Strategy Guide - Guide for Half-Life: Counterstrike
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Half Life: Counterstrike Strategy Guide By bad wolf [[email protected]] ************************************************************************* Index: 1.- File History. 2.- Introduction. 3.- About this file. 4.- Starting things. 5.- Playing CS: by yourself. 6.- Playing CS: Teamwork. 7.- Battleground work: Tactical approach. 8.- Battleground survival. 9.- Frequently asked questions. 11.- Legal Stuff. ************************************************************************* 1.- File History. - 0.1 Start of the file (10/27/2001, 12:08) - 1.0 File Ready (29/10/2001, 17:09) - 1.1 Changed section 7, and extended it throughly, not only treating snipers but three kinds of players ************************************************************************* 2.- Introduction. Welcome to this guide. Counterstrike is a MODification of the FPS (First Person Shooter) Half Life, which, while it hasn't been the most successful FPS game in history (That spot will remain owned by DoOm)has spawned a legion of MODs and gamers looking into it. While the original Half Life was played on a somewhat futuristic setting, Counterstrike simulates Counter-Terrorists missions with objectives to accomplish. The game plays on two teams, the Terrorists (the bad guys), and the Counter Terrorist (The good guys). While the game can be won by simply killing everyone on the other team, is much more satisfactory to play by the rules. Game modes include VIP (One player assumes the role of the VIP, and has to escape poorly armed from the map while the Terrorists have to kill him or her), Defuse the Bomb (The Terrorist have to plant a C4 bomb on a marked site while the CT have to either prevent it, or disarm it once is planted), and Hostages (The Terrorist have to keep the CT from rescuing the Hostages), and more. This has made this game a hit, and one of the points (and precisely the one I love) is that choosing a weapon actually requires to know it, unlike, say, Quake III, when you only need to know that the Rockets explode and the slugs kill. This guide is a general strategy guide designed to give you a text idea of how does a good player plays. This guide has been wroten after a lot of hours, by personal experiences and watching better players fighting, as well as careful observation of tournaments I've been. This isn't an "ultimate" guide: is just a cornerstone for your own strategies. CS rewards creativity. Use this as a scrapbook for your works. Good luck! You'll need it ^_^. ************************************************************************* 3.- About this guide. I recommend reading this on 800 X 600 to avoid scroll moving, which is annoying, believe me. This guide is meant to be use alongside my other guides about this game: to this time I've wroten four more guides besides this one: -Weapons guide. -Siege Map strategy guide. -Assault Map strategy guide. -Militia Map strategy guide. This is a general strategy guide to help new players to get into the game with a good idea of what's going on. Veterans may find a couple of good strategies for them to use. Any comments are more than welcome- I'm not a god for this game, so there might be quite a lot of things I haven't discovered. I WILL BE USING THE REAL NAMES FOR THE WEAPONS- Just check any guide to know the equivilents, or just go and check my weapon's guide (It's cool and detailed, and blah, blah, blah) ************************************************************************* 4.- Starting things. Counterstrike, as stated before, is a simulation of terrorism and counter terrorism moves, just as you saw on TV on SWAT rescues, and so. It isn't incredible realistic, as you may know now, Terrorist don't go around with a C4 bomb to blow up things, it's just a game, but it's a lot of fun. It's very different from Quake III or Unreal. Things are more like real life: A very nice touch is that is you are getting shot, you have trouble to move: This is just one of many things to look for. I will start with several changes important to note: * You don't find weapons laying around. You get equipped at the start, and you only have four weapons: A handgun, a main gun, a knife, and any grenades you may have. You still may arm yourself with any weapons you may find from dead bodies. * You keep a money count: Weapons cost money, and you need weapons to live for awhile. * The game keeps tabs on your armor, which is kevlar armor- acts differently than your standard 3/2 armor. It seems to react differently which different bullets. * You play forcefully in two different teams, with different weapons. * There is a time limit (!) * There actually are objectives to accomplish And more importantly: Life hangs on the second. Each round only allows an initial spawn: once you are killed, you can't go back. Another nice shot is that once dead, the server may have allowed you to see the action as an espectator, or, even better, when you die, your screen turns fades to black- It's extremely cool, and in LAN games, much better to avoid smart asses from looking at neigborhgs screens. The game is much more strategic than, let's say, Quake. Battles lasts seconds or several minutes, and three bullets from some guns may send you to the other side, while another may need 15 hits to kill you. There is no Rocket Launcher or Railgun to give you easy frags, you have to use your senses and feelings of your weapons- It's not who pumps more rounds, is the where do those rounds go. It's why an strategy guide is nescesary. You can tell people how to get better. You can teach people how to survive: Is up to them to use the information at hands. A good way to start playing is to find a keyset which is comfortable to you. I can show you mine for example: MOUSE 1(left button) = Fire weapon. MOUSE 2(right button) = Jump. W = Forward. S = Backpedal. A = Strafe left. D = Strafe right. R = Reload. F = Flashlight. E = Use. G = Drop weapon. 