By LifeTaker
I’ve played Bridge Crossing since my first days as a noob. I’ve played well over 1000 hours of BC, just about all of it on defense. These are my qualifications for producing a guide for defense players on BC.
Start of round – Listen!
If you hear a 203 round being launched. Run. Get out of the road. Run North or
South, but get away from the road. Some 203’ers don’t shoot for spawn point,
they aim for the road in front of spawn, or for the sides of the road in front
of spawn. Also, do not sprint for Defense Tower Arch, a lot of 203’s will land
here at time of spawn or early in the round. If you spawn in
Spawn Point,
Spawn Point, 2nd
Once the initial barrage of 203 rounds have ceased, then you need to find a place to observe the bridge. One good thing about Bridge Crossing, Assault has to come to you, and there are a limited number of ways for them to get to you. You must be in a position to observe some part of the Bridge; this is where team work comes in. Spread out! LISTEN! You can’t hear a damn thing if you are shooting, or if you are next to a saw that seems bent on shooting all 800 rounds as quickly as possible. If fact, I usually avoid the saws and 203’er on Defense like the plague. Tracers and smoke trails are targets. Give the saw some distance, as well as the 203’er. I’m not saying Defense should never blind fire, just do it with a target in mind. LISTEN! Try to determine where opfor is then shoot at him. As stated before, saw tracers are a target. If an assault saw is spamming the bridge, think about where he is, and shoot back. You can get “lucky” and kill him, or at least wound him and make him stop spamming, he’ll be too busy seeking cover.
The rest of Bridge Defending is a
fluid enterprise. Your tactics are determined by what assault does. If they are
the “camping til
I’ve found the best assault team, that is to say, the hardest to defend against, is the team that makes two assaults. A rush early, then a second assault when all the first assaulters are either down or pinned down by defense. If they do this with enough numbers in reserve, defense is in trouble. Because, the first wave will usually kill a few, and the 203 will account for some. And, defense usually uses up most if not all of its ordinance on the first wave. Left with just M16’s and a flash or two to repel the second wave, usually the better players on Assault, that still has all of its frags, smokes and ammunition. So you have to use what weapons you have as sparingly as you can if assault is employing this tactic. And be ready for the second wave.
If Defense stops the first wave without too many casualties, then the second wave should be no problem, if Defense doesn’t get too stupid. If a couple defenders want to venture out to middle, that’s fine. As long as some (at least 3 or 4) remain around defense tower in case assault makes it past the venturesome defenders. Remember, time is on defenses’ side. Assault has to cross the bridge to win. You do not have to go hunt them down, they will come to you, be ready when they get there. Patience, and vigilance will win. One good tip here, if you have stopped the first wave, throw a smoke into the middle of the road under middle arch. This does two things, it keeps the camping sniper from killing you and your team mates, and it will also make some assault players use up a nade, thinking you are rushing. Don’t rush, throw the smoke and hang back. Assault will either frag the smoke, or use it to advance. Which is what you want, an advancing assault team is shootable. To advance they have to come into the open. The “choke” point on the bridge is at middle arch. They have to cross onto Defense side at one place. That’s it, one place. Defense Middle Arch Front, left, right or center. They can’t cross the bridge without passing Defense Middle Arch Front. Period. This should be your focal point when waiting and watching for assault to make it’s move. They will usually make their move under the cover of smoke. Just gotta be ready.
