ZETA Unit - Tactics and

Strategies

Collated and maintained by pooEyes

LAST UPDATED – 29/2/16

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Table of Contents

Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 3

So you just joined the outfit? .......................................................................................................... 4

Organization -by Perxers ................................................................................................................. 5

Individual Tactics ................................................................................................................................. 6

Soldiering Basics – from vashiden and Perxers ............................................................................... 6

Coms................................................................................................................................................ 7

Sunderers ........................................................................................................................................ 8

Vanguarding -Platinum ................................................................................................................... 8

Galaxy Tactics – from Bluejay ......................................................................................................... 9

Know your Buildings...................................................................................................................... 11

Primary Stairs Secondary Stairs .................................................................................................... 13

Squad Tactics .................................................................................................................................... 15

Spawn Beacon Swapping .............................................................................................................. 15

Squad Composition ....................................................................................................................... 15

Entry Tactics .................................................................................................................................. 23

Point Holds/Entrenching ............................................................................................................... 25

Rep Sundy Ball – from Capt. Birdseye / Blue jay / SirBeavo ......................................................... 26

Leadership ......................................................................................................................................... 27

Questionnaire – from Capt. Birdseye ............................................................................................ 27

Leadership tips – from Capt. Birdseye .......................................................................................... 27

Squad Automation and avoiding Micromanagement ................................................................... 28

Platoon Tactics/Map Strategy ........................................................................................................... 28

Map Strategies – Perxers (author) ................................................................................................ 28

Back Capping ................................................................................................................................. 30

Ghost Capping ............................................................................................................................... 30

Choosing logistics .......................................................................................................................... 31

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BioLabs .............................................................................................................................................. 32

Biolab engagement – Perxers (author) ......................................................................................... 32

Tech Plants ........................................................................................................................................ 36

Heyoka Tech Plant Assault Case Study ......................................................................................... 36

Generalised Tech Plant Defence – from Perxers .......................................................................... 38

Amp Stations ..................................................................................................................................... 40

Single Point Amp Stations Defence – from Perxers ...................................................................... 40

Version History

9/12/15 – First version uploaded to teamspeak

29/2/16 – First draft to feature on zeta website and updated with updated ideas for effective

fireteams having trialed them with the outfit. Map reading removed as it is obsolete since victory

points was added.

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Introduction

The underlying theme of ZETA is effectiveness in game objective terms. We are “map effective” or

“alert oriented”. We have a strong bias towards teamwork, rather than developing individuals with

high levels of skill. That isn’t to say we don’t work on or develop individual skills (many top briggs

players started as ZETAs), but when we play live, we do not depend on it.

These tactical notes are a list of tactics and strategies at different levels, based on training notes and

written up here to help bring beginners up to a reasonable standard of tactical awareness as fast as

possible.

“Levels” refers to different levels of tactics used to achieve an overall strategy; individual execution,

squad execution, platoon execution, and the overarching strategy of the entire faction.

It is assumed for this document that all decisions regarding which hex to attack or defend are

platoon leader decisions (even though squad leaders often perform in this role). It is common for a

force leader to make lane level decisions, such as in server smash.

These notes are taken mainly from training sessions, with notes on who has contributed to each

session. Each strategy is only covered briefly, as different squad leaders approach tactics slightly

differently, and each situation involves changes/compromises to the strategy depending on the

situation.

New tactics often require refinement, or may be removed if proven to be ineffective or made

obsolete by game updates. As of 29/2/16, strategies that are not proven or commonly relevant are

marked as a work in progress by the [WIP] stamp.

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So you just joined the outfit?

Welcome to the outfit! Zeta is an awesome outfit for beginners and experienced alike, as we focus

on teamwork/map effectiveness. This makes everyone’s contribution worthwhile, and fosters a

really strong training and social environment. Zeta is unique in these areas.

We don’t play for farming or KD (you don’t need an outfit for that!) but our squad play is not very

good for KD, as we often make sacrifices to win!

Once you have joined, you should have read through the website (www.zetaunit.com), rules

(http://www.zetaunit.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/ZE7As-Rules-and-Regulations_V.2.pdf),

and have jumped on teamspeak. Your first goal/obligation is to get online for Ops nights. As of

writing we play ‘serious’ Ops on Sunday afternoon every week under Perxers’ command (the outfit

leader) and often ops on Thursdays, training on Saturdays.

Perxers is the outfit leader, and the ultimate authority in all things, which is awesome, but there are

also a lot of very experienced ppl in the outfit that can help with any questions, especially SirBeavo,

CaptainBirdseye, and the ‘officers’ who are regularly elected to do moderating/responsible stuff.

We also have the propaganda corps who take care of servers, websites, and “leader of the month”

who is an squad or platoon leader in training.

During the week we spend a lot of time in live play, but Ops night is the ultimate zeta activity. Ops

night is currently Sunday nights, and we are experiemneting with a Saturday ops night on connery.

We also participate in a lot of tournaments and events like server smash, outfit scrims, and other

large scale events.

Requirements – by Perxers [edited]

For our activities, there are some requirements, which every player should try to fulfill, to bring our

effectivity to an absolute maximum.

Spawn Beacon: Every outfit member should have the ability to deploy spawn beacons. If a spawn

beacon gets destroyed, we can pass lead to somebody else in the squad, to deploy a new beacon

and thus creating a new spawn solution.

Medics: The first thing you all should upgrade to maximum, is your medical device. Healing and

reviving will be significant faster, what will increase the survivability of our squads. Also every Medic

should upgrade his grenade belt to maximum and carry 4 revive grenades with him all time. Revive

grenades are the strongest tools of medics. [More recently, medics have also become responsible

for carrying recon dart crossbows, and peppering the field of battle.]

Engineers: Like the medic, your engineer tool should be upgraded to its maximum. This will allow

you to repair friendly vehicles or turrets within a very short period of time. It is also much

recommended to use a lot of tank mines on the roads against enemy vehicles, [and stay close to the

squad’s max units. ]

Galaxy: Everybody should be able to fly a Galaxy and bring it from one point of the map to another

point for squad drops. Please invest some cert points in the galaxy armor and fly abilities, and in your

weapons. Bulldogs with thermal vision are absolutely recommended.

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Sunderer: We strongly suggest to invest into the “deployment shield” of you Sunderer initially to

provide maximum protection when deployed. [You can also discuss various common loadouts with

our veterens such as the proxy rep sundy, battle bus, and eventually the stealth sundy. ]

Organization -by Perxers

Our outfit is a very healthy community and we want to keep it like that!

To provide maximum transparency towards the members, regarding all kind of decisions of our

Leadership, we have established a suitable and sustainable organization.

We also like to provide everybody the opportunity, to be part of the outfit Leadership. This is the

reason, we have chosen a temporary allocation of the officer rank to the members.

Officers will be elected by all our non-recruit members, where the veterans provide the electoral

base for the officer voting.

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Individual Tactics Individual level tactics include any strategies, skills, or tactics than can be applied by an individual.

These include basic fighting skills, knowledge of where to stand and how, abilities like effective

support behaviour, communicate information concisely, and the ability to take orders quickly.

Leadership at this level comes in the form of self-discipline, who decides how to operate and where

in the context of the orders of the squad leader.

Soldiering Basics – Notes from Vashiden and Perxers

Your basic contribution to this outfit depends primarily on your obedience, and how combat/adept

you are as an individual is secondary. When squads run serious, you must be obedient to whoever is

leading, and without question. Sometimes squads are specifically casual, or you can opt out of a

serious squad buy just letting the squad leader know. “I’m just gonna go work on my flying” or

whatever is perfectly acceptable unless specific Ops or Training is underway.

Do not question or argue during ops. Give information concisely and take orders as holier than thou.

Any debates of strategies or complaints or whatever can be discussed after operations have ceased.

Even a bad decision must be followed to the letter, as it is far more valuable for the leaders to learn

by doing than to learn by speculation, and that includes mistakes.

Your ability to fight is still very important. So there are a few skills the beginner needs to work on in

order to be very useful, and it can take a few months to get really confident in basic fighting skills

and equipment. We have workshops frequently on basic fighting, or “1.v.1.ing”

1. Head shotting is essential in every fight. If you don’t headshot, you will lose most

engagements.

2. Dance at all times. There are snipers everywhere obviously so standing still is a total no-no,

but more importantly when you are shooting it out with and enemy you have to duck and

wobble around to avoid being an easy target.

3. Stay near cover at all times. Hug walls. Sprint to cover.

4. Unexpected positioning is good positioning. Height is an advantage. Doorways are too

obvious. Hide or retreat to reload or regenerate shields.

