I'm Captain Flakk (otherwise known as Danvern or The Blue Baron), your friendly Geneva-convention-protected instructor today. I write this guide in the hopes of teaching newer players how to cease constant death, mediocre players how to improve, average players a reference, and seasoned players a place to (hopefully) share their veteran knowledge and improve the Empires community as a whole. The end goal of course is to eliminate the need for commonly asked newbie questions and elevate everyone to a somewhat even playing field, making the game more fun and hopefully integrating some members who would otherwise be hopelessly confused.

This guide has been formatted according to a very simple and easy to understand pattern which should allow for easy reference and the minimization of incidents involving misunderstanding of the presented information. Each entry typically follows a standard, steamlined format:

• Object Name
  
• Brief Description
  
• Statistics
  
• Tactics
  
• Really Important Points (RIP ~ That's you if you disregard these)

Object Name
The in-game name of the weapon/skill/class I am referring two, the code/kill name may also be provided in parenthsis () after the actual name if available.
Brief Description
The game description plus an informational tibit regarding personal observations about the weapon's performance. Comparisons will be made.
Statistics
Numerical statistics if/when available.
Tactics
Ways to use the weapon to your advantage, skill combinations, strategies, situations it is useful in, and other random quips not directly related to the weapon only.
Really Important Points
Things not to do, and things to always do.

Abbreviations/Terminology
I also like to use abbreviations, for brevity of course. Which is why anything of the sort shall be documented here for the non-inclined to make sense of my word-slicing madness.

• RIP - Really Important Points ~ My way of stating rules or tips you should always adhere to unless you know exactly what you are doing while breaking them; even then please consider why they are listed as such.

Here is where the many, many revisions of the guide shall be listed for posterity.

• 0.1.0 - Initital Release - Introduction, Versioning, and the offense section of General Pointers completed. Need sleep. Interested in community response/desire for a guide of this sort.

Ah yes, the section I always seem to find missing on quite a sizable amount of guides, the ability to actually hit a target. Yes, yes some of you, pro-CoD-MLG-360-noscope-180-freezecam-aimbotters may disagree that a section like this is needed, but for the rest of us I believe a refresher on the basic principles of 'Killing Things and Not Dying' would be a useful anecdote for the murderously-challenged.
This section of the guide focuses on three things: Offense - or flanking, aiming, and sucessfully killing targets to earn points and glory on the scoreboard, Defense - or how not to become Imperial Guard fodder under enemy fire, and Coordination - or working with others to ensure everyone does not die a horrible, bloody, rage inducing death from a single Grenadier.

• Burst Fire - To stress how valuable mastering burst fire is would be to take a bus and convey the importance of using the breaks when approaching a moving train. In long range, medium range, and even short range engagements the ability to maintain a controlled, closely aimed cone of fire to the vulnerable regions of a target (IE The Head) always proves to be more important than a higher rate of fire afforded by mindlessly firing away and hoping something dies before you inevitably collapse. Not only do you save ammunition (important in the age of inattentive newbie engineers) and therefor have to reload less often, but you also have an advantagous position in downing multiple targets in one clip, being exposed for a lesser amount of time, a shorter response time due to not having to wait for the reticle for reset, and a sense of pride and accomplisment in your newly found marksmanship skills. To be perfectly honest, there is no reason not to, save for extreme face to face close-quarters where maximum firerate can actually hit something.
  
• Headshots - While we are on the subject of accuracy and saving ammunition, all players should always try to practice their headshots, regardless of their class, weapon, or blood toxicity level. Think about it this way, the faster you down a target, the less damage you take, the more ammunition you have in your clip, the faster you can respond, and the more your teammates can support you since that rifleman was not able to empty his clip into the squad revive engineer. Burst for the head people, burst for the head.
  
• Most Projectiles Hit Instantly - This is Source, not ARMA or Planetside. The graphics may give a different impression, but aiming ahead with your Ranged SMG will only net you confused comments and a 0 killstreak.
  
• Attack With Initiative - Now this may seem slightly less obvious in the heat of the moment, but let me give an example: Person A is an Engineer with a Ranged SMG, Person B is a Rifleman with an Assault Rifle. Say A and B engage eachother out of cover in a relatively flat plain, if both players are at least semi-competent marksmen it is easy to see the Rifleman winning from a damage perspective. Now, say A comes out of cover with B having to turn 90 degrees to face A after being hit by initial fire. With the advantage of the first hits on the target, A now has a much better chance at defeating the now weakened and suprised opponent. Do not fire from the same spot twice in a row, try to keep your firing spots unpredictable, and you too can leave your foes reeling as they are beset upon from unexpected angles; giving you enough time to hopefully secure the kill.
  
