So you want to become a better commander for AI squads. Maybe you are stuck in campaign missions that require them, or maybe you're like me, constantly pestering Zeus for AI reinforcements without actually knowing what you're doing with them.

Well, before we go any further, there's one thing you need to accept:

That's not pessimism, it's just reality. Unless the mission creator made them invincible or bumped up their skill, there's a very high chance at least one of your men won't make it out alive. Since your AI are usually the same skill level as the enemy, they will typically get about 0-2 kills before going down themselves, unless you position them really well, which we will cover later.

You need to know how to open the command menu. Press the Tilde key (~).

Once it's open, you'll see a list of commands. This is your "Easy Access Menu", a quick reference for the most important orders, so I won't go into too much detail here.

You can select specific squad members using the Function Keys (F1-F12), or fn + 1-12 on certain computers.

Top Section - Basic Commands

This one requires you to be looking at something applicable.

If you have a squad member selected, the "Target" option appears by default.

If you have a Combat Life Saver and a teammate is injured, the "Treat" option appears. Be careful though, "Treat" is finicky. AI will stop moving to let the CLS heal them, but players often won't even realise it's happening, wasting your CLS's time and potentially getting him killed.

If you have a mechanic unit and a vehicle is on red damage levels, the "Repair" option appears. Same deal as "Treat", it works fine with AI, but players can knock over or kill your mechanic, or just waste their time.

Mines are a unique case. Instead of using "Interact", a new option appears underneath it. If you have AI with a Toolkit selected and there are active mines, "Deactivate mine" appears. AI are programmed to avoid spotted mines, so unless a teammate walks into them while they are working, they should be fine.

If you are looking at a vehicle, the option becomes "Get In". If a selected squad member is already inside, it changes to "Disembark".

Move There: Tells one or more squad members to move to a location while keeping formation with the highest numbered soldier. Near trees, rocks, buildings, and fences, you'll see lines showing where an AI is willing to reside. Lines are sometimes vertically shorter, representing crouching or prone cover.

Stop: Exactly what it says. Stops selected squad members from moving. Changes to "Regroup" when they are already stopped or out of formation.

Hold Fire / Open Fire: Toggled option. If told to hold fire, AI won't shoot and the option changes to Open Fire. If told to open fire, they will engage hostiles and the option changes to Hold Fire. AI in Hold Fire mode have a red, hollow square.

All options only appear when you are directly facing a squadmate with the menu open. You can select the unit you are facing and quickly tell them to Stop/Regroup or Hold Fire/Open Fire. Once selected independently, you can give them any command detailed further in this guide. Holding Control lets you select or deselect multiple units in your sight.

Team: Leads to the 9th menu of the Command Menu.

Support: Becomes "Injured" when you have taken damage. Lets you call out "Injured!"

Supports: Requires actual supports, which only exist if the mission maker used the Eden Editor's Support Requester and Support Provider modules. These have nothing to do with your squadmates, so I won't go deeper, you will know you have supports if you see icons on the left of the menu.

While holding the left Alt key, "Interact" and "Move There" are replaced by "Suppressive Fire" and "Watch There".

Suppressive Fire - covered in Section 3.

Watch There - tells a unit to watch a specific spot. Useful for controlling a doorway.

Press 1 while the Command Menu is open to access Movement commands.

1: Return to Formation - Same as "Regroup." You can spam ->1->1 to hear your guy shout "Return to formation!" and "Regroup!" repeatedly, but this hinders combat since your squad can't relay info properly.

2: Advance - Squadmates advance further in your current formation, staying in formation but ahead of the group.

3: Stay Back - The opposite of Advance.

4: Flank Left - Advance, but to your left flank. Good for covering more ground.

5: Flank Right - Advance, but to your right flank. Same idea.

6: Stop - Stops your soldiers from moving.

7: Find Cover - Squadmates break formation and find cover, preferably in building Positions or against objects. If none are nearby, they will crouch or go prone.

8: Next Waypoint - Squadmates advance to the assigned objective waypoint. Reckless if hostiles are nearby.

2 - The Targeting Menu

Simpler than most.

1: No Target - Cancels any specific targeting, including Attack Targets, Scan Horizon, and Watch.

2-9 - Usually taken up by spotted enemies you and your squad are aware of. Targeting tells your squadmate to fire at that specific thing as long as it's in line of sight. Useful for AT soldiers focusing on vehicles, but risky if they're exposed to other enemies.

