Yo what’s up?

Wasn’t expecting me, was youse?

Anyway, take this situation; it’s a lazy Saturday afternoon. All your homework (assuming you get homework) and chores are done, and you don’t enjoy just lazing around. So you fire up TF2, but there’s no one to play “competitively” with; only pubs around. Sure, they’re fun, but you don’t feel like it, plus you’d like to try and get a little better, which ain’t gonna happen there. What’s one to do?

Here’s a couple suggestions for Soldiers. And maybe Demomen.

BBall

Maybe you’ve heard of it, maybe not. Just to be on the safe side, I’ll explain in detail.

ctf_bball is a deathmatch sort of game, meant to be played 2 on 2, but also works with 1 on 1 (gets boring more easily) or 3 on 3 (more spammy). You’re in a basketball court with only moderate-height walls to jump off, and the objective is to land the flag in the enemy net. You run Soldier or Demoman, with a max of one Demoman. Simple no?

But what’s stopping people from playing something other than those two classes? Nothing, but people, which is alright, since most people who look for bball servers are in a similar mindset. It’s that simple really.

Training includes playing with other good sollys and demomen, and it helps airshots (the enemy needs jumping to score). You could also play scout, though only FaN scouts can reach the net, and it’s pretty iffy. It also helps walljumping (based off long jumps rather than height jumps) and airstrafing (scoring).

There’s a few dedicated bball servers that aren’t locked, plus some regular servers have it on the map list; type “ctf_bball” into the map choice for a collection. UC servers #2 and #3 also have it, although you’ll need an admin to start it. Typical etiquette includes no using sticky bombs to attack, and to a lesser extent, the shotgun is discouraged.

On the subject, there are two different maps that follow the style. One is ctf_pro_bball.

It improves over the original in a few, most notably a shoot-through backboard which prevents people from cheaply knocking you off scoring by shooting it. There’s also ctf_ballin, which is about the same as pro_bball, but a little prettier, and doesn’t limit you to 3 captures. Both look much better than plain ctf_bball though. Give ‘em a run.

Ammomod

This is my personal favorite.

Basically, you fight in an arena against one other person, as either Soldier or Demoman. The map can be a plain room, or based on a notable portion of a stock map, like Gravel Pit’s tower, Badlands Spire, Granary’s mid point, etc..
Both are given 1600 health and unlimited ammo. First one to go down loses.

It’s really simple, but the added health and ammo gives you plenty of room to practice without having to respawn after a few shots. There’s a few servers dedicated to it around; for example, in the US:
- Clan Vortex – 67.212.189.186:27093
- Exodus Society – 216.52.148.129:27015

I mostly go to thenoid’s ammomod, which is at 67.202.71.165:27015. You’ll probably run into some really good players if you do run by, so the best advice I can give is don’t go in expecting to do well.

And if you ever run into Solid Snake, do yourself a favor and have a key bound to “explode.”

Spireking

Spireking is like ghetto ammomod for soldiers – like ammomod, it’s 1v1. There’s a badlands spire in the center of the map, and both players battle for control of the top, where there’s a control point. Unlike ammomod, though, you start with 200 health, but you’re continually resupplied with full ammo and health every 4 seconds. That means that to score a kill, you need to deal out 200 damage in 4 seconds. What better way to do that than by nailing some awesome airshots?

Since spireking doesn’t work well for matches bigger than 1v1, you’re unlikely to find any public servers for it. However, since it’s a standalone map, you don’t need a bunch of mods to run it on your server, as you do with ammomod. This makes it great for clan training. If you have a server, or have access to a private server, give this map a go.

Tr_Walkway

Get it. Now.

Ha, but no seriously. Originally an ESG-only beta by wiseguy and washipato (trust me, it wasn’t that great when it was in beta), it’s now available to the general public, and there probably isn’t any better aerial training bar playing against other people. The launcher is a great asset, and a couple hours on this thing I assure you will greatly improve your prediction skills .Unless they’re already maxed, in which you’ve still got a bunch of commands to mess with to make it harder.

And if you’re like me, when your ping rockets because somebody in the dorm is torrenting… stuff… you can always fire up a listen server.

There’s also modifications for stairstab and eagle stab training in there, but honestly, who falls for stairstabs anymore, and who plays Spy anyway?

And while you’re at it, try a couple headshots.

___________________________________________________________________________

That concludes this article for today. Seriously, get a server, or become friends with someone who does, so you can reap the benefits of Spireking and BBall. Until next time, good night and good luck.

Give a big hand to Secret Agent Clank, on his first contribution to the Competitive TF2 Guide. Future installments of the guide are going to be generally shorter and more specific than the first nine. Thanks for the support, readers. -himmelstoss

Well guys,this is is, the final part of Thirty Six of Rules, I hope you’ve all enjoyed it, thanks for reading and supporting my guide, see you when my next one is released, I’ll be adapting my defense guide for Ubercharged, in different sections, of course, since it’s 60 pages long o.0.

Until next time, this is EchelonThree, thanks for reading!

31. Backpedal if he’s attacking you, but turn and run forward if he’s out of range

It’s a little known fact that you’re slower when backpedalling. So what does this mean?

It means that if a pyro is rushing you and you turn around and fire, he’ll catch you eventually (if you’re not a scout, medics will get caught). However, if you turn and run, that means that he’ll never catch up to you. A good pyro will pull out the shotgun and pray that he gets you.

If he’s already within range, you won’t escape him, so you might as well fight him.

If he’s out of range, you (as a faster class) are likely to be ill equipped to engage a pyro anyway, since that means you’re either an engineer (shotgun vs. flamethrower), sniper (SMG vs. flamethrower), Medic (you’re better off running anyway, don’t fight if you don’t have to!), or spy (you kidding?).

If you’re slower than a pyro and he’s closing into range, then you should fight him (and you’ll probably beat him), since you won’t get away anyway, and fighting is your only real chance.

But be creative – if you think you can get away with a rocket jump, by all means go for it.

Thanks to TF2F Nullname who points out that it’s faster to backpedal while strafing (i.e. hold down back while strafing) than it is to simply backpedal.

32. Don’t charge a heavy. Ever.

“THIS IS SASHAAAAAAAAA!” – Leonidas Trotsky

You’re a pyro and you see a heavy, gun fully revved, down the corridor. Would you charge him?

A few seconds of thinking will tell you the answer is no, but if this is so, then why do so many pyros wind up going w+m1 at heavies?

Maybe it’s because a flamethrower is a close range weapon? So is the minigun.

Let’s ask this question: if you were a demoman, would you rush a heavy with your grenades?

Once again, no, so if health isn’t the reason (demo and pyro have the same health), then it must be the weapon.

So, why does a flamethrower seem to give someone the feeling that accords him the invincibility of extreme capability of being and having superhuman strength, endurance, and leetawsomeness make benefit glorious pyro to charge a heavy?

I don’t know, but I do know this: Don’t charge a competent heavy, you WILL lose. Your odds are much better if his gun isn’t spinning when you engage him, but still, you’re best off not attacking him head on.

I’ve received a torrent of hate mail regarding this point…. yes I know a soldier can beat a heavy at close range, but he wins by using cover, not by charging the mobile meat shredder.

33. The game is TEAM fortress.

ATTENTION: Halo players, you are NOT the Master Chief, and this is NOT a super soldier game

The enemies are NOT grunts; don’t go charging in yourself unless you’re sure of what you’re doing. This is a team game; no one class is equipped to handle every situation (except the *insert profanity here* overpowered demo).

Unless you’re trying to eliminate a key target like a sentry or a medic, you shouldn’t be charging in without support.

Until then, I’ll be in my bunker, hiding from the flood of hate mail I’ll likely receive.
WARNING: Serious Zone! – Aggression

Aggression is how aggressive you are in battle. (doh!)

Well, that means how much you push out against the opponent. How can you define aggression? Simple.

Usually, in a fight, both sides want to avoid opposing fire by one of two methods – evasion or cover. Evasion involves moving to throw off the guns of the opposing force. Cover is… well… cover – put something behind yourself and the bullet and you’re safe from direct damage. In a fight, cover is generally preferred over evasion.

In any single engagement, the “aggressive” or attacking side is generally the one who is evading, and the defender is seeking cover. It’s an age-old matchup between mobile warfare and a static position.

