Franchise's Collection of Battlefield 2142 Guides

Cover: The ins and outs (a guide to the basics of Battlefield 2142)

By far what makes the combat in 2142 so great is the large variety of cover found throughout the maps. This along with the numerous ways to attempt to counter your opponent’s positions always makes every game unique in its own way. I commonly refer to this game as a game of chess because of the numerous ways a player must manipulate the game to gain an advantage.

            Before we start going into details we must first define what cover is. Have you ever really thought about it? Most think of cover as something in the game that is put around flag areas and have no purpose, but to give protection. The truth is that cover is much broader then that, just about any object in the game can be cover in the right situation. Now that your forehead is creasing from trying to comprehend what this mysterious cover truly is, I will tell you. Cover is any object that helps protect a player from bullets, explosions, or any other form of harm your enemy is throwing at you in a given situation. Note the last word in that sentence, situation. Because the battle field is always changing so does the situation you are in. How does this apply to cover? Well think about it. If in one situation you have a barricade coming up to your chest, and the enemy is shooting at you from the opposite side of it; that barricade is providing good cover by blocking parts of your body from harm. A few moments go by and the situation changes and some sneaky player from the other side gets behind you. Although the barricade acted as cover against the first enemy situation you faced, it will no longer be cover in this situation. This is because the barricade is not between you and your enemy and it is not helping protect you from the incoming fire. That is what is meant by a combat “situation” and explains why something that is cover in one situation is not in another.

            Now that we both are on the same page with what cover is, you must be wondering, “How do I know when to use it?” Besides from the actual skill in shooting, the most important skill you can have is the ability to understand what is going on around you. The technical term for this is situational awareness, notice the word situation is once again used to describe the ever changing battlefield. The two words together will mean being aware of the ever changing battlefield around you. At all times you should constantly be asking yourself, “where is my enemy?” and “does he know where I am?” At the same time you must ask “where are my allies?” and “do they know where I am?” By gaining this knowledge you can then make a judgment call on what is the best possible thing you can do in your current situation.

            So you are in game and look around yourself and think “where is my enemy?”, but you don’t see anyone and start to panic about where they are. This is the next step of situational awareness is how to go about finding out information to answer those questions. The first step is to look around your starting location and see if you can answer any of those questions, if every thing is clear you move on to the next step. Check your map for any enemies that are spotted or for a UAV placed by the commander. Always remember if you do see an enemy spotted on your map, he may not be the only one. Next look and listen at your nearby allies to see if they are firing or getting fired at.

            Ok you have gone through the basic steps listed above for checking for enemies that are around you and could be a possible threat. Once everything is clear you will soon be moving to a new location, but wait! “Where will you go?” and “How will you get there without being made into Swiss cheese by the other team? They could be waiting around every corner.” If you are running in a squad, your new location will be where ever you squad leader tells you to go. If you are the squad leader or an incompetent fool who chooses not to join a squad, then there are a few things you need to think about before choosing a new destination. By using the situational awareness skills again, you need to think about how your team is doing right now in the game; “where is your enemy strong?”, “where are they weak?” Also, it is a good idea think about where your own team is strong and weak. From this information you need to make a decision on where the best place for you or your squad should be right then that will help your team the most. Remember not to take too long or there is a possibility of someone sneaking up on you, that and you are not helping your team at all standing in one place. Great, now you know where you are going, but you still do not know how you’re going to get there without getting shot up first.