• You Do Not Have to Kill a Target in One Engagement - If you are running low on a clip and think you have to close in to CQC range to finish that enemy grenadier, think twice before you charge into your death. While finishing the kill is certainly beneficial, it is wise to consider whether repositioning puts your opponent in a position to finish you versus you finishing them. Common traps to consider can be as simple as other enemy combatants being ready to ambush anyone who pursues the wounded soldiers, to mines, to a NF pistol-shotgun to the face. Always consider what suprises your enemy may have before running to oblivion.

• Remember the Value of Your Life - Again, this may sound rather obvious, but you should never be throwing your life away into a grinder of sorts because of frustration or trying to win a war of attrition. Besides giving the enemy points (important) and wasting tickets (RIP - don't be the guy who causes sudden death), there are also a number of other factors to account for in these situations:
  
  • Response Time - The important of not dying is directly proportional to the amount of time it will take for you to rise from the grave and return to your original or a similarly useful position. Think of it this way: You are fighting for the second refinery spot west of main base. You die without a revive engineer nearby, because you were the revive engineer. Not only does it take 10 seconds to respawn, but maybe 15 seconds to reach the location in a jeep, probablly 40 if you do not have a vehicle factory; in total 25 to 50 seconds. In that time, the rest of your squad could be murdered by a Proski-Broski rifleman, the refinery captured, a barracks built, and an entirely different problem which could have been prevented by your presence.
    
  • Important Roles - As stated in the above example, a squad with a dead revive engineer is at a small disadvantage when it comes to encounters. Likewise the only grenadier dying when an enemy medium tank is eating your men does not bode well for anyone either. Balance your exposure to sudden and preventable death according to how badly the situation would be affected by you dying, and let other expendable people die first.
    
  • Sitting in a Corner (or vehicle factory) Doing Nothing is Objectively the Same as Dying, Giving the Enemy an Extra Man, and Feeding them Points at the Same Time - The purpose of this section is to make you think about death, not to create a cowering fool out of you.
    
  • Stay Mobile - An important principle for offensive action as well, your goal in combat is to ideally keep your enemy from knowing exactly from where you are going to emerge, and as such it is important to not remain in the same place for 5000 years of total war. Even if it is a simple reposition to a position flanking your current one, as long as your enemy cannot run around a corner and know exactly where you are, you have accomplished this goal.
    
  • Mortars and Grenades Exist - So do not hug your squadmates in a giant point-ball and expect not to be killed all at once in a horrible, explosion filled death. In an ideal scenario, everyone should be setup so they are covering each other in arcs of fire, ready to engage any target deeming itself a threat from multiple angles; but for simplicity just try to stay a wall's length away from everyone else unless you have a very good (and hopefully temporary) reason for doing so.

• Communication - If you have a mic, use it. If you do not have a mic, improve your typing speed so you can send messages without getting yourself murdered. There is a reason information warfare is a real military concept, and that reason is just as applicable here as it is in the field.
  As for what is important enough to communicate, it often relies on your team's or squad's particular situation; however there are some generally important things which warrant attention:
  
  Entire Team
  • New Enemy Constructions - See a barracks going up, mark it and shout it out. Proxy structures often either lead to standoffs, steamrolls, or as hopefully in your case, a waste of 200 funds for the enemy team.
    
  • APCs/Jeeps - APCs pillage bases and assasinate commanders. Jeeps sabotage bases, raid refineries, and if the game is pancake-stacked, squad revive a ton of engineers in your base and subsequently level it. If you see one of these beelining in the general direction of your base, try to get as much attention onto it as possible before it becomes a bigger problem.
    
  • New Vehicles - Did the enemy start building mediums? Heavies? Nukes or biological warheads? Try to keep your team informed about the enemy's particular vehicular tactics so your tank commanders can alter their builds to better resist or counter their tactics.
    
  • Sneak Attacks/Enemies in Base -
    
  • Sneak Attacks/Enemies in Base - See a barracks going up, mark it and shout it out.