Battlezone Playlive: Tactics and Strategies

Aiming

The most basic requirement of Battlezone Playlive is learning how to aim effectively. You need to realise that you have to “shoot” the opponents sensors to score a hit. The sensors are worn by all players on a head band. There is also a sensor located on each gun. Even if you can see the players head or their gun, you should hold your fire until you can visually see either sensor. This is because shooting gives away your position and you waste ammunition. You only want to shoot when you are confident of making the shot count.

You can be sure of accuracy by using the red dot scope mounted on the top of your gaming gun. This is what you aim with. Look through the scope and line up the projected red dot onto the opponents sensors. When you are “on target”…shoot!

We zero our scopes every week to make sure the scope and the lens assembly is in parallel. This means the sight is correct out to any distance.

Shooting

The Battlezone Playlive gaming guns are able to be configured by the individual player to shoot either on automatic mode or single shot. You can toggle between either mode with the touch of the black button located on the RIGHT side of the gun. When in auto mode you can lay down suppressive fire to cover a withdrawal or for a concerted attack such as in CQB (Close Quarters Battles). Keep your finger depressed to loose off an entire magazine if required or alternatively you can fire short bursts. Single shot is excellent when sniper action is required.  The varied sound effects are realistic for the class of gaming gun that is chosen.

Remember that reloading is always something to you need to consider. If you unleash an entire magazine at the enemy, you will run out of “ammo”. When your clip is empty you just need to push the red button located on the LEFT side of the gun…but make sure you don’t need to reload at a critical moment! This takes about 5 seconds to complete. Ensure you always maintain an adequate number of rounds before deciding on a course of action.

Avoiding Hits

The best way not to be hit is not to be seen! If you are constantly on the move, looking around and listening, you can often spot the enemy before they spot you. When moving over the battlefield, stop every few paces to look and listen.

The human eye is attracted to movement, so if you stop and hide before the enemy has spotted you, typically they will not see you. Look all around you including behind you, as this is a valuable skill for survival. Listen for footfalls, twigs snapping underfoot or watch for shadows moving.

New gamers to Battlezone Playlive tend to look at the ground in front of them or look forward to where they expect the enemy to be. The enemy however is often not where you expect, so you have to expect the unexpected! Keep looking and listening at all times…and stay alert.

Replacements

When player’s guns are disabled…they are considered “dead”! To re-enter a Battlezone Playlive game, they are re-spawned (given their health back). At this time they are now a replacement or a reserve…a reinforcement if you like. In the case of the commanding officer, it is critical to assign this replacement to the position they were initially assigned. All too often, the replacement is returned to the front in a haphazard fashion.

Replacements fail to counter attack their lost position leading to a perimeter contraction and causing further losses in the ensuing cross fire. The commander should personally take charge of providing orders to the re-placements as they re enter battle.

During an offensive action, it is often best to attack in waves keeping the replacements together until adequate numbers are available to form another wave.

When defending, maintaining the perimeter is of vital importance. Once the enemy can shoot across the perimeter to take out defenders on the other side, most cover becomes worthless and casualties quickly mount. If required, replacements should form a group to counter attack the lost perimeter. The earlier this can be mounted, the higher the chance of success.

Ambush

One of the standard problems faced in combat gaming is being able to hit multiple targets at one time, especially at close range. You need to take into account that the sensors can only take hits at a certain rate depending on the difficulty level. To do maximum damage you will need to rotate the targets so that you hit each opposing team member every ½ second to every second to score a hit. The goal being to hit the enemy enough times that their guns are disabled and cannot return fire.

Battlezone Playlive suggests you start shooting on the left-most gamer and work across so every target takes a hit. Then swing back from right to left to hit them again. Once they can effectively return fire you should quickly retreat so you live long enough to set up another ambush position.

If you do come under fire, you should probably be seeking cover. The best cover is often vertically oriented objects such as trees or walls. The bigger your cover is, the more angles are cut off and therefore affords better protection.

Once the enemy knows where you are, you should try to move out as soon as you can, so you are not pinned; sometimes you have to be brave. You never want to be where the enemy expects or knows you to be. Often retreating and approaching the enemy from another direction works well.

Pin and Flank

One of the standard problems faced by infantry is how to effectively destroy an enemy force that is behind cover. No matter how much you fire at the target, your rounds cannot penetrate the cover. If you simply advance forward, the enemy is in a good position to pick you off as you cross open ground.

In this situation you basically have two viable options. One is to form a skirmish line (extended line) which is appropriate in open forest terrain and charge their position…hoping to rush the enemy. Or slowly advance using suppression fire.

In Battlezone Playlive, the alternative is to pin and flank the enemy. This option requires team work. Generally, those gamers on your team with the larger guns apply significant suppressive fire onto the enemy position. This is not expected to do significant damage but it should force the enemy to keep their heads down. In this way they will not be able to spot or effectively engage those forces doing the flanking.

While the enemy is “pinned” down by the barrage of suppressive fire the flankers (usually choosing the flank with the most cover) move around the enemy position and hit them from the sides.

The pin and flank is often used when gamers are working in pairs. One gamer pins while the other flanks but this strategy can be used with large formation moves as well.

Skirmish Line

Quite often it is the simple plans that work best. One of the most simple and yet extremely effective plans in Battlezone Playlive is simply to form a skirmish line and then march toward the enemy while keeping all of your team in one straight line.

The key to an extended line is to keep at least 5 to 10 metres apart from your team members. So if you have a squad of say 10 gamers, your line should extend 50 to 100 metres. You should not be so far apart that you lose contact with the next friendly on your right or left. The force commander should be positioned in the centre so you can make sure everyone stays in line.

This is as simple as it gets. Generally, players are not trained soldiers and quite often complex plans are doomed to failure. In this way, gamer’s remain in contact with each other and this aids in inter gamer communication. All gamers in line provide cross fire support to the others. By spreading out significantly, the enemy finds it difficult to find effective cover against fire from the flanks of the skirmish line.

The formation provides the maximum amount of forward directing fire possible with no risk of making friendly hits.

The skirmish line is not very helpful in urban battlefields or indoor arenas. The walls break up the formation very quickly and it makes it impossible to see all your gamers as you move around buildings.

Leadership

Winning at Battlezone Playlive requires different skills as demonstrated above, but the most important element is leadership. A strong, smart leader that has the respect of those under their command is vital for winning consistently. When planning and executing the mission, the leader must consider factors such as the objectives, the likely composition and location of enemy forces and what assets are available in terms of weapons and forces.

Orders should be issued to each team member clearly and use their name so they know who is being spoken to. On an individual level, each team member needs to work as much as possible towards the plan laid down by the commander.

It is important that team members are in fact firing at the enemy, not their allies.
The leader will be able to tell the team in which direction to shoot. By having everyone in an appropriate position for the maneuver being attempted can make a huge difference. You will maximise the amount of fire against the enemy and minimise the risk to your own team.

Experience has shown, especially in large battles, leadership by the commander is the single most decisive factor between winning and losing. Even with inexperienced gamers, a well organised leader with a commanding voice can turn the tide of battle. A good leader can take these inexperienced players and lead them instead of going off by themselves. Even the best gamers take hits if there enough enemy troops shooting at them.

If inexperienced gamers are not led, they will take heavy casualties, causing the team’s replacements to be quickly used up and therefore not available when required. It pays to reduce team casualties.