Strike at Karkand

Strike at Karkand is an intimate city map, without a single aerial vehicle located on it at any size. Land vehicles will be important here, but this is really going to be an infantry battle, as there are dozens of rooftops for sneaky players to snipe from, and the tight city streets make it relatively easy to mine and C4 vehicles to death.

At its smallest level, this is going to be a difficult map for the MEC forces to win, as the USMC players will be able to pick their choice of flags to attack by flanking around the city and avoiding the frontal Hotel point. In most cases, though, the USMC will just charge straight ahead; if you're the MEC, try to get down the road leading from their base and mining it before they can roll up in their tanks. One the USMC get a foothold, though, this map largely becomes a battle of attrition, with infantry tactics and squad coordination becoming the most important aspect of holding and taking flags. There's really no reason not to be in a squad here unless you're sniping; there are plenty of alleys and hiding spots near each flag for squad leaders to hide in.

If you get boxed in on the larger versions of the map, do your best to get past your enemy and capture one of their rear flags.

On the larger versions of the map, it expands to include the northeastern island in the fun. When you're facing off against a tough USMC opponent, the bridge leading from the main city to the northeast is often going to be a focal point in the fighting, and if you're about to get locked out of the city, then you'll definitely want to blow the bridge to prevent the US from crossing over and rolling into your base, at least on the 32-player map. There is a land bridge to the south a bit, so you'll want to mine that fairly well if you're establishing the island as a purely defensive position; you don't want to totally isolate yourself, though, because the USMC players will often start spawning almost exclusively at the river point, allowing you to take a jeep or APC across the riverbed and capture one of the rear points, giving your team another spawn point. You can expect enemy infantry to try and cross the river by swimming, as well, so beware that lovely little tactic. Keep in mind that swimmers are defenseless, so pop them while they're in the water for some easy kills.

On the 64-player version of the map, the map zone is expanded even further to include three more flags on the eastern section, and also expands the AWOL zone to allow players to swim around to the southern side of the map, letting them go around the critical bridges if they wish.

Zatar Wetlands

If you're a fan of long-range battles, then the Zatar Wetlands is going to be right up your alley. Each of the contestable flags here is going to be on its own discrete island, connected to the others by at least one destructible bridge and one land bridge, but the funnest aspect of the map is that there aren't really many obstacles between the islands besides the water, letting you snipe away at distant foes or fire tank shells at a vehicle you spot moving off in the distance. Although it can be difficult to get from island to island, especially when the bridges get blown by special forces, you can never assume that you're safe from fire just because you happen to not see any nearby enemies; it's when you get complacent that you'll be killed by a tank shell from the next island over. If you're in a tank or APC, keep an eye out for distant targets and fire away.

Still, the smaller versions of these maps will mostly consist of discrete firefights for the individual flags. There isn't a lot of cover around each flag, so they can be difficult for infantry to hold in the face of tanks and airplane assaults, especially since the buildings around most of the flags are boarded up and unenterable. If you are defending, then take note of TOW missile stations and vehicles that spawn when you capture a flag, as you'll likely need them to successfully hold the flags that you've taken. The key here is to hold the center flag and protect the flags closer to your base; holding and defending the center flag will make it more difficult for the enemy to successfully get past you and capture your rear defenses, and should let you hold half the flags, at least on the 32-player map.

One of the odder features of the 64-player version of this map is the inclusion of an unclaimed airfield. What's more odd is that this airfield is right next to the already uncapturable USMC bases, which includes an aircraft carrier. Control of this airfield will be tough to manage for MEC forces, so if you're playing as a MEC soldier, you can expect to have the air a bit more hostile than on other maps. Man those AA guns and keep your eyes on the sky.