Its me your abusive stepfather sharing my ramblings to the kids, a word beforehand: This is NOT a newbie CIC guide if you want me to kiss your bo hoo and hold your hand through your workspace go read the wiki.
Pencil pushing deluxe tools
Use these as much as you can, the more effective you can be at using them the better you can get people to do your will:
- Map awareness, pretty important, you draw plans out of maps and distribute routes for people to follow, usually a no brainer when it comes to CIC stuff
- Announcements, bread and butter of CIC you aint doing shit without this bad boy, abuse as much as you can, even if its for small things.
- Radio, to use it CORRECTLY pick it up, turn ALL squad radios on and put it on, dont be afraid if your non existant 2d ear drums get blasted by several voices in your head, get used to it, because a good CIC bases itself around communication.
PAY. ATTENTION. TO. THE. RADIO
Many jarheads dont have access to Command radio, so get to it and distribute information, Queen moved to sand temple and one marine called out its position? Time to Announce that shit.
Becoming a self-made man
You are second in command, right hand of the man who gets blamed if the operation goes backwards, if anything you should be happy that someone else is doing the 'job' for you but sitting your ass and acting like a SO isn't gonna buy points to the crowd, nowdays COs are more concerned in dunking xenos than doing the 'USCM Pencil pusher' side of the job, thats where you're 'forced' (lets be honest you asked for it when playing XO) to take over an operation, by taking over I mean
- Sharing enemy locations
- Distributing tasks to marines, and department personnel (Normally most departments self suffice themselves, but giving a heads up to req or OTs for some spec ammo is always welcome)
- Announce the state of the operation
- Fix any shipside issues (No requisitions? Let the friendly volunteered SO to take over)
CPT. Bill Carson or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying about delta wipes and Love OBing FOBs
By announcing useful stuff I mean not saying shit like 'HIVE ON CHARLIE SL' like seriously? Even fellow COs do this shit and I'm scratching my head asking myself where the FUCK is charlie SL at, so i'm gonna pour up some knowledge on you.
Handing out orders: first and foremost DONT CONTRADICT YOUR CO, ITS ANNOYING AND YOU'LL GET YEETED IF YOU DO, treat your CO like if he's your daddy when he's in CIC, instead of a belt he's got a mateba, salute him everytime he enters to the same room as you, its usually called 'respect' something no one will give to you as a XO (sadly)
Regarding actual orders, usually you want to say it in the most direct and straightforward way possible, dont pull of tsun zu bullshit on your marines when speaking, usually something like this suffices
____________________________________________
BRAVO IS DYING TO A SINGLE LURKER AT THE FOB
ALPHA MOVE TO LZ1 AND UNFUCK THE FOB
XOXO - CDR
Be Organized: Always be up to date, recieve and deliver any important information to other squads, never ever allow the enemy bite in the ass an entire squad same way when ordering pushes, dont get caught up by hearsays, try to add up the numbers before handing out an all out push to the enemy, try to get SLs to phone in and talk about possible moves if things start to slow down.
Etiquette
It aint a secret that everyone will be listening to you 90% of the time you speak, so first and foremost you must avoid treating your men like shit or yell at them calling them idiots for not following 100% your plan, they are marines, not chess pieces, before drop have a small conversation with them, try to make their stay fun (as long it aint rule breaking), be charismatic and remember that as much the game and admins remind you that you have a high rank, in reality you are a dude who is sitting in front of a computer pressing buttons really quickly, so you are no better than the common jarhead.
What the fuck are you doing (what to avoid)
- Usually people are going to judge heavily on your knowledge regarding ML more than ever since its more fleshed out unlike its retarded counterpart, if you are going to break ML do it as a PFC or some dumb role that no one really cares about.
- A mute CIC is annoying to deal with if you are a SL who has to shout orders to people to move their asses, if you cant announce for shit then you ain't ready to be a captain
- Keep any 'Interesting' plans for when you get the actual WL, keep in mind you can ruin someone's round by just trying something new, just because your plan is based on the battle of Waterloo doesnt mean its fun.
part 2 never