I definitely would. I love team games because I love teamwork. I think if we communicated more and actually used some strategy it could be a total blast. We might even give those ten year olds a run for their money .

That''s the real question isn''t it? Think we could strike a balance between total obsessiveness and total not-giving-a-sh*tedness?

I work and stuff, but I''d be willing to give over an eveing per week to team play/practice/strategy meetings, etc.

One evening a week? Sure.

Work might butt in here in a couple of weeks as I may switch to third shift for 10 days or so, but otherwise it should be easy. Just please god in heaven don''t pick Tuesday. It''s the one night of the week that there''s actually one show on TV that I want to watch. I''m ever permanantly late for the Tuesday Halo 2 nights because I watch that one hour of TV a week and damnit that''s really annoying.

No, I''m not going to buy Tivo just to solve this problem.

You know, you live awfully close to me to be making posts like that

At this point I have only played team games.

Yeah.. I have to get up at 4:45 in the morning to be at work on time. Being in bed at midnight is kind of important.

I don''t have to wake up until like 6:30 or 7:00am so I just need to be in bed by 1am or so. Any later than that and I feel exhausted the next day.

I''ll give a night... monday or wednesday would be best for me, I usually work the other nights... assuming this would be in addition to the Tuesday H2 games.

I agree, it sounds like a great idea. Out of the couple Clan games I''ve played, we were stomped completely by guys who had their sh*t together. Ie., you go here, you two pair up and go here, you guard, etc.

The team games you lose don''t come down to individual skill, but lack of team co-ordination.

So uh, yeah I''m in! I''m West Coast though, but I get home from work around 4:00 PST (7:00 EST) so that might just work.

Unless the clans you meet are hardcore, there shouldn''t need to be a team-play sub-faction of GWJ for team games. If you''re in a team game, play as a team.

One doesn''t need to be ruthless dedicated to better than most. Actualy team play is very simple. Tips:

Learn the basics of the map - flag points; bomb points; entrances; exists; choke points. Assign people to offence/defence and routes/positions to do both. This isn''t difficult. Directions are generally left flank, right flank, centre and then the height (eg. roof, ground).

When you attack a target, try to do so from multiple angles at once. This panics the enemy and can be difficult to defend against.

When you''re defending a target, don''t always stick close to it. Imagine you had an alarm that went off if a burglar was near it. Would you want that alarm in your house or at the start of your street? You''d want it at the start of the street, so the fckuer never gets anywhere NEAR your house.

If you''re given something to do, do it. When you''re en route say you are. Anyone that plays on my team will generally know where I am. ""This is 1Dgaf going to the turret."" ""This is 1Dgaf en eroute to left flank defence.""
We don''t all know each others'' voices, so people should say who they are and what they are doing. Very rarely have I heard anyone else do this without being prompted.

If you spot an enemy, say what you see and where you see it. ""Enemy coming in!"" doesn''t mean sh*t. ""Two guys and a banshee coming in to left of base"" does. If you can, put in a landmark ""Two guys and a banshee oming in to left of base, by X"" is perfect.

When that message comes in, say you''re ready to take them: ""This is 1Dgaf, I can see the enemies by the X"". That calms people down. Also, not everyone should run to that point. It may be a decoy. The point of giving people a station is that THEY deal with the problem. If you need help, call for it.

If you''re stationed with someone and they die, tell them team ""Taco''s down on the left flank"" - then we know that side may be in danger.

When you die, don''t just rush back in to the fight. See who might be respawning soon. Better for two people to wait a few seconds to respawn and attack together, than for one person to respawn and die alone.

Think about the what vehicles takes you to your objective more quickly. On assault maps, the warthog can carry the bomb - but at the start of the round if someone spawns closer to a ghost, perhaps they should get in that instead. Why? They''ll save seconds running to the hog and they could get to the bomb first. They may not keep it for long, but they may buy time for a loaded warthog to scoot in and back them up - or perhaps it''s best to get the warthog going. Experiment.

Take a couple of seconds to work out a strategy at the start of the map. What tends to happen is everyone runs off, then a strategy is decided, then some people are too far away to come back, or a vehicle''s been taken when it''s needed etc.etc.etc. I think it''s to tao te ching (or tai chi) that says one has to ''invest in loss''. Lose the seconds, win the game.

As I said, team play is simple.

Fletcher,

First off I should explain that I come from a tournament/clan background that was only about teamplay, including being willing to sit on defence/doing sh*tty work, if it meant the team would win. Personal score was unimportant. The team''s score was everything.

My point is I think it''s a mistake to have a sub-section of a clan that plays as a team. If they are clan members in a team game, they must play as a part team. IMHO If they can''t play as part of a team, they shouldn''t be in a clan.

Yes, we must teach people the basics of team play. However if someone knows the basics and still c*cks about, they''re not worth having around. People don''t have to be expert players, either. Just willing to work for the team.

If there''s a situation when you''re playing with strangers, then it''s likely those guys will go on offence - people like to kill. If that happens the people that know each other act as defence and support.

I like being in the GWJ clan because it gives me a list of ''vetted'' players to work with. However, if I''m in a team game and those players are running around doing whatever they hell they want, I might as well be playing with strangers.

There are a lot of people in GWJ who prefer to just play custom games with GWJ players, which is usually more fun than matchmaking but means that a lot of the time we''re playing three-on-three. I think the subclan is a good idea to get a group together for eight-on-eight games against strangers, because it''s true that to get good at the big team battles you have to play them repeatedly, instead of swapping around between different game modes and maps.

For those of you who are still ranked in the middle of the first digits, I would say that the big team matchmaking games get much much much better when you reach ten. I''ve just had to give up my account so I can use another freebie card and it''s killing me that I won''t get to play those games for a little while.

I don''t know if I''ll be able to get in on the subclan, but I would throw out the advice not to stress about offense too much. As the play has improved, it turns out that a lot of these levels really favor a good defense. I''ve played literally dozens of zero-zero CTF games on Headlong and Waterworks, and a lot of neutral bomb assault games on Coagulation where the overtime was longer than the original twelve minute gametime. As for Zanzibar, that''s always a mess no matter how good people are.

I am still interested and I agree with you wholeheartedly, Fletch. A night dedicated to serious clan matches would be outstanding.

Oh yeah, if we get good we can soooo challenge the Frag Dolls! I''d love to be spanked by the Frag Dolls.

Why do the English always feel threatened by a little revolution?

Oh wait ... I remember... sorry...