Demoman - This guy was the other of my least favourites and the reason is that he has no gun to speak of. The Demoman is armed with a grenade launcher and a sticky bomb launcher as well as a whiskey bottle for melee. Like the Pyro, the Demoman is excellent for working corners and to flush people out of tight spots but he’s hurting for a gun. Giving this guy a back-up shotgun would not throw off the balance. The Demoman is good for defending flags or control points since he can load the place up with sticky bombs that explode when an enemy gets close. You can also detonate them manually if it suits your purposes better.

Heavy - I could see this becoming a fast favourite because he’s a straight-forward attacking machine. The Heavy is loaded up on health and wields a bullet-spewing mini-gun, a shotgun and his two monstrous fists. He moves slowly when running and creeps along at a crawl when shooting but he can clear a room like no one’s business. The mini-gun is not a finesse weapon and not all that accurate so it’s not great at range. The Heavy is especially vulnerable to the Sniper because he’s so slow and, of course, the Spy can take him out with the knife. Get a Medic or two behind you and you’re practically unstoppable as long as you can keep the doctors alive.

A Heavy with a Medic companion is an excellent combination.

Engineer - I played the Engineer for the longest time compared to the other classes. This is a support class that builds turrets, portals and dispensers that other people can use to refill on health and ammo (or metal if you’re an Engineer). The Engineer carries the build tool, a tool to destroy anything you’ve built, a shotgun, a pistol and a wrench for melee combat and upgrading turrets. Engineers aren’t great on offence, so if pushing forward into enemy territory is what you like this may not be your guy. They’re designed to hold the line and keep the team from losing ground. With the teleporters and dispensers they can keep the front line stocked full of healthy bodies with full ammo.

The Engineers require metal - which they can get from dispensers, re-supply closets or dropped weapons - to build anything or upgrade turrets. One of the first things you should do as an Engineer on any map is set up a teleport entry right outside the spawn point then sneak as far into the enemy base as possible - preferably off the beaten path -and put down the exit. Build a dispenser and a gun to guard it all and you’ve got a mini forward-spawn point with defences and supplies. It’s got to be done somewhere that isn’t well-travelled but all the maps seem to have those spots.

Medic - This guy is lots of fun. The Medic’s weapons are a hypodermic needle gun, a gun that "shoots" health at allies and a bone saw. Medics have the ability to charge up their "ubercharge" by healing allies. Once it’s full they can make themselves and another single-player invulnerable for a short time. The favoured tactic is obviously to back a Heavy and to go to town but falling in behind a Pyro is also worthwhile on some maps. Don’t discount that hypodermic gun, either. I got more than my fair share of kills with it once I figured out the firing arc. Since points aren’t scored by kills alone a Medic can stay out of harm’s way and still rack up a great deal of points by keeping the bullet sponges in front of him alive.

Sniper - There are those of you out there who are going to jump on the Sniper first because that’s how you roll. You like to find a spot on the map where you can camp and shoot at people as they run by. I won’t say the Sniper is ineffectual in Team Fortress 2 but you definitely can’t sit still and pick people off for very long before falling victim to a Spy. The guys who dominated as Snipers were the ones who were just behind the big fights finding those sight lines and taking out the Heavies up front or the Medics in back. The Sniper also carries a favourable machine gun for when he’s discovered, as well as a rather large kukri, which is a curved knife.