Shut it down. Shut it all down!

The defenders tensed, prepared to guard the tiny coridoors, the wide staircases, and the strange ramps with their lives. The gold was safely behind lasers, protected as they knew it must be, and it was their sole duty to keep it that way.

The sirens sounded, clearly a spy in their midst - or had a clever assassin used mirrors, a teammate or a conc to deflect the lasers so that they could run through?

Shutdown (and shutdown_l, the bugfixed version) is one of the all time classic clan maps. Created by the cheese (now working for valve) it may not be pretty, but it plays very well indeed.

The layout

First there is a minature version of well, a dividing wall with paths through it - though it's much smaller, and the windows go straight through.

Then there's a water trench, although this one has two bridges across it. If you were to drop into the water you'd discover the obligatory detpackable grate in the middle, rather than at one end.

The demon laughed as he planted the detpak at the near end of the tunnel. He loved the power of his explosives, the incredible range of them, the fact that they could destroy the grate even from here, where no-one would ever see them!

He was still laughing as he gibbed.

You can climb the ladder to the small roof (or jump up there) go in through the sniper window, or in through the main door, as well as this underwater thing.

The roof isn't of much use, except for extremely forward defence - which will REALLY annoy the enemy, but can be very effective in continuing a lock-down.

Ignoring the water for a moment, the sniper window and the main door both lead to a lobby which is very similar to the well flagroom - gantries circle around it. At the back of this is a double blind coridoor, which you can take to either the lower area, or the main (upper) areas.

Going down, you'll cross a big tank of water (which is where the water entrance comes out) and to your right see an enemy respawn. To your left is a doorway leading to a 2fort style spiral, though very much more cramped and steep - which leads back up to the main areas. Directly behind the back wall you will find a lift (which only the team whose base it is can use, peons have to concjump) which leads almost directly to the switch room.

The main area

A tight doorway leads to the cap point room - a large balcony along three edges gives your opponents a good field of fire. The cap point is on a little platform off of this.

to your right lasers bar your way to the flag. Straight ahead (and up onto the gantry) is a doorway leading to the liftshaft, and switch room, a fairly confusing little switchback.

To the left is another doorway, leading to a deathtrap.

Bravely he entered the trap, ready to punch a hole his fellows could use. Whether he came from the main room, and tried to force his way up the twin ramps, or from the spiral and came out between the ramps - death was rained on him from above by the enemy standing on the thin ledge around, or from the top of the ramps.

This is actually a very tactical area, but it does tend to get a bit spammy.

Assuming you get to the top of the ramps, you'll have a cramped enemy respawn (2fort twin doors style) on your left, and the entrance to the switch room ahead and right.

The switch room is fairly simple, and apart from that doorway turn quite open. You have to go round the back of the pillar, and hit the switch, to remove security for a time.

Security

Ok, this map is a touch more complex than the normal 2fort fare - so I'll break down what can be happening into three phases.

1. All secure

Your switch is safe, your flag is safe, the enemy is attacking.

In this instance your defence wants to concentrate upon the switch. There are only a few routes that can get close to it - the ramps, the back of the main room, and the lift. All of these then have to pass through the door to the switch room and get to the switch itself.

You will want to expend some effort on layered defence, to stop a lucky EMP wiping out your entire defence - and you also probably want to put some effort into stopping the enemy massing for a single big push, or being ready to immediately take advantage of it.

To that end, I would encourage anyone who ends up in the lower area to bung a few rounds of ammo into any enemies they see - and to put a soldier in the main room.

A demon piping the switch door, a sentrygun inside the flag room (spies are now your main foe) and maybe a HWG or another soldier or demon to add some pain into the ramps. Not a terrible static defence.

2. Mouse security is DOWN

Ohboy. This is going to cause problems. If you move to an even more defencive stance, then you might be able to stop the enemy getting anyone into your flag room.

The problem with doing this is that they will be able to keep your switch room and you'll not bve able to recover.

A full flagroom defence can work, it's disadvantage is that you are a fair way from your respawns.

Put someone in the lobby, probably on the gantries - keep the main door to the main room heavily defended, but be aware that enemies can enter from behind too.

Put a HWG or sentrygun in the actual flagroom, to finish off anyone who gets past the main defence.

If you want to recapture your switch, then you'll also want someone up there - maybe more than one someone.

3. Security is back

CHECK YOUR FLAG ROOM. I can't stress this enough - if the enemy just waits for you to go back to a switch room defence while hiding in your flag room, then they can just throw your flag out the lasers. Detail someone to check that this hasn't happened, and make sure they know to spycheck corpses.

Practice switching from switch defence to flagroom defence and back. This is also very good practice for your offence in learning how to time their attacks to the enemies weakest moments.

Other defences

It's practically impossible to stop your water route being blown, and it's only a problem if you have the lobby heavily defended anyway.

If you go for a lot of firepower in the lobby, have someone detailed to mop up anyone who slips through, no matter what route they take (and catch the water route people) as well as, obviously, some switch or flag defence.

Be aware that it CAN be possible to get through the lasers even while they are 'up'. Agree before the match that this is a cheat, try to play on shutdown_l not shutdown, and have someone in that main room to make sure they can't manage it anyway.

