Bitcoin Baron's - Officer Training - Basics

The first of my comprehensive officer training guides. These offer an extremely detailed look at how to be not just an effective officer, but one of the BEST. An officer with effective skills able to give useful tips and commands to his team can turn a humiliating defeat into a close fought stalemate or even a last second win. To make the dry parts more interesting, light hearted humour is peppered throughout.

This first guide will cover:
>>The basic officer mechanics and orders.
>>Communicating with your squad effectively.
>>Behavior of you and your squad, in general and the different game modes

It's worth noting that a lot of what's written here you may find subjective, and perhaps you may not personally agree with. That's fine, these guides are my opinions and not facts.

BEGINNER INTRODUCTION / Prerequisites

PLEASE NOTE - This guide was written before officers riding horses was removed from the game, the relevant sections have been left in as i sincerely hope AGS will reverse their recent silly decision to remove a feature no one EVER complained about in game, and let officers have the fun they are supposed to. Do right by the community!

Welcome to the guide, I hope you find this useful. This guide is designed to help you start your journey on the officer class. I am writing this when drunk, so bear in mind, that at least some of what I say will be questionable. People have different ideas of what is and isn't good behaviore of the officer class.

Don't even read this guide unless:

• You have at least 100 hours in the game, and know your way around ALL of the maps.
  
• You have a microphone (bonus points if you can use it without sounding like you're whispering because it's late or you've got to keep the noise down)
  
• You know how to use TEAM CHAT (press tab when typing).
  
• You are confident at communicating via voice.
  
• You don't sound like, or are not in fact, a child by way of voice.

Note that this last point is a hot topic, but it is rare that I have seen, in my 650+ hours playing, players by and large treat kids/people with child-like voices with anything but derision when they play officer class. This sadly means that people are less likely to follow your orders, which will lead to you becoming frustrated. You don't have to sound like you're 50, but if you're only 10 it's going to be heard in your voice.

And this isn't really a game for kids! It's about shooting, and violence, and all those other things that edgelords like to say in game, which are not reprintable here. If you insist on trying anyway, then i would advise you to use voice chat as sparingly as possible to avoid being subject to unjust ridicule.

Why are you writing this guide?

I'm writing this in case anyone wants a crash course in officer-ism. There are a few guides which go over the basics, or some areas, but not others. If you wish to play officer, it's a specialist role you'll have to grow into, it's a lot different to most infantry. I've also tried to sex it up with some jokes and japes along the way.

What is in this guide?

This guide is more like a comprehensive training course. Because it ended up being bigger than expected, it's divided up into modules. Small bits of training on a specific subject, and then a quiz to see how much you've remembered. I also am very strongly recommending that after each module, you go away and put into practice your newly acquired knowledge. This guide is too big, and is not meant for, reading through all at once.

Why are there no Italians (or any class other than British, French, Prussian or Russian) in this guide?

This guide was written before they were added. There are only a few sections that future classes could be added to, and I'm far too lazy.

Technical stuff.

You're gonna need to use your voice, it's preferable if you have a good quality microphone (we're talking at least £70/$100 microphone, hopefully with a mixing desk so you can quickly adjust microphone levels). (Imaginary) People regularly ask me why my voice sounds good in game (and in practically every damn voice-chat type game I play, seriously it gets annoying!), it's probably because I'm using a AT2020 microphone, and ZMX 862 mixer. For the love of everyone else's experience, please also wear headphones, so that your game sound goes only to YOUR ears, instead of just having the microphone pick that up and then everyone else gets an echo of all game sound/voices back through your transmission.

If you want to TEST your voice and volume levels, i would certainly recommend the free audio program AUDACITY, which will allow you to record your voice and play it back. Whatever program you use, you need to SEE your recorded voice to be sure it's not too quiet, or TOO LOUD. Use the handy visual guide below:

A breif note on terminology.

Nothing too complex here, but the guide needs to make careful distinction of a few terms:

Squad

- This is used to identify soldiers under your command. Seperate from the rest of your TEAM.

Troops

- This is used to identify soldiers NOT under your command. E.G the REST of the team (pretty much the opposite of the above). However when referring to "enemy troops" this obviously means the same as "enemy army"

Army

- The entire team.

There may be some unfound instances where the guide breaks these rules, but hopefully the context of the sentence will not leave you in any doubt.

1.00 - Module 1: Welcome to officer school!

As mentioned above, in this guide I will bombard you with a small amount of knowledge, to then take forth and experiment with in game. This first section, hopefully, you already know most of from your previous experiences of serving under officers. However, it is wise to read through this pretty short section in case there's anything you've missed, this basic knowledge is critical.

In this module you will find:

• A breakdown of all the mechanics of the officer class.
  
• A brief discussion on officer basics.
  
• Some tips to help you get started in the field.

As a caveat before you begin, this is not guidance specific to regiments (REG), if you're in a reg, you may want to ask them for reg specific training, often this is done with another reg member, who can provide a person-to-person tuition, which may have a more effective...... effect on getting you up to speed on officer class.

However, you may be able to impress your reg, if you can advise them you have been through this guide, so may be ready for command duties!

1.01 - The Officer - A quick overview

The officer is one of the most useful and dangerous classes in Holdfast (HF), a few good officers have the ability to transform an almost-out-of-grasp loss into a last-second-victory. This is why it is severely limited in the amount of class slots available.

Officer abilities

• You can give a group of people a commander, someone who will guide them and rally them, like a shepherd, through the violence, and even show them how to die when the time is right.
  
• You can place lines and give line-orders, people stood on the line following orders also get a bonus to accuracy, and points awarded for kills, and you will also get points and a kill notification (if you've said Fire or Fire At Will). It's a win-win situation.
  
• You can place a spawn flag! This means a limited amount of rank and file soldiers can spawn on that flag, rather than having to walk halfway across a battlefield after dying, to get back into the action.
  
• You get the most deadly accurate pistol in the game.
  
• When you have mastered this guide, you should be able to start providing great role play experiences.

Role Play?!

Yes this is a role play class! As officer, your job is not to get the most kills, or top of the leader board. Your job is to give people an officer, someone who sounds like they are in control, have a plan, and can give tips and help to people around the battlefield. You are a gamer, you are pretending to be an officer in a napoleonic battle. You don't have to take it seriously, but it helps.

This is important, as when you provide great experience of being a captain for the general army, not only do they and you have a great time, they're more likely to want to follow your orders in the future.

When you're full flow on all of this stuff, you will understand the men, the orders, the battlefield, the tactics, and you will be giving orders, and instructions to the men about you. You'll often succeed in what you tried to do (such as hold a position, or attacking positions held by the enemy), you will find this fun and so will the guys following orders.

1.02 - Mechanic-by-Mechanic overview.

Weapons

Fists of Glory - Some occasions, brute strength and pugilistic ambition is called for. As an officer, it is your right to accept any challenge to single combat by an enemy officer.


Sabre of Destiny - For your general melee needs. an officer has to be prepared to lead their side to glory. You gain 5% melee damage bonus, and in melee combat are also 15% resistant to damage.


The dagger of Derision - A small dagger, not really worth using, it's not as impressive as the Sabre.


The Gun of Gods - At first glance, just an ordinary pistol, but in fact, this is perhaps (as of the time of writing) the best weapon in the game, IF you know how to use it. The pistol is good for getting kills up to 50m away with ease, and the chosen few can push that even further.

BEFORE moving on any further with this guide, and certainly before attempting officer class in game, you really should be comfortable in your abilities with these weapons. Men are more likely to stick with a commander who does not just talk the talk, but walk's the walk on the battlefield. Who wants to follow orders of an officer who sits behind a rock/bush without demonstrating their prowess in the lesser skills of combat?

Orders

Orders can be issued to your men, via the order menu (default key is Q)

1 - Stand your ground (place a line).
2 - Make ready (Prepare to fire)
3 - Fire!
4 - Fire at Will (or enemies by any other name).
5 - Ceasefire (stop firing)
6 - Charge!
7 - Well done lads (Move to new position)
8 - Place spawn flag.

Each of these orders deserves it's own section, but to make things easier for the would-be officer, we will relegate orders 2,5,6 and 7 to the status of ADVANCED ORDERS. This doesn't mean they aren't important, but we want to get you off this guide and having fun in the game as soon as possible. Details on these are in section 3.02

Special Power

NOTE THAT THIS SECTION IS NOT CORRECT UNTIL AGS RE-ADD OFFICER RIDING TO THE GAME

The officer also has the power to ride a horse. So if you spot a horse that has lost it's master, you can climb on it and ride around to feel extra important for 30 seconds until you are killed because horses are bullet magnets.

