In our first two installments on laser tag stealth we talked about sound and your silhouette, or body shape, and how to minimize both. This week we’re diving in to another visual aspect: concealment of some or all of your body.
When we talk about laser tag stealth, concealment means blocking some or all of your body with something not attached to you. This could be as flimsy as a cardboard wall or as solid as a few cars. Note that the windshields are NOT concealment, nor are they cover. (Laser tag guns will shoot right through glass!)
Jump to another part of the series on stealth:
Sound – Silhouette – Concealment – Camouflage – Distraction
Cover vs. Concealment
It’s worth taking a moment to highlight the difference between concealment and cover. Concealment makes it hard or impossible to see you. Cover means they can’t shoot you, either. In laser tag something that provides concealment USUALLY also provides cover, but not always. The gaming guns CAN shoot through brush, tarps, sheets, blankets, etc. Additionally, if you’re standing around the corner from an opponent and they’re shooting at you sometimes they can get a lucky bounce off of the wall and still score a hit. In general, though, if you can’t see through it they can’t shoot through it. (We have another article specifically on cover and how to use it properly, if you’re interested.)
We’d also like to briefly point out that we’re not going to talk about camouflage and its role in concealment until next week. The point of this article is purely to focus on things that aren’t attached to your body.
Let’s start with the obvious: concealment is great in laser tag stealth because if they can’t see your body at all then they almost certainly don’t know that you’re there, and you’re likely to get the jump on your opponents. The flip side, of course, is that if you’re completely concealed then you can’t see them, either, which negates the advantage. This, then, implies that while you DO have to keep your eyes out, you probably don’t want anything else visible.
Concealment: look more than your opponent looks for you
So what else are you likely to leave showing when you’re concealed? Well, here’s a short list:
- The top of your head or your hat
- Your feet
- Your elbow
- Your shadow
- The muzzle of your gaming gun
- The scope of your gaming gun
Some of those items can be easily taken care of if you think a bit more when you settle into concealment. Make sure to scoot your feet behind plants or a tree trunk, keep your elbows in close to your body so they don’t reveal your position, and keep your gaming gun in close so that it doesn’t protrude from cover and show its silhouette. Your shadow will be more or less important depending on where you’re playing and how the field is laid out. For instance, your shadow is a non-issue in laser tag stealth if your likely targets are far away or you’re playing indoors where your shadow is likely very small. You should always pay attention, however, to where your shadow is and whether you can prevent it from showing by shifting position slightly. The top of your head is much harder to conceal if your eyes are going to be able to see, but try to find a branch or the top of a window, etc. that you can hide the top of your head behind without showing the rest of your body.
Concealment’s role in laser tag stealth
So when you consider the use of concealment, be aware that you have to conceal more than just your own self; your shadow and your gaming gun can reveal your position just as easily as if you carelessly left an arm out and visible. That said, concealment is yet another tool in laser tag stealth that enables us to wear even brightly-colored clothing without fear of being seen.