Fireteam Leading Guide

WARNING! This guide is not applicable in all situations! If you do not have a Squad Leader that applies most whats written about in this guide https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1784181394 then you will experience that most things in this guide will not work. This guide is written for those who play regularly with Squad Leaders who apply usage of fireteams as written about in the guide linked above. If you play with Squad Leaders like such, you can get a far more enjoyable experience if you have read this guide and apply its contents.

Introduction

The Fireteam Leader can make a huge difference on the effectiveness of how fireteams work. The Fireteam Leader is an integral tool for how the Squad Leader can minimize workload through delegation yet have control over the soldiers on a micro level.

If you can become a better Fireteam Leader, you can help your Squad Leader have a more enjoyable experience, you will yourself have a more enjoyable experience as you will feel you can accomplish more and you will offer your fireteam members a great immersive experience people can not get anywhere else.

It all depends on the Squad Leader
However, the power of the role of the Fireteam Leader comes from the Squad Leader so it is important that they apply most of what is written in this guide:

Squad Leading with Fireteams Guide 

A Guide for Squad

By: Fox

Take your squad leading to the next level with proper usage of fireteams! This guide will go over how you can maximize the usage of fireteams in your squad and how your gaming experience can be improved.

If the Squad Leader does not do that, you will struggle in a uphill battle where the SL will not support nor empower you and the chain of command, loyalty and structure will fall apart. If you have a Squad Leader that does not apply the attitude of what is written in the previous mentioned guide, you can try to encourage your fireteam to work together but in the end, if they don't, you won't have much authority nor empowerment to lead your team. In situations like that it can be better to not embrace the leadership role and just utilize the game mechanical benefits that comes with the FTL role.

Who you interact with
As a Fireteam Leader you will have to interact with 4 different individuals, both superiors, subordinates, equals and other.

• Your Squad Leader

  Your Squad Leader will give you a purpose. They will be your superior and you have to do your best to meet their goals.
  

• Your Fireteam Members

  Your fireteam is your most valuable resource. They will help you in carrying out your Squad Leaders orders. Give them leadership and motivation, and they will take bullets for you.
  

• Other Fireteam Leaders in your squad

  Other Fireteam Leaders are your colleagues. They will help you when your fireteam is weak. Respect them and remember that you are not alone.
  

• Other Squad Leaders and their squad

  Other Squad Leaders have their own problems and goals. They can help your fireteam if opportunity is given, be grateful.

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-- Orders

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The Squad Leader has the authority to give you orders, to his fireteam leaders and soldiers in his squad. The orders may be specific or broad, which ever it is your job as a FTL is to provide a solution to the SL order to the best of your fireteams ability.

Commanders Intent

When a Squad Leader issues an order one of your responsibilities as a FTL is to interpreter the order and try to figure out the SL's intended goal with the order. Experienced Squad Leaders will inform their fireteam leader of their intent/goals instead of giving direct orders. This is to give the fireteam more freedom to choose how they accomplish the goals how they see fit.
The Squad Leader may put limitations on how the Fireteam may accomplish it's task and the SL should avoid micromanaging the fireteams and allow the FTL's to make their own decisions.
This type of command philosophy is referred to as "Mission Command"[en.wikipedia.org]. Mission Command puts emphasis on that the leader declare their goals (with eventual restrictions) to their subordinates and not the specific actions on how the goals are ment to be accomplished.
In order for a subordinate to understand the goal The SL needs to inform the FTL's with of the intent, the "Commanders Intent"[en.wikipedia.org]

Have a purpose

Receiving a purpose
The Squad Leader may tell you what they expect of you through:

• Defining your fireteams role in general.
  Sometimes the SL's will inform you of this and sometimes it is implied. When the SL is not informing you, you have to make your own assessment and take your own initiative. This is a lot easier to determine if the SL is using compositions formats that both of you are familiar with. Some common formats can be found here and what role they would play.
  Squad, Fireteam & Role Composition Guide 

  A Guide for Squad

  By: Fox

  This guide offers a list of various squad composition templates using fireteams and roles for a infantry squad. It explains the basic and the fundamentals of designing a squad composition for a infantry squad by going...
  
  
• Informing you of their intent and plan based on situation and how you fit in that.
  The Squad Leader may tell you outright what their intent is and sometimes it may be implied through a formulated plan. Many times the term "Plan", "Goal" and "Intent" is synonymous with each other and regardless which you will be informed of, you should be able to interpret the SL's intent. In case you do not understand, ask your SL for clarification.
  
• Issuing an order.
  Squad Leaders may issue orders to you. While it would be most beneficial if you were provided the plan and even more so the intent of the SL, giving instructions in the form of a order is faster and may many times be used when time does not permit to lay out the plan and declare the intent. One characteristic of an order is that it does not contain any answers to the question "Why?" however that could be added as an after production and then the order will more or less convert into a "plan".
  The format of the order can be said in two ways:
  
  • Non-specific Order - This form of order is usually brief and may only contain a few words intentionally. This is to offer the the Fireteam Leader options, the freedom of choice on how they see, they should carry out the order.
    Examples:
    

    • Bravo Attack the Objective!
      
    • Charlie Move to the airfield
      
    • One Bravo member to SL

  • Specific Order - If your SL is specifying parameters to your order, then they have a specific plan that they want to be carried out exactly as instructed. It is not optimal for the sake of the "Mission Command" philosophy that the SL micromanage but sometimes the pressure on success will not allow for failure and the SL will use their experience to guide you to accomplish your mission. Specific orders does not leave much room for own initiative but initiative can be made where options have been left open.
    Examples:
    

    • Bravo Attack the Objective from north. Use the bush-line and prone all your way there.
      
