Squad Leaders

[SlipperyDuck]

Having given this a lot of thought, I don't think i cannot truely nail down explicit team leaders.

My initial thoughts are:
NiteShade Squad Leader
Leelo Squad Leader

Now let's use it this week and then we can see how we go from there, I want this to be open forum to discuss it, Shadey or leelo (speech in the 3rd person - wow) may not be the best suited and it should be the Team that decides.

Honestly, the best candidate for a Squad leader role is Mega, so If you're gonna be around for the duration of the league, then I want you as the Squad leader as opposed to me.

It may also work out that, yes Mega is around and that we should have Mega as SL and myself as SL and then have Shadey as the Commander.

Another thought on this, is that the Squad Leaders and Commanders have a Whisper channel to communicate - I'm gonna tinker with Teamspeak and see if the Whisper channel can mute all other comms when "whispering".

Lastly, Skouperd is most definitely my No.1 choice with strats, they are clear, well thought out and cater for the entire match, not just an opening move.

So Skouperd, is officially our Intelligence Officer.

OK, so now, the feedback - what do you think of the proposal and do you feel we have someone better for the job(don't hold back).

[SlipperyDuck]

Just to make it clear,

We will expect as many signups for games as we can, so don't hold back there either.

The elected squad leader will then choose his/her squad from that pool, basing the decision process on Skouperds strategies.

I as the Captain, will then approve the selection - which is a motivation for me not to be a squad leader.

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As you can see, we must try diversify the roles and responsibilities and make every attempt to develop the team BY the team.

It's not a cop-out from my end, rather, as far as I see it - a better way of doing it so that we are all involved rather than just being players that pitch up to a practice and match.

[Megageth]

Cop-out. Jokes bro. I am happy to play SL when around but obviously its best for the team if we rotate a bit so that we have options in case of unavailability. Skoups strats are good.
I really like the idea of 2-3-3 squad combos. As a basic strat I think we should divide flags amongst those squads, combining for mass-attacks if we get pushed back.

[SlipperyDuck]

OK then, so as it stands, Mega is a SquadLeader, you will need to chose your squad carefully.

Shadey will need to confirm if she's keen or thinks someone else should have a go....

If keen, then you both will need to select your squad members for the forthcomin matches

[J_Th4ng]

I like the idea of having dedicated squad leaders for the duration of the league, in order to keep stability within the team. I also agree that for most games a three squad structure is going to be the way to go. Therefore we need three primary squad leaders minimum, butI'd also like to see one or two understudy SL's for when the first choice players are unavailable.

Being as I'm still feeling all arsey today, I'm going to lay down another little rule that i think we all need to adhere to AT ALL TIMES, as follows:

SQUAD LEADERS ARE CHOSEN TO BE THE LEADERSHIP FOR THE TEAM WHEN IN GAME - THEY CALL THE SHOTS!!

In our game on Sunday, too many people (myself included) were shouting the odds and trying to drive the game strategy. This caused our cohesion to fall apart, and every person to end up running around like a headless chicken. This cannot continue.

The SL leader role is different to what it was in BF2. In BF2 the SL was the squad's only mobile spawn point, whereas any squad member will serve that role now. As such, it is far more important for the SL's to be cool, calm tactical thinkers, that can clearly state their requirements to their squad, and are constatly looking at the big picture when in game. For that reason, I reckon our best SL candidates to be as follows:

Mega
Shadey
Skoups

And as understudies, Murgs and myself.

Lee, no offence mate, you are one of our best players, but (by your own admission) you tend to focus on the action element of the game while playing. I could be wrong but I reckon that Skoups is a better tactical thinker while the game is on.

Just my opinion, please feel free to rip it to shreds...

I also think that we need to have that commander role in clannies. Even if the grunts are doing as they are told by their SL's, we still need someone to co-ordinate what the three squads are doing. As always, I think our 'Iron Lady' commander from BF2 should take that role - assuming that Sheri will accept it. Maybe alternate the role with Skoups, to see who is better suited?

[SlipperyDuck]

Yep, very much agree esp with Skoups being another SL.
100% that I should not be a squad leader...