More importantly, being aggressive means that you enjoy the advantage of the “initiative”. This means that you can determine the pace of the battle by pressing or retreating, you can take your time to reload as you can dodge, and you have the first shot. (There are some people who work well on defense, like myself – I HATE attacking)

Now, being aggressive means that you’re taking a risk, as you will have to leave a safe covered position, maintain pressure on the defender (to prevent him from taking the advantage), and keep yourself safe.

Foolish aggression involves the ancient fighting technique that can best be described as “Frothing mouth, flailing arm” – charging the enemy recklessly with guns blazing.

There is a thin line between that and controlled aggression. Unlike the foolish attacker, the controlled attacker always has a backup plan to fall back and resupply.

End Serious Zone.

34. Fool your enemy

The M1 Garand rifle (not in TF2, what a pity) made a distinctive “ping” sound when an (automatically) ejected rifle clip hit the ground. At that point, everybody and his brother knew you were out of ammunition and had to reload, including an enemy who would be waiting to shoot you when your clip was empty. As such, many marines were killed because of their ping…. (okay that was a REALLY bad joke)

If your enemy is engaging you in direct combat, calling for a doc will signal that you’re “injured” to everyone, including your enemy.

What do the two have in common? Simple: they are both excellent opportunities to turn the fight against your enemy.

In the case of the M1, marines in Vietnam would throw an empty rifle clip on the ground, wait for the enemy to pop his head up, and pop a cap into him. Likewise, by calling out for a medic, you have given him an opening to come at you (while he thinks you are “injured”) and finish you off.

Unnecessarily calling for a medic may cause him to be overaggressive and greedy, and you can use this time to plan the perfect ambush. Oh, and of course, it may help you save your medic.

Of course, tell your medic first that you’re not calling for him via teamchat or the voicecom.

See also point 18. – Don’t count on enemy stupidity

35. Know when to hold ‘em, Know when to fold ‘em

“You got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em. Know when to walk away, and know when to run.” – Kenny Rogers

You’re an engi, and an uber heavy has just emptied a belt or two of ammo into your gun at close range, what do you do?

Most people will keep on whacking the gun in a losing battle. A smart engi will take the time to escape and set up a gun somewhere else.  As you can see here, our other engineers are falling back, leaving the level 2 sentry to distract the ubered demoman. (my gun has just been finished off by a sniper).

In this other picture below, we see another part of the game, our guns have been destroyed but we’ve managed to bleed a significant portion of their time away, they’re down to one minute now.

We won the game without them taking a single point

The same principle can be applied to you as a soldier caught in the open against a heavy at close range, you have to choose between fighting him (and praying that someone gives you an assist or that you get an assist after you die), rocketjumping away and falling back (you’ll take some damage but live to fight again). In this case, running away on foot is not an option, the minigun will cut you into shreds.

Learn to identify times where the best thing to do is simply cut your losses and fall back.

36. Never take anything for granted until that timer hits 0

“You never count your money when you’re sittin’ at the table. There’ll be time enough for countin’ when the dealin’s done.” – Kenny Rogers

Gravelpit point C, 10 seconds left. Red players decide that they’ll win for sure and charge forward to get the kills during the humiliation round; in that time, a blu spy gets onto the point and captures it.

You should stand on the point until the end (watch for overtime!) and make sure that when you’ve won the game, you really have won the game. Even in the last five seconds, we keep a heavy and soldier on the point to prevent any last-second charges.

End

So that’s thirty-six simple rules which should greatly improve your overall combat effectiveness, no frills, just good strategy.

In traditional style, I’ve not gone into aiming techniques, how to do a rocketjump, or any other technicalities of the sort, it’s my belief that any player can become a strong player if they play smart instead of playing hard, that’s what this guide is about.

I really hope you’ve all found it useful, and that you’ve enjoyed reading this guide as much as I have writing it.

So, see you on the servers!

Author Information & License Protection

EchelonThree/Cryo/Rocket Man

Singapore

echelonthreeguides@gmail.com

Control Point, Gamereplays.org, Edgegamers.org, TeamFortress2Fort.com, Ubercharged.net

Writer for Gamereplays.org

This guide is protected under a Creative Commons License, the full license is viewable through the link below

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Remember that funny song I put up last time?

We’ve known each other, since last spawn;
Your health’s been droppin but you’re too shy to call me;
The other team has built a sentry farm;
Just one uber and we can break it

I….. really hope the pyro doesn’t spycheck me;
Fire isn’t good for disguise.

We really need a demoman;
I play medic- for the win;
I’ve almost readied my ubercharge
Sentryguns, backstabbing spies
Are all as annoying as flies
I really hate these crit rockets

Way too many crits (Way too many crits)
CRIT ROCKET….
Way too many crits (Way too many crits)
CRIT ROCKET….

critroll’d

25. Don’t turtle

Defensively speaking, sentries are easier to destroy than set up. An uber can bring down a gun and a dispenser; they can then run in and grab your intel before hightailing it out of there.

If you turtle, it’s not a matter of “will you win?” it becomes, “when will they win?”

By the way, don’t get “don’t turtle” confused with “don’t defend.” They’re not the same. Turtling is concentrating all your resources on defending aimlessly without attacking. Defending is smartly allocating your resources taking into account your need to attack. In English, that means to allocate your manpower in such a way that you gain the greatest benefit on defense from the lost manpower on attack

26. Don’t camp

“I see whut you did thar” – Oscar Wilde

You just killed me from that spot. Do you really think I’m going to fall for that trick again when you try to snipe me from the very same spot for the third time in a row?

Short answer: No.

Don’t stand still like a bloody idiot! In the end, you’ll be the dead, bloody idiot.

Nuff said.

I’ve received a bit of feedback on this from people who tell me that that’s the only way they can use the cloak and dagger, my response is that if you’re a spy who crouchwalks with the cloak and dagger, you’re doing it wrong, go home, learn to play, and stop sucking.

There is a difference between the “good” type of camping and the “poor” type of camping, the good types of campers are those who camp with a purpose or stay in an area because of an overwhelming positional advantage it gives them, the poor types are those who aimlessly wait for someone to come into their crosshairs.

Any camping should be done with a purpose, such as to ambush a key target like a medic. If you’re just camping around waiting for your cloak to recharge, at least try to do it in a strategic place where you can report in enemy movements. Camping around with no purpose is pointless.

Back to that picture I mentioned earlier in the guide:

Once again, I’m up there waiting for a target, but this time I’m dumping a load of pipebombs down to force anyone who comes in to my stickytrap. If my team were busy fighting for control of another point, I would be useless to my team.

However, this is a different situation, our team is under pressure, and this passageway is the most direct route from the enemy spawn to our point; my role is not one of camping and ambushing (everybody knows I have stickies there waiting for them) but one of defensive area denial (they know that I’m waiting for them, that forces them to take a long route.

Better still, I cover the shortest route for my team to reach the center point (this room) and stage a counterattack.

Lesson here? If you must camp, camp with a purpose.

27. Use Ubers wisely

An uber lasts for 10 seconds, so please: do NOT give it to a scout or sniper.

Okay, that was obvious, but medics have to observe and coordinate with their Überee. With good scouting, you can work out what the best uber for the situation is.

If your spy reports that there are lots of SGs, pick a demoman to go in, and work with your spy to take out the guns more efficiently. If your spy sees a player based defense in an open area like dustbowl, then a (skilled) soldier or demo would work well. If it’s a close quarters area like the intel room on 2fort, few outperform a pyro or heavy.

If you have to defend a point against another ubered pair on the point, uber heavies win, bar none.

In special situations, such as on Gravelpit, an uber scout can be devastating on the points to block it, and you should always be aware of this lesser-used uber. But something like this should only be used as a last resort.

Above all, it’s down to the medic to pick his uber target and coordinate with the team. If done well, it’s a game changer; if you fail, you won’t get another chance for at least a minute, so make it count.

28. Spycheck everyone

“Would you like spies with that?” – Michael Moore

It doesn’t take that much ammo, so why not?

A spy behind your lines is a major disadvantage, not only because of the fact that he’ll kill all of you, but also because he will likely report back everything you do to his team, and if needed, kill your medic in a suicide attack. Spy checking doesn’t even have to cost you ammo; just run through the suspected spy and root him out.

In clan scrims, not every clan may run a spy. Still, running through allies to check them is simply good economics – it takes low effort and time, but it offers you a huge benefit.

