Playing Countdown Effectively

This guide hopes to point out major mechanics in the Countdown game mode which are apparently lost on the majority of players.

About the author:

I was a member of Team Chaos in early RO2, which won a 4,000 dollar prize in the RO2 Scorched Earth Countdown Tournament, and was the #1 Countdown team in North America.

I have been playing PC games competitively since 2002 in MoHAA to CoD, CoD2, BF:V, BF:2, TF2, CoD4, BF:BC2, CoD:BO and RO2. I have less serious gameplay and competitive experience in MoH:SH PA and AB, CoD:UO, BF1942, BRINK (bleh), CSS, ROOST, and more.

Introduction

Countdown is the less popular of two major game modes in Red Orchestra 2, for a number of reasons. When a player is dead, especially on defense, they are stuck watching the rest of the round unfold. You do not respawn unless your commander uses a reinforcement on offense, therefore this game mode must contend with impatience, boredom, and frustration.

It is however a good game mode, and one which forces a player to adapt to different play styles in order to be successful. Let's face it: in Territory, most of the players on a given team decide to make their way to the periphery, prone somewhere, crouch somewhere, and attempt to make long distance shots on other players who are doing the exact same things. The same people who are in favor of realistic game play feel it is unrealistic that a bunch of soldiers in WW2 would have had to sprint and rush after objectives.

Here's what I feel is unrealistic: getting to respawn when you've screwed up and gotten yourself killed. Having new players just show up out of thin air to hold an area. Being able to prone on a hillside for 15 minutes to obtain 5-10 kills. Surely, those who are focused on realism can appreciate that an area of a line was generally held by a squad or portion of a company, and that while attacks could come in waves, defenders could not magically resurrect themselves to continue the fight.

Personally, realism means nothing to me, but gameplay does. Countdown forces players to move, it forces them to take actual objectives and play near their teammates, it forces action to occur and as a result, it forces a player to be more aware, faster with their movement and shot, more accurate at a higher speed, and smarter in his decision making/anticipation of an enemy.

With all that said, let's talk about the basics.

How Countdown Works

First and foremost before I get started: use your tactical display. By default this is T if I'm not mistaken, I have long since changed it to a key which better fits my playstyle. The tactical display will help any new or confused players to figure out where the capture (cap) zone is, and whether they're defending or attacking (this should be fairly obvious if you are literate and possess the slightest bit of reading comprehension with regards to all the fancy things that are constantly being placed on your screen and HUD.

How a team wins on offense:

If you are familiar with the basketball game "HORSE", you can understand Countdown. For the uninitiated- in HORSE one player attempts to make a shot and set a standard. If they made the shot, the opponent must attempt to make the exact same shot. If he does not make the shot, he gets a letter. If you're the first one to spell HORSE by missing enough shots, you lose.

In Countdown, the attacking team sets the mark. There are four potential caps, and the successful capture of one cap zone will take you to the next one. How do you take a cap? There are two ways:

1. You eliminate all of the players on an opposing team.

2. You get more players in the capture area than the other team does, which begins capturing the zone just as you would on Territory.

This dynamic is what forces players to play quickly. It is in each team's best interest to hold the cap zone, the necessity of which forces players into contact with one another.

On defense, countdown is quite simple: hold the cap zone, and force the other team to use their reinforcements. If you kill everybody and drain their reinforcements, you then need to exceed their efforts while you are on offense.

Tactics, Necessities

On offense as a player (Not Commander, which I will cover in a different section) there are a few things which must be kept in mind:

1. Leave the spawn quickly, and SPRINT toward the objective.

Prior to the round starting, it is good to already have an idea of where you want to go: up the middle, left, right, etc.

Timing is EVERYTHING in game modes such as this. If you are sprinting to an area and the other team is not, you will arrive first and get choice positioning from which you may obliterate the opposing team.

2. Play within or near the cap zone.

Kills are nice, and they're one way to win in Countdown. I've played many games however where a team rushes a cap zone while the defense spreads out on the perimeter. The defenders are either too slow to respond to the fact that their cap is being taken, or they've taken themselves out of the game by running off too far. You could conceivably win a round without firing a shot if your team gets into the cap and the other team doesn't.

Even if 4-5 of them get into the cap in an 8v8, if all 8 of your players are in the cap you will easily take the zone.

