Counter-Strike Strategy Guide

PART 1
Public Strategies
Counter-Strike strategy guide 02/2004
Counter-Strike strategy guide
Guillaume Tournand AKA Nold

02/2004
Official Counter-Strike web site: http://www.counter-strike.net/
Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 1 of 23

1. Abstract
Counter-Strike is a modification of Half-life, which is an online video game of

the First Person Shooter (FPS) genre. This game splits the players into 2 teams: the
terrorists and the counter-terrorists; one of them has an objective to complete
(i.e.: rescuing hostages, blasting a bombsite with C4, rescuing a VIP) while the
other one has to try and prevent them achieving it.
The type of objective that one of the team will be asked to achieve is defined
by the map (the pre-defined world where the game will take place), and the game
on each map is sub-divided in rounds. A round ends when one team is dead or has
achieved their objective, or when the timer reaches 0. When a player is killed, he
re-spawns at the beginning of the next round.
This game modification was developed in 1999 and is -over the last 4 years- the
most played multiplayer online game. This guide has been written for a variant of
Counter-Strike, called “pistols only” where only handguns, grenades and knifes are
considered as valid weapons.
The set of guidelines in this document should be considered as suggestions to

players regarding the strategic aspect of this game, they are not a way to achieve
guaranteed victory.

2. Table of contents
1. Abstract ........................................................................................2
2. Table of contents ............................................................................3
3. List of figures .................................................................................4
4. Introduction ...................................................................................5
5. Game description ............................................................................6
5.1 The objectives ............................................................................6
5.2 Skins ........................................................................................7
5.3 Weapons ...................................................................................8
6. Good player ...................................................................................9
7. 360° awareness ............................................................................. 10
8. Facing enemies ............................................................................. 11
9. Anticipation ................................................................................. 16
10. Team play .................................................................................. 18
10.1 Principles .............................................................................. 18
10.2 Communication ....................................................................... 18
10.3 The rush group ........................................................................ 19
10.4 Holding position....................................................................... 20
11. Stealth ...................................................................................... 22
12. Conclusion ................................................................................. 23

3. List of figures
Figure 5.1: Game objectives...................................................................6

Figure 5.2: Available skins. ....................................................................7
Figure 8.1: Zigzag. ............................................................................ 12
Figure 8.2: Move around your opponent. .................................................. 13
Figure 8.3: Line up your opponents. ....................................................... 13
Figure 8.4: The loops of the map. .......................................................... 14
Figure 9.1: The flow concept. ............................................................... 17
Figure 10.1: The rush group. ................................................................ 19
Figure 11.1: Player and Field Of Vision (FOV). ........................................... 22

4. Introduction
While playing, be prepared to do anything: it is a world where anything is

possible and fast thinking is required. Your team’s victory will depend on how each
member is able to gather information, and react to it.
In order to achieve optimum game results, make sure of the following:

Your selected resolution is the highest your computer can cope with,
without displaying a slow game. A high resolution allows you to see
details far away.
Get an optical mouse, their precision is worth it; ideally with 5 buttons.
You can hear sounds from the game: not only the rounds you shoot, but
the footsteps of the players around you, enemies reloading …
Avoid listening to music while playing.
Prefer headphones over loudspeakers for increase sound accuracy.
Position yourself comfortably.
Achieving victory does not happen because of luck, but because of a set of
events that bring your team closer to victory step by step.
Therefore every player has to keep in mind that this game has to be played as
part of a team and not as a lone player.
Staying alone will:

Get you killed (very probably you will not be able to achieve much that
could help your team before dying).
Diminish the strength of your team.
Make it harder for your team to complete its objective.
Bring victory closer to the enemy.
It is preferable to die to help the team achieve an objective, rather than stay
alive and be defeated.
In order to win, the team has to play as one to reach of their objective. The
tough part is that each team members’ role cannot be defined once and for all:
they have to be dynamic depending on the situation the team faces.

5. Game description
5.1 The objectives
The different objectives for both teams are listed in figure 5.1.
Terrorists Counter-terrorists
Reach one of the bombsites in Prevent the terrorists reaching

the map, plant the bomb and the bombsite or defuse the
Bombsite blast
hold the position until the bomb before it explodes
bomb explodes
Prevent the counter-terrorists Reach the hostages and bring
from reaching the hostages, or them back to the rescue point
Hostages rescue prevent them escaping with
the hostages
Kill the VIP Open a path for the VIP to
VIP rescue reach the extraction point
Figure 5.1: Game objectives.
The boxes in red highlight the team that will have to perform an action before
the timer reaches 0.
On each map there are many possible routes to achieve the given objective,
therefore it is better to decide between team members what route will be used by
the team for the coming round, and to change this route frequently. A basic rule is
to avoid using the same route you took at the previous round if it has been a
success: chances are that enemies will be waiting for you there next round.

