Field Commander 101
The Importance of Field Commanding
Don’t let anyone fool you,
field commanding is hard. Your job is to take dozens of individuals, who are only here because they want to have fun, and turn them into a deadly fighting machine. You have to organize them, direct them, and keep them motivated. And you never get a break, because on the other side, there’s another guy doing the exact same thing. But even though it’s hard, it’s also the
coolest position in GC. There is no feeling quite like zooming in on the map, telling a squad to move, and seeing them hustle over like little RTS robots. Especially when you win.
This guide is here to teach you the craft of field commanding. Of course, you’ll have to develop your own style, but if you follow the simple principles below you’ll be winning battles in no time. We’ll start with some basics, then add more things to think about and advance moves to try out.
Making a Plan
The very first task for any FC is deciding an opening move. Hopefully you’ve had weeks to plan and scout the map, with plenty of practice to iron out details. But most of the time, all those details make people overthink the opening. They build up big fancy plans with a hundred moving parts, and then one wrench gets thrown in and it all explodes. That’s why I’m going to teach you
how to make a strategy in 2 minutes. Not because you shouldn’t prepare ahead of time (you need to!), but because you shouldn’t overthink the opening. Most of your fancy scouting will help later, when you have to react and adjust. This is deliberately quick and exaggerated, but try to practice this way of thinking about a map and everything will get easier.
- (30s) Write down the main objectives.
- Start with the flag zones.
- Look for key points you want to hold that aren’t flags.
- (30s) Group them into “zones”, and pick a few you care about.
- Goal: if you hold zones with most flags, you’ll get the bleed and have the support to keep it (or get more kills, if it’s an even flag map).
- (30s) Assign a chunk of your army to each zone you've picked.
- Feel free to do more zones, with smaller groups on each, if you think that’s best.
- (30s) Work with division leaders to break those up.
- Assign armor to each group, keeping in mind that armored divisions should get most of the vehicles. Be very careful assigning vehicles to squads that aren’t trained to use them.
- Let the division leader deal with the messy details of assigning soldiers within zones. Let him balance troops between nearby objectives. The beauty of the zone system is you don’t need to clog up channel commander dealing with that stuff. They’re the ones who know best what to do. Your job is moving squads between zones.
Practice this by picking a random map from the pool, and seeing how you’d split it up. My most important advice here is:
don’t overthink it! You can make 10-page map strategies, but every plan will fall apart in the first 2 minutes. You want a plan that’s
simple and flexible, with big chunks of troops that are easy to think about. Don’t split them into a dozen squads unless you’re certain you have the mental agility to keep track of all of them. I sure don’t.
Communicating The Plan
Now you have a plan, and you have to get it in the heads of your troops. Most new FCs do this the wrong way, they say it once over channel commander and assume everyone heard. Here’s the
right way:
- Drag all your squad leaders into your channel: now you know they’re all listening, with no distractions from their own channel.
- Walk them all through the whole plan: get verbal confirmation they all understand. Give them time to ask you questions, and talk to each other. Make adjustments based on their advice.
- Send them back to their channels: give the SLs time to plan out their part in detail, and say it to the troops.
When the 90-second countdown starts:
- Introduce yourself to the whole army (15s): this is hugely important! Set up your whispers so you can talk to everyone in your army channels. First say, “Everyone quiet for a second”, and pause. If you skip that, nobody will hear the next part. Then say, “This is ____, I’ll be your field commander. We’re going to kick some ass”. That introduction is important, they’ll be hearing your voice a lot. Most FCs don’t realize this, and then they’re shouting at people who wonder where the ghostly angry voice is coming from. Figure out your own style for building confidence from the start.
- Announce the game plan (45s): walk very briefly through the whole plan, and explain why each piece matters. This goes to the whole army, not just your SLs. Each person should know his duty, and how it fits in the big picture. If each player doesn’t know why his role matters, he’ll probably stop a few minutes in.
- Quiet time (30s): give your SLs 30 seconds of comm silence so they can run through the plan with their squads one more time.
There’s a cool feature of this approach: everyone gets their assignment multiple times. The SLs get it once in step 2, and again in step 5. The troops get it once in step 3, again in step 5, and yet again in step 6. Now there’s no excuse for not knowing the plan!
Watching and Listening
And now... you’re helpless! The plan is in everyone else’s hands, and for the first few minutes all you can do is listen and cringe. And how do you make the best of it?
