Okay, I would first like to say that this is all my opinion and I’d love to hear any of you other Covert Ops out there for yours. And now here we go:
Guide to Covert Ops
Covert Ops Weapons: A somewhat okay analysis of available weapons.
Sten: A lethal, accurate sub-machine gun. It is a very nice weapon although I wouldn’t recommend getting into a close range fight with an mp40/thompson. For coming up behind the enemy and putting a few rounds to the head and semi-close range it is excellent, and it is also very good at medium to long range. But due to the overheating it is not very good at close quarters fighting.
FG42: A mix between the sniper rifle and the submachine-gun. Unfortunately it is not very good at either. When zoomed in, the recoil is very low so you can do several accurate shots right after another very easily, but the damage is just too low to make it worth while. Usually once the enemy gets hit, you only got enough time for another shot before they take cover and start figuring out your position. It is much better at close quarter combat then the sten because of its fast rate of fire, but its low clips size cuts the amount of damage you can do short. Also lack of ammo is a major problem if you use it in automatic mode too often because there isn’t a very good way to fill up when you’re behind enemy lines.
M1S Garand: The allies sniper rifle. Virtually identical to the Axis sniper rifle except it has fewer rounds, can’t reload until empty (I’m not sure about any benefits this gun has over the K43 so please fill me in if you know.) A good gun, but the Axis rifle is much better.
K43 (silenced scoped version): My favorite weapon in the game. I will go into detail on how I snipe later on but for now I will mention that this gun is probably the best choice for Covert Ops. This sniper rifle is excellent at sniping and executing enemies from behind. It does reasonably well in close quarters combat, but that doesn’t seem to be a skill many other players have mastered yet. Overall a very good weapon.
Because I mainly use the K43 as a Covert Ops I will focus on that and allow those more qualified in the use of the sten and FG42 to tell me how they use them.
Disguising Yourself: A basic guide on how you should go about stealing pants and what to do afterwards.
The best way to get an enemies uniform is to find an isolated opponent and take him down (obviously). In order to kill the body you should always pull out your knife to do it because you should never waste ammo. In order to kill the body you can stand directly over him and stab downwards or you can crouch to the side of him and stab at an angle. I have seen way too many newbies try to stab and shoot my body and completely miss with everything. When there are a crap load of enemies around always wait until they are dead or gone before you steal clothing because it is not very fun getting shot in the head when you are facing the ground. Mostly you just have to get the hang of stealing uniforms on your own because there isn’t much I can say to help you with it.
What I can help with is what you should do once you have gotten your uniform.
The best thing to do is to get behind the enemy lines and start causing some havoc. The simplest way of doing this would be going around the map through areas that aren’t traveled on by the enemy, or have the least number of people coming. This will usualy get you behind the enemy safely and easily with a minimum of head to head fighting.
The second way which is much more dangerous is to go through the front line of the enemy. The first thing you should remember about this is that if you act suspiciously, you will be shot. The following list of actions will usually end up getting you killed:
-Running towards enemy positions in the same manner their enemy might (as in facing the direction you are heading)
-Standing around an enemy body that happens to be missing pants
-Staring at enemies with that little glint in your eyes that tells them you are the enemy
-Pulling out knife at awkward (poorly timed) moments
-Letting the enemy get a good look at the strange weapon you are carrying
-Letting an enemy Field Ops with level four signals anywhere near you
Tips for how to blend in as best as you can:
-If you are trying to get in amongst them, try to run backwards away from teammates
-Let teammates see you a bit when you are doing this so they give the realistic look of you fleeing while being shot at
-If you are disguised as an enemy field ops, use your binoculars as if you were calling in air-strikes (keep them out and only look through them when your team mates are in view)
-If disguised as an engineer, your sniper rifle should blend in well enough to keep out
-If disguised as a covert ops any weapon is acceptable
-Always attack from behind, make sure there aren’t any more enemies behind you
-Try not to be obvious about getting behind the enemy usually staying put and just waiting for them to walk by is better then actually trying to get behind them
-If you are a sniper, run away from up-close “fights� with your team mates and immediately get into position to fire on them again, so it appears that you are just trying to snipe the enemy (when you are really moving behind them a bit and letting them run by)
The killing
One of the deadliest weapons you have at your fingertips is the knife. It is difficult to use except on stationary or targets moving in a linear direction. Never attack with the knife from anything but behind as it will get you killed easily. Come up behind the enemy and stabbing twice into the back of the torso (where the little backstab icon shows up) will kill anyone, or when you get Assassin, one shot will do. If you are chasing an enemy down, from behind of course, sprint after them. But if you miss with the first few shots, you probably should just pull out your main weapon and execute them because you will end up chasing them further then you intended.
Probably the best weapon a stealthier can use is the satchel charge. If you come up behind a group of enemies, such as a medic healing or a field ops handing out ammo (my favorite) throw this baby down run the hell away and detonate them. What is very useful is that you can throw it down, run away and then detonate from a safe distance without the target, or surviving targets knowing exactly where it came from. Machine-gunners with limited field of view are excellent targets when there are too many enemies around to just stab the bastards.
Sniping:
As I mentioned before, the FG-42 is fairly weak as a sniper rifle, so if you are going to be doing serious sniping I suggest the K43 as it seems to be more accurate, and much more damaging. If you want to practice sniping, the FG-42 is very nice because it has very little recoil, so you can see where every shot is going. But once you get the hang of where your shots are going, I suggest you pull out the K43.
The main part sniping with the K43 is to immediately counter-act your recoil as soon as you fire in order to get another shot off into the target before he takes cover. Breath Control will reduce the recoil on your rifle allowing you for much faster follow-up shots, but that is a long way off from when you start out. Most enemies will take at the least, two shots before they die and after the first hit any smart player takes cover behind whatever is available. If all you can see of the enemy is his leg/foot/side of his head, take the shot. If you miss, he will probably not notice, but if you hit him you can usually do enough damage to finish him off.
And of course the other part of sniping that I can sort of put into words is that the location is incredibly important. A sniper in ET usually cannot outrange his enemy due to the closeness of most maps, so you need to find positions that either conceal you, such as bushes and tall grass or you need to be in a spot where the enemy may walk by, giving you the perfect shot at their back. The ability to disguise as an enemy mixed with the sniper rifle allows you to get into most positions. The only map I have found that you can snipe without much problem from the enemy is the beginning of the fuel dump map if you are on axis. If you want a good place to practice on moving targets, this is the map for you. Lie on top of the Axis hill by the log and look down on the path the tank takes. Not only will many enemies simply keep on running after being shot (rather than taking cover), many drop to the ground where they are, allowing for a very simple finishing shot.
There are many more things that I will eventually add to this, and I’m sure it isn’t organized beautifully, but I will get around to adding to it some time. Please tell me what ya think and if your experiences differ from mine.
