Squad Leader 101

My Background - Garen

The largest community I ever organized was 5,000 man clan in Planetside 2. Devildogs 666th.

We would field 6 Platoons of infantry - 48 per platoon, 288 total.
3 Platoons of armor - 144 total.
2 Platoons of Air - 96 total.
Some games we would fill over 500 players on a server.

We didn't just do this on a weekend Ops.
We ran this organization 24/7, any time or day of the week.

Here's what I've learned.

What leadrship in Gaming is

Squad leader is a whole lot more than just telling people what to do and them doing it.

In real life, if your boss tells you do do something, you have to do it or you get fired.
In the military, you have to do as your told by a superior or you can be court-martialed.

In a video game, NO ONE has to do a damn thing you say unless they LIKE YOU and TRUST YOU.

This is the KEY to leading in games.

Be good at leading and make sure your members like you.

Your #1 Job

MAKE SURE YOUR MEMBERS ARE HAVING FUN.

If your members are constantly getting wiped, losing money and not having a fun time.
Expect in a week or two that no one is going to play with you.

That's the game you play when LEADING.

Your job is to keep them alive.
To keep the group cohesive and together.
Your job, is to SERVE YOUR TEAM MEMBERS.

To make sure all potential situations are covered like;

1. Do i have medics?

2. Is someone going to handle the Tank that will wipe us?

3. How much AA does the squad need?

4. What happens when we run out of frags, ammo and smoke? (A wipe)

Leadership is a lot more about creating a great experience for your members and SERVING THEM.
It's NOT, you barking orders and expecting them to just do them.

That's the fastest way to have no one follow you and you'll probably not find yourself leading anytime soon.

How to be a terrible squad lead

Get your members wiped

Wipes happen, it's inevitable.

But there's a big different between you meticulously selecting a building and heavily fortifying it for your squad and you guys end up having a 20 minute firefight until your all down to your last mag and bandage and then you get wiped.

Verses,

You parachuting your squad into the AO hot and upon crossing your first road you get mowed down by an enemy squad because you did take 1 minute to assess your surroundings.

The first is a hell of a lot of fun, the second will piss anyone off quickly.

In most games, hot dropping with a well coordinated squad can be a lot of fun.
But it comes with serious risk for you the Squad Leader if it falls apart.

After 15 years of squad leading in games,
I NEVER hot drop my squads unless they specifically request it.
It's just not worth the damage to your relationship with your members.

Leave your squad behind

There are different run speeds in Wardogs depending on your load out.

If you want to move fast, YOU, the squad leader need to establish that before HQ lift off.
YOU DO NOT LEAVE MEMBERS BEHIND BECAUSE THEY HAVE HEAVY GEAR but you want to move fast.
That fuck up is on you my man, your #1 job is to keep your team alive.

You move as fast as your slowest member. Period.

If you leave a member behind because he can't keep up,
it just tells every member of your squad you could care less about them and their experience in the squad.

I've seen entire squads disconnect within a night because the SL showed that they cared more about their own gameplay than their squads.

Not respect your team members time

This is important in every game but it doubles in Wardogs.

In order to unlock gear it takes a lot of time.
In order to field good gear you need like 20-30k PER KIT, that takes time to make.
In order to play in a coordinated style like combined arms, it takes training, which takes time.

Then if you show you could care less about the money and time they invested in showing up well prepared for the squad by leaving them to die, splitting the squad up or not leading them because you just decided not to care anymore.

You will piss off your squad members very quickly.

YOu being pointman or run-n-gun lone wolf

this is similar to leaving your squad members behind but it's more of how you play.

Your job is to KEEP YOUR SQUAD ALIVE.
Not get as many kills as possible.

It's very hard to have high level situational awareness and constantly be staring black screen requesting a medic revive or constantly in ADS taking engagements.

Often times being an excellent FPS shooter AND being squad lead are very heavily conflicting skill sets.

You should NOT be first man on CQB clear.
You should NOT be the one corner peaking the sniper.
You should NOT be first man into a breach.

You have a job to do as Squad Lead and that is to lead.
You can't do that while dead or ADS'ing ever fight.

