Tip 17 - Draw the water Part 1

URL: http://half-life.morat.net/tfc/guides/

The people were thirsty.
The land was covered with concrete - and the twin towers which reached up beyond the sky were empty.

And the lords of the towers said unto their people, we shall give you water - a great well within one of the respawn rooms within each great tower. But there will be a great cost, and great misery from this.

And the people said "Give us water!"

So the two lords caused great wells to be dug, even as they has said. And they caused water to flow from the highest towers within their towers.
And the flags therein did pour forth water. And lo, the water did mingle deep beneath the earth, and filled two great trenches - and did become green and manky.

And the people said "We are still thirsty! We can't drink this!"

The blue lord said unto his people - "We need to bring the red flag to our purifying station, that way the water will be a clear blue only. And then we can drink it."

And the red lord, spake thusly "I know, it makes no sense. Red and blue mix to make purple water. But nonethless, take the blue flag and bring it here, to make the water, um, red and drinkable, or something."

And the people said "Yay! We shall fight over the flags, and swim in the trenches, and kill each other there - that'll make the water drinkable!"

Well. The second valve map in most servers rotation. Pre TF1.5 map. BIG. Really rather large. Don't go near it without at least a voodoo2.

Right, I'll assume you know it's basic layout.
I'll assume you know that the water tunnels don't actually connect, and that you need a demon to blow the grate to the enemy water entrance.

I'll assume you know that the backpacks: a) useable by he enemy b) give armour + Ammo c) only ONE bag in the attic gives grenades.

Right, thats got the basics down.

Now, well is a VERY offensive map. Defence is much harder on well than on most maps.

This is primarily due to the water route - and concjumps.

If the enemy can't concjump, and it's a LOT harder post TF1.5, then defence becomes almost trivial.

In that case, you just have to keep the enemy from making it up onto the upper levels. Which is most easily done with a trio of soldiers - keep knocking them off the attic lift, and the lifts up to the gantry - and your flag should remain untouched.

The problem with this is that the enemy can occupy the rest of your base, and seriously harass your offence. Also a sniper can pick off your soldiers from the extreme range of the fr floor.

The up side is you have one less defender than normal, so you have an extra attacker.


ok, let's assume that the enemy can conc jump. Here are you basic defences.

Primarily rear defence.
HWG in the water tunnel. At the far back, mows down any incoming enemies frmo that route.
He CAN be taken down, but comes back pretty quick, and will do a lot of damage before he goes down.

When he DOES go down, your attic side defender wants to move to cover that hole - or you can just drop a few grenades down near the tunnel exit to stop them getting out before your heavy can get back.

The other three defenders, one is a soldier or demon covering the attic - one is an engineer - with a sentry gun placed right back to stop conc jumpers who like to land on it / fire through the window at those trying that route in (this is what makes the attic defender so critical) and a soldier to knock people off the lifts, and stop them shooting at the SG round the corner.

The engineers dispenser will typically be on the flag, or outside the flag window. Another good place for it is in the water tunnel, flagroom side, so that the heavy can restock / get armour from it, and it will delay people who DO get past the HWG just that little bit longer.

Variations:
engineer to guard the attic - with a sentry gun. Your attackers have to know to stop people in the ramp room from taking it out.
Sniper instead of HG. Needless to say, they have to be good.

Move the soldier in the fr forward, to either the front door or the ramp room - to harass the enemy (if your HWG in the water is sufficient deterrent to stop them using it totally)

The next variation moves you far enough for it to be a different strategy, so...

Mostly forward defence.

A soldier, roaming around, OUTSIDE your base.
They warn their team the route the enemy uses, wounds all light classes - and MOST importantly, stops the enemy from all managing to go in in a block, he spaces them out.
Or, if the engineer needs time to build something, or someone is restocking or dead, can hold the enemy back for a while, giving a space, and then letting them all in in a group (when he dies)

The rest of the defence can be as above - or you can move even more forward - typially the engineer and his sentry gun to the front door.

This is good while it lasts, but tends to let the enemy in in a block. Which means that you have to have the rest of the defence willing to pursue the flag. Once it actually gets outside, one defender moves back to cover the flag room, stop it being occupied. When it looks like its about to leave the forward defenders area, or return, then a couple more should pull back to their normal places.

