The Very Basic Counter-Strike War Strategy Guide

**siosios** · 03-15-2009

This is an introduction to Competitive Counter-Strike War Strategy & Tactics. It includes important definitions, terminology, keyboard binds, rcon alias / aliases, FAQs and other useful information about Counter Strike and the strategies you can employ. If you are completely new to Counter-Strike visit my Introduction to Counter-Strike page first.
Version 4.14.00
Last Update 13March2007

What this Guide is: This guide is meant to explain many of the common mistakes new and even experienced clans make, which can affect the outcomes of wars you play in, usually in the negative if you do not heed this advice. It also explains some basic buying strategies so clan leaders can call for something specific and after studying this guide, everybody will know what they are talking about. For the most part you require no skill whatsoever to execute the advice offered here, only a modicum of intelligence and concentration.
What this Guide is not: This is not a strategy guide that will walk you through how to play a war on any particular map, nor is it designed to teach you how to play wars if you have not experienced playing in them. It is not going to teach you where to stand, how to aim, shoot, or throw grenades. It does not claim to be the final word on the subject on the common mistakes that cost clans wars. These are just made up from my own experience, and I am sure that there is plenty more that can be added.
WARNING!!
Finding 5-6 committed players who want to play as often and as seriously as this guide suggests you need to if you want to do the best you can is extremely difficult.
The amount of practice and discipline required, can cause a lot of friction between team members who want to do the best they can and those that only want to play for fun or to mess about. I strongly suggest you assess exactly what sort of clan you wish to be or be in before attempting to follow or have people follow anything presented here.
Thank You.

Definitions

ACE A five-man - when one person kills the rest of the other team. See also TD.
AK RUSH Buy AK and armour and rush hard.
BUY UP Get rifle, full armour, HE grenade, kit/flash Grenade, partial primary ammo, flash, full primary ammo, smoke.
CHOKE POINT A choke point is a point in the map where the action is concentrated into one small area, eg. On de_dust - the CT entrance to tunnel near the doors is a choke point. Also a point on the map where a whole team can be held by 1 or 2 opposition players only, or a point also know as a deathtrap, (the room between the 2 sets of double doors at long A on dust2 is a good example of a deathtrap) where if two or three HE Grenades come flying in, your whole team is dead or as good as, and the round is effectively over without even firing a shot.
CLUTCH Winning the round when the odds are stacked against you. The more the odds are stacked against the player or the more important the round win, the bigger the clutch.
COVER Cover means 2 things: You either stand right in front of the guy you are covering so you get shot first, or cover a point on the map so the enemy must engage you before they see the guy you are covering!
DE RUSH The Desert Eagle rush where you buy Desert Eagle and armour, and rush if you think opponent is weak in a particular area, that might enable you to win a round back after loss of previous round.
ECO DO NOT BUY ANYTHING, ESPECIALLY GUNS!! Short for economy, used to save money for the next round so you can afford better weapons.
ECO RUSH DO NOT BUY ANYTHING, ESPECIALLY GUNS!! RUSH HARD.
FAKE Terrorists creating a diversion to make it appear that a particular bombsite is the primary objective. Against bad teams the FAKE bomb site often becomes the primary, after your 1 or 2 players annihilates the opposition. Also used by Counter-Terrorists to make it appear that they are holding a particular area of the map strongly.
GG "Good Game". General courtesy extended to the opposition at the end of the war for playing against you. Also used to indicate that the war has ended and the player/clan intends on leaving the server, because a result has been achieved. Teams and players who do not say GG at the end of a war (no matter how well they did) are considered impolite and poor losers.
GH "Good Half". General courtesy extended to the opposition at the end of the first half of a war.
GOBLIN Sneaking your way in for a bomb plant or a bomb defuse. Also used in the context of outflanking the opposition in a manner that is wholly unexpected, usually due to stealth, eg. Hiding while all opposition runs past you, then shooting them in the arse. Also referred to as "NINJA"
GL HF "Good Luck, Have Fun". General courtesy extended to the opposition at the beginning of the war for playing against you.
LO3 Live On Three. The typical method used to commence a war, where the round will restart three times. The war begins after the third restart.
MP5 Buy MP5, full armour, HE grenade, kit/flash Grenade, partial primary ammo, flash, full primary ammo, smoke grenade.
MR12 Maximum Rounds Twelve: Twelve rounds maximum will be played per half before you change sides. First Team to score a total of 13 rounds, wins the map. MR15 Maximum Rounds Fifteen: Fifteen rounds maximum will be played per half before you change sides. First Team to score a total of 16 rounds, wins the map. NL No Live/Not Live: Quick way to indicate that the current round is not live. If you have an AFK on your team, you'd type out NL to make sure the other team doesn't try and LO3, for example.
OT Over-Time. If the combined total of both halves results in a draw, then Over-Time is played. This usually consists of Max Rounds Three, mp_startmoney $10,000 rules.
PCW European equivalent of the word SCRIM, standing for Practice Clan War, means a game which does not mean anything but is played for practice or to test out tactics.
PICK The art of picking off your opponents one at a time who are camping in high probable positions with a pre-aimed shot, or camping a spot waiting for the opposition to appear in a very tightly defined kill zone.
POINT The guy at the front.
PUSH Moving into an offensive position rather than a defensive position. Usually used to describe Counter-Terrorists who have moved out of the normal defensive position in an attempt to out flank the opposition.
ROTATE How Counter-Terrorists reposition their team mates in an attempt to redress a perceived or actual tactical disadvantage. eg. Losing a player in a key position will cause the Counter-Terrorists to rotate a player from a less key position, to fill the void left by the dead team mate. The definition also applies to terrorists. For example, if while moving towards one site you encounter a lot of enemies, you may choose to rotate to the other site where you hope to face less resistance.
STACK Stack means you put all your eggs in one basket and place most, if not all your players in the one area of the map, either as in a Terrorist
RUSH or protecting one bomb site only as Counter-Terrorist. It can also mean having multiple players stand on each others heads, usually with 2 or 3 players, as in the famous de_dust2 double door CT NOA stack. Stacking is great for situations where your team is saving (for example, after losing the previous round), since you will often find yourself with poor guns (USP/Glock) vs. the more powerful weapons of your opponents.
TD or TEAM DOWN When one player kills the entire opposition in a single round. A TD in a CLUTCH situation on the round that decides the map in a final, is about as impressive as you can get.