0: More - Leads to more options, or if you've gone through all hostiles, brings up another menu with more attack options. You can target friendlies, items on the ground, etc. Useful if you have a TKer, but beware, players are usually marked by their spawn role.

To get them to actually shoot friendlies willingly, you need the next menu.

3 - The Engagement Menu

Controls the squad's combat abilities.

1: Open Fire / 2: Hold Fire - As discussed. Hold Fire means they won't shoot and will tell you when they have a target. Open Fire means they will automatically engage.

3: Fire - Tells squadmates to fire, even on Hold Fire mode. Useful for AT soldiers or non hostile targets.

4: Engage - Once you have targeted an enemy, the men targeting him will stand still in Formation until told to engage. Once they are, they will manoeuvre around cover to hunt down their target, kill them, then return to Formation.

5: Engage at Will - Like Engage, but you don't need to specifically tell them each time. As long as it's active, your men will hunt down whoever you tell them to kill.

6: Disengage - Squadmates stop hunting their target and return to their previous movement task.

7: Scan Horizon - Selected squadmate turn at a consistent rate, looking for enemies in all horizontal directions. Great with Prowler or Qilin guns!

8: Watch Direction - Tell squadmates to watch a specific direction: North, Northeast, East, Southeast, South, Southwest, West, Northwest.

9: Suppressive Fire - Picky, Requirements:

Has to be in Open Fire.

Must be visible to AI squadmate

You must be directly targeting

Look at a spot, tell them to suppress, and they will fire on that location, making sure no enemies can pass through without risk. Plus, you get to hear your guy shout "Suppressing!" at the top of his lungs.

4 - The Mount Menu

Easily the simplest section. So simple that just two images can explain the entire menu.

5 - The Status Menu

Not much for controlling AI directly, it even appears when you are not in a squad or not a squad leader, but still relevant.

1: Call Support - Eden Editor, specific. Honestly, don't bother.

2: Fuel Low - Inform people you are low on fuel. AI can't do much about that.

3: Ammo Low - Inform people you are low on ammo. AI can't do much either

4: Injured - Inform people you are low on health. AI can actually do something. If you have a CLS, your character will automatically tell him to heal you. Remember to sit still.

5: SITREP - Call for a situation report. AI will report their grid positions and whether they are injured.

6: I'm Under Fire - Inform people you are being shot at. AI already know, so it's useless for this guide.

7: One Less - Inform people you killed an enemy.

8: ...is Down - Inform people a selected squad member is dead. You will report this automatically anyway if an AI doesn't respond to a SITREP or you see their corpse, so don't worry about it.

6 - The Action Menu

Probably the most complicated menu to take advantage of. There are so many options that change based on your situation that specifying numbers is impossible. The general premise is "Actions the player can perform using the scroll wheel," like reloading a specific magazine. It also includes "Sit Down" and "Salute", both requiring your units to be in Safe Mode and not in Formation.

Here are the most useful commands:

Treat / Repair - Same as the Easy Access Menu, but without looking at a target. Telling an AI with a First Aid Kit or a mechanic AI with a Toolkit to Treat or Repair is fully possible here. You can even tell them to heal themselves or an ally without looking!

Telling AI to heal "Soldier" is most likely telling them to heal a player. If the player walks away, it wastes a First Aid Kit and possibly gets the AI killed. Communicate with your teammates.

Open Subordinate's Inventory - Useful for rearranging an AI's inventory, like applying or removing suppressors. Functionally identical to Scenario missions' "Inventory" command in the Team section of the map.

Inventory - Causes the AI to find a nearby entity with an accessible inventory. Once they interact, the menu appears and you can have them pick up items you deem beneficial.

Arsenal - Yes, you can tell AI to use the Arsenal, but they need to be close enough. 

Note: scripted Arsenals don't work properly with AI, the Arsenal goes to you instead. Only normal Arsenals, non scripted Full Arsenals, and M9 SD's green AIO Arsenal work correctly.

7 - The Combat Mode Menu

Basic stances and combat awareness. These have a big impact on how combat plays out.

1: Stealth - AI crouch and go prone more, move one at a time, barely keep formation, and only fire when certain they can hit.

