Being a Leader in MAG

IMPORTANT ADVICE FOR ALL SQUAD LEADERS:
LISTEN TO YOUR PLATOON LEADERS:

1) Even when you think they have not chosen the best course of action.
2) Even if you think you are smarter.
3) If you don’t like taking orders then apply for further leadership, if you don’t get the position in a particular game and you cannot handle taking orders, sell your game to Game Stop.
4) It makes the game more fun and realistic.
5) If you disagree with the platoon leader begin the order and then politely advise the platoon leader against that course of action.
6) If he/she disagrees and remains on task then follow his/her orders anyways.
7) Remember, a united platoon is ALWAYS better than a divided one

To Issue Frago commands:

1) Hit select to go to your Tactical map.
2) As you look around your tactical map you will see blue dots (those are people in your PMC) blue triangles (those are the people in your squad) red dots (enemy troops) red vehicles (enemy) and red squares with different icons in them (these are things like enemy bunkers, AA guns, gates, etc...) these are what you want to set the objective on.
3) In order to actually set an objective you choose a vehicle or an enemy structure, or whatever. Then move your cursor over whatever you decide on, and hit X.
4) You have now set an objective and you and your squad will get frago points for kills and other objective related things.
5) You can also look at the menu on the left to see the status of things around the map. Blue being in your teams favor, red being not, and blinking being in limbo. You can highlight these and press X to center your map on that.
6) The method to Frago on the fly, is while in game, (not tactical map) look at your target and press the down button on the D pad, then when the object is highlight press R1. That too will set the Frago in a hurry.




Some side notes about Fragos:

After you have placed a Frago, it will take 10 or more seconds to change that Frago to something else.
Setting a Frago at the gate for instance on defense, will give your squad Frago points for killing enemy near that gate. Setting it on the bunker will give them Frago points for enemy near that bunker or shooting at that bunker.

To use special abilities:

1) Pull up your tactical map (hit select)
2) Press R1, this will bring up your specials. Pick the ability you want (mortar and sensor shells on defense or guided missile and predator drone on offense). Choose a target on the taking into consideration your own team members then hit X on your target. (REMEMBER you can kill your own team with specials, so be careful and make sure you weigh the gains with the risk before you launch a strike in a heavy fighting area.)



Side notes:

Mortar shells hit a pretty wide area, bigger than the box you use to select the area. Be sure to announce to your squad where you are placing it, they may not be in a position to see the smoke signal. Sensor shells will only damage a vehicle, not troops. I placed a strike on top of two full health APCs the other day and it destroyed both of them. Keep in mind that there are 4 squads in your platoon which means there are 4 squad leaders, each having these abilities. There is a red bar at the bottom of the tactical map screen on the special abilities page, when one of the squad leaders uses something, this status bar starts a countdown and no other squad leader can call in a strike till it reaches zero. So keep this in mind when it comes to communicating with your squad and platoon leaders. Your mortar strike may be still refreshing but one of them might be ready to go. If you are getting over run, ask for help, if you have good squad and platoon leaders in your platoon, help can come pretty quick. Suggest to them to drop a strike somewhere if needed. Teamwork!!!
If you are attacking, I cannot stress enough, DO NOT call in your special abilities until the AA is down. They will be shot down and you will need to wait till they refresh. Air strike is pretty self explanatory, the predator drone will fly over head the area you specify and provide all your troops with the enemy positions on their mini map. An air strike on top of a full health bunker turret will destroy the turret. Again, don’t use unless the AA has been destroyed.

How to communicate with your platoon leader and other squad leaders:

1) To communicate with your platoon leader hit up on the D-pad and hold it
2) Choose the platoon channel by pressing R2 or L2, this will cycle through the channels.
3) Talk....It really does help to communicate.
4) Pressing R1 will toggle the mute on/off the chat on the selected channel. Pressing L1 will toggle your mic on/off the selected channel. I do not suggest you mute the platoon chat, or else you will not hear any other squad or platoon leader talking. Sometimes it may prove beneficial to mute your squad for a moment while coordinating with the other leaders.