War Strategy

Basics

Kill the enemy. Do not shoot, grenade or flash your own team.
Ego is possibly the biggest down fall of many a clan. For some reason, many people think they are so much better than everybody else, and don't have to do a lot of the simple things it takes to win. Get over yourself, you will learn quicker and be more successful, if you treat the opposition with respect.
Don't rely on having faster reflexes and aim than your opposition to win wars. Far too many clans think this is all they need and quite often this is all they have got. Clans that over-rely on the AWP tend to have too many of these types of players.
Know yourself and each of your team mates capabilities. For example but not limited to: Don't send a team mate who does not AWP to a position that requires an AWP to hold it effectively or send an AWP'er to a CQC position. It also applies to how you will structure your defenses as well as your attacks. The whole point being, is to have plans and play the game in a way that exploits your individual players strengths, whilst attempting to shield their weaknesses.
Learn the maps, the choke points and how long it takes to get to them. Know the camping spots, the bomb planting and defusal positions, and how to navigate the map without actually having to see where you are going.
Learn what the various choke points on each map you play on are. Learn how to gain control of them early and how to hold them. Learn the timings for moving to and through them are and the time it then takes to reach a bombsite once the choke point has been breached. Also know how to take a choke point back if you need to with more than just superior reflexes and aim.
Learn how to use your radar (see description below) to determine position of teammates and the enemy. You know where the enemy is when you see a dot disappear off your screen.

Have scoreboard bound close by your movement keys so you can easily check team and enemy numbers quickly, without having to take your hand off movement keys.
As Terrorists you should be skin 2 (L337 Krew) as Counter-Terrorists its skin 4 (French GIGN) in order to cover your numbers. 5 guys popping in and out 1 at a time will look like the 1 guy if you all have the same skin. L337 Krew is the skinniest and hardest to see model most of the time; French GIGN has the smallest head for Counter-Terrorists and a head similar to the Phoenix Connektion Terrorist skin.
Some maps allow you to determine early what the other team's defence and offence strat is going to be. Figure out which maps these are and how to do it.
Don't pick up enemy guns if somebody else in your team needs it. If you pick up enemy gun, do not drop it again, because you will keep all the bullets, and the gun is practically useless to whoever else picks it up, because the gun won't have any spare ammo.
Do pick up guns that the enemy drops, if none of your team needs the gun. If you have time, empty and drop them to deny enemy a gun with bullets if they pick it up, since all ammo stays with the person who drops the gun, so long as they are alive when they do it.
Do pick up guns of dead people to top up your own ammo, but make sure you reload first. Very important on wall spam maps like de_nuke.
Know which guns share ammunition to maximise the benefit of the previous points. eg. (Colt, Clarion, Defender, AUG, Para) (USP, UMP) (Glock, MP5) etc.
Don't stand in front of AWP'ers, crouch or get out of the friggin' way.
You absolutely must learn how to use ALL grenades, I cannot stress this strongly enough. Most good teams base their whole strategies around placing specific grenades into specific locations at specific times, they hardly ever rely on just being a better shot than the opposition players. Just about everybody in a half decent clan can aim and shoot when they are supposed to. If you don't throw a HE/Flash Grenade(s) to make them move, or Smoke Grenades to obscure their vision, they will have you pre-lined up for a headshot, and you will lose the majority of these encounters.
Learn how to throw the various grenades so they land where you want them from various positions on the map. This includes knowing what angle you need to use to achieve a certain effect, as in banking off a wall or throwing them at a certain angle so they land where you want it to. You ought to know how to put a grenade where you want it without putting yourself in danger.
Do not waste your HE Grenades unless you know the enemy is there. They are very valuable and can do a lot of damage to the opposition if they placed in the correct location. Far too often people throw HE Grenades with only the hope that the opposition might be there, or attempt to use them to stop a rush.
Some players are really good at avoiding Flashbangs. Use a Smoke Grenade to force them to avoid the Flashbang effect, then throw the Flashbang in. If you time it right, the Flashbang will be exploding in the persons face right about the time they have spun back from trying avoid your fake Flashbang (Smoke Grenade).
The above tip can also be used in situations where you only have a Smoke Grenade. This requires you to throw it towards the enemy where it will bounce, which will give them time to turn around to avoid it. This in turn gives you the upper hand for the split second that they think it is a Flashbang, although all is wasted if A. there are too many players in the area B. the player didn't turn around to avoid the fake flash or if C. you act too late, the smoke deploys and they realise that it is indeed not a Flashbang.
HE Grenades do not genrally stop rushes unless thrown in multiples, but a single flashbang can stop a concerted rush dead in its tracks, especially in Source.
Practice selections of various weapon combinations via the keyboard or mouse scroll wheel, so you are used to going from gun to flashbang to HE, back to gun, then pistol, then gun, to smoke, to gun, to pistol to gun again for example, relatively smoothly. Do it with and without the bomb if you use the mouse wheel to scroll through weapons. Do not use scripts to do this for you, they are not flexible, and you cannot use them at LAN events, so you better just get used to not relying on them.
Keep your crosshairs pointed at head height. Many good players get a lot of kills merely by holding their crosshairs in the correct position. Remember, it takes time to move your mouse, the less time you have to spend moving your mouse the quicker your shots will be and subsequently your kills as well.
If you are relying on being a better shot and out-aiming the opposition players, then you have missed the whole purpose of why this page has been written.
You do not always have to kill the enemy to win. If you have the opposition team cornered in a position where they cannot harm you, leave them there, until they are forced to come out and you can engage them from a high percentage position.
Remember, some of the best spots on the map, can also be the worst spots if the enemy has out flanked you or by-passed you altogether. For example. The Long A pit on Dust2 is a great spot to hold from, unless of course the rest of your team is dead and the opposition has you surrounded, at which point it becomes a death trap.
Not dying is a skill too! Learn how to get yourself out of no-win situations, or better yet, not place yourself in no-win situations in the first place. 1 live player on 1 health is eminently more useful than a dead player!
One of the skills in not dying is to try to recognise whether you are in a high or low percentage position. A high percentage position is one where most people will kill the opposition player pretty easily. eg. Defending a correctly planted bomb at A on Dust2 from the Long A pit with an AWP. A low percentage position is one where you have to make a shot that will be shown in videos for years to come for being so impressive. It is good to be able to make those types of shots, but the probability of success is usually low. eg. Shooting the AWP who sitting in the Long A pit with an AK when you are the last man left from the A bomb site on Dust2 with the bomb planted in A.
Strategy is what you attempt to use to turn those low percentage positions into higher percentage positions.
If you are a really good player trying to offer advice to your not so experienced team mates, don't just yell at them and call them a n00b when they do something stupid or wrong. Tell them what they did wrong, what you would have done differently, and exactly why you would have done it the way you described. Point them here if you have to! If you do not know exactly why you would have done something a certain way, then that is worth investigating and integrating into your playing technique. The whole raisons d'etre for this guide, was to map out exactly the things to do or not do to improve me and my clans playing.
Concentration required to play well for an entire map, is NOT something that the individual or team will acquire over night. This is a learned skill that takes practice, and can only be acquired by playing several matches in a row, 1 after the other. 3 maps quickly in a row, that is, no real break in between each map/match, of actually trying hard to play properly and win against opponents that test you, not just a team that you can walk over in your sleep, is the only real way to achieve this. That is why it helps to play teams that are as good as you or better than you when you are practicing. Good Teams playing against very bad opposition for practice, tends to make that good team sloppy, and they lose their hardened edge.