1 = Primary Weapon. 2 = Secondary weapon (handguns). 3 = Knife. 4 = Grenades. 5 = C4 Bomb. Spacebar = Secondary function for primary weapon. Right handed weapon, bleah, blah. There's not much to change, as you see. Next step is choosing a weapon: People ussually get blasted, and get frustrated for not knowing the weapons, such as trying to snipe with a shotgun (probably remembering good old Shotgun from Doom). Now it's the time to go check my weapon's guide, also available in gamefaqs.com where every weapon is in detail. For your comfort, however, I've added a quick and dirty guide for weapons to know what to choose for a quick battle. Close quarter Weapons: FN P90, Desert Eagle, Shotguns, AK-47, MAC-10, Steyr TMP. Long Range weapons: Any rifle but the AK-47, G3. Medium range: Any Submachine gun, any handgun. This is to teach you to avoid using weapons when you don't have to use them. This is much more complicated, but for the effort of making this guide as simple as possible, the weapon's guide is available, and there you can find a lot of info. (What a shameless plug) Is important to note that weapons also affect your movement. Rifles are ussually heavier than most weapons, and the knife and the grenades are the lightest weapons. My ussual set are a MP5, Kevlar armor and helmet, an HE grenade and a Flashbang. This costs about $3100, which what you'll ussually have at hand, and it works for me, though a newcomer may need a more powerful weapon such as the FN P90, which does the work for them at close range. This is a very important rule: IF YOU ARE A BEGGINER, DON'T EXPECT TO WIN AT LONG DISTANCES. TAKE IT CLOSE UP AND PERSONAL. As weird as it may sound, CS' weapons are much harder to manage at long distances than most games. Veterans may take you out from 50 meters with an MP5, while you may have trouble to hit them two meters away with a shotgun. Next, choose an skin. CS team has made all skins very bright and easy to see, so this is not as important. For your information and 'coz I feel like saying it, I use Phoenix Connection when playing T, and SAS when playing CT (The gasmask... Slipknot!) Well, the setup is ready. Get yourself a name (I go by LoRd ZeRo or Blossom when I feel like being silly), a color (I use black), and a graffity (I use the "smiley face"), and jump into the battle. Which side should I choose? There is little to no difference between the sides. The CT have more subtle and easy to use weapons, the T have more powerful and hard to use weapons. Most maps have the advantage thrown to the T side, but any good player can override it. In conclusion: Is your choice. What music should I play? I play Linkin' Park ;^), but it's better to play with no music. I only do it because my headphones sound like there's no tommorrow, and 'coz it gets me in the mood. And 'coz I damn like it. When playing CS, the sound is important. Footsteps can give location away, sounds of battle, and communication are notes to take, and sometimes when you can't make out which weapon is your opponent using, the sound of the weapon may help you. Now, onto the gameplay. ************************************************************************* 5.- Playing CS: by yourself. First, as a CS player, you are a target. And you want to live. Playing CS by yourself means has one objective: get on top. You want to be the top player by yourself. All other objectives are team-based. But earning more kills and less deaths is what first pushes you to play. And you have to first be a player by yourself before you can play as a team. Finally, this section is the basic of the guide. LESSON Nº 1: Don't stop moving. (That's the name of a song) Run around. Don't stop. Though is not advised to run ramdonly back and forth in the map, is better than to stop near a door to catch your breath. A good way to learn how to move is to follow someone who's among the top players, because he's supposed to know what is he doing. Bassically, much of the game bases on knowing how to move. You don't run randomly, you run towards somewhere. Where's that somewhere, that's up to you to find. Don't just run around the map: name a location, and go there. Is as simple as that. With practice, you will start to run by instinct where you have to go, and to avoid dangerous places while taking the safest frags. LESSON Nº 2: You are a good player. Well, I will start this saying that I honestly hate self-help books. Like "Who moved my cheese?", or whatever was its name (Though it's right by saying that people think too much). But if there's a problem among new players, that is the fact that they enter the game thinking "I will take down a couple with some luck". Take your cheese, I mean, your luck away from the game. If you kill someone, that was you, not some luck, or the weapon. Lack of confidence will kill you. You have to learn that when death's 'round the corner, you can beat it. You can beat two or three players at the same time. You can mop the floor with the best player in the server. You can take the damn AWM rifle from that sniper's hands and stick it up to his ass so hard he'll be walking funny the rest of his life. You just need to practice if you can't do it right now. When you have confidence to kill those three players, you will find tactics, you will forget the fear of being killed, and the