War Tactics: A Night of War Games

The best part of the war game though is devising a strategy and putting in in action. You can only imagine the great feeling you get when you pull off something you planned yourself. We played two rounds. The details are as below:

The rules and regulations:

• Each team has their own flags
• Each team has 5-6 members
• Each team gets about 27 water-filled balloons as ammo
• Each team knows the location of the other's flag

• To win: retrieve opponent team's flag and plant at mortuary OR kill all members of opposing team.
  
• To kill: hit an enemy with a water balloon (whether it breaks or not is something else, s'long as it hits).
• To tie: end of time limit without planted flag at mortuary.
  
• Dying: a person who has died must sit and shut up for the remainder of current battle. Then they must go to the mortuary (located at center of war grounds) as soon as the battle is over (end of battle does not signify end of war). HONESTY IS REQUIRED.
  
• Silence of Death: no dead person may pass info on to living team members.
• Prohibition of Relocation: no flag can be relocated.
  
• Scout Phase: the game begins with scouting. Each team MUST send 2 scouts to check out the enemy. Scouts may be killed. But scouts may NOT retrieve flags.
  

Second Round Revision:

• No Scout Phase.
• No dummies allowed (White Chair Barrier/False Flag Plantation)
• No human shields allowed
  

1st Round:

• Team Leader: Ubai
• Team Members: Ubai, Myself, Thaariq, 'Athif, Saifuddin, Hafiz
  
• Team Size: 5.5 strong (the 0.5 is for one injured person, Hafiz - a casualty in the trekking activity)
  
• Tactical Division:
• 4 person Attack Team (3 assault - Ubai, Myself, Thaariq; 1 ammo supplier - 'Athif)
  
• 1.5 person Defense Team (Saifuddin, Hafiz)
• Tactics:
  
• Offensive:
  
• Strike and Return - strike enemy base, retrieve flag and return (to mortuary).
  
• Defensive:
  
• White Chair Confusion Barrier - White chairs are planted all around the flag. Purpose - to confuse and slow enemy for easier shot.
  
• 2 Person Ambush.
  
• Enemy: Ihsan NK, Fared, Iswan, Khubaib, Taufiq, Umar
• Actual event playout until I died:
• We were just readying our tactics and divisions when the enemy offensive came full blown. They wove in and out between themselves and came in fast. Using the poor light to their full advantage.
  
• The first wave came fast.
  
• We barely took cover behind a confusive barrier of white (very visible) chairs and took the defensive. Enemy missiles flew over us and hit none.
  
• The enemy retreated. Probably not expecting the incoherent barrier of white in their planned path.
  
• We entrenched ourselves behind the barrier and waited for the second wave.
  
• The second wave came just as fast. This time with a flurry of missiles aimed at possible places for us to hide. One fell just short of me and blew up in front of me. Luckily I wasn't hit.
  
• The second wave disregarded the barrier and pierced through to the flag. Hafiz saved us by killing Ihsan off first. Luckily he was situated right in front of flag in some shadows, unseen unless he moves. He got to Ihsan as he touched the flag. Whew.
  
• The rest began to falter behind Ihsan (to my perception). I rose up from where I was sitting to get a better angle to shoot (stupid of me). Hit someone then someone else hit me square in the right chest. Daym!!
  
• Final toll of The Battle of The White Chair Barrier: 4 Enemy dead, and from our side, myself. Just my luck...
• After my death:
  
• I didn't really catch much, but the death toll continued to rise until the end of the time limit. The dead enemies were hoping that the brunt of our force wouldn't attack hard before the time limit ends. And they didn't. God was I frustrated at the time. I knew we could have won. But due to no intelligence on enemy numbers, my living team members were worried about enemy retaliation. What a waste.
  
• Result of war: Tied (no flag by end of time limit)
• Enemy Tactical Division:
  
• 1 person defense (Fared)
  
• 5 person attack team (everyone besides Fared)
• Enemy Tactics:
  
• Defensive:
  
• False Flag Plantation - 7 false flags planted to confuse us from the real one.
  
• 1 Person Ambush.
  
• Offensive:
  
• 5 Man Strike Wave - 5 persons running erratically forward towards the flag. Purpose - get flag, avoid casualty.
  
• 5 Man Strike Wave 2 - same as above plus logical placement of water bomb assaults.
  

2nd Round:

• Team Leader: Me
  
• Team Members: Ubai, Myself, Thaariq, 'Athif, Saifuddin, Hafiz
  
• Team Size: 5.5 strong (the 0.5 is for one injured person, Hafiz - a casualty in the trekking activity)
  
• Tactical Division:
• 3 person Vanguard Team (Ubai, 'Athif, Saifuddin)
  
• 2.5 person Homeguard Team (Thaariq, Hafiz, Myself)
• Tactics:
  
• Offensive:
  
• Scout and Kill - Vanguard Team to scout out enemy offensive and kill from behind.
  