29. Get creative.

How many people look up when they are commuting? The fight is on the ground, so why look directly up?

That’s the weakness you must exploit. Few expect someone to drop down on them, and for the few that do, they usually can’t do anything about it.

Once again, just like in all my guides, a nice conversation on a server. I’m a demoman, and it’s alltalk (so I took advantage of it).

Scene: Dustbowl Stage 2
Location: Tunnel with 1-way gate.
Scenario: Red has taken the tunnel, as a demoman, I’m holding the tunnel by lobbing my nades down, but suspiciously, no stickies have been launched

(enemy)”Alright guys, gogo”
A soldier, engi, and medic run start coming in to take the tunnel from me, in response, I go around the corner and run back
(enemy) “we need a dispenser”
(enemy) “okay, charging uber”
*30 secs later*
(enemy) “oh [censored] look up!”
*boom*
Six kills and four destruction points, whoopee (:
Place bombs behind rocks, under your sentry guns (to blow up spies who sap), inside barrels, on ceilings. Get creative with your traps, and you’ll be well rewarded.

Likewise, take advantage of this by first getting to an obscure vantage point, and then raining death down on an unsuspecting enemy, or picking them off one by one.

WARNING: Serious Zone! – Creativity

Okay, so I’ve just said a lot about getting creative, but what exactly is creativity?

Well, I can’t really say much, except that you shouldn’t let any conventional wisdom hold you back, you can try putting a sentry up smack in the middle of the battlefield, sniping from an otherwise-poor vantage point, and my personal favorite: Laying stickybombs under shallow water…. Many people in 2fort have died while running through the sewers.

End Serious Zone

30. Call your ubers

Why would you uber a soldier who’s out of ammo? You wouldn’t, but yet, many people don’t bother to find out if their Überee is ready to be charged. You don’t want to send out an ubercharge only to find that you aren’t backed up, either.

The simple solution involves telling your team that you are charged and ready to begin a push.

Whenever you are about to be fully charged, tell your team to prepare to push up. At once, everybody in your team, led by the uber, should push forward, swarm the enemy, and win the game.

DISCLAIMER: The writer of this guide advises against telling people when you are fully charged. It tends to have the negative effect of causing every single crit rocket, grenade, arrow, sniper bullet and stray syringe gun needle to teleport and miraculously rematerialize with a flight path directed at you, then proceeding to: (hit/maim/perforate/pulverise,vaporise/bludgeon/detonate/slice/stab/impale/exterminate/gib/execute/decapitate/all of the above) [choose one] you.

Wayhey! We’re at the halfway point now, it’s time for an obligatory “thank you” from me for reading thus far.

Okay that’s enough thanking you for one day, let’s get down to business, does anybody notice how often people leave their support such as medics and engineers open, then whine “omgs medic wherez mah healzzzz” or “need a teleporter here x9001″.

It seems to happen all too often, it’s even dumber when the medic charges headlong into battle in front of the class escorting him, then complains “omg protectyourmedic n00bzzzzz”…. let’s get started

19. Don’t endanger your medic

“V. I. D.” – Sun Tzu

Look at it in terms of “time cost.” If you die, you have a 10 second respawn and a 5 sec walk back to the battle; it’s not pleasant, but it’s not a huge deal. Your medic has a 10 sec respawn, plus a 5 second walk, plus a 90 second charge time for his uber.

So you should be trying to kill the enemy medic at all costs. If you know your medic has just used his uber, it’s semi-acceptable to endanger him since you don’t have much to lose and you’re going after an enemy who does, but yet you shouldn’t charge out without a plan to get your medic back to safety.

If you’re an overhealed heavy and you see a rocket heading towards your team, don’t hesitate to jump in front of it and tank it out with the soldier; even if it’s a crit, you have plenty of health to spare.

To use another example – from Pokemon – Blissey is a pokemon with a ridiculously high HP; she (there are no male Blisseys, don’t ask why) is known as a “wall.” That is, she is meant to switch in to sponge up any incoming attacks. Replace Blissey with heavy and you have the same idea; assist by blocking any attacks to your medic.

WARNING: Serious Zone! – Escorting

Escorting a key player is one of the most important things in the game, the most common type of escort relationship is that of a soldier/demo/heavy and a medic. At other times, it could be a fighting class escorting a scout to the intelligence room by clearing the sentries.

The escort has one key role: keep his VIP alive until his aim is accomplished. This can be done by meatshielding (soaking up rockets or bullets), elimination (destroying the threat), or retreating (laying down suppressive fire until you can get support).

In most cases, the escorted class is a medic, engineer, or scout. IT could also be a key attacker such as a demoman to take out a well-positioned sentry gun.

The best way to escort a player would be to physically block the attacker from being able to directly hit his preferred target (the medic) while forcing any attackers to come into his effective range.

Escorting is best seen in clanscrims where the pocket soldier or demoman’s goal is to defend his medic while pushing.

End Serious Zone

20. Watch your time.

“One second is nothing, one million is a statistic” – Josef Stalin

You have a minute on the clock and you’re about to respawn as a medic. Don’t use the normal uber, use a critzer, there’s a high chance that the uber wouldn’t even be charged in time to create an impact on the game, but the critzer might.

Don’t bother building up and coordinating two ubers if you have 60 seconds left on the clock (come to think of it, if you HAD two ubers, you wouldn’t be in that rut in the first place); try to make use of it so that you can cause maximum damage from a safe distance and then sweep in during the final seconds with a big push.

A suicide charge should be used only as a last resort since it will definitely be your last shot. If you want to suicide rush, try to coordinate it so that you can actually take the point.

21. Heavies, Soldiers and Medics first

“Women and children first, then men, then dogs, then cats, mimes, and finally bankers” – Oscar Wilde on the financial crisis

You’re a scout: you can run fast. So…. WHY THE BLOODY HELL ARE YOU TAKING THE TELEPORT WHEN THERE’S A HEAVY NEXT TO YOU?

Rude, crude and mean, but very, very logical. Heavies should always be given priority for the teleport; the same goes for soldiers.
Medics are another important class that should be given priority for the teleport. Why? Simple. Although a medic is a fast class, a medic is also a very important class – he needs to be at the front so that he can get health to the people that need it the most – your frontline fighters.

Another special mention of a “fast” class that should be given priority is the engineer, who needs to get to his base faster (because it’s in need of repairs or something like that). Especially if it’s his teleporter, and you know his stuff is under attack.

To sum it all up, here’s a general list of who should get the tele, in a fight, it may vary.

First priority: Heavies, Soldiers, Medics.

First/Second priority: Engineer.

Second: Demomen

Third: Pyros, Spies.

Last: Snipers, Scouts

For your benefit, I’m providing the spray I use below, it works wonders on public and semi-pro servers.

22. Reload, Reload, Reload

“Be prepared” – Sun Tzu

You should spend every second of the fight doing something. If you’re not fighting, you should be healing, and if you’re not healing up, you should be fighting. If you’re not doing either, you should be on the way to the front or heading back from it.

There is one thing you can do while healing or fighting on the move – reloading. You never want to go around a corner – or into any battle, for that matter – with one rocket in the launcher (stupid!). You don’t want to rush in, ubered, with just one sticky in the launcher (stupider!), and you certainly don’t want to successfully outmanoeuvre a heavy only to find that you are out of scatgun ammo (stupidest!).

Make sure that your gun is loaded when you reach the front lines, for weapons which have “interruptible” reloads, you should be reloading all the time.

23. Metal for engies, Healthkits for medics

Do you really need that one rocket that you used to rocket jump? Especially when there’s an engineer that desperately needs to upgrade his gun to level 2?

Likewise, a medic can’t heal himself, so do you really need the health to patch up that 5hp of fall damage?

I’ve said this a million times before, and this will be the last time.

DON’T TAKE THE !@#%!@#&*AMMO AND HEALTH!!

This has been a community service announcement brought to you by me, thank you.

24. Don’t reload, switch to your secondary

“Six bullets against your one?” – James Bond

Mr. Bond got it right there: six bullets are better than one.

You’ve fired off four rockets, and your enemy (a soldier) is still alive. It’s close combat, and he’s fired off his rockets too, so what do you do?

Some will reload their launcher with a single rocket (I often do this if my opponent is injured), which is alright if you are confident of finishing him off in one. But in a one on one, it’s often better to swap to your shotgun and gun him down – you have six shots.