    • Charlie take the truck, avoid the roads until you reach the 2nd intersection where you disembark and move on foot to the airfield
      
    • Bravo rifleman go west and meet me at the truck

After receiving your orders, tasks, instruction, goal or such, you should always try to interpret what intent the SL may have with them, what is their ultimate goal. If options to make your own initiative have still been left open, you should if required issue your own order or declare your own plan to your subordinates on how you intent to meet the intentions of the SL and accomplish your assignment.

Getting a purpose
If you feel that you do not know what the SL want of you, if you don't know what to do you should either do one of the following two:

• Take your own initiative
  You can use your own judgement and ask yourself what can you do with your fireteam that would contribute to the Squad Leader, other fireteams or other squads (in that order). When you come to a conclusion, declare your intent to your SL to allow them to adjust, incase they have other plans for you.
  
• Request an Order, clarification of the intent or what the plan is.
  If you already received instructions in form of a plan or intent and still feel clueless you can ask the SL for clarification to allow you to use better judgement to take your own initiative. You can also request an order to be issued to you.

-- Feedback

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A Squad Leader is a human, all humans have limitations and weaknesses but with teamwork we can overcome these weaknesses by combining our strengths. You as a Fireteam Leader holds an important position that inherently will offer you a perspective the Squad Leader may not have.

As a Fireteam Leader you have:

• Situational expertise - The Squad Leader is not always where you and your fireteam is. This makes it hard for a Squad Leader to make effective decisions for a fireteam. As a Fireteam Leader you are the expert of your fireteams situation and a good Squad Leader will acknowledge this by listening to your advice.
  
• Third person perspective - As a FTL you will be the person who will be closest to the Squad Leader, not in the chain of command only but also in terms of understanding each other. You will naturally try to interpreter the SL's orders into what their intent is so you can best command your fireteam and issue the most suitable orders to your fireteam members. This will have the result that your mind will be in sync with the SL's. When you understand the Squad Leaders intent you will be able to see if something is missing, if the Squad Leader is forgetting something and you can therefor provide that feedback to the SL

While the SL should acknowledge the value of the FTL's feedback, this does not mean that the SL must allow or obey everything a FTL says and as a FTL you need to respect this. The Squad Leader is in the end the one who is in charge of the squad and how they want the fireteams and assets to be used. It's important to not let a disagreement between you and the Squad Leader prevent you from carrying out your current assigned task/order from the SL.

If you voiced your opinion and you feel the Squad Leader still does not agree with you, "don't beat a dead horse" and just move on, in the end it's just a game and no real life is on the line, you have at least done your best with the authority you have and in the end, success or failure will fall on the responsibility of the Squad Leader.

-- Reports

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Its important that you keep your SL informed of your fireteams situation to get the best possible situational awareness in order to be able to make correct assessment about the situation and have a understanding about his squads limitations to issue suitable orders for the situation.

What do you report?
In general you should report things that affect following areas:

• Combat Effectiveness - How capable are you to handle any situation that your fireteam is suppose to handle. This revolves around your soldiers health and ammo status
  
• Ability to carry out orders - This refers to if there is an obstacle that is preventing or disrupting your effectiveness to carry out your current orders.

Typical Reports
Some of the following reports affects either your combat effectiveness or your ability to carry out your orders.

• Heavy Casualties - When more than half of your fireteam is downed.
  
  • Why? Having this many casualties will effect your ability to carry out your orders as it will force your remainder soldiers to focus only on reviving the downed fireteam members.
• Wounded - When more than half your fireteam is wounded and your fireteam is either lacking or is cut off from their medic.
  
  • Why? This means that you will be very weak and can be killed easily and have poor accuracy to engage enemies with
• Fireteam Wipe - When all members of the fireteam is downed.
  
  • Why? This could mean you will no longer be able to carry out your order as you do not have a suitable place to respawn to. Do not give up, perhaps other fireteams or other squads can revive you and you can continue.
• Ammunition situation - If your special classes ammunition, majority of bandages is used and riflemen ammo bags or other ammo storage is depleted.
  
  • Why? Its important you keep track of your teams ammo as this can effect how well you can handle certain threats and situations.
• In Contact - The very moment your fireteam have contact (even if you as FTL do not know from where or what, report "In contact" anyway and later fill in the SL with what and from where)
  
  • Why? If you are in contact your ability to respond to communication may be limited as well as your freedom of maneuverability will be hindered. This can have a big negative effect if you get in contact earlier than expected.
• Enemy Contacts/Activity - Mark all contacts on the map for both your SL and allies to see.
  Verbally forward contacts that your fireteam can not immediately handle or enemies that may negatively effect your "Combat effectiveness" or "Ability to carry out orders" during engagement or as a result of engagement.
  
  • Why? You should always mark all targets you are encounter, even those you have neutralized, you do not know if there is more and a marker on the map can give both your SL and other players a situational awareness of what is going on. Certain threats may change the entire plan for the Squad Leader and those situation requires you to verbally forward it to the SL so they can in due time have a chance to assess and act on the situation.
• Deviations - If you wanna deviate from the orders that you have been given by the squad leader
  
  • Why? You may get an idea that you see is beneficial for the squad or other allies that you decide to act on. This is the purpose of having a FTL. However by deciding to do something the SL have not told you to do, you may change the parameters of the situation and you should inform the Squad Leader of this decision of yours to let the SL know about it. The SL can ofcourse tell you to not go through with your idea and if that is the case you can motivate your decision to the SL to change their mind but if that does not work, you need to respectfully return to previous task.
• Neutralized Threats - If your soldiers does not report that they neutralized threats or taken out FOBs, you should do it as a FTL.
  
  • Why? If a threat have been verbally forwarded over squad comms (regardless if it was from your fireteam or any other) you should report if your fireteam were involved in neutralizing the threat.

