The install package for Team Fortress Classic includes 5 maps. Here's a quick rundown on the maps, their objectives, and their scoring systems. If you want more information, click on the map names for an overview of the map, some tips and strategy from the makers, and suggested class roles.
Two Fortresses - Capture The Flag.
Two fortresses, separated by a small bridge. Break through the enemy defenses and steal their Flag from the basement. Bring it back to the Capture Point in your battlements to score. Watch out for enemies coming through the underwater entrances.
Suggested Number of Players: 4 to 24.
Two Teams vie for control of a group of buildings divided up by canals. Capture strategic points on the map, and hold them to score points. Use the light, fast classes like the Scout to capture points, and back them up with heavier classes to hold the points once captured.
Suggested Number of Players: 8 to 32.
2 large fortresses separated by a large no-mans-lan, where Snipers reign supreme. This map uses the same scoring system as 2fort, but it's bigger and caters to larger teams. Use Demomen to destroy the underwater grates and open more entrances into the enemy base.
Suggested Number of Players: 8 to 32.
Set in two opposing prison-like bases, Rock plays similar to a Capture The Flag map, but with slightly altered rules. Teams break into the enemy Warden's office, steal the keycard within, and carry it across to the enemy Gas Chamber, where they use the keycard to release the Gas and kill the entire enemy team.
Suggested Number of Players: 8 to 32.
The most heavily teamwork-oriented map in TFC, this map has 3 teams who each have strong roles. The first is The Hunted, a single player with no weapons or armor, whose only objective is to make it to the waiting truck at the end of the map. The Second Team consists of Bodyguards, whose only objective is to ensure The Hunted player makes it to his objective. The Third Team is the group of Assassins, and their objective is to simply kill The Hunted.
Suggested Number of Players: 4 to 24.
There is a limit of 5 players on the Assassin team, and Assassins may only choose the Sniper class. The Bodyguard team has no player limit, but Bodyguards may only choose the Soldier, Heavy Weapons Guy, and Medic classes.
Assault the enemy Base, and steal the enemy Flag from their basement. Bring it back to the Capture Point in your battlements to capture it. Defend your Flag to prevent the enemy from stealing it.
10 points per Flag Capture.
If a player carrying a Flag is killed, the Flag will fall to the ground. It will remain there for 60 seconds and then return to its starting position. If it's your Flag, you need to defend it, wherever it is. Don't let the enemy touch it, because they'll pick it up, and even if you kill them the 60 second time starts all over again.
The best place to mount a strong Defense in this map is the Ramp Room. A group of several Soldiers, Demomen, or Heavy Weapons Guys can very effectively hold down this room, as there's a Resupply Room just a few steps away. This room is also a great place to put sentries.
It's always a good idea to have someone on guard duty at your Flag, just in case the defenders upstairs let the enemy slip through. It can be slow duty, but keeping the enemy away from your Flag is critical if your Team wants to win. Engineers or Soldiers are good choices for this job. Heavy Weapons Guys are powerful, but too slow to chase down anyone trying to escape with the Flag.
If you're short on manpower and can't spare enough people to guard both the Ramp Room and the Flag, your best bet is to focus your defenses on the Ramp Room. If anyone slips past you and heads down to the Flag, you can often catch them part of the way down the spiral to the basement, as they're headed back up with the Flag. The hallways of the spiral are pretty narrow, so a Soldier should be able to stop anyone trying to escape that way. Demomen also work well here, but if you miss with your pipebomb trap, you'll have a hard time catching a fleeing Scout.
The natural place for Snipers to be on this map is the battlements at the front of your Base. Of course, the enemy battlements will be crawling with Snipers of their own. Snipers should remember that if all they're doing is shooting other Snipers, they're really not doing their Team much good. It's important to try and kill as many attackers as you can as they cross the bridge. Snipers tired of the battlement duels can do fairly well by helping with Defense in the Ramp Room. Don't put yourself at the top of the ramps - you'll do much better at the bottom of the ramps, looking down the approaching corridors.
Use Scouts, or other fast classes like the Medic, to get the enemy Flag out of their Base. As with all maps, you will do much better if you work well with your Team. A lone Scout is much less likely to succeed at capturing the flag than one that goes in as part of an assault Team.
