In your opinion, what makes for a good squad leader?

General Discussion
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Gathering opinions for personal usage, what do you value in a squad leader?

Personally, the biggest thing for me is being able to walk the line between actually giving useful orders and going on a micromanagement power fantasy without falling into the latter like I see a lot of newer SLs do. But more specifically, what do you want?

Someone who pulls off flanks? CAS spotter? Someone who charges in first to initiate a push? What makes you trust a SL to be competent, and what does competence look like to you?

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#1 having played all underlaying roles to a decent degree
#2 taking the tools your skillset allows for (I.E. TAKE ENGIE TOOLS)
#3 knowing who you are leading (statics and their styles)
#4 not coming off like Supreme Shit General to people who have played their role a lot more (HMs, CTs)

Generally just know how/when to be a FTL+ for the lases/coords, but don’t forget (like many FTLs) that you have essentially the same engi skills as a CT and should prepare to act like one if you ain’t got no CTs.

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Someone who actually talks instead of being a mute bastard is automatically in the top 10% of SLs. The bar is honestly just that low.

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This is shocking big thing, i can’t tell you how many times i have seen newbies CTs not know how to fix APC and need a walkthrough. but other then needing to teach on the job, it also helps as you better understand why your troops are doing some things.

What i think makes for good squad leader, is mostly knowing how to not push. yes it may seem odd but SL who keeps dying or gets capped is not that great. also if they are always in thick of things it means they don’t have time give orders or get cords.

Not to say a good squad leader just sits at the back the whole round, no they should lead the push… BUT not all the time. A good squad leader knows to when to jump in and rally the men to cut into the xeno line at the best time.

basely what i am saying is a player that is bold but not a ungaloided combat robustio makes for the best squad leaders. Leave the bulk of the fighting to us ungas if we die, no matter thats what we are there for!

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The replies above are all based. In addition to them:

  • Know when to push.
  • Know when not to push.
  • CIC makes mistakes. CIC can be (and will be) absolutely braindead. Obey their orders to a reasonable degree, but don’t treat them (orders) like God’s will.
  • Call supply drops. Seriously, somebody needs to do that.
  • Ungas are not professional soldiers. Treat them like minions from Despicable Me.

Whatever is necessary for a given situation

Good SL imo stands on a fine line between a mute buffoon (80% SL players) and an RTS player (another 15%), providing call-outs and orders without descending into RTS player mindset (ie: I don’t care that we’ll win if we hold comms for 2 hours - I came here to have fun, and this is not funny)

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value in a leader:
1 Ability to pay attention to orders and say things like understood when they read it. (Big one)
2 Look back at number 1
3 Ability to control the unga horde
4 Ability to micromanage certain roles like engineers
5 Relay information back, any at all even as small as there is bug corpses.
6 Understand command isn’t omnipotent and can’t babysit you 24/7 So you have to make judgement on your own. (Another Big one)

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Personally I just do what the squad leader wants me to do because I’m usually on the other side. I value if they try things, like ordering, sending me off to do shenanigans, and/or having a spark of a plan.

A “good” squad leader has a lot of external factors. SO on their ass telling them to do things, Xenos trying to pick them off, being asked for coords, riflemen desertion, whatever spec they got, etc. There’s some skill expression but it’s varied and the rewards are very… minimal.

Honestly, a good good squad leader, in my eyes, is one who’s allowed to move around, delegate, and look over things.

Ideally, if I play SL, I like it if the SO isn’t just swapping me off SL the moment I go unconscious because that confuses marines and usually they break my fireteams and formations doing so. In fact, sometimes it feels personal when they do it (looking at certain CO’s and SO’s, you know who you are).

Just that, the ability to delegate and form plans. That’s what I think a good SL would be able to do, that’s why I follow orders even if they’ll get me. I’m usually on the other side and dislike brain rotted autopilots.

If I could just get like… five marines who walk up to me and ask me what I’d suggest for them to use their points on, I could set up two people to play JTAC monkeys for me in fireteam one, two Intel monkeys for Fireteam three so they can go intel hunting together, and one pocket marine who reads the engineering pamphlet and carries extra med stuff for the medic so he can hunker down in a little cube for fireteam two.

I’d do that if an SL wanted, but they usually never want to delegate. No one wants to. It’s like the Tyler1 thing that happened recently where he was raid leader in WoW and he made the risky (but correct) call but the sweats made their own call and got 1/3 of the raid (and him) wiped. He made a good point, everyone is gonna make the correct call in their head, but it’s gonna collapse the formation, you need to listen to your raid leader’s call, even if it’s risky because 30 people following one call will always succeed more than 30 calls and breaking of formation.

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you are the spiritual fusion of a kindergarden teacher and a commissar/chaplain from warhammer 40k

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“guys whar kit should i buy”

Its engi kit. All the time. 24/7. Engi kit.

Even if you dont want it buy it. That’s like six grand of metal in there. Toss it to your CT, Toss it to cargo, Keep it and build cades as you push.

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Being willing to sit back.
Being able to sit back after the action, and just - check in with everyone.
Make sure your medics are not overwhelmed with bodies,
your men have enough ammo, food, flares.
You have strong defensive lines to fallback to.

Being a good SL, isn’t making sure your enemy is dead.
being a good SL is making sure your men don’t die.

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In my opinion, the things that make a good squad leader are the same things that make a rifleman a good rifleman. So just play your best as if you are a rifleman, and you will do well as an SL or learn irregardless of circumstance. The better you understand gameplay and take initiative the better SL you will be.

Also teach pvts basic teamwork as sl that’s also a job duty. (ie: don’t ff, grab bodies, shoot the same target other people are shooting, clear weeds/flare areas where vision or terrain control is needed, callout enemies)

Sl is most often hardly a leader role, being more of a big voice rifleman. However, it can still take steps to lead a squad to victory through the power of teamwork.

