Subjects:
Prologue
Steel Cap D
Steel Cap E

Cold Steel

(BLU Offense, Part II)

When last we left off, your team had just gained C cap and were thrusting into RED’s stronghold to take the last two…wow, this has been a long match.  There’s been a few big updates and a lot of changes to TF2 since then, so while we’ll jump in I’ll try my best to incorporate pertinent new stuff.

With the fall of C, the bridge walkway granting access to E for the less mobile classes is now available, opening the third way to get to D.  RED has less space to work with now, but will be determined to lock out D and E as best they can.

Interior D:  Drawn and Quartered…

fig. a.1

D Cap.  An enclosed, close- to mid-quarter zone where you now have four access points to get in from.  The closer quarters will work for and against you: you’ll have better control of explosions in halls and corridors, but if a fight comes down to CQC you’ll have less maneuvering room.  Concerning enemy Engineers, the most effective places to build a covered sentry will be atop the spawn-ramp stair, on the ground before the spawn facing the point and far entrance, and in the entryway that leads from E.

With the proper cover and quick edging (popping out of cover just long enough to throw a sticky and duck back), these risky positions can be addressed from attack route 1. You might not even need an Übercharge.  Remember however that from the position in figure a.1, you are in the vicinity of the enemy’s spawn room and they can exit it to attack you at any time, so caution is always necessary. Note that RED is vulnerable from attacks coming from the upper spawn door landing leading into D from C, so your preference for attack should be that direction (unless enemy concentration is focused there).  In that case, attacking from the far west entryways (attack route 2) are a viable way to go as they can provide adequate cover and are often a less-heeded threat than the upper spawn landing.  it’s good for getting close as an Übercharged pair, popping out and flinging a few bombs into a crowd that’s competing on the cap, or to get some explosives onto the upper landing to deal with enemies and hardware there.

fig. a.2

Upon taking the point, if you are granted a brief respite from fighting, you’ll need to decide quick where best to place your stickies as a trap.  Respawning enemies, 8 times out of 10, will be coming straight from the upper landing spawn doors, so leaving trap stickies where they’ll be unexpected is a good idea (I’m avoiding situations where one commits spawn camping; opinions vary, but my personal philosophy is choosing to resort to spawn-killing doesn’t teach you much).    The enemy does not have a clear shot at the point from the spawn, so performing a fake out–acting as if you don’t see them coming by not looking at them or acknowledging their maneuvering to attack you–is an effective setup for the bombs placed in the locations in figure a.2.

In the case of the 2 out of 10 who will leave the E-side spawn door and attack D from E (or possibly defenders coming from E), their direct access is the E Entryway.  Sticky-trapping this entry is ideal, but you must be wise in trapping here as splitting stickies between  it and your traps on the upper landing will make both less effective.  Furthermore, the medium health kit in the entryway is there to heal a survivor.

Entering D from E, an enemy will either immediately cut in front of the crates and engage you, or slip behind the crates to round to the other side.  So be prepared for the possibility of attacks from E, the worst case scenario being a Heavy, Scout or Pyro suddenly popping into view at mid- to close range.  Stickies hidden as noted can damage or kill most classes, and having your grenade launcher trained in that direction can put down the wounded and suppress its backup.  Being alone on D cap is a terrible situation, but it’s possible if you are creative with your stickies, conservative of your ammo, and remain observant of the three primary entryways RED will use to come kill you.

If you’re fortunate to survive long enough to score a capture of D, you’ve essentially trapped RED to roughly one half of a room that they have to fight to turn into one whole locked-down room if they wish to survive.  It’s time to push the full of your team into the grinder.

Launch Chamber E: “You Shall Not Pass!”

fig. b.1

E-cap Rocket Chamber: A nightmare for Redmond’s boys to defend from Blutarch’s determined and wily team.  It’s a sweet spot of a cap point to attack.  If there is a sentry in the hall from D to E, you can easily edge it to destroy it.  Barring enemy Snipers across the way and enemy Spies who have the full range of the base to get at you, you have more cover here than most any other cap save for B, and it’s all because of the little sub-ledge that lay just beneath the Engineering deck on RED’s side.  Arrows lead into it from B door and C basement.  This oft-overlooked platform has a slight lip that can allow you to safely chuck stickies up onto the ceiling above the Engineering deck and on top of Engy buildings; three to five spaced about in afoot-wide cluster will be sufficient to kill the Engineer and anything he has built there often times without the Engy or his sentry even being aware.  Talk about convenient!

Furthermore, RED defenders who are swarming a capture point are most likely looking at the B-C joint entryway that is level with the cap itself, expecting an attack from B or even the far A-side access.  Four grenades into a cluster of RED defenders fighting or swarming that cap will make sure that everything there has a bad day.

fig. b.2

But let’s say your team has made a push straight from D into E corridor and, for the time being, owns RED’s landing territory.  This is where you can be the single most important defender for the team, the block from which the enemy must pay hell just to pass.  Take a look: hanging back on the Engineer deck gives you an overlook of the entryway leading into D and any other way RED might come to attack those on the point.  RED attackers cannot use the resupply doors facing E due to the doors locking down when D is capped, so it’s likely they will approach from D.  Sticky-trapping the hell out of the entryway is an excellent way to ensure that RED cannot reach your teammates in time.  Like locking down D, the Scottish Resistance would shine in this situation, but the classic launcher is fine.

You have many options, all more efficient than D’s:  making visible stickies will be a deterrent and cause the enemy to hesitate.  Hiding trap stickies will lull the enemy into rushing the corridor, carrying them right into an unexpected detonation.  Stickies cannot grab the catwalks, so you can roll them to the ends to stick to the landing or the cap itself and be a trap for Spies or other enemies that attack your teammates directly; You’re on the platform to defend them, after all.  The staple of your combat ability is area denial; use it.  If you can coerce a Medic into hanging out with you on the Engy deck, do so, but it’s not really crucial; the Sniper cabin has sufficient health and ammo for you.