5. Don’t engage everyone you see. If you can’t win, move. Pick your fights and move before

you shoot. Firing at distant targets with CQC weapons is a pointless endeavour and gives

away your squads position.

6. Get used to using your secondary weapon for finishing. Reloading takes too long.

7. When ambushed or fired upon first, move, don’t look. You cannot – CANNOT – fire second

and expect a win. Drag your assailant towards allies or deployables instead.

8. Prolonged scoping and awareness don’t mix well. If you aren’t sure what is around you it’s

time to stop shooting. You should look at your map every few seconds, and tag (with the ’Q’

key) everything you can.

9. When in a support role, keep your rifle out as much as possible.

10. Don’t go outside unless you have to, especially during point holds.

11. Cert into a spawn beacon as soon as you can.

12. Stay together, and stack up at spawn and before entry. A squad of collective solo-ers will not

last against a smaller squad of organised fireteams that stick together.

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13. Unless ordered too, don’t be rushed. If it involves sprinting, you will probably die. If you

enter a doorway without checking, you will probably die. If you try to go alone, you will

probably die. Rushing and dying is not faster than being methodical and making progress.

14. Ignore your K/D ratio. It’s going to look bad because risk=reward. If want to focus on your

K/D, this might not be the outfit for you.

Coms

Coms are crucial to good squad play. It is essential that players in a serious squad keep coms clear so

that orders can be heard. In a serious squad, gameplay is usually only for half an hour to two hours

tops, so there is plenty of time for debriefing afterwards. WHOEVER is in charge has full control over

decision making and it is not OK to discuss tactics, strategy, or argue about the next action. Stating

that the “vanu are about to warpgate us” or whatever is unnecessary unless you are a squad or

platoon leader (or supervising a leader in training). Obviously in a casual squad this is quite different.

Things that are NOT OK to say over coms in a serious squad

-Any kind of casual chat.

-Hackusations/Raging or complaining about dying or getting owned by someone

-Bragging about anything (newsflash: no-one cares)

-Announcing the obvious, sunderers that are already spotted etc.

Things that are ok to say over coms in a serious squad:

-Confirmation of orders if needed

-Announcing a sunderer or galaxy that has arrived but can’t be spotted

-Announcing an armour colomn that isn’t already spotted

-Confirmation of orders. “roger”, “OK”, or “copy” is all you need.

-Completion or failure of a specific task.

Speaking to you leader

Just saying “sundered here” is really unhelpful and a waste of time for everyone. Just spot it. If you

must say something, speak concisely and efficiently, and think twice before saying anything at all. It

must be only the most urgent information.

If you decide you are going to offer information, include the location, enemy or allied designation,

and your squad name (as squads are often on different maps). “enemy sunderer to the north of

bravo” is much more useful and very concise (ie don’t waffle on).

Speaking to your teammates

Try to use proximity chat to speak to your teammates where possible, to keep coms free. It helps to

stay in groups most of the time anyway.

Use precise terminology to point out targets. Just saying “contact front” seems cool, but actually

everyone is facing a different way. Try “enemy heavy north west” or “enemy armour column

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southern gate”. Notice again that inclusion of an enemy/ally designation, and an objective

description of the location.

When sharing a vehicle, using “x o’clock” designations are potentially feasible but some gunners

struggle to find 12 o’clock quickly. Everyone has a compass on their screen so there is a strong

argument to use compass directions instead. Further, x o’clock directions are useless for infantry or

aircraft as everyone is often facing a different way and shouldn’t have to see you before they can

find the enemy.

Where possible, use proxy chat for chatting to your squad mates or fireteams, and keep squad a

platoon channels free of noise.

Sunderers

Sundys are the most useful vehicle in the game, and you should cert into your sundy immediately.

Beginners should cert into deployment shield and a fury grenade launcher or kobalt mg first.

Deployment Sundys are the default and most common.

Deployment

A deployment shield is really the most common sundy you will be required to pull. The shield only

works when the sundy is deployed, but makes the sundy really hard to destroy, and beyond the

abilities of one infantry man. Use f40s, Kobalts, and basilisks where infantry are expected. Handy to

have racing chassis to get where you are going quickly, unless you are adept at getting sundys into

tight spots. Sometimes there may be a need for anti air weapons.

Battle Busses

Fully armoured sundy that doesn’t expect to deploy. Usually has a hill climbing chassis and a GSD

field diffuser to get into AMP stations and other bases and close to capture points. Usually features

twin f40 furys with thermal sights for infantry suppression or minor vehicle work. Must have gunners

to be effective, and must be manned for squad members to deploy into it.

Proximitiy Repair Sundy

Used in self-repairing pairs to support major vehicle movements or precarious deployment positions.

MUST STAY TOGETHER. Usually features twin basilisks.

Stealth

Tactically similar to a regular deployment sundy but without any armour, and a luxurious but

expensive cloaking ability. Useful but not common yet.

Vanguarding -Platinum

Essentially the tanks main goal is to dominate the enemy’s vehicles and reduce movement around

bases and along lanes between. Charging into battle is exactly the opposite of good tactical

deployment of tanks, as there are many weaknesses for slow moving vehicles once range is lost.

Be prepared for retreat and repair (run engineer), but dont forget the overall goal. It's tempting to

play for kills and forget tactical goals.

Mineguard is essential (as is EOD hud implant if possible). Racer chassis is essential as the vanguard

is really slow and getting to advantageous positions quickly is essential. The Vanguard is best used at

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long range. Use higher magnification optics. Expect to behave on the whole much like a sniper. It is

possible to run HE ammo and a Canister as an anti-infantry/capture tank, although more

experimentation is still required.

The vanguard shield is really useful, especially when getting hit with c4 or seeing mines at the last

minute. When operating at range, the secondary gun is only useful if you have a good gunner or find

yourself closing in range. The halberd is good with experienced gunners. The enforcer is better for

less experienced gunners.

Planning fields of fire: "butt to the wall".

The Vanguard is great for dominating vehicle spawns or spawn points from a distance and halting

enemy vehicle movement between lanes. The vanguard can also be used as an anti-air platform with

an experienced driver. When supporting general allied armour, operate from behind (rather than

infront).

Elevation from the landscape is a way to prop your tank up or down to get your field of fire to cover

enemies on hills, aircraft etc. Always keep in mind a nearby place which has convenient bumps to

elevate your weaponry. Two rounds from the AP main gun should take down even a liberator, so

consideration of this is essential when choosing places to deploy a Vanguard.

When engaged by harassers, hold back your fire and wait for the perfect shot, otherwise the shots

will be wasted and you will be destroyed while reloading.

When engaged by aircraft, movement is really important to avoid incoming damage and potentially

out-repair it. Use cover to its premium at all times.

Galaxy Tactics – from Bluejay

It’s worth noting that Galaxies are particularly standout vehicles, which have an enormous range of

functions from weapons platforms, squad logistics, artillery platforms, and anti-air fortresses. It can

absorb a massive amount of damage, and bring to bear a multitude of weaponry to the battle field.

Combined with a good fire suppression/auto-repair a high G frame, and large capacity weaponry,

the fully manned galaxy is only vulnerable to liberators (although don’t forget the dead spot above

it). A flexible load out is to have a bulldog (max clip size) on one side, a drake on the other (keep the

mag sizes large) with walkers middle and rear. The pilot would circle so that the bulldog is facing

infantry/point captures, and the drake is facing outside the circle assisting with potential

vehicles/aircraft.

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A good galaxy pilot can have a massive impact on the battle. A single gunner is usually enough to

make use of the weapons without impacting squad size too much. An anti-air galaxy requires

perhaps two gunners.

A well upgraded galaxy can provide very effective fire support to its squad members on the ground

post deployment as well. By using bulldogs (typically on on side of the craft), two crew can pretty

much run a galaxy like an anti-infantry/air platform permanently during the capture.

It’s important to note that the galaxy can fly faster when using flying diagonally and with the nose

down, so that W, and Space can all be held at once. Falling slightly can provide temporary speed

boosts.

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Know your Buildings

Towers –from Perxers/Beavo

Towers are very common throughout Auraxis, and often house the capture points of many bases.

The four landing pads often have snipers peering over the edge. Light Assaults often haunt the upper

most sections and are exceedingly useful in tower assaults. The cap point is actually only on the

second level, in a small room, surrounded by stairs, with pillar studded balconies all around it. Due

to the proximity to the spawn room at the top of these stairs, this can be a difficult fight.