5.2 Skins
Figure 5.2: Available skins.
When a player is shot, depending on which hit box (the boxes in red) the bullet
has reached, a defined amount of damage is removed from his health gauge.
All skins have the exact same set of hit boxes, only the player model differs.
However if you choose the “GIGN” or the “Phoenix Connection” model, because
they have a similar overall shape, your opponents might hesitate a fraction of
second before shooting when you stand in a dark place.

5.3 Weapons
Counter-Strike offers a wide range of weapons, each of them having a different

firepower, clip capacity, reload time and recoil.
Some guides available provide deep explanations about each of the weapons,
better than what I could have ever done.
I will only advise you to try them all out and find your preferred weapons;
remember that you might run out of rounds of your favourite weapon and will have
to grab a weapon from the first dead body you come across, so a rough knowledge
of all the available weapons is needed.
Keep in mind that depending on how far your enemy is, how you shoot should be
considered:
The further away the enemy is, the more accuracy you will need: shoot
slowly.
The closer your enemy is, the faster your shots must be, up to the “spray
and pray”.

6. Good player
A good player is made by several overlapping core components:

Smooth movement and agility: move fast on maps (i.e.: no collision with
each teammate at the beginning of the round or with the corners when
moving).
Spot, point and click. Self explanatory; aim for the head.
Strategic thinking (anticipation and positioning). See details below.
Team work: detailed in a later chapter.
Stealth: detailed in a later chapter.
A will to make opponents’ life as hard as possible: your creativity will do
the trick.
Strategic thinking.
This is the understanding of what is going on in the map, what will happen next
and what will be the best angle to face it.
Accurate and fast shooting is good for this game, but is far from being enough;
an advantage can be gained using several techniques.
Strategic positioning.
It is easier to attack the back of an enemy group
Sneak behind their lines.
Rush “in and back” – detailed in a later chapter.
Take advantage of holes in the enemy organisation
Shoot the slowest player of the enemy group.
Ambush the opponents when they come out of a bottleneck.
Take advantage of the map.
Strategic thinking includes realizing that each of the actions will be followed by
reactions/consequences.
For example when planting the C4, it is important to realize that the exact
place where it is planted in the bombsite will decide where the counter-terrorist
will have to go to defuse it.
On this basis, it is important to plant the C4 at a place where:
The team can easily keep an eye on it, and preferably with multiple fire
arcs.
A counter-terrorist will have no cover while attempting to defuse it.
There is a fall-back position where you can monitor the bomb remotely
(preferably far away).
For these reasons hiding the C4 is definitely a bad solution.

7. 360° awareness
This concept is very important, because each player must be able to get all the
information (i.e.: the sound of a door opening, footsteps, an air vent breaking,
hostages talking …), understand what it means, where it comes from, and react
accordingly.
Such a total immersion is required since visual contact is not enough: the field
of vision covers only 90° of the surrounding. Therefore each player should not
listen to music, they should play this game with headphones and with a bit of
training be able to aim and shoot accurately in a direction where a sound has been
heard, as a reflex.
For this concept to work it require you to know the map you are playing so you
can match sounds with a location on the map: footsteps do not make the same
sound when a player is on sand as they do on a pavement.
Another set of sounds present on certain maps that you can use against your
enemies, are the “sound triggers”: these are sounds (i.e.: a plane, a dog barking…)
that are played when a player goes through a certain part of the map.
When you are able to locate the sound on the map, a simple look at the sonar
will tell you whether the sound has been created by a teammate or an enemy.
Such a skill is appreciated when you need very fast reactions based only on a
sound (e.g. an enemy sneaks up to you and starts shooting at you).
Use markers
On certain passages, you need to break something to pass through (i.e.: an air
vent, glass from a window …), these are markers. Check their state to find out if an
enemy has already breached in.

8. Facing enemies
When facing opponents you have to remember that this game is about survival:
there will be no health pack lying on the floor; therefore it is important to keep
each fight/visual contact with enemies as short as possible and aim for the head.
Sometimes it is a good idea to delay a rush to deal with multiple enemies

holding a place, but it is preferable to do so before these enemies spot your
rushing group.
Keep moving: while staying still improves your accuracy you will also be the
easiest target.
Do not start a combat you cannot win, estimate what your chances are and fall
back if a defeat appears likely
Good knowledge of the map and agility will enable you to be able to leave a
place and go to cover, while being blind.
Some of your enemies will require -for your team to get advantage- to be shot
in priority. Priority shooting includes:
The terrorist with carrying the bomb.
The counter-terrorist defusing the bomb.
The counter-terrorist escaping with the hostages.
The VIP.
Gain the high ground when you can:

You have much better cover than your opponents.
Your opponents have more difficulty reaching your position with grenades
than you do.
Very good position for holding.
Count your bullets.

