Play Fair, And Play For Fun

*This section is a list of rules I try to play by so that other players (even the other team) still enjoy the game. You don't have to agree with them, you don't have to read them, so don't argue with me, or anyone else about them*

Leave Your Buddies Vehicle Alone - Don't steal your teamates vehicles when they get out to repair it, take a look around, or plant a mine/explosive. There is nothing more frustrating for player than the have to "hoof it" across the map because some inconsiderate team mate car jacked them.

Non-Cappable Spawn Camping != Fun - When you back the enemy into his corner leave him be and let him come to you. How much fun is it to have 4 guys in tanks in your non-cap slaughtering you the second you spawn and the doing it for the whole rest of the game? If you're playing in a league match and need the win so be it, but if you're on *any publc server USA* the idea is to have fun right? So try to let the other team enjoy the game as well. Isn't it more challenging/fun anyway to let the enemy mount an attack against the cap points and then fight him back?

Apologize When You TK Someone - It doesn't matter what the circumstances are; you warned about artillery landing there, he was in your way, you didn't know he was there, none of that matters. If you TK someone they deserve an apology, period.

General

Use The Secure Radio Button - When requesting support from your commander there is a right way and wrong way to do it. The wrong way is get him on the comms and say "Hey I need some arty over there somewhere", this does nothing but waste the commander's very precious time. The right way to do it is to join or create a squad so that you can use the Secure Radio feature, and request it so that it shows up on the command map and takes 2 (two) clicks for the commander to accommodate you instead of him having to find where you are talking about the map with only your vague directions as a guide. Secure Radio requests work just like sighting artillery strikes in Battlefield 1942. You point your crosshairs where you want things to happen (UAV, arty, or supplies to be dropped) then hit the Secure Radio button, select what you need, and click. This operation brings up a yellow icon on the command interface that shows the commander where, and what you need. Remember if you want supplies or UAV dropped directly on your location you need to center your crosshairs on something near you. If you request a supply drop and happen to be looking at the mountain 2 miles away, guess where the box gets dropped?

Smoke Every Day - Smoke bombs are your friends. They reduce visibility, drop opponents framerates, and generally just annoy people. THROW SMOKE BOMBS LIKE CANDY. From tanks, from assault class, anywhere you can find them. They're also handy for marking locations for helo/air strike if you have a well coordinated team.

Get Wet - Boats are also your friends. They do not attract nearly as much attention as planes or helos, are relatively speedy, and can carry you and your friends to the party with room to spare. If you spawn on the carrier ignore the flashy air-taxis. Go down to the belly of the carrier, jump into a boat, and have your squad mates go along for company. You can even have a barbeque on the way there if you like.

Bee Stings - Anti-Aircraft is a game of patience and distraction. The Stinger missiles are a potent weapon when used correctly, a major waste of time when not. When you see that shiny helo up the sky begging to be shot down and jump into the stinger launchers, what is the first thing you should do after you get them sighted in? That's right; wait. When you get an initial lock with a Stinger it sets of the warning alarm in the cockpit of the vehicle you are targeting, so what is the pilot's first reaction? To drop flares, which kills your lock. The solution to this is track your target, wait for them to drop flares, re-acquire, THEN fire. The distance and direction of the target play a role in your effectiveness with Stingers also. If the if a jet is barely in view long enough for you to get a lock don't bother firing, because you may regret it when the jet swings back around to bomb you and you are waiting for your launchers to refill. Instead as difficult as it seems you should wait not only until the jet has committed itself to the bombing run, but wait until AFTER it has flown over you. You do this because shooting Stingers at a jet that is flying towards you gives you almost no chance of hitting it. The jet will drop flares and dodge and the Stingers will fly past and get lost. But if you wait until the jet has flown over, it will more than likely already dropped its flares in fear of your Stinger lock, and now has its back/engines to you, which gives the Stingers a chance to follow the plane instead of trying to head it off, and drastically increases your kill chances.