Beware of bombs or rockets coming from the sub-level beneath you, and watch out for enemies firing down the hall at you, especially Snipers.  Always have grenades in the chamber in case you need to fire down the stairs or sticky-trap the stairs itself.  One Demo playing gatekeeper can ensure that the BLUs huddled on the point have minimal threat to deal with.

If you cannot afford to play gatekeeper, you’ll need to place your bombs with an eye towards possible avenues RED will attack from.  The little window in the figure is a favored firing spot of Snipers, Heavies, Soldiers, Demomen…it offers nice protection from the point.

That is why it must be sticky-trapped.

If your ‘nade aim isn’t up to snuff to make the hole from the point, leave stickies above and behind the heads of anyone who would stand in that alcove and fire at the point.  Enough to kill a Heavy and with a 1-foot spread to catch more people.  The Engineer deck must not be allowed to be occupied by enemies.  This whole area is a stretch to defend like D is, and taking it by your own against numerous enemies is almost guaranteed to fail.  So be sure to have backup, or at least a Medic to keep you alive while capping.

The key to E is locking RED out of getting firing solutions on the cap, if not out of the room itself.  If you can succeed in this, then cheers, mate: Victory is yours. And thus, the end of this tutorial.  I hope my approaches to Steel help at least some of you, and you can come up with different and maybe even superior tactics for yourself.  It’s all in how you approach a problem, boyo!

Thank you for reading! Next time, we’ll tackle another difficult map as this most versatile class! Feedback for The DemoVixen’s How-To is totally welcome either here or on Niko’s Steam Communities profile page.

- Voop Out

Winners!

First I’d like to thank everyone that entered the contest, we had some really good entries and I was really impressed with everyone who took the time to enter! Second I’d like to thank our 6 volunteer and/or coerced judges! The 3 admins – Jinx, Akita and Austin, and the 3 players, Aznhax, Munch and Rev. Browning, you guys were great!

So now! The winners!

First place – This one really blew folks away with how well it was done, it was very smooth and had a good Halloween vibe to it. First place goes to MASTERFURRYX’s Halloween Engi and Crew!

Second Place – Following that one, the judges decided on Otterwolfy’s scary pyro image! They really liked how simple and to the point the image was, with the good backdrop and the fact that we all know pyro is just a scary monster anyways.

Third Place – Finally, our last screenshot winner goes to Rikes! The final screen shot was selected because…well…what do you think when you see this? Nicely done Rikes, the judges found your image funny enough to be our final winner!

All in all, we had some great entries, but these folks stood out the most to our judges. I want to thank everyone who took the time to enter, you all did great. If folks become more interested in events like this, we might try again come December or New Years!

If you were one of the winners, please contact me at your convenience on Steam, you should know me, I am Sekh, you can find me on the admin list if you haven’t already so we can get you guys your prizes!

Because I was so happy with everyone’s entries though, I would like to extend the prizes to everyone who entered, at least some form of “door prize” for entering. So if you submitted an image at all, shoot me a message on steam!

For those interested in seeing all the entries, I’ve created a rar which can be found here.

Special Anthrocon Edition!

Totally not written by a lazy burd who takes forever to get out newsletters.

I don’t want to hear it! Nope! Lazy scribe burd has been in other countries! He has an excuse this time! I swear that I was working the entire 2 month period that there hasn’t been a newsletter, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! Yep. That is my story and I am sticking to it. So here we are! This is a pretty special newsletter full of all sorts of shiny things, so lets jump right in folks!

TFP Goes to Anthrocon!

So for those of you that haven’t been paying attention to the Fandom for the last few months, Anthrocon, the largest Furry Convention in the world ended last week. For the second year in a row, TFP has held its annual meet and greet in the Zoo area where everyone gets to chat it up and the admins get to ramble incoherently for an hour, as well as get information on what people think of the servers in person. This year we had a total of 30+ people show up for the meet! That is more than an entire server! We had more people at our little group meet up than many of the panels that are actually in the con guide, and there were many people that couldn’t find us so who knows what the total number might have been! We even had to steal a second table to fit everyone. I have a roll call sheet here that I did after we all wandered off, I apologize if I miss your name, I did this while standing in line for 2’s show so I was playing it by ear at this point.

1. Witchiebunny

2. Jinx

3. Nikkyvix

4. Sekh

5. Cmdr Lost

6. Nynnja

7. Pathia

8. Python

9. Draganta

10. Gavyn

11. A.M. Zinthos

12. Cyferwolf

13. Sivren

14. Matty

15. JousterL

16. Zenny

17. NightFurson

18. Pikacha

19. Tersi

20. Kit Kima (Spy!) (Also probably spelling error!)

21. Stryker

22. Artie

23. Shaggy the Batbear

24. Longshot Coyote

25. Kajiwolf

26. SpyingRedFox

27. Kasi the Kittejackal

Special Guest appearance by Aurafox disguised as Nynn’s phone as well!

I know I missed a few people, once again I apologize, it was kinda crazy that day. Here is the only known photo to still exist of the epic TFP Meet up, We apologize for the blur but it was taken by a scout as they sprinted through our lines yelling need a dispenser here….or something.

Next year we are trying to plan something really big and amazing, so stay tuned and as we get closer to that we will release more information on that! It is gonna be awesome!

Among other AC news, TFP member Hali of Firpine a.k.a Matthew Ebel gave an awesome concert on Friday, as someone who hadn’t heard him until then, I highly recommend checking out his webpage, his music is just awesome!

I also only got about 5 admins totally lost in Pittsburgh for about 10 minutes while trying to drive us somewhere! Navigational Burd will find the way! Eventually…..

You folk quite literally wore my voice out by the end of the con, I kept meeting more and more TFP members while wandering around and everyone was just so awesome that I eventually talked myself hoarse, way to go! :P

A final nod to the awesome TF2 Cosplayers that were running around the con, I know a good number of them play on our servers and they had some pretty awesome costumes done, including Radar Nocturn complete with a ginormous solid metal wrench that I have no clue how the Dorsai let him keep that damn thing, but it was awesome none the less. Hope to see all you folk next year!

