Hey, folks— I’m thinking of asking for an Echo squad to be put together more often. I’ve heard in the past we had more or less “static” meta Echo formations that would get pissy if they didn’t get it, but the tactical utility of a fifth squad in a good XO’s hands and the ability to pick out the most cohesive from the four squads already seems insane.
What are the pros of creating an Echo squad?
What are the cons?
What could they do beyond the ungaball and what sort of tasks would they be most useful for?
I’ve always loved being a Lieutenant for a good Squad Leader, and we’ve got a few that can go around— the only issue is that afaik we cannot spawn a fifth SL, so they’d have to be an FTL. Would that cause issues?
I’m very curious about the whole thing. I miss custom squads from TGMC (less so the fact that people would name them skibidi brainrot PISSLASER SQUAD) because we had some hyper-effective squads that were so communicative it caused the xenos to cope about it loudly and angrily. I don’t know if a single squad could be that effective here, but it’s something I’d like to try over.
The Rabbits never truly die. They’re in your heart always. And I always keep that stupid fucking rabbit foot item on my person and it fucks with my loadouts unless I find an appropriate corpse of a friend to leave it with to pass it on with them. Otherwise I just have a single slot taken up by the rabbit’s foot because I can’t let it go FUUUUCK
because when they are used, its for “yea flank here” or some other shit that Delta could be used for
MAYBE you could have an Echo squad do a backline gimmick thing like how we used to build actual forts but even that can probably be delegated to Bravo Fireteams
One of my favourite CM moments was running as echo squad on LV, our orders we’re to head up the east side while the marines assaulted the west, in order to stealthily setup sensors. Which failed due to the SOs forgetting tools.
I’d like to use echo more but four squads and the rest of the Almayer is already enough to wrangle when I play XO and there’s no reason I couldn’t use one of the other squads to do what I would use echo for.
There’s absolutely nothing that Echo can do that the other four existing squads can’t already do on their own, only those squads have the added benefit of not losing manpower to form a 5th squad which is entirely unnecessary.
Remember that group of people who would always form their Echo metaclique every round and throw a tantrum when they didn’t get it? That permanently soured my opinion of Echo as a squad tbqh.
Echo squad was home to an incredibly toxic and awful meta-clique that frankly has soured most of the CIC players to the idea of bringing them back. Rarely do they offer anything to plans and they fuck with squad cohesion when you start to pull random medics and comtechs from other squads.
So from experience, the meta squads are trash and i will never create Echo for that.
Echo can however be useful when you have reliable players that can handle the specific instructions you give them. This is rare as talented players are difficult to come by and most are just impulsive anyways.
If you have a certain group of people you would like to reorganize into a squad to hold comms for example, you can create an Echo.
In the rare occasion you are going to deploy some shipside perosnnel, or if survivors, PMCs, ERTs wish to form a squad, you can assign them Echo to monitor them from CIC.
I personally do this for FORECON if i am command in a round where they survive. I make sure they are given marine headsets, and that they are moved to echo while maintaining their ID titles etc. This allows them to work better as a squad, and allows me to OW and support them from CIC.
Alternatively, an unorthodox use for Echo is a punishment squad. This is very interesting.
If an SL or some other marine is not following orders or is cluttering up squad comms causing confusion and incitement, you just transfer them to echo and leave them without an assigned aSL. Now the only channel they can access is Echo squad’s. Which is empty and they can effectively talk to themselves in there.
You have to understand that the TGMC community is not the same as the CM community. We operate under different mechanics and rp rules, which results in different cohesion and communication levels.
Echo squad is not the answer to improving squad cohesion sadly. Due to past incidents of people being toxic about not being picked for Echo squads, it’s only seen as something that would cause drama and an obstacle to squad cohesion if anything. And even if we did create a perfect echo squad where everyone gets the role they are happy with, it is still no different to other squads, except that it will reduce the manpower of existing squads. It really isn’t worth the drawbacks for an extra squad whose duties could have been easily done by any of the 4 main squads already.
Speaking from experience, the best way to have a good cohesion is to have a good SL who has the reputation and communication skills to keep the team together and a SO and XO to keep the op organised and give vital info/orders to the squads.
