Soldiers?

    Guys, help me. I can take out engis when they are away from their guns, medics when latched to a heavy, and even the heavy after I kill their medic. I have no problem weapon heckling a pyro, and sneaking up behind a demo and shooting him down. But the only class that I never seem to be able to tackle are soldiers. What am I supposed to do? I've tried getting close to him, and then dodging the rockets, but that only means that I have to hope for the best and pray that a crit doesn't come out and kill me. I've even tried jumping on his head, but that never seems to work. So Scouts, do you have any advise on the best way to kill a soldier?

EDIT: I just wanna say that I have been looking around on the forums, and I've tried almost all of the solutions to a certain extent, so I have been paying attention to what has already been said.

IMO a scout is always going to have problems bringing down a soldier of comparable skill, if not for just the health advantage that the solly has. Two splash damage rockets will kill a scout every time. I have found that the scouts who bring me down usually do it via a crit scatter, or by catching me off guard and getting behind me...a scout can get off 2-3 scatters in the time it takes a soldier to fire one rocket and then begin to fire another one, so use that to your advantage. Most importantly, don't do anything predictable, such as double jumping. That extra height boost actually gives a soldier more time to figure out exactly where you're going to land, and make sure a warm rocket is waiting for you when you do. Steal health packs if you are 1v1, by doing this you can slowly chip away at his health w/o him having the option of refilling and then there's a good chance he'll run away after he takes a few shots...if the solly has a medic, then ignore the solly and chip away at the medic; you'll never bring down a solly if he's got a medigun on him.

Worst case, just use your speed to annoy the soldier and hold him up from whatever he's trying to do, or keep him pinned back on defense where he can't be very effective.

Soldiers are pretty darn slow and you're wicked fast. What I do is harass them with the shotty for a bit then use the pistol to pick them off from medium to further away distances. The important thing is not to get close, as the splash damage from rockets will get you. Try some hit and run. Bust a couple shots off with the shotty and retreat a bit ( and grab health if necessary). Be really annoying! Remember the scout is not a major combat class. He's a scout. He's supposed to cap points and relay important info to his team, who can then come in and blow everything to kingdom come.

If that doesn't work try your "pyro heckling" on a soldier. You may not win all of the time (especially in close quarters), but if you take out some health and disorient him it'll be easier for a teammate to finish the job.

Never block your movement on the Soldier (by jumping into him), because then you become a still target for around a second, and will get hit. Jump around from medium to close range.

Make sure your shots are doing the most damage they can, because you will die eventually if the soldier doesnt die, so the less time you give him the better.

Make him waste rockets on you from large range away, then whilst he is in the stage of reload shoot reload shoot, you will have more time to kill him.

Dont die to him unnecesarily.

NEVER charge head on into a soldier.  Get them when their back is turned, and blast a few scatter gun shots in their back and run.  Then loop around and try to get behind them again, use your speed and elusiveness to your advantage. 

Stay in the air as much as possible, they will be aiming at the ground near you. 

Don't try and take him head on, and don't worry if you don't take him down right away, take your time, confuse and frustrate him with your maneuvering.  You will outlast the soldier if you play it smart.  He is slow, and you are fast, so don't get hit by a rocket and you will win.  If you make them miss all 4 shots in their clip they will get frustrated and start shooting the ground... pump fake towards them, so they shoot the ground close to themselves inflicting damage on themselves, then go around to their side/back and take him down.

I usually find that when I take down a Soldier that most times they don't even see me come up.  If a soldier is looking at you and you are engaged then make him waste his rockets and then alot of times they will try to pull their shotgun out.  At that point it's like a 1v1 on a slow scout.  Backing up with the pistol can be good, but they will most likely reload their rockets.  It really depends on the situation, as to what to do, but in general I just try to wound them for my teammates to finish off, but then again I have a tendancy to play cowboy scout and charge them which obviously doesn't always pay off, lol

Ah ok. Thanks guys, since I've always tried to either kill the soldier on the spot instead of other tactics. I'm probably going to end up trying these tactics up, so I'm grateful. Again, many thanks

I find staying in the air as much as possible helps alot with the splash damage, and don't be afraid to whip out the pistol if you have emptied you scattergun.

Wait..but if you jump too much the soldier is gonna know where you gonna land and fire a rocket there right? like X.Static said

If you jump frequently in an unpredictable manner there's little chance a Soldier could kill you save for splash damage.  In theory, the perfect Scout can take on any Demo Man or Soldier without taking any damage if his aim is accurate and his maneuvers are deceiving.  When you think about it, every time a Soldier or Demo Man kills a Scout with explosives, it's because that Scout wasn't skilled enough to dodge the projectiles and move unpredictably.