The Mechanics Of Platoon Leadership

BY Xullister Emerald Server


Never interupt your enemy when he is making a mistake!

Napoleon Bonaparte

Building The Platoon

You need to have an army before you can be a leader. Your first task upon assuming command is to take steps to recruit additional soldiers into your platoon. This is a simple process that takes only a few minutes, but is of vital importance for the success of your platoon.

Step 1: Open the Platoon

Open the Platoon menu (press the “P” key) and make sure that each squad in your platoon is open for recruitment. There is a small check-box that says “Private Platoon”; if this is selected additional soldiers can only join the squad by invitation. This box is automatically checked when a new Squad Leader assumes command; make sure that they uncheck it to open the squad for recruitment.

Step 2: Name the Platoon

Click the “Enable Recruiting” box to open the option to name your squad/platoon. Naming squads allows them to show up on the open squad list, and can communicate important information about your platoon to players before they join. For example, the basic casual DaPP squad is usually named “DaPP Certs & Alerts”, and more intense and regimented squads are often called “DaPP Tactical Ops”.

Step 3: Form New Squads

A platoon leader can form new squads by clicking on player names in the Platoon menu and dragging them to the right, toward the marked box to start a new squad. This is best done when the previous quad reaches 10-12 active players. The first player dragged into the new squad automatically becomes the Squad Leader, but this can be changed by clicking the » chevrons next to a name and promoting that person to Squad Leader.

Step 4: Groom the Platoon

Cultivating platoons is much like gardening. Sometimes it is necessary to pull some weeds in order to plant new seeds. When players are especially disruptive or unresponsive to commands it is wise to kick them from the platoon to make way for players who will actively participate in a positive manner. This is important to keep an effective platoon, and culling weak links can have a positive impact on morale when the platoon becomes more responsive and works as a team. Do not be afraid to kick trolls and soldiers who don't follow the squad/platoon waypoints.HOWEVER, platoon leaders should attempt to reach out to players under Battle Rank 20 to see if they are simply confused before removing them from the platoon. Guide the next generation of players whenever possible.

THE DELTA DILEMMA

Experienced platoon leaders will note that Alpha and Bravo squads in a platoon tend to fill up quickly, and Charlie and Delta squads often struggle to find enough players. This is often true regardless of how long a platoon has been active or how many players are online, and is a source of constant annoyance to the Brass. The simple solution to this dilemma is continually moving soldiers from Alpha and Bravo squads to keep Charlie and Delta filled up. Platoon leaders should regularly check on their squads to ensure that the squads are open for recruitment, empty spots are getting filled, and that Charlie and Delta have enough members to function as an effective unit.

Solid Squad Leaders

Dependable squad leaders are the backbone of a successful platoon. A brilliant tactician is still useless if his or her squads do not follow orders. You can avoid this pitfall by selecting competent leaders to manage each of the four squads under your command.

Many of the most important qualities of a good squad leader are hard to quantify. The ability to follow orders, maintain communication discipline in their unit, knowing where to deploy a sunderer or drop a beacon… these are qualities that can make an excellent squad leader, but are very hard to screen for while making a selection.

Other qualities are easier to quantify, and should be considered before promoting a soldier to officer rank. Use the following guidelines to help establish some basic criteria in selecting your officers. The first two criteria are mandatory for DaPP squads, the following two criteria are at the discretion of the platoon leader.

BASIC SQUAD LEADER CRITERIA

1. Must have a working microphone to communicate orders. (Optional: should have command chat.)

2. Must have a squad spawn beacon. (Optional: beacon should be at least 3 ranks.)

3. Prioritize outfit members over non-members.

4. Ideal squad leaders should be above Battle Rank 25.

MANAGING SQUAD LEADERS

A good platoon leader will manage his or her squad leaders, who in turn manage the troops in their squad. A newly promoted platoon leader should always start their command by requesting that their squad leads sound off over the platoon voice channel. This checks to make sure that the leaders have a microphone and are active.

These checks should be occasionally performed throughout the life of the platoon. The platoon leader should also regularly check to make sure that squad leaders are dropping beacons and deploying Sunderers
for their squad to spawn from.

If a squad leader is not responding over chat, deploying spawn points, or getting troops to the waypoint quickly… remove them.

