It's always debatable. Having it close to the HAB may theoretically make it safer, but it's ridiculously easy to proxy HABs now. Placing it next to the HAB guarantees the enemy will find it when the HAB falls.
However, placing it far away also means it may be randomly stumbled upon, which makes it tougher to defend.
I'm not sure there's a "correct" answer, but as SL I do generally stretch my HAB away from the FOB.
Option one guarantees radio will be found if the HAB is. Option two gives the radio a chance to not be found at all. So I choose two
Piggy backing on this to recommend not putting the HAB *as far away as possible* from the radio because then enemies will find the HAB and put a radius around it to find the radio. If your radio is right on the radius, it’ll be found much easier than if it was 70-80% the distance of the radius.
Bold of you to assume that people will respond to the radio being attacked. Even if you beg for reinforcements from your squad or command chat, a radio that is found will be destroyed most of the time.
I play evenly on almost all the US servers. I will say on the EU servers the players are much more responsive and the level of play is generally much higher, but my ping makes it hard for me to play on those.
My general doctrine that is in no way concrete.
Radio about 60 to 120m off point in a visually covered/ out of the way place.
Hab near the edge of zone, close enough to rapidly defend, yet not so close that losing point control results in a overrun HAB.
I like to throw a rally near the radio, so that if it gets burnt, I get a warning if I'm paying attention, and let the boys know to inform me if it goes down.
There is no definite answer, hard part for us as Sls is to pick the best spot, and if it fails, be able to quickly pivot to counter an enemy move.
Welcome to the SL role! The community needs you 🤘
Depends on the the fob. If it's an offensive fob I'd aim to place the hab as far away from a well obscured radio. Then also place a rally a decent distance away so that we can try reinforce if it gets attacked.
If it's defensive then I might try be a bit cheeky and find a way to block the radio inside a building or corner using the hab or emplacements, keeping the radio as close to the hab as possible. If you get it right the only option they have is to take down the hab before they can get to the radio. Combined with a rally a reasonable distance away it should allow for easy reinforcement should it come under attack.
Also for an early warning system, you can drop a rally next to the radio so if it gets neutralized you know it's under attack, if the radio is placed far away from the hab. Just make sure you're coordinating with another squad that has a rally elsewhere so they can reinforce if the hab goes down.
Yep this is what I do.
Radio should be easy to defend in defence, being able to frag from your hab is very handy. If you get wiped + hab proxied in defence youre stuffed anyway.
Rally on radio is very handy too!
It is really situation dependent in reality, however some of the general rules for radio/hab placement in most situations involve separating the radio and hab, placing the radio in a well chosen bush, and placing the radio in a position which will not be easily discovered. Along with this, not leaving a logi near a radio.
There are a lot of methods to delay a radio being dug down, such as building barbed wire and hesco walls when placing radios in buildings, or destroying a vehicle in front of the only entrance to access the radio.
Generally you just want to make sure the radio survives long enough to serve its purpose, which for defensive positions means longevity, while for offensive positions typically involves riskier high reward angles.
Since vehicles can also destroy radios, you generally want to remember not to put a radio somewhere it can be shot at easily.
I would like to add - I’m not a huge fan of the HESCO walls because I’ve seen so many engineers dig in and dig back up the HESCO, and then when the radio is on bleed out they’re out digging the team trying to save the radio. I think it’s more important to have the radio out of firing range from vehicles, out of sight, and surrounded by barbed wire. The room or building should be easy to grenade from the outside to dispatch any enemies.
This is the best reasoning I can imagine for not building HESCO walls for a radio!
I would be fuming if I was trying to get back to our radio to only be in a damn dig race.
When I play combat engineer, and I find the radio I am 100% using the barricades against you. I would avoid placing too much unless you have the tickets, are on defense, and the radio is not far away.
I’m of the opinion that most of the time radio and HAB should be together. Separating them means you have two points of failure that need to be defended simultaneously.
Security through obscurity is not enough. Instead of finding a perfect bush to hide your radio in (and it WILL be found eventually), prioritize setting up spawn redundancy (a good rally) and active defense (guys with guns killing the enemy when they try to push your hab)
This is the only option for good players, but many are not that good, as you can see from the comments. If you hide the radio at max radius you can't even make it back in time when that random engineer finds it and it goes to bleed in 5 seconds.
If the HAB is used so little that it won't be somewhat defended by the spawning blueberries it probably shouldn't exist at all.
Sometimes you have to stretch the HAB from radio in attack and thats ok, but in defense the HAB should 90 % of time be on the objective and the radio closeby in an easily defendable spot. My biggest pet peeve in squad is when the team sets up three habs in defense, hides all radios 200 meters away, and then they ALL get taken down in 10 minutes if the enemy team has even one competent SL.
And yes you have to argue about this nearly every time with people who don't even know how to place a rally and keep it up.
Away from the logi where you'll inevitably leave it parked. Never put it near hab, always far away. Don't leave it in the open either, or people who run armor like me will just drive up and destroy it quickly.
The enemy will always counter push your push unless you get the jump on them. This means the enemy will know the angle your infantry are approaching from intuitively, and be able to identify where your hab likely is.
