It may be often neglected the importance of having the ability to respawn. You may think that "well we got medics and we have no dead people right now so what is the rush?". It is naive to think that you can succeed in Squad without any casualties and that you, while the the combat gets real crazy, will be in the right frame of mind and situation to then place a rally in a appropriate position. But in reality your brain will shut down, compartmentalize and your entire world will revolve around the rifle you have in your hand and the only person that is second to most important to you is the enemy that is trying to kill you.

A rallypoint is your squads lifeline. When your tactics fail you, the enemy surprise you and you get your entire squad dead you can still save the situation. A rallypoint works like a how many single-player games do when it comes to saving game progress.
When your rally is up it will pump out reinforcements like a heart pumps blood and when it goes down it is having a heart attack. You will then be fighting for your life to get it started again. If a squad had a healthbar, it would not be a summarized version of all soldiers actual health, but the status of the rallypoint, if it is placed or missing, if it is in a good position or bad.

As a Squad Leader you should not care about your personal healthbar, you should care about your squad, your squad is your body and your soldiers is your arms.

The basics of squads rallypoint system is to offer a squad-controlled-reinforcement system for the SL to utilize. Something you do not need to be dependent on other squads for nor other squads be dependent on you. This ability can make a great difference in squad if used correctly.

For this you need to understand for what purpose you can use rallies for and how the game's mechanics work when it comes to rallypoints.

You can use a rallypoint for different reasons, however some more productive than others. It's important that you get a good grasp of the situation and deploy the rally for the appropriate reson(s) as irresponsible usage can lead to devastating results for your squad, the entire round.

Usage:

• Reinforcement - In order to ensure a continuous presence to put pressure on the enemy you need to replace casualties with more reinforcements. Having a rallypoint allows you to be in control of where you want these to come from.
  
• Back-up spawn - When you have a more suitable spawnpoint already established and only need a spawnpoint in case your primary one is overrun or lost.
  
• Flank spawn - If you want to increase your options of attack angles or reinforcement directions, you can use an rally to achieve that.
  
• (Buddy Rally Anchor: INS Only) - The Insurgent faction have the ability to "Buddy Rally" on existing friendly rallies. Sometimes you might need to help another squad get boots on the ground and you might have to replace your rally for this so they can buddy on yours. However always try to combine your anchor rally with any of the others mentioned in this list. There is a risk that OWI will patch this feature out for a different system in the future.
  
• (Proximity Sensor) - Weather you intentionally used your rally for this or not, it will always work as a "proximity sensor" for enemies. If an enemy is within 30m of your rally it will be destroyed. It is highly recommend that you do not place a rally for the sole purpose of this as a rally is far more useful when it is active rather when it is destroyed. Rather consider this as a bonus feature

To understand the game mechanics around Squad's rallypoint system, this guide will be presenting the rally mechanics in comparison to squads other spawn mechanics.

Strengths:

• Impervious to damage from projectiles and explosions - Neither friendly or enemies can damage a Rallypoint with any weapons. It can only be destroyed by enemy proximity.
  
• Can be placed by the Squad Leader - You do not need to wait for another squad leader to approve/sanction it. It is free to be placed when you want it. Only game mechanic can pose limitations.
  
• Does not cost any construction points or tickets to place or loose - Unlike a FOB/HAB that cost either tickets or construction points to build or loose, the rallypoint does not, however it does cost 50 ammo which can be rearmed from a rifleman's ammobag, vehicle or a FOB's ammobox.
  
• Can be picked up again - If you placed it and can not afford to rearm, you can pick it back up again and place it down again at a more suitable location.
  
• Does not need to be constructed - After the rally have been placed, you do not need to do anything for it to activate, in comparison to a HAB that requires a shovel to construct. This means you can make a rally with a SL kit and a pilot kit but you can not make a HAB with that combination as pilots are not given shovels

Weaknesses:

• Spawn in waves - The rallypoint will only allow respawns in waves. The timer for the waves is set to 60 seconds. It limits your freedom to spawn when ever you want. If you want to replace the rally, it could be good to either memorize as which second of the game clock you placed it or ask dead players what the rally timer says. If the timer is close to spawn you might wanna wait with placing a new rally until after the wave is over.
  
