Laser-Skirmish – The Basics

This article aim is to explain to players new to Laser-Skirmish the basics of the game. Many of the comments in this article also apply to airsoft and paintball competitions especially the formation moves.

Aiming

The most basic skill of laser skirmish is to learn how to aim effectively.  

The first thing to realise is that you have to hit the sensors to make hits, therefore you should aim at the sensors (either on the head or the gun).   Even if you can see the players head or part of the gun, you should in most cases hold fire until you can actually see the sensor.  Remember that shooting gives away your position and wastes ammunition so you really only want to shoot in most cases when your confident of making a hit.   The exception to this is where you are trying to lay down suppressive fire.

When you do start firing, especially with a long rifle with a large clip, its possible to create an area effect on the target by firing on fully automatic and creating a tight circle with your weapon.   Simply move your rifle aim around the target area.   The result is that even if your target moves he/she is still likely to be hit.

If you are using a telescopic scope,   the scope is mounted such as it is between 10-15 centimetres above the actual barrel.    Each week we zero the scopes in to make sure that that scope and the lens assembly are in parallel so the sight is correct out to any distance.   With telescopic scopes, one needs to keep your eye steady and around 6 centimetres (varies from scope to scope) back from the back of the scope to see through it clearly.   Too close or too far away and the vision will be black or very narrow.   Using telescopic scopes effectively takes practice however they do allow very accurate fire at range.

With Red Dot scopes, typically found on Spitfires, Berserker Mark II’s  and Commando’s you should make sure you can see the red dot in the scope and keep the red dot near the centre.   You then put the red dot 5-10 centimetres above the targets sensor.

With Mini-Spitzis and Berserker Mark I, they have an iron sight on the top.   With the iron sight, you have to look through the two holes on the top so that you can see the enemy’s sensor.  Because the iron sights are mounted on the barrel (lens assembly), you aim directly at the sensors.

Ambush Area Fire

If you are able to ambush a group of enemy players, especially at close range, you need to take into account that the sensors only take hits once every 3 seconds.  To do maximum damage you need to rotate the targets so that you hit each player every 3 seconds so that each one of them has their gun disabled and cannot return fire.   What I do is start shooting on the left most player and work my way across over the course of about 1.5 seconds so that every target takes a hit.   I then swing my rifle from right to left over the next 1.5 seconds to catch anyone that I missed the first time.   Then the process starts again as I swing from left to right…

Of course the enemy should be hitting cover, once they can effectively return fire you should quickly retreat so you live long enough to setup another ambush position.

Avoiding hits

Usually the best way not to be hit, in Laser-Skirmish, paintball and airsoft, is not to be seen!   If you move carefully and are constantly looking around and listening, you can often spot the enemy before they spot you.  The human eye is attracted to movement, so if you stop and hide before the enemy has spotted you, they will typically not see you.   Looking around including behind you is a good skill to get, new players 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 if you have to expect the unexpected.   Keep looking and listening all the time and stay alert!

If you do come under fire, you probably should be seeking cover.   The best cover is often vertical oriented objects such as trees.   The bigger the tree trunk the more angles it cuts off and therefore better cover.   Anything the blocks light in Laser-Skirmish or in the case of paintball or airsoft, any physical cover counts as cover.

Once the enemy knows where you are, you should try to move as soon as you’re 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 in combat games like paintball, airsoft and Laser-Skirmish is how to effectively destroy an enemy force that is behind cover.   No matter how much you fire at the target, your rounds will not penetrate the cover.  If you simply advance forward the enemy will pick you off as you try to cross open ground.    In this situation you have basically two viable options.   One is to form a skirmish line (see next section) and charge the position hoping to rush the enemy.  The other option is to pin and flank the enemy, this option takes some team work.   Generally those players who have long guns in the group (this could be one person)  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 and therefore not be in a position to spot or at least effectively engage those forces doing the flanking.   While the enemy is under suppressive fire the flankers usually choosing the flank with the most cover move around the enemy position to hit them from the sides.    You will find that most cover in combat games is one directional and therefore if you shoot at the enemy from two directions at once they will be exposed to effective fire.

