Wouter's random collection of QuakeWorld 4v4 strategy tips
(duh alert): care less about frags, more about staying alive. You have one main goal in teamplay: KEEPING YOU AND YOU TEAMMATES BETTER EQUIPPED THAN YOUR ENEMY. If you follow this, frags should come automatically. You should not have to look for frags, if all your team has RLs and armour and are busy holding areas, frags will come in rapid succession. This may seem super obvious but it is the downfall of all but expert teams. Players that are very strong, but fail to make sure their teammates get the goods, get their ass killed, and before they know it, the tables have turned.
Your RL is precious. All switches of control happen when more than 1 player on the dominating team get their asses killed, and they can't recover quickly enough. If the other 3 on your team however do not die, you can recover.
Learning how to control a map is important, but it is very easy in comparison to getting a map back. If you can't get maps back, you will never win against a half decent team unless you happen to outskill them by a large margin, which is very shaky grounds for teamplay :)
general: You will be fighting someone who is probably better equipped than you, so statistics say you will lose. You need:
Timing is the hardest part. Ideally, you have 4 players on your team who all know when to jump in at the right second from different entrances. Failing that, just having 2 or so teammates walk with you for the attack is better than nothing.
Its all statistics. The chances of you gathering YA+RL when losing (depending on the map) only happens once per 1 or 2 minutes maybe, so don't go rush in if the chances of you winning a battle are only 10%.
Your team NEEDs to know when you are going to try to pull of a move, so they can spend the next 20 seconds or so flooding the area. Make sure everyone has the right understand of which bind this signals.
Never hesitate to teamkill boomstickers if they are close the enemy RL you are fighting. Taking over the map often means that you have to hit the enemy near perfectly in short succession, and waiting to shoot is the perfect way to get killed.
If you DO take over the map, the map tends to be in flux, with few people having full armour/weapon. instead of continuing your rampage, spend the next minute ensuring that your teammates stack up. Don't leave RA behind unless atleast 2 teammates are there to get the next ones (an enemy might be right around the corner to try and take it back, and if he goes and sits on it, all will be for nothing).
classical full frontal assault: Get YA+RL. Make sure teammates are ready to help as you are at YA. When you have little support, easiest is a suprise first shot from window entrance to quad. But much better is you entering from YA-hi and have a teammate come from window to fuck up the enemy as soon as he got your first shot and is now attacking you. The more teammates around to confuse him the better. Take quad, and hopefully a teammate gets a dead enemy RL. This is all assuming a second enemy wasn't spamming rockets from ring, in which case you have to be a lot luckier to pull all this off. Once you have quad, have teammates run into RA area ahead of you. Whoever has RL/QUAD better have some good madskillz, because he has to jump and in using the confusion, kill the enemy RA/RL camper. This is hard, and requires good timing and is probably the hardest way to take over the map.
pent run: again, you will face opposition that will in most cases kill you at pent, so you can only pull this off if your timing is better than the enemy... say because you delayed first pent. If you do manage to drop down on pent at the right second, it should net you one dead enemy RL, and hopefully two... teammates should be there to not waste your pent time guarding packs. In your 30 seconds, make your way through the map such that you arrive at RA with at least 5 seconds left. On the way, feel free to pick up quad, and visit either YA or SNG if you think enemy RL might be hiding there. Your aim should be to kill at LEAST 2 nme RL, preferably 3, and ensure your team mates stack up.
taken from behind at RA: my favourite.. because it involves the least hard to pull of moves, and can actually be done by an individual (but of course works way better with help). Get RL or LG (LG actually works well here), get either YA or pent mega, make your way to SNG over lifts (thats the only trick part, as nowadays teams are good at not letting anyone past lift.. best works if a teammate jumps out first so enemy thinks lifts are clear). At SNG get second mega, plus more cells or rockets. Go to RA from the back. Quietly observe the RA camper if you can, and wait for him to pop out to ring if possible to give you an advantage. Move in such that you get first shot. If you have an enemy camper that sometimes just sits still and you have great LG aim, you can do a lot of damage and startle him to get the kill. One additional hard part about taking over RA before quad is that you possibly have to contend with enemy quad trying to get RA back (unlike the classical move, where you should already have quad). Your timing is therefore important to attack just after enemy quad runs out, so that when you take over, you have enough time to get RA, get teammates in, and at least prevent enemy from getting the next quad. At the end of a quad enemy quad runner tends to come to RA to stack up, but the good part is that he's often weak from fighting, and the camper will take this opportunity to step out of RA room to get rockets/health or whatever. Again, timing is everything.
