Accurate? Killer number 47

Pistols, SMGs, Shotguns... finished. The only two catergories left are Rifles and Sniper Rifles- I don't use Machine-guns. I would be shooting myself in the foot if I were to lug around one of those. But rifles? If you look at them, they are not as heavy, and neither do they lack in firepower, rate of fire whatsoever. Well, today I'm going to present to you a gun made for the 50s and 60s, yet still dots the globe in usage and... headshots. I'm sure I need not mention the name, the looks of it should set off the sparks in your mind, and your interest:




The brainchild of Kalashnikov, the brain-killer of thousands- Ak-47. In the world of Counter-strike, this piece of wood and metal is no different. I'm sure many of you are pretty much well acquainted with this rifle, both behind and in front of the elaborate barrel. But for the benefit of the new and naive, and the benefit of those who are perhaps still mystified by its power, I won't leave this out of this blog. To learn the secrets of this gun, and some weaknesses that you could take advantage of, read on...

Firepower: Despite where its age might be shooting at, the AK-47 has perhaps the highest firepower among the rifles. Through personal experience and field observation, I have seen a bullet from this gun do 20+ to 30+ damage- which means 3-4 bullets to the chest for a kill, as opposed to the normal 4-5 bullet kill of other rifles. But what made the gun popular was its ability to silence people with a single bullet in the skull. The damage level is high enough to be multiplied into a sure-kill single bullet to the head, with or without helmet. Anyone could fall prey to the lucky bullet, from downright raw recruits all the way to international experts.

Accuracy: Due to the outrageous recoil (as compared to other rifles), the accuracy of this gun would diminish rapidly with every bullet after the first 2 or 3 bullets fired, making it useless at medium to infinite range. But that disadvantage could easily be eliminated by firing in singles or triples with rests in between. While doing so, the bullets you fire would pretty much obey your sights. However, at point-blank range to medium range, you could circumvent the inaccuracy by pointing the gun below the chest, ensuring that the stray bullets from your guns would put holes in your opponent's torso and face.

Range: The range varies with how you use it. If you fire in bursts of 1 or 2 bullets, it would easily be possible to snipe out a victim at far range. But if you were to fire 3 to 5 bullets in one go, expect no results unless the the enemy is at medium. At full automatic, expect absolutely no results unless the enemy is very close to you.

Clip Size: A standard banana magazine for the AK47 would hold 30 7.62mm bullets, which would be enough to hold off an enemy charge. Try to restrict your consumption whenever you suspect an enemy plot to swarm you. As long as you fire in automatic mode in a desperate attempt to save yourself from the guy below, you would unknowingly run out of ammunition. Perhaps 6-10 bullets per nearby enemy would do fine. Retreat when you really run out of ammo. Repeat if you think you're capable and healthy enough.

Ammo Pool: You would be able to carry another 90 bullets in your pocket. More than enough to last you through a match, even a long skirmish between 20 CTs and 20 Terrorists.

Rate of Fire: The AK-47 has a relatively low rate of fire, lower than all the other rifles. This could actually be used to your advantage. The slower rate of fire means you could control better how many bullets you want to fire. Control is part of the formula to victory. But, the low rate of fire could also mean a slight disadvantage at close range whenever you want to go auto, against other rifles, as the other rifles could fire faster, especially the FAMAS, which has a dangerously high rate of fire of almost double of the AK-47.

Reload Time: Another happy feature of the AK-47 is its ability to reload fast, much faster than any other rifle as no bolts or levers would need to be pulled or pressed, pushed whatsoever. This would mean a better chance against being swarmed, as faster reload means better reaction whenever you're out of bullets. But as always, never try to reload under fire without cover.

Cost: Reputable partially due to its cheap price at $2500 (The M4A1 costs $3100 while the Steyr Aug is $3500), the AK-47 is easily affordable, and highly cost effective in terms of firepower. The cut in the price is due to the recoil perhaps.

Weight: However, the heavy nature of the gun could be a problem, as it weighs more than any other rifle, which would automatically translate to slow movement. This may make you easier to hit, so do not let your enemies catch you in the open. Jump behind a crate or a wall if you can, otherwise, stay behind to reduce your chances of getting hit.

So, in summary, the AK-47 is not very versatile, but cost effective due to its high firepower and conditionally high accuracy (For as long as you don't fire in full automatic, the accuracy would stay high), plus quick reload speed. In order to use it well, consider the following:

1) Aim for the head- a single bullet would down a person, with or without a helmet.

2) Fire in singles or doubles at far range. Anymore bullets would reduce your accuracy, making the third bullet and more useless, and you more vulnerable to enemy fire.

