It seems as though the upcoming release of RO: Heroes of Stalingrad has recently attracted a large number of new players to RO: Ostfront--which is absolutely fantastic. Red Orchestra is a realistic, think-from-the-brain-not-the-trigger multiplayer shooter, and in my opinion, it's one of the front runners out there. In short, it deserves a wider audience. So newcomers, welcome to RO! 
Now Red Orchestra has a steep learning curve as you've probably figured out by now. Fortunately, there are many guides and clan forum threads out there with great tips on how to move, shoot, and work as a team. More specific advice on certain challenging maps, however, is strangely absent. To be honest most of you will figure out these general tips within a month or two, but I thought I'd post these just to give everyone a head start. Besides, some of the old hands at RO take every map very seriously, and by following my advice you will minimize their often very verbal frustration.
Now I'll freely admit that I'm rather new to the franchise myself. I picked up RO in early March of this year, but since learning the ropes it has literally become my exclusive game of choice. If I do say so myself, I've picked it up fast--largely by scouring the internet for every tip, stat, and strat I could find.
That said, I'm no clan player or 5-year vet, so if you're an experienced player reading this, feel free to chime in!
Without further ado, here we go. Here's my best advice on how to tackle some of the hardest maps in RO:
Rakowice - Soviets
A challenging map if the Russians can't coordinate well. An impossible one if they don't even try. Time is your biggest enemy.
--The most critical member of the Soviet force is the Engineer on this map. If you are not intimately familiar with the location of every objective and demolition target, do not select this role. I've seen frustrated clan players TK newbies for their satchel charges because they keep wasting them on enemy infantry.
--Ignore the Hangar until the Flak 88s and the Bunker have been secured and the respective demolition targets at each site are destroyed. Until then, even if the Hangar is captured, it is easily retaken by the Germans, who need only run a few dozen meters from spawn to reach it.
--Germans will filter into the buildings between the Hangar and the Perimeter defenses after the defenses have been captured. Be aware of this and do your team a favor if you find yourself in a good position to clear them out. However, keep focused on the Flak site and Bunker. If you put enough pressure on both, pretty soon the Germans won't have the luxury of infesting the buildings and taking potshots.
--The armored car and to a lesser extent the Universal Carrier should be reserved for Engineers traveling to objectives. Ideally, they will be using them at the map start to attack the Flak site and Bunker in advance while the rest of the Allies take the perimeter. In the best of circumstances, the bunker, 88s, and control tower door will all be flaming ruins before the first russians enter the hangar.:IS2: Don't prevent them from doing this. Carpool with a sapper, or just run. Don't steal his ride.
--IN SHORT: Ignore the Hangar, don't play as the Engineer, keep moving against the clock.
Baksova - Germans
If the Germans don't have a good squad leader on this one, they have no chance. But, even the best SL can't achieve victory if half the team is sniping 100 yds from the cap zone.
--DON'T PLAY SQUAD LEADER! If you don't know what to do, taking German SL on this map is in my experience THE fastest way in RO to get insulted, tked for your smoke grenades, or vote-kicked. Alternatively, you will be auto-kicked once your artillery barrage on the objective kills your six comrades hunkered down inside. Harsh words, but trust me on this. Heck, I wouldn't take SL on this map unless I were well paid.
--Don't dive behind a stone wall and snipe at the Russians for five minutes while the rest of your team is charging the AT position with fixed bayonets. You'll be taking on every single camping Russian defender alone at long range, and if you're new in all honesty you won't achieve more than a 1:1 K/D ratio. You mean well, but it's not covering fire. Leave that to the MGs and the sniper.
--Don't run into Russian artillery. Reinforcements are silver. Respawn time, more importantly, is 24-karat gold. Run around the explosions.
--Watch your grenades. It's not that difficult to, as you charge the trenches, make sure you actually SEE a Russian before lobbing a nade. Better to die because you hesitated than kill the one teammate giving your side the edge needed to capture.
Krasnyi Oktyabr - Germans
Even the best start to this map is no guarantee of a win. This map hands the defender several imposing advantages. The Wermacht has to play smart to come out on top.
--PETROL FIRST! If every other piece of advice on this thread gets forgotten or ignored, remember this! Capturing the central yard before the petrol yard places the German spawn in THE worst possible location for taking petrol. Your team will be forced to dodge sniper and DP fire across an open street, crawl into the petrol cap, and pray that a Russian nade doesn't make them start all over again. Besides, taking petrol places respawning Germans behind Soviet lines inside central, often routing the Ruskies at bayonet-point.
--Secure petrol before moving onto central. Because the shift of the german spawn is such a dangerous proposition, make sure that your team doesn't accidentally lose petrol JUST as central is captured.