the tele rush: simply have the entire team rush YA-tele, and once the YA-tele camper succumbs, flood out to GL and high RL to support the next quad. This only works vs teams that do not have perfect YA-tele/ng routines, and costs you a lot of frags. The idea is that there is not a lot of easy armour at YA-tele, so if boomstickers get YAs from big or RA from secret, they can can make it hard for those holding the area to recover. Of course, once you break through, having a teammate support from the other side would be great (see below).
conservate lower RA buildup: this assumes the enemy isn't camping low RL, which if they do, you're probably fucked anyway, and your only chance is to rush low RL or again tele. But if they aren't, wait till 2 people have RL. one gets RA/mega and goes the bigroom route. He either rjumps from big to YA-tele exit, or rjumps from below quad spawn (you can tell he will need RA/mega). Second RL either also gets RA at lower, or het gets RA at secret. Ideally he should suprise attack whatever enemy stands at ng area (just before teamate makes his move on quad) and kill him, and move on to support quad. Use quad to clear remaining RLs in the area, but 1st priority should be to secure YA-tele.
quad-rush: e1m2 is the easiest map to take back because its hard to be very stacked, and in small areas with lots of boomsticking its easy to have the enemy make mistakes. The most basic approach is a well timed quadrush with boomstickers flooding quad area from 10 second till quad, intensifying at 5 seconds till, and topped off by RL/GA (pref with mega entering at 2 second to, to finish things of. With quad, move to GL/YA. YA may be defended by YA/RL, but it is enough if you can flush him from YA area, you don't actually need to kill him. Quad-pines, more shotgun flooders may do the trick. Then you stack up everyone in YA/GL area.
taken from behind at YA: get at least GA/RL, pref with mega, sneak through the water to YA, observe where YA camper stands, and wait for the second for YA to spawn. rjump up from water over YA (picking it up!), and kill camper. Get pack to teammate. Again, as on DM3, because you take YA before quad, your timing w.r.t. quad has to be impeccable if you don't want enemy quad to come take it back right after.
again, not too difficult, and revolves entirely around quad. 2 teammates have RA from the pool, one has RL, the other can have LG (easy, plenty of cells and on your way to quad anyway). You have to be there before the enemy which is a significant advantage on this map, I am guessing at least 10 seconds, more if the enemy has the same strategy. If you are on your way to quad early, make sure the RL guy picks up the mega from water next to quad. If you are both there early, RL guy stand with back against the wall at the 2 health packs near the tele exits so he can hit the 2 tele exits floor easily (its hard for RL to fight across the quad podium). LG guy stands on water ledge, or across from there, ready to deliver that extra damage to those who teleport in. If you have done it right, those teleporting in only have YA/RL, and the quad is yours. Proceed to YA area where you make sure someone has YA/RL and STAYS there.
Since this map is new to most people, a little bit about holding the map:
The key is the YA area since its easy to hold. The RA is a FFA, so though attractive, not a place to hold. Quads are more important on this map than any other. Assuming you hold YA, you want at least 2 people at quad well before it spawns (remember the taking back approach above!) Be ready, especially for RA/LG coming in from water, be primed to shoot on the ledge to bump him back into the water. Once you get quad, if you know that YA is still secure, your primary objective is to hurt the people at RA pools ability to get the next quad. Quickest and most "by suprise way" is to through water mega to the pool room (danger: enemy discharge), and proceed to kill anything you can, grab one RL and if you can, one RA. Once you pick up RA, a good thing is to go via the LG in the water, to reduce chances of you being attacked by it at next quad. Go back to quad and pick up MH if it wasn't there the first time. Alternative quad run is to via GL/pent area again towards the pool room, this is a good route if you are not sure if YA is secure.