Some notes:

If you are on platoon channel, your squad can not hear you. So get on platoon channel, say what you need to say and then get back to squad chat. While on platoon channel, the other squad leaders in your platoon can hear you along with the platoon leader. If you find that you are constantly hearing another squad leader or platoon leader talking, and it is apparent that they are trying to communicate with their own squad, by all means, get on the platoon chat and tell them. It is easy to do, they probably don’t realize they left platoon chat on. This will help their squad, remember, while they are on platoon chat, their squad cannot hear them and it will help you to reduce the clutter coming through the speakers. I not pointing fingers but, cough cough…..Dead….cough cough, some leaders have a tendency to do this more than others. On that note, don’t clog up the channel too much, know that the other squads are dealing with their own problems, their leader does not need to hear from you every 30 seconds, only when you have something important to say.
What happens when you do this:
Attacking:
Bunker: If you kill a bunker then you just destroyed an enemy forward spawn.
Mortar: You just killed the other squad leader’s ability to call in a mortar strike against you.
AA GUN: You just enabled your forward air spawn (paratroopers and helo insertion) and the ability for all squad leaders to call in theirs and your strikes.
Motor Pool: You have disabled re-spawn of the defenders vehicles. Note, that the Motor pools are all near the rear enemy spawn points; they regularly use these vehicle to get up to the front lines quicker.
Sensor array: You disabled a platoon leader’s sensor sweep.
Gate: You took out the front door.
Road Block: pretty obvious.
Bridge: When attacking valor, they have bridges that we will need to repair to use ourselves.
DEFENDING:
Repair: You can tell your squad to repair any destroyed building (gates and roadblocks included).
Defend: You can tell your squad to defend anywhere.
Destroy that vehicle: You take out the attacker’s forward spawn on the ground. The attacking team is able to re-spawn where ever these vehicles are, so destroying them should be a high priority.
Waypoint:
There is also the way point feature. Against popular belief, setting a way point does not give Frago points to things done in that area. I think it should, but that is another story. To set a way point, go to the tactical map, move the cursor to the spot you want to place the point, (not over an object that can be frago’d) and press X. This will place a way point on all squad members’ HID, mini map, and tactical map. These can be used for a rally point, to point out sniper locations, to confirm where another squad member needs a strike to name a few.

This is intended to be a guide for people who aren't confident in their leadership abilities and would like some advice.

I would like to stress that this guide is written by myself from MY experiences as a Leader. People may disagree or have other ideas of how to do things and if you do please feel free to add your piece in a comment. If people consider it useful information, I shall edit the post to include it, citing the poster as the source and giving due credit.

In other words this is a foundation for a Bunker Killer MAG Leadership Superguide.


Knowing your Squad Leader (SL).
First and foremost, when you get into the pre-game screen, check to see who has the yellow tab, with a single yellow line through it. That show’s your SL for the match. If for some reason you were *bleeping* about and never saw that screen, then in the opening moments of the game before you spawn the first time hit the pause button and press X, although it doesn’t show the names at when you select them it shows the player card, and the top player is always the SL. If you still haven’t found out then check the name at the top when you spawn. If after all this you’re still confused, you really shouldn’t be playing MAG at this moment. I suggest you turn it off and try sobering up before attempting again.

So I’m SL! Now what do I do?
Well you want to start by deciding what your objective is going to be. Do this by listening to your Platoon Leader or making a decision on what you plan to do. FRAGO your chosen objective and then if necessary set a WAYPOINT for how you want your squad to get to that objective. The easiest way to set these is by using the tac-map (select) and then selecting your target with the cursor. Alternatively, you can hold the down arrow on the d-pad and set frago on the fly (advanced users). You need to wait a second or two between frago’s and waypoint placement so I suggest setting a waypoint then a frago. This way by the time your squad reaches the waypoint you are now able to frago your target. Many times a waypoint is not really required however it is useful if you want everyone to be on the same flank or route ect. Try to stay with your squad where possible so they can take advantage of your passive leadership bonuses.

But I’m playing Sabotage. I don’t need to do anything...
In sabotage the SL role is limited however you still have two objectives that you can frago, and you can still place waypoints. A general rule is always leave your frago on your natural target (A for Alpha and Bravo, B for Charlie and Delta). There are exceptions to this rule. Should you be red-lining them and the enemy are taking the other objective, you may want to encourage people to take it back. Be careful though as if done for personal gain or in a volatile squad, this could lead to a vote to kick you.

In ATTACK you MUST place a waypoint for people to follow. Whether it’s down the flank or in the middle people need a target to head for.

In DEFENCE waypoints aren’t really needed unless you want to direct your squads attention to a point on the map that may need reinforcing ect.


