Now that 2fort5 is out, I think it's appropriate I take the opportunity to expound on my sentry placement strategy. I have added more screenshots, new ideas, and most of all, more no-no's. As this is going to be kind of simple as far as new suggestions go, I'm going to point out all the most horrible places to put sentries as well. [Note on the title, 'Two Forts Again" -- there are no numbers in the graphics I'm using, so I had to improvise.]

OK, this will be pretty short now. Not much text, lots of screenshots (you know, "pictures' worth a thousand words"). First thing I want to do is give you the only new sentry spot that works. In the figure at right, the sentry is placed in the corner of the hallway to the flag. This must be used in conjunction with a dispenser, which you can see at left in fig 2, otherwise the enemy will skirt around it every time. In the images, you'll notice the large white 'X'; this is where you must put your sentry or dispenser if you switched their locations. Common sense dictates this, so that the dispenser cannot be destroyed from down the entrance hallway and so that the sentry has a full view. If your team is having trouble defending the flag (a more likely proposition with 2fort5 than 2fort4), then 2 engineers should build their structures like this, with a dispenser protecting the sentry from the front. For example, in figure 2, the sentry would be immediately beyond the dispenser facing you. This gives the sentry a great deal of protection against attacks.

That, my friends, is the only new sentry spot created by the new map. There is one more thing I'd like to mention, though; I was remiss in including this in the 2fort4/32 guide. Though I do not like placing sentry guns on the ramps, if I am forced to this is the spot I will pick [see fig 3]. In the blue fort, this is an incredible hiding place -- just look at Fig 4 to see how well it hides. I took fig 4 immediately after fig 3, with the sentry still standing. This is what an attacker will see (or won't see).

Now I will proceed to show you the most horrible sentry spots. First one -- the one I see most often. In the figure at right [fig 5] the sentry is built in the corner of the flag room facing the flag with the two doorways on either side, hidden in the dark (I carry the enemy flag for lighting purposes). This is the absolute worst place to place a sentry, and the bad thing is, this is the only place I see them anymore. The whole problem is, any soldier, demo, or hwguy worth his mettle can almost instantly blow this sentry away, and the other classes have only marginally more difficulty. Why? Because all an attacker must do is slide out until he can almost see the sentry, but not so far that it would detect him; then toss a nail/mirv grenade in there, and boom, it's over. Other classes (except scout, who shouldn't be attacking alone anyway, he'll get murdered on the way back if solitary) simply toss 2 regular grenades. I'm telling you, this is a horrible spot for a sentry and I GUARANTEE it will not last 5 seconds during a competent attack. Enough said, hopefully you see why this is true.

The next bad place for a sentry is in the figure at left, fig 6. I see this on 2fort4 a lot as well. This is even easier to kill -- an attacker partially down the ramp can spot the sentry before it can detect him (sentries usually have to see the whole player before responding) and toss some grenades down, end of story. Rockets will work just fine as well. This one is obviously absurd, so I don't understand why anyone does it. Just want to make sure no student of mine ever does something as dumb as this.

Next, we have the ol' grate sentry. In some cases, this can be useful, but not for general warfare. It is simply far too easy for a rocket jumping soldier, pipe jumping demo, or gren jumping player to simply toss some grens or pipes down without ever showing his face. Granted, this is a chokepoint covering the water entrance, the entrance to the base, and grate jumping, but this is a case where it's just too much for the sentry. Kind of like it's on overload or something. Sentries only attack one guy at a time, so many can slip in and drop some grens while the sentry is attacking others. The "mosh pit" strategy works far too well with a sentry positioned here. Good luck getting it built & upgraded too, there is usually constant enemy traffic here. All in all, not a good location. It would serve you better to put it in the ramps or in my favorite spot, in the doorway between the grate floor room and the main upper room leading to the respawn (see the 2fort4 strategy guide). Like I said, a good place in some circumstances (like building in front of the enemy fort to stop a flag runner) but in general this is a no-no.

This final suggestion/admonishment is kind of iffy with me. I mean, I guess it's OK if you can build it in the first place, but for some reason building sentry guns in the enemy base just sits with me weird. This will obliterate anyone coming onto the deck period. [Note: this is on the enemy's deck -- building sentry guns on your own deck in this position is pointless as a sniper will pick it off immediately. Also be sure to tell your snipers that it's your sentry on the enemy deck not theirs.] It will also be destroyed pretty soon. Once they coordinate themselves to attack on both sides simultaneously, the sentry will have a difficult time defending itself; however, building a dispenser to either side will help things quite a bit as well as letting you upgrade it quickly. Basically, use your good judgement with this; don't do it to a undermanned or pathetically losing team, do it for a tactical advantage over your opponents to cut off their snipers. Basically, if you can get in their base to build a sentry here, you really shouldn't do it. They just suck too much and you should switch teams to help them out. However if you're in a good game and you want a challenge, go for it. I've had a great deal of success with this spot and it has often resulted in many flag caps. Heh, try imagine capping the enemy flag with one of these babies guarding it. :) Have some soldiers rj up there to help you out, and there's no way in hell they'll cap.

Looks like that's it. The 2forts strategy guide has been updated as well with a send-in tip from a buddy of mine on 2fort32, so check it out.