1.03 - PRIMARY ORDERS

If you've made it this far in the guide, congratulations, you have reading skills which exceed the level of a draining board. Whilst this, in itself, is a good thing which we should celebrate, there is still more to learn. You are perhaps, eager to advance and get practising being an officer in game? Good, an officer without ambition is a poor officer.

With that in mind, we are going to go briefly over the primary orders, and how to use them, and we'll come back later for a more in-depth look at them. These are the orders you MUST use at a most basic level, as often as you possibly can. To issue orders, press Q to bring up the orders menu followed by a number:

1 - STAND YOUR GROUD / FORM A LINE

This paint's a line on the ground for rank and file troops or anyone else to form up on. You can use this at your teams spawn to gather a fair sized squad to lead into battle. However, don't spend too long waiting for lots of units to fall in. The longer you hold men back at your spawn, the longer the front lines will be under-manned.

Even at base, you should be able to tell prospective squad members what your plan of action is, where are you taking them? It's important to be thinking about this from the moment you start each level. You might end up attracting more troops to your spawn-line. However, this is optional, you don't need to place a line, you can just head for the position and make your intentions known over voice chat, this saves time.

The primary use of lines, however, is simply to give men a place to rally at. When you place a line, it can be seen on the regular soldier's screens, and can highlight to them that this is a place an officer wants men to assemble or attack from.

Lines on their own are not much use unless you issue orders which the men on the line follow.

3/4 - FIRE / FIRE AT WILL

When you've got your line down, you can tell men to fire from it. Note that there are two orders, FIRE and FIRE AT WILL. FIRE means units should fire their guns immediately, and the bonus to their score (and yours) and accuracy lasts only a brief time.

FIRE AT WILL is, at least initially, the only command you'll want to issue on your line. With this order given, the men can reload and fire at their own discretion. Gaining the bonuses and points for any and all kills. It means you don't have to cycle through the orders of make ready/present, and FIRE over and over, the line therefore becomes autonomous.

This is useful because it then means you can concentrate on looking about to give your squad info, or even go off to direct another group

HOWEVER, there is another difference in these commands, when using FIRE, your squad gets a 20% accuracy bonus, for 4 seconds after you issue it, FIRE AT WILL gives a 10% bonus only, but it is ongoing. To use FIRE to it's fullest affect, you will also want to use the MAKE READY command, which means enemy units will prepare to fire and stand ready.

8 - PLACE FLAG

Order 8 is the most effective tool an officer possesses. It allows regular troops to spawn on the flag location. You hopefully have already seen and used this in game, so it need little explanation, however, one problem that new officers often forget is that, until the max spawns of your flag have been reached, and the flag would normally expire, it's continued existence is dependant on your own.

This means, if you die, the flag dies. I've seen clearly noobish officers place a flag, then charge headlong at the enemy. They get killed, and the flag disappears before anyone can spawn on it (Disclaimer, I've also done this, but shh, don't tell anyone). The flag was wasted and it'll be four minutes before the officer gets the ability to place a flag again.

Therefore when you place the flag, you should stay low or in solid cover. Many will be the time you find an excellent position, you place a flag, and then suddenly from an unexpected angle, comes death, and your flag is wasted. It's better to place it some way behind the front lines than at the edge of the action.

Also - your flag can be broken by the enemy if they melee-attack it. Where possible, try to place the flag so it is disguised. For instance behind a tree or large bush, in a ditch, inside of a building. Even if it's a good distance from them, if an enemy sees your spawn flag, they will likely call it out in their own team chat, and before you know it, they will send a group over to deal with it. This is where map knowledge will help you out a lot.

Lets just have a look at the different flags, in case you have forgotten what they look like with all this reading:


There is much more to flag placement to discuss, but for now just understand the above.

DON'T FORGET TO PRESS Q AGAIN TO CLOSE THE ORDERS MENU AS SOON AS POSSIBLE

This last is important, while in the Q menu, your number keys are reconfigured, this means you can't change weapon, a lesson you are sure to painfully learn.

1.04 - ****QUIZ!****

Below you will find a series of questions to test your knowledge and make sure your brain hasn't gone into auto-pilot reading mode.

Each question is followed by a black patch. This is the answer and appears only when you hold your mouse over it (or tap it, if you're on a mobile device). Please try to answer the questions yourself before reading the answer, you're only cheating yourself if you cheat. Each "answer" also contains in brackets the section number (such as this one being 1.04) to help you go back to that knowledge if you wish to.

To make sure you understand the concept of mouse movement, please hover over the the black box below this sentence.
Well done, you have now fully graduated basic mouse training!

If you get at least half of these right or nearly right, you're ready to conclude this module. Some sections have a list of answers below the question, some being right and others not so much. I've tried to include a few joke responses to make this test more bearable. Good Luck.

01 - How much bonus damage does an officer's sabre have?

• 5%
  
• 15%
  
• 35%
  
• over 9000%

Answer: 5% (1.02)

02 - How do you place a line for reinforcements?
Answer: Press Q then 1 (1.03)

03 - What is the most powerful weapon in the officer's toolbox?
Answer: Either pistol or Spawn Flag are correct answers (1.02)/(1.03)

04 - Have you actually read through every section above, or just skimmed to here?
Answer: Not only have I read every section above this one. I have also already given your guide a 5-star rating on steam.

05 - You've just put your flag down, and placed a line in front of a wall for troops to amass at, but you notice to your left that there is a line of troops some distance away, on the edge of being overrun. You determine the best course of action is to go and help. You:

• Have placed the flag, so it's OK to make your way over immediately, people will spawn on it as you travel.
  
• Wait at your flag until spawns have ran out, shooting the enemy, then make your way over with a squad.
  
• Leave the problem on the left for another officer to deal with.

Answer: None of the above, after placing your line, you also need to GIVE ORDERS for the people on it, then close the orders menu by pressing Q again. (1.03)

06 - Speaking of which, in the scenario above, where did you place that flag?

• In the open so I can see how many people spawn on it.
  
• Outside of our own spawn, so the troops get a good healthy walk in before death.
  
• Inside a group of large bushes (or behind a tree)
  
• Inside player X's mother

Answer: Behind bushes or trees is the ideal answer.(1.03)

07 - What is order number 6?
Answer: Charge! (1.02)

08 - What tool or resource does the officer not have, but is able to take advantage of?
Answer: Cavalry/Horses. (1.02)

09 - If you play on the EU servers and "Nigel Farage" offers you tea, do you accept?

• Of course, with formal reply of great friendliness.
  
• No, it's probably poisoned.
  
• Only if Yorkshire tea is an option
  
• No, for Nigel says this as a icebreaker before moving on to bad jokes.
  
• I don't play on EU servers.

Answer: Every answer is the correct one

If you answered at least 10 questions correctly, you are ready to continue.

1.05 - Module 1: Conclusion

If you've made it this far without giving up, congratulations, you may have the fortitude to make it to the end. It's now time to test what you have learned or learn't in game. However, before your first stint as officer-in-training, we should go over some basic DOs and DONTs for your first field test. Not only will these

DO:

• Place spawn flags as often as possible in strategic/advanced locations (NOTE - some game modes, you cannot place flags) - Place flags by pressing Q+8
  
• Place lines along walls/areas with cover, especially around points of control (the A,B,C,D flags, or buildings or hills, even a line of bushes can do. - Place lines by pressing Q+1
  
• Give the order to fire, or set the line to fire at will. - Q+3 or Q+4
  
• REMEMBER TO CLOSE THE OFFICER MENU AS SOON AS YOU ARE DONE TO AVOID ACCIDENTS - Just press Q again.
  
• If anyone on your line gets a kill (it'll show on your screen) tell them well done, give them some acknowledgement, it helps morale and makes the units you command feel like you are paying attention to them.
  
• If you get stuck and aren't sure how to do an officer task, just ask over voice chat, many people dabble in officer from time to time, so lots can help you out.
  
• If a soldier makes a suggestion about where to shoot, move to, place a flag/line etc, think about it. Unless you have a good reason against it, accept every suggestion!

This last point is important, some people have been playing Holdfast longer than you have been alive. Some veteran players actually fought under napoleon, and received from him a golden baguette for their efforts in the battle of Waterloo. They may know that the location they want to fire at/move to, by experience, is much better. Accept every suggestion and you will quickly learn what is good, and what isn't.



DONT:

• Play officer if your voice sounds like a child, you will open yourself up to ridicule from less serious / more toxic style of players.
  
• Get annoyed or frustrated if people ignore you at spawn when you're trying to organise a big group, sometimes it just be like that.
  
• Throw blame out to units under your command, or even just in team chat, if things aren't going well. This does not create a nice atmosphere, and doesn't single you out as an officer of great merit.
  
• You are responsibly for your men, if they fail, it IS your responsibility. Even if you tried doing what a soldier offered up as advice, you should accept the blame, and not throw their advice back at them.
  
