Discuss The Maps - Kafe Dostoyevsky

[The3rdWalker 1,268]

This new series has been created to facilitate the gameplay, metagame, and strategy discussion that often gets buried or lost in the abundance of others posts that flood this sub.

The goal of this series is to not only give new players a primer on a specific map, but also for midlevel or competitive players a chance to share the knowledge that they have accrued in their experiences and maybe let people know something that they did not know before.

Today's map is Kafe Dostoyevsky.

• GoaNy's Tips & Tricks Kafe Guide 
• Kafe Dostoyevsky Wiki

The community has outlined a couple of things that they want to converse about with every map, but feel free to branch out should you feel a piece of information warrants its own discussion.

• Overall map and team strategies for attacking & defending.
• Secret areas, kill holes, and other techniques that can be used on the map.
• The best operators to use on the map and different abilities that work & don't work with this map.
• What strategies have you adopted while playing this map? What is something that a new player should know when playing this map, or what is something you know that would help a veteran player take that next step?
• Does the map offer an unfair advantages to attackers or defenders?
• Will Epi ever give us a release date for Bartlett University?
• What is your overall opinion of this map?

[The3rdWalker 1,268]

The map has a good layout, lots of avenues of approach and points of entry. Decent amount of destruction for one of the vanilla maps, lots of angles can be created.

Reading room staircase:

• You can watch bakery, garage, and mining room all at once.
• You have easy access to red and white stairs. A high level favorite roam spot in the game, when the OBJ is trains.
• It's also the best approach for a re-take or flank on attackers, they'll often breach at least one wall segment into mining museum, then focus on train room, and if you can sneak through the ground floor or top floor, you can catch them from behind/the side and they won't notice or react properly, since they'll instinctively think you're a teammate based on the direction of your footsteps.

When spawning at Christmas market, be careful; high level players will rush out of the garage doors to get out and spawn kill you.

• To avoid that spawnkill, place one drone close to that garage door in the preparation phase.

Bar is less than favorable to defend on the upper deck though as that skylight means you're pinned down in there from above. The front section of the ground floor is largely ignored, it seems to be used as more of a section to transition through than one to set up a position of any kind in. 

• Make a new exit from the freezer area so you can get around without exposing yourself to the skylight and the whole thing goes from impossible to totally doable.
• Opening up into the xmas tree room makes it suddenly very hard to attack, since the attackers now have to effectively secure the entire top floor before they can even think about going near the backstore.
• You can put it into the back of the piano room, or out near the back stairs (closer to the freezer), just not the bathroom wall (never ever leave that soft, it's a great sightline for an Ash). Piano room is a little safer from the skylight, but really as long as you're fast and not proning both are safe enough and the back stairs makes a better flanking loop. Also take out the drop hatch. It's a good emergency exit as well.
• As always, reinforcing all the walls around the objective is not always the best option. A creative defense leaves the objective more accessible. Access goes both ways. Attackers will get better access but so will the defense.

[The3rdWalker 1,268]

Roamers are in their element on second-floor points, no matter the gamemode. The verticality created by hatches, destructible floors, the skylight and Pillar Café/Cocktail Bar balcony all spice up the map. Tchaikovsky is also always a plus in my book, makes Cigar Lounge fun on T Hunt defense up there.

Tips that come to mind:

• You can hide prone in some of the cabinets in Pillar Café now clipping body parts turn invisible. Same with one in Cocktail Bar.
• Using Charges and Ash Breaching Rounds, you can see from the roof all the way down to Mining Museum, and into a small section of Cigar Lounge.
• From skylight, you can blow open Cigar Shop.
• There is a drone vent above Garage's door from which the M120 can reach Reading Room's door, and any unreinforced walls.
• As Pulse, Valkyrie, or anyone else with a Nitro provided the latter has a Black Eye in Cold Room Corridor, one can reinforce the right and center of Cold Room's walls, and set the Nitro on the left. Rushers, inattentive attackers and people too preoccupied with Cold Room Corridor's default Camera might not even notice the hole in the reinforcements, and you can detonate the Cell as they pass.
• The reinforcements in Mining Room's north wall do not touch the ceiling, allowing Ash or Buck to open the top for grenades or covering fire from the staircase.
• You can Nitro the roof hatch that can't be reinforced in the staircase with Pulse and detonate whenever someone attempts a breach.

[The3rdWalker 1,268]

• If you're going to attack the train room. Please don't huddle around the window that peeks into the room, the one that's above the bakery. Let Blackbeard work it, if he want's to, but be careful with c4 raining down from the window above, and a jumper from the window next to the stairs that lead into the train room. Go for the hatch above the train room, just scan it out nicely. Check for trap, cameras, and hiders. Once the hatch is open, don't all group around it, use your team and cover your flanks.
• If you're attacking the kitchen, you need to breach the front of bakery. Use the windows to your advantage, have a man cover the stairs, and another man blow a hole in the wall between bakery and the little mini kitchen prep area, this will cover you on both flanks. Don't forget above the area above, enemies will try to come out through the train room and take you out, listen for breaks in windows. Don't enter one by one, spread your team out and break in from different entry points. Push the fridge, push the bakery side, and push the main entrance to the kitchen. Don't forget about your flashbangs, and please don't shoot the hostage. If you think Bandit is up to no good, and he's trying to bandit trick you, blow that side window in the kitchen prep area, this gives you a nice viewpoint into the wall that he's working. Just watch your right side, because you will be vulnerable from that door that leads into the rear of the fridge.
• Defenders, if you're in the train room, don't crowd up, it's a freaking death trap. Utilize those roamers, use those traps, put down that barb wire. Cover the floor above to the best of your abilities, this is when sneaky Valk cams come in handy. Wait for the perfect moment to strike the hatch breacher, don't just rush in the room, and for god's sake, don't mark on the camera, use your mic's people! The objective of the roamers is to support the two defenders in the objective, don't just go for kills, help these guys out, because if it's down to just the two of them, it's going to be tough, they have a ton of areas to cover with little cover for themselves. If you're in objective, call out where you are taking fire, if the hatch is hot, let one of your roamers know, they can hopefully sneak over to it and take the attackers out. Just be careful, more than likely a good team will have a guy watching the stairs that lead up to the hatch, so be prepared for a firefight.
• If you're going to defend the kitchen, you cannot allow thermite to breach the main wall that faces the bakery, the one that needs three reinforcements to cover. Utilize your cover wisely, cover up the bakery side, and use the remainder for the fridge, this usually just leaves on open wall in the fridge. Once again, utilize those roamers, cover the rear of the fridge, use Jager to cover long lanes of fire, you can find some nice spots that look into the bakery, and don't rush into the bakery, the attackers have the advantage in the bakery, concentrate on preventing that thermite and cover Bandit. This is why I like to castle that wall that leads into the kitchen from that mini prep area. If you have a big pair of cohones, try and pop out from the roof area above the bakery, use the window that leads out from the train room. You can usually take out some of the attackers posted on the windows this way, or at least create enough of a distraction to peek into the bakery with a good shooter.

Overall I find Kafe to be a balanced map, it's a little difficult for defenders to hold the objectives, and you need to utilize roamers. Just don't leave the objective empty. Use your drones wisely, try to save some from the prep phase, Kafe is big, so don't loose too much time scouting. Use communication and please be careful with spawn peekers, wait just a few seconds before moving, trust me.

[The3rdWalker 1,268]

Fun Fact: This map is based off of a real restaurant in Moscow called Pushkin