A Battlefield 2 Commander’s Guide: a must read for all Commanders

**finc.hairy** · 11-06-09, 11:52 AM

For your consideration.....

I put this together in 2006 and revised it in 2007 in light of the additional patches since then. My goal in sharing this with as many BF Communities as possible is to help people become better commanders in game and to spread the word on what is crucial when it comes to being the BF2 Commander in Chief.

This is designed for seasoned commanders to brush up on their style and skills as well as those who have a desire to be the best commander out there. Seriously.

This is not a "basic intro" to the role. For a basic intro - see Commanding by capnemo314.

A Battlefield 2 Commander’s Guide: a must read for all Commanders
By: finc.hairy
Revised 07/07/2007
Re-edited for TTP 11/06/2009

The Commander role is one of the most crucial jobs in Battlefield 2. Having a good commander can often be the result of a well played game, with good tactics and excellent teamwork. Having seasoned squad-leaders are just as crucial and good communication between commanders, squad-leaders and squad members is paramount to a kickass game.

In this tutorial, I will explain the differences between a good commander and a bad commander regarding technique, style and what I call the Rambo commander vs. the Hermit commander. Although both are equally important, they each have their pros and cons which can make or break the ultimate BF2 experience. I will also explain the importance of Blind Spotting and how to maintain your prowess despite the loss of your assets.

The Basics:
Communication is essential. If you play commander, get a microphone. Configure your audio and get it working. If you can speak to your team, than your awesomeness will seriously climb 1000%. In fact it’s a good idea to bring a mic to the battlefield regardless of what role you take on. Vocal communication is paramount.

So what exactly makes a good commander?
A good commander is someone who can provide excellent Intel on enemy troop movement and maintain a sense of the battlefield when not looking at the command screen. Being able to anticipate where the enemy will attack and keeping your team prepared for that attack is crucial. Keeping your team well supplied and healthy is more important than keeping your assets operational and often the wrong supply drop at the wrong time can cost you the game.

Keeping your team upraised of the available vehicles either friendly or enemy is also a bonus. You’re the commander. Your job is to keep your team in the know and completely supported every step of the way. Remember, it’s not about you. It’s about your team and making them look good. Your points come at the end. If your team rocks, you rock. Just keep that in mind as you go about your spotting.

A bad commander…
Is someone who doesn't spot the enemy, drops artillery on the team and crushes people with supply crates. Sitting idle in very useful vehicles like Tanks and APCs makes you a target to your own teammates. Ordering the top squad which happens to be carrying your team to come and fix your arty from the other end of the map when you're next to it will create frustration and anger amongst your team, and that my friends is not a recipe for success. On well administrated servers and servers where hardcore play is encouraged, bad commanders get the boot.

So how do you be a good commander?
Commanding like any role is an art and requires tons of practice. You can't expect to take on the role of commander and expect to have an easy win because a noob commander usually ends up being a dead commander.

The following are some techniques I use when commanding the battlefield and so should you. You'll find that as you get better people won't mutiny you as much and you'll be applauded rather than hated. I'll get into why the commander role is often hated later in the show.

On with the show…
Since the most important thing is to keep your troops well supplied and appraised of enemy troop displacement, you'll want to make sure your assets are always working so play Engineer when you command and be prepared to repair your own assets when needed. Supply crates are for your troops and vehicles, not your assets. Obviously, circumstances spring up which require this rule to be bent but for the most part, please, please, please fix your own assets.

Once you've been accepted to be commander, you'll want to drop a UAV on the spot where the traffic is heaviest and drop your arty on that point. Next you'll want to drop a supply crate where your armor and troops will be headed. For enemies that don't get spotted by the UAV, you'll want to spot them manually, by going to your menu and clicking spotted. Once the UAV is up and you know your troops are supplied, it's time to protect your base. You have very little time to dither around until the UAV and supplies have to be dropped again. Feel free to voice your news to squad leaders. Hearing the commander speak offers a little assurance. And that is a good thing!

As an Engineer, you can place mines in strategic places around your main base. Experience and common sense will help you determine where those places are and once you've placed your mines, you're ready to once again keep your team supplied and apprised of enemy troop movement. While you wait for your enemy to attack your main base, have a seat in the mounted gun or TOW missile, not only will you be prepared should someone visit, but you'll also be putting time in towards your Ground Defense badge!