• Spawn Delay after placement - After the rally have been placed. there will be 60 seconds before anyone can spawn on it.
  
• Only Squad members can use it - Unlike the FOB/HAB that anyone can spawn on, a rallypoint is exclusively for the squad that placed it.
  
• Is destroyed if enemies is withing 30m - The rally is fragile. Compared to a FOB/HAB, they have health and will take a more effort to take down, the rally will only require an enemy to be within 30m to be destroyed and lost. To loose a rally to an enemy can be referred as the rally have been "Stomped"
  
• Unable to be placed if enemies is within 50m - If you attempt to place a rally and there is an emey within 50m, no rally will be placed and you can only attempt again in 120 seconds. There is certain areas you can be quite certain enemies will be within 50m, you should avoid even trying to place a new rally if that is the case.
  
• Will not rearm you - If you are spawning on main you will automatically be rearm. If you are spawning on a HAB, while it wont rearm you, most likely there will be a ammobox you can rearm from. Rallypoints will not provide that ammo and if you want to be able to rearm at a rally, you need to provide it with a ammobox from a nearby FOB or a vehicle with ammo on board
  
• You cannot place a rally if you recently assumed command - If you recently became SL, there will be a cooldown timer on 120 seconds before you can place a rallypoint.
  
• Is a "Consumable" - If you place it down you can not place a new one until you rearm it for 50 ammo or pick it back up again.

Within the game mechanics you can place a rally in two ways however other factors comes in play such as communication, location and timing.

• Squad Leader Radial Menu
  
• Scroll wheel or keyboard number 6:
  
  

NOTE
Before you could use a console command to create a rally but due to a bug in the rallypoints most resent feature updates, the developers have decided to disable the command. They have not removed the command so it might be reintroduced in the future.
https://steamproxy.net/games/squad/announcements/detail/2892957851498243027

It is quite common that when a rally have been placed that the SL verbalizes this to their squad. This can help inform the squad members that we did just now, NOT loose our rally BUT it have been relocated. How you convey this information can have a great importance. Its quite common mistake that the SL say that the: "Rally is down" when it have been "placed down". This can get very confusing for many players that also is using the same sentence when enemies have stomped your rally "Rally is down" in reference to that it is "unusable/down".

The Problems
If the SL say that the "Rally is down" when placing a rally, it can trigger the other players to get cautious, looking in the "former rally's" direction and loose focus as they are thinking that there is enemies at our last rally position.

If you and many SL's does not care about curbing their usage of this term when placing rallies, you will numb players to the word "Down". You will desensitize it from the vocabulary and the times players will use the term "Rally down" when the rally gets stomped, the desensitize players and SL's might not pay attention to your callout and the SL might neglect placing a new rally or acting on the fact that enemies is in the area of the former rally location.

Solutions

• You can start saying "Rally is placed down" but due to the communication and sound nature of an hectic Squad round, people can still misshear and only pick up certain words that trigger their brain like "Rally ...... down" therefor this is not recommended.
  
• You can say "Rally is up". "Up" contrast "down" much better and it still comprehensible as if the "Rally is up and operational". This means you will still use "Rally down" and risk making mistakes.
  
• You can throw out both terms out of your vocabulary and use term such as "We lost our Rally"/"Rally lost" and take out the term "down" even from when you are stomping enemy rallies by saying "Enemy rally Stomped". When placing a rally just say "New rally placed"/"Rally placed"/"New rally available"

The optimal rally locations allows you to spawn and reach your destination within resonable time. The rally will be able to remain at that location and not be stomped accidentally nor intentionally by the enemy. It will not attract attention to it self and it will be concealed and when you spawn on it you wont be immediately noticed and be able to be shot at, at range.

