Tim the Corsair’s Slightly Less Than Conventional TF2 Class Strategies Part Three - Strategy Guide

Sniper - The Precision Incision

   

I’ve always loved sniping in games, and in many cases the sniper rifle will always be my weapon of choice.  However this love of long range, accurate shooting doesn’t really gel with the fact that I absolutely despise camping in FPS games; it’s just so damn boring sitting in the same spot, aiming at the same stretch of wall, hoping to drill someone’s head as they run past.  Starting back in my old Unreal Tournament days, I soon overcame this by using the sniper rifle as a kind of long-range shotgun, being very aggressive and rushing while still taking advantage of the snap-aiming and accuracy inherent to the gun.  A few iterations of UT, Counterstrike, Call of Duty, and of course Team Fortress later, and now sitting back with a sniper rifle seems like an almost alien concept to me.

Being an aggressive sniper in TF2 is slightly more difficult than in most games, however.  For a start, your manoeuvrability when zoomed in is incredibly poor, and your vision is massively impaired.  Making matters even more difficult is the fact that the need to remain zoomed in for a certain period of time to hit with full power means that moving around at all is really discouraged by the design of the game.  But hey, what fun would an alternative strategy be if it was easy, right?

The secret to overcoming the limitations of the class is to first acknowledge them, and then work out a way around them.  Unlike in a game like CS say, where you can move around, rapidly zoom in, and be almost guaranteed a one hit kill provided you have the skill to aim the shot properly,TF2 makes it far more challenging to achieve.  The goal here is to move yourself into a position around a corner where you know the enemy will be coming from (and where they won’t be expecting a sniper to be) and either strafe out, or drill them as they come around.  The range here isn’t important; do it point blank if you have the skill and the connection to pull it off accurately, otherwise try to sit back a bit further so that you have more leeway with getting a good shot in.

After you’ve hopefully killed your target, fall back, zoom again and take on the next one if necessary.  If there isn’t a next one, or if the guy you hit didn’t die, advance and finish him off with your submachine gun or kukri if feasible, or change position and try again.  The main goal here is to always keep moving, and to move up as far as you dare without getting into a position where you are caught unprepared by the enemy; it’s a fine line to walk, and one that will require a lot of practice to master.  In fact, this whole method of playing is only really recommended for people that have a very steady aiming hand; a good internet connection can help too, as the hitboxes in Source Engine-based games can be a bit…strange, and high pings only magnify this.

If you can get the hang of using your sniping abilities on the attack, however, you will be that much more of an asset to your team.  Travel with the pack rather than hanging back, use your submachine gun where necessary (it really is a pretty decent weapon if you can compensate for the small clip), and set yourself up to take shots in direct support of your team; even if you can’t get the full zoom power bonus, you’ll still be much more useful headshotting an Engineer with his gun or the Demoman pelting your team with grenades (even if you don’t actually kill them) than you would be hanging at the base, duelling with another Sniper and picking off the occasional wandering Scout.  Plus, Sniper wars are always more fun when you’re shooting them in the side of the head while they think they’re safe; duelling is for suckers, bring on the slaughter!     

    

Medic - Doctor Assisted Homicide

  

The Medic is a bit like the Soldier or Demoman classes; you can try to dress them up in all sorts of fancy ways, but at the end of the day they do one thing very, very well.  In the Medic’s case this is, of course, healing teammates and Ubering them where necessary.  Many Medic players will not even bother changing to one of their actual weapons unless the situation is desperate, and this isn’t really a surprise considering that the class is quite weak in combat (although the Syringe Gun is surprisingly powerful when used correctly).

This guide isn’t going to explain some revolutionary strategy for singlehandedly capturing points and dominating the enemy team using nothing but a few syringes and a bone saw; instead we’re going to focus on taking full advantage of the capabilities of the class, and looking at ways to use the standard abilities in non-standard ways.

The most important thing to remember as a Medic is that the Heavy you are currently latched onto isn’t the only player on your team that needs healing; forgetting anything else, you need to help out everybody, even those lowly Scouts!  A single Medic trying to heal everyone will be far more effective for his team than ignoring them to heal just one teammate. Plus your Uber will build up quicker this way, and we all know how important that is.

