I have recently been playing a lot of Squad. I really enjoy the Squad Leader role of the game. The role can really carry the map – a good SLs can lead a team to victory. I also like that Squad is very voice comms heavy. I find that I stutter a lot and forget words when trying to talk to other people in “quick” situations and the game gives me a chance to get better at speaking and making decisions. Or even having to change plans as the battlefield changes!
There are four objectives I try to reach when playing as SL (listed in order of importance):
- Reduce Walking – only the Squad Lead can place Rally Points and HABs, so make sure you are close to the battle. Don’t get too close (so hard to gauge this!), don’t be too far away. Make it so your guys can get in there and do what they need to do. You need to enable them.
- Give Direction – “We’re going to defend this point for a while.” “Let’s move on this flag together.” “Let’s search for their HAB over here.”
- Be Aware of the Big Picture – I try to watch how the map overall is going and let others know. “They just blew past us, we need to fall back to the last point.” “The next point is captured and safe, so let’s leave this point and move up.” “The enemy keeps coming from this direction so let’s push out and take out their HAB or Rally.”
- Encouragement – “Hey that was a great shot.” “Thanks for building.” “Thanks for the supplies!” Actively marking the map when teammates report enemy. “Hey you did a good job dying over there, that distraction bought us enough time to sneak around here.”
These are some things I try not to do:
- Tell people what role to play or demand someone pick medic.
- Tell people to do a logi run. (I hate logi runs, so why should I make you?)
- Take another squad’s supplies or logi without asking. This includes using their supplies to build a Hesco wall/repair station.
- Put up so many defenses around the base that people can’t get out.
Here are some recordings I made so I could re-watch and see what I was doing wrong. I’ve noticed sometimes I miss important comms or I get too hyper.
- Squad SL Study #1 – Yehorvika RAAS – We really push hard with making FOBs and getting on the enemy’s flags.
- Squad SL Study #2 – Skorpo TC – Holding off the enemy as they keep pushing on our first FOB. Long game!
- Squad SL Study #3 – Chora AAS – Try three times to get a logi up to a point, but once we’re there we hold it and win.
- Squad SL Study #4 – Fool’s Road AAS – Kind of generic game. Grab mid point, push to find enemy FOBs.
- Squad SL Study #5 – Al Basrah RAAS – Very chaotic
P.S. The best way to avoid being shot that I know of is to: be where the enemy doesn’t expect you to be! E.g. flank!
P.P.S. I like to place people into fireteams at the start because then I can see at the end of the map how many people stayed through the entire thing. It also means if a FTL leaves, then another person becomes FTL without me having to think about it. I like to place people who are looking out for the enemy as FTL. Usually engineers, snipers, and LAT.
About Recording
I’m using a great, free program called OBS Studio. I’ve been messing with the settings and this is what I’m using for now:
Video Bitrate: 15000 Kbps (Based on YouTube Recommended Settings) Recording Quality: Indistinguishable Quality, Large File Size Recording Format: mp4 Base Resolution: 1920x1080 Output Resolution: 1280x720 Downscale Filter: Lanczos (Sharpened scaling, 32 samples) FPS: 60
Sound was really difficult to get just right.
Enable Push-to-talk (Hotkeys: V, B, G) Desktop Audio: -8.3 dB Mic/Aux: 12.1 dB Squad Effects Volume: 58% Music Volume: 58%