2: Combat - AI search around cover for enemies but maintain Formation when possible. They are very willing to pull the trigger, ideal for combat zones.

3: Aware - Default mode. AI stay in Formation and are ready for combat.

4: Safe - AI don't care about Formation, walk instead of run, and only jog if needed to catch up. Best for standing by, far from battle.

6: Stand Up - AI stays standing, no matter what.

7: Stay Crouched - AI stays crouched, no matter what.

8: Go Prone - AI stays prone, no matter what.

9: Automatic Stance - AI chooses their own stance. Can be detrimental in open areas.

All that capitalising of the F in Formation finally paid off!

Explaining every individual Formation would be a hassle. they are fairly self explanatory. 

One major point, changing Formation changes the direction of your Formation, which helps with Movement commands.

My favourite Formation is Diamond, if you were wondering.

Not as useless as one might think. Great for larger squad commanding.

This assigns AI to team colours, letting you move groups separately and conveniently.

Assign Team - ->9->1/2/3/4/5 or ->Team->1/2/3/4/5 in the Easy Access Menu.

Team Selection - ->9->9->1/2/3/4/5 or ->Team->9->1/2/3/4/5. Comes with specific voicelines.

With squad members selected, Ctrl + F1-F5 assigns them to a team. Shift + F1-F5 selects them. Very convenient.

The menu I don't have to talk about, but I will, because I would feel wrong if I didn't.

These responses have nothing to do with AI communication and are better for talking to actual people. AI use them frequently to inform you of their actions, so pay attention.

Most of the list is obvious, so I will cover the bottom three:

Supports - Same as the Supports menu in Section 5.

Custom - Scripting required. Too complicated for me.

Radio - Not sure, but probably scenario scripting.

AI in vehicles try to follow your formation. Best used when your AI are in vehicles following your vehicle. Set formation to File and drive, AI will follow based on the driver's position. Works with helicopters and rotor wing drones assigned to your squad. Helicopter placement in formation isn't usually worth worrying about.

Finicky, especially when you aren't flying for them.

They only take off if given a Move order ~50 meters away.

They only land if given a Disembark order. Best landing sites are helipads, AI automatically search for the nearest one within a radius.

Landing AI is buggy, but this usually doesn't matter for players since disembarking solves the problems. It matters more for Zeus, who might want to keep AI in the helicopter.

When given a Target order, AI usually need to be told to Engage for the helicopter to move. Engagement depends heavily on the target, a CLS won't engage a tank; a PO-30 Orca with 7.62mm Miniguns won't engage a tank; but a PO-30 Orca with DARs will.

All helicopter AI struggles with strafe runs and tends to use movement patterns that get them shot down before they can fire.

Even harder than helicopters.

They automatically take off if not set to Safe behavior.

They only land if given a Disembark order. They always land at the nearest applicable runway, which could be kilometres away. If that's too far, tell them to Eject.

When given a Target order, they need to be told to Engage for the plane to move. AI planes have better movement patterns than helicopters, but strafe accuracy isn't great.

The worst in the game. I genuinely advise against using them.

Pathfinding in water is extremely poorly developed.

Disembarking usually goes badly, you will end up with a boat stuck on shore or AI in the water.

The only practical use for an AI driven boat is a tactical play, a Speedboat watching the shoreline of a coastal objective.

Haven't bothered with the SDV, but I doubt it's useful. On the bright side, if AI are using it, they hopefully have wetsuits, so underwater disembarking won't be a major concern.

Pathfinding on the Destroyer and Carrier is atrocious. AI find ways to fall through, off, and within the ship. If you're like me and ask Zeus for AI a lot, avoid Ship Missions.

AI in all vehicles can be told to Rearm, Repair, and Refuel at corresponding stations or vehicles via the Action menu. They will drive or fly there and use the service, taking the same time as players.

Heads up, the Action menu also allows AI to use the Arsenal if they are close enough. Also, for the Movement menu, a better way to frame Advance, Stay Back, Flank Left, and Flank Right is to think of the squad leader's position as the centre of a grid. The Advance command tells selected AI to move one grid square ahead of you but stay in formation from that new grid. Understanding this lets you create more advanced formations, like a proper diamond with two guys in front, behind, left, and right of the squad leader, about 25m out. This greatly increases the squad leader's capabilities and can't be overstated. 80% of good squad leading comes from the Movement menu and good positioning.