Through my training, I have been taught that any strategy can be a good one, as long as every one is on the same page. If the fire team leader calls a "Column" formation, all it takes is one to mess it up. I'm going to post some tactics I've learned, but I have to alter them here because we don't have more than 30 per war. This is just a proposal, it doesn't have to be followed, but I would like to hear responses and other suggestions as well.
Let's begin by setting up 3 sniper teams. These teams will be placed at the sole discretion of the platoon sergeant(leader), depending on the strategy employed. A sniper team will be made up of a sniper with guille suit and a rifleman with a silenced rifle. The rifleman will not be too close to the sniper. He should be a good distance where he can watch the sniper and anyone trying to sneak up on him. The rifleman needs to be hidden. He should carry some grenades, and if he wants, some claymores. The sniper will carry red smokes, and if they are ever used, it signifies to the rest of us that he is pulling out, especially when he can't get a word in on the mic. If the sniper is spotted, it is not important, because the enemy will think he is the only one there. The rifleman should not be seen for as long as possible.
Now we only have 10 available for the rest of the plan. The strategy consists of two formation typse: Offense and Defense. In both types, the sniper teams don't change, their locations however will change at the discretion of the platoon sergeant. Offense or Defense will be called at the end of the round, so be ready to change weapons and spawn points depending on what is called.
Offense: For offense, we will have 3 fireteams of 3 players: Point man, fireteam leader, and gunner. Point man will carry any kind of rifle, preferably light weapons like the M4 or m16. He should also carry grenades only, M67 or HE, doesn't really matter. The Gunner will carry the heavy machine guns. He can add whatever he wants to it. Should carry 2 m67's and 3 smokes. The fireteam leader is the one authorized to carry AT4's or RPG's if there is a tank situation. If it is allowed by the platoon sergeant, he is also the only one to carry grenade launchers. Every fireteam has different formations, and I'll go into that more later on. However, the basic reason behind these fireteams is leadership, firepower and direction. The point man will lead the fireteam in the direction they need to go. Fireteam leader sets up the plan to the fireteam and the gunner can provide the best cover fire of the team. We have one left, who should be the platoon sergeant. He will go to the best place where he can give orders and make an impact. If he wants to stay at base and be the last resort in case everything goes wrong, then so be it. He could also take someones place in the fireteams, or he could go along with a fireteam.
Defense calls for spreading the attackers thinly. To do this, we need stealth weapons, mines and claymores, and only 2 per fireteam. so this makes 5 fireteams altogetherp plus 3 sniper teams. Every fireteam should be set up about 100m from each other, guarding a perimeter by laying prone and setting up an ambush. The less movements made, the more likely the enemy won't see you. Every fireteam will have a number (obviously 1-5). If your fireteam is under attack, you will declare "team 1 being attacked" or something to that effect. Because the teams next to yours will know and be prepared for whats coming. So far we have used every member very efficiently. There is one thing that can be changed if it is needed. Out of the 2 in the fireteam, one can carry a heavy machine gun if wanted. If in prone, they are accurate and can kill very easily, as long as lag doesn't affect it.
Thank You, but thats just the beginning. The next thing to do is organize a platoon.
In the marine corps, everything is usually made up of threes. 3 fireteams make a platoon, 3 platoons make a company, 3 companies make a batallion and so on. We have enough to make a tiny platoon.
Since the default formation type is Offense, Each squad will be made of one fireteam and one sniper team. All together thats five. If we have 3 squads, that's 15 right there. the Last one is the platoon sergeant. He gives the orders as to what the strategy and where everyone should be. The squad leaders for each squad will be the fireteam leaders. The snipers shouldn't be, and this is the reason:
Once we move to defense, 2 squad leaders and the platoon sergeant and the last squad leader will form 2 defensive fireteams. Later on I will discuss platoon and fireteam formations.
1.Always have cover. Whether it be a rock, a wall, a tree, the incline of a hill etc.
2.Always provide cover fire. This is important in offense. More on that later.
3.Never cross a teammates line of fire. Try to make sure that you don't get infront of your teammate. It will cause team kills.
4.Throw grenades only after calling it out. Self explanatory.
5.If camping, setting an ambush or hiding, make little to no movements. As a person is looking at the screen, they'll pay attention to important things, like movement. There are so many things that they'll ignore a lot of things if it is not moving.
6.If assigned to a location to hold it up, never leave unless told to, or if you have to save the day. If you move and everone else is still there, they are not covered and could be killed from the area you were supposed to cover.
7.Never clear a room by yourself.
8.After a minefield is set up, NO ONE goes through there again. Self explanatory. More on this tactic later.
9.Always stay at a minimum of 15m from each other. Grenade will kill you if you're closer than that.
So far we've established: Sniper teams 2 formation types (Offense/Defense) Organized a platoon The does and don'ts.
There are differnet types of fireteam formations that fit into all movements. Different combinations of formations will work together to make a bigger formation. The ones we need to cover first are the following three: 1. Echelon (left/right). Prevents enemy from flanking 2. Column. Default formation 3. Wedge. Concentrates on enemy in front. this is what they look like. P for pointman, L for leader, G for gunner
Left --------------------------Right 1. P-------------------------------------P ------------L-----------------L----------- ------G----------------------------G-----
Now lets go over movement in Offense. The 3 movements are: 1. Rush 2. Advance 3. Hold
1. A rush should look very disorganized, but there is a strategy to it. Pointman will lead, fireteam leader second, and gunner 3rd. The formation will stay intact, but the fireteam will be running towards a location as fast as possible, usually ending in a breach (entering and clearing). Should be done only when sure of an enemy location and hopefully a decoy (grenades or gunfire from a different direction than rushing fireteam). If smokes are available, deploy them as necessary (no red smokes). More on breaching later.
2. An Advance is just a term for moving as a team, in formation, taking advantage of cover (any solid object), to reach an objective area. The main reason to have an advance is to gain ground. We never want to lose ground. Smokes are not needed here. Advancing should be done quickly, but not as fast and carelessly as a rush. The pointman and team leader will provide cover fire if needed while the gunner moves infront of them. He will take a position, then provide cover fire while the other two advance to his position. This will go on until objective is reached. Once there, Hold formation is employed.
3. Hold is covering an area so that every entrance and exit is monitored and covered. No one should pass through. However, you want to be hidden as much as possible. Call the enemy out as soon as you see him. If you die, your team will know someone just breached their perimeter. Different tactics can be used to hold a position such as placing claymores just a little in front of the entrance/exit and one right inside the exit. Make sure the one outside is visible. If it is blown up, then you know someone is coming.
When a platoon gets good at this, they can get together to form huge formations that work together with out disrupting the integrity of each fireteam. For exampl, Echelon Left, Wedge, Echelon Right would cover everything but the rear. If all goes well, the rear doesn't need to be covered.
Formations should be scratched. I completely forgot about the bullet effects in the game and the way firefights can last forever. and sometimes, the bullets tend to never hit a target, plus the lag. Scratch formations.
Thank you. I've been activated to Louisiana, and I didn't have room to bring my playstation out here. Sometime in May, I'll be going back home and brining my ps2 here.
Another thing that I think should be done is an establishment of a "Grenade Zone". 2 fireteams will start throwing grenades in intervals of 5 seconds between each throw. This will give the third fireteam time to move around the zone and get in a Hold position. Once they are in position, one of the first two fireteams joins the third fireteam and they establish a new grenade zone, so that the first fireteam can move through the old grenade zone. In theory it sounds good, but I'm not really sure how this would work. It might be better in a game where we can use GL's