The pin and flank movement is often used when players are working in pairs.  One player pins and the other flanks, but can used with large formation moves as well.

Skirmish Line

Often simple plans are the best.   One of the most simple plans and yet extremely effective to is to simple form skirmish line (also known as an extended line) and then match towards the enemy while keeping all of your team in one straight line.    The key to an extended line is that players are at least 10 metres apart from each other, therefore if you have a squad of say 10 soldiers, your line should extend 100metres or more.   You should not be so far apart than you loose contact with the next friendly to your left and right.   Generally I position myself as the force commander in the centre so I can make sure everyone stays in line.  With very inexperienced players the force commander may have to walk up and down the line making sure everyone else stays in line and keeps advancing despite enemy fire.

A skirmish line is effective due to the following factors

a) Its simple, remember Laser-Skirmish players are typically not trained soldiers and therefore complex plans are doomed to failure.

b) Players remain in contact with each other so adding inter-player communication

c) Each player provides cross fire support to every other player. By spreading out significantly the enemy finds it hard to find effective cover against fire from the flanks of the skirmish line

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

WEAPONS TACTICS

Using each weapon to best take advantage of its strengths to achieve mission success is vital in Laser-Skirmish.  For tactical purposes there are basically 3 classes of weapons to consider broadly before delving into the details of each particular model. Squad leaders should consider carefully the assignment of their weapon assets to their squad members to maximize the total squad’s effectiveness. We class the weapons systems as long guns, short guns & mines.  The exception is the Commando Carbine because it shares characteristics of both long and short guns.

LONG GUNS

The Morita, Pulse Rifle and M16 are all examples of long guns. 

These models share similar characteristics.  

First they are relatively heavy so these weapons, so they should be assigned to those in your squad with enough strength to hold them steady. Especially when trying to use a telescopic scope typically found on long guns, it’s vital that the player holds the rifle steady to aim effectively.

Long guns have approximately 50% more maximum range than the short guns. Therefore long guns are best used at long range so the enemy can be engaged at lower risk to the firer. As most long guns have a telescopic scope, the long guns when properly zeroed in are effectively more accurate at range as well so making the effective combat range closer to 70% greater than a typical short gun. In defence, soldiers should be looking for long fire lanes to cover with these weapons or areas where the enemy must approach over open ground.   Longs guns are ideally suited for combat in excess of 50 metres.

At ranges less than 20 metres, long guns are at a disadvantage because being heavy they take longer to aim. When in engaged in Close Quarters Battles (CQB),  being able to quickly get off the first aimed shot is vitally important.   To make matters worse, the long guns typical telescopic scopes are hard to use at very close engage.    The weakness at short range is partially addressed with the scatter gun mode available on all long guns.   The scatter gun mode provides a 20 metre burst fire, much like a canister round in a M203 grenade launcher.   The challenge with the scatter gun mode is the slow rate of fire.

The long reload time typical of long guns, also means that a soldier is very exposed while reloading so care should be taken about having support nearby to provide cover when this occurs.

Long guns are also not very effective when making a fast moving assault.   It is difficult to simultaneously move and shoot accurately with the long guns due to their sheer size and weight.

When making assaults on enemy positions fire teams of 3-4 soldiers should be formed.  The role of the long gun in a fire team is to pin the defenders at range with sustained, accurate long range fire in order to prevent the defenders seeing the advance of the rest of the fire team.    A fire team of 1 long gun (especially the Morita) and 2 short guns can work very well in assaulting a position. The short guns are used to flank and advance to get close enough to overrun the defenders.  If the fire team has 4 members, 2 long guns and 2 short guns is a good combination.

SHORT GUNS.

