Battlefield 2 - Commander’s Intent Briefing:
By Dakota2x
I. Introduction
II. Order of Command
III. Commander’s Discretion
IV. Conclusion
I. Introduction:
Normally, I would not write a whole guide on the way I find most effective for commanding, but sometimes I find things that should be addressed. So here is, yet another, “great tutorial” to commanding.
Author’s note: You will notice male pronouns used throughout this tutorial. Ladies, no offense, I know you are out there and play BF2 just like guys do (and yes you are usually better than us at times). I am just used to when I was in the military and all of my commanders there were men.
II. Order of Command:
Volunteering for commander is like volunteering for Explosive Ordinance Disposal detail; depending on which way you go you can end up as the hero of the day, or have people walking all over what is left of you. You are dependent on your team members to rack up points for you, and your team members are dependent on you to keep them with all the supplies, vehicles, intelligence they need.
I will not go into details of the assets in here. If you are new to commanding, then check out some of the other tutorials on commanding. There are some awesome ones out there and helped me to get to where I am now in the game!
A). SITUATIONAL AWARENESS:
I know the main objective of you playing is to kill as many other players possible before they kill you. As commander, that role changes somewhat: You need to make sure you stay alive and have your teams kill as many other players as possible. In order to do this, the first thing you must do is find a GOOD hiding spot.
Once you have found your little shred of cover and concealment, it is then time for you to open up your commander’s screen and use the SCAN asset as often as possible. This will give you the real time intelligence that you need to give accurate orders, as well as, passing on intelligence to your men. Not to mention, you will have a better chance of seeing that OP-FOR personnel coming around to flank you. Personally, I have caught more than one stealthy player trying to get a bead on me and they would suddenly be surprised by a hand grenade going off in their face. Just because you know what is coming does not mean you are invincible: I have been killed by snipers and sometimes by the guy who was lucky enough to keep under my radar and kill me.
Bottom line: In order to keep yourself alive and be the best commander to your team, keep your eyes open and scan as often as possible. There is no greater way to assist your team other than staying alive. Just remember to stay as close as possible (providing cover, terrain, and/or concealment provide it) to your main staging area.
B). SITREP (SITUATIONAL REPORT):
Okay, you are commander now. You have found your little spot to hide and observe in. Now what do you do? Hopefully you are not answering this question “Rain artillery on the enemy’s non-cap point”! By assuming command, you should 1st zoom in on every spawn point on the map (Yours, OP-FOR’s, and the neutral ones). This will allow you to see what assets are available to you and, equally importantly, your enemy.
A good commander needs to know what he is up against in every situation. From knowing what is available you can prioritize every CP and start formulating a battle plan (DO NOT finalize the plan yet). That way you are able to orchestrate the battle so that your team mates can attempt to get you the double-points award at the end of the round.
If you want an advantage above other commanders, you may want to create a local server for every map out there. That way you can take screen shots of the CPs and print-off a file for every map as well as every map size. You can save yourself the time of zooming in during the actual battle and quickly familiarize the area of engagement while the map is loading.
A commander who knows where he is fighting has a much better chance of winning than if he knows just who he is fighting.
C). REVIEWING YOUR TROOPS:
You have your hide position, you have your SITREP, and you have just begun to formulate a plan that rivals those of the best West Point graduates of history. Oh, you did not consider who was spawning with what kit on your team? Time to learn to quickly adapt, overcome, and make do with what you have or else you will be too distraught to command. One of the best things the Army ever taught me was to make do with what I have. You may be on a server where no one spawned as medic or anti-tank. So as you are conceiving the plan try to encourage team members to squad up.
Once squads are formed, you will be able to tweak your plan once you can see what your squads are capable of. Just remember, you have assets available all over the battlefield to assist you in winning. You have areas where vehicles can be repaired. You can do supply drops and get your men more ammunition as well as healing area.
Now that you know what your team is composed of, you should be able to finalize your battle plan.
D). BRIEFING SQUADS:
You have your plan formulated, now to express it to your squads as quickly and as intelligibly as possible. For this, it is highly recommended that you use VoIP (You do not want to get too focused typing in your intent to squad leaders that you lose focus on the battle that is still going on around you!). Let them know that there is a method to your madness. If your squads can hear your plan and comprehend it, they will be able to execute the plan to the best of their ability and your chances of winning increase dramatically. You should give the Squad Leaders some leeway when issuing the orders, this way your Squad leaders can be of assistance to you and also feel some accomplishment as their own. As long as the objective is reached it should not matter in the least bit to you how it was obtained.
