A. Company Level Management
B. Homepage Layout/Design
C. Training
D. Recruiting
2. Combat
A. Pre-Battle
B. Combat Factors
C. Tactics
Introduction
“There are no bad troops. Only bad officers.”
Being an officer is about knowing how to lead troops in combat. In Chain of Command it is no different. Being an officer also means a certain level of responsibility, to uphold certain standards of behavior in-game and out. Helping people new to Chain of Command, limiting use of profanity and spam, and not exploiting bugs are some (not all) things officers do. They should also set a standard of behavior for newer players to follow, which means everyone has fun and no-one gets hurt in anyway. But remember the GOLDEN RULE: It is just a game. Have fun.
Administrative
A. Company Level Management
Company command is an important responsibility. In some regiments you will be able to decide which recruits to take and which to dismiss. In others your role will be more limited but no less important.
A smart company commander will provide a name and motto for his/her company. It can be something fierce (“Hardcore Company, No f**king slack, SIR!”) or a bit more reasoned (“Ghost Company, the Silent Souls that leave Many Holes.”). Whatever the motto is it should make the company members feel like they have an identity within the regiment besides a simple callsign.
Making the individual soldier in your company feel good is important. If they feel that they belong in your company then, chances are, they will stay with it. This sort of group identity is somewhat rare in Chain of Command. Mostly regiments that routinely place in the top three in Regiment standings (such as 99E, QOR, or FRC) have it. Other regiments use alternate means to create group identity (as in Urban Brigade’s HOOAH) and perform better because of it.
Company commanders should be fairly active players (an average of three games a day is good) so members have chance to talk and play with their commander on a regular basis. If this is a problem for the company commander then you should appoint someone as your XO (executive officer, or second in command) so that your company members don’t feel as if their commander is never around (Time zones usually complicate this. You could just as well have someone in Taiwan in your company and never know it unless they told you. I know this. It has happened to me.) and is a “good-fer-nothing-moron-with-no-guts-and-even-less-skill”.
Whenever disputes arise handle them impartially. Try to keep any disputes out of the public eye. If other regiments know of this dispute they can use it to their own advantage (which is bad for you). Keep any disputes within the company/regiment (after all it is probably no one else’s business).
Try to create a homepage and link it to your regiment page. This is an even better way of keeping in touch with your troops. It is also a good way of giving awards/praise to members that have done well.
B. Homepage Layout/Design
The best way to make sure that members of your unit are in touch with all of your decisions, plans, and way of doing things. Post the unit’s name, motto (if any), members (if there are too many members for you to put up, create sub-units and provide links to the sub-unit’s homepage), tactics section (this should be for members only and password protected. Espionage is a very real threat within Chain of Command.), and a valid email address so your members have an easy time contacting you outside of 2am.
There are many free web space providers on the Internet. They offer free space in exchange for advertisements on your site. Here is a list of free web space providers.
www.geocities.com
www.fortunecity.com
www.8m.com
www.sitesled.com
Put pictures and/or sounds on your site, enough to make the site interesting but not so much so that it loads slowly. Depending on the size of your company/regiment, a message board may be appropriate.
Don’t waste 6 hours a day on updating your page. It IS important enough to warrant maybe 1-4 hours every week. Keep it short, sweet and to the point. No one wants to spend half of an hour waiting for everything on the page to load. This doesn’t mean don’t make it look nice, just don’t put half of your lifetime into making it.
C. Training
During World War Two the Wehrmacht (German for war machine, a term meaning “power for defense”) provided their new officers (Lieutenants) with a manual that was regarded as a bible by combat officers. The procedures in Tante Friede (“Aunt Friede”, the nickname for the manual) got officers through enough combat to give them experience. At that point they could use their experience and resourcefulness to stay one jump ahead of the enemy. It helped the slow learner survive and the talented combat officer achieve great success. The manual, along with a year of training, gave the Wehrmacht the best officer corps at the time.
The US Army on the other hand, screwed up training its officers about as bad as you could and still win the war. Officers in the US Army were trained for 90 days before being shipped out (hence the nickname “90-day wonders”). They had no manual or procedures (like Tante Friede) and often went without basic knowledge of the way war was waged (in one glaring example “I know what officers and non-commissioned officers are for but what are these bar men for?” BAR men.) This, in addition to routinely assigning the worst officers to the Infantry, just about guaranteed that the US Army would take horrendous casualties in its long march across France, Belgium, and Germany.
This is not to say that the US Army had no talented officers, just a lot less than the Germans did. Only in recent years has the US Army picked up on this wisdom and applied it to good use.
To some, training is a waste of time, an exercise in stupidity because nothing is gained. Nothing that you can see anyway. In reality training is a win-win regiment game. By playing against people in your company/regiment you get to know their styles of fighting, which in turn means you win more regiment games. It also gives soldiers the chance to test out new strategies and tactics without fear of bringing down the regiment rating.