Roaming the balconies and pillars are the key to success, seen at the bottom of the tower in this

photo. Use them for cover, hiding on the outside of the walls (where there is a small ledge) for

reloads or when outnumbered. This is a great way for light assaults to tie up forces while heavy and

max teams plod up from the bottom level.

Infiltrators and light assaults can easily destroy/hack the vehicle terminals at the bottom and top

floors. There are several very useful jump pads that allow for very easy movement for all classes, and

with some practise the individual should be able to move about easily.

Spawn beacons can last a long time when placed at the highest possible point of the tower during a

drop or by a light assault.

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Large Stairs Small Stairs– Perxers

The half circle shaped building in the photo is often referred to as the ‘banana building’ and doesn’t

always feature. The main square building is very common, and often houses capture points or

generators, or both in the case of the bioloab.

The larger portion of the building has a larger lower level, with one door leading to the ‘small stairs’,

and three doors leading to the ‘large stairs’. These lower doors are common choke points for

infantry and maxes and should never be rushed through.

The top level has a corridor that has several doors leading to the ‘top room’. This top room often has

the capture point in it, and when it does it is often referred to as the ‘primary’ room.

The primary room has ‘double doors’ that either lead to a balcony or to the banana building via

bridges as featured in the photo. These doors are often haunted by light assaults from the roof.

Commonly a squad with three groups will hold the corridor, watching either the large stairs, small

stairs, or the double doors, and largely ignore the lower level. Engineers should place turrets at the

top of the stairs as point of cover (less so for shooting). It is important to stay away from the doors,

as the enemy will doubtlessly throw grenades and C4.

Assaulting through the banana building is difficult. It is a common tactic to have a small resistance in

the primary room feign their death and allow a squad to traverse from the banana building only to

be ambushed from the corridor once they have traversed and run through deployables left inside

the double doors.

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Primary Stairs Secondary Stairs - Perxers

This is another one of the most common buildings in the game, consisting of a ground room with

two staircases at either side leading up to two adjacent rooms on the second floor. The second floor

has a balcony which can often be accessed from the ground in sloped areas. Two stair cases at either

end of the second floor offer access to the roof.

Of the two second floor rooms, one usually houses the capture point. This room and the stairs

leading to it are referred to as ‘primary room’ and ‘primary stairs’. The other second floor room is

referred to as ‘secondary room’ and ‘secondary stairs’.

Defences in this building hover on the second floor, with turrets at the tops of the stairs as cover

once again. Medics and infiltrators often hide next to a console against the wall dividing the two

rooms or in the corner of the balcony. The balcony and roof are commonly used by air dropped

squads to make entry and leave a spawn beacon on the roof. Assaulting via the stair case is difficult.

Differences in Strategic Vs Non-Strategic play – pooEyes

The biggest risk is not taking any risk... In a world that is changing really quickly, the only

strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.

Mark Zuckerberg

It is important to differentiate strategic versus non-strategic gameplay. During serious gameplay

nonstrategic techniques are not plausible, however common in causal play. The key difference is in

the risk.

Skirting techniques, commonly used by harassers and long-lived tanking crews often focus on

brushing the edges of combat zones to pick off individual vehicles and sundys, retreating when

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necessary to repair. This technique gives longer lifetimes and a great K/D but makes a very small

contribution to victory.

Sniping from a distance, equally as common, often only achieves a mild suppression of troops on the

ground, and is considered mostly non-strategic unless employed specifically to ‘camp a vehicle

terminal’ or suppress a particularly long open stretch. Infiltrators are far more useful in a CQC (close

quarters combat) role where the risk is greater.

1v1 outfits that focus on K/D often avoid larger fights and camped spawns in order to decrease risk.

Often these players, despite their skill, struggle to make effective strategic contributions as well,

preferring not to sacrifice themselves for the greater cause. Here at Zeta we certainly do sacrifice

ourselves when required, and the risk is often at a maximum.

Farming, or finding engagements where the enemy is hopelessly pushing into your trap, similarly

reduces your strategic contribution. Even though supressing a larger force may seem strategic, infact

a large enemy that is being farmed must not be that a threat, and your team should probably

already be redeploying elsewhere to start a new cap.

Running with the zerg (a large congregation of allies without leadership that move from base to base

like a flock) is often an easy brainless behaviour that can be useful for 1v1 training or learning bases.

It is rarely strategic though, and often involves a permanent over-pop that sucks the life out of other

engagements on the map. It is very common (and frustrating) for a large zerg to push into enemy

territory and get cut off, and never redeploy into more relevant battles! Large populations also get

sucked into endless biolab battles, and it is important to understand that as productive as preying on

pubbys may be k/d wise, there is no strategic (map based) value in joining them. Zerg herding is a

common way to make a small group of people have a large influence on the map, but is not really an

aspect in Zeta squad level tactics.

Finally, looking for a ‘good fight’ can be fun, and a great test of the outfit’s squad members, but is a

context that is not strategy based as well. Any squad that is not strategic is casual.

These are not definite bans on certain styles of play, and a strategic squad may be very capable at

1v1ing, find times where vehicle harassment is plausible, or have an easy strategic goal that leads to

a farming like outcome, but the context is what is important here. It is also important that ZETA

squads are CLEARLY labelled as casual when not running seriously, as this also affects our reputation.

There is not really any such thing as “half-serious” behaviour as strategy and risk are mutual.

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Squad Tactics Squad level tactics involve any behaviour where the individual is dependent on another individual, or

where teamwork is apparent. A individual’s ability can contribute to the squad’s ability, but the

cohesion of the squad will make the squad’s overall ability greater than the sum of its parts.

Leadership at squad level involves a squad leader who is deciding which strategy to use to approach

any given base/cap, what classes to use and where, as well as how this contributes how to the

strategy of the platoon (or map).Beginners should incorporate squad level tactics into their training

as early as possible.

Spawn Beacon Swapping

All squad members should have the ability to drop spawn beacons, and should rehearse switching

lead and dropping spawn beacons at short notice. Squad leaders and light assault classes should be

proficient at placing squad beacons in devious and long lived locations at the beginning of each

engagement (either after a drop, upon entering a base, or in an advantageous place during defence).

Due to the extensive recharge time between drops, squad members should use all other spawning

options (at the squad leader’s discretion) before using the spawn beacon.

It is common to delay respawning immediately after death, in order to stack up and drop/spawn in

greater numbers during an engagement.

Squad members should remain alert that they don’t leave their computer whilst holding lead for a

beacon, as this can deny the squad a chances of utilising spawn beacons!!

Squad Composition

For the most part ZETA members have learned to pull the classes most suited to any particular task

without being told, however, here are a few guides to potential teamwork tactics that may be

useful.

Fireteams

Study strategy over the years and achieve the spirit of the warrior. Today is victory over

yourself of yesterday; tomorrow is your victory over lesser men.

Miyamoto Musashi

[WIP] Fireteam training (pooEyes)

Numbers is THE most elementary tactic. A team of three allies has an immediate advantage over a single enemy. Organising your squad to operate in a way that can overcome an equal sized or larger zerg is actually not difficult. Two heavies and a medic potentially have more survivability than three heavies with no medic, and even more so with some coordination. Thus, coordination can counter mass. The concept of fire teams is not just another complication to make squad leading harder. Fireteams should make squad leading easier, if you know how and when to use them, and practise using them. Fireteams are useful when u need to group a few units together for a specific purpose, and will often help with large squad compostion. This exercise will demonstrate that using fireteams in a squad will provide a leader concise and fast squad structures that previously only slower micromanagement could provide. Not everyone in a squad has to be in a fire team! Flexibility is essential, and many

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players who are inexperienced or tremendously experienced will often be more useful as soloists or fodder. A squad of twelve in planetside can have many variations of teams. Here are a selection of common fire teams for various purposes which i would use in my squad leading, of course, teams of all one class don’t need a special name!:

Purpose Composition Heavy Team Heavy Assault Heavy Assault Medic

Backbone of ops play, the heavy combo is used for capturing points, holding points. This team should stick together and work as a cohesive unit, with the medic firmly at the back. Typically the medic has a grenade belt, res grenades, and a crossbow with recon darts. This fire team is easily scalable from 3 to 12 people. High skill players often run heavy medic combos in pairs. Tactics are never without flexibility. If you are sure you can perform better as a combat infi or LA it would, in most cases, be ok. Beginners and low KD players are more suited to the medic role. A heavy team tasked with attacking vehicles with rockets may prefer an engineer instead of a medic.

