There are a lot of maps in Rainbow Six Siege nowadays. Most of them have a very unique flavor, and all of them have their own complexities to get used to in order to perform well on them. Consulate is no exception; it's a map that's been out since the launch of Siege and has remained relatively untouched since then, meaning players have years of experience and strategies to utilize there. Let's take a look at 10 tips to get you started on Consulate:
10 BASEMENT SITE
Let's start with each of the bomb sites. Often selected first is either the second-floor site, or the basement site. The basement site has a huge garage door on the West side, where the biggest push is probably going to come from. It's not foolish to Bandit-charge or Mute-jam the door, but don't expect it to do much more than delay the enemy from opening it. Just inside the garage door is by far the most popular location for Attackers to plant the defuser, so it's a good idea to have your Defense set up to hold the Attackers there. A Mira window on the West wall of the Security Room with a soft wall beside her can do a lot to delay or stop Attackers from entering here; just be sure to keep some Defenders on her East side to support her flank.
If Attackers try to smoke the door and plant, you can deal with this in a couple of different ways. Smoke can toss one of his own smoke grenades in, preventing them from being able to utilize the moment. You can also place a Maestro camera with a view of the Garage door, preferably on the South wall of the Garage. Maestro's Evil Eye has thermal vision, allowing you to spot and zap Attackers with a laser while they plant.
9 FIRST FLOOR/BASEMENT SITE
One site on Consulate is split between two different floors, making it a pretty unique challenge as a Defender. The first thing to manage is going to be denying the push from the 1F Visa Office into the 1F Tellers site. You'll likely want at least one Anchor inside the 1F Tellers site, preferably with an Acog, to watch the 1F Visa Office double-door. You'll also probably want to stick one Roamer upstairs in the 2F Admin Office, to shoot through the floor and the hatch into the 1F Visa Office.
All of this said, the most crucial part of this site is keeping control of the Service Stairs. That stairway is going to be the Defenders' main rotation lane between the two objectives, and if Attackers can keep Defenders from being able to utilize it, they've likely already won the round. It's probably a good idea to open a rotate hole between the 1F Service Stairs and 1F Tellers in order to make that rotation a bit easier.
8 FIRST FLOOR SITE
This is another site that's likely going to be a bit tough on Defenders. Because Attackers can get such easy sightlines into the objectives from outside, Anchors are going to have a difficult time here, and it might be a good idea to only keep a couple of Anchors; one to keep an eye on each site.
The second floor is going to be a prime spot for Roamers to once again harass and deny entry to the Attackers. 2F Roamers have access to two different hatches that drop them into objective, and just about the entire ceiling of both objective sites is destructible, giving them the possibility of supporting the Anchors with a bit of safety.
7 SECOND FLOOR SITE
The second-floor site in Consulate is another pretty viable site for Defenders. Much of the biggest push from the Attackers is usually going to come from either the Exit Stairs or the Admin Office. A Mira with a window at crouch level on the West side of the wall facing the Exit Stairs in the 2F Cabinet can do a lot to prevent Attackers from being comfortable there, especially if she has a Jager ADS protecting her from frag grenades.
As far as the Admin Office goes, it's pretty tough to control that room for very long as a Defender. A Pulse downstairs can probably get one or two cheeky kills with C4 or his shotgun, but Attacker's are going to catch onto that pretty quickly. Mostly, Defenders will just have to prevent Attackers from being able to exit that room with any modicum safety. Keeping a Lesion outside that room can make a pretty big difference; just don't leave him to hold the Attackers off on his own.
6 FIVE SECONDS AWAY
Consulate is laid out in such a way that a 3-speed Operator can get to any staircase in the map from any floor in about five or six seconds. This really rewards aggressive Roamer play from the Defenders, because they can rotate to wherever they need to be with ludicrous quickness, provided the Attackers aren't watching that particular staircase.
5 EVERY STAIRCASE HAS EASY ACCESS TO EVERY FLOOR
Tacking onto that last point, every single staircase in Consulate goes all of the way from the basement to the second floor. Because each staircase has an exit on each floor, there's a huge variety of paths you can take to each and every site from wherever you happen to be on the map, making it possible to take a path the other team isn't anticipating. Throw the other team some curveballs on the path you take, and you'll likely get some very easy flanking kills.
4 CLAYMORES, NOMAD, AND GRIDLOCK
Because Consulate rewards such aggressive Roaming, Nomad, Gridlock, and any Operator with Claymores is going to be very valuable. Maybe even some combo thereof.
Denying access to a staircase with one of these gadgets is crucial in limiting the variety of ways a Defender can flank you and increases the likelihood of them wandering right into your crosshairs. The more you don't have to worry about what's behind you and are able to focus on what's in front of you, the better you're going to play.
3 ELA AND LESION
These staircases work two-fold; Attackers can make just as much use of them as Defenders, and are able to Attack any objective in a variety of ways. Because of this, operators like Lesion and Ela skyrocket in value (not that Lesion isn't always a valuable Operator). Their ability to both snag an Attacker with a trap and gain some intel in the process lessens the chance of an Attacker catching you off-guard, much in the way that Nomad and Gridlock are going to be of value on Attack.
2 VERTICAL MAP
As mentioned before, Consulate is a very vertical map, meaning there's a lot of potential in Defending or Attacking a site from the floor above or below. Most of the ceilings/floors in this map are destructible, and there some truly crazy sightlines you can create just by knocking a hole in something. On Defense and on a site where vertical play is going to be critical, bring an Operator or two with a shotgun. On Attack, bringing someone like Sledge, Buck, and/or Zofia is a recipe for success.
1 ACOG DEFENDERS
There are quite a few instances where Anchors in Consulate are going to have to engage in a long-sightline fight with an Attacker, and if that Defender doesn't have an Acog, they're going to be at a disadvantage against the Attacker that likely does. It's not necessary with every Defender setup here, but as a general rule, bringing at least one Defender with an Acog here is going to help out the Anchors immensely.