There is also the situation when, as a scout, you’re in close range against an enemy, depending on the situation, you may see fit to reload your scattergun to finish off your opponent in a single shot

WARNING: Serious Zone! – Weapon Proficiency

Sometimes, you’ll find yourself out of ammo for your primary weapon. At these times, it helps to be good or at least have some skills with your secondary or even your melee weapon. You should be capable of doing some damage with a shotgun, pistol, SMG, or even a blutsauger or syringe gun.

Take the time to study the power and effective range of your weapons so that you can be ready for a situation where you’re out of ordnance.

The players who will likely find themselves running out of ammo will be soldiers, demos and heavies (rockets run out fast, and the minigun is a bullet hose), so these are classes who should be well versed in shotgun and stickybomb use. The bottle and the KGB/fists should also be in your arsenal if you need to knockout a weakened opponent at close range.

End Serious Zone

Wow, we’re almost at the halfway mark now, let’s keep going, the most important rule is here! (rule 18)

24/7 2fort
Instarespawn custom sniperfest
I’m really bored so I go join red
And then roll soldier and start beatin all the rest
I don’t like the stupid lucksman players
Arrows don’t need no skill at all

Rocketjumpin all alone
My team are all on the phone
I’m on a side with 5 AFKs
Stupid WM1 pyro
I don’t like the way he blows
I feel like I need to ragequit

I doubt anybody will get what just happened…. let’s see what happens next time…

13. A battle on your terms is a battle won

“Play your advantage against his weakness, bring a gun to a knife fight, bring a machinegun to a gun fight, bring a laser to a machinegun fight” – Oscar Wilde

The enemy is faster than you, but you have more firepower; everything else is even. Obviously, you shouldn’t engage him in a fight of maneuvering, but rather try to force him into an area where your firepower matters. A narrow corridor is a prime example, his speed will count for nothing, but your firepower can be concentrated and focused on him.

Likewise, if you are a scout against a demoman, demomen are poor(er) at close range than at other ranges, and they can’t always hit you if you evade well, but obviously, you don’t want to charge him head on.

So, make use of the area, and lure him to an area where you can dominate him; once again, using Gravelpit as my example, try to force him to point A instead of engaging him in the corridors where your advantage is greatly reduced.

WARNING: Serious Zone! – Concept Content: Battle Simulation

This is the longest concept content section, and for good reason: Before we try to do decide what to do, we must know the kind of situation we want to face the enemy in; therefore, it often pays to try and “simulate” a battle by considering what will happen if you were to engage him, weighing your strengths against his.

Let’s try a real tough fight (not like that scout vs. demo example). I’m a Soldier defending on Gravelpit, I’m patrolling the A to C corridor and run into an enemy demoman approaching from A

To most players, the soldier and demo are often considered *approximately* equal.

What we need to do is to find a situation where I can stack the odds in my favor.

Let’s review what we all know, and then we can calculate the “ideal” decision; it’s critical that you know that fight conditions are never ideal, and this is only a rough sketch.

Since we have the leisure of time here, we can annotate each factor in this fight. Key points in the fight (i.e. the points which will determine the fight) are in bold. Potential factors (i.e. points which may become important, but currently aren’t) are in italics.

-          The demoman is faster

• He can decide where to fight

-          Demoman often prefer to set up stickies if they have the time

• If allowed to do so, he can make maneuvering very hard for me
• I must attack as soon as possible, or retreat.

-          The soldier has direct fire, but no indirect fire

• Open terrain favors me since his advantage is reduced

-          I have 25 more health

• It’s not much, but it acts as a valuable insurance policy

-          Demomen can’t attack at close range without splashing themselves

• At close range, I have my shotgun, or my shovel, he has a bottle.

-          His sticky launcher holds 8 stickies, against my four rockets

• His “direct” weapon has more ammo than I do, which means that when I’m dry, it’s shotgun time

-          I have a shotgun, and he doesn’t

• That last point doesn’t seem so bad, after all, the shotgun is the most versatile weapon in the game, and the demoman doesn’t have that

-          Demomen have a limited range

• My rocket launcher can hit him even when he can’t hit me

-          Soldiers can rocketjump, demomen can’t do it without blowing all his stickies

• Right now, I’m indoors and can’t rocketjump, but if I can bring him to an area where I can, I can outmaneuver him easily

As shown above, there are actually many factors in a fight between two sides, careful consideration must be taken before you try to attack anyone

End Serious Zone

14. Get behind their doctor!

“Screw the Geneva Convention” – Oscar Wilde

The enemy medic is the most vulnerable part of their formation. He’s usually more concerned spotting for targets (as above), and will likely see you, but what can he do about it? If he continues healing, he’s an open target; if his medic buddy falls back, he’s left his back open; if he turns and defends himself, he’s not healing.

Don’t be afraid to rocketjump over enemy lines just to kill their medic; he or she should be your number one target in a battle.

If you manage to kill their medic, then it’s usually more than worth it; even if you have to die while doing so, killing a medic costs him charge time, spawn time, and time which his team has to do without it. If I had to get a killcam shot, this is what I would want to see on it:

See point 19 – Don’t endanger your medic.

WARNING: Serious Zone! – Target Prioritization

Target Prioritization is the art of picking out the most important target in a group of enemies, and picking the most effective use of your ammo using a few criteria.

One way involves picking out what will do the most damage in terms of time taken, very useful for defenders.

For example, a medic with an uber is worth 100 seconds (90 secs give or take Übercharge time, 10 sec spawn time), a soldier is worth 10 seconds (10 sec spawn), a level 1 sentry is worth 15 seconds (5 to build, quite a while, I assume 10, to get it safely), a level 3 is worth considerably more since it takes a long time to build safely.

Another factor is the threat factor, where you evaluate which one is the most direct and immediate danger to you, and act accordingly, for example, the demoman firing at you is an immediate threat, the soldier coming up is not.

Finally, there is the position factor, where a player’s strategic position comes into play, if a soldier is attempting to take high ground like the roof of gravel B or containers in granary, he becomes a priority target as opposed to a soldier who isn’t trying to get into a good position.

End Serious Zone

15. Know your effective range

Don’t be stupid, that minigun isn’t going to do anything to the snipers across 2fort. Stop firing. Yes good job boy, you like suppressive fire. But at this range it’s more “fire” than “suppress”. Besides, he’ll nail you way before you kill him, and it’s a waste of your ammo.

No, really, I’ve seen many players do this and spray their ammo all over the place, then go onto the bridge (without going back for ammo for some reason) and get slaughtered by me, waiting there with a full barrel of rockets as they try to punch or taunt kill me since they don’t have a shotgun either.

Some weapons do little damage at long range, and some do good damage at long range, so, against a heavy, make use of the fact that after you exit the minigun’s medium range, he’ll only be doing 5 damage a bullet, but your rockets will still do well.

Likewise, don’t try to engage a heavy at close range as a soldier in direct combat (if there’s cover, then it’s fine if you use it to your advantage).

WARNING: Serious Zone! – Effective Range

Your effective range is the range at which you can actually kill your opponent effectively. That may have seemed obvious, but it helps to know the range at which you should be engaging your opponents before giving your position away.

Effective range is the range at which your weapons are capable of dealing maximum damage, in most cases, this is at point blank, however, when self-damage is taken into consideration, it may be medium or even long range.

End Serious Zone

16. Play the decoy

“Besiege Wei to rescue Zhao” – Okay, for once, something Sun Tzu actually did say

You might not be well equipped to deal with the target at hand, but that doesn’t mean that you’re not useful. You can act as a decoy, drawing enemies away in order to spread out their defense.

For example, a spy stabs a heavy, cloaks, and beelines his way out of there. Which direction should he run in?

A good answer is back towards his lines, to safety, where he can heal up and go on another sortie, but there is a downside – the enemy knows you’re gone.

The better answer is to run the long way back to your lines, or to some obscure place (e.g. on dustbowl, run for the trench tunnel). You don’t even have to all the way – just pretend to go that direction, and turn around when you’re fully cloaked. Why, you ask?

Simple – by running somewhere obscure, enemies will devote time to finding you, send a pyro to hunt you, and check with their medics. This draws enemies away from their posts engaging your soldiers, demos, and heavies.