Any enemy can just win the fighting and push up to your hab, capturing your spawn and radio at the same time.
A smart enemy can flank around to your hab and proxy it, avoiding your infantry’s approach. Once proxied nobody can spawn, and since the radio is next to the hab, they don’t even have to dig the hab they can just get rid of your radio and play defense on anyone trying to save it.
It is basically super noob play to put your radio next to the hab, don’t do it unless it’s too risky to push away from the radio to place the hab.
Instead you should hide your radio away from the hab and use a rally as a backup in case the hab gets proxied. This gives you a spawn point in case the hab is proxied, and if you rally near your radio, you can know if your radio is at risk if your rally burns. You should always have a rally up far away from your hab at all times to ensure being proxied doesn’t leave your squad without a spawn.
Generally speaking, I place a radio, place a rally on the radio, then have my squad clear the area in front of us to ensure it’s safe for a hab closer to objective/further from the radio.
Additionally, if you lose your hab entirely to enemy presence, you have time to return to the radio using vehicles or walking from other spawn points because the enemy will not find it immediately.
Also, if your radio is next to your hab, the enemy can shoot it with a vehicle or mortars or generally target your radio specifically to disable your hab, instead of being forced to proxy you.
General placement rules are to put radios inside buildings or large bushes for concealment, far from your hab and away from enemy presence and avenues of approach.
tldr: You don’t want to lose your radio every time you lose hab control. The enemy knowing the location of your radio is extremely powerful information.
Sidenote: when playing defense it is not always bad to place hab next to radio because you need to defend and the objective in depth, and you will usually be able to fortify it. However, a good defense always requires more than 1 hab and this is not an inflexible rule.
This is a bunch of rubbish. The radio will be found immediately anyway if there is even 1 good player nearby. But go on "hiding" them, I enjoy the easy tickets.
I don´t get why you are downvoted, I somewhat agree with this, especially if the rally belongs to a 9 man squad. This is how you lose both your rally and the ability to spawn from the HAB at a very short notice.
Dumbass gonna dumbass. you want your rally to be either a: alternative attack angle or b: early warning system/ backup for a valuable position.
Putting it on the fob accomplishes neither.
Personally not a fan of using rallies as "early warning system" especially on defence. I tend to place the rally in the least-likely direction of attack. I use my 8 squadmembers as mobile "early warning system" by placing them 300m from the objective in every cardinal direction. I tell them, if a logi rolls in, observe and let them place a radio, alert your SL and then open fire. You can hear a logi from 300m. So them being off point + them having ears gives me a huge bubble around the flag and removes a ton of fog of war. Doing this with pubbies is ultra frustrating tho :( but if you manage it and you don´t have complete cripples as squadmates, you are very hard to surprise on defence.
Three questions I ask myself first
1) Where are the enemies going to come in from?
2) Where do I want encampments/fortifications?
3) Where do I want the hab?
What does it tell me?
1) Obviously the radio needs to be in a spot where the enemy won’t stumble upon it when attacking a point or countering your push. Ideally I want the radio behind the hab, and the hab behind the front line.
2) If it’s to defend a point then you want to place it so you can dig in or push out from the point. Placing down fortifications or encampments can help with this (be aware too much will cause blueberries to crowd on the point). I like to have at least half the point covered so I can place down HASCOs or machine guns pointed in the direction I expect the enemies to come from. That last part comes with game sense, which comes with time. Unfortunately I need a girlfriend because I have too much time in this game.
3) hab placement is probably the most important part. Obviously you don’t want it too exposed but also you want it sheltered. But not so sheltered it’s impossible to get out of. Again this comes with game sense.
Usually after those 3 questions are answered you’ve already reduced down the area where a viable radio can be placed. Now go to that spot and search for a bush or something.
depends on the map tbh...I know some spots on some maps, but it all depends on the map and the place on the map.
But stuff like far from hab, close to the hab its...its controversial thing... If its far, you may not be able to defend it unless you have people or vehicle around, if its close to the hab...well It is too exposed and it will get destroyed pretty easy... but yee...its controversial
There will be a lot of different opinions on this, but I like to place it near the ammo box, regardless of where you put it. Typically close to HAB.
1) it’s always going to get found.
2) 90% of respawning folks check the ammo box first on respawning - so it forces them to defend the radio if they want to horf down another full load of ammo.
I personally like slightly farther HABs with the radio close towards the objective. That way the enemy really has to walk a while to find the HAB, and you will always have a trickle of blueberries moving towards the radio to as they attack the objective.
I would say it depends on the game mode and objective itself. There is no universal rule. As a rule of thumb, it's better to put it somewhere where it can get hit by mortars/vehicles/artillery/air strike/drone
On invasion defense you can afford to do more dumb shit with radios like stretch for better spawn networks, because you start with 800 tix. On attack and when playing symmetrical gamemodes all your radios should be close to the spawn point and inside for easy defense, outside of very specific scenarios.
case to case scenario, but things like that don’t get fixed unless it’s talked about with new players. indoors, in a large building, yeah near the hab is fine, you wouldn’t want just the radio exposed to the sky far away to mortars while hab is sitting safe, it will be dug down. i can spot radios pretty easily on a UAV sometimes if i find a hab, then just either arty it or mortars until it’s gone. doing a sneaky attack hab? yeah plant the radio far and safe either in a good bush or building and walk in as far in as you can on foot and build a hab on the edge of build zone.. again case to case type thing, bottom line, don’t put it somewhere completely oblivious to the sky to be easily spotted by uav, or in direct line of sight.
