advice/idea collection intended for intermediate players (all races, focussed on LSM)

this "idea collection" is aimed at everyone, but mainly tries to get across some basic and advanced concepts for future squad leaders and those that want to improve their gaming experience.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS/STRATEGIC AND TACTICAL ADVICE FOR BATTLES

fellow Astartes,

this is Sgt Green One bringing you some advice gathered during his long service on this special warzone that is Arkhona.

strong points of Adeptus Astartes:

• main class Tactical extremely diverse, jack of all trades
  
• huge arsenal of supportive/specialist weaponry (existing to support Tacticals in their main job: survive and CAP DA EFFIN POINT)
  
• a good mix of classes (i.e.: 3 Tac, 1 JPA, 1 Healer, 1 Dev) in a single big squad (>6) moving together can be a nearly unstoppable force
  
• two of these squads coordinating their respective moves means a hard time for witches, xenos, heretics
  
• a third squad for spec ops maneuvering in coordination with the first two means gg

examples of a spec ops squad include:

• 1 Melta Dev + 1 Shieldbro in a mobile (as in "use it to hunt") Rhino are any enemy vehicle's bane
  
• 3 JPA can cause enough disruption and panic for another squad to move in and wreck defender's balls (if both squads coordinate their assaults)
  
• general harassment, flanking maneuvres, creating diversions, tying up enemy squads to buy time for your brothers to cap/interrupt
  
• simple, but effective: 3 tacs with Stalker Bolters on fortress assault can wreak havoc as you watch the ticket counter count down AND supress the enemy's defenses for other squads to move up

in an ideal scenario, every player in your team (including you) is aware of the importance of the following key points:

• communication within squads ("u" key): let your brothers know you're gonna melt that Trukk or flank that balcony! (no need for 10 marines on 1 job)
  
• communication in between squads ("z" key): designate a radio operator whose job is letting the other squads know that "BRAVO is fortifying C" (to avoid having all 3 squads at C and none at A or B. can't stress this enough)
  
• familiarity with environment: where's the back entrance to flank their entrenched heavies? where can i hide our Rhino? where are the pipes leading into the fortress? how do i get to C on Blackbolt?
  
• familiarity with mapflow: if the enemy is already capping B on Medusa, know that you got 2 minutes left before they attack C (almost every time). understanding how the value of capped/uncapped points shifts over time.
  
• know your class: what is your role? how to engage/disengage fights; which enemy to tackle/not bother with; proper positioning
  
• know your weaponry: which weapon does which job; proper positioning; scope/noscope; applying special tactics (infamous "shieldwall", even more infamous "mid-air-grenade sniping")

now, for a match to be won, we need at minimum 2 big squads hitting major objectives independently.
a third squad only makes sense if the first two have >7 players.
less and bigger squads always means they'll be more successful doing what they do, and can be better/more easily coordinated!

TO THE ASPIRING SQUAD LEADER

leading your squad (and by extension your team) to victory

also means paying attention to most of the above.
but first of all you need to realize AND memorize your job is

• to know what's going on at all times and make the right decisions based on the current state of the battle (what is important and when?),
  
• NOT chasing kills, vehicles, commendations or XP. leave this to your subordinates.

this means you need to accept you might not get any commendations, and no MVP place in the scoreboard for you. in fact, you'll probably find yourself in the lower half.

why, you ask?

because you should be the player that spends the most time gathering information on the battlefield status.
be it in map view to see which point needs reinforcements, see from where the red markers are approaching, or even in the "change squad" menu to keep an eye on general squad composition.
this is time you will not spend shooting at the enemy, but it's oh so invaluable for making the right decisions at any given time.

if you can't get comfortable with this thought, and want to play more "actively", i suggest you leave the role of squad leader to somebody else, skip this section and continue reading in the META section.

if you have no problem with playing selflessly and staying in the background while serving the overarching goal of winning the match, then squad lead is your calling, brother!

as mentioned before, your decision making plays a big part in victory. for you to be able to make the proper decisions, you need knowledge (it's power, my friend).
it's important you gather whatever information you can with help of the tools at your disposal:

MAP VIEW

• where are my squad members? (keep your herd together. gather your brothers before an assault, or they'll get shot 1 by 1!)
  
• where is the rest of the team? (all over at A and C? better take your squad to B then)
  
• where are the Rhinos of the other squads? (still need to cap A and B, two rhinos are already parked outside A? better bring ours to B then)
  
• where is the enemy attacking? do we have defenders where they attack? should we relocate because these 2 wave serpents just drove past B and are heading towards C? or is a 10men squad already there to welcome them and we can stay where we are in anticipation of the 4 stragglers that will try to stealth cap?
  
• refresh your info often!

CHANGE SQUAD MENU

• how many squads are there? (maybe suggest merging? or even splitting? two 10men squads could easily be two 8men squads and a 4men spec ops team)
  
• who are the squad leaders? clan tags are always a welcome sight :D (whose chat messages do i need to pay attention to? who do i need to call for if i want to plan a joint maneuvre?)
  
• what's the Rhino distribution? (does my 4men squad really justify using a rhino when we have a 10men and two 8men squads?)
  
• refresh your info often!

YOUR NEXT-BEST BATTLE BROTHER

• there's red and yellow markers at A. you and your squad are holding B, with no enemy in sight. if you're unsure whether you should get moving to A or stay at B, a quick "what's the sit on A?" in general chat will almost always get you an answer.
  
• seriously though, always confirm with a quick map check. "A is under control" and "A A A A A A A A A need help morons!!!!11" can refer to the same situation, merely interpreted differently by two battle brothers. trust your own guts in that case!
  
