Counter-Strike strategy guide
Transcription
Counter-Strike strategy guide
PART 1 Public Strategies Counter-Strike strategy guide 02/2004 Counter-Strike strategy guide Guillaume Tournand AKA Nold 02/2004 Official Counter-Strike web site: http://www.counter-strike.net/ Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 1 of 23 Counter-Strike strategy guide 02/2004 1. Abstract Counter-Strike is a modification of Half-life, which is an online video game of the First Person Shooter (FPS) genre. This game splits the players into 2 teams: the terrorists and the counter-terrorists; one of them has an objective to complete (i.e.: rescuing hostages, blasting a bombsite with C4, rescuing a VIP) while the other one has to try and prevent them achieving it. The type of objective that one of the team will be asked to achieve is defined by the map (the pre-defined world where the game will take place), and the game on each map is sub-divided in rounds. A round ends when one team is dead or has achieved their objective, or when the timer reaches 0. When a player is killed, he re-spawns at the beginning of the next round. This game modification was developed in 1999 and is -over the last 4 years- the most played multiplayer online game. This guide has been written for a variant of Counter-Strike, called “pistols only” where only handguns, grenades and knifes are considered as valid weapons. The set of guidelines in this document should be considered as suggestions to players regarding the strategic aspect of this game, they are not a way to achieve guaranteed victory. Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 2 of 23 Counter-Strike strategy guide 02/2004 2. Table of contents 1. Abstract ........................................................................................2 2. Table of contents ............................................................................3 3. List of figures .................................................................................4 4. Introduction ...................................................................................5 5. Game description ............................................................................6 5.1 The objectives ............................................................................6 5.2 Skins ........................................................................................7 5.3 Weapons ...................................................................................8 6. Good player ...................................................................................9 7. 360° awareness ............................................................................. 10 8. Facing enemies ............................................................................. 11 9. Anticipation ................................................................................. 16 10. Team play .................................................................................. 18 10.1 Principles .............................................................................. 18 10.2 Communication ....................................................................... 18 10.3 The rush group ........................................................................ 19 10.4 Holding position....................................................................... 20 11. Stealth ...................................................................................... 22 12. Conclusion ................................................................................. 23 Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 3 of 23 Counter-Strike strategy guide 02/2004 3. List of figures Figure 5.1: Game objectives...................................................................6 Figure 5.2: Available skins. ....................................................................7 Figure 8.1: Zigzag. ............................................................................ 12 Figure 8.2: Move around your opponent. .................................................. 13 Figure 8.3: Line up your opponents. ....................................................... 13 Figure 8.4: The loops of the map. .......................................................... 14 Figure 9.1: The flow concept. ............................................................... 17 Figure 10.1: The rush group. ................................................................ 19 Figure 11.1: Player and Field Of Vision (FOV). ........................................... 22 Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 4 of 23 Counter-Strike strategy guide 02/2004 4. Introduction While playing, be prepared to do anything: it is a world where anything is possible and fast thinking is required. Your team’s victory will depend on how each member is able to gather information, and react to it. In order to achieve optimum game results, make sure of the following: Your selected resolution is the highest your computer can cope with, without displaying a slow game. A high resolution allows you to see details far away. Get an optical mouse, their precision is worth it; ideally with 5 buttons. You can hear sounds from the game: not only the rounds you shoot, but the footsteps of the players around you, enemies reloading … Avoid listening to music while playing. Prefer headphones over loudspeakers for increase sound accuracy. Position yourself comfortably. Achieving victory does not happen because of luck, but because of a set of events that bring your team closer to victory step by step. Therefore every player has to keep in mind that this game has to be played as part of a team and not as a lone player. Staying alone will: Get you killed (very probably you will not be able to achieve much that could help your team before dying). Diminish the strength of your team. Make it harder for your team to complete its objective. Bring victory closer to the enemy. It is preferable to die to help the team achieve an objective, rather than stay alive and be defeated. In order to win, the team has to play as one to reach of their objective. The tough part is that each team members’ role cannot be defined once and for all: they have to be dynamic depending on the situation the team faces. Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 5 of 23 Counter-Strike strategy guide 02/2004 5. Game description 5.1 The objectives The different objectives for both teams are listed in figure 5.1. Bombsite blast Hostages rescue VIP rescue Terrorists Counter-terrorists Reach one of the bombsites in the map, plant the bomb and hold the position until the bomb explodes Prevent the counter-terrorists from reaching the hostages, or prevent them escaping with the hostages Prevent the terrorists reaching the bombsite or defuse the bomb before it explodes Kill the VIP Open a path for the VIP to reach the extraction point Reach the hostages and bring them back to the rescue point Figure 5.1: Game objectives. The boxes in red highlight the team that will have to perform an action before the timer reaches 0. On each map there are many possible routes to achieve the given objective, therefore it is better to decide between team members what route will be used by the team for the coming round, and to change this route frequently. A basic rule is to avoid using the same route you took at the previous round if it has been a success: chances are that enemies will be waiting for you there next round. Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 6 of 23 Counter-Strike strategy guide 02/2004 5.2 Skins Figure 5.2: Available skins. When a player is shot, depending on which hit box (the boxes in red) the bullet has reached, a defined amount of damage is removed from his health gauge. All skins have the exact same set of hit boxes, only the player model differs. However if you choose the “GIGN” or the “Phoenix Connection” model, because they have a similar overall shape, your opponents might hesitate a fraction of second before shooting when you stand in a dark place. Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 7 of 23 Counter-Strike strategy guide 02/2004 5.3 Weapons Counter-Strike offers a wide range of weapons, each of them having a different firepower, clip capacity, reload time and recoil. Some guides available provide deep explanations about each of the weapons, better than what I could have ever done. I will only advise you to try them all out and find your preferred weapons; remember that you might run out of rounds of your favourite weapon and will have to grab a weapon from the first dead body you come across, so a rough knowledge of all the available weapons is needed. Keep in mind that depending on how far your enemy is, how you shoot should be considered: The further away the enemy is, the more accuracy you will need: shoot slowly. The closer your enemy is, the faster your shots must be, up to the “spray and pray”. Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 8 of 23 Counter-Strike strategy guide 02/2004 6. Good player A good player is made by several overlapping core components: Smooth movement and agility: move fast on maps (i.e.: no collision with each teammate at the beginning of the round or with the corners when moving). Spot, point and click. Self explanatory; aim for the head. Strategic thinking (anticipation and positioning). See details below. Team work: detailed in a later chapter. Stealth: detailed in a later chapter. A will to make opponents’ life as hard as possible: your creativity will do the trick. Strategic thinking. This is the understanding of what is going on in the map, what will happen next and what will be the best angle to face it. Accurate and fast shooting is good for this game, but is far from being enough; an advantage can be gained using several techniques. Strategic positioning. It is easier to attack the back of an enemy group Sneak behind their lines. Rush “in and back” – detailed in a later chapter. Take advantage of holes in the enemy organisation Shoot the slowest player of the enemy group. Ambush the opponents when they come out of a bottleneck. Take advantage of the map. Strategic thinking includes realizing that each of the actions will be followed by reactions/consequences. For example when planting the C4, it is important to realize that the exact place where it is planted in the bombsite will decide where the counter-terrorist will have to go to defuse it. On this basis, it is important to plant the C4 at a place where: The team can easily keep an eye on it, and preferably with multiple fire arcs. A counter-terrorist will have no cover while attempting to defuse it. There is a fall-back position where you can monitor the bomb remotely (preferably far away). For these reasons hiding the C4 is definitely a bad solution. Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 9 of 23 Counter-Strike strategy guide 02/2004 7. 360° awareness This concept is very important, because each player must be able to get all the information (i.e.: the sound of a door opening, footsteps, an air vent breaking, hostages talking …), understand what it means, where it comes from, and react accordingly. Such a total immersion is required since visual contact is not enough: the field of vision covers only 90° of the surrounding. Therefore each player should not listen to music, they should play this game with headphones and with a bit of training be able to aim and shoot accurately in a direction where a sound has been heard, as a reflex. For this concept to work it require you to know the map you are playing so you can match sounds with a location on the map: footsteps do not make the same sound when a player is on sand as they do on a pavement. Another set of sounds present on certain maps that you can use against your enemies, are the “sound triggers”: these are sounds (i.e.: a plane, a dog barking…) that are played when a player goes through a certain part of the map. When you are able to locate the sound on the map, a simple look at the sonar will tell you whether the sound has been created by a teammate or an enemy. Such a skill is appreciated when you need very fast reactions based only on a sound (e.g. an enemy sneaks up to you and starts shooting at you). Use markers On certain passages, you need to break something to pass through (i.e.: an air vent, glass from a window …), these are markers. Check their state to find out if an enemy has already breached in. Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 10 of 23 Counter-Strike strategy guide 02/2004 8. Facing enemies When facing opponents you have to remember that this game is about survival: there will be no health pack lying on the floor; therefore it is important to keep each fight/visual contact with enemies as short as possible and aim for the head. Sometimes it is a good idea to delay a rush to deal with multiple enemies holding a place, but it is preferable to do so before these enemies spot your rushing group. Keep moving: while staying still improves your accuracy you will also be the easiest target. Do not start a combat you cannot win, estimate what your chances are and fall back if a defeat appears likely Good knowledge of the map and agility will enable you to be able to leave a place and go to cover, while being blind. Some of your enemies will require -for your team to get advantage- to be shot in priority. Priority shooting includes: The terrorist with carrying the bomb. The counter-terrorist defusing the bomb. The counter-terrorist escaping with the hostages. The VIP. Gain the high ground when you can: You have much better cover than your opponents. Your opponents have more difficulty reaching your position with grenades than you do. Very good position for holding. Count your bullets. During all the time you stay exposed to the enemies, you have to be able to cause damage so please do not keep eyeball contact with an enemy while you are reloading: go to cover (ideally you should use your last bullet just before reaching cover) or switch to another weapon. Reload when you are covered or when you are sure the fight is over. It is a good idea to count the enemies’ bullets to know when they will have to reload. Attack the opponents’ position from different angles; it will be harder for them to hold it. Force your opponents to cross their fire; if friendly fire is on, chances are that they will team damage themselves. Think about the next action; you should consider your present action as the past and stay focused on what will happen next. Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 11 of 23 Counter-Strike strategy guide 02/2004 Visualize what the map looks like around the corner you are about to take; since you know the map you can already have a rough idea of where enemies can hide and where you can expect the heat to be. Jump at intersections that the enemy holds; if it is likely that your opponents are waiting for you they have probably already aimed for your head. Zigzag using strafe to reach a point. This will force your opponents to wave their guns and constantly adjust their aim (see figure 8.1). Figure 8.1: Zigzag. Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 12 of 23 Counter-Strike strategy guide 02/2004 Another technique to make sure your opponent will have a hard time aiming at you is to move around him. Figure 8.2: Move around your opponent. Move to get as many opponents in a line (see figure 8.2) Figure 8.3: Line up your opponents. Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 13 of 23 Counter-Strike strategy guide 02/2004 A good knowledge of a map involves knowing what option(s) you have to attack an enemy position from a different angle, this is what I call the loops of a map. On figure 8.4 a group of terrorists attack bombsite B on position #6, and loop to get the attack angle of position #9. Some maps, because of their construction, offer many possible loops and expand the possible tactics (i.e.: de_chateau or de_piranesi). Figure 8.4: The loops of the map. Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 14 of 23 Counter-Strike strategy guide 02/2004 These loops can also be combined and used to evade an opponent chasing you, and get around behind them after. Never block your teammates and remember on bottlenecks that a teammate under fire falling back for cover has priority over another one willing to go in the battle. Cover your teammate performing an operation that makes him a priority target; meaning that you have to stand between him and the heat in order to take bullets for him, to buy him time. Be ready to take losses on your team (including yourself), but do all you can to limit it. Make sure it is an enemy in your reticule before clicking. You can get accurate information about this either by having a look at the sonar, or by leaving the reticule pointed at your target: almost immediately you will see the name of the player. This game is not about “if it moves, it’s dead”. Once dead analyze why you died, so that you will not repeat the same mistake twice. Additionally, watching the game using the map overview helps building strategies, spotting weaknesses and being able to make your own visualization of the game while playing. Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 15 of 23 Counter-Strike strategy guide 02/2004 9. Anticipation Psychology is a large subject here since all players are human beings, all playing at different locations. It is a key to understanding what is happening in the round and what might happen next round: anticipation. Get to know your teammates and your opponents: they all have a different personality and having a rough idea of their behavior can be of great help. Experience shows that players have preferred routes, default behavior when facing a situation; use this predictability against your opponents. Never panic: panic ensures quick death. Think fast, after a bit of training some moves will become reflexes that will be triggered by external stimuli. Be confident in yourself and your teammates: starting a round with a fear of the enemy will result in panic, see above. Do not keep on repeating similar patterns: you will become predictable. The flow concept From the beginning of each round and for a limited time, opponents’ “flow predictability” works: each player in the field moves at the same speed and experience tells you how far you can rush before encounter enemies. Spying on the enemies’ moves allows you to get a rough overview of which places on the map are ‘hot’ and which are not. This concept, allows only getting assumptions with a limited lifetime, based on facts or previous assumptions. A sense of rhythm and tempo is required here. Such a concept can be used to find the best time to attack a group of opponents from behind, or to have an estimate of how long you can stay in a place before starting to suspect a potential attack from behind. An example of the flow concept has been developed in figure 9.1 with the map de_dust2. If a group of counter-terrorists engage the terrorist flow #1 on the point #3 of the map, they have to be ready to encounter other terrorists coming from the flows 2 and 3. Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 16 of 23 Counter-Strike strategy guide 02/2004 Figure 9.1: The flow concept. Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 17 of 23 Counter-Strike strategy guide 02/2004 10. Team play 10.1 Principles The core principles of team play can be broken down into the following: Communication between teammates – preferably via radio messages. Cover your teammates and answer their calls for backup, as you would expect them to do for you. Do not just follow the player in front of you, but know where the group is heading. Via the sonar, have a rough idea of where each of your teammates is located in the map; if one of them dies, you will get an idea where the action is. 10.2 Communication Communication between team members is a key requirement for successful teamwork. The game offers 3 possible ways to communicate during the game: Voice communications: the player speaks via a microphone to his teammates. This could be a good way of communicating if the voice heard was more audible; if you decide to use it, remember to get straight to the point. Radio messages: a set of pre-formatted radio messages, played when a combination of keys are pressed. When used properly, this set of 20+ messages is enough to coordinate your team efficiently. Additionally, once a message is sent to team members, they can all note your location because you flash on their sonar. The ‘say’ and ’say_team’ commands, where the player has to manually input text, which is then displayed onscreen. This consumes precious time, has to be used with lots of care for quick messages, and often results in typos. You might also consider creating key binds to say predefined sentences. Another way of getting the attention of teammates or make them focus theirs on a special spot is by using the flashlight. Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 18 of 23 Counter-Strike strategy guide 02/2004 10.3 The rush group Figure 10.1: The rush group. The rush is used to quickly reach a place and pierce the enemy’s defenses. Only the first line rushers should throw grenades, while the coverers should stick with their guns to provide immediate cover. When player(s) of the first line need(s) to stop (i.e.: to reload or because they do not have much health left), the coverers should not wait behind, but take over the lead. Here we can see the use of having a rush group made of players who do not just follow the teammate in front of them, but are determined to reach the point of interest. A rush has to be seen as a run to the point of interest in order to outnumber the enemies holding it. If the rush group gets stalled, within 2 seconds its location is under a rain of grenades and chances are that a group of enemies will attack their back soon after. Please also note that once players are rushing, there should be no grenades thrown (except maybe for HE if the thrower is sure it will not damage any of his teammate). On the same level, if a player throws a smoke grenade at a place the team will rush, this will definitely not help his team, but favour the enemy. When moving with no visual contact with enemies, the players should be aiming at places where enemies could come from, keeping their reticule at the head height. Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 19 of 23 Counter-Strike strategy guide 02/2004 The 70-30 concept A variant of the default rush is to attack the point of interest from 2 different angles, therefore putting the enemy in a dangerous cross-fire situation. The principle consists of splitting the team into 2 groups, roughly 70% and 30%. You can use this sub-division for the following: The 70% group will attack the point of interest as a diversion, causing damage, but staying in cover; while the 30% group infiltrates the position. The 30% group creates a diversion and forces some of the enemy defenses to hold a position (freezing them), while the 70% group rushes another place. The attacks should happen fast so that no enemy backup gets time to reach the place. A final point to remember while rushing is that you should flood the enemy defenses: all teams have an equal number of players, so there is a good chance that your whole team will only face a part of the enemy’s team. 10.4 Holding position Normally when a team rushes to get to a point of interest, the opposing team will hold this place to avoid the rushers reaching it. While holding a place you have the choice of position, but probably not surprise, on your side. For this reason it is best to find a way to position your team so that each entrance is covered, each teammate exposes himself as little as possible (i.e.: covered behind walls or crates …), and each teammate can get quick cover/backup from his team. This positioning depends on the map you are playing, but please do not concentrate your forces on a single place, you will block each other; multiply your possible shooting angles instead. Under siege is the best time to empty your stock of grenades, but do not diminish your visibility with smoke grenades. Once positioned, the player should aim at the place where the enemy will come from, at head height. Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 20 of 23 Counter-Strike strategy guide 02/2004 Rush in and back As the name states this consists of rushing a weak/undefended part of the enemy lines and coming back to the place your teammates are holding; on the way back you will have the opportunity to attack your opponents from behind. For this concept to work, it is vital that you come back to the place you are supposed to hold before the enemy, and listen carefully to the radio messages of the team members holding this position. The rabbit and the shooter It consists of having a teammate hidden (the shooter) and another one exposed (the rabbit). The exposed fellow will attract the enemy towards him, giving the hidden shooter a nice angle. The rabbit must cause enough of a distraction so that the enemy will not notice his fellow shooter, but he has to get behind cover quickly once spotted. Aggressive/defensive moves Depending on how aggressively an enemy is coming at you, you might consider falling back to another covered place, or rushing towards him. Depending on your objectives you might consider that a mix of rushing and holding is what your team needs: On bombsite blasting operations, terrorists could rush a defined bombsite, plant the C4 and hold it. The team whose objective has to be done before the time is up could also consider holding a place to weaken the opponent’s team by killing the enemy using the “rush in and back” technique; once done, they might consider holding a bit longer to let the remaining opponents’ attention fade away. When defending a position, you can go forward, meeting the enemy and performing a succession of attacks/fallbacks to wound them until you are back to the position you are defending. Good coordination will be needed, so do not hesitate to use radio messages to make sure all your teammates are aware of the progression of their team during the round. Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 21 of 23 Counter-Strike strategy guide 02/2004 11. Stealth Stealth is an important aspect of the game in order to gain the element of surprise before the battle. Have a look to Figure 11.1 to get an overview of how vulnerable players are to stealth. Figure 11.1: Player and Field Of Vision (FOV). The Field Of Vision (FOV) of each player is 90°. Since stealth attacks are completely silent he offers 270° of vulnerability. If a stealth infiltration is easily achieved alone, once spotted or once the first bullet is shot the stealthy player will have to face the whole set of enemies holding the place. Therefore a nice combination is to have a group of teammates infiltrating a place and then be disruptive. During such an operation, the stealth of the overall group relies on the complete silence of every single member, and a single noise voids the “invisibility” granted by stealth. For this reason, the players need to stick to walking or crouching and hold their fire until the group leader shoots the first bullet. Stealth is also the ability to evade a battle; therefore it is important to keep in mind that you are not forced to shoot at an enemy if he has not spotted you. You might consider some of the following options: Follow this enemy. Wait to see if the spotted enemy has backup. Wait to get the best shooting angle. Along the same line, you might also combine the information on your sonar with the enemies’ direction to find out if he will encounter some of your teammates. During any stealth operation beware of long corridors or tunnels and always prefer places with lots of turns where you can evade easily; additionally keep your reticule at head height. Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 22 of 23 Counter-Strike strategy guide 02/2004 12. Conclusion As explained above, this guide has been written to highlight a set of suggestions for Counter-Strike players. The best use of this guide is to take pieces of it and adapt them into your game style. Learn other players’ moves and be creative: performing the same set of actions will make you predictable and therefore half-dead. Please remember that experience and taking advantage of all you can is important in this game; do not hesitate to try out some new moves: all the successful moves were once simple ideas waiting to be tried out. Thanks to: Thibaut Chevalier AKA 1664 – for his support while writing this guide. Darren Dowling AKA Darren - for the correction of the English in this document. http://www.csimmortals.com/ - for the image of the map de_dust2. Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 23 of 23 PART 2 Clan-specific Strategies Section 8 - Strategy guide Confidential Version 0.5 Initially written by Ole Garshol alias -Paine- clan8paine@lycos.co.uk Outlined by the board – board@clan-8.com 1/7 Abstract Because of the multi-cultural mix of the membership of our league (Section 8), this document has been written in English. This guide should be considered as a set of suggestions in order to increase skills, efficiency and decrease predictability, at the team’s scale (macro level) – without loosing individual members’ creative thinking and sense of improvisation. It is not a guide to learn to play counter-strike at individual scale (micro level), since the members of this clan already know how to do it quite well; but we all do mistakes and often repeat them, as bad habits. This guide is a complement of Guillaume’s -Nold- strategy guide. Do not expect from this guide to highlight behaviors for each maps: its content is focused at general advices; hence the way you will interpret its content and merge it with your existent game style will keep, and hopefully improve your unique vision of the game. Abstract..........................................................................................................................................................2 General Advice ..............................................................................................................................................3 Specific T advices..........................................................................................................................................4 Specific CT advices .......................................................................................................................................5 Miscellaneous ................................................................................................................................................6 Conclusion .....................................................................................................................................................7 Release history...............................................................................................................................................7 Note: Any suggestion to improve this guide is welcome: I’m sure there are points you have spotted and I have not, please feel free to share them; I’ll gladly update the guide to reflect your thoughts on it. 2/7 General Advice • Be frag stealers. Any team member will be happy if you assist him to kill an enemy and help him to play longer. Big chances are he might return you the favor later on. Individual score is way less important than overall team’s success. • Helping teammates does not necessarily mean that you have to follow them. If you anticipate the action, you can take another route to create another attack angle and remove an escape route to the enemy. • Avoid blocking at all times. Keeping a small distance and anticipating (empathy) your teammates’ reaction can help. When blocking is inevitable, crouch/duck. • Borrow money. If you have limited money ask for team mates with more funds to buy a weapon for you (while you can focus on spending for items you cannot be given i.e.: kevlar, grenades, defuse kit). 5 players with proper equipment are better suited to win than 3 properly equipped. • Know when to offer your assistance. When a player uses the voice command “enemy spotted”, do not rush to help that player, that is just a notification that enemy has been spotted by visual or audio contact. Go and help your teammates when they explicitly ask for it (i.e.: “need backup” or “under fire need assistance”), in such case you should rush to help him: each second matters. • Do not crouch at combat start. If you want additional accuracy by crouching, be crouched and ready to fire before having visual contact with the enemy, shot 1 or 2 bullets and move (if you had a good line of sight, you can do so before being shot). Some players crouch when engaging, but at the time their accuracy is boosted the enemy has already shot. • Good confidence with 3 pistols (more is better): 1. Starting T pistol: Glock. 2. Starting CT pistol: USP. 3. Any other of your choice. • Do not be afraid to use your creative thinking and sense of improvisation. Make sure your team mates are aware of what you intend to do so they can assist you the best they can. • Unpredictability is an advantage. You can consider taking irrational actions, to boost this point. • Preventive fire. If you know (or have strong feelings of) a place where enemy will pops out or camp, shoot some bullets at head’s height – at worse you’ll have lost those few bullets. • Control the start and end of confrontation. A combat does not have to end when you or the enemy dies; you can choose when to ‘pause’ by vanishing. This can allow you to stay longer alive. • Be ready as soon as buy-time is over, even if it is to rush to hold a position. • Check the corners. Do not assume the hidden places are empty, check them each round. • Loose or compact? When leading, check your teammates following you: do you want your group to be compact of loose? A "cover me", or stopping to rush for a couple of seconds to give a bit of time to your mates to come closer will change the group’s behavior from loose (default) to compact. • When you hold a route, make sure the enemy has to deal with you before being able to attack any of your teammates holding other route(s). • Be on the ‘front line’. Do not watch your teammates holding a position: help them to hold this route or hold another one to cover their backs. On competition you cannot afford to have a 1st line of teammate(s) dying before dealing with enemies: it's too expensive. 