The next thing to consider is the preconceived notions people have about which classes should be Ubered.  Heavies almost always get the preference, followed by Soldiers, and then Pyros and Demomen come in at a distant equal third.  This predilection for always Ubering Heavies just boggles the mind; sure there are plenty of situations where an invulnerable Heavy will waste an entire team in quick succession, but there are plenty of other situations where the Heavy’s minigun is completely useless for removing static defences and enemies at range.  Each other class, when Ubered, have similar weaknesses in certain situations.

I’m not saying to avoid Ubering Heavies, et al; what I am saying is that you shouldn’t ALWAYS choose these classes to benefit from your glowy beam of invulnerability simply because these classes are the ones that are always chosen.  Keep an open mind, and think tactically about the situation before choosing just who it is that will receive the charge.

One recent example that springs to mind occurred at the A point on Gravelpit.  The defence had been repulsed, and an attack force consisting of about five players was busy capturing the point.  Playing as a Scout on defence (harassment baby!), I rushed with a Heavy, a Demoman, and a Medic to the point from B.  The Heavy had no hope of getting there on time, the Demo was pretty unlikely to be able to do them all in at such close quarters, so the Medic quickly latched onto me with a curt order of “get your bat out and don’t run too fast.”

Sure enough, we got there in plenty of time, he gave me the Uber, and I proceeded to bat the heads in of four of the five enemies present; the last one was killed by my approaching backup, and the enemy reinforcements were similarly dealt with.  By resisting the urge to stick with the stereotypical options for the Ubercharge, my Medic and I managed to defend a point that otherwise would have been indefensible.

Situations like this are remarkably common, and there are situations where Ubering a Spy in tight quarters will benefit the team more than doing so to a Pyro; Ubering an Engineer to allow him to get through the lines and build a base for a bit of teleporter action could help your team far more than a few more kills latched onto a Soldier.  The standard recipients of your Ubers might be great sometimes, but they aren’t the be all and end all.  Assess each situation individually, check out what tools you have available, and then choose the best one for the job.

Oh and one last thing.  It’s all very noble for Medics to stick with healing their teammates, even when they themselves are being heroically slain, but nobility doesn’t mean squat when your needless death ensures the deaths of the rest of your teammates.  If a Spy or Pyro has come at your boys from behind, don’t just shout a warning; get that Syringe Gun out and kill the bastards!  The Syringe Gun itself is remarkably powerful when used in the right hands; aim up (due to gravity) above the head and let loose, you have a tonne of shots and you should be able to at least seriously hurt most opponents.  Don’t forget the Bone Saw either; for whatever reason, the algorithm which determines critical hits apparently rather likes the Bone Saw, and you will receive crits VERY often when compared to other melee weapons; take advantage!        

    

Spy - The Art Of Misdirection

   

The Spy is easily my favourite class in TF2, and is probably the most fun multiplayer FPS experience I’ve ever had.  There is just something intoxicating about cloaking, disguising as the enemy, fooling them into accepting you, and then BAM! Knife in the back; it’s beautiful.

Discussing all the little nuances of being a really successful Spy would take a whole separate article, but there is one ability of the class that is very frequently overlooked; the ability to disguise as a member of your own team.  Why would you want to do this?  Misdirection of course.

Picture the first stage of Dustbowl; the enemy is at their gates, waiting to come running out in a mad dash for the point; your teammates are setting up in the usual positions, hoping desperately to hold them out of the building.  The attacking team will be using the setup time to determine what kind of force is arrayed against them; Heavies over there, sentry guns set up there, Sniper in the tunnel, two Medics in the hut, etc, etc.  A strong build up of tough defenders at one entrance will often encourage the attack to come from the other two, and this ability to funnel the defenders where you want them to is where your little- used ability to disguise as a friendly comes in.

Defences on the left looking a little weak compared to those on the right? Get out of sight and disguise yourself as an Engineer before casually walking in front of the gate; the enemy will immediately assume there is as sentry outside their door.  Allow them to see you as a Sniper watching from a far back tunnel, or as a Pyro sitting in the shack outside the door.  Hell, team up with another Spy and disguise as a Medic-Heavy combo!  By making use of these abilities and the narrow vision of your opponents, you can give the appearance of strength (or weakness) wherever you want, and thus determine how your position is attacked.

This may not sound like much, but wait until you have seen two simultaneous Ubers wasted on Heavies coming from the side exit because they expected to engage entirely fictitious sentry guns and enemy troops there; meanwhile the rest of the attack was slaughtered by the real strength on the point, and us Spies naturally took advantage of the confusion to stab a few Medics and Heavies on our way through.

The ability to disguise as a teammate can also help you get closer to enemy troops in situations where sneaking around is not really an option.  For example, disguising as a Sniper mixed in amongst a group of Soldiers, Heavies, Medics, etc will mean that many enemies will not target you first, allowing you to seize the correct moment to cloak and get back to backstabbing once you are past the chokepoint.  You can also use this ability to act as a lure of sorts for enemies; disguise as a friendly Medic, for example, and attract enemy Spies that may not realise you’re a bit more dangerous than your appearance suggests.

A judicious combination of misdirection and the more usual Spy activities of stabbing everything in site can have a very significant result for your team; a simple glance at a Pyro out of the corner of the eye can have a whole team haring around trying to hunt the offender down, making it that much easier for yourself to assume an enemy disguise and proceed with stabbing some people. Confusion to your enemies!

  

- - -

        

Well here we are at the end of the guide.  I hope that the strategies and tactics here will at least encourage you to view your Team Fortress 2 experience a little differently.  After all, the best way to keep a game fun is to keep it fresh, and the beauty of TF2 is that the amount of classes and abilities will allow you to keep experimenting pretty much forever, especially with the promised additions of new maps and alternate weaponry.

So whether defending with a Scout, attacking with an Engineer, or merely misdirecting the crap out of the enemy, break some rules and shake things up a bit; you (probably) won’t regret it.

   

- Tim Sweeney

Tim the Corsair’s Slightly Less Than Conventional TF2 Class Strategies Part Two - Strategy Guide

Demoman - Every Time You Drop The Bomb

   

I’m the first to admit that I’m not the best Demoman player out there; quite the opposite, generally speaking pretty much everyone is a better Demo than me.  Nonetheless, even the best Demomen can get a bit predictable at times, and thus become easy targets for Spies, Scouts, and anyone else that can get around the fields of stickies and bouncy-bouncy grenades. 

This next tip isn’t so much an overarching strategy which massively changes the way the Demoman class plays, but rather is intended to help you take advantage of a little feature of the sticky bomb launcher that many people may not be entirely aware of.  Launch with the left button, place up to eight bombs, and then detonate with the right…right?  Well there’s another little trick you can do; after the first eight bombs have been launched, every one fired after that will cause one of the previously placed ones to detonate.

This doesn’t sound like much of a feature at first; but then the old brain starts percolating, and all of a sudden there are a few interesting little things you can accomplish.  The first, and most obvious, is to just keep firing stickies into the same area so that a field of regularly detonating death is blocking an area; this is pretty much guaranteed to stop Spies and Scouts in their tracks (helping to cover one of the biggest weaknesses of the Demoman class), and still leaves you with the option of detonating the whole field if a Heavy come stomping through with Medic in tow.

Another good usage of the multiple stickies of boom strategy is in sentry gun harassment.  Now most of the time a Demo will have a relatively easy time in dealing with individual sentry emplacements, but there are certain maps where a big cluster of defences (such as the second stage of Dustbowl) can be placed in such a way that dropping them with a big enough array of bombs is hard without getting slapped around first by the enemy team.  Plus, if you manage to land enough to kill the guns, you’ll probably die in the process yourself, leaving any surviving Engineers plenty of time to rebuild before you can respawn.

Pegging stickies at such entrenched positions from long range can make the whole thing much more interesting; it gives you the option of retreating and coming back to place more later (say if you need to heal), and it will distract the Engies from fixing their equipment or watching their backs; nothing scares the owner of a sentry more than watching stickies land on them, and they will most likely pull out their shotguns to blast the offending bombs away.  The good news is that you can launch extra stickies far faster than they can knock them away, and every one over the eighth will be detonating in their faces.  The guns probably won’t go down straight away, but if you can master this tactic the Engineers and dispensers almost certainly will, and this virtually guarantees the sentries being wiped out soon after.

This tactic is also highly useful when attacking a well defended point; just like in a defensive position, constantly detonating sticky bombs will prevent Spies from getting into a position to wipe out your attacking force.  It can also help to prevent counter-attacking players from interfering with the capture, as the explosions will often throw enemies off the point long enough to allow the capping to continue; your allies will appreciate it, and your enemies may become so obsessed with stopping your barrage that they forget about protecting the point itself.

I’m not saying to stop using the Demoman class in the traditional way; the indirect nature of the weapons wielded by the class make things interesting enough that there’s no real need to shake things up drastically.  Just remember that taking advantage of this little additional feature can really expand on your own capabilities and make you a more useful Demo on attack and defence, as well as frustrating the hell out of any Spies or Scouts who would otherwise probably eat you for breakfast. 

    

Heavy - Sarah Connor?

  

Ah the Heavy, oh how you get abused.  People see the Heavy class and simply assume that the only effective way to play it is by having a Medic latch onto you and walking headlong into the fray, minigun spinning away and your crap-tonne of health absorbing whatever is thrown your way.  Sure in this situation close range enemies are probably dead, and not too many classes will take down a decent Heavy-Medic combo from the front, but otherwise the Heavy is just a big, dumb target.  Snipers will smile every time they see you lumber into an area, Soldiers and Demomen will laugh with glee as they smash you from long range while you ineffectually spray them with the world’s most inaccurate gun, and of course Spies will be drawn to your back like Paris Hilton to cocaine and stupidity.  The fact is that all that health just means you’ll be getting shot more before you inevitably die.

Now there isn’t really a way of avoiding the Heavy’s weaknesses at long range; if the class had a Sniper rifle or something as well, no one would bother playing as anything else.  But there are ways of playing the class that will maximise your advantages in situations that would otherwise make you a target, and will probably lead to a good bit of laughter and frustration for yourself and your enemies respectively.

I like to think of the Heavy as being a bit like Arnie in Terminator 2; sure you can wield a massive gun that can blow the crap out of everything in your way, but that isn’t your only advantage.  Forgetting the minigun for a moment, you also have the rather interesting combination of the trusty shotgun, big-arse fists, and enough health to absorb a rocket in the face and keep going.  With all of these things in your favour, you don’t just have to be the damage absorbing tank on the frontlines; you can also be the tough enforcer engaging in running gun battles for the point, protecting your teammates as you move on the attack, and even engaging in a little bit of Scout-style harassment.

The first lesson to learn is that the shotgun doesn’t behave a great deal like an actual shotgun should; specifically, it’s really not too bad at range.  Even if you ignore the rest of what I’m writing here, remember this simple fact: beyond short-to-middle range, the shotgun should always be your primary weapon ahead of the minigun; unless you fluke a few criticals with the big gun at range, the shotgun is going to do more damage and may well finish them off with a bit of luck and a decent aim.

The next thing to remember is the fact that most people will never expect a Heavy to engage them in a running battle; people naturally assume that you’ll be coming around the corner in slow motion, gun spinning up and bullets flying everywhere, and if they can’t stop you they should just run off and hide.  What they won’t be expecting is someone with double their hitpoints coming around said corner with a (relatively) quick leap and a shotgun blast to the face.  While you won’t have the speed to pursue anyone, you’ll have the toughness to absorb their damage while drilling them in return.  The ability to strafe and jump around will also help to prevent you from taking quite as much damage, and is honestly worth it just for how amusing it is to leap around as a big, hairy slug.

This added flexibility will also help you to guard your teammates from ambushes launched by canny opponents; by not focusing entirely on being up the front with gun blazing, you are in the perfect position to act as a buffer between a sneak Pyro or Scout attack while the rest of your team gets through relatively unscathed.  Plus keeping the big gun on your back will make you less tempting to all those Spies out there, and that’s got to be for the good.

This toughness can also allow you to engage in a bit of Scout-style harassment tactics; sure, it’s going to be much less likely that you’ll sneak in behind their lines through a combination of speed and jumping power, but your toughness will probably give you more of a chance to survive getting back there.  It’s really quite hilarious getting behind the lines on Gravelpit (for example), and then launching slow-moving, punchy death on enemies that don’t expect a Heavy to ever bother attempting to infiltrate.  Attempting to come at them from a different angle will nullify the main weaknesses of the class; you’re big, you’re slow, and everyone can see and hear you coming.

