BF2:Commander

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In men of the highest character and noblest genius there is to be found an insatiable desire for honour, command, power, and glory. - Cicero

Contents 1 Overview 2 Being a commander (at all) 3 Your Capabilities 4 Being an effective commander 5 Advanced Command, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Squads

Overview

As commander, your job is to lead your team to victory. While you can't personally kill every enemy, you can give your team the best possible information, support and direction. You are the eyes, nerve center, and hand of God for your team, all wrapped up in one role. No pressure.

Being a commander (at all)

• Switch to commander mode by pressing the Squad Screen key (default: Caps Lock).
• On the top left-hand side of the screen are the various support functions the commander can call in such as scans, artillery, supply and UAV. They also indicate the wait/"recharge" time for actions as they cannot be done constantly, i.e. artillery reload, scan.
• On the middle left-hand side is a list of active squads, as well as the composition of that squad in terms of kits. Right click on the squad icons to communicate with the squad..
• You can order a squad to attack, defend or move to a particular position by first selecting a squad from the list at left, then right-click on the minimap to get to the context menu. Choose the action and a colored line and icon will appear on their minimap. (See Colors and Minimap)
• On the bottom left-hand side is for typing out commands, should you not have VOIP enabled. Click on the "ALL", "TEAM" or "SQUAD" button to choose between different groups to communicate with.
• Right-click on the minimap to bring up a context menu. This allows you to choose artillery targets, supply crate drops, and scans for localized areas.
• Your VOIP speaks to the squad leaders. Tell them what your plan is. People work better when they know why you're ordering them to somewhere. (FYI: You use the 'B' key in a Squad to talk to each other. But as the Commander you use the 'V' Key to talk to your Squad Leaders (also Squad Leaders use the 'V' key to communicate back to the Commanders).
• Along the bottom of the commander screen, lies a string of small icons. These allow you to filter which icons you see on your screen. The "ALL" button toggles all icons on and off, while the individual icons allow you to remove different types of icons from your commander screen.
• Using a scan then informing your team of which flags are undefended by exiting then using teamsay is a great tactic.

(Need more here... Not to mention a screen cap of the commander screen. I just tried it for the first time and really felt lost.)

Your Capabilities

• Scan: You are able to see the positions of all enemy units on the map. You are the only person who is able to see them however, so be prepared to communicate their positions to team-mates (see Enemy Spotting below). This ability can be disabled if your satellite link (the radar dish at your base) is disabled. Don't double click EVERY SINGLE RED DOT, this is not very useful to your team but it is very annoying to hear a steady stream of "enemy infantry spotted, enemy infantry spotted" and causes everyone to ignore it. If you scan and then call out certain dots that are important to your players they'll pay attention and it might be useful.

• UAV: Your entire team is able to see all enemies in a radius around the UAV on their mini-map. This ability can be disabled if your UAV trailer (the stationary wheeled vehicle with antennas at your base) is disabled. It can also be disabled if the UAV is shot out of the sky while deployed.

• Artillery: Orders an artillery strike at a location anywhere in the combat zone. Use a scan or UAV to aim the strikes. The density of the strike depends on how many active artillery pieces you have at your base. This ability will be disabled if all your artillery pieces are destroyed.

• Supply Drop: An aircraft drops a supply crate at a location set by you. This will heal, resupply, and repair any person and/or vehicle in a radius around the crate. Be careful where you use this ability as enemy units are also able to make use of the crate. Drop vehicles on enemy snipers or other stationary enemy to kill them. Drop a crate in the open moments before your artillery barrage to bring the enemy out of hiding.

• Enemy Spotting: Remember that you can zoom in on the map until you get an actual view of the battlefield (select zoom three times from the right-click menu, or use the mouse wheel). This way you can easily spot enemy units. Then select spotted from the right-click menu to show their locations to your squad leaders.

