Squad Leading 101
"Alright, alpha, we’re pushing nort- wait, where is everyone? Is my squad only made of 5 people? Space Jesus Christ did they all get kidnapped? Where did everything go wrong?"
You might have found yourself in that case, wanting to be a charismatic leader and either ending up as one of the first squad casualties or just as lost as every other member of your squad.
This guide is here to teach YOU how to become the squad leader you've always dreamt to be.
Gear & Features
As a squad leader, you have access to a lot of rare gear and skills for free, contrary to the humble rifleman. Some of note are:
- Cheap access to an RTO pack, grab it.
- Cheap access to a whistle, grab it.
- A free B12 armor. Upmost robustness.
- A 25P cost pair of NVGs, with a battery of 10 minutes. (They can be recharged at a recharger once screwed out of the helmet)
- A Medical skill of 1, letting you use auto-injectors instantly.
- Large pouches for days.
Along with that, you have the most basic leading skill of one. Which may be transferred on and off to whoever is given the acting SL (or aSL for short).
Those allow you yell out orders, in the form of a temporary buff. They free but have a medium-long cooldown.
They grant a small buff to the friendly entities around you (you included). Both scale depending on the caster's leading skill.
Issue order - Move | Grants a small movement speed bonus
Issue order - Hold | Grants a small damage resistance bonus
Issue order - Focus | Grants a small accuracy bonus
How to lead
Right, all is well, we are geared, what about the actual job, what do we do?
You're leading a squad of 20 crayon eating maggots that will do their best to ignore you. And thus, the crucial part of being a squad leader is to be heard. Once people listen to you and your orders, everything should go well, normally, would you know what you’re doing.
Good thing is, because you're a leader, you talk BIG. and when I mean BIG. I MEAN IT. Which allows you NOT to spam ALL CAPS WITH !! to have better visibility when talking.
How to be heard
Then, how do we take advantage of our GRAVE voice ? Here's how:
- Use LOCAL chat, this will make the text you say pop out above your head instead of inside the chat box. Paired with the other tips, it will make sure that people focused ON what's happening can see the order
- Repeat the order if needed. Better twice than once. Don't overdo it, no one wants some guy spamming local with the same message 10 times.
- Give SHORT orders, someone can read in a whim and understand, such as the holy SL trinity: "HOLD","BACK" and "PUSH"
- Share with your squad that the whistle you're carrying is an audio clue for them to listen.
Now you know how to makes the goon hear what you want. But how do you make them truly LISTEN ?
How to aura farm™️ (or be followed more easily)
For that, you need an invisible called "squad cohesion". Imagine it as a permanently depleting morale bar that you want up as HIGH as possible at ALL times. To keep it up you'll want to:
- Talk with your squaddies, don't leave them hanging, ever.
- Hype them up pre-drop. A hyped squad is a deadly squad (A squad brief is perfect for that. Do it before brief, in dropship, or on ground, but then keep it short.)
- Compliment your squaddies, if they know they're doing a good job, they'll keep doing it.
- Have regulars tackle you, that will come with time by sticking to a squad. The more with you, the more will stay with by sheep mentality.
Alright, that's cool and all but how to be the bold charismatic guy ? Don't worry, I also got you:
- Stay in character, stick to a personality (as one should). Be that one cold spec ops dude, or a caring father to his unsuspecting, crayon eating children. You get the idea
- /!\ BE CAUTIOUS, DO NOT RISK IT AT YOUR LIFE'S SAKE. Kills, kills, kills. If your squad see you dunk on a defender with a regular shotgun, they'll more gladly follow you into hell.
Strategy planning
This part will cover the more "strategic" part of playing squad leader. Whilst than the previously given basics, it is the key to ensuring you're doing your part to turn that crashing operation into a GLORIOUS MARINE MAJOR, OORAH!
Comms - communication? The talk.
Just as it is important you talk to your squad, it is important you talk to the eyes in the squad, the CIC. They have the big picture (most of the time), and if they know what you're doing, they will (hopefully) adjust things to ensure that you can kill those dirty bugs, together. Together? As in every marine. Because you're not alone. There are three other squads with three others leaders (not as good as you, because you've read this and they haven't, obviously.) but still.
Use a phonepack if comms are down, else give regular status reports in the command channel or in your squad channel. Hell, Queen's dead thanks to your men? Type me that
":v Charlie got the queen kill. Pushing further."
Along with this, as the squad leader, you're generally expected to know better how to call Orbital Bombardments. You spawn with a laser designator which when switched mode, can turn into rangefinder mode. Use it where you want the entire area to be flattened and share the coordinates.
BE VERY CAUTIOUS WHEN ADJUSTING COORDINATES YOURSELF
Pushing? Backing? What, how and why.
Those dirty 'nids are smart, but you're smarter. You want to know when it's the right time to go in and fuck shit up. Obviously you have your squad orders given by the CIC. Execute them at priority, but make sure it doesn't wipe your squad.
Using your MOVE order is most appropriate when having to do direct maneuvers.
Ultimately, the placement of your squad depends on you. The gut feeling of knowing where to do, when to and not to push will come with time. But a few things can help:
- Using your binoculars when rotating to know where the enemy is and isn't
- Using your NVGs at appropriate timings (so you don't yolo into darkness where john lurker is waiting)
- Listening to comms, focus dead on those messages within the lines of "OH GOD QUEEN ON DELTA PLEASE [insert your squad here] GO SAVE THEM EAST"
- MAP KNOWLEDGE. Know the place, don't be lost, use tacmap.
BIND YOUR ORDERS. Did you know you can keybind emotes as well as sentences ? It's very useful when you're fumbling around doing stuff, being able to say "PUSH !!" on command. Just be sure to be responsible while using it, spamming it will overdo it.
But HOW ? you may ask ? Well don't you worry, I got you.
First, find your keybinds.yml file, in the game files. Path should be something among the lines of:
[Your disk] (C:)/Users/[Your user]/AppData/Roaming/Space Station 14/data
Once in there, you will find your keybinds.yml file. You can edit it with the regular notepad app and add whatever you want.
Some useful commands explained to go with the example:
"mod1" makes it so the key you bind after it must be held for it to work
"key" the key you want to bind it on, if it was just E, it would say "PUSH !!" when E is pressed
"type: Command" it ensures you say the word, as it is basically running a command console
"function: say" makes your character SAY something, if you want to emote something, use "function: me"
Conclusion
Being a squad leader is not easy, but crucial to get a good squad, both in cohesion and efficiency. The tactics and formations you apply are at your own discretion, but remember: Communicate, keep your squad together and adjust to threats best you can to keep your squad alive.
Some describe the squad leader role as the one with the most impact, truth is, anyone can lead. But this is for those who want to shine brighter at it.
You are the heart and brain of the squad. You're here to lead your marines to victory, or peril together. Be humble and always seek to improve.
Other very good sources on how to be a good squad leader on people that know more than me and have for way longer:
