First thing First
Right, first off we have probably the most important factor when playing a map:
 

Part 1: Weapon Selection
The following is a list of the pros and cons of each weapon in the original unmodified Rainbow Six:

HK MP5 A2

Pros:
• Best Rate of Entry at 800 rounds/min
• Medium Accuracy
• Medium Zoom factor

Cons:
• Nothing 'Special' about the weapon so to speak.
• 9mm bullets don't inflict that much damage
• Damage inflicted by bullets isn't that good.
• Pretty bog-standard weapon.

Notes:
I NEVER use this gun, you can get better in the way of the SD5 and CAR.

HK MP5 SD5

Pros:
• Silenced: Especially useful if you have in mind somewhere where you are not likely to be seen. Stay there until you see them and snipe them before they see you.
• The ONLY silenced rifle available.

Cons:

• It's basically the same as the A2

Notes:
Good for Road and Airport and large maps in general.

HK MP5 PDK

Pros:
• Best ROE at 900 rounds/min
• Good for small maps with tight corners like Killhouse and Estate.

Cons:

• Worst accuracy
• Worst zoom factor, which doesn't really matter as long as you only take it for small maps.

Notes:
NOT recommended for airpoirt or road ;-)

CAR-15

Pros:
• Good accuracy
• Quite good zoom factor.
• More Damage inflicted by 5.56 bullets than MP5

Cons:

• ROE is medium at 700 rounds a min.
• M16 gives better accuracy than CAR-15

Notes:
This is a good all-rounder. If you are playing a medium map such as Bio Lab, or anything that you don't know much about, I would take this.

Pros:
• Damage inflicted by bullets is good: 5.56
• Most accurate gun
• Zoom factor is best.

Cons:
• Medium ROE

Notes:
This is a good long range weapon for maps such as Road and Airport.
Makes a good sniper rifle if you know you are going to hit the person first time.

In this section, I will be taking you through the most played maps, guiding you on the best weapons to take (this will vary with your playing style) what to look out for, and good sniping positions.

Killhouse

Good weapons to take:
• CAR-15 - take this to have more chance of killing them before they kill you.
• HK MP5 PDK - it's good ROE makes this a good choice, but you will need a good head shot to kill first time, or the fact that it pumps more bullets than any other gun will also make sure your enemy is dad.
• FRAG GRENADES - These are handy for throwing down the stairs and into rooms where you know someone is.

Bad Weapons to take:

• HEARTBEAT SENSOR - your enemy will kill you before you can change back to rifle even if you do see them.

Unfortunately there are no good sniping positions for this map. I would recommend you permanently have your finger on the run button, it's useful for taking people by surprise, if you peep round the corner, the element of surprise is gone.

Starting as GOLD

The weapons you take on this map really depend on your start point: say you were in the GOLD team. I know for a fact that they start at the far end of the map near the pillars, and near the pillars are the two only sniping positions. Once you go past the pillars, you can either turn right or left so you go off-road. On each side there are two paths up the kills. Here you have a good chance of sniping the enemy as they rarely know about the sniping points.

Sniping from the Right side (looking from the Gold start along the road):
The good thing about the Right side is that you can see the bridge and the enemy usually before they see you:
When you are up here, I would recommend the HK MP5 SD5 as the players will not hear your shots usually until it is too late. There is also reduced muzzle flash so they have less chance of seeing your shots. Even if the muzzle flash on screen, they have less chance of associating the shots with the muzzle flash because of there being no sound and so your position will remain unknown to them. If you were using the M16 for example, you snap a few shots off at an enemy standing on the bridge, not only will they hear your shots, they will also see muzzle flash. They will associate the noise with the muzzle flash they see and notice where you are, and they fire a few shots and probably kill you. I know this. It's happened to me.

Sniping from the Left side:
From the left side, you can only see as far as a cliff that is in the way of the bridge. It would be a good idea to take an M16 in this situation, as they have no idea that you are there when they first come round the corner, and so you can just snipe them off, there is more surprise, as they are fully out in the open. If you don't miss when you shoot first time, then there's not much they can do about it. There is virtually no cover for them as opposed to the Right side, where they can hide round the far corner at the bridge.

Starting as BLUE

You really have a disadvantage when you're starting as blue: you will always be pipped to the post when getting to the bridge by the gold team, and you have to hide behind a rocky outcrop. This will mean that gold will be waiting for you at the other side, usually just behind the bridge, or sometimes just the other side of the outcrop.

I would be tempted to take the MP5 of the SD5 variety, as silenced is better than not, right? Reason being that it's rate of entry is higher than the M16 or CAR, and it's accuracy closely matches the aforementioned rifles, but the CAR-15 and M16 are still good choices based on the bullets they use.

Heartbeat sensors are fairly useless on the Road map given the extreme range and linearity of the map. There are limited places they could be hiding, however FRAGS are useful if you are on BLUE as you can use them to get past a stand-off at the outcrop.

Bad places to stand:

• Next to the small trailers holding the stands to the floodlights
• Right on top of the bridge in full view
• In the middle of the road, anywhere

Hmm, airport, it could go either way, but in hiding places, once again Gold has the advantage. They have the window in the house, and they have the barrel behind the house to hide behind.

One disadvantage for Gold is that if someone is able to sneak round the back, you are a goner for sure, you should always watch your back, as cover is scarce. You have to watch your back more than Road as Road is a much more linear map, whilst players can get past others without being noticed much easier in Airport.

Handy Hint: Hug the grey walls of the perimeter: the camo uniform blends in well and you can almost snipe from the far walls.

Good places to stand:

• Right up against a wall
• Behind the barrel next to house (keep checking your HBS for people coming round the rear)
• In window of house (beware, a popular place to stand so many people shoot the window out before anything else)

Bad places to stand

• In one of the doorways
• Right in the middle of the airstrip
• Anywhere you don't blend in right and can be seen

Other Maps and General Hints
Details of other maps will be available soon, as I haven't had time to go into detail in the other most played. Here are a few tips to take as general rules:
 
• Watch your Six, make sure people can't sneak up on you, carry an HBS and make sure you have a safe place to check it.
• Look for bottlenecks in maps, i.e. places where there is often a stand-off - the outcrop in Road, for example.
• Make sure you take an appropriate weapon. I.e. if it's a night mission, use a silenced weapon to keep your position secret (no muzzle flash) and USE NIGHT SIGHTS!!!
• If you are following someone, make sure you get a good shot in, else they would hear you, turn around and shoot you. Wait till they are stationary if need be.
• Running diagonally towards people generally puts them off shots: they could be in the sniper view, where they'll have to zoom out, which will take time. If they don't then they have to move the mouse faster to get you in the reticule. They also know you are moving towards them so you will have a better chance of hitting them, which forces them to withdraw and move  either to the side or away, so you have a chance to fire. And remember: while they are moving, you stop and take a good shot, while you are still, you have good accuracy, while THEY are moving, their accuracy will be considerably less.