-- Support Requests

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The Squad Leader have assigned you an task but certain problems presents themselves that you can not handle/counter within the fireteam. In situation like such, you can request support. Support could either come internally from assets within the squad or externally from other squads. Either way if you are unsure of where to turn, you can always submit your support request to the Squad Leader to solve.

It is important that you first make an effort to try to assess if you can solve the problems within your fireteam before bringing it up to the SL. However you should neither linger and take your time with this assessment as there could be severe consequences as a result of an absent counter action.

Here is a list of various requests you can submit to your SL:

• Transportation land/air Support - If you have been separated from the squad or your efficiency to complete a given task may be increased by reducing the travel time, you can request transportation.
  
• Armor Support - If the there is an absence of cover, high demand of ammo, high presence of enemy armor or light armed vehicles. An armor vehicles could be the difference of day or night in some situations.
  Armor vehicles can provide a variety of different tasks:
  
  • Close Infantry Support - You could ask for a armor vehicle to move close to your fireteam, to allow you to rearm, get hard cover and get extra firepower to suppress or neutralize the enemy. You could also use the vehicle to get transported across longer distances or areas where there is an absence of cover.
    
  • Overwatch - An armor vehicle can observe a area, to keep enemy heads down and deny them from using elevated positions, deny vehicles from approaching the area.
• Mortar/Artillery/Airstrike Support - Stationary enemies, behind cover, holding compounds or buildings may present themselves as a big obstacle and a well deployed strike can either completely take out or blind the enemy.
  
• Infantry Reinforcements Support - Sometimes the shear number of enemies is the problem, you are being pushed back or you can not push at all. Those situations may require more reinforcements in general.
  
• Special Asset Support - Each squad have only a limited number of roles/kits/classes/assets available to be selected from. Each fireteam may only have a small portion of those assets and may therefor lack the ability to handle some situations.
  
  • Anti-Tank - If an armor vehicle presents itself, either a LAT or a HAT may be needed to counter the armor. Sometimes it might be enough with a Combat Engineer.
    
  • Wound Treatment - If your team have not been assigned with a medic or your medic is separated from your team. It could also mean that you have casualties and no survivor have bandages nor the ability to rearm. Many times you can just simply open your map and see if there is anyone nearby that can help but when that is no longer possible, you may need to request medical assistance.
    
  • Ammo bag - If your fireteam have not been assigned with a rifleman and the situation requires that one or more of your soldiers rearms you can ask for a rifleman to rearm on. However before asking, check your surrounding, you could find ammo-boxes or vehicles with ammo you could rearm from or you could ask over local if anyone have ammo.
    
  • Smoke Launchers - Grenadiers and some Anti-Tank soldiers have smoke rounds they can launch at distance to create a smokescreen. This can be used to blind enemies in defensive positions or to cross otherwise open areas with no cover present.
    
  • Repair - If your fireteam have been assigned with a vehicle and no soldiers to repair it. You may have to request that either a Crewman, Pilot or a Combat Engineer comes to your aid. This assumes that you cannot within your fireteam solve it by having a suitable fireteam member to swap their kit to preform the repairs with to later change back.
• Ammo Resupply - If your fireteam have high demand of ammo and a single rifleman's ammo bag would not be enough to restore your combat effectiveness, you might need a vehicle to provide you with ammo. If you are nearby the build zone of a FOB a well placed ammo box could provide sufficient means of resupply.
  
• Emplacements & Defenses - If you are close to a FOB you can request the SL to place some emplacements and defenses to help improve a position you been ordered to or you identified you needed to defend
  
• Range to target - If you need the accurate range to an area or target in order to provide the most accurate shot with a Anti-Tank weapon or similar. You can ask the Squad Leader to place his order on top of your order to get the range to it. An example could be that you place your order marker and then say: "Range to bravo".

-- Communication

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It is important to reduce unnecessary communication and therefor send the right message through the appropriate channel.

This is the procedure on how to communicate with your Squad Leader

1. Local Comms (DEFAULT)
   If your Squad Leader is within local voice range, why should you occupy the entire Squad Comms Channel? Only use Squad Comms (even when in local range) when other fireteams and FTLs have a reason to know.
   
2. Squad Comms (AT RANGE)
   
3. Squad 3rd Party VOIP channel (AT RANGE & IF AVAILABLE)

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-- Cohesion

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Why?

The most important job of the fireteam leader is to keep their fireteam together. There is plenty of reasons why there is benefits to keeping the fireteam together:

1. Team Integrity - When one person separates from their fireteam the fireteam gets one less soldier to fight the enemy with. Depending on the composition of the fireteam the missing soldier(s) could be a creating an absence of abilities.
   Examples:
   
   • Medic (and the fireteam will not have enough bandages nor the ability to treat wounds)
     
   • Anti-Tank (lack the ability to engage armor vehicles)
     
   • Rifleman (lack the ability to rearm the anti-tank)
   With numbers you can also get a greater effect out of:
   
   • combining "fire and maneuver" (Suppression and Flank).
     
   • Smoke pushes were you can get get a lot of smoke thrown to cover a greater area.
     
   • The ability to cover several angles or covering friendlies reloading/reviving
   It is important that only the Fireteam Leader and the Squad Leader is the people who takes the decision to separate one or more soldiers from the fireteam. Any decision to split of a soldier should not be taken lightly and should be considered how it could effect the fireteam ability to complete its task.
   