Your friend the map: the map is your best friend when FCing, even if you can’t see everything you can still have a pretty good idea of what’s happening in the battlefield. As a FC, your #1 job is directing troops and watching the map. The worst place you can be is at the back, on the ground, where you can’t see anything. The FCs who play from the back tend to be the guys shouting “SQUAD LEADERS, WHY AREN’T YOU TELLING ME WHAT'S GOING ON?!?”. Don’t be helpless.
To be crystal clear, it’s your job to know what’s going on. In a perfect world, SLs would tell you everything you need to know. We don’t live there, and even if we did, you’d just be a blind guy with stellar hearing. Open your eyes!
Your frenemy channel commander: an okay FC will sit alone in a channel for the whole round, talking only on channel commander. He’ll get some information, but always feel a little frustrated. He won’t know exactly why attacks are failing, or why flags are going down. He’ll also clog up the comms channel in a conversation with one person, which makes everything more chaotic for everyone. Squad leaders won’t hear their squad members, and they won’t be able to talk to each other, because the FC is taking up everything.
Some folks try to fix this with complicated whispers and fancy hotkeys. That can probably work, but I like a simpler solution:
just move channels. When I FC, I’m never alone in a channel. Instead, I’m always in one squad channel just listening. And I
hop around every 2-3 minutes. If I want to know how hot a flag is, I don’t usually ask over CC. I just jump in their channel and ask (this is why you introduced yourself before, so they know who the random dude in their channel with all the questions is). To make this easy, optimize your setup for TeamSpeak, not Battlefield. When I FC, I put my game in windowed mode and keep TS open right next to it. This is easier with 2 monitors, but possible with 1. You can always switch back when you stop FCing.
Talking and Shouting
So you’ve watched the map, listened on channel commander, and jumped in a channel to get more info. Now it’s time to talk back. Think very carefully about how to do it. Here are some pro tips:
- There is no “somebody”: Alpha flag is blinking, and nobody is there to save it. So you shout “someone go help Alpha”. This is the second-worst thing a FC can say, because nobody will show up. No squad leader is listening for the name “somebody”, and they all have other things to worry about. You HAVE to be SPECIFIC. Every order should go to a concrete group of people. An ideal order sounds like: “Dan, send 2 guys to help Alpha” or “Fields, I need your whole squad to move to Bravo”.
- “Everybody” has important crap to worry about: Bravo flag is almost turned, but you need more help. So you shout, “everyone get on Bravo”. This is the worst thing a FC can say, because everyone will show up. Congrats, you have your whole army on a flag and you lost all the others. I’ve heard this one so many times and it never turns out well. Remember, you gave all your squad leaders important objectives to take care of. Don’t pull anyone off carelessly.
- Know where every squad is, all the time: when a FC calls for “somebody” or “everybody” to do something, it means he’s lost track of his army. This can happen so easily, and it’s dangerous. Your guys are always moving around, reacting to threats, and following all the orders you throw at them. Within 10 minutes, nobody is where they started out. It’s your job to keep up with them. Always know where every squad is and what their objective is. That’s hard, so use a paper and pencil. Seriously. Before each battle, write out each squad, the leader, and how many guys are in it. Every time they move, write down the new position. Or print out the minimap and use post-its. This will also make you realize how much it sucks to split up squads. Try writing all that down on your little piece of paper, or ripping the post-it in half. That’s how it feels to be in a TS channel where everyone’s doing different stuff.
- Get updates from your squad leaders: at the most critical moments, the SL does not have time to tell you what’s up. He’s busy. Don’t bother him. At other times, the SL has his thumb up his butt. He’s not busy. Bother him. Learn to tell which situation is which. When crap is flying, follow my advice above and hop right in the channel to listen. When it’s not, demand a regular sitrep. To keep these coming, develop a rhythm. Learn to ask each SL, one at a time, what they’re doing (not all at once!). Again, there’s a low-tech trick: use a stop-watch. Every minute, ask a different SL what’s up. If you don’t have one, use the ticket counter. Pick a number for each squad: 20, 40, 60, 80... Every time your counter goes there (520, 420, …) get an update from that squad. Or use it as your cue to hop in their channel and listen up. It’s a feature, not a bug, that when you’re bleeding you’ll need more frequent updates..