3/7 Specific T advices • Leadership rotation. In order to give all players the possibility to try ideas of where and how to strike (there are 12 rounds => 12 attempts), the player with the bomb will have to organize the attack. If he cannot or does not feel like it, he can drop bomb at spawn (ASAP) and let someone else pick it up and lead the attack. • Protect our bomb. Once the bomb lies on the ground, CTs will develop energy to keep the situation in such a stasis, and concentrate their forces at this point. Ts will have to struggle to get their bomb back and probably suffer additional loses. Hence keeping the bomber well covered is as important as protecting the VIP in AS maps. Additionally, a wounded bomber should consider passing the bomb to a lesser-wounded teammate. • Fake attacks. Consider showing the bomb to enemy positions to make them believe of an attack there, hence forcing them to call for backup and concentrating CT forces at this point. You can then vanish and make the “real” attack to another position of the map, less guarded. • CTs teasing. We should consider using traps as frequently as possible, like having 1 T teasing some CTs to drag them out of their positions and leading them to a place where several Ts ambush them. • Do not face an enemy with a grenade as your selected weapon. If you want to throw a grenade at an enemy position, use angles to bounce your grenade on it, then select back a pistol to face it. Possible initial configuration: • 1st T leads the attack with a pistol (should not be the same player each round) – he will be a magnet to enemy bullets! • 2nd and 3rd T can use grenade, then quickly swap back to pistol for support. • 4th T gives support. • 5th T cover the rear – if CTs can attack from the back; else gives support like #4. • During an attack make sure to go out of the way (preferably to cover) to reload, so the continuation of the attack remains; then rejoin the attack once reloaded, either with suppressing fire or with a direct rush (i.e.: in de_inferno in the long alley towards bomb site B, take cover behind the box to left or in the open to the right). • First becomes last. When attacking a position, the player leading the attack can hold a shooting line to prevent more enemy to pop out. He will hold it until all his team mates have passed, and then cover the rear. This way the continuance of the attack is intact and no player has to be in the front line all the time. This pattern of ‘first becomes last’ can be repeated several times during a same attack, as long as it does not slow down the overall progression. • Hold bombsite when bomb is planted. When victorious, we can afford to re-buy the entire equipment in pistols only mode. Stating “hold bombsite” does not mean camp on top of bomb, or to hide in corners. Ideally we should hold an outer perimeter (the income routes) then fall back closer to the bomb: these 2 confrontations with the incoming CTs can allow us to gain some extra precious seconds. Since defusing take ~8 seconds with defuse kit and C4 timer is set to 35 seconds; once planted, keeping the bomb secure for 28 seconds is a granted victory. 4/7 Specific CT advices Part 1 - General • Always buy defuse kit. If you only have 200 credits left after having bought equipment, consider using it on a defuse kit instead of a flash grenade. • Distance is time with pistols only. Our strategy at the team's scale would be to use this at our advantage. • Wait for the attack or trigger it? As CT, you have 2 main options once in position: 1- wait or 2clear areas of the map and rush back towards other positions held by teammates (without dying – we are not speaking of a massive suicide rush here). Rushing every now and then could be done to change the level of predictability from the CT side. • Use smoke grenades to force Ts to rush through smoke. If thrown properly, this will diminish T visibility, and not yours. • Concentration management. In competition Ts do not necessarily rush immediately: they dispose of the 3 minutes of round time. They might “camp” in one zone to tempt CTs to leave the positions they hold, or to leave time to fade out CTs concentration, then attack (by stealth or rush) and caught CTs off guard. • Wise fall-back. As it is very hard to hold a position when being outnumbered by rushers, CTs have to know when to fall back in order to stay alive, instead of holding the position at any cost and die. Their fall back will allow the CT team to stay stronger, hence the assault to the position Ts have taken will be more lethal. • Focus on the bomb. When you see the bomb (carried to you or on the ground) please use the radio message "regroup team" (or use voice-communication), all CTs should rush and hold this position. • If possible always hold the high grounds, where we will have a better overview and better options to throw grenades. Part 2 - CT initial positioning • Map awareness. Knowing what places are covered by teammates -map wide- will increase our game awareness, and will allow us to camp and wait without fearing being stabbed on the back by a sneaky enemy. • Position to hold: guidelines. You do not have to stand literally where the point is; feel free to hold anywhere else, as long as the shooting line is covered. Do not hesitate also to try some variants with the other teammates around you. The players' numbers on the strategies define which position has to be taken by order of priority (1 being the most urgent). • 1-2-3. When a group of CTs is in position and rushed by incoming Terrorists, they should (this order matters) Action – Radio message: 1. Spot where the attack come from (but they probably will be outnumbered) - "enemy spotted". 2. Engage the enemy; wound/kill the attackers but not at any cost (objective is to stay alive). When the situation is out of hand: retreat & call for backup - "need backup". 3. The fall back will give some time to the CTs guarding other areas of the map to rush the position and help you. Meanwhile, only use sporadic fire to “keep” the T's busy and distant. 5/7 Miscellaneous All players should have “short-cuts” to buy their equipment. 