2. Unified Situational Awareness - To get a picture of what is going on around, where enemies are, who is doing what, what is going to happen next and so on, it benefits for the fireteam to stick together. Any local contact callouts can be heard and the fireteam leader can tell in local without worrying about clogging up squad net with unnecessary traffic. If the Squad Leader in local is telling a fireteam leader what is going to happen the fireteam members can listen in on the plan. You will also have a greater idea if someone is missing or is down and casualties treatment is less likely to be neglected
   
3. Compartmentalization of Communication - By keeping the fireteam members within close proximity, the communication between them can be carried out over local comms. This will put an ease on the SL comms traffic as he gets not only comms over squad net but also over command, local and potential 3rd party VOIP server. Not only that, while all that comm traffic the Squad Leader could have a lot of gunfire, explosions or engine sounds blaring in the background and could have problems to hear. Besides not all communication is relevant for the entire squad. many contact callouts is not immediately important for all members in the squad to know and therefor it can be done over local comms.
   With all the local comms traffic, the Fireteam Leader can then decide what information is relevant for the Squad Leader and relay that information up in one "package".

How?

• Correcting Disobedience - If a fireteam members is "lonewolfing" (separating from the fireteam and squad) you need to confront the member ask why they are separated (incase they have a valid reason not staying with the team) If no good reason provided you need to tell them to regroup and if they refuse ask the SL to kick them. If the same member is doing over and over again, you should also ask the SL to kick. By allowing a member of the fireteam to do what ever they want/think is right will set a president that such behavior is acceptable and more soldiers will lonewolf, thus harming the fireteam's integrity.
  
• Using Local Communication - Communicate with your fireteam when you are moving and stopping, describe to them what you are thinking/planning and give them orders and instructions in local. The more you communicate over local the more you show by the example you set that local communication is preferred. This will encourage your members to stay near you so they can hear your commands, information and so they can communicate to you.
  
• Leading the way - Take point and show the way, encourage the fireteam members to follow you by saying "Follow me!". Show where you want your fireteam to go by going there first but do when doing so, do not forget to make sure you have your fireteam following you behind you. You have to stop and check if they are following you and adjust your movement speed so they can catch up (Even if they could move a lot faster, pay more attention and react faster to commands, you have to wait for at least the bulk of your fireteam to maintain the integrity of the fireteam.)

When?

In order to have your fireteam members within local range & following you, the Squad Leader must embrace this idea wholeheartedly. This means if the Squad Leader is not prepared to kick members out of their squad for not following their fireteam leader then there is ultimately no consequence for disobedience and no real reason to follow the fireteam leader. This could be difficult in a public game, if the Squad Leader have given you FTL, as you do not know if the SL will enforce fireteam cohesion.

If the Squad Leader is not enforcing cohesion, then for the sake of your enjoyment, its recommended that you approach the role of FTL with more ease. You can in local try to "rally up" your fireteam members and encourage them to follow you. However weather the players will do that or not is only a matter of honor and respect and if they choose to not do it, there is nothing you can do about it. Therefor its best most of the times to play the game as if you did not have the FTL appointment if you get assigned to be it.

In the end you have to read the SL's attitude towards using fireteams and enforcing cohesion and adjust your level of effort based on the SL.

-- Command

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Orders

1. Show your intent - Use the different Fireteam orders to visually tell both SL and soldiers what your intent is. It can also be used to quickly mark targets to get a unified picture for the fireteam what they are engaging or to use as a reference point for forwarding contact information up to your squad leader.
   How?
   
   • Radial Menu (Require Direct Line of sight)
     
   • Quick Order Button (Require Direct Line of sight)
     
     
   • Spawn Menu
     
   Which?
   
   • Arrow/Move = Go here, prepare to move further
     
   • Shield/Defend = Defend, move to this location and stay/wait
     
   • Dagger/Attack = Clear from enemies, Search And Destroy, Move with weapons “at ready”, Eliminate
     
   • Shovel/Dig/Construct = Take down/Build Up enemy/friendly HAB/FOB
     
   • Eye/Observe = Watch This direction, Look here, Point of interest
   
   
2. Verbalize your intent - Explain your plan with words
   
   • Brief - Tell your squad what you intend the fireteam will be doing for the upcoming minutes. Tell them how you have interpreted the SLs orders and how the fireteam will be executing those orders.
     
   • Re-Verbalize - When the plan changes or when the situation changes. Explain how it will affect the various soldiers and their orders/tasks.
     
   • Verbalize "Prepare Order(s)" - If you want a soldier to do something up on a specific command, order or scenario. Example: “AT if there is a armor vehicle, take the rifleman with you and hunt it"
     
   • Repeat - If you receiver orders from your Squad Leader, repeat those orders for the fireteam in detail how you want the fireteam to carry out those orders, which soldier does what.
   
   
3. Gesture your intent - If you start doing something, you will be an example.
   Keep in mind that if you have not been clear on what you expect your soldiers to do, they will follow you lead even if you did not intend them to. However this becomes more effective if you combine it with Verbalization and Visualization.
   
   • Pointman - Taking the point and leading the way can easily be achieved by saying to your Fireteam "FOLLOW ME!". You have to verbally encourage your team members to follow as they might otherwise not realized you moved away due to them getting tunnelvision in a intense firefight or comms can be hectic.
     
     • Assign a pointman - Its not always suitable with the fireteam leader taking point. This depends mostly on which role/kit/class the FTL have and what terrain the fireteam is moving through. It boils down to who in your fireteam can quickest: spot, acquire and then eliminate a target. In general soldiers with scoped assault rifles is most versatile for most ranges and situations. This means if you are carrying a iron-sight rifle or a LMG/MG then perhaps you should order someone else to take point. It can easily be done by placing a fireteam order where you want the pointman to go and then appoint a soldier with the task "Rifleman, pointman, move to move marker, Everyone else follow the Rifleman"
   • Movement Speed - As you are moving make sure you are not moving too fast as less experienced players have a tendency to fall behind. Adapt your speed to prevent to ham your teams integrity. As the further you stretch your fireteams asserts over a greater area the hard it will be for its members to cover each others backs. To prevent this, verbalize when you are moving and when you are stopping.

-- Formations (Basic)

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Formations is something you apply when moving from one location to another on foot. Some of these formation will be too difficult for pub-players to apply but if you are in a clan you can practice these.