Squad Composition

Good squad composition (the number of squad members fulfilling specific class roles) will give squad leaders — and, by extension, platoon leaders — a great deal of flexibility in overcoming any situation they might encounter. Having the right tools for the job makes the work easier.

Few squad leaders impose strict composition discipline, especially in DaPP. This is something more commonly found in tactical squads or outfits that fill specific roles (such as light cavalry or air outfits). However, it is helpful to encourage your squad members to pull specific classes in order to increase the efficiency of your platoon. For example, a squad full of infiltrators will have little impact against a max crash.

As illustrated by the example above, ideal squad composition is highly situational. Sometimes it is necessary to pull MAXs for a crash, armor to support a zerg, or a flexible infantry squad to assault a small outpost. There is no one perfect squad composition, but there is a model that can be used for a baseline infantry squad, as outlined in the Flex Infantry Squad Model.

This squad model provides your unit with a number of benefits. Many people may note that there are only four heavy-hitting classes (2 MAX and 2 Heavy Assault), which might seem light. However, every class carries a gun and can step up in a fight. Four “tanks” to soak up damage is plenty.

One quarter of the squad is composed of Medics to keep the troops alive. Only 2 Engineers are needed to repair MAX units and supply ammo. One Infiltrator is needed to hack terminals, and 2 miscellaneous “vehicle floaters” to keep Sunderers alive, pull armor, or perform other duties as the situation dictates.

Flex Infantry Squad Model
3 Medics
2 Engineers
2 Heavy Assualts
2 MAX Suits
1 Infiltrator
2 Vehicle Floaters

Good Comunication

Perhaps the most important skill in the Art of Platoon Leading is good communication. The ability to clearly communicate orders and ensure they are followed is what separates effective platoons from mindless zergs.

Good communication rests on information traveling up and down the chain of command quickly and accurately.

Example:
A platoon leader makes the strategic decision to deploy Alpha Squad to capture a base, and he communicates that order to the squad lead over platoon chat. Alpha squad lead confirms the order to her PL, then informs her squad about their new directive.

Hearing the new directive, Alpha Squad #8 informs his SL that there is enemy armor blocking the most direct route. Alpha lead uses platoon chat to inform the PL, and then switches to squad chat to coordinate a galaxy drop instead. Hearing the new orders, Alpha squad redeploys to the warpgate and together they pull off an effective drop on Lithcorp Central.

This is a fairly common example of good communication under combat situations. The platoon leader was able to effectively communicate new orders to the squad leader. The squad leader communicated those orders to her troops, which prompted one trooper to share mission crucial information; the squad leader then shared this information with her platoon leader and changed her tactical plans to accomplish the objective.

Platoons start to break down when communication fails. Too much casual chatter can disrupt orders from the PL or SL, making this scenario difficult or impossible to coordinate. Likewise, if the platoon or squad leader does not clearly communicate their orders it may confuse individual soldiers, who are unable to redeploy in time to catch the galaxy and pull a MAX suit for the drop.

THE FLOW OF INFORMATION

One of the most important parts of good communication is allowing information to flow freely. Information should not simply be blurted out in platoon chat, but rather follow a simple flow pattern to help keep the communication channels free of extraneous chatter.

Orders flow downhill. The platoon leader tells squad leaders which bases to attack; squad leaders tell their troops how to get there. Troops do not give orders to other squad members, and squad leaders do not give orders to other squads.

Information flows uphill. Squad members see something important and share it over the squad chat channel. Squad leaders determine if that information is important enough to share with the PL and the rest of the platoon over platoon chat. Squad members should not jump straight to informing the whole platoon; use the squad leader as a filter. If it is important, the squad leader will inform the platoon leader, and the platoon leader may choose to inform the Command Chat as well.

Remember, squad and platoon leaders are already sharing vital information over the Command Channel (in an ideal world), and may already be aware of the information that you have. That is why it is filtered through the chain of command; there is no point clogging communications with information that the officers are already aware of.

Flow of Information
Orders Information
Platoon Lead
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Platoon Lead
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Squad Lead
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Squad Lead
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Trooper
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Trooper
U%2B21E7.gif

GIVING ORDERS TO THE PLATOON

Good orders are short, sweet and to the point. They must be articulated clearly – meaning skip the “umm” and “ahh” and just spit it out! Poorly articulated orders will result in poor execution, if your platoon members can't decipher what you wanted in the first place.

