Call of Duty/Game types

There are six different game types in Call of Duty, excluding special modded gametypes.

Deathmatch
Deathmatch is one of the most intense multiplayer experiences. It is essentially a free-for-all, with the winner determined by the person who got the most kills within a time limit. Skill at deathmatch is determined by two primary factors: knowledge of the battlefield, and personal skill. Because people in deathmatch move individually, oftentimes battles will be one-on-one, and in relatively close proximity. Therefore, a submachine gun is highly desirable, as it allows a higher mobility and rate of fire. Knowledge of the battlefield is also required to be skillful, so that one knows from what vantage points to ambush, and what "death traps" there are to avoid.

As far as weapons, the best (or easiest for beginners) weapon is one that allows quick mobility and a large rate of fire. This often manifests itself in the form of the submachine gun: the Thompson, the MP40, the PPSh, or the Sten. However, keep in mind your personal fighting style. The MP44, BAR, and Bren are very popular choices, and bolt-action rifles are extremely powerful once mastered. Because people are generally not clumped together, the grenade is not all that useful; the fact that they cannot be cooked except with mods render them very little used. Still, use all weapons to their full advantage.

As a word, camping may net you two or three kills if lucky, but people will catch on, so ultimately it is not worth it. The best deathmatchers are always on the move, skilled in a mobile "blitzkrieg" combat. Remember that a death does not mean a fail, it simply means a respawn. As a result, you can afford to take risks. This is not to say never take cover, but the people in deathmatch are much more mobile than those in the campaign.

Team Deathmatch
Team Deathmatch is probably the most popular game type. In it, the Allies and Axis battle each other, and the team that gets the most kills wins. Team Deathmatch is less dependent on personal skill, but much more so towards territorial control. It is not a literal territory control as in the Battlefield series or Team Fortress 2, but the team that holds chokepoints and flanks efficiently will invariably win. To illustrate, team members will respawn in areas with the highest concentration of team mates, or close to it. Therefore, they will often respawn near chokepoints that you are defending or assaulting. These places are the most hazardous. Although most of your team should be fighting here, brute force alone does not win battles, particularly when the other team has about the same number of people. This is where knowledge of the map and flanking come into play. A flanking party of three or four people is often enough to turn the tide of battle and win the skirmish

Each map has a place (or multiple places) where fighting will naturally center around. The key is to recognize where these places are, and to know the side routes to them. The offense should attempt to exploit these routes, while the defending team should defend them. For both sides, probably the greatest weapon is the grenade. Grenades are more effective for their psychological damage because they have the ability to instantly kill or heavily wound someone, therefore deterring people from their regions. This should be your first priority in throwing a grenade; if you get a kill or multiple kills, good for you, but the primary purpose is to act as a deterrent.

Team deathmatch works from a variety of ranges. Each chokepoint can roughly be divided into three ranges based on weapon type. From short range, submachine gunners deal as much damage as they can close up. From medium range, support gunners provide suppressing fire and finish off the wounded. And from long range, riflemen and snipers help to thin the opposition. No range is actually better than another (some maps favor different ranges), but a mix is needed to be successful.

Flanking can be utilized by the offense to overwhelm a chokepoint, or by the defense to crush the assault. A flank is usually a group of 2-5 soldiers (usually using mobile submachine guns) that take a longer sideroute to attack the rear. A couple of properly executed flanking maneuvers will in the short term finish off long-range and medium-range soldiers at close range and in the long term assure victory. Play often and find where the chokepoints and sideroutes are, and use team chat and Ventrilo to your advantage.

Search and Destroy
Search and Destroy is the equivalent of Counter-Strike's Defusal. In it, the Allies must plant a bomb on one of two locations (usually a flak gun or a tank), while the Axis must protect these targets. Victory is had by the Allies successfully destroying the target, the Axis defusing the bomb, or a team killing everyone in the other team. When you are killed, you do not respawn until the start of the next round. As a result, be more cautious, but not too cautious.

To plant a bomb, press and hold F for five seconds. Then, you must wait for a minute or so for the bomb to explode. To defuse a bomb, press and hold F for ten seconds. You are fully vulnerable while planting or defusing, so make sure you have someone watching your back.

Search and Destroy is mastered by knowledge of the battlefield, staying together, and using cover. Of course, to succeed, you need to first know where you are defending or attacking. When you decide where to go, stay in groups. A lone wolf will be quickly overwhelmed. It is imperative that you stay together to ensure a collective ability to resist attack. The final is taking cover. Because you cannot respawn, the dynamics change greatly, so you should know every single piece of cover around.

Suppressing fire, carefully aimed grenades, and chokepoints are extremely effective tactics for the Axis. Most of them should be support gunners or rifleman. Cover, speed, and staying in groups are the strategy for the Allies, and most of them should be submachine gunners, with a few rifleman on the side.

Retrieval
A mash-up of Capture the Flag and Search and Destroy, the Allies must secure some documents that the Axis are defending and bring them to their spawn. Use the same tips from the Search and Destroy section as a guide to Retrieval. Again, after being killed, you respawn at the start of the next round.

Headquarters
This is an interesting gametype. A radio will respawn in a random place that both teams must attempt to capture by standing next to them for ten seconds. A captured radio must be defended by the team that captured it; the team that didn't must try to destroy it by simply shooting it. Every 45 seconds a team holds a radio, they get a number of points, until it is destroyed or it respawns automatically in a different place. In this mode there is respawn.

This is a unique hybrid of Search and Destroy and Team Deathmatch. As such, a mix of the two tips should be successful. Stay in groups, utilize flanks and chokepoints, and stay by your radio at all times. The beginning should have "scouting parties" checking the most likely spawnpoints (which will take multiple playthroughs to figure out) and finding the radio as the primary objective rather than killing. Once it's found, stay by it at all times. The offense should go all-out. Grenades can be useful because their splash damage can destroy the radio, so keep that in mind.

Behind Enemy Lines
Introduced in a patch, this is perhaps the least popular gametype. In this hybrid of Deathmatch, when you join the server you are autoassigned into Allies or Axis. The Axis must try to kill the outnumbered Allies, and if they do, they will respawn as an Ally. When Allies kill people, they get more points. When they are killed, they respawn as Axis, and the cycle continues. The person with the most points wins.

Use the tips for deathmatch to help you. If you're Axis, the positions of the Allies are denoted by blue circles on your compass. You can use these to pinpoint their location and plan an ambush. If you're one of the Allies, stay moving. One moment's hesitancy means death. Submachine gunners tend to do best on Behind Enemy Lines.