feeling of survival will awake. LESSON Nº 3: Don't take on battles you can't win. Well, be brave, but don't be stupid. If you are wielding a glock, and your enemy has an AWM and a Desert eagle, you can beat it, but it will take a helluva bitchin' lot of work to do it. If you are using an MP5, and have 5 bullets on your chamber, and 10 extra bullets, broken kevlar, and a Desert Eagle, look at your enemy. On this particular position I found myself on a game on cs_assault, and I was with about 30 health, and ended one-on-one against an FN P90 fighter looking for my blood. I could have taken the eagle and jump against him, but instead, I forced myself to stay on the warehouse, waiting patiently, and shooting him with my MP5 from far away, and running away when he go near. Eventually, this frustrated him, and he started to taunt me. I hid behind the boxes near the backdoor and carefully heard his footsteps. I did a round run to catch him from behind, and started shooting him with the eagle. He missed a lot of shots, and when he started to fight me controled, I noticed he was firing his Tactical. The poor bastard was as damaged as me, which is why he didn't fired at me at distance. If he would be using a shotgun, I could have taken my chances and firing him with the eagle. If he was using an AWM, I might as well force him to get inside the house, but simply, don't try to push your luck. LESSON Nº 4: Count your bullets. This is the final lesson you need to learn, but the most important. Half of the time, you'll get killed when you are reloading. The best way to learn this lesson is to buy an AWM or and Scout, and forcing yourself to camp. If you practice yourself with an AWM, then you are thrown on an MP5 duel against an strafing opponent, you will have learned to fight when you have to, not when he wants you to fire. The point is that you fight when your crossairs and your enemy are about to converge. Don't wait for your crossair to get above your target, or you will most likely miss a few shots. The easiest way to save bullets is by shooting enemies down hitting their heads. By having headshots as an habit, life gets much easier. This is also important when fighting multiple enemies. First off, don't fight them at once: Find a way for them to crossfire, or a place where only one of them might fight you. Simply, make sure the fight is over before attempting to reload. If you absolutely have to do it, you might as well better go using your handgun before trying to reload. And lesson number 5: ALWAYS CROUCH WHEN FIGHTING!!! ************************************************************************* 6.- Playing CS: Teamwork. Any other objectives besides getting big kills are team-based, and that includes the mission objectives, or most likely, win the match. The first lesson you need to known is when to be offensive, and when to be defensive. When I talk about being offensive, is about taking the battle against the enemy. Being defensive means waiting for the battle to come for you. As Sun Tzu says, when you have few soldiers, you are forced to be prepared against the enemy. When you have many soldiers, you are forcing the enemy to be prepared against you. Namely, when you are alone with a partner against five enemies, you won't get anything from charging against them. You need to be defensive. Wait for the enemy. When waiting for multiple enemies when being outnumbered, the best weapon you may wield is a AK-47. Its massive firepower is what's needed. Your friend should do the same. When you have the number advantage, you need to take the fight to the enemy. Unless your enemy is incredible stupid, your best way is to stay together and outnumber the enemy from different sides. This takes us to a golden rule in CS, and that is to stay together, but don't stick like a bubblegum to your partners. I have all kinds of histories for this, but the point is that there are three things which shows you why should you keep your distance. A) You can't walk over your partner. This, on a heavy firefight, acts like a wall, and you will have to find another way to take cover, because your so-called partner is f*cking blocking your way. I hate this, and has happened to me so many times, that I have customed myself to turn the flashlight into their faces to take them out, or simply fire them if they keep on ignoring their stupidity. B) For an inteligent enemy, two enemies clustered together are easier to take down, is simply because some of the missed bullets aimed towards one target will most likely land on the other one, and there's no need to watch for another side. C) Because the AWM and the AK-47 (and probably the scout) have a funny habit to pierce through people ^_^. I remember the first time I played this game, I can't remember who was playing, but as a CT, ( I was playing on de_dust) there was always somebody who went first, and choose one side of the tunnel to enter, and sent messages to the team. He threw a HE grenade, then said to go inside. He was always damn right about what to do, he was probably a bot ^_^, but the point I want to make is that we were winning because of this guy guiding us. CS always favors coordination, and a leader is what's needed for this. To be a leader, you don't need to be a god on this game, you just need to know any strategy at all, and to be confident on yourself. You are taking the role of the main guy, you have to take the responsibility of the actions. You may have to prove your worth to your team by making inteligent actions and taking right decisions, but once you have the trust of the team and they follow your directions, you have a great advantage. You might