Max Crew Max Max Engineer

Sometimes featuring a medic where medics arn’t available from other fire teams, the max crew can introduce a massive firepower increase for point holds and big breach situations. Once again, sticking together is a crucial part of what makes this unit greater than the sum of its parts. Maxes best use dual scatter cannons with slugs for anti-infantry, dual bursters for air, and dual ravens for anti-vehicle work.

Recon Team Infiltrator Light Assault Either

The recon team is rarely bigger than three people, usually less. Its main role is the preparation of bases either alongside the frontline teams, or in advance as a back capping team. The light assault is specifically a beacon placer, and then may operate as a scouting agent to locate enemy spawns, or flanking for the frontline teams. The infiltrator in this squad is specifically CQC, and is intended to hack terminals and create hard spawn options for the rest of the squad. After this is done, other terminals and turrets can be hacked in preparation for the main force. Recon team members are generally stealthy, good 1v1ers, can survive without support, and avoid engagement. When air sapping (dropping directly onto vehicles to destroy them) or invading towers, the team should use more light assaults, although an EMP grenade is useful to ensure unexploded C4 is set off.

Engineer Team Engineer Engineer Heavy

Useful in many different situations, an engineer team is probably most commonly dedicated to galaxy piloting or tanking. Other tasks might include smoke barrages (uses ammo packs with underslung smoke launchers), tank mining, or a team dedicated to galaxy piloting or tanking. I have seen excellent point holds with underpropped squads using sunderer gun platforms and canister harassers, not to mention the ammo reserves, bettys, and tank mines that an engineer can bring to a point hold. Pizza delivery!

The thing that makes fireteams useful and efficient is that we can have these ideas organised beforehand. Organising them on the spot in game will require as much micromanagement as not

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having fireteams anyway. Take a moment to train these structures, get your members to print out or memorise this chart, and later reap the benefits of and instantly self-adapting squad composition! It is pretty essential that fireteams stick together. For fireteams to work, players may have to incorporate tactical redeploys or retreats into their gameplay. As an example - if an assault team losses both heavies and the medic can’t revive them, the medic should redeploy or retreat back towards the redeployed heavies to reform the team, not fight on delaying the redeployment of the entire fire team. Obviously this isn’t always the case (such as in a point hold) but some initiative is called for. In another example, if an engineer is killed in a max team, the isolated max should (in most cases) also retreat or find cover and seek to re-join with his engineer rather than fight and die. This mentality of retreating and sticking together is difficult for new pubbys and old soloists to embrace. But it is the essence of teamwork. Rather than focussing on specific fire team training, we are looking at more overarching concepts here. A squad leader need only ask for a certain combo or vehicle, and the fire team can autonomously figure out who is pulling what over proxy chat. For example, if the order was "spades, pull a rep sundy from the base" then spades members discuss who will be the engineers, and amongst themselves who has the resources or best rep sundy. The result is that, with only that one sentence, the squad leader has the best sundy possible and manned to boot, without delegating or asking heaps of questions about who has nanites and a good sundy. Further, the team can approach the terminal together and watch for campers while the vehicle is pulled! Exercises [distribute fireteam list and divide squad into three man teams]

- practise each fireteam combo, spawning teams and moving to waypoint (keeping supports at the rear) - form fire teams. Two people redeploy as if killed and third retreats/covers to regroup - Practise spawning in waves, waiting for x number of people before leaving sundy. - Practise approaching building and entering through multiple doors simultaneously as a fire team (especially LAs) - Practise pulling vehicles as a group and manning them (sunderers, liberators, harassers). - simulate the example scenarios (especially gal drop)

SQUAD COMPOSITION A squad can be made of various sized fireteams, but we are focussing on three here, as the number most useful for manning vehicles and most combat situations. Here are some rehear sable scenarios that might be dealt with using fireteams. (note: the unnamed fireteam is referred to here as "hearts" for lack of a better term)

SCENARIO 1- STANDARD GAL DROP SCENARIO

When dropping on a fresh enemy base, squad members need to know there are several jobs that need to be done, and fireteams helps to make it obvious what each team should focus on. In this scenario a squad of four three man fire teams prepare to leave the warp gate and engage a single point enemy base. Squad leader: "FT-diamonds spawn a heavy team, and spawn a galaxy" - FT-hearts spawn to heavies and a medic into a galaxy.

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Squad leader: "FT-spades spawn in the gal as an infantry max team" - FT-spades discuss who has the best maxes and then spawn as two maxes and an engineer into the galaxy. Squad leader: "FT-clubs spawn in the gal as a recon team" - FT-clubs spawn as two cqc infiltrators and a light assault with the spawn beacon (most likely squad leader). Squad leader: "FT-hearts spawn in the gal as a heavy team" - FT-hearts spawn to heavies and a medic We should take a moment to appreciate the simplicity of this system. not only has the squad composition and even some aspects of the load outs been refined and customised to the squad leader's liking, but the inherent activity of each of each member in the upcoming engagement has been distinctly outlined in previous training: the heavy teams will engage existing troops over point. A recon team will place a beacon high up and out of sight (with the LA) while infis hack turrets, terminals, ultimately leading to the spawning of new hard spawns from within the base. Finally, a max team will move in and bolster the point hold. In this scenario the squad has air dropped into a situation where there are maxes on point, and multiple hard spawns plus a beacon. Not bad. All of this is organised in FOUR SENTENCES if the squad has done some basic training in fireteams and gal drop expectations.

SCENARIO 2 – AIR SAPPING SCENARIO

One of the most foreboding sights is a ring of enemy vehicles and sunderers surrounding a captured base from all sides, often preventing the squad from being able to pull new vehicles of their own. In this particular scenario, the enemy has little air support, so the squad leader gets creative, and decides to attack the vehicles from the air using a tower base nearby. We can see here that fireteams of one class can be used easily without special names or trained knowledge. Squad leader: "FT-diamonds re-deploy as a engineer team, and spawn a gal from 'x'base" - FT-diamonds spawn as engineers and a heavy, then discuss in proxy chat who has the best galaxy, and spawns it. Squad leader: "FT-spades spawn in the gal as a light assault team" - FT-spades redeploy as light assaults into the galaxy (we don’t need a special name for teams of all one class!) Squad leader: "FT-clubs spawn in the gal as engineers with mines" - FT-clubs spawn as three engineers (we don’t need a special name for teams of all one class!) Squad leader: "FT-hearts re-deploy here as a heavy team" - FT-hearts spawn two heavies and a medic. In this scenario, the intended tactic is not as obvious as SCENARIO 1. The heavy team has a fairly obvious task of holding the point: The teams loaded into the gal will be dropped out over the vehicles, (as the squad leader has to now describe). First, the engineers will be deployed behind the vehicles to catch retreating or reinforcing vehicles (three engineers can hold up to 15 mines!). The light assault team will be air sapping: dropping like bombs directly onto enemy vehicles with c4. No doubt the gal is potentially useful for respawning as well, and with some initiative, the heavy inside it can eject as necessary and join the fight on the ground.

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Its tricky example (potentially too complicated a tactic to actually work often) but it serves to show that organising it was easier with fireteams than it would be without, especially if the team has practised a bit and has some experience with your preferred tactics.

SCENARIO 3 - VEHICLE ATTACK

I am forever faced with generic orders like "pull vehicles". Orders like that deserve the ensuing debate of vehicle choice and gunnery arguments. Debating slows down the squad, affects moral, and drags down all important speed. At least say "pull tanks" or "pull sunderers" but what most squad leaders have in mind is a variety of vehicles, usually including tanks AND sunderers at least. What they get is a cluster of unmanned guns and harassers driving off into the distance. In this scenario, our ZETA squad leader has the ability to take a little more control using his fireteams. In this scenario, we have two three man fireteams, and “the rest”. This strikes me as a very useful format. Squad leader: "FT-spades and FT-clubs pull rep sundys, the rest pull tanks and meet at the waypoint.” Those of us in ZETA who have done a few tours know this as the "cock-block". Rarely does it take less than minutes of discussion to organise though. Rather than outlining endless details, our fireteam protocols can make life much simpler. Spades and clubs both can produce a MANNED proxy repair sunderer each because they are in three-man fire teams. Squad leader: "everyone form a ball around the two repair sundys" This is the tactic. By shielding the two repair sunderers, all the vehicles in this formation are granted a substantial and constant repair bonus, including each of the sunderers. By staying close together, the formation can take a massive pounding and has many times been used to decimate incoming armour columns and facilitate a counter-attack. Many times it has not been organised in time, resulting in a scrappy tangle of missing sunderers and random infantry wondering what to do. But now with fireteams, the whole thing has can be organised with all guns manned in TWO SENTENCES.