The point man is often the least experienced member if done correctly.
it shouldn't be the Squad Leader.
In fact, usually the most experienced member is usually last man.
Last man has the most important job beyond Squad Lead.
That's to keep the rear flank covered so the squad doesn't get wiped by a sneaky flank.
You should also NOT be last man.

You should be hanging around the middle of your squad.
You should be covering the sectors your members aren't.
You should be watching the map to see enemy vehicles coming in the AO.
You should be listening to platoon chat for callouts or requests.
You should be maintaining a high level of situational awareness of what is around your squad.

How to Be A Great Squad Leader

PREPARE

Before lifting off the HQ, you need to designate what the primary objective is.

Is it game start and you're going to destroy enemy logi or stop a FOB build?
Are you chasing hotzone to get points?
Are you going to setup AA to Deny enemy Air?

What is the objective?

Because the objective will dictate some very important aspects of the squads life span AND loadout.

Loadouts

If your DIVING HOTZONE you probably don't need to carry a fully kitted out squad and lose a bunch of money.

Enemies will drop meds and ammo.
Your life span and life expectancy is going to be lower than other tactics.

You will need to prepare for;

1. Rocket littlebirds

2. littlebirds with grenade launchers (fortifying buildings help)

3. Havoc attack chopper

4. Enemy Armor

5. Squad movement speed, super heavy loadouts might not be great for hotzone

6. Are you going mechanized with humvee or foot/buildings?

7. Do you have an SMG/Shotgun guy for point CQB?

8. Does your squad know good CQB?

If however you are ATTACKING ENEMY FOB then your loadout and situation will change.

Are you attacking from inner circle side or the enemies logi line side?
If logi side, how are you dealing with enemy vehicle when they show up on your flank or rear?
How many doors, hescos and bremmer walls are expected? How much boom do you need?

Do you have combined armor support units?

FRIENDLY FIRE SUPPORT
Can friendly SPG or mortars support you?
Can they blow a hole for you or soften the target for you?
How are you dealing with the attack helis who try to stop you?
Do you have squad AA or friendly AA support?

Even in public games, it might be worth it to drive by the friendly FOB and say, "Hey guys, want to drop mortars on this enemy FOB? We'll even spot targets for you to mortar."

That can have a surprising impact on your success rate.

These are all questions you need to run through for a minute or two before lifting off of HQ.
You need to establish who's doing what role, especially AA, AT and boom.

My 15 years of being a team member and leader

I've seen pretty much every personality across multiple games over 15 years.

From the wannabe drill Sergent barking orders like he's a real 5 star general (I hate these types).
To the Pro FPS shooter who can drop anyone on the other team but also tilts and rages the second they doesn't get their way.
To the funny as fuck SL who can make you burst out laughing on a full squad wipe.
To the quiet, nervous newbie SL who doesn't know what they are doing but is extremely open to feedback and improving.

To a whole lot more types of leaders.

The best ones all have a few things in common.

THEY HAVE ZERO EGO.

They take the ROLE SERIOUSLY but they don't take the GAME seriously.
When they fuck up, they see it instantly and apologize to their team for the fuck up.
This shows that you aren't incompetent to your team and that you care about their experience.

Spotting and owning your fuck ups is mandatory for anyone I put in leadership roles.
If I see someone who can't take feedback or improve, they will be quickly removed from any type of leadership.
There's nothing worse than a leader with an EGO who refuses to see their mistakes or worse,
Blames it on the squad.

They don't just take feedback well, they actively look and ASK for what they did wrong. They don't just ask leadership above for feedback, they ask their team members they were responsible for.
The best way to be a bad SL is to have an ego, get defensive and make excuses for your performance.
I quickly remove people like this from leadership role.
They are not capable of improving because their ego blocks them from acknowledging their faults.
GREAT SQUAD LEADS come to their leads or team members and genuinely ask, "see anything i did wrong?"

I personally love a newbie SL who comes to me and says,
"Can you tag along in my squad and just help me improve?"
"Uh, fuck yes I will."

These types of players usually accelerate fast in leadership.
They take the role seriously and show they want to learn and improve.
And the great leaders are more than willing to help them and share their knowledge.
The great leaders of groups will NOT help the EGO driven leader.