While defending the odd switchback around the switch room entrance, be aware of where the enemy is putting pressure on. There are only so many attackers at once, and there are lots of ways they can approach. Bear in mind that they all have to pass through that door, and a very good combination is a demon who can det the pipes at spies, but let anyone else past (to get killed by the sentry)

Beware multiple spies at once.

The outdoors is probably too small for an effective sniper, although there are plenty of places to be a sniper - if the enemy is using heavy attack rushes, then consider it.

Putting a sentry or a HWG on top of their base is very cruel.

Height is ALWAYS an advantage. On defence, you have it. Try not to come off the balconies unless you really want to. Don't get predictable and ALWAYS stay up there though - the enemy will abuse any blindspots in your line of fire.

Offence is the best defence

Some of the subtler defences are best illustrated by showing how to attack. Also, you probably need to know how to attack anyway :)

Getting in

If the enemy has their main door heavily guarded, then a double wave attack is often needed. The first wave breaks up their lovely structure, and the second wave slips past.
Note, the first wave will die horribly, almost every time.

Rocketjump through pipefields, aim to destroy sentryguns as priority targets. Remember that you can jump in through the upper window. Exploit the gantries getting in the way of enemies firing.

A sniper on offence can often be useful here - killing the demon dets his pipefield and removes a lot of spam from the equation (but the sniper isn't going to be an effective attacker anywhere else... unless...)

Remember that you can get from the lobby to the water entrance - this has several important uses.

Firstly, you can kill any sentries there, or whatever - leaving the water route safe for use.

Secondly, there is the concjump route - which is often best to use (although needs timing with the rest of the attack)

Thirdly the spiral route, although it only takes you to the deathtrap, does give you an advantage of some cover.

Fourthly, you could lock down that enemy respawn. Although, actually, you'd probbly rather the enemy spawned there (it's further from the switch defence) However, bear in mind that it's a possibility.

Finally - there are several hiding places down there (mainly near the lift) which can be very useful for spies and people co-ordinating a timed attack.

The death zones

the upper coridoor to get to the main room leads to a single tight door. This is a problem. Sentry guns on the balcony on the other side of the room, left or right, have enough of a range to get you as you exit, and are hard to kill while the enemy puts pipes, grenades or rockets into that doorway.

If you HAVE to break this room, then use the same strategies as against a full front door. (and remember that you can attack from behind, if you use the water room and the top of it near the switch is less guarded)

This room gives you access to the flag room - and extra routes to the key room. Be aware, however, that the rest of the defence know when this room has been broken, and can move to cover the little switchback (which is otherwise your most advantageous attack route)

The other death zone is the double ramp room - and it is very dangerous. The only nifty trick I can think of here is RJing out of the tunnel, turning to fire/land directly on the enemy who is guarding from the top.

This attack often gives you the opportuinty to land a gren2 somewhere a defender really wants to stand, or even on a sentrygun (if you can bounce it round a corner accurately) Also, while they are fighting you, they aren't fighting other people coming up the ramps the normal way, or getting in via the lift or main room switchback.

Pulling the enemy about

You really want one attack to drive the enemy to one side, so that they cannot cover the other attack. You will also want to use a spy, or spam, to get the switch room 'safe' Beware the enemy respawn is right nearby, and you WILL need to deal with fully re-armed and armoured defenders (and attackers) spawning there.

Parting thoughts

EMPs are good. EMPs are real nice, especially since the sentrygun in the switch room is often right against that wall. Deals with pipes nicely too.

There are lots of bank shots you can do, bouncing grenades around corners. They're useful to practice.

A sentrygun, unexpectedly, in the flag room, which is in a different place each time, is a real pain in the bum on a map where you only get a very few chances at the flag. Notice I put an engineer on attack? Maybe he built a gun first...

Spies are a must. So spychecking is a must.

There are few good places for a disp bomb - round the back of the switch is usually too late. But it's worth a try, and can be useful for the demon to restock.

Communicate, and time your one-two rushes.

While the enemy security is up and their flagroom is safe, rushes are the way to go. Once their switch room is yours, then spy+medic/scout+pyro pressure becomes very deadly.

If the enemy is switching their defence numbers (usually four, but a fifth pulls back while under threat, or even all eight go on defence while their security is down) then you MUST adapt to it. Don't let the enemy call the shots.

If you've got the key, or are the sole survivor of a rush, then hide. Stay alive, don't throw your life away at the first defender you meet, find out from your teammates what's uncovered (if they yell 'go for the flag!' you know what to do...) but usually you'll want to get into place to attack from an unexpected direction. The enemy will usually know where all your attackers are - if you're in their base, try to defeat that.

On that line, if there is an enemy attacker unaccounted for, then you are right to worry...

Comrade squeeky had bravely given his life distracting the enemy with an insane attack from the ramps.

The engineer 'boo' had cleared the pipes, and fought his opposite number, and the sneaky spy 'mitsy' had got the security down.

The cheese was theirs! The red mouse base would clebrate tonight...

(Oh, almost forgot a final note. If your flag gets out of the door of the main room, it's gone. It *might* return, if you have a good door defence, but this is a bonus, don't expect it to, or aim to make it so)

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