3)At medium range, feel free to unload 3-5 bullets. Do not fire in automatic mode as the accuracy would drop to oblivion.

4)However, you could circumvent the inaccuracy by aiming below the chest. The stray bullets will hit the torso and sometimes the head.

5) Fire automatically only at point-blank range to near range. But try to limit yourself to 7-10 bullets per person, especially when you're engaged by a group of enemies.

6) Hide behind cover, as your low speed would make you vulnerable in the open. Switching to a pistol would only make you more vulnerable via the low firepower and rate of fire.

Colossal Delay

Sorry about the lack of posts for half the month- I've been so busy these days from sun-rise to sun-set almost everyday. But soon, my schedule would be emptied of crunch-times hopefully by the end of this week. When it is over, prepare for more killing tips when I make the second coming.

Eye of Sauron

Today, I'm not going to cover the shotgun player types first, but instead, I am going to start with Snipers- as I know we are most well acquainted with them perhaps more than other types. They are basically one of the greater parts of the CSS culture. For now, I'm going to teach you how to topple them like the tower of Mordor. This is how a typical sniper would look like in the world of CSS, notice the intimidatingly large gun that fires a mini rocket:



By the way, the above sniper was actually in action, not posing. His name is b121417, and he was guarding bombsite B. It was the perfect angle, elevation and whatever stuff that you consider in photography, so I decided to take the picture and put it up there.

For now, I'm going to tell you about Snipers in general first. Most snipers, if allowed, would rather take up the giant AWP rifle more than anything else, because it is:

1) Powerful. It kills with a shot, unless the missile hits the arm or leg. A bullet could even go through a person and kill another who is unlucky enough to be behind. Basically, the gun is almost powerful as a ballista the size of a car in the ancient ages.

2) And accurate. That is, for as long as you stand still for a certain amount of time, the bullet whizzing through the air would hit exactly where you point your reticle at.

Then, that's not all. As their sniper rifle is unfit most of the time for a close encounter of the shotgun or SMG kind, their pistol would most of the time be the Desert Eagle, which I wrote an article about before. Most likely, the lethal eagle is chosen for its firepower, though not exactly for anything else- with firepower alone, it could kill with a shot in the head, or three shots elsewhere.

Snipers have their own culture of behaviors just like the ants or the bees. In every map, you would no doubt find them hiding behind cover, like crates, walls and doors, guarding a certain choke point or area, which is open. This makes them difficult to take out, especially when your weapon is unfit for long range or your hands are unfit for aiming. So now... lets move on the the offensive snipers, the ones whom you really hate.

Offensive Snipers

Offensive Snipers can be difficult to defeat, or easy. Depending on how you approach them. Their attack pattern is simple, and exposes themselves out of cover- which is what we can take advantage of. Offensive Snipers move from cover to cover, and more often than their defensive counterpart, does not find cover.

To deal with Snipers, you would need to exploit their weakness, which is their lousy close range attack. Using an SMG, shotgun or a rifle, all you had to do is to get close to them and blast them out of the world to the next. But even that is dangerous, as many snipers are nimble enough to aim while you're approaching and shoot you down. You would need to be evasive, by strafing and maybe jumping if you must, while you approach.

Also, while they are moving out in the open or down a corridor, you could try to ambush them if you are close enough, or by gunning them down with a rifle if you're a bit further. Do not forget to evade their bullets, unless you are stabbing them in the back.

These are pretty much the tips on how to deal with Offensive Snipers. Let's just move on to the Defensive ones...

Defensive Snipers

The difference between an offensive and a defensive sniper is mainly their tactic, not weapon or skill, as I obviously point out in the last post.

A defensive sniper is more of an Eye of Sauron than the Offensive, usually staying at one spot, guarding the area for a long while. They rarely move away from their hunting grounds, so the tactic I gave you above cannot be applied often against them.

One of the prevalent ways of dealing with Defensive Snipers would be to find alternative routes towards their back, which hopefully they forgot to cover or ignored. It works better if your friends are keeping the sniper busy while you sneak your way behind him. This is the only tactic that you could use specifically against a Defensive Sniper. For common tactics, look down.

Common Tactics

To deal with a player effectively, you need to exploit their weakness, and eliminate their strength. I'm sure Sun Tzu gurus would find this familiar. Here are several ways you could do this:

1) Use flashbangs to blind them so that you can charge towards their hiding place and shoot them.

2) Use smoke grenades block their view so that you could escape or charge at them.

3) Hide behind cover to reduce your chance of behind blown away. Shoot from your hole if you dare, but it is risky.