Use Your Feet, They're Bored - I cannot count how many times I've seen 3 guys in a buggy cruise into a spawn, guns blazing in a heroic manner, and then get quickly destroyed by the tank or APC guarding the cap point, thus wasting three tickets. I'm not saying you should walk everywhere, far from it, however when you're driving a small vehicle it is my advice that you stop away from the spawn, get out, and assault it on foot. Do this and you will live a somewhat longer and moderately happier life. Going on foot is quieter, allows you to use the weapons at hand (namely your own, which are equally, if not more powerful than those of Hummer or buggy when used correctly), and gives you better agility and visibility. It will also give you a chance to think up a clever attack plan instead of just driving full speed into a tank-cannon round.

We Got Ourselves A Convoy - Cooperative/unified vehicle assaults are another facet of team play which are regularly ignored and overlooked. This isn't Counter-Strike, Doom 3, or Halo, working together in Battlefield 2 can make a mediocre group of players into an exceptional cohesive unit. The first part of this is losing the overwhelming urge to kill-whore. Yes, when you work as a unit you also split points up with your unit, but you will also win the game as unit. A standard squad of 6 people is more than enough to completely control the vehicular battlefield, all you have to do is diversify. You will need a medic to keep your men alive, an engineer to keep your equipment running, and a Support class to keep everyone armed. The other half of your mobile infantry squad should include at least one Anti-Tank class (for additional firepower and tank driver harassment), and a SpecOps for booby-trapping cap points after your group has moved on. The last person in the squad could technically be any class, but I would recommend another medic or engineer to double up on healing/repairs. Once you have your roles worked out it's time to pool resources. You of course need to have as many tanks as possible, which should be escorted by an APC and if possible a mobile Anti-Aircraft. Buggies/cars are worthwhile for advance recon and quick point capping, but should not be relied upon as an assault unit unless nothing else is available. You vehicle group should stay close enough together that your engineer's and medic's "auras" cover the group so that damage is repaired constantly. The tank should of course spearhead the group, since it can take the most punishment, with the APCs/AA closely flanking it. The job of the rear vehicles is to keep watch for enemies attacking from the sides and rear, the tank should be focusing it's cannon fire on the spawn you are assaulting as soon as it is in view. As you approach the cap point the APC should stop at relatively secluded or naturally protected area to drop off the ground troops, then should move back into formation with the other vehicles to focus fire on the point. The ground troops should move around the cap point to the sides or rear to check for hiding enemies, the vehicles should roll smoothly into the flag zone and secure it with as much firepower is necessary. Asking for a UAV drop, supply box, AND artillery strike on the cap point (the arty strike occuring before you get there obviously) are all worthwhile for cap point assault and should be communicated to the commander in advance so that he can have the resources waiting to be used.

Don't Run With Sharp Objects - I occasionally see guys cruising around the map with their knives out I'm guessing under the impression that it makes them go faster. This is not Counter-Strike, there is no miracle that gives someone the ability to carry the same amount of weight but run faster simply because their primary weapon changes. Keep a gun in front of you at all times, and unless you're trying to kill someone with it; keep your knife in your pants (this goes for the medic shock paddles as well).

Burst Of Flavor - You hear it all the time in movies and TV, and it applies to video games too. Short. Controlled. Bursts. That machine gun or cannon that you are using quickly becomes a paperweight if you you hold down the trigger, overheat it, and then have to wait for it cool. Instead you should fire in 1-3 second repetitive bursts (depending on the weapons heat up time). Not only will this keep the weapon cool and firing, but it will also put almost the same amount of lead in the air as it would if you just held it down.

