MW3 Improvement #6 Capture the Flag and Demolition

Welcome to another daily edition of MW3 improvement strategies. Today will be the final day of speaking about gametype strategies. Future blogs will focus on more specific loadouts, killstreaks and weapons. But for today, we're talking about Capture the Flag and Demolition. We'll be doing 2 because both are relatively simple and alone neither are long enough to constitute a single blog.

First we'll start with Capture the Flag.

The parameters of this game are:

1.) 2 rounds, each 5 mins in length

2.) score limit per round is 3 pts (first to 3 or whoebver has most flags at time limit wins round)

3.) Wave spawn delay of 10 seconds

4.) flag pickup and return times of 1.5 seconds

These are pretty simple parameters, and the game looks straightforward enough, and it really is. But there are a few things you need to know when trying to win this gametype.

The first thing to always recognize is hold the middle of the map. Having someone camping your flag for defense is a recipe for disaster. That person would be much better served helping out in the middle and ensuring middle domination stays in your hands than camping out your spawn. The more in the middle, the more you have to help defend the middle, and defend the flag carrier as he runs back to your flag, or kill their flag carrier. You do this also because there is a WAVE SPAWN DELAY OF 10 SECONDS. This means every 10 second increments from the start of the game, you will be allowed back into the game. If you die at 4:59 seconds into the round, you will respawn back in at 4:50 seconds. If you die at 4:51 seconds, you will respawn back in at 4:50 (assuming you hit that x to respawn button as soon as possible. If you're looking at killcam, you're not in the respawn queue.) So for god's sake, just hit X as soon as you die. If you die in the middle, you'll respawn next to your flag, and have the chance to defend it again as you move back towards the middle. This makes it incredibly hard for the other team to penetrate your defenses.

Also, you'll need runners, at least 2 with smg or shotgun classes with extreme conditioning and dead silence or sitrep. These guy must also run with tac inserts. The whole plan is for these guys to penetrate the enemy spawn and set tac inserts back there so they'll always be able to hide in the enemy spawn. If one dies, or captures the flag, the other immediately grabs the new flag and tries to run with it and so on and so on. With rotating tac inserts you'll always be keeping the pressure on the other team. This lessons the pressure to defend a flag for your team. Another strategy is to have 2 other people on your team run tac inserts as well but place them in the middle of the map to help maintain middle control. The other two guys on the team CAN NOT RUN TAC INSERTS. They must be able to respawn within your spawn should your lines of defense break and have the ability to reform the line in your base and move it forward.

Do this and you should win most capture the flag games. But there is a side note. Most maps have sides that favor one side more than the other. You can usually tell which side favors which. An example is Bootleg. It is much harder to take the flag from A dom point in bootleg than it is to grab it from the other side of the map. This allows the side who controls the A dom flag to play a lot more aggressively. If you have that area, there is no reason you should not win that round with 3 captures. When you switch it becomes harder. If you manage to get a 1 flag lead on the other side, you must play incredibly defensive to hold off the other team unless you're just pwning dudes left and right.

Remember this and you'll do fine.

Ok, now for Demolition. The parameters of this game are:

1.) 2.5 minutes

2.) bomb plant time of 5 seconds

3.) bomb disarm time of 5 seconds

4.) active bomb timer of 45 seconds

5.) if one bomb explodes, you get an extra 2.5 mins for the round.

This game also sounds simple. Arm the bomb, defend the bomb, arm the other bomb and defend that one in turn. And it can be just as simple as that. But there are some hepful tips to get you winning most of these gametypes.

Fight for the hardest arm point first. The defending team often bites off more than they can chew by trying to defend both arm points, and will generally send 3 to one site and 3 to another. If you send all 6 of your guys to the hardest arm point first, you get the hard part out of the way, and will generally have more than 2 and a half seconds to get the easy one.

Once that first arm point is on the counter, one person needs to sneak over to the other arm point and plant there. Generally speaking, when one point gets armed, the whole other team tends to freak out and run towards the site on count down. That leaves the easy arm point open. By arming there as soon as possible, you've now sown even more confusion into the other team. They'll have a hard time figuring out who should go where so you should almost always keep numbers at the hard to arm spot and make that spot much easier to defend. The other arm at the easy spot is just to confuse them If it gets disarmed, no biggie. Since it is the easy one, you should have no problem rearming it and defending it with six instead of 1. This is an all or nothing strategy though. If you don't get that first area armed, generally the round will end in 2.5 mins. This could be a good thing too though. It limits the killstreaks the other team will get. Generally the defending team will get more kills per death than the attacking one. If the round ends before they have the opportunity to get more free kills, or they waste theirs 10 seconds before the end of the round, that's less killstreaks you'll have to deal with when defending.

When defending, the trick is to control the middle of the map. It helps to have 1 or 2 people with tac inserts in strong positions. You need to have four people dedicated to holding the harder point of attack for the other team, and 2 guys to focus on the other arm site. They don't need to camp it, those two just need to be around it. All you have to do is stop one point from being armed, not both, so don't worry if one goes boom or gets armed. There's no need to send everyone out to defend 1 point until there's one point left. Just keep the 4 to 2 ratio up as long as there are two arm points and you should be fine.

A helpful tip in this gametype is to always look at the time. There is no reason why you should be dropping a chopper gunner, reaper or emp if there's only 10 seconds left on the clock. Save those things for the next round. It'll make it that much harder for the other team.

On ties, which this gametype seems to have a bit of, there is only one arm site in the middle of the map. First to arm it generally wins. Make sure you 'nade it first by throwing a grenade behind the arm point (the side you can't see) to kill anyone the other team might have arming and then arm it yourself. Then push forward past the arm site to deny lanes of approach and leave one or two guys back to camp the heck out of it and you should win outright.

Tomorrow: Good weapons and how to maximize their potential and bad weapons to avoid like the plague.