Okay, I know that there are a lot of people within the community who have trouble with playing soldier. This whole article is for you. Most of the lessons I say are learned from personal experience playing soldier. I am by no means saying I am the best around, I just felt like doing something nice and to try to help others around me who have trouble playing soldier for one reason or another. This is also not meant for competitions, it is simply meant for regular playing. Okay here we go.
1) No ?Rambo?ing:
This is the most important rule of playing soldier, you have to know when there are too many people on the point to fight. For example, Let?s say it is the beginning of a round, and you decide to rush with a few comrades to your enemies second point to disrupt their plan of attack. You cannot just charge right into their point firing rockets and expect to win, because chances are you will be killed in about five seconds if you are on a full server. You have to be a part of the team, not try to be the amazing guy who can win it all for your team just by being there.
2) Conserve ammo:
This is another important rule. You must act like there is not much ammo around you to grab, since chances are there isn?t. If you waste all your rockets, your are worthless to the team because you cannot do much with you shotgun. This ties directly into reloading, if you play soldier, or any class really, you must have auto-reload on at all times. This also applies to the four rockets in your clip. The only time you should use them all in a row is either for long-range sentry killing, during a Kritzkrieg/Uber, or against a heavy. If you empty your clip, sometimes you may not have that crucial second to reload the one rocket you need to kill the scout running toward you. Now, if you know that there is an abundant supply of ammo coming from either a dispenser because you are defending a point, feel free to disregard this rule for the moment.
3) Defend points:
Anybody who says that the soldier is an ?offense only class? needs to be re-taught how to play TF2. That is like saying a heavy cannot be useful on offense, or there is no such thing as a combat medic. I cannot tell you how excellent the soldier is at defending points. For example, let us say there are two pyros running toward you and you know there is a medic nearby the point who can heal you, you can kill the first one with 2 rockets at his feet then kill the other one with two more rockets and some shotty rounds if you need it. By then the medic should know that you need help and should come heal you. Now, if you are defending a point with a dispenser on it, feel free to gleefully rocket spam, since the dispenser will give you infinite rockets as long as it is alive.
4) Know when fighting is useless:
?Don?t fight a battle if you can?t gain anything by winning?
-Erwin Rommel
This is extremely important. Let?s say you have just won a battle defending a point and are going for health and a heavy comes up to the point with a medic and you have no backup. Simply attempt to run away and then come back once you have help. There is no reason for you to battle if you can?t win. Now you may be asking what the quote is for. Let?s say you are fighting on a control point that is locked and the enemy is still charging though it. Just let them come, your help is likely needed elsewhere, and they cannot capture the point. So what if they make it to the final point and set up a base, if your team wins because your help provided the team a way to take out a sentry gun, or a medic has a Kritz which they deploy on you to take out a large group of enemies, why does it matter? You helped win, and that is all that counts.
5) Use your head:
Let?s say you are going to a point with an overlook you can rocket jump or run up to and provide fire support, go ahead and get up there. The whole point of this point is telling you to be creative and take opportunities or just use common sense. If a demo is camping somewhere, or there is an area with a bunch of sentries in it, use back ways and rocket jumps to flank the enemy and clear the way for your team.
Conclusion:
Some of you may have noticed that some of the rules are contradicting the others. This will happen with any set of rules. The contradictions cover the ?what if?? situations. The rule that applies to everything is basically don?t be a Rambo. You cannot do everything and if you try to, you are not helping the team, and will likely end up driving yourself nuts by the end of the round. Just have fun, try to be smart, and help the team. If you are having fun and doing well by helping the team, the rest of the team profits from this and you will have a great day.
1) No ?Rambo?ing:
This is the most important rule of playing soldier, you have to know when there are too many people on the point to fight. For example, Let?s say it is the beginning of a round, and you decide to rush with a few comrades to your enemies second point to disrupt their plan of attack. You cannot just charge right into their point firing rockets and expect to win, because chances are you will be killed in about five seconds if you are on a full server. You have to be a part of the team, not try to be the amazing guy who can win it all for your team just by being there.
2) Conserve ammo:
This is another important rule. You must act like there is not much ammo around you to grab, since chances are there isn?t. If you waste all your rockets, your are worthless to the team because you cannot do much with you shotgun. This ties directly into reloading, if you play soldier, or any class really, you must have auto-reload on at all times. This also applies to the four rockets in your clip. The only time you should use them all in a row is either for long-range sentry killing, during a Kritzkrieg/Uber, or against a heavy. If you empty your clip, sometimes you may not have that crucial second to reload the one rocket you need to kill the scout running toward you. Now, if you know that there is an abundant supply of ammo coming from either a dispenser because you are defending a point, feel free to disregard this rule for the moment.
3) Defend points:
Anybody who says that the soldier is an ?offense only class? needs to be re-taught how to play TF2. That is like saying a heavy cannot be useful on offense, or there is no such thing as a combat medic. I cannot tell you how excellent the soldier is at defending points. For example, let us say there are two pyros running toward you and you know there is a medic nearby the point who can heal you, you can kill the first one with 2 rockets at his feet then kill the other one with two more rockets and some shotty rounds if you need it. By then the medic should know that you need help and should come heal you. Now, if you are defending a point with a dispenser on it, feel free to gleefully rocket spam, since the dispenser will give you infinite rockets as long as it is alive.
4) Know when fighting is useless:
?Don?t fight a battle if you can?t gain anything by winning?
-Erwin Rommel
This is extremely important. Let?s say you have just won a battle defending a point and are going for health and a heavy comes up to the point with a medic and you have no backup. Simply attempt to run away and then come back once you have help. There is no reason for you to battle if you can?t win. Now you may be asking what the quote is for. Let?s say you are fighting on a control point that is locked and the enemy is still charging though it. Just let them come, your help is likely needed elsewhere, and they cannot capture the point. So what if they make it to the final point and set up a base, if your team wins because your help provided the team a way to take out a sentry gun, or a medic has a Kritz which they deploy on you to take out a large group of enemies, why does it matter? You helped win, and that is all that counts.
5) Use your head:
Let?s say you are going to a point with an overlook you can rocket jump or run up to and provide fire support, go ahead and get up there. The whole point of this point is telling you to be creative and take opportunities or just use common sense. If a demo is camping somewhere, or there is an area with a bunch of sentries in it, use back ways and rocket jumps to flank the enemy and clear the way for your team.
Conclusion:
Some of you may have noticed that some of the rules are contradicting the others. This will happen with any set of rules. The contradictions cover the ?what if?? situations. The rule that applies to everything is basically don?t be a Rambo. You cannot do everything and if you try to, you are not helping the team, and will likely end up driving yourself nuts by the end of the round. Just have fun, try to be smart, and help the team. If you are having fun and doing well by helping the team, the rest of the team profits from this and you will have a great day.
(He got shot thrice in the air ;D)