What about Artillery?
Artillery is a unique creature. Sometimes it misses and you suck, and sometimes it succeeds and you're the King of The Boomboolas (MEC). Placing the arty is crucial and isn't up to you. It's up to your teammates. It's up to the guys who're in the battle, in the field, in combat, deep in the shit to call the arty and you better be damn sure they get it when they call it. If it's down, fix it, and alert your team that you’re on top of it and continue to drop UAVs and spot enemies. The first Arty drop is simply a teaser to your team. With it, you're showing them the potential of an arty strike and by letting them know that further strikes will commence at their request, makes for a kickass bond. You should only drop it on your own if you know there is no one who can use it: IE: Squad leaders are dead, or you see an enemy at a neutral flag and your teammates are spread out around the map. On well packed servers like Texas...Teamplayers... you won't have to worry about not having someone asking for Artillery support over here sir!

If you find yourself not having a Squad Leader calling for it than use it at your discretion. Remember - a well placed artillery attack can create a wall between your squads and the enemies giving your team those precious seconds required to take a flag to use as a spawn point to counter-attack the incoming squad / armor. Racking up kills is a bonus, tanks will always back off from an arty site as 2 well placed shots will take them down.

Here's a real life example of a real situation where the SL has requested Artillery from his CO and the CO has given him exactly what he needed when he asked for it: Starting at 03:20 min.
Note this clip is @ 1080p and if you're on DSL - go make a 4 course meal while it loads.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sMNhleBf0Y

What's this about Blind Spotting?
Blind spotting is probably the most important intel you can give your team. Too much of it can get you kicked and banned. Spotting too much and too often can get annoying and it is often called "Commander Spamming" and doing it can get you kicked from a server. Blind spotting should be used in cases where enemy positions aren't covered by the UAV or when a squad leader requests it. Ideally, a squad leader should never have to request it because you're commanding skills are amazing right?

The process of blind spotting is the same as normal spotting except when you spot normally you see the red dots. This way you have nothing to see, so you have to spot blindly. Essentially, you're spotting troop movement the same way you would after conducting a scan. The scan tells you where they are so you can relay that to your team. Without your scanner, you won't know where they are, but you can still spot their movements. When you successfully spot the red dot, if the target is alive, the spotted blurb will say what it is, for example: enemy infantry spotted or enemy helicopter spotted. If there is nothing there than a blind spotted action will show a red question mark and the spotted blurb will be: Enemy forces spotted.

Just because your UAV and Scanner are destroyed doesn't mean you can't spot enemy troop movement.
To avoid getting booted from the server or asked to shut up, spot once per squad at their location and if they're spread out, than spot accordingly. There’s no guarantee that you won’t get booted, since a lot of players can’t handle the .wav of commander spam. Fortunately the skilled players know it is excellent intel and deep down inside they appreciate it. Make sure you spot fast moving red dots first as they are vehicles such as flanking jeeps and annoying helicopters. As a general rule, when my assets are destroyed, I find it useful to blind spot the squad leader's positions as well as the flag points themselves. Again, keeping your troops prepared is paramount.

So how do the commander points work?
Briefly, you get points for making your team look good. You get points when your team uses your supply crates and when they cap flags. At the end of the madness, your score gets doubled if you win and that’s when your awesomeness shines.

So commander hairy, can you share any sneaky tricks?
There are some fun things you can do to slow your enemy down and to gain some points and spread the frustration. For example, on maps that have jets, if you can spawn in, in-time, you can drop a supply crate on the runway to have their jet crash into it on takeoff. That gives your jet the upper hand so they can go and steal the SU!

EA patched the game so you can no longer drop cartillery on the runway. However, there are some maps where the runway meets a bit of grass before the hangar. Daquin Oilfields is one of them. If you move your mouse between the hangar and the runway with the vehicle drop locator selected, it will allow you to drop it, which will essentially allow you to cartillery jets on takeoff. Look for this on other maps.

A nice artillery baiting technique is to drop a supply crate after you've given the order to drop artillery on a target. Unsuspecting noobs will flock to the crate with goodies only to be nuked 2 seconds later. The reverse is also affective.

