Squads and you: how to force multiply

I usually play in a squad either duo or trio, and occasionally we'll take on 1-2 rookies for our runs. There are several things we, the core group, do naturally that almost every squad we encounter does not do. This often leads to us winning engagements and enemy squads that have equal or greater numbers dying in droves to us. Here's a few pointers to newer or struggling squads out there to help you out. These come from observations of enemy squads and rookies in our own squad.

1) Stacked up nut to butt – without fail this is the biggest sin I see squads commit, the rookies we take along also have this problem. I understand the desire to do this, it makes friendly fire harder if you can always see your teammates and for you rookies out there, you might not know the map that well and you're worried about getting lost. But a squad stacked up practically breathing down each other's neck is easy to identify, easy to line up and easy to kill. You'll end up tripping over each other trying to clear your lines of fire or getting locked in to the same corners or rooms forced to get mowed down as you leave a choke point. NEVER DO THIS.

By being more split up you make it harder for the enemy team to know exactly how many players they're fighting, you leave yourself more readily able to get to a good flanking position, you have eyes and ears covering a wider range of approach angles, and you avoid getting killed in a collateral or a cluster fuck. Generally speaking my squad and I are between 10-30 seconds away from each other at any given point in time. We can easily collapse back to support as necessary, but will rarely get spotted as one cohesive unit.

For example in shoreline we might split up and each take a single building (admin east and west respectively). Bonus points, you're not fighting over loot.

2) Flank, Flank, Flank – I can't tell you how many 3-5 man teams I've wiped solo (either without the support of my squad or running solo) because every single one of them despite having multiple options to suppress me and flank, will simply peak the angle their buddy just died at against an unknown threat and try to locate a target and then beat that target in an aim duel when he's already ADS'd on that corner. Sure it works some times, especially if you grenade and force him to reposition, but flanking will almost always be the superior tactic. Cast a wide net around you enemy's position and force him to check multiple angles, hit him from the side he's not looking at, use your numbers to your advantage.

3) Run rabbit run – this seems counter intuitive to a lot of people and is situational, but when blocked into a room or forced to cross a killzone against a possible threat the first man out rabbits.

What I mean by that is his objective is to clear the choke point as fast as possible and duck between cover. The goal of this is to draw the enemy fire, if any, towards himself and more specifically, to draw their aim away from the choke point while simultaneously being as hard of a target as possible. If he starts drawing fire his team now can use sound to locate and return fire to suppress or kill the enemy. Far too often the first guy out tries to scan one of 100 angles, dies in the door from one of the 99 other angles and has lost his life and gained his team nothing. They can't peak out because the enemy is still lined up for a shot. Their team if they have one is on their way, and even if you heard the shot and they were alone, odds are they're given ample time to reposition and so you've gained no actionable Intel.

My squad alternates the rabbit when caught in situations like this, choose your rabbit how you see fit, but don't waste a life.

Bonus tip for all my hoppy boys out there, pop your pain killers first, a broken or blacked out leg is a death sentence if you get caught out in the open without those narcotics already coursing through your veins.

4) patience is a virtue – this is coupled with the hiding your numbers with distance of point 1. Often times the safest course of action is to simply find a good position and watch you buddy's body. Do not try to immediately recover his stuff. If you have successfully hidden your true force even the most cautious and patient of enemies will eventually go out to loot their kills and you can avenge your fallen comrade remember success here is protecting his stuff, so if they never come to his stuff, you've already won. Insurance and patience are on your side.

5) To counter point 4 don't loot whore. In my squad your kill, your loot, but however your squad decides to divvy up the profits for the love of God stop clumping up on the bodies. If you've run into an enemy team now you've run into a trap. Over watch your team while they loot, they've become the rabbit, or more accurately the bait, yes even scav kills. I've killed entire squads who were, as best I can tell, fighting over a pm scavs loot.

6) Today me, Tomorrow you – AKA secure your squads stuff. This point comes from listening to rookies decision making and the ensuing squabbles there in. A good team comes from trust, your rabbit is more likely to fulfill his possibly deadly role if he knows his gear is coming back to him or you're going to die trying. A team built on trust and mutual understanding will just perform better, so without question or reservation you protect his stuff as if it was your own, if not harder. You never know when it's your 1.5 million roubles kit that will be lying on the ground that needs protecting.

7) Cut your losses – as a sub point slash counter point to above, know when to cut your losses. While your first instinct should always be to protect your down teams gear, some times you need to cut your losses, if it was a mosin and paca armor on your buddy and you're holding 3 graphics cards in your bag play it safe. If you split too far and the only possible way to recover his stuff is to completely expose yourself to a multitude of dangers sprinting there, maybe you write it off. That's a conversation to be had each and every time, and a decision that ultimately the fallen teammate should make. If you do turn tail and disengage however, make him whole, buy him his stuff back, maybe with an upgrade or two for his sacrifice.

8) comms – I will briefly touch on this point as this will vary wildly between teams. This is a game after all and if you're not having fun with your boys what's the point, but figure out your communications and stick to it. Our squad bullshits when appropriate and shuts up when necessary for tactical situations. Figure out what your squad wants to do, be that full discipline radio silence, court jesters even when underfire, or somewhere in between and stick to it. Few things will set my team off like a rookie trying to carry on a conversation 10 seconds after being asked for silence. But that's just our style pick your style and find squad mates that jive with that.

There are many more points I could add, but it's late and those were some of the more pressing ones, feel free to tack on your own in the comments and if you all want I can add more tomorrow.

Good luck out there PMCs and good hunting, hopefully these tips help and may nikita have mercy on your soul if you're in our lobby.