Helicopters

Ghosts In The Night - Ever seen those cool documentaries on Apaches on the discovery channel? Where they slide around in the darkness, unknown to their enemy until it's time to strike, and then they unleash their awesome firepower? That is type of mindset you need to adopt to be a successful Battlefield 2 attack-helo pilot. In Desert Combat the attack helos worked entirely different than they (currently) do in BF2. They were quicker, turned faster, and the pilot was the one controlling the heavy weapons (the gunner could kill infantry, other helos, and that was about it). You could almost say the attack helos in BF2 are the exact opposite. They're slower, have horrible maneuvering ability, and the GUNNER is the one who now has the real firepower at his fingertips with the addition of TV missiles.

To the pilots reading this who think the way to fly is to jump into a helo, take off as soon as it spins up (regardless of whether or not you have a gunner with you) then take off and go head-to-head with the enemy; YOU ARE WASTING THE EQUIPMENT. You are also probably flooding my command radio with curses from when you crash, and the laughter of your teamates at your misfortune, which I hate by the way. If you are in this category chances are you lift off and go screaming off of the carrier/pad, get one or two missile runs against a tank (that you probably miss entirely anyway), then get shot down or crash into some static object, most often the ground. You will do much better if you wait for a gunner to jump in with you, take off lightly and slowly, look at the map and see where the action is (if your commander is doing a good job you'll hear the UAV beeping), then smoothly make your way over until you can see what's going on. Once you get there your gut reaction learned from DC will be "omg I have to get my gun off on these guys", you should ignore this feeling, it is wrong and will cause you pain. Instead you should hover with your crosshairs pointed at the main group of enemies so that your gunner can get a solid lock with their TVMs, which are DEVASTATING when used correctly. As your gunner does his work you need to try to stay as still as possible with your crosshairs held on the enemy. If you come under fire do not hesitate to run for it as a dead gunner/pilot are worthless, but otherwise control your urges to unload those missile pods and let the gunner get the glory (you'll get assist points anyway).

Big Fat APC O' The Sky - You would think that with a book AND a movie named after you you would get some respect, and yet the poor Black Hawk is often used more like a throw-away taxi than a very useful helicopter. One guy jumps in by himself and flies it to a cap point, that special sniper spot *useless*, or even worse yet; another jet or helo. Please do not do the fine Black Hawk this injustice. It is a reliable and stalwart a weapon as there could ever be, and it only wants to serve, but you have to treat it right. Getting in the Black Hawk by yourself and lifting on is yet another waste of equipment. You're better off leaving it where it is so that a better organized squad can use it to the teams advantage. Being the pilot of a Black Hawk is an act of mercy; the only points you get are assist points, you're responsible for the digital lives of the men in the helo with you, and you miss most of the gun n' fun stuff. A good Black Hawk pilot does however have a huge amount of influence on how a game is going. With two solid mini-gunners you can take out entire columns of enemy troops. You can ferry a squad from one cap point to another and then provide fire support for them while they cap it, and you are able to spot/call out enemy units and movements to your team. You do however have to watch out for a couple of things; the main one being heat seeking missiles. To avoid a heat seeker the best thing to do is take the offensive. Get good communication with your gunners and have them shower the Stinger launchers with 7.62 death, and nothing will turn a pilot away from you faster than watching his precious jet-health dwindle down as bullets chew through his armor.

You're On Candid Camera - The TV Guided Missiles (I call them TVMs for short) are the most powerful weapon in the gunner's, and for that matter the entire helicopter's, arsenal. You can destroy pretty much any ground vehicle in the game with a well aimed TVM and still remain outside most units effective weapons range (excluding the mobile Anti-Aircraft platforms, which can hit you by tracking your heat signature even when they can't "see" you). To use a TVM you must of course be in the gunner position of one of the attack helicopters. Hitting your alternate fire button will bring up the black-and-white firing screen that is fixed with the nose of the helicopter (fixed meaning you CANNOT move the camera around like you can the 30mm cannon, so whatever the pilot has in his crosshairs is what you can see). In order to use TVms well you need to have good communication with your pilot (I recommend flying with a squad mate -OR- creating a temporary squad with your pilot so that you can directly talk over the voice comms). Once the B&W screen is up you will notice a crosshair that you can move around and point at objects. Wherever the crosshair is pointed is what will be your missile's primary flight path, but you will be able to guide the missile around a little once it's fired. You should not count on being able to blindly fire one off and guide it to it's target, as the missile usually moves to fast to get much directional correction out of it once it's in the air, so try to be as fast and as accurate on your initial targeting as possible. TVMs are also SPECTACULAR for taking out the ground-based Stinger launchers as they cannot move or run away from you. The Stinger launchers are usually my primary target (second only to the mobile AA) for my first TVM when I am gunning and going for a cap point.

