When too much is not enough…

The bigger team should give you more support and provide protection to its members. This would be the first idea of Russian style warfare we might think. Over a few thousands of hours spent with team play in Tarkov, I would say that a well-organised duo or trio is more dangerous than two squads of five members without proper cooperation skills. Often your teammate is the worst enemy you will meet on the battlefield due to wrong positioning, callout or simply misinterpretation. It’s extremely hard to make a squad of five well aware of team members and their doings even for very experienced players. I know many people who don’t even play in such big groups due to how challenging it becomes. People can be on different levels of knowing the maps, callouts or game in general. In my opinion, the best way to start is a trio. The natural question is “but why?”. 

Three players in one team it’s like driving a bike with a spare tire on your back – just in case. When the first minesweeper will find his final destination, his teammates can toss his gear and carry on with the journey towards extract. Communication in smaller groups is easier due to the amount of “noise” and information which teammates need to deal with. It is easier to keep track of members of the team as well as recognizing their gear and clothes.

In the case of the trio, each member is having less of the territory to observe. Where two players should cover 180 degrees each in the perfect scenario, every member of the trio team has only 120 degrees to take care of. It is much easier to move and clear locations where task are predetermined due to loadout or choice of a teammate. The team should have a good awareness of its member’s individual predispositions, strong and week sides.

The trio can play psychological games with enemies. By dressing members of the team in the same gear, you can trick enemy from recognizing the true size of your group. Until they cant see all of you at the same time they will have a hard time to find out how many of you there is. This technique is more advanced and requires practice and map knowledge but it is very effective and puts a lot of chaos in the enemy team. Just make sure that you move from cover to cover and only one teammate at the time. This will puzzle even advanced players and give you the advantage of surprise.