Author: ZOo [Andrew Aksyonov]Release: July 11, 1998

GENERAL REMARKS

Z7 is an intricate map withs lots of nooks and crannies where people can hide and plan attacks, although the map is relatively simple from a birdseye point of view

The map is completely layered, which basically means that there are no areas which are basically safe as is the case with other maps. The amount of shadow and obstacles makes good for this "unsafety". However, defenders will be able to find out good positions which cover basic parts of the map. The sniper bunkers are plenty, and can be used by any class. Furthermore, the flagchamber in this one can be covered from a spawnpoint. However, the grate there does pose some trouble if you are just throwing grenades at any intruder...

Its amount of corners, doors, runways can give a sense of confusion in the beginning, but it effectively helps defensive and offensive player in avoiding direct attacks.

The only bottleneck I have found is the entrance area of the fortresses. This bottleneck means that a concentrated defense on this area can bring most of the offensive actions to a standstill. The alternative route to the flagroute (coming from the bridge and taking the right passage way) will bring you quicker to the flag, but it will open you up on several instances to a defender. Furthermore, if the bridge is well covered or a defender is actually standing there, coming through this one is virtually impossible.

The light is a nifty thing, you have a sort of daylike cycle, which means that a number of minutes your map is dark and a number of minutes it is light. Use the cover of darkness for executing an offensive.

DEFENSIVE STRATEGY

Z7 has enough features which will bring any offense to a minimum speed, and with a good defense, to a grinding halt. However, the openness of the map guarantees alternative routes, and make them a vital feature. This in turn makes the defense more difficult as troops either have to draw around a nucleus (the flag) do defend or become widespread.

In most maps the defense can cover a relatively large area without actually losing direct contact. In Z7 direct contact with co-defenders is a tad more difficult.

We will start on the upper outside.

The bridge would, in a normal world, be the normal route. However, due to smart mapmaking, the bridge is broken in the middle. A direct attack would, therefore, immediately be slowed down by jumping people. On both sides there are pillars, which do have a little ledge on which you can stand. Their strategical worth is neglicable. Any enemy operative from beneath, with the sense to look up, would see you.

At the base itself there are two doors, left and right. The left door always leads up to a downward ramp which will put you in the entrance room. It has a side hall towards the front spawnroom. The right door leads up to a balcony overlooking the entrance room and has two hallways, the left hallway leads to the front spawnroonm as well, and the right hallway is the alternative route to the sniperchamber which will lead you to the flagroom.

The defense of this is made a bit more easy by the fact that an enemy walking upon the bridge will not be able to see the side entrances up until the last moment. The biggest plus however, is the huge sniper bunker, which is reachable through a ledge next to the left entrance. In the sniper bunker therefore we place a sniper, who will guard the bridge. However, only a sniper could never withstand any offense. Therefore, I suggest to place at the right entrance a hwguy, who will defend the last piece of the bridge, and who will prohibit any entry through the right entrance.

The left entrance can be left empty, because that leads directly to the entrance room.

The entrance room, as stated in the general remarks, is the bottleneck of the map. Sooner or later they all come there. It is also the scoring point (the iron plate in the middle of the upperpart). If this is defended in an effective way, no enemy will be able to pass through here. The room has the lower level entrance, a downcoming ramp from the outside, and an entry into the generator chamber.

To defend this room, the best thing is to place a sentrygun on the stairs of the entrance to the generator room, in such a way that it covers the complete opposite wall. However, the sentry would easily be taken out when it is left to its own devices. Therefore a soldier and a pyro are positioned in the middle of the room, near the stack of crates. (If you have a rocket jumping soldier, the top of the crates would also be an interesting position). The pyro is necessary because of the possibility (at the bridge entrance) exists that an enemy operative will throw grenades toward the sentry using the hallway as cover. A pyro can also do area damage with his rockets, which basically means that he can burn out any enemy with a shot that the rest of us would call "close".

The balcony is covered on the outside, and should not get anymore attention. This as anyone breaking through there would run into the second line of defense.

If we follow the normal route, we would come to the generator room. This room houses a little trick which helps any offensive movement: The lightswitch. Now, any demoman can take this out, so therefore you should take care to place sombody there who can take out the demoman, or any other offensive class breaking through. A medic would be enough. The soldier would be placed at the top of the elevator leading to the sniperroom. This as there are five points at which any enemy operative would become a target:

Upon entering the generator room

Upon swimming in the water

Upon climbing onto the generator platform

Upon trying to climb on to the stone ledge leading up; or

Upon climbing onto the elevator and moving up.

If the lights are taken out make sure your defense knows what is happening, and doesn't come running towards the flagroom. The lights get turned back on as soon as the enemy runs with your flag. An added extra is that your defense troops should immediately make use of the shadows. As was said before: know your surroundings and make them a strategic advantage.