Communicate with your Team, always. As you attack the enemy Base, let your Team know where the enemy has set up effective defenses. If you get killed by a sentry gun, tell your teammates where it is so someone can take it out. If you die while trying to escape with the Flag, don't just take it upon yourself to retrieve it, tell your teammates where you dropped it.
Capture and hold as much territory as you can by placing Flags on the Command Points throughout the map.
1 point for every 30 seconds you hold a Command Point.
25 bonus points for gaining control of all 5 Command Points.
Capturing a Command point is done by taking a Flag from your Command Center and placing it on a Command Point. You can see which Team holds a Command Point by the Flag and colored light around the Point. If the enemy holds a Command Point, you need to recapture it with a Flag. Players move at half-speed while carrying a Flag.
Flag Carriers move at half-speed, so they're incredibly vulnerable. A Heavy Weapons Guy or Soldier can waste precious time carrying a Flag to a Command Point, so leave it to the Scouts. Use the heavier classes to escort the slow moving Scouts, and to hold the Points once they're captured.
Once you take a Command Point, it's vital that you defend it. You get 1 point for every 30 seconds that you hold a CP, so if the enemy snatches it right back from you, you've wasted time and effort. Most all Command Points can be effectively defended from inside their building, but as a general principle, it's best to stop the enemy Flag Carriers as far from their target Command Points as possible. Command Point 3, for example, is more effectively held by dominating the pathways leading to it than by fighting within the CP itself.
A single skilled Demoman can often hold Command Points 2 or 4, but ideally defenders should work in Teams. Demomen or Heavy Weapons Guys are good choices for Point Defense, with support from a Medic, Engineer, or Pyro often helping a great deal. It's best to diversify, so avoid defending with a teammate of the same class, to avoid both defenders having the same vulnerabilities.
If you've got the manpower, have several people devoted entirely to intercepting enemy Flag Carriers. The Spy is the ultimate class for this purpose, being able to lie in wait outside the enemy base for Flag Carriers, either disguised as an enemy or lying on the ground pretending to be dead. If the enemy is extremely cautious, which is rare, then it's best to use some heavier classes to do this. Snipers and Soldiers work well at, especially when working together. The Soldier engages the Flag Carrier and escorts, leaving the Sniper free to pick off targets without being attacked. However, if manpower is short and you're working alone, use the Soldier. Be careful that you don't get too distracted fighting just any enemy you see, because a Flag Carrier might be slipping past while you're caught up in the fight.
If a Demoman destroys the enemy Command Center with a detpack, the enemy loses control of any Command Points they've captured. This is an extremely hard thing to do, because the doors into the enemy Command Center won't open for you, but it may be your only hope if you're being severely beaten. It can be done slightly more easily by sneaking a disguised Spy into the enemy Command Center first, where he can use the computer console inside to open the door for the Demoman.
Assault the enemy Base, and steal the enemy Flag from their tower. Bring it back to the Capture Point in the base of your tower to capture it. Defend your Flag to prevent the enemy from stealing it.
10 points per Flag Capture.
If a player carrying a Flag is killed, the Flag will fall to the ground. It will remain there for 60 seconds, and then return to its starting position. If it's your Flag, you need to defend it, wherever it is. Don't let the enemy touch it, because they'll pick it up, and even if you kill them the 60 second time starts all over again.
The two major choke points in this map are the hallways just inside the front doors of the Bases, the Ramp Room just around the corner (collectively, the lobby), and the walkways around the Flag Room itself. It's important to always have someone on guard duty near the Flag, as once an enemy takes your Flag, they can likely escape through the underwater route without ever passing through the defenders in the lobby/Ramp Room. Soldiers, Demomen, and Heavy Weapons Guys make for effective Defense almost anywhere, but Soldiers are particularly useful near the Flag Room, as they can easily knock approaching enemies off of the elevators leading to the Flag. As a last line of Defense, it's often a good idea to set up a sentry gun in the Flag Room itself. An invading Scout won't be able to deal with a sentry gun without heavier support.
The underwater paths into each Team's Tower Room don't start open. You need a Demoman from your Team to blow open the blocking grates with a detpack. Once that's done, assaulting the enemy Flag Room can become much easier. You'll still be extremely vulnerable taking the elevators up to the Flag Room, so be careful. The advantage you get taking this route is that you get to bypass any defense in the lobby of the enemy Base.
