US Army squad leader leads his squad in the offensive while putting a rally.
The Squad Leader is one of the kits available in Squad. It is considered one of the most difficult roles of the game as it needs both deep game knowledge and leadership skills.
His role is to lead and manage his troops, and to coordinate them to the accomplishment of the objective. Equally, as important, they must also communicate with other squad leaders in order to coordinate resources, attacks, defenses ect.
The responsibility given to the member who chooses this role is enormous: his skills will impact how enjoyable the game is for his squad members. The Squad Leader is the one who gives orders, so his communication skills are paramount.
If you are intending on trying this role, inform your squad members of your inexperience, as they will be more prone to tolerate your errors, and they will provide useful advice.
Have a microphone (most servers now will kick a Squad Leader if they don't have a microphone)!
Leadership
The Squad leader is the decision maker of the squad.
There are three things a squad can be doing, to help their team win:
Play the objectives. Attack or Defend capture points/weapons caches on the map
Build Friendly infrastructure. Build a spawning network for your squad and team by putting down Rallypoints (RP's) and Forward Operation Bases (FOB's).
Destroy enemy infrastructure. Attack enemy FOB's or destroy rally points.
To complete these goals it is important that your squad is under your command, and accomplish their objectives as a team. For your squad to comply with order and play together as a team, it is important to communicate often and in a nice tone (it's a game - they are not your slaves).
Furthermore, it is important to communicate with other Squad Leaders on the Command Channel. Coordinate the team effort - who defends, who attacks and who is building FOB's. Call out enemy squad movement if a friendly squad is about to get in contact with the enemy.
As a Squad Leader it is not your job to do everything, that's what you have your squad for - don't be the first man through every door.
How to be a good squad leader.
Focus on the objective - there is no purpose to a squad without a task to complete, regardless of the outcome.
Multitask - Be quick and flexible, give an order to every member.
Being friendly - Be kind and keep your cool, even in hairy situations.
Helping out new players - The community won't grow unless you allow it, help out the newbies.
Communicate - Communicate often and clearly, pass coordinates and exchange orders, keep your cool.
Contribute - Help out other squads and not just your own, being resourceful and use professionalism.
How to be a bad squad leader
Yelling at your squad members and fellow squad leaders out of frustration.
Micromanagement of your squad members, you must trust your squad members in following the objective and your orders (be nice).
Being in the most useless place being the most useless squad. Get involved, contribute, help other squads, even if it means risking your own.
Hogging the squad leader voice channel, you must only talk in the voice channel when necessary, short messages and clear communication.
Doing everything on your own, let your members take care of the situations as well, let them become involved.
Biting more than what you can chew, you are not the A-Team, be cautious and don't do anything beyond your capability unless it is a REAL emergency.
Not communicating with your squad, doing this will technically doom your squad in a matter of minutes.
Not doing anything at all (same as above).
Tips
Before executing an assault, always make sure to secure an area and deploy your squad's rally point, they will need it in order to get back into the fight after death.
When defending, you must always order your squad to garrison along a certain area or within buildings for maximum protection against a counter-attack.
Make sure you squad is diverse, allow members to use the variety of roles in the squad to you can be ready for any situation.
If you are building up a defensive base, try not build unnecessary deployables, conserve your supplies and only build what you will need.
As a squad leader, you MUST have the squad leader role in order to play your role, as other roles won't give you access to the various commands you need.
Try to die last, dying first will increase the risk of losing the battle since you aren't alive to perform your role (and in case your rally point is destroyed).
Suggested Language:
Weapons hot
Weapons hold (opposite of weapons hot)
Cease fire (stop current firing)
Shift fire (move to new target in a firefight)
Break contact (stop firing and pull away from the engagement)
Fall back (similar to above, but with more urgency on retreating from the area)
Advance to ...
Hold position
"Contact" is declared at the initial discovery of the enemy. Afterward, they are referred to as a "target".
Clear comms (everyone stop talking)
Suppression fire (firing at the enemy without out intention to hit, but merely to keep their heads down so friendlies can advance)