During all the time you stay exposed to the enemies, you have to be able to
cause damage so please do not keep eyeball contact with an enemy while you are
reloading: go to cover (ideally you should use your last bullet just before reaching
cover) or switch to another weapon.
Reload when you are covered or when you are sure the fight is over.
It is a good idea to count the enemies’ bullets to know when they will have to
reload.
Attack the opponents’ position from different angles; it will be harder for them
to hold it.
Force your opponents to cross their fire; if friendly fire is on, chances are that
they will team damage themselves.
Think about the next action; you should consider your present action as the past
and stay focused on what will happen next.

Visualize what the map looks like around the corner you are about to take;
since you know the map you can already have a rough idea of where enemies can
hide and where you can expect the heat to be.
Jump at intersections that the enemy holds; if it is likely that your opponents
are waiting for you they have probably already aimed for your head.
Zigzag using strafe to reach a point. This will force your opponents to wave
their guns and constantly adjust their aim (see figure 8.1).
Figure 8.1: Zigzag.

Another technique to make sure your opponent will have a hard time aiming at
you is to move around him.
Figure 8.2: Move around your opponent.
Move to get as many opponents in a line (see figure 8.2)
Figure 8.3: Line up your opponents.

A good knowledge of a map involves knowing what option(s) you have to attack
an enemy position from a different angle, this is what I call the loops of a map. On
figure 8.4 a group of terrorists attack bombsite B on position #6, and loop to get
the attack angle of position #9.
Some maps, because of their construction, offer many possible loops and
expand the possible tactics (i.e.: de_chateau or de_piranesi).
Figure 8.4: The loops of the map.

These loops can also be combined and used to evade an opponent chasing you,
and get around behind them after.
Never block your teammates and remember on bottlenecks that a teammate

under fire falling back for cover has priority over another one willing to go in the
battle.
Cover your teammate performing an operation that makes him a priority target;
meaning that you have to stand between him and the heat in order to take bullets
for him, to buy him time.
Be ready to take losses on your team (including yourself), but do all you can to
limit it.
Make sure it is an enemy in your reticule before clicking. You can get accurate
information about this either by having a look at the sonar, or by leaving the
reticule pointed at your target: almost immediately you will see the name of the
player. This game is not about “if it moves, it’s dead”.
Once dead analyze why you died, so that you will not repeat the same mistake
twice. Additionally, watching the game using the map overview helps building
strategies, spotting weaknesses and being able to make your own visualization of
the game while playing.

9. Anticipation
Psychology is a large subject here since all players are human beings, all playing
at different locations. It is a key to understanding what is happening in the round
and what might happen next round: anticipation.
Get to know your teammates and your opponents: they all have a different
personality and having a rough idea of their behavior can be of great help.
Experience shows that players have preferred routes, default behavior when
facing a situation; use this predictability against your opponents.
Never panic: panic ensures quick death.

Think fast, after a bit of training some moves will become reflexes that
will be triggered by external stimuli.
Be confident in yourself and your teammates: starting a round with a fear
of the enemy will result in panic, see above.
Do not keep on repeating similar patterns: you will become predictable.
The flow concept
From the beginning of each round and for a limited time, opponents’ “flow
predictability” works: each player in the field moves at the same speed and
experience tells you how far you can rush before encounter enemies.
Spying on the enemies’ moves allows you to get a rough overview of which
places on the map are ‘hot’ and which are not.
This concept, allows only getting assumptions with a limited lifetime, based on
facts or previous assumptions. A sense of rhythm and tempo is required here.
Such a concept can be used to find the best time to attack a group of opponents
from behind, or to have an estimate of how long you can stay in a place before
starting to suspect a potential attack from behind.
An example of the flow concept has been developed in figure 9.1 with the map
de_dust2.
If a group of counter-terrorists engage the terrorist flow #1 on the point #3 of
the map, they have to be ready to encounter other terrorists coming from the
flows 2 and 3.

Figure 9.1: The flow concept.

10. Team play
10.1 Principles
The core principles of team play can be broken down into the following:
Communication between teammates – preferably via radio messages.
Cover your teammates and answer their calls for backup, as you would
expect them to do for you.
Do not just follow the player in front of you, but know where the group is
heading.
Via the sonar, have a rough idea of where each of your teammates is
located in the map; if one of them dies, you will get an idea where the
action is.
10.2 Communication
Communication between team members is a key requirement for successful

teamwork.
The game offers 3 possible ways to communicate during the game:

Voice communications: the player speaks via a microphone to his
teammates. This could be a good way of communicating if the voice
heard was more audible; if you decide to use it, remember to get straight
to the point.
Radio messages: a set of pre-formatted radio messages, played when a
combination of keys are pressed. When used properly, this set of 20+
messages is enough to coordinate your team efficiently. Additionally,
once a message is sent to team members, they can all note your location
because you flash on their sonar.
The ‘say’ and ’say_team’ commands, where the player has to manually
input text, which is then displayed onscreen. This consumes precious
time, has to be used with lots of care for quick messages, and often
results in typos. You might also consider creating key binds to say pre-
defined sentences.
Another way of getting the attention of teammates or make them focus theirs
on a special spot is by using the flashlight.