as well try to keep yor orders easy to understand. The game's pre-recorded orders are pretty much all you need, as long as your partners know what are they doing. When I ask for "Report in, team", I'm asking for the situation they are facing. I expect to receive a message from a guy who's under attack which actually says they are taking fire, but instead they say "Reporting in!". Now this is idiotic. The simple message "report in, team", is just to remind people that the team is is there to help them in case they need it. If you need help, don't be afraid to ask for it: the purpose of the T vs CT game is to force people to play on teams. You won't see a SWAT corporal strafing around and screaming "I wanna be a macho, macho man!" when they are alone facing three terrorists aiming to his eyeballs. Comunication is important, friends, and be sure to get the best of it. Is way easier for me to know that my partner has found an elusive sniper if he says "Enemy spotted", and probably he may use his flashlight or a shot towards the place where he thinks the enemy's in, than if he simply screams like a madman and starts running against the sniper. I may think that he's crazy, or he's suffering an epileptic attack, all but that he's found the target. Try not to type using the "U" key. It takes valuable time. Simply try to use the pre-recorded orders to the best of their possibilities. I've had my very best games when using the vocal orders all the match, even if it's between me and just another guy, and I've enjoyed them much more than any other match. Ask for backup, tell the team to regroup, notify that an area is clear: Things will go much more smoothly and it will be much more fun for everyone. Speaking of team comunication, and mostly team thingies, remember there's an objective to accomplish: Either plant a C4 bomb, or rescue the hostages, there's always a reason for all those bullets and grenades looking for a new host. When playing Ts, and you have the bomb: Make it your priority. Go to the bomb site and plant it. There are many ways of making it more difficult to defuse: First, you can try planting in where everyone sees it, and wait patiently with an AWM sniping it. You will have plenty of time to aim and kill them when they are defusing a bomb. Second, you can ask a friend to crouch near a box, then jump on top of him, then you will be able to jump over the box, and planting it there only makes it much more difficult to spot, but also makes it impossible to defuse if there's only one CT left. Whatever you do, always try to guard it, even if you die, the team wins if it explodes. When playing CT, always try to find the hostages and get them to follow you. You will earn money, and more funny, people will try to avoid them and shoot you down. Which is pretty hard ^_^. ************************************************************************* 7.- Battleground work: Tactical approach. There are three kinds of players on CS. a)Snipers: People who sit on one advantageous position and take people down at long range. Hated by mayority, if they are reasonably good they get devastating ammount of kills. Weapons of choice: Sniper Rifles. b)Assaulters: People who run around the level, fighting toe-to-toe against the enemy force. The main bulk of the team, ussually decide rounds, though they aren't ussually at the top. Weapons of choice: SubMachine Guns. c)Supporters(CT): People who... err... support. They are the ones at the back who attack without confronting completely the enemies. Most players are this way, in fact, most newbies by instinct try to be supporters. That doesn't means that there aren't any good supporters, it's just sort of a trend. In a nutshell, they are "defensive assaulters". Weapon of Choice: Non-sniper Rifles. These three... "Sterotypes" are the main roles played on the battlefield. Indirectly or not, people act one way or another, the best players ussually choose a single role and work on it 'til they completely dominate the game. Out of those three, I prefer being a Supporter, even if only because of my preferences for weapons, but there's hardly any game I played where I don't go out sniping, or where I simply I just don't jump at the enemy's base to rack up several kills. It seriously depends of the situation on the camp. Bassically, this is what I believe is the pros and cons of each kind. ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES _______________________________________ | SNIPERS | |--------------------|------------------| | Superior firing | Poor response | | reflexes. | time. | | Best positioning | Needs lots of | | on the field. | patience. | | Ussually dominant | Not ussually | | on the frags | determinant on | | deparment. | the field. | |____________________|__________________| _______________________________________ | ASSAULTERS | |--------------------|------------------| | Superior Strafing | Prone to ambushes| | reflexes. | and such. | | Non-dependant on | Heavily depends | | the handguns. | on their partners| | Ussually | Not ussually | | determinant on the | dominant on the | | field | frags charts. | |____________________|__________________| _______________________________________ | SUPPORTERS | |--------------------|------------------| | Best Chance to | Need to rely on | | survive. | the assaulters | | Can pick off | to lead the | | enemies with ease | assault. | | due to teamwork. | Not ussually | | Users of the most | determinant on | | powerful weapons. | the field. | | | Needs MONEY!! | |____________________|__________________| Obviously, these little charts need a bit of explanation, and so I've devised this little work for each character, and ways to play. a)Snipers: Recommended Weapons: ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES _______________________________________ | STEYR SCOUT | |--------------------|------------------| | VERY light, | As slow fire rate| | allowing for quick | as the AWP. | | positining | Needs headshots | | on the field. | to be effective. | | Cheap rifle. | It doesn't | | Quick to reload. | "inspires" fear | | Discreet. | on the enemies. | |____________________|__________________| _______________________________________ | ARTIC WARFARE MAGNUN | |--------------------|------------------| | One shot on the | Extremely Heavy. | | chest ussually | Long reload time.