I have written this guide as a way to encourage tactical gameplay, rather than your plain 'run and gun, take no cover' stuff, by showing what weapons are used for what and the basics of them are, along with their tactical advantages. It is absolutely miserable seeing people use a tactical shooter like a way to just play 'brainless' and run around with no idea with what is going on, so I hope I get this message out.


WEAPON # 1: M16A4: The M16A4 is a precise three-round burst or semi automatic rifle, used by the U.S Marines today. In this game, it is the main weapon of the 'Rifleman' class. It doesn't really have any tactical advantage, compared to other rifles, but its main pro is that it has little to no recoil on three-round burst, making it one of the most accurate(and easiest to control) weapons in the game. The main tactic I'd use for this is clearing buildings out on three-round bursts, or using a good trigger finger on semi-auto to fire at enemies at long range.


WEAPON # 2: M249: The M249 is the U.S's main service machine gun for almost all branches of the army today, including the marines. In this game, it is a high-recoil weapon. It's recoil is EXTREMELY hard to control when fired on full auto(excluding use with a bipod), but varying amounts of 2-6 round bursts should do the trick at close range. I would highly suggest a tactic I have seen in many real military videos, which is to stay behind cover until your teammates are under heavy fire,(or if one dies, or someone calls for backup while under light fire)and then quickly come out of cover, mount the bipod on a surface, and then open fire on the enemy. Your team will greatly appreciate any support you give them with this LMG.


WEAPON # 3: M4A1 VERT GRIP/M4A1 AIMPOINT: First of all, the only reason I am talking about these two weapons in the same slide is because they are the same weapon, except one has a sight and one has a foregrip. Now, onto the M4A1 Vert Grip: The M4A1 Vert Grip is a M4A1 assault rifle(A widely known and loved assault rifle among all U.S army branches) that simply has a small vertical fore grip attached onto it. Supposedly it has reduced recoil(this would be the case in real life)but I have not tested if this is true in the game. Sights on it are pretty basic, they are just like the M16A4's sights. This weapon can be set to full automatic or semi automatic, giving it a nice advantage over the M16A4. Continuous full auto fire doesn't have to much recoil, but I would suggest moving your view a bit when firing continuously on full auto. A good tactic to use with this one is, like the M16A4, stay behind cover and engage from afar. Though there is a little upside to the M4 when it comes to this, which is that it can be fired on full auto at long ranges.(I would suggest using iron sights, though). It is also much more efficient then the M16A4 when it comes to clearing out buildings, as the small amount of full auto recoil makes it a deadly weapon at close range. This weapon is only given to the Sergeant class, though, which is normally taken when joining a server which already has players on it, so I would also suggest practicing with the M16A4 just in case this happens. For the M4 AimPoint, everything I stated about the M4 Vert Grip is true for the M4 AimPoint(except for the reduced recoil thing I said, and the M16A4-like sights thing I stated about the M4 Vert Grip). The main reason people choose this over the M4 Vert Grip are just two words: 'AIMPOINT SIGHT!'. The AimPoint sight truely is an advantage of the M4 Vert Grip. Why? Well, because it can be used at long range and close range, and is has a wide scope radius, and a red dot in the middle of the sight to increase accuracy.


WEAPON # 4: M14: The M14 was considered one of the worst weapons ever made by Vietnam veterans, so why would it be put in this game? Reason: It's amazing comeback!!! The M14 has been adopted by the Navy Seals as a Sniper Rifle(in this game it is also used for the same purpose by Marines). The Marksman Class gets this weapon by default. This weapon isn't very good at close range compared to the Insurgent's L1A1 SLR, but it is much better for long range. The M14 has a scope unlike the Dragunov's, but the scope is just a bit similar to the L42A1's. On the map ins_karam, many snipers, Insurgent or Marine, prefer this Sniper RIfle because the Source Engine's lighting effects mess up with the L42A1 and Dragunov/Al Kadesiah's scope, while it doesn't mess up the M14's. The main sniper tactic I would prefer for this weapon is to stay behind cover, and just snipe from there. Only move forwards when your team is near, you don't want to have to wait for two tedious animations of putting the scope cover over the M14 and putting the Beretta M9's safety pin in the 'fire' direction when engaging an insurgent at close range, teamwork is a must with this weapon!


WEAPON # 5: BERETTA M9: The Beretta M9 is an Italian pistol used by all branches of the U.S army. It is a very nice pistols to use, and I am not kidding when I say that I have gotten 11 kills in one life just using an M9. It normally takes 3 shots to kill one person with it, or just 1 if you headshot someone. I love this weapon, considering its high firerate. A main tactic, advertised in many shooter games is to pull it out in hot situations, I agree with this tactic. That is the only useful tactic for the Beretta, really, except for another thing I came up with, which is using it while moving to cover.


WEAPON # 6: COLT M1911: I don't actually know how to get this weapon as a sidearm, you will have to go to a server that has the chat command '!pistols' and get it from there. This is the exact same as the Beretta M9 except for a different look and fewer rounds, along with a higher firerate. All tactics I suggested with the M9 will work with this weapon.


WEAPON # 7: Last but not least there is my favorite weapon: THE M16A4/M203!!!!! I absolutely love this weapon. Period. Well, the main tactics I would use for this weapon are to stay behind cover. ALWAYS. Then, make sure you ALWAYS have your M16A4/M203 with the Grenade Launcher out, then move from cover to cover with your pistol out. For the M16A4 part of this weapon, just look at my M16A4 part of this guide. Nothing special, really.