• Hammer - press enemy towards home base, cut them off from support and kill with support from Homeguard Team.
  
• Strike and Return.
  
• Defensive:
  
• 3 Person Triangular Ambush.
• Anvil - provide support to hammer tactic.
  
• Enemy: Ihsan NK, Fared, Iswan, Khubaib, Taufiq, Umar
• Actual event playout until I died (my point of view):
• Vanguard Team moved out.
  
• Entrenched myself in the shadow of a coconut tree close to flag (1st Point of Triangle).
• Hafiz entrenched in tent (2nd Point of Triangle).
• Thaariq entrenched near tree (3nd Point of Triangle).
  
• Waited a while.
  
• Something started to happen between The Facilitators' Chalets and The Toilets. Couldn't make out what it is. (I was told later that there was a battle there at the time).
  
• A lone figure came back and shouted a report from a distance of approximately 15-20 meters that 2 had died . Couldn't make out friend or foe. Also couldn't tell whether it was true or trick.
  
• Waited still a while more.
  
• Noticed Hafiz's absence from post. AWOL. Made sure all clear before moving to his position.
  
• Hafiz came back and reported sighting of 3 enemies along beach approach. Lost interest in apprehending him.
  
• 2 Vanguard members returned. Reported 2 enemies killed (whew... thought it was them who got killed), recount of enemies gives 4 persons strong. Reported absence of security in enemy base. Also reported split in Vanguard force. 'Athif will approach along northwest fence. Other 2 will come back for support then attack from main center approach. 'Athif already on his way and waiting for support.
  
• Based on intelligence that 3 is approaching along the beach, that means that at most there should only be 1 enemy left to guard enemy base.
  
• Decided to take offensive. I went with Vanguard. Vanguard is now 4 persons in teams of 3 and 1.
  
• Homeguard of 1.5 persons left to defend. Triangle is now Pincer.
  
• Attack commenced. We approached cautiously whilst shouting password request. Reason - to get 'Athif's attention and attack simultaneously.
  
• We sook to overwhelm and retrieve enemy flag in the confusion. We also tried not to waste our ammo.
  
• Saifuddin went in and got hit. (Later he told me that he had faked a bomb throw to force the enemy to show himself. When he got no reaction, he went in with his guard lowered. It so happens he got killed by one enemy in front of the flag. Same as how Ihsan got hit in the first round. Trust not leaning from history).
• Seeing as Saifuddin got killed, me and Ubai tried to close in. All the while anxious that 'Athif hasn't joined the battle.
  
• Then I went in.
• As I noticed the guy who killed Saifuddin and gotten ready to throw, I got hit first. (Daym!!).
  
• Ubai got killed by another at about the same time. (Daym again! Why were there 2 here?! Faulty intelligence!)
• Result of war: Lost (daym! And it was a great tactic too!)
• How we lost (recounted by Hafiz and Fared): When the Vanguard Team's main offensive got wiped out. The enemy's defensive team decided to take action. They sent 1 person (Fared) to strike at our base. He went to the flag and was confronted by Hafiz. There was an exchange of bomb throws before Fared tripped and fell. Hafiz then had the chance to kill Fared. Yet he hesitated in reflection to how he took Iswan out in the first round. He was rather unwiling to hurt another person this time. Fared took that chance to kill Hafiz with a bomb concealed in hand and sauntered back to the mortuary with our flag. Thus history records our loss. Lesson learnt: never trust an armed (or possibly armed) enemy.
  
• Extra comments: I sympathize with the Enemy Decoy Team. They had been crawling all the way to a distance close enough to our base but never got to see any action. It happens that they were waiting for the Assault Team to begin the offensive. They never knew that the Assault team got killed before even seeing our base. Hahaha! Sad...
  
• Enemy Tactical Division:
  
• 2 person defense team (Fared, Khubaib)
  
• 2 person attack team (Ihsan, Iswan)
• 2 derson decoy/support team (Taufiq, Umar)
• Enemy Tactics:
  
• Defensive:
  
• 2 Person Ambush - daym this was effective.
  
• Offensive:
  
• Decoy - 2 sent down along beach approach. Cautiously and carefully. Purposefully visible to confuse us. Never saw action though... Haha!
  
• Assault - 2 sent along the northwest fence approach. To strike as we were distracted by decoys. This team got killed by 'Athif who went back to report from afar that 2 enemies are dead. 'Athif was the figure I didn't recognize.
  
• Pincer - Assault attacks and retrieve flag with backup firepower support from Decoy.
  

Something I learnt here: Communications is a very important tool in executing a plan well structured. It also plays a role for flexible adaptation to emerging circumstances (refer to Decoy Team)