America's Army: Special Forces/Basic Tactics/Hints

Low Honor = Underestimation
One misconception in America's Army is that honor directly correlates to skill. This is not true, for a variety of reasons. They include:
 * Multiple Accounts: Often players with high honor start additional accounts. Also, they may have accounts with various tags.  There are always accounts that were stolen too.
 * Players may actually play the game as intended despite the influx of rushers and stat mongers to the game. By this it is meant low honor players could focus their sessions on providing covering fire and teamplay rather than personal point gathering.
 * Picking the squad leader or fireteam leader weapon class on a successful team (which is already winning rounds in a lopsided manner) is a way to get high honor even if those players don't actually issue commands or just sit around and hide.
 * Cheating: A user who cheated may have high honor from cheating on public servers, but that doesn't mean they are going to be able to beat you in matches without their cheats.
 * Bought Accounts: You can buy high honor accounts via services like eBay.


 * Honor servers: Not all servers are honor servers so low honor players may have experience surpassing what their honor suggest.

So, remember, honor is not equal to skill. But you can trick those who don't believe by playing on a low honor account.

Check Your Fire... And Your Six
It is never good to shoot your own team. Once they're dead they can't cover you. So check your fire, and check your six (meaning behind you) too. The OPFOR can sneak up from behind.

Don't Stand in Front of Your Sniper
There is nothing more annoying than finding a great hiding spot, aiming your M-82, preparing to make a perfect headshot, and then seeing a member of your own team standing right in front of you or on top of you, blocking your shot and giving the OPFOR a chance to move. Don't do it. If you see a sniper from your own team, get away! By standing right by the sniper, you will draw attention to him and you will possibly block his shot.

Noise Is, Well, Noisy
Believe it or not, the OpFor have ears. This means you can be heard, yet not seen. Your goal is to be neither seen nor heard. So stay low, stay quiet. (PS from RandomSAW- wear headphones so you can hear OpFor trying to sneak up on you. The advantages of wearing headphones are endless)

Try to become familiar with the different sounds that different ground surfaces make. Concrete sounds different than carpet (i.e. Weapons Cache). Dirt sounds different than wood (i.e. Insurgent Camp). By noticing these differences you can more accurately pinpoint where an OPFOR might be. In Weapons Cache, for instance, the sound of feet on carpet almost certainly means that the OPFOR is somewhere on the second floor. Combined with directional sound, this method allows you to determine where the OPFOR is with considerable accuracy. -os-pwned

Love Your Neighbor As Yourself
Be sure to respect your teammates, especially those around you. Teamwork is key. If someone needs an extra grenade, or a smoke thrown, help them out. If you don't, they may be reluctant to help YOU later.

Pendragon's Command School

The Gun Fires THAT Way, Soldier
Know your weapon. Remember that spamming a door with the M4 against a RPKer isn't going to work well. You have 30 bullets - they have 200 (what looks like an RPK to you is a SAW for the enemy). And remember there is a limit to how far a grenade can be thrown.

Thou Shall Not Cheat
If you are cheating, stop reading here and quit playing this game. Cheaters will make a game no longer fun. If you still want to game, get a Game Boy, that way there's no way for you to cheat.

Use Thy Sight
Use Your sights/scope when ever possible. You will be amazed how many more kills you get by taking the extra second to bring up your sights. But, scoping in close combat situations is risky, as you lose precious seconds going into zoom and remaining. Know when you should or should not scope in.

Communication Is Key To Teamwork
Even if you never use any of the more sophisticated methods of communications, such as the several voice communications programs, or hand signals, there are a few simple things to keep in mind that will do wonders for helping your team achieve its objectives.

Report your position frequently. This action is bound the 'U' key by default. Binding the "Report In" action to a convenient button, such as the middle mouse button will make it easier to report, and safer since you're finger isn't far from the fire button. A good rule of thumb for the frequency of reports is to report whenever you enter a new area. At the very least your teammates know where you've been killed, which can be a very important piece of information.

After making reporting in a habit, another useful habit to acquire is reporting the location and movement of enemy forces unless you have a sure kill. Report the enemy if you're under fire and can reach cover. Someone else may be able to flank the enemy. Reporting enemy locations when not under fire is recommended in several situations when firing on them could be disadvantageous. A short list of sample situations include, but is not limited to: It can be difficult to type and play, but when you're not under fire is the perfect time.
 * Being in a concealed locations and not wanting to be revealed by shooting
 * Spotting an enemy force that has the advantage of numbers.
 * Spotting an enemy when you are unable to assure a kill due to your health or distance.
 * Spotting an enemy on the run that you cannot catch or shoot.

