One team has a VIP that needs to pass through several waypoints. The other team wants to eliminate the VIP. As ambushers die they become a pursuit force that keeps the VIP escorts from lagging. VIP escorts are very challenging games that force the escort team to handle a very large number of challenges at the same time, not the least of which is maintaining a reliable chain of command.
Strategy and Tactics:
- As the escort team you have a thousand things to juggle: movement of the VIP, advance scouting for the VIP’s path, protection of the VIP, counterambushing hunters, locating waypoints, and searching for the extraction point, among other things. Escort is VERY hard.
- As the hunter team you have two things to do: run a LOT and kill the VIP. It’s relatively easy to kill the VIP and even eliminate the escorts. The key is to keep the pressure on them as much and as long as possible. Eventually, they’ll likely trip up and end up delivering the VIP to you on a platter. In the mean time, you need to run, shoot, die, and run again. Hunting is VERY tiring, but usually profitable.
- The VIP almost always has a highly visible costume piece, whether that’s an orange hat or vest, large object to carry, etc. If you’re on the escort team try to keep the VIP down and hidden as much as possible whenever you aren’t moving them. As the hunters, make sure you know what you’re looking for and how high above the ground you expect it to be.
- On escort, the best weapon you have against the hunters is fatigue. They have to run a LOT. If you have a choice between moving the VIP and staying put and both choices are equally dangerous always move. It’s probable that the hunter respawn point will slowly move towards you over the course of the game, so the longer you sit the less the hunters will need to run and the easier time they’ll have overrunning you.
- If you’re protecting the VIP you shouldn’t be standing next to them. You are not a bullet magnet when you’re guarding the VIP in the same way you would be in any other game. Any hunter who sees you and sees the VIP is going to shoot first at the VIP. For this reason, make sure that you’re controlling a wide perimeter around the VIP. …and since the laser tag guns shoot several hundred feet, the smallest your perimeter should probably be is a 50′ radius circle and more is better. If you need to cheat a little on coverage cheat by leaving openings towards the front. Since you’ve got scouts searching for the path forward and looking for ambushes you’re less likely to come under fire from that direction. Also, the closer you can be moving to the edge of the battlefield the less likely you’ll come under fire from that direction, too.
- The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. The safest path is almost certainly much, much longer.
- If you are the VIP, make sure that someone on your protective crew is always aware of where you are and trying to figure out where you should be going next. This is important because the safest position for you to be in is most likely laying down as flat and low on the ground as possible. If your team loses track of where you are they’ll start freaking out and yelling to one another to figure out where you are. This is going to tell the hunters (who will have heard the yelling) where to start looking for you.
- Do not expect to win this game as the escort team the first time you play it. Don’t expect to win the second time, either. This game is not unbalanced in favor of the hunters, but the skills required to keep the VIP alive and moving are really, really challenging and escorting doesn’t give you many second chances.