--Once central and petrol are yours, stay well away from the area behind the garage. The Russians control a one-doorway bottleneck and they will glady fill it with grenades and machine gun bullets. Some rounds, it seems the Germans end up losing almost 15% of their reinforcements there. The garage interior itself, while still a tricky area, is a much fairer firefight for the Germans.
Stalingrad Kessel - Soviets
Supposedly, your unit is assigned to stamp out the last remnants of German resistance in the Stalingrad Pocket. In practice though, a few slip-ups from the Russian side of things mean that the Germans will be the ones moving forward, mopping up the last few Soviet holdouts once the reinforcements give out.
--Again, this is an engineer-critical map, with the difference being that even if you DO know where every destructible door is, you STILL shouldn't play as an engineer until you've played this map at least ten times as a russian and a couple times as a german. Engineers are the conductors of this battle, and you have to understand the ebb and flow of the map before altering it by creating a new entryway.
--After capturing the warehouse, it makes more sense in my opinion to take the North Rail Yard next. Experienced players are divided on this, but in a public server the North Rail Yard is often lightly defended. In contrast, the Germans will be swarming all over the Assembly Hall, with three or more muzzles pointed at every entrance. Blindly rushing into the hall only drains the Russian reinforcements, while taking North Rail moves the Russian spawn up, pushes the German spawn back, and gives the Sovets access to the back entrances into Assembly. In my opinion, taking North Rail makes the Assembly Hall far easier to capture.
--Finally, if you do play as an Engineer (presumably by accident, right?) DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES blow the back door into the assembly hall unless doing so will GUARANTEE its capture. If this door is blown at the wrong time, the Germans will filter into the ruins on the Russian left, picking off your teammates fresh from spawn.
Kryukovo - Soviets
As a Russian on this map, General Winter sure doesn't feel like your ally. The first cap zone is located at the top of what looks like the most massive snowdrift in the entire USSR, and all too often, the Russians spend the paltry twenty minutes given them by the map author charging uselessly at dug-in riflemen and machine gunners.
--Again, time is your greatest enemy, perhaps more so than on any other map. Even if the Russians do capture the daunting first objective, you have to keep pushing forward. All too often, the Germans are swept away only a minute or so too late, with the Russians dashing unopposed but hopelessly across the steppe trying to capture the last objectives as the seconds tick down.
--Again, perhaps more so than on any other map, a preponderance of campers on the attacking side will spell defeat. You may feel like Vasily Zaitsev as you fire clip after clip at tiny targets in the distance, but you won't pick off more than a couple Germans. And, all that while, your teammates will be screaming as they huddle beneath the ridge for your presence in the cap zone. A SMALL exception can be made at the map start, when the Germans themselves are dashing towards the trenches. Picking off a couple Axis soldiers then could make a slight difference. BUT, after firing one clip at the most after the map starts, get up and chaaaarge!
--Once you are IN the cap zone, however, do your best to stay alive! Every life in the cap matters. Save your grenades, as well, and use them only when you're 90% sure they'll kill a German. Otherwise, I guarantee you will be kicking yourself for having wasted them when you hear an MG firing just yards away on the ridge's opposite side.
--After taking the bridge, move through the woods on either side of the map to take the foxholes. It's a far smoother trip than the bare snow in between, criscrossed overhead by MG34 tracers.
--IN SHORT: Not in the cap? CHAAARGE! In the cap? HIIIIDE!!!!
KonigsPlatz - Germans
I'll make this one nice and simple:
AVOID RUSSIAN ARTILLERY!
The German team has very limited reinforcements, and trying to be clever and dash across open ground between barrages will only waste them, since you can't run fast enough to clear the killing field before the next salvo arrives. Go around!
Otherwise, hold Moltke monument as long as possible, become the Russian tankers' worst nightmare with the panzerfausts, and be as annoying as possible from the flanks if you have a semiauto rifle or MG.
Tula Outskirts - Soviets
You wouldn't think it, but despite that impressive ridge protected by three well-protected bunkers the Russians hold at the beginning, the Germans very often demonstrate the meaning of the verb "to overrun." Blame the scripted artillery, as well as the looong run from HQ to the front line.
--Know what's going on! Check your map (O key) OFTEN to see which bunker needs help. If you're alone at one of the bunkers, call for some buddies. Russian victory depends almost entirely on holding the bunkers for at least eight minutes MINIMUM. Ten is preferred.
--Look out for artillery! Every time a bunker is captured, as well as at map start, scripted artillery will drop on the forest and 2nd Line. Better to pause and wait for the barrage to lift than wait another fifteen seconds for the respawn.