SUMMARY

Fireteams may seem difficult to achieve in your squad coordination, but if any NC outfit can do it, it's ZETA. I expect all of you to memorise these simple combos, maybe keep a copy near your desk, and use fireteams in your live-play and to beat forces larger than yourself! We have and can spend time training specific fireteam combos in more detail at a later date. It’s up to the squad leader of the day to find new and interesting possibilities for fire teams, but it is up to all of us to adopt and embrace tight teamwork in regular play. My departing words are "STICK TOGETHER YOU BASTARDS!"

Composition strategies

Fireteam: Heavy/Medic combo –from bluejay and birdseye.

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This is the default or most common configuration. It is often implied but not formally recognised

that the squad is usually mostly made up of heavies and medics, but often the term “pair up” or

“don’t operate solo” is referring to this kind of behaviour, so why not formally adopt it!

A heavy is best supported by a combat medic. While the heavy takes lead, the medic is close behind

to enter each engagement alongside the heavy, making many 1v1s into 2v1s. Also, as the heavy has

entered the engagement first the medic tends to take less fire and can retreat/revive with greater

freedom. The combat medic should keep his rifle out and frequently observe rooftops and flanks.

As the heavy and medic enter engagements, both can activate their shields and nanite healing in

order to create a stacking shield effect. In high pressure engagements, a medic can even throw a

pre-emptive revive grenade to ensure the heavy’s prolonged influence. Finally, most of the time that

a heavy falls, the medic can finish or retreat from the engagement and rejoin the heavy.

A skilled medic can support two heavies at once where squad cohesion and communication is high,

meaning a 6 man crew can effectively operate as two fire teams, or a 12 man crew as four fire

teams.

Max crew – from Capt. birdseye

The second most common fireteam is a max crew, consisting of one max, one engineer, and one

medic. The max takes lead, usually in an assault or point hold, and the engineer provides repairs and

ammo (often to the entire squad). An anti-infantry turret can make great cover for a max to duck

behind and should be used in most point hold scenarios.

The max is largely responsible for retreating, often using the “charge” ability, to retreat to cover with

the engineer/medic. It is important that a supported max remain fairly well in cover at all times so as

to be retrievable by the medic upon death, and to minimise risk to the support crew. A fairly

conservative play style will be very rewarding with this configuration.

The medic is a backup in case either the engineer or max should fall, although a ‘diet max crew’ can

function reasonably well without a medic, especially in large groups where medics are available

ambiently. The medic should remain combat ready in case of a flanking or rooftop attack. It is

plausible for one medic and one engineer to support two maxes that remain close together, making

a four man fireteam.

This makes it possible to have two 4 man teams in a squad of 8, or 3 4 man fireteams in a squad of

twelve, for a total of 6 maxes. This strategy is ideal for point holds and prolonged assaults, but

should not be confused with the very different last-ditch tactic of the “max crash”.

Simple Max Crash Squad

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A max crash is a simple tactic usually used as a last resort/broken arrow tactic. Every member of the

squad is ordered to redeploy, pull a max, to stack up (that means wait!!!), and then assault towards

point. This is an expensive tactic, and should you be unable to pull a max, default to engineer.

[WIP] Anti-Vehicle Squad – the alpha strike! (from birdseye)

This may be an effective way to surgically remove repair sundys from a vehicle blockade.

An anti-vehicle squad maybe called to drop nearby an enemy armour column. This is a squad made

entirely of heavys with rocket launchers (the type of which would vary with the target). One member

should be an engineer to provide ammunition, although a medic is usually not required as this tactic

is usually temporary.

The intention is that the leader spots a target, and the squad fire on that target simultaneously to

instantly kill it, in order to prevent that vehicle returning fire.

Solo roles within the squad

There are several roles in a squad that don’t directly involve being in a team of some kind. Often the

squad leader operates as a soloist in order to take time out to assess the map, place spawn beacons,

or gain vantage points. Often the outfit has vehicle or pilot specialists as well. These roles may

collectively be referred to here as the ‘solosits’ or as part of a ‘command team’, and are typically

filled by more experienced players.

Revive Medics

Zeta squads tend to exploit revive grenade medics with grenade belt packs, as we are a fast moving

and frequently redeployed unit that doesn’t rely on elite fighting skills. This is a role that experienced

and beginners alike can play effectively (often played by the leader). Essentially this medic typically

avoids combat (although keep your rifle out as often as possible), and focuses on maintaining squad

numbers where possible with the revive greandes and medic tool. Revive medics are essential for

point holds and can carry C4. More recently, Medics have been tasked with carrying recon dart

crossbows for the squad, and pouring recon all over the bases during battle.

CQC Infiltrators – from layola

It is important to ascertain which kind of role your squad leader would have you take as an

infiltrator. We rarely use snipers. Where an infiltrator is present in a CQC role, some considerable

skill is anticipated, and the infiltrator should generally assume the following responsibilities:

1. When assaulting a base via air, or where no sundy is present, hack the vehicle terminal and

pull a sundy to deploy.

2. Recon. Put a motion sensor in a position useful to the squad, usually near the point or spawn

room.

3. Hacking or booby trapping as many terminals or turrets as possible.

4. Using EMP grenades on well reinforced rooms or capture points.

Back Cap Infiltrator

When an infiltrator is performing back-cap duties, the infiltrator should generally assume the

following responsibilities:

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1. Make your way to the next base on the lattice (check with squad leader) often as a stalker,

usually using a stealth sunderer, stealth flash, or ESF.

2. Remain hidden, avoid engagement, and hack as many terminals as possible.

3. Be ready to capture the point as immediately once the previous base has flipped over.

4. Prepare a spawn option! Once the squad has arrived, perform the duties of a CQC infiltrator

or move on to the next back-cap.

The smoke engineer

In certain circumstance where visibility or falling from heights is tactically exploitable, or in situations

such as camped spawn rooms or vehicle terminals, an engineer with a underslung grenade launcher

can deliver an infinite flow of smoke grenades using his own ammo packs.

It can help if squad members are equipped with NV/thermal scopes, and that the enemy is not. Place

the smoke on the enemy positions, allowing your troops to move between cover without taking fire,

and use your ammo pack!

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Entry Tactics

Before entering a room into potential combat, there are no reasons not to check the room first with

wither a motion sensor or a method known as ‘slicing the pie’. This is described here in terms of a

heavy/medic fireteam.

The heavy would peer through the door from a distance, and strafe left or right to slowly reveal the

interior of the room in small slices, so that only one enemy need be engaged at a time. By varying

how far the heavy is to the door the amount of exposure to enemy fire can be minimalized. Standing

up very close to the door will expose too much of the body and result in becoming an easy target.

Also try to avoid the area immediately in front of and behind the door at all costs, labelled here as

the fatal area. Corridors should be treated similarly as those inside a corridor can’t hide from those

outside the entry to the corridor. A pursuing enemy can often be led into a corridor as a trap.

Passive Entry

In the case of fewer enemies being present, a fire team with multiple heavies can simultaneous slice

the pie on two doors at once, creating a cross fire with minimum exposure to enemy fire. Grenades

can be thrown through ‘slices’ whilst minimising exposure, however it is wise to consider your

surprise element before throwing grenades.

Heavies and maxes should always take point upon breaching, and with shields/nanitefields

activated. Having breached, make sure to hug the walls and avoid the fatal area, as that is the

naturally going to be the first place to take fire.

As in all infantry tactics, the fundamental underpinning is that every engagement is in our favour.

We want to shoot first, and have the most guns shooting, everytime. Thus, it is essential that teams

enter at once, rather than the classical single file seen in TV. Use broad formations ensuring as many

people can fire at once as possible. This is often the preferred entry tactic when numbers are closer

to even, and time is permitting for careful “slicing”.

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Dynamic Entry[WIP]

If your opponent is better armed and has longer reach, then surprise is your only ally. And

then you'd better hope he's half asleep.

Sherwood Smith

[It has been found that dynamic entry tactics in planetside are not as effective or reliable as the

more simple “all at once” passive approach. Further, grenade softening has show to ruin any

element of surprise due to the unavoidable yelling of “grenade out”. Nothing has proven more

worthwhile than having a spawn option as close to the room in question as possible.]

In the case of a larger enemy force being entrenched in a point hold, a dynamic entry tactic may

need to be used. This is the cliché CQC tactic often portrayed in films or games where gunmen

suddenly burst in from every exit of the room and surprise the badguys.

