Hi folks, this is the first one of an intended series of articles considering map-particular strategies, going in-depth and just as in my last article on offclassing hopefully bringing up ideas some people haven't thought of before. Comments are appreciated -- let me know if you'd like to see more of these and what you'd like added/changed in future ones. #2, defending gravelpit, will be coming in a day or two. Without further ado:

Part 1: Offense

Attacking A

99% of teams will assault A first on gravelpit, and with good reason: 99% of teams won't put up more than a cursory defense at A. To that effect, the standard strat is to run a bonk scout out to get any stickies popped, then just roll out with your team and kill/force off the minimal resistance at the point. Defense gets to watch a x8 on the point as you all cap, then move out towards B. This is all well and good, but is there a better way?

One tactic that my team has used to great success is to run two scouts with bonk out the gate immediately. Both scouts home in on the demoman guaranteed to be somewhere in the area and take him down. The rest of the team follows, mops up any resistance, and heads directly to C. Your team's demoman rushes straight to the enemy spawn and proceeds to spawn camp the enemy demo. This will do one of the two things: force the enemy team to come assist their demo at C or defend B without him. Either way benefits the offense, as they both nullify some static defense (potential sentries at B or sticky traps). Meanwhile, your scouts finish the cap at A. Putting more people on the point is entirely useless, as cap speed maxes at x4 anyway. At this point you're ready to push B, which is where most teams screw up. But first...

What if the other team decides to defend A with all their strength? In this case, go cap B first then return. Offense always wants to cap the lesser-defended of the two points first. Since you now have B, the key to breaking a A defense (usually with multiple sentries) is to attack through C. By doing so, you can completely cut off any respawning players from reaching A. It becomes a simple war of attrition -- get one pick at a time without committing to an attack until the point is mostly clear. Commit the bulk of your forces to stopping reinforcements from arriving. An excellent method to do this is to run a spy! Your spy should be able to get one kill and then die each life. Do this three times while your team keeps the respawns away and you suddenly have a 6v3 fight and easy cap. Snipers shooting out of either the spawn or A-B connector work well here too.

Attacking B

First, let's assume you got A first with minimal resistance, as is common. If all went well, you have their demoman out of play and can push straight through C to B and gain control of the point. It is important to note that whenever capping B, leave your scouts to cap while the rest of the team holds the two chokes from spawn. This will prevent enemies from getting on the roof and raining rockets on your parade.

However, what if (as is all too common) you find yourself with all 6 people in your spawn and all 6 enemies on B? The first problem to take care of is any sentries on the point. Sentries completely nullify your scouts, and therefore must go down before you push in. There are two common sentry locations, and which location is used determines how you should proceed.

Position A: On front ramp of point. This is used very commonly. What is not so commonly known is that it is extremely easy to kill. Position both of your soldiers at short B (that's the tunnel to the left from your spawn) and have them both spam rockets at the front doorframe. You can shoot through a window and hit the side of the wall at the front of the point, dealing splash damage to the sentry on the ramp. Two soldiers doing this = dead sentry. Once it's down, IMMEDIATELY uber your soldiers and demo out while your scouts attack through C. One soldier on the roof, one with the medic. What's that you say, you didn't have uber? Then why were you killing the sentry? WAIT to take it down until you're ready to push, otherwise the engy can just rebuild.

Position B: In the shadow behind the point. Again, this position dies very easily to concentrated soldier fire: this time from C. Do not show yourself until ready to drop the sentry and push to avoid being blocked at the choke. Once ready, do the opposite of position A: soldiers, medic and demo push from C while scouts attack from spawn.

We keep doing the above strats and failing each time! What now? If the above don't work, the other team is out-deathmatching you and you need to get tricky. Time for some offclassing. Try running a spy to stab the enemy medic. Don't worry about the sentry! Your soldiers/demo can take that out easily. What they CAN'T do is kill the enemy medic before he pops uber. Your spy's job is to accomplish that. Kill the medic, take your guaranteed death, and the rest of your team should be able to win 5v5 with an uber. Also consider a sniper from C for the same effect.

Another option here is to use everyone's favorite big man: the heavy. The distances involved are short enough that heavies can be surprisingly effective. Jump out of long B (the tunnel to the right from your spawn) with your barrel spinning and start mowing things down. Combine this with two soldiers on the roof and you should be set.

I've mentioned this before, but it's worth repeating: once you've gained control of the area around B, it is imperative that you send the majority of your team to the two C chokes to prevent any counterattack. Leave only enough players behind to get a x4 on the point (or even less if you aren't pressed for time on the stopwatch).

Attacking C

OK, you have the two nice little blue locks on the bottom. What now? If you're the second team to attack, time is probably running out and panic is starting to set it. Be cool, the point only takes about three seconds to cap once you have it controlled. Two minutes is an eternity compared to that.

So many teams attempt to take C by having both soldiers and a demo jump to the top at the same time. This only results in one guy getting airshot and cratering, another guy killing himself with a rocket when he lands, and the third guy getting mowed down by the heavy standing up there, while your medic shakes his head and runs away by himself with the remainder of the uber flashing away.

A much better method is to NOT jump directly for the point unless you're in a fast break situation and it's completely undefended. Assuming both teams have all players alive, your best bet is to assault from either the far left or right of the point, i.e. the A exit closest to the point or the B exit closest to the point. Have your medic and a soldier start running up towards the point, ubering when necessary. The rest of your team should delay their assault until the defense is focused on the uber. A soldier and demo can usually jump onto the point uncontested when the other team is focused on the uber that just ran out from another direction. Scouts of course follow this up. While the fight is going on, your best bet for positioning is to have your medic beeline to the top, with your pocket in tow. Having heals on the point is what makes or breaks fights up there. Your other soldier and demoman should jump to the point initially, but don't be afraid to leave it if injured or to chase down enemies. Their primary goal, however, is to remove enemy players from the point whether via death or knockback. Know that your objective on a push is NOT to cap the point, but rather to clear the area. To this end, the best location for scouts is actually on the ground below the tower. It's nearly guaranteed that enemy players will be knocked off the top down to the ground during the course of a fight, where they are weakened and easy pickings for your scouts. In addition, your heavy classes are much better equipped to block enemies jumping to the point in attempts to stop the cap.

If your medic makes it alive to the top of the tower and the other medic has been knocked off or killed, you've essentially won the round. It's that important. All those hours of ammomod your soldier plays? Now is his time to shine: you often don't even need to kill enemy players to win. Just play king of the hill, knocking enemy players off as they try to gain the point.

There's a reason why all the triple airshot videos you've ever seen take place either on Badlands spire or Gravelpit C: stopping players from gaining the point is essential to both of these locations. The fight at C can often be decided simply by which team gets more airshots. While in most situations an airshot only means a kill one second faster than usual, here a good shot can delay an enemy player blocking the point by as much as ten seconds.

To recap, since I rambled a bit here: get your medic onto the top of the tower ASAP. Have your soldier knock any opposition back down to the ground where your scouts clean them up. Congrats, you won gravelpit!