• Get thrown out of stride by players either blasting music, or throwing insults at you as you set your flags, lines and orders. Some cringelords out there think the game can only be enjoyed their way, as a light hearted shooter, and will deride anyone trying to play it differently.

****FT1 - Your first field test!****

Let's be honest, you probably aren't going to enjoy your first few officer games. You'll struggle to remember the orders, might get killed whilst trying to make them, the army might just mostly ignore you, or not even spawn on your flags.

But after a few games, the orders will come more naturally, then you will start to have a little fun.

Learning too much too fast can cause info-burnout. Even if you feel like you're now up to speed, and don't want to run this field test, experience beats everything else! Unless you've already played officer class AND found no knowledge above which you didn't already know in detail, please break your learning here and go and practise.

For the true newbie, I would recommend at least a full session of 4-5 hours in game before moving on to the next module. Why so much? Well the main reason being there are a great variety of maps and modes, and it's important to gain experience of commanding across a lot of these. Also try to get practise on all the game modes a particular map has.

You will be ready to proceed when:

• You have a good idea of the points of control on maps, including seemingly barren "plains" maps, with very little default fortifications on them.
  
• You are finding it easy to make the basic orders.
  
• You have lead some good and successful charges against enemy lines, and held off the enemy through some end of round last stands.
  
• You have started to enjoy your role as officer in training.

Good luck, have fun!

2.00 - Module 2: Communications.

Welcome back! Did you have a good field trip? You look a little traumatised, not to worry, milk and cookies can fix that..... SURGEON! MILK AND COOKIES! STAT!

Just as I've tried to write this in small sections, with guidance, I will now offer you further advice. It's helpful if you go through just one module per day, and sleep between modules, so that your brain gets some rest and can put away all the knowledge you have leardened.

For this next section is going to be quite laborious to get through, an officer needs to communicate. Using team chat (press tab to cycle through chat channels), will only get you so far. You need to use your voice, and it helps if you can sound confident (even if you have no idea what is going on).

This is the point where you make your choice soldier, after this point, there's no turning back. If you go no further than this, you have at least achieved the rank of 4th class Officer and can fill in as officer when your team needs it. Proceeding through future modules will slowly result in further changes, to your overall play style.



You will acquire skills that only officers use, and such skills will become second nature to you. You will find it hard to divest yourself from this mantle of knowledge and resume a ordinary life amongst the rank and file. You will find it hard to stop giving orders as though you were an officer, you will have difficulty submitting to the authority of officers who are not as well trained as you. You will become accustomed to leading your squad to glory, to an honourable death or domination. You will become a person who recognises the ebb and flow of battle and understands that there is more to tactics than the objective your team needs next.

You will become a beacon of order amongst the gunsmoke and bodies and explosions. You will become a person the rank and file want to be around, and a person destined for many glorious ends from now, into futurity, for the glory of a thousand emperors, kings, kaisers or tsars. Upon your orders, legions perish or prosper, from the desert to the ice-fields, from the farmstead to the fort, to the ends of the earth!

This is where you make the choice of whether officer is in your Holdfast skill set, or if it is your skill set.

2.01 - Your new rank: 3rd Class Officer.

To mark milestones of achievement and experience for you along this guide, and make it feel like you're getting somewhere, we will award you a semi-serious rank to denote your path and progress. You are now a 3rd Class Officer.

As you have chosen to continue the way of the officer, we should now put things into perspective. Before now, it wasn't as important to give you a rank, as, if the basics already discussed were enough for you, you would have stopped reading this guide.

In THIS guide, you can attain the following ranks:

3rd Class Officer

- You know the basic mechanics of officer class, and can take on responsibilities, if needed.
2nd Class Officer - You know how to communicate with your team, the units around you, and with other officers. You will also be introduced to the general hazards you should always be looking out for.
1st Class Officer You will also understand the types of behaviour you need to encourage from your squad in different game modes, and what to help them achieve in each mode.


A separate, advanced guide may also convey you to the advanced ranks:

Captain You also are capable of single handedly leading a team to a glorious end, or making a good account of yourselves if you have to make a last stand. Now that you can control, and inform your team, it's time to start feeling great as you do it.
Major - You will learn the finer terminology of the battlefield and terrain, and we will discuss and formalise various sections of battles, and how to recognise when it's time to pull back and regroup.



A separate, expert guide could also spur you on to the advanced rank of:

General - To make the ultimate rank of this guide, we will discuss in depth tactics you will need to consider for every level, and map mode. We will show each level as a map and mark out the critical places to capture, hold, and attack from in order to dominate the enemy. Using all skills gained so far, regular soldiers hearing your voice will want to come and be part of your success. You will become a target for the enemy who will know that your very existence on the battlefield is a threat. You are the first horseman of the apocalypse. You can even force victories when playing on the British team*.

*Please note this last remark is speculative, and might not actually be possible under any circumstances.

As a reward for all your hard work so far, you have now unlocked the MONOCULAR special item for your officer class. Press G to use it to zoom in on something far away.

2.02 - How to communicate effectively.

As already mentioned, there are three ways to communicate with your team:

Text chat - Use TEAM CHAT to send text based messages to your entire team.
Voice chat - Use voice chat to communicate to people near to you on the battlefield.
Officer chat - This is a purple chat mode that only officers can see. This should be used to enable officers to devise tactics or share information and potential strategies. If you are officer class, press tab enough and you will get the OFFICER channel.

The first way to communicate effectively is to know which method to use. Although it may seem obvious, lets cover over the cracks, if you have them here, and move on:

Text [Team] Chat

This should be used to let the whole team know about developing situations. It's better to share this directly in TEAM chat and not officer chat for three reasons:

• It lets everyone know of that situation immediately.
  
• Not every player is under an officer, some just go forth and follow their own path.
  
• Not all officers are paying attention or may be able to immediately pass on the message.

If you have a squad already with you, you should NOT be using text chat to speak to them, use your microphone!

The benefits of team chat are balanced with the fact that, while typing, you are essentially AFK and stood still, so are vulnerable to attack. If you're in dangerous territory, try to find cover before text chatting, unless the situation you need to communicate is of the highest urgency.

Voice Chat

This is your main tool. Use it to rally your squad, give them intel, and sometimes to insult the enemy, in good taste of course! Voice chat is the optimal way to communicate, as you are going to need to do your best to make your men aware of whats going on around you, as they take aim, fire and reload. Never assume a hazard or target has been seen, make sure your men are aware of it.

A prime example of this is enemy cavalry. Whether a horse is Russian or British, Prussian or French, it sounds the same, and many players, especially if in groups, seem to miss the sound or assume it's a friendly horse, until suddenly it rushes by and kills three soldiers in one swing of a blade. If you hear the sound of horses hooves, you need to figure out where that's coming from above any other priority as officer.

Some people don't have good mics or aren't comfortable communicating a lot over voice chat.

I mean that's understandable in this game, especially if you are a female gamer, as many males in this game have some pretty interesting reactions if they discover a female in their midst. Some turn into simps, or gimps or seem to undergo a total malfunction in the manners department.

However, I do feel strongly that without voice chat and being comfortable communicating, you will have a much harder time as officer, and it wont be as enjoyable.

Officer Chat

This is your least preferable option. Chat in officer channel should be minimal, in most cases, updates about what is happening on the battlefield should be in team chat. This channel is only really useful for discussing among officers, potential courses of action for the rest of the game. It's rare if ever that you'll use this. It also means you have to TAB cycle back through chat modes to get to TEAM chat again.

2.03 - Brevity = Prosperity.

There is a lot to be said for keeping your orders short and sweet. Especially if your mic is bad quality, your voice is horrible, or you are not wearing headphones. Reducing the number of words needed to convey a message brings a lot of benefits:

• Information is communicated quickly. Your squad or the team then gets seconds more reaction time, which might end up being valuable.
  
• Keep the orders SIMPLE! Don't tell them a whole plan of campaign, they'll forget half of it, or get confused. In your head, break things down into the smallest steps and then feed them these orders, one at a time.
  
• Less words gives you less words to stumble over if you're needing to talk quickly.
  
• As officer, you need to give sizeable breaks between directions, to let other players speak and communicate, this helps build team morale, and roleplay. Many squad members can get cheesed off if their officer won't shut up, I've seen people complain about this regularly.
  
• Another benefit of letting your squad speak is they might have noticed something you've missed.
  
• Converse with your the whole army! Talk to them, and encourage team cohesion, make them feel part of a team, not just some military unit working under an officer NPC who doesn't give two hoots what they have to say.

Brevity is a skill you will come to learn is necessary as officer. Consider the time it takes to say the following, and then consider the alternatives, which are blacked out (hover your mouse over them).

