you pop up from behind those trees - and the next thing they see should be the flare of guns and missiles slamming into their position.
And A Word From The... Errr... Readers?
Here shall go all the bits and pieces that are said by other people in this thread but really do belong in here.
They may be SLIGHTLY edited, but the edit will be restricted to a simple snip here or there for relevance or tidiness.
From DebonairXcel, on Leadership
"None of these tactics can be incorporated without it, you may get folks to follow you blindly time to time, but it takes role-modeling and leadership to get them to start. Leadership is accomplished not only by thanking the squads, but be being personal with all of your players. That means using the voice option, or typing your players names and thanking them for following orders when designating them. It also means asking certain pubby-lonewolves to make squads and thanking them when they do. Or when someone screws up, saying nothing, making a soft joke, or empathizing with the squad/player, like "that had to really suck going up against the Mi-28 and armor."
Additionally it means congratulating your team for doing what you want, and it is the sqd leaders/commanders duty to make the game fun for their team as well, even if you are losing. That said, even if the sqd-leader/commander has leadership it also requires knowledge of tactics such as Auqakuhs. And finally it requires role-modeling, if you want to lead your squad effectively, you better be about just as good as they are, or at least have some very good tactical ideas. Last but not least, get someone with the same tags to play with you, pubbies and skilled players love to join folks in one clan because it usually means either that they are half-decent or that they plan to work together, a much better choice than joining the one lone wolf who makes a squad of one.
If you want to play as commander, try playing a round as a grunt, do very well, then opt for it, players working under a skilled player are more likely to follow orders.
Anyhow, as I said before nice tips, but nothing is possible for teamwork without leadership and role-modeling."
* * *
I'll add to this as stuff occurs to me.
Random Things As I Think About Them Because My Fingers Are Getting Tired So I'll Likely Come Back and Tidy/Add To This Later And This Will Continue To Be The Longest Heading
Another little point: when in doubt, ask your commander. Or ask your squad leader to ask your commander. Communicate. Don't peer nervously or ask for a UAV when you might not need one; tell the Commander you think that there are enemies nearby, and if he/she's any good, they'll zoom on in and check out the location for you.
If you see a '?' appear at an enemy base, and your commander called it, view this is an excellent sign. The commander doesn't have to click directly on an enemy to 'spot' them, and so if they're checking base out for an arty strike (to see if people spawn there regularly, for example, the devious gits), then they may just 'spot' the base and see if anything shows - rather than spend time zooming first.
This may - MAY - mean that the base is entirely unguarded. It may not, though.
But the key point is not 'I must take all capture points instantly'; in fact you get less points that way. The point is 'I must capture all of the spawn points in a progressive manner which allows maximum damage to the enemy with minimum casualties'. This, believe it or not, will also earn you more points.
[I'd like to add that I am not a Karkand whore. I liked (I hate it nowadays) that map simply because of close-quarters combat (and no jets to bomb me as I spawn), and you can easily see by my stats that I'm actually far better at playing on Sharqi anyway. Further, when the connection was horrific (as is often the case with my ISP but thankfully it's improved of late), just about the only server I found which I could stay connected to was a 24/7 Karkand map. Meh.]
[Editlog: Added new section: stuff from other people. Quite a bit of reorganisation: readability improved here or there; shifted one section to the bottom in keeping with it's heading; added a new heading ('OODA! or "Enemy submarine spotted!") to increase easiness-on-the-eyes; added extra line spacing between sections to break up ungainly long chunks of text. Added new section on helicopters ('The Whirlybird and It's Proper Use'). Edited some typos.]
Last edited by Auqakuh2213 (2007-02-26 20:29:16)