4) Or... use a sniper rifle to take them out in a match of skills. At the very least, you have eliminated your weakness and thrown the only two strength they have against you out of the window, which is range and firepower.

Well, that's pretty much everything I have for you. Hopefully, it would be useful against those pesky little missile-shooting flies. Max Payne out.

Player Catergories

After several days of thoughts, I've decided that I can't catergorize players according to a single list of stereotypes. It is possible, but heck no, it is impractical. I've chosen to define players by two categories for you to mix and match. I've seen how in Counter-strike Source, players would fight, and I think I can make some science out of it.

Players can be catergorized according to:

1) Weapon Specialization

2) Tactical Specialization

For the weapons area, it gets easy. Basically the same as the weapon types in the world of CSS:

1) Shotgun

2) SMG

3) Rifle

4) Sniper Rifle

5) Machine Gun

Pistols however, aren't counted, as pistols could be found on anyone, and no one or rather, very few one-in-a-million souls uses pistols as the primary while their heavier guns as the secondary. I'm not one of them, either. I don't favor the smaller over the bigger ones, I use them at the best times.

As for the Tactical Specialization, it is slightly much more difficult to define. But so far, I was able to seperate players into two catergories:

1) Offensive

2) Defensive

I know it is pretty much a child's drawing, but bear with me. I might improve the tactics part, make it a Picasso's artpiece. Just not now. Anyway, here is how things will continue- I will write an article based on one Weapon Specialization, all the inside stuff on how to ward off a player with the following weapon preference, and other useful tips for you to bring home and play with. But for each article, I will feature both the Offensive and the Defensive counterpart of the Weapon Specialty like a pair of bullets from a dual beretta.

Stay tuned, one might just appear the next day or the day after tomorrow. Just let me gather my guns for a few experiments.

Back to the map

So far, I've been posting articles on murder weapons and every single detail about them, accompanied with articles based on other aspects of counter-strike. So far, these are the things I've been posting, but now, I'm going to throw in another new breed of articles about counter-strike: Player Types. In addition of course, to the tactics and strategies, details whatsoever, anything under the sun and moon relating to Counter-strike player types.

But of course, expect tips about using firearms still, because I'm not done showcasing my shelf of guns. I'm much more sophisticated than that.

Point-blank mutilator

Ever since I've started this blog, I've revealed my secrets in the use of handguns and Submachine guns- I hope they were useful for you to mow down 3 at once. Today, I'm moving on to one of perhaps the most brutal weapons, that is, if used correctly- I'm moving on to the Shotguns section. But in CSS, so far I've only tried one shotgun, the M3 Super 90, aka the 'Shotty'. The weapon by itself is an old design, but is still immensely effective. Here is a good picture of a standard issue M3:



Shotguns date back to the 19th century, used with success by generations upon generations of America's army, from the civil war, to World War 1, 2 up till today. Its existence nowadays is testament of its usefulness. In real life, the shotgun, respecially the modern varieties, are highly versatile, able to fire not just slugs, but also bean bags, rubber shells, Sabot shells. Plenty of flavors for the person or thing at the receiving end of the barrel. But in Counter-strike Source, this is not reflected- but just as well. A normal shell is way better than a Sabot- it splits into pieces, and could easily split a head. Despite the slow rate of fire, I have made one of my favorite weapons. Written below are my reasons for it:

Firepower: The shotgun is an interesting one. The amount of damage done is dependent on so many factors, and fluctuates much more than any other guns. It could vary according to where you shot your enemy, how far you are from the target, and how many pellets went into him (which is linked to the first two factors), and very much on the target's armor. The shotgun, for every shell, would release around ten pellets, and each pellet pretty much does as much damage as a 9mm bullet from a glock. I've seen how it works numerous times, and if every pellet hits, it could do around 86-90+ damage with Armor without hitting the head.

The shotgun works very well against flesh, but not metal and kevlar. By wearing an armor, the damage done would be reduced significantly, though I have seen how ineffective a helmet is against a shotgun pellet- for some strange reason. Even from far, without a vest and helmet, a guy could die easily from a shotgun blast, partly because the pellets loves tucking themselves into heads.

Accuracy: In the Counter-strike context, a Shotgun can be said to be highly accurate. It is difficult to miss with a shotgun at point-blank to medium range, due to the number of pellets that would mean a hit even if your sight is not aligned with your enemy. But that's only half of it- unlike most if not all the guns, the M3 Super 90 is perhaps the only gun that works very well while you're jumping. The accuracy drops very much if not none at all whenever you jump. This has lead to many Super Marios jumping around while shooting. At far range however, it would be difficult to hurt, much much less to kill with a shotgun like this, unless the enemy happens to be limping away from a rocket explosion.