Upcoming Server Events:

TFP’s Second Birthday and the Return of TFP Fun Server!: Due to popular demand both by players at AC and by you folk on the forums, we have realized just how much people enjoyed the old #3 screw around silly maps server. Also, we realized just how popular server #5 was with its more relaxed atmosphere. To this end we are bringing back this server style permanently by the end of this month in celebration of our second birthday! 2 years and 3000 members have to be right about something! In terms of rules this server will have a complete custom maps list of normal style custom maps (Think maps such as frontier, chaos, etc), as well as its own selection of wacky maps, such as Pacman! The server will have a shorter map timer, a maximum of 20 minutes per map, to alleviate being stuck on maps that a majority of the players may or may not like. We encourage people to send us map ideas, no matter what type of map it is, we promise to look into it for addition to this server. Plugins and the like are subject to change by the time the server comes out but for the most part this should be the final setup. Hope you guys enjoy the new server, expect it by the end of the month!

July Map Removal: Normally these map posts are about testing new maps, getting all sorts of shiny new toys for people to play with on the servers, but this month we are running things a bit differently. It has come to our attention that there are a number of maps on the server which are either just terrible, or kill the server due to their complexity or large download size. To help alleviate this the admin staff have constructed a list of these maps which we will be putting up for vote later today and it will last for 2 weeks, at which point the polls will be reviewed by the admins to see which maps stay and go. I won’t post an entire list here but if you wish to participate in the poll, and honestly, TFP as a whole, you will need to register on the forums at so that you can take part in things like this. The poll will be broken up into two phases over the course of two weeks or so to give people time to read both of them and vote.">so that you can take part in things like this. The poll will be broken up into two phases over the course of two weeks or so to give people time to read both of them and vote.

The first poll can be found Here

Upcoming TFP Server Changes:

Counter-Strike Server: Due to demand from a large number of players, we have just finished the creation of our very own Counter-Strike Source server! Currently it is running normal CSS, with the full stock map list as well as a large number of custom maps. For the time being we will be running the default game mode, if there is enough demand for it, or the normal game modes do not garner enough players, we will look into the addition of a Gungame server at a later date. For now, enjoy the CSS server safe in the knowledge that annoying children and complete jackoffs will be swiftly hit in the face with a giant damn hammer. Normal server rules apply in terms of behavior of course. We are accepting ideas on the map rotation so if something is terrible and we have it, or awesome and we don’t, friend me and toss me a line!

IP for the TFP CSS Server – 208.115.128.10:27043

Removal of the Bad Company 2 Server: Sorry folks, the server simply wasn’t getting enough use from TFP members to warrant us continuing to pay for it at the ridiculous prices that EA charges. We will have to see what the future brings in terms of this game, if they release dedicated servers which do not require us to RENT the server from them, and instead allow us to host it on our own boxes (of which we have many of excellent quality!), then we will see about bringing this back.

TFP Public Service Announcement:

So we have implemented a new system of Banning people. I tell you all this because the system uses this lovely automated program which allows for players to check our bans, why bans were made, and most importantly, allows for players to mail us demos using the “Submit a Demo” button! This means no more juggling your demos of speedhacker and trying to upload them to other websites for us to review! Now you can simply submit them directly to us with the button at the top! We hope people will record more demos now that its much easier to send them to us!

Among other things that you can do with this handy tool is if for some god forsaken reason you have received a ban from us, you can protest the ban using the “Protest Ban” function. We hope all of you folk never have to use this button, especially after I met so many of you and you were all so very cool, so lets not ruin that ^_^.

Sourcebans can be found Here

Members of the Month

The award goes to..

Every single member who came to AC and took the time to either go to the TFP meet up or find a TFP admin/member and talk with them. Seriously, you guys were awesome and made that convention amazingly fun, hats off to all of you.

Honorable mention

On a personal note, This is my newsletter and I can honor who I want! Honorable mention goes to JousterL and Zenny for teaching me how to Rave at the AC dance. Next year I’LL bring the glowsticks!

Mailbag Posting

Nothing new here, only thing of note in the last month was someone on 4chan attempting to troll the group by posting our the IP addresses for our servers to get them to harass us. Some 200 posts later, we’ve now come to the conclusion that a majority of that thread are all closet TFP players due to the inordinately large number of people telling the original poster to go to hell, or admitting they’ve played here from time to time. Enjoy the servers you guys! :P

Banned.

Lovely! For one month out of the year when all the Admins are away getting totally drun—I mean, doing our damndest to improve the servers for all players while at AC…. noone does anything extraordinarily dumb and gets themselves hit with a hammer! I love you guys!

The Future!

The future seems pretty bright for all of us here at TFP, we had an awesome turnout at AC (Twice what we had last year), the servers are always full of cool and new players, to the point that we’ve had to once again expand our server list to accommodate all of you! Once again I’m probably driving the tech admins up the walls with my constant running around like a madman going, “And then we can try THIS game! And what about a plugin that does THIS on THIS server!” but then again, two years and none of the servers have exploded for any extremely long period of time, so you guys better thank all our tech admins for keeping this place so nice and clean, they don’t get enough credit as is! Again, any ideas you guys have for games, server plugins, group events, advertisements, art, drinks that Sekh can consume at his next con, maps, articles for the TFP website, and anything else along those lines please drop me or one of the other admins a line and we will see what we can do! Hopefully Augusts’ newsletter doesn’t take so damn long right? :D

– Sekh the Scribe Burd.

P.S. I wasn’t aware so many of you guys read this! Thanks for all the nice things you said about it, I never know if people are reading them since its so hard to get comments on it ^_^.

So, after taking a month break because I am a lazy lazy burd, I am back with the third TFP newsletter, with some new updates for the servers, and some possible new games to expand into.

