This guide is based off my experiences and what I found effective, which will cover a few BASIC different aspects, mainly using flanks,macros, your skillset and issue-orders, old guides covering squad cohesion and Kesserlines guides, attrition and my first SL guide. CAS and OB�s will not be covered upon in this section.
Rigga�s Squad Leader Guide: Part Two
Be charismatic with your squad, make them aware you aren�t there to just bark orders at them - Xur
Now, as squad leader you should realize it is NOT your job to not actively fight at all times, your job however is to lead your men, coordinate them, report to command and give updates use the issue-order verb and in my personal opinion, spam it when needed.
Secondly, if you start to main and play squad leader a lot, you will most likely encounter a major problem that I faced recently, which is wanting to act as a squad marine (Private First Class) role. Remember, your role is to be a squad leader, coordinate and such. If you do want to actively focus in more combat, pick and play squad marine more then play squad leader when you fulfill your need to act as a standard. Command roles, and to a lesser extent SLs get blamed for bad rounds occasionally, you should expect marines to call you out for your fuck ups and to prevent this you need to have good energy while playing SL, don�t expect to play SL greatly if you�re tired or bored or you may burn out faster than you expect.
Issue Orders and Skill-set as SL
Here�s your skillset as SL.
Engineer:2 (ability to fix and build certain things)
Construction:2 (Construction speed/cade strength)
Leadership: 2 (Issue-order and its effectiveness/length)
Medical: 1 (Ability to use medical equipment)
As you can see, your skill set is not the best compared to specialized roles, but it IS a jack of all trades, meaning you can build similar to an engineer, but cannot fix t-comms, APCs, girders.
A medical skill of one means you cannot defib people, cannot use advance trauma/burn kits instantly, but can use injectors, hyposprays and open pillbottles of any kind except the CL�s.
Here�s a description of each Issue-Order.
Why macros are useful:
Macros are essentially shortcuts to verbs in the IC tab and other tabs which make life easier and a few macros like pick-up are only accessible through a macro. The numpad contact and move macros are very useful for when your squad is near you and you need to coordinate fast and tell them what direction to go, then followed by a response to WHERE. The contact macro is very useful WHEN you have a motion detector on your belt, even more so when runners and lurkers are nearby and you use the �Cloaker near me,� or the �Runner near me.� macros.
Some of my Macros
How to setup macros
Terms
Squad cohesion, basically the squad fighting as a unit instead of privates running off and fighting alone. The ability to chat on the radio, in-game and coordinate together. From Kesserline�s guide.
�You can say that Squad Cohesion is a mix of gameplay, psychological and roleplay shits that makes a squad being together, grouped, highly responsive.� Kesserline
Squad Cohesion is usually high at the beginning of the round, especially if the SL is decent�
-Kesserline
Combat effectiveness: Basically, how healthy each marine is. Does a marine have IB? Splints or fractures? Lung or eye damage? A healthy marine is the most combat effective of all marines. The farther the round goes, the more combat effectiveness of each marine goes down, effecting the whole unit and marines, typically. Having good and numerous medics at the front or behind the front keeps combat effectiveness higher and trickles back marines into the fight from attrition. (See attrition guide)
Flanks: Flanks are essentially attacking the side of the enemy or OPFOR, aka, the enemy you are fighting. Usually it means attacking their east or west, a few examples can be seen below and show how you can do it on LV-624 and Solaris Ridge. Flanks can be confused with encirclement as well, but flanking is a requirement of a good encirclement as well.
Encirclement: Encirclement is a military term for the situation when a force or target is isolated and surrounded by enemy forces.
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Flanks.
�In military tactics, a flanking maneuver, or flanking maneuver (also called a flank attack), is an attack on the sides of an opposing force. If a flanking maneuver succeeds, the opposing force would be surrounded from two or more directions, which significantly reduces the maneuverability of the outflanked force and its ability to defend itself�
Flanks are harder for marines than xenos. It's easier for 5-7 T1�s or T2�s to accomplish a flank, why? Xeno�s usually stick together and HAVE to follow the queens orders. For marines, it�s harder as it�s harder to coordinate and even if command authorizes it, I found most times only a handful of marines will actually try to flank, and even if they do sometimes it doesn�t even work out. Why won�t they flank then as marines? Marines DON�T have to follow your orders and this mainly happens when they feel like fighting where the main fight is, sticking with their buddies or simply wanting to unga. But for marines, when it does work, it absolutely can result in marine majors. When encircled and/or flanked xeno players will panic and go through tunnels and vents and try to escape, they cannot do this instantly of course but they can do it quickly, but their will usually be xenos holding back while the others escape. This is also why it's harder for marines to encircle/flank, as marines obviously can't escape like xenos can.
Where ETA and Lambda are
Lambda Flank
Flanking ETA Examples
Flanking ETA, is a bit more tricky as it�s a bigger area and the eastern caves split into two parts.
LV-624
Project Nightmare
Solaris has no nightmare maps at the moment, but there has been a few in the past.
Ice, I�m not sure, I don�t remember seeing any nightmare maps in my time playing CM.
LV-624 has about 3 project nightmare maps, perhaps more according to a Wikimaintainer.
On the regular LV-624 map with no bridge or fog gaps in the far west or east, the fog drops at usually 12:50.
The one with the bridge and fog gap seems to be random from my experience, but I�ve seen it drop around 13:10 - 13:20 which basically encourages marines to push the bridge ( or the gaps) and decides the victor through attrition and/or skill.
Follow-up guides to read
TIPS:
Utilize CAS and Obs, and if available the mortar.
The mortar can hold down flanks well, also utilize the flare mortar shell before a push.
It�s always good to carry a few HEDP nades to clear resin before a push.
Having a MD on your belt is much better than carrying five extra magazines or a shotgun rig, it also encourages you to not fight as actively.
Attrition is how xenos win against marines even when they are out numbered 3:1, see the attrition guide.
You can get job banned from SL for not following orders as far as I know, however if you are given out right suicidal orders you can ignore them, for example if two squads went down the ladders/elevators on ice and all died and your told to go down, you can simply ignore it and/or say no.