Squad Leader Basics

This stuff is basic, but people still get it wrong.

The Basics

In Squad, a Squad Leader has 3 fundamental responsibilities. They are fundamental because every match is won or lost on their basis. They are responsibilities so a Squad Leader who fails in one of these things, has failed not only their squad members, but every other player on their team.

1) Providing a spawn point for your squad within an appropriate distance to the objective
2) Defending the current defense flag
3) Positioning the squad on the correct flag for attack or defense

Don't let your team get outnumbered

This is the aim of the 3 responsibilities. As a squad leader you have up to 9 people in your squad who can contribute to the game. Assuming the enemy team has competent squad leaders, all 39 members of their team will be attacking or defending a flag. If your squad of 9 isn't currently contributing to either attack or defense, your team will be outnumbered 30-39. For obvious reasons, this is bad for your teammates, and can end up losing you the game. You must always be mindful of whether you are letting your team down by taking your squadmates out of the fight, and minimize the amount of time your squad spends walking to objectives.

To get your squad in the fight as soon as possible, you'll need a spawn point close to the objective.

1 - Providing a spawn point for your squad

Possible spawn points are the main base, a HAB, or rally point. The distance of each spawn point to an objective determines the effectiveness of each. To avoid ticket bleed from the enemy capturing more flags than your team, the middle flag of the map is typically the most hotly contested area and the most important objective for both teams. As such, the middle flag is usually the most distant from each team's main base. Thus, walking from the main base is the worst way to get to the objective, and in a game with competent Squad Leaders, only happens when the team has been completely routed by the enemy, and pushed all the way back to their first flag. If your squad is walking from the main base in a game where the enemy has not pushed you all the way back to your first flag, something is seriously wrong. This makes your team outnumbered (see the first point), since your squad won't be able to contribute to the game for a long time.

Since walking from main is the worst option, a rally point will be the most common way that your squad spawns in near an objective. Rally points cannot be placed if enemies are within 50m, and are destroyed if the enemy moves to within 10m. This means that there will always be some walking time required to reach your objective from the spawn point, but you should try to place it close enough that you minimize that walking time without placing it within 50m of an enemy. After 9 spawns, a rally point is destroyed. If you allow the rally point to be destroyed through using all 9 spawns before you place a new one, you've failed the first responsibility of squad leading, and your squad will be forced to walk back to the objective from much further away. You must regularly check the number of spawns on a rally point, and when it falls below 5 spawns left, you should be working to get a new one down soon. If the rally point has only 1 or 2 spawns left, it's vital that you stop whatever you are doing and retreat to place a new one, even if you are currently under fire. Better yet, you should notice the remaining spawns on the rally are low and work to replace it before you even push up to a position where you will take fire from the enemy.

The HAB is another option for a place to spawn for your squad. The HAB is similar to the main base in the sense that it lets the entire team spawn, but is far more effective since it positions your entire team (or just your squad) much closer to objectives. And as we already know, the less your squad has to walk to an objective, the faster your squad will attack or defend a point and contribute to the game. Setting up a HAB takes a lot more resources and communication than a rally point, though. You will need a logistics truck to supply the FOB with enough construction points before you can build the HAB. HABs cost a different amount for the different factions - 350 for Insurgents, 400 for Militia, 500 for U.S and Russia. Often the logistics vehicles for each faction carry different amounts as well. Insurgent or Militia logistics technicals carry only 500 construction points, but U.S and Russian logistics trucks carry 1000. HAB placement is typically done at the beginning of the game close to the most hotly contested flag, usually the middle one. Vehicles make a substantial amount of noise ingame, and it's easy for the enemy to hear a logistics truck approaching within 300m. As a result, you should not try to build a HAB as close to your objective as your rally point. Once you have built a HAB to provide your team with a much better position to spawn than the main base, you should begin using a rally point as you get closer to your objective. If your rally point gets destroyed for any reason, you should have a HAB behind you as a contingency plan that allows you to walk back to your objective without the enormous penalty of spawning at main. A Squad Leader needs to always have a contingency plan for spawning his team that does not involve walking from main base.

