Ok, recently I ran across an interesting tidbit of information of which most people I've played with aren't aware. That tidbit is this,
more than 4 people (or less w/scouts counting as 2) on a CP does not provide a large boost to cap times. Because of this it has led me to think on the optimal method of capping a point.
If you come up on a CP and the multiplier is <4x, join in on the CP.
If it is at or above 4x, push past the CP and let those on the CP finish the cap.
If you're on the CP and it is above 4x, push past the CP with medics and scouts being the last to move forward (scouts last).
Reason is that if you're at 4x that's about as fast as you're going to cap. Pushing past the CP means you're not proactively defending the cap by forcing the team to push through forward defenses. It also means if a demo, pyro or soldier (AoE killers) get near the point and clear it they have only cleared those who got it to 4x. The rest of the team can then flood in to take their place.
The reasoning behind leaving medics and scouts on the point if it is over 4x is that this allows for the fastest cap with the least amount of people while making it hard to kill them. In a 12 on 12 match, for example, if you have 2x scouts on a point then you have 10 people pushing past the point. No offense to the offensive capabilities of a competent scout player but having 4 people on the point and those 2 scouts pushing past it means you now only have 8 players past the point providing for forward defense of the cap.
Medics are obvious for a cap. The goal is to keep our people alive long enough for the point to flip. A medic is going to enable that.
Obviously there are exceptions. For example, it might be bad to have 3 medics and another class on the point while the rest of the team pushes past it. In that case it's better to have one or two medics push past and leave some other classes on the point.
What being aware of the 4x soft-limit does, however, is highlight some of the foolish things that some teams will do. Prime example would be the scout rush to E on Steel. I've seen teams pile on 4-5 scouts on E. Knowing of the soft limit means that anything more than 2 is just asking for a soldier or demo to decimate the entire rush in 1-2 shots. Better to have 2 scouts on the point, 2-3 off the point. If the 2 on the point get nailed, they get replaced by the scouts that aren't on the point. By rotating scouts like this chances are high that by the time the entire rush has been killed once the first batch has rezzed and are close to being back to E to hop right back on the point.
It also highlights the optimal way to deal with maps, like Warpath2, where there's a rush to cap a sequence of neutral points. First point should be pushed to 4x, after that everyone runs to the 2nd point. and just lets the first get capped. Better to push past it than to have the entire team sitting there for a split second difference in cap time.