            Moving to a new destination is never as easy as it sounds. There are always problems that get in the way or something that gets you sidetracked. So how do you do it? Well you do it one step at a time making decisions the whole way. The first decision to make is the route you are going to take. If you think about it, the worst thing that can happen when trying to move to a desired location is that an enemy spots you and starts to engage; especially if they are a superior force. To avoid that from happening, you need to use the second use of cover, concealment of movement. The idea behind concealment is that you are always moving where the enemy is not looking or can not see. Now let’s go back to right after you chose where your squad needs to be. The next step is to plan out a route with just the right amount of concealment for your situation. While doing this you must think about how important it is for you(r) squad to get to the new location you have chosen, and if running into enemies will be a problem. Let’s say your objective is to go get a flag behind the enemy’s closest base, and it is the utmost importance that your squad gets it for the team. This would be a situation where you would plan out a route where you will be able to engage the least enemies possible, even if it’s not the quickest way there. Now lets say you were attacking that same flag, but it was not that important that your team captured it. In this case you would want to plan out a route that will give your squad a lot of cover, but is used occasionally by the enemy. NEVER PLAN TO GO STRAIGHT AT THE ENEMY UNLESS YOU KNOW YOUR SQUAD IS POWERFUL ENOUGH TO HANDLE IT.

             Regardless of the route you took, you need to know how to move in a way that won’t get you ambushed from the possible enemies on the route. Think about a firefight and everything that gives you an advantage in it. For example would you rather be in the middle of the open or have some cover in front of you; obviously in the cover. While moving, constantly be thinking about where would give you even a slight advantage in the event of an attack and move from that position to the next. Spend the least amount of time in the open as possible. In this game you never want your firefights to be even, you always want to have the advantage in it. The other thing you have to do is be scanning for enemies. Imagine you are the enemy; think where you would be if you wanted to protect the route you are on from an incoming enemy. Ask yourself, where you would be if you were using it for transportation? These areas you think of should be the first areas you check for an enemy. When should you take the time to scan for enemies? The best time is when you are in those positions that will give you an advantage in a firefight. That way when you spot someone you can use that position. When you are moving to the next one along the route, you want to get there as fast as possible. Any hesitation to look around might let an enemy you don’t see get a good shot on you.

            Ok, you are moving cautiously down your planned out route and you stop briefly at a position of cover to get back some stamina and to scan for enemies. Then right down the path in front of you an enemy appears. You quickly lay down behind the cover you stopped at and have a split second to make a decision. What do you do? To decide this you must think of your own capabilities in combat, how engaging will affect your mission objective, and if concealment is an option. What this means is, first think if it will be a possibility if you can avoid the enemy all together. Then think how important it is to fill your objective (ex. capping a flag at the end of your route). Then think about how engaging this guy (or guys) will affect your objective. If your objective is really important you usually want to avoid confrontation of the enemy all together and use concealment. This may be as easy as hiding in a corner and letting them pass or it may involve quickly choosing a new route before the enemy notices you. You may be thinking, “Its one guy, even if the objective is important I can still take him out without worries.” The truth is, when the objective is important, the threat of dieing from the guy you engage in only half of what you have to worry about. Let’s think about this. If you do kill the guy coming up to your position and you continue on your route to your objective, “Where is that guy going to respawn?” Most people will want revenge and spawn back at the flag your heading at to kill you or your squad, and this time they know where you are and will try to get a position that will be easy to kill you. Also think about the noise and site factor that it gives off to any other enemies in the general area. If someone hears the gunfire and sees that their teammate just died, they will usually be able to figure out that you and your squad are still there. (addition by Franchise- Plus the enemy will see where their teammate was killed if they are a medic, giving away the proximity of your location)  Either one of these things could serve as a problem to your squad’s objective. Sometimes when you are trying to complete an important objective you are spotted or there is no other option then to engage the enemy, but the point is to think about what you are doing before you do it. On the other hand, if your squad is casually attacking a flag and you have the opportunity to attack an unsuspecting enemy, it is ok to engage. By doing this you are killing an enemy that you have an extreme advantage on (he does not know you are there) that otherwise may hurt another one of your teammates if left to live. Even in this situation be cautious of other near-by enemies that will react to your gun fire.