Commander

Constant Beeping Means You're Doing A Good Job - UAV's have the fastest refill of the command abilities, and are also the most generally useful. If there isn't almost a constant, and reassuring beep of the UAV showing targets to your teamates you are not doing enough as commander. If a teamate requests one, accomodate as quickly as possible, if you see a group of your men heading towards a cap point, toss a UAV down. You should almost NEVER have a UAV just waiting to be dropped.

Supply Drops - This has been covered in other threads, but I'll say it again here; you can repair radar, UAV, and arty by dropping supply boxes near them. This removes the need of an engineer on hand to keep things going, and the supply boxes are able to fix your equipment faster than a single engineer could anyway. Supplies are the second fastest equipment refill, and they should also be dropped as quickly and as often as possible. The only time I would ever wait to drop a supply box would be when a group of men are assaulting a cap point, and it would be better to heal/re-arm them after they've taken it so that it isn't used by the enemy or destroyed before it can do any good. Supply boxes can also be the difference between victory or defeat for troops defending a cap points or important parts of the map. If you see a group of your men shooting it out with the enemy drop a box near them to keep them alive and armed, then toss in a well-placed arty shot to assist them in their efforts.

Artillery - Artillery is one of the trickiest components of BF2 to learn to use well. It can make or break you as a commander. Put one in the wrong place and you can easily have a bunch of teamates furious with you, put it in the right place and you're the bane of the enemies existence. The trick with artillery is to put it where the enemy is GOING to be, not where they currently are (except when they're capping a point, I'll get to that) so that it can do maximum damage. For example, you run a scan or drop an ever-helpful UAV and see a column of troops making their way to a cap point. You take note of the vehicles they're driving, how fast they're moving, and any opposition (your teamates) between them and the point. On average arty takes about 10-15 seconds from the time you hit it to the rounds hitting the ground, so you then gauge where the enemy will be, then target the arty accordingly. Take into account where your teamates are before you fire, you're doing this for two reasons. The first reason is that you of course don't want to bomb your teamates, the second is that if the enemy sees your teamates and shoots it out with them it will take them longer to get to where they're going. So instead of dropping it on the cap point and the arty landing before they enemy gets there, you may want to drop it on the enemy group itself while they have a firefight with your team members (again, be careful and try not to hit your team). In the event that you happen to miss the other team sneaking into a spawn point, and they manage to neutralize it (turns gray) and begin to take it over (turns their flag color), do a quick scan of the area to see if there are any team members around, then drop an arty as quick as you can right on the flag. In most cases you will have time to get it down before they change it completely, 80% softening them up quite a bit, and with good chances of killing them entirely if they are infantry.

SpecOps

The C4 "Prank" - Whenever you cap a point, that you are not immediately defending from counter-attack, place C4 packages around the flag zone in the shadows, under plants, stuck to walls, and one even on the flag base itself. Try to get them spread out to the point that they cover the entire flag area, but close enough together that they overlap damage in case of armor. Once the packages are set move along on your merry way to the next point, OR you can simply find a hiding spot a short distance from the cap point so you can watch the mayhem. When the cap point goes gray (indicating that it is being taken by the enemy) switch to your detonator and set it off (ideally killing everyone in the zone), then go back and re-cap the point to get additonal bonus points. On average you can get 5+ points doing this (depending on how many enemies are in the zone), I've gotten 10+ a few times because large groups roll into the cap points.

