Republic of Folk

Hello, I'm Gaius, and as you may or may not know, I want to try out some of the higher level positions in the revolution. I enjoy fireteam level immensely, but the allure of ArmA was always the command structure for me.

My missions where I have SL'ed have been hit and miss. My first few went spectacularly, as I had experienced FTL's, and everything was good. However, those first two were blue milk runs, and may not have been very good indicators.

However, the last two I've done have ended in disaster. One because of framerate killing my combat awareness, and another because of a Squad Level Comms breakdown.

I understand the position, and I can maintain awareness in combat quite well, when I get callbacks and chat stays clean. However, I have lately been having problems maintaining both my cool and my comms. I find I tend to shout in chat, and my communications often get a bit chaotic.

Does anyone have advice for an aspiring SL of the revolution?

Below are some random points from my head, most of them are general things that would benefit any SL

Find someone who's style of leadership you like, try and get in their fireteam and see how they direct things.

Join a fireteam under their Squad Lead and keep CC on to listen to the comms.

Less is sometimes more, from some experiences I have had with you when you have been SLing there has been quite a lot of noise on Comms but much of it isn't needed. For example most FTLs would require - Get to this place, in this style of movement and do this when you get there. Such an order would take a couple of seconds before leaving comms clear once more. This is really beneficial to the SL because busy comms can lead to confusion and errors. The FTL can ask if they are unsure but much more info than that would just be "fluff".

Try to avoid repeating orders verbatim from the CO to your troops. Distil the CO's orders and intent into something concise for the FTLs and trust them to get on with it.

Keeping things snappy and concise allows your FTLs to communicate with each other on TS, they can co-ordinate in bounding movements or whatever directly without having to go through the SL, reducing comms traffic again.

I guess in general, keep things concise and allow FTLs to do their job. Think about the next couple of moves so that you don't need to deliberate over TS.

There is a lot to Squad leading but it can be done with very little comms at times, quick concise orders encourage FTLs to move with purpose and haste.

Words later, now movie!

BSL, movement and covering. Ends with me getting a mortar in the face. | Second one: FTL turned SL when half of the Sqd died.

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