Tim the Corsair’s Slightly Less Than Conventional TF2 Class Strategies Part One – Strategy Guide

(The first part of a three part article dealing with some slightly unusual personal strategies for Team Fortress 2) 

    

There is just something vastly appealing about doing things a little differently to other people.  It feels good to buck trends; to break the rules occasionally.  It’s not about gaining attention, or being a rebel (with and/or without a cause).  For me personally, I just love to look at something that is always done a certain way, and instead think outside the box and tackle it from a different angle.  It’s just my philosophy on life; the only way isn’t the only way or even the best way, if you catch my meaning.

Gaming hasn’t been an exception for me in this regard.  When everyone else was tank rushing in Red Alert, I was the guy thinking of unique strategies involving attack dogs and mine layers (…that never worked).  In Counterstrike I was the one using the ‘useless’ guns simply because no one else took them seriously; and in Halo I made it a mission to kill as many people point-blank with a sniper rifle as I could, simply because I could.

Team Fortress 2 is a game that can really encourage the lateral thinkers out there.  While your initial experiences will probably revolve around just getting used to the mechanics and play styles of the different classes (even if you are a TF veteran), a time may come where you start to think “why does every Engineer build his sentry gun in the same three spots on this map?” or “why do Medics only ever Uber Heavies or Soldiers?”

Not everyone questions this kind of thing; many players are content to sit back, have fun, and rack up the kills, and more power to you if this is what you enjoy.  For other people (like myself), the real meat and potatoes in any gaming experience comes from trying to mix things up; it’s not so much about your score, as it is how you achieve it.

So with all of this in mind, I bring you Tim the Corsair’s Slightly Less Than Conventional TF2 Class Strategies; the name may not be catchy, but hopefully the article helps you look at your TF2 experience in a new light.  Most of the stuff written here I’ve kind of figured out for myself, or adapted from my experiences online; I don’t claim to be an expert by any means on the game, and I’m sure many experienced players would know some of (if not all of) the stuff I’m going to talking about.  If anyone feels that I have somehow ripped off their patent-pending ultra-effective strat or something, feel free to leave a comment or email that I can promptly ignore.

This article will be presented in three different parts, representing the different class categories of the game.

Now onto Offense:

      

Scout – The Best Defence…

    

Scouts are a pretty interesting phenomenon on public servers.  Generally speaking, every time the map changes and everybody starts choosing classes, there will always be one or two Scouts; on some maps where speed is very much rewarded, oftentimes many more players will choose this, the speediest of the classes.  There will be a few kills, maybe a point capture or two.

But like clockwork, the inevitable sentry guns will go up; the Demomen will start placing pipe bombs; and all of a sudden there is maybe one Scout left on the team, and he is usually completely ineffective unless his team mates on attack have removed all the enemy defences.

This is the big mistake that a lot of people make when it comes to playing the Scout class effectively.  While rapid attacks on the intel or control points are sometimes effective, the fragility and lack of long range firepower means that this class will be dominated by a static defence unless you are very, very good at hit and run attacks, or unless your teamwork is so good that your weaknesses are completely compensated for; not too likely playing with a group of strangers.

This is where the defensive or ‘harasser’ Scout comes in.  Don’t let the manoeuvrability, rapid point capturing, and being lumped into the ‘Offense’ category fool you; Scouts can make an extremely good defensive class in capable hands, making up for the lack of toughness and firepower with the ability to hit from any direction and cause absolute chaos in the enemy ranks.

Take the map ‘Granary’ for example; this symmetrical control point map is very dependent on the speed of an attacking team.  The team which takes the central point first can often get a massive roll on due to momentum, and can win the round with a minimum of fuss if they can outflank and push back the opposing team.  Defending in this situation is very tricky, as the multiple approaches and wide-open nature of the level make static defences like sentries or pipe-bombs limited in effectiveness; one multi-prong attack or Uber-combo will soon take these out, and clear the way to the last point and a relatively painless win for the bad guys.  The same can often apply to any of the maps; there are usually too many different ways into a point or intel room to make static defences the be all and end all.

