As a soldier who do you focus when going through garage on granary or valley on badlands?
On granary I knock their soldier off the crate and then spam their med with my last 2 rockets.
On the valley push I jump to their train and spam the 3 rockets into their house and then I'll normally die.

So what are the goals of other people when they are soldier for the aggressive mid strats? Pure damage output just to debuff? Fastest kill on the closest person? Med pick? or try to take and hold the high ground by killing their jumping sollies?

Aggressive mid strategies work only if your entire team is being aggressive, one aggressive player is going to get destroyed by the opposing team. Also it depends entirely on your team, what is your team's strongest point? Your scouts? Demo? Combo? Roaming? Each scenario would have a different style to an aggressive push. With your scouts being your team's strongest point you'd want to have the rest of your team essentially bait the enemies and get all the aggro they can while the scouts mop up the enemy, if it's your demo you'd have every pressure the enemy into a corner so they can be trapped by the demo. Different teams require different styles. :smile:

For a soldier though, it depends on the map, normally it's balancing spam with well aimed rockets, taking advantage of their reloads and stuff. It's very situational though.

As an aggressive solly on mid, the best bet is usually to put as much damage as possible on their team and let your scouts clean it up. That generally entails focusing on the enemy soldiers, but it's certainly nice if you're able to put a rocket on the demo or medic.

shoot rockets, hope i kill something

shoot pipes, hope their medic's blind

so basically put as much damage on them as possible and let the scouts shoot them while they're looking up?

Focus the demo too if you can. Sacrificing yourself for their demo is a good trade.

I'm still wondering why so many people just spam their rockets.

Weak: 1 rocket 1 shotgun

Strong:2 rocket 1 shotgun

Maybe I just like the shotgun so much since i used to play competitive scout, but once you have that down you will feel invincible. Just don't miss.

Focus the demo too if you can. Sacrificing yourself for their demo is a good trade.

What if you're the demo rofl

What if you're the demo rofl
Step Chart!

1. You jumped at the enemy demo. Goto 2.

2. Is their demo better than you? If Yes, Goto 4. If No, Goto 3.

3. You're lying, you just jumped in and kamikaze'd their demoman. You're worse. Goto 4.

4. Good trade off!

I thought we were talking about soldiers here?
basically focus hard on anybody hurt or whoever your scouts are going after, although if you see a better target like a distracted demoman or weak medic go after them instead.

The problem with a lot of teams is that when one player goes 'aggressive' it tends to be poorly communicated, poorly executed, and/or poorly supported. I think part of the reason is that if say a Soldier goes valley on Badlands, players tend to think more that they are going to go suicide as opposed to just being a bit more aggressive. Then they end up just jumping and blindly hurtling themselves into the enemy medic praying for the best. Medic picks are important, we all know that, but are they important enough that you should try and suicide a player or players directly into the medic right when mid battle starts? I say nay. Even if the enemy loses their medic, if you suicided two soldiers and a scout to do it, I'd hardly call that a fair trade.

If the Soldier doesn't just suicide in and instead jumps onto the enemy train and holds ground there, to often the rest of the team fails to push up and support that. The entire advantage of doing that is that one person, in this case your soldier on their trains, is occupying multiple persons on the enemy team, usually a soldier or two and the Demoman. It's about using your units more efficiently than they use theirs. You have 1 person keeping 2, 3, or even more of theirs busy, that should be an oppurtunity for your team to move in and start doing unreturned damage to them while they try to dislodge the soldier from their crates. Aggressive strats are too often just mindless "I'M JUMPING ON THE COMBO" solo suicide strats and not often enough smart team pushes.

grieve said it best.

Aggressive strats only work when the whole team is on the same page. If you are a roaming soldier and you see a GOOD chance to bomb in on the medic and take him out, then go for it, but only if you KNOW you will kill him. Never risk a kamakazi move like they if you dont know what you are jumping into, or if there is almost no chance of killing the medic. Basically never just dive in "praying for the best" as grieve said.

If you are going to get aggressive on middle, the whole team needs to work together. IMO its good to send 1 scout through the choke, and one from valley on the way to middle to spot any possible flanks. If your heavy classes get aggressive on mid and nobody spots a flank you already lost mid. Have the scouts split and check choke/closet, and under bridge on the way to middle. they can meet up on mid. It might take a second or two longer to get to mid, but thats ok.

If your heavy classes get to mid fast, and are in good shape have the first soldier jump (from house or valley) and get on top of the enemy train and spam. The demo can support him with spam, and the scouts should be in there too. Make sure you still keep a soldier with the medic though. Even if the scouts dont spot a flank, it doesnt mean they wont flank late, or bomb in on your medic. If the soldier who jumped to the train starts taking damage, have the overhealed pocked jump to the train and take the roamers spot while the roamer takes cover and gets healed.

If only some people get aggressive they will die without good support. It also takes more practice and coordination to pull off an aggressive strat then a standard "lets trade spam from our side and hope we get some kills" strat. Practice it before you try it in a scrim/match... make sure everyone knows their job, and trusts their teammates to do their jobs.