10.3 The rush group
Figure 10.1: The rush group.
The rush is used to quickly reach a place and pierce the enemy’s defenses. Only
the first line rushers should throw grenades, while the coverers should stick with
their guns to provide immediate cover. When player(s) of the first line need(s) to
stop (i.e.: to reload or because they do not have much health left), the coverers
should not wait behind, but take over the lead.
Here we can see the use of having a rush group made of players who do not just
follow the teammate in front of them, but are determined to reach the point of
interest.
A rush has to be seen as a run to the point of interest in order to outnumber the
enemies holding it. If the rush group gets stalled, within 2 seconds its location is
under a rain of grenades and chances are that a group of enemies will attack their
back soon after.
Please also note that once players are rushing, there should be no grenades
thrown (except maybe for HE if the thrower is sure it will not damage any of his
teammate). On the same level, if a player throws a smoke grenade at a place the
team will rush, this will definitely not help his team, but favour the enemy.
When moving with no visual contact with enemies, the players should be aiming
at places where enemies could come from, keeping their reticule at the head
height.

The 70-30 concept
A variant of the default rush is to attack the point of interest from 2 different
angles, therefore putting the enemy in a dangerous cross-fire situation.
The principle consists of splitting the team into 2 groups, roughly 70% and 30%.
You can use this sub-division for the following:
The 70% group will attack the point of interest as a diversion, causing
damage, but staying in cover; while the 30% group infiltrates the
position.
The 30% group creates a diversion and forces some of the enemy defenses
to hold a position (freezing them), while the 70% group rushes another
place.
The attacks should happen fast so that no enemy backup gets time to reach the
place.
A final point to remember while rushing is that you should flood the enemy
defenses: all teams have an equal number of players, so there is a good chance
that your whole team will only face a part of the enemy’s team.
10.4 Holding position
Normally when a team rushes to get to a point of interest, the opposing team
will hold this place to avoid the rushers reaching it.
While holding a place you have the choice of position, but probably not
surprise, on your side. For this reason it is best to find a way to position your team
so that each entrance is covered, each teammate exposes himself as little as
possible (i.e.: covered behind walls or crates …), and each teammate can get quick
cover/backup from his team.
This positioning depends on the map you are playing, but please do not
concentrate your forces on a single place, you will block each other; multiply your
possible shooting angles instead. Under siege is the best time to empty your stock
of grenades, but do not diminish your visibility with smoke grenades.
Once positioned, the player should aim at the place where the enemy will come
from, at head height.

Rush in and back

As the name states this consists of rushing a weak/undefended part of the
enemy lines and coming back to the place your teammates are holding; on the way
back you will have the opportunity to attack your opponents from behind.
For this concept to work, it is vital that you come back to the place you are
supposed to hold before the enemy, and listen carefully to the radio messages of
the team members holding this position.
The rabbit and the shooter

It consists of having a teammate hidden (the shooter) and another one exposed
(the rabbit). The exposed fellow will attract the enemy towards him, giving the
hidden shooter a nice angle. The rabbit must cause enough of a distraction so that
the enemy will not notice his fellow shooter, but he has to get behind cover quickly
once spotted.
Aggressive/defensive moves
Depending on how aggressively an enemy is coming at you, you might consider
falling back to another covered place, or rushing towards him.
Depending on your objectives you might consider that a mix of rushing and
holding is what your team needs:
On bombsite blasting operations, terrorists could rush a defined
bombsite, plant the C4 and hold it.
The team whose objective has to be done before the time is up could
also consider holding a place to weaken the opponent’s team by killing
the enemy using the “rush in and back” technique; once done, they
might consider holding a bit longer to let the remaining opponents’
attention fade away.
When defending a position, you can go forward, meeting the enemy and
performing a succession of attacks/fallbacks to wound them until you are
back to the position you are defending.
Good coordination will be needed, so do not hesitate to use radio messages to

make sure all your teammates are aware of the progression of their team during
the round.

