Maverick M4A1 Carbine

Overview

For its alternative version in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, see M4A1-S.

The Maverick M4A1 Carbine, often referred to as the M4, is an assault rifle featured in the Counter-Strike series, exclusive to the Counter-Terrorists. The counterpart for the Terrorists is the AK-47.

In Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, it was replaced by the M4A4 but was reincarnated in the Arms Deal update as the M4A1-S, taking up the same slot as its replacement.

Overview

The M4A1 is a moderately powerful assault rifle available exclusively to the Counter-Terrorists. Its acceptable power, combined with its incredibly controllable recoil, low spread, and excellent rate of fire, makes it an effective AK-47 counterpart. The M4A1 can be mastered for nearly every situation. For these reasons, the M4A1 is one of the most popular weapons in the Counter-Strike series, especially by Counter-Terrorists. It is also chosen to be the default auto-buy primary weapon for CT. the others being the FAMAS, and the MP5.

Properties

CS 1.6 and CS:CZ
Hitbox	Primary Attack		Secondary Attack
Hitbox	Unarmored	Armored	Unarmored	Armored
Head	134	86	137	89
Chest & Arm	31	21	32	22
Stomach	38	27	40	28
Leg	23	23	24	24
Red signifies a fatal hit.

CS:S
Hitbox	Primary Attack
Hitbox	Unarmored	Armored
Head	131	92
Chest & Arm	32	23
Stomach	41	28
Leg	24	24
Red signifies a fatal hit.

The M4A1 is a moderate weight weapon. While wielded, the player's movement speed is 230 units per second (default speed is 250), meaning they suffer moderate speed reduction. The M4A1 is one of the many weapons able to shoot underwater.

Advantages

Fairly high damage per bullet
Excellent at close to medium range
Low recoil and accurate
- High accuracy can be maintained when fired in bursts
The silencer is ideal for stealth
- The silencer increases damage at close range in Counter-Strike 1.6
Higher rate of fire than the AK-47
Lighter than most assault rifles

Disadvantages

Damage per shot is inferior to the AK-47
Fairly expensive
In Counter-Strike 1.6, the silencer decreases accuracy
Silencer increases damage fall off
Outclassed at long range combat by sniper rifles
Not very accurate at long ranges when firing this weapon continuously

Gameplay

Tactics

Due to the low recoil and good rate of fire, the M4A1 can be a deadly weapon against enemy players at close-range. Basically, users can continuously fire this rifle if they are accustomed to the recoil.
- Eliminating targets is normally easy; just be sure to score headshots and keep firing to finish off assailants.
- Aim for the chest and spray bullets when encountering an enemy assailant at medium range. This strategy may allow you to score a headshot. Alternatively, fire in bursts and aim for the head.
- Recoil has slightly increased in Source. Fire in bursts to maintain accuracy.
Unlike the AK-47, this rifle is not made to engage enemy players at long range, although it is possible to successfully hit an opponent at the head.
- For long ranged combat, using a silencer may not be preferable unless enemy is not aware of your position. Firing in short bursts is recommended and avoid engaging snipers unless in close proximity.
Adding silencer is recommended in early games, as it increases damage and cuts down noise.
If you do plan to use the silencer, be sure to attach it before entering combat, preferably at freeze time.
- A silenced USP can be equipped to maintain stealth.

Counter-Tactics

Avoid close contact with users at all times!
- If the user is hiding in close areas, use a HE grenade to flush him out.
Use a flashbang and finish off M4A1 users.
- A smoke grenade can prevent enemies from seeing/aiming well. Moreover, an unsuppressed M4A1 will emit muzzle flashes upon firing in the smoke. However, if an assailant has attached a silencer, the situation could favor him as he can maintain stealth within/near the exhaust.
The AWP and other long range weaponry is a good choice to wield against enemies. The Schmidt Scout is not recommended though, unless you are good at scoring headshots or they are not aware of you.
More accurate weapons, such as the Krieg 552, can outgun users of the M4.
More powerful weapon or weapons with higher rate of fire, can be used at close range.
- For long range combat, the AK-47 can easily eliminate M4A1 users. Nevertheless, they might burst fire against you, so you still need to engage with caution.
Do not rush at an enemy whilst you fire at him. The M4A1 has low spread and experienced users can easily control the recoil. Furthermore, its high accuracy and rate of fire will often means the outcome will not be in your favor.

Achievements

Counter-Strike: Source

Weapon

Maverick M4A1 Carbine Expert
Kill 1,000 enemy players with the Maverick M4A1 Carbine.