E). EXECUTION:
Orders are sent, squads comply, all hell breaks loose, and the chaotic beauty of battle fills your command screen. Once again, you are forced to keep up with the battle because your plan in some area or another has backfired and a squad, or possibly your whole team, is falling back trying to regroup and is vehemently requesting guidance from you.
There is a saying across the military: No plan has ever lasted more than five seconds after engaging the enemy. Always have at least 2 contingencies planned for the inevitable worse case scenario. A commander that panics will end up losing the battle.
You have to believe that, no matter what, you are in complete control of the battle. “Total Loss” should never appear in your vocabulary. You have to remain calm and cool. You cannot just start to drop artillery on areas at random. Do a scan as quick as possible. Assess the situation, see where you are being overrun and then redirect your team to the weakened areas in OP-FOR territory. This will force the OP-FOR to reassess their battle plan and keep you alive a little bit longer.
F). IMPROVISE:
Once you have executed your plan, sit back, watch and learn from your commander’s screen. You will be able to see what aspects of the plan worked, what did not, and be prepared to issue new orders to your squads. Drop them hints on where to spawn. Use your assets wisely. Let squads who are doing well know when Artillery, UAV, Supplies/Vehicle drops have become available. By “sharing” these assets with your squad leaders, it is more of reward system and it shows that you, as commander, are trying to contribute to their personal gains.
G). AAR (AFTER-ACTION REVIEW):
If you plan on commanding on a regular basis, there is no greater tool out there than remembering your own mistakes and learning from them. If possible, use the battle recorder so you can see where you made your mistakes, as well as, where you excelled. Remember, every battle will be different. There is always the human variable for chaos in it that will always show you a new approach.
FOR CLANS: You would be wise to do this, for you have ways outside of the game to communicate to your clan-mates on the pros- and cons- of each battle, making your clan a more formidable force.
III. Commander’s Discretion:
As commander you have a certain duty to your team to uphold. The team is counting on you to assist them in winning. Sometimes, in order to get that win, you have to make sacrifices. The order of sacrifices should go as follows -
• 1st: Lone wolves – As commander you need to take care of your team, Lone Wolves do not play as a team, and they cannot take orders from you. They are the most expendable parts of the team.
• 2nd: Disobedient squads – If squads do not want to follow your orders, then cut them away. You need your team mates to act as an actual team and not run around like a pack of immature wolves. Cut away infected groups of individualism if they cannot function as a team.
• 3rd: Loyal squads – This is one of the hardest things to do, these are your bread and butter winners, the ones winning you most of your points. Sometimes they will need to be sacrificed to allow your vigilance to prevail. It is better to sacrifice a squad then yourself. If it is a close match, you cannot afford the 15 second loss of command that comes with each death.
After making these sacrifices, there comes a new group of items that come before you in the sacrificial list: Your command assets –
• 1st: UAV – The UAV is a great tool, because it gives you a constant intelligence of activity in a sector, but figuring the scan shows the entire battlefield as well as recharges faster, it is a much more useful asset.
• 2nd: Artillery – Artillery is great at taking out OP-FOR, but sacrificing offensive assets over intelligence assets makes more sense. You can order a squad to repair the damaged artillery, and still maintain observation of the OP-FOR to track enemy movements and keeping the intelligence flowing to your teammates.
• 3rd: Scan Satellite – This is your 2nd most valuable asset. Keep it up running as much as possible (but do not risk yourself to keep it up). IF it happens to go down, that should be your 1st priority to repair. Let your squads know that you will be off-line trying to repair it. If you have any assets left, use them to recon or clear the area of OP-FOR.
Remember, you acting as commander, need to keep yourself alive so that you can keep your team posted. And assist them in ways as YOU SEE FIT! You are the commander, if others have a problem with it they should command. Remember you are the coach in this, not the all-star.
Finally, remember you need to have fun while doing this. There is no sense in VOLUNTEERING for the position if you do not enjoy the role of strategist. Voluntarily becoming commander is your discretion, no one forced you to do so.
IV. Conclusion:
Commander is fun, but it is not easy. Hopefully, this guide has helped both “newbies” and the most experienced commanders out there. It is all about having fun!