2 possible ways: - By making your own buy-script Create the file 'userconfig.cfg' in the folder: steam\SteamApps\e-mail@address.com\counter-strike\cstrike\ (if it does no already exist), and copy/paste these lines in it: bind "F3" "vest" bind "F4" "vesthelm" bind "F5" "hegren" bind "F6" "flash" bind "F7" "sgren" bind "F8" "deagle; secammo" bind "F11" "secammo" bind "F12" "defuser" - By using programs that do the same job for you • Cs-Configurator Download at: http://www.cscentral.com/dl/dl.php?540 • CS Easy Bind v2.1 Download at: http://www.fileplanet.com/files/50000/59107.shtml • This web page has a load of pre-made scripts. http://www.fileplanet.com/section.aspx?s=75909 6/7 Conclusion Many of those points should sound pretty obvious when written black on white, the hard part is to keep them in mind while playing. Thank you for your time and attention. Release history 0.5 – 12/04/2004 – Guillaume Tournand -NoldAdded various suggestions and ideas 0.4 – 07/04/2004 - Ole Garshol -PaineMerged with readme.txt 0.35 – 06/04/2004 - Ole Garshol -PaineMerged with board suggestions 0.3 – 06/04/2004 - Ole Garshol -PaineMerged with board suggestions 0.2 – 06/04/2004 - Ole Garshol -PaineMerged with board suggestions 0.1 – 05/04/2004 - Ole Garshol -PaineBase structure and ideas 7/7 PART 3 Map-specific Strategies BOMBSITES NAMING In order to have a common naming system for the bombsites on the different maps: - Bombsite A is the one closer to the CT spawn. - Bombsite B being the other one. ----------------------------------------- GENERAL/MISC Frag stealing = good cover. Since we are not playing for personal performance, be good frag stealers ;) Helping teammates to attack a postition does not necessarely mean that you have to follow them: If you anticipate the action, you can take another route to create another attack angle and remove an escape route to the ennemy. ----------------------------------------- CT POSITIONNING These map strategies are here as guidelines of CT positionning to cover incoming routes of Terrorists. It defines the macro-strategy of the team (initial positionning and basic team's reactions to attack), the micro-strategy being defined by each player gamestyle. Buy and leave spawn fast: we need to get in position ASAP. Use smoke to force Terro to rush through smoke, but without diminishing your visibility. Distance is time with pistols only, our strategy at the team's scale would be to use this at our adventage. When a group of CT is rushed by incoming Terrorists, they should (this order matters): 1- spot where the attack come from (but they probably will be outnumbered) "ennemy spotted". 2- wound the attackers *objective is to stay alive*. 3- call for backup as soon as the situation is too hot - "need backup". 4- fall back to give some time to the CT guarding other areas of the map to reach the position and help you. => when you hear "need backup", you will very probably have to move. Training will highlight what are the fall-back options each position has. Note: on some map the positionning keeps the path clear between the groups of teammates (i.e.: de_inferno). You can decide on those maps to fall back: - towards your mates, then attack terro on a single shooting angle - no good when have to come out from a bottleneck. - in another direction to attack the terro group on 2 angles - when your teammates arrive. On competition, Terrorists don't rush immediatly and use the round time limit to put pressure on CT by holding a place and tempting groups of CT to rush them. Behaving and staying sharp is probably the hardest part as CT, but knowing what places are covered by our teammates -mapwide- will increase our game awareness, and will allow us to camp and wait without fearing being knifed on the back. When you see the bomb (carried to you or on the floor) please use the radio message "regroup team", all players should reach and hold this position. The players' numbers on the strats define which position has to be taken by order of priority (1 being the most urgent). Keep in mind however that you don't have to stand litterally where the point is; feel free to hold anywhere else, as long as the shooting line is covered. Don't hesitate also to try some variants with the n other teammates around you. *** BUY DEFUSE KIT EACH ROUND ! *** ----------------------------------------- BOMB PLANTING Terrorists, take time to construct your attacks: you have 12 attempts to success. There is room for each player's ideas: if you have one, make sure your team is aware of it and take the lead. Make sure your bomb carrier is either: - surrounded by teammates - in the front line with heavy cover firepower Do not hesitate to pass the bomb to a teammate with more health points. When leading, check your teammates following you: do you want your group to be compact of loose? A "cover me", or stop rushing for a couple of seconds will change the group behavior from loose (default) to compact. These images highlight where should be planted the C4 in the bombsites in order to make CT life very miserable when it comes to defusing it. ----------------------------------------- HOLD NOTE When you hold a route, make sure the ennemy has to deal with you before being able to attact any of your teammates. Do NOT watch your teammates holding a position. Helping them to holding this route or hold another one to cover their backs. On competition you can't afford to have a 1st line of teammates dying before dealing with enemies: it's too expensive. ----------------------------------------- BUY SCRIPT Create the file 'userconfig.cfg' in the folder: steam\SteamApps\e-mail@address.com\counter-strike\cstrike\ (if it doesn't already exist), and copy/paste these lines in it: bind "F3" "vest" bind "F4" "vesthelm" bind "F5" "hegren" bind "F6" "flash" bind "F7" "sgren" bind "F8" "deagle; secammo" bind "F11" "secammo" bind "F12" "defuser" -------------------------------------------- Here you’ll find strategies for the following maps: • de_aztec • de_cbble • de_dust • de_dust2 • de_inferno • de_piranesi • de_prodigy • de_train • de_clan1_mill • de_nuke The maps with the blue spots and lines are spots and line of sights for initial CT positionning for optimal defense with backup/withdraw. The maps with the red rectangle and lines are planting locations of the bomb for optimal cover.