I REALLY like the concept of having a small Echo type squad that is tasked with giving the CIC more flexibility in plans and a bit more of a ‘surgical’ tool they can task to do things a large disjointed squad would struggle at.
Its just way to difficult to organize in its current state. If we ever get something like @thwomper’s ASS system, I think it has the potential to be really useful, but until then I’d personally rather just work with what we have out of the bag.
Alpha/Charlie/Delta’s too big and you can’t afford to take 1/3rd of the marine force off the frontline.
Bravo can’t do it because they’re way too noob and only understand cadehug and die.
I’ve found echo works best when it’s the IO’s + a couple other marines (usually alpha/delta mains) + maybe a staff officer, with scout adhoc working with them/doing whatever. About 4-6 marines total.
Intel squad works best for it because everyone working in the intel squad is already planning ahead on being relatively isolated + moving fast + being smart and not dumb + has actual overwatch. That means they all brought meds, they have a good ammo supply with things like flamethrowers or Mk1’s, they have some level of coordination, they have utility stuff like underbarrel shotguns/grenades/flamers, tools and rollerbeds, breaching charges, and mostly understand that you can’t stand and fight anywhere or you’re dead.
Honestly it might even be worth making it an actual thing where intel IS echo squad. I mean they pretty much already are a mini squad when done right.
Echo squad was fun when it was a CO picking random volunteers to do it.
Then it became “my homies and me” and… that’s ass because they’d just be 3 guys that steal a couple of medics then fuck off and die 10 feet away from Delta.
It’s actually good if you make a strat, like 4 smartgunners, or the tech squad to be on FOB so Bravo can do stuff. But, that doesn’t happen.
As many above have noted, there are very few situations where the benefits of having a 6th or 7th groundside unit to manage outweigh the costs of its operation (less marines in other units, CIC staff oversight).
Something I would suggest to anyone dead set on using echo is to have them be assigned to security of a secondary objective (code for secondary comms or sensors). Oversight can easily be preformed by the bravo SO with minimal impact on their other duties.
Despite a lot of people voting confidence against Echo, I’m still seeing lots of viability as a Sensors squad in the likeness of Bravo’s FOB and Charlie’s Comms (nobody likes comms duty past 10 minutes)
Certainly map dependent, but I’m gonna try and field and Echo Sensors and get people equipped with complementary loadouts for the task.
CIC consistantly struggles making the most out of the 4 default squads, adding a 5th is just asking for more problems.
Also CIC can only make the most out of each squad when they have excelent SLs, which has become a rare thing to see.
Two things
One: When i ask for people to join Echo as XO, everyone ignores me. No one wants to join, which is a reason why this isn’t utilized
Two: Delta
Typically everything echo can do, a good SL that has the skill, respect, and squad cohesion to control a few marines can do, either leading directly or having a word with a FTL who then handles the task.
Need comms repaired? Ask a SL to do it and if he’s decent within a few moments there’s six marines off to do it, or a fire team.
Even the more dangerous tasks like holding far comms for a nuking, that is often better done by a larger group of marines: An entire squad with a good SL to keep them cohesive and away from the seductive embrace of fear-rp
The only place i have ever really found a use of echo is giving survs their own squad so i can track them.
I have on occasion put some people i know to be real talented marines in echo to give them the absolute most dangerous and little bit demented missions we need. Borderline spec ops.
Sneaking into the hive and repairing sensors. Killing the hives main nest, securing comms in deep hive - they know they aren’t coming home from those ten minutes - Strike team flanking the hive to terminate a troublesome xeno ect.
But thats rare and often done for a bit of fun more than anything.
It is possible to have 5 SOs unless it’s bugged I have seen a fifth slot open in the role selector thingy. Echo is ultimately reserved for a more specific task such as flanking, setting up an outpost and guarding it and overall just choosing competent players who are actually going to do what you ask them to. Normal squads are stuck to stereotypical roles and are thus harder to command and not to mention the player base just shuts off their brain when they are fighting. Which makes it even harder to move marines to restore comms or clear up the back lines. This is my POV of what echo is supposed to be and others think differently.