11. Stealth
Stealth is an important aspect of the game in order to gain the element of

surprise before the battle.
Have a look to Figure 11.1 to get an overview of how vulnerable players are to
stealth.
Figure 11.1: Player and Field Of Vision (FOV).
The Field Of Vision (FOV) of each player is 90°. Since stealth attacks are
completely silent he offers 270° of vulnerability.
If a stealth infiltration is easily achieved alone, once spotted or once the first
bullet is shot the stealthy player will have to face the whole set of enemies holding
the place. Therefore a nice combination is to have a group of teammates
infiltrating a place and then be disruptive. During such an operation, the stealth of
the overall group relies on the complete silence of every single member, and a
single noise voids the “invisibility” granted by stealth. For this reason, the players
need to stick to walking or crouching and hold their fire until the group leader
shoots the first bullet.
Stealth is also the ability to evade a battle; therefore it is important to keep in

mind that you are not forced to shoot at an enemy if he has not spotted you.
You might consider some of the following options:
Follow this enemy.
Wait to see if the spotted enemy has backup.
Wait to get the best shooting angle.
Along the same line, you might also combine the information on your sonar with
the enemies’ direction to find out if he will encounter some of your teammates.
During any stealth operation beware of long corridors or tunnels and always
prefer places with lots of turns where you can evade easily; additionally keep your
reticule at head height.

12. Conclusion
As explained above, this guide has been written to highlight a set of suggestions
for Counter-Strike players. The best use of this guide is to take pieces of it and
adapt them into your game style.
Learn other players’ moves and be creative: performing the same set of actions
will make you predictable and therefore half-dead.
Please remember that experience and taking advantage of all you can is
important in this game; do not hesitate to try out some new moves: all the
successful moves were once simple ideas waiting to be tried out.
Thanks to:
Thibaut Chevalier AKA 1664 – for his support while writing this guide.
Darren Dowling AKA Darren - for the correction of the English in this
document.
http://www.csimmortals.com/ - for the image of the map de_dust2.

PART 2
Clan-specific Strategies
Section 8 - Strategy guide
Confidential
Version 0.5
Initially written by Ole Garshol alias -Paine- clan8paine@lycos.co.uk