            Ok, you or your squad has successfully moved from your starting location and is now approaching a flag. What do you do? Approaching cap zones and capping is a very difficult maneuver that is something that takes a lot of practice. This is mostly because the best way to move to and cap a flag differs for just about every cap zone in the game. There are some key things that can lead you on your way to learning the best ways to cap. First you need to learn all the ways possible that there are to enter a cap zone. Pay special attention to any areas that have little cover and a player is forced to move through to get to the flag area. These areas are called choke points and understanding them is key to both attacking and defending. An example is a crack in a wall, a door way, or anything else that will fall under the criteria listed above.  Why are they important? The answer is that these are areas along a route to the flag that the attacker must go through to get to the flag. Still don’t get why they are important? The reason is that anyone defending at a choke point can without a doubt know that enemies will try to push through it. When they do the defender has the advantage of already being set up to fire or use explosives, while the enemy coming through the point has little cover and does not know exactly where the fire is coming from. So how do you deal with these choke points? The first thing that you should do is, if possible, ask the commander for a spot or UAV over the area.  This will tell you if the enemy is aware of your squad coming and if they have someone defending the choke point. If commander assistance is not available then try to gather info about possible enemies on the other side by doing what ever you can. Some common ways are either seeing if another squad or person gets resistance when moving through the point or by going to a location that you could spot enemies first. This could be a tower hill or what ever. Remember though, going to another location to scout out what lies beyond a choke point is time consuming, and if time is an issue may not be the best choice of action.

             Now on to moving through the choke point; this first technique is only possible if you have a squad with medics. One member of the squad can approach the point and slowly move through it trying to take down any enemies that they see. When the squad member is approaching the choke point he should first look through with as much of an angle as possible to first try to spot any enemies. If any are seen the squad member should try to first take him down using the corner of the choke point for as much cover as possible. Later on I will go into more detail on how to use things like corners as good or the best possible cover they can be. If the squad member did not notice any enemies they should start to move though. If there was an enemy defending the choke point that was not originally seen, they will most likely win a fight against your unsuspecting squad member in the choke point. Now that he has gone down your squad has a few options of how to deal with the enemy or enemies that are defending. The first thing they can do is keep reviving the down downed squad member until he kills the defenders or until the defenders run out a clip; then the remainder of the squad can easily take out the defender. The other option is to revive the squad member and have him fall back. Now the squad has the time to ask the squad member the location of the enemy if he has not spotted them already. If there is not a large force defending the choke point then you can try a tricky maneuver. You can have the squad try to push through and spread out as soon at they go through the choke point. If it is available, try to get to cover on the other side of the choke point. When spreading out do not be afraid to bunny hop or do what ever you can to make yourself a hard target to hit. The squad should stop spreading out on the other side of the choke point when they are far enough apart that they will not all by killed by one grenade. Now that they are spread out, with hopefully minimal casualties, the defending person will only be able to target one member of the squad at a time. This allows for your squad to all fire at him with their weapons and hopefully be able to take him out before the whole squad is dead. Then the medic can revive any of the squad members that go down. If there is too many enemies defending from to many angles at the choke point your squad may not be able to pull off this tactic. Another option is to either call/wait for reinforcement to the position or to find an alternative route, if possible, past the choke point.

            Now your squad has pushed through the choke point and entered the area near the flag. This is where the experience part comes into play in capping a flag. You now must keep in mind ever possible spawn point at a flag and think about where they are in relation to you and your squad. The first thing that should be done is a quick dash for any available cover always being aware of any enemies that could be spawning in. Now that you are in some cover you should fall back on the same thought process that you used when stopping in cover on your path to get this far. If you don’t remember it was to quickly try to spot any enemies and if there is none spot out the next piece of cover you will run to on you path to the flag. This is now a bit more tricky then it was on the path here because when you are near a flag you always need to keep in mind a enemy can be spawning at any of the spawn points at the flag. Now comes the hard part, actually getting in the cap zone and taking the flag. The reason that this is so difficult is if the enemy did not know you where there yet, they will when they see the flag going down. Also they know that you are there and that you must be very close to the actual flag to be capping it. Hmmm…so what do you do now? Well the most important thing while capping a flag is to make sure that you have lots of cover and that you constantly check for incoming enemies. The worst thing you can ever do is hide in a corner where you can’t see the enemy approaching. If you have a squad, the best thing to do is to set up a defense the covers all angles that the enemies can come from while using cover as best as you can to your advantage. If you are trying to cap the flag yourself, it is much harder. Not only does the flag go down much slower, but you also have to cover all areas around the flag by yourself. The best thing to do is pick out two areas out in a cap zone. The first one should have decent cover, but most importantly gives you a clear view of anywhere that enemies can be approaching. The second is a fall back point with even better cover that you can go to if you start to get overwhelmed at your first location. If an enemy is spotted do everything you can to keep him from getting too close because you want the flag to go down as fast as possible. If enemy does near the flag, it will slow the rate it is going down. When enemies are doing an all out sprint to you at the cap zone, make sure to get as many shots on them when they are in the open because if they get to cover at the flag it will be much harder to kill them there.