Organisation

Get a plan and stick to it. Practice the damn plan, and test it to exhaustion in practice wars to see if it actually works and has the outcome you expect. Have alternate plans if it is obvious that your original plan is never going to work. Like finding out 1 site has 3 AWP's in it and you have no smoke grenades.
Don't be afraid to dump a plan if it doesn't work for your clan, so long as you give the plan a real chance to work. Remember the goal of having a plan is to win rounds with the minimum of casualties to your team, thereby winning you the war. It is very hard to win wars, if your team constantly dies, even if you happen to win the round. The money system will eventually grind you down.
Get organised. It's no use having the best strats on the face of the planet, or the best players in the world, if you are a disorganised rabble, with everybody doing their own thing. Practicing your strats is the easiest way to do this. Everybody knowing the order things should be done is good, since if you have to use a substitute, you reduce the amount of explaining you have to do, and any re-organisation you have to do, won't upset things too much.
Timing is everything. A simple strategy executed with precision is always going to be more effective than any strategy that is poorly executed, no matter how good that strategy is.
Start simple and work your way up. Just do simple flashbang pushes, where you smoke to cover you and then put 1 flashbang in after another at selected locations, all the while making sure you have team mates with guns out, in position, ready to take advantage of where the flashbang has been thrown.
Have somebody call the play. Really good clans will already know what it is they have to do, but it still requires that somebody call at the start of the round what it is your clan is going to do that round. Have back up callers in case your main strat caller dies. I've seen clans fall apart because the main strat guy dies and then nobody knows what it is they are supposed to be doing.
Some strats for both Counter-Terrorist and Terrorist depend upon where you spawn. Learn what the obvious strat will be depending upon where you spawn on each map. Examples are: Dust, Dust2 and Prodigy for both Terrorist and Counter-Terrorist, Train for Terrorist, etc.
Instead of assigning specific roles to specific players, get used to assigning roles by player position instead. eg. 1st player goes back left, 2nd player goes right, 3rd plants bomb, 4th backs up player 2 and 5th hangs back to cover the rear etc. etc. Then if one or two of you die, your strategy does not fall into a complete mess. The same principles work for both Terrorists and Counter-Terrorists and helps to avoid situations like there only being 3 of you left as Counter-Terrorist on dust2 and all trying to retake B through the double doors.
While you are dead and at the start of the round, discuss with your team, the location and disposition of the enemy and start working on game plans to defeat what the enemy is doing. eg. Where are the Counter-Terrorists camping the bombsite. Have they done the same the same thing 2 times in a row? What plans in your arsenal do you have to defeat their defences? etc.
Learn to use smoke grenades to provide COVER from AWP's or to just cover your movements and numbers. Learn where you need to place them to be effective. Learn where not to place them, so you do not screw up your own team. In Counter-Strike 1.6, the smoke is not as thick as it used to be and runs out quicker, but starts up a hell of a lot faster, you usually need 2 smoke grenades to provide the same thickness of smoke you used to get in previous versions of Counter-Strike.
Learn to mix your play up. If you keep 5 man rushing the same part of the map, or if your defensive positions are the same every round, even reasonable teams are going to work out quickly how to counter you.
Pay attention to the what the opposition team is doing each round and act accordingly. If they are 5 man rushing the same spot all the time, have 1 player spot for you and then give them the HE Grenade welcoming mat. If they have the same defensive position every round, learn to pick them off, or work out how to put them out of position, or even better, bypass them altogether.
Don't all throw your flashbangs at the same time or in the exact same spot. Spread them out a little in time and placement. If you all throw 1 flashbang at eactly the same spot at the exact same time, you only get the equivalent effect of 1 flashbang. If you throw them 1 after the other with slightly different placements, then your are more likely to ensure you have flashed the opposition player(s) you were trying to flash, and kept them flashed.

Money Management and Spawn

Do not buy immediately, wait for the call from the person calling the strats and listen to the call. The worst thing you can do is have a gun when the rest of your team has pistols, or vice versa.
Person calling the strats needs to call quickly whether you are ECO or BUY UP ASAP.
Have buy binds for things like all grenades, defuse kit (since it swaps positions on the buy menu), usual guns, and the 2 different levels of armour.
Do not replenish your armour at the start of each round. 50% armour is just as effective as 100% armour. Only re-buy your armour if you get down below 30% (because at this level or lower, you may actually run out of armour before you die) or you weren't able to afford full armour with a helmet (something I believe is a failure in the game, as you should be able to buy a helmet separately, without having to buy a new vest as well).
You can replenish your armour to full armour (if you already have a helmet) by purchasing a vest only, at least in Counter-Strike:Source. Not tested in CS 1.6
If you win a MP5 round and intend to buy a rifle the next round and none of your team requires your MP5, drop it at end of the round so the gun cannot be retrieved the next round.
You can increase the teams ammo capacity if you swap guns and buy ammo at start of round for guns that do not share ammo. eg. Colt, AK and AWP.
BUY UP on last rounds or sudden death rounds regardless.
Request Rifle while dead or ASAP in spawn if you die and your team is winning. You need the cash to buy armour and grenades, and not having to buy rifle gives you the spare cash to do so.
State your cash in Team Chat ASAP and at start of each round, so the person calling the strats will know how much you all have and be able to make an informed decision.
If you have $4,500 or less, ask your team for a gun at the start of the round so you can afford full armour, grenades and a defuse kit. There is no excuse to not be fully kitted out if your team is winning, and you will be more useful to your team.
If you have over $5,000 and are already fully geared up, offer to buy Rifles for rest of team, ask "Who needs a gun?" You are a lot better off with team mates that have weapons that actually damage and kill the enemy.
If you have over $10,000 and are already fully geared up, it is very important that you buy Rifles for anybody who has only $7,000 or less. You cannot save more than $16,000, therefore it is better for the teams total cash reserves that you buy a gun for somebody else, rather than have somebody deplete their personal cash reserves when you have so much cash in hand. Feel free to ignore this if you all have over $10,000.
Learn to calculate the enemies cash position by paying attention to what weapons they had and how difficult or easy it was to kill them. i.e. Did they just lose after ECO for 2 rounds? If so, then its likely they will ECO the next round.
Always pick up dropped AWP's if you are winning round or have won it. At respawn drop picked up AWP for your clans AWP'er (DO NOT BUY GUN, unless of course you have a lot of cash) Unless they are low on cash, Clan Awper Buys Rifle for the person who drops AWP.
It can be advantageous to not buy full ammo for guns until you have ensured you have a Defuse Kit, a full complement of Grenades and Armour. Its a real pain in the arse to come up $50 short for full armour just to have 90 Rounds of AK ammo in reserve when you can easily get away with 60 and even 30 can be enough, or to not being able to buy that Smoke Grenade you know you are going to need. Do you really need 30 rounds of spare AWP ammunition?
If it is the last round of the half and you have lots of cash, buy a Desert Eagle for your pistol, unless you are a Counter-Terrorist who thinks the USP is a better gun.
Money Management can be critical to winning or losing the game. The team that manages its money better can sometimes be the deciding factor between evenly matched teams. For example: If you have a Colt player with $7,500 and you have the worlds best AWP player with only $5,000, the Colt player should buy the AWP, and the AWP player should buy the Colt, and they should swap guns. Now your AWP player has an AWP and full armour + Grenades and your Colt player doesn't have left over cash they can't use to benefit the team. This is what we call, "playing as a team!"