Being an effective commander

• Be sure to remain in a well-hidden location as you can still be killed. I'd suggest AWAY from your team's equipment (Artillery/UAV/Scanner) as those all draw the special forces which will rip you a new one while you're using the overhead map. -- At the same time a good commander will know that the random guy off by himself out of the way is worth killing. For example, on Gulf of Oman, the best place on the USMC is in a gunner position in the ship, while the best place for the MEC is a random place hiding in a building near the c-site.
• The commander should constantly be scanning and placing UAVs on areas where you are directing your squad (so they can see the enemy). Knowing a base has one enemy as opposed to twenty is pretty helpful for people trying to decide how to assault the base.
• You should be consistently shelling (via artillery) the enemy flags (and other heavy enemy troop concentrations). Keep in mind that it takes about 15 seconds from the time you call in an artillery strike to when it actually hits so place your strikes where you think the enemy will be in 15-20 seconds. Note that shelling an open area that the enemy is trying to charge through may or may not kill them, but if you time it right it can sometimes buy base defenders more time to reinforce.
• Artillery can be very effective for clearing out enemies. It can also work against you, so watch your timing. Avoid calling artillery into an area you ordered a nearby squad to attack/defend. When calling in artillery, give a courtesy "heads up" to the nearby squads for those who inevitably don't see it on their radars.
• Artillery strikes are incredibly useful to wipe out attacking squads. With the Scan ability, you can easily spot attacking squads trying to break into a base. The squad leader is usually hiding behind his teammates trying not to get spotted. Send some artillery shells down his throat to decimate the squads ability to respawn and let your defending units take care of the leftover attackers.
• Keep an eye out for information from your squad leaders as well as requests for orders from them. If they make requests, such as for supplies or UAV scans, you should quickly grant or deny them, rather than missing or ignoring the request altogether.
• Pass on helpful information from one squad (or from scanning) to the rest of the squad leaders.
• Supply crates WILL repair destroyed artillery/radars/UAV centers. However, the enemy can also be healed and rearmed from your supply drop. So make sure the Special Forces player that blew up your equipment in the first place isn't still lurking nearby, as he'll be only too grateful for another 5 packs of C4.
• After using the "SCAN" function, you can right click on enemy dots and select "spotted" which will alert your teammates to the enemy's location. You can also spot enemies for your teammates by zooming in until you can see the actual battlefield and using the "spotted" order on enemies.
• Don't give new orders to various squads too quickly. If you are running your squads toward a new flag every three seconds, they may not be able to keep up or may just start ignoring your orders since you keep changing them. There's a fine line between reacting quickly and just throwing all your squads at whatever threats you see. Try to act decisively but calmly.
• The key thing to commanding is understanding the lag involved. When someone requests something, they usually need it 2 minutes ago. Which means do it right away, because supply drops and artillery takes time. When you command a squad, they are going to take some time to adjust to your orders. Make sure that they understand why you're giving them those orders, and let them in on any intel you have.
• Make sure your squads aren't bored. If someone has been defending the river point for 10 minutes, check in with them to see how they're doing. They might be having a great time blasting down incoming boats. Or they might be itching to go attack something. If they get bored, it means they'll go off on their own, which means you'll have no one to defend there. Switch up a squad that's been attacking with one that's been defending. It keeps the game a lot more fun for everyone.
• DEFEND!! As the commander, you can see everything, and you know where the enemy is going to hit next. Unfortunately, by the time you know what they're up to, the enemy will probably be closer to the base than your flag chasing teammates. You need to keep guys at or near bases at all times. On Oman, a good number seems to be 2 squads defending, 2 squads attacking.
• Split up your squads! I remember getting creamed one 16v16 game becaue all we had were 2 6 man squads. We were unable to deal with a more mobile enemy because we really only had presence in 2 locations at any time. There is a SPLIT SQUAD command. USE IT!
• Use the appropriate squads for the appropriate missions. Each squad is not created equally. Someone spotted a tank heading to and undefended base? Send that squad with the two AA and Spec Forces units. Don't send the medic and support squad on a suicide march.