In this category you will find the Spitfire, Berserker and Mini-Spitzi models. They are all universally light being less than 2.5kg. They are also short in length therefore reducing their bulk. This category of weapon suites the players that have less strength or want maximum flexibility.

Short guns typically have a maximum range of around 80 metres and an effective combat range of around 45-50 metres. Because they are quick and easy to aim,  they have a distinct advantage over long guns in CQB, especially anything below 20 metres. 

Short guns have either a red dot scope (Spitfire, Berserker Mark II) or iron sights (Berserker Mark I, Mini-Spitzi).   The red dot is especially effective in low light conditions because the soldier can still see the dot in the dark whereas with a typical telescopic scope or with an iron sight, it’s hard to see the cross hair (note that the new illuminated cross hair telescopic scopes solve this problem). Both types of scopes used on the short guns are easy to use and therefore suit beginners.   

Clearly a player with a short gun should attempt to avoid long range engagements with enemy long guns. This can be done by positioning oneself in dense cover to reduce engagement range. One can also reduce engagement ranges by moving rapidly towards the enemy position while under the protection of friendly long gun fire taking advantage of the ability to run with the short guns. Short guns are ideal for over-running enemy positions because one can shoot and move at the same time with relative ease.

In defence long guns and short guns should be interspersed so that the short guns can protect the long guns against close assault.

Typically a squad should try to have an even number of short guns and long guns. However if you are defending a base then, if given a choice, the force commander should be looking for 60% long guns. Conversely if you are attacking then you’ll want  60% short guns. Of course terrain, deployment, quality of troops available and specific mission objectives will impact the choice as well.

CLAYMORE MINES

The Claymore mine is a defensive weapon. It fires only once but has a huge bank of unlensed emitters that are forward facing. It also has a single emitter firing backwards.  The claymore mine is triggered by a button at the end of a 20metre cable.  The Claymore is usually best used to cover obvious approaches to a base. To be truly effective the defenders need quite a few Claymores so they can cover all the approaches, so no matter which way the attackers come from, they take a significant risk of taking damage from one of the claymore mines. The claymore effective range forward is around 20 metres, although hits at longer range are possible. The unit fires for 5 seconds continuously and therefore can make up to 2 hits on anyone in the affected zone.

The tactical disadvantage of the claymore mines is that it tends to make the defenders too passive and predictable. Soldiers get too tied to the position of the mine/s rather than responding to the changing threats posed by the enemy.  In Laser-Skirmish players should always try to keep the opponents off balance. For defenders this may involve having a small proportion of your force on mobile patrol (not recommended at night due to concerns over friendly fire).

M16A2/M203

This model is designed primarily for military and security training purposes unlike all the other models which are designed primarily for civilian use. To reflect this, the weight is realistic for an M16 with an M203 attachment i.e. heavy!  

If this model is used on a commercial field with other guns from the Laser-Skirmish armoury, it is best to configure this with the Canadian C7 program or even better request the pulse rifle (75rnd clip) program at time of manufacture to maintain game balance.  The default 30rnd M16A2 program with 1 canister round per clip is under powered when used with the other weapons but ideal for force-on-force training purposes.

MORITA LMG/SNIPER RIFLE

Typically the Morita is used as the squad area weapon (SAW) although on semi-automatic mode, can be used as a Sniper Rifle as well. The Morita now has an option to make it simulate a bolt action rifle. It can fire 99 rounds before requiring a reload on its default configuration.  The fire rate in fully automatic mode is 350 rounds per minute so it is able to put down an extremely powerful and sustained burst of fire. For sheer firepower the Morita is the most powerful weapon in the entire laser skirmish arsenal. At almost one metre long is also the largest unit normally seen in service on a Laser-Skirmish battlefield. Depending on the scope used, the weight is normally around 4.5kg. Watch out for the reload time of 15 seconds.

