This series on default defense meta setups focuses on operator neutral reinforcement and destruction explanations. I won't be focusing on bomb sites that aren't common primary/secondary sites or have too variable of setups. Teams will vary these based on specific strats or operator choices, but these defaults should give every ranked player a good starting point. You can find the previous entry on Clubhouse here. Open images in a new tab to view them larger/zoom in.
These are made using Battleplanner.io.
Garage / Cafeteria Defense
Garage / Cafeteria site setup - Basement
The spots marked (1) are the default plant spots for the two sites as they are the safest and quickest to access.
The primary things to reinforce are:
- The 3 Garage door panels. Whether you mute/bandit/kaid these is up to your strategy, but at a minimum they should be reinforced.
- The middle panel of the Security office wall. This allows safer play inside and also prevents many long angles towards the Security door.
- The single panel next to the Garage side door of Cafeteria. This helps deny being easily shot when entering or exiting as well as when rotating from Security through the hole in the wall.
- The panel marked (2) is a wall that you'd ideally reinforce if you had an extra reinforcement for whatever reason as its very commonly used to shoot through from yellow stairs into Cafeteria.
Destruction
- A crouch rotation hole in the Cafeteria/Garage wall. This allows rotations to/from white van, and quick way to fight attackers approaching/planting on that side of white van.
- A rotation hole in Security office (3) that can be crouch or vault depending on your preference. Having it as vault-only means you make it slower for attackers to use this rotation, at your own expense.
Garage / Cafeteria site setup - Ground floor
The primary things to reinforce are:
- The 3 panels of the Bathroom/hallway wall. The bathroom is a beachhead to defend above Garage, so funnel attackers through the doorway.
- The single panel of the Bathroom/Piano wall to provide coverage for playing in Bathroom without being on the hatch. You can shoot through the soft walls left to fight mid yellow stairs.
- The hatch of the circle desk in Lobby. This drops straight into Cafeteria and you'll need Cafeteria as safe as possible once Garage doors are opened.
Destruction
- The hatch in bathroom can be left un-reinforced and unopened if the player playing bathroom has a shotgun or impact to open it later, if not it should be pre-opened to allow escape back to site.
Consul Office / Meeting Room Defense aka "CEO"
Consul Office / Meeting Room setup - Top floor
The spots marked (1) are the default plant spots for the two sites as they are the safest and quickest to access.
The primary things to reinforce are:
- The Consul office/Yellow stairs half wall to prevent sneaky entrances.
- The Consul office/Connector middle panel to protect the player in Connector from the Consul windows.
- The Connector/Front Desk doorway half wall to protect the player in Connector from Bathroom and also deny some angles from Connector window towards Bathroom.
- The 2 Meeting Room/Long desk panels. These deny site access, allow a player to play in the corner in Meeting room more safe, and deny lines of sight from Printer, Soda, and Long desk areas.
- The single panel in Admin office above Visa stairs. This wall provides lines of sight into Meeting room and is important enough to be breached with Hibana/Thermite.
- The half wall panel of the Printer door to Soda machine. This funnels access and lines of sight through the door way, also allowing a shotgun player to play against this wall.
- Bathroom walls. These may vary but the 2 walls shown reinforced deny angles from the yellow stairs skylight and angles from Consul.
- The final wall placement depends on the strategy and some options are shown (3) depending on whether or not you have a player playing top yellow, Bathroom, Consul office. Keep in mind that sealing off Bathroom also means less ability to shoot attackers inside.
Destruction
- Crouch rotation between Consul and Connector to fight attackers in Consul or switch angles into Front desk.
- Crouch rotation between Bathroom and top of yellow stairs. This allows a player playing on top of yellow to escape grenades and firebolts w/ less exposure than running down the stairs or into the Front desk doorway, both of which are heavily exposed to the skylight. Downside is that once yellow is lost, attackers can use this too.
- Foot high shotgun holes along the Consul wall above yellow stairs (2). This allows contesting attackers moving up yellow stairs.
- Line of sight or full rotate hole in Meeting room wall to long desk. Allows rotations in/out without being overly exposed to Spiral skylight because of the crouch cover of the long desk. Also allows for flanking fire onto attackers who control long desk as well as assisting with retakes into Meeting room, especially from Bathroom.
Lobby / Press Room Defense
Before getting into the specifics of the setup, it's important to note that Lobby setup is essentially a hybrid of Consul setup (to control above site) and Garage setup (in terms of lower Bathroom setup). There are variations for strong upper or middle defenses depending on how you want to play it.
Lobby / Press Room setup - Ground floor
The spots marked (1) are the default plant spots for the two sites as they are the safest and quickest to access. Unlike other bomb sites, each site (Piano and Lobby) has 2 options that depend on if the attackers have bottom/top control. For example the upper left corner of Piano is preferable if they have top control (hatch to watch from) but not bottom (indestructible floor). To the right of the Circle desk in Lobby is preferable if top control is lost (protected angle from hatch).
The primary things to reinforce are:
- The 3 panels of the Bathroom/hallway wall. The bathroom is a beachhead to defend Piano and retake Lobby.
- The single panel of the Bathroom/Piano wall to provide coverage for playing in Bathroom without being on the hatch.
- One of the (2) walls flanking the yellow stairs/Piano doorway. They each deny different angles in/out of Piano/Bathroom, but the left one is more popular.
- The bathroom doorway wall (3) is potentially optional if you wish to hold top floor more heavily, but it does a good job denying angles into bathroom from Lobby door. Some defenders may wish to use the soft wall themselves to help deny Lobby door.
Lobby / Press Room setup - Top floor
The primary things to reinforce are:
- The 2 Meeting Room/Long desk panels. These deny site access, allow a player to play in the corner in Meeting room more safe, and deny lines of sight from Printer, Soda, and Long desk areas.
- The single panel in Admin office above Visa stairs. This wall provides lines of sight into Meeting room and is important enough to be breached with Hibana/Thermite.
The items marked (3) depend on how strongly you want to hold top floor and how you want to be able to rotate mid round.
- If you are planning a stronger top hold then reinforcing the Connector wall and opening Meeting and/or Consul hatches for your own use.
- If you are planning on losing top floor control at some point then you can consider reinforcing the Consul and/or Meeting hatch.
- Reinforcing the Admin hatch above Visa is recommended if you plan to roam Visa or rotate through it from top or bottom via stairs.
Destruction
- Open up the Meeting wall in the same fashion as a Consul defense.
- Optionally open up hatches as mentioned above.
Unfortunately while Archives/Tellers is starting to be played much more this season, it hasn't settled on a full default and much like Clubhouse Gym defense, also depends on op picks like Castle.
While this is far from an exhaustive guide to all the possible PL defensive setups, it should give you something to start with as a base for your own ideas! Stay tuned for more in this series covering other PL maps. - mzo
PS. All 3 of these setups are available as public plans I created on Battleplanner.io and linked below. Click on the Information button at the top to get a button to copy it to your account to use as a starting point.
