Six Days in Fallujah – How to Reduce Your Chances of Dying

First this is a real guide not a meme or a troll. If you find you are dying very fast in game, these are some things you can do to reduce the chances of that.

Guide to Reduce Your Chances of Dying

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Movement

The first thing you need to understand is how to maneuver around a battlefield in as safe and effective manner as possible.

Move from Cover to Cover

Cover is something solid that stops small arms fire. Concealment is something that prevents an enemy from seeing you but will not stop bullets. It is possible for something to be both or just one. Plywood is great concealment, but terrible cover. Cinder blocks are degradable cover, meaning it might stop some rounds before falling apart. Do not linger too long behind it because it can and will break down after some hits.

Look at where your next cover is before you start moving. Not knowing where you are less likely to get shot by penetrating rounds is never a good idea. Even if you have great cover in mind you need to make sure you have some backup locations spotted in case you can not reach that cover you planned on going to.

Concealment is better than nothing most of the time. Yes cover is king but concealment is better than just standing out in the open with your stuff swinging in the breeze.

If you can not find good cover at least breaking line of sight with potential locations a hostile may be can keep an enemy guessing where you went.

Move as a unit

It may go against all your COD instincts but a man alone is a dead man. You NEED someone to watch your back. Running off on your own is a great way to die very quickly.

There is a reason every branch of the US military hammers this into recruits. If you are playing solo do your best to keep cover behind you at all times. You are still going to be in for a rough time.

As a unit move with focus and purpose

Knowing where your unit is going will help you determine movement order and direction. If there is a building you need to breach, who is going in first? Second and third? A wide open area needs to be treated as a dangerous area. Your fire team needs to move with caution across these areas. The two methods I know of covering a danger crossing are leap frog and rapid. Leap frog is your best bet for keeping as many of your people out of danger at once as possible. It is also much slower.

In this image unit one moves, teams 2 and 3 are providing overwatch and shooting at anything that engages unit 1 as them move. Then unit 2 moves while units 1 and 3 provide covering fire if needed. Finally unit 3 gets to move while units 1 and 2 provide overwatch. You would repeat this process until everyone clears the danger crossing.

Rapid movement is more or less sprint and pray. This should be your last resort as it exposes the entire fire team to attack all at once. You should only do this as a last resort if something catastrophic is happening. An example would be you have 100 hostiles rapidly approaching your position from the rear. In a case like that you need to get distance between your team and the enemy before you get overran.

Stay near armor

If there is an armored vehicle moving down the road stay about 2-3 arms lengths away from it on either the rear or sides. That armor is much greater than anything you can wear and it will stop small arms fire. If you start to get engaged you can maneuver around the vehicle to use it as cover and return fire. Why are you staying so far away from the vehicle then? Because if somebody starts shooting explosives at the vehicle you do not want to get hit with flying shrapnel. This brings up the next point.

Do not hug walls

Walls are great for cover but if a hostile engages you at an acute angle you have a chance of catching a ricochet or shrapnel from impacts that missed you. There is also the possibility for rabbit rounds. These are bullets or shrapnel that hits the wall and rides down the wall before they run out of momentum.

Those parts of the bullet in this image can travel further than you might think, and can still do a lot of damage. Keeping at least an arms length away from a wall is a good habit to get into.

Learning to “Cut the pie” will save your life

Cutting the pie means you are shaving off sections of a corner as you go around it. The idea is for you to slice off sections as you move the corner.

This allows you to see a contact before they see you if you are doing it deliberately enough. Again at LEAST one arms length away from the wall is the best way to slice off those sections of the pie. Further away gives you better slices and improves the odds of you seeing an enemy before you get spotted.

Enter doorways slow and fast

Wait what? I know it sounds like a contradiction, doorways are known as the funnel of death in combat. Lingering in one can be fatal, because you can be shot from inside AND outside the door.

If at all possible you need to check the left and right corners of a door before you put your body though the doorway. You should cut the pie as said above if possible. Going side to side before you even enter the door gives you a chance to asses how hard it is going to be to enter the door way. Is it blocked on one side? Is there another opening you did not see on first pass? Is there cover inside the entrance? Once you have determined your entry path commit to it and move through the doorway quickly while maintaining control of your weapon.

Engaging Hostiles

I know enough of this moving around crap how do I mow enemies down is what you may be asking.

Use the correct fire mode

Depending on what you are armed with your weapon may have variable fire rates. The standard issued M16-A2 rifle has single fire and select-able burst fire. At close and sometimes medium ranges burst fire is great for getting ammo into targets. Targets at longer distances should always be engaged with single fire. Burst fire will throw at least 2 of the 3 rounds above your target if you are not aiming low center mass at longer distances, even then odds are really high you will still only hit with two out of the three rounds. Rapidly firing burst fire may be fun but it also wastes lots of ammo.

Get Positive IDentification (PID) of your targets

In this game as of writing there are only hostiles and no civilians. So why is PID important? Because you have other military personnel on your side you need to worry about killing. As of right now if you are playing solo then you do not have to worry about this at all. However if you are playing multiplayer not confirming your target is how you end up killing squad members.

Aim carefully

Aiming with your front sight post much like burst fire is good at close and SOME medium ranges. It is quick and snappy and will put your rounds with moderate accuracy at your target. The rear sight is where you will get the best accuracy but it also is slightly slower to raise up to eye-line.

The faster you fire the worse the recoil

Recoil if left unchecked will have your rounds landing everywhere but on your target. Never underestimate how strong recoil can move you off target and into the ceiling or sky. Always keep how strong your recoil will be in mind.

Controlled burst of single fire shots are best for getting more bullets into that enemy instead of the terrain around them. Wildly firing as fast as you can will waste lots of ammo on nothing.

Use Call-Outs

There is in-game voice coms, use them!

Tell your team members what you are doing.

Provided you are playing with other people it is important to call out what actions you are taking. Example of this include but are not limited to:

• “Engaging hostile!”
• “Opening door.”
• “Clearing right/left.”
• “Leaving/entering room.”
• “Climbing wall.”
• “Reloading.”

Letting people know what you are doing will benefit you and your team. People can provide you help and protection if you are doing something that makes you vulnerable.

Announce the status of contacts

It is important to tell team members if you see someone who wants to shoot at you. If you are not able to stop the threat on first contact it is important for you team that they know what is going on.

“Three contacts blue building up top!”

Number, general location, and specific spot all given in a few seconds can be vital to the safety your team.

In Conclusion

Moving with purpose, calling out your actions/observations, aiming with care, and controlling your recoil will greatly increase your odds of survival.

But I still keep dying I can hear some of you saying. Yes… Yes you are. It is possible to do everything 100% right and by the book and still take a random round that kills you. All I am telling you are the ways to mitigate as much risk as possible. In war nothing is guaranteed except someone will die, the best thing you can do is make sure it is the other guy.