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Take tools.

Somewhere. Fit it somewhere.

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To me a good SL is one that is able to survive through to the end of the match. Too many times I see SL’s overextend and end up getting perma’d within 20 mins of first drop. I consider SL’s a MOBA character as they have minor leadership skill that can reasonably buff marines through the order system. This is super handy to counter push a queen that just screeched with either move or hold order.

You don’t need to be a proficient fragger to be a good squad leader, however I think it is good to be proactive on coordinating with cas via laser or flare, req for frontline supply drops, dialing ob coords that is just far enough away to avoid friendly fire (very similar to FTL role).

I find that you cannot force marines to follow you, they will tend to go where the action is. The best thing you can do is provide callouts on xeno movements/flanks and stick close to the frontline so that the marines can use your suit tracker to get there safely.

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Marines will follow if you are capable or personable. If rines ain’t following you then there is a lacking quality.

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A SL should in general charge of a situation, they should also help their squad keep cohesion, and be adaptable to all developments of a round. Overall your job as a SL, regardless of scenario, is to try and complete the tasks handed to you by Command while also being able to tell them “hey this shit isn’t going to work”, communicating and saying a plan is going to be useless, or won’t work, isn’t a bad thing.

A good squad lead should be able to adapt and achieve those goals while also being able to go beyond that, through understanding the equipment they have at their disposal, I.E. your squad(if you main a squad they are more inclined to listen to you), fireteam leads (very useful to designate a some group of people with that same fireteam lead, giving them experience as well leading people), and most importantly your own kit (Everyone has a preference, find yours and enjoy it to your hearts content).

Some SLs might prefer to frontline and lead from the front, other might want to be a more supportive role making use of mortars and OBs, some might love to just build an unholy unbreakable fob (then it gets OBed by mistake). Regardless of your preference, as a squad lead you need to step back and analyze a situation, whether it’s at the frontline or at the fob, you have to use the dome in your head and say “how am I going to improve this shitstorm?”

TL;DR : Use your head to achieve goals/win a round, make use of all the tools you have to adapt to how rounds shift, communicate with your squad and command to maximize effectiveness (and also for everyone to have fun, RP is cool…).

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I don’t want to minmax my loadout options based on value, though…

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tbf the engineering kit is unironically the best option regardless of value. You can literally never go wrong picking it, it’s just the GOAT.

More metal and plasteel is a strict buff to the entire platoon and it’s guaranteed to apply (because you, the SL can use those mats even if everyone else is dead), whereas every other kit usually involves you attempting to protag with a gun, which is simply less effective across the board (you can just grab those guns from req anyways…).

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Being really funny

you maybe think this is a joke or something but I’m serious

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Honestly, no matter what the round is and how many good or bad players are on the marine side, SL boils down to a few things:

  1. Be a beacon that marines can rally to at anytime. Marines will look to a SL tracker more than their text chat, squad messages, or command announcements, so keep yourself parked where men need to be.
  2. Keeping logistics flowing. By that, I mean, call CAS / Mortar on resin structures or normal buildings to clear them, and call in supply drops for all classes (riflemen need mk2, m39, buck, slug, flechette, MRE’s, flares, CT’s need metal mostly, HM’s need splints and occasional drops of bruit and burn kits).
  3. Always keep an eye on the battlefield. I suggest setting a minimum 2 minute timer in your head, with the best being every 1 minute (since thats Queen Screech CD) and using binoculars all around you. If you cannot see all around you, get marines throwing flares ASAP or you die to a flank. Being aware of how much health marines have, what their general “flow” is (what direction they are mostly going), and what way xenos are going is the difference between victory or defeat.
  4. Use orders religiously; either when off cooldown on front, or strategically such as queen screech or when you see a xeno rushing open ground no weeds. A move order can be the difference between a crit xeno escaping or a dead xeno, especially late game when everyone has fractures.
  5. Always relay anything useful you see. T3 numbers, general clusters of xenos in X direction (5 xenos east of me). This is a sub tip but this is also why you always take MD and as many radio keys as you can jam into your radio. Bonus points if you take the megaphone with you as a SL if your at front to relay important things like retreat orders. Triple points if you take a whistle and use your low cooldown point ability to point out critical things, or point at marines to get them to wake up and pay attention to chat box.

Loadout wise, I suggest:

CT Support Build

  • MK1, 1 extra normal and one AP (optional) and 5 HEDP for inbuilt UGL(optional).
  • Large mag pouch and autoinjector pouch.
  • MD on belt.
  • Radio backpack (essential in no comms moments).
  • Engi kit (goggles on eyes, materials in radio backpack).
  • In B12: Splints, binos, barbed wire you get from engi kit.
  • Engi pouch in radiobackpack to hold your C4, most of your electrical equipment from the engi kit, and/or wires.
  • Engineering toolbelt but dump it all and put it into your brown / black webbing vest (screwdriver in ear slot so you can fit it all). Dump multitool if your not doing comms and replace it with wires or an Etool to clear tunnels.

This allows for maximum inventory efficiency and utility as a SL to use all your skills.

Aggressive / Suppressive SL Build

  • Flamer on back with bgel.
  • Fuel pouch (with 2 bgel) and large mag pouch.
  • MK1 with extra MK1 mag and AP mag.
  • Autoinjector pouch (you get fuel pouch from req) for your meds that you put into black or brown webbing.
  • Splints, binos, and extra utility (mini extinguisher is a good option) in B12.
  • MD on belt (always).

These two are solid loadouts depending on your playstyle, and allow you to compensate for flanks (which are the #1 reason marines wipe) while still putting down the hurt on xenos when you need to and being able to do your vital roles as SL.

Hope you liked my ted talk.

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