| | kills instantly. | Way too noisy. | | It's feared on | Its color gives | | the battlefield. | you away to any- | | Effective against | _one. | | Kevlar armor. | Slow Fire rate. | |____________________|__________________| NOTE: You may notice that I'm leaving several rifles that _MAY_ work out. I'm only listing the best choices. Personally, I prefer the Scout, for four reasons: It's lighter, reloads faster, helps my "headshot training", and I'm getting damn good with it. Its price allows me for a second round-sniping, picking people unprepared. For some reason, the scout has given me much better results than the AWP, and people know me as the "clay rifle master", simply because no one has managed to handle this rifle like it's supposed to. However, as a matter of facts, the AWP is widely better. It's just cause in my LAN place is nearly impossible to use it without a serious bitching. At last, any rifle works, as long as you can actually leave his or her "head like hole" (^_^). Well. I can recall how did this "sniper thing" came by. I think it was with Quake when people began to realize that the dark spaces were useful for hiding and killing people without them knowing what hit them. This has evolved to the point that there are actually sniper weapons, which prove to be powerful and have an unmatched ability to hit far away objects. I think that the first one was "Goldeneye" for the N64, though I might be dead wrong. CS provides player with two specialized Sniper rifles, the Artic Warfare Magnun, and the Steyr Scout. Both have X4 scope, and have the power to bring an enemy down in less than three hits. However, both are quite useless in close combat, and so is ussually recommended to buy a Desert Eagle as a handgun to help survival in close quarters. Honestly, while being an sniper before was arguably an unskilled tech (I've never considered so: myself have enjoyed being an sniper ever since Quake had shown how to be an sniper), on this game being an sniper is the summun of the difficulty, and the summit of the expertice of CS. First off, the main lesson to learn is to go completely armed when you go on a camping-sniping trip. Don't go off wandering without having everything you need. If you don't know, the best set I've found is the AWM, the Desert Eagle, two Flashbangs and an HE Grenade, and of course full kevlar armor and helmet. In fact, don't go off wandering (That's the damn name of another song!). An sniper in CS needs the following previous training before engaging on an enemy platoon: *Basic aiming skills: The weapon do all of this for you, you just got to follow the enemy. *Patience:(I won't say it & I) the patience to know where you have to press the mouse button to fire. This is indeed the essence of being an sniper. *Previous recon of the location: Don't camp on a map you don't know like the palm of your hand. *And finally, the will to stand the incredible ammount of insults and bitchings that will follow each one of your proud frags. Because they will remind you of the fact that you have a mother pretty often. A serious sniper is an ussual sniper: You don't get "lucky" on a round and get several kills just to get an MP5 on the next round and try to get more kills. You have to choose to be an sniper. Failing to remind yourself of your sniper nature will result on trying to take down targets at 100 meters with a shotgun and trying to assault the warehouse on militia armed with the Artic. When the sniper starts the round, and gets everything he needs, the first step is to find a suitable location to hide and abuse of the short sight of most players. Myself have found on the warehouse in Militia in the corner of two boxes directly in front of the main gate to be an incredible place to snipe people, but keep this in mind: the darker and more unussual the place is, the much better it is. Also, keep two things in mind : Try to find a place which has only two or one ways of reaching it, and keep your ears sharp. Next, learn when to shoot. Wait for the enemy to center on your sight. Also, is important to note that when an enemy is ducking, you are more likely to hit his legs or his arms, resulting on a lesser hit. If the enemy's standing, aim for his chest or his head (I advice the chest, because the very slight recoil of the Artic or the Scout is enough to miss), but if he's kneeling, aim for his head. Don't shoot until you are fairly sure you will hit him. Shooting just to "try" is a waste of time, and a dangerous thing (pretty much like sending an Nuclear Strike on Starcraft "just to test you", right, Ice M@n?). You have to hit them. The AWP is easier to find a suitable moment to shot, but this tends to misguide newbies. Just feel your crosshair stable, and pull the trigger. The most calm you are, the easier is to kill when being an sniper. Third, learn when to switch weapons. I've surprised myself taking down an enemy with the Nighthawk when the assault my position with surprising ease. First