An large scale dynamic entry has three phases; stack, soften, execute. It relies on a sudden attack

from multiple points, and can difficult to coordinate without some practise and communication.

Stacking up refers to the fireteam (or fireteams) each taking position near a different entry point of

the room. Usually it is possible to approach a door on an angle and get quite close to it, against the

wall and out of sight of any enemy within the room. Ideally teams would stack up near flanking

entrances of the room in question.

Soften refers to the synchronised use of various grenades, concussions, emps, rockets, flash, or

smoke/NV. All of which are deployed at once from each member. This may damage or disable a lot

of enemies, but more importantly it briefly renders the entrenched enemy a moment of disarray as

they manoeuver to avoid the grenades. Well defended rooms often have deployables near the doors

and enemies in immediate corners of the doorways that will not be seen by ‘slicing the pie’.

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Softening also should involve a brick of c4 or a grenade at the immediate entrance of the door to

clear any deployables. It is possible to create similar disarray by having a cloaked suicide infiltrator

run in cloaked and leap about the enemy, causing the enemy to turn their backs to the door in an

attempt to not be stabbed by the infiltrator threat.

It has been shown in practise that grenades can often giveaway the surprise of the attack, so are

best used in more hectic battle fields, and less useful in quiet moments where “grenade out” is going

to alert every enemy in sight.

Execution involves the teams breaching the building simultaneously at the moment disarray is at its

maximum. It is common in larger battles for a light assault team (entering from the roof say) to wait

a second or two after the initial wave of heavies/LA/maxes. This creates a ‘waves’ effect where the

enemies all rush towards the first entry team (usually the strongest) making light work for the next

entry team, and potentially support classes can enter as a third wave for “finishing”.

Revive grenades have long fuses, thus can be thrown in almost pre-emptively by medics in dynamic

entry, and nanite fields are more useful here than shield bubbles as they bubbles can give away your

intentions through the wall.

Dynamic entry is an “all in” surprise strategy for gaining quick entry to important rooms, and should

be rehearsed. Use all available softening devices (grenades etc.). Dynamic entry only works with the

element of surprise, and will bring average to poor results when executed badly. When executed

with the true intention of synchronisation and surprise, the theory is it should work even against

significantly larger forces, so rehearsal is key.

It is uncanny how dynamic entry and point hold training can happen together.

Point Holds/Entrenching

Every step in life is merely part of a game. Every piece is necessary, but if you do not know

how to control the game, then you become one of the pieces that are meant to be sacrificed.

Lionel Suggs

A point hold is the most anticipated activity a squad can perform. A point hold can last from seconds

to half an hour in some multiple point bases.

The details of taking a multiple point bases are perhaps to numerous and varied for writing on

paper, and are a matter for leaders to debate into the endless hours of morning, however a squad

can anticipate a few basic common points when preparing to do a point hold.

1. You will probably lose your spawning options, so aim to survive regardless. Expect to have to

use multiple beacons/loose sundies/require multiple drops to succeed.

2. When forced to abandon manoeuvrability, there is no tactic better than numbers and

firepower. Maxes, battle busses, canister harassers etc. There is no such thing as too much

cheese when you can’t manoeuver.

3. Deploy every explosive, turret, ammo pack, and recon device you have in your arsenal, but

not where it can be shot by the enemy. Shield bubbles are preferred for medics in

pointholds.

4. If you have a choice to revive a heavy or a medic, revive the medic.

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5. Don’t go outside. If the cap is outside, hold a building nearby or vehicle.

6. Don’t stand still, move around, but don’t stand in doorways.

7. Upon death, stack up before moving out. They are expecting you.

8. If you are able to supress a spawn room, great, but leave a team to watch the capture point.

9. Forces often arrive during the last few minutes of a point hold, and a desperate attack such

as a max crash often occurs in the last minute of a point hold. Fall back on the point in the

last minute even in an unoccupied base.

10. A heavily contested point can be a great opportunity for a back cap, so be prepared to

redeploy just before the point is flipped.

11. Rather than running from one point to another in a multiple point base, use battle busses on

spawn points to fortify those points.

Rep Sundy Ball – from Capt. Birdseye / Blue jay / SirBeavo

A Rep sundy ball uses the common two proximity repair sundies (6 men of the squad) that repair

each other, leaving the other six in the squad to man various tanks, or to even more rep sundys.

It is often applied in choke points between bases, cock blocking, in valleys or other natural corridors.

Should you be in a base that is assailed by infantry from a series of sundys around the base (common

with zergs) then taking a rep-sundy ball and doing a lap around the perimeter of the base can

alleviate the pressure.

Repair sundies tend to run basilisks to add fire over the front line vehicles from behind, although AA

weapons are not rare. Each sundy can take turns on point, retreating when its damage is reasonable

so that a fresh new sundy from the ball can take point. It is not uncommon to see three or four

repair sundies take on 3 or four main battle tanks successfully, and it is not prone to flanking.

A rep sundy is manned by roughly one fireteam, which can make pulling multiple repair sundies a

fairly quick task if the squad is already organised in fireteams.

Air Sapping

Using a valk or galaxy, light assaults with c4 and an infi with an emp grenade can be dropped like

infinite bombs onto enemy vehicles, and instantly redeployed back for another drop. The emp

grenade ensures that any unexploded C4 is detonated despite the death of the light assault in

question. Very handy tactic when faced with overwhelming ground vehicle forces that have no air

support, or a zerg with multiple hardspawns.

Recon Medics – from Perxers

It has proven to be very effective to charge the squad medics with the responsibility of deploying a

never ending flow of recon darts from crossbows. This, combined with res grenades and an engineer

for ammunition supplies works better and cheaper than having too many infiltrators in the squad.

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Leadership

Questionnaire – from Capt. Birdseye

This questionnaire was delivered by Capt. Birdseye in a training session on leadership, with an

invitation to return the answers to him before individual coaching on leading.

Why do I want to lead?

What makes a good leader?

How do I want to be spoken too?

What is my speciality?

What are people good at?

What makes me nervous/calm?

What is my style of leadership?

How will I improve it?

Leadership tips – from Capt. Birdseye

Platoon Leaders

Your job is to assess the map constantly and consider the numbers, map strategy, and

victory points.

Make decisions before the current cap is finished.

Keep the squad leaders informed of their current pop situations.

Keep waypoints up to date.

When giving an order to move to a base, move the waypoint, and specify the logistics

(galaxy, mechanised column, instant actions etc) as well as any potential back-cap

opportunities (which should always be taken where possible).

Try to read the enemy and intercept him, rather than be dictated by the enemy’s

movements after the fact.

Other than that, behave as a member of the squad (often doubling as one of the squad

leaders).

Squad Leader

Maintain coms discipline. Tell everyone to shut up.

When giving orders, delegate who you want to do what, use names or squad numbers, and

expect a brief confirmation from that squad member. Be explicit and repeat yourself often.

If a person needs training to complete your orders, assign someone else and offer to

complete said training later (not right now).

Keep your waypoints up to date. People love waypoints, and obsolete waypoints can be very

confusing for most! In large bases or multiple squad manoeuvres, platoon may be more

involved.

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Smoke beacons are traditionally used to denote enemy targets, and should be considered as

“assault points”. Using smoke otherwise requires more explicit explanation, and be careful

nearby pubbies don’t misunderstand and assault your point.

Squad leaders can expect to use their minimap a lot more.

Recognise all enemy assets, and deal with a reasonable amount of the enemy. If you try to

do everything you will fail. Try to read the enemy and intercept him, rather than be dictated

by the enemy’s movements after the fact.

In live play, consider using well placed but tempting sundies to heard any pubbies to your

advantage.

Squad Automation and avoiding Micromanagement

Micromanagement discussed here reflects excessive micromanagement that has no place in a well

organised squad.

Squads (assuming basic obedience/discipline is maintained) often suffer inefficiency from

micromanagement, as the squad leader is forced to spend more time deciding who should go where,

what weapons or classes to use, and what individuals units are doing. By becoming familiar with the

strategies outlined here and developing familiarity with roles through training, a squad member can

become more autonomous and require less micromanagement by the squad leader, leaving the

leader to make higher level decisions, and improving the oh-so-important speed of the squad to

reach the goal.

This is where training becomes important, as being able to self organise into max crews, fire teams,

repair sundies etc. QUICKLY is the formost contribution an individual can make to the outfit’s

effectiveness. A great squad member is automated and quick to respond. Beyond an initial squad

setup, where each member is assigned a role as a general revive medi/fireteam member/back infil

etc. the squad can begin to take more and more responsibility for setting up their rigs and behaivior

to suit each occasion.

