Welcome to another installment of our ongoing MAG tactics and strategies posts! Today, we’ve got tag team action from Software Manager Mike Nicolino and Designer Marc Janas. Their mission? To give aspiring Platoon Leaders everything they need to find success. What this video below first and then catch their tips after the close.

Hello everyone, this is Marc and Mike, and these are the keys to being a good Platoon Leader.

Basic Tips:

Platoon Broadcast Chat: Use this chat channel (selected from the D-pad) to broadcast any speech to the entire platoon. It’s useful to help organize everyone to focus on one particular route or objective. Platoon Chat: Use this (also selected from the D-pad) to chat directly with only the squad leaders in your platoon. This channel isn’t heard by any non-officer players, so it is best used to direct squad leaders on where to send their individual squads in battle. When attacking, use your Strafing Run ability to call in planes to pound a specific area on the battlefield with large explosions. It is by far the most powerful strike the attackers have, but with a long cool down it needs to be used wisely. Note: The defenders’ AAA battery needs to be disabled before calling in this strike so your planes won’t get shot down. Another useful attack is the Precision Strike: This is best used to isolate one of the enemy’s objectives and take it out in a single swoop. Anything from a bunker, to the mortar batteries are viable targets for the precision strike. The enemy’s AAA battery must be disabled in order to call in the strike too, or your bomber will be shot down. If you’re defending, the Gas Bombardment ability causes an explosion followed by large cloud of poisonous gas. This is a great strike to use to either block off an attacker route, or to protect a valuable asset. Note: You must have your mortar battery up and running in order to use this ability. The Sensor Sweep is a useful defensive-minded ability that detects incoming hostile forces. The sweep allows for everyone in your platoon to see all enemies on their radar in the swept area. Like the Gas Bombardment ability, you’ll need to have your AAA battery up to use this.

Advanced tips:

When the AAA goes down in a different platoon than yours, you can call in strikes over there. Use the CNI by pressing select to watch the other platoon areas and see which ones you can help out with your strikes. When the AAA goes down in your platoon, quickly call in a precision strike to either eliminate a remaining bunker, or to disable the enemy’s mortar battery. This will help you keep the pressure on defenders, and hopefully move towards your final objectives faster. Use platoon chat and platoon broadcast to overload specific bunkers and punch through the enemy lines quicker (example: “Alpha and Bravo squad, I want you both attacking that far left bunker — Charlie and Delta, I want you guys to double up on the far right one). Use the platoon broadcast to let everyone know when and where you’re calling in a strafing run. The blast area is big for this strike, so you’ll prevent a lot of friendly casualties by giving everyone the heads up when it’s incoming! When it looks like your frontline is falling, call in a gas bombardment on top of your AAA battery to impede any attackers who are trying to disable it. Use the platoon broadcast to keep everyone notified on any changes with the primary objectives. So often, in a large battle, players are very involved with specific tasks like repairing a bunker, or protecting the mortar battery that they may not notice a transport vehicle is coming out, or that the rest of their team needs help at the main objective (“Hey guys, there’s only 2 minutes left in the game and they’re pushing hard at the objectives, everyone fall back from whatever you’re doing and make sure we protect the primaries at all costs!”). Coordinate with your squad leaders using platoon chat to team up your sensor sweeps with their mortar strikes to maximize their damage. Let them know you’re calling in a sweep, and that one of them should call in a mortar strike once all of the attacking targets are discovered on the radar.

That’s all we have for today. We’ll be again tomorrow with our final installment of our ongoing MAG Developer Tips – Being an OIC. Expect Designer Ben Jones to bring the thunder.