Advanced Command, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Squads

by Ratsofatosrat

New since 7/08/05

So you're hosed. Totally hosed. There's just no way you're going to win this round, man. The tickets are 200 in their favor. Half your squads are in the woods, confused because they thought this was Deer Hunter 8: Revenge of the Two-Legged Commando Elk. Despite this, it's gonna be okay. A lot depends on the luck of the draw, and who's on your team. Let me tell you, you're going to have to deal with a lot of retards sometimes. It's okay, really. There are groups you can attend every Tuesday and Thursday. Here's what we want to focus on. The white ball of healing light. Are you focusing? Goddamnit - stop staring at that NWS contraband, lieutenant, and listen up.

• You are not THAT special. Yes, you heard me. Anyone can be a commander and at least not fall on their face too hard. Oftentimes what it boils down to is doing the most logical thing and keeping your squads fooled into thinking you're doing something brilliant. Accomplish this by sucking up to them. Hard. If someone needs something, give it to them as fast as humanly possible.

• Communication is the most important aspect of being a commander. If you don't have a microphone, you'd better type fast. If you do have a microphone, speak UP. Either way, make sure you're only communicating the most vital and efficient information. So your artillery is down for the 10th time. Unless you have someone to spare to repair it, the whole team doesn't need to hear about it.

• Air forces are your friends in Battlefield 2. If you don't have anybody in the air, you may as well throw in the towel right now. Even if you do have people flying around, if they're not in dedicated air squads, it's going to be very difficult to coordinate with them. Make sure your air units are receiving constant information on enemy armor and primary infantry targets for bombing.

• Air defense is just as important. Here's where you can help fix the part where you're not so special. If you're a commander, do not sit in a building somewhere in the middle of the desert screaming at people because there's nobody shooting down planes. Jump in the Anti-Air that's at your home base and get to work. You should be good enough to switch between issuing orders, using abilities and defending against the odd bombing run. Your pilots will love you for it. Similarly, if you feel confident enough and you are short on air units, jump in the gunnery seat in a helicopter. It's easy enough to multitask, and it can give you a great view of the battle.

• Play as an engineer. If you're in your base and someone takes out your SAT or artillery, don't complain about it; hunt down the bastard who knocked it out, kill them, and then repair it yourself. You're a wasted member of the team if you can't multitask.

Here's where we talk about advanced flag tactics.

• Obviously every map is different, and knowing the maps is going to give you a leg up on everyone else. If you don't play that often, don't be a commander. Simple as that. You won't have as much fun playing as the commander anyway. It can be thankless and frustrating. Stick to that tank.

• There's a fine balance between a heated battle and a slaughter. In this scenario, you have a flag next door to an enemy flag, and both of your forces are attacking each other from opposing spawn points. After a long stalemate, your forces may get a little upset that nothing is coming of it. Think of this as an invisible morale statistic. Make sure to do SOMETHING, whether it be to try a flanking manuever with one squad, or to get some air support in on their base to free up space for an attack. Something has to give.

• Pop quiz, hot shot. How do you break a stalemate? Here's a crazy strategy that I've been experimenting with. Say you have 3 bases in a line like this. X - X - O In this situation, you are the X team, and O is the enemy. You are hitting their O base from the center X base, but it's a stalemate. Now, without clearly spelling this out to your troops (as this would be fairly complicated to convince them of), let them give way in the center. Just let the enemy take your base. Let them win. (or, as Keanu would do, shoot your troops in the leg to save them). Once the enemy has swarmed your center base, take the remnants of your troops and capture the right base. Now the battlefield will look like this X - O - X . See what happened here? Have 2 squads spawn left, 2 squads spawn right, and issue an artillery strike the second the enemy enters the center base, well before they capture it. They will all be dead from the arty, your troops will have them in a pincer, and all 3 bases should be yours after a minute or two of slaughter.

• Make sure to pay attention to which squads are the best. Yeah, it sounds elitist, but there are gonna be some squads who just get their shit done. Use that squad to begin the main assault of every flag you want captured. Give them all the support they need.