 Upcoming Server Events:

April Maptest: It’s that time again. We are testing a new batch of maps which will be detailed below for possible addition to the servers. We will also be taking note of current maps which are disliked and unplayed and removing them from our rotation. Due to Payload being the most popular game choice for our servers, the new maps will mainly focus on the payload game type.

The new maps are as follows, and can be downloaded from fpsbanana.

Upcoming TFP Server Changes:

No major server changes this month, although we would like to reiterate that server #6 has been relocated to America and is a carbon copy of server #4, so it should be seen as a viable alternative when server #4 is full.

Upcoming TFP Group Changes:

In part of our ever expanding search for new games for the TFP group to move itself into, we are investigating the possibility of a Bad Company 2 server, since it seems to be gathering a large amount of our members. We will be starting a poll on the forums later which will have multiple options on map types, game types, etc.

Unfortunately, because of EA’s draconian policies on servers, we will have to pay for the servers out of our own pocket, instead of hosting them ourselves (EA doesn’t allow people to host servers, they MUST be rented from EA), we might implement a donation process to donate to the continual upkeep of the server. The rental costs are 30 dollars a month, so we would be implementing a donation process with a maximum donation cap to prevent any single player for paying too much. Donations would only be used towards the payment process for the BC2 server.

Keep tuned to the TFP group announcements for more information regarding this upcoming server.

Members of the Month

The award goes to..

Noone! Because I am a lazy burd.

Honorable Mention – Sergeant Silver – For being patient with us on how long it is taking to get the achievement system tested.

Mailbag Posting

Sorry folks, no funny bans this month, just depressing ones, see below.

Banned.

So. We were hoping we wouldn’t have to make a section for this, and that the Mailbag would be enough to get across some of the folks we had to remove form the servers, but recent issues with permabanned people being accidentally re-added to the group by members who were unaware of their status has necessitated the addition of a section which simply states the banned members, and a brief description of why they were banned. Included in this will be any evidence we deem necessary to reiterate why they are no longer allowed on the servers, hopefully shedding some light on our bans.

Note: These are only permanently banned players. We like to believe that temp banned players will learn from their mistake and we will not post them here.

I Need Viagra – Speedhacking

[BFC] stone – Anti-furry trolling

CandySquirrel – Refusal to follow rules after many warnings. Disrespectful to other players, admins, just about anyone who didn’t fit into his view of the “rules”.

Chin Fish – Speedhacking like a madman.

Poisonous Mind/Tatterwing – Harassment, Trolling – After being given multiple chances to cease being a violent and extremely negative force on the servers, we have elevated this persons ban length to permanent. Following this, we received numerous messages which simply supported our decision, including threats against the server, the group, and certain admins. In an effort to disprove any rumors surrounding this ban, we present the following sections.

“3:33 AM – [FRAG] Poisonous Mind [busy]: This can work one of three ways.  The admins get their heads out of their asses and actually listen for once, rather than pandering to the people wanking them off.  Second choice, I can do a raid that will actually succeed.  Third choice, and honestly the most fatal to the TFP community, I sow my own seeds there and start breaking the community by taking their members. “

While we do not really care about someone’s opinion of ourselves, especially someone with the above record, we do however take a dim view of blackmail and threats against our players and servers. We present this final quote to cement PM’s intentions to lie and manipulate our player base for her own ends, and hope that we have provided enough information for our players to make their own decisions on our ban.

“[FRAG] Poisonous Mind [busy]: So why didn’t you come to me personally rather than involving Felis?

Kellervo: You always told me to stay out of your drama. :P

[FRAG] Poisonous Mind [busy]: Honestly though, the mask as an annonymous admin helped, seeing as not knowing who you were to begin with let me take the situation in a different light… Honestly, I probably would have tried to manipulate you, just because that’s how I am in these situations.”

The Future!

Upcoming things are as above, we will be providing a forum topic and section for the upcoming Bad Company 2 Servers, and investigating larger events for the upcoming summer months. We encourage you guys to send us ideas for server events, and we will see about getting them turned into actual events. Achievements are still under development, technical hurdles have to be addressed before we could declare if we are using them or not. As stated in February, the Randomizer event should be in the works for early May, provided we have the time with finals and end of school work. Hopefully you enjoyed this month’s Newsletter and are interested in the Bad Company server! Stay tuned for more information!

- Sekh the Scribe Burd.

Subjects:

Prologue

Demoman weapons summary

Steel Cap A

Steel Cap B

Steel Cap C

Prologue:  Nosce te Arma (Know thy Weapon)

Duke of Demolitions.  The Nitroglyceride Negro.  Black Scottish Cyclops.

The Demoman

Every map has different characteristics of effectiveness for an observant, creatively imaginative Demo.  And today’s map is one of the best.  But first, you must know your tools.  Feel free to skip if you already do, but for the newbies:

Sticky Bomb Launcher
The primary weapon of the Demoman.  This lass is a most versatile weapon, functioning better in defensive application but devastating in certain offenses.  With a salvo of 8 bombs which stick to most surfaces floor, wall and ceiling, the Demoman uses these detonator-dependent explosives to set traps for the enemy to take harm when they wander within the blast radius.  Projectiles from this and the Scottish Resistance fire in a ballistic arc that can be extended by charging one’s shot.

The Scottish Resistance
The alternate primary weapon of the Demoman, differentiated from the original by a caution-strip-taped bomb canister and added laser LED.  This beaut is a modification of the classic sticky bomb launcher, one of the new Demoman unlocks as of the Demoman/Soldier update.  It has a larger mag than the other sticky launcher, able to place up to 14 bombs that can be selectively detonated individually or in close clusters.  Traps can be more complicated and effective with the right application.  However, its detonation primer is a fraction of a second longer than the sticky launcher, making airbursting a slower affair.  It also has the ability to destroy enemy Demoman sticky bombs in the explosions of its own bombs.

As this is a primarily defensive weapon, we won’t be focusing on it for this tutorial.