The Pointman
Is the person who everyone else follows, that leads the formation to its destination. If you do not assign anyone else as that, you as FTL will be Pointman. As Pointman you are always in the "right" position, everyone else have to adjust to you, even you as FTL if you have appointed someone else to be on point. The Pointman should be who ever that can quickest engage and spot enemies. That usually means they use a Scoped Assault Rifle.

• FIRETEAM COLUMN/FILE

  Description: A formation that is naturally formed when you command your team to follow you. Its not the best formation but it is simple and most people understand what you mean.
  Difficulty: to form / to move in
  Movement Speed:
  Security:
  Strengths:
  
  • Good for fast movement between locations
    
  • Good for low risk of contact
    
  • Strong firepower to the sides
    
  • Good observation to the sides
    
  • Easily transforms into a Line (if contacts on the sides)
  Weaknesses:
  
  • Reduced firepower & observation to the front and rear
    
  • Vulnerable to incoming fire from front & rear
  Command (Rookie friendly):
  Place "Move Marker" at either final destination or waypoint
  

  FOLLOW ME
  or
  [NAME OF POINTMAN] ON POINT, FOLLOW [NAME OF POINTMAN]

  People will naturally fall into a "column"-shaped formation with the command "Follow me"
  
  

• FIRETEAM LINE

  Description: Designed to engage an enemy in one direction, to gain the maximum firepower by consolidating all members focus to one direction. Useful when getting ready to assault an enemy location or when ambushing a incoming enemy.
  Difficulty: to form / to move in
  Movement Speed:
  Security:
  Strengths:
  
  • Good for assaults on a known enemy location
    
  • Good for making ambushes
    
  • Good for sweeping larger areas
    
  • Good for a high risk of contracts to the front
    
  • Strong firepower & observation forward
  Weaknesses:
  
  • Reduced firepower to the sides
    
  • Reduced observation to the rear and sides
    
  • Vulnerable to incoming fire from the sides
  Command (Rookie friendly):
  Place "Move Marker" at either final destination or waypoint
  

  FORM LINE, LEFT AND RIGHT
  or
  [NAME OF POINTMAN] ON POINT, FORM LINE, LEFT AND RIGHT OF [NAME OF POINTMAN]

  This will work best when stationary
  
  

• FIRETEAM WEDGE

  Description: Shares the strengths of the line allowing the full force to be able to engage to the front but due to its shape allowing more soldiers to detect and engage contacts on the sides. This formation is useful when approaching a location when the enemy is mostly expected in the front.
  Difficulty: to form / to move in
  Movement Speed:
  Security:
  Strengths:
  
  • Good for assaults on a known enemy location
    
  • Good for a high risk of contracts to the front & sides
    
  • Good for sweeping larger areas
    
  • Strong firepower & observation forward
    
  • Good firepower & observation to the sides
    
  • Easily transforms into a Line or Diamond
  Weaknesses:
  
  • Reduced observation to the rear
  Command (Rookie friendly):
  Place "Move Marker" at either final destination or waypoint
  

  FORM LINE(WEDGE), LEFT AND RIGHT
  or
  [NAME OF POINTMAN] ON POINT, FORM LINE(WEDGE), LEFT AND RIGHT OF [NAME OF POINTMAN]

  If you are on the move and command a "Line" or "Wedge", regardless the end result will make it look like a wedge.

-- Formations (Advance)

There is no easy way to get inexperienced players to form any of these formations, you might have to ask if they know the formation before commanding it. But most of these formations will rearly be used anyway. They have their benefits but they also require that the soldiers know their role in their position, in the formation.

• FIRETEAM STAGGERED COLUMN/FILE

  Description: Is like the Column/File but due to the formation does not have all of its members falling behind the pointman in one straight line you get an extra rifle/eyes to the front while not sacrificing firepower to the sides. Useful when traveling in between locations or when contact is expected on the sides.
  Difficulty: to form / to move in
  Movement Speed:
  Security:
  Strengths:
  
  • Good for fast movement between locations
    
  • Good for high risk of contact to the sides
    
  • Strong firepower to the sides
    
  • Good observation to the sides
    
  • Better firepower & observation to the front than a File
    
  • Easily transforms into all formations but specifically File or Line (dependent on which direction contacts are)
  Weaknesses:
  
  • Reduced firepower & observation to the front and rear
    
  • Vulnerable to incoming fire from front & rear
  
  

• FIRETEAM ECHELON

  Description: The Echelon formation is only really applied when you are unlikely to have contacts on one side. The weak side can be protected by having hard cover like a wall or even the map border or you can move in conjunction with another fireteam and form a "Squad Wedge"
  Difficulty: to form / to move in
  Movement Speed:
  Security:
  Strengths:
  
  • Good for encountering contacts to the sides and forward when moving together with other friendly units
    
  • Good for high risk of contacts to the front & one side
    
  • Strong firepower one side & front
    
  • Good observation to one side & front
    
  • Easily transform into a Line or File
  Weaknesses:
  
  • Reduced firepower in the ends
    
  • Reduced observation to the ends
    
  • Requires another friendly unit or cover on the weak side to not be vulnerable
  
  

• FIRETEAM DIAMOND

  Description: If you are moving in enemy territory and can get contact from any direction, the diamond will have best all around firepower and observation.
  Difficulty: to form / to move in
  Movement Speed:
  Security:
  Strengths:
  
  • Good for countering ambushes
    
  • Good for high risk of contact in unknown direction
    
  • Good firepower & observation to all sides
    
  • Easily transforms into a Wedge
  Weaknesses:
  
  • Hard to scale larger with more people

-- Attack

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Distraction & Flank
One of the most useful tactic you can apply in a small scale combat situation is a Distraction & Flank maneuver. It is applicable in situations where you have detected the enemy at the same time or before them. It requires that you act quick to deny the enemy room to act them self.
Execution:

1. 
   CONTACT! - Contact with the enemy have been made! You now need to act before the enemy and open fire to gain fire superiority and chock the enemy so their first reaction will be to take cover.
   