Comparison to the AK-47 (Counter-Strike and Condition Zero)

Positive

Higher fire rate (685rpm vs 600rpm)
Lower recoil (-12%)
Lighter (-4%)
Lower ammo cost (-$20)
Can be suppressed
More accurate

Neutral

Identical magazine size and ammunition carry capacity. (30/90)

Negative

Lower base damage (-2)
Expensive (+$600)
Longer reload (+0.6 seconds)
Requires two shots on the head protected with a helmet to kill

Appearances

Condition Zero

In Tour of Duty, there are many CT bots that uses the M4A1 as their main weapon. They are:

Sam: Cost 3 (with the P228 as a sidearm)
Larry: Cost 3 (with the Desert Eagle as a sidearm)
Maverick: Cost 3 (with the Desert Eagle as a sidearm)
Ace: Cost 4 (with the Five-SeveN as a sidearm)
Tex: Cost 4 (with the P228 as a sidearm)
Steel: Cost 5 (with the Desert Eagle as a sidearm)
Barney: Cost 5 (with the P228 as a sidearm)

Terrorists

Because there is a file error for the bot Lunatic, that bot will buy a random primary weapon (with the Dual Berettas as a sidearm). If he discovers a M4A1, he will pick it up and use it as a main weapon.

Deleted Scenes

The M4A1 has appeared in many missions in Deleted Scenes, mainly because it is a standard issue weapon for the Counter-Terrorists forces (with the exception of the Spetsnaz as they use the AK-47 instead). It appears in the following missions:

Counter-Terrorist Training: At the shooting range, along with the USP.
Recoil: As a starting loadout.
Building Recon: Found near an SAS operative at the side, just before the player needs to crawl trough the vent next to the area where many SAS operative will perish.
Downed Pilot: Before being captured, it can be found in the area where the Tank is located. After your capture, it can be found on a box next to the XM1014 and ammo crate.
Alamo: As a starting loadout.
Rise Hard: As a starting loadout.
Truth in Chaos: As a starting loadout.
Sandstorm: As a starting loadout.

Trivia

The unsupressing sound in most games is the reverse played suppressing sound.
The M4A1 in Counter-Strike, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and Deleted Scenes will always have a suppressor attached in third person perspective, regardless of actual suppression. This is fixed in Counter-Strike: Source.
Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, Counter-Strike (Xbox) and the Deleted Scenes's M4A1 drawing animation is faster when suppressed. This however does not affect the actual drawing time.
The Counter-Strike: Source suppressed firing sound is re-used for the Cleaner's Carbine in Team Fortress 2 (an unlockable weapon for the Sniper class)
In some versions of Counter-Strike, the model of the M4A1's fire selector switch is turned to semi-automatic although the weapon fires automatically.
In the Deleted Scenes, the M4A1 is the weapon of choice for Counter-Terrorist NPCs (exception being the Spetsnaz. This is strange as few to no country's military has the M4A1 as a standard issue.
- The Spetsnaz are the only Counter-Terrorist faction that do not use the M4A1 as their primary assault rifles in Deleted Scenes. In a more realistic fashion, they use the AK-47 instead.
The player pulls the charging handle during the reload and drawing animations in Condition Zero, Deleted Scenes and Counter-Strike: Xbox.
The Counter-Strike and Condition Zero, the silencer allowed the M4A1 to inflict more damage. In Source, the silencer does not affect damage but regardless if the silencer is attached or not, this rifle inflicts more damage than 1.6.
In Counter-Strike and Source, when the player reloads the M4, the animation has the player pull back the forward assist during the reload and draw animation. However, on a real M4A1, the forward assist is actually struck forward after reloading to make sure the bolt is properly seated so the weapon doesn't malfunction.
In Counter-Strike: Source, the barrel is significantly shorter in first person view, making its animation slightly different from its GoldSrc counter-part.
In Counter-Strike: Source, the suppressed M4A1 doesn't have its flash suppressor covered which in reality, would make the suppressor impractical.
Before Counter-Strike: Global Offensive's release, the weapon was one of the four to retain its real name (at least partially), the others being the Five-SeveN, the MAC-10 and the M249.
The M4A1 has unusable firing mode selectors in Counter-Strike: Source.
- The selector switch is barely visible in early games.

Behind the scenes

The weapon had a usable ACOG scope during the Counter-Strike Beta that was eventually traded for the suppressor in Beta 6.5.
- The effect of the ACOG scope is similar to the one found in AUG A1 and Krieg 552.
- The scope is however still featured in the post 6.5 view, world and player models along with HUD and kill icons. The Deleted Scenes and Counter-Strike (Xbox) having new HUD icons still had kill icons depicting it with the scope. The Source games correct this.
- The pre 6.5 world and player models, odly enough, had no scope nor suppressor, making them closer to the post 6.5 viewmodels than the pre 6.5 viewmodel.
The M4A1 was to appear in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive as evidenced by Alpha screenshots. It was however replaced by the M4A4 during the Beta.
- Its playermodel in the Alpha screenshot is the same as Counter-Strike: Source's.
- The M4A4 was still referred as the M4A1 and in fact had the latter's HUD and kill icons. The game files still refer to the M4A4 as the M4A1.
- The Beta's sound files featured unused suppressed firing sounds and suppressing/unsuppressing sounds. This suggests that the M4A4 simply reused the M4A1's sound files or that the M4A4 itself was to have a suppressor.
- Due to popularity and fan-base demand, the weapon was reintroduced as the M4A1-S during the Arms Deal Update, albeit different in many ways.

External links

M4A1 at Wikipedia.