CoD Vanguard: Map Guide for Decoy

Decoy is a little toy-town map in Call of Duty: Vanguard, and it absolutely rules. Here is our map guide, including a few tips and tricks to get you started...

Vanguard Maps Decoy
Decoy is a little toy-town, and it's fantastic! | © Activision

Decoy is a medium-sized multiplayer map that released with Call of Duty: Vanguard's launch on November 5. It was originally designed for 6v6 matches in standard Multiplayer Modes, though it is also available at multiple combat pacing's. Similar to Das Haus, Decoy is a mock-up of a little farm complex. Set up to help train special forces units, Decoy's buildings might look like farmyard barns and the like, but they actually hold some pretty crazy things in their interiors. Decoy's map description reads as follows:

Training course for Special Forces. This medium-sized map comprises a mock town complete with “homes” and “businesses” made up of construction materials and plywood.

Decoy is a reasonably sized map, and quite odd to look at. Since it is a training ground, everything looks fake, right down to the grass by the footpath. This isn't a complaint, it's supposed to be this way, but the map does have a rather strange feeling to it as a result. We're not the biggest fan of Decoy, as it has some pretty glaring issues, but it can be fun at higher combat pacing. Here is our Decoy Map Guide!

Vanguard Decoy Map Guide: The Map

Decoy is a pretty asymmetrical map, centering around a number of fake buildings. The whole thing has been designed as a training ground for special forces soldiers, and doesn't quite work if we're honest. There is a particular power position that is troublesome in the center of the map, and this will often be clogged with one particular team that will be able to lay fire down on any passers-by very easily from this vantage point. That being said, Decoy is insanely fun when no one is exploiting this position, and high intensity combat pacing is turned on! Check out the Decoy Mini-Map:

Vanguard Decoy Minimap
Check out Decoy's Mini-Map in Call of Duty: Vanguard. | © Activision

Vanguard Decoy Map Guide: Gameplay Overview & Tactics

Apparently, Decoy is perhaps a hint towards pre D-Day landing preparations in the south of England, where they made a bunch of fake towns to help train the soldiers. That being said, these villages would be far more militaristic, so we're not entirely sure how true this is, and the description does say that it is a Special Forces training ground, which is a different thing entirely. Make of the last two sentences what you will. Whilst this is all fascinating, it doesn't necessarily make for the best map in the world, with Decoy suffering in several major areas that you should be aware of.

There are some great spots in this map, but there are also a few little spots which are especially troublesome when it comes to camping. The power positions are actually rather overwhelming in Decoy, with players finding themselves constantly shot down by opponents whom have chosen to camp out in a small central building with excellent visuals of the surrounding map.

Check out our gameplay first impressions of Call of Duty: Vanguard's Decoy Map:

All the above being said, we recommend a more varied loadout for Decoy. You can find yourself in longer-range firefights as well as brutal indoor onslaughts. For the aforementioned power positions, we recommend a plethora of lethals, so that you can smoke them out of their hidey-holes. Generally, our suggestion is pretty standard: an AR with a Launcher secondary. The latter is also to take on those pesky campers.

Evan Williams

Australian gamer, musician, and journalist at EarlyGame. Currently living in Germany so no, I don't ride a Kangaroo to work. I am currently hard at work making our CoD and Rocket League pages the best on the internet. Lofty ambitions,...