2. 
   SUPPRESS/DISTRACT & FLANK. - You will only have a few seconds of time to assess how many are the enemy, how does the terrain look, what condition are we in? If the numbers against you is around even or lower, the terrain have covered or conceal approach, the distance to flank is not too far and you have not taken too much casualties in the first engagement you can then decide to flank the enemy. If not its better to stick together and play it more defensive.
   
   In order to be successful with the flank you need to divide your fireteam in 2 elements.
   
   • Flanking Element.
     Size: The Flanking element should be between 2-3 soldiers
     Roles & Assets Assignment: Soldiers carrying assault rifles preferably with scopes to aid with fast target acquisition with low penalty to shooting with high fatigue. The Fireteam Leader should be in the Flanking Element as the flanking element may require more coordination than the Distracting/Suppressing Element but that is assuming the that the FTL is using a suitable weapon for the task.
     
   • Distracting/Suppressing Element.
     Size: The Distracting/Suppressing Element should be around 1-2 soldiers.
     Roles & Assets Assignment: The most suitable soldiers to be in the Distracting/Suppressing element should be any soldier with any form of MG handheld, emplaced or mounted. Soldiers that does not have scopes on their assault rifles can also be put into the Distracting/Suppressing Element. In general soldiers with poor target acquisition speed due to weapon or skill and soldiers with weapons with large magazines and high rate of fire that benefits from remaining stationary.
   These Combat Elements could have been prepared in advance by the FTL where the FTL can declare who goes with who and under what callsign/name they should go by. Examples: MG Team, AT Team, Medic Team, Flank Team or Support Team and so on. Some roles benefits from being assigned with each other. You can read about which compositions you could use in this guide:
   
   Squad, Fireteam & Role Composition Guide 

   A Guide for Squad

   By: Fox

   This guide offers a list of various squad composition templates using fireteams and roles for a infantry squad. It explains the basic and the fundamentals of designing a squad composition for a infantry squad by going...
   
   If you however have not set these teams up in advance you can simply call the individuals out by name or role who you want to stay to suppress/distract or mote to flank.
   
   Once all assessments and decisions have been made you need to get to work and execute the flank. Start by commanding your fireteam with who does what (brackets () are optional commands):
   FTL in the Flanking Element:
   

   [Callsign/Role/Name] SUPPRESS (the enemy)! THE REST/[Callsign/Role/Name] FOLLOW (me to flank)!

   FTL in the Distracting/Suppressing Element.
   

   [Callsign/Role/Name] FLANK (the enemy)! THE REST/[Callsign/Role/Name] STAY (with me) AND SUPPRESS!

   
   
3. 
   SURPRISE & NEUTRALIZE - As the Distracting/Suppressing Element opens fire, the Flanking Element starts moving to a optimal angle of attack. To carry out a successful flank you need to combine speed and initiative and balance that against movement and security.
   
   
   • Suppression & Distraction - Gamers do not have fear of death like a person would have in real life therefor the act of suppressing will only work for a short while. During this while, as long as you fire towards the enemy, they will instinctively try to take cover. Once their brains overcome their first reaction, you will become a target. The enemy will try to find an angle in which they could shoot you from.
     
     So the suppressing element must try to find enough cover so that they can continue firing, however bullets do not need to be hitting near the enemy and could just be flying above the enemy's heads. You will effectively make yourself a target because you make yourself to be the largest threat, making both noise and spewing tracers will bait the enemy to put their focus on the suppressing element. Its more important that the Suppressing element focuses more on being safe and less on accurate fire.
     
   • Flanking - You should aim to hit the enemy from their direct side.
     
     If you hit them too much from the front, while that shortens your time it will put you into the enemy's sight-line, risk getting seen, getting engaged and killed.
     
     If you hit the enemy in the rear you risk taking too long time to get there resulting in allowing the enemy to find a angle on the Suppression & Distraction Element and have them killed. You risk also getting entangled with enemy reinforcements which could delay you even further and alert the enemy.
     
     You should choose a path that allows you with as much cover and concealment during the approach as possible. When ready to engage the enemy, doing so from cover will be beneficial to you. If the enemy realizes that they are being flanked and starts engaging the Flanking Element, A command to the Suppression & Distraction Element can be made to switch roles and they can instead do a flank from a different angle.

-- Defense

Defending

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

When it comes to deference you can do it anywhere, it does not need to be on an objective it is when ever the situation requires you to defend. Tho bare in mind that no defense is permanent and all defense should be combined with an attack as given enough time the enemy will succeed.

1. 
   IDENTIFYING A DEFENDABLE POSITION - Regardless if you are forced to defend a location or if the situation forces you to defend yourself, the best thing to do is to do so from a defend-able position. A defend-able should provide as much cover as you can find in the direction of the enemy threats.
   
2. 
   IDENTIFYING APPROACH ANGLES - Once you have decided where you intend to set up you should make a quick analysis of which directions the enemy is most likely to shoot you from or approach from.
   
   • If you are in a building that could mean doorways, windows and openings
     
   • If you are in a compound that could be gateways, alleys and broken walls
     
   • If you are in open terrain it could mean, roads, crests, gulches and so on.
   Previously mentioned is just examples but there is many more. You as a FTL have to use your experience to judge from which directions the enemies could affect you from and what probability it would be for them to do that.
   