(VOICE chat) "Lads look out, that cannon on the wall ahead just moved, it might be about to fire on us. Get out of the way!" - "Cannon ahead is aiming, scatter, scatter scatter!"

(TEAM text chat) "Guys! An enemy officer has placed a spawn flag behind that tree to the right of our spawn" - "Enemy flag behind tree, right of spawn!"

2.04 - General situations you need to communicate quickly

Here is a list of common situations you should communicate

Text chat

• Sudden changes in the battle lines, if your location / control point is about to be overrun, communicate this without delay. Reinforcements might arrive in time to prevent it being overtaken.
  
• If you see a large group of the enemy moving around in an area, or trying to get round your battle lines this should be communicated instantly.
  
• If you see horses/cavalry riding around the edges of the map, report it to the team, you might prevent that horse rampaging it's way to 5-6 kills at your base spawn.
  
• If you're not in an active situation, you can also use team chat to give general advise to the whole team, about ways to proceed.
  
• If someone using voice chat has a terrible voice, or is a weeb.
  
• If Derek MacDonald, the fabled melee god, is in the game.

Voice chat

• Use this to let your nearby squad know of approaching hazards.
  
• Use this to give warnings to them, if they are putting themselves at risk (such as reloading their weapon in plain sight of an enemy).
  
• If artillery is pressing down on your position, use voice to quickly let your side know it's time to move.

Officer chat

It is almost never that you should need specifically to use officer chat, except for discussing potential future tactics. Or to give notice that you are assuming responsibility for a particular area of the map (e.g. "Guys, I'm going to concentrate my squad around the red ship in the ice fields, you guys just keep pressuring the other control points).

There are many more situations where you can and should use these forms of communication, but the above are situations you should be communicating as with as much priority as you can afford them.

2.05 - Orientate your audience.

When giving information to your whole team or squad, time is of the essence and you should keep the information as short and simple as possible. We've already touched on this in brevity but there's another aspect. As well as telling people, in as few words as possible, of a potential danger, you also need to tell them where it is

You will probably know that the minimap has north, east, south and west on it, this can be useful, but most times you should just use a simplified scheme of left, right, forward and behind.

Players naturally develop two sets of zones as they play Holdfast: General and relative, however your communications also have to explain this as quickly as possible.

General directions are based from the orientation of the TEAM's spawn area and direction you start facing. Usually if you are TEAM CHATTING you will be using this system. So for instance, you TEAM chat the following:

"Enemy horse incoming. left side of spawn" - In six words, you have communicated to the whole team that an enemy cavalry unit is approaching the left side of spawn.

"~20 enemy flanking far right edge" - In six words, you have communicated to the whole team that approximate 20 enemy units are along the right hand edge of the battlefield, as seen from your spawn.

Relative directions are based from the orientation of your SQUADs's current position. This can be aided considerably if you have a line down. This is for pointing out to them upcoming hazards or places to move to. Unlike general directions, which are text based, you'll be calling these out, which means you can maintain your own safety, as opposed to having to stop and type, even for just 10 seconds. Due to this being voice chat, it's not as important to keep information as short and clipped.

"We're gonna go grab that rock cover on the left."
"Push up to that wall, reload when you get there."
"Keep low men, enemy units sniping from ahead!"

As an officer in training, switching between orientations can be tricky, but with practise, it gets easier. The most important thing is to formulate what you want to say before you say it. That way you don't have to correct yourself afterwards, and sound like you're getting flustered, it's not what the squad wants to hear.

2.06 - Hazards.

What they look like, and what you should do about them.

When you are shepherding your brave soldiers across a hostile battleground, there are many threats that they will face. These essentially have 5 classes, shown below, in order of descending importance.

CAVALRY - Mounted riders on horseback, with 10 metre long melee swords (like an iceberg, only a tenth is visible to the naked eye.

ARTILLERY - Ranged cannons and rockets capable of decimating a group of soldiers.

OFFICERS - Enemy units with the same powers and mechanics as yourself.

ENEMY UNITS - The lesser, but no less deadly enemy units with hints as to who to prioritise.

TRAPS/EMPLACEMENTS - Less deadly, but capable of significant health damage to your squad.

2.07 - Cavalry

Cavalry Units - The prima facie threat of the battlefield. Cavalry units move fast, they can kill in one shot, they are also buggy and one swish of the sword will kill anything within a huge range without the rider needing to be accurate. This is why they amass tons of kills.

Couple this, with the fact that many of your team's soldier's, either do not listen for the sounds of a horse galloping towards them, or will assume it is an friendly cavalry, and you got yourself a potentially dangerous situation.




If you spot enemy cavalry then unless it's out of range you should try to get your squad to bring it down as a priority (without moving from a position of safety, if possible). You might help protect your squad, or the rest of the teams soldiers by bringing cav down. You might save the lives of 2-3 soldiers, not much on it's own, but remember cavalry can easily kill that many people each life. With multiple lives, that number easily slips into substantial double figures.

Cavalry also have a sneaky habit of trying to get around the edge of the map, and come back on you from behind. Never assume an enemy cav that has passed you will not come back. If you see someone else take it down, tell your men and restore their confidence a little. If it's too far away for you and your squad to deal with, use TEAM CHAT to let everyone know where that unit is.

There is one other point to mention regarding cavalry. As already mentioned, officers can ride on horses. An enemy officer on a horse should be brought down as a priority, even if this means altering or delaying what you wanted to do next on a battlefield.

This is because an enemy officer riding around the edges of your battle lines probably has one purpose; to place a spawn flag for his team down behind your lines, and surprise you in the rear, or place it near spawn and cause enough confusion that your defensive line may be weakened or broken. Whilst the enemy spawning behind you causes confusion, a larger enemy force could rush upon your battle lines. In a close game, this tactic can change the tide of victory.

2.08 - Artillery

Artillery - Arty is one of the most devastating threats in the game, they can reign fire or gunpowder down on your troops, resulting in multiple kills from a single cannonball, mortar, rocket or even grapeshot round. A capable artilleryman will always end up in the top 5 at the end of a match, and an exceptional one can sometimes amass a three figure kill count, depending on how the enemy team moves (or more likely does not) around the battle filed.


If you see the enemy artillery has their sights trained on your soldiers, then even if they have missed, so far you should order your men to move position. That next shot might not miss and might wipe out most of your squad.

Neutralising enemy artillery is difficult because they are usually located near the enemy base, far behind battle lines, in safety. However, this fact is also a blessing. If you move your position, it will take some time for them to adjust your sights. This is where your cavalry comes in. If arty is giving you a hard time, feel free to ask if your teams cavalry can try to bring down the people manning that weapon.



If you're commanding a substantial squad of perhaps 10-20 soldiers, and you also have a sapper erecting defences, then try to tell them in advance, where your new position will be, so they can get to building defences there right away.

If you so happen to dig deep into enemy territory and find yourself close to their arty equipment, it is advisable to murder the enemy who are controlling this, to provide respite to your troops that they are targeting. Where possible also try to move or destroy the guns/rockets, so that they need to be repaired before they can re-use them.

It's also sometimes possible to Steal some equipment such as cannons, and take that back to your own spawn. This can give a permanent boost to your teams chances.

2.09 - Enemy Officers

Officers are a substantial threat for a number of reasons. As you are now well aware of your capabilities, these threats should be fairly obvious, but to spell them out plainly, they are:

An enemy officer can lead a group of enemy from the general flow of battle, out of sight, only for them to appear out of the bushes or from cover in a position that can result in many kills, weaken a defensive area and/or capture a control point, and maybe even cause a surprise win of a game.

An enemy officer can and probably already has, set down a line for men to fire from, increasing their bonus to accuracy whilst they fire from it.

An enemy officer can place a spawn flag, allowing a large party of enemy to spawn up, unexpectedly, which may again suddenly cause surprise, confusion and result in the loss of ground, lives, and control points.

As already stated they can also ride horses. If you see one riding into your territory, or see an officer pushing forward to a risky position, have your men bring them down as a priority. They are likely trying to place a spawn flag behind you.

TO AID YOU IN IDENTIFYING OFFICERS, PLEASE REVIEW THE DEFAULT MODELS BELOW
(Note that DLC can be purchased with additional officer models in).

RUSSIAN:

PRUSSIAN:

BRITISH:

FRENCH:

2.10 - Enemy units.

There are many specific units that pose various direct threats to you and your men on the battlefield. After all this is the meeting point of two different armies... not exactly an international chess championship.

It is hoped that by this point, you have a considerable ability to distinguish different classes on the battlefield, including that of the enemy team. This is crucial to develop, as different teams do not simply have a base colour, some classes have the same main colour as an enemy. Even if you turn on the in-game markers above heads, to show who is and isn't friendly, this won't help you recognise what kind of enemy you are looking at.