--If the bunkers do fall, defend the flanks of 2nd Line tenaciously. If 2nd Line falls, hold the RIGHT flank of HQ. Those are the typical paths the Axis side takes. As a general rule, 2nd Line can usually hold from 2-6 min, while HQ will be lucky to last for more than 3.
Fallen Heroes - Soviets
Another 6th Army Kessel mop-up gone wrong, the somber music track for this map is often punctuated by the explosion of Stug and Panzer IV HE rounds, the crack of bullets, and the agonized screams of stricken Russians.
--Take and hold Central Square. This (and the East Square) is all the Russians need to win the map. A quick, safe route is to take a left out of the Technical School, run across the mound with the destroyed car and into the sewers, and emerge crawling from the right side tunnel entrance. Holding Central also allows for the possibility of capturing West Square, pushing forward the Russian spawn and unlocking a T34-76 for the Russian tankers. (Note, taking and holding means staying in the cap)
--Save your grenades. Spam has a habit of hitting nothing, since everyone is usually crawling around on this map. You'll wish you had one nade left on your belt when you and a German spot each others' heads bobbing over the ruined walkways.
--Resist the AT-rifle temptation. There are, inexplicably, four PTRD-41 slots on the Russian side. Unless your tankers and combat engineers turn out to be incapable of killing the enemy armor, leave one or two slots blank and take a rifle instead. If you take an AT-rifle, you'll probably get off three or four shots at an actual tank all round while getting continually outpaced and outshot by enemy infantry with bolt-actions, semiautos, and SMGs.
--Throw good smoke. Since the SL isn't as critical on this map, you can be excused for taking the slot as long as you get in the cap and use your RGDs well. Try to block the lanes of fire of enemy tanks and MGs, and if you're not needed in the cap zone, run back and grab more smoke grenades. Too often, an inexperienced but well-meaning SL will throw his smoke, then hunker down in the cap for several minutes, not realizing that his smoke has long thinned out and that his comrades are getting cut down like celery sticks at a preschool during snacktime.
That's all!
As a final general tip, I would recommend for beginners to choose the Russian side to start with as a general rule, preferably the Assault or Auto-Rifleman class. Russian grenades are more... forgiving if you nervously start the throwing process, since Steilhandgrenades start cooking off as soon as you press the left mouse. Plus, SMGs and semiautos are fairly simple to handle and scrounge a couple kills with, and they're non-critical roles that will let you avoid blame.
Hope this was helpful and good luck!
Now Red Orchestra has a steep learning curve as you've probably figured out by now. Fortunately, there are many guides and clan forum threads out there with great tips on how to move, shoot, and work as a team. More specific advice on certain challenging maps, however, is strangely absent. To be honest most of you will figure out these general tips within a month or two, but I thought I'd post these just to give everyone a head start. Besides, some of the old hands at RO take every map very seriously, and by following my advice you will minimize their often very verbal frustration.
Now I'll freely admit that I'm rather new to the franchise myself. I picked up RO in early March of this year, but since learning the ropes it has literally become my exclusive game of choice. If I do say so myself, I've picked it up fast--largely by scouring the internet for every tip, stat, and strat I could find.
That said, I'm no clan player or 5-year vet, so if you're an experienced player reading this, feel free to chime in!
Without further ado, here we go. Here's my best advice on how to tackle some of the hardest maps in RO:
Rakowice - Soviets
A challenging map if the Russians can't coordinate well. An impossible one if they don't even try. Time is your biggest enemy.
--The most critical member of the Soviet force is the Engineer on this map. If you are not intimately familiar with the location of every objective and demolition target, do not select this role. I've seen frustrated clan players TK newbies for their satchel charges because they keep wasting them on enemy infantry.
--Ignore the Hangar until the Flak 88s and the Bunker have been secured and the respective demolition targets at each site are destroyed. Until then, even if the Hangar is captured, it is easily retaken by the Germans, who need only run a few dozen meters from spawn to reach it.
--Germans will filter into the buildings between the Hangar and the Perimeter defenses after the defenses have been captured. Be aware of this and do your team a favor if you find yourself in a good position to clear them out. However, keep focused on the Flak site and Bunker. If you put enough pressure on both, pretty soon the Germans won't have the luxury of infesting the buildings and taking potshots.
--The armored car and to a lesser extent the Universal Carrier should be reserved for Engineers traveling to objectives. Ideally, they will be using them at the map start to attack the Flak site and Bunker in advance while the rest of the Allies take the perimeter. In the best of circumstances, the bunker, 88s, and control tower door will all be flaming ruins before the first russians enter the hangar.:IS2: Don't prevent them from doing this. Carpool with a sapper, or just run. Don't steal his ride.