By Dakota2x
I. Introduction
II. Order of Command
III. Commander’s Discretion
IV. Conclusion
I. Introduction:
Normally, I would not write a whole guide on the way I find most effective for commanding, but sometimes I find things that should be addressed. So here is, yet another, “great tutorial” to commanding.
Author’s note: You will notice male pronouns used throughout this tutorial. Ladies, no offense, I know you are out there and play BF2 just like guys do (and yes you are usually better than us at times). I am just used to when I was in the military and all of my commanders there were men.
II. Order of Command:
Volunteering for commander is like volunteering for Explosive Ordinance Disposal detail; depending on which way you go you can end up as the hero of the day, or have people walking all over what is left of you. You are dependent on your team members to rack up points for you, and your team members are dependent on you to keep them with all the supplies, vehicles, intelligence they need.
I will not go into details of the assets in here. If you are new to commanding, then check out some of the other tutorials on commanding. There are some awesome ones out there and helped me to get to where I am now in the game!
A). SITUATIONAL AWARENESS:
I know the main objective of you playing is to kill as many other players possible before they kill you. As commander, that role changes somewhat: You need to make sure you stay alive and have your teams kill as many other players as possible. In order to do this, the first thing you must do is find a GOOD hiding spot.
Once you have found your little shred of cover and concealment, it is then time for you to open up your commander’s screen and use the SCAN asset as often as possible. This will give you the real time intelligence that you need to give accurate orders, as well as, passing on intelligence to your men. Not to mention, you will have a better chance of seeing that OP-FOR personnel coming around to flank you. Personally, I have caught more than one stealthy player trying to get a bead on me and they would suddenly be surprised by a hand grenade going off in their face. Just because you know what is coming does not mean you are invincible: I have been killed by snipers and sometimes by the guy who was lucky enough to keep under my radar and kill me.
Bottom line: In order to keep yourself alive and be the best commander to your team, keep your eyes open and scan as often as possible. There is no greater way to assist your team other than staying alive. Just remember to stay as close as possible (providing cover, terrain, and/or concealment provide it) to your main staging area.
B). SITREP (SITUATIONAL REPORT):
Okay, you are commander now. You have found your little spot to hide and observe in. Now what do you do? Hopefully you are not answering this question “Rain artillery on the enemy’s non-cap point”! By assuming command, you should 1st zoom in on every spawn point on the map (Yours, OP-FOR’s, and the neutral ones). This will allow you to see what assets are available to you and, equally importantly, your enemy.
A good commander needs to know what he is up against in every situation. From knowing what is available you can prioritize every CP and start formulating a battle plan (DO NOT finalize the plan yet). That way you are able to orchestrate the battle so that your team mates can attempt to get you the double-points award at the end of the round.
If you want an advantage above other commanders, you may want to create a local server for every map out there. That way you can take screen shots of the CPs and print-off a file for every map as well as every map size. You can save yourself the time of zooming in during the actual battle and quickly familiarize the area of engagement while the map is loading.
A commander who knows where he is fighting has a much better chance of winning than if he knows just who he is fighting.
C). REVIEWING YOUR TROOPS:
You have your hide position, you have your SITREP, and you have just begun to formulate a plan that rivals those of the best West Point graduates of history. Oh, you did not consider who was spawning with what kit on your team? Time to learn to quickly adapt, overcome, and make do with what you have or else you will be too distraught to command. One of the best things the Army ever taught me was to make do with what I have. You may be on a server where no one spawned as medic or anti-tank. So as you are conceiving the plan try to encourage team members to squad up.
Once squads are formed, you will be able to tweak your plan once you can see what your squads are capable of. Just remember, you have assets available all over the battlefield to assist you in winning. You have areas where vehicles can be repaired. You can do supply drops and get your men more ammunition as well as healing area.
Now that you know what your team is composed of, you should be able to finalize your battle plan.
D). BRIEFING SQUADS:
You have your plan formulated, now to express it to your squads as quickly and as intelligibly as possible. For this, it is highly recommended that you use VoIP (You do not want to get too focused typing in your intent to squad leaders that you lose focus on the battle that is still going on around you!). Let them know that there is a method to your madness. If your squads can hear your plan and comprehend it, they will be able to execute the plan to the best of their ability and your chances of winning increase dramatically. You should give the Squad Leaders some leeway when issuing the orders, this way your Squad leaders can be of assistance to you and also feel some accomplishment as their own. As long as the objective is reached it should not matter in the least bit to you how it was obtained.