- Keep talking to everyone: don’t just hide on channel commander. Every few minutes, make a point of updating the whole army. It can be as dumb as “Nice work guys, 400 tickets to go!” or a deeper tactical update like “Ok guys, we’re down 100 tickets, but Baker’s going to cap C and get us the bleed. Alpha is hunkering down and reviving at A. Armor is supporting B, and air needs to keep supporting the push on C.” This accomplishes a couple things. It reminds everyone that an eye in the sky is watching them. It lets them know you have plan, so they shouldn’t give up. It keeps your squad leaders honest — if the whole army hears you say “Everyone hold the line and don’t cross the bridge”, it will make SLs think twice about ignoring you. And it helps you motivate the team and feel confident that they’re part of a big unit, not a bunch of separate squads. Never forget that 90% of the army can’t hear you on channel commander, and half the guys who can aren’t listening (they have a lot going on). If you only ever talk to that last 5%, you’re wasting your time.
Midgame Reactions
So you made a great plan, you’ve built up great situational awareness, and you know how to communicate your orders. Now what should you do? 10% of FCing is the opening move. The other 90% is reacting. Most new FCs only think about the first part, and then freak out for the second part. But being an FC is like aiming a crap cannon at the fan store. Don’t be surprised when things go wrong, because they definitely will. Three principles will get you through it.
- Understand your enemy’s moves: remember that the other army isn’t a buch of pubbies running around mindlessly (if they are, congrats, you win!). Instead, they’re a group of 4-8 squads under an FC just like you. Duh, right? But this matters, because it means you can get in that other dude’s head. The skill you’re trying to build is inferring the enemy’s plan. Just like you, they’ve taken their squads and matched them up with objectives. The enemy will always defend one or two flags well, and leave one under-defended or empty. Which one is it? They’ll usually have one attack in progress, and almost never more than two. Where are they hitting? With the tools above, you can answer those questions. You just have to be consciously asking them. Here’s an exercise: imagine pressing pause in the battleday, and drawing a map of where all the enemy squads are (like the one you have of your own troops... right?). Could you do it? Why not? What’s your best guess?
- Don’t overreact. Instead, counter smartly: this is so important. Poor FCs react to every attack by trying to save the flag being hit. Or they get mad when a flag with 4 men defending is lost, even though 8 were attacking. Do this instead: decide where your enemy’s soldiers are, and leave them alone. Always attack with more guys than they are defending with. If your flag is overwhelmed, give it up and take the empty back flag. Learn to spot lumps (places where too many troops are concentrated) and holes (places where not enough troops are concentrated). Recognize that for every enemy lump, there’s a hole out there somewhere, and vice versa. Be calm! Some attacks will fail. Some flags will go down. Some things just take time. 8 attackers will lose against 8 defenders the first time, and the second time, but a lot of times, they’ll nail it the third time. Give your tactics a chance to work. And don’t pull anyone off a task until you’re sure it’s hopeless, or you’re sure something else is more promising.
- Keep squads together: at the beginning, I told you to pick some big groupings like “8 infantry.” Sometimes it’s worth it to subdivide further, into 4+4. Whatever structure you choose, stick with it and respect it. If you have 3 infantry squads, don’t hit 4 objectives. If you have an 8-man squad, it’s ok to put them on two neighboring flags and rapid respond between them. It’s not ok to send half the squad to other end of the map, where they’ll never meet again. Think of squads as kittens: it’s lame to chop them in half. Breaking a squad is sometimes necessary, like when one flag is cold and they can lend a few players to help elsewhere. But don’t ignore the price. A divided squad has noisy comms, so everyone in it is less effective. And for you, it’s much harder to keep track of. Don’t be surprised if you order the whole crew to do something else, and only half of it gets there — you were the one who split it in the first place. This leads to some tough calls. There might be a short term benefit to splitting off 2 guys to rescue a flag. But a long term cost to breaking that squad’s organization. Just think it through. And let me repeat one more time: DON’T OVERREACT! Take the time to plan every movement carefully. Except at the end, when there’s just no time...
The Endgame
It’s been a long grueling fight, and the end is in sight. A lot of weird stuff can happen here. Your army will lose its motivation. Or you’ll get overconfident and make a big mistake. Or you’ll get stuck in a stalemate. Here’s how to handle the main end-game situations, which kick in any time one side gets around 100 tickets.
- You’re up in tickets, and they’re bleeding: keep it steady! Every army that goes into the final stretch with bleed and ticket lead wins — except for the ones that don’t. You have to keep your army steady and focused. They’re going to let up and start celebrating before you’ve really won, and that can cause a surprise loss. Use your all-army whisper to keep everyone’s eye on the ball.