Communication, Sound and Movement

Get your Microphone working. You can be the best player in the world, but unless you can communicate where the enemy is and in what numbers, you are only half useful, and you are dead when the rest of your team gets annihilated because you didn't tell them the enemy was coming and you are left all by yourself.
When communicating enemy positions, be precise, and give numbers of players, and weapons when possible.
Count off dead enemies, start off with 5 Terrorists/Counter-Terrorists, when one dies count one off to yourself, if you are not under pressure announce number of opponents over voice comms, by saying "4 Terrorists", "3 Counter-Terrorists" etc.
Bind a Radio key, preferably something like; "Enemy Spotted" or "Need Backup" close to your movement keys, so your team mates radar will highlight your current position.
Pay attention to who kills who with what sort of weapon. Use this information to your advantage. Also if you know where your team mate was shot from with a particular weapon, tell your team the location of that opposition player.
Call your status out, eg. "Reload", "Throwing Grenade", "Throwing Flash", "Throwing Smoke", "Blind", "I have X Health" etc.
Other than what I have stated above and below, keep voice and radio chat to an absolute minimum, so your team can pick up enemy sounds as early as possible.
Have your team agree the names of map positions so everybody knows what you are talking about in the previous points. Even go so far as labelling a map (as shown in the example below) and put it on a web site or transfer it to each of your members some how. You don't even have to agree with the names I given to these locations (dust2 if you're not aware), just as long as everybody on your team knows wtf you are talking about. I may even make some for the war maps later if hassled enough, but don't expect anything to grand.

The overview images for the warmaps can be downloaded from here. (1.4MB File)
The overview images for all the Counter Strike Source maps can be downloaded from here. (2.04MB File)
Unless rushing in a group, good players when they come around a corner only reveal the absolute minimum of themselves for the shortest time possible, to pick off the next likely camping position. Map knowledge is crucial in this regard and a skill that requires constant practice.
Don't run behind each other, fan out in as widespread a pattern as possible, so you can't get owned by a single player. You may want to disobey this deliberately if you have a specific flash rush strat, but I think it will be rare.
Don't block your team mates in, the guy in the line of fire has right of way.
Do stay as close as possible to your team mates when attacking without blocking your team mates.
Don't run with your knife out, at least have a pistol out.
Do run from spawn at the start of round with your knife out when it is your intention to get to a choke point as soon as possible.
Don't make any noise whatsoever unless you really really have to, (This applies equally to Counter-Terrorists, as it does to Terrorists) one foot step, zoom sound, or weapon switch is all it can take to alert the enemy to your position. This includes throwing grenades, shooting, and switching weapons unnecessarily.
You can move quickly when there is a lot of gun fire and grenades going off as the sound of Gun Fire, Especially AK's, which will cover the sounds of your footsteps. It is one of the reasons why people use silenced Colts in wars.
Another reason to use a silenced Colt, is so you can hear the thud of your bullets hitting the enemy when you are shooting through walls, etc.
Do make a lot of noise if it is your intention to act as a decoy or create a diversion.
Learn to tell the number of opponents by the sounds of their footsteps. Its easy to pick a lone opponent versus 2 sets of running footsteps, which in turn can usually be differentiated from 3 or more, at which point you are going to be able to say, "there are at least 3 enemy at location X".
Don't break Windows and Vents when you are close to them, or you need them intact to alert you to possible enemy movement.
Do break Windows and Vents when you are far away from them and its to your advantage that they punched out. Punching the top vents on de_nuke as Counter-Terrorist, the bottom vents of de_nuke before you plant in the bottom site as a Terrorist, the Vent in the Counter-Terrorists Sniper nest on de_inferno as Terrorists are good examples of these. Don't punch the bottom vents as Terrorists on de_nuke, if there is only 1-2 of you left, since you do not have the player numbers to COVER like you would if you had 4 or 5 players left alive.
It can be advantageous to pick up other teams guns, so if you are a Terrorist you have a Colt or if you are a Counter-Terrorist you have an AK, since you may get a slight delay in response because opponents cannot tell your gun sound from their own teams gun sound. This slight delay in response time can make all the difference.
Don't allow yourself to get picked off from obvious camping spots. Learn to know where these camping spots are and avoid them when possible.
Don't stand still to take on a camped enemy. You will just get spammed to death along with the rest of you team. The entrance to site B on dust2 from the tunnels is a classic example of why you don't stop to take the guys camped outside B double doors. You will die and cause the rest of your team to die as the get stuck behind your lifeless body.
POINT should be a guy with a rifle excepting special places on maps where an AWP'er should go first. In which case the point man should act as a fast moving decoy to attract fire from snipers, and let your snipers have a free shot.
POINT always watches the front, and sweeps all corners as you move around map, rest of team watches spots opposition can appear from once the point guy has swept that spot, UNLESS
Whoever is last in line, looks backward to COVER your backs and should also have a Rifle, unless you are going to hang right back with a AWP.
Pair up, and make sure you pair up a strong players with a weak players. The weak players should be the point and act as decoy for strong players.
Don't bait your teammates. That is to say, if you are rushing out, don't let your teammate run out on their own without backup and don't run straight for cover at the first sign of gun fire. This principal is very important when dealing with an opposition AWP, because if you don't move out together, you will get picked off one at a time, when you should be able to go 1 for 1.
Don't rambo, at least not against good teams/players. If your teammate(s) are 10 meters behind you, they are not really going to be able to give you very good support? If they have just shot a whole clip of ammo, they are going to be reloading right? Why weren't you out there shooting at the opposition as well in the first place? If they have bought grenades, they are going to want to use them at appropriate locations, right? You running out like a headless chicken is not going to help one bit, and ruins the perfectly good flash they were going to throw, because you are now in the way, AND they have to also switch back to a real gun!
Baiting is a legitimate tactic in wars if done deliberately, especially if it enables your team to eliminate the best player on the opposing team for the loss of only one of your own and preferably weakest players. Done often enough, it destroys the confidence of the good player and demoralises the opposition. Just remember if you are the bait, to give the exact location of the opposition player, don't just run without looking.
When working in pairs, the front guy should be crouched while the guy right behind him stands. Guys in front should generally be crouched when working their way quietly around a map. Feel free to ignore this if your location is well and truly known to opposition.
When working in pairs approaching a single sided corner, learn to work out the correct distance you need to be so the inside guy and far side guy reveal themselves at the same time. The inside guy needs to be at the front.
When approaching entrances with 2 sides, the left hand guy looks right, the right hand guy looks left. I know this sounds like really basic stuff, but I've seen this screwed up often.
Do shoot close and far corners of walls, doors and boxes as you move around the map, to push opposition players out of position. Practiced enough, you can even get kills this way.
Do spam walls and boxes of likely camping positions of enemy players as you move around the map.
When spamming, do not have the whole team doing it at once, learn to alternate between yourselves and only empty half a clip at a time, then reload. This ensures that somebody has a gun out with ammo, and you can cancel your reload sequence if the opposition comes, and not be entirely defenceless.
You must learn what the good positions on a map are, and what the bad positions on a map are, and you must learn not to get caught out of position that leaves you in a situation where you are going to die for little or no value. eg. Dying without getting a shot off = bad. Dying and killing 3 of the enemy = good. M'kay?
Know what positions on the map are DeathTraps! Move through these positions as quickly as possible. As soon as the enemy knows you are there, you will be wearing several HE Grenades and that can effectively end the round for you team. Do not be afraid to surrender these positions and fall back. It is often advantageous to cause the enemy to think you are moving into ones of these locations to get them to use up their supply of HE Grenades.
Crouch when moving up and down ladders, it is slower, but it does not make noise.

