Game Review - 19th April 2009

Written by Mustang Monday, 20 April 2009 21:21

A bright blue sky, warm sunshine, and a slight cooling breeze - a perfect combination for a great day airsofting!

With an encouraging turn-out of around thirty players, the battle began with a game of 'Kill the Commander'. Initially aimed as being a warm-up game, it soon became a full-on tactical shoot-out between the Reds and the Blanks. With the Reds starting in the village and the Blanks starting in the OP, the main objective of the game was to Kill the Commander of the opposing team. The only catch to this seemingly simple objective, was that the identities of the team commanders were not made public knowledge amongst the opposing teams!

The Yank was the Blank Team Commander and started off in the OP, sending Jester, Deltaboy, and Sniper out to the left to infiltrate enemy lines. The remaining team members advanced onto and past the former compound.

Meanwhile, Silverfox was in command of the Red team. Starting at the village, the Reds advanced quickly towards the former compound until the two teams encountered each other between the old compound and the OP. The Reds gained further ground, pushing the Blanks back toward their base. It was a process-of-elimination game. If the person who you shot re-spawned then they weren't the commander. Re-spawns were on the team commander and took 60 seconds, as long as the commanders were static and not taking or giving fire. This proved difficult at times as the commanders never shied away from the battle - at times like that you couldn't get near them, or be re-spawned anyway. Also, if the commander was in view of the opposing team and you attempted a re-spawn, then you'd give away their identity, so a subtle and tactful touch of the commander was required.

The game ended when the Blank team commander - The Yank, shouted those long-awaited words "Hit-Commander". The game lasted around three hours culminating with the Red team surrounding the remaining Blank team member - our very own Psycho - who put up a valiant last stand against the tightening circle of Reds.

After a much needed break for lunch, it was time to start the action again. The afternoon's game-play began with a game of 'Screwballs Scrabble'. 'Screwballs Scrabble' is a collect-the-objectives game - with five objectives hidden around the site (including the ones that both teams started with). The objectives for the day were two missiles, two laptops, and a red flag. The game was played between the village and the OP base. Reds occupied the OP whilst the Blanks occupied the village. The main objective of the game was to locate and hold at least 3 of the 5 objectives hidden within the wood for 30 minutes. Re-spawns were rolling - at 10 metres behind the last man - lasting 3 minutes. Ultimately the Blank team held firm and locked the Reds in position just infront of the former compound - managing to gain 4 out of the 5 objectives, thanks largely to Jester. The highlight of the game was when Holy Terror took himself out with a tree, and when climbing back up to his feet, managed to take Marshall Kaiser Von Shizer out too - who was trying to help him up at the time!

Following on from that, we opted for an 'Attack and Defend' game on the OP which lasted less than 10 minutes and was unfortunately called to a sudden halt after the majority of players became too enthusiastic and trigger-happy.

To round off the day, we played an 'Escort the VIP' game. The Red team were appointed as the escorts and Psycho opted to be the VIP. With the Reds starting at the OP base, their objective was to escort Psycho to the 'Imaginary Line' between the compound and the village. The Blanks started at the old compound and set up various blockades to prevent the Reds from passing. The Reds were given a time limit of 30 minutes to successfully escort the VIP to the 'Imaginary Line', but failed to make it past the old compound due to clever tactics from the Blanks. Even with the understanding that if a member of the Blank team got shot, they had to retreat to the previous flag checkpoint, the majority of the Blanks remained hidden and strategically positioned across the width of the wood and successfully prevented the Reds from meeting their objective. The VIP was only escorted from the OP to the compound before their time limit was reached: a good 200+ metres away from their objective. 

All in all, it was a very fun, varied and successful day at Island Recon, with lots of enthusiasm, courage, and tactical skills shown throughout the day.

Mustang  :-)