Game Summaries for Players: Sniper

Posted on January 18, 2009 by admin

One-quarter of the players use longer guns and are sent out on bolt-action mode and given time to hide. The rest of the players become hunters with full auto and only 1 hit point but unlimited respawns. The hunters need to flush out the snipers before too many of the hunters are eliminated. At times this game can be slow because some snipers will hole up and hide. Successful snipers will hunt out the hunters and look for opportunities to pick them off when it’s hard for the hunters to retaliate.

Strategy and Tactics:

It can not be overstated: the snipers will almost certainly win or lose this game within the first 5 minutes. How? Preparation. Snipers MUST work as a team to be successful in this game. Hide yourselves near each other but so that you have at least a 90° difference in your attack angles to the trail. Do not attack players as they come down the trail. Shoot people in the back as the group passes or pick them off from a long distance when you’re way off on the side. The moment the group sees you they’ll start firing, so you have to do everything you can to kill the hunters but not be seen.
Snipers who successfully kill a few players and then have a moment where the hunters retreat and regroup would be very wise to MOVE. Find a new ambush point or, even better, find alternate ambush points while you are getting set up before the hunters get to start looking for you. As soon as you’ve shot someone they’ll have a general idea where you are, so don’t be there when they come back.
Hunters should ALWAYS walk in groups of at least 3-4 players. Do NOT let more than 2 people walk in a single line. Most of your hunters should be off the path so that you don’t have a sniper hitting your whole squad with a single shot. Once the firing starts make sure you communicate the snipers’ positions to the other members of your team or they might just start spraying where they think you’re shooting, which only tells the sniper where to shoot next.

Game Summaries for Players: Intel

Posted on January 18, 2009 by admin

Note that Intel codes and instructions slide in from the side and are behind an actual "screen" so they can't fly away accidentally like the older laptop allowed.

We like to say that Intel is “a game with few rules but many complications.” It’s got a lot going for players to juggle.

A laptop is hidden somewhere within the game boundaries. The laptop has an encoded message on it. Both teams have a codebreaker on their team. The codebreaker’s job is to decode the message and report it back to HQ (or the referee at their base). The catch: if your codebreaker dies they can’t be respawned until the other team’s codebreaker dies. The game is a frantic mix of search-hunt-defend and is especially crazy if you only have 3-4 people on your team but works great with larger groups or more than two teams.

Strategy and Tactics:

Obviously, you need to protect your codebreaker. This takes lots of space and coordination, however. If you’re standing within 20 feet of the codebreaker then any opponents will just shoot the codebreaker. Remember: the range on the laser tag guns is extreme! You need to create a very wide perimeter around your codebreaker (most likely with a radius of at least 50′) if you’re going to keep him/her safe.
Pick a codebreaker who is clever or really good with puzzles and, ideally, has ice in their veins. The codes are meant to be tricky to solve and you might be under fire from the other team while your codebreaker is sweating out the solution. Expect the decryption to take a minute or two, which is like an eternity if your team is in a gunfight.
One of your primary tasks should be to determine who on the other team is the codebreaker and where they’re hiding. Target them as much as you can. Another should be to send scouts to find the laptop so when you move your codebreaker you can move them as quickly as possible to the laptop site.
Never underestimate the potential value of misdirection in a game of Intel. The other team expects your codebreaker to be well-protected, so they won’t assume that you’ve got your codebreaker hiding alone somewhere. If you believe the other team knows who your codebreaker is then consider having them swap some clothes with someone else on the team if you can find the time.

Game Summaries for Players: Capture the Flag

Posted on January 18, 2009 by admin

You’re familiar with the basic game. Imagine how much tougher and more intense this game gets when you can be tagged from a football field away! Play a two-flag game with a flag at each team’s base or play a one-flag game with a neutral flag in the middle that needs to be retrieved. Either way, you’re guaranteed to be challenged.

Strategy and Tactics:

You have to balance a number of factors in CtF, including knowing where the flag is currently located and working as a team to move it up the field. If the other team has the flag then it is often easiest to spread out the team so you can locate it and then whoever finds it can shout out where the flag carrier is. If your team has it, however, you probably want to group up on the carrier to provide protection.
If you’re protecting a flag carrier then you’ll probably want assault players in front of them and some flank players to keep your carrier from getting surrounded. As long as you’re moving fairly quickly you probably don’t need to worry about rear guards, especially if at least one or two flank players are slightly behind the group.

Game Summaries for Players: Bulldog

Posted on January 18, 2009 by admin

In Bulldog you have two goals: get as many members of your team across the field as possible and prevent the opponents from doing the same. Bulldog is a fast, simple game that challenges you to balance pressing forward with working on wearing down the opposing team. Typically bulldog is played in a close quarters combat (CQC) battlefield but is entirely feasible and also challenging on a large battlefield.

Strategy and Tactics:

The trick to winning is to find ways to exploit weaknesses in the other team while guarding your own. These weaknesses could be less experienced players, ambush points, or likely routes across the field.
Once you come in contact with opposing players the scene will probably play out fairly quickly, so if you can gain a tactical advantage press it as hard and as fast as possible.
Lone wolves running across the field are easier to pick off and can’t eliminate large groups from the opposing team as easily, so don’t be one.

Game Summaries for Players: Base Assault

Posted on January 16, 2009 by admin

One team holds the base, the other wants to take it from them. This is a great, basic game that never gets old. Typically we give you unlimited respawns in the first half and then in the second half we’ll limit the reinforcements based on which team is winning. Base assaults are an excellent game for developing advanced strategies and building teamwork and coordination, too. A fun and challenging variation (that we actually play more often) is to make the base start out neutral and send both teams to take it from each other.

Strategy and Tactics Tips:

The trick to winning this game isn’t actually to charge ahead and start mauling the other team. Rather, move your team together very slowly across the field so you have a strong, moving base of fire. You can move your group near the base, but it’ll be tempting for the other team to try to whittle you down.
Try and figure out when the respawns are going to stop and get yourself respawned just before so you can start the final phase with full health and ammo.
Remember: you win by having the most players alive and inside the boundary when time ends. This is going to cause a huge, final push at the very end. You may achieve a stronger win by either a) leaving some teammates outside the zone so they can shoot without moving and therefore score more hits on enemies rushing in or b) working to flank and whittle down the opposing team before the end-of-game rush.

Game Summaries for Players: The Whiffle Ball Game

Posted on January 1, 2009 by admin

Pairs of balls (one marked “1” and one marked “2” in each pair) are scattered around the field under orange cones, in baskets, etc. Each team is trying to collect either all the 1s or all the 2s before the other team gets their own balls. Often we will play several rounds of this, with the winner being the team that wins two out of three rounds. It’s an insanely fast-paced game that can turn around dramatically if one team suddenly discovers the location of their balls all at once or at a critical time.

Strategy and Tactics:

Most teams waste a lot of time as players search the same areas over and over. Players will discover cones they hadn’t seen before only to find that their ball for that cone was already retrieved. You MUST make sure your team communicates so that you can focus as much attention as possible away from areas that don’t contain any more balls for your team.
Keep your eyes up! The cones you’re looking for are on the ground, but if you don’t pick your eyes up more than half of the time you’ll get shot by your opponent who is looking in the same area. While the goal of the game is to discover the cones you won’t be able to look if you’re dead. Move slowly and move safely first, look for the cones second.