The Morita also has the longest range of any model available.   The latest Morita’s out distance a pulse rifle by at least 25% by using a narrow beamed light system.   The result is the Morita requires better aiming than a Pulse Rifle and therefore should use a telescopic scope.

PULSE RIFLE.

The Pulse Rifle is now the standard combat rifle on most battlefields.    The 75round magazine at 350 rounds per minute provides a powerful burst of fire that is adequate for most roles. It weighs roughly the same as a Morita but is shorter and therefore a little easier to handle in dense cover. Reload time is 12secs.  It should be considered a heavy assault rifle.

COMMANDO

The Commando is best classified as a carbine.   With a typical scope and battery it weighs about 3.5kg.   It has been designed with an adjustable stock and is very well balanced, which means it can be used effectively by most people.   In its primary configuration it has a 50rnd magazine.  Either a red dot or telescopic scope can be used with a Commando, although generally the red dot scope is the most popular with new players.   The Commando also has exceptional range, with a well zeroed telescopic scope; the Commando has the same range as a Morita.   Tactically the Commando can be effectively used in almost any role including that of a Sniper with a telescopic scope to a rapid assault with a red dot scope.   Our experience is this is the most effective all round weapon available.

SPITFIRE

The red dot scope (usually a 30mm Red Dot scope) mounted on most Spitfires provides a Laser-Skirmish gun that is easy to use in day or night conditions.  The red dot tends to track with the firer's eye so making it easy to aim even when moving and is often a little more accurate than iron sights so making the effective range a little longer. The Spitfire comes with a 30round magazine and takes 6 seconds to reload.  The rate of fire is 200 rounds per minute.

BERSERKER

The Berserker has the most firepower of all the short guns. The fire rate is 200rounds per minute and it has a 50 round magazine. The range is the same as all the short guns. With the Mark II Berserker, there is an integrated 30mm red dot sight that makes this unit easy to aim and therefore is very popular with new players. Even many of the regulars take the Berserker as the weapon of choice because for its weight, it has excellent stopping power and easy aiming for short and medium range work.

Base Defence

Typically in Laser-Skirmish, most clans are actually better at offence that defence. Often the attacking team is able to easily create a local numerical superiority at some point of the front and rush through the defenders perimeter over-running the defenders HQ.

In more advanced base offence games, a defending team that is not currently in control of their HQ, cannot get replacements (re-spawns) until retaken so the loss of the HQ is often fatal for the defenders.

In military operations, the defenders are expected to hold out against at least 2 to 1 odds often more whereas in Laser-Skirmish the attackers often win on 1.2 to 1 ratio typically applied.

There is no doubt the number of hit points used does impact this, the higher the hit points are, the better for the attackers because they can afford to take a couple of points of damage as they close with the defenders. With the regulars, hit point values from 2 to 4 are typical to give the defenders a fighting chance to heavily damage the attackers approaching their position. However the main problems for clans performing defence are caused by tactical errors. Players, especially beginners, become virtually immobilized when defending a position so even when spotted they wait until the attackers can get on their flanks and eliminate them. In Laser-Skirmish most times when the enemy knows your exact position it is advisable to move, even if its only 5 meters to another piece of cover.

Remember battles are won by fire and movement.

As discussed in August edition of Lock and Load, the use of patrols can be an effective way to disorient the attackers, see http://www.laserskirmish.com/0208lockandload.pdf 

The other tactical error that almost all teams do including some of the best regular clans is not maintaining an adequate reserve uncommitted to the perimeter defence directly under the control of the force commander.

Clans typically work out a plan of defence usually including a perimeter and maybe a long range patrol element but once the mission commences have no effective way of adjusting their plans to counter enemy movements or even to cover breaches in the perimeter caused by friendly casualties.

Virtually all military books on tactics talk about the vital need to maintain reserves because battles are not totally predictable and adjustments such as taking action against weakened section of the front, patching up a broken front line or even to respond to an enemy advance from an unexpected direction all require a reserve element. Because reserves are not committed to the front, they are not likely to be pinned down under enemy fire or weakened. Also by being adjacent to the force commander, orders can be quickly issued to these troops by the commander and he/she can see his orders are carried out in person.