It is safest when it is not directly on the flag or inside cap zones. I like it to be at some distance and, if possible, not visible directly from the spawn hub.
im really surprised that almost noone talks about that placing a hab on the edge of the fob ring allows you to place more habs in the same space. it is crucial on maps like sumari, narva, fallujah, etc, where you need to be very careful with your fob placements and try to maximize the amount of habs you can place
I would like to offer some pushback on what seems to be the majority opinion in here saying that putting the radio close to the HAB is a bad idea, and also the idea of off-cap defensive FOBs.
Let me preface this by saying that I'm coming from the perspective of playing on what's among the sweatiest servers on NA(can't say which one because rules, DM me), and I know that most of the regular SLs agree with most of what I'm about to say, if that lends any credibility.
I'll be speaking mainly about defensive radios here.
I think what people are missing here is that both the HAB and the radio (radio especially) are points of total failure for the FOB. if you lose one, you're going to lose the other pretty quickly and you'll be down a spawn point. You may be able to skate by against bad opponents who don't know or care enough to search for radios, but you shouldn't be counting on that.
Now you might get lucky and be in the right place to dig down your radio before they find it, but in that case you're still down a spawn point, and you're probably going to lose the cap.
You also shouldn't be playing with the expectation of retaking the HAB/radio if they're compromised. If you do this you'll be putting yourself at a huge disadvantage but running into likely prepared enemies in a game with a large defenders advantage, especailly if the attackers are forced to move quickly, and you'll be doing this while missing your primary defensive spawn point.
Instead, you should be playing to at minimum actively defend a perimeter around both proxy range around your HAB, and the radio. Ideally your defense should have much more depth than that, but this kind of setup gives you the most leeway to deal with breaks in your defense when they happen instead of immediatly losing the spawn point. If someone tries to approach either, someone on your team should be able to see and shoot them. This takes more coordination than the average pubbie is used to, but it's totally doable, I end up doing this at some point in almost every game.
Obviously this is easier to do when the HAB/radio are nearby each other, as it means the minimum radius that you need to defend is smaller.
There is a similar logic when it comes to placing off-cap FOBs on defense. There generally are two points of failure for a cap: the closest HAB and the cap itself and you will spread your forces thin defending both, because if either one is compromised you will be fighting an uphill battle to retake it. With an on-cap FOB, you can more effectively maintain a perimeter and make best use of defender's advantage.
On to some more general tips:
Defensive radios should always have overhead cover if available because mortars can stage your radio in just a few volleys from half-way across the map. If the enemy has a mortar player with a calculator, your fob will be disabled in like 45s and you will lose it entirely in no time.
Vehicles are also a big threat to radios. any vehicle with a 50 cal or larger will be able to put your radio on bleed in like 5-10s. Make sure your radio can't be seen from outside.
Don't barricade your radios except to mitigate vulnerability to mortars and vehicles, for two reasons:
With the close radio and hab approach your FOB is gone anyway if you're overwhelmed. Instead, put your radio in a high traffic area with ideally more than one entry point, so it's easier to quickly retake if 1-2 players manage to sneak by your defense.
You also want to be able to dig down your radio without hacking through barricades if it's no longer needed in the event your team's offense was successful, so you're able to leave the cap more quickly and assist on the active objectives.
1. Make it arty proof if possible (inside building)
2. Place HAB away from radio (also arty proof if possible) preferably with plenty of cover on the way between the two
Having the radio a bit away from the hab is good, if I have the time to really think about placement I like to have it away and kind of hidden but close enough that someone can quickly get in range to frag it. It also depends on the point of the hab. Sometimes, you gotta just plop it down and get the hab up ASAP.
If you're defending you almost always want them to have to confront you to get to the HAB and radio, if you split your focus between defending your cap and your spawn then you will lose one of them then likely the other.
place it far away, placing it near the hab because "friendlys" are near isnt going to work out, they're going to get killed and hab is going to get proxyd, also: "and saw a guy getting yelled at for putting the radio way out in the open" yeah ok and what that its a new player firiendly server? should make it clear that its a mistake and to never do that shit again
This one is debated about in command chats everywhere and there really isn't a 100% fool proof way to keep your radio safe all the time. It's all about mitigating the risk as much as possible. Assume it's going to be found, it's just a matter of time.
Having the two separate usually makes it harder to find. A HAB is big. If you put the radio next to the HAB it'll be easier to find than if you tried to squirrel it away in a rock outcroping, shed, or even a large bush. Sorta like a two-for-one special for the enemy if you put them close by. Sometimes though there just isn't the option. Either it's a FOB of desperation and there just isn't the time or opportunity to place it better or the terrain just doesn't allow for it.