--IN SHORT: Ignore the Hangar, don't play as the Engineer, keep moving against the clock.
Baksova - Germans
If the Germans don't have a good squad leader on this one, they have no chance. But, even the best SL can't achieve victory if half the team is sniping 100 yds from the cap zone.
--DON'T PLAY SQUAD LEADER! If you don't know what to do, taking German SL on this map is in my experience THE fastest way in RO to get insulted, tked for your smoke grenades, or vote-kicked.
Alternatively, you will be auto-kicked once your artillery barrage on the objective kills your six comrades hunkered down inside. Harsh words, but trust me on this. Heck, I wouldn't take SL on this map unless I were well paid.--Don't dive behind a stone wall and snipe at the Russians for five minutes while the rest of your team is charging the AT position with fixed bayonets. You'll be taking on every single camping Russian defender alone at long range, and if you're new in all honesty you won't achieve more than a 1:1 K/D ratio. You mean well, but it's not covering fire. Leave that to the MGs and the sniper.
--Don't run into Russian artillery. Reinforcements are silver. Respawn time, more importantly, is 24-karat gold. Run around the explosions.
--Watch your grenades. It's not that difficult to, as you charge the trenches, make sure you actually SEE a Russian before lobbing a nade. Better to die because you hesitated than kill the one teammate giving your side the edge needed to capture.
Krasnyi Oktyabr - Germans
Even the best start to this map is no guarantee of a win. This map hands the defender several imposing advantages. The Wermacht has to play smart to come out on top.
--PETROL FIRST! If every other piece of advice on this thread gets forgotten or ignored, remember this! Capturing the central yard before the petrol yard places the German spawn in THE worst possible location for taking petrol. Your team will be forced to dodge sniper and DP fire across an open street, crawl into the petrol cap, and pray that a Russian nade doesn't make them start all over again. Besides, taking petrol places respawning Germans behind Soviet lines inside central, often routing the Ruskies at bayonet-point.
--Secure petrol before moving onto central. Because the shift of the german spawn is such a dangerous proposition, make sure that your team doesn't accidentally lose petrol JUST as central is captured.
--Once central and petrol are yours, stay well away from the area behind the garage. The Russians control a one-doorway bottleneck and they will glady fill it with grenades and machine gun bullets. Some rounds, it seems the Germans end up losing almost 15% of their reinforcements there. The garage interior itself, while still a tricky area, is a much fairer firefight for the Germans.
Stalingrad Kessel - Soviets
Supposedly, your unit is assigned to stamp out the last remnants of German resistance in the Stalingrad Pocket. In practice though, a few slip-ups from the Russian side of things mean that the Germans will be the ones moving forward, mopping up the last few Soviet holdouts once the reinforcements give out.
--Again, this is an engineer-critical map, with the difference being that even if you DO know where every destructible door is, you STILL shouldn't play as an engineer until you've played this map at least ten times as a russian and a couple times as a german. Engineers are the conductors of this battle, and you have to understand the ebb and flow of the map before altering it by creating a new entryway.
--After capturing the warehouse, it makes more sense in my opinion to take the North Rail Yard next. Experienced players are divided on this, but in a public server the North Rail Yard is often lightly defended. In contrast, the Germans will be swarming all over the Assembly Hall, with three or more muzzles pointed at every entrance. Blindly rushing into the hall only drains the Russian reinforcements, while taking North Rail moves the Russian spawn up, pushes the German spawn back, and gives the Sovets access to the back entrances into Assembly. In my opinion, taking North Rail makes the Assembly Hall far easier to capture.
--Finally, if you do play as an Engineer (presumably by accident, right?
) DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES blow the back door into the assembly hall unless doing so will GUARANTEE its capture. If this door is blown at the wrong time, the Germans will filter into the ruins on the Russian left, picking off your teammates fresh from spawn.Kryukovo - Soviets
As a Russian on this map, General Winter sure doesn't feel like your ally.
The first cap zone is located at the top of what looks like the most massive snowdrift in the entire USSR, and all too often, the Russians spend the paltry twenty minutes given them by the map author charging uselessly at dug-in riflemen and machine gunners.--Again, time is your greatest enemy, perhaps more so than on any other map. Even if the Russians do capture the daunting first objective, you have to keep pushing forward. All too often, the Germans are swept away only a minute or so too late, with the Russians dashing unopposed but hopelessly across the steppe trying to capture the last objectives as the seconds tick down.