A simple example of using a reserve element for a base defence is the following scenario of say 1 section of defenders (10 players) versus 2 sections of attackers (20 players).

The defenders have a position where the enemy has 2 main avenues of approach. If as is usual all the soldiers are committed immediately to the perimeter defence and they are evenly divided between the 2 avenues leaving 5 soldiers at each approach.

Now lets say the enemy hits one approach initially with a feigned attack of 5 soldiers and then once the defenders are committed, hits the other avenue with 15 soldiers, the attackers gain a local numerical superiority of 15 to 5 (3 to 1) which is enough to overrun most positions even given the inherent advantages such as improved cover of defending. If on the other hand, the defenders maintained a reserve element of say 4 soldiers, the force commander once he/she has identified where the main attack is coming from, can quickly move the reserve to support the defenders positioned against the main attack.

The ratios then become 5:3 against the feigned attack and 15:7 (closer to 2 to 1) against the main attack.

Of course correctly moving the reserve effectively requires the force commander to be fed accurate information about the enemy movements.

Classically this is done most often by the force commander positioning him or herself in a good observation point. With the advent of radio communications which are often used by the clans in battle, the use of radio equipped forward observers to accurately report enemy movement and strength information to the force commander is vitally important.

The use of reserves and effective battlefield communications are vital elements to victory and are all components of the necessity to have on strong and effective leadership. The importance of leadership was discussed in more detail in http://www.laserskirmish.com/0201lockandload.pdf . An excellent general discussion of urban tactics can be found in March 2002 edition of Lock and Load http://www.laserskirmish.com/0203lockandload.pdf

THE PATROL

For all Laser-Skirmish players we highly recommend reviewing the previous editions of Lock and Load battle tactics to gain vital in-sights on how to fight and win at laser skirmish. You can download them from  http://www.lasertag.com.au/0201lockandload.pdf  and http://www.lasertag.com.au/0203lockandload.pdf  This edition we are covering the application and execution of patrols. Quite often in Laser-Skirmish a patrol formation is the most appropriate although under utilized option available to a squad. A patrol formation works well when the soldier to space ratio is low and location of some or the entire enemy is un-known or where you have to "sneak" past the enemy. A good space ratio to maintain in a patrol squad is the line of sight. You can see each other and hand signals, hear whistles, low voices, but can-not be hit with one shot from the enemy. A patrol of only six to ten people (for example) can be very successful, as its small enough to go undetected, large enough to do serious damage to any opposition, and flexible enough that the players can swap between roles as their direction or intent changes. Even when performing a base defence it can make a lot of sense to have small very stealthy patrol working around the enemy, this can really disorient the attackers who are expecting all the defenders to be around the base. Beginners in particular tend to only look in the direction they are expecting the enemy to be so a small group working around their side or rear can often surprise the attackers. There is also a general principle than whenever possible, you should never be located where the enemy expects you to be and if you know you have been spotted, you should move ASAP. A patrol formation can also be appropriate when moving into assault position.

This is because the enemy may well have placed snipers well forward of their positions and in fact may have laid a forward ambush or even placed their own patrols as a type of forward defence. In all these scenarios, it is quite probable the enemy will get the first round of fire off first and typically from an advantageous position.

The Patrol formation is an absolute must when hunting for snipers in the sniper mission, over a large area, anything else is plain suicide!