If we advance further into the base we will reach, through a hallway, the room of rooms. The sniperroom. This room, which at the far end has the doorway to the flag, and has two sniperbunkers in it should be used carefully. These rooms are your last defense. In the sniper bunkers you can place one or two snipers. On the ground in the corner left to the normal entry, and opposite the alternative entry, you should place a sentrygun. Furthermore, groundtroops in the form of a soldier or pyro should be available. This setup, basically a copy of the first line of defense will hinder any enemy.

Now the last important defense room is the flagroom, itself. In this map, due to the relative ease with which you can reach it, it will be necessary to setup a final defense here. This final defense will consist of the following: In the corner next to the entry you can place a medic. Why not a stronger guy? A medic is fast and will be able to infect anyone coming in. The thing is that everybody coming in will eventually have to go back through your defenses. They will tke care of the rest. Furthermore, as you can see in the picture, there is a grate. This is the floor of the flagspawnroom. Now a little trick I learnt in CTF might come in handy there. Place a soldier in the spawn room, pointing his rocketlauncher at the flag. Stay there, do not move. As soon as somebody reaches for the flag, fire a number of shots. Do not try to follow them, your defense will take care of the rest.

Now the last place we will have to take a look at is the downlevel road to the enemy base. Located under the bridge, it is intersected by a pond, which can be circumvented by walking in the shadows. On a defensive principle I would say, do not defend this one. As we have seen, all attackers will eventually end up in your entrance room. Furthermore, if you control the bridge, it will be easy lobbing a few grenades over the edge to make life difficult. Patrolling the bridge will give you a view of most of the downward area. However, stay away from the edges as much as possible as soon as an enemy is starting an attack from underneath.

OFFENSIVE STRATEGY

Z7 can be a very tricky map for an offensive, when the enemy has set up its defenses correctly. If there is any hole in the defenses, or a place is overlooked, an offensive action has a good chance of succeeding.

We will start on the upper outside.

The bridge has now become an obstacle, as it is broken. However, observe your enemy. SOme may be lulled into believing that this is a relatively safe route, as nobody in their right minds would dare to attack through here. Right, at this moment that will become the major attack route. Observe the enemies defenses. Many teams will at this point start to bring their defenses down. You can accelerate this by forcing attacks through the lower outside. Send wave after wave of lower side attacks, so that the enemy will start to congregate its defenses on the lower outside: pull them outside. This is the key to this map. If they are on the lower outside, it means that a relatively small group can attack the upper outside and walk directly into the entrance hall. Any occupation of the sniper balcony can be taken out by a pyro: his rockets will create flames and cause any sniper or defender to burst into flames. This might not ne effective at first, but as noticed, these operatives will, as a result start to perform uncontrollable movements. Which means that they are more easily taken out. At the same time move a few operatives forward and cover both exits/entries.

However, having said this, you might notice that any bridge attack would take longer to set up, and knowing the usual lack of patience in TF players you may also go for the lower outside entry. Its dark shadows and corners, and even the water can function as a gathering point from which to start attacks. Make sure that somebody is keeping the bridge busy, otherwise you might wake up to a demoman raining explosives on you. Therefore, in my opinion it would take longer and take more manpower to overrun the enemy base via the lower entry.

On entering the base the most important point, as seen in the defense, will be the entrance hall, if this is taken and occupied for a longer part of the game you virtually control the enemy base as you can control and check all enemy operatives leaving the base. The single point of difficulty is the spawn hall that is located in the hall. When this hall is taken, I would therefore set up a preliminary defensive system which will prevent people from getting out. It will consist of the following:

On the side where the balcony runs I would place a sentry gun deep inside the shaft going toward sniperroom (the alternative route). Deep, because we don't want any stray grenades hitting the thing. One of your engs can guard it. On the other exit of the spawnroom, the ramp going down towards the entry hall and the entrance to the base I would place a soldier. He can check any people trying to enter the entrance hall from either the base interior (the door leading to the generator room) and the spawnroom.

In the entrance hall itself I would place your forward defense line and a medic. This way you have integrated the entrance hall of the enemy fortress into your own defense system, effectively controlling it.

To take the rest of the base, send a raiding party through the generatorroom to turn off the lights (by detpacking the generator). Furthermore, have a raiding party ready at the alternative route. The trick is to have these raiding parties quick and at the saem time into the sniperroom. This way you can take out ny resistance from two sides. Let a pyro then fire at the sniperbalconies and send out a raiding squad towards the balconies to take out any resistance. In the same way take the flag and immediately fall back into the (defended) front room. Make the stand there. If your troops are weakened, retreat toward your own base. but detpack the entrance hall if possible, or leave a corpse (See tactics and Strategy Guide) or spy behind to report on strength and defenses.

To make the next capture, repeat the process.