Counter-Strike: Source/cs office

cs_office is a hostage rescue map, where the terrorists start off in an office building with the hostages, and the counter-terrorists have to assault the building. This map doesn't lend itself well to camping, and at the end of a round, both teams will be all over the place.

Terrorists
You have two options: to stay near the hostages, or to rush to meet the counter-terrorists. Rushing to meet the counter-terrorists is risky, as they have many good sniping points (the sniping gallery) around the garage area. However, you do have three possible routes to take:

If you choose to go down the steps towards the garage (overview 1), jumping around the corners always helps surprise the counter-terrorists. Grenades and flashbangs bounced around corners are also quite effective, especially if you know somebody is coming up the garage stairs. You must always be wary of counter-terrorists round the back outside, as the windows smash easily, and there is plentiful cover round the back. It would be adviseable to have at least two terrorists rush out through the window into the back first. Opening the garage door from the outside gives a warning to any counter-terrorists inside, who will be waiting for whoever has opened the door: a better bet is to go in through the porch half-way up the garage stairs, and jump down the last flight into the garage, perhaps letting loose a grenade or flashbang first.

Rushing down the main corridor of the office building (overview 2) is almost suicidal unless you're exceptionally fast, especially if the counter-terrorist team has snipers, because the storage rooms opposite the main office building offer superb sniping galleries, and counter-terrorists like throwing grenades into the main corridor through the front window.

A better bet is to go down the back corridor behind the terrorists' spawn (overview 3) – you will most likely have a conflict near the left-hand side, however – and exit into the small courtyard with the snowman (or just the front), quietly walking through the passage towards the front and crouching down at the exit porch to snipe any rambling counter-terrorists. Taking this option, you must always be wary of snipers in the sniping gallery. Once you're finished, you can enter through the main building entrance at the front, and move back towards the hostages, taking down any remaining counter-terrorists.

Staying near the hostages (overview 4) is safer than rushing to meet the counter-terrorists, but you are open to attack from several corridors (back corridor, main corridor and garage stairs), and counter-terrorists will probably appear from more than one at one time or another. This strategy allows you to "protect" the hostages from the counter-terrorists, but could be called camping by more inflammatory players. A good tactic is to stay in general vicinity of the hostages, but keep moving round, constantly checking each entrance. If you do see counter-terrorists coming, throw a flashbang at them, and alert the other terrorists.

Camping the back hall (overview 5) is more of a defensive way of winning, but even if the counter-terrorists don't attack you and die, they will run out of time because they can't get to the hostages. This is one of the safest and most reliable ways for the terrorists to win. You need around ten or more terrorists to do this, and a few different guns: two people with Scout or AWP (yellow dots on map) and the eight other people need the SIG 552 or CV-47 (red dots on map). You get set up as shown in the picture below. You must have the two people with Scouts at the end of the hall as shown – they should be partially protected by the walls – aim down the hall all the way. Five other people with auto rifles should crouch down along the back wall. When a counter-terrorist walks by everyone should shoot at him. If you don't kill him, he will turn back, look up the hall, and meet his death. You then must have the three other terrorists guard the other corridor as shown, as if a counter-terrorist sneaks to the hostages through the storage cupboard, he can be shot! The other two in the side hall must kill any counter-terrorist who comes through the door out of the terrorist spawn area. Even though this strategy looks good, it can fails when the CT's go through the back door, and rescuing all the hostages, especially if the server does not allows footsteps.

Counter-terrorists
The counter-terrorists have the fun job of assaulting the office building. There are three main routes of assault: the garage, the left-hand side, and the main entrance (middle).

Rushing the garage (overview 1) is a safe bet, since there is plentiful cover. It's your choice whether you go outside through the garage door, or rush up the garage stairs, but if you do go outside you must remember to watch for terrorists through the window. Jumping on top of the crates allows you to shoot terrorists through the window without revealing too much of yourself to enemy fire. Once inside, the route to the hostages is clear, although you might want to take a detour round the inside of the office to confuse terrorists.

The middle (overview 2) is another easy ride, with cover provided by the curving staircase. A flashbang into the main corridor is helpful unless you know it's clear. The best path to take once inside is to go straight forward, and turn right, taking the back corridor into the hostage area, jumping around all the corners.

The left-hand side (overview 3) is risky, with terrorists having the advantage of not having to climb up a ladder before being able to shoot. A good plan is to go round the corridor into the small courtyard with the snowman, and check the room is clear before smashing the window and entering. Once inside, just follow the back corridor, jumping around every corner and throwing a flashbang into the hostage area before entering. When you've got the hostages, exit down towards the garage.

When leading hostages to safety, make sure to check for terrorists camping the rescue zone, as it is a common last-ditch strategy, especially by bots. Common hiding places are behind and on top of the skips. A flashbang into the garage wouldn't go amiss.