So you've bought Red Orchestra 2/Rising Storm (RO2 and RS). Congratulations. Now, I will tell you now, if you have been playing Call of Duty and want to keep playing the same way, then you're in for a terrible time and will be hated upon. That's just how this game works. You adapt quickly or you die and receive abuse from the more aggressive veterans. Unfortunately, the tutorial for RO2 is not as in depth as the game really needs it to be, and covers nothing more than basic movement or squad commands.

Now as a new player you must understand that the class you should probably use to familuarise yourself with is the RIFLEMAN class, because they are versatile and there can be up to 30 per team. Leave the advanced classes like Assault, Marksman/Sniper or Machine Gunner to more battle hardened players for your first 10 or so games. Play until you know the difference between crouching and taking cover. Also remember that if you play ALLIES (Americans or Russians) then you teammates will be sprinting with their weapon and hold it with 2 hands. Don't shoot these people. If you play AXIS (Germans and Japanese) then your fellow countrymen will sprint Blitzkrieg style, holding their weapon with only one hand. Again, refrain from playing catch the shiny bullet with these people.

Ok so you've played 10 games and feel comfortable with your weapons, give some other classes a go.

Well done. Congrats. 10/10.

The Team Leader. Use your brain here, there's only 1 spot for the TL, because 1 is all you should need. A squad leader is not a team leader, they know this and should not be barking orders at the team. They should be doing their jobs and throwing smoke and getting close to objectives.
It is your job to tell the squad leaders what to do, where to go, and support them. You are the eyes of the entire team, and you have the added abilities to instantly spawn dead players in waves, and call in artillery. These will be covered later on in the guide.

Do's

Get a headset with a mic. Or at least a mic. You will be ten times better if you can speak to your team instead of typing out your commands. Typing means you will be losing time looking at your keyboard, so you can't see what's going on or if your targets have moved. Headsets are important and if you don't have one I advise not going team leader.

Coordinate with your team and squad leaders. Tell them what the battlefield looks like. Tell them where to go. Tell them when to stop or to avoid an MG or Tank. Tell them you want them to hold their position and launch a large attack. Tell them to flank this way and that way. Not everyone will comply, but in most cases enough will that it will affect the battle.

Give grid coordinates. If there is a tank at G6, tell your team. Everyone has a map (M) and can look to see where it is. Order your anti-tank gunners to that location. Order your men, it's your job, and their job to listen. This is a heavy team game, and one person cannot carry a team.

Stay at a radio when you have artillery and aerial recon available. This will allow you to use abilities whenever you need to, and you will always be able to see where your men are. Direct them from here. It is however very useful to advance forward so that you are closer to the battle. You do have 2 smoke grenades and don't be afraid to pop out of your radio hole and use them. Some maps have very long cooldowns for abilities (some up to 6 minutes) so if you've used them all then screw it you may aswell join the fun and mow down enemies with your crew! If you do choose to move radios, tell your team.

Use a sub machine gun, like the PPSH, MP40, Thompson or Type 99. You should only really be shooting at an enemy if they sneak into your radio room, and rifles aren't always the best at close range. An automatic weapon can also give you a reliable tool to use if you need to cover advancing troops, just aim and hold down the trigger, you don't need to be accurate, just make the enemy hit the dirt. If they're too busy hiding then they can't kill your men.

If you can, use a squad leaders artillery marker. This will still earn you kill points and possibly team points, and it will also earn the squad leader assist points. Just be a nice guy and help someone level their class.

A Team Leader also provides cap bonuses in attack and defence, so if the objective is in the balance, move into it.

Dont's

Call artillery on your areas. Teamkilling on a massive scale is going to get you hate and kicked.

Call artillery on top of an objective. It will kill your men taking it, and seeing as a lot of objectives are inside buildings, you will just bomb the roof and do nothing.

Run into the front lines or into the open every spawn. You're not an assault class, nor a rifleman. If you die then you lose all air support and artillery for the duration of your spawn timer and the time it takes you to run to a radio. Instead, stay back a little bit, not too far that you're out of the fight, but close enough that you can provide smoke cover and team bonuses. Being able to fire at the enemy yet still being safe enough to run for a radio will enable you to effectively get kills but also helps provide swift and accurate artillery and support.

Don't insult your team for screwing up. They're players on a game having a good time. Some will want to win, and you're there to help them. So be nice and they will respond to you.
However be disciplined. Swear a bit as well, not at them, but about the objectives. Example
"Get in the cap zone you ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ useless ♥♥♥♥♥" is not what you should say.
"Get in that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ communist cap zone everyone! For the Fatherland!!" Is what you should say (as Germans because political correctness is half the battle).

