An essay on Highlander TF2 Game Theory. For the sake of brevity I'm not going to bother listing every exception to the ideas I'm going to share, nor am I going to say "just remember this is a general rule and not applicable to 100% of circumstances" every time it might be necessary.

This is the culmination of a number of ideas I've had while ruminating on how best to coach the team I'm on. The purpose is to clarify how strategic decisions are made, and give people tools for training their gamesense.

A highlander team is composed of three sections, and the team exists in one of three gamestates.

The sections are:

The Combo
Always includes the medic, almost always includes demoman, heavy, and pyro. Different teams and maps may have heavy or demo roam, and the pyro may choose to roam while the spy is down but in general, this is the combo. The combo moves slowly, but has a lot of health, great damage output and area control, and ubercharges. The combo represents the front line of battle, the line behind which is territory you control. In most games, the overall objective is to move that line forward, or to prevent it from moving backward too quickly.

The Flank
Usually soldier, scout, and Shotgun/Gunslinger Engineer. The flank's job is, as the name suggests, to hold down the flank and provide intel. Additionally, the soldier and scout are the best combination of mobility and power, meaning they make excellent reinforcements wherever a bit of extra firepower is needed.

The Picks
Spy and Sniper, although soldier, scout, even demo can become pick classes as necessary. The picks' job is to create openings for pushes and cut the legs out from under enemy pushes by taking advantage of poor enemy positioning.

These are the team sections. In each gamestate, each section has a unique role to play in addition to the overall goal of the team for that gamestate. You should constantly keep in mind what section of the team you are a part of (it may change during a game), and consequently what role you play. The main point of this essay, however, is to highlight and explain the gamestates.


During a match, there is an overall objective determined by the map/gametype. In Payload, it's to move the kart across the maximum number of points in the minimum possible time, and to prevent your opponent from doing the same. In 5cp, it's to capture all five points. In KOTH, it's to capture and hold the center point. We all know and understand these objectives.

Where I think my team, and in general non-veteran teams, miss out on valuable strategy is not understanding the sub-goals of each objective, and how the decisions they make serve those subgoals. In my opinion, the subgoals (which I will go into as part of my discussion of gamestates) are far more important than simply understanding the objective of the gametype.

TF2 is a game of territory and time. Every map has distinct zones, usually separated by chokepoints or other map features, that a team can control - not by something so simple as control point ownership or kart position, but by whether they have a presence in the area and can effectively deny the enemy access to it. Additionally, most of the objectives are time-based, and the status of the objective and of each team effects the time penalty they must pay for dying. In general, the objectives and maps are designed such that the defending team has a positional advantage, but the attacking team has a spawn advantage: the idea is that the defense is good at rebuffing pushes, but for the offense pushes are cheap and they can push multiple times, increasing their chances of breaking through. I believe that management of territory and management of time are the keys to being able to successfully complete objectives.

A Highlander team exists in one of three gamestates during a game: holding defensively, holding offensively, and pushing.

Holding Defensively
A team is holding defensively pretty much all the time on PL red, when they hold the point on KOTH, when they are defending last on 5cp, and when they are defending 2nd or mid against an enemy with uber advantage. The purpose of holding defensively is to not give ground, or to give it as slowly as possible. Typically while holding defensively you have a positional advantage over the enemy and possibly the advantage of a level 3 sentry, but you are penalized with very long spawn times, so the main two sub-goals while in this gamestate are: 1) hold territory and 2) stay alive. Make sure every position you take, every move, every shot, every building, every call serves those two objectives. When in the rare situations where you have to try pushing from HOlding Defensively, it is almost impossible to do so without first weathering and destroying an enemy push, and deaths are penalized heavy with long spawntimes. Don't stick your neck out unless it's absolutely worth it.

The combo is the most important part of the team in this gamestate. Their goal should be to maintain control of an area, either the objective itself or key locations near the objective, deny pick attempts with good positioning and awareness, and weather enemy pushes by playing conservatively and relying on the inherent advantages of playing on the defensive. Keeping medic, pyro, and heavy alive should be top priorities. Medic serves as an anchor for the team, keeping them in the fight; pyro protects medic from spies and denies/delays enemy uber pushes; heavy protects the med from everything, especially bombing soldiers. Demoman should make sure to keep a stickytrap ready and maintained, forcing the enemy to pay for peeking and entering certain doors.