• Here's another strategy I've found works pretty well, although on the onset it's kind of crazy. Say you have 4 flags out of 5 captured. Let them have the 5th. Don't attack it. Do not go for total victory. Position your troops around the periphery and simply hammer that base to hell and back. Since they still have a spawn point, they'll keep spawning there, and you'll rake in the tickets. If you were to capture it, chances are they'd capture a spawn point behind your lines by some paratrooping or some other means, and then you have a problem. This way you know where they are. (Some people hate this, it's called base camping, but that's the game.)

• If there's a squad who seems a bit on the slow side in terms of movement, use them for defense. They're just more suited for that type of work. When you do your routine scan before you use artillery (more on this later), and you see a huge wave of troops headed for one of your flags, grab that squad and tell them to defend like a mofo. Drop supplies for them. Have your assault squad move in and attack a weak flag while this is going on. Worst case scenario, you switch spawn points. Best case scenario, you've picked up a flag without losing any ground, and that flag captured should take pressure off your defensive squad.

• Protect your artillery. People may find it questionable if you are obsessed with defending it, because it benefits you personally, but ignore that shit. It's a huge weapon for the team and can be invaluable if used properly. If, as in Gulf of Oman for USMC, there is a flag that sits in front of your artillery (i.e. it's not inside your base), make sure you're defending that flag as often as it is feasible. Do not, however, shift an insane amount of resources in the name of defending it.

Here's where we talk about ability tactics.

• I'm going to be slightly controversial and say that the UAV is the most valuable ability you've got. Here's how to make the most of it. Simply put, do NOT order one in directly over an enemy base unless you have troops in the area who need to find and locate hiding enemies. Many times there will be two flags close enough together that you can use a UAV in between them and get data on both bases. This is essentially 2 UAV's for 1, and can give you a leg up on the enemy.

• Do NOT use your artillery on less than 3 or 4 red dots. Wait for a major spawn of enemy forces. The trick here is to anticipate it. If they just all died in an attack on your base, issue the strike. It takes roughly 10-15 seconds for the arty to hit, and they'll spawn the second your arty starts raining down. It's the difference between 2 kills and 7 kills, and possibly a captured flag.

• Once you start timing artillery well enough, you can begin to do it between bases. If you see a large force of infantry running towards a base, lead them by an inch or two on the map and issue the strike. It's not always successful, but it's better than waiting if you can pull it off.

• Scanning is something you want to do twice for every artillery strike. Once just before to spot the most concentrated group of red dots, and once in between for situational awareness. Take note of enemy air during scans - if they're headed towards your base, make sure to jump out of commander view and smack them down with your AA.

• Supplies, as mentioned above, can repair downed artillery. It usually takes 2 boxes to repair both artillery pieces to full health. Other than that, place them at positions where your infantry can use them outside of bases. The ideal is to put it down in a field or behind a wall where your forces are attacking. They can get behind it for some cover, and it's great for health/ammo while they're on their way to the enemy base. Do not drop them on the enemy base until the tide has clearly turned in their favor.

New:

• If you're sitting in your base and a tank spawns, jump in it, for christ's sake! Tanks respawn so quickly and can be so decisive that it's worth the slight distraction to your commander duties to jump in it and run up to the battlefield. Not only that, but you can pull off a really fun trick. Position yourself just outside the heat of battle and drop supplies just behind you. Now wait, and mow down anything that gets near the flag. When their tank comes running up to challenge you, blast away. You'll be continuously healed by the supply drop and have a HUGE advantage over him. Continue to do this as long as you can get away with it. You can often shift the entire battle simply by pulling this off. Yes, you can do this by dropping supplies to a tank when someone else is in it, but it's far less effective because generally they just heal up and move on. If you stay in one place as a tank on the outside of a flag, you're far less likely to get C4-nuked than if you charge into an enemy base. The longer you stay alive, the better.

• Now I'm going to share with you one of my personal favorite tricks. Not only is it hilarious, it's also quite effective. Simply put, drop supplies on an enemy flag with a lot of people around. Especially if they've just capped the flag. Immediately after you click to drop them, call in an arty strike. By the time they're about to leave, all healed up and full of ammo, your artillery will come raining down on their parade. It's perhaps the most fun a commander can have and get away still helping the team.

More as I think of them.