Playing within the cap is also a tactical advantage for offensive players. Being on offense is inherently difficult: you must attack a force which is waiting for you to come around each corner, and which knows they can stay put while you have to move to be successful. If the offensive players GET IN THE CAP however, the tables turn. If you have 8v8, but only 3-4 of the opposing players are in the cap, suddenly the offensive players become defenders, and the defense is the group which is forced to find and eliminate the offense before they take the cap.

2-A. One side note here: it is not necessary to go straight into the cap on offense. While it can lead to very good outcomes, it is not a bad idea to attempt to flank an opponent on the right and left sides of a cap. It is however never a good idea to flank very far outside of the cap zone. such a flank takes too much time to pay off, and this game mode is also based on time.


3. Keeping a fast pace.

The X-Factor in Countdown is...well...the countdown. The team which starts on offense sets the time. In competition, they are timed for how quickly they captured all of the cap points. In public settings at this time (unfortunatly) it is set so that each team is timed by how quickly they captured each cap. Say team 1 takes over cap 1 in 30 seconds. Team 2 on offense must capture cap 1 even faster, or <30 seconds. In other words, it isn't just about whether or not you managed to capture the objective, its whether or not you managed to do it quickly and efficiently.

This is why it is imperative that players move quickly and don't waste time playing on the periphery of the objectives. Fast play results in fast victories. Slow victories will always be trumped by fast ones.

4. Set Nades

This is a concept which comes from competition. When you're nearing the cap zone, and about to come in contact with the enemy, pulling out, cooking, and throwing a grenade into a hallway or area through which the other team may want to run can result in multiple kills right off the bat, and a massive advantage for your team as they enter the cap.

5. Play faster

Move between two positions quickly, bring your sights up quickly. If nobody is coming, move to look at something else. People have this idea that moving quickly equates to Call of Duty and equates to unrealistic crap. Ask a US Army veteran who went through MOUT training if you're supposed to move slowly in urban or closed quarters environments. They would look at you like you're insane. I assure you all, the Russian and German soldiers of WW2 would indeed sprint, run under enemy fire, and move quickly from watching one location to another. So can/should you.

I feel that Territory encourages slow players. Sure, you want to aim and fire quickly, but the amount of people who are sitting still or barely moving is staggering. TE is a simulation of large scale warfare on a large front. Countdown is more of a simulation of squad vs. squad conflicts in a small area. A tiny segment of a larger battle if you will. You are not betraying your historic and realistic sensibilities by rushing, playing quickly, etc. You are actually approaching them closer than ever before.

Defense

Defense is simple: stay in or within quick sprinting distance of the cap, guard the entrances, and shoot anything that is attempting to get in or establish a shot on you and your teammates.

1. Keep track of numbers.

Until there is a mod which displays the number of players left on your tactical display on defense like it does on offense, you will have to press TAB to glance at your scoreboard. Players on the opposite team with (DEAD) next to their names are obviously no longer there. It is good to know when the other team is low on players however.

Reinforcements are something which I haven't touched on quite yet. The offense gets 2 reinforcements per map. Let's say you're on defense on cap 1, the offense rushes at you and your team manages to shoot the majority of them. You glance at your scoreboard and notice that there are 8 of you, and 2 of the attackers still alive.

This is when you need to prepare for the reinforcement.

If you know where the other team spawns and reinforces from, you can essentially move your defenses up and limit the other team from escaping from spawn. A good offensive team will:

A. Not allow your team to have enough time to move up and spawn camp them.

B. Reinforce with multiple players alive to create a threat within the cap as well as one attacking towards the cap.

C. Not charge out of spawn to their deaths if they have reason to believe that you have moved into position to spawn camp them.

Bad teams and bad players however, will wait until the last second to reinforce, and will charge out to their deaths. It is in your best interests to move up and participate in the turkey shoot.

DEFENDERS NEED TO BE AWARE OF REINFORCEMENT WAVES. WHEN A TEAM HAS REINFORCED, THEIR PLAYERS NO LONGER SAY (DEAD) ON THE SCOREBOARD.

2. When the hunter becomes the hunted.

One of the biggest problems I see with uninitiated CD players is a lack of understanding of when you need to attack as a defender. By virtue of being on defense, people behave as if they are not obligated at any time to move around, find other players, and eliminate them. That is, after all, the job of offensive players is it not?

This problem is compounded by the fact that everyone is aware that you have 1 life on defense in CD. You do not reinforce/respawn unless the offense captures the objective and you move on to defending the next one. This makes players value their lives, but also feeds illogical thought processes.

Example scenario:

You are the last defender alive, and there are 2 players alive on offense, both of which are in the cap point with you. They are taking the cap and they have enough time to take it even if they don't kill you.