While a rally can of course get stomped when a enemy is within 30m, weather they are aware of a rallys presence or not, it is always more beneficial for you to conceal your rally to at least prevent enemies form easily spotting it at range.

In following images there are examples of rallies hidden taking advantage of the terrain as concealment and the rallys own camouflage pattern:
Did you see them all???
There are 8 rallies total between all images, not 5 ;) There are more hints below
No hints here.
Not here, neither.
Keep looking.
"Keep looking" Is the hint. I wont tell you, neither will the enemy nor should you. Hide your rallies and make the enemy work hard to find it



DO NOT place rallies in avenues of approach! - The enemies have likely routes of approaching their attack/defend objectives. These routs will have more enemy traffic than others and is unsuitable to place a rally near. Rallies need to be at least +30m away from a avenue of approach.

• Close to roads or under bridges - Passing vehicles can stomp them by accident
  
  
• Between an active defend and attack objective - Enemies are likely to just walk from their defend objective to their next attack objective
  
• Anticipated attack/reinforcement angles - the enemy most likely will use themselves
  
  
• In structures - Hide the rallies as far away from “landmarks” distinct terrain features as those are the first places people will look at.
  

DO NOT place rally on a cap point! - The enemies want to go to the cap point and if an enemy is close to the rally, the rally gets stomped. This is how you play the game to have a chance to win, to play the objective, you need to go to the objective and the same goes for the enemies.

Exceptions can be made depending how good your existing spawn coverage are:

• If you have 0 FOBs near the objective you should place the rally not closer than 300-500m
  
• If you have 1 other FOB in cap or outside cap Place rallies at least 150-300m away from an active capzone
  
• If you have 2 other FOBs available outside the capzone you can have a rally in the capzone or within 0-150m

DO NOT have a rally in close proximity of a HAB! - It is redundant as when enemies is close enough to overrun the HAB, they likely will already stomped your rally and you therefore you have no backup spawn point.

NOTE:
Of course there is more exceptions but first learn the basics, then with your own judgement, based on experience make your own exceptions to these DO NOT's

These situations are generally recommended for you to get a routine about to place rallies.

Place a rally:

• Before going into combat - If you know you will get into combat soon, you should consider placing a rally. Take a soldier with you and place it at a good location.
  
• Before placing a FOB - Many times you will arrive to build a HAB at a location you have not been too before. You could be encountering contact. Place a rally either on/near the FOB before you move to place the HAB or make a halt before you arrive to the area and place a rally. This rally does not need to be permanent and you can move the rally later.
  
• When disembarking - If you been traveling a long distance it's good to not have to do the same trip multiple times. Always consider placing a rally near your mode of transportation where you disembarked (you don't need to always place a rally but run at least the thought through your head every time and weigh its usefulness). If you die later on foot you can always re-spawn from the point you walked from and this rally does not need to be permanent.

Once you placed down your rally, get use to instantly start thinking about how you gonna re-arm it. If you have a vehicle, ammobox or a rifleman with a ammobag, rearm your rally right away so you do not forget it and when you realize your rally is stomped you will also remember that you never re-armed and you can therefor not place a new one.

You should avoid placing down a new rally, when the rally timer still got time left. To avoid this you can ask any dead members to tell you how much time there is left on rally "time on rally?". However you can also try to remember the time you placed the rally. The rally timer rests after 60 seconds. this means you can use the in game round clocks seconds, and memorize what it says there to know when the rally wave will be.

After the spawn wave, you can place the rally without risking increasing dead squad members having to wait 2x 60 seconds to spawn.

Stress, inexperience and pressure from others can cause you to make bad decisions. The looming knowledge of having a rally can take over your ability to rationally think and you can place a rally in the most idiotic locations at the most stupid times. You need to practice self-control so you do not place a rally the moment you hear a squad member screams over radio "WE LOST OUR RALLY!!!" or ask you to place a "Backup rally?". Do it right, the first time instead of having to redo it over and over again.

