Ok I'll admit it. On more than one occasion I've had to look up which squad I was leading when the commander started baking squad specific orders...

A few that come to mind - 1. When captured point ask all teams bar one to stay until garrison is built + ask support for box. 2. Depending on flow of game 1, 2 or 3 defensive units stay on defensive point. 3. Ask defensive units to fan out OP to all sides of stronghold for a radar. 4. Utilisation of friendly zone territory placement of garrisons, if you lose a stronghold you don't lose these defensive garrisons + OPs. 5. If you have the middle territory and you are on in the last 15mins all units stay on point bar one. 6. Simple but useful one - in type chat + voice ask for nodes to be built to make it funny or well received (for example say pretty please). Also ask anyone who is going to be a rifleman to come in as support and work with unit leader. 7. Generally thinking like the enemy where is the closest most covered route to approach your stronghold and have a defensive presence. 8. Ask defensive units to use their ears for planes and look to the sky when alerted. 9. Generally try to be supportive to everyone, if someone is being an arsehole go to the defense of the person especially those who have good intentions but may not have the experience. 10. Always explain that a 1-4 lose isn't really a lose it's a draw in reality (in war holding off the enemy until support comes is ridiculously important). Make sure you defend with passion and don't give up. Make fighting the last yard interesting to them. 11. The timing of airhead + strafing run (I can't master that yet).

Tip 11: Don't build garrissons in the strong point. Where go enemies and artys first, exactly on the strong point.

I always give positive vibes to defensive squads throughout the match and tell teams to commend them

Played commander reluctantly tonight. Soviet commander playing defense on offensive (worst commander loadout IMO). I got my highest kill game ever 67-10 using mosly katyushas, had one SL who kept calling and marking. Dropped one Katyusha strike towards the end of the match that must have netted me 20 kills. We held out the last point and won the game. I earned an entire level of xp in one match. It was nutty.

Glad to see you back at the HLL, hope you recovered most of the HDs; good tips, i didn't knew that the reinforce order ould be placed on any of the active sectors instead directly on the strong point.

I seen a tip about supply drops that i have yet to do, but i will; supply drop on top of buildings if you can. Enemies cant reach them, but they will be in range to build (provided its not a very tall one). Also, on night maps or in thick fog, it's a commanders playground. One can airhead and supply all day with minimal consequence. The only give away is the sound, which it takes a pretty aware player to realize it, and an even greater one to find it. Cheers!

I began commanding on a whim when no one else would do it because we were getting beaten bad without one, and also because more experienced players were willing to teach me. I'd hardly played Squad Lead and I'd never watched any Commander tutorials, all I had to go on was my observations of what a good Commander and SL do, and furthermore I had a great team of communicative players who knew what they all needed to do without direct orders and micromanagement. Nodes were up, we had friendly arty, recon was on enemy arty, everyone was talking to one another and collaborating. However as I've played more as Commander, those wonder games have been the diamond in the rough, and my lack of confidence and experience really shines. I've been recalling my prior Commander plays as I've watched your vids and TL Crane's, and though I have a lot to learn I'm not horrible, its just a lack of confidence to give orders and the experience which grants that. I am a good team player, I like being an SL to a good commander, but I need to be an actual Commander. However because I lack experience I can freeze sometimes, I am afraid to give commands and be commanding because I don't think I'm experienced enough and have no right to do so. I think I might try to be more on top of things the next few commander stints. Though man, it fucking sucks when you actually try to tell people to do shit but they just stare at you with that fluoride stare and say nothing. Then you realize why no one is commander.

Here's my tip: as the commander, your #1 job is to put up garrisons. Ideally you should have no fewer than three surrounding your defense objective, but NOT ON the objective, plus at least one somewhere in the previous sector. They act as an early warning indicator of the direction of enemy attack, and when the first one goes down -- and it will -- you're still left with more than one option for spawning, making it significantly harder for the enemy to back you into a corner. For attacking garrisons, keep them well away from the objective you're attacking so your team can actually spawn on them. Attacking garrisons get locked out if they're within 100m of the enemy. Don't spend the entire game looking at a map, drive a supply truck around and drop as many supplies as you can, anywhere you can.

Thanks for these videos! Played my first couple of games as commander, it's very stressful as a noob not knowing the tactics and map knowledge to be successful. All of these tips give me a bit more confidence to keep trying :)

Cmdr tip: When possible, drop supplies in areas inaccessible to infantry, but close enough to build garrisons from (areas that have diagonal lines textured over them). Best example of this is D4 in SMDM, beside E4 'gardens') Overall tip; Each class of plane call-in has a unique sound as it flies over. Getting to know instinctively what an airhead sounds like and calling it out is crucial to not losing.

I never knew you could hide from reconplanes.

Great videos as always. One tip I utilize every time commanding relates to the Team Chat. For important information, I will type out any orders & tactical recommendations. This helps circumvent potential communication issues caused at the SL level (no Squad lead, no mics, etc). It also ensures the entire team is cognizant of any shifts in the gameplay.

Fun tip I recently learned: on PC, hit T to see your squad roster, their names, role, etc. Also, activate team chat with C - the letter you see is your squad. J - Jig, L - Love. Etc. Often its enough just to say J squad

In node placement as a engineer I like to drive out to a really remote place the border of the ,map that also has a building to hide it away. Like on remargen map on the German side drive to the far right out towards the first 2 squares that is a really good spot.

Glad you're back. Always great videos.

Always use the SQUAD name followed by the PLAYER name. As many SLs do not pay attention to their squad names. FYI

Excellent tips and info! Nice easter egg where you get a achievement (I spy I spy with my little eyes!)

I would really love if the commander has a list of squads and names in their hud like a SL has of their own squad.

Please ignore if you already know. If you don't, did you know that your video got linked in Hell Let Loose's recent news blog on Steam?

Much appreciated, great video

Awesome man... Thanks for the tips

Great tips!

Great vid

Excellent video

Great video

Biggest tip is to build godamn garrisons! If you, as commander, are constantly building backup garrisons for your inactive defensive points, you're already better than 90% of commanders. Everything else is fluff

Good info

I got a one hour banned for abuse because I didn't know where they wanted me to drop a resupply drop he kept saying drop it on the Southside of the map I don't even know where that was

Did my first d day invasion as commander and man was it an experience but lost at the last point. Each point was try hard and the second to last point was taken with seconds left. That was the first time i felt the suck of this game. Felt like being a rookie QB and losing the big game by a yard ugggh but im hooked now 😂😂so much fun. Still pretty new

People never know their squad names

This is completely wrong. Reinforce ONLY works in the strongpoint. Wouldnt make videos if you dont know the basics.