Community Special Delivery strategy

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 Australium. 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 Australium carrier should be the defensive team's primary target, as their objective should always be to get the Australium 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 Australium carrier should always try to travel with at least one "buddy", to defend him and to pick up the Australium 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 case.

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

The Soldier is one of the slower classes, so it may take more defending to deliver the Australium 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 Australium). However, this comes at the expense of the Shotgun.

Afterburn can be useful against the Australium 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 Flamethrower's wide damage radius can damage the Australium carrier and anyone defending him, making it a good tool to dispatch of them all at once and avoid the Australium being picked up again straight away.
Offensively, the Flamethrower can be less useful, as players on the defence will probably keep their distance. Rather than carrying the Australium, 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.

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

The Heavy's health is the highest in the game, giving him staying power as an Australium 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.

If he can get away with it, it can be useful for an Engineer to place a Teleporter entrance by the Australium 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 Australium 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.

Used correctly, a Medic can be very useful to his team. Offensively, healing the Australium 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 Australium 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 Australium carrier. You can make up for this by deploying your ÜberCharge on a nearby player, who can defend the Australium 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 Australium.

Spies are not the best classes for carrying the Australium, 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 Australium without being picked off by an enemy Sniper, a strategy that should be considered if the other team has multiple Snipers camping by the Australium pickup point.