Really, it’s just a matter of following the purpose of this article; shake it up baby, shake it up!  Instead of coming from the same direction, run (well, kind of) in behind the defensive team onto the point and punch the crap out of their Medics; instead of being a target for every person to ever pick up a sniper rifle, hit ‘em from range with the shotgun and move in closer to see how they enjoy you when you aren’t across the map.  Sure, playing like this probably isn’t going to net you a barrel of kills like teaming up with a Medic and walking straight in through the front door would, but there’s nothing saying you can’t still whip out the minigun and mow down the opposition in between imitating the Governator.    

    

Engineer - …Is A Good Offense

   

Remember this one thing: despite the awesomeness of a fully upgraded sentry gun, it is just another tool of the Engineer class.  Some people become so obsessed with the perfect placement and ongoing survival of this gun that they neglect to do anything else, just sitting somewhere quiet hoping a Scout will run past.  Sitting on a point for 20 minutes hitting my gun with my wrench just doesn’t appeal to me, so I prefer to carry the death to the enemy.

To be an attacking Engineer, however, you need to realise that your sentry is expendable, as are your teleport exits, your dispensers, and even yourself.  Your goal on the attack is not to rush in, guns blazing; instead you are going to use the abilities unique to your class to (you guessed it) cause confusion and chaos right on the frontlines, or (even better) behind them.

To be most effective at this, you will generally want someone to work with you and watch your back; the specific class doesn’t matter (another Engineer can be very effective), so long as they don’t bugger off and leave you unguarded.  Travel with your team, or sneak in the back way (the sewers on 2Fort are often undefended, for example) and find a good, out of the way spot to set up your dispenser; try to put it in a nook or out of the way place where enemies that run past it might not notice, while still being somewhere that allows you to resupply.

Next up you want to slap up a teleport exit; put this as close to the enemy as you can, and make sure you inform your teammates that it is active and where it leads to, as well as letting them know that its lifespan is probably fairly limited.  If you manage to get this far, the next goal is to build a sentry; put this somewhere a little out of the way and preferably nowhere near your teleporter or dispenser.

The goal here is to use your sentry gun to harass opponents, causing them to call for more teammates to destroy it; while they are doing this your teleport exit should hopefully be releasing teammates in behind the lines, and your gun might even knock off a couple of them.  Upgrading or repairing the gun is of far less importance than keeping your teleporter and dispenser running.  When the gun goes down, build another one somewhere else, and continue the process.

All of this effort should hopefully net you a few points, but more importantly it creates a new front to the battle, hopefully giving your team an advantage on the attack due to the enemy having split priorities.  If the worst case scenario happens and your team can’t support the offensive, fall back and slap down as many sentry guns along your route as possible to take the heat off your team, and try to sneak a new dispenser and teleport up as soon as the retreat stops.

One thing you need to understand if you play such a weak combat class on the attack is that you are probably going to die quite often; with low health and only a shotgun and pistol for company, if you get caught by any kind of offensive class you are probably dead.  This is why a measure of stealth is required for both yourself and your placements; you want to be able to establish your equipment in such a way that the enemy don’t know you’re doing it until they are already up, and you want to be able to fall back to your dispenser for health, ammo, and metal as required; this is kind of ineffective if the enemy sees you building said dispenser.

The ultimate goal with the attacking Engineer is to get a base established right in the midst of the enemy forces; something like in the intel point on 2Fort or Well, or close to a point your team is about to capture would be the ultimate goal, but any area that allows your teammates to teleport in amongst the enemy team and provides your gun with plenty of backs to shoot is probably the best that can be hoped for.  It’s all about helping your team out in TF2, and the offensive Engineer gives far more direct aid to your teammates by providing them with a distraction, a healing point, some extra firepower, and a quick way into the battle all rolled into one.  Much better than a gun sitting in a corridor somewhere that may or may not even engage an enemy.    

   

Stay tuned for Part 3: Support

   

- Tim Sweeney