SloppyJoe

This guide mainly applies to the defensive team players but some of the same principles may at times fall upon the offensive team players in sketchy situations.

Goals
The primary goal is always the bomb site or hostage containment areas, this should never be forgotten or forgone. When defensive players take up forward positions, in good judgment, from the primary goal in a defensive manner (camping, as opposed to running around), the secondary goals are to a) provide intel to the team and b) take advantage of first strike conditions.

Conditions - Location
Some questions to ask yourself when choosing a location to camp:

1. Is the location too far from the primary objective? If so, you may risk or jeopardize the integrity of the primary objective. You should always be fairly comfortable in the fact that you can get back to it in a timely manner.
2. Does this location provide cover? If it's just an open location with very few angles covered, you may be putting yourself in a high risk situation. Maybe a better spot would be good.
3. Does you loadout match the location? Don't try to force a fit. If you know a good spot or have been going to the same spot but can't get the proper loadout to effectively man the position, don't do it.
4. Does this location have an escape route? If not, you might as well call the spot <Your name>'s Grave. Either choose locations that allow for falling back or make sure you got teammates in a position such that they can, and will, cover your assets if you need to fall back.

Loadouts
What firearm you choose is crucial. Bear in mind that if you play a forward spot, you may get trampled by multiple OpFor, and as such you should choose weapons that can help cover your assets if this were to occur. So often, too often, I see players taking positions with pistols, and even shotguns, only to have ammo problems and get run over. SMGs and rifles, especially those with high magazine counts and fast reloads should be considered in most circumstances. Of course some spots are ranged and the scout is a good choice, but definately have a good pistol on hand if things get tight.
Flashbangs are of utmost importance for these roles. They allow you to get outa Dodge if needed and can also put a grinding halt to most OpFor rushes.

Fall Back!
Part of the joy of taking a forward position is the first strike advantage. It's always nice to strike down a foe as they come around a corner or what have you. However, once your position is known, you are now in a high risk position. The OpFor will in all likelihood do many things to mess you up. They can bring in more guns, the right guns, grenades of all types, and/or try to come in from multiple/different angles in order to strike their revenge upon your soul.

Even if you didn't get a kill, and are not wounded at all, you are now at a disadvantage against any competent team. More often than not, falling back is the right move. If you make the judgment call to stay, it should be based on pertinent factors such as: You still have a good spot and can deal with flashbangs and such coming in, you have a full clip (reloading may get you rushed by OpFors with keen hearing), you have full or near full health, and your escape route is still open and viable. More often than not however, these conditions don't align and it's time to fall back. Use cover, flashbangs (not smoke, this just helps them), and teammates to make an escape.

All too often players stick to their spots when wounded with the idea "I'm hurt, so I better try to make up for this fact by taking one of them out!" This is a mistake.

It is always better for your team to have live fire capable players than dead ones.

More often than not, a wounded player in a superior defensive position still has an advantage over fully healthy opponents. So, if your forward position is compromised, fall back to a new one in order to regain first strike advantage. Or sometimes even better, fall back behind healthy teammates. Your healthy teammates, especially in defensively advantaged spots, have a huge advantage over OpFor. If you've used your bandage (given that the mod is in effect), you may well want to take yourself out of the fight as much as possible and let your healthy teammates take on the frontline battle.

The bigger picture
If your team can remove OpFor live fire players, it's better for your team to have superior numbers, even if you are all wounded. In the process of sticking OpFors and falling back, and making them come through disadvantaged positions, your team is likely to wound them, kill them, wound them more and bleed them out after they have bandaged. If the defensive team rotates and falls back properly, it is much more likely that towards the end of the round the offense team will be down players, players that simply can't shoot because they are dead. Even if the defense team is all wounded, if they have the numbers, the objectives covered, and advantageous defensive positions, it's going to be hell of the remaining offense players to succeed.

Just to make sure: Defensive positions are advantageous because: Your aimpoint/recoil is more accurate when you are not moving or crouched, you can concentrate and focus on your line of fire, you can see the enemy first.

Intel
Intel provided by forward defense can be a beautiful thing if used correctly. It should be telling you where to look, not necessarily where to run. Often, players hear where opponents are coming from and run right into the fray to killkillkill, only to get shot up in transit. More often than not, it is better for defense players to re-adjust where they are looking while maintaining good aim and cover rather than running right into the action. On the other hand, it may be good to make for a better defensive spot to counter OpFor coming in from a reported direction, but be cautious in getting to a better spot. The other good thing about intel is that if your teammates are setting up cover, they are often setting it up looking in your direction. Which means your fall back escape route is going to be well covered, just be sure they don't shoot your assets when you fall back through their lines of fire.

If you play forward defense, intel is just, if not more, important than setting up an ambush. If you don't have a mic, don't have a convenient way to use it, can't use in-game comms quickly, than you are doing yourself and your team a disservice; they won't be adamantly covering you or setting up lines of fire against likely OpFor advancement.

Anyhows, that's all I can think of. Have fun with it

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Vulcan

Looks good, thanks sloppy!

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Atomic Dog

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to SloppyJoe again.

Nice write up man.

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ARM

This is EXTREMELY helpful. Thanks for the post!

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( ¤ )ARM( ¤ )

Gillespie

Awesome article, dude. It's always better to defend in depth, instead of a linear static line.

Shadowolf

It is always better for your team to have live fire capable players than dead ones.


I hear you there nice post

Potshot

Also, if you know what you're doing, you can ambush them by falling back past a teammate, and keeping their attention on you, so they walk right past you're teammate, and get a few lead projectiles into their backs.

Vulcan

This should be added to the wiki.

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Delta

You were right, I haven't read it until now. Extremely well written!

whistler

Done.

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GassyGnoll

Awesome info!

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"All warfare is based on deception."
-Sun Tzu