3. 
   SECTOR ASSIGNMENTS - The next step is to divide the area in sectors. The amount of sectors is dependent on how many members you have in your fireteam, that you can assign to a sector. You need to weigh the risk of an attack from any of the identified approach angles and balance that against the available soldiers you command. Then assign soldiers to various locations that can cover the approach angles.
   How?
   You can assign peoples positions by marking the location with your fireteam order, verbalizing/describing the position or walking up to the position yourself, however the best is to do a combination of all.
   Then you issue the command for each individual:
   

   (Name/Role) Stay on this position

   To make your defense even more efficient, you should not only assign positions but also observation sectors. Follow up your command with:
   

   Watch between 030 and 100 degrees

   The final result may sound something like this:
   

   (Name/Role) Stay on this position and watch between 030 and 100

   
   If you have the manpower you can even keep one soldier or yourself as reinforcements that moves to the sector that needs most help.

During the defense you might have to repeat the 3 steps as the enemy is adapting to your presence. You might have to sacrifice/forfeit some sectors temporary to handle more immediate assaults by the enemy.

-- Smoke

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Weather you are carrying out a Distraction & Flank maneuver or keeping your fireteam more together, taking it more defensive, smoke can serve as both distraction and concealment. It is your responsibility as a FTL to coordinate this effort. Sometimes one smoke wont be enough, players knows this, so they will hold on to their smokes and use it for their own self-preservation, unless you can utilize them together. You are the one they will listen to when it comes to using smoke so use your voice and coordinate it when you see a need for it. The Squad Leader will not know what kind of situation you are in and can not tell you when you should do it, you have to be the one. Use your situational awareness and judgement for when you think it is right!

Smoke Types

There is a few different options that a Fireteam Leader may have when it comes to smoke deployment within their fireteam.

• Smoke Hand Grenade - Most soldiers carries 1-2 smoke grenades, some roles can have 4. Maximum throwing range is 50m. Useful for creating a smokescreen to prevent the enemy from geting line of sight.
  
• Grenade Launcher Smoke - Grenadiers carry around 6 grenade launcher smokes. They have a effective range between 10-300m. Best used for blinding positions the enemy is using to shoot you from.
  
• Anti Tank Launcher Smoke - Some factions have smoke rounds (x2) for their AT Launchers. Can be used around 30-600m+. Useful for the same reasons as the grenadier smoke.

Smoke can also be deployed through vehicles and mortars but that is assets a infantry Fireteam usually wont have. Requests for that smoke will likely have t go through the Squad Leader

Attack

During an attack you may need to deploy smoke in order to close the distance to the enemy and perhaps force them into a close range engagement. You can command your Fireteam to throw only one, both or continuous (if you have a rifleman with a ammobag or a vehicle with ammo stored). This should be done when the terrains natural cover and concealment no longer offers a suitable path to approach your destination or if the need to retreat arises and turning the back towards the enemy could cost you too many soldiers.

Withdrawal

If the order to disengage, fallback or withdraw, you should do it with as few casualties as possible. In such a situation, deploying smoke between you and the enemy can offer you sufficient concealment to relocate to safety.

-- Communication

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Try to keep communication between fireteam members as non disruptive for other individuals outside the fireteam. For any information relevant for other FTLs or the SL then you as FTL should be the primary person to relay that message through other means of communication.

This is the procedure on how to communicate with your fireteam.

1. Local Comms (DEFAULT)
   Keep your fireteam close enough that you can communicate over local.
   
2. Fireteam 3rd Party VOIP channel (AT RANGE & IF AVAILABLE)
   If you have access to a 3rd Party VOIP software (which many clans/communities have like: Discord, Mumble or Teamspeak) You can use such for long range communication
   
3. Squad Comms (AT RANGE)
   If however no other communication is available then Squad Comms must be used but keep the messages Short, Brief & Clear not to take up more comms than needed.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Coordination

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

You do not always have to wait for the Squad Leader to coordinate your sister/brother teams in your squad. You can bypass the Squad Leader in times of urgency. There could be situations where the SL is preoccupied with command chat, FOB building or is too far away to have good enough situation awareness to make suitable commands for the fireteams.

Direct Communicate
You can directly contact the other Fireteam Leaders in your squad and coordinate with them in order to accomplish your tasks. However you do not have authority over the other FTL's so you should always be humble and respectful towards the other FTL's and only coordinate as equals and not as superior or subordinates (Unless the SL specifically ordered a fireteam to follow instructions by another FTL).
To coordinate as equals means you need to come to an agreement. You can suggest what they should do but do not except them to go through with it until the FTL confirms or counter suggest that you can confirm

• I flank you cover?
  
• I intercept you defend?
  
• I dig the FOB you defend?
  
• Can you do [X], while I do [Y]?

Note that respect does not mean that you have to sugarcoat your sentences to avoid to hurt the other FTL's feelings but to have a understanding about who you are and who they are. You are equals and you should not expect them to do anything for you, even tho it may seam logical to you, you need to respect that the FTL may decline your request of cooperation due to that it may interfere in their tasks or that they may be unavailable.

Footprint of the squad
When operating by bypassing the Squad Leader, its important to not make the squad more vulnerable so it is important to not be too far away from the other fireteams.
A good guideline is:

• 100m in dense vegetation or urban terrain
  
• 200m in open terrain with little cover & concealment
  
• 300m in complete open terrain

-- Communication

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

It is important to reduce unnecessary communication and therefor send the right message through the appropriate channel.

This is the procedure on how to communicate with other Fireteam Leaders.

1. Local Comms (DEFAULT)
   If you happen to be in rage to the other FTL, you can use local but most likely you wont and have to use Squad Comms.
   
2. Squad Comms (AT RANGE)
   
3. Squad 3rd Party VOIP channel (AT RANGE & IF AVAILABLE)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Coordination

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

No other squads, their SL nor their members owes you anything, you are not entitled to anything from any other squads so be respectful when you request their aid. Other squads can provide you with a valuable asset or resource you would not have had otherwise like:

• Helicopter transport - So you can be transported longer distances at shorter time. Provide you with ammo to rearm.
  