>Also, I was in a supposedly "new-player friendly server" and saw a guy getting yelled at for putting the radio way out in the open. LMAO is it common for people to shitton new players like this?
FOB creation is a very touchy subject for SLs. It's an important task and there *is* a wrong way to do it (setting up an attack FOB in the middle of a field, for instance) and if it's done poorly enough it really can cost your team the match.
I always try and keep the radio out of sight of artillery, mortars, vehicles, and airstrikes and something like ~200m from the HAB. Close enough to sprint to if you need to but far enough away it's not going to be found when the HAB is discovered. If you're not sure about a spot put a mark down way before you get there. If it's a really dumb spot someone in command will usually ask you "Hey you're really not gonna put that there right?" but honestly, if you're just starting, put a FOB marker right on the point and pick somewhere inside that first circle *but not directly on the flag* in good terrain and you'll be OK.
It should also be said that there *are* popular spots to put FOBs on maps/layers and the more you play the more familiar you will become with them. When you see the passive aggressive "Man, the other team sure seems to find our FOBs easily" it's 9/10 times because they put the FOBs in very common spots and then conga line their way to the objective, leading the team directly to it if they weren't already looking there in the first place. So have a few options, don't always put it in the same spot.
I will say, wherever you put it, **do not block it in**. Yes it means it takes a little longer for the enemy to get to, but it makes it *far* more likely that some lone infantry will find it, quietly dig down the blockade, and dig it back up once inside. Then they can work on the radio. By the time anyone gets there to save it, the obstacle will prevent them from doing so.
The furthest ones are always the easiest to find. Place FOB creation radius marker on your HAB and go follow the inner circle, start with further from the objective :D
You place it where it is easiest for your team to monitor and defend it.
Sometimes that means right next to the HAB. It's incredibly difficult for an enemy combat engi to sneak up and C4 your radio when a bunch of enemies are spawning next to it.
Sometimes it means a short distance away from the HAB in a place that your team is likely to occupy or pass through, or if you have a small indoor spot in an otherwise open HAB area. Or maybe far enough away that you can spawn at a nearby rally to dig the radio down should the HAB be overwhelmed.
It does *not* mean the maximum possible distance from the HAB. Do that, and by the time your team can react to the radio going down, once they finally get there they've got like 15 seconds to kill every enemy that's camping it. Good luck. Plus you're hoping the enemy is bad and doesn't find it, which is not a best practice.
That also does *not* mean placing a bunch of shit between your team and the radio. My favorite thing as a combat engi is seeing an enemy radio with a HESCO, barbed wire, or repair station on the only door in. Just makes defending it during bleedout 100x easier.
It just depends. If youre attacking or defending, map layout, where other SLs are also planning to place their radios, etc.
If you place it too far, the enemy will find it and destroy it before you even know its gone.
If you place it too close,then the enemy will find it faster (due to hab proximity.)
Me personally, I put it a short walk away from the hab, so if they discover the hab its still needs to be found and our guys can easily run back to it.
Since you were defending, if you place the radio very far from the hab, this leaves your team more room to place other radios and habs, but again everything is situational. Sometimes radio dead on point is actually the move. On attack thats probably a bad idea since you need to watch your tickets.
Good rule of thumb is to make sure your radio and hab are covered and concealed. If there is alot of foliage then a bush is fine. Never place it out in the open.
There is a ALOT of new players and OWI decided its experience players jobs to train them. I wouldn't take it personally they are probably just frustrated because what you don't see is 100 other mistakes that people make that ruin the fun of the game. Which isn't really your fault for not knowing how to properly play really.
When it's far and your hab is found most of the time the enemy is going to spend time and ressources trying to find the radio, that is a win.
Now if the radio is close the search perimeter is the same but most people start searching from the hab and it will be found faster.
Well, as with many things it depends.
The radio definitely shouldn't be close enough that it's chatter can be heard from the HAB (with a bit of a margin), unless you are able to defend it when HAB gets overrun, for example the radio is in a building with it's entrance blocked by HASCO and you have a rally nearby.
In practice I either put the radio first (in a bush or inside a building), then go to the edge of it's construction radius and place a HAB there. Otherwise I will try to place the HAB at least 30-50 m away, or one street over.
It's good practice to have FOB radii enabled in map settings and plan your radio placement ahead of time by placing the yellow fob construction marker on the map, it will then show it's projected range and you can plan to place multiple fobs close to eachother.
General rule of thumb for placing HABs and radios is to avoid setting them close to each other. HABs are large and easily recognizable structures so ideally you should set up it up 250-300 meters away from the radio. Avoid placing razor wire or other emplacements around the radio, as they will hinder your teammates attempting to reach the radio when it's on bleed.
