[GW2] Guildmaster and Commander

The most recent blog post by Jordan Massey has sparked off all sorts of fantastically ostentatious thoughts in my head. Thoughts of server-wide renowned squad commanders, whose presence on the battlefield is not only great boost to morale of his or her troops, but also a hammer with which to strike fear into the hearts of opposing forces.

Squads are dynamic groups of individuals or parties, lead by a single individual: the squad commander. This individual can direct their squad through placing indicators on the map to indicate a plan of action such as "Rally", "Attack" or "Bring Supply", or they can interact with the whole squad through their own personal chat channel. This should allow a good commander to provide his or her team with quick and clear instructions, allowing them to outflank and overwhelm less organised opponents.

 

Becoming an effective commander will obviously take time, the player will first have to learn the mechanics, the maps, the choke points and secret tunnels - that's the easy part. Then they must earn the respect of their fellow players. It's all very well and good recruiting 200 people to your squad and shouting at them down the chat channel - but getting them to listen to your commands is a very different matter. That's where I'm hoping server pride and community will come into it, as players become more and more well known in the WvW and wider PvP (and PvE) scene, I'm hoping that outstanding commanders will begin to emerge from the pack.These individuals will prove their talent through ruthless domination of their opponents: those with tactical minds, those who can predict the actions of their enemies and effectively manage the resources they have at their disposal to either repel the attack, or to orchestrate an invasion of their own.

PS. of course there is the other possibility where, after 3 months, everyone has the ability to be a commander and runs around with their pants pulled up as high as they can stretch, ordering people about and spamming map signals.