For an interesting and in-depth guide to the uniforms of Holdfast, please see the excellent guide below:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1924840904

As officer it is up to you to determine priorities in any given match. These may change depending on the game mode and your own team's situation, thus there is no point being verbose about it here.

2.11 - Traps/Emplacements

These are some of the lesser threats upon a battlefield, but things a sapper can build, such as spikes or mobile cannons, can cause measurable damage to your squad and also the wider team.

Luckily it's not hard to melee the structures out of existence, but good sappers will build their emplacements in cover (such as spikes inside of a bush), to make them hard to find.


If you spot these, warn the troops around you to keep them safe and get them to break up those pesky things. If you cannot immediately destroy them due to the circumstances of the time, call out those traps in TEAM CHAT as soon as possible. You might save someone's life, who in turn, will save your own.

The mobile cannons that sappers can place are extremely effective at killing at short-medium range, so these should also be a priority. Some times, a sapper may place these, in cover, between the friendly and enemy lines, to help push back the opposing team, or weakening them. It's possible to get your men to shoot the cannon and it will be damaged, or perhaps even destroyed, needing to then be rebuilt.

However, getting your guys to all fire at this would also mean everyone then reloading, leaving you exposed to all the hazards of the battlefield for about 15 seconds. It is up to you to calculate how to deal with this situation, but a recommended solution is to have a few of your men fire at this to keep it damaged (if it's too risky to move to), whilst the rest cover them, or keep your lines safe from other threats.

2.12 - ****QUIZ****

This quiz is a bit longer as we've covered more stuff, again a few joke answers are input so be careful to avoid these.


01 - How can you tell if someone is voice communicating?

• They play the "ram-ranch" song talking about cowboys and showers.
  
• Dragota Din Tei
  
• They have a sound icon above my head.
  
• They have a sound icon above their own head.

Answer: They will have a sound icon above their own head (2.02)

02 - Whats the best reason to use team (TEXT) chat?

• Berate all the idiots on your team for not charging.
  
• Political discussions.
  
• Discussion of Cryptocurrencies.
  
• Give information to the entire team about enemy movements.

Answer: Give information to the entire team about enemy movements. (2.02)

03 - Why is it a good idea not voice chat constantly.

• You are less likely to be muted for mic-spamming by players, just like all the people playing songs over voice chat should be.
  
• The men around you can then also point out problems you may have missed.
  
• The men around you can complement the size of your pistol, if you give them chance.
  
• The men around you are not real, but are Venus-spawned aliens who have manifested the dead into living breathing humans in order that they can go around the world undetected, and slowly convert us all into low paid battery workers. Whilst they sit there, getting richer and shipping precious metals back to the reptillian home planet so they can build nukes to bombard us with to drive us into extinction. The aim, of course, then being that they can move to our planet. But this is only obvious due to the LSD you recently consumed, and to verify that they are indeed aliens, you need to allow them to form badly worded sentences, as they are often very poor, grammatically speaking.

Answer: The men around you can then also point out problems you may have missed. (2.03)

04 - A low skill noob player (otherwise known as the cavalry class) is approaching from the left of your men. You quickly glance at the compass which tells you that they are coming from the SOUTH WEST, how should you communicate this development to your squad?

• "Enemy horse incoming on the LEFT!"
  
• "Enemy horse incoming from the SOUTHWEST!"
  
• "Hey lads, look over there at that horse, it's ummm, its on our left. The one with the white horse and the green rider with the silly hat on. Prepare to shoo-Oh bollocks! No it's here, it's amongus, HORSE IS SUS, SHOOT IT"
  
• "Heh, horse on right go BRRR"

Answer: "Enemy horse incoming on the LEFT!" (2.05 and 2.03)

05 -What is the reach/length of the cavalry unit sword?

• It's 1 meter, and it's hard to use. Misconcepted noobs think it is much longer and bugged, but I can tell you from my time playing Cav, it aint.
  
• The cav sword.... man that sword aint a sword at all. It's a wizards staff. When they swing that damn thing, it casts a spell. It casts a spell that surrounds the rider in a 10 meter invisible cube of death. Oh sure, they may look like they are SWINGING a sword, but in reality, they are summoning the dark forces of Nyarlahotep from the surface of the moon. They are summoning the awful power of the great old ones to sow the seeds of death and destruction among us. When this spell is cast, I've seen men die stood perfectly BEHIND a stationary horse. This power will even down multiple units per "swing". The cavalry unit is a weapon of magic destruction, and it's wielder is equalled only by the devil himself.
  
• 10 meters
  
• 10 meters
  
• 10 meters

Answer: It's 10 meters (2.07)

06 - What colour uniform does a Russian officer wear?

• Red
  
• Green
  
• White
  
• Gold

Answer: Every answer is indeed correct as all these colours are in (the default) Russian uniform (2.09)

07 - What should you do if you see a enemy SWIVEL CANNON on the battlefield?

• Fire at it from close distance, then walk towards it slowly whilst reloading.
  
• Tell the men close to you to beware of it.
  
• Advise in GLOBAL text chat that the cannon is there, so people can know to avoid it.
  
• Laugh to yourself out loud, without mentioning it, so the squad around you starts to worry.

Answer: Tell the men close to you to beware of it. Or better yet, use TEAM text chat to get the message out. (2.11)

08 - What was the 795th word of this guide, with word 1 being BEGINNER, and words inside images not counted?

• Officer
  
• Pepega
  
• Caveat
  
• Allow
  
• Training
  
• Rhododendron

Answer: Caveat (1.00)

09 - What was the 8722nd word of this guide, with word 1 being BEGINNER, and words inside images not counted?

• Kindly F*** off
  
• Kindly F*** off
  
• Kindly F*** off

Answer: Ok, not funny anymore?

THE END! If you answered at least question 8 correctly, you are ready to move on!

2.13 - Module 2: Conclusion.

It is hoped that you have learned a lot from this module, to help you advance as officer material.

If you passed the test above, well done, you have passed this module, and are hereby promoted to the rank of 2nd Class Officer

You should now be ready to put these newly acquired skills to use out in the field. There are battles that need to be fought, and using your new communication skills and ability to recognise threats around your squad, and larger team will help you win more victories, and keep your squad alive for longer.

As you have probably gathered from this fairly lengthy module, communication is important. Many times when a team loses a battle, its because team members of any class are not communicating things happening around the battlefield in team chat. If people aren't using team chat at all in a battle, try to encourage this, or ask generally if any area needs any help.

As an officer you have to always be considering two things,

* What your squad needs to know (voice chat)
* What the whole team needs to be aware of.

It's now time to head out into the field for your most extensive tour of duty yet!

****FT2 - A new hero emerges!****

Following your exhaustive training, it's time for you to head out to battle and put into place the things you've learned in this module. Unlike the first module, you may wish to practise the techniques and strategies of this module for a substantial period of time (e.g many days or weeks) before moving on.

You are ready to move on when you are:

* Communicating regularly with your wider team, and especially with the squad around you.
* Not stumbling any more between switching from "Global" orientations and "Relative" ones when communicating developments.
* Using the brief seconds when you are dead to TEAM chat some standing orders to your surviving squad, until you can get back to them.
* Able to identify all the hazards of the battlefield, including recognising different types of enemy class.

These are modes of behaviour you want to embed and make your default way to play, it should become so second nature you barely even think about it anymore. When you're doing the above regularly and without effort, you have mastered the way. You are woke!

3.00 - Module 3: Shaping the behaviour of you/your squad.

Welcome to your new rank Officer, you are now:

2nd Class Officer

- You know how to communicate with your team, the units around you, and with other officers. You have also been introduced to the general hazards you should always be looking out for.

Each rank you attain will be harder and harder to achieve, and require longer sections, but with time, you are almost guaranteed to achieve them. Lets press ahead with Module 3!

Introduction
Unless your a savage cabbage that just wants to ravage, you'll want to keep the squad under you in some kind of order. Otherwise, commands will be followed "at leisure" or maybe not even at all, as discipline is lax.

It's therefore for the good of your squad that you exact some form of discipline. The most effective way of doing this is to get the other soldiers to laugh at whoever said or did anything that was out of line.


Of course, sometimes squad members will go off to do their own thing, even against your wishes. All you can do is tell them of their foolishness, and encourage the rest of your team to stick to your orders;

"Look out there at Derek, lads, he's charging fully at them like an imbecile and is going to die. Everyone else stay in cover and wait for orders!

As your weapons are useless against your own team, you cannot exact any real punishment. You cannot force anyone, even your own squad, to do anything they don't want to, thus you can only encourage them to follow orders and point out the dangers of them going off to do their own thing.

In this module we will talk about the behaviour you need to exhibit to bring out the best in your men, as well as talk about the behaviour you need to encourage from them in different game modes.

3.01 - Help the new guys!