Outlined by the board – board@clan-8.com
1/7
Abstract
Because of the multi-cultural mix of the membership of our league (Section 8), this document has been
written in English.
This guide should be considered as a set of suggestions in order to increase skills, efficiency and
decrease predictability, at the team’s scale (macro level) – without loosing individual members’ creative
thinking and sense of improvisation.
It is not a guide to learn to play counter-strike at individual scale (micro level), since the members of
this clan already know how to do it quite well; but we all do mistakes and often repeat them, as bad
habits.
This guide is a complement of Guillaume’s -Nold- strategy guide.
Do not expect from this guide to highlight behaviors for each maps: its content is focused at general
advices; hence the way you will interpret its content and merge it with your existent game style will keep,
and hopefully improve your unique vision of the game.
Abstract..........................................................................................................................................................2
General Advice ..............................................................................................................................................3
Specific T advices..........................................................................................................................................4
Specific CT advices .......................................................................................................................................5
Miscellaneous ................................................................................................................................................6
Conclusion .....................................................................................................................................................7
Release history...............................................................................................................................................7
Note: Any suggestion to improve this guide is welcome: I’m sure there are points you have spotted and I
have not, please feel free to share them; I’ll gladly update the guide to reflect your thoughts on it.
2/7
General Advice
• Be frag stealers. Any team member will be happy if you assist him to kill an enemy and help him to
play longer. Big chances are he might return you the favor later on. Individual score is way less
important than overall team’s success.
• Helping teammates does not necessarily mean that you have to follow them. If you anticipate the
action, you can take another route to create another attack angle and remove an escape route to the
enemy.
• Avoid blocking at all times. Keeping a small distance and anticipating (empathy) your teammates’
reaction can help. When blocking is inevitable, crouch/duck.
• Borrow money. If you have limited money ask for team mates with more funds to buy a weapon for
you (while you can focus on spending for items you cannot be given i.e.: kevlar, grenades, defuse kit).
5 players with proper equipment are better suited to win than 3 properly equipped.
• Know when to offer your assistance. When a player uses the voice command “enemy spotted”, do
not rush to help that player, that is just a notification that enemy has been spotted by visual or audio
contact. Go and help your teammates when they explicitly ask for it (i.e.: “need backup” or “under fire
need assistance”), in such case you should rush to help him: each second matters.
• Do not crouch at combat start. If you want additional accuracy by crouching, be crouched and ready
to fire before having visual contact with the enemy, shot 1 or 2 bullets and move (if you had a good
line of sight, you can do so before being shot). Some players crouch when engaging, but at the time
their accuracy is boosted the enemy has already shot.
• Good confidence with 3 pistols (more is better):
1. Starting T pistol: Glock.
2. Starting CT pistol: USP.
3. Any other of your choice.
• Do not be afraid to use your creative thinking and sense of improvisation. Make sure your team
mates are aware of what you intend to do so they can assist you the best they can.
• Unpredictability is an advantage. You can consider taking irrational actions, to boost this point.
• Preventive fire. If you know (or have strong feelings of) a place where enemy will pops out or camp,
shoot some bullets at head’s height – at worse you’ll have lost those few bullets.
• Control the start and end of confrontation. A combat does not have to end when you or the enemy
dies; you can choose when to ‘pause’ by vanishing. This can allow you to stay longer alive.
• Be ready as soon as buy-time is over, even if it is to rush to hold a position.
• Check the corners. Do not assume the hidden places are empty, check them each round.
• Loose or compact? When leading, check your teammates following you: do you want your group to
be compact of loose? A "cover me", or stopping to rush for a couple of seconds to give a bit of time to
your mates to come closer will change the group’s behavior from loose (default) to compact.
• When you hold a route, make sure the enemy has to deal with you before being able to attack
any of your teammates holding other route(s).
• Be on the ‘front line’. Do not watch your teammates holding a position: help them to hold this route
or hold another one to cover their backs. On competition you cannot afford to have a 1st line of
teammate(s) dying before dealing with enemies: it's too expensive.
3/7
Specific T advices
• Leadership rotation. In order to give all players the possibility to try ideas of where and how to strike
(there are 12 rounds => 12 attempts), the player with the bomb will have to organize the attack. If he
cannot or does not feel like it, he can drop bomb at spawn (ASAP) and let someone else pick it up and
lead the attack.
• Protect our bomb. Once the bomb lies on the ground, CTs will develop energy to keep the situation in
such a stasis, and concentrate their forces at this point. Ts will have to struggle to get their bomb back
and probably suffer additional loses. Hence keeping the bomber well covered is as important as
protecting the VIP in AS maps. Additionally, a wounded bomber should consider passing the bomb to
a lesser-wounded teammate.
• Fake attacks. Consider showing the bomb to enemy positions to make them believe of an attack there,
hence forcing them to call for backup and concentrating CT forces at this point. You can then vanish
and make the “real” attack to another position of the map, less guarded.
• CTs teasing. We should consider using traps as frequently as possible, like having 1 T teasing some
CTs to drag them out of their positions and leading them to a place where several Ts ambush them.
• Do not face an enemy with a grenade as your selected weapon. If you want to throw a grenade at an
enemy position, use angles to bounce your grenade on it, then select back a pistol to face it.
Possible initial configuration:
• 1st T leads the attack with a pistol (should not be the same player each round) – he will be a
magnet to enemy bullets!
• 2nd and 3rd T can use grenade, then quickly swap back to pistol for support.
• 4th T gives support.
• 5th T cover the rear – if CTs can attack from the back; else gives support like #4.
• During an attack make sure to go out of the way (preferably to cover) to reload, so the
continuation of the attack remains; then rejoin the attack once reloaded, either with suppressing fire or
with a direct rush (i.e.: in de_inferno in the long alley towards bomb site B, take cover behind the box
to left or in the open to the right).
• First becomes last. When attacking a position, the player leading the attack can hold a shooting line to
prevent more enemy to pop out. He will hold it until all his team mates have passed, and then cover the
rear. This way the continuance of the attack is intact and no player has to be in the front line all the
time. This pattern of ‘first becomes last’ can be repeated several times during a same attack, as long as
it does not slow down the overall progression.
• Hold bombsite when bomb is planted. When victorious, we can afford to re-buy the entire
equipment in pistols only mode. Stating “hold bombsite” does not mean camp on top of bomb, or to
hide in corners. Ideally we should hold an outer perimeter (the income routes) then fall back closer to
the bomb: these 2 confrontations with the incoming CTs can allow us to gain some extra precious
seconds. Since defusing take ~8 seconds with defuse kit and C4 timer is set to 35 seconds; once
planted, keeping the bomb secure for 28 seconds is a granted victory.
4/7
Specific CT advices
Part 1 - General
• Always buy defuse kit. If you only have 200 credits left after having bought equipment, consider
using it on a defuse kit instead of a flash grenade.
• Distance is time with pistols only. Our strategy at the team's scale would be to use this at our
advantage.
• Wait for the attack or trigger it? As CT, you have 2 main options once in position: 1- wait or 2-
clear areas of the map and rush back towards other positions held by teammates (without dying – we
are not speaking of a massive suicide rush here). Rushing every now and then could be done to change
the level of predictability from the CT side.
• Use smoke grenades to force Ts to rush through smoke. If thrown properly, this will diminish T
visibility, and not yours.
• Concentration management. In competition Ts do not necessarily rush immediately: they dispose of
the 3 minutes of round time. They might “camp” in one zone to tempt CTs to leave the positions they
hold, or to leave time to fade out CTs concentration, then attack (by stealth or rush) and caught CTs off
guard.
• Wise fall-back. As it is very hard to hold a position when being outnumbered by rushers, CTs have to
know when to fall back in order to stay alive, instead of holding the position at any cost and die. Their
fall back will allow the CT team to stay stronger, hence the assault to the position Ts have taken will
be more lethal.
• Focus on the bomb. When you see the bomb (carried to you or on the ground) please use the radio
message "regroup team" (or use voice-communication), all CTs should rush and hold this position.
• If possible always hold the high grounds, where we will have a better overview and better options to
throw grenades.
Part 2 - CT initial positioning

