Okay, this is a major thing that annoys me frequently when playing on Invasion or Assault maps where you capture points and move forward in a fairly linear manner. On SEVERAL occasions, while flanking the enemy hardcore, often sniping, and often with my troops holding back somewhere safe where they hopefully won’t get spotted, shot, or blown up… it is time to move forward. But it is a good position, I like that position, we’re still mopping up some stragglers, and the enemy is still in-view and actively fighting. Well, upon capturing the recent objective (or two, as is the case with Assault), after a few seconds my guys disobey my orders by getting up from where I’d sat their idiotic backsides down and they come to walk around and see the sights where I’m hiding in view of the enemy! This generally results in my position being discovered and some of them (or indeed sometimes my sniper as well) getting shot and/or killed by the enemy.
So, what am I to do? “Oh crap, we caught the point, time to go back to my guys and wait for them to disobey my orders then give them gentle little 'shush-shush, no-no, back to sleep. That’s it, good boys…” then return to my important reconnaissance and sniping? Seriously, WHY cancel orders just because a position has been captured? What about mortarmen whom may well be 150m+ behind, possibly even 2 positions back, providing mortar fire from a safe position?
“Hey Sarge, I know you had us holed up in that building over there to keep us safe from enemy aircraft attacks or enemy artillery or enemy morterfire, but we heard that one fifth of a kilometer away, we took a point, so we all decided to come out and have a group-hug in the open to celebrate! Wait, why are you running away? Why are you angrily yelling at us about being idiots? You’re going back in the house you ordered us to stay in and, what? Don’t come out? Are we being grounded now? Aww… well come on, guys. Back inside… he’ll need you in a bit engineer when he needs another ammo crate.”
Speaking of which, why not order individual soldiers?
Sniper: Okay, good, got a great position here, nice and concealed, but I need to get a spawn beacon up. Sniper can stay here and if enemies get too close, he’ll start shooting to alert me to their approach. Engineer: Now switched to the engineer, I can get the process started on that beacon. Okay, process has begun.
Rifleman: Our flank in the direction of the enemy’s spawn is obscured by trees and foliage, I’ll set myself up as a scout in that direction and alert the squad if I see them likewise trying to flank but in the direction we’ve already got them flanked.
Assault gunner (SMG): I’ll go over to where the rifleman went, the sniper might head up farther and see a location where we can sneak up on the enemy and ambush them from behind the cover of a downed tank or something.
Anti-Tank: We can hear a tank but can’t see it, it might be close and could come into view of the sniper at any moment, I’ll position myself near the sniper so that I can be accessed immediately in case it comes rolling from behind the foliage around us.
See what I mean? The engineer can then set up an ammo crate next to the spawn, switch back to the sniper to surveil the enemy’s location from their side of the capture point, possibly pick off some distance targets when they’re still long enough but mostly marking targets and tanks. If all the soldiers are within 50m of one another, maintaining communications from safety and concealment shouldn’t be too difficult, or who knows, maybe if we use our imaginations, it was already all planned. Rifleman and submachinegunner, you go and watch our left flank. Right flank should be alright. Engineer, I want a recon point (spawn beacon) and an ammo crate at the ready over there. I’ll maintain reconnaisance and our AT guy will be nearby in case we see an opportunity to take out an enemy tank. Okay, go… except, y’know, it will be one person individually putting them all in their positions instead of all of them doing it simultaneously.
I’m seeing now that this game can be much more than what it is, especially if we can give such commands as ‘Do not fire unless fired upon or instructed to fire.’ ‘Flash your beacon green if you see an enemy beyond 200m away, yellow if it’s 100-200m away, and red if it’s within 100m away.’ ‘Remain as motionless as possible, stay concealed at all costs.’
Or, for those who aren’t as sneakily-inclined as me, stay in line and shoot anything in an enemy uniform you see, no matter the distance, and we will hammer forth to the point to engage close-up. Or, ‘only engage within X-distance.’ Those Brothers in Arms games, I think they really got WWII tactics done right. You can individually command different troops or different groups of troops, instruct cover-fire, instruct to outright assault the enemy, etc. If you send your troops to a flanking position, they’ll be engaging the enemy the whole time every chance they get, GIVING AWAY THE FACT THEY’RE BEING FLANKED! They shouldn’t know until they pop out and start hitting them from where they have no cover!