Terrorist Notes

When spawning as Terrorists, everybody should be COVERing entrances to make sure you don't get rushed while you decide what to do.
Do not buy Glock Ammo EVER!!.
If the Counter-Terrorists ECO stacks 1 bomb site, don't take them on. Plant the bomb at the other bombsite, then kill them.
The teams AWP'er(s) NEVER carries the bomb! Unless of course you all have AWP's.
By rights, your weakest player ought to be the bomb planter, since your better players ought to have their guns out shooting people and not be out of action planting the bomb. Don't feel bad, I'm my clans bomb planter, since the rest of the clan are better shots than I am.
Decoys and players COVERing away from main body of attack should constantly communicate their position and the position, numbers and disposition (are they pushing up, rushing or holding back) of the enemy.
If you are hard rushing, only the first 2 guys should be throwing Flashes/Smoke and HE, otherwise you just end up screwing your own team up.
Drop the bomb in a safe location if you are not 100% sure you will be proceeding in a certain direction.
If your team drops the bomb, and you need to pick it up, when you get close to the bomb, throw your gun down and pick it up to make the pick up sound to draw camped Counter-Terrorists out of their hiding place.
The bomb carrier does not lead the charge nor should they be last, they should be the 3rd or 4th person in, so bomb does not get dropped in a heavily defended position, or gets there too late or taken out in back play. If you lose 4 guys without taking out at least 3 Counter-Terrorists or damaging them severely, you are probably going to lose the round no matter what.
If you are not hard rushing, the bomb carrier should be doing the flashing. As I have explained before, he can't be the decoy, and most likely not have an AWP either. He should be 3rd or 4th in line, which is where you want the Flash guy to be.
With the new money system in 1.6, it is important that Terrorists plant the bomb, especially in the early rounds. Actually its important to plant the bomb every round, and almost equally important that Counter-Terrorists now stop this from happening. As it is now not the complete disaster for Terrorists it used to be, if they lose the round after planting the bomb.
The new money system works like this:
- If the round timer runs out you get nothing (Never do this if you only have a pistol, let the CTs kill you)
- If the round timer runs out and you die, you get nothing and lose whatever weapons you are holding (be careful about your cash position when letting the round timer run out, the gun you are trying to save had better be worth it.)
- If you die without planting the bomb, you get $1400 (which increases by $500 per round for every subsequent round lost, to a maximum of $2900) + $300 per kill
- If you plant bomb, die, and Counter-Terrorists defuse and lose, you get $2200 + $300 per kill
- If you plant bomb, die, and win with bomb exploding, you get $3500 + $300 per Kill
- If you plant bomb, die due to the bomb's explosion, and win, you get $3500 + $300 per kill
- If you plant bomb and live you get $3500 + $300 per kill
- If kill all Counter-Terrorists without planting the bomb you get $3250 + $300 per Kill
- If you plant bomb, live and kill all Counter-Terrorists BEFORE bomb goes off you get $3250 + $300 per kill
- If you plant bomb, live and kill all Counter-Terrorists AFTER bomb goes off you get $3500 + $300 per Kill
  - Please let me know if I have got any of those numbers incorrect.
Don't run to the bomb site with the bomb in your hands and your back to the likely spots the Counter-Terrorists will appear from or where they maybe camped. Bombsite B on de_cbble is a good example of where this happens a lot.
Protect the bomb planter at all costs. Don't run off leaving them all alone or with no COVER.
Do not stand there watching the bomb planter, planting the bomb. Watch the possible points from where the remaining Counter-Terrorists will appear from instead. Far too many people do this simple thing wrong.
Use Flashbangs & Smoke to COVER and buy your bomb planter time to get the bomb down.
Plant the bomb as wide out in the open as possible. Or previously specified points as per map tactics.
Do plant the bomb in a hidden spot when you are the last man and you know the opposition is closing in quickly and/or its a 1 v 1 or 1 v 2 situation. You have to make a judgement call here, as to how much time you have to plant.
Know where to absolutely NOT plant the bomb. There are certain spots on particular maps that you should avoid planting the bomb at all costs. de_train is a good example of having specific parts of the bombsite where you should avoid planting the bomb, since it is possible for the Counter-Terrorists to defuse under almost complete cover with no visual clues that the bomb is being defused. This also includes avoiding bomb planting positions which result in silent planting of the bomb, which will cause your clan to forfeit a war in the GameArena Counter-Strike Ladder.

I have provided an indepth guide to bomb planting positions in Counter-Strike:Source here

Be very circumspect about planting the bomb if you have not killed any Counter-Terrorists and you are pretty sure they haven't ECO'ed. Again, make sure the bomb planter is well COVERED while they are planting the bomb.
Announce bomb plant position. Eg. Dust2 site A you can plant for Long A or Stairs defence.
Once the bomb is planted, the aim of the game is to delay! delay! delay! Do not engage the enemy if at all possible, just do everything you can to delay the Counter-Terrorists from trying to defuse the bomb. Try not to die doing this.
Know where the hell you should be once the bomb is planted. Do you really need to be standing next to the Bomb carrier when they plant the bomb? Is there a better position near the bombsite you ought to be in an attempt to stop the opposition retaking the bombsite?
Check scoreboard and announce enemy numbers and likely incoming locations.
Use flashbangs as Terrorists to defend planted bomb.
Use unused smoke grenades to defend planted bomb by throwing them in direction enemy will come from, but in such a way that it doesn't affect your view of the incoming enemy. Do this if for no other reason than to drop the fps and lag out incoming opposition.
Shoot the corners of walls, boxes and doors of the likely incoming direction of the Counter-Terrorists, as this will delay their approach and likely to damage or possibly kill them. In any case, it will delay the Counter-Terrorists re-taking of the bombsite. On de_dust2, shooting the crates at bomb site A stairs, from the bomb site is a good example of this.
Don't defend the planted bomb, when you can do it from a safe location. Snipers should COVER long range, rifles should COVER short-range attack. eg. bomb site A plant on de_dust2, sniper takes care of Bomb, AK guy COVERs T Double Doors, split team evenly with emphasis on protecting planted bomb. eg. If we have 3 players left, 2 watch the bomb, 1 watches their backs at double doors.
When you cannot defend from a safe distance, the guy with the least to lose and/or the most money, should stay near the bomb until the last possible second to ensure the bomb does not get sneakily defused.
ALWAYS KILL THE BOMB DEFUSER FIRST!! I know this may seem counter-intuitive, but this is what typically happens. The bomb defuser has a defuse kit, if you do not kill the bomb defuser first, and try to kill people shooting at you, you will probably kill them, and you may in fact live long enough to kill the bomb defuser, but by the time you get to the bomb defuser, the bomb is defused and you will have lost the round. It is better to die and to have killed the bomb defuser, than to live and lose the round.