C4 Tricks - C4 placement is an almost vital skill to learn to play Specops effectively. Running out into enemy fire to drop a package in front of a tank will 9/10 just get you killed, and that will not help your team. You need to be pre-emptive with your package placement. Pay attention to radar and the "*** spotted" warnings that you get from teamates, have the C4 waiting for the enemy before they get somewhere, don't try to chase them with it. If you find yourself in a position where a tank is bearing down you DO NOT RUN UP TO THE FRONT OF IT and try to drop a C4 pack. Instead you should be patient, wait and watch what the tank does. Find a place where you can hide near the tank and wait for the driver to look the other way (tossing a grenade in another direction is a good distraction to get this to happen) when the tanker's attention is elsewhere; quickly run up, place a couple of charges, then get away. You do not necessarily need to hit the detonator immediately once the charges are placed on a tank as they will stick to it. What I like to do is shadow the tank until it is grouped with another enemy vehicle or infantry, THEN hit the detonator dealing double damage and death (sort of like a car bomb and the driver is just as surprised as the victims).

Bridge Over The River Die - Destroying bridges is a COMPLETELY underused ability on online servers at this point. If you could isolate your enemies main armor force in one place so you could pound them air, arty, and cannon fire until tickets run out, would you not want to take advantage of it? You can stop entire columns of enemy units dead in their tracks with good timing and communication. Check your map regularly to see where enemies are spawning from and what routes they seem to use the most to get around, then cut those routes like a razor to the wrist. It works even better if you plant your C4 in advance (C4 tricks anyone?) on the bridge when a tank is almost there, then blow it when the tank is on top of your C4 package, and the bridge is of course under it. Super demolition and destruction++

G36 > * - The G36 is the unlockable weapon for the SpecOps class, and it is far superior to the M4, and ESPECIALLY the Ak74U. If at all possible I suggest using it, either by getting it unlocked through rank or by joining a server with global-unlocks. It has a high rate-of-fire, is extremely accurate, and reloads fast. It's only downside is no aimpoint sight, but you can't have everything right?

Car Bombing - I personally don't do this, becuase it drastically increases your chances of getting a bad case of dead, and seems only occasionlly have good results, but I thought I would quickly explain it. You plant C4 packages in a buggy/car/Hummer (keeping the detonator selected when you enter the vehicle) and then drive it as fast as you can towards your "target". When you get to your target and have enough speed you jump out, let the car roll and hit the detonator. The idea being that you kill a lot of people. This doesn't seem to work as well in Battlefield 2 as it did in 1942 (I never tried it in Vietnam because I only played for BFv for about 10 minutes), because the vehicles don't roll as far or as fast as they did, but I guess it's another "tactic" to play around with. A more realistic car bombing tactic is to stick C4 to a vacant enemy vehicle, then wait for someone to occupy it and drive off. Try to keep up with the vehicle until it is surrounded by more enemies, then blow it. Remember that it usually takes two C4 packs to destroy a completely healthy tank, and only one for just about everything else.

Assault

Live Grenade - When covering long distances on foot as Assault I prefer to run around with my grenade launcher selected. Of course you don't want to do this in close quarters were the grenade could explode and kill you, but if you have enough space between you and where the enemy may be keep your grenade at the ready. When an enemy appears fire off your grenade then quickly switch over to standard bullet-fire mode and fill the air with lead. If the grenade doesn't catch your enemy by surprise and kill him, it will at least be a good first salvo to follow up with rifle fire.

Engineer

An Engineer In A Tank Is Worth Eight In The Bush- For those Engineers out there I'll give the same advice that I gave Engineers in Battlefield 1942; you should literally live and die inside a tank. This advice is even more applicable to BF2, because now Engineers can repair nearby units and equipment without even having to get out and wrench them up. A force of two or three tanks, moving and working close together, all driven by Engineers, is an almost unstoppable force in BF2. They become an even greater threat to the enemy when they are fortunate enough to have an Mobile Anti-Air vehicle with them (if you can't tell yet I LOVE the mobile AAs), or when mixed in with APC's full of troops. By moving as a group not only do all of your tanks get repaired by the other Engineers, but you also double-up and repair eachother faster than normal. This is all done automatically, with no interaction from you, while you continue to pound your enemy with cannon fire.