Fragoing target’s in Acquisition/Domination DEFENCE?
Generally you’ll want to frago either a Burn-off Tower, a Bunker or a Gate depending on which is closest to the enemy. Many times fragoing your bunker isn’t the best course of action, although good for your turret it may not be what’s good for the platoon. So frago the objective that is under the most pressure. If things start going down behind your lines, don’t bother fragoing it. Just have someone fix it and give him a cookie or something, the only exception is the Mortar Battery. That’s important so it may be worth fragoing to draw some guys to it. It doesn’t take 8 guys to repair it so there’s no point leaving your front lines open because of one sneaky ninja. Be mindful of that. Perhaps it’s worth heading back yourself.

If the shit hits the fan and you’re pushed back, prioritise what needs done. Secure any objectives, get the gates/roadblocks up, destroy enemy APC’s, get the mortars secured and then the AAA. Often you’ll find at this point people start acting out of a will to win/earn ribbons and go after things even if they aren’t frago’d. Try to ignore their Rambo repairing and concentrate on fragoing what you think are priorities.


Fragoing targets in Acquisition/Domination ATTACK?

Choose how you plan to attack the map and then which objective you want to attack first. Generally you want to choose the flanking bunkers first. There are certain maps/platoons where it may be easier to take a central bunker rather than a flanking bunker, so bear that in mind. Another thing to note is, when in an APC it could be advisable to take down a gate or roadblock and get your APC safe behind enemy lines, before hitting the enemy from the rear. You need to assess each situation and come up with a plan of attack.
If you decide to take out a bunker first then you want to start by placing a waypoint for your squad to head to and the fragoing the bunker itself. Take it out and then hit the bunker closest to it. So as soon as it blows, frago the next one. Don’t be afraid to frago the next one straight away if it was someone out of your squad that planted the charges. Try not to be too hasty. You want to ensure that the target has support so they don’t defuse.

If you decided to take your APC through the front lines, then your first port of call should be a safe place out of the turrets line of sight (LoS),preferably on a road so you can dodge those sensor shells by speeding off. Next you want to have your squad take the AAA down so frago it while you keep your APC safe. At this point feel free to re-frago the AAA. They WILL send people to repair it and keeping it down helps the entire platoon. Otherwise hit the Mortar Battery before the enemy can do you too much damage. A good squad will go about these things without your prompting however using the frago is a good way of focusing their efforts.

If you’re rolling them then don’t be afraid to take your squad around the map destroying other hard targets. It does help the other Platoons and may help you win. Again a few people will do this automatically without frago incentive.

Focus on an objective. Place a waypoint where you want your squad to attack that objective from. Liaise with your Platoon and fellow Squad Leaders to concentrate your efforts. And if it’s not working out don’t be scared to “switch it up”.



Using SL strikes while DEFENDING.

There are two strikes available to squad leaders in Acquisition and Dominantion.

Mortar Barrage
A mortar barrage is primarily an anti-infantry strike. Although it does damage to transports, it doe’s next to ZERO damage to APC’s. Although you can use it to take out infantry spawning it’s advised to use them in choke points where the enemy normally attack along.

Sensor Strike
Sensor shells are VEHICILE ONLY! They do not damage infantry at all, however they will destroy any vehicles within range, including friendly APC’s. They best way to use sensor strikes is to wait until the APC has stopped. Normally their drivers jump out and you have a chance to get them before they move. Otherwise target them near gates/roadblocks where they can’t go any further. Hold on to the sensor strike until you can use it effectively.

(I’ll draw up some DEFENSIVE MAP’s with standard strike locations)

alexbell450 wrote:

If after all this you’re still confused, you really shouldn’t be playing MAG at this moment. I suggest you turn it off and try sobering up before attempting again.

If by now you can't figure it out you just fail haha good way of putting it

Or you could, if you really really fail, just increase your leadership by being SL in suppression.

Some good info here Alex.

I would just like to add

If your Squad Leader in an Acquisition or Domination always switch our spawn to the side with the blue dots. You should know that they will never change sides. By us doing this it is almost guaranteed we will have 16 soldiers to attack that side.

Good info .....now lets all follow it.........

Good info, Dead and Alex. But you also need to write up a post about platoon leader and OIC. Just so that people will learn.

Keep this thread going.

Good information. Well done chaps. *Gas is the only pre-emptive mortar strike you want to do. It is much better to hold off and wait for a high concentration of enemies or tanks to let the bombs drop then guessing and getting only one ore two kills. A single air-strike can change the tide of the match. There are certainly times when we are playing and not getting much opposition from the enemy. We all seem to be a bit more relaxed in these matches (even the leaders) but when we are being pushed we need our leaders to step it up a notch and lead us to victory. Great leading FTW!