If they stay at their posts, you are free to do whatever bad stuff you want to them again, lather, rinse, repeat as needed until all flakes are gone.

Of course, on Gravelpit, this can be put to good use. Should you try to attack B and be repelled, you can try to send a decoy scout to A. You have better mobility since you can switch between the two targets easily. However, they have the two unsavory options of either rushing to defend A and leaving B open (and even then they may lose A anyway), or sitting at B and giving A away.

17. Don’t rely on ambushes

“Don’t use a steak tree, use a ham bush” – Leonidas Trotsky

You can rely on ambushes to give you an advantage over your opponent, but don’t count on them to win a battle, and don’t obstinately stick with the same trick after it has been proven fruitless.

Many stupid pyros have tried the same thing over and over on me with no effect but their unfortunate and very predictable demise. Yes they win the first time through, but it’s really hard to fall for it again.

Think about this scenario on the map Blackmesa, most people would fall for this trap which involves stickies doing damage through grating. The idea is that people would come through the one way door into the blue corridor, and be stuck as they would have to go through the passage; the demoman is then free to blow them up.

It often works once on most players, but over time people will learn to come through alternate routes. Spies may use the dead ringer to force a premature detonation or simply cloak past, scouts may use bonk to bypass the area (though forcing the enemy scout to use bonk instead of a pistol is a victory in itself), and enemy snipers and soldiers can kill the demoman before moving in.

I’ll come back to this situation later with a slightly different picture

See also Point 18 – Don’t count on enemy stupidity

WARNING: Serious Zone! – Diversions and Ambushes

Despite the bad name I may have given it up there in an actual combat situation, an ambush is an excellent diversionary tactic when used in combination with a larger plan.

A pyro running straight (or better yet, jumping) into a pack of enemies (preferably while screaming “Allahu Akbar!”, “CHARGEE!” or “BANZAI!!”) is something that will instantly draw all attention away from your team’s follow up (preferably from another angle), and buys you some time to attack.

This gives you a period of time to follow-up while the enemy stops, drops, and rolls (or dies).

End Serious Zone

18. Don’t count on enemy stupidity

“Hm… he’s a soldier and he’s out of rocket ammo, so as a scout, I can run in and get in a few shots as he tries to reload all four.”

Wrong; you must always assume that the enemy will make the best possible move (you learn this in chess too). Assume that he’ll switch to his shotgun, or that he’ll reload just one rocket instead of four and fire it off at you to juggle you before finishing you off with the shotgun. Just don’t count on him giving you an opening by reloading four rockets.

Always assume that that he’ll make the best possible move in response to what you’re about to do, assume he’ll reflect your rocket, that he’ll see your stickies, that he knows you’re there. If he does do that stupid thing, you’re on top, if he does the smart thing, then it’s all even.

This is the NUMBER ONE mistake that most players make, and it’s appropriate that it’s right in the middle of this guide, do not ever assume your opponent is stupid. That assumption will cost you

Alrighty, last time I saw you guys, you were busy readin’ through the first part of this awesomely long and awesomely fun guide… so what are ya waitin’ for? Get back to reading!

Thanks for all your support in part 1!

7. Medic combos are NOT invincible

No, no, and NO, just because you have a medic on you doesn’t mean that you can’t be overwhelmed. While it’s a general rule that you should engage their med first, doing so is not always possible nor is it practical.

To learn why they are not invincible, we have to learn how to beat them; there are a few primary methods.

Number one is simple: kill the medic, enough said, point proven. But what if the medic is out of range?

However, sometimes, the best way is simply to “saturate” the target zone; that is, hit the target faster than a medic can heal him.

Best example? Heavy vs. Heavy-Medic.
You’re the heavy against an overhealed heavy with a medic; they’ve not noticed you and you can get the first half-a-second of shots in just before he gets revved, what do you do?

Conventional wisdom tells you that you should go for his medic first, as you can take him out quickly, but it’s not always easy; the medic will hide behind the heavy, worse still, the enemy may kill you.

Few players realize that if they go for the heavy and open fire at close range, they can kill the enemy heavy first even though he has a medic. A dumb HM combo will engage you (and lose), but a smart HM combo will cut their losses and run for support. A smart team will only fight back if they are supported.

Now that I’ve explained that, realize that even though you have 300 health which is being regenned at 24 a second, you are still vulnerable to being overwhelmed by a large quantity of rockets, grenades, baseballs, small-arms fire, arrows, or any combination of the above.

WARNING: Serious Zone! – Target Saturation

Saturation of the target zone means to lay down enough fire to pretty much kill anybody in the zone. Once you reach that point of saturation, there is little need to lay down any more fire on that area.

For example, there are three soldiers and four demomen bombarding the right trench exit on Dustbowl Stage 2.

Do you really need SEVEN people on that little hole? I’d think that three is the most you’ll need, maybe less if you have a heavy or a medic helping out.

End Serious Zone

8. Don’t count on crits

“Luck is nothing” – Oscar Wilde

If you go out and assume that you can win because you’ll crit, then you’re doing it wrong. If you base your strategy on luck, you’re playing the odds, and as we all know, it’s a gamble you’ll more likely lose than win.

You can hope for a lucky crit to reverse an otherwise hopeless situation (Soldier on the point, you’re a sniper with a machete), but don’t expect to come off tops. Expect to see yourself at the respawn room shortly, but sometimes, luck does turn out in your favor….

The best endorsement for this rule happens in clan to clan scrims, where crits are disabled entirely, but of course, this guide is mainly for the average casual player, not the clanscrimming person

9. Take the high ground

“It’s over Anakin, I have the high ground!” – Obi-Wan Kenobi

Taking the high ground is a massive advantage for one reason: you can hit him easily. The opposite is not so.

Let’s take Gravelpit point C as our case study, I’m a soldier guarding the point, and my enemy, Bob the blu soldier, is down at point A shooting up at me, while I’m shooting down on him.

Unless I’m standing next to the wall (which is suicide in most cases), I’m nigh invulnerable to his fire since he has no way of hitting me with direct or indirect fire, assuming I have rudimentary dodging skills.

The reverse paints a different story, on the high ground, he has nowhere to run, if he ducks into the alcove, I can pin him down with suppressive fire and even kill him by bouncing splash damage off onto him. Jumping won’t help him, either.

Now let us consider the indirect class, the demoman. A demoman would have no trouble shooting up, however, they wouldn’t always be able to reach point C due to range limits, and even so, a grenade would be dodged by a good player.

See also point 11 – watch your deep-dead zone for a way to counter an enemy who has the high ground.

10. Dodge to the RIGHT of your enemy

“Know your opponent’s anatomy you must” – Sun Tzu

The weapon bias means that his weapon travels very slightly to the left of where he is aiming. By dodging to the right of the enemy (your left, if you are facing him), you make yourself harder for him to hit.

Better still, for a right hander, it’s easier to turn left than it is to turn right. (You learn this in fighter school by the way; just don’t turn into an enemy’s attack.)

Just try it; hold a joystick in your hand, and see which direction it’s easier to turn in, left or right?

Note that for targeting sentries, the reverse is true. Make it such that you can edge the gun, usually done by going to a “left turn corner” where the rocket launcher can shoot the gun.

WARNING: Serious Zone! – Weapon Bias

Let’s say that I’m a medieval knight who’s jousting with a really long lance. I’m right handed (and so are 90% of you so I won’t likely get bombarded by hate mail).

Which direction will my lance point if I want to hit someone dead ahead of me?

It’ll point very slightly to my left (since it’s on my right, I have to tilt it to the left at about a 30 degree angle off my arm, the lance is, in fact, acting as my “firing line”), so the weapon will lead from right to left.

As you can see from the screenshot below, my huntsman (I’ve used the huntsman to demonstrate it) is trained perfectly on the head of the enemy, but unfortunately for me, the weapon bias on my huntsman saves the engineer from my long-range brain surgery tool.

What you’ll notice is that while small, this miniscule aiming degree change can make up for a lot of error over long distances. If the degree of error is say… 10 degrees (not a lot), that can add up to a lot.