So what is a patrol formation and how does it help? Well there are few different patrol formations that one can choose, but for Laser-Skirmish some thing very basic is all that is required. The most important position in the squad is the point person (scout). The point moves well ahead of the main body of troops anything from 30-40 meters to 200 meters depending on the situation. In the heavy bush battle-field we tend to work around 50 meters whereas in more open terrain, more like 200 meters. The principle is that it’s much harder for the enemy to spot one person than a whole squad so the point man has a greater chance of spotting the enemy sniper or ambush first than if the whole squad had moved up. The point man can then return to the main group and report the enemy

presence to the squad leader. Even so, the point is often spotted first by the enemy and therefore comes under effective fire, still this means only one soldier is killed not the whole squad and the enemy have given their position away to the rest of the squad who can then engage or retreat as appropriate. If the point comes under attack, the rest of the squad typically should fan out left and right and quickly move forward to engage the enemy.

A sweeper is also useful position in a patrol. The sweeper stays behind the main group ensuring that there is no threat from the rear. The sweeper’s job is to warn the squad if there is any enemy following them or have moved behind them. Most encounters happen in the direction the squad is moving, so the sweeper is not quite as vital as the point, but still highly recommended.

The squad leader typically is near the front of the main body of troops.  Adequate levels of  dispersement as discussed in earlier Lock and Load editions should be kept in mind. Way too many players bunch up and are slaughtered by a numerically inferior force for this reason. Also be dispersing somewhat the enemy can be fired at quickly from multiple directions which is important in laser skirmish because most cover provides protection from only a single direction. The patrol however also maintains a significant local concentration of force which means it has the firepower that can be quickly employed to counter enemy forces. This can be particularly useful when you’ve got more than one squad out in the field and one or the other requires support.

The leader has to be positioned to get the best possible view of his/her own troop positions and that of the enemy. If enemy are reported by the point or other member of the squad, the leader may well choose to perform a leader’s recon before committing the squad to an attack. If the force (including the point man) come under enemy fire the squad leader must issue immediate and appropriate orders and to do this must be positioned within sight and hearing range of the majority of the troops under command.

It is quite possible that the point and/or sweeper have not spotted the enemy before the main squad comes under fire. This is much better than having your squad spread out so much that they can't assist each other (or any other squad) effectively or even be properly led by the squad leader.

The soldiers in the main body of troops should be clearly told where they should be looking in relation to themselves. For example the first soldier could be looking left and second looking right and the third looking up (watching out for snipers in the trees).

For those clans looking to be truly successful we recommend that specific immediate action drills be trained in order to counter threats from different directions and types.

Tactics - VIP Escort

The VIP escort is the classic exfiltration mission that is run at many Laser-Skirmish fields around the world for both corporate groups and regular sessions.   Typically the VIP has 2 hit points, the escorting Guards 6 hit points and the enemy ambush force have 4 hit points.   The goal for the escort team is the get the VIP from one end of the field to the other without the VIP dying.   The ambush team deploys in the other 80% of the battlefield and lay waiting in ambush. The VIP wears usually a white or red hat so that he or she is very obvious.  This mission works well for bucks parties (the buck is the VIP) and for corporate groups where the boss is the VIP usually.  If the battlefield has dense cover the VIP typically gets 2 hit points and in more open battlefields especially urban environments, the VIP has 3 hit points. No respawns are available to either team typically.

For the escorting team, they have a few basic tactical options that have all worked in practice when well executed or against poorly coordinated enemy forces.

The classic tactic is for the escort team to form a patrol formation,  the point (scout) person and the "tail end charlie" having the most important roles, both must be careful and alert.    The patrol formation and use was discussed in length in August 2002 Lock and Load, page 2, see http://www.lasertag.com.au/0208lockandload.pdf

Usually the VIP is placed 2nd or 3rd last in the formation.   The risk with a patrol formation is that the point may miss the enemy lying in ambush, especially if they are smart and hold their fire, allowing the enemy to take down the VIP in a hail of fire.     Also there is chance with the patrol formation that a flanking sniper can pick off the VIP because the patrol formation tends to be quite linear.   The tail end soldier must take care as well, because the ambush team may well let the patrol pass them by and then attack from the rear.    The advantage of the patrol formation is that all the escort team is defending the VIP for the entire journey which often means there is adequate concentrated firepower to deal with any ambushes found along the way.

