Modern Warfare® Operation Overview: Gun Runner

Tactical Map Intel: Read our tips covering basic and advanced strategy, objective pointers, Killstreak recommendations and more for Gun Runner.

Modern Warfare® Operation Overview: Gun Runner

Tactical Map Intel: Read our tips covering basic and advanced strategy, objective pointers, Killstreak recommendations and more for Gun Runner.

My Header

In Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare®, having a strategy for every map is one of the ingredients in a recipe for success. Understanding your surroundings is key to survival in battle, and the Activision Games Blog has you covered with our Tactical Intel. 

Our first Tactical Map Intel for Modern Warfare takes us on the outskirts of Tavorsk, Russia to Gun Runner, a coal mine and refinery plant where the Allegiance will attempt to defend this compound against the Coalition’s finest.

Lay of the Land 2:

Our guide begins with the Lay of the Land, a detailed background on where you will be fighting in-game.

It is Day 215 in the seemingly endless war between the Allegiance and Coalition, with both sides targeting a power plant and mine outside a major Russian city. As Coalition troops arrive by helicopter, Allegiance forces are rolling in on trucks through the facility’s main checkpoint.

On Gun Runner, combat takes place across the refinery complex, so leave those spelunking hats at home. Should you want to see some mining action, look outside the Eastern boundary or peer down the deep mine tunnel through a fence on the Northwest.

But of course, don’t take too long appreciating the long and arduous coal mining process, you have a war to win.

My Header

The main checkpoint gate leads to the map’s Western section, where a lone offloading Warehouse (1) holds the mining crew’s quarters and a makeshift break room. From here, the map splits up into three main paths:

The southern route takes us near what’s left of the natural environment: a small river runs outside the complex with foliage and trees springing up from the rocky soil. Going from West to East on this route brings us past the mine shaft’s hoist motor and through a side yard of shipping Containers (2) both open and closed.

Down the map’s center is the interior of the Mine Shaft (3), the Restrooms (4), and on the outside, a few ramps leading to Flooded (5) low ground below the railyard area.

Then there is the Northern path; here, mine carts sit stationary on a double-track path through the main power plant building and control area, also known as the Forge (6). Here, a few egress points, including on one track, bring us out to the Railyard (7) whose train tracks run North to South.

A few train cars sit stuck on the rails to chop up the otherwise straight path to the trainyard Shipping (8) warehouse where coal and… some problematic materials… are being loaded onto cars for shipment. This serves as the lone building on the map’s East side, which is where our Coalition operators drop in off helicopters and onto overgrown concrete pads.

Boot Camp: Basic Tips

For those just getting started on Gun Runner, or need to get back to basics, this section details some simple strategies to help up your game.

Gun Runner is a medium-sized map that follows a quasi-three lane format. In other words, the three ways to get from East to West (or West to East) follow some variation of the Northern, Center, or Southern paths.

Simplifying the map into three lanes makes it a bit easier to understand flanking, a maneuver that, when it works, takes an opponent by surprise.

Switching lanes could potentially lead to a flank, and the Forge and Control Center offers that opportunity. From here, open the heavy doors and spill out into the Containers, Mine Shaft, Restrooms, or Flooded to possibly surprise someone focused on the bottom half of the map.

+