Call of Duty 4 – Modern Warefare Strategy
As some of you may know, or some of you may not know, Call of Duty 4 – Modern Warefare, hence referred to simply as COD4, is the best selling and easily most fun and challenging First Person Shooter out there today. There are over 7 million players on Xbox Live alone, and several thousand on the much smaller PS Network.
The reason that I am writing this blog is because despite the game’s popularity, there is a derth of good information about how best to play online and be successful. That is the niche I am hoping to fulfill.
To give myself a bit of credibility in discussing strategy or tactics, let me first say that I am ranked in the 12,000′s out of 7 million. While not the best player by far, I also don’t have unlimited time to devote to the game either. So without further ado, here is the strategy.
All tactics and stategies discussed will be in the context of a Hardcore Search and Destroy game mode. This is the game type I most often play.
First and foremost, COD4 is about sound. 80% of the information you need to be successful will be in the sound you hear in the enviroment. 10% is what you actually see on your tv, 5% the kill notifications, and the last 5% the scoreboard telling you how many enemies are still alive.
Because sound is so important it is a good idea to get a decent sound system. I recommend Turtle Beach X-Force 1 headphones. They are ideal because they come equiped with a microphone, which is a nessecity to communicate with squadmates, the game sound is only audible to you so you won’t have to disturb anyone else, and lastly they work perfectly with COD4′s sound.
Let’s discuss the Class system. You get to create five custom classes, and will need every one because the default classes the game uses are near worthless. In building the classes, I will assume you are a level 55, and have access to every gun and perk in the game. If you are not level 55, feel free to substitute your own similar weapon, and or perk, as you see fit.
Custom Class 1: G3 Claymore Specialist – As a primary weapon choose the G3. I prefer the red dot sight as an attachment as opposed to the silencer. The disadvantage of the sight is that if enemy UAV is active, and you fire your weapon, you give away your posistion. However, if enemy UAV is active, you should only fire your weapon when you can kill an enemy, therefore the risk is mitgated. The reason I don’t use the silencer much on the G3 is that I find that it makes it difficult to kill from long range. I essentially use this class as my sniper class, as the G3 is superior to every sniper rifle in the game simply as an assualt rife. As it is essentially my sniper class, claymores for perk one work as excellent defensive tools to block points of entry to your posistion. More on Claymores later… Perk two can either be Slight of Hand or UAV Jammer. This is a matter of preference. Combing UAV Jammer with your next perk, Dead Silence, makes you almost invisible. However if you followed my advice your gun is not silenced and therefore are not totally safe. Different situations you may wish that enemy UAV cannot find you, other situations you may wish you had the quick reload. Both perks can save your life depending on your style of play. I usually go with UAV Jammer and try not to empty my ten round clip to quickly. Your last perk should be Dead Silence. Dead Silence might just be your best friend when it comes to perks. Remember how I said sound was 80% of the information you are receiving and giving out? Dead Silence essentially neutralizes the sound of you moving. Moving undetected opens up limitless tactical opportunties to outsmart your opponnent. While using Dead Silence running out full sprint, you make no more noise than a person would who was crouching without Dead Silence. So the purpose of this class is to give you a quick long range killer. You can move quietly, setup defenses, and kill with pinpoint accuracy. The only other gun to rival the G3 in the accuracy department would be the M16. However, the M16 three round burst limits its rate of fire, and therefore makes the semi-automatic G3 with no delay between shots the superior weapon. Bottom Line – You are a sniper without the disadvantages of being a sniper.
Custom Class 2: Stealth SMG C4 - This class is your Stealth class. This is the class where you move undetected throughout the map, and kill rivals indiscriminatly. A silenced SMG is your best choice for the stealth class. An obvious favorite is the MP5, a very decent gun. My personal choice is the P90. The advantage of the P90 is the fifty round clip. The MP5 has a thirty round clip. In normal game mode this discrepancy is addressed by making the MP5 more deadly than the P90. However in hardcore mode this isn’t much of an issue. The P90 also has a faster fire rate, allowing you to kill quicker. The other options, the Scorpion – Too small of a magizine, twenty rounds, although deadly accurate, and powerful is not a good fit for this role. The Mini-Uzi – A decent clip size, thirty two, but unacceptable accuracy loss when fired in fully automatic. The AK-74 – Another decent choice, similar to the Mp5 in magizine size, a little bit deadlier than the MP5, but also fires a tad bit slower. Overall, I go with the silenced P90, fastest fire rate in its class, and largest magizine ensure I kill, and can keep killing in the field. Perk One – I go with C4 because it really is cool to kill an enemy with an offensively thrown C4. You can use C4 defensively as it is designed, but honestly it becomes something of a noobish tactic, and severely limits what you can do because you have to maintain visual contact if you want to inflict damage. The ideal use of C4 for me is to be thrown into second story windows of known sniper hang outs. People are often on the lookout for thrown grenades, but will not notice a thrown C4 at their feet until it blows them to shreds. Perk 2 – UAV Jammer – By definition of the class you will want total stealth, and UAV Jammer is a big part of that. Perk 3 – Dead Silence – As explained in custom class 1 Dead Silence can be your best friend. Except in this case you are more often than not bringing the fight to the enemy, getting behind them, and of course critical that they not hear you do this. I have wiped out entire teams just by running behind and knifing everyone in the back. Because your P90 does not have long range capability I suggest the Desert Eagle as a backup weapon. This pistol is essentially a sniper pistol, and can one shot kill from across the map, it just takes a bit of practice.