It is useless to aim for the head with the Shotgun at medium and far range. The pellets does not go where you were aiming at- you could only rely on chance to do it for you. However, it is easy to shoot a head at close range.

Range: Due to the nature of its spread, the Shotgun is best used from point-blank range to medium range. Shooting from afar is to be shunned- unless you wanted to die a hero. At close range, a pellet could easily hit a head, so chances are, you could kill with one shot easily, provided that you aim in the right direction.

Clip Size: The shotgun could hold 8 shells at one time, which is enough for you to survive, what with the ability to slot in single shells now and then.

Ammo Pool: 32 spare shells comes with the gun, which would be loaded with 8 shells, making up a total of 40 shells. 32 spares is more than enough to keep you shooting, and so far, there are no pistols that uses shotgun shells, so you don't even have to look at the spare ammo count.

Rate of fire: THe M3 shotgun has the worst rate of fire ever due to the pump time. After the first shot, the shotgun could barely fire a shell within a second, maybe 0.9 or 0.8 seconds. A useful tactic would be to hide everytime you need to pump the gun, then go out, shoot and hide again. Jump behind a wall or box if you have to. But if you can't hide, then strafe, jump and do whatever it takes to avoid the stinging of the bullet.

Reload Time: The reloading period however, is appalling. It would take around 5 or 6 seconds to load 8 shells. However, on the bright side, there is rarely the need for that. More often, you would only need to put in several shells at one time, reducing the reloading period immensely. Then, to make the day brighter, while reloading, you could stop quickly and fire the gun when needed, without reloading the shotgun to full.

Cost: This shotgun costs a mere $1700, which is affordable. Highly cost effective if you could bring the situation to your favor by staying within small rooms, alleys. Places where the shotgun would work well.

Weight: The shotgun is extremely heavy, slightly more so than the M4A1 rifle. You would slow down unfortunately, and evasion, jumping would be harder, making you a good target practice if you're out in the open.

The shotgun to me, is a good weapon for quick kills and collateral damage- good for whittling down large groups as well. But this gun is not for those who discharges quantity, but shoots quality bullets, much like a Sniper, but at close range. It is highly conditional, if you're looking to win with this gun. Just follow these tips if you want to stay above and not below:

1) Aim for the head at close range- it doesn't even have to be directly aligned with the head. The spread would naturally pop a few pellets there if you aim the neck or the chest if he is far enought.

2) At medium range, it would be useless to aim for the head. Just pump all you can into his chest. The pellets would slap him in the cheeks sooner or later. The aim is to get as many pellets as possible into your enemy, with headshots as bonuses instead of an obligation.

3) Forget about using the shotgun at far range, unless your target is unarmored- though it would still be risky.

4) The shotgun is best against unarmored targets. It would be an instant kill if most of the pellets entered a person regardless of whether there are any headshots.

5) To survive longer, you could always hide whenever you fired a shell, and go back out again to fire another. Many could not react fast enough, and you would have made the shotguns' slow rate of fire negligible.

6) You could jump and shoot if you want, if there are any high walls short enough for you to peek over. This could also work as an evasion technique.

The Human Benchmark

So I've been floating around the internet recently, just looking for interesting articles to read, when I happened on a rather interesting website that, while unrelated to Counter-strike, will form the foundations of the entry I'm writing now. Here's the site:

http://humanbenchmark.com/

As you know, in Counter-strike Source, one of the main reasons why people win is due to their fast finger. Take for example two equally accurate snipers who uses AWPs. The faster one would definitely win, assuming that they will hit with their first bullet. I'm sure many of you have encountered that kind of a situation before, as plenty of people like using AWPs.

Lets just say the website I found contains a table of statistics that could help you to see where you stand, and how fast most of the players would be. First, why not let's take the test and judge your worth:

http://humanbenchmark.com/tests/reactiontime/index.php

Then, take a good look at the bar chart to see where you stand:

http://humanbenchmark.com/tests/reactiontime/stats.php

As for me, I found my reaction time is around 180. So if you take a look at the chart, that means safe to say I've won more than 60% of the population. So here's the catch: If you could train your reflexes to 180 milliseconds or lower, you would have beaten most players, and that is a huge bonus if you fought with them.

If you reaction time is 0.17 seconds or below consistently, then congrats, you must be a professional, or rather a pro material player.

But then again, this doesn't reflect how it's like in Counter-strike. There are many other reasons contributing to reaction time. Like, the time needed to identify a person as friend or foe, or if the person have warmed up yet. In other words, to really excel in the brutal world of CSS, you must learn how to identify enemies quickly also, among other things. And don't drink coffee! It will slow you down!