Grenade Launcher
The secondary weapon of the Demoman. Best suited for offensive situations, this baby fires up to four grenades (or “pills” or “pineapples”) in-between reloads with a damage potential greater than that of the primary weapon when accounting for its damage-per-second.  This weapon, like the other bomb launchers, fires in an arc that must be compensated for.  It cannot be charged.  A direct hit delivers the full range of damage for your distance (or range-to-target, RTT) while bouncing off of a surface activates a minor timer, after which the grenade detonates for slightly reduced damage.

Both Stickies and Grenades have a blast zone–a shell of blast range which they can do damage in, extending up to six feet (for stickies) or three feet (for grenades) from the bombs themselves.  You will do more damage the closer to the center of this range your target(s) are.

Chargin’ Targe
A sturdy medieval buckler with a pike on the end, this alternate-primary weapon replaces sticky launchers and serves as a defensive buff for the Demoman against explosive and fire damage.  It is also a charging weapon that does low-range (approx. 20 HP) damage on full-length charge with an enemy.  This weapon is commonly used in conjunction with the Eyelander or Scrumpy bottle as it causes a melee mini-crit at half charge and a full-crit at full charge.  Sorry, no charging crit stickies or pineapple shots.

Scrumpy
The tertiary/melee weapon of the Demoman.  It’s alcoholic cider in a hardened, heavy glass bottle.  What more of an explanation is needed?

The Eyelander
The alternative to Scrumpy and the mostus awesomus fun weapon the Demoman can have.  A wicked Scottish claymore with excellent range, it nonetheless penalizes you for 25HP at the outset of your life.  However, an additional 15HP are bestowed to you for every decapitating kill made with the Eyelander.  Kills also award additional slight speed boosts until four heads are taken for the maximum of 210HP and nigh Scout running speed.  Used in conjunction with the Targe, it forges the once mid-ranging indirect combat Demoman into a tanking, close-range berserker! Your style of play will vary, but this guide is made for the bomb-slinger, not the sword-swinger.

All of these weapons have their applications, but they are merely clumsy toys in the hands of a toddler if the Demoman does not employ the thing that makes them most dangerous in his hands: Imagination.  (a little liquor never hurts, either, but still).  Now that you know your tools, let’s venture on…

So without further ado…

Cold Steel (BLU Offense, Part I)

CP_Steel.  Steel is one of my favorite (if not my top favorite) cap-point maps to play as a Demoman.  Steel is, essentially, a rocket launch facility that is bundled up like a fortress; its mingling of open, clear perimeters which tighten down to tight close-quarter action makes it a dynamic and exciting environment for practically every class.  The overarching objective as a turn-based CP is for BLU to capture E, the final point.  BLU can make this job easier for itself by capturing points A through D in succession, opening new paths and making E cap a more accessible point for them.  RED will attempt to prevent this capture and any others at all costs.

As a member of BLU the versatile Demoman will be primarily offense.  Your concerns on Steel are:

1. To Search and Destroy (sentry nest destruction)
2. Interdiction via traps at access-ways (a spawncamp-free guide)
3. Preventing RED from reaching their defense positions
4. Jeering and Taunting
5. Offensive suppression (yes, spamming)

Perimeter Cap A: Storm the Hills..

Figure a.1

As noted in the RED version of this guide, RED cap point has two ways BLU can access it: A longish run uphill from around the fronting wall, or, coming over the top of the fronting wall to drop into RED’s courtyard (and behind A Cap).  You should always expect RED to have sentries set up to bolster their siege at your doors.  Figure a.1′s red arrows show the most common placements and facings of enemy sentries.

As a Demoman, your primary purpose is building destruction.  You are the most prepared class to take on RED’s sentries at medium to long range, so for the start it should be your priority to have a Medic (who has hopefully spent Setup time charging his Über) to follow you out into the fray and accomplish this.  Personally, I prefer to take the high wall and flank RED from the courtyard.  The benefits of this approach are threefold: surprise, since RED by nature of the map design is more likely to be watching the main ground area; high ground, which should be self-explanatory for its effectiveness; and the more relative safety for your Medic, who is able to duck behind the wall bulwark (cover in the figure), protected from conventional fire and able to heal you while you attack those in the court and on the cap (or any Sentry which might be down there).

However, if you decide to run the trench, hug the wall opposite the health closet to avoid being shot (cover in the figure).  But you can’t stop here…this is Sniper Country.  Snipers love to duck behind the boulders to the far left where they have a clear shot at both spawn exits, and their only real threats are your Spies and other Snipers.  Hug the wall so that you can reach the right corner turn quicker, and be prepared to stare up into angry REDs and their sentries.  This approach is the more direct approach and it’s good for trying to push RED back and pin them on the point and courtyard while your team either attacks from behind you or flanks them from the high wall.  Expect concentrated fire.

Upon leaving the spawn you’ll have several seconds’ run before you get into the range of the sentries mentioned above, so be sure to clear the way so that your Medic is not endangered and forced to pop his Übercharge prematurely.  As is the same for any class you want to maximize your effectiveness with an Über.  As long as you prioritize sentries, then people, you will be fine.

With a single Übercharge, wise prioritizing and a little backup from your teammates, you should be able to destroy their buildings and clear the way for your team to mount a better offensive.  After all, sentries, while weak and easy to kill, do not miss with painful bullets (and rarely miss with rockets), and are effective deterrents that frighten paper-skinned Medics, Scouts, Pyros…  The onus is on you to ensure that they are destroyed.

Once they are, your task is to secure the control point and the grounds around it.  Many people think that they’ll be alright as long as they hold the point.  Often they are wrong, because they huddle in a corner without precaution or run in circles without looking to see what’s coming to try to remove them.

