Tileset Basics

Killhouse is a fairly simple map, but it can be daunting to newer players. As a Defender, your main objective on Killhouse is to place good barbed wiress and play for wallbangs (killing by shooting through the walls); The Attackers look to clear barbed wires and rushdown the bomb before the Defenders can rotate.

Setup and Entry

On most maps, walls are Thick (meaning that only certain guns can properly penetrate 1-2 walls). Walls are Thin on Killhouse, meaning that you, whether you’re attacking or defending, you’ll need to expect to be dealt/deal lots of damage through walls, and at a slower pace than you’re used to. Here are some side-specific tips for how to properly utilize wall penetration:

Defense

On Defense, the most important pieces of setup are barbed wire and ping placements. Take the following iteration for example:

Think about where the Attackers are likely to enter from. Checkpoint has a great wall charge setup to take the bar in Club, whereas the Hall red door gives access to Courtyard, Pillbox, and Backstage (the northern elevated section of Club), all at once. Neither option is ‘correct,’ but, as Defenders, we need to prepare for both. Where would you place barbed wires and molotovs to get info, make time for rotations, and force resources out of the Attackers?

I would place barbed wires in yellow, and molotovs in red. This guarantees that they have to spend either a wall charge or a grenade to enter Club, while also slowing the pushes from the two  fastest angles to allow for proper rotations. These barbed wires also allow for the whole team to rotate into Club and just play from Backstage, in case the Attackers try to split push. The main goal for defenders is to slow the Attackers’ push with barbed wire, which allows for rotations and potential wallbangs.

Attack

Let’s use the same iteration from above:

As an Attacker, I chose to go to Hall here. The general plan was to clear Pillbox, then clear Club from Courtyard, while a flank team goes to Backstage and clears Lockers. From there, we start defusing while holding the Club-Hall window and Kitchen door, which traps them in the southern quadrant of the map. As you can see in this plan. Courtyard window angles are extremely important for both Attackers and Defenders, and we won this round because they didn’t hold any of these angles:

By giving us Hall, they gave us Courtyard control, which gave us overall map pressure. As an Attacker on a map like this, your main goal is to use economy (such as grenades, smokes, and charges) to take an important objective like Courtyard or Backstage, and extend your pressure from there.

Summary

As I said above, Killhouse can be a daunting map for beginners, but, if you learn how to properly divide map pressure, it becomes a very exciting map with interesting outplay potential on both sides.