I've been playing with a lot of guys in the US Army who seem to have a lot of real-life tactical combat experience. I had do my research on the some of the formations, some these guys wanted to use in the game. But mainly, we've either been traveling in two fire teams using the wedge and then switching to a V when we know the enemy is pinned. Which has put our success rate at about 95%, with maybe one casualty during the game.

What I want to know, is if anyone else has been using a similar or different formation or strategy and how is it working?

Please try not to talk about cod4 and how you don't like AA in this one but I don't mind if you talk about formations in other games, so if someone is playing, using them in cod4 I guess that is on topic.

What you are talking about takes a disciplined group of players. I've tried to employ formation techniques with the group I used to play with in RoaS, but it's difficult to do if everyone isn't fully "signed up" to it. As you pointed out, it can be extremely effective when done properly. I found it usually falls apart when players get selfish and worry more about kill-stats than team success.

BTW, it's been awhile since I've looked over formations... what's the difference between the wedge and the V?

Edit: Nevermind.. I googled it and got a refresher.

I've added quite a few people to my friends list since playing this demo. It seems almost all of those people want to play in a similar way. Some people on my friends list hated the game at first and now everytime I turn on the system they are playing it. So that is kind of how we started getting into formations.

The wedge is basically one guy in front (sqaud leader) with team spread out 5 - 10 meters, following him. In an inverted V shape. Of course there are always flucuations, but we just try to hold it together in general terms, then alter it because of terrain, downed friendly's etc, then try to pull it back.

This one is good because you always have your teamates not too far away and who have you back and usually don't get seen to quick which let's them provide support or heal teamates etc, before the enemy can cause too much dammage.

The V is basically an "inverted wedge" it works to surround a known target. If you play on survival, and you know there is only one guy left on the field, and know he is in a general area this one will do the job.

Here's a quick link to the Wikipedia page: [URL=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_wedge][/URL]

They have other entries too like the flying V, but do a google search to get more specific/in-depth information, the wikipedia pages are pretty basic.

Great topic!
I'd love to learn more about this kind of thing. Trial and error is hard enough, especially when everyone's anxious to play the game.
I saw some of this in ROAS with some very successful competitors. Nice to see a game where something from a soldier's actual training can come into play.

Sounds good to me.. That's what the game is really about - military squad tactics. I haven't run into random people online yet that this would work with though - it's hard enough to get them to talk.

meh....

im usually lucky if i can get one other person for some bounding overwatch.

...and thats on LAN with people i know well.

pretty good stuff if anyone is interested....

click on tactics for some stuff on formation's.

may be some more scattered arround though.

I didn't mean to sound like I've been having a perfect time with it. Obviously, on many of those games there were some people not playing that way. But a couple times we had two squads three guys and ran it killer. One encounter game ended 28 - 0, I had 500ish honor and 9 kills and we didn't spawn camp.

Bounding overwatch and Fix 'n flank work great for small units. I haven't really had a chance to try anything on the squad scale though.

No need to argue guys let alone proceed in this thread well I won't anyway...the game (single player campaign) will train us to do and learn about tactical formations. I rather learn of an official U.S. Military doctrine than the OP's links or two sense.

Oh, I plan on playing the game, the way it is designed. I don't think anyone was arguing. BTW I think some that is available in the SMCT: level 2 - 4. I checked out that link and found the cover-fire info pretty informative. I printed some of that for casual reading, thanks. I use Bounding Overwatch anytime we have a sqaud/fire-team with 5 "John Rambo's" and a lack of communication. The demo level, with it's cliffs are a good fit for that one.

quote:

I use Bounding Overwatch anytime we have a sqaud/fire-team with 5 "John Rambo's" and a lack of communication.

COMMUNICATION! It finally hit me!

Back when I played RoaS with the same bunch of guys, we could usually trace our defeats to some deficiency in communications. The more we talked and reported on what was going on, the better we could coordinate our efforts, the more successful we became. We never organized as a clan, but we typically suffered 1 or 2 losses out of 20 played.

A lack of communication can really make the game terrible, well at least for the team without the communication. I got kind of frustrated tonight, too many grenadier's/marksman and too little communication. I try to tell people at least stay in pairs!I had some good games though too.

That's why I said I play Bounding Overwatch at those times on the demo. If I can't depend on the team to at least let me know if they see guys, or where the guy is when I'm about to go try to heal them, they got shot, etc. If I'm sqaud/fire team leader and have the m4 I have a better chance by running up top and at least trying to tell the other team members when/where I see enemies, taking shots, to ready run down in case of artillerystrike.. Especially if I"m getting no response from sqaud. It's better than trying to heal them on middle road, on there side of the middle bridge, when they just sprinted out there etc.

