Anzio: X-Rayed
by Ronald "pie" Li

Overview:

Welcome to the final week of CAL regular season play as teams are welcomed by no other map than the classic Donner. Unliked because of its linear form and many hiding spots, yet also liked because it does give spectacular matchs, part of the genesis of the competitive maps of Day of Defeat Play, Donner has been around for as long as many can remember. Although it is generally a very linear map, Donner is usually very capable of giving spectators and players a great match. With 3 routes running across the map, flanking opportunities are usually present through small alleys and buildings. Donner relies much on picking your opponenets and pushing up, as both sides of the map, the axis and allied second flags, both lead into extended bottlenecks going all the way to each team's first flag. When we split this map up into its essential chokepoints, three main areas pop out almost instantly on the overview. The Bunker, the middle and the Backalley.

Main chokepoints:

• Bunker

The bunker is an auto-haven, though some teams will try sending a rifle here. With a fair assortment of barbed wire that each team is able to hide behind, the bunker is THE ideal place to sit and break out the campfire and marshmellows. The entrances to the bunker for both teams are both very tiny bottlenecks, which are just asking to be naded. However, once the bunker is controlled by a team on this map, it is an extremely useful tool. The middle alley can be used to flank the middle, almost an entire half of the map can be controlled and brought into a standstill through the control of this section.

• Middle

The middle of Donner is a nadefest off the initial rush, most dominated by the sniper and stray rifles, this middle is the definition of picking off and pushing. It's almost a mirror on both ends, with the exception of the sniper lofts. The allied sniper has his pick to snipe from the main road, the bottom of church or the church tower. The axis sniper gets his pick of the road, multiple windows inside the sniper building and the signature invisible spot in the top left sandbag of the loft. The line of buildings extends thoroughly into the middle, with the cracked building on one side the Laura on the other, and the Suze extending into the the end of the backalley on the allied side of middle. Floating rifles can sneak their way into any of these buildings and catch a sniper or someone trying to get into backalley or bunker totally off guard. The middle is a crucial point on this map, however, setting up base camp on it won't get you anywhere, as you will get picked off or nuked by a few grenades. It is extremely common for rifles to get into the windows of ANY of these buildings, whether on their side or the enemy's side, as almost every single one of these windows has a view to another route on the map.

• Backalley

The backalley is a tight, narrow alley which provides access to the middle for the axis, and the axis first for the allied. A rifle has the ability to dominate the backalley, yet a smart automatic can also do the same. Many small tricks have to be pulled in this alley to keep yourself alive, because rushing in and killing the enemy running this route once won't be good enough to help your team out for more than 2 spawn waves. As allied, the sandbag is a good place to watch the backalley and the bunker alley combined, which provides almost a temporary wall holding back the axis from the middle. As axis, once a good kar is able to get into the Suze, the allies spawning going to second should be easy pickings, as they will not expect you to be there for that 1 spawn wave. The alley also exits near the church, letting axis infiltrate all the way to the allied first flag, and the spawn, which can be very bad news for the allied team.

Minor areas:

• Middle alley

This magical alley connecting the middle and bunker can be a deadly place to put any player in. It provides an attack route for an axis or allied player to either stop a middle cap or sneak into the bunker area.

• Church

The church on donner serves as the primary area of the allied sniper, while also as an assaulting opportunity for the axis. Located at the end of the allied side of middle, this area is a good spot to pick axis players capping middle, yet it is also vulnerable to an axis sniper in the loft, in the laura, or an axis player inside the Suze even. There is the separate section of it which leads into a gate towards the middle, with another section splitting off to the church tower.