            Now that you have capped the flag, what do you do? Well this is, once again, where the situational awareness comes into play. As the SL, you need to quickly decide if it would be better if the squad defended the newly taken cap zone or if their presence is needed elsewhere on the battlefield. If you think that the squad is needed somewhere else, then you should go through the same processes you took to get where you are. (Planning a route, how to move, and just about everything you have read in this article so far) Now lets look at the other option, defending.  How do you know when it is a good time to defend? To tell you the truth this is one of the gray areas of the game, and it’s really up to the judgment of the SL. There are some times when it is obvious that your squad should defend though. For example, if you had just capped a flag and your entire team is at another flag and moving to your position. In the mean time the other team will want to try to get the flag you are holding back. This would be an ideal time to defend because you want to hold off the enemy from getting the flag until the rest of your team gets there. This brings me to the next quest commonly wondered, “what is the best way to defend?” The best way to defend is have the squad set up defensive positions to cover the flag. When picking positions, pretend you were the one attacking the flag. Think about where you would attack from and the worst place for an enemy to be. (Remember to keep in mind those choke points again; you can use those the same way the enemy can to defend easily.) This is where you want your squad members to be. If you have a squad, positions should be set up with members in groups of 2 with at least one medic. When your squad is covering one position, it is good to cover it from two angles so that the enemy will have to shoot in more than one direction to take down your defending squad.  When defending always keep in mind that you do not have to stay in your defensive positions, but it is not a good idea to move far if you don’t have to. For example if your defending the south entrance to a flag and not seeing any action, then you will want to move north to where there is a hoard of enemies trying to get through. Do what ever you have too, if it means defending the position. Defending does not always apply to Flags either. It is always a good idea to get into defensive positions if you see another squad moving to your position. Another good place for defending is if there is a channel or Choke point that is not at any Flag, but commonly used by the enemy.

            So far what you have read is a brief touch on what should go through your mind when playing the game. If you get anything out of it, get this; always have an objective and keep changing that objective based on how the game is being played. Now that you understand the mindset needed to win the game; I’m going to focus a little more about the combat part of the game. I define combat as anytime, you or an enemy, pursue each other in the intent to kill or damage each other. This does not mean both of you have to be pursuing each other. If only you are pursuing your enemy, and they are not aware of what is going on, it is still a combat situation. Keep in mind what combat is while you read the reminder of the article.

             A lot of people play the game and think that some people just have amazing skill and reaction time, and that is why they always win in combat. The truth is that skill is only a small part of the game. What makes up most of the game is positioning your self in a good spot and knowing what to expect; think of this as trying to always have the advantage on your enemy.  I briefly touched on this concept earlier in the article as a reason why it is always good to have cover near you and why it is good to see the enemy before they see you.

