Team Roles

[isoaker]

While working on migrating articles from iSoaker.com to the iSoaker.net Wiki, I came across an old article about Water Warfare Teams written a fair while ago. The following positions/roles were used in the article:
- Captain
- Supply Officer
- "Forward"
- Heavy Blaster Forward
- Scout
- Field Mechanic

Not wanting to go into how roles may change during game play and/or whether or not roles should even exist, I wish to bring terms and Team member classification up-to-date with current membership preferences.

That said, there seem to be two roles I'd consider needed for a Team:
- Team Captain
- Other Team Members

I intend on doing away with some noted positions since they really would be extremely rare to be of use during typical waterfights while some roles are more based on need and activity than needing to be a defined role. I'm considering simply calling a general Team Member simply "Warrior" as opposed to "Forward". Some may wish to include descriptive modifiers of "Light" or "Heavy" depending on whether a particular Player is lightly or heavily armed. I no longer wish to include "Scout" or "Field Mechanic" as the prior is more an activity than a dedicated role while the latter doesn't need to be assigned to a particular Player and is not likely going to be useful during the course of a typical water war game. I'm a little torn whether or not to still include the role of "Supply Officer" as a possibility. For small games involving Teams of less than 10 people each, there's really no need for someone to be dedicated to overseeing supplies, but if larger-scale games became more common, this role does have its usefulness.

Anyhow, these are my thoughts currently under consideration. I'm interested in what other members think in terms of what roles should be listed (and what names should be used for the roles) for a water warfare Team.

[HBWW]

Let's have "CQB" and "Cameraman" while we're at it. A lot of old tactics' team roles systems really miss the point of things; that your team needs to mesh together and coordinate well. It really does not matter at all how this is done; if you have one person who's a "leader" or if everyone's a leader. It doesn't matter if they're all carrying CPS 12k's or CPS 3200's. It doesn't matter if everyone is armed for what's considered "heavy" or "light", what matters is that each warrior is as effective as can be.

That said, it is possible to impose a gametype/gameplay limitation and divide water warfare equipment available at a war into "kits". This ensures more "balanced" games if kits are selected well with the available equipment, but it does impose tactical restrictions that teams may or may not be allowed to deal with. (i.e. Team members trading equipment.) Here's an example of a set of kits that can be assigned to be available to a team:

- Assault: Carries a few water balloons, refill bottles, and anything from a CPS 1200 to 2500. Medium-long range blasters strongly preferred. Can also carry sidearm.
- Support: Carries any medium to heavy blaster with backpack. CPH, CPS 3200, etc. are good choices. Must be able to supply teammates with water. Can also carry sidearm or secondary.
- Skirmisher: Carries light blaster, generally anything lighter than the CPS 1200. Flash Flood, Tiger Shark, or MD6k are good options. Focuses on tasks that require a lot of running. Few or no water balloons and bottles. May dual wield if desired.
- WBL Crewman: Carries light blaster and part of the WBL equipment. Flash Flood, Tiger Shark, MD6k all work.
- Light Grenadier: Carries light blaster (same as above) and lots, lots of water balloons. Water balloon slingshot or lax stick optional. Supplies fellow players and WBL crewman with water balloons.
- Medic (additional game rules required): Carries towel if required by game rules to revive players. May also act as spawn point. Carries relatively similar equipment as Assault but omissions may be made for "balancing" purposes.
- Engineer: Carries light or medium blaster, equipment for setting traps/mines, perhaps a small WBL, and a small kit with screwdrivers, pliers, wrench, duct tape, fast-setting epoxy putty, and other equipment for field repairs.

This would strictly be for making games interesting by creating a template by which water weaponry and abilities are distributed. It's just a sample of what can be done to mix up games and make them more interesting. The intention is not to restrict gameplay possibilities but to create a different interaction of teamplay.