The best way to do training is to go for a few days playing regiment games. Then gather everyone in the unit company/regiment and talk about what worked, what didn’t work, any new strategies or tactics, and who should get their walking papers. Use the training missions to think of new strategies (using the same tactic over and over weeks on end is a surefire recipe for defeat), refine the old ones and develop counters for the enemy’s tactics.
Training should also be given to new members as soon as possible to get them up to speed on how your company/regiment operates. This is also a good time to learn the recruit’s weaknesses (we all have them) and strengths.
As the US Army learned in WW2, spending a lot of time on the wrong training is very counterproductive when the shooting starts. Make sure everything that you have been training is viable in the field, where is counts.
It is also very possible to throw a new recruit into a few training missions, declare them “locked, stocked, and ready to rock” without them having learned a single thing from training. This is a very bad illusion for the new member to be carrying around in his/her head. Always make sure the recruit has learned everything they need to know before sending them to do battle. Your regiment rating will thank you.
D. Recruiting
In the Second World War and the European theater in particular, the Infantry (the grunts and foot soldiers) branch of the US Army were usually assigned the low ebb of officers and enlisted men. The ones with high IQ and college degrees were usually taken by the Air Corps, the Engineers, Artillery, and, for the culls, the Infantry. Infantrymen were considered expendable as were their officers. As a result man for man the Germans defeated the US Army at the troop level.
You are probably wondering what is has to do with Chain of Command in general and recruiting in specific. The moral of that story is it is easier to create a superior force if you have superior material to begin with. Thus recruiting comes in.
As an officer it is your duty to seek out talented new players and get them into your company/regiment. This has two benefits. The first is that you get a capable player. The second is that the competition doesn’t. For this reason it is best to recruit from open games. Not only do you see prospective recruits in action but you have a chance to impress the recruits and thereby encouraging them to join YOUR company/regiment.
There may be minimum requirements for entry into your company/regiment. ALWAYS take these in to account when recruiting. If they wish to join but don’t meet the requirements, tell them straight, not insultingly, but don’t lie about it and give them a lame excuse (“sorry we are not accepting applications”). Most people can see through that like a wet T-shirt.
If you think the recruit has skill but aren’t completely sure take them to a one-on-one room and see if your intuition was correct. The recruit probably won’t mind, as they will see it as free training.
There is an alternate way of recruiting, favored by larger regiments. Go into the Chain of Command lobby and every minute say “
Any number of combinations is possible with the two systems of recruiting listed above. For example a company/regiment may recruit out of the lobby but have established requirements for entry into the company/regiment.
Combat
A. Pre-Battle
Before the mission even starts you have to decide, with you counterpart on the other side, which mission to play. If, for example, you have 4 people in a room and the other regiment has 4, picking a 4 on 4 mission would be best. This allows everyone to play and no one is left to wait for the mission to finish.
However, what if your regiment has 5 but has encountered a recent losing streak during 5 on 5 missions? Or the opposing regiment has two new guys playing? The two commanding officers should decide, fairly, what mission is played and who is playing to ensure that the mission is as even as possible. It is NOT fun to lose 4 straight missions because the other side decided to let its All-Star unit play against your training platoon.
B. Combat Factors
These are things that influence the battle, beyond raw numbers. Mission, enemy, terrain, troops and time all should figure into your decisions as an officer leading the battle. A good officer begins evaluating combat factors BEFORE the battle starts, while information like what weapons you will receive and who have made it into the game are not available he can still evaluate his sides skill and his opponents skill. Once in battle a commander must carefully and continually reevaluate combat factors such as casualties, ammunition, firepower remaining, enemy casualties, and terrain.
Evaluating what combat factors will help or hinder you for a given mission will give you an advantage over a poor officer who chooses to do it “by the seat of his pants”. The commander should decide things like momentum and posture before the battle starts. With those things out of the way he can concentrate on the deployment of his forces and weapon distribution.
The skill of the enemy should factor into your battle plan even more than your own side’s skill. No great brain work is required to figure out your enemy’s level of skill, just looking at what regiment they’re in is a good general indicator. Rank is good for knowing how EXPERIENCED a player is but not how skilled; also as far as ranks are concerned there are only four: PFC, Corporal, Sergeant and Officer. DO NOT use effectiveness rating alone to rate your opponent; by itself it can be very misleading.
The effect terrain has on a battle is immediately apparent. If the enemy is behind a wall, your main course of action is to flank the wall, not rush it head on. The best terrain for an attacker is a large field of haystacks, the best for a defender is a building with plenty of walls on the inside. For example, on the Meeting Engagement map the Reaped Field makes for the best route of attack for the Americans, while the West Field is the best for Germans. The Big House is up for grabs and many times is the deciding factor in the mission.
C. Tactics
[Company/Regiment Commanders do your own. Don’t try to get a freebie off me.]