• checking the map you notice 2 trukks moving towards the last point with bonus time. "can you handle the transports at C?" let's you know if you should send an AV detachement to the contested point.
  
• just took B by force, but notice 3 enemies sneaking up behind the stairs waiting for you guys to move out so they can recap? "alpha squad, you got 10 ppl, if you move on to C bravo squad will stay and hold B" - "sounds good, bravo. alpha off to c". boom, coordinated warfare.

you'll quickly notice that doing all this takes a good bit of time, time in which you'll not be able to actively participate in the battle through headshots.

this is why i urge every squad leader to designate a "radio operator" whose job is to pass information to the other squads.
while you as leader are busy ordering your squad around, he will be relaying relevant orders to the others.
because they/you NEED TO KNOW what they/you intend to do!


"alright squad move rhino to C, we'll take it" ABSOLUTELY NEEDS to be passed on ("CHARLIE squad will take C"), lest you end up with 3 rhinos and 16 people at C, while only 3 or 4 poor sods attack the other points. exterminatus level facepalming ensues.

countless are the battles we could've won in His name by holding 2 points for 4 minutes; if only the squads would have split the points to guard between them, communicated to each other and stayed at their respective points - instead of all squad leaders making their entire team run back and forth between A and B every time a point got attacked...

META

dealing with pugs

let's have a quick foreword before we start this section of the guide:

every battle brother that frequents the official EC forums or (to a lesser extent) the EC subreddit or just reads the ingame chat has come into contact with the blistering warpstorm of toxic bile, general negativity, and self-righteous entitlement that seems so much more prevalent with LSM than with any other faction.

the biggest, most valuable and important advice i can give you on that is this:

DON'T BECOME A PART OF IT!

in general, being a d*ck has no benefit at all save for letting the community know which player to avoid so they don't catch their space aids.
and that they might need professional counseling with their anger/frustration management issues.

with that out of the way:

pugs.

apparently everybody agrees new players lack knowledge about how to be a useful asset to the team. then why not teach them (and get the most use out of them)?

GENERAL ADVICE

• first of all, never forget you were new to the game once too. always give them the benefit of doubt. nobody runs around intentionally being useless.
  
• at the beginning of each match, check the player composition. everybody feels relief at the sight of lots of clan tags, but most of the teams when playing LSM are 70% pugs.
  
• there's 7 squads in your team? "brothers, merge squads so we may fight more efficiently in His name!"

PUG SQUAD LEADERS

• you suspect your squad leader might be unexperienced? no need to get angry. "hey Sp4C3_wo0O0o1F, are you ok with squad lead?" if you get a "no", explain: "then click change squad, click on my name and click promote. i'll lead our happy bunch! ;)"
  
• if you have a completely unresponsive squad leader, again: benefit of doubt. maybe he no understando english? or he doesn't know how to use chat? (actually happened to me, i typed a random "btw 'u' key for squad chat" and got a "thanks mate!" back. he then proceeded to ask stuff like "how to mark points?" and be an actual useful squad leader.)
  
• should you still get no response, feel free to act as the de facto squad leader. but don't enforce it: "no response from lead. i suggest we attack A and defend it then. who's with me?"
  
• if you still get no response there, either create your own squad (check first if this is a good idea), or stick with the biggest groups of players from your squad and maybe support them via apoth. you'll still be more useful to your team than if you'd go solo!

LEADING PUG SQUADS

• interact with them from the beginning ("CHARLIE SQUAD, FIGHT WITH ME AND WE WILL PURGE THE XENO WITCHES FROM THESE LANDS"). bonus trust points for acknowledging them!
  
• never "bark" commands. always try the suggestive way and always explain why you'd do that ("hey solo brothers, we need your help attacking A. it'll get us extra time!"), you'll get way more feedback and credibility!
  
• you get no reaction/feedback to your directions? roleplay it. seriously. somehow i got the impression people will be more responsive and open to taking orders when i give them a lot of "battle brothers/heretics/final stand/FOR THE EMPEROR" speeches. real talk.

FINISHING WORDS

thank you, kind stranger and fellow battle brother, for taking the time to plow through this wall of text! this is my first guide so please excuse the format being all over the place. ;)

i'm confident there's ideas and concepts in there that might inspire people to come up with interesting maneuvres and gameplay possibilities. sharing ideas and concepts hopefully creates a more open and sharing experience.

it's up to us "veterans" to make the game more enjoyable for new players and us alike, and sowing salt everywhere won't get us there.

instead, be the player they recognize in the garrison later because you treated them respectfully and showed them how to have fun in EC!

edit: i'll gladly accept any editing advice. if you think i'm wrong about anything, hit me up with a pm. always keen to learn new stuff! :)

[spingtap]

As an aspiring Healer/Psyker player, this helped.

[Mx.SarranidSquirrel]

thanks for the quick tips! I will have a look for some melee guides post haste!

[the_green_one]

hey pepe, if you struggle with melee, there's a few helpful guides for that too! or maybe you can get another melee player to show you the basics in the garrison?

besides that, eldar melee is a lot about keeping hidden, choosing the right engagement, quick in and quick out. and try to move with your allies. a lonely eldar is a dead eldar.

[Mx.SarranidSquirrel]

that moment when you are the pug and still cant figure out after a few hours how to play the melee role for the eldar (the poor community has tried haha)

[cleric66]

Very good, I'm sorry I just noticed this a month late, heck your the guy who should be in charge of boot camp, Thank you, I hope more new players and vets see it.

[Lyons]

Nice, upvoted!

[Grug Washington]

Not bad man!