The intention of this post will be to provide a rough guide to effective communications in high-stress or elevated threat environments (obviously both apply to RO2!). To be honest, I’m a casual gamer and would rate myself a mid-tier FPS player – certainly compared to the talents of some others I’ve observed on these servers. So, I’ll leave tactical discussions to the hot shots and focus mainly on strategic implementation of communications based on my experiences in RO2 thus far. I’ve noticed that people strain to communicate with brevity and clarity in RO2 (same goes for new pilots and NCOs…so don’t feel bad)…lots of “uhs” and “ums”; as with anything, practice makes perfect but it would be nice if everyone had some common foundation for phraseology that would be amenable to RO2. So, hopefully my aviation experience and knowledge gained from my DoD gig working intimately with military ground forces could prove useful to some.

As a brief aside, I’ve decided to emerge from the ether and write this up for the forums after a bender on 7th Cav Tactical Realism server where I filled the Allied Commander role for 7 consecutive matches (we won them all). Several on the team (to include 7th Cav-ers) complimented my communication abilities and lauded my effectiveness (I relinquished the commander’s position twice during these matches but the team role-voted me back in once things started going awry). We won so heartily, some on the server complained that it appeared TWI had “weakened” the German side after the latest patch since we kept winning by at least a 2 fold margin over a fairly coordinated and skilled effort from the Germans. To be honest, it had little to do with hardcore FPS skills (as previously stated, I’m not that great at FPSs…others on this session in contrast – e.g.,“Dr. K6” [I believe?] and the 7th Cav folks— were very talented) and everything to do with well-coordinated teamwork resulting in domination over the opponent. This initiates at the commander level but only becomes effective from the bottom up. Therein lies the true “fun” at the heart of RO2…anyone playing that server on 10 OCT from 0800hrs to 1500hrs EST would likely attest that these matches were highly competitive and very fun to play – all because of a teamwork element inherently missing from most public (i.e., non clan-exclusive) matches. Again, as others have stated elsewhere in the forums, the role of the commander or squad-leader might not be as “fun” to play per se (certainly depending on your definition of fun!), but is essential to fulfilling the intended RO2 experience of team-oriented tactical ground combat.

I notice a lot of people struggling to effectively say what they intend to with a lot of “uhhh this [long pause] uhh that; hey you guys I’m gonna _____; can somebody ___; where is/are____; where’s the arty?!”. In the end, one gets a Faulkner-esque stream of consciousness from all involved that clogs the airways and “steps” on others’ comm traffic. Sometimes more is less and lots of words can ultimately mean nothing resulting in more confusion on a battlefield already replete with entropy. The statements: “Hey, uh, guys ....let's attack"...or "we need smoke over here" are useless.

Obviously anyone can be a highly effective commander or SL with in-game experience and effective comms practice.

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ROLE SUMMARIES (more thoroughly explained elsewhere…just quickly summarized here):

Quick summary of Commander’s roles:
1. Intimate map knowledge (esp. friendly/enemy spawns, objectives, and ammo dumps).
2. Strategic coordination of battlefield (voice comms to team – VOIP required!)
3. Provide situational awareness to squads (including but not limited to aerial recce)
4. Coordinate plunging fire (artillery, mortars)
5. Smoking concealment for maneuvers (constantly refill at ammo dumps)
6. Tactical presence during capping (increase force ratio)

Quick summary of Squad Leader’s roles:
1. Intimate map knowledge (esp. friendly/enemy spawns, objectives, and ammo dumps).
2. Tactical coordination of battlefield (voice comms to squad/cmdr – VOIP highly desired!)
3. Provide situational awareness to Commander (e.g., enemy contact reports)
4. Coordinate plunging fire (artillery, mortars), enfilade and flanking maneuvers.
5. Smoking concealment for maneuvers (refill at ammo dumps when able)
6. Tactical presence during capping (increase force ratio and provide spawning point)

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GUIDE TO EFFECTIVE COMMS:

Brevity and clarity is critical; one must always think before speaking (this might cause delays in action, especially at first this might result in one getting killed more often, but later the correct comms will become second nature while you’re simultaneously finding/fixing/flanking).