The best way I can put it is this: If you’re in Dallas, Texas, and you want to travel to New York on a holiday, a 10 degree error means that you’ll end up in Cleveland, Ohio, which should be enough of an incentive for you to get aiming better…

End Serious Zone

11. Watch your deep-dead zone

“Aim low” – Dodgeball

While taking the high ground is good, know that you have a blind spot, directly below you. As mentioned before, a demo would have no trouble shooting up, and he can hit you with no trouble since you’re not keeping watch for him. It’s an ideal spot to sneak up on the defenders. As demonstrated below, you’ll notice that there’s a small area my revolver cannot shoot at without exposing me to everyone or falling down.

Likewise, when an opponent has height advantage on you, try to sneak up on a side where he’ll not be expecting you. Try a rocketjump, stickyjump, or simply launch grenades (or have your teammate do it for you; be sure to have adult supervision if you are under 13).

WARNING: Serious Zone! – Concept Content: Indirect Fire

Indirect fire is any type of fire that is not direct; direct fire involves aiming at the target through the reticule. It is any fire that does not travel in a straight line. The only classes in the game with indirect fire are therefore the demoman and the medic (who uses the syringe gun anyway aside from combat medics?)

One advantage/disadvantage of indirect fire is that such rounds are affected by gravity, giving them the possibility of shooting over cover but also limiting their range.

Grenades are excellent in flushing enemies out since they deal great damage, and they can be bounced off walls to reach the target more effectively, resulting in a better “flushing capability” than rockets.

End Serious Zone

12. Scout, Scout, Scout

“Knowing your enemy is half the battle, the other half is knowing yourself” – Oscar Wilde

If you don’t know the enemy team’s composition and they know the position of all your guns, you’re asking to be defeated since you won’t know what’ll come at you – an uber demo, an uber soldier, uber heavy – and you won’t prepare appropriately.

By having one player call in the enemy coming in, you can be prepared to counter them. This player can be a scout (on Gravelpit), a spy (dustbowl), or any player on your team with an eye for detail.

As a medic, you don’t have to aim your gun to heal someone, so use this time to act as a spotter for people. When charging in with an uber, call out targets for your Überee and direct him out of there once your uber runs low.

In an actual battle, everybody should call out enemies coming in – specifically demomen and spies – ubers, intel locations, and many more things.

Foreword

Welcome to Thirty-Six Rules of Fighting, this guide was first published on the now-defunct Team Fortress 2 wing of Gamereplays.org. But now, it’s here on Ubercharged for your reading pleasure, ain’t that great?

Anyway, let’s jump straight to the point, I’m EchelonThree, the writer of this guide, and one thing which pisses me off the most is how common-sense seems to disappear when it’s most needed.

So I was thinking for a while, and thought to myself, “Hey, what are the biggest mistakes that could have been most easily avoided?”

Then I played a while more, and within a few rounds, “Hmm… we wouldn’t have lost if some people had some basic knowledge of standing on the point”.

I’ve also considered that clan players aren’t likely to need a guide on how to play, so what I’ve attempted to do here is to shift the emphasis of the guide away from advanced players and on to beginning and improving players.

I guess that’s why I’m here now, writing this guide for all of you to read, enjoy, and perhaps have a good laugh at what I feel are the simplest, but yet most often ignored things…

Oh wait, I’m publishing on Ubercharged now! So I need to include this nice little guarantee for all of you, I promise the following in thie part and the parts to follow:

-          NO twitch aiming! (I promise, nothing on adjusting your mouse sensitivity, you shouldn’t rely on equipment anyway)

-          NO fancy tricks! (No fancy tricks, just good, effective ones)

-          NO frills (Nope, we won’t go into the damage spread of the shotgun to 5 decimal points.)

-          100% idiot proof! (Moron-Proof too!)

-          100% effective! (If it isn’t, TAKE IT UP WITH ME!)

-          THIRTY-SIX simple ways to improve your play!

-          All feedback replied! (Really!)

-          Not 100% satisfied with this guide? Take it up with me!

-          Provides all your daily TF2 nutritional needs! (it’s high-fiber!)

So, have fun, and enjoy the guide!

-          EchelonThree

Introduction or… How to Use This Guide

I’ll be publishing a new part of the guide each week for the next five weeks.

In a battle, the action often happens too fast for you to see, but behind every fight, there are tactics and strategies working their magic, creating an advantage for one side or the other. This guide will break down some of those principles for you.

The key principle of this guide is that it won’t tell you many things that you “shouldn’t” already know; what you’ll learn is everything that you should know but isn’t ever put into practice, along with things that you probably didn’t know, but yet play a major role in-game.

The guide works like this, we’ll learn a few pointers about what to do (or not) in battle through these thirty-six key points and tactics. On the way, there will be mini-guides (the aptly-named “Serious Zones) which teach concepts of fighting, some concepts are simple, such as area-denial, and some are long and complicated, such as battle simulation.

Without further rambling ado, here are thirty six stratagems that seem obvious but are rarely seen in combat.

Oh yeah, at the end, I do give out my mailing address (for the impatient ones, it’s echelonthreeguides@gmail.com , feel free to send in any questions, suggestions, complaints, or advice to me, thanks!

The Guide

1. Don’t be too aggressive

Question: Do you want to end up like this?

If you remember my defense guide (for playhaven and ubercharged readers, it’s still being updated), there was something I wrote about a rear and a forward guard. The forward defense team goes and kills off any defenses, while the rear guard stays in reserve and pushes forward or covers a retreat for the forward group. (On a public server, a group of 4 can easily accomplish this.)

Now, if you push too far forward, your support players will be too far behind your forces to cover them effectively, and the concentrated enemy offense can break your lines one at a time.

Also see point 5 – If Fighting is sure to result in victory, then you must fight!

2. Stand on the point

“Offensive point capture may not proceed should one of the defenders be standing on the point; make good use of this fact to prevent and stall for your teammates to come to your aid. At no point must you waver and desert your point lest you grant the enemy the advantage.” – Sun Tzu

While you may not be able to stop the capture, you might be able to stall the enemy long enough for help to arrive in the form of a pyro, demo, soldier, or any other class that’s good . Even a scout standing on the point could give your team a chance to reach it and assist and make a game saving defense.

A point only takes a few seconds to cap, as such, it helps to apply this strategy at all times and ensure that you have someone on the point at all times, like a heavy.

3. Splashing is better than missing

A good soldier will be able to dodge your rockets in a duel every time if you go for a direct hit. If you go for a splashshot, you’re assured of getting a minor hit on him and at least doing some damage. It doesn’t take much brain for you to figure out what to do.

Of course, if you are confident of getting a direct hit on a target (think along the lines of your average (that is, dumb) sniper, gunhumping engi, or watch-me-I’m-invincible heavy), then take the shot and you’ll be rewarded with excellent damage.

4. JUMP!

A height advantage is crucial in defeating your opponent. You must obtain every possible edge you can get and by doing this you achieve that. As a soldier, jumping can grant you a slightly better firing angle, as a heavy, it gives you the element of surprise when you jump down on someone and rev your gun, as a scout; whatever… let’s put it simply: you’d damn better be jumping.

Jumping also helps you defensively: you can evade splash damage if you time it right. Be warned though, during your jump it’s easy to predict your movements.

A smart soldier will “break fire”; that is, instead of timing his shots in a single volley of 1-2-3-4 (which will be easily evaded by jumping), he will 1-2—3—4, taking advantage of the fact that you have jumped too early and are unable to jump to avoid damage, or worse, timing his shot to juggle you.

See also point 9 – Taking high ground.

WARNING: Serious Zone! – Breaking Fire

Breaking fire is better known in the business as “holding fire” or “lifting fire”, that is, to stop firing on a certain target and waiting for the enemy to attack or attack someone else instead of mindlessly suppressing him.

This is a very useful technique in TF2, by holding your fire; you force the opponent from being able to predict your shots, more importantly, you conserve your ammunition for a more important target and have time to reassess the situation.

See also 34 – Fool your enemy.

End Serious Zone

5. If fighting is sure to result in victory, then you must fight!

If you see an opportunity to take the fight, you should do so, and attack immediately to win the battle if possible. If defending, you should then pull back to regroup and resupply so as to absorb a counterattack.

On offense, if you see that you will win the fight if you attack, then you must do so; many games have been lost by pulling back to “build up ubers” when there were no sentry guns, then attacking with ubers when there were too many sentries up.

6. Don’t rely on sentries

“In Soviet Russia, sentry guard YOU!!” – Leonidas Trotsky

Sentries are the core of any defense, and any defensive team should have at least one engineer, after all, a sentry doesn’t miss anything, it sees the sniper hiding in the corner, and it sees the demoman sneaking behind you.

