guide to headquaters

First off, take your best setup and add really only one thing. Extreme conditioning. This is crucial in beating your opponents to the HQ's. Also keep in mind with light-machine guns you will run slower.

I really don't think it matters what setup you use, I've had success with just about any class I could come up with.

Tips: Capturing

If you have a buddy you play with, or clan. This is where the teamwork comes into play. You capture the HQ faster with more people. If you're playing in a party/clan, you should have two dedicated runners to the Headquarters. This is their main objective.

When approaching the HQ's, check the map. If there are enemy present, realize the HQ's will become a nade fest. Without fail, I've been punished more times than once by being the first to approach the HQ. If no enemy, find a safe place out of the way of nades, while allowing you to capture. Go prone whenever your back is covered.

Do not storm into a room(if it is inside a building). Use flash, stun, or frag. Turkey peak, throw, then retreat. Wait for the bang and enter clearing corners first. Most of you have been gunned down by a sneaky fellow crouched in a corner.

Tips: Defending

Try to have picked up another weapon along the way so you do not run out of ammo defending the HQ's. Or use overkill. Put your back to a wall if you are indoors and wait. If you're aimed along a wall toward a door that you know the enemy is about to rush through, aim your sites about three to four man lengths in front of the door. The speed of them rushing in will be greater than you'll be able to aim and follow them. Aiming ahead and waiting for them to enter your sites is a much better and far more accurate way to take them down. This is also the time for either 3x special grenades, or 3x frags. Don't neglect the entrances to buildings, around corners or down stairwells.

Open HQ's such as countown and shipment, require the player to get out of dodge as soon as the HQ's captured. Find a place to hide and defend. Also realize they will try to flank you, so never forget to watch your left, right, and behind you.
Never try to be the first one to capture the HQ's on countdown or shipment. This is by far the worst nade fest you'll see, and you will die. Wait until the grenades quit going off, sweep your sites to the left, right, and make a dash then prone. Do not lay down on the side the enemy will spawn. Know your spawn points and you will survive.
Take a proactive approach when you're laying down there waiting for that blasted HQ meter to fill. Look left, right, take the enemy down. Don't just lay there and wait to die.

Common Sense tips:

If all the enemy are dead and you see three of your teammates running into the building to destroy the hq. Do not follow them. If you're already there then fine. What your next thought should be is running to where you think the next one will pop up. You can place yourself in the middle of the map to make getting to the next one faster. Also if you're not in a good place to capture, you need to flank the enemy that is capturing or on their way. The way the spawn points are set up, at times the routes you and the enemy take are pretty linear. It is easy to get behind them on certain maps. Strike is a good one to flank on.

Remember you cannot always rely on your teammates to have your back and capture the HQ's while you're trying to rack up kills. A lot of HQ's matches turn into team deathmatch, especially shipment. If you want a lot of points then you(with your extreme conditioning) be the man that takes the HQ's. You will get kills along the way, do not fret.

If you're the last man standing and you can eyeball the HQ. Make sure you are covered and take out the hero's that try to destroy your HQ. This is also a good time to call in an airstrike. I've killed the whole team this way. This is your HQ, take pride in it. Do not let it go easy. People will die when they try to mess with your HQ. This is the attitude I bring when playing HQ.

Realize that a lot of players are new to Headquarters. They heard you can get "mad xp yo" so now we all have to deal with them. Stay out of open areas as much as possible and you may bypass a lot of these team deathmatchers on the wrong game mode types. Don't get me wrong, I love the killing, I am in no way saying "just go after the HQ and forget the kills." I am saying to get more points/xp make capturing and destroying the HQ your primary concern.

This is not the game mode for revenge killing. I know it annoys when that same guy keeps killing you, but you should be capturing, destroying, defending, or something in relation to the headquarters. Realize the guy has the advantage, will wait you out and will usually hear you coming. So save a death or two and get back to playing headquarters.