Figure a.2

Figure a.3

To maximize your chances of holding on to the point, it’s imperative that you watch the exit that RED must use in order to approach.  There’s only one, so it’s quite easy.  I love placing bombs in these given locations (figure a.2), as they are invisible to rushing REDs leaving their spawn or running up the right ramp to attack you.  Also, you can place trap bombs in the courtyard (figure a.3); you can bet that RED will be in panic mode, trying to get to the point to get you off of it quickly and less inclined to check for sticky bombs in these locations.  On a personal note, this is as close to spawn camping as I feel is necessary, but your mileage may vary.  With luck, you can repeat this and prove to be an effective deterrent, or at least wound RED enough so that they won’t stand a chance in direct engagement.

Congratulations, you’ve wrested the first perimeter from RED and established your beachhead! Keep the momentum going and head straight for…

Perimeter B:  Sneerin’ Uphill…

Figure 2.a

Like Cap A, Cap B is a point that BLU must fight an uphill battle to get.  RED, with the high ground advantage and a single attack corridor from which to expect BLU to come, has a better chance of holding you back until the time runs out.

If you’re approaching from A, beware traps from evil RED Demomen who are already set up to rebuff your team.  The drop down in the corridor from A to B can be sticky-mined.  Warn your less-observant teammates and look before you leap.  Similarly, be on the lookout for traps coming from the side stairwell leading from the spawn to B; any Demoman worth their salt (or who has read my last guide) will know how effective sticky-trapping this stairwell and its entryway is.

— IMPORTANT —————————-
You should never run blindly into any new location.  Take the time to listen for the distinctive idle beeping of a sentry.  To adapt a phrase from Three Dog:  Beep-beep-beepity means slow your ass on down, kids. The number of beeps will tell you what level it is.  If you hear sentry fire or see one of your comrades’ names pop up on the death report after a sentry icon, you should know what sort of threat likely lays ahead.  You are given these cues from the game for a reason.  Use them.  Figure 2.a shows a worthwhile scouting spot where you can view all the possible locations a sentry can be at.
————————————————
Some Engineers also like to place sentries on the front ledge that faces both BLU’s exit into B territory and the aforementioned dropdown (topmost arrow in fig 2.a).  It’s a good way for proactive Engineers anticipating a loss at A to pin down the advancing BLUs and buy their team some valuable respawn and setup time on B.  Expect this.  Unfortunately it’s a bad thing to be trapped by this sort of sentry placement in the dropdown.  It’s nigh impossible to get a good firing solution without taking damage and you’ll probably die if you can’t run right to the main BLU doorway fast enough.  Such a sentry can be taken out if you attack it from the scouting area/BLU Sniper deck.

If you take the stairwell to the BLU Sniper deck, you have the benefit of being able to lob stickies and grenades into the field at the opposing REDs and give your team the cover they need to advance through the trench.  You also become vulnerable to all kinds of weapons fire.  Fortunately only Demomen, Soldiers, and Scouts could possibly close with you up there, and you’d be able to see all of them coming unless they flank you from the stairwell itself.  Keep the shots coming and suppress any Engineers you might see trying to set up more buildings.  Target their Medics and force them to seek cover.  Just like BLU has but one direction they can file into the B area, so does RED.  If the coast becomes clear, you must secure that one entryway.  Fortunately it’s enclosed enough to concentrate a carpet of sticky bombs and make RED deal with them.

Demomen, Soldiers, and Snipers all love the RED Sniper loft that fronts their spawn access doorway and overlooks the control point.  If you see movement up in its windows, throw some bombs up into it to kill any enemy or force them to leave their roost.  As long as you control that entry corridor for RED (remember about controlling the grounds around the control point, not just the cap itself), you should have no problem.

Congratulations, the Perimeter is yours! It’s time to push to their final exit and lock them in for good. Ensure that there’s no enemies waiting on the hill behind B to destroy you or your teammates when they come around the corner.  Then let’s move on, boyo; the job’s not even half over yet…

Basin C: Lock ‘em In..

Figure 3.a

C Basin is a gift to BLU.  BLU owns the high offensive ground and RED’s gotta fire up at the enemy if they want to stop them on the basin wall.  Spies can infiltrate easily, and sentries trade firing effectiveness for vulnerability.

The base can be properly infiltrated at multiple points.  BLU can enter via the high wall’s VERY slow gate, or, take the fast track through the base to come out at one of the other two exits (fig 3.a). With luck RED will be in disarray after failing to secure B, which means you can scout ahead to C hopefully before RED’s full strength respawns.  However, don’t get careless and forget to sentry-check. As per the RED Demoman Steel Defense Guide, be mindful of exits into this area; enemy Demos may have them trapped.  Especially THIS nasty location.

The gate immediately behind B cap is the readiest access to C, but by no means the fastest immediately after capping B, due to the slow gate that opens atop that hill.  Because your offensive duty is to lock RED out of C area until your team can come in force to assist you, it is imperative that you get to the capture area ASAP to determine its vulnerability and, if possible, secure it.

Fortunately, this place is a biatch for RED to defend with sentries.  See fig 3.a: BLU can have high ground at one end and no well-guarded RED sentry can cover all ground; It would eventually fall to a concerted push from BLU. You need to make sure those sentries are gone at the start of it.  Edging and long-distance pineapple shots come in handy here.

Figure 3.b

If you find yourself in a position to lock down C, here’s a useful trap tactic to employ.  My confusingly scribbled-on figure 3.b shows you two useful options for sticky-trapping C access for RED:  The Visible Sticky Shunt, or the Hidden Sticky Trap.  Visible stickies are a clear sign of danger to your enemy, and chances are good that instead of taking the time to shoot or blow your stickies away so they can keep running out the left, they will instead glance at them and run the other way.  The deterrence of visible bombs shunts the enemy right into the path of stickies you have hidden in a seemingly free spot.  Novice to moderately-skilled-and-rushing players often fall for this.

The hidden sticky trap is self-explanatory and pretty much a repeat of the means employed to lock down A cap.  Both tactics rely on your bomb placement and creativity as a Demoman (which is why I find it amusing when people complain about Demomen being brainless bomb-spammers, but I digress).  Position yourself at the knee-high guard rail (which is where figure 3.b was taken from) as this will give you moderate shielding on your right, as well as window visibility into RED’s spawn corridor, granting advanced warning of when the enemy is coming from there.  Also, beware of spies and flanking enemies from the B-C and E-C entryways; just s RED sometimes can’t watch all the entryways, BLU capturing can’t either!

