Everyone who plays soldier should read this.

PLAY OFFENSIVELY

http://blog.cevo.com/articles/2007/11/19/team-fortress-2-strategy-the-soldier/#more-39

amazing article about the soldier strategy.

One thing i like to do  as a soldier, is not fire all 4 rockets at once, always keep that last rocket on reserve just incase.  you never know when a scout will come up behind your medic, and you gotta have something left to repel that little mosquito.

Shotgun is very important.

EDIT:  So is the shovel

this is pretty good stuff, i'm dispointed he doesn't highlight
protect your medic

so there i did it for him.

I don't think people should confine themselves to a strategy such as two rockets-->shotty on one enemy.

The way I play is I go by the situation and what class(es) i'm facing, if teammates are around, etc.....
a lot of times i'll recognize who im fighting thanks to previous encounters and i'll generally try to counter what I think they're going to do.

I agree though, its a must to always have a rocket in hand or to be in the process of reloading.

Protecting the medic is always important, but always hard if he's not running away. I'll admit it, I suck at saving my medics Probably shouldn't have said that, now no one will heal me :|

why only play the soldier offensively? They are good at defense too like on the second stage of dustbowl, you could rocket jump on top of the roof of the first cap. I wish i could give a screen shot of that. i actually like to use soldier on defense because you can rocket jump to unsuspected area and surprise the enemy.

well of course you should also use the soli defensively but this is one strategy, its not like you have to live by it.

In a sense I think soldiers should live by it. The class was made as an offensive one, to push the enemy back and kill. On defense, its very easy for other classes other then the heavy to just run past him. However rocket jumping and attacking out of nowhere as burp said is pretty efficient.

As a soldier my motto is to defend when necessary. Why? Because i'm of much more use harassing enemies and pushing them back.

Demomen are better suited for defending than Soldiers are.

well yeah demos are definatly better than soldier at defending, but its getting so boring these days, with demos putting stickies on the cap and waiting for someone to land on it, sometimes i'm sick and tired of that strategy even if i'm defending. soldiers could still give the element of surprise on defense in tight spaces like the tunnel on the last stage of dustbowl.

Basically i'm just saying people should try something new instead of the old strategies. Some strategies like spy-pyro combo s very fun and creative therefore making it fun to do.

If you plan to play nicely with your team, make sure you let your medic know whoever that may sneak up on them. Notify them of spychecks, etc... Having a headset really helps. You can be amazed what communication can do if your team isn't doing too well.