A harassing Scout can change all of this.  Any team worth their salt on offense will leave static defences of their own behind, limiting (although not preventing completely) the Scouts ability to take points back singlehanded.  However, the defensive Scout will instead seek to confuse and disorient the enemy, either making them attack your own defences piecemeal, or (even better) causing them to fall victim to a rather nasty counterattack by your teammates.

Hit and run is the order of the day here.  Discover where the main attack is coming from, and use the other entrances to sneak up behind.  Destroy teleport entrances and exits, and any dispensers you find.   Ambush lone Engineers, Spies, Demomen, or Snipers; kill them if you can, but if you can’t then disengage; if they call for help and pull combat classes back from the frontline, you’ve already partially accomplished you goal, and any weakened enemies will be easy prey for your more deadly colleagues.

The most important task for the harassing Scout, however, is to kill any Medics you find.  In this way, the defensive Scout is much like the Spy class, but uses blistering speed instead of stealth to accomplish his aim.  Jump into the centre of an enemy group, kill the Medic, and escape before coming from a different direction to attack the rest of the group; take on the targets you stand the best chance of beating, and never stop moving.  Remember that causing injury is still helping the cause, and living to fight another day will cause the group to pursue you and worry about where you’re coming from next, rather than attacking the point or capturing your intel.

Surprisingly the defensive Scout will often have quite high scores; aiming for ‘softer’ targets, as well as the general chaos of attacking the attackers close to your lines means that you will quickly build up quite a collection of kills and kill-assists.  More importantly, most teams will not expect the slashing at the flanks that playing the class this way brings, and the chaos caused will help out any Spies or other counter-attackers on your team by drawing attention away from them.  Plus, killing Medics and preventing Ubers from going off makes defending and counterattacking so much easier for your friends.

So forget trying to recap the points in a tight game; leave that to the Heavy-Medic combos.  Instead, just beat up the Medics and those who can’t defend themselves against you.  After all, nothing is more frustrating than an enemy you can’t catch, and frustration leads to people making stupid mistakes.  Stupid mistakes lead to victory for your side.

  

Soldier – Double the Boom

  

There’s not a great deal of finesse required to play the Soldier class effectively; even with the ability to rocket jump around the place, at the end of the day you’re a big, slow, tough guy with high explosives, and this limits any real fancy thinking.  While this tactic isn’t exactly the most exciting thing going, it is surprisingly effective for your team, and at least involves doing something besides running headlong at the enemy.

The first thing you need to do is team yourself up with a good Demoman.  As we all know, the ability to place sticky bombs makes the Demo the premier class when it comes to creating a killing field of explodey death.  The main problem with said killing field is that, once it’s been detonated, all those bombs have to be replanted again; a time consuming process, and that’s ignoring the very real chance that some enterprising Spy or Scout hasn’t come up behind said Demo and whacked him.  Combining this prowess with a Soldier, however, makes the Demo a much tougher nut to crack, and the combined unit can prove equally effective at forming a deadly attack force as they are at impenetrable defence.

When defending in this combination, the secret as the guardian Soldier is simply to watch your Demo’s back, and help finish off anything he doesn’t.  It may sound boring, but it doesn’t have to be.  By intermittently firing rockets and shotgun blasts along the path being covered by the stickies (as well as any other approaches to your position), it’s almost guaranteed that the occasional Spy or Scout will be cleaned up by your combined firepower.  Furthermore, by providing this backup (and highly intimidating) fire, it allows far more time for a detonated sticky field to be replaced, and makes it much more likely that surviving enemies will die a horrible death via rocket to the face.  When pulled off properly, this kind of combination is impossible to dislodge without a concentrated effort by the enemy team, and as we discussed in the Scout section, if they’re concentrating on kill you, they aren’t concentrating on completing their objectives.