I think communication will improve once the game is out.. A lot of people play demos because they're new and free, not because they're all that interested in the game. Plus we'll have objective-based game modes where more coordination and less camping is required.

I have only been playing the demo for about a week and since then have questions my older brother, a US Army combat engineer, about tactics. OCOKA was his biggest piece of advice. However, until I can afford the full version and team up with some players who give a rip about teamwork I won't be able to use any of the stuff I've been reading about.

Reposting these posts from another thread because they are more pertinent to this topic:

quote:

Originally posted by Long4Short:

quote:

Originally posted by HMD5x56x45x:

Oh yeah one more thing. When TS is on, I've been using the friendly players displayed name as a gauge to measure when our team is too far apart, but I don't know how scientific that is. But it has seemed to work pretty good to get high points.

Great advice HMD. The same thing occured to me while playing over the weekend. I played in some rooms both with/without TS mode on and made some mental notes on the distances. It appears that the range that the players name disappears is roughly half of the distance of the leader's Circle of Influence (COI). The reason that works so great as a guage is that it allows you to take action BEFORE you've actually gotten too far from your team... like an early warning indicator, so to speak.

Another nice thing about the "visible name" distance: A squad of four traveling in a line, maintaining their distances, with the team leader in the #2 or #3 position in line, everyone should be within the leader's COI. So when the squad is traveling, you only need focus on the guy in front of you.

quote:

Originally posted by HMD5x56x45x:
I like the idea of having the team/squad leader in dynamic position. There are many times when a other role is best suited to take point, for example. Some of the most rewarding games I've played have been when all of the squad(s) have a more equal workload versus having one guy do everything and the rest of the team follow. Sounds like your strategy for team synergy on TS mode, Long4Short, is pretty good too.

The column formation, IMO, is more for traveling between contacts with the enemy. I'd say the whole team needs to regard itself as dynamic, because as you pointed out, different situations call for different roles to be positioned at the point. Everyone should be prepared to assume any position in line. And once enemy contact is made, the team should quickly arrange itself accordingly so that there isn't just one member engaging the enemy. The team difinately needs to share the load.

I try to keep a rifleman on point, but you don't see too many rifleman. If I don't have one on the squad and I'm the TL I'll take point myself. If we're getting bunched up a bit into a close-quarters situation I'll get a grenadier or SAW to take the lead. They seem to have better luck than the M4 + ACOG or M16 + ACOG. The M4 is ok if you get caught in a full-auto no-scope spray & pray situation, but the M16 is pretty useless because of its burst fire.

I haven't really found anybody who will play tactically. Would love to try some real life tactics out though.

I think planning/trying different ways to beat the campaign missions is really fun. I fail a lot but on some levels I've reworked the plan relating to each squads role many times. I guess I should say we have though, as I'm always up for other peoples ideas and usually try them too. But yeah, I hear you snapcracklepop, about not finding people who want to play that way. To me it seems like many people still can't get over the "I want the most kills!" mentality, which of course means that one person is usually always out front and that one person/squad winds up with the majority of action and the other squads do a lot of waiting/following.

On Gold Lion 05 (I think it is) (after clearing the bridge and east of the road if you enter through the closest route) if you go to the objective out in the far east you can engage a whole mess of enemies really well if you have a AR and Grenadier rush out 1st and 2nd, if the team leader goes out first he kind of gets in the way. Thats just one example of a way I've most recently tried using a dynamic column, I guess you could call it. If we had a B squad, we would mimic that technique and have them stick along the left wall to avoid congestion. I decided to change that up a little and had been hosting my own games (even though I can't put more than six in the game).

BTW, I say had, because my 360 is waiting for it's transport coffin right now. Look for me in about three weeks or so and I should be back on trying some of this stuff again.

snapkracklepop - I play tactical, add me to your FL, my GT is the same as my forum name.

On Gold Lion 05, there two spots I like to have the sniper lead. After defeating the first enemy assault and you're told to move out, if you proceed south on the eastern road, there is a little hilltop just off the left side of the road. The sniper can see all the way along the small shacks that are down below the road up near the curve by the bridge. The sniper can eliminate the enemy squad that comes out from those shacks. Then your squad can advance up near to the end of the fence along the road, and your sniper take out any enemy on the bridge. It makes the approach to the bridge a little cleaner.