Counter-Terrorist Notes

Buy defuse kits, otherwise pick up defuse kits off the ground if you don't have one.
If you move from your assigned spot as a Counter-Terrorist, communicate your location as you move around the map.
Don't completely abandon your assigned bombsite when you hear that the other bombsite is under attack until the bomb is planted. The attack on the other bombsite may just be a fake. So leave at least 1 man in or near the bombsite to keep an eye on it in case that was the Terrorist plans all along, or they just change their minds on a map that allows them to do so easily. eg. de_inferno. Listening to your teams calls are crucial. Forget all that if your team has been wiped out from the other bombsite, since it will be highly probable that is where the Terrorists will end up planting.
If you push up early on the Terrorists and make a pick, (kill 1 or more of them) fall back. You have successfully put the Terrorsist team off balance, you have probably messed up any plans they had, and you are probably better off player number wise than you otherwise would have been. Don't screw this up by doing something stupid like dying.
If you are a Counter-Terrorist and the bomb is dropped, inform your team immediately. If the bomb is dropped in your favour, everybody on the Counter-Terrorist side needs to converge on that area via the safest possible path as quickly as possible and camp the bomb from the best positions available in that area.
As Counter-Terrorist, relay to your team the bomb carriers location if you know where they are, or the fact that you have spotted the Terrorists but do not see the bomb carrier.
Don't defend the bombsites as Counter-Terrorists exactly the same way, every round. You need some variety to your defence, or the Terrorists will wise up (if they even remotely clever) and you will get picked off with grenades, or shot through a wall.
Don't be afraid to stack a bombsite (especially if you can get away with it unseen) if the Terrorists keep taking the same bombsite successfully. Alternatively, change your players around and put your best, or most in form players in that part of the map.
If you get rushed, use flashes to buy yourself time for re-enforcement's to arrive, or to allow you time to escape. Throw in front of rushing enemy to slow the rush down, or to thin their numbers out, to reduce the numbers that you have to deal with at any one time.
Don't die to 4-5 man Terrorist rushes, unless you have a really good spot, it's better to fall back and have 5 Counter-Terrorists to take back the bombsite than to die needlessly.
If you cannot defuse the bomb in time, or even get close enough to the bomb in time, stake the bomb site out to pick off fleeing Terrorists. At the very least, and this is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT, try to make as many of Terrorists as possible buy again the next round.
This piece of advice is for both sides, if it is not possible to win the round, make the other team suffer as much as possible by killing as many enemy as you can, or have them die to an exploding bomb, to try to ruin their economy as much as possible. This can make or break clans in wars. eg. If a Clan wins a round and BUY UP and wins again, their players might have around $3000. If they win again without dying, each player on the winning team will have over $6000, if they win the round but die, they will now use up most of the $6000 they had, restocking guns, grenades and armour.
If you have ECO'ed and are completely out gunned, but still have 5 people left, and the bombsite permits this type of strat, don't even attempt to defuse the bomb as a Counter-Terrorist, but attempt to keep the Terrorists boxed into the bombsite so the bomb explosion kills them. You were most likely going to lose the round anyway, but having all the Terrorists die, forces them to rebuy from scratch, therefore forcing the Terrorists into a likely ECO round if you win the next round after this one. Of course don't do this if its the last round of the half or sudden death round.
If its 2 v 5, and bomb in planted don't try to defuse, unless it is the last round of the half or sudden death and you have nothing to lose, meet up and camp a position outside bomb site to pick off as many Terrorists as possible.
If there 1v5, unless it is the last round of the half or sudden death and you have nothing to lose, and you have a good gun and/or armour, run away and hide, or pick safe camping spot to pick off fleeing Terrorists.
The fastest beeping sounds of the bomb timer means you have approx 7 seconds left to defuse, don't even bother if you don't have a defuse kit. It takes 5 second to defuse with a defuse kit, 10 seconds to defuse without a defuse kit. The defuse timer has to be over 1/3 the way along before the fast beeps start if you are defusing without a kit, otherwise you die.
If the bomb is planted, as a Counter-Terrorist, don't try to enter the bombsite alone. Try to organise yourselves quickly, look up on scoreboard at how many Terrorists are left and announce via voice comms numbers and likely locations, then communicate what grenades you have, your entry point, and which direction you will head when you enter the bombsite. Grenade and Flash at the same time, and enter bomb site together, and head for your designated point to attack first, so you aren't all aiming for the 1 guy while rest of the opposition shoot you all in the back. This is difficult to do, unless you practise a lot, but it will be the difference between thinking you are good and actually being good, and can prove it. Really good clans have all this stuff prearranged with way points and entry timing and they are left only calling enemy positions. Most clans panic when the bomb has been planted. How quickly and smoothly you can retake a bomb site is an excellent demonstration of your clans skill level.
Try to kill all Terrorists before you begin defusing.
If you have time, check corners for hidden campers, waiting for you to start defusing.
Announce the fact to your team that you have a defuse kit.
Let the person with the defuse kit defuse the bomb no matter what. If they kill the bomb defuser the defuse kit will be on top of the bomb.
If you are going to defuse, call out loudly that you are going to go for the defuse, to make sure you don't have 4 of your team running for the bomb and you all get shot in the back by the one hidden terrorist.
Do not stand there watching the defuser, defuse the bomb. Watch the possible points from where the remaining Terrorists will appear from instead. Far too many people do this simple thing wrong.
Use Flashbangs & Smoke Grenades to COVER and buy your bomb defuser time to defuse the bomb.
Leave your defusing until the last second, so the Terrorists must stay near bomb site and even if they kill you, the bomb still goes off and kills them, forcing them to BUY UP.
Crouch when defusing, you are a smaller target.
COVER the bomb defuser, by surrounding him from points where he can be attacked. If there is no opposition left, run away in case he stuffs up, or it is close.
Don't chase the last Terrorist(s) that are miles away from the bomb site, if the bomb has been planted. They will not usually be an immediate threat, so defuse the bomb or help COVER your bomb defuser. There is a good chance that this lone Terrorist will kill you and then kill the bomb defuser straight after they have defused the bomb, because the bomb defuser will be in a poor position if the bomb is planted correctly and/or just not ready to take on an opponent, so what should be an easy round win ends up being a round win that costs you more than it should have. An example of this is Counter-Terrorists chasing a Terrorist who is up the ladder in the Terrorist Sniper Nest or in the tunnel below it on Inferno after the bomb has been planted.
Use your Smoke and Flashbang Grenades for cover and to slow approaching Terrorists while you are trying to defuse.
To summarise the order you should select personal (assuming you have time and options) to defuse:
1. Person closest to the bomb with Defuse Kit and most health and most money and weakest member of team
2. Person closest to the bomb with Defuse Kit and most health and most money
3. Person closest to the bomb with Defuse Kit and most health
4. Person closest to the bomb with Defuse Kit
5. Person closest to the bomb
When faking a defuse, to lure out the final Terrorist protecting the bomb, it is important not to make any movement sounds, and to try to cover the most likely position the Terrorist will come from. Use advice from your dead team mates over voice comms for the likely location of the final Terrorist. When fake defusing the bomb, there are many things to consider first:
1. If you fake defuse the bomb is it going to help me at all? If there is more then 1 Terrorist left there is really no point. Any decent team will only send one team mate to check if its a real defuse, and even if you did manage to kill him, you still have to fake another player out. There really is no time since the player you killed can just tell his team mate if you fake again or not. Alternative, they may send 2 in at the same time in a co-ordinated fashion from different directions, if they are setup well.
2. How much time is left? Depending on how much time is left on the bomb, will help you decide what to do. If the bomb is just planted, and if you have a kit, you have about 20-25 seconds to work with. It's often much better to go in search for the Terrorist as you will get a better idea of where they are or are not, if you have to fake defuse. A lot of the time you can suprise a Terrorist by slowing walking around and catching him watching another line. If you have less then 15 seconds you can do 2 things. a) Fake the defuse in hope he will peak and you can snap him. b) Try a real defuse in hope he thinks you have faked and you might get it.
3. Weapons: This can depend on what weapon you and your enemy have. For example if the other team is on full eco and you fake defuse the worst that will happen is someone will peek with a glock. This makes it very easy for you to either continue defusing or just turn and shoot him. So think about what gun your enemy has/may have and decide on the best idea.

