Commanding

**Allane** · 08-14-09, 10:18 AM

I know we have a million of these threads, but this is a bit of a personal matter I'd like squared away.

I'm mostly the ground grunt (Squad Member) or the ground grunt leader (Squad Leader). All I need is a tick of information and I can spin up a plan of attack to relay to my squad. Often times I find this information out on my own, or the commander gives me this information and I act upon it. This bleeds into my commanding, which is very passive.

When I command I'm always running the sat track and giving suggestions over the commander mic about where Squad Leaders should go. I trust that Squad Leaders can use their own discretion and give orders to their own squad based on their situations. I rarely if ever issue an order unless the squad in question has no current order. The reason I do this is because I know the people you're commanding are actual people, not those pawns you use in an RTS game. These people have wills and personal agendas, and also know how to act on their own discretion. Most of the time the people on the ground know the details of the situation better, and the eye in the sky knows the general picture better.

So my question is, is the way I command wrong? If I'm wrong, at least I'll know to stay out of the commander spot. Leave it for someone better than me.

**Phaedro** · 08-14-09, 10:25 AM

As Wile pointed out in another thread, if you don't issue orders, then you are cheating yourself and your SLs out of points.

That said, a lighter hand in commanding is fine, if that is your style. I've seen it work very well. When others that use such an approach take the seat, they say to the SLs at the beginning of the round that they are leaving the details to the discretion of the SLs. However, I do encourage you to give orders, even if they are based on the SLs options. E.g., "Squad 2, you want to defend silo 2? OK, I'll put that order up for ya."

**Allane** · 08-14-09, 10:34 AM

Originally Posted by Phaedro

As Wile pointed out in another thread, if you don't issue orders, then you are cheating yourself and your SLs out of points.

That said, a lighter hand in commanding is fine, if that is your style. I've seen it work very well. When others that use such an approach take the seat, they say to the SLs at the beginning of the round that they are leaving the details to the discretion of the SLs. However, I do encourage you to give orders, even if they are based on the SLs options. E.g., "Squad 2, you want to defend silo 2? OK, I'll put that order up for ya."

I am still a little new to commanding (only 8 hours and 961 commander points), so I don't exactly expect myself to be perfect. Thanks for clearing up this issue. I'll be sure to be a bit more active in commanding.

**Glitch** · 08-14-09, 01:16 PM

Allane I think you were my SL in Tunis the other night. I wanted to take a sec and say thank you for verbalizing your orders. I HATE my SL changing orders and not saying anything. I look up and my squad is strung all over 1/2 of us doing the old order 1/2 doing the new one.

I think ether way works for a commander. If you want points you can always issue an order to a SL that is the one they already have. They just hit accept and nothing changes except you both start getting more points.

**trailhunter** · 08-14-09, 02:38 PM

It depends on the situation. If I have 6 stinking squads to deal with, it becomes a real pain in the ass to constantly update orders. Then the opposite is just 2 squads 5 silos. Not enough, so they need to make a 3rd if possible.

It is much easier to know what is happening when you have squad leaders that are talking with you. I generally start off a round saying something like "sqaud leaders, let me know what is going on out there". Trying to get them talking to me.

If the server has low population, then I will tell a squad lead to make his own orders unless I think he would be better going somewhere else.

I feel as a commander, overlooking the whole battlefield, it is more my job to keep the sqaud informed of what is happening around them, and giving them as much aid as I can. There are times though that you know more than they do and you need to give those orders. You can't always be passive, you need to take control, after all you are the commander.

You don't want your team bunching up all on one side of a map, or all sitting on one flag/silo. Get them moving and talk to your squad leaders. Squad leaders are like middle management, they are there to get the job done while the boss is giving them the tools and direction to do it, because you see the big picture.

Don't give up, the more you command, the better you will become. You will see how things need to flow over time.

**Firedog911** · 08-14-09, 04:02 PM

I almost always set the orders for a couple reasons:

1. To truly lead you need to issue orders and re-evaluate based on feedback. If the guys on the ground are seeing something different they should relay it.
2. SL's are busy trying to stay alive, kill, put down a good beacon,etc. hitting page up is much easier than going to the map to issue an order or trying to get your cross hairs on a silo or flag.

The only exception for me not to set the order is either low population where squads are moving around a lot or when it comes to assaulting or defending the titan, which is a crap shoot if you got the order on the ground or on the titan where it should be for the points.

**Tenrou** · 08-14-09, 05:07 PM

I've notice commanding is a one sided conversation most times. I'll explain the game plan at the beginning of round, and tell my SQ we will make changes based on how round goes. I constantly have to hound my squad leaders to give me feedback. Or worse yet I look on map and notice there struggling, and were losing tickets, and they said nothing to me the whole time. Squad leaders need step up more not commanders, in the military the Sargent's run the show the officers give the Sargent's direction.

This the same thing here I can't always be focused on you, but god damn if you need me let me know! Tell me hey this thing is tight, but I noticed squad 2 is making head way over at X location, maybe we should go about it X way. Most the time it's the commander just spitting out ideas, and vomiting it on the squad leaders, and the squad leaders just act like drones. There has to be that back and forth conversation to make a great round. Another huge problem is squad leaders will see it's heavy, and they will bayonet charge in there, hey guess what there other squad there back you up. You may not be able talk to them directly, but you can damn well use your commander to relay info back and forth through. Get the mission done, and use all resources available to get it done.

**Kajer888** · 08-14-09, 05:43 PM

I like Allane's command style, although there are some squad leaders that prefer the commander to be giving orders.

**mattscooby** · 08-15-09, 01:16 AM

Squad Member

14 11:07
Squad Leader

14 13:56
Commander

07 19:25
simple way to put this .
step up , it dont matter if you got 2 seconds commander time in or two days , or two years .
hell i have had the most shitty games comanding , and some times through my own fault , not the teams , it happens .
its a learning experience .
some you win , some you loose some times you are 200 tickets down and are screwed over .
it happens to us all , and i seen it happen to all .
relax , its a game , and if you get beat that bad , at least you got beat on ttp, where you no the best comanders dwell .
pick your self up , brush it off , command again .
i still remeber my 1st time doing it , i shit my pants thinking what are they going to think i am doing .
not realising every one was to busy thinking , wtf is he saying never mind what am i doing.
its all great games , and there is no where else like here to learn and do it .
win or loose , 1st time or not take a step up rack up them hours .
and if i am comanding and you want too , create a squad and ask me on mic to step down , ill do it .
i dont mind .
just dont do it when i got a 200 ticket lead going .
start from the begining , not the end

catch you all soon .
screwed up work schedule here .

**WaterDumple** · 08-15-09, 02:22 AM

Sheesh, in my opinion the fact that you get extra points for having orders assigned/following them should be enough cause to set them. Of course, some folks will want more, and the reason is that it's easy to see right where you need to go. If the SL just says it verbally, you might not hear it if things are going on, and it's less clear where you need to go. The straight line to your objective on the map is handy, too, since I probably spend 80%-90% of my time staring at that.