Sure, it's pretty cool to have a squad of regulars following you, but it's also useful to get some newbies, who perhaps aren't all that experienced yet. If you decide (as if you already hadn't, lol!) that Officer will be your main class, you will want to grow a pool of players under you that regularly join up with you. People follow entertaining and helpful officers more, it's a fact!

Here are some of the tips you should be giving over and over again as Officer:

Encourage soldiers shooting at long range to take off their bayonets, by pressing T when stood up, for the accuracy boost.
However, if the enemy is rushing you, remind them in plenty of time to fix bayonets and prepare for melee combat.
Try to give soldiers instructions about how to aim at a group of enemies. If they are far away, to counter bullet drop, they will need to aim above their heads.
Get your guys to keep low when reloading, and remind them to use cover. If you are trying to sneak round the back of them, this is absolutely critical.
If you hear another player is having trouble with some mechanics, take a moment to go help them, if you can. You might gain a new squad member, and also your existing squad will think better of you if you go out of your way to help others.

Here are a couple of examples of players apparently struggling:

3.02 - ADVANCED ORDERS

It's now time to introduce you to the advanced orders. We've already covered the basics below:

1 - FORM A LINE
3/4 - FIRE/FIRE AT WILL.
8 - PLANT A FLAG.

Now it's time to address the rest of the orders.

2 - MAKE READY
We touched on this briefly before, but Q+2 is the command you give before issuing the FIRE command. You must issue this before you can issue FIRE again, you can't just keep pressing Q+2 to keep saying fire.

You would, as if you needed reminding, use these commands if you are staying WITH your troops, as the FIRE gives a 20% accuracy bonus, for four seconds, FIRE AT WILL only gives 10%, but lasts for 20 minutes.

5 - CEASE FIRE
A cosmetic command, use this to tell the men to stop firing. Usually precedes a move to a new position. Likely this is a command used mostly for officers who are not using voice chat. However, perhaps you will find some use for it. I can tell you that so far, I have not except in some extremely rare circumstances.


6 - CHARGE!
This is an important and often overlooked command, with big benefits. Giving this command will give the units following you a 20 second boost to their melee damage, as well as reducing the damage bullets do to them.

It is strongly advisable that in advance of issuing the charge order you get your men on the line, explain the charge bonus, and give some orders over what to do, if you are killed in the charge, when they take over the position.

7 - BREAK RANK AND FOLLOW
A cosmetic command, use this to tell the men to follow you to a new position. Again, unless you are not using voice chat, this command is pretty useless, except for the fact that you can also use it to remove any line you have placed.

3.03 - Behaviour you should exhibit.

As already stated, you should be encouraging to your squad. This is just the baseline of what you need to do as officer.

It's easy to get into the habit of talking a lot as officer, but you want to give space for your squad to say stuff. Don't over-communicate. Don't make squad members feel stifled out of the conversation.

Acknowledge the squad continuously. Did someone down an enemy, congratulate them, ask them how it felt? As often as possible personally address members of the squad, ask them how it's going, and if they need any help, make conversation with them. Don't just keep addressing the group as "men" or "lads", make it a good experience for them, bring them PERSONALLY into the conversation. If a group is quiet, they may not have microphones, but don't ignore them, for all you know they are still listening.



This helps break the feeling you can get with some officers, where a soldier in the squad isn't ever addressed personally, and the officer just keeps ranting "men, we need to do this...." or "men, we need to get to this position", that the officer is only treating the men under him as soldiers, rather than individuals. It can make soldiers feel like their captain is just an NPC from a call of duty game, completely impersonal, worse, it can also make them feel like THEY are the NPC in their officers role-play.

3.04 - Behaviour you should NOT exhibit.

In all circumstances, as officer you should be aiming to demonstrate some of the most chilled out behaviour in the game.

We've all seen the people getting toxic in chat, accusing others of cheating, or moaning about this or that, or more so, moaning that their own team isn't doing enough. You cannot try to force them to think differently, but you can do so yourself.

Try to as little as possible (unless in the spirit of comedy) to criticise your squad, or your team. If you feel the need to, make sure it's not openly negative, so you can always claim it was "just a joke" if they get sad, and then be absolved of all blame.

Whatever has already happened in the match is beyond anyones control now. You can't change the past, only the future.




The biggest officer-specific problems you will face, are people not following your orders, or people who are not contributing to the advancement of map objectives. You should offer them encouragement and suggestions, not demands, and harshly authoritative orders. For instance:

Instead of: "FFS guys, stop hiding behind that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ wall and push onto the point!!!!!!"
Consider: "Guys, they're weakened and we have the numbers, lets push forward now."

Instead of: "GG We lost this because you tards just charged endlessly to your deaths. Well done ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥"
Consider: "We should have flanked more and held the high ground, better luck next time"

Instead of: "Soldier X, you haven't got a single kill yet on my line, are you brain damaged"
Consider: "Are you OK there soldier X? Take off that Bayonet for extra accuracy, and aim just above their heads."

Instead of: "We ALL died trying to capture that? Guys, come on WTFFF"
Consider: "We did the best with what we had, well done guys, our end was honourable."

You will notice how the original phrases, the speaker was putting the problems on "YOU" as in, the people they are speaking to and not themselves. In the alternatives, the speaker is saying "WE" and is also including themselves in the problem.

3.05 - Positive/Entertaining troop behaviour

Sometimes your squad will do surprising things, or things which are entertaining, such as bursting forth with a blistering freestyle rap insulting your opponents.

You may also have a squad member that has taken up an intelligent position around a point you are holding, or trying to capture. Point this out and remark on it as a good thing.

At all times, try to find ways to praise your squads good behaviour and intelligent performance. This is positive reinforcement you tell them what they are doing is good, and they'll keep doing it. Like when you tell a newborn baby to stop pooping it's pants, or tell a person with depression to "don't worry just be happy!!" the more you say it, the more it helps the situation.

If you have a squad member helping give advice to newbies, don't think of it as a threat to your authority, adopt that squad member as a second-in-command. It thus implies to the newbies that the knowledge they impart has been given to them from you and therefore makes you look like the wise batttle-sage that you undoubtedly are!

3.06 - Negative/Risky troop behaviour.

If you've done all the things in the sections so far, you likely won't be encountering bad squad behaviour very often. But usually it will take one of the forms below.

People will spawn on your flag, and instead of using the line you've set down to fire from, which is in a tactical position, will just charge blindly to their deaths in front of enemy lines.
You can only ask them not to do this, but you can also voice chat to other squad members to point out what happens and advise them to hold the line, until you are ready to move up.

Some times you'll have people that want to move to a better position, and they are convinced it is better.
When your team makes suggestions which go against your own plans, you should always seriously consider whether or not they have a good point. If you know that position is not better at this moment in time, explain why. If you are unsure, it is often better to go there and find out, you can always pull back to your former position. You can also send a single squad member to that position as scout, to check out if there are enemy hiding where you can't see them.



Charge! Anarchists.
It's well known that when units are fighting together, they develop a sense of cameraderie and bravado. And some single units will try to push this a bit far. Some people even deliberately go up to large groups and shout "CHARGE!" pretending to be officer. Usually when people get up and start moving forward, that person won't even charge. These are the Charge Anarchists, as I call them, they just try to push groups amassed, or assembling out into enemy fire against the wishes of their officers.

The only real way to deal with this is if, when a force of troops is rallying, you heard someone shout "Charge!" to immediately counter to steady the troops, and advise why you are not charging, at least, yet.

Risky behaviour.
You will often see some units engaging in behaviour which will put themselves at risk. Except for the moment of direct attack, you should always encourage your troops to keep themselves safe. Some common ways of doing this are:

• Asking troops to reload from a crouched position, or behind cover or a hill where possible.
  
• If you have a line down along a ditch or ridge, tell the troops to retreat back behind the cover of the landscape whilst they reload.
  
• If you are in a risky and advanced position try to use fields, trees, bushes and walls as cover. Get the troops to stay low.
  
• If you see your own artillery units are quite forward, and a recent change in battle lines is going to put them at risk, try to get the message to them to pull back or re-position themselves.

3.07 - The "main" game modes

There are three main game modes: Battlefield, Conquest and Siege. By the time you get to this section, you should already know them, but in case of not, lets highlight them:

Battlefield
In this mode, each team gets about 500 "tickets", each time a soldier respawns it uses a ticket. The winner is the first to run the other team out of tickets. Victory is achieved either through exhausting the enemy teams tickets and either:

• Killing all enemy troops on the battlefield to end the round early. OR;
  
• In the event of a close game, having the most remaining players still alive when the round timer ends.

Conquest
In this game mode, you capture and then defend flag control zones, you get given points per second for each flag, and the more you control, the more points you get. You also get a sizeable amount of points JUST for capturing a point. The winner either reaches the max score to win, or has the most points when the round timer ends.