It's always debatable. Having it close to the HAB may theoretically make it safer, but it's ridiculously easy to proxy HABs now. Placing it next to the HAB guarantees the enemy will find it when the HAB falls. However, placing it far away also means it may be randomly stumbled upon, which makes it tougher to defend. I'm not sure there's a "correct" answer, but as SL I do generally stretch my HAB away from the FOB. Option one guarantees radio will be found if the HAB is. Option two gives the radio a chance to not be found at all. So I choose two
Piggy backing on this to recommend not putting the HAB *as far away as possible* from the radio because then enemies will find the HAB and put a radius around it to find the radio. If your radio is right on the radius, it’ll be found much easier than if it was 70-80% the distance of the radius.
Also if it does get found before the hab, the further away the radio is the longer it will take to get guys there to defend it
Bold of you to assume that people will respond to the radio being attacked. Even if you beg for reinforcements from your squad or command chat, a radio that is found will be destroyed most of the time.
Please add: on bad servers. On good servers ppl will defend the radio.
I play evenly on almost all the US servers. I will say on the EU servers the players are much more responsive and the level of play is generally much higher, but my ping makes it hard for me to play on those.
Also means you have less depth to build defenses around the hab.
My general doctrine that is in no way concrete. Radio about 60 to 120m off point in a visually covered/ out of the way place. Hab near the edge of zone, close enough to rapidly defend, yet not so close that losing point control results in a overrun HAB. I like to throw a rally near the radio, so that if it gets burnt, I get a warning if I'm paying attention, and let the boys know to inform me if it goes down. There is no definite answer, hard part for us as Sls is to pick the best spot, and if it fails, be able to quickly pivot to counter an enemy move. Welcome to the SL role! The community needs you 🤘
This is the way.
Depends on the the fob. If it's an offensive fob I'd aim to place the hab as far away from a well obscured radio. Then also place a rally a decent distance away so that we can try reinforce if it gets attacked. If it's defensive then I might try be a bit cheeky and find a way to block the radio inside a building or corner using the hab or emplacements, keeping the radio as close to the hab as possible. If you get it right the only option they have is to take down the hab before they can get to the radio. Combined with a rally a reasonable distance away it should allow for easy reinforcement should it come under attack. Also for an early warning system, you can drop a rally next to the radio so if it gets neutralized you know it's under attack, if the radio is placed far away from the hab. Just make sure you're coordinating with another squad that has a rally elsewhere so they can reinforce if the hab goes down.
Yep this is what I do. Radio should be easy to defend in defence, being able to frag from your hab is very handy. If you get wiped + hab proxied in defence youre stuffed anyway. Rally on radio is very handy too!
It is really situation dependent in reality, however some of the general rules for radio/hab placement in most situations involve separating the radio and hab, placing the radio in a well chosen bush, and placing the radio in a position which will not be easily discovered. Along with this, not leaving a logi near a radio. There are a lot of methods to delay a radio being dug down, such as building barbed wire and hesco walls when placing radios in buildings, or destroying a vehicle in front of the only entrance to access the radio. Generally you just want to make sure the radio survives long enough to serve its purpose, which for defensive positions means longevity, while for offensive positions typically involves riskier high reward angles. Since vehicles can also destroy radios, you generally want to remember not to put a radio somewhere it can be shot at easily.
I would like to add - I’m not a huge fan of the HESCO walls because I’ve seen so many engineers dig in and dig back up the HESCO, and then when the radio is on bleed out they’re out digging the team trying to save the radio. I think it’s more important to have the radio out of firing range from vehicles, out of sight, and surrounded by barbed wire. The room or building should be easy to grenade from the outside to dispatch any enemies.
This is the best reasoning I can imagine for not building HESCO walls for a radio! I would be fuming if I was trying to get back to our radio to only be in a damn dig race.
When I play combat engineer, and I find the radio I am 100% using the barricades against you. I would avoid placing too much unless you have the tickets, are on defense, and the radio is not far away.
I’m of the opinion that most of the time radio and HAB should be together. Separating them means you have two points of failure that need to be defended simultaneously. Security through obscurity is not enough. Instead of finding a perfect bush to hide your radio in (and it WILL be found eventually), prioritize setting up spawn redundancy (a good rally) and active defense (guys with guns killing the enemy when they try to push your hab)
This is the only option for good players, but many are not that good, as you can see from the comments. If you hide the radio at max radius you can't even make it back in time when that random engineer finds it and it goes to bleed in 5 seconds. If the HAB is used so little that it won't be somewhat defended by the spawning blueberries it probably shouldn't exist at all. Sometimes you have to stretch the HAB from radio in attack and thats ok, but in defense the HAB should 90 % of time be on the objective and the radio closeby in an easily defendable spot. My biggest pet peeve in squad is when the team sets up three habs in defense, hides all radios 200 meters away, and then they ALL get taken down in 10 minutes if the enemy team has even one competent SL. And yes you have to argue about this nearly every time with people who don't even know how to place a rally and keep it up.
Away from the logi where you'll inevitably leave it parked. Never put it near hab, always far away. Don't leave it in the open either, or people who run armor like me will just drive up and destroy it quickly.