Platoon Tactics/Map Strategy All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of

which victory is evolved.

Sun Tzu

Map Strategies – Perxers (author)

It is often possible to decide the issue of a battle merely by making an unexpected shift of

one's main weight.

― Erwin Rommel, The Rommel Papers

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This is a small guide for platoon and squad leaders, which tries to explain some basics of map

strategies. It shouldn’t be taken as fixed rulebook, since it only tries to explain, how to use or create

every single bit of benefit you can get.

Maybe a lot of people will disagree with some points, but overall it should help other leaders, which

haven’t paid much attention to their activity on the map in the past, to gain a deeper understanding

on superior macro coordination.

This whole guide is based on the game mechanics after the first recourse revamp and needs major

adjustments as soon as future updates are implemented.

Add to this, that it is pure poison for any kind of “farm – players” since it focus completely on the

map and ignores factors like: good fights, gaining a good K/D or earning XP/Cert points.

The term “frontline”, which will be used quite often, does not represent a fixed, World War 1 fashion

border. It is only meant to describe the border territories of all factions.

General note – Supply corridor:

Planetside is a very dynamic game, where normally borders aren’t defended all time, what makes it

theoretically easy to pass enemy Territory directly. Never the less, you will always be confronted

with disadvantages if you do so. Tank mines on the road, much higher probability to be confronted

with enemy vehicles or aircrafts or armed enemy AV and AA turrets are just waiting for people to be

careless and haughty.

There are much more reasons, why you should avoid unnecessary crossing of enemy controlled

areas. Many points of this guide are based on exactly that assumption and try to help you to

understand, why it is important to change your territory allocation in a sustainable way to receive

that little benefit here and there, which most of the people don’t pay attention to.

Redeplopyside

With the possibility to “redeploy” in planetside, you can often bypass any transportation delay and

just spawn in your target area directly. Never the less, this option is not available, if your population

in the hex reach 50+ % (if you own the base). You can spawn in again, ones your squad-leader is in

the hex or somebody created a squad-spawn (Sundy, beacon…). This possibility lead many many

people to call Planetside “Redeployside”. Although “Redeploy” affects nearly every single bit of this

guide and can even neglect some points in special cases, you can still earn small benefits, if you try

to adapt the basic system and understanding behind it.

Advanced Map-play can be complicated and you won’t find answers to many questions here. But

you can get a feeling, in which direction your answers or solutions can go.

Enemy warpgate

Never forget, that all the mentioned rules, are also valid for your enemy. This is the reason, why you

should avoid the territories next to the enemy warpgate, until the very last moment.

Big epic + 200 man fight going on – what to do?

Whole platoons are often stucked in areas, where several hundred people are fighting each other.

Since most of the other areas will be quiet empty at that time, there is no way to justify the waste of

your own resources there. If you have not a significant force to break the engagement, you should

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try to use the opportunity and capture more important areas or the surrounding bases where the

fight is happening, what will bring your faction much closer to a victory of that battle. If you can

break the battle and turn it into a win for your faction, you should always consider, that you release

a very big enemy force, which will immediately start to attack you on other frontlines.

An enemy platoon is attacking and my squad is alone trying to defend them

The main micro target of every leader should be to win fights in underpop or to delay a significant

bigger force. Both cases are a superior use of your recourses and cause heavy damage to the

strategic gameplay of the enemy. If you have a single squad and you are alone confronted with a

much bigger enemy platoon, you should try to ignore them and just distract their forces by starting

attacks at 1-cap-point bases, until the enemy reaches a 3-point-cap base with one of the cap-points

placed in a big tower or other bases, where the cap-point is close to your spawnroom. This is the

moment where you should try to confront the enemy directly, by only holding the cap-point inside

of the tower, which will cause the enemy a delay of not less than 20 minutes! Since your spawnroom

is inside of the tower and the cap point just one jump away, you should be easily able to achieve that

objective. It worked for me personally on countless occasions. If you can delay a 3 time bigger force

for 20 minutes, you have squeezed every single bit of effectivity out of your squad. In some cases,

you are even able to receive reinforcements, flip other cap-points or take down the enemy spawns,

what will buy you even more time or turn the outcome in a victory for you. Believe me, this

moments are pure gold!

Bases which provide you that opportunity are also called “pop sinks”.

Back Capping

Back capping is the act of having a unit capture a point behind the line inorder to remove the ability

of the enemy to recapture the current point of contest. It only works where the current point is

joined by one lattice.

There generally two ways to back cap, one being to move or redeploy faster than the enemy (which

is hard after an exhaustive point hold where the base still has enemy present) or to have a unit on

standby pre-deployed at the next base waiting to start the cap.

Having a unit on standby has the added advantage of being instant, and often leaves the enemy not

realising that they are unable to recapture the first base for some time. This also allows for

devastatingly fast redeployment by the squad with the ability to specialise itself for a point hold, but

costs the squad a valuable unit during pointholds.

Ghost Capping

Ghost capping is a strategy used often at the start of a fresh map, or where enemy forces are very

small or concentrated. By sending individuals to unpopulated bases, caps can be started in multiple

places at once. When ghost capping en-mass, the greater part of the squad can redeploy to ghost

caps that receive the enemies attention while leaving the caps changing unattended or with perhaps

just a stalker infiltrator. This is a great way to incite some panic in the over committed enemy, but

tends to only be a temporary strategy to spread out enemy forces, as the elite fighters are drawn to

the easy prey of isolated ghost cappers after a while..

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Choosing logistics

When deciding how to approach a base, or bases, some consideration for logistics is worth

considering.

Logistics approaches can be divided into two categories, the simple and complex. This is similar to

the passive and dynamic entry tactics described earlier.

The simple is fast, hopefully faster than the enemy, and involves getting infantry on the point and

established before the enemy can entrench themselves. With the enemy caught in an infantry war,

vehicles can be brought up to support the point hold after the squad is inserted (particularly AA and

hard spawns). This approach makes force multipliers (maxes/vehicles) difficult or even non-existent,

so a concerted effort by revive medics can be expected. All efforts to speed up the process of

deployment is worthwhile.

The complex approach refers to getting infrastructure in place before the point is directly engaged.

Essentially sundys are deployed around the base somehow and the squad, now with complete

access to force multipliers. On the down side, progress can be slow, and often the enemy is

entrenched/ready before the assault on the actual point is ready to begin.

To combat this entrenchment, the complex approach might combine many waves of harassment

vehicles, or waves to maximise disarray in the enemy’s ranks while the infrastructure is put in place.

Aircraft can engage and suppress infantry quickly and savagely, providing a great distraction while

the vehicle columns move up. Further softening can be accomplished with a feux front of tanks that

absorb the enemy’s attention, especially enemy aircraft.

The actual goal is to put as many hard spawns in place as possible, with force multipliers at the point

holding squad leader’s disposal.

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BioLabs

Biolab engagement – Perxers (author)

A successful Biolab cap or defend, can be heavily affected by the chosen tactic. In the past there

were few occasions, where we capped a biolab with approx. 40-45% underpop during a platoon

fight, which wouldn’t be possible with a good organized team and a solid tactic. Of course there can

be exceptions, like some JUGA squads fighting against 60% unorganized NC pubis – but this cases are

not part of this discussion.

Case 1: Empty Biolab at the beginning

Fast reactions are one of the most important things in Planetside. You can send some people to the

Biolab, before you are even able to cap it, just to make sure, that you won’t lose any time after you

captured the linked territory to it and send your main forces afterwards. I personally dislike this

tactic somehow, because the few people you will send to the Biolab can be killed easily. If there are

still no significant enemy forces to defend the Biolab itself, I send all my troops through the

teleporter, let them cap the points asap (+gen,SCU) and tell them to regroup around the enemy

spawnroom, to make sure that nobody can breach out (including the use of mines, C4 against maxes,

LA on the roofs and engi turrets). I tested this tactic quiet often in the past weeks and it worked all

the time, because it is very hard to breach the created defense lines. This will only work, if you can

get your main force into the biolab, before the enemy defense force.

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Remark: theoretically the enemy could use the other teleporters from the surrounding territories or

even a sundie on the ground, but because of the short cap time of the biolab, this never happened

before.

Case 2: Defenders and attackers arrive at the same time

If both main forces arrive in the Biolab at the same time, the previous tactic won’t work anymore.