Avoid this pitfall by taking a moment to think about what you want to say before you begin giving the orders. This is a simple step that too many amateur platoon leaders skip, mostly because of how elementary it is. Think it out, speak it out, act it out.

In-Decision is your enemy and time is not your friend, If you fail to decide you will find circumstance will decide for you. Keep your platoon fluid and engaged even holding a point can be intresting if it's done right!

Strategy is the art of making use of time and space. I am less concerned about the later than the former. Space we can recover, lost time never.
Napoleon Bonaparte

If you are struggling with a decision try using the Boyd loop,

929px-OODA.Boyd.svg.png

Don't be affraid to make mistakes, it is better to make a decision and act on it to find out later it was wrong than to have done nothing.

He that makes war without many mistakes has not made war very long.
Napoleon Bonaparte

Make sure to clear all extraneous chatter before giving any orders. Barking “CLEAR COMMS!” one or two times is usually enough to clear the channel in a public platoon, but don't hesitate to kick platoon members who keep trying to talk over you. That is detrimental to the whole platoon and cannot be tolerated.

Keep the orders concise. Make it clear who you are giving the order to, what you want them to do, and how they should accomplish it. For example, “Charlie squad, pull a Sunderer from the nearest base to go capture A point. Stay there and defend the point until it's capped.”

In this example the WHO is Charlie Squad, the WHAT is capturing and holding the point, and the HOW is by pulling a Sunderer from the nearest base and driving there.

Make sure to leave room for your squad leaders to improvise. They have a more detailed view of the facts on the ground, and their job is to adapt their tactics to the situation in order to accomplish the mission.

Urgency can motivate a squad to move faster and accomplish more, if it's used correctly. A platoon leader who frantically shouts the most basic orders will see little or no improvement; but a platoon leader who knows when to talk calmly, and when to get excited, can help set the tone of the orders and motivate the troopers to action. For more information view the “Chain of Command and Communication” video above.

Realism can also improve your leadership ability. Using phrases such as “Waypoints are actual” reinforces the military theme, and also subtly reinforces your command authority. However, when taken too far this realism can confuse new players and non-veterans who may not understand all military terminology. Avoid “10-codes” and other relatively obscure jargon to keep the orders understandable.

DELEGATING TASKS

An effective platoon is composed of team players who have clearly delineated roles to fill, not 48 one-man armies acting independently.This is the core function of providing orders, but all too many platoon leaders stop short of fully grasping the importance of delegating tasks.

The platoon leader simply cannot do everything. It is necessary to monitor the continent map to ensure that you are aware of all enemy and friendly troop movements at all times, and to ensure that your own platoon is in position as ordered. This takes a great deal of time, and dramatically reduces the effectiveness of the platoon leader in actual combat.

A Note On Tactics vs. Strategy

Squad leaders exist to help platoon leaders execute the overall strategy. The platoon leader, who is monitoring troop movements, determines which locations should be attacked or defended. This is what most people call STRATEGY.

Squad leaders then interpret those orders into specific actions for their squad members. Deploy a Sunderer here, take out an enemy tank over there. These micro-orders are commonly referred to as TACTICS.

Squad and platoon leaders will both set strategy and tactics in certain situations, but the two spheres should generally be thought of as properly belonging to the platoon or squad leaders, respectively.

With this in mind, platoon leaders should trust their squad leaders and mostly leave tactical-level decisions to them. Squad leaders have a more clear view of what their teams are capable of, and what the situation on the ground is. Likewise, platoon leaders have a better view of the overall flow of battle, and squad leaders should trust strategic decisions to their platoon leader.

Squad leaders should also be primarily responsible for creating spawn points for their squad. The platoon leader can accept this responsibility if they hold a dual-role as a squad leader in the platoon, but it should not be their first priority.

If a platoon is functioning properly the PL can safely delegate specific tasks to specific squads and know that they will be accomplished. This makes it possible to split up a platoon (to be discussed later) and to execute more complicated maneuvers to win a battle. In short, this dramatically increases the combat effectiveness of the platoon.