            The first thing I am going to go over is the element of surprise, and how to use it effectively. The element of surprise is when ever there is something that you are aware of that the enemy is not. Anything that falls under this category is an advantage in combat if you use it right. There are different levels of surprise that come into play in combat. At the highest level, you are aware of where the enemy is while they do not know where you are. This is a great advantage because as long as the enemy does not notice you, you can wait to the best time to fire at them. The next level of surprise is when the enemy knows you are near them, but not exactly where you are. This is still an advantage because you still can pick the best moment to start firing your weapon, but you have to be more cautious because the enemy will be expecting you to attack. In a squad if only one man is seen, that squad member can go into cover and hold that position. In the mean time the remainder of the squad is able to get to the enemy’s flank without them expecting the rest of the squad to be there. The element of surprise can even be applied when shooting out of cover. I will cover this more in the next section focusing on how to use cover to its fullest defensive ability. So the next question you have to ask is, “How do I gain this advantage of seeing the enemy before they see me?” This once again falls under the category of situational awareness. You must always be thinking about where your enemy will most likely be and where they will be focusing their attention on. Try approaching these areas from a way the enemy will not be focusing their attention on, but make sure to do this with caution. You never know when someone will shoot a glance in a different direction. When going into unknown territory, do it with caution. For example, if you do not know what is around a corner, then slowly swing it wide to check for enemies.  Never go strait into anything without checking for people hiding in corners or above you. If you use caution like this when going around the battlefield, you will be surprised how many enemies you see before they see you. Covering how to sneak up on enemies leads right into the next question you should ask yourself, “How do I prevent myself from being snuck up on?” Let’s go back to how you planned to sneak up on others. The idea was to make a guess on where the enemy would be most likely. If the enemy does the same, then don’t be where they think you will be. Just by taking a different route then everyone else you will have a good chance of not being snuck up on. Although severely limiting the amount of times you get snuck up on, a different route does not prevent it. Someone might just be happening to look the right way, at the right time and see you. To prevent this from happening, it is always a good idea to check your flanks when ever you get the chance. You never know if someone is sneaking up on you if you don’t constantly check. Lastly, the most important thing you can do to not get snuck up on is keep moving. After a firefight, you get spotted, or when kill someone do not just sit there. The only exception to this rule is if you are defending, but then the enemy would expect you to be there anyway. 99% of the time when someone gets snuck up on it is because they make their presence known to the enemy and just sit their the entire game.

            As promised I will talk a little more about how to position yourself in cover to get the most out of it. The thing I personally like about cover the most is even when the enemy knows you are behind it you still have the element of surprise. How? This is what I like to call the pop-up game. When you are ducking or laying behind cover to avoid fire, the enemy does not know when you will come back up. Although minute, this is an advantage that you have. In the same way when you come up and shoot, the enemy does not know when you will go back down. Another thing you can add to your surprise is, when you are down behind the cover you can shift your position to the left of right. The enemy most likely is resting their crosshairs on where you will stick up.  By doing this they will have to adjust their sites when you stick up, but you will still know exactly where they are. Knowing exactly when to pop up and when to go down takes practice, but when mastered it is a great asset. Another thing to remember when using cover is that you should show as little of yourself as possible when popping up. For example if you are using a corner for cover, only move over slightly so that you can only see enough of the enemy to get a good shot. This way you are only exposing part of your body, and you only have to slightly move to get back to where the corner is completely covering your body. When in cover you need to be aware that sometimes you need to jump out of it to live. For example if someone throws a frag grenade off a wall and it land next to you, you need to jump over you cover or fall back so it does not kill you. After it blows up you can get back into your position and carry on doing the pop-up game. The other thing to watch out for it AR-Rockets; if you think they are coming for your position you need to immediately either fall back or jump to the other side of the cover so that they do not kill you. The only bad thing about cover is that you are staying in one spot where enemies will start trying to flank you or group up to take you out. This is where you need to know when you are getting overwhelmed in cover because a squad or one person can only take so much. If the battle is getting too hard, don’t be afraid to fall back to another position where the enemy will have to move up to so they can kill you. This way you will have the advantage of being able to shoot the enemy while they are moving, without cover, up to kill you. When falling back it is sometimes a good idea to drop a grenade at your feet so that it will explode by the time the enemy will get there, it might also distract the enemy just long enough so that you can make it to your fall back position.