--Again, perhaps more so than on any other map, a preponderance of campers on the attacking side will spell defeat. You may feel like Vasily Zaitsev as you fire clip after clip at tiny targets in the distance, but you won't pick off more than a couple Germans. And, all that while, your teammates will be screaming as they huddle beneath the ridge for your presence in the cap zone. A SMALL exception can be made at the map start, when the Germans themselves are dashing towards the trenches. Picking off a couple Axis soldiers then could make a slight difference. BUT, after firing one clip at the most after the map starts, get up and chaaaarge!
--Once you are IN the cap zone, however, do your best to stay alive! Every life in the cap matters. Save your grenades, as well, and use them only when you're 90% sure they'll kill a German. Otherwise, I guarantee you will be kicking yourself for having wasted them when you hear an MG firing just yards away on the ridge's opposite side.
--After taking the bridge, move through the woods on either side of the map to take the foxholes. It's a far smoother trip than the bare snow in between, criscrossed overhead by MG34 tracers.
--IN SHORT: Not in the cap? CHAAARGE! In the cap? HIIIIDE!!!!
KonigsPlatz - Germans
I'll make this one nice and simple:
AVOID RUSSIAN ARTILLERY!
The German team has very limited reinforcements, and trying to be clever and dash across open ground between barrages will only waste them, since you can't run fast enough to clear the killing field before the next salvo arrives. Go around!
Otherwise, hold Moltke monument as long as possible, become the Russian tankers' worst nightmare with the panzerfausts, and be as annoying as possible from the flanks if you have a semiauto rifle or MG.
Tula Outskirts - Soviets
You wouldn't think it, but despite that impressive ridge protected by three well-protected bunkers the Russians hold at the beginning, the Germans very often demonstrate the meaning of the verb "to overrun." Blame the scripted artillery, as well as the looong run from HQ to the front line.
--Know what's going on! Check your map (O key) OFTEN to see which bunker needs help. If you're alone at one of the bunkers, call for some buddies. Russian victory depends almost entirely on holding the bunkers for at least eight minutes MINIMUM. Ten is preferred.
--Look out for artillery! Every time a bunker is captured, as well as at map start, scripted artillery will drop on the forest and 2nd Line. Better to pause and wait for the barrage to lift than wait another fifteen seconds for the respawn.
--If the bunkers do fall, defend the flanks of 2nd Line tenaciously. If 2nd Line falls, hold the RIGHT flank of HQ. Those are the typical paths the Axis side takes. As a general rule, 2nd Line can usually hold from 2-6 min, while HQ will be lucky to last for more than 3.
Fallen Heroes - Soviets
Another 6th Army Kessel mop-up gone wrong, the somber music track for this map is often punctuated by the explosion of Stug and Panzer IV HE rounds, the crack of bullets, and the agonized screams of stricken Russians.
--Take and hold Central Square. This (and the East Square) is all the Russians need to win the map. A quick, safe route is to take a left out of the Technical School, run across the mound with the destroyed car and into the sewers, and emerge crawling from the right side tunnel entrance. Holding Central also allows for the possibility of capturing West Square, pushing forward the Russian spawn and unlocking a T34-76 for the Russian tankers. (Note, taking and holding means staying in the cap)
--Save your grenades. Spam has a habit of hitting nothing, since everyone is usually crawling around on this map. You'll wish you had one nade left on your belt when you and a German spot each others' heads bobbing over the ruined walkways.
--Resist the AT-rifle temptation. There are, inexplicably, four PTRD-41 slots on the Russian side. Unless your tankers and combat engineers turn out to be incapable of killing the enemy armor, leave one or two slots blank and take a rifle instead. If you take an AT-rifle, you'll probably get off three or four shots at an actual tank all round while getting continually outpaced and outshot by enemy infantry with bolt-actions, semiautos, and SMGs.
--Throw good smoke. Since the SL isn't as critical on this map, you can be excused for taking the slot as long as you get in the cap and use your RGDs well. Try to block the lanes of fire of enemy tanks and MGs, and if you're not needed in the cap zone, run back and grab more smoke grenades. Too often, an inexperienced but well-meaning SL will throw his smoke, then hunker down in the cap for several minutes, not realizing that his smoke has long thinned out and that his comrades are getting cut down like celery sticks at a preschool during snacktime.
That's all!
As a final general tip, I would recommend for beginners to choose the Russian side to start with as a general rule, preferably the Assault or Auto-Rifleman class. Russian grenades are more... forgiving if you nervously start the throwing process, since Steilhandgrenades start cooking off as soon as you press the left mouse. Plus, SMGs and semiautos are fairly simple to handle and scrounge a couple kills with, and they're non-critical roles that will let you avoid blame.
Hope this was helpful and good luck!
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