Thread: Basic Battlefield Strategy

It seems like something simple considering how long some of us have been playing but it seemed like today on siege of shanghai we completely forgot what we were doing. I was commanding and I had to grill guys sometimes because they were eager to leave their points I told them to keep because the other squads were not capturing it well enough. All in all a good teamplayer trait, helping the team where they are weak, but what was wrong is that they completely abandoned their original point they were assigned to defend. Essentially they were creating a new weakness where they were trying to fill another one that was currently occupied by not the best squads.

Taking a basic 5 point map, or any number for that matter, the general idea that wins you the game everytime is that you want to have 1 more flag than the other team. In the case of a 5 point map you want to have a 3-2 ratio of flags to initiate ticket bleed. If the other team's tickets are bleeding YOU ARE WINNING. Generally in a 5 point map C, or the center point, is the one you want to ignore or focus on. IE Everything revolves around the C point. The most basic strategy is to weaken the C point by assaulting the surrounding points D and B which in most cases give the most support to the C point. A and E are outliers that are attached to spawn points that should generally have 1 held at all times(Typically the one closest to your spawn point) these should either be ignored or focused on. There are multiple strategies ones where C is focused, A and E are focused, these are usually determined by how many squads you have that you can trust and are larger/stronger than the others. D and B, in the case of the 5 point map system are typically always held no matter what.

(A good example of the basic 5 point map system is sidi power plant in 2142)

The way you decide which strategy you should be using is by determining which are your strongest squads and which are your weak ones. Strong squads are determined by #1. How well they follow orders and #2. How well they perform that order. Weak ones are generally, smaller, full of more random players, don't necessarily do what they should be doing all the time. At the beginning of a game I analyze which squads look and sound like they are strong or weak squads and from there I will judge which strategy to use. On a Sidi power plant/Siege of Shanghai type map the basic strategies I use is either C focused styled, or C ignored styles; In both cases C is the point in question. Here are the names of them to help you watch to see what your commander is trying to do if they are commanding: CDB (C Focused, DB held), CBA/DE (C focused, 1 strong point and an outlier), A/EDB (A/E Focused, DB Held), AED/B (A/E Focused 1 or more strong point held). The more C ignored style are usually for teams with stronger squads because the goal is to lead you into capturing that 4th point for a better bleed. The C focused stlyes are more for teams with 3 Strong squads that can hit and hold 3 frequently attacked points.

All of the above works if assumed your squads are following orders stubbornly and not doing anything else.

Now that we touched on Strong and Weak squads and map strategy we can go into the more advanced discussion of setting up for all the flags getting captured. When a commander starts a game and issues squads onto points ideally he will have the equivalent of 1 squad on each flag point. 1 Squad is all you need to capture a flag EVER. The strategy will adapt to how you can best organize your strong and weak squads onto all the flags accordingly.

(It is worth noting that 2 or more weak squads can act as the equivalent of 1 normal squad).

The action of proceeding to gain those extra 2 flags that gets that gets killer ticket bleed is based strongly on the communication between Squad leader and commander. Taking the CDB strategy that I used in the aforementioned troublesome game the core strategy is that 3 strong "squads" sit their asses down on 3 flags getting sparse business while the weak squads distract the enemy at A/E where they may or may not capture the point. This core strategy secures the 3:2 flag goal ratio that is necessary. The troubles arise when one squad isn't doing so good and is having trouble taking their point strong point or otherwise. The simple solution of going to help the squad that is having trouble appears to be a good plan until you have lost the point you were assigned to hold making it a larger problem than it was originally. Dealing with troubles like that is for the commander to deal with your job is to sit down and hold tight and make is so the commander doesn't have to worry about you.

This is where changes of orders come in typically this is after 1 (maybe 2) hundred tickets have passed and your team still is only holding 2 of the 5 flags. After the commander has had sometime to see which squads are sticking together more, which squads are generally doing more, as well as reading what the other team is doing well, he can adjust his strategy to attempt to take that 3rd point and get that ticket bleed. Let's say you are doing CDB and you just can't get B but goddammit you have C and D and you haven't lost them since. Well assuming you had a strong squad on B they would have to be putting a lot into getting that one point in which case that means either A/E is going to be weaker which means that the one that the weak squad was on earlier has a better chance of capturing their point, and if you swap the (struggling)strong and weak squads to hit the opposite outlier you can accomplish the 3:2 ratio and get into the lead, or possibly grab the elusive 4 while the enemy is focusing on the strong point. By just moving 1 or 2 squads around you have gained double the advantage you had before, but only if you assume the C and D squads were holding strong despite lack of business. All in all you were able to change your strategy from a CDB to a CDA/E without getting too crazy.

Now, now, lack of business is quite a boring problem as a squad in the game which can be remedied by a squad tactic, and a game genre realization. First and foremost you must understand that battlefield is a real-time strategy game(in the context of a first person shooter), there are no turns so you don't just one moment say you are attacking and one moment defending troops attacking you, no, you are constantly moving, and constantly doing things. This means that there is going to be a time period after your first initial business where you are waiting for people to respawn, tanks to drive, people to run to you before you are going to get business again. So just because you don't have something to shoot RIGHT NOW doesn't mean you should move somewhere else, it is actually the wrong answer entirely. The dull time you get should be something you use to analyze what is coming, judge how the commander is doing, and communicate to him and the rest of the team. Ask for orders, look at what the other squads are doing, and figure out what to do and how best to go about it with all the aforementioned information in the context of your action. Let's say you want to assist a squad on a flag but leaving your flag means it is going to leave it alone and undefended, #1. You should communicate to the commander so as to help his plan of how to fix the game or #2 Think of a way to accomplish both tasks without losing the core that will interfere with the commander's plan and make him figure out an entirely new strategy. The best way to accomplish this is by splitting your squad up and leaving a few behind to spot and/or pick off the low business you have coming in while either the strong or weak people in your squad goes to assault the base that needs help. Considering a flag only needs 1 theoretical squad to capture it, just adding a couple people to the existing squad should make the difference without leaving the focal point of your squad open for the enemy commander to take with a quick helo drop.

Of course there are always the exceptions of people ignoring orders. Both of these will #1 not be helped by losing the point the commander has trusted to you but #2 will be dealt with by the administration of the server and as I have said before can only be fixed by regs stepping up and spotting out the problems. Even if it just calling for an admin for a moment to scare the person into doing the right thing. Whether it gets dealt with well is irrelevant to what it does to your squad and by disobeying orders because you want to be the hero squad D deserves then you are just becoming the problem in itself. When everyone relaxes and does what they are supposed to be doing everyone has fun, whether it is because "holy shit I got all the business that game" , or "Rofl, we did a squad photoshooting session".



TL; DR: Follow orders, please =.=

I'd also like to add that if you cap a flag or are defending and you are waiting for an attack, that is the best time to work out your defense strategy, throw mines, drop med/ammo in strategic places, and get your people ready.