Well is a high scoring map (usually) anyway - this strategy acknowledges that, and tries to drag each cap out as long as posisble.

You CAN go really silly. 1 soldier outside, engineer aND demon inside front door, HWG in water.

the engineer and soldier MUST be willing and able to respond if the HWG gets into trouble though.

Another full fr Defence:
SG LHS small fr, above lift. SG RHS similarly (move them about, of course, to keep the eney guessing)

Someone good to cover the attic (a good demon works well, or an engineer) and someone on the GROUND level of the flagroom, to prevent picking off the SGs from long range, and stop water attacks.

I don't really like this one, but several clans have had great success with it.


Defend the grate!

Your attacking scouts defuse any detpacks.
Your forward defence tries to stop them being planted in the first place.
You throw some random shots into the water.
The rest of your defence stops them coming in the front door - with perhaps one defender in the flag room in case some get past, or roaming to catch the stragglers. An engineer is best for this role.

this is a risky strategy, and if you opt for it, practice pulling back to a configuration which as water defence QUICKLY - because the enemy will use your grate otherwise. But you don't want to let in ahorde whilst you do it.

It can DEFINATELY be a nice small addition to a standard forward defence to stop the detpack as a priority, to give your fr defence time to build up.

The 5th element.
Well is a VERY easy map to attack on. So one perfectly valid thing to do is play with 5 defence, and 3 offence.

A 5th man can easily be added to any flag room orientated defence by placing them at the front door / rr area - or outside to harass and give warning.

Oh, this forward defender can be soldier, pyro, demon - pretty much any deathmatch orientated class - you want to wound EVERYONE, and be able to channel where they go , if at all possible.

Oh, you're also the primary spy defence.

Adding a 5th man to a forward defence you've got 2 real choices.
Either an engineer in the flag room, or in the ramp room primarily with their SG in the fr, but able to respond to water route warnings - or a sniper.
Sniper defence - either outside or on top of your base - pick off every other incoming light class - or wound every HWG you see. The sniper, needless to say, has to be VERY good.


Attacking on well.

TWIN demons to blow the grate on the first attack. (and, incidentally to splat the forward defenders)
Two to make sure. One MIGHT be enough, but it's good to be sure.

Everyone else a light class, until you guage what they are doing.
Frankly, three conc-jumping light classes will often be enough - but sometimes swapping an attacker out for a heavier class (soldier or pyro) to distract the forward defender / nail the forward sentrygun can be useful.

If the enemy is playing full flagroom defence, then a heavy class tends to draw a LOT of fire, but can take out a crucial hardpoint.

Still, if you use a lot of medics, that works well too.

Counter to the defences listed above.
*good* forward defender (the kind good neough to take out all your light attackers)
Sniper. On your roof, or in your snipe deck - take him out, or make him play dodge the dot rather than mash the medic.

Counter to the water HWG.
Masses of ammunition thrown in its general direction :)
But it takes a LOT - so consider throwing to defenders at it, who respawn as scouts, to get back in before the HWG can get back into place.

Second counter. A sniper. *pop*
Have to be good, and it won't work many times in a row, but throw it into the mix.
Also remember, you've got multiple routes in...

Concs are the answer to people who defend the attic - or even EMP thrown up to them from below.

A commonly good strategy is to swim in the water wy, then go to the ramp room, rather than attack the fr directly. The enemy won't be expecting an attic attack that the door defence didn't warn them about.

Learn the water to gantry concjump.
It's basically essential.

There's a lot f subtety once you get up there - but basically, you've go t to get them disorientated, get past them, destroy or get past the gun, and get the flag out of the flag room.

THROW it through the grating window.

Once it's on the ground level, it is MUCH easier to attack.

Also remember that you can throw it through the sniper deck window to outside (if the nme door is hell) crouch to do it.


Snipers. I've mentioned them a few times.
This is one of the few maps where snipers can do some REAL damage.
Either on offence or defence.

Getting either into the flag room can cause severe pain - a twin sniper + soldier defence is perfectly possible - though it has trouble against good concjumpers.

A sniper on offence can come out of the water, and kill a key defender / SG.
And they are STILL fast enough to get the flag out at a sensible speed once the other attackers have dealt with (and been dealt with by) the other defenders.


And the two lords of the towers shook their heads. And joined in, because blowing each other up in the cause of coloured flags is fun.

i