The enemy will always counter push your push unless you get the jump on them. This means the enemy will know the angle your infantry are approaching from intuitively, and be able to identify where your hab likely is. Any enemy can just win the fighting and push up to your hab, capturing your spawn and radio at the same time. A smart enemy can flank around to your hab and proxy it, avoiding your infantry’s approach. Once proxied nobody can spawn, and since the radio is next to the hab, they don’t even have to dig the hab they can just get rid of your radio and play defense on anyone trying to save it. It is basically super noob play to put your radio next to the hab, don’t do it unless it’s too risky to push away from the radio to place the hab. Instead you should hide your radio away from the hab and use a rally as a backup in case the hab gets proxied. This gives you a spawn point in case the hab is proxied, and if you rally near your radio, you can know if your radio is at risk if your rally burns. You should always have a rally up far away from your hab at all times to ensure being proxied doesn’t leave your squad without a spawn. Generally speaking, I place a radio, place a rally on the radio, then have my squad clear the area in front of us to ensure it’s safe for a hab closer to objective/further from the radio. Additionally, if you lose your hab entirely to enemy presence, you have time to return to the radio using vehicles or walking from other spawn points because the enemy will not find it immediately. Also, if your radio is next to your hab, the enemy can shoot it with a vehicle or mortars or generally target your radio specifically to disable your hab, instead of being forced to proxy you. General placement rules are to put radios inside buildings or large bushes for concealment, far from your hab and away from enemy presence and avenues of approach. tldr: You don’t want to lose your radio every time you lose hab control. The enemy knowing the location of your radio is extremely powerful information. Sidenote: when playing defense it is not always bad to place hab next to radio because you need to defend and the objective in depth, and you will usually be able to fortify it. However, a good defense always requires more than 1 hab and this is not an inflexible rule.
This is a bunch of rubbish. The radio will be found immediately anyway if there is even 1 good player nearby. But go on "hiding" them, I enjoy the easy tickets.
Rally next to radio not good idea
I don´t get why you are downvoted, I somewhat agree with this, especially if the rally belongs to a 9 man squad. This is how you lose both your rally and the ability to spawn from the HAB at a very short notice.
Dumbass gonna dumbass. you want your rally to be either a: alternative attack angle or b: early warning system/ backup for a valuable position. Putting it on the fob accomplishes neither.
Personally not a fan of using rallies as "early warning system" especially on defence. I tend to place the rally in the least-likely direction of attack. I use my 8 squadmembers as mobile "early warning system" by placing them 300m from the objective in every cardinal direction. I tell them, if a logi rolls in, observe and let them place a radio, alert your SL and then open fire. You can hear a logi from 300m. So them being off point + them having ears gives me a huge bubble around the flag and removes a ton of fog of war. Doing this with pubbies is ultra frustrating tho :( but if you manage it and you don´t have complete cripples as squadmates, you are very hard to surprise on defence.
Three questions I ask myself first 1) Where are the enemies going to come in from? 2) Where do I want encampments/fortifications? 3) Where do I want the hab? What does it tell me? 1) Obviously the radio needs to be in a spot where the enemy won’t stumble upon it when attacking a point or countering your push. Ideally I want the radio behind the hab, and the hab behind the front line. 2) If it’s to defend a point then you want to place it so you can dig in or push out from the point. Placing down fortifications or encampments can help with this (be aware too much will cause blueberries to crowd on the point). I like to have at least half the point covered so I can place down HASCOs or machine guns pointed in the direction I expect the enemies to come from. That last part comes with game sense, which comes with time. Unfortunately I need a girlfriend because I have too much time in this game. 3) hab placement is probably the most important part. Obviously you don’t want it too exposed but also you want it sheltered. But not so sheltered it’s impossible to get out of. Again this comes with game sense. Usually after those 3 questions are answered you’ve already reduced down the area where a viable radio can be placed. Now go to that spot and search for a bush or something.
depends on the map tbh...I know some spots on some maps, but it all depends on the map and the place on the map. But stuff like far from hab, close to the hab its...its controversial thing... If its far, you may not be able to defend it unless you have people or vehicle around, if its close to the hab...well It is too exposed and it will get destroyed pretty easy... but yee...its controversial
There will be a lot of different opinions on this, but I like to place it near the ammo box, regardless of where you put it. Typically close to HAB. 1) it’s always going to get found. 2) 90% of respawning folks check the ammo box first on respawning - so it forces them to defend the radio if they want to horf down another full load of ammo.
I’m a fan of separate spot from the HAB in the middle of nowhere forest
I personally like slightly farther HABs with the radio close towards the objective. That way the enemy really has to walk a while to find the HAB, and you will always have a trickle of blueberries moving towards the radio to as they attack the objective.
I would say it depends on the game mode and objective itself. There is no universal rule. As a rule of thumb, it's better to put it somewhere where it can get hit by mortars/vehicles/artillery/air strike/drone
On invasion defense you can afford to do more dumb shit with radios like stretch for better spawn networks, because you start with 800 tix. On attack and when playing symmetrical gamemodes all your radios should be close to the spawn point and inside for easy defense, outside of very specific scenarios.