The flank should play very passively in this gamestate: a common problem with teams is their flanks play too aggresively when they should be just maintaining sightlines and denying sneaky pick attempts. Their most important role in this mode is intel: the team should know everybody that peeks the flank, and it's very important that they call out if the enemy combo is approaching to push through the flank. They should never engage the enemy 1v1 unless they have a very strong positional advantage: it's almost always better to take a shot or two and either call for support or rotate to your combo for heals and come back. Always remember that your goal is to make sure the enemy does not get any free territory: either make them pay to come in, or take it back as soon as you have an advantage in the fight. Never let the enemy combo just get ground without calling it out to your combo so they can challenge them.

The picks' take a bit of a backseat role in this gamestate. Since pushing out and gaining new territory typically requires a much larger advantage while in the defensive state, the picks most important job is to cut out the legs from under enemy pushes. Take advantage of their vulnerable state when they first start a push to try and end it before it gets underway. The sniper can usually rely on his team to completely protect him in this gamestate, but the spy is usually on his own and is probably going to be more useful just providing intel than constantly failing pick attempts.

Holding Offensively
This is a gamestate that a lot of new teams do not realize exist. It's the main reason I'm writing this essay, because my team needs to make sure they understand it. The whole idea of holding offensively is creating or waiting for push opportunities; the whole gamestate revolves around making sure your next push is effective. You typically have a little more leeway when it comes to respawn timers, but you should keep in mind that a push opportunity may only last seconds. This gamestate has two goals: 1) create push opportunities and 2) be ready when an opportunity arises.

The combo's job in this gamestate is mostly just to stay alive and stay ready. The heavy should be keeping people as topped up as he can and build uber, the demo should make sure to keep his weapons loaded (never spam so much you're completely out of ammo or have to reload your whole clip), and the heavy should stay at full buff and full ammo. The pyro should keep the combo safe from spam and spies, but try as much as possible to keep himself loaded up too. Since the combo lacks mobility they almost never get to go for picks unless your team has specific demoman/pyro strats they are trying. Keep in mind that any team member you sacrifice for a pick will not be available for the push.

This gamestate is where the flank gets to have a little more fun - while it's still important to hold down the flank, the scout and especially the soldier can also work to get picks and create push opportunities. Get aggressive, look for kills on the enemy combo, and remember that it's okay to sac because you almost certainly have a quick respawn. Just keep in mind the fact that if you sac and then a push opportunity shows up while you're dead, you won't be able to contribute to the teamfight. Try to make your pick attempts count by combining your efforts and working as a unit with the other pick classes. If the soldier, scout, or spy distracts the enemy by making a play, that diverts their attention from the other pick classes. Soldier should warn if he bombs, spy should say things like "hold off on bombing one sec, I'm almost in position", scout, soldier, spy, and sniper should all keep their ears open for if a distraction is made and the enemy might be out of position.

The most common problem new teams have is not recognizing this gamestate, and not recognizing when to transition to the pushing state or how it differs from the Defensive state. Keep the goal in mind and make every decision you make serve that goal.

Pushing
Pushing! This is where it all comes together. There are a number of great strategies for pushing, but the main thing to remember is swing through. Commit to the push, and push as a unit. When your caller calls for a push, or warns that a push is coming soon, you should be ready to jump in and get frags. It'll be chaos, but a good team converts that to organized chaos. Your combo puts out a shitload of damage, often has great heals and/or invulnerability, your flanks have the mobility and burst damage to clean up kills. Combo should make sure to call out the damage they do to priority targets, flanks should keep their ears on the coms to rotate around and clean up those kills. There are a number of guides that have gone over this better than I ever could, so I'll leave it at that.

The main things I want people to take away from this are the importance of recognizing the subgoals in a game, their role in achieving those subgoals, and to think about how their decisions serve those subgoals and the objective as a whole. There are of course exceptions, specific circumstances and strategies that change this up, but the general goals and ideas are applicable across the board.

I welcome constructive criticism, respones both positive and negative, and further discussion. TF2 is a great game with a lot of depth, and it deserves respect and deep thought.