If you’re able to secure this area with the aid of your team, congratulations! RED is successfully locked inside their own base, where they will tighten their hold on D and E. It’s time to loosen their grip, boyos…

That will do it for now.  Come back next time where we’ll examine multi-angle approaches to freeing D and E from RED! Feedback for The DemoVixen’s How-To is totally welcome either here or on Niko’s Steam Communities profile page.

- Voop Out

Hey folks, I’m going to try to put together a newsletter for the servers every month full of interesting and new things that are coming to the servers, upcoming events, and a mailbag of….things, that we in the admin staff receive on a daily basis. So lets get things started!

Upcoming Server Events:

Prophunt: Prophunt has been rescheduled for the 22nd of January through whenever people get tired of it. We had to cancel it because Valve pushed through the WAR update during our scheduled time. The instructions will be posted in a separate post, though you if you don’t know what prophunt is, I suggest viewing this video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9U8q30UmeU

Upcoming Server Changes:

We will be experimenting with a new Scramble plugin for the servers to alleviate the problems with stacking as well as people forcing autobalance through spectate. The new plugin will protect certain classes from being force autobalanced (such as medics with an ubercharge), and will not allow players who are autobalanced to join spectate until the round is over. Players will still be able to rejoin a team if it will not force an autobalance, the plugin will simply prevent players from spectating to force autobalance.

The new plugin will use varying parameters on how to determine if the server needs a scramble, as well as allowing for the traditional vote of “stt” (now named scramble) to prompt one as well. Once we have the plugin working, it will be pushed through to all servers. Comments on how well it works are encouraged on the forums.

Players of the Month

So I’m trying a new thing, just to give a thank you to players who have helped us out here with various problems with the servers. Player of the Month awards will go to people that help the Admin staff out with things, not to ingame skill.

First award goes to..

Biofreak – For catching 2 speedhackers and numerous trolls on demos and providing fast reports with steam ID’s to the admin staff. Good work keeping server #3 safe for the rest of the players! Thanks from all of us in the staff!

The second award goes to…

iller – For finding and documenting a new STT plugin which we have been searching for desperately to try and alleviate complaints of stacking. This is the plugin being tested later this week! Thanks again iller! Hopefully it works out properly!

Final award for this month goes to…

The crew of players who helped us test the extremely boring STT plugin that we have implemented across the servers. Thanks a lot everyone that came, especially Snippo, Articwuffeh, John the dragon and Devvy for staying to the final anti-climactic ending.

Mailbag Posting

So we thought it might be funny to drop some of the mail we receive from permabanned players and the stupid things they say for you guys to see some of the stupidity we have to deal with. Names have been removed where applicable.

So first up is something that was posted on the forums. After being banned for trolling for 3 or 4 months constantly, someone decided they were going to “get 4chan to destroy us”. As ridiculous as this is, we kept an eye on it and beefed up server security. Eventually he came back to post the link to his 4chan thread with the line “Say goodbye to TFP”. This is the final page before it was deleted from 4chan and he was banned for 3 days. Enjoy.

http://www.thefurrypound.org/asdasd/185761458.htm

Next is a reply we got from someone who thought it would be fun to spawn camp the doors on Steel. Now keep in mind, that the poster was simply warned, and after they continued, kicked a single time. No tempban, just kicked and told to read the rules. This was the results. I’ll post pieces of it as they were something like 12 pages long. This was the first PM we received, complete with commentary by myself to clear up some things.

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j158/ … ntary1.jpg

After a long bout of arguing over…really nothing, he was eventually banned for his trouble of being completely crazy. This was his final reply though, saved for your enjoyment.

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j158/ … ntary2.png

He was subsequently banned and indeed made good on his promise to use proxy servers to circumvent his ban and harass the forums…for all of 5 minutes before we turned on Administrators must approve new members at which point he cried foul and disappeared.

The Future!

So this final section is for things we are looking into for the future. Things in this section are VERY much in the planning/idea stage. They might never work, we still have to see if the coding in TF2 works, or talk with outside sources on how to get them to function properly, but I thought I’d share with you guys some of our ideas we are working on.

Player Teacher Nights Return!

We are bringing back player teacher nights at the request of some of our members! We will be scheduling a Scout night, hosted by Zareth, and a Pyro night hosted by our moderator Austin for players to learn interesting and tricky strategies involving these classes. Any other players interested in hosting their own teacher nights are encouraged to send either Sekh or Jinx a private message regarding the class in question. Times will be posted later this month.

We are looking into various things to make our servers more interesting. Some sort of TFP tournament is a current idea for our more competitively oriented players. Also looking into the possibility of a TFP DJ system for a player to guide music on the servers (optional of course, we wouldn’t force our terrible music choices onto people that didn’t want them.) We are looking into the possibility of a Randomizer event in the future, as scouts with miniguns is just too funny to pass up. I’m personally looking into the creation of some sort of dropbox for suggestions/ideas that people might have as well. We are also looking into expanding TFP into new games, anyone with interesting server ideas drop a line on the forum post that will be linked to this newsletter!

Finally, our biggest planned update is something we aren’t prepared to reveal until we are sure we can get it to work, but the member helping us is just too excited and so I thought I’d throw out some teaser images. BEHOLD!

Anyways! That’s it for this month, drop us a line here if you like the Newsletter and want to see it continued next month.

- Sekh the Scribe Burd.

First, you need to bind the command to access the spawn menu to a button. Enter this in console, and replace K with whatever button you like. [bind "k" rmf_menu] or simply type !r every time you die, but this can get rather tedious.