The most important part in this case, is to regroup with all squads in the Biolab teleproter room

ASAP (every second counts) and to destroy the SCU. For this kind of attack, you need “special” squad

composition, which I call “assault squads”. They consist of ~ 4 Maxes, ~ 2 Engies and ~ 6 Medics.

Maybe people will argue, that such squads don’t have enough firepower or it is simply a bad

compostion, but my experiences in the past showed me, that with the right lead and teamplay, it is

just perfect. Normally the defenders don’t have enough time, to regroup at the teleporter room to

camp the attackers, which can take every point the leader wants, after they have regrouped. You

should always send half your forces to the generator room and the other half to the small building

next to the SCU. Holding this little building, will decide whether or not you will win the fight. As you

can see in the picture, the forces in the building will prevent the defenders to camp the main door of

the generator room or to flank the attackers from behind. The attackers in the generator room,

should stay away from the doors, because of dropping C4 and rockets punishing in all the time and

take care of the second level of the building, where normally a Cap-point is placed.

After the generator went down, the forces in the gen-room will breach out asap to the SCU, which

shouldn’t be heavily defended, because the forces in the building next to it prevented it. Ones

arrived at the SCU, the attackers will get a new defense line online with maxes ahead and support

behind them. The most important tool now, are the revive grenades from the medics, which will

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provide a constant “revive field” at the SCU and in the small building, which are both under heavy

attack. Ones the attackers successfully destroyed the SCU, they should still hold their positions and

not breach out for the next ~20-30 seconds, because the remaining defenders still pose a significant

threat and could clean the SCU area and finally repair it (yeah, I saw that in the past). After a short

period of time, you will see a sharp drop of the defender population (even with a sundie on the

ground) and you can leave your positions and clean the area.

Case 3: Heavy defense online – most difficult case

If the biolab got already a significant defence online, you have no other choice, than to distract the

defender forces. The main tactic, is the same as in Case 2, but to get your people to the described

positions, you need to do some preparations. Main focus, is the north-eastern area of the biolab,

where a teleporter room and the aircraft pad with the grav-lifts is placed. You have to distract he

enemy forces, by getting their main attention to the nort-eastern area. You can use a sundy on the

grav-lifts or the teleporter (if you own it) to do so. Unfortunately there is no other way, than to send

approx. ¼ of your forces to the north eastern biolab area, to make a lot of noise and take enemies

attention. My experienced showed, that it takes no longer than approx. 30 seconds to get a

defending platoon in the direction you want, if you can control the attacker’s engagement. In the

meanwhile you have prepared sundies, full with your above described assault squads and few

lightenings, to confront hostile vehicles on the ground if necessary. All troops will regroup at the

south eastern grav-lift and move up at the same time to rush the points just described in case 2.

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I agree, that you need a disciplined and good working platoon for such attacks, but on the other

hand I promise you, that I successfully used all described tactics with public platoons. Mostly I have

awesome squad leaders, which I really trust and which create good working squads within 30

minutes by kicking everybody who is not willing to do teamwork. So I think everybody should be able

to use those “tactics” regardless of the outfit or player skills. Of course in some occasion the tactics

also failed, but mostly it was because of wrong or bad regrouping or just awesome enemy defender

squads/platoons. Looking to the past, I won all my underpop biolab attacks with this “tactics” and

also defended the biolab with underpop in similar scenarios.

Macro- and Micro-Organization – from perxers

You should always take into consideration, that this simple guide only described the macro-

organisation. In fact the micro-organisation is also responsible for a big part of your success. Moving

parts of the troops to heavy counter-attacks (for example second level of the gen-room), watching

out for Light Assaults trying to C4 your squads, staying away from the doors, deploying AI-Turrets in

strategic beneficial positions or just keeping your troops together and holding the moral high or

providing new spawn solutions – every bit counts and every bit depends mostly on your

platoon/squad leader.

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Tech Plants

Heyoka Tech Plant Assault Case Study

In the case of Heyoka Tech Plant is an interesting scenario for a typical assault, which uses the tower

to the south east (technically in the neighbouring hex).

A tech plant can be attacked with a focus on capturing and holding the A point inside the techplant

itself, or with a focus to destroy the SCU and disable the enemies spawning.

In either case, where the enemy is already partially established, the two shield gens are a great place

to start, as in the case of capturing the A point the gens provide a distraction/separation of

defending forces, and in the case of an SCU takedown, will be required to access the SCU.

The assault goes as follows

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1. Move sunderers into position near the shields and begin an infantry only assault on the

shields. The tower at position at yellow dot is a good sunderer location, as it can be very

easy to defend. The main aim is to get the enemy into an infantry based defend/respawn

routine at the shields.

2. The other shield should be targeted second, as the sunderer here is quite vulnerable.

3. Whilst attacking the shields, send a team of infiltrators to hack the turrets at the very top

level of the techplant (blue), but don’t open fire yet. Concentrate on the turrets overlooking

the enemy spawn room.

4. As the shields reach overloading point and infantry combat is at its fullest, bring in a strong

anti-infantry armour column to patrol the red line. This sudden shift in weight should make it

easy to hack the vehicle terminal at green dot and thus to keep the vehicle presence high.

5. With turret and vehicle support, suppress the enemy at spawn whilst either capturing the

SCU. Put a sunderer as close to the SCU as possible (blue dot).

6. If the enemy is able to resist the SCU attack, shift your infantry weight to the A point (via an

air drop) and back again to the SCU to cause some of their forces to relocate and remain

there, but maintain the vehicle and turret majority, a priority over your infantry forces.

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Generalised Tech Plant Defence – from Perxers

When preparing to defend a tech plant, it is important to deploy many sunderers to ensure there are

no slow logistics. This also helps pubbies stay relevant in the fight.

First, ensure a deployment sunderer is placed at the yellow dots. The two in the centre of the tech

plant are critical (proxy rep pair?) and the sunderer in the vehicle bay is paramount.

Destroy the vehicle terminals inside the tech plant, as they are to easily used against you.

The two blue sunderers are then placed to ensure easy access to defending the sheilds, usually the

first point of attack. Keep them out of sight if possible, and not this particular tech plant (as many

do) have some tricky places to put sundies nearby shield generators.

In the event that your vehicle bay is taken over by an enemy party, sunderers at the two red dots

(hidden from direct line of sight from the vehicle bay) will assist in bringing allied forces to bear.

The green dots denote the outside vehicle spawn and the SCU, both critical weak points in the tech

plant defence. It is very worthwhile deploying a lot of mines along the road here, bettys near the

vehicles spawn and in/around the SCU room.

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Shoud the enemy gain control over the area outside of the spawn room, near the green dots, the

turrets at the top of the tech plant tower can be put to good use here, as well as the southernmost

yellow dot sundy location.

When defending the tech plant interior, focus your forces on the balcony overlooking the A point,

and the first level overlooking the grav lift area under the turret tower. Standing on A point itself is

very ineffective.

It is very easy to get canister/fury harassers up onto the A point level/balconies.

Enemies can enter most of the tech plant easily on foot.

The two sunderers under the A point will be a common target for GSD and light assault attacks, and

would therefore benefit from being a proxy rep pair, with guns manned. Deploy mines across the

shielded entries.

The tech plant is very vulnerable to armour assaults.

The tunnels underneath the tech plant (red lines) can move forces quickly about the base, but can

make your force vulnerable to ambushed when exiting. Don’t rely on them. The banana building exit

can be particularly useful when the spawn is blocked, to allow access to the blocking forces flank.

The foot bridges on banana building are useful for deploy mines down on to the high traffic road

below.

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Amp Stations

Single Point Amp Stations Defence – from Perxers

Single point amp stations are most commonly attacked using GSD sundy tactics. Mines can prevent

the first GSD sundy from surviving entry, but not the second. Thus, using four sunderers to block the

shields can cause the attacking sunderers to get caught half in, so that when their GSD runs out they

are still trapped in the shield and explode.

Under the A point, a fifth deployed proxy rep sundy can be seen, providing easy infantry access as

well as covering the blocking sunderers with cover from infantry attack.

By including sunderers as close to the shield generators, or even B and C points (in other amp station

configurations) as possible, this setup should provide a real challenge for any attacking force to beat,

and can be deployed very quickly without much practise.

It’s important to destroy the vehicle spawn terminals at the yellow dots as soon as the squad has

deployed enough sunderers. These can easily be repaired temporarily if vehicle numbers are

reduced, but note that spawning a vehicle on the spawn pads can result in blowing up the two

northern most blocking sunderers (watch out for daft pubbies).