How would You have handled it? (Scattered forces)

[Knuckles]

A thing happened yesterday, a thing that I�m not overly proud of, and I�d like to take the opportunity to ask You how You would have handled it.

We had just cleared Acan (Hossin) of attacking NC, and since we had a hack running on Voltan, I decided that my pickup squad should move in on Bitol (we already had Ixtab). I slapped some waypoints in (first on tower, second on base backdoor), told the squad the current objectives, and hopped into my AMS. I drove that AMS to the mountains south of Bitol, deployed it and moved in on the tower. A good 5 to 10 minutes I fought for that tower alone. I killed NCs, cleared mines, died, died, killed NCs, and finally worked myself into the tower, and with the aid from some other Vanu, that was trickling in, we capped it, and now I saw that we had a hack in on Bitol too.

But of course NC gets reinforcements, and You know how it is� You suddenly get that sinking feeling that You are starting to fight a loosing battle. They rehack Bitol. We hack it again. They push us out of the tower. We take it back.

On one of these occasions, when I spawn back at my AMS (absolutely steaming after having lost the tower again), I glance at the map. Roughly half my squad is nowhere near Bitol. One guy is getting a vehicle in Ixtab (that�s OK), but a good deal of the squad is up at Voltan, fighting the NC for that base!

What can I say? I snapped!

Me: What the hell are You doing up at Voltan???
Me: You have 5 minutes to get down to Bitol! If You are not here within that time I will kick You out of the squad!!!

Some complied right away and said �OMW�. Some told me that they�d tried to reach us but that there where simply too many NC there to get through. I started typing in that they could either try and get closer to Bitol on their next spawn, go around, use surge to run through the water to avoid the bridges, try to deconstruct their avatar etc etc� When one of the guys up at Bitol responds in squad chat that he doesn�t want to be in a squad with such a zealous squad leader.

I know I should have tried to keep my cool, but I didn�t. I erased the line I had started to type, and replaced it with:

Me: As You wish.

� and kicked him right out. Needless to say I got a number of tells from that guy calling me �prat� (with lots of adjectives in front). Perhaps I deserved it? I don�t know�

- What do You do, on occasions like this?
- How do You handle it?

[Arakiel]

Outfit squads only. Problem solved.

Unless you give people a reason to listen to you, they won't listen to you. A '1' by your name in the squad list isn't enough for most people.

[IDgaf]

Heh,

Try being in a 12 hour BF1942 battle with 30 numpties on your team.

"Oh for fuck's sake, what the are you playing at?! I'm going to make your life a living hell if you don't sort this out! GET A FUCKING MOVE ON! Christ Almighty!"

Or something like that. I might have called a few people monkeys as well. Can't remember. Easily the most mental I've been playing a computer. All this was over team speak, btw.

It sounds like you're a good squad leader and exercised restraint. Ultimately you're there to have fun and make them have fun, by giving them a structured environment. If they don't like it, they can piss off.

I couldn't kick people from my team, but I gladly would have done. You could and did - fair play.

[IDgaf]

...oh and I also used the immortal line 'You're soldiers, so fucking well act like it'.

Hell of a pep-talk for 12 year olds. *slaps forehead*

[Caspertoo]

My personal feelings are this:

Sometimes when I'm close to the next BR i go solo for more experience, but when I want to have fun in a group, accomplish a real objective I go with a squad.

I never join a squad if I want to go solo, so when in a squad I go where the commander wants me to go. End of story.

Totally agree with your decision to kick the bum out, sounds like you had a bunch of people who just didn't want to work together.

Hey how do you post your pic and BR and all that jaz?

[Navaron]

He obviously didn't want to be in a squad. You should've fucking tk'd him then kicked his ass out.

I've left people behind on continents when they didn't get to the galaxy cause they weren't paying attention. Replace him with someone else who'll work for the squad.

[IDgaf]

Navaron,

I don't like your politics but I like your style.

IDgaf.

[Pilgrim]

I gotta agree with some of the above...

If I wanna xp and level I go solo, even from outfit, because with all the best intentions in the world it's easier for 1 guy to stay in the SOI then for 10.

Other then that it's the commanders job to order, and to adapt. For me if I was leading (something I never do, simply have no taste for it... I lead in real life kinda fun to mindlessly follow in a game!) but if I was, and the base I wanted to take was either too hard, or too far away, then it's the commanders job to consolodate.

I've been in a situation where the SL tell's me to go somehere, and I try, and I try, and I can't get there... it happens. At this point I normally realize that my SL tactical awareness is a bit flawed, and perhaps we shouldn't be pushing so far in! In all my time playing I've had one SL say "oh... well sense 90% of the squad is there oerhaps we should go there instead"

Not saying complete anarchy, but sometimes the situation dictates the plan... it happens, nothing you can do about it. Don't be so tacticaly unflexable to not recognize it.

Of course I wasn't there, and I can say that I've seen squads scatter for no reason other then the rank stupidity of the memebers!

Of course as a squad memeber it's your responsibility to give the SL that info and not make him guess.

SO no you're not wrong... but sometimes, especially with pick-up squads, try being a bit more flexable!

And on an aside, I've had one SL pull the yell about everything trick... I waited about 5 minutes... the sent "PS is a game, Games are supposed to be fun!" Believe it or not he actually settled his 14 year old ass down and the squad worked well!

PAX

[Hellsfire123]

I wont join squads unless they are with my outfit. Once you join an organized squad, using Teamspeak or something similar, you never go back.

Not to say that that problem doesnt happen, forces scatter alot even in the most organized squads. Maybe they just cant spawn out of the way to get there. Heres how we handle it.

Say the outfit desides we are moving onto the next continent, but a few squads are still pinned inside a base. Ill start with what you could have done, and then move onto others.

Have squad members give you the least occupied entrance to the base, get into position in your ams to run through the enemy. Once all of your squad is in position, blow through the enemy as fast as posible and deploy inside the base. Your squad then matrixs to the ams and you bail to outside the base. Next death they can respawn where ever you want.

We also use sunderers and galaxies to do the same thing, but that often requires magrider/reaver support.

However if you were not leaving the continent, you might just have to decide which base is more important. Should you continue your loosing battle, would 4-5 other members really help matters? Or should you pull your squad back to the other base and try and secure that from the NC hack. I doubt an extra ams around the rest of your squad would have gone unnoticed.

[Streamline]

Well the first issue was it was a pickup squad. However, better planning on your part may have may have kept your squad together. Personally if i where in your shoes. I'd of bought my ams and deployed where most of them were and made them all bind to it. This act of strategic planning can actually persuade would be followers into ppl that believe in its commander. This to me is the number three reason squads fall apart. Right behind LD/CTD/BSoD and "i gotta sleep cya".

[The Spartan]

Me(Vera): Get a fucking move-on and get out of the Liberator!
Cke: ...
Me: Get out of the lib and into the Gal right now!
Cke: I'm gonna test out the Liberator whether you kick me or not.
Me: Gladly!
Harendiel: I hate non-teamplayres
Me: Amen

Sometimes it just has to be done

[Phorcy]

outfit only squads.