Sure they’re easy to take down with an uber, but the very fact that they often cause medics to use uber to take them down should be a good enough factor – the enemies have wasted an uber that would have been used to wreak havoc on your team.

Anybody who stands still for more than a few seconds in the path of a sentry gun is very likely to wind up as a kitchen colander if he doesn’t think fast.

Many people therefore base their defense on the fact that they have sentries set up all over the place, right?

Wrong.

A simple fact that any good player would know is that sentries are extremely easy to defeat – it’s the people covering the blind spots that screw you. More often than not, sentries which are unguarded wind up like this one here:

A sentry gun isn’t supposed to be a miracle solution that kills anybody and everybody who comes into an area, it’s supposed to keep anybody and everybody out of that area. Your job is to make sure nobody gets an angle on your gun, and to use a counteruber should an ubered demo come in.

In reality, you aren’t guarding the point; you’re guarding the sentries that are guarding the point.

WARNING: Serious Zone! – Area Denial

Area denial is the concept of keeping a key area out of enemy hands by preventing them from occupying it, that is, having a strong deterrent that assures them of death or heavy damage should they enter.

A sentry or a sticky field is a good example, enemies will have to stay away or be blown up, shot to death, maimed, impaled by rockets, or any combination of the above. Heavies? Not really, a heavy can be outsmarted or evaded, but you can’t dodge a sentry gun’s bullets if you’re in the way.

Generally, when applying area denial, the objective is to defend the most area with the least required manpower, and maybe a bit more for backup. An engineer’s sentry is an excellent method, the engineer can lend in his shotgun to the main fight, and the sentry watches his back.

End Serious Zone

Continuing with the series of articles on competitive TF2 written by clubtheseals and I: the Demoman. As the only Scottish class in the game, Demomen are generally expected to be the most all-around awesome folks around. Three cheers for Scotland! Apologies for the hiatus, folks.

The Demoman is one of the most versatile classes in the TF2, and that versatility makes him especially useful on a competitive 6v6 team. Accordingly, the Demoman has a number of disparate objectives:

• Area denial
• Forward support
• General splash damage
• Alternate ubercharge target

Area Denial

This is perhaps the most important role of the Demoman in competitive play. If you’ve played the game enough to understand this guide, you probably have realized that going close to sticky traps, especially those placed by vigilant Demomen, is suicidal.

Wouldn’t you know it, it is suicide. But that’s good! As a Demoman, you can exploit that fact to seal off choke points and prevent the enemy team from advancing.

There are two ways you could go about this.

The first option is to plant a carpet of stickies in plain sight. This usually stalls the enemy team for a few seconds. In 6v6 play, sticky carpets can be surprisingly robust. Pyros and Heavies can make mincemeat out of sticky traps with the airblast and the minigun, but they’re generally so situational that they’re unlikely to be around in a competitive game. In essence, it’ll take a while to shoot every single sticky, which is, naturally, in your favor. One caveat: the fastest way to clear a sticky carpet is not to shoot every sticky, but to kill the Demoman who planted the stickies in the first place. Expect the enemy’s scouts to hound you – more on that later.

The enemy team could either run over the sticky carpet (netting you a kill or two), shoot the stickies (which takes a few seconds), or find an alternate route (which can also take a while, allowing your team to fortify its position). If you can lay down a sticky carpet at a well-traveled choke point, such as the house at the middle capture zone of Badlands, you can delay the enemy team’s advance quite a bit, giving your team an immense advantage (read on if you want a visual explanation).

The second option is to use the sticky bomb launcher to ambush the enemy. This entails placing stickies in places that the enemy is unlikely to see them, like so:

The obvious advantage here is that you can kill enemy team members who are unaware of the danger; the caveat is that you won’t stall the enemy (unless, of course, you kill a player who is key to the enemy’s advance, such as their medic). When setting up such ambushes, it’s generally better to place stickies above doorways and on ceilings, where surprisingly few people bother to look.

Forward Support

Demomen are great for area denial, but they have another huge advantage – their mobility. The Demoman, in the right hands, is the fastest class in the game. What this means to you is that you can go ahead of your team and pave the way for them. To draw an analogy here: Let’s say that you’re rock climbing with a friend, and you, the Demoman, are the point climber. You climb up ahead and drive a pylon in to the cliff face, by which your partner (the rest of your team) can climb up (advance) safely. However, as with rock climbing, don’t go too far ahead of your team. It may help to partner with a Scout who can defend you.

Fast Mid

The Demoman’s sticky jump technique enables him to reach the middle capture area of most 5-CP maps (especially Badlands) in record time. Top-level demomen can reach the middle long before the scouts get there. The fastest jumps to mid are quite different for different maps, and the best way to learn them is to watch publicly available demos on websites such as GotFrag and RedrumDemos (note, however, that most of the older demos will not work any more because of recent patches). Moving on:

Once at mid, a Demoman’s job is to try to pave the way for his team.

On Badlands, for instance, you can lay a sticky carpet in the “house” choke point, cutting off the most important route for the enemy and possibly forcing them to take the much more dangerous “valley” route (the area under the central bridge). In the following images, potential sticky trap locations are circled in red.

On Fastlane, you could try to get on the roof of the structure on top of mid. As with a soldier, height advantage is enormously useful. Never underestimate the power of explosives raining down from the sky! But at the same time, sticky jumps take out too much of your health to use frequently. Ask your Medic if “Overheal” is right for you.

Capping

In some areas, Demomen are indispensable for capturing points. Once again, the same principles of area denial and forward support apply.

In the above scenario, I have sticky jumped up to the Badlands spire (the Demoman is certainly very well-suited to capturing such a CP) and am capturing it – in some sense, I’m driving the pylon into the cliff face. The easiest route that the defenders could take to get to the spire is the balcony; accordingly, I’ve locked the balcony down with some sticky carpets. I’m still vulnerable to soldiers rocket jumping from the yard, though.

Note: the Badlands spire is a bit of an exception, because it’s elevated and easily reachable by Demomen, giving any Demoman on top immense height advantage. In that case, it’s a good idea to try to get up top and capture. In the majority of cases, capture zones are extremely exposed, and if there’s any talent a Demoman lacks, it’s the ability to defend himself.

The rule of thumb really is to try to seal a choke point ahead of your team’s position. It just so happens that in the Badlands spire, the best place to seal the chokes is on the CP. Not so with any of the other maps.

General Splash Damage

I hate to say it, but by this, I mean spam.

Intelligent spam.

In essence, using your pipes and stickies, keep dishing out damage. Even if the damage isn’t enough to kill your enemy, try to weaken them enough that your team’s scouts can finish them off.

I’m not going to go into depth on this point; there really isn’t much I can say about it. The best teacher here is practical experience; for these articles, the authors will stick mainly to strategic discussion.

Alternate Ubercharge target

Let’s face it, all you Soldiers out there. When it comes to sheer destructive power, Demomen leave you in the dust.

My personal opinion is that if the Medic has a Kritzkrieg ready to go, it’s better to charge the Demoman than the Soldier. This is a common tactic in European leagues, where the focus, rather than being on the Pocket Soldier-Medic combo, is really on the team’s Demoman. The team tries to keep their Demoman alive as long as possible in order to land heavy damage on the enemy (the Demoman, arguably, is the best class for that role).

Unfortunately, Demomen are supremely ill-equipped for defending their Medics, which is why Soldier-Medic combos are so much more common. However, in certain situations (especially those involving Kritzkriegs, toothpaste, and cans of cat food), Demoman ubers can be just the thing.

If your team chooses to run a Demoman-Medic combo for some time, make sure that the combo is very well defended! Unlike Soldier-Medic combos, which can defend themselves, Demoman combos require the Scouts and Soldiers to stick around and defend the medic from the enemy players, especially enemy Scouts.

Scouts are your arch-nemeses.

Try your best not to mess with scouts. They can take you down in two hits, they’re hard to hit, they’re fast, and they’re strong. Plus, as a Demoman, it’s not exactly easy to defend yourself. You don’t have the luxury of rocket jumping away, either.

But it’s possible to meet a Scout and live.

(No, cp_well doesn’t actually look like that. This is a custom skybox in ubercharged.net TF2 server 3).