The platoon leader should actively delegate tasks to squad leaders, who should actively delegate tasks to specific members of their squads. Avoid general calls to action (“somebody pull some anti-air”) and instead specify who should follow which orders. However, make sure to avoid overly micro-managing the platoon.

Utilizing The Map

The one thing that platoon leaders spend the most time doing, by far, is reading the continent map to glean information that is useful for developing strategy. This activity takes up a majority of a platoon leader's time and energy, and for larger platoons or more coordinatedalerts that amount of time is even greater.

As such, it is vitally important that a platoon leader be able to competently interpret the data from the continent map in order to make good decisions. Fortunately the continent map provides platoon leaders with a wealth of information to use; unfortunately, there is so much information that it can be difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff.

MAP FILTERS

Map filters are a useful tool to help platoon leaders read the continent map and get the most information out of it as possible. The map filters allow a platoon leader to easily find heated battles, see where enemy and ally troops are massing, and spot strategic vulnerabilities in the lattice line.

The basic filters that every player should have turned on are: Terrain, Facilities, Facility Connections (aka Lattice Lines), Territory Control, and Hotspots. This will tell a player the lay of the land, where the big battles are, who controls that base, and which other bases it is connected to.

Recommended filters for platoon leaders are: Heat Maps (optional: Influence Cloud).

mapfilters.png

Heat maps are an incredibly useful tool that tell a platoon leader where enemy and ally troops are currently located. Since the map updates in real time, it can also inform a clever commander when the enemy is zerging across territories or performing a galaxy drop. The relative brightness of faction colors denotes how many troops are in that territory; the brighter the color, the more enemies or allies in the area. However, the heat maps can also be hard to read if too many other filters are already turned on, particularly Territory Control and Influence Cloud.

REGION DETAILS

The region details feature is a very useful tool that is often overlooked. The details tab will tell a platoon leader how well a fight is going in a particular territory by measuring the total (approximate) number of enemy and ally troops compared to the ratio of troops controlled by any faction in the region.

Or, put another way, this tab will help a platoon leader avoid walking into a bloodbath.

The region details are contained in a floating

box that only appears if you hover your mouse over a territory. It is a small box, but it contains a vast amount of information. This information includes (but is not limited to):

• The name of the territory.

• Who last captured the base, and how long they have held it.

• An estimate of total enemy and/or ally troops in the territory.

• A pie chart detailing the ratio of enemy vs. ally troops in the territory.

• What benefits the defending troops in the region can enjoy (main battle tanks, extra health, turret heat reduction).

• How much time remains until the base is capped — if enough points are captured.

regiondetails.png

Like the Map Filters, this feature is updated in real time and paying attention to it is important. It is the easiest way to tell when the enemy have quietly redeployed a large amount of population to defeat you, and it is the best way to determine if you have killed all of the enemies in a base before you move further down the lattice line.

LATTICE LINES

Lattice lines and enemy troop movements are the two most important strategic considerations for a platoon leader. Knowing where the enemy forces lie waiting is important, but knowing where they are likely to attack next is much more so.

The lattice line system ultimately determines which base your faction can attack and which bases you will need to defend. A faction cannot attack a base unless they control the territory before it on the lattice line. If there is no link on the lattice network, then your faction will be unable to flip the point and capture the base.

In short, this means that lattice lines force factions to invade neighboring territory along predetermined paths (thus artificially creating epic battles over lattice lines). This makes it much easier to guess where and when an enemy platoon will invade your territory, but it comes at the price of narrowing down your own offensive options as well.

Lattice lines also have another significant impact: it makes it possible to cut-off bases from receiving additional reinforcements. Troops are unable to directly deploy into any territory that has been separated from their faction lattice network, as illustrated in the picture below. Cut-off territories turn a darker shade of the faction color, and new soldiers can only enter those territories manually (such as from a Galaxy drop or nearby Sunderer).

NOTE: This only impacts soldiers trying to enter the cut-off region.Troops who were already in those bases when they were divided from the lattice network can continue to spawn in any of the bases that have been cut off, or can redeploy to their faction warpgate. Troops can also continue to spawn at nearby Sunderers, even if they are in the separated region, just like normal.