• Map awareness. Knowing what places are covered by teammates -map wide- will increase our game
awareness, and will allow us to camp and wait without fearing being stabbed on the back by a sneaky
enemy.
• Position to hold: guidelines. You do not have to stand literally where the point is; feel free to hold
anywhere else, as long as the shooting line is covered. Do not hesitate also to try some variants with
the other teammates around you.
The players' numbers on the strategies define which position has to be taken by order of priority (1
being the most urgent).
• 1-2-3. When a group of CTs is in position and rushed by incoming Terrorists, they should (this order
matters) Action – Radio message:
1. Spot where the attack come from (but they probably will be outnumbered) - "enemy spotted".
2. Engage the enemy; wound/kill the attackers but not at any cost (objective is to stay alive).
When the situation is out of hand: retreat & call for backup - "need backup".
3. The fall back will give some time to the CTs guarding other areas of the map to rush the
position and help you. Meanwhile, only use sporadic fire to “keep” the T's busy and distant.
5/7
Miscellaneous
All players should have “short-cuts” to buy their equipment. 2 possible ways:
- By making your own buy-script

Create the file 'userconfig.cfg' in the folder:
steam\SteamApps\e-mail@address.com\counter-strike\cstrike\
(if it does no already exist), and copy/paste these lines in it:
bind "F3" "vest"
bind "F4" "vesthelm"
bind "F5" "hegren"
bind "F6" "flash"
bind "F7" "sgren"
bind "F8" "deagle; secammo"
bind "F11" "secammo"
bind "F12" "defuser"
- By using programs that do the same job for you

• Cs-Configurator
Download at: http://www.cscentral.com/dl/dl.php?540
• CS Easy Bind v2.1
Download at: http://www.fileplanet.com/files/50000/59107.shtml
• This web page has a load of pre-made scripts.
http://www.fileplanet.com/section.aspx?s=75909
6/7
Conclusion
Many of those points should sound pretty obvious when written black on white, the hard part is to keep
them in mind while playing.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Release history
0.5 – 12/04/2004 – Guillaume Tournand -Nold-

Added various suggestions and ideas
0.4 – 07/04/2004 - Ole Garshol -Paine-
Merged with readme.txt
Merged with board suggestions
Base structure and ideas
7/7
PART 3
Map-specific Strategies
BOMBSITES NAMING
In order to have a common naming system for the bombsites on the different maps:
- Bombsite A is the one closer to the CT spawn.
- Bombsite B being the other one.
-----------------------------------------
GENERAL/MISC
Frag stealing = good cover.

Since we are not playing for personal performance, be good frag stealers ;)
Helping teammates to attack a postition does not necessarely mean that you have to
follow them:
If you anticipate the action, you can take another route to create another attack angle and
remove an escape route to the ennemy.
-----------------------------------------
CT POSITIONNING
These map strategies are here as guidelines of CT positionning to cover incoming routes
of Terrorists.
It defines the macro-strategy of the team (initial positionning and basic team's
reactions to attack), the micro-strategy being defined by each player gamestyle.
Buy and leave spawn fast: we need to get in position ASAP.
Use smoke to force Terro to rush through smoke, but without diminishing your visibility.
Distance is time with pistols only, our strategy at the team's scale would be to use this at
our adventage.
When a group of CT is rushed by incoming Terrorists, they should (this order matters):
1- spot where the attack come from (but they probably will be outnumbered) -
"ennemy spotted".
2- wound the attackers *objective is to stay alive*.
3- call for backup as soon as the situation is too hot - "need backup".
4- fall back to give some time to the CT guarding other areas of the map to reach
the position and help you.
=> when you hear "need backup", you will very probably have to move.
Training will highlight what are the fall-back options each position has.
Note: on some map the positionning keeps the path clear between the groups of
teammates (i.e.: de_inferno).
You can decide on those maps to fall back:
- towards your mates, then attack terro on a single shooting angle - no good when have to
come out from a bottleneck.
- in another direction to attack the terro group on 2 angles - when your teammates arrive.
On competition, Terrorists don't rush immediatly and use the round time limit to
put pressure on CT by holding a place and tempting groups of CT to rush them.
Behaving and staying sharp is probably the hardest part as CT, but knowing what
places are covered by our teammates -mapwide- will increase our game awareness, and
will allow us to camp and wait without fearing being knifed on the back.
When you see the bomb (carried to you or on the floor) please use the radio message
"regroup team", all players should reach and hold this position.
The players' numbers on the strats define which position has to be taken by
order of priority (1 being the most urgent).
Keep in mind however that you don't have to stand litterally where the point is;
feel free to hold anywhere else, as long as the shooting line is covered. Don't
hesitate also to try some variants with the n other teammates around you.
*** BUY DEFUSE KIT EACH ROUND ! ***

