How to play capture the flag in Halo 4

Games Other Halo
1

this isn’t going to be a well structured guide because i’m not a pro player, this is a guide to teach noobs common sense and thats it, since no one else has done this yet it looks like i’m the only one.

now i played with a group of randoms in CTF and i won which proved that players can play as a team without being in a party (i didn’t use gamechat either).

what people need to realize (i think alot of you already know what i’m talking about because this place is bound to be filled with pro’s) is that halo 4’s capture the flag has a differrent structure to the other halo’s because there is less emphisis on map control. i’m going to explain the base structure of the game for those people who don’t understand because believe it or not every game has a base structure, i don’t care about your k/d or your individual skill as a player because i for one am a casual player and i play really bad.

now first off as soon as the game starts, everyone rush to the enemy flag together, yes that means all 5 of you, you can spread apart in the middle of the map in 2’s or 3’s, if you are using vehacles then it’s simple as 3 people get into the warthog and 2 into the mongoose or have 2 people on foot, this is where strategic choice comes in. then once you are at the enemies flag everyone should meet up, one person should take the flag, the rest of them run back with him, if you want to, have 2 people look for the enemy flag carrier because chances are unless the enemy team really suck they will have your flag by now but if you have 1 or 2 people chasing him, he likely won’t get away unless he has the entire team protecting him in which the flag carrier returns to the base and the rest attack the enemy flag carrier and his bodyguards, you may die but you’re death helped your teammate capture the flag so you got the advantage over the enemy team and now they’re panicking (k/d doesn’t matter in CTF don’t be afraid to die for your team).

if you have the sniper rifle, don’t go for the headshot, aim for the chest, that way you can get assists for a kill, a team player doesn’t go for kills with a sniper unless they need to, chances are if you are sniping in the right place you will earn an assist, if you don’t then try and aim for the guy that your teammate is attacking whether you get a kill or an assist it doesn’t matter you helped your team eitherways.

if you are in the mantis (which i don’t reccommend using in CTF ever, you can’t just run around randomly and shoot people, only use the mantis if the enemy is harrassing you with a vehacle otherwise stay away as it is an anti vehacle…vehacle at heart, sure you may get some easy kills against on foot players but you can easily get surrounded by a good team and lose the mantis leaving your team defenseless against a vehacle rush. personally i’d only resort to using a mantis if the enemy has a banshee otherwise just leave it alone, there are far better weapons that you can use to take down vehacles, theres the sniper rifle, the rockets, the spartan laser and even the dmr which is still as overpowered as ever and can wreck vehacles easy, you’ll be suprised as to how lethal a team of dmr users can be to a warthog, if the enemy has a ghost then you can kill them with a railgun or a rocket easily either that or aim for the side when it’s exposed.

if any pro’s want to add some tips and stuff feel free as i don’t know much about the game myself and i want to learn but if you are one of those that don’t follow this base structure and lose then you may wish to adjust, halo 4 isn’t COD, you can’t just run off everywhere.
as for everyone else, pass this along, if you see your team playing like this try to advise them on how to play, don’t get angry at them becuase that will only make things worse. hopefully if this gets around i can have a fun game of capture the flag for once because i know it’s possible.

feel free to correct anything i say because this is all speculation, i don’t consider myself pro and never will, everyone has the right to share advise be they noob or pro, like i said i may be wrong but i think if people realize this then randoms may have a good chance against parties.

TL;DR never play defense in capture the flag ever, never protect your flag when the announcer says so, always go offense and go together.

inb4 hate for noobs giving advice.

2

What you’ve described is just one of many kinds of strategic approaches that you can employ. I’ve only played one Halo 4 CTF game and I got 30 kills with the Mantis, if you know what you’re doing you can hold the base single handily with that thing. So naturally I WOULD recommend that you use the Mantis.

My main problem is that there just aren’t enough players to make an effective enough push on the enemy base. My favorite tactic used to be midfield ambushes. Take out whatever vehicle the carrier is on and then pick off his team as they run to retrieve the flag. While this is going on you can slip into their zone, take their flag while they remain occupied. But there just aren’t enough people to make that work as effectively anymore. It’s not impossible, but then it doesn’t feel like CTF anymore. It feels like an ordinary 4v4 slayer match.

They need to reintroduce CTF to Big Teams where it belongs.

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> I’ve only played one Halo 4 CTF game and I got 30 kills with the Mantis.

kills mean nothing in capture the flag, remember that. the mantis is bad against infantry because it’s slow and gets surrounded easily but if people are in a vehacle they have to get out of it to jack you but if they get out the other players can kill them so you can kinda trap them then otherwise it shouldn’t be used, if you got 30 kills with a mantis then you’re lucky because the enemy team didn’t have plasma pistols or they just plain sucked, all vehacles except the scorpion have their limits, the scorpions firepower however can prevent people from getting close to it easily and with a turreter they can be a powerhouse but even that can be taken down with a spartan laser. plus the majority of players who use the mantis tend to suck bad and if you suck bad it’s not a good idea to use the mantis. the mantis is only useful if ever useful in the hands of a pro, just because it has rockets and a powerful machine gun doesn’t make it easy to use, it’s defense is low and a noob player may get 1 or 2 kills but they will blow up soon after, vehacles don’t regenerate health so you have to try not to get hit as often as possible.

other than that i can see your point, CTF has changed and people need to adapt to the new style of play, in halo 3 you had to reset the flag manually and you had to be near the flag to return it. in halo 4 however it resets automatically so you don’t need to protect the flag when it’s not at the base, instead you just keep pushing, if you push the enemy back they won’t be able to get through to the flag so the flag can reset on it’s own. i hope that people will soon learn, i mean it’s only the first month so perhapsd in a couple of months people will change. other than that the only other thing i’d like to add is that halo 4 seems to lack spawn synchronization, i’d rather wait longer to spawn on my team than spawn in the middle of the map with no cover, no teammates and the entire enemy team coming for me.

back in halo 3 on valhalla what i used to do was let my team hold them off whilst i sneak through the dens past the pelican with the shotgun, go underneath the enemy base (crouched of course), wait for everyone to leave till only 1 or 2 at most are left then i’d un-crouch run around to attract attention, then as soon as the guy comes down i kill him, then i go out and kill the other guy, grab the flag, throw it off the lift and from there i either wiat till a teammate grabs the flag or i steal the enemies mongoose/warthog, grab the flag carrier, head back to the base and score, it only required 1 or 2 people to do back then but now it takes a full team to capture the flag.

ahh how simple it was back then