- Up in tickets, but no bleed: force a killfest! Sometimes you rack up a big lead, but suddenly the enemy gets a flag back. Now you have two options: A) Recover the bleed or B) Get so many kills that it doesn’t matter. B shouldn’t be overlooked. For example, if the score is 150-50, you can usually get 50 kills before they bleed you 100. The miracle solution is to do both. You need to arrange a situation where both sides burn through tickets, and to do that you need to pressure flags hard. Play super aggressively. Throw your whole army at one flag, so they have to spend a lot of tickets defending it. The big mistake people make here is being timid. They advance in slowly, wait to find the right flag to attack, etc. That kind of caution is usually good, but in this situation it will kill you. You need to just pick a flag and zerg it. Send your whole army on the offensive. The right counter for your opponent is to push your empty flags, but they don’t have the tickets to do it. They have no choice but to defend. And then your plan works no matter what. Either they hold the flag, but get slaughtered on the way, or they lose it, and you win.
- Down in tickets, but you got the bleed: hold spawn! Now the opposite situation. You’re behind, but you just got the flag. Your only move is to shout on your all whisper "HOLD SPAWN!". Every guy who spawns in costs you a ticket, and suddenly every single one is precious. Get your army reviving non-stop. Give each squad leader a quota of how many guys they can spawn in, so you have enough to hold your flags without going over the limit. But DO NOT say “Ok, 5 more guys can spawn in, but then stop”. This is the “somebody” problem. Those 5 guys need names. Think about how this fits with the situation above. Your enemy has to zerg you. You have to survive the rush long enough to bleed them, with only the troops you started with and the ones you can revive. Like I said, it’s an RTS.
- Down in tickets, no bleed: hail mary! Uh-oh, now you’re really screwed. You’re behind in tickets AND they have the bleed. Once again, don’t be timid here. You only have two choices: A) Keep up a conservative plan, and lose for sure or B) Do something balls-out crazy, and probably lose. B is the better option, and more fun too. At this point you have a 75% chance of losing. Your back flags won’t help you now, and defending them will up that chance to 100%. Instead, send your whole army at one point you think they can take. Don’t give up on things like coordination or situational awareness. Pick the best point, and organize the attack. But don’t leave anyone sitting bored defending, because you need every warm body in the fight. This will probably fail, but once in a while it works and you’re a hero. And watch out for this if you’re in the opposite situation, because it can work if you’re not careful.
- Down in tickets, no hope: lick your wounds! At some point, you need to just give up. There’s no shame in this (fine, maybe a little). Don’t pretend every round can still be won. Your troops know better. You need to maintain their trust, so that in the “hail mary” situations they actually believe you. Instead, recognize failure (hint: you have <100 tickets, they have >200) and use the opportunity. Here’s how to use that time:
- Make up an easy objective: give your army a concrete objective that’s less than winning, but more than losing. For example, if you’re the Risk defender: “Let’s see if we can survive 5 more minutes to delay their attack”. If you’re the Risk attacker, and need to get it over with: “Screw this round, let’s see if we can get a flag just to punch them in the nose”.
- Start planning for next round: remember how you have TS open next to you, and can quickly jump around? Use this time to gather intel, by hopping into squads that had problems and asking what went wrong. Get advice from the other officers, and listen to the grunts. Use the last 5 minutes to drag all your officers to a channel, and make a better plan for next round.
- Give a nice speech: thank the guys for playing, even if they lost. Congratulate them for whatever went well, and call out what didn’t. Explain what you’ll fix next round, or next time if it was the last. Remember: you’ll be FCing for this group again. Make sure they remember the last experience positively, so they trust you next time.
Conclusion
And that’s it! Congrats! You made it through a whole round without turning into a nervous wreck. You learned to make a solid plan, execute it with your squad leaders, adapt to changing circumstances, and make a classy exit. But there’s still one more thing you can do: ask for feedback! Lots of folks with opinions were listening to you the whole time. Some of them will give you feedback either way. Most of them won’t. But if you’re serious about improving, ask. Post an AAR, and read the replies. Break down your own performance and decide what went well and what didn’t. If you lost, try to pinpoint why and see how you’d fix it. If you won, try to figure out your enemy’s mistake and how you would have fixed it.
Good luck!
Guide made by Cheesy.
Last updated by mrBLUE9. Aug, 2021.