-----------------------------------------
BOMB PLANTING
Terrorists, take time to construct your attacks: you have 12 attempts to success.
There is room for each player's ideas: if you have one, make sure your team is aware of it
and take the lead.
Make sure your bomb carrier is either:
- surrounded by teammates
- in the front line with heavy cover firepower
Do not hesitate to pass the bomb to a teammate with more health points.
When leading, check your teammates following you: do you want your group to be
compact of loose?
A "cover me", or stop rushing for a couple of seconds will change the group behavior
from loose (default) to compact.
These images highlight where should be planted the C4 in the bombsites in order
to make CT life very miserable when it comes to defusing it.
-----------------------------------------
HOLD NOTE
When you hold a route, make sure the ennemy has to deal with you before being
able to attact any of your teammates.
Do NOT watch your teammates holding a position. Helping them to holding

this route or hold another one to cover their backs. On competition you can't
afford to have a 1st line of teammates dying before dealing with enemies: it's too
expensive.
-----------------------------------------
BUY SCRIPT
Create the file 'userconfig.cfg' in the folder:

steam\SteamApps\e-mail@address.com\counter-strike\cstrike\
(if it doesn't already exist), and copy/paste these lines in it:
bind "F3" "vest"

bind "F4" "vesthelm"
bind "F5" "hegren"
bind "F6" "flash"
bind "F7" "sgren"
bind "F8" "deagle; secammo"
bind "F11" "secammo"
bind "F12" "defuser"
--------------------------------------------
Here you’ll find strategies for the following maps:
• de_aztec
• de_cbble
• de_dust
• de_dust2
• de_inferno
• de_piranesi
• de_prodigy
• de_train
• de_clan1_mill
• de_nuke
The maps with the blue spots and lines are spots and line of sights for initial CT
positionning for optimal defense with backup/withdraw.
The maps with the red rectangle and lines are planting locations of the bomb for optimal
cover.

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PART 1

Counter-Strike strategy guide

Guillaume Tournand AKA Nold

Official Counter-Strike web site: http://www.counter-strike.net/

Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 1 of 23

Counter-Strike is a modification of Half-life, which is an online video game of

The set of guidelines in this document should be considered as suggestions to

Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 2 of 23

Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 3 of 23

Figure 5.1: Game objectives...................................................................6

Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 4 of 23

While playing, be prepared to do anything: it is a world where anything is

In order to achieve optimum game results, make sure of the following:

Staying alone will:

Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 5 of 23

5.1 The objectives

Reach one of the bombsites in Prevent the terrorists reaching

Figure 5.1: Game objectives.

Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 6 of 23

Figure 5.2: Available skins.

Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 7 of 23

Counter-Strike offers a wide range of weapons, each of them having a different

Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 8 of 23

A good player is made by several overlapping core components:

Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 9 of 23

Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 10 of 23

Sometimes it is a good idea to delay a rush to deal with multiple enemies

Gain the high ground when you can:

Count your bullets.

Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 11 of 23

Figure 8.1: Zigzag.

Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 12 of 23

Figure 8.2: Move around your opponent.

Move to get as many opponents in a line (see figure 8.2)

Figure 8.3: Line up your opponents.

Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 13 of 23

Figure 8.4: The loops of the map.

Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 14 of 23

Never block your teammates and remember on bottlenecks that a teammate

Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 15 of 23

Never panic: panic ensures quick death.

The flow concept

Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 16 of 23

Figure 9.1: The flow concept.

Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 17 of 23

10. Team play

Communication between team members is a key requirement for successful

The game offers 3 possible ways to communicate during the game:

Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 18 of 23

10.3 The rush group

Figure 10.1: The rush group.

Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 19 of 23

The 70-30 concept

10.4 Holding position

Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 20 of 23

Rush in and back

The rabbit and the shooter

Good coordination will be needed, so do not hesitate to use radio messages to

Guillaume Tournand guillaume@tournand.com Page 21 of 23

Stealth is an important aspect of the game in order to gain the element of

Figure 11.1: Player and Field Of Vision (FOV).

Stealth is also the ability to evade a battle; therefore it is important to keep in

* BUY DEFUSE KIT EACH ROUND ! *