For the Squad Leader, setting objectives can help coordination immensely. If the other players are working as a team you can overwhelm the enemy by approaching a single objective from several ways. By default, setting objectives is bound to the 'O' key. After pressing the 'O' key, press the letter for the objective as listed on the HUD.

Squad Leader and Team Leaders can INCREASE a rifleman or snipers accuracy by being in proximity of the person. So if you are assigned to Team Bravo or Charlie Sniper Team Leader... STICK with the sniper and help him to spot using your Binoculars. (Give him a frag as well... he needs it... press 2 for grenade and backspace to discard the nade in hand)

CQB Movement Down Corridors... Yes, the one-two movement tactic works... keep to the SIDE of the corridor as the CENTRE is certain death when you get spotted... CROUCH/PRONE and SIGHTS ON and COVER your Mates while your team mate runs pass you. Alternate cover and running. And never shoot over your friend's head.

Pendragon's Communication School Pendragon's Command School

Rolling Grenades!
Rolling Grenades. In case you didn't know already, if you have a flashbang, grenade, smoke or any other type of thrown grenade, you can roll it. All you have to do is press your Mode Switch Button (the one you use to make your M16 burst and M4 full auto). Well now you know there is a rolling feature, but why would you even bother? Well here's why.

Flashbangs
There is already a great post about the flashbangs and how to use them, but I'm going to stick specifically to rolling the flash. ** Just a quick note, don't ever, ever EVER cook a flash when rolling **. Rolling flashbangs creates a huge advantage when you are standing next to the door you want to enter. Instead of throwing the flash and having it bounce to a corner or behind an object where its effects are diminished, by rolling the grenade at the foot of the door (which is where that sneaky OPFOR is looking.. I promise!) it will stay in the doorway and explode there instead of in a stupid corner where nothing happens. Also, when rolling a flash you really can't see it when it goes into the room because it is so close to the floor, giving the OPFOR a less time to react and turn away from it.

Frag Grenades
Rolling frag grenades helps a lot when trying to clear a room, because they tend to do what the flashbangs do, go hide in a corner. When rolling a frag grenade, try to aim for the middle of the room or structure you are clearing. (It's best to have 2 people doing this, 1 rolls a flash and quickly gets ready to enter, the other cooks off a grenade and rolls it in, and the flasher moves in and clears. Repeat this process several times.) Also, when frags are cooked off in the rolling process, cook them off a little bit shorter than you usually would, because rolling takes a hair more time than throwing.

[edit]Furthermore, when you roll a frag grenade you do not shout "Frag Out!" like you do when you throw a grenade normally. This decreases the likelihood that the OPFOR will know the 'nade is coming and you'll catch him by surprise. -os-pwned

Smoke Grenades
Smoke grenades are probably the most useful to roll because of the fact that usually they don't land where you want the smoke (Bridge Crossing is a great example). Instead of whipping that smoke where it might miss your intended target, roll the grenade. It will land really close to where you want unless for some reason you get shot in the process of rolling it .. Rolling smoke is a very effective way to smoke a doorway, because when the smoke is thrown to the doorway, it tends to miss. You know what I'm talking about...

Thermite Grenades
Ah yes... That wonderful CSAR mission. You secure the chopper, and throw your thermite into it and it.. ricochets back at you, hits you, misses the Blackhawk and kills you in a matter of 4 seconds... Double the Humility. Well, for all of those people who have ever missed the Blackhawk, This is for you. By rolling a thermite into the Blackhawk, it won't ever, EVER, EVER come out. Ever. It stays and does its job. Otherwise, I don't recommend wasting your thermite on an OPFOR because you might need it later!

Ok. Well I hope this helps some of you guys with your room clearing. Hooah!

Kardon45-- I hope to see you men on the battlefield

Links to General Tactics and Beneficial Behaviors
The content from the following links could be incorporated if permission is granted by the authors.


 * New Guy's Guide to Common Traits and Skills
 * RodeoX's Americas Army Operations Basic Training (No longer maintained)
 * Pendragon's US Weapons School
 * Pendragon's Target ID School