Offensively, this combination of Soldier and Demoman firepower becomes much more interesting.  It is often the natural reaction for an enemy confronting a Soldier to duck around a corner to hide from the rocket damage, darting out to confront you once you are reloading or within range of their own weapon.  What most people fail to realise in this situation is that they tend to focus entirely on playing chicken with the rockets; they most likely won’t see the grenades bouncing off the wall into them, or the stickies placed on the ceiling just so.  In the same way, the Engineer and sentry gun combo guarding the intel will most likely be so focused on the Demoman firing stickies at their gun that little attention is paid to the rockets flying at them.

The secret is to find a dependable Demoman and work to each other’s strengths.  The combination of direct, indirect, and controlled firepower means that you can deal with almost any situation efficiently, and are perfect for covering each other’s weaknesses (the Demo’s lack of short range firepower, for example); you are also the only two classes which can reach certain out of the way areas through rocket/pipe bomb jumping, further increasing the potential to create a bit of explosive mayhem.  It can take a bit of practice to get the timing right, but the Demoman-Soldier unit can be the most potent attacking or defensive force on the map, and all without needing a Medic tagging along (although an Uber never hurts).

    

Pyro – Intimidation Is The Sincerest Form Of Flattery

   

Most people that play Pyros have probably realised by now that, despite being lumped into the Offense category, the class really shines when the enemy is coming at you.  Due to the short-range nature of all of the class weapons, the kill-count favours those who sit around corners or in little nooks, waiting to spray fire all over any enemy foolish enough to walk past.  This can be fun, but isn’t always very effective, especially when you’re on a solely attacking team (like Dustbowl) and there are four sentries between you and the enemy.

Even if the situation does favour the tactic of sitting back and ambushing the enemy, it isn’t the only way to play the class. Sometimes, getting a million kills from an ambush just isn’t as satisfying as knowing that you have scared the crap out of every opposing team member through your crazed desire to set them on fire no matter the risk to yourself.

In much the same way as a good Scout or Spy will have the enemy confused and chasing their own tails rather than going for the objective, a Pyro set to intimidate (or perhaps more accurately, burninate) will seek to get behind enemy lines and cause pure chaos. Getting kills is not the aim, and indeed it is unlikely that you will gain as many as you would by ambushing constantly or working alongside a group of teammates.  Nonetheless the enemy will learn to fear you, as everyone hates being set on fire; in one fell swoop it is possible to turn a structured attacking force into a rabble, as the Medic runs back to base to heal, the Soldiers go haring off after medpacks, the Heavies just sit there looking stupid, and the enemy Pyros decides to hunt you down personally, forgoing the attack on the point.

Continuing in this way, patiently working your way behind the enemy lines and pouncing when the opportunity is right, will dilute attacks on your position (or the defence of theirs) as players go searching for a way to kill you or preserve their own skins.  In a similar way to the above Scout strategy, this will also help your teammates finish off your weakened enemies, and counterattack if necessary. 

One way to vastly increase the effectiveness of this strategy is to pair up with another Pyro for your raids; hit from different angles, finish off the softer targets, and soon enough half the enemy team will go Engineer and build sentries just to stop you from rampaging around.  Really, a Pyro teaming up in this way with any class can be highly effective; work with a Scout or Spy and the sheer amount of chaos caused will have the whole enemy team in a tizzy.

At the end of the day you want to use guerrilla tactics to make this strategy work.  Not so much the hit and run aspect; you’ll hit, but a lot of the time you won’t survive to run.  Rather, you are aiming to make the enemy so scared of the fact that you just might appear amongst them that they spend half their time watching their backs and too intimidated to think straight.  When you finally do hit them, even if not one of them dies in the process, it’ll make it that much more likely that they will lose focus on the task at hand.  After all, who isn’t intimidated by someone wielding a big flamethrower and a suicidal disregard for personal safety?

   

Stay tuned for Part 2: Defence

   

- Tim Sweeney