• Combined Arms effort with armor vehicle - This will allow you to use their on board ammo for resupplying your soldiers, use their vehicle as cover or transportation and use their firepower to eliminate enemies in your surrounding.
  
• Joint effort with an infantry squad - Another infantry squad nearby can allow you with more eyes to cover more angles and you can put pressure on the enemy from more directions. There will be more medics that can treat wounded and ammo from riflemen that can rearm your AT soldiers.

Helping other squads
We are all part of the same team and if we should help each other out. If another squad have helped you or if you have an opportunity to help another squad, consider to not put your own squad and fireteam in more harms way nor your Squad Leaders plan in sway. We can not help others if we need help ourselves.

Sharing Information
The other squad does not hear the your squads internal communication so make sure you include and share information with the other squad over local if it is relevant for them to know.

-- Communication

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

It is important to reduce unnecessary communication and therefor send the right message through the appropriate channel.

This is the procedure on how to communicate with other Squad Leaders.

1. Local Comms (DEFAULT)
   If the squad you wanna communicate with is within local range, use the local channel.
   
2. Squad Comms (AT RANGE)
   If that is not withing local range then you have to ask the SL to relay your message over the command channel.
   
3. Squad 3rd Party VOIP channel (AT RANGE & IF AVAILABLE)

Final Words

Sadly I can not say that this guide will work everytime when you end up as a FTL. I need to stress the importance of that it all rides on who you have as a Squad Leader and if they embrace this guide:

Squad Leading with Fireteams Guide 

A Guide for Squad

By: Fox

Take your squad leading to the next level with proper usage of fireteams! This guide will go over how you can maximize the usage of fireteams in your squad and how your gaming experience can be improved.

I have tried to lead a fireteam under other SL's that does not follow that guide and it is always a uphill battle. I therefor save myself from unneeded grief by not embracing the FTL roles that I am given by the SL. You need to get to know the SL and know how they play before you can feel confidence in your appointment and that the SL will have your back.

In other words, when you do have an SL that does apply fireteams appropriately I love to offer them my services as a FTL. I know that they will appreciate my effort and it will not only make their game more fun but you will also offer a amazing, immersive experience for your fireteam members. You will also enjoy it more as you feel you can accomplish more and through teamwork overcome far larger obstacles than you otherwise would be able to.

I do not expect this guide to be as popular as the previous ones I written but I do hope that the Squad Leaders that do apply my content from my Squad leading with fireteams guide can use this guide to help get their friends who they regularly play with to "up" their Fireteam Leading game and take it one step further to improve everyone and their experience.

Roadmap

My guide is not completely finished. I have some plans for how i want it to look in its finished state. This is the things I'm planning to add:

• Grammatical Errors Fixing
  
• Graphics

Stay Updated!

If you like my work and want to receive steam notifications about changes to existing guides of mine or new guides I release, subscribe to this discussion thread.
Squad Leading Guides (Collection by Fox)

Other Guides

By the same author

Squad Leading with Fireteams Guide 

A Guide for Squad

By: Fox

Take your squad leading to the next level with proper usage of fireteams! This guide will go over how you can maximize the usage of fireteams in your squad and how your gaming experience can be improved.

Squad, Fireteam & Role Composition Guide 

A Guide for Squad

By: Fox

This guide offers a list of various squad composition templates using fireteams and roles for a infantry squad. It explains the basic and the fundamentals of designing a squad composition for a infantry squad by going...

Squad Tactical Attack & Defense Guide 

A Guide for Squad

By: Fox

This guides purpose is to go in depth with some of the more common defense and attack strategies. These are strategies I tested myself and many other SL's have their own variations of them and perhaps call them...

Rallypoint Guide 

A Guide for Squad

By: Fox

This guide will teach you both the mechanics as well as the methods of how to use rallies. It goes into both basics as well as advanced usage of rallies. This is a good guide for new Squad Leaders.

By different authors
If you want your guide featured here you need to agree to feature any of mine & I need to have read your guide to approve/support your content

• None

[Fox]

https://steamcommunity.com/id/patich/ translated for me, thanks!

[Fox]

Я хотел бы поблагодарить

взвод штурмовых саперов "CEP"

Это русскоязычное сообщество, занимающееся косплеем саперов армии США. Они обучают своих членов этому методу руководства боевыми группами, так что если вы говорите по-русски и хотите играть так, как описано в этом руководстве, вам стоит заглянуть на их форум. Они перевели все руководство на русский язык, чтобы облегчить понимание руководства, это потрясающе! Так что если вы хотите научиться играть в команде, присоединяйтесь к ним!

Форум: https://combat-engineer.ru
Дискорд :https://discord.gg/mmT6vztUfs

[Fox]

I like to give a shoutout to the

Combat Engineer Platoon "CEP"

They are a russian squad community. They are teaching this method of fireteam leading to their members so if you speak russian and wants to play like how this guide describes, you might want to check out their website. They have translated the entire guide into russian to make it easier to understand the guide, amazing! So if you want to learn, apply to join their group!

Website/Forum: https://combat-engineer.ru
Discord: https://discord.gg/mmT6vztUfs

[Hangry_Hungarian]

That sounds great! I'll check out your next guide soon!

[Fox]

I am glad to hear, you should also check out the guide written for squad leaders https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1784181394

and if you like this method of play as its written here. let me know and perhaps we can arrange some games where we play and take turns who SL and FTLs

[Hangry_Hungarian]

I been playing a lot of squad recently and this guide helped me a lot with my leadership skills thank's once again!

[Fox]

New Guide Available!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2063347030

[Fox]

Updated:
Your Squad Leader -> Support Requests:
Emplacements & Defenses - If you are close to a FOB you can request the SL to place some emplacements and defenses to help improve a position you been ordered to or you identified you needed to defend