That said, roles typically happen without intention and without rules specifying them. For example, one of my friends switched to carrying only an XP 270 when acting as a runner for CTF. I made a run for the flag on the next round but never dropped most of my equipment (I was armed with a 12k and several water bottles and sidearm, as usual.) Obviously, a player's role may need to quickly change on the battlefield and it's important that all specifications of roles allow for this. Inflexibility or inability to adapt is one of the worst things in any wargame.


IMO, roles should be defined individually by the team playing for the gametype. Both the runner/skirmisher and supply/support warriors are less useful in a short elimination game than in a long CTF game.

Organizing squads for the purposes of gameplay is another possibility. For example, a player may only spawn with certain players in a squad. Squads can be manipulated for interesting gameplay variation, but this is also stretching very far into how video games work. (i.e. Battlefield series, Halo Reach Invasion spawning, etc.) The typical respawning system itself is also nowhere near as ubiquitous to water warfare as it is for shooter games.

Edit: Added "Engineer" kit to list.

[wetmonkey442]

Meh, I think in practice everyone ends up performing essentially the same tasks. As CA99 noted, most specialization will occur during battle when the need arises. Delimiting the options to a "captain" and "everyone else" sound fine to me iSoaker!

[isoaker]

I like the idea of having some specific roles for particular games with roles being defined in terms of types of blasters and/or allowable other equipment (though the role of Cameraman sounds good to me! ). Otherwise, seems like for most small Team wars (Teams with <20 people per Team), having one Leader/Captain and the rest not really having a specific title, but roles based on their skills and equipment seems to make most sense. Of course, different sorts of roles/tasks can be described, but Team members may be assigned to various roles/tasks during a game and are not necessarily fixed to any particular one.

Any other thoughts on this?

Anyone feel like taking a try at building a page on the Wiki going over Water Warfare Team set-up?

[HBWW]

What I meant by CQB and Cameraman is that they'd be meaningless designations. Giving someone a 2L bottle to splash around with and calling it a kit "CQB" is useless (though not as useless as doing the same with the Thunderstorm), and the goal of a cameraman is completely different than the goal of playing the game.

Anyway, while limiting to kits is an idea that may work for some, it doesn't sit well for me. Most players far prefer the added mobility over even a little sidearm or additional equipment. That said, there's a chance that I may mess with it someday just for the heck of it. If you want to take this idea further, try doing something ridiculous like having a kit that includes a poncho and very weak water weaponry to counterbalance the near invincibility of the player.

[marauder]

Team roles were definitely used during the Vermin and Dominator Wars. There was a big emphasis on this on the older websites: Super Soaker Arsenal, Liquid Warfare...uhm???

A big part of that, though, was due to the age of our team members. In Vermin War 1 for instance, a majority of our team was 9-12, we had 1 highschooler, 1 college student, and 2 parents. You can't all be carrying CPS blasters in situations like this, so you have to specialize.

[Agent 12]

I tried writing a Tactical Handbook a While Back, and I made a Hierarchy for REALLY Large Scale Wars, like 50-60 for each team. Here's what I remember:

Captain/Commander:Self explanatory; Leader

Co-op: Advisor, 2nd in Command; takes the place of Captain if he is terminated

Weaponeer: A walking Water Gun Encyclopedia, chooses the right Weapons for different confrontations; manages distribution of weapons. Sometimes sent pictures or given descriptions by Scouts and Spies to Determine what weapons the enemy is using.

Dem. Expert/Bomber: Handles all matter of non Gun based Water Weaponry; ie, water balloons, sprinkler bombs......

Assassin: Covert warriors sent to Soak the general staff of the Enemy Army.

Scouts, and Spies: Scouts search around the everymen of the Army, for their info, While Spies are Higher up in the Hierarchy of staff, often hiding behind enemy lines, learning Strategy plans in the very heart of their defense.

Warriors: The en masse' troops, they carry out average invader missions. Sometimes specializing in interrogation.
A distinction from the Warrior are Guards, staff who protect their leaders and Base.

Whadd'ya think?