Custom Class 3: LMG Shoot through Walls Class. Choose the M60 with a red dot sight, Claymores, Slight of Hand, (reloading a LMG can take ten seconds without it, an eternity in combat terms), and Deep Impact. The M60 is as accurate as a sniper rifle when used in a single shot capacity. At full automatic, it is less than ideally accurate, but still fairly controllable, and with a hundred round clip, hard to miss. You are slow as hell carrying a LMG so you are more likely to be on the defensive, therefore those claymores really come in handy. The best place to lay down claymores are under the bumper of cars facing the direction of enemy traffic. This has two added positive effects, one your claymore is hidden from sight and therefore more likely to be tripped over, and two the added explosion of the car guarentees that anyone close enough to have activated the mine will be killed. Finally let’s discuss Deep Impact. I normally would want Dead Silence on all my classes, but for this class I make an exception because with Deep Impact I can shoot through walls and consistently kill enemies who cower behind them. While an effective tool on certain maps the disadvantages such as being very Loud, slow, and inaccurate should regulate the usage of this class.
Custom Class 4: The Noob Tube Class A.K.A – The Grenade Launcher Class. This is quite possibly my favorite and most often used class. People often complain, “You are a tenth prestige, and you use a noob tube, you must suck.” All I can reply is that I suck all the way to the bank. Knowing when and where to fire a grenade launcher is almost a guarentee of getting quick and easy kills. It is also demoralizing to the other team. You cause enemies to turn off their consoles, or just leave the game with enough well placed shots. The morality of using such a weapon aside, its in the game, and it is a powerful tool to help you win. Use an M4 with a launcher as your primary, choose Overkill for Perk Two, and Choose a G3 with launcher as your secondary weapon. The purpose of these weapons is that your M4 can handle any close range to medium range combat that you encounter, and your G3 can handle any long range threat. I also use Extreme Conditioning as my Perk Three, because at the beginning of rounds, speed is everything, and placing your shot first can make all the difference. Dead Silence is also an acceptable alternative, and more useful if you don’t continue to rush past your initial grenade volley.
Custom Class 5: Shotty/Ak-47 Rocketeer – I used to reserve class 5 for a sniper, but after a while I noticed that I wasn’t using it that much, and that sniping wasn’t accomplishing much more than what I could do with a G3. So with a free class I decided to experiment. What I came up with is the fastest running class in the game. Primary Weapon is a shotgun, either one is fine, I go with the semi-auto Italian shotgun because it is gold, but I rarely use it. Secondary weapon should be the Ak-47. Both weapons have a Red dot sight. Rockets should be your perk one. Overkill as your perk two, and Extreme Conditioning as your perk three. Using this combination you can rush faster than anyone else, and with a bit of skill shove a rocket up someone’s ass in the process. I immeadiately switch to my AK-47. It is a powerful gun, even more so I’ve found when I am able to posistion myself faster than anyone else. It is loud, has lots of recoil, and is difficult to snipe with, but the AK’s killing power leaves other guns in its tracks. I find that the silencer inhibits too much of the AK’s power, although it does reduce recoil. Let’s face it, you aren’t going for sublety when you rush around with a RPG. This is a very agressive class, and I wouldn’t reccommend it for beginners because it has several disadvantages. It is essentially the anti-thesis of your Stealth SMG class. However I have found that these classes actually work well together in tandem, several rounds as an aggressive rusher, another couple as a silent killer. It will keep your enemies guessing as to what your style really is, and less likely to figure you out.
Well thats it for now. At a later point is will write more involved strategy tips on a map by map basis, as well as perhaps tactical pointers for beginners out there. Good Luck!
