The Soldier

What are the pros of the Soldier? Reliability, damage resistance, high mobility with rocket jumps.

Cons of the Soldier? Small clip in the rocket launcher (4) and long reload time. Secondary weapon (shotgun) less powerful than for example demoman's. Slow movement makes the class usually easy to predict. The rockets do less damage than other projectiles, especially from longer distance.


What are the main functions of the Soldier in 6vs6? :
I'd like to think that soldiers are the backbone of the team. Their job is to keep the team and themselves alive while absorbing most of the damage from the enemies. One of the key tasks for soldiers is protecting the medic and usually there's at least one soldier close to the medic at all times.
Depending on the map, the soldiers often work as some kind of a support class. They can't move as fast as demomen or scouts and usually those classes also can deliver more damage to the opponents. Soldiers are often required just to spam from further distance and to hope that their rockets hit so that the demo and scouts have easier job to pick up the weakened enemies. The rocketjumping ability allows the soldier to escape or quickly to gain the distance to their enemies.
In close combat, good soldiers have the upper hand over most classes. The self-damage from rockets is high when compared to stickybombs and grenades, so the soldiers are usually tied to their medics because of this as well. They need to be healed often to be able to fully benefit from their rocket jump ability.


How to engage / what to do vs. ?:

Soldier vs Scout:
Fighting against scouts depends heavily on the map and position. In small corridors the soldiers should have the advantage because scouts can't dodge the rockets as easily. Just make sure that you don't let them sneak in too close because a full hit from scout's scattergun usually means that you'll kill yourself with rocket's splash damage with your first shot. The scout doesn't die from one rocket so the scout usually try to ambush you from an unexpected angle to get that one clean shot. In open spaces, scouts can dodge freely and it becomes a whole lot trickier to kill an experienced scout. I usually try to predict their movement and try to time my rockets so that I shoot after the double jump. That way I can easily guess where the scout is going to land and aim my rocket there. Also, it's a good idea to switch to shotgun once you get one rocket to hit a scout in such situations. You're much more likely to finish him off with your secondary weapon because he'll be easier to hit with it.

Soldier vs Sniper:
Spam, spam, spam. Don't let him to aim you freely. The sniper's accuracy is weakened considerably when he is taking damage, especially from explosives like rockets. If you see a sniper that is aiming elsewhere, it might be a good idea to rocket jump closer to him and try to get him down by flanking him. Good snipers usually hit headshots if they see you jumping directly towards them so it's probably smarter to hide from them if you know they're aiming for you.

Soldier vs Soldier:
Be with your medic, hit your shots better than him and dodge his rockets if you can. Strafing in irregular patterns make the rocket prediction harder for your opponent. Quite often when two soldiers meet, they're both with their medics. Be mindful of which one of you is fully buffed in health and take advantage of that. If you seem to be losing the fight, you should usually rocket jump to safety in time. Like always, having the high ground helps soldiers tremendously but this is especially true against other soldiers.

Soldier vs Medic:
Depending on the situation, the medic might be your primary target because other classes are that much easier to kill once he's down. On the other hand, the medics are often heavily protected so it makes sense to concentrate your fire on more vulnerable opponents and just focusing your fire with your team mates to the closest enemy to get him down quickly even if he's getting healed. Sometimes it is a good trade to sacrifice yourself to kill the enemy medic. If your team will get an ubercharge before the opponent, you'll have a big advantage over them.

Soldier vs Heavy:
Focus fire is the key. Tell your friends to shoot the heavy and he will go down quickly because he can't dodge or fall back. If you're playing against a heavy, be mindful of corners and closed spaces. The heavies usually like to wait behind the corner for you to walk in fron their minigun.

Soldier vs Pyro:
Probably the easiest class to kill unless you don't have rockets loaded. Shoot for his feet and even if he reflects your first rocket with the air blast, he won't be able to reflect the second one if your shoot it straight away. Pyro is extremely easy to bounce to the air and he won't get close to you if you just keep hitting the ground below him with your rockets.

Soldier vs Engineer / Sentry Gun:
Leave the sentries for ubered demomen to handle, they do it much more easily. You can do focused fire again with your soldier partner against sentries but it's never a good idea to try to take one down by yourself even if you're ubered. Unless of course the engineer is not repairing it at the time. Helping your demo and medic to handle the sentries by covering them and shooting a couple of rockets to the sentry is the best way to handle turtling engineers.

Soldier vs Demoman
This depends much on the skill of the enemy demoman. Against low skilled opponents, get close and just overwhelm him. Highly skilled demos usually hit a couple of grenades to your face if you try to rocket jump to them so you might do better from further distance and trying to get someone from your team to flank him. Good demos are a pain in the ass because they can deliver a lot of damage from both close and from distance. Your best bet is to remember that they are weaker and will go down quickly even when being healed if you focus the fire from several players.


Tipps: High ground always helps as a soldier. You are much more likely to hit the ground next to your enemy that way. Only aim for the body with rockets when you know you can hit. Jump to gain more height, you'll also take less splash damage yourself that way.