Both teams also have unlimited lives, so do not run out of respawns.
If a point has members of different teams around it, it is "contested" and no points are given for it.

Siege
One team must defend a fort or castle against the intrusion of the enemy team. The attackers have unlimited lives, the defenders do not. This game mode is usually about seeing if the attacking team can wear down the respawn tickets of the defending team and then capture the points.

On many maps, when the attackers have captured a flag, they can then also spawn from it, meaning less travelling to the front lines to the action, increasing the pressure on the defenders.

However, it is sometimes possible to sneak round the enemy, if they aren't paying attention, which can result in very unexpected wins for the attackers.

3.08 - Army Battlefield

This is the commonest game mode. Each team starts with about 500 respawn tickets. The winner is the one with the most tickets left at the end of the round (or they have wiped out every enemy troop before that timer ends).

So the main things as officer you need to do in this game mode is as below, in order of priority:

• Stop troops pointlessly wasting their lives.
  
• Help the lads capture a few key points of control which it may be preferable to hold, probably because it affords good views, or easy kills on the battlefield.
  
• Place spawn flags in advanced positions.

Life preservation

As officer, in this mode, your only real goal is to try and keep your team alive and stop them losing tickets as fast as the enemy does. Now that might sound ridiculously obvious, but think about it for a second. We have a group here of up to 75 people on your team as a whole, all engaged in different parts of the battlefield, they can each do their own thing. You can perhaps only cause a slight change in the battle outcome, but even saving a couple of troops from wasting their lives, might push a extremely close final stage of a game from uncertain to certain victory.

Troops can, and often will ignore commands, in voice or team chat (maybe they have turned those displays off in game options, or maybe they speak a language most people don't understand). Thus it is not advisable to chase after people who are not responding, not only is it a waste of time, but berating individual troops does not, the image of a great officer, make.

Points of control

In a battlefield game, the ideal cover is that which gives your men solid cover, such as a wall or building. You should place your officer line (Q+1) behind this structure to encourage men to form up there rather than just staying out in the open with no cover, where they might be killed with ease.

As already mentioned, a high point of interest, which gives great views of the surrounding area, can also be a point of control, if it's not too far away from the main battlefield. It allows you to see a lot more of what is going on, and makes it extremely hard for the enemy to sneak up on you.

Imagine that the enemy have taken up a position in a valley with large hills or plateaus around them. Getting hold of even one of those hills could lead to a lot of kills for your men, especially if the whole team is then shooting that position from two different directions. Additionally your men can (and should) be directed to shoot and then retreat away from the edge to get some cover, while they reload.

BEWARE: High ground gives you good shooting options and a great view of the battle, but it also lets the enemy artillery (who have monoculars, don't forget) a clear view of you and your men.

BEWARE: If your team has pushed the enemy back a lot, but has had to thin their forces across a wide area, you might be over-extended, you've gained a lot of ground, but your forces are spread quite thinly. A concerted enemy effort on any particular point might not only kill your troops in that area, but give a large body of men a chance to sweep round behind you and cause a counter attack.

Spawn flags

In battlefield mode, spawn flags should be used mainly to try to out flank the enemy, this can include putting the flag behind the enemy's spawn location[/b]

Additionally, you can also place it like a "bus stop" that troops can spawn on, near the front lines, rather than having to waste precious time running back to the front lines.

3.09 - Army Conquest

Conquest mode has both teams fighting for control of points, flags that you can take control of. Each flag you posses means you get a little extra points added to your teams score each few seconds you control them.

So the main things as officer you need to do in this game mode is as below, in order of priority:

• Encourage and lead the troops to capture new points, in a sensible manner.
  
• Use spawn flags to replenish troops on a flag
  
• (optional) coordinate a conquest response with other officers.

Capturing enemy flags

It is vital that if you hold less flags than the enemy, that you are encouraging the men as a group to push forward onto a point. Oftentimes, troops will get sedentary, and just keep shooting the enemy from behind cover. You need to remind them that lives mean nothing in this game mode, only the flags. Everyone has infinite lives, so they can reload in the afterlife! (it's actually quicker).

Sometimes you have to bend the truth a little to bring that false confidence into your troops. But if it's for the greater good, history will forgive you. You may want to tell the troops that the enemy's forces are dwindling, but you see some enemy officers coming from spawn to reinforce the point, creating a sense of urgency that might spur them to action. Don't just order the charge, lead it as well!

Replenishing troops

As Officer you must come to analize the battlefield, and that means not just understanding what is going on now, but anticipating what the enemy is likely to do. To this end, use your monocular (default key is G), to look across the enemies lines and detect what they are going to do.

For instance, if you have just captured a 2nd/3rd flag and now hold the most, but some of the points you've had for a while are low on troops (or even devoid of them), you need to get troops re-balanced as soon as possible, because the enemy officers will also see this, and head straight for those points. If you can, place a spawn flag at these points, but if not, use team or voice chat to advise soldiers they need to fortify the other positions.

Troops are also more likely to stay on a point, even if it's out of the action, if they feel safe. Therefore it might be advisable that while a push on a certain heavily contested flag is occurring, you could ask sapper to build defences and mobile cannons on the other points you possess. This makes them a more attractive fortification point, and everyone loves shooting cannons and getting kills.

Using officer chat

We have already mentioned that officer chat is seldom used, but in conquest mode, it can come in handy. With multiple points to fight for control over, it can help to use officer chat which points you are going to focus leadership over.

This can then help other officers to decide where they want to focus their efforts, and avoid weird situations where perhaps 3/4 officers are all focused on one point. In this game mode, officers should spread out, but a little communication in officer chat can go a long way.

3.10 - Army Siege

In siege mode, the "attacking" team must fight to take over certain points of control. The defending team must attempt to stop them.

It is worth noting that as of the present time (March 2021) there is a significant imbalance in the Siege maps of Fort Al-Farid and Fort Darial making it nigh on impossible to defend successfully. Only if the attacking team is incredibly inept, or the server isn't full so attacking pressure is less, can these be defended. This is due to there being 5 capture points to defend, and not enough tickets, or too much time on the map.

So the main things as officer you need to do in this game mode is as below, in order of priority:

On the Defending team

• Make sure the outer control point (or points if more than one) is defended.
  
• Encourage the team to use team chat if a force is trying to flank, or make a surprise grab for a rear/major point.
  
• Encourage the team to set their spawn points to the flags, to spawn closer to the action.
  
• Regularly remind the men in voice and text chat NOT to push out from the points, or get melee-baited out from cover.
  
• (optional) coordinate a siege response with other officers in officer chat.

On the Attacking team

• Encourage the attacking forces to push up and onto the point and not sit back shooting. Reload in the afterlife!. Remind them, that attackers have unlimited respawns.
  
• As points are captured, regular troops should be able to spawn from them, increasing the attacking pressure you can exert as they then respawn closer to the battle.
  
• Some siege maps you can place respawn flags, if you can, try and use these to surprise and divide the enemy's response. Try to put a flag (in cover of course) away from the main action, to spawn a force to either harass them from behind, or try to sneakily take a point.

We're not going to elucidate these points right now, Siege is a complex game mode, without going into the finer points of it, and experience beats everything else. If you've read through each section already, then the points above probably make sense on their own. We don't wish to bore you by belabouring the obvious.

3.11 - Playing for points or the team?

A controversial issue, but some players out there can see that you have levels and ranks based off the accumulated points you have for each class you play. It is perhaps tempting to try to maximize this by putting down lines in nice positions so that you can farm points off the kills soldiers on the line get, as well as killing enemies yourself.

However, as you can probably now understand, even if you are farming a lot of points, some game modes require the armies to push forward (Seige and Conquest) to capture specific points.

There are always ways to help the team and amass points, and bear in mind, the game doesn't know/care how you got those points. You could perhaps have spent the full game playing on the cannons or mortar to farm points, or getting people on the line to initiate a charge (you also get a little xp after CHARGE command for any kills they get, for a limited time).

Try not to become too focussed on sedentary lines, unless it's in battlefield mode. Always think how you can do more to help the team. Is it better to have a high officer level and nice shiny medal, or to have the love of your troops, and facilitate a win?

3.12 - ****QUIZ****

Ok this is it. This is a longer test of many things which we have covered thus far

01 - Your squad is shooting at long range, what advice should you give them.?

• Aim a bit higher than the target, press Y to take bayonets off.
  
• Press T to take bayonets off, it gives you more accuracy.
  
• Reload standing out in the open.
  
• Charge closer to the target, especially if theres no cover between you and them.

Answer: Press T to take bayonets off, it gives you more accuracy. (3.01)

02 - What is order number 4?

• Foam a line.
  
• Fire!
  
• Fire at will.
  
