Snow game
Feb/23/08 20:22
After a busy winter for
all, we had our first game since November!
The weather was a beautiful 28 degrees F, with about 6 inches of fresh snow. Check out photos here.
We had a new player show up, Eric. He looks like good tagger material!
All in all, we had 16 people show up, and we quickly shook the rust off the first game.
The first and second games proved a point. We had teams start kitty-corner, north pink and south green. It became clear that the north pink team had a significant field advantage. There is a lot of field flexibility on the west side, even up to the center. And the north team can get to this territory much quicker than south green could.
Still fighting a bit of a cold, I took it easy during my games, and held to the center of my team. This gave me a chance to team up with John Sr. several games, and I now finally understand his playing style. It's given me a little more insight into another aspect of teamwork.
In essence, John (and I today) played the game at a distinctly different pace than I traditionally play at. It is, essentially, very slow and calculated. While the rest of the team runs off and enters violent conflicts, we moved with great care to be in a position to help clean up. The essence of success is to have the enemy run into you. At which point you hold all the cards, and life is good.
But there is a significant downside to this style. There is very little you can do to help your teammates in the big firefights. Running to aid your comrades destroys the very power of the style.
While playing the slow careful game today, I felt frustrated that the forward groups wouldn't fall back after taking heavy hits. If they would just disengage and fall back, the enemy would follow and quickly be mopped up by the virtually invisible slow players.
When I play my normal game, I'm in the front line, calling for backup and getting frustrated when the slow players don't come to my aid. I often order the slow players out of their position to come help, and we all end up dying.
So having played this slower style, I now see what I've been doing wrong, and I will have some powerful new tools on the field next time. A team which can use the strengths of both fast and slow play to the maximum advantage.
The weather was a beautiful 28 degrees F, with about 6 inches of fresh snow. Check out photos here.
We had a new player show up, Eric. He looks like good tagger material!
All in all, we had 16 people show up, and we quickly shook the rust off the first game.
The first and second games proved a point. We had teams start kitty-corner, north pink and south green. It became clear that the north pink team had a significant field advantage. There is a lot of field flexibility on the west side, even up to the center. And the north team can get to this territory much quicker than south green could.
Still fighting a bit of a cold, I took it easy during my games, and held to the center of my team. This gave me a chance to team up with John Sr. several games, and I now finally understand his playing style. It's given me a little more insight into another aspect of teamwork.
In essence, John (and I today) played the game at a distinctly different pace than I traditionally play at. It is, essentially, very slow and calculated. While the rest of the team runs off and enters violent conflicts, we moved with great care to be in a position to help clean up. The essence of success is to have the enemy run into you. At which point you hold all the cards, and life is good.
But there is a significant downside to this style. There is very little you can do to help your teammates in the big firefights. Running to aid your comrades destroys the very power of the style.
While playing the slow careful game today, I felt frustrated that the forward groups wouldn't fall back after taking heavy hits. If they would just disengage and fall back, the enemy would follow and quickly be mopped up by the virtually invisible slow players.
When I play my normal game, I'm in the front line, calling for backup and getting frustrated when the slow players don't come to my aid. I often order the slow players out of their position to come help, and we all end up dying.
So having played this slower style, I now see what I've been doing wrong, and I will have some powerful new tools on the field next time. A team which can use the strengths of both fast and slow play to the maximum advantage.