Pent is simply yours if you hold YA, spam "trick" messages and YA guy should press the button. Consequently, you can't use pent to get the level back, quad -> is pretty much the only viable way. Btw I have managed to get pent from enemy YA camper by spamming such messages publicly rather than teamtalk, but this is bound to work only once :)
Tip for guy holding YA: if you get hurt and are being harrassed from below, stand over lift edge to make it come up. Do this repeatedly until YA/health spawn if you need it. This avoid enemy from coming up, and you are pretty safe from enemy fire there (except rockets shot from quad area). Very bold enemy CAN rjump up from RL to YA just as it spawns, this is takeover technique that can possibly work, and you should be ready for it.
(NOTE: I have played these maps only a few matches, so take with a grain of salt... but its better than nothing)
this is a very-few-items map like E1M2, and has a VERY similar layout, so play is similar to e1m2 too. But it is probably easier as YA is easier to hold. Since YA is harder to take back, holding strategy is more focussed on YA than e1m2. People that have RL, cycle YA between them and hold area, once you have YA+RL you can help patrol neighbouring areas, primarily quad room. It is much easier getting from YA to QUAD than e1m2, which means its easier to go to once you hold YA, but YA is also in bigger danger once enemy quad. So the focus should be entirely on YA+quad, ignore rest of the map. frags and paks will come your way automagically. Quad can roam towards MH and RL areas, for the hell of it.
Use rockets sparingly, there's few on the map. From YA area, easiest are the ones just below YA to quad, and theres more towards GL. Don't let RL teammies run out of rockets or they will get boomsticked.
If you lose on this map, the perfect attack route is RL+GA+MEGA (get all 3 before you attack), move via Pent area towards quad bridge. Here you can either move towards YA and count on being able to take down YA+RL enemy by the element of suprise, or make sure you get quad and use that. In both cases you need support of boomsticking teammates, luckily its relatively easy to storm quad/YA areas from spawns. End up at YA and take control, make sure that teammate gets RL pak + YA.
Different from e1m2 is pent... not sure what best strategy is here yet. Probably similar to dm3, have the whole team there before spawn, as you should be able to get YA area back easy.
This terrible map is one big clumsy ffa fest. Assuming all players know the map relatively well, it mostly comes down to the skill of the players rather than TP, as very few items are defendable.
Quad is hard to hold, there are MANY entrances and its easy to steal. So holding and losing strategy are the same: be there just in time and grab it. Not sure if sending multiple people down there is eventually have to become a strategy.
RA seems like the easiest area to hold, make sure you get LG that spawns nearby regularly, and life should be easy.
Next area to hold could be high-YA/GL/mega area.
Least easy area to hold, but worth it would be a combination of quad-YA and RL/mega/LG area.
I suggest holding areas in that order.. though quad is most important, as quad can so easily hop into all these areas and kill the camper.
Pent is close to RA, it be easiest to get from there.
Consider RA the center of the map, as it is easier to hold than YA, and right next to quad. there should be 1 or 2 RL/RA people patrolling it all times, ideally. If you camp RA, unlike most maps you have to actively guard it when it spawns, to prevent people walking in from tele below grabbing it.
Quad is easy to get if you hold RA, as the only other entrance to it is from RL/mega/YA side. Expect enemy rocket spam from there.
If you are holding RA comfortably, holding YA with 1 person could be devastating to the enemy, but its harder to hold as its even more in the open. When its up, actively guard it or be prepared to have to "waste" it.
When losing this map, getting items like RL/LG/mega/YA is your first stop to build up an attack. I am not sure if stealing quad is the easiest way to take map back, as there is only one entrance assuming you don't have RA, so it takes quite some coordination and timing to get it. If you do get it, enemy is likely spamming RA entrance, so move to RA from another direction, like pent or GL.
I am guessing the easier way to take back the map would be from behind, i.e. get YA/RL (pref mega), and move towards RA not via quad but from below. Wait either till RA spawns to sneak in, or observe RA camper behaviour to be able to land the first blow. Killing RA/RL camper should give you a good position to take map back "from within".
If enemy is also holding YA, you are in deep shit. Entire team focus should be on getting that area back.
Most teams that I have seen playing this map seem to forget about pent, with only ever 1 or 2 people there.