E). EXECUTION:
Orders are sent, squads comply, all hell breaks loose, and the chaotic beauty of battle fills your command screen. Once again, you are forced to keep up with the battle because your plan in some area or another has backfired and a squad, or possibly your whole team, is falling back trying to regroup and is vehemently requesting guidance from you.
There is a saying across the military: No plan has ever lasted more than five seconds after engaging the enemy. Always have at least 2 contingencies planned for the inevitable worse case scenario. A commander that panics will end up losing the battle.
You have to believe that, no matter what, you are in complete control of the battle. “Total Loss” should never appear in your vocabulary. You have to remain calm and cool. You cannot just start to drop artillery on areas at random. Do a scan as quick as possible. Assess the situation, see where you are being overrun and then redirect your team to the weakened areas in OP-FOR territory. This will force the OP-FOR to reassess their battle plan and keep you alive a little bit longer.
F). IMPROVISE:
Once you have executed your plan, sit back, watch and learn from your commander’s screen. You will be able to see what aspects of the plan worked, what did not, and be prepared to issue new orders to your squads. Drop them hints on where to spawn. Use your assets wisely. Let squads who are doing well know when Artillery, UAV, Supplies/Vehicle drops have become available. By “sharing” these assets with your squad leaders, it is more of reward system and it shows that you, as commander, are trying to contribute to their personal gains.
G). AAR (AFTER-ACTION REVIEW):
If you plan on commanding on a regular basis, there is no greater tool out there than remembering your own mistakes and learning from them. If possible, use the battle recorder so you can see where you made your mistakes, as well as, where you excelled. Remember, every battle will be different. There is always the human variable for chaos in it that will always show you a new approach.
FOR CLANS: You would be wise to do this, for you have ways outside of the game to communicate to your clan-mates on the pros- and cons- of each battle, making your clan a more formidable force.
III. Commander’s Discretion:
As commander you have a certain duty to your team to uphold. The team is counting on you to assist them in winning. Sometimes, in order to get that win, you have to make sacrifices. The order of sacrifices should go as follows -
• 1st: Lone wolves – As commander you need to take care of your team, Lone Wolves do not play as a team, and they cannot take orders from you. They are the most expendable parts of the team.
• 2nd: Disobedient squads – If squads do not want to follow your orders, then cut them away. You need your team mates to act as an actual team and not run around like a pack of immature wolves. Cut away infected groups of individualism if they cannot function as a team.
• 3rd: Loyal squads – This is one of the hardest things to do, these are your bread and butter winners, the ones winning you most of your points. Sometimes they will need to be sacrificed to allow your vigilance to prevail. It is better to sacrifice a squad then yourself. If it is a close match, you cannot afford the 15 second loss of command that comes with each death.
After making these sacrifices, there comes a new group of items that come before you in the sacrificial list: Your command assets –
• 1st: UAV – The UAV is a great tool, because it gives you a constant intelligence of activity in a sector, but figuring the scan shows the entire battlefield as well as recharges faster, it is a much more useful asset.
• 2nd: Artillery – Artillery is great at taking out OP-FOR, but sacrificing offensive assets over intelligence assets makes more sense. You can order a squad to repair the damaged artillery, and still maintain observation of the OP-FOR to track enemy movements and keeping the intelligence flowing to your teammates.
• 3rd: Scan Satellite – This is your 2nd most valuable asset. Keep it up running as much as possible (but do not risk yourself to keep it up). IF it happens to go down, that should be your 1st priority to repair. Let your squads know that you will be off-line trying to repair it. If you have any assets left, use them to recon or clear the area of OP-FOR.
Remember, you acting as commander, need to keep yourself alive so that you can keep your team posted. And assist them in ways as YOU SEE FIT! You are the commander, if others have a problem with it they should command. Remember you are the coach in this, not the all-star.
Finally, remember you need to have fun while doing this. There is no sense in VOLUNTEERING for the position if you do not enjoy the role of strategist. Voluntarily becoming commander is your discretion, no one forced you to do so.
IV. Conclusion:
Commander is fun, but it is not easy. Hopefully, this guide has helped both “newbies” and the most experienced commanders out there. It is all about having fun!