Dedicated Squad Fireteams

Right now, I think a big issue with giving orders and arranging squads in the first place is communicating a role to someone before they join.

The coolest, most tactical, and charismatic Commander - not too dissimilar from myself - could concoct the perfect plan and arrange every squad and soldier like chess pieces to crush the opposition, and get confronted with

I already geared up and decided what my gimmick was before you even announced what time briefing would be.

Fireteams suffer for a similar reason. “I have now decided that some of Delta will be doing Y, despite everyone gearing and joining for X. Now, who wants to change their mind and loadout and points/kits they can’t refund to make it happen?”

As such: I’m suggesting pre-baked fireteams in each squad with specific goals in mind, one apiece matching with the cultural and strategic history of that team.

Every squad should be expected and capable of fighting: Delta, Bravo, doesn’t matter. However, we inevitably need certain goals accomplished that you can’t depend on a Fireteam Leader or their mooks being prepared for. So:

Alpha:
Support Team.
Their prep lockers come with a stock more dedicated to supporting utility and assistance, for when another squad is too busy/depleted to cover “the basics”. Thus, their kit is stripped of equipment that doesn’t enforce that idea while retaining flare kits, ammo rack packs, mini-medic pamphlets and gear, and smart scopes.

Bravo:
Defense Team.
Their prep lockers come with a stock more dedicated to supporting defense and protection, for when you really need a place held. Thus, their kit is stripped of equipment that doesn’t enforce that idea while retaining mini-engie kits, materials, stocks bipods and scopes.

Charlie:
Task Team
Their prep lockers come with a stock more dedicated to supporting tactical strategyand objective-based goals, for when you really need power online or map-specific goals accomplished. Thus, their kit is stripped of equipment that doesn’t enforce that idea while retaining tactical binoculars, tool kits, and mini-IO gear.

Delta:
Recon Team
Their prep lockers come with a stock more dedicated to supporting reconnaissance and scouting, for when you need survivors, flanks, or the hive found-out. Thus, their kit is stripped of equipment that doesn’t enforce that idea while retaining motion detectors, light armor, and marking flares.

Again, this isn’t “the entire squad is forced to do one thing”. The idea is to simply remove uncertainty. All of these are essential goals that aren’t regularly or consistently achieved because most people join the role that fulfills what they wanted to do that round, and don’t want their minds or gameplay changed. Therefore, if one were to add small fireteams so that the Fireteam Leaders, Fireteam Members, and command all know what they have to work with and their expectations, that headache can be removed.

All you need to achieve many of these goals is about seven people: A Fireteam leader and about six riflemen. The difficulty in normal play is finding that many who won’t wander off. With a dedicated team who already joined with the expectation of achieving that goal, you - as command - are free to assign say, Charlie to ensure that, say, Trijent’s monorails are on-line and the water is purified, and to be confident that a large portion of them can go and make sure that’s accomplished while the bulk of the other marines who just wanted to fight in while wearing purple can attack the hive. The main squads would still remain strong enough to order around, and the Teams don’t need special tools or skills to get their goals done.

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I love the concept of this idea.
I can’t say much about making a squad a dedicated role by itself (FOB Bravo much) though.

What I mean is:
A Fireteam of X Squad of 4-5 M4RA X4 Scoped sharpshooters. At the sight of a Boiler and on the SL or FTL’s mark they start shooting the target. Teamwork.

A Recon FT. With Shotties and Underbarrel flamers. Their mission is to go Inside lambda and bring all the intel there. I wouldnt mess with those as a xeno.

EDIT: Typo

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The only way this will work is with more squads, 5-8 marines will get the job done. 10 could, but no, they’ll just do their own thing. Not that I don’t like this idea, but I guess this is only the theory stage. We need to place it into practice

I kinda agree with this but I think it’s a failure of the order of operations ultimately; If it were me I’d have the ship designed so that you eat, do the briefing, THEN you open up the weapon hallways. Have like a CO or XO specific button to open shutters.

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Then the marines gonna tear the ship down if no CO nor XO.
But I don’t think it’s a good thing forcing others to play a specific style just cuz you want some funny as command.

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Not forced: In theory there will be six, say, “Delta - Recon” slots to fill not unlike corpsman or commtech, and that’s just you putting a sticky note on your helmet that says “I wanna do recon”, so command can see you and know they’ve got someone dedicated to the bit.

We have that, echo

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You can’t guarantee that you can have 4 dedicated fireteams to accomplish exactly what you need done each round, especially when they already overlap with common expectations as squads. There’s also no way to easily signal to someone exactly what you want, or even that will will have heard the plan/announcement for a specific Echo objective before they’ve already blown their points.

This frees up all the rest of their squad to be more flexible, now that you have already established the section of a squad fully onboard with say, building an FOB or doing recon, rather than sending the entire squad to do an objective and counting on enough to not get distracted to accomplish the goal.

Then it’s back all the way to the willingness of any player that want to play a specific style, isn’t it?
You can code it in for squads to be objective-based and see only 1-2 squad waking up for rounds as they don’t want to do objectives.
If you want a gimmick, announce it over comms for echo and have people willing to do that.

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Correct take.

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If you find basic, reliable inter-squad reinforcement, LZ fortification, power establishment, and scouting to be “gimmicks”, then we’ve got vastly different ideas about what the lowest expectations for milsims or command are.

The game is better-off with roles that bring expectations with it: We have SLs and FTLs so we don’t need to comb through each and every individual squad to see who’s running the show, which would slow things down and lead to confusion, and other players can count on that. We have Corpsmen and Commtechs so we can hopefully count on reviving casualties and reinforcing critical areas, so we don’t need to depend on some upstanding rifleman grabbing a kit. We need these things done every round, and a brief glance to see Alpha: 1 Commtech tells you right away that they’re not going to be on LZ duty.

That’s all I’m suggesting: Every round some squads needs to be bailed-out, the LZ needs fortifications, turning power online helps the whole battalion with lights or even just the FOB with convenience, and we need to find where the hive, flanks, and backliners are. I see zero downside to promoting improved utility and visibility to command and helping to ensure that players who enjoy those roles are empowered to take them on and find fellow-minded players who can help them accomplish those goals.

And what you suggest in the beginning, let’s say alpha:

And my thought on hard coded in objective squads:

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