Community Special Delivery strategy

Doomsday

This article is about Community Special Delivery strategy.

General strategy

• Special Delivery requires teams to be flexible, and switch between offensive and defensive gameplay depending on the current owner of the briefcase. It is a good idea to have a good balance of offensive and defensive classes, and to be willing to switch classes between lives to better assist your team.

• The briefcase carrier should be the defensive team's primary target, as their objective should always be to get the briefcase reset; however, it is important not to lose track of other valuable members of the enemy team, especially Medics and players who could get in your team's way later on.

• Both teams should apply a lot of pressure on enemy Snipers, as they can easily ruin your progress if left alone. Have your Scouts, Spies and Flare Gun Pyros constantly harass their known locations to kill them off or force them into hiding in spawn.

• The briefcase carrier should always try to travel with at least one "buddy", to defend him and to pick up the briefcase in the event of his death. The Buddy might want to keep his distance or take an alternative route to avoid being killed as well.

• Much of the strategy for Capture the Flag and Payload maps also applies to Special Delivery; many of the same tactics may be useful in this mode.

Class-specific strategy

 Scout

• The Scout can be a good class for carrying the briefcase, due to his speed and agility. A Scout can get the briefcase to the specified area faster than any other class, at the expense of health.

• When carrying the briefcase, a Scout should utilise his increased mobility to try and escape conflict, rather than attempting to engage his attacker—his low health and firepower mean it is a battle he is likely to lose.

 Soldier

• The Soldier is one of the slower classes, so it may take more defending to deliver the briefcase as a Soldier. However, his high health gives him staying power, allowing him to take more of an assault on the way to the area.

• To make up for the lack of speed, rocket jumping can be used to great advantage — it may therefore be useful to equip the Gunboats to counter the health loss (but not the Rocket Jumper, as it prevents its user from carrying the briefcase). However, this comes at the expense of the Shotgun.

 Pyro

• Afterburn can be useful against the briefcase carrier, allowing long-term damage to be inflicted, even after only short engagement or your own death. It can also be used as part of a co-ordinated team effort, to set up an ambush at the nearest Health pack or pool of water.

• The Flame Thrower's wide damage radius can damage the briefcase carrier and anyone defending him, making it a good tool to dispatch of them all at once and avoid the briefcase being picked up again straight away.

• Offensively, the Flame Thrower can be less useful, as players on the defence will probably keep their distance. Rather than carrying the briefcase, try sneaking up on defensive players using the Backburner or the Degreaser/Axtinguisher combo to clear the carrier's path. This is especially useful against enemy Snipers.

 Demoman

• The speed boost provided by charging with a shield such as the Chargin' Targe can be handy when carrying the briefcase to the specified area, but the Demoman's lack of direct weaponry makes him a weak class overall for carrying the briefcase.

 Heavy

• The Heavy's health is the highest in the game, giving him staying power as an briefcase carrier, and his Minigun makes a strong weapon in the event of an attack. However, this is countered by his slow speed, especially when spun up, and the Heavy tends to be more useful in a supporting role.

 Engineer

• If he can get away with it, it can be useful for an Engineer to place a Teleporter entrance by the briefcase and an exit by the area. These are both highly-contested areas, so the Teleporters are unlikely to stay around for long, but it can be just long enough to get the briefcase carrier through, thereby bypassing a large portion of the map. This is more effective if other players on the team actively defend both ends of the Teleporter.

 Medic

• Used correctly, a Medic can be very useful to his team. Offensively, healing the briefcase carrier is obviously a good choice, as he tends to be the most important player on the team at the time. The frequency with which the briefcase carrier is likely to be attacked will increase the rate at which you can build your ÜberCharge, at the expense of putting yourself at more risk.

• If you do get an ÜberCharge, it cannot be used on the briefcase carrier. You can make up for this by deploying your ÜberCharge on a nearby player, who can defend the briefcase carrier during the ascent, while using his invulnerability to act as a human shield.

• Defensively, the usual tactic of buddying with a Heavy, a Soldier, or a Demoman can be very useful to the team, and a well-deployed ÜberCharge can set back the offensive team significantly, or even reset the briefcase.

 Sniper

• The Sniper has very low health and mediocre speed, making him a poor choice for a briefcase carrier. However, he can provide great assistance on defense and decent assistance on offense.

• Special Delivery maps tend to have long sight lines, making it ideal to use any rifle.

• When a carrier gets on the lift, a few teammates tend to get on it too to help the carrier serving as human shields. Throwing Jarate on them can help your team deal with them faster, but be careful there are no Pyros that can reflect it away or back at you.

• The Huntsman is a great weapon choice in case you decide to help guard the pickup area, as it is usually a very enclosed space. It is also a decent weapon in case you decide to assist the briefcase carrier in their journey to the delivery area, as it offers more mobility than your rifles.

 Spy

• The Spy is not the best class for carrying the briefcase, as doing so renders their main assets — their Cloak and disguises — basically useless. However, Spies have better speed than the Soldier or the Heavy, and their Cloak (especially the Cloak and Dagger) can allow them to lie in wait for the briefcase without being picked off by an enemy Sniper, a strategy that should be considered if the other team has multiple Snipers camping by the briefcase pickup point.