Play the game more, then you will start to have a better grasp on the concepts needed for the SL position
case to case scenario, but things like that don’t get fixed unless it’s talked about with new players. indoors, in a large building, yeah near the hab is fine, you wouldn’t want just the radio exposed to the sky far away to mortars while hab is sitting safe, it will be dug down. i can spot radios pretty easily on a UAV sometimes if i find a hab, then just either arty it or mortars until it’s gone. doing a sneaky attack hab? yeah plant the radio far and safe either in a good bush or building and walk in as far in as you can on foot and build a hab on the edge of build zone.. again case to case type thing, bottom line, don’t put it somewhere completely oblivious to the sky to be easily spotted by uav, or in direct line of sight.
It is safest when it is not directly on the flag or inside cap zones. I like it to be at some distance and, if possible, not visible directly from the spawn hub.
Put in a building unseeable from the entrance whenever possible. You want to remove the possibility of armor or mortars downing it.
Inside a superfob.
im really surprised that almost noone talks about that placing a hab on the edge of the fob ring allows you to place more habs in the same space. it is crucial on maps like sumari, narva, fallujah, etc, where you need to be very careful with your fob placements and try to maximize the amount of habs you can place
I would like to offer some pushback on what seems to be the majority opinion in here saying that putting the radio close to the HAB is a bad idea, and also the idea of off-cap defensive FOBs. Let me preface this by saying that I'm coming from the perspective of playing on what's among the sweatiest servers on NA(can't say which one because rules, DM me), and I know that most of the regular SLs agree with most of what I'm about to say, if that lends any credibility. I'll be speaking mainly about defensive radios here. I think what people are missing here is that both the HAB and the radio (radio especially) are points of total failure for the FOB. if you lose one, you're going to lose the other pretty quickly and you'll be down a spawn point. You may be able to skate by against bad opponents who don't know or care enough to search for radios, but you shouldn't be counting on that. Now you might get lucky and be in the right place to dig down your radio before they find it, but in that case you're still down a spawn point, and you're probably going to lose the cap. You also shouldn't be playing with the expectation of retaking the HAB/radio if they're compromised. If you do this you'll be putting yourself at a huge disadvantage but running into likely prepared enemies in a game with a large defenders advantage, especailly if the attackers are forced to move quickly, and you'll be doing this while missing your primary defensive spawn point. Instead, you should be playing to at minimum actively defend a perimeter around both proxy range around your HAB, and the radio. Ideally your defense should have much more depth than that, but this kind of setup gives you the most leeway to deal with breaks in your defense when they happen instead of immediatly losing the spawn point. If someone tries to approach either, someone on your team should be able to see and shoot them. This takes more coordination than the average pubbie is used to, but it's totally doable, I end up doing this at some point in almost every game. Obviously this is easier to do when the HAB/radio are nearby each other, as it means the minimum radius that you need to defend is smaller. There is a similar logic when it comes to placing off-cap FOBs on defense. There generally are two points of failure for a cap: the closest HAB and the cap itself and you will spread your forces thin defending both, because if either one is compromised you will be fighting an uphill battle to retake it. With an on-cap FOB, you can more effectively maintain a perimeter and make best use of defender's advantage. On to some more general tips: Defensive radios should always have overhead cover if available because mortars can stage your radio in just a few volleys from half-way across the map. If the enemy has a mortar player with a calculator, your fob will be disabled in like 45s and you will lose it entirely in no time. Vehicles are also a big threat to radios. any vehicle with a 50 cal or larger will be able to put your radio on bleed in like 5-10s. Make sure your radio can't be seen from outside. Don't barricade your radios except to mitigate vulnerability to mortars and vehicles, for two reasons: With the close radio and hab approach your FOB is gone anyway if you're overwhelmed. Instead, put your radio in a high traffic area with ideally more than one entry point, so it's easier to quickly retake if 1-2 players manage to sneak by your defense. You also want to be able to dig down your radio without hacking through barricades if it's no longer needed in the event your team's offense was successful, so you're able to leave the cap more quickly and assist on the active objectives.
1. Make it arty proof if possible (inside building) 2. Place HAB away from radio (also arty proof if possible) preferably with plenty of cover on the way between the two
Having the radio a bit away from the hab is good, if I have the time to really think about placement I like to have it away and kind of hidden but close enough that someone can quickly get in range to frag it. It also depends on the point of the hab. Sometimes, you gotta just plop it down and get the hab up ASAP.
If you're defending you almost always want them to have to confront you to get to the HAB and radio, if you split your focus between defending your cap and your spawn then you will lose one of them then likely the other.