The best way, of course, is just to stay alive and call for backup. If you can get a friendly Scout, or better yet, Soldier in the fray, you have a very good chance of living.

Scouts are fast and hard to hit, but they also have very low HP. Two direct explosive attacks will kill a Scout.

To survive, try to put some distance between you and the scout. If you can lay a small sticky carpet on the ground between you and the Scout, you have a good shot at escaping (but beware of the pistol, it’s a surprisingly deadly weapon at mid range).

Resist the temptation to blow up the stickies prematurely. Even the best scouts forget about sticky traps sometimes. If you can leave them on the ground for a while, it’s possible that the enemy Scout will inadvertently go over one. You have to be vigilant, though, to catch them when they’re doing so.

Also, if you can land one sticky hit on them, they’ll go high in the air, where you can take them out with an easy airpipe. If they double jump in the air to dodge, they’ll certainly take fall damage, and regardless, you can send a pipe flying towards wherever they’re going to land.

Oh, and…

If you get a ‘Fro, you are likely to be respected more. When the enemy sees that hairdo in their deathcams, they’ll want to grovel at your feet. Guaranteed.

The top hat too. Everyone respects respectable Scottish gentlemen.

Sadly, I’m still waiting on the pseudorandom number generator to decide that it’s time that I get some respect.

I’d imagine quite a few readers downloaded tr_airshot_v0 after Secret Agent Clank!’s article about being a great drunken bomb-hazard. Some of you may have it already. I know I did. Because I’m a crazed idiot hardcore, I decided to force myself to play on it for four hours straight.

No, really.

It’s a map where dudes continually soar in a looping wave, you need never reload, and it’ll take you less than an hour to be dominating them all. Join team blue, grab your pipe-launcher, and get to air’sploding people; simple. But is there more to this map? Can I wind it around my fingers and wring every last drop of awesome from it? And are there any ways to maximise my training on there? Let’s find out.

Basic Training

Every class, I think, has one or two professional strategies; this is what makes those Huey Lewis, OMFGNinja-esque skill videos so compelling. It’s the secret shit. I knew the Axtinguisher could be used to improve my W+M1, but I would never have developed the puff + sting on my own. These are gaming Gods, and we are their acolytes. This is as it should be.

But we’ve all been playing for a while now. We know how to shoot rockets at people’s feet. We know how to heal from behind cover. We may not be pros, but we’re adept at the game’s nuances, at least when playing as our class of choice. I may not be able to tell you what kind of hyper-skilled nonsense the 1337 Engies are going to get up to in the next skill video smothering youtube, but I can point you at tr_airshot_v0, and advise: “You could do worse than playing on this map for a while”.

For a start, every class needs to hit dudes that are moving quickly. The Spy has a new gun – why not bust that out and try some mid-air headshots? Some more things you can try:

The ever-popular Rocket/Pipebomb airshots, obviously.

Mid-air headshots with the sniper rifle, huntsman, ambassador.

Skill shots with the flare gun – how many of the bots can you have alight at the same time?

Standing on the second level by your spawn, use the FaN to knock back incoming bots.

Practice with the Sandman.

Practice air detonations with your stickies.

I’m sure you’ll come up with more for your preferred class, but that’s the obvious way to use this map – it’s a training map. With hours left, I had to try something a little more inventive.

Why So Serious?

Of course, the really fun things to do, by yourself, involve a bit of light hearted fun (and sv_cheats 1). Try rocket jumping to shovel the blighters in mid-air. As a Heavy, stand so that you block a whole bunch of them at their jumping point, then kill 7 of them with the KGB. Switch to Sasha. Laugh loudly. Bring Sandviches.

I was getting pretty bored around the two-hour mark, so I put noclip into the console to pass through the level and have a look around. Turns out, the bots spawn in this little corridor behind the map. They edge sideways, then teleport once they reach the end. This means they can all spit out evenly, so you’re not scoring 19 crit-kills at once.

I quickly put a stop to that. I stood with my body and blocked them – it took ages, so I used host_timescale 5 in the console to speed things up. Soon, all 19 of them were standing in a cluster, occupying the same space. Returning to the arena, I had a blast doing exactly that – turning off noclip, I started firing pipe bombs into the lot of them, creating a spray of bodyparts TF2 hasn’t been able to produce since Meet the Demoman.

Then I got a little more imaginative. I rolled spy. I typed thirdperson into the console, switched to my knife, and then entered cl_drawhud 0. Then I returned to the spawn corridor. After I’d let them build up, I set host_timescale to 0.4, which makes the flying speed about the same as normal walking speed. Then I returned to the main area for the boss fight.

I zoomed around, gradually thinning the layers of Aussie hats and flamethrowers from the Chimera I’d created, tasking myself with killing each of them before they died from fall damage. It was great. It felt like a different game. A much less challenging game, sure, but The Adventures of Noclip Spy sounds like a mod I’d play, nudge nudge. I can only imagine how cool it’d be to do this competitively online.

In retrospect, I could have done something fancy with gravity here, and there are probably a ton of ways you could improve the map itself specifically to cater to my demented sandbox mode, but I think it was a successful exercise in utilising my creativity to… waste four hours of my life. At least I got good screen shots. Now it’s your turn, Gentlemen: can you think of anything else to do on this map?

Our glorious game has been out for nearly a year and a half. However, not all of you have been there for those full months. There are some who joined around the turn of the wonderful year that was 2008. Others joined up for the updates (Medic, Pyro, Heavy, and Scout if you are blissfully unaware). Perhaps you just joined in the middle of nothing. Regardless, many were absent from the first months of Team Fortress 2. I and Ubercharged.net will now take you back to a time where there were no debates over class updates, achievement farming, or anything like that. I would like to take you all back to Team Fortress 2: October 2007.

CP_Lazytown

Lazytown was the very first custom map for Team Fortress 2, released while the beta was out. For those of you keeping track at home, that’s before the SDK. I can just sense the win.

Layout

Lazytown was a 5 control point map, similar to Well (CP) and Granary. It was roughly Z-shaped. When you exit your spawn, you are on top of a slope overlooking the final point of your side. These were technically the battlements. Descending the slope, there were two paths: forward to the second point and left to the third.

The second point was straightforward, as it was just a medium-sized square of open space with a point in the middle. A path to the left led to the third point. All that was on the left was a room with pipes and a large doorway to the third point.

Either path you took, you would wander into a small rectangular part of land with 2 slopes heading up to the third point.

The point itself was a larger rectangular patch with yet more pipes. There was also a building in the middle of the slopes that could be scaled by Soldiers and Demomen raining ammo from above. Flip it around and there are the fourth and fifth points.

Why It Was Awesome

Again, for you new kiddies, realize there were not a lot of maps back then. There were only 6 (2fort, Granary, Well, Dustbowl, Gravelpit, and Hydro). Any map would be a big deal. Also, since the matches took longer than other maps, you could spend a long time just playing Lazytown and rack up the points.

Why, Now, It Sucks

As the first custom map, not a lot was expected, and not a lot was brought. The entire map looked a bit dull, with rusted reds and blues. The architecture was also uninspired, as the entire map was just inside a series of buildings. The capture times were also agonizing, around the speeds or even slower than Toy Fort. The worst of the traits, however, was the stalemate.
Lazytown did not have the concept of forward spawns. You always spawned from your final point and, thus, had to walk all the way across the map to get to the front lines to die again. Since there were only two ways into a point and patented ways to remove sentries were not invented yet other than an Über (another installment), sentries could shut down an entire area and be safe from damage. Open spaces encouraged Snipers, keeping more people at bay. Even I, a horrible Sniper, got a decent amount of kills. This was all “complimented” by the long timer, reaching around thirty minutes. Although the long time was an improvement, after playing 3 hours without scoring a round point, it gets annoying.

What Happened?

After bigger and better maps came out, as well as the release of the SDK, Lazytown faded away by spring 2008. A newer version came out with forward spawns, but it could not bring the map back to life.

If you really want to play Lazytown, a server may still have it somewhere. While it was taken off FPSBanana a long time ago, you could Google for it, but you might find either the forward-spawn version or the original. There is also an “updated” version called Busytown. While it improves the look and fixes stalemates a bit, it’s just not the same.

One of the few videos on it. Mediocre frag video, but I’m more interested in showing all of you the map:

Tune in next time for the next installment, which will be decided after huffing a large amount of paint.