What was your first time like as an SL?

[contactdenied]

Today I tried out SL for the first time, and of course I represented Grape CHARLIE squad. After dicking around for a bit trying to get a loadout set up I end up missing briefing, but I'm later told our objective, go fix power alongside BananaBravo squad. Once on the drop ship, our SO, Carmine, decided to give me a minigun from Requistions. I was thrilled, and my rambo mode activated once on the ground. I walked to Engineering with my squad, but the ayys had set up there, so we started shooting. The recoil was crazy, but I managed to unload a full burst into a spitter, downing it instantly as a runner tried to drag it away, I later fired a burst into the darkness, somehow hitting it and killing it. It was a short lived fun time though, I got screeched and dragged in, facehugged then nested, and talked with my squad about how this was my first time and how I was a pretty shit leader, then I chestbursted as comms went down. I watched as Apple Alpha tried to make their way to Engineering, but I was dead, and they were also decimated almost on the spot.

What were your first time SL experiences like?

[Enceri]

straight cancer

[contactdenied]

straight cancer

oof

[Kerek]

Uh, I played for like, a week, then tried..... And I uh, thought LZ2 was LZ1..... God, the days of Carlos Bennett.

[Stripetail]

The very first experience I ever had as a squad leader was when I was Bravo medic, the sole surviving member of the squad over the rank of private. The commander themself hunted me down and requested that I take the position lest it be put onto a Private. I begrudgingly accepted and called all of Bravo to briefing for a regroup. The entire remaining squad showed up, I was very surprised and honestly proud of them for giving me a chance. I gave them all a pep talk, told them we'd stop these creatures from taking over the ship.

... Then the dropship landed on top of us, killed all of the remaining bravo's, myself included.

All in all my first time as a SL lasted no more than five minutes.

[taketheshot56]

My first time was SL for alpha on FOB duty, I did really okay actually, the hardest part is actually getting the marines to do what you say.

[Skimmy2]

I honestly cant remember too much about my first time, or rather it all blurred together so I get my rounds mixed up!

The first time Steve Humason finally stopped being a PFC and took on the roll of a SSGT was being the SL of bravo squad, i got familiar with the loadout and promptly got with command and my squad over comms before briefing. Huddling the Lemons towards our glorious objective of "build FOB in Nexus". Forget any other details aside from "it didnt end well".

[Logi99]

eASY! This... https://prntscr.com/guq7xb

[TehSpoderman]

I was/still am a control freak. I just want people to follow my orders damn it.

[Renomaki]

I don't quite remember how my first SL round went, but I do know that the first time I played it, it was a long ass time ago, back when hugger-combat was still a thing, and back when Xur and Tor were around.

In fact, I didn't just play one round, I played it for a full WEEK, round after round of Squad Leading. When I finally took a break from it, I had trouble adjusting to grunt life.

Squad leading can be very satisfying if you have a good squad, and even better if you are able to scrap together a win with your squad. There is a certain level of accomplishment that can only be gained in positions of leadership.

[Cpkeyes]

I had to deal with a predator and lead Charlie squad to glory.

[Lumdor]

Not knowing what half my shit did.

[Skimmy2]

Not knowing what half my shit did.

Such is life of all Squad Leaders, potentially people higher in command too.
If yo lucky, you might only lose 20-25% of your dudes to rambo silence.

[Blade2000Br]

first time as SL, I messed up alot. I mean, ALOT.

for example...I got myself on peril at hydro and my smartgunenr tried to help me...and got dragged because of it. My Spec was murderboned for his position I set him up and pretty much 80% of my squad got decimated...

only from my second game and forward I started sucking less. heh.

[Kesserline]

First time as SL, last week during Ice Colony.

Did quite good, but especially because I had marines that trusted me.

First step before becoming a SL, stick to a squad long enough to be known by the guys playing in there.
Leadership requires some "pillars" that support you in the squad. For what ? Because they are the one saying : "THE SL GAVE YOU AN ORDER !" or "You hear the SL ? Let's move out !".

Those are the ones you need. And you can't have them, if you don't play with the squaddies first.

Certain of those squaddies knew me, supported me. They gave me advice, I followed them. I shared the reward, complimented my guys.

This first time, they held a full scale assault until Alpha and Bravos rescued us at TComms. 1 KIA, all MIA retrieved and 5 to 7 hostiles confirmed kills.

At the end of the round, of course, I lost nearly all my Deltas, but noone could say Delta didn't do its job.