Thanks to TeamLivid | ScoTT for his additional input on fake defusing.

Source Notes

The maps are considerably more complex than they are for 1.6. The basic layouts have remained the same, but there are now a lot more nooks and crannies that have to be checked or taken into consideration when moving around the map, and objects strewn all over the place that restrict your movement and require avoiding.
All Source Grenades follow a flatter trajectory than their 1.6 counterparts.
All Source Grenades do not fly as far as they do in 1.6.
All Source Grenades do not bounce anything like their 1.6 counterparts do when banking them off walls and objects. Sometimes they bounce more, sometimes they bounce less.
All Source Grenades fly through the air a lot faster than their 1.6 counterparts.
HE Greandes do no damage if you hit somebody with them. They do damage people when they explode though.
Flashbang Grenades do damage if you hit somebody with them.
Smoke Grenades do damage to armour if you hit somebody with them.
Flashbangs blind and deafen you and causes your screen to show a picture (an after image of what you were viewing at the time the flashbang went off) that does not accurately reflect reality.
Turning away from FlashBangs doesn't do anything to avoid the FlashBang effect
HE Grenades are more powerful, and also deafen you.
HE Grenade blasts do not penetrate walls.
Smoke Grenades are back to the older 1.3 version where they take longer to fully display the smoke, but is thicker than 1.6, and tactically more useful.
2 Smoke Grenades thrown on top of the bomb, will make the bomb and anybody defusing it, impossible to see.
You can see where to aim through smoke by aiming at the oppositions muzzle flashes. If you are spamming through smoke make sure you move after each volley, otherwise you will get picked off.
Use the fact that Grenades deafen the opposition to cover your footsteps.
Grenades will eliminate the momentum of a player who is in mid air if it hits them.
Grenades can be recovered from dead players from either team, so it can be worthwhile keeping and eye out for them, even going so far as using your own supply up, so you can pick them up to deny the opposition access to them, otherwise you may find them being used against you!
The recoil patterns are different to 1.6.
Knifing is completely different to 1.6. Don't ask me how it is different, it just is.
Footsteps are a lot quieter and very difficult to pick up.
Shadows enabled allow you to see people well before you come around the corner, so be on the lookout for them. Left Hand Side, going down Dark Stairs on Dust2 is a classic example. Be aware that your good camping spot can be given away by your shadow, so know which spots cast shadows that will give your location away. Currently you will need your teammates to tell you what spots cast shadows that enable you to be seen and from where, as you cannot see your own shadow.
Be aware of the locations and positions you are in, where shadow clipping bugs occur.
Hold the fire button down outside the defuse area and the bomb will automatically arm as soon as you get within the bomb planting area. You really should know where you ought to be planting before you even play in a war, but it's still useful.
The Bomb Planted beeps now can be heard from a lot further away now.
The defuse sound is no longer as audible as it used to be at distance. You have to be considerably closer than in 1.6 to use the defuse sound as a cue to engage the bomb defuser. In most cases you will see them, well before you can hear the defuse sound cue.
The way people move through the air is different than when they jump in 1.6. You need to be aware of this when trying to aim at people jumping around.
Ambient Sounds which cannot be turned off in Source, can cover your footsteps to a certain degree.
Many walls cannot be shot through like they could in 1.6, although the edges of them usually can be. Don't waste ammo trying to spam people through the wall like you would in 1.6, it will get you killed.
Most doors and boxes can still be shot through as in 1.6.
Objects on the maps provide significant amounts of tactical uses, either for the benefit of blocking a choke point, making it more difficult to locate and defuse the bomb, showing that the opposition have passed through a particular area, used to fake the fact you have passed through a particular area.
Many objects cannot be walked over or jumped on top of, even though normal visual inspection would cause you to assume otherwise, eg. Car Tire, Barrels.
Doing a "crouch-jump-crouch" will enable you to get on top of boxes that a normal jump-crouch cannot reach.
It is a lot more difficult to tell the 2 teams apart, especially at a distance compared to 1.6. You really need to learn to use your radar well!.
The Netcode for Source is a lot better than it used to be with just a couple of issues remaining.
The Ammo stays with the Gun in Source. If you buy a gun for a Team mate buy Ammo for it as well if you can afford to. It also has the effect that you cannot pick up extra ammo buy picking up and dropping guns.
Don't camp hard up against thin walls on Source Maps, your models textures will clip straight through the wall and you are easily visible. Walls that are this thin are usually able to be shot through in Source.
The knife and pistol has the same running speed (currently) in Source. Always run with pistol out rather than knife as opposed to CS 1.6. The Scout actually allows the fastest movement.
The Galil & Famas has slower running speed (deliberately by Valve) than other rifles of the same class.
Most guns like Pistols besides the Desert Eagle can now shoot through doors.
Crouching puts your point of view at a standing models knee height, or a crouching models crotch height. When you crouch, your head is more than likely still visible to standing players around you. Learn the areas where it is completely useless to crouch as you are still visible to other players, but you cannot see them. is now fixed as of 25AUG2006.
The Radar is significantly different to CS 1.6, and is much more complicated to use as of 25AUG2006.