Here’s the one simple structure one should always aspire to follow:
WHO; WHERE; WHAT

Friendlies:
[Who you are]; [where you are]; [what you want or need to convey]

OPFOR:
[Who they are]; [where they are]; [what they are doing]

Examples of common comms in the game:
“Squad Leader at Charlie; request smoke for Charlie/Delta transition”
“Rifleman in East Park, request smoke in West Park”
“Machine Gunner in Bravo 3 requesting ammo resupply”
“Squad Leader in Echo 1 requesting smoke in Foxtrot 3”
“Marksman* at Pavlov’s reporting 5 tangos enroute to Charlie from Foxtrot”
“Squad Leader in Golf 5 requests 2nd Squad converge on me to defend South Charlie.”
“Commander defiladed in Gullies for cap boost”
“Rifleman in Delta; force ratio even”
“1st squad rally grid Hotel 6”
“Aerial Recce shows 5 tangoes flanking South Charlie from Southwest Village”
“Commander south of Delta popping heavy smoke into the Park”
“SLs prepare to smoke Alpha/Charlie transition”
“Commander in Bravo smoking Bravo/Charlie transition”
“Smoke popped at Bravo/Charlie, attack if able”
“Engineer at South-west Charlie, satchel charge on door, fire in the hole”

*For the purposes of voice comms in this game, I would recommend that the term “Marksman” be used for friendly forces while the term “Sniper” be used for OPFOR to prevent ambiguity. (“Sniper” always makes peoples ears perk up and think “bad guy”).

NOTE: This can also be used inversely to only convey OPFOR contact reports:
“Enemy sniper, top floor of Foxtrot, covering Charlie”
“Enemy MG, basement of Charlie, covering North-South hallway”
“7 tangos moving east to Charlie from Foxtrot/Echo”

NOTE: Sometimes even MORE brevity is useful – as in scenarios where you’d like to inform teammates you’re fragging an area with grenades (or that you just put a frag under their legs):
“Echo 6 frag out!”
“Northern Refinery frag out!”
“[Teammate name] frag misfire!”
“Southern Bravo frag out!”

*Don’t call every frag, just when you might be endangering teammates*

!!REMEMBER!! WHO; WHERE; WHAT

OBVIOUSLY, THIS IS NOT ALL-INCLUSIVE BUT YOU CAN USE A MIXTURE OF THE ABOVE AND BELOW PHRASEOLOGY TO CONVEY ALMOST ANYTHING IN RO2…JUST SWAP OUT THE “WHO; WHERE; WHAT”. BE BRIEF!


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OVERALL STRATEGIC CONTEXT OF COMMUNICATIONS:

Generally, the team should follow this mantra for attacking (defense is more complex):
CDR and SLs mark; recce up; Arty or mortars onto OPFOR/OBJ; CDR announces last salvo; CDR/SL prepare to pop smoke; pop smoke; all charge while MGs give covering fire; assault clears rooms & take ground; rifleman take ground at OBJ and keep distance; SLs squat at OBJ for respawn; CDR moves up for cap assist; all mop up objective; SLs/CDR recharge smoke at ammo dumps……REPEAT!

For defense, things become much more complex and dynamic, but here’s an example of how I run a match in Spartanovka (highly dynamic, but this is generally how it plays out):

[Designate deep left Alpha mark to prevent flanking into South Village and direct advance to B]
“Arty inbound deep Alpha in 10sec”
“Aerial Recce up”
“Arty now falling danger close on Alpha near gullies”
“SLs mark south village and church if able”
“[Heavy/medium/light] arty casualties…2 salvos left”
[If heavy casualties I defilade in Alpha to help cap, light casualties I squat in Bravo to provide cap…always while picking off an errant German]
“Force ratio in Bravo, even”
“Force ratio in Bravo, 3:1 bad guys”
“Arty in 90sec…”
“Arty in 30sec…”
“Aerial Recce up”
“SLs recommend next arty drop”
[Drop it where the SLs and recce indicate]
[Arty A again if able; if not and capture of B inevitable, fall back to grid Golf 5 radio – cap presence Charlie]
[Designate Church, call in Mortars on South Village or most likely Church…you’ve already got a pre-designated mark on the South Village if your SLs are helpful]
“SLs mark North Charlie and South Charlie flanks for future arty”
[Provide Commander cap power to C, advise on feasibility of retaking B based on Arty casualties and force ratio]
“Force ratio in Charlie, 3:0 good guys”
“SL at Bravo, force ratio 3:1 good guys”
SMOKE IT UP AND TAKE IT BACK!