off, when you switch weapons, and the enemy doesn't expects it, it's a surprise advantage. Second, when you switch the weapons and he doesn't notices it (quite rare, but it has happened to me), he doesn't adjust his strategy. And finally, you are good as dead if you have the funny idea of killing him. When you are being attacked, and you switch weapons (THE DESERT EAGLE!!!), don't back off. Charge against him. The less he notices of your handgun being drawn out, the better the chances to survive. Is pretty difficult to deceive the enemy when wielding such an good lookin' thing like the Dual Elites (the berettas), but if you charge against him, he's on a harder time to decipher what's on your arms. If I'm wielding the berettas, I often find it much more useful to... first I scream like a girl for help, then I backpedal while shooting. The monstruous fire rate of the berettas couple with the very loud bullets will seriously annoy the guy, who will probably look for cover. You better go very far and hide like a coward to smack a bullet on his forehead ^_^. I reccommend using the x4 scope as much as possible. First, because it's obviously more accurate, and second because it only asks me for a single hit of the spacebar to go into the normal mode and ask the guy how does a Eagle bullet tastes. Personal experiences: once I was playing as a T on cs_italy, and the CT team was mowing us to death. The point was that my team, with the sole exception of Marilyn (my cousin), and myself, weren't very good when sniping, to be honest, they sucked so much so they went assaulters. Having the advantage of the colt carbine, they were taking them out extremely easy. Out of money, I bought an scout, (i didn't trusted it yet), and stood at the window overlooking the long way to the house. Not prepared, the CT were shooting at me with MP5 or carbines, and I took one of them out with a good headshot. Surprised by my own frag, I threw the HE grenade as they ran at me, shooting the remaining CTs with headshots. Only one of them reached my position... with 19 HPs left. A single burst shot from my glock was enough to win the round. After four or five rounds of everyone hating me for my "clay rifle", the server changed the map. Even a single sniper can change the wave for your team, as long as the sniper has any ability, and dominates a weapon. The thing I want to say is that you shouldn't buy the artic because everyone does: you buy it because you feel comfortable with it. Try every rifle until you find something that suits you. b)Assaulters: Recommended weapons: ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES _______________________________________ | MP5 | |--------------------|------------------| | Superior accuraccy | Pathetic power. | | at any range. | Terrible kevlar | | Extremely cheap for| penetration. | | its powers. | It's an all | | Works on every map.| purpose gun, | | Very fast reload | meaning not domi-| | delay. | _nating anywhere.| |____________________|__________________| _______________________________________ | FN P90 | |--------------------|------------------| | MASSIVE Fire rate. | Weak punching | | Easily the second | power. | | most destructive | Very expensive. | | weapon at close | Extremely huge | | range. | recoil. | | 50 bullet-clip. | Not very accurate| | Penetrates kevlar. | on the move. | |____________________|__________________| _______________________________________ | UMP 45 | |--------------------|------------------| | Dominant SMG at | Slow fire rate. | | long range. | Vulnerable at | | Very Powerful. | close range, and | | Low recoil + good | not as effective | | accuraccy. | as a true rifle | | Relatively cheap | at long distance.| | for its power. | 25 bullet-clip. | |____________________|__________________| My personal choice is, of course, the MP5, though I love the UMP 45: It's just a matter of preference. The three weapons are all excelent, but the MP5 is the plain standard of the game. The best asset an assaulter has over the sniper is the fact that they can live without a Handgun. If any, the Five Seven or the 228 work best when paired with the SMGs, but is not necesary. Being an assaulter is the CS equivalent of being a soldier. You don't wait for the enemy, you go against him with all your might. Your actions as an assaulter often decide rounds. And you are more vulnerable to get killed. However, you can get a lot of kills, and people will love you if you're actually good (Say it, isn't it? We all love hearing "Lord Zero! That was a _good_ move!" I remember the first time somebody said it, it was a game of Myth, and I sneaked a wight behind three archers which were totally obliterating me.... ahhh... those old times... ^_^). The point when being an assaulter is to actually work on teams. You can't do it alone. Well, you can do it, but it results ussually on you being killed sooner than what's expected. This is a common complain among assaulters: They have to work together, which is why I have moved towards the supporter-leader place on any teams I may form. I honestly hate to say to go, then only to find myself facing four enemies with a MP5, and seeing all the cowards running away. If you can really trust your partners (it's not always needed to be a single huge team: Two well armed, well coordinated guys can take down as much as four enemies, as long as THEY ARE COORDINATED AND WELL ARMED) everything's possible. If I'm going full assaulter, I buy an MP5, full kevlar armor with helmet, a Flashbang, an HE Grenade, and if I'm able to, a Five Seven. I simply don't trust the standard weapons, and if for any case I'm down to a fight where I can't use my MP5 (out of ammo, sniper field, enemy too far away mowing me with a AK-47, and so), I fall to my favorite handgun, the beutiful Five SeveN. As easy as that. That set flashes something which I almost never use: The Flashbang. The more I play, the more I prefer the HE. The damage is good enough to already confuse newbies, or simply people who don't expect the explosion. However, the flashbang, if you actually find the ocasion to throw it, the damage done can be incredible. Now, as an assaulter, you are ussually cannon fodder. You have to keep that in mind, I can't stress that enough. It's very easy to get killed in CS, and more for someone who seeks the battle. Your goal is to get the most out of your life, so don't let anyone run for you, kill everybody you see (As long as is an enemy, mind you). Also, as an assaulter, you need to convince yourself that moving, you are a hard taget. But don't shoot moving, well, at least don't empty your magazine strafing. Keep those last bullets to give the guy a hit on his nose when his own clip is empty. Also, don't forget to find new routes. This is important- you are easy to kill if enemies know where you are going to appear. Personal experience: much of what I wrote here was done for a incredible game I had on de_dust. My team was three above average players (including myself) and four normal players, against seven really good players. The game was something like 7-1, T winning (we were CT). Suddenly, lack of money struck me, and seeing that even an AWP wouldn't turn the tide to our favor, I bought an MP5, kevlar vest (without helmet), and about 60 extra bullets. Seeing how the Ts entered with ease thru the bat tunnel, I went to the first bombsite. Luckily, somebody holding an M4A1 followed me. Three Ts decided to "surprise" us going there and probably they were going to plant the bomb, and frag us from behind. My partner looked inside the tunnel as I knelt just in the outer corner, aiming my MP5 slightly up to get headshots. My partner started shooting, and moved (foolishly) to my side, giving away my position. Two of the Ts jumped out of the tunnel looking for a guy with a M4A1, only to find me killing them. I wasn't fast enough to save my partner, but I killed the third one rushing into the tunnel. I went on this desperated strategy for about six rounds, and always having the same results, and it seemed to have some effect on my team as we won those games. After awhile, too many people went on with me, blowing my place, and giving too many troubles, and after a T got there before myself, I changed my strategy to go under the tunnel. The game ended 18-14, we lost (which was expected), but the result was a surprise to the Terrorists, who quickly changed to cs_assault, and everyone complimented me for such an incredible killing spree (i had about 24 frags, while the best Terrorist had 32). Rather late I found that my money was coming out of my ears, because in my frenzy I hadn't bought anything else than Kevlar and MP5. I think that if I had bought an M4A1 or a Bullpup I would have lost many times. b)Assaulters: Recommended weapons: ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES _______________________________________ | M4A1 | |--------------------|------------------| | Superior accuraccy | Not enough power.| | at any range. | Somewhat costly. | | Very powerful | Loses power with | | against SMGunners. | the suppreser. | | Suppresser able. | It isn't as power| | Very fast reload | ful as most | | time. | rifles (AK-47). | |____________________|__________________| _______________________________________ | AK-47 | |--------------------|------------------| | EXTREMELY POWERFUL.| Slow fire rate. | | Cheapest rifle in | Very high recoil | | the game. | maybe highest in | | Superior accuraccy | the game. | | at very long ranges| Very heavy. | | Eats people alive. | Not very accurate| | Penetrates kevlar. | on the move. | |____________________|__________________| _______________________________________ | Sigg 552 | |--------------------|------------------| | The scope is a | Slow fire rate. | | welcome adition. | Vulnerable at | | Very Powerful. | close range. | | Dead accurate. | Bouncy recoil | | Very powerful and | which is very | | stable, one of the | hard to manage. | | best rifles. | Very expensive. | |____________________|__________________|\ _______________________________________ -- as you may notice, these | Steyr Aug |/ weapons are bassically the |--------------------|------------------| same. | The scope is a | Slow fire rate. | | welcome adition. | Vulnerable at | | Very Powerful. | close range. | | Dead accurate. | Bouncy recoil | | Very powerful and | which is very | | stable, one of the | hard to manage. | | best rifles. | Very expensive. | |____________________|__________________| Every rifle I have mentioned is excellent, though I ussually prefer to wield the sigg 552 for its excelent powers. If I'm on the CT, I go for the colt, but is always a good choice. The supporter is your everyday guy who isn't very stupid like to jump in the middle of the battle. He leaves the work for the assaulters and he finish them off. The supporter is important when this situation is on, but he doesn't waits for the assaulters to die, instead he provides cover fire, extra fire, or any kind of fire to help your partners. It differs from the snipers since he takes an active role on the front lines. To be honest, when I play I ussually buy my weapon and see if anyone is wanting to take over as the leader (like comunicating orders quickly). If there's no on to do so, I try to handle the team, and I play as an assaulter until my team works okay. If