PS : having a good Overwatch helps a lot (supplies, tactical info). Having a bad Overwatch can mess you up (bad intels, or worst, bad orders).

[Szunti]

I also missed briefing fiddling with the equipments. The hardest thing is to keep talking to your squad for me, so I tried talking constantly. I think I even annoyed the marines. I took a pistol or revolver with a raillight. I wasn't going to use it, even in the middle of the battle I was reporting to command or tried to tell something to my marines. Xenos took me in the first assault while I typed, but I learnt from it, next round xenos slashed me to crit while I typed, medic healed me and I was taken while typing in the second assault.

[4thsurviver]

I played SL once a very long time ago. I blew my squad up with C4 not realizing how it worked, no one was wounded but we all went deaf. The CL managed to get PO to call a retreat about 15 minutes after deployment, there was no real command staff on at the time. I fought the CL's authority at first but no one else did and went on the DS so I relented and pulled my squad out too. Some of my squad including the spec missed the retreat. It turned out CL just wanted to do a second briefing and to waste our time at the same time I was hearing calls for help from the men left behind and by the time I got CL to shut up and rallied the marines to go back down they were all dead.

I don't remember anything else from the round. I figured I was still too bald for SL and haven't decided to try it out again yet.

[Bigfoot02]

First time I ever became SL was a jarring experience since it all went to shit so fast. I was in charge of Charlie, had a decent sized squad with a specialist, two medics, one engi, and several other rifle marines. We were playing on big red, so I was a bit nervous because I had only played as a marine, meaning I always stuck close to the SL and watched for targets. I told the squad in RP that I was fresh from the boot, which was just a way to let them know I was new at the job. We were given the task of scouting south, which was about as vague as the order remained.

We landed, started our way south and it was going fine. Hadn't encountered any enemies and I was keeping (what I thought) was a good level of chatter between the marines and command. Had some decent interaction with the squad, though I wasn't being too dickish or anything. Everything seemed to be going alright.

Then it all went horribly fucking wrong.

We were right by research when we got ambushed, by what I could only presume was the entire fucking hive. I don't remember how many there was but after about two seconds of seeing the first crusher, there was another crusher, ravager and several others including the queen. I basically ordered a full haul ass, which we booked shit for the nearest LZ and by the time we found another squad to support us we were down to myself, the spec, and two rifles. I ended up getting sent to support one of the other squadrons because of our insanely reduced size, some point I ended up getting killed.

Just another day in the marine corps.

[manezinho]

The first (and last) time I was put in the role of a squad leader was in a mission on Ice Colony. My SL's fireteam went down underground before quickly being eaten up by the xenos. When I tried to speak to them, there was no response. The spec died with him and no one else took the role so I was put in charge. Me and my mini squad held the bar until a massive xeno force invaded. I held off some of them as my fellow marines started rushing to LZ1. I followed them soon after as a ravager almost got us. Once we reached LZ1 we were fighting xenos until the evac arrived. Most of our squad made it out alive, except for me IIRC.

Don't know if I'd ever put myself in that position again but it was fun.

[MisforMaster2005]

Well funny enough, my 1st time playing as a Marine was as an...

*SL*

Well, I didn't do that bad but I also wasn't that good...

[Crab_Spider]

I missed briefing and got my entire squad killed trying to get my handgun back.

[jalen earl]

First time SL

My spec went pred hunting 5 minutes into the mission and was never seen again. My engineer knew it all and didnt want to waste materials so he built majority of our defenses out of wood. He disappeared when he walked off alone to fix lights

smartgunner kept running in front of firing lines copping FF then was given an overdose by the medic who just spammed tricord and tramadol. Of my 4 other marines 2 wandered off to go on their own adventure KIA.

To top it off i got FF in the groin by my own marine with a buckshot and left to bleed out at table fort while they retreated.

10/10 would execute them all next time

[Heckenshutze]

Marine major, acted behind the lines and didn't had to waste more than two mags.

(Obviously I had like months playing before trying SL)

[Joe4444]

first time SL for me wasn't so bad, as CM as a hole was pretty small and new. I tried SL after, 4-5 days of playing grunt, when I decided to mix things up a bit. I was quite lucky, as my entire squad was competent and listened to orders and by sheer luck, my orders were semi decent.
we had FOB duty I think in arrivals.

[caleeb101]

getting everyone killed in style ayyyyyyyyyyyy