Assault the enemy Base, and steal the Keycard from their Warden's Office. Take it across to the other side of the enemy Base, where you can gain access to their Gas Chamber and release the Nerve Gas. Defend your Keycard to prevent the enemy from using it to release the Nerve Gas in your Base.
15 points each time your team releases the Gas.
If a player carrying the Keycard is killed, the Keycard will fall to the ground. It will remain there for 60 seconds, and then return to its starting position. If it's your Keycard, you need to defend it, wherever it is. Don't let the enemy touch it, because they'll pick it up, and even if you kill them the 60 second time starts all over again.
When the Nerve Gas is released, you have 10 seconds before the Gas will kill you. To survive, you need to either get a hazard suit (located behind the appropriately marked doors) or get underwater.
Learn the locations of all of the hazard suits. When the Nerve Gas is released, you've got precious little time to get to safety. Also remember that there's only one hazard suit per door, so if you see someone just ahead of you about to grab the suit, change course quickly and try to find another.
The best place to mount a strong general defense is in the courtyard of your Base. Demomen laying pipebomb traps and Engineer's sentry guns are very effective in this area. More specific defensive positions include the front door of your Base, your Warden's Office (where your Gas Chamber key is located) and the Cell Blocks at the other end of the Base (in case someone manages to grab the key and make their way across the courtyard again).
The enemy Base can be very difficult to attack unless you work closely with your Team. Try to always assault the enemy Base in twos or threes. A lone Scout has precious little chance of fighting his way across the whole enemy Base by himself. A Scout is much more likely to succeed if he's got two or three teammates running alongside him distracting the defenders.
You can open up alternate entrances to both bases by using the underwater tunnels branching off from the center of the map. Use a Demoman to lay a detpack and destroy the rubble blocking the tunnels, then a second one at the slope in the tunnel to blow a hole into the opposing team's courtyard. Note that you can seal a breached tunnel by setting a second detpack on the rubble. You can also use the underground route to move through the enemy shower room and attack the enemy Defence from behind.
Bringing the Keycard to your own Gas Chambers won't do anything. You have to take it to the enemy Gas Chambers.
The Hunted: Make it to the white truck waiting for you behind the doors at the edge of the Helipad.The Bodyguards: Prevent the Assassins from killing The Hunted before he gets to the truck.The Assassins: Kill The Hunted.
The Hunted: 50 points each time he makes it to the truck.The Bodyguards: 50 points each time The Hunted makes it to the truck.The Assassins: 25 points each time The Hunted is killed.
There is a limit of 5 players on the Assassin team, and Assassins may only choose the Sniper class.
Bodyguard team has no player limit, but Bodyguards may only choose the Soldier, Heavy Weapons Guy, and Medic classes.
Whenever The Hunted is killed or makes it to the truck, every player in the game is respawned back at their starting positions.
The truck is parked behind the doors at the edge of the Helipad. The doors can be opened by pressing a button in either of the towers next to the doors. The doors don't stay open for long, so The Hunted needs to move fast.
It's vitally important for the Bodyguards to stick with The Hunted. Without vigilant Bodyguards, the Hunted is easily killed. If you see a sniper dot sweeping in on The Hunted, never hesitate to throw yourself in front of the bullet. All that matters is that the Hunted escapes the level. If you die in the process, it's all just part of the job.
Medics are a crucial part of the bodyguard Team. Without a Medic running along with the Hunted, healing him at every opportunity, chances of escape can be pretty grim. If you're playing a medic, you'd do best to stick very close to your charge. Never lose track of where he is.
If you lose track of your charge, look for text messages appearing every few seconds in the upper left hand corner of your screen. As the Hunted moves around the map, you will receive updates on his location.
Make sure you communicate with the other Assassins so you know when the target is approaching your hiding place. If he slips past you, head quickly for the field at the end of the level and try to cut him off just before he escapes. Try and spread yourselves out so that there are Assassins all over the map.
As an Assassin, it's wiser to sneak around and avoid the bodyguards unless they're directly protecting your target. If you start fighting bodyguards too enthusiastically, you not only give away your position, your target might slip right past you in the confusion. Remember that the only target that matters is the Hunted.
