GTAmerc

32nd Reaper Division

10/3/2015
Version 1

Non-Commissioned Officer Training Manual

This document features a stripped down version of the Reaper Division
Leaders Guide that was created for official leadership position holders, and
Commissioned Officers. This particular document has been created
specifically for NonCom needs. NonComs will be the first to be approached
for open leadership positions around the clan as they become available. Lets
begin with the tactical leadership section regarding in-game directions.
In addition to being approached first for leadership positions, NonComs
will take Fire Team Leader positions when no other ranking members are
available. Or if, during SND for example, your Squad Leader or
Commissioned Officer goes down, the ranking NonCom will take over
command.

Tactical Leadership
This section will be about leading your men in-game, and how to do it.
We will reference some popular formations and strategies that can be found
in more detail in the Field Bible. Some good characteristics of a Field
Leader are:
-

Patience
Quick thinking
Extensive understanding of the game
Extensive knowledge of your tactics
Forward communication
Good reasoning skills
Adaptive skills
Good understanding of your skills, and the skills of each team member
Calm behavior

Alright, so lets breakdown these characteristics and what they mean.

Patience means being willing to take the time before a match starts, to look
at your team and accurately assess their skills and talents. You will also get
good feedback from simply asking your team what positions they would like
to take. So if you call for a 4-2 Standard CTF formation, you can ask for
volunteers and then start assigning from there. This helps increase overall
happiness in your team with their roles.

Quick thinking basically means that you need to be able to look at events
unfolding within the game as they are happening, decode them, and respond
to them appropriately. If a team member calls out that there is 3 pushing the
flank and that he will go down, you need to quickly call the appropriate play
for that situation. Do you push the rest of the team away from that enemy
pack to push further into the map past them? Or perhaps to flank them? Do
you push your full team onto that flank to engage and destroy them? What
about the empty lanes you just created by pushing full team? Will the enemy
use those to get behind you? Is your team strong enough to engage them
3v3 and come out on top? Is your team strong enough to engage them 2v3
and still win? Or do you need to send 4-5 guys to handle those enemies
because you have a weak team? You need to understand all of the factors in
a particular situation, and make the right call on time.
Extensive understanding of the game is pretty obvious. You need to know
the game inside and out in order to make the right plays. If you are
designating Buddy Teams or player loadouts to your guys, you need to know
what compliments what, what works and what doesnt, what loadout is good
for which situation. You need to know all of the tricks, maps, callouts,
loadouts, etc.
Extensive knowledge of your tactics is again pretty obvious. You need to
know the Field Bible inside and out, and you need to know exactly what
youre going to do based off of the Field Bible strategies. Do they work
against an organized team? Do they work on this map? Do they work in this
game mode? Will it work with your current team? Does the enemy team
know my strategies? What is the weirdest thing to throw out, that the enemy
would never suggest? Am I using it? These are all questions you should ask
about the tactic you are choosing to employ.
Forward communication is probably one of the most important things in
this list. You could have the BEST knowledge and tactics, but if you dont
relay that information to your team quickly, clearly, and accurately, then you
will fail. Or at least youre basically shooting yourself in the foot. You may win
still, but not as well as you could. You need to be SPECIFIC. Give specific
directions to specific team members. Do not use general language such as
can someone cover (callout)? That is the weakest sentence you could
possibly utter as a Fire Team Leader. Can is awful. This suggests that there
is an alternative or a negative response. Can you? No, I cant.
Someone is utterly useless as well. No one will personally respond to that,
because they think someone else will. Refrain from this weak
communication as much as possible. Another example of direct
communication is if someone is not following directions. Hey, *name* I
called out *formation* and put you over in *location*. I need you over there

ASAP otherwise our formation is weak and they could flank us. This is a
great example of direct communication. You directly address the problem.
You speak directly to the person by name. You explain that you called out a
certain formation. You say again, where he should be. You then explain why
his current actions will likely hurt the team if continued. 90% of the time,
theyll fall in.
Good reasoning skills are important in order to be able to accurately use
the correct play for the right situation. Your calls should be logically sound.
This will be most helpful if you ever get questioned by a team member. You
can then easily explain the reasoning behind your call, and if its good, then
that member should have no further issues. Simply saying because I said
so is not good enough.
Adaptive skills is pretty similar to quick thinking skills. Basically what I
mean by being adaptive is that you need to be able to realize it if what
youre using is failing, and respond quickly with the correct fix. In order to be
adaptive, you need to realize that youre capable of being wrong. This is a
problem for people with sensitive egos or too much faith in their own
systems. Even if the reasoning behind your formation is strong, it can still
fail. If this happens, you need to be honest, recognize it, and fix it.
Good understanding of your skills, and the skills of each team member
basically means that you need to be honest with yourself, and your team. If
you have a teammate that isnt as skilled in a particular area, you need to
move that person. You need to identify your own strengths and weaknesses
and play according to them. Being honest about this with your team is
perfectly acceptable and will actually serve as a positive role model for your
team.
Calm behavior is very important. This simply means that you cannot
get frazzled, give up, angry, etc. If you are a rager, you will not make a good
Fire Team Leader. If you get scared because your tactic isnt working, and
you shut down, then youre signing your teams death warrant. If you start
yelling at your team because theyre not performing well, or if they didnt
listen to you, you will lose respect very quickly. If you wind up yelling, you
need to apologize immediately after the game, in front of everyone. People
get angry sometimes, and that is okay, but you have got to be the larger
man and apologize for it when it happens. You must also learn to keep a cap
on it because theres only so many apologies you can give.
This has been a good breakdown of what it takes to be a strong Fire Team
Leader, and in this case, NonCom, in-game. Further information will be edited
in as it becomes available.