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ILLUSTRATION: Vanu Sovereignty forces press the attack on the New Conglomerate, successfully sacking Elli Amp Station and cutting off an additional 9 bases (dark blue on bottom right) from redeployside. The cut-off regions are ultimately captured by VS and TR troops.

Discerning The Big Picture

Putting this information together will grant a clever soldier a glimpse at the overall status of the war. By successfully reading the map and interpreting the data it is possible to discern where enemy troops are currently located, which bases they are likely to push next, how they will get there (zerg or Galaxy, etc), and what resources they will have at their disposal to win the battle. It is even possible to get a rough estimate of how many troops are likely to redeploy to capture or defend any given base.

How do you come to these conclusions? The first step, of course, is to hit the “M” key to look at your map. Then simply follow the Commander Intel Check List to get the vital facts on the ground, and apply your own judgment or intel reports to paint a picture of the big scheme.

COMMANDER INTEL CHECK LIST
View Territory Control filter to determine which bases are currently under attack.
Hover the mouse over said bases to determine the likely outcome of the battle. Pay attention to enemy/ally troop ratio to estimate the chances of success or defeat.
Note the time remaining before each base is capped or defended. This will tell you how soon enemy and allied forces will be available for redeployside.
Get an estimate of enemy troops in each region (and the surrounding bases — battles are rarely contained to one territory). Use the Enemy Activity heat map and the Region Details box to identify clusters/zergs of enemy troops and estimate their total strength.
Get an estimate of allied troops in each region using the same process as outlined for enemy troop activity.
Analyze the Lattice Network to determine which bases are (or soon will be) connected to enemy territory. These are the options for attack or defense.
Listen to Command Chat to determine if there is any additional information that was not shown on the Continent Map.

This information will tell a platoon leader where enemy and allied forces are currently clustered, how existing battles are likely to end, and where those forces are likely to move next. Victorious forces tend to zerg onward to he next base in the Lattice Network, and defeated forces normally either regroup at the next base or redeploy to attack or defend another territory. However, instant redeploy adds an element of unpredictability, as any platoon can simply jump across the continent in a few moments (redeployside).

EXAMPLE: ESAMIR ALERT
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ESAMIR ALERT EXAMPLE ANALYSIS

In this alert the Vanu forces are pushing both the Terran Republic and New Conglomerate hard, capturing wide swaths of territory and managing to hold Eisa Tech Plant at the center of the map. Because of their current position, Vanu forces have roughly a dozen regions that are adjacent to enemy territory. However, as seen on the map, the Vanu are only fighting on 5 fronts. This is because the Lattice Network forces armies to march through choke points in order to create large battles (the basis of Planetside 2). The 5 fronts, from East to West, are:

• Geological Survey (VS) to Nott Research Camp (NC)

• Echo Valley Substation (VS) to Saerro Listening Post (NC)

• Eisa Tech Plant (VS) to Eisa Mountain Pass (NC)

• Eisa Mining Operation (VS) to Mattherson's Triumph (TR)

• Andvari Barracks (VS) to Snowshear Watchtower (TR)

Note that each major battle being fought has spilled out into the surrounding regions/bases, even if those bases cannot be captured due to the Lattice Network. There are enemy and allied troops all around the five battles, and it is even possible to spot the transit routes that are being taken to the fight (such as the enemy troop movement going South to Andvari/Snowshear on the left side of the map).

In the first two frames there is a raging battle happening at Geological Survey between Vanu and New Conglomerate forces, with the NC facing a losing defensive battle. Once victorious, the Vanu army must decide whether to press on the attack to Nott Research Camp or to redeploy to help their allies fighting in the regions around the Tech plant.

Holding the center of a map is difficult, and the NC forces withdrew to Nott Research to mount a counter attack, so the Vanu decide to press on (zerg) toward the Camp to disrupt the counter attack and capture another base, as seen in the third and final frame.

Once Nott Research is capped the Vanu will again have to decide between redeploying to help troops elsewhere, or pressing the attack on Nott Amp Station. Winning at the Amp Station will open up an additional Lattice Line, resulting in 6 possible fronts for the Vanu army instead of the current 5. Capturing Saerro Listening Post, to the left of the Tech Plant, would also open up another front, increasing the Lattice Links Vanu need to attack or defend to 7 total options.

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