Mine Booby Trapping - When driving around as an Engineer (an eng should never be walking if possible) feel free to stop whenever you see that vacant piece of enemy equipment to place a mine on it. Your teamates should be aware enough to see the red skull/crossbones icon and to know that driving off in the tank is not a good idea. Plus if you're rolling in tank group your teamates more than likely won't need to steal the enemy equipment, but why leave it for them to use.

Anti-Tank

A Tank Is Useless If The Driver Gets Out - The AT class was given a hidden weapon with the warning alarm that goes off in vehicles when targeted by the rocket launcher. Not a weapon that does any direct damage, but a weapon none-the-less. By targeting the tank and keeping it your crosshairs you can confuse, annoy, and even scare a driver right out of their tank. The constant blaring of that alarm will immediately make them turn in every direction trying to find the man holding the launcher, which can give you and squad time to plant C4, get more backup, and even convince the driver that they need to get out of the tank in a hurry. Find a spot that you can target the tank without getting yourself killed in the process, and hold the lock for as long as possible before firing. Many tank drivers will jump out to try to find you and gun you down, the smarter ones will stay in the tank but will be distracted by the alarm, and the even smarter ones than that will probably ignore you entirely. Those are the ones you need to watch out for and destroy, before they destroy you.

Support

Ammo Mules - The support does have an awesome primary weapon, but unless there is a major firefight going on your main priority in this class is to be dropping ammo boxes for your team to pick up. If you've just neutralized a point chances are your squad mates have expended most of their ammo, this is of course a good time to refill them. Don't be stingy, you gain nothing by hording your ammo for yourself, whore it out as much as possible.

Medic

He's No Good To Me Dead - A medic who gets killed because they were at the front of the firefight is of no use to his squad. When playing as medic you should not play overly aggressive or run around kill-whoring. Instead you should let the Assault, Support, and Specops classes do all of the shooting, and you do the healing. When you are defending a flag point you should cover the ground around your squad with med packs so that they can be quickly picked up. You need to be proactive about dropping them because it gets 10 times harder to do so when the bullets are flying. Once things get dicey you should try to reserve your refill meter so you're ready to use those paddles when a buddy takes one for the team.and be a little more sparing with how you toss packs out. You don't necessarily need to "hide" from the enemy, but taking cover while the stronger classes do their own work is advisable.

Sniper

Don't Play As One - That's all I've got for this class. Snipers are more annoying than anything else. If EA makes their weapons better in the future, give it a try, for right now this class has very little strategic value. Don't argue, you know I'm right.

Claymores, A Sniper's Only Redeeming Factor - By reading the above tip you've probably concluded that I don't have much love for Snipers. Well, that is not enitrely true; in reality I think a platoon of Boy Scouts would be more useful on the BF2 battlefield than most Snipers, but they do have Claymores, which are at least fun to play with. If you insist as playing as Sniper you should be dropping Claymore mines every step you take. You should do this for two reasons: The first is that having good coverage with the mines will distract, torment, and occasionally kill the enemy. The second is that while you are hiding out in your "special spot", scoped in, believing yourself to be Jude Law from Enemy At The Gates, wasting my tickets and not getting any kills, you MIGHT not get stabbed in the back as often by the guy who creeps up behind you because you had those mines laid out to cover your position (usually this person knifing you is me by the way, this is why Snipers should travel in pairs). Again, if you absolutely have to play as Sniper, which I recommend you don't, you should be strategically placing Claymores every chance you get, it's probably the only worthwhile thing you will every do for your team.

More coming...