The Mindset

You must have it in your mind that you may not get a high score, or get many kills. Your time could be spent behind a radio looking at a map, not gunning down fascist scum in hallways. This is not always the case, some maps you can get a lot of kills from guns/grenades, and other maps don't have radios available until certain objectives are taken. You must agree with yourself that you have the patience and strategic ability to stare at a map (M) for minutes at a time, speaking into a mic and possibly filling the role of Commander for several maps in a row. Remember though, that if you play in conjunction with squad leaders then your score has the potential to be extremely high. My highest was a score of 417 team points with 52 kill points because I called artillery on squad leader targets and gave orders that were followed. It can be done and it can be very beneificial.

You can also be extremely useful to your team's score by simply being near them. Any team member who kills an enemy while near you will receive a protection bonus. Every point helps.

With this in your brain, let's review your abilities and what you should do with them, when and for how long.

Ok so remember to stay at your radio to use abilities, it makes them far more useful. I think you can use Force Respawn anywhere you'd like, but being at a Radio is essential for good team communication, calling in artillery and stuff like that.

The Team Leader has 6 abilities at their disposal:
Force Respawn
Aerial Recon
Mortars
Artillery
Rocket/Naval Barrage
Cancel Artillery

Some maps will have all of these available, but some will not. It depends on the map size and whether or not you're playing a custom game.

Force Respawn: Does what you'd think, it instantly respawns all the dead team members currently in the spawn que. It is worth doing this if you have a lot of dead team members and the timer for spawn is reasonably long; e.g. if there were 14 dead team members and the timer was at 16 seconds. Good time to use it. A bad time would be if there were 4 dead team members with 5 seconds to go. This is a bit of a waste. You may however, be forced to use it if there is an objective that is hanging in the balance between being taken or lost, use this ability then without second thought. Finally you may also want to force spawn your Tank player if there is one available, because a well used Tank can change the game.

Aerial Recon: Calls in a plane that circles the battlefield, showing all enemy units on your map (M). Very useful when used just before artillery because you can hit the larger groups of enemies. Now, it is important to communicate here. When you see bunches of enemies, tell your team. "There are over 5 enemies at grid coordinates G6" will let your team know where to keep their guard up. Trust me it can save lives, as anyone near that area will be more cautious, so they won't be sprinting around corners or reloading in the open. Tell people where enemy Tanks and Snipers are as well, and tell squad leaders to remark their artillery. Give them preferred areas, and tell squad leaders with out-of-date markers to move them as well. Use this ability whenever you can, but if your artillery is nearly finished cooling down then save it for use with that.

Artillery: To call in artillery, equip your binoculars (5) and look through them (right click) Then place your marker (left click). On your map and the squad leader's maps you will see YELLOW smoke icons with an indicator of who placed it (TL, SL1, SL2 etc). When you select your preferred target, it will turn GREEN. Make sure to consider buildings and teammates, and always tell your team where your artillery is. If the enemy calls in arty, inform your team you did NOT call it in, therefore stay away.

Mortars: The basic arty, it fires 6 salvos of small explosive mortars over a medium area in quick succession. Useful for suppressing and taking out bunched infantry. Ineffective against enemy armour. Never call this down on buildings, it is a waste. A great place to call it is behind the enemy's defensive objective, or in front of your defensive objective. It will kill enemies that are trying to enter the cap zone to attack/defend.

Artillery: The middle artillery, it fires 6 salvos of moderate explosive rockets over a larger area. Useful for placing on areas that you want covered. Average against enemy armour. If your team is advancing up, place some on the right or left flanks just ahead of them for eliminate any enemies on the sides. It can also be used the same way as Mortars and be used to take out large groups of infantry.

Rocket/Naval Barrage: The heaviest artillery available, it fires one massive salvo of high explosive bombs over a huge area. Useful for hitting the enemy positions before advancing due to its high shock-and-awe effect potential to kill enemies and suppress, and its ability to destroy cover. Can destroy enemy armour. If you're about to charge an enemy position, place this baby if it is available to you. Tell your team to hold position until it is finished, and have squad leaders throw smoke. It works very well.

Cancel Artillery: Does what you'd expect, stops the currect bombardment. Use this if your artillery isn't doing anything or if it is killing your team mates.

So that's the basics of being a Team Leader, how you should think and what to do, what not to do, your abilities and a general idea of where and how to use them.

As you play the game you will improve and learn this stuff yourself, and find out of TL is a class you enjoy playing or not.

Thanks for reading this guide, hope it has helped you. I have a lot of experience playing as TL, and have Hero status for it. I tend to win 9/10 games by using these strategies and having good communication. Have even been gifted Orcs Must Die 2 by a loving player for winning 7 games straight.... :)

If you have any questions drop a comment in the section dedicated to comments. Makes sense right?