2 - Defending the current defense flag

In every game of Squad, some flags can be captured by the enemy (denoted by the purple symbol) and some flags can be captured by your team (denoted by the orange symbol). If the enemy team has more players on a flag than your team, they will capture the flag off you. When the enemy captures a flag that your team owns, they gain up to 26 tickets, and you lose up to 52 tickets (depending on the number of flags on the map). If the enemy team owns more flags than your team, you will also be affected by ticket bleed, which means that you lose extra tickets beyond just the tickets lost from your team pressing the "Give Up" button or having vehicles destroyed. If the enemy captures all the flags on the map, the game is certain to be over within minutes due to ticket bleed.

So, to win games, you must defend flags. The huge penalty for losing your flags to the enemy team means you should take defense seriously, even when the defense flag is not currently being attacked. You must always prioritize defending your flag over attacking the enemy flag. The majority of your team should be defending, not attacking. Attacking is moving off the current defense flag toward an objective, whether that objective is an enemy spawn point or the next flag your team can attack. A common mistake that Squad Leaders make is sending the majority of their squads to attack an enemy spawn point. (e.g a HAB 100m away from the defense flag) If the majority of your team attacks the enemy spawn point, the flag is undefended, and an enemy squad will certainly make use of your carelessness to flank you, capture the point, and also destroy any spawn points your team is using. This mistake can be observed in many games due to impatience. Players typically do not like to sit on defense if it is uneventful, and Squad Leaders typically do not have the discipline or experience to demand that the majority of their squad members stay on defense. Squad Leaders who shirk their responsibility to defend often lose, but also usually don't learn from their mistake.

3 - Positioning the squad on the correct flag

If a flag cannot be captured by the enemy (no purple symbol) or you cannot capture the enemy flag (no orange symbol), it is your responsibility as Squad Leader to move immediately to a flag that your team can attack or defend. We have already covered how walking to objectives should be minimized so that your team is not outnumbered. Positioning your squad on the correct flag also determines whether your team is outnumbered.

Every second that your squad spends on the wrong flag carries a huge cost to your team, often even more than walking from main base. The reason for this is the common mistake I mentioned in the section on defense. Squads often make the mistake of walking off the defense flag to the attack flag (or other objective), and then the defense flag is capped behind them by the enemy. Now the majority of the team is on a flag that cannot even be attacked any longer. The team is also under fire on that flag, preventing them from quickly retreating. They may also have been sitting around in an uneventful position and made the decision to move up because of impatience, in which case they don't even want to retreat. This is an even more dangerous situation than the entire team walking from the main base, because since the majority of the team is stuck on a flag that cannot be capped, the entire enemy team is freed up to capture more flags than the one you just lost, plus your HABs on flags further back will be lost, and your team will have to fight its way back onto flags you still own.

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[joshxd]

This is very good, keep it up.

[embecmom]

@cubtheman.. disagree... sticking a fireteam of anti tank on roads to cover access can often lead to a vehicle retreating before it gets to your position... sniper and scout also make a very good combination for harrassing or defensive ... pushing general riflemen into an assault on a building with cover from LMG and GL smoke can also work.

[❤shire]

+Rated and Fav'd

[[26th MEU] Capt. A. Achilles]

Don't Cut your squad into fireteams in Squad. Unless you need to Cap two points at a time

[Twizted]

I've noticed nobody uses fireteam leaders in this game; you can also as SL break down your squad into 2 fireteams of 4 (provided the whole squad knows their role etc) essentially doubling your combat effectiveness.. I guess that's more for the intermediate/advanced section though lol.. don't wanna over complicate things too quickly lol.

[Arkanoid]

You'll want to avoid picking the Squad Leader role entirely until this stuff is basic to you. Stick with fire team roles until you have played the game enough to understand the value a Squad Leader brings to the team.

Protip: a Squad Leader is only of value to the team if they can do the 3 things in this guide.

[❤shire]

Basics are:
1) Communicate with mic
2) Know who is who
3) Assign squad members to important roles (i.e. medic / LAT)
4) Be aware and keep checking map

[❤shire]

These aren't basic, these are intermediate or advanced.

[Deimos]

This stuff should be obvious to 90% of players, but it just doesn't seem to be, so thanks for putting it out there, hopefully people can get this through their heads.

[SzymonPolska]

Really nice guide.
These are basics of basics, but a huge amount of mistakes mentioned here are made in a lot of games i've been in. Every SL should give this guide a read before playing - awesome work Arkanoid!