This will open up a menu for your class, with a list of abilities. Heres a very brief description of each so you know what you’re getting into! When you select an ability be sure to read the instructions it gives you, as some are triggered by taunts. You can only have one ability active at a time! If you want to change your ability without suiciding, return to spawn, switch to another class, then switch back to your original class and bring up the menu again.

—–
“The Abilities!“

*Scout
Spike Shoes – Goomba Stomp your Opponents! Stuns players if you land on their heads.

*Soldier
Jump Boots – Special shoes prevent you from taking anything more than minor rocket jump damage, perfect for bouncing off walls!
Adrenalin Dash – Charge your enemy and send them flying around with the soldiers dash attack!
Homing Rocket – Set down your shovel, then stand back and launch rockets from over the horizon to rain death down on a target!

*Pyro
Flare Firework – Push your opponents around with this ranged airburst in the form of a firework!
Disguise Jutsu – That barrel’s a… pyro?! The Pyro can now hide in plain view, and this means bad things for all.
After Burner – First disguising Pyros and now flying Pyros? Light your opponents on fire as you fly above their head. Even the Engineer will be jealous.
Burnsday Present – Look! Pyro is giving thanks by giving everyone presents! They might be filled with napalm… but they’re still presents!

*Demoman
Sticky Flash – Breach and Clear with the Demoman’s flashbang stickies. The more you have the more blinded your opponent will be!
Drunk Bomb – Ka-BOOOOOOM! You just have to see this one to believe it.

*Heavy
Delicious Sandvich – Get Critical, recieve Delicious Sandvich. Now with 2x as much ham!
Centrifuge Rotor – In a manner that defies all science, the heavy is now heavier than a Black Hole. Just try and airburst him.

*Medic
Uber Transplant – Need to help another medic get his uber faster! Now you can just give him your own energy!
Doping Injection – If the medics current healing isn’t fast enough for you, Go Wolverine style with the Doping injection!
Styptic – As a medic, we all know its your job to help others. But what about yourself? Now you can use your own uber charge energy to heal yourself!
Supercharger – Fairly simple, for those “Pure” medics who just want their ubers as fast as they can get them.
Flying Doctor – Don’t you hate it when you’re healing a demoman or soldier and they just go flying off? Now they can’t! Because you’re coming along for the ride!

*Sniper
Marking Shot – It’s like an admin beacon, but anyone can do it!
Curving Arrow – Pull a William Tell and steer your arrows where you want them, if you’re talented enough!

*Engineer
Metal Hopper – Supercharged Exploding Dispenser Jumps. ’nuff said.
Reverse Engineer – Tired of spies sapping your teleporters? Now you can just teleport back through it and whack them in the head!
Sleep Switch – We all know the sound of a sentry, with its little beeping noise. With the sleep switch, bring back the stealth of the sentry! The sentry will also slowly repair itself whilst turned off!

*Spy
Sapper Throw – Yes, now even you can be like the spy in Meet the Spy, with the added bonus of shorting out cloaks!

Here is a video of most of the abilities in action as well, for those of you that want to see to believe!

RMF Ability Pack

—

Server Information

> TFP #5

> TFP #6

—

Read up and enjoy yourselves!

- The Burd

We’re bringing Halloween fun back with the Haunted Pound 2009! Witness the return of last year’s server-filling TF2 Sourcemod hit: Zombie Fortress! Now with more maps to play (and more stable server behavior this time! Really!). Starting this Friday evening and ending late Sunday evening, Three TFP servers shall be password-locked for you and those you invite, specifically hosting ZF and any maps we add for the event.

Additionally, one of the most unique payload race maps you will ever play has manifested itself into our playlist: PLR Animus, by Kim “Fearlezz” Nehzaty.  Exclusive for this event, getting this cart to move will need you to put some serious SOUL into it!

And as a little bonus for our alternative gamers, we’re bringing our Left 4 Dead servers back up for a special darling custom map favorite of TFP’s admins:  Night Terror! Spend an evening of fright in the Director’s twisted haunted house and movie recreations; the D’s just DYING to drop you in!

Our Killing Floor offerings are also still live.

It’s gonna be one hell of a night! See you there!
———————————————————–
CONNECTION DETAILS:
Team Fortress 2

• TFP #2 CST US  (password: zombfurries)
• TFP #5 EST US Members-Only  (password: zombfurries)
• TFP #6 EU  (password: zombfurries)

Left 4 Dead
To find our server when searching, you must first enable and open your game console, then enter this key whenever you start Left 4 Dead:
sv_search_key tfp
Server password: zombfurries

Killing Floor
Normal: 74.93.99.237:7707
Hard: 74.93.99.237:27032

———————————————————-
THE STUFF YOU MIGHT WANT TO PRE-DOWNLOAD:

Haunted Fortress 2009 Map Pack -  (61MB 7zip)  If you want to have the maps pre-downloaded before the event, use this link.  (Alternate Download Link )

Night Terror -  (141MB RAR)  You will need this if you wish to play the Night Terror custom campaign.

More recently, they have released a video of their own, showing why FOV (field-of-view) is important. You can check it out here. It is not the first one, however, check out christianmalazarte‘s Youtube channel.

Hey everyone, Here is the final version of the spyfrag video I have been working on for the past couple of weeks. The gameplay footage was recorded over a month or two and its meant to just be a cool spy skill showcase vid. If enough people like it I might attempt to make some spy tutorial videos in the future.

The video is my first attempt at using any sort of video editing software. Took me a few weeks to learn to use it properly but I like the way it came out. The random blurs are intentional as they are during time acceleration moments when nothing important is happening. I would have it on youtube for you all to view it there but they blocked it due to my music. Leave any comments you like below!

Enjoy the video!

Links:

www.yqmonline.com/SpyPyro.rar – This is a downloadable High quality .wmv file. Should be very fast download speed.

http://www.filefront.com/14317581/SekhFinal.wmv – This is another download site. It also has a streaming button on the right. The maximize looks like a little dpad.

Thanks for the submission Sekh!

and thanks for not beating this bunny upside the head with sapper for procrastinating so long in putting it up. :x