The most important thing to do, is LISTEN. Shoot, frag, and flash where you think opfor is, try to never just blindly fire at positions that might have an enemy. Determine where opfor is, then shoot. If you can see that the saw fire is coming from the left ledge near assault cars, shoot there. If you can hear that the sniper is not in assault tower, but the shots sound to distant to be near mid, he’s probably on the stairs, shoot at the stairs. I learned how to shoot many places before the “show fog” command was taken away from us in single player, so there I may have an advantage over some newer players. But, all you have to do is visualize the map, and then it’s just trial and error until you find the right “sweet spot”. (Editors Note: I recently found the "show fog" command is working again. In Single player mode, type "devmode 1", then "show fog", in console, to remove the fog, so you can practice blind shots. If you don't know how to get to the console, hit the "Tab" button, or the tilde character. Tilde = ~)
The second most important thing to do, or it may actually be the first, is to communicate. I cannot stress how many times I’ve seen defense lose because an opfor just slipped by on the catwalks killing only one defender. I’m not sure if defenders don’t want to report enemy positions, or if they don’t know how. Trust me, your frag rate will not suffer if someone else kills the opfor, only if you die. And if you die without reporting, you also lose points when opfor wins the round. Don’t worry about who gets the kill, win as a team. Report your position often, and any opfor sightings ASAP. The reason to report your own position, is that if you are killed, your team will know where you were, and from that, have some idea of where the opfor that killed you may be. If your on North hill, and are “shot” opfor just about has to be somewhere on the right of the bridge. He may be on our catwalk, at the middle top, or ledge, or on assault stairs, but he is on the right. If your team mates were LISTENING, they will know where he is. If you were sniped on Defense stairs, enemy sniper is probably at mid, could be left ledge outside, or right ledge inside. Some snipers can make the shot from stair to stair and south window to stair, but you will be able hear the difference and know where he was, if you were LISTENING. If smoke is covering the right side of middle…look left for that sniper.
A few tips on Reporting Enemy: Know the map, learn the Bridge Shorthand. It will come in very handy if you know what is meant when your team mates say "erb". (hint: It's not slang for marijuana) It means "Enemy Right Back. And middle arch is implied, because as I said, middle arch should be your focal point. Here are a few more abbreviations:
ELB - Enemy Left Back Middle Arch
EREC - Enemy Right Enemy Catwalk
ET / ETOP/ MTOP - Enemy Middle Top Arch
ELF - Enemy Left Front Middle Arch
ERF - Enemy Right Front Middle Arch
EL - Enemy Left Middle - Use this when you're not sure exactly where
ER - Enemy Right Middle Arch - Same as above
ETR - Enemy Top Right Middle Arch
ETL - Enemy Top Left Middle Arch
ECAR - Enemy is at their car - Add a L or R to be specific
EDCAR - Enemy is at Defense Car
ETRUCK - Enemy is at Enemy Truck - Add a L or R to be specific
EDCAT - Enemy is on Defense Catwalk - Add a L or R to be specific
EDT - Enemy is in Defense Tower
This isn't really a
complete list, but should give you an idea of how to interpret the acronyms your
team mates are using to report enemy positions. And, all the above can be used
to report team mates positions as well. Just substitute "F" (for
Friend) for the "E".
These are just the basics, time and experience will be more of a help than anything. If you are getting killed in the same spot more than once per match, move. Find another spot. Opfor has your “favorite” spot under fire. Watch where all the dead bodies are, then don’t go there. If you see three dead team mates under defense arch, get a clue, that’s not a good place to be. If they are all dead lying around the cars…see above clue. Watch how assault beat you last time, and then find a way to counter. If they are always coming up on left cat, and killing you on north hill, don’t be on north hill the next round. Be someplace you can shoot them first. The objective of Bridge Defense is to stop Assault from CROSSING the bridge, not kill all the assaulters. This may seem like an oxymoron, but it's not. You don't have to kill the opfor to keep them from crossing. Let them camp, as long as they don't attempt to cross the bridge, fine. But, if they do make that run from mid arch to Defense tower...shoot them like the dogs they are! :)
As opfor players will be reading this as well, I’m not going to give up all my hiding places, but one good spot late in the round when that second wave is moving forward is in 1st floor tower, with the door opened INWARD. Which reminds me, a tip for all you guys that sit there with the door opened outward, the door will not stop bullets, and you have to run around it to shoot at opfor. OK, door inward, then LISTEN for opfor on left cat, you can hear him coming. Wait, if you hear him pulling the pin on a grenade, jump out and shoot him, he doesn’t have a gun in his hand if he’s pulling the pin. Then get back inside as quickly as you can because that sniper on top is probably getting a bead on you.
Hope you get some use from these tips. And, assault…yeah all tactics can be countered. No need to tell me, “Yeah do that…I’ll get an easy kill”. Because if you kill me a way once, next time, I’ll be ready for you.
Cya in the game!
Hopefully before you see me. 
Links to other America's Army Pages By LifeTaker