This means that you have no choice but to find and eliminate at least one of the opposing players. As things stand- 2v1 and capping the point, you are going to lose if you do nothing. This means that your life has now become 100% valueless. A loss is the same as being killed. This means the following:

-If you do not seek out and contest/attack the opposing players, you will lose without a fight.

-If you do seek out and contest/attack the opposing players, you may lose BUT you will inevitably lose if you do nothing. This scenario also means you could either kill one opposing player and force a 50/50 scenario where THEY must find YOU, or you could kill both of the opposing players, winning the round or at least forcing a reinforce.

To make a long story short, when you are on defense, you must understand when you are in a situation where you MUST find and MUST kill the other team to stave off defeat. There is no prize for not dying. Nobody thinks you're really cool because you didn't get killed. You still lost the round and didn't do anything to try and stop it.

Team Leaders/Commanders

The commander is one of the most important keys to an effective offensive team in Countdown.

Commanders must be capable of doing the following:

1. Understanding when to reinforce (N Key by default).

Its the first cap and you have 1:30 remaining. There are 5 defenders alive and 2 attackers. Your teammates are in the cap zone, and the defenders are preoccupied with not getting shot in the back by one of them, so they haven't moved up to camp your reinforce. You hit "N" and bring the other 6 players of your team back in. It is now 1:20, you have 8v5, some of your players are in the cap, some of your players are running toward the cap.

This is the proper way to approach this scenario, and it all has to do with the Commander being aware of the situation. While you could give your own players another 30 seconds to try and get another kill, chances are good that they will not succeed in much more than 1 for 1 shots. Say you wait 15 seconds for a 1 for 1. The numbers are now 1v4 and you need to reinforce. A couple of defenders with G41s or SVTs decide to ignore the 1 player and push toward your spawn. You reinforce and are trapped in place by repeated shots by 2 people with semi-autos. It takes you another 30-45 seconds to get out, and you lose 2 people in the process. It is now 6v2 which is favorable to you, but you only have about 30 seconds to get into the cap and take it, which may not be enough time.

I've seen teams lose because they played it slow. They managed to get favorable situations, but they did not take into account run times from spawn to the cap, and how long it may take to eliminate 1 or 2 players along the way. Speed is everything, and an aware/early reinforce isn't a bad thing. It is up to the commander to understand the situation.

2. Smoke

This goes for squad leaders as well, but commanders have 2 smoke grenades. Generally speaking, it is a good idea on offense to be throwing a lot of smoke grenades in front of major paths of travel. This is universally true to both TE and CD. Smoke allows for mobility, and can provide for your teammates to slip into a gap in the defense unnoticed.

3. Understanding when not to reinforce.

Reinforcements are a valuable commodity. If you plan on going on to caps 2, 3, 4 you may need those reinforcements to help you take them and extend your streak. It is undesirable to use them when you don't really have to.

Here is a new scenario: It's cap 1, you have 2 players alive, there are 3 on defense. There is 1:30 remaining. What should be done?

Assuming it will take 15-20 seconds to get from spawn to the cap, a good commander will give his teammates 30-45 seconds to get some kills and win the round. If at the 1:00 or :45 mark, the 2 people alive have not killed 2 of the 3 defenders in order to begin capturing the point, the commander should reinforce to make sure that the point is indeed captured.

I have played many rounds where players in a 3v4 or 2v3, 2v2 scenario have managed to win the cap without having to use a reinforce. With reinforcements potentially being vital to capture all 4 zones, they are something which should be used only when there is very little chance that you're going to be able to capture the point otherwise.

Conclusion

I know that this guide is somewhat dry. I hope to make a video in the future to accompany what I'm saying, since some of these concepts can be a bit confusing for certain players.

My hope with this guide is to allow newer players, or perhaps others who have written off CD, to view it as a viable and fun game mode, or to experience it from a different perspective. If you can read, comprehend, and apply the ideas that I've discussed here the next time you play countdown, you may find that it can be quite the enjoyable gametype.

I feel that it is in the best interests of players to subject themselves to things which are new and unfamiliar to them. It is the only way to grow as a player. Challenge yourselves, take on new tasks, push yourselves beyond what you thought your limits were. Good luck.

PS: Learn this game mode and join TWILadder.com !!!

[bullshit]

LOL TROLL, GO MAKE SUICIDE!

[pyroh]

Very concise and well written, I would expect nothing less from the greatest video game player of all time.

I win tournaments, kid. (c) Bill "met$$$" Huntsman