Sometimes you have many of squad members waiting to spawn and no suitable spawnpoint is available. You can then use "Quick & Dirty" rallies. Its basically a rally you do not expect to last longer than at least one spawn wave and the area you spawning at may even be exposed. however with the right timing you know you can get reinforcements from your squad if you could provide them with a spawnpoint. When you place a "Quick & Dirty" rally you must make it your highest priority to relocated it to a safer location as well as informing the squad of that it is not a good rally to prepare them for potential contacts nearby. Don't have the mindset that "I'll do that later" because you won't you will forget and you will be embarrassed because you did. Tell the person you made the "Quick & Dirty" rally with to still stick with you so you can place a better more secure one.

Sometimes when you place a rally and you get the message that there is enemies within 50m, you are just about to head into enemies and no better spawn point is available. Don't just shrug your shoulders and think "We will forget about it this time". Just because it failed, it does not mean it all failed. Grab immediately the closest squad member and run off to a safer location. To fight an enemy that has a spawn point them self and you not, is doomed to fail. If it fails, fix it! Go place a new rally without delay at a locations where you wont have enemies within 50m

Depending on how many other available spawnpoints there is around where you want to operate, the severity of loosing a rally is relative.
This list shows the severity of having your rally lost.
Severity Scale:

• 0 FOB/HAB's - If you have no spawns then you must make it your highest priority to make a rally. If the squad is in contact with the enemy this should be your entries squads purpose as underestimating the enemy and the situation can lead to a squad wipe with no spawnpoint to recover from.
  
• 1 FOB/HAB - This is definitely not a optimal situation and you should be greatly concerned about not having a rally if you only have 1 HAB to spawn from. If that HAB gets overrun it can go pretty quick before all alive soldiers have been killed so nobody can save the situation.
  
• 2 FOB/HAB's - This is a more optimal situation to be in. If you have a rally and 2 HAB's in your surrounding then loosing a rally is not super critical but for that reason you should definitely not neglect having a rally placed.
  
• +3 FOB/HAB's - Having 3 or more FOB/HAB's around you, provides a strong network of spawnpoints you can choose from. Having a rally up with that and then loose it, should not be a big worry. but keep monitoring the situation so you can place a rally if the situations grows worse

If you feel you are about to loose your rally due to that enemy contact reports, red markers on the map is getting closer, it could be a good idea to move the rally around. Sometimes you can even place a rally in a location that is more riskier but due to the situation get away with it because the enemies do generally not wanna do repeated failures.

If the enemies movements have become really unpredictable and aggressive assigning one squad member to you temporary to constantly protect you and walk with you for you to continuously relocate the rally may be required to prevent the enemy from stomping it.

When the rally have been lost and the situation is dire, you need to step into action quickly. Grabbing a squad member by mentioning them by name either in squad or local and telling them to follow you. Sometimes it can be necessary to call up on the entire squad to you as the person you intended to come for you might die on their way and with more people coming, it increases the chances that one of them manage to reach you in time. If you are being chased down by the enemy, placing a "Quick & Dirty" rally and having your squad to spawn in to delay potential pursuers can be useful in extreme situations. The rallypoint is in many ways the squad final lifeline and having a rally should not be underestimated.

New player friendly
The rallypoint is one of the more important features a new Squad Leader should come to learn. The benefit of making mistakes with a rallypoint is that no other squads will directly be affected by your mistakes. While your squad of may end up having to spawn from main with you the rest of the damage will be contained to your squad. The rallypoint does not have a high rearm cost and no cost to place, but only to rearm. So in comparison to make mistakes when building a FOBs, making mistakes when placing a rally should not feel as bad.

Tactical Usage
Combining a rallypoint in combination of conducting defensive or offensive operations can be difficult and by reading this guide, you can get an idea of how you can deploy rallies to best serve your current tactical situation
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1728307151

Rally Stomping
The knowledge you learn from this guide can also be utilized against the enemy. If playing against a more experienced SL that might deploy these methods, you can take advantage of this knowledge and use it to counter the enemy.

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• Grammatical Errors Fixing
  
• Graphics

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