• Remove trousers

Answer: Fire at will. (1.02)

03 - How do you make your squad feel special?

• Promise them Baguettes for kills, and keep a tally.
  
• Recite a Shakespearian sonnet for them, individually.
  
• Remove their trousers
  
• Name them and tell them well done when they get a kill.

Answer: Every answer is the correct one (3.03)

04 - When your jokes at your squad-member's expense goes wrong, how do you rescue the situation?

• Press ALT+F4 to quit the game.
  
• Say sorry and offer them a can of baked beans.
  
• Tell them it was just a joke and get everyone else to laugh at them.
  
• Disown them, dramatically enflame the situation by telling them it was just a joke, and infer they have a negative IQ by being unable to grasp such an blatently obvious fact.

Answer: NO answer is correct (3.04)

05 - What is it called when you compliment behavoir which is good, to make people inclined to do it again?

• Breaking the law.
  
• Breaking Benjamin.
  
• Breakin bad.
  
• Positive reinforcement.

Answer: The correct answer is the only one that isn't wrong (3.05)

06 - What is a good thing to do to an enemy cannon?

• Kill it with fire.
  
• Break it down.
  
• Steal it.
  
• Paint it green and leave it in a bush so they will never find it again.

Answer: Steal it. (2.08)

07 - What game mode is the image below?

• Naval mode.
  
• Battlefield
  
• Seige mode
  
• Conquest mode.

Answer: Battlefield (although it could be some naval modes, but this guide does not cover that). (3.08)

08 - Which of these are things you should encourage soldiers to do in CONQUEST mode?

• 1 - Encourage and lead the troops to capture new points, in a sensible manner.
  
• 2 - Stop troops pointlessly wasting their lives.
  
• 2 - Stop troops pointlessly wasting their trousers.
  
• 4 - Use spawn flags to replenish troops
  
• 5 - Encourage the team to set their spawn points to the flags, to spawn closer to the action.

Answer: 1+4. (3.08)

09 - What is order number 7?

• 1 - Move out, to new position.
  
• 2 - Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys
  
• 2 - Stick em with the pointy end.
  
• 4 - Charge!
  
• 5 - Form a loan.

Answer: 1 (1.02)

10 - Name TWO SEIGE maps, that are nearly impossible to defend (e.g. the attackers always win)?

• 1 - Fort Salettes
  
• 2 - Fort Darial
  
• 3 - Fort Winston
  
• 4 - Fort al-Farid
  
• 5 - For king and country.

Answer: 2+4, although 1+3 are difficult to sucessfully defend too.

11 - Which of these are things you should encourage soldiars to do in Seige mode?

• 1 - Encourage the team to use team chat to discuss the latest trends in the music industry.
  
• 2 - Put the kettle on
  
• 2 - Put the kettle off.
  
• 4 - Put the kettle on a sacrificial altar, as an offering for Satan. The father of lies needs to drink tea, as well, don't ya know?
  
• 5 - Whats a soldiar?

Answer: 5. (3.10)

12 - Name one positive and one negative of having your troops situated on higher ground.

• 1 - You can then say "looks like I have the high ground, Anakin!"
  
• 2 - You have no cover from the enemy.
  
• 3 - The enemy's cannons can easily take you out from afar.
  
• 4 - Vive La France

• 5 - Your troops might be over-extended.
  
• 5.2 - High ground gives excellent lines of sight, and it's hard to be ambushed.

Answer: 3 and 5.2 are the answer (3.08)

13 - Should officers riding horses be added back into the game to make this guide more accurate?

• Yes, and I have told AGS on their Holdfast discord to do this.
  
• No, because I am the fun police and things which are fun should be removed from the game.
  
• Yes, officers on horses was never a problem, and no one ever complained about it in games.
  
• Yes, because officers on horses are usually killed within 15 seconds anyway, but it's FUNNY when they die.
  
• Yes, even if it was removed to stop officers going and placing a spawn flag in the enemy spawn, they can still walk around and do this anyway, and even if they do not have horses, a 4 minute cooldown is more than enough to walk around the edge of the map anyway.
  
• Additionally, even if it was to stop early game spawn-killing only, actual cavalry are currently still able to do the same thing for the ENTIRE match (and this is usually successful and leads to most of a noob-cav's kills in game).

Answer: Every answer is the correct one, except the second. If you picked this, you are a fun sponge.

14 - Did you enjoy this guide?

• No.
  
• The pictures were OK, I suppose.
  
• No I found numerous spelling mistakes, grammatical errors and instances of things being incorrectly named throughout.
  
• 4 - Rive La Fvance

• I liked it so much I will forgive the fact that the potential answer above had a number when the rest did not.
  
• I liked it so much, I have given it a thumbs up. Have commented "You can't understand why I'm writing this, unless you do" in the comments, and am going to gift the author a random game from steam.

Answer: The last answer is the only acceptable one.

If you answered question 14 correctly, YOU HAVE PASSED THE TEST!

3.13 - Module 3: Conclusion.

If you passed the quiz above well done. It can't have been easy! If you got more than 20% of the quiz correct, well done.

There is much more to be said for good positions, situational behaviour and strategies, on a map-by-map basis, but this will be saved for the expert guide. From understanding the game mode basics, you may naturally come to understand places of tactical advantage across all maps and game modes.

It's also important to note that as time goes on, veterans notice and exploit deficiencies in any tactic. When you see this happen against you, you need to start thinking about if it is time to retreat, or how the new threat can best be countered.

At this point, you should be quite a capable officer in all game modes. It's time to find out!

****FT 3 - An officer, and a gentle-(gender of choice etc)****

You are now ready to head out on an extended and comprehensive tour of duty. The new knowledge you have acquired needs extensive experience and testing.

As officer, you can exert a powerful influence on the flow of battle, and that starts with getting your squad and yourself into good patterns of behaviour.

You should head out now to give this knowledge extensive testing. At this point you can also probably watch other officers, as a regular soldier or even in the game's "freecam" spectator mode, to watch how they move and rally troops across the battlefield. With your knowledge, you should now be able to find some context with which to judge if their actions are positive, risky, or negative upon the battlefield.

I would advise spending several weeks practising the things you have learned in this section, before moving on. As with previous field tests, the point isn't to become good at these things, it's to get in the habit of doing them without thinking.

As you undertake this field test, you should always be thinking:

• Is my squad keeping themselves safe?
  
• Is it time for me to place a flag yet?
  
• Should we hold, or rush the enemy.
  
• What is the enemy likely to do next?

You will be ready to move on when:

• You've started encountering situations where you are sure the squad under you, following orders, is having a very noticeable effect on the battlefield.
  
• You're getting greeted by a lot of regular players, who remember good times serving under you.
  
• You have started to notice certain patterns in the flow of troops across the battlefield, and also taken advantage of your enemy's blindness to their flanks.
  
• You can tell in advance when an enemy attack is likely on a point, in conquest mode.
  
• You have devised go-to plans for some Siege maps, when playing as defenders, to help produce a victory.
  
• Where you fail to win Conquest or Siege maps, you will note what you personally did wrong, and what effect that had on the flow of battle.
  
• You are using the spyglass regularly to gain information about the enemy.

BEGINNER CONCLUSION: Your graduation!

You have reached the end of the first section of this training course. Well done! Just think of how far you have come from being a noobish officer that could not even understand most of the commands, to your current position.

At this point you have been subject to three very in depth looks at various skills needed as officer. You have then taken these skills out into the field. You have learned the core strategies for different game modes, and probably become better, at having people want to follow you into the fray.

You are hereby awarded the rank of 2nd Class Officer well done!

This is the end of the Basic Training For Officer Class course. I hope you have enjoyed this guide as much as I enjoyed pretending that I knew what I was talking about, when writing it.

You've come so far already, why not go the rest of the way? The INTERMEDIATE Training for Officer Class awaits you when you feel you're ready. You might want to make the rest of your journey on your own, and learn from your own success and failures, but the guide will always be waiting, for your consideration.

If you liked this guide, why not give it a 5 star review? It boosts my ego.

Until next time VIVE LA FRONCE!

[Bitcoin Baron]

Further parts of the guide are on hold, in protest, until AGS re-implement Officers riding on horses.

AGS PLZ FIX

[Wraak, Bulwark of the Emperor]

took abit to Read but ive learned alot thank you

[★Squirrel]

Well said fine sir, Bravo!!

[Robert Kurwica]

What a splendid and entertaining work! Good job!

[Zortag]

Lang lebe der König!

[FilthyPeasant]

You forgot to mention the British officer has to pretend he's better than everyone else. Cos you know. He's British.

[Bitcoin Baron]

@ENG-DINO why must you invalidate my guide like that

[DINO]

how to play officers 1. be loud and British to scare the enemy 2. WIN