there is someone doing so, I play as a supporter. Playing as a supporter means to go behind the leader, waits for him to check one side, and then you go to check the other one. I reccomend playing as a supporter with rifles since SMGunners can still hand your ass around strafing, so keeping yourself taking out enemies out of lines of fire is always good. As a supporter, simply you clear the way for the partners to operate accordinly. As a T on a DE map, you go first, covering your partner who has the bomb, and guard him until the bomb is planted. As a CT on a CS map, you go in front of the companion leading the hostages and join him to the rescue area. As a supporter, you, well, support your team. As easy as that. Your team has to trust you. Being a supporter adds morale to the team, which is always important. When you know someone is back covering your behind, you feel protected and much easier to move around. Being a supporter also is important to snipers. You can act as a supporter by spoting enemies, and defending the sniper. You gotta trust each other, don't doubt to attack if your partner says so. This way you maximize enemy cassualties while minimizing yours. This role isn't as defined as the other two, but is important nonetheless. ************************************************************************* 8.- Battleground Survival. Basically, on a normal day, being an average player, you're just another frag on the charts of another much better player. This is completely normal, it's quite a goal to be the top player of a server, especially over the 'net. The point is that you need to kill people while staying alive (& II). This is your actual goal when you enter a game, there's a lot of time to think about being the god of the map. As I told ya before, the main thing to do is to always keep on moving, but there's another point: always stay the closest you can to the walls. Unlike Quake, there isn't any rocket to fear, and fighting close to a wall makes up for the lack of speed eliminating a side from where you might been attacked otherwise. When patroling around, always listening to the sound, take a little moment to understand the sound of the weapons. Most weapons have different sounds when fired: The AWM has a ridiculous loud blast, as well as the Desert Eagle. The MP5 has a very subtle noise, while the shotguns sound, well, spread. With this you have the info necesary to face an enemy. This is something I really take in care: The enemy's weapon: *Shotguns: Go back shooting. *AWM: Switch to your knife and seek cover. Calculating your movement between the rifle's reload, keep going nearer, then send your HE grenade to confuse him, then attack. *MP5: Depending on your weapon, but ussually works just charging and unloading. *AK-47: Run. *FN P90: Run too. *Other Rifles: Keep strafing to make them get the minimum accuraccy. *Handguns: Pick them from a distance. This helps a bit when fighting a single opponent. On cases of multiple opponents, just try to crossfire them. I always play with friendly fire on, so this really screws us up. The point with AWM wielders are important. The AWM is, well, the weapon to beat on this game, I won't lie to you: At least half of your deaths will be caused by some idiot firing with the artic. HE grenades are the best thing you can do: the scope won't help them getting out of the blast way. Gas grenades aren't as useful: they help them more than they might help you (Unless you have them directly breathing over the grenade). Also, be careful to crouch whenever you're in a fight. It's hellish hard to hit a crouching target. Take advantage of the eviroment: Don't be afraid to think new strategies, everything's allowed. ************************************************************************* 9.- Frequently asked questions. Q.- Why did you made several different guides instead of a big one? A.- Because it would look fairly incomplete, and wouldn't be as simple as I intend it to be. Q.- Favorite Maps? A.- Siege, Militia, Assault, Italy, pretty much every "rescue the hostages". Q.- WHich side has the final advantage on the game? A.- I'm tempted to say the Terrorists, but in the end, I'm afraid the ability is much more important than the side you are fighting for. Q.- Is there any game like this one out there? A.- Damn right. Any game of the Rainbox Six series have similar themes, though are much more complex. Also, there is a game which I haven't played, and frankly I can't remember its name, but it had voice communication, and you had to drive a tank or several vehicles, and one player had to act as the general, other as the striker and the other as the driver. It has to be incredible fun, but, alas, I DON'T KNOW ITS NAME. And of course, there is Return to Castle Wolfestein, which has to be also pretty fun, but on the 'net is impossible to play, and I haven't played it with big groups of people. It looks awesome.******************************** ************************************************************************ 11.- Legal Stuff. This file is copyrighted by bad wolf ([email protected])All rights reserved. Feel free to make the link INDIRECTLY to the file (Link to the HTML page where it´s present, not to the TXT page), since it´s gamefaqs.com policy to don´t allow this kind of links to the page, and that´s the place where I post my guides. I'm making an exception with this game: feel free to drop me a line if you want to post this on your site, with your URL included. This file IS NOT made for you to make a page out of it. Don´t ask me for it too. Copyright bad wolf The last version can always be found in cheatcodes.com __ / \_____ __| /