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OTHER TECHNIQUES/SUGGESTIONS:

--Use cardinal directions to indicate/describe locations: Top side of map = North, Right side of map = East….etc.
--Use standardized alpha-numeric NATO phonetic alphabet for Grid Coordinates and Objectives: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_phonetic_alphabet
--Always specify whether you’re dropping Arty or Mortars. This matters for barrage duration and intensity; trust me, your guys wanna know whether they are “danger close” to a 155MM shell or just a 80MM shell. [Arty used for area denial, widespread damage, and to weaken infrastructure; mortars for clearing objectives of entrenched OPFOR, rapid recharge, and danger close plunging fire; rockets do not appear to be worth the time-to-recharge considering the cost:value].
--It’s so much easier to hold “H” and designate arty (especially at distance) with your left mouse button. Forget the binocs!
--Announce time until next barrage and aerial recce at least every 90sec. No one should ever be asking you “when’s the next arty coming?”! If so, you’re not doing your job well.
--Always announce when recon is up so SLs/all can use Tactical View to spot tangos.
--Constantly re-spawn Aerial Recce if able…if one calls it in right before Arty, then calls again when immediately available, it will be available again right before the next Arty barrage. If one uses mortars, do not call in recce in the interlude as it will not recharge twice before next mortars recharge (except for Station…but these “mortars” appear to be arty rounds).
--Announce results of arty barrages so the team knows how many tangos have been killed (force ratio impact). This can either elucidate a force ratio advantage in the case of heavy casualties that may warrant attacking the objective OR demonstrate that the bulk of OPFOR must be present in another region in the case of light casualties….both useful pieces of information.
--Always announce significant changes in Force Ratio (SLs should as well). I use “bad guys” and “good guys” so I can use those terms when on either side and avoid potential confusion. Of course, “Nazis” and “Commies” or “Axis” and “Allies” would be suitable if you can deconflict correctly when things get hot and you’re playing on another side.
--Use the SLs to designate current AND fallback arty markers so those marks will be ready for future barrage. NOTE: There’s a risk and reward to future arty marks by SLs. Reward = quick drops on OPFOR if the SLs know the maps well. Risk = dropping onto friendlies. Example: If I have 4 arty marks on the map, the crappy designation system still manages to surprise me about 5-10% of the time…just click on the arty marker you want and hope it falls there. When you click, it doesn’t always turn orange, sometimes it disappears, and sometimes it falls onto a random marker (even through the Commander’s marks have default priority).
--Use “affirmative”=yes, “negative”=no, “roger”=OK, “copy”=understood, “say again”=repeat
--No “please”, no “thank you”, no “sorry”…if you’re not familiar with hand-to-hand combat training, then the saying goes “If you must -- get all the g*dd**ned sorrys out of your system before we start, because you’re going to hurt someone today!”…so apologize for future TKs right off the bat if you’re a noob. Certain TK apologies can be the exception, especially if gratuitous or rare.
--Regarding critical items (such as danger close plunging fire inbound), it may behoove the commander to repeat certain items in order to prevent excessive TKs and the dubious title of “Most Dishonorable”. In such a case, one might follow the mantra “Tell them what you’re gonna tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you’ve just told them”. Example: “Mortars inbound danger close on Delta, 10 seconds, take cover on lower floors if able….mortars inbound on Delta….mortars falling on Delta…
--Commanders and SLs: learn defilade!
--MG and rifleman: learn enfilade!
--Assaulters: learn areas of responsibility and work in pairs to sweep rooms!
--Marksmen: report OPFOR contacts!
--For OPFOR contact reports, use “top floor”, “ground floor”(=1st floor), “basement” when able, otherwise specify OPFOR building contacts as follows: [building]; [side]; [floor]; [opening]. Standard nomenclature might be difficult to follow (1B3 = front side, 2nd floor, 3rd opening from left)….so I’d recommend keeping it simple for those not SWAT-trained, example: “Zab’s house, North face, 3rd floor, 3rd opening). Always use “opening”, not “window”….there’s lots of holes here and there!

!!REMEMBER!! WHO; WHERE; WHAT

http://forums.tripwireinteractive.com/showthread.php?t=69658
http://www.0xdecafbad.com/files/tac-preschool/TacticalPreschool.pdf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfBffSr1udk

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