Groups: Small Squad Edition

Hey everyone!

I hope you all had a very nice weekend, where ever you are and whatever you did. I'm back in San Francisco, with the reality of the Assassin game finally upon me. I'll be forced out of the house at some point (much against my will but hey such is adulthood), definitely armed and definitely paranoid as all hell.

But I've written enough lately about the Assassin game, so I'll give it a break for now and move onto something else. In particular, this is the first in a series of three posts about group dynamics during games, with this one covering small squads.  Ever since a game of Humans vs. Zombies at SF State a few months back (which I mentioned in my load out post ) I've suited my playing style towards moving with a smaller group. Generally speaking its the same people at every game. There's usually about 5-8 of us and after months of toying around we kinda know what we're doing. This rotating cast of characters consists of:

Eric: aka Murtaugh. Weapons tech and blowgun master, Eric usually brings a unique if not downright crazy load out. He's usually on the point, good at noticing and announcing contact, has a quick draw and is really good at getting the team to form together when we're a little slack.

Beth: Super accurate shooter. This is coupled with the fact that if Beth sees you, she will keep shooting at you until you're dead. Beth is usually either on the point or the flanks and is pure murder with a Strongarm.

Trevor: Pure murder in general with a lot of blasters, Trevor favors a Stryfe with an assortment of sidearms. He also likes to wear a desert camo army helmet to games (people ask me why and I usually say "because that's Trevor") The first time I met him, he was enthusiastically describing getting ambushed by a bunch of players in Jericho and killing all of them. My initial thought was "wow, that guy is like a real life  FPS Doug." Thankfully I've come to find him way more mellow off the game field. Trevor stays on the flanks with us, but otherwise he is strictly rear guard, as he doesnt trust anyone else to guard his 6.

Casey: Casey is usually no more then 5 feet away from Trevor when he's playing. They are friends, roommates and go to the same school. Casey is equally effective with a Rough Cut or a Stryfe and has a flair for accessorization, making most of his gear out of duct tape and cardboard, to go along with his brightly colored outfits. Casey also has a flair for charging out on contact, though he can (usually) be reeled back in.

Sargun: Sargun usually has a rifle of some sort (preferring a retaliator as of late) and when both Eric and myself started playing games in the city, Sargun  almost exclusively ended up on the opposite team. He's also Beth's boyfriend, has a fondness for being sneaky and is good for fire support in a tight spot. Sargun usually stays in the middle of the group.

Arthur: Mentioned in my post about using the environment of SF to craft games Arthur still only brings a Strongarm and just enough ammo to fill the blaster ("At the end of games, I'm just like 'give me 6 darts and we're OK'"-Arthur) A very low key guy, Arthur is a tenacious attacker, very quick and similarly agile. He is comfortable staying with the group or striking out on his own to pick people off. Not afraid to use environments in unconventional ways either.

Me: Since I run this blog, there will be plenty of opportunities to talk about myself later (perhaps Connor will start talking in the third person too). I usually am either on the point, 6 or right flank. I feel my strongest suit is spotting targets and creating discreet routes of travel, though I'm pretty overt once I'm spotted ("Oh, Connor's the courier? Stealthy!"-Fellow player Yoshi during a game of Jericho).

Ben from Jericho and Dual Disc Gun Alex will usually go along with us if they're not doing their own thing. Ben brings incredible tenaciousness, bullseye shooting, a ton of speed and an endless supply of energy. Alex, despite being something like 6'5" tall is super hard to hit and some how makes carrying two vigilons at the same time work very well. Any time Alex isn't on my team I can count on a good deal of his slow spinning but straight moving green discs coming my way.

Now that you know us, you can know why 

There are plenty of reasons to go with either configuration (large group/small squad) and in the last blog in the series I'll line up the pros and cons of both against each other. But in regards to Small Squads two reasons why they are my preferred mode of playing immediately come to mind: cohesion and low profile travel. Not to mention for us its a ton of fun. In our opinion, whether its in HvZ or in Tactical Ops (the plug for the upcoming game goes here) we like sneaking around, fighting out of envelopments, having running battles, or the fact that most time out of not we stay close together and ensure each other's safety. There is also something to be said about the feeling one gets when potentially facing down a field of enemies with just 6 people. If a proper blend of fear, adrenaline and mirth resulting from forgetting you're not really gonna die sounds like your cup of tea, a small squad may be for you.

In our opinion, its the lack of cohesion that sticks out the most in regards to the larger crowds. Its logically pretty simple: with more people, theres more people to keep track of. With more people to keep track of, more people are going to get lost in the shuffle. Newer players also tend to gravitate towards the larger groups, which is good. What is bad is that a lot of newer players have a tendency to flee upon first contact, especially in Humans vs. Zombies. Once five or six people in a group flee in all directions, more are sure to follow. For those of who choose to stay and fight, the said fleeing in all directions makes determining who is actually a target pretty difficult, much less shooting one. It usually ends with me just saying screw it and linking back up with a small group of survivors, so I might as well just do that from the start.

There is one thing to consider when moving in a small group though: weapon placement. When playing Humans vs. Zombies, we like to keep a melee weapon up front, on the six and on the flanks. Single shot blasters and Strongarms go in the middle of the group, with rifles everywhere else. If you're playing a game with no melee weapons (such as capture the flag) we like to move someone with a Strongarm up front to provide accurate fire, while some provides suppressing fire from another direction.  This in particular is my bread and butter and I will engage someone or a group firing single shot as I continually flank. Sometimes if I have something heavier, I'll sneak around to a blind spot and charge them firing full auto. I may hit nothing but air, but I'm usually successful at either distracting them for one of the sharpshooters or making them fall back to somewhere else. My other teammates can secure the area in their absence while I watch where they run to.

Modding is certainly not my strong point, but if I can mod my Stampede to make it lighter, it may become my primary. I've seen a couple of people hack it apart, shortening the barrel, removing the battery area and upgrading the voltage. This is what I want to do, but there's a great chance of me destroying the blaster in the process. I say 70/30 if anyone wants to lay a bet.

Tomorrow will be the flip side  where I discuss playing in a larger group. Though Small Squads are my preference, there are just as many reasons to join the mob. See you then!