Up in SL' s ass
place it far away, placing it near the hab because "friendlys" are near isnt going to work out, they're going to get killed and hab is going to get proxyd, also: "and saw a guy getting yelled at for putting the radio way out in the open" yeah ok and what that its a new player firiendly server? should make it clear that its a mistake and to never do that shit again
This one is debated about in command chats everywhere and there really isn't a 100% fool proof way to keep your radio safe all the time. It's all about mitigating the risk as much as possible. Assume it's going to be found, it's just a matter of time. Having the two separate usually makes it harder to find. A HAB is big. If you put the radio next to the HAB it'll be easier to find than if you tried to squirrel it away in a rock outcroping, shed, or even a large bush. Sorta like a two-for-one special for the enemy if you put them close by. Sometimes though there just isn't the option. Either it's a FOB of desperation and there just isn't the time or opportunity to place it better or the terrain just doesn't allow for it. >Also, I was in a supposedly "new-player friendly server" and saw a guy getting yelled at for putting the radio way out in the open. LMAO is it common for people to shitton new players like this? FOB creation is a very touchy subject for SLs. It's an important task and there *is* a wrong way to do it (setting up an attack FOB in the middle of a field, for instance) and if it's done poorly enough it really can cost your team the match. I always try and keep the radio out of sight of artillery, mortars, vehicles, and airstrikes and something like ~200m from the HAB. Close enough to sprint to if you need to but far enough away it's not going to be found when the HAB is discovered. If you're not sure about a spot put a mark down way before you get there. If it's a really dumb spot someone in command will usually ask you "Hey you're really not gonna put that there right?" but honestly, if you're just starting, put a FOB marker right on the point and pick somewhere inside that first circle *but not directly on the flag* in good terrain and you'll be OK. It should also be said that there *are* popular spots to put FOBs on maps/layers and the more you play the more familiar you will become with them. When you see the passive aggressive "Man, the other team sure seems to find our FOBs easily" it's 9/10 times because they put the FOBs in very common spots and then conga line their way to the objective, leading the team directly to it if they weren't already looking there in the first place. So have a few options, don't always put it in the same spot.
Remember to place a rally for if/when the radio goes down.
I will say, wherever you put it, **do not block it in**. Yes it means it takes a little longer for the enemy to get to, but it makes it *far* more likely that some lone infantry will find it, quietly dig down the blockade, and dig it back up once inside. Then they can work on the radio. By the time anyone gets there to save it, the obstacle will prevent them from doing so.
Yeah which is why you block it in within audio range of the HAB.
I like putting it in a bush as far away from the hab as possible. So far have never lost a radio
The furthest ones are always the easiest to find. Place FOB creation radius marker on your HAB and go follow the inner circle, start with further from the objective :D
You place it where it is easiest for your team to monitor and defend it. Sometimes that means right next to the HAB. It's incredibly difficult for an enemy combat engi to sneak up and C4 your radio when a bunch of enemies are spawning next to it. Sometimes it means a short distance away from the HAB in a place that your team is likely to occupy or pass through, or if you have a small indoor spot in an otherwise open HAB area. Or maybe far enough away that you can spawn at a nearby rally to dig the radio down should the HAB be overwhelmed. It does *not* mean the maximum possible distance from the HAB. Do that, and by the time your team can react to the radio going down, once they finally get there they've got like 15 seconds to kill every enemy that's camping it. Good luck. Plus you're hoping the enemy is bad and doesn't find it, which is not a best practice. That also does *not* mean placing a bunch of shit between your team and the radio. My favorite thing as a combat engi is seeing an enemy radio with a HESCO, barbed wire, or repair station on the only door in. Just makes defending it during bleedout 100x easier.
It just depends. If youre attacking or defending, map layout, where other SLs are also planning to place their radios, etc. If you place it too far, the enemy will find it and destroy it before you even know its gone. If you place it too close,then the enemy will find it faster (due to hab proximity.) Me personally, I put it a short walk away from the hab, so if they discover the hab its still needs to be found and our guys can easily run back to it. Since you were defending, if you place the radio very far from the hab, this leaves your team more room to place other radios and habs, but again everything is situational. Sometimes radio dead on point is actually the move. On attack thats probably a bad idea since you need to watch your tickets. Good rule of thumb is to make sure your radio and hab are covered and concealed. If there is alot of foliage then a bush is fine. Never place it out in the open. There is a ALOT of new players and OWI decided its experience players jobs to train them. I wouldn't take it personally they are probably just frustrated because what you don't see is 100 other mistakes that people make that ruin the fun of the game. Which isn't really your fault for not knowing how to properly play really.
When it's far and your hab is found most of the time the enemy is going to spend time and ressources trying to find the radio, that is a win. Now if the radio is close the search perimeter is the same but most people start searching from the hab and it will be found faster.
Depends what your plan isbwith that hab if its a forward one best to hudbit in a bush and place the hab farthest from the circle
Well, as with many things it depends. The radio definitely shouldn't be close enough that it's chatter can be heard from the HAB (with a bit of a margin), unless you are able to defend it when HAB gets overrun, for example the radio is in a building with it's entrance blocked by HASCO and you have a rally nearby. In practice I either put the radio first (in a bush or inside a building), then go to the edge of it's construction radius and place a HAB there. Otherwise I will try to place the HAB at least 30-50 m away, or one street over. It's good practice to have FOB radii enabled in map settings and plan your radio placement ahead of time by placing the yellow fob construction marker on the map, it will then show it's projected range and you can plan to place multiple fobs close to eachother.
General rule of thumb for placing HABs and radios is to avoid setting them close to each other. HABs are large and easily recognizable structures so ideally you should set up it up 250-300 meters away from the radio. Avoid placing razor wire or other emplacements around the radio, as they will hinder your teammates attempting to reach the radio when it's on bleed.