The air defense, ground defense and class badges where kills are the awarding factor can be earned while playing commander through the artillery. Though the round doesn’t count your arty kills, the ranked server stats do. So if you’re going for your expert Engineer badge and your expert ground defense badge, you can get it by sitting in a TOW on Karkand and placing the artillery in opportune locations. Same goes for air defense on maps like Wake Island, Gulf of Oman or Dalian Plant.

As you practice and gain experience, you'll devise some of your own sneaky techniques!

Why the inevitable Mutiny?
People mutiny for all kinds of reasons. In fact one of the most common ones is the mutiny glitch. The mutiny glitch is similar to the vote kick glitch. The server will state that a mutiny has been made even when it hasn’t happened. Same with vote kicks. Sometimes, when a person has just become commander and someone else wants the chair, he’ll click mutiny thinking it’s apply not realizing someone’s already got the chair. This happens a lot. A lot of mutinies are due to glitches and errors on the parts of players. That’s something to keep in mind.

The player insisted mutinies however happen for other, stupid reasons. Sometimes players hate 90% of the commanders out there. When commanders play as bad commanders, they piss off a lot of people. Many people who mutiny do it because they think they can do a better job themselves, even if they haven't seen you in action and you just got in the hot-seat. They don't care if you're high ranked either as many high ranked players suck ass as commander. I've actually explained to too many high ranking officers on how to blind spot. HOLY CRAPFUCK BATMAN?!! I can't spot, my scanners are out - they cry. When your commander cries, don't you think that's a sign to disconnect?

Rambo vs. Hermit: An important comparison
Fundamentally there are two ways to play commander. You can be Rambo and fight with your team at the front-line as medic reviving your team and dropping UAVs every now and then. You can play support and keep their ammo full as well as aid in lobbing grenades over the wall and racking up kills.

Or you can be a Hermit. When you get accepted into the hot seat, you can go and sit in a TOW launcher or at a mounted gun, or under a rock or maybe in a corner somewhere safe where the enemy artillery hopefully can’t touch you.

Both have their pros and cons. Some servers won’t allow the Rambo commander. They’ll ban you if they see you in a tank or capping a flag regardless of the circumstances. I tend to stay away from servers that do that.

Rambo Commander:

Pros: You’re in the fire fight. You know what’s around you. You can help your team revive, repair and resupply when necessary. If a flag goes neutral, you can cap and you know what’s around you. If not, you can spot your location and see what’s there, who’s visiting; The last few seconds of a game can be saved by a Rambo commander who’s made it his sole purpose to keep the defending tank repaired even it if means losing flags. I’ve been there, done that.

Cons: Keeping your team supplied and aware of enemy displacement is crucial. You can’t do that if you’re dead or if you’re busy running around and killing people; the longer you are away from your command screen, the less you know and the less you know, the less your team knows.

Hermit Commander:

Pros: You’re hiding under the gas station on Karkand where the arty won’t touch you; you’re at your peak performance in providing your team with their much needed Intel; all your attention is focused on doing your job. Good Job Commander Hermit.

Cons: You’re a prime target for visiting infantry. Knifing the enemy commander is a huge turn-on. If you don’t fix your assets, who will? Say your main base gets visitors, you’re a hermit, so you let the enemy take your tank and APC as they blow up your toys. Lucky for them you’re in your corner. Your team is dead. You’re the only one left. The rock you’re under isn’t getting any younger.

Finding Balance:
Ultimately the seasoned commander will be both a Rambo and a Hermit. He will know when to switch between roles and he will be a credit to his team. Do what’s necessary to maintain the advantage. Don’t let the enemy take your tank. Keep your assets alive. Keep your team supported. Keep them in the know.

You must find balance, grasshopper!

Some questions to ask yourself as you command….

Have I done all I can for my team at this time?
Does my armor need a supply crate?
Is my base protected, have I mined the right entrances?
Is my team informed of enemy troop displacement?
Can the squad leaders hear me, does my mic work?

Final thoughts:
Since I originally wrote this in early 2006, I’ve found that players have come a long way. There are a ton of noobs who play this game. There are tons of skilled players. There are more players now that have mics than there was when I started to play. There are a lot of players that are willing to help a novice commander get better if he asks for it. We were all noobs once. If you request feedback, you will get it.

That's basically it. If you can do all that, and manage not to get banned, than you sir are an excellent commander!

If you found this tutorial informative and interesting please do comment.