Viewing: cs_winter_assault

Plain vanilla cs_assault is anything but a balanced map; Patient terrorists will have little trouble against a similarly skilled CT team. Tech fixed this balance issue in his map cs_winter_assault by creating five new entry points for the warehouse:

1. "Side Door" - This is the most obvious new entrance: A small door on the side of the warehouse. If the teams are well balanced everyone will tend to avoid this door (unless doing a coordinated rush) as it is an excellent target from either side.

2. "Tall Vent" - A ventilation duct that runs from the roof to the warehouse floor and is shaped like an upside down 'J'. The long ladder in this vent can (for the most part) be avoided by skilled CT looking to make a quiet entrance.

3. "Small Vent" - This short, vertical duct is located next to the front door. The vents on either end are stronger than the others in the map, requiring several shots from an M4 to break. This is balanced by the fact that once a CT is inside he has good cover from nearly the entire warehouse.

4. The ducts present in the original cs_assault have an additional branch which makes pinpointing and predicting the path of CT's in them more challenging for the terrorists.

5. A ladder just inside the front door makes breaching this entrance a potentially two-pronged operation. Some might not count this as a new entry point, but tactically it is a huge departure from the front door in cs_assault.

If you think these new entrances make the map unbalanced in the CT's favor, keep in mind that all of the ducts in the map have covers inside and out. So because the side and back doors are both squeaky this means that no CT can get into the warehouse without making some kind of noise (unless he literally walks in the front door).

Because the CT's spawn with little to no cover in cs_winter_assault you might think that the map encourages T rushing. To some extent you would be right, however the CT's have a new tower in the corner of the map. This gives the T's three elevated sniper platforms to watch. Using these map elements a prepared and similarly skilled CT team can turn a T rush into a T graveyard often enough to make rushing the CT's a less than ideal strat.

There are three flaws in this map that players and admins should be aware of:

1. It is very easy to skywalk (once you know the trick). The only good thing about this is that it is possible from both inside and outside the warehouse.

2. Part of the warehouse roof is very sticky (a section of the slope between the back door and the ladder). If you hit duck+jump enough you can usually get away, but it takes a while.

3. The spaces in the catwalk railings look clear but act solid when you shoot through them.