The next option is to hide the VIP with perhaps 1 or 2 guards usually fairly close to the deployment zone and send the main body of troops forward to find and eliminate most if not all the enemy forces before moving the VIP forward.  This tactic has the advantage of allowing the escorting team to concentrate on finding and destroying the enemy without being constrained by having to protect the VIP, it essentially becomes a classic search and destroy mission.   Ideally the VIP party and the leader of the search and destroy section will both have radios because  communication can easily break down.     There are two major risks associated with this plan.   The first is if the ambushes realise what the escort team are up to, and infiltrate through their lines to find and destroy the poorly defended VIP.    The second risk is that the search and destroy force may be badly mauled by the ambush force to a point they are no longer an effective fighting force or able to communicate what is happening to the VIP party.

A hybrid tactic is to have a wide formation that probes forward looking for the areas of enemy strength and weakness navigating the VIP through the safest path found.    Usually one soldier stays with the VIP all the way as a guide and as the last ditch defence.    By having forces that span the field,  a careful well coordinated team can make sure all enemy snipers are detected and then evaded or destroyed before they can attack the VIP.   This tactic works best on relatively narrow fields or with large formations involved because it is vital the ambushes do not slip through the net.   The major problem is with maintaining formation in rugged terrain or when the force comes under enemy fire.   It is vital that formation remains in a line across the field to prevent gaps forming, this can be remarkably hard to achieve if leadership is lacking or the soldiers lack discipline under fire.

For the ambush team there are also some options available.   To some extend the ambush team is looking for mistakes from the VIP escort team.   If enemy escorts do not make any mistakes, then you’re facing an uphill battle.   

The classic plan is to deploy throughout the battlefield well hidden snipers and lie in wait for the perfect shot on the VIP.   Given that the Morita and Pulse Rifles will make accurate hits at long range,  long range sniping is definitely an option.

Most battlefields have plenty of good sniper hiding points with good fire lanes.    The key for the sniper to remain undetected yet be positioned so as to have a good view of the battlefield.    The risk for the snipers is that because they are so spread out, an alert escort team can destroy your team in detail. 

If the team excel at base defence, the ambush team could position themselves entrenched around the VIP destination point.    However because the attackers have 6 hit points versus the defenders 4 hit points, there is considerable danger the attackers (escorts) will overrun the defenders (ambush).    This strategy is recommended for night missions because at night, defenders have the advantage plus at night tight control is required of ones forces to minimise friendly fire.

A bold tactic that can be employed by experienced forces is to maintain most or all of your force in a mobile formation that tries to outflank the enemy and if the VIP is not with the main enemy party to actively search for the VIP.

In summary, there is no right way or wrong way to approach the VIP escort mission.  The force commander must consider the terrain, lighting, the enemy’s likely tactics and the skill of the forces under his/her control.   For the VIP escort team the most conservative approach is the patrol and for the ambush team, placing well hidden snipers covering the different approaches.  Of course in battle, fortune often favours the brave!
 

Leadership

Winning at Laser-Skirmish requires a lot of different skills.  The most important of these is leadership.  A strong, smart leader that has the respect of those under his/her command is vital for winning consistently. The leader when planning and executing the mission has to consider factors such as the objective/s, the likely composition and location of the enemy forces and the assets available in terms of weapons and forces.  Orders should be issued to each squad member clearly (use their name so they know its them being spoken to, something like "three of you go over there" is a very poor command and always causes confusion) or in the case of larger forces, fire team or squad leaders should be given the orders directly and clearly.

On a individual level, each squad member needs to work as much as possible towards the team plan laid down by the force commander.   It is also important to ensure that one only fires at the enemy, take the time to ensure it is in fact the enemy you are firing at, not your allies.   Too many inexperienced people shoot their team mates, doing un-aimed or careless fire.