I loved the was Skoups was the voice of reason in Sundays match, so he's got my vote!

[SloDaz]

I completely agree with all your comments, we need leadership and some sort of stability in the squads. The squads need to trust in their orders for the game and leave the complaining until afterwards. My one question or clarifying point is - Would this mean that the 16 players are divided into three categories? i.e. Alpha, bravo etc. That way, in practice and in normal play time, the guys try and hook up together - to bond and learn with each other. Its no use practicing with Drag’s, if I never play in the same league squad with him. I am not sure how the others feel as I might be completely out of line with my comments. I would suggest that we don’t select three squads but rather two - an aggressive attacking vs. cautious defending – with preferred armour personnel being part of one squad.

In the "mixed nuts" we had a set group of players being available for each squad, so alpha was always the more aggressive and dominating (possibly better players), with the bravo squad always the more cautions, defence type players... I am not sure about the benefits of a third squad as we always played only two squads, with Chaos as commander. I understand the need for people to be able to swap in and out of the three squads but to be honest Chaos did not allow this and insisted that we stick to our squads; otherwise we ran the risk of five players sitting at one flag and the balance at another…

My main worry with three squads is that BBH will play two squads of four, that means that if we have smaller squads we will be at a disadvantage to them. They always move in groups of four unless they have the advantage and send out squadies to harrass the enemy - like Murgs.... We did find that the opening move required one squad to split - buggy vs the tank/APC but the players always made it a point to get together... ie the tank always went defence and supported the other infantry defenders

[pmurgs]

I loved the was Skoups was the voice of reason in Sundays match, so he's got my vote!

Although I'd much rather have someone make the wrong call than we just continue to run around like headless chickens, I have to say Skoups made the wrong call and I think Mega made the right call, but we followed Skoups and our last few remaining tickets got drained from us. So Mega gets my vote. Mega was right that we needed to regroup quickly and then attack. Holding off was a loose-loose postion.

[SloDaz]

I caught the last few minutes of that round and agree with Murgs, however, I don’t think that it was Skoup's call as "squad leader". I think that the commander should have made the call and directed the two squad leaders. Skoups in his past role as squad leader was a more cautious player and i completely understand his call - i only wish there was a commander in taken charge as it would have made a huge difference.

[Skouperd]

Very interesting comments indeed. I would also be happy to accept SL role and/or share commander role since that is the role I've played when in HF.

Any event, Dazzie, regarding 2x3x3 squad, from a tactical perspective it definately makes sense on SOME maps. I hear what you are saying about having just 2 squads, but even in the Nutz team there were more than one occasion where we were doing squad swapping mid game. Having 3 squads setup that way from the begginning just makes sense. The key secret to making sure the 2.3.3 squad combination work is that you need to have the 2 man squad be prepare to adapt to the game and also be receptive of the squad leaders chatter happening so that they could, without being told, see when they need to adjust their game style.

Lee, I don't know about the rest of the guys, but I actually have very little difficulty listening to all 8 players simultanously. I actually prefer listening to everybody, compared to just listening to my own squad / or just the SL (as in BF2). It just allows one to absorb so much more information at a time. I actually find it frustrating some times on the public servers that people don't talk, even basic things like WHERE you've been killed, or by what you've been killed etc. If somebody is killed, and he can communicate that it was because of APC, then immediately that becomes valuable information for the next guy that spawns etc.

Murgs, yes, that call was the wrong call on Sunday, saying that, when I've made that we should stop and think, the tickets was 19 - 12 in our favour, by the time everybody stopped and regrouped, our tickets have already drained below theirs. I agree with Mega that once we've regrouped, we should have attacked, but we were all in the wrong position. Those guys that died (from the 19 tickets) all spawned on "C", (I think that was Lee's call) and in hindsight, we should have spawned at our base. We were going for flag "B" from "C" the whole time, which was the wrong option, we should have gone to "A" from our base instead. But yes, it was the wrong call to be defending C alone, but I will stand by the call that we needed to regroup (perhaps have a call for medics etc) before starting to attack again.