Soldier Tactics!

 I am fairly new to scout and i usually mained a demo or a spy. And both those classes I had no problem with a solder. But I find that when fighting a soldier head-on I am usually the loser. I know about sneaking up behind and taking him out in 2-3 shots, and that works most of the time. But lets say an uber rush went by and is distracting the sentry. I run to cap the point, one soldier finally realized that uber means you can't kill them and goes for me. We are both at full hp, ammo, the whole shebang. The next scenario is I am fighting him in an isolated area at the front lines and we both have backup. Any tips?

shoot him in the foot with rockets and NEVER reload in the middle of a fight, shotgun instead. If you are in an open area with a non pro soldier, rocket jump with the first rocket, and shoot him from the air. makes it over 9000 times easier to hit someone with splash from above. Also, if you are within melee range, rocketjump, as it wont hurt you as much as a direct hit on the opponent.
Practise practise practise. Shovel also does loads of meaty damage.
 

he's talking about scout vs. soldier...

Just jump around over his head and NEVER GO IN ONE DIRECTION FOR TOO LONG.

oh, epic fail on my part
teach me not to read.
Um...scout agasint soldier...

RUN AWAY. Scouts are not meant to defeat soldiers in single combat.

But seriously, scouts are > than soldier, run directly at him doublejumping to avoid splash, shoot him 4 times in the chest with the critter gun, which does over 9000 damage at close range and taunt over his body until he goes pyro and W+M1's you to death.

Scout vs soldier is one of the scouts harder matchups. the soldier has plenty of health, and can deal great amounts of damage too.

-the first thing you have to realise is that if he hits you good, just run away. one rocket is usually enough to leave you near death. just run away, and hit back once you heal up.

-the most important part of fighting a soldier in my opinion is keeping the distance between you just right. too far away, and you won't do enough damage. too close, and you won't be able to dodge his rockets. this is of course situational, and mostly comes from experience.

-use the environment. if you're on higher ground, the soldier can't use splash damage as effectively.

-if he pulls out his shotgun, you can usually go straight in for the kill. your scatter does more damage, and you're harder to hit.

-keep him guessing. be erratic. it makes you harder to hit.

-this is risky, but if you can dodge or even jump OVER one of his rockets towards him, you can get a close range shot in before he can fire the next one. be sure that you're gone again before the next rocket fires though.


thats just a few tips i can think of. hope they help.

hey aac.

This is difficult because you will lose unless you completely outplay the soldier in every aspect, it's kind of like when you're fighting a pyro as a sniper or engineer in that you HAVE to play better and play faster.

As said remain airborne as long as possible, every time you near the ground or near another surface you risk potential splash from a rocket. You'll want to perfect jumping over their heads and keeping them guessing with your unpredictable movements.

Soldiers rely on prediction. If you make yourself unpredictable you've half won the fight right there.

Jump around, be erratic, try and change up your range.

Don't underestimate your pistol. It's does better damage than your scattergun at medium-long range, has plenty of ammo, and at medium-long range, even a pro soldier's gonna have trouble hitting you cleanly.

Just watch out for those crit rockets that just seem to be unavoidable.....X_X

I think all the postings on scattergun damage falloff are wrong, Ive been onehit with the scattergun from opposite sides of the open area in 2fort (not across the water, the other way). I dont think ive ever been shot 3 times with the scattergun as any of the regular health classes. Im guessing it does the same damage as rocket splash for close/medium range

Soldiers are meant to be more effective against weaker classes. They are meant to counter scouts engies snipers medics and spies. The classes with less direct combat ability. What you should do as any class is to move in the opposite direction right before he shoots. You can usually tell when he is about to fire again because they usually shoot in intervals. Strafe randomly while firing at him. I was able to take out a solly once as medic in Lumberyard with my blut. Of course then a heavy got to me...

As far as scouts go, just circle strafe around him while shooting, and jump and double jump randomly, and just pepper him with your shotty. If you run out of ammo with the shotty, don't reload, switch to the pistol, if you run out of ammo with that, you can reload, because it reloads much faster. Unless you have a death wish, don't bat him to death. Soldier at melee range with his rocket out is deadly.

Though I always laugh at scout rushes, especially when they are all going around with their bats out. They look so funny swinging their bats around. I think that if there are more than 5 scouts close to eachother swinging their bats he should say "this is bat country!"