Other

All of the above might sound like a lot, but the more you practice, the better you will be at it, and the more you will be able to soak up the information and act accordingly.
To practice your aim try http://www.missionred.com/ and choose Reflex_2 if you can get past level 10 then your aim won't be the reason you lose. Also you can play Quake 3 CPMA one of the fastest FPS there is. Both of these will improve your aim and reflexes.
The Best way too awp is Using the SpawN-Jump, While Jumping to the Left/Right. Strafe jump and At half way, Stop, At soon as possable Crouch and try too kill your Enemy (Here is a Video of SK|Vilden's awp guide. The link can be found here :

That video Will show you how too Awp Better, What not too do, and What too do with the awp.

I acknowledge there are contradictions in this document, mainly due to the fact that what will work in one situation may not work in another. In the end you have to use your own judgement as to what you are going to do, depending upon the situation you are in, how many players are alive on your team, their condition and what weapons you have. Experience is your best guide.

Very Basic Buying Strats

The buy strats are very very basic. They are here to introduce newer players to certain concepts involving the economics of Counter-Strike. Furthermore, they usually will not hurt you that badly to follow them anyway, not unless your playing a really good clan, in which case you don't need my buy strats, you ought to know your own off by heart, or you are going to get whipped regardless.

1st Round

Counter-Terrorist, is usually 1 HE, 1 Flash, 1 Defuse Kit, 1 extra clip ammo for 3 players the rest get 2 Flash and no defuse for re-taking bomb sites. Sometimes you may want to mix it up with guys who have armour. Suffice it to say, you do not need 5 defuse kits amongst your entire team for the first round.
Terrorist, is usually Glock armour for majority with 1 or 2 getting grenades and those with grenades are shepherded by the ones with armour. i.e. 2 Armour guys at the front, 1 Armour guy at back. Alternatively, you get 2 with Glock armour, 2 with Grenades, 1 with DE or USP, or some combination of these.

2nd Round

1st Round Win (1-0)

For 2nd round MP5 it
You don't buy a rifle, cause if you die, you give opposition your rifle and they can then win that round.
Use extra flashes either to defend planted bomb or to get you into a bombsite

WARNING: If you are a Counter-Terrorist this strategy is very susceptible to the DE RUSH. My only advice is that if you are playing at a level where teams can pull off a DE RUSH successfully, you should have your own buy strategies by now!

The successful DE RUSH requires that the majority of your team be able to aim and shoot on the run. Furthermore your team needs to be coordinated enough so that you end up with the situation where 3-5 players from your team are all shooting at the one opposition player simultaneously, thus enabling you to kill each opposition player you encounter with a single shot from each of your own players using a Desert Eagle at medium to close range and assuming you are hitting them! Do not DE RUSH if the majority of your team cannot use the gun well in the situation I have just described, otherwise you are just wasting your money.

1st Round Loss (0-1)

For 2nd Round Don't buy anything ECO RUSH depending upon map, and side you are on.

Terrorists Notes for 2nd Round:

If you planted the bomb full ECO and buy AK + Armour + Grenades in 3rd Round ($2200 + $1900 = $4100 for 3rd round per player worst case scenario)
ECO then AK + Armour 3rd round to get an AK + Armour vesus MP5 + Armour Battle
DE RUSH second round and try and win by rushing a site late in the round
ECO twice, then buy AWP's 4th round

NB: $4,160 Gets a Terrorist an AK + 2 Clips + Full Armour + 1 HE Grenade + 1 Flashbang Grenade.

3rd Round

1st Rnd Win, 2nd Rnd Win (2-0)

3rd Round Keep MP5 if you are a Terrorist, the Counter-Terrorists most like going to ECO again. Buy Rifles if you are a Counter-Terrorist depending upon what Opposition might do, and how many times the Terrorists have planted the bomb in the previous two rounds, if the Terrorists planted in the 1st and/or 2nd rounds, then there's a good chance the 3rd round will not be an ECO, top up Grenades (This is map dependant and depends upon whether you are Terrorists or Counter-Terrorists)

1st Rnd Loss, 2nd Rnd Loss (0-2)

3rd Round, maybe buy HE, but otherwise just ECO again or AK RUSH if you ECO previous round (more of an option for Terrorists than Counter-Terrorist, popular strat for Dust2 or so I am told by reliable sources) With new money system, if you plant bomb in either 1st, 2nd or both rounds, then you can do a partial to full BUY UP, since you will have a minimum of $1400 + $1900 + $800 for each bomb plant + kills and left over cash, so long as you fully ECO 2nd Round.

1st Rnd Loss, 2nd Rnd Win (1-1)

Well done, BUY UP on Rifles, unless you already have enemies MP5, as you should be able to get a rifle, armour and a grenade, especially as a Terrorist.

1st Rnd Win, 2nd Rnd Loss (1-1)

Well you stuffed up, now u can either ECO, or MP5 its up to you and depends upon map.

4th Round

1st Rnd Win, 2nd Rnd Win, 3rd Rnd Win (3-0)

BUY UP, Buy Rifle, Get AWP, Buy as many grenades as you can afford, Buy others rifles if you haven't died yet. The other team will have eco'ed Rounds 2 and 3, but now they will have Rifles and Armour to.

1st Rnd Win, 2nd Rnd Win, 3rd Rnd Loss (2-1)

Don't buy anything, check money status of team, then decide whether to ECO or BUY UP.

1st Rnd Win, 2nd Rnd Loss, 3rd Rnd Win (2-1)

BUY UP

1st Rnd Win, 2nd Rnd Loss, 3rd Rnd Loss (1-2)

ECO You are struggling now, you have to save

1st Rnd Loss, 2nd Rnd Loss, 3rd Rnd Win (1-2)

Well Done, BUY UP.

1st Rnd Loss, 2nd Rnd Loss, 3rd Rnd Loss (0-3)

BUY UP after double ECO rounds 2 and 3.

1st Rnd Loss, 2nd Rnd Win, 3rd Rnd Win (2-1)

Well done, BUY UP.

1st Rnd Loss, 2nd Rnd Win, 3rd Rnd Loss (1-2)

Don't buy anything, check money status of team, then decide whether to ECO or BUY UP.

5th Round

If you win 4th Round, you are well on the way to winning the war if this is the 1st half, or you scored 4 or more wins in the 1st half.