            Well we have talked about how to use cover, but what about attacking cover. Well to say the truth, there is no easy way to take someone out in cover unless you have the element of surprise and flank them  If you do not have that option, then it is best to get in into cover yourself where you can see them. At this point, I think the best way to get someone out of cover is to use the AR-rockets. These are especially good because you can zoom in on the cover to get the set distance. Then, by using the mouse wheel to increase the yards by 2, you have a distance directly over the enemy’s head. When you fire the rockets don’t aim at the cover but right over it, and then the splash from the rockets should take out any enemies that are behind the cover. . (Addition by Franchise- However, the enemy can do the same thing, and this gets back to Raiden’s comment about situational awareness.  Do not just sit behind cover if you have enemies that can use rockets on you.  In order to know this you should try to discern what kind of kit your enemy has, how many enemies there are and how they can affect your “cover”.  Also when using rockets, try to make it impossible for the enemy to shoot you.  This means instead of taking the perfect shot, but revealing yourself, use rockets as a way to kill an enemy without them being able to shoot you.)  Another good tool to use is a grenade. It takes a lot of practice to know how to throw a grenade well, but when you know how they help out a lot. If you get a good grenade next to the person in cover, one of two things can happen. The first is that they blow up from the grenade, and the second is that they react so they don’t get blown up. If they do react they will either jump over the cover giving you a chance to shoot them or fall back giving you a chance to run up to where their cover is. Another way to try and take out someone in cover is(once your in cover yourself) try to take them out using the pop up and down method. If you can see that enemy is reloading it is a good time to sprint up to their position and take them out before they get back up.

            The next thing that needs to be covered in the combat portion of the game is maintaining the accuracy of your main weapon. I am going to write this based on using an assault weapon because that is the class I use in game. A common mistake that people make when playing the game is that they do not use a good firing rate. Every gun had a different ideal firing rate and a different one for different situations. At a very close range you need to use a very fast firing rate because there is no worry about the bullets missing at this close. At medium and long ranges it gets more complicated. At a close range it is a bad idea to use the scope on a weapon, but at medium to long it is a good idea. At medium ranges, the best thing to use is a continuous short burst of fire of 3-5 shots each. At very long ranges it is best to use semi-auto and making every shot count (that or keep the gun in automatic and only fire 1 shot at a time). Another thing we must look at when firing the weapon is your body position. There are three possible positions the body can be in while playing the game: prone, crouch, and standing. When standing your gun’s deviation per shot (how inaccurate the gun gets as you fire multiple shots in a row) is worse then when you are prone or crouched, and best when you are prone. How mobile you are is the inverse to how accurate you are, standing being the best and prone being the worst. Unless you are in combat or expecting combat, it is best to stay in the standing position so that you can cover ground faster. When you are in combat, you should be in the crouch or prone position if it is possible. Of the two 99% of the time you will use crouch position to fire from. The reason is that when making the transition from standing to prone there is a delay and your cross hairs are pushed as far apart as they can go (the farther apart your crosshairs the more inaccurate your gun is at that moment.) When you go from standing to crouch, there is no delay and your cross hairs are not momentarily spread apart. The only time you can use prone effectively for shooting is where you are already in the prone position(and you cross hairs have came back together) when you see the enemy. Even if you are in the prone position and ready to shoot, I do not like to use it because of how long it takes to stand back up if you need to move. Where I use prone the most is for jumping over and diving into cover and going down behind cover. All in all, when you get into combat the best way to react is to either get to cover or crouch and fire at the rate that is best for the range you are firing at.

            This is just about every thing you need to know to understand the basics of the game. This might seem a bit complex now, but eventually it will become second nature to think about the stuff talked about in this article. As you advance you will want to learn more about squad work and organization. This can be found in another part of the primmer. I almost forgot the most important rule, have fun and be courteous to your teammates. If you help them, they will help you.

WNxRaiden©2005

Raiden's Cover Explained by Franchise with Pictures

Examples of cover

Example of Elevated Cover