TAG CON Midwest 2002 review by Peter Montgomery

(Warning: the following accounts are from my viewpoint only and any
impression that I am a Lasertag superman is the figment of my vivid
imagination)

Another fantastic time at TAG CON!
I had a quick 6-hour drive from St Louis to Lafayette, Indiana and Rabbit
Hill, The home of the Lafayette Lasers. After I arrived Alex Moon, Kevin,
and Andy from Indy helped me set up my tent and then 30 of the barriers I
use in my LASERBLITZ mobile laser tag party business. I showed them the 10
grenades I bought from Phil Higgins (Priest) and had put into 4-inch foam
balls. Tom Baker then arrived and showed the patch of eight LASERBLITZ
prototypes Steridian Technologies had just finished. They were quite
impressive. I could not wait to give them a real trial by fire. Tom and Alex
told me about improvements they have been working for the final production
version including a new gun body.
We then headed into the nearby town of Battleground to have a bite at Pizza
King. We returned to Rabbit Hill in time to meet Terrance from Gary, Indiana
(Terry from Gary). We then suited up in the LASERBLITZ guns and helmet
sensors and played lasertag games for the next 3 hours. We played several
games in the south woods and several more in the field of the Laserblitz
barriers. We then started adding the grenades. At first we allowed only one
per team, but ended up allowing each player to have one grenade. The
grenades we capable of scoring 2 or 3 tags if the thrower timed it just
right and threw it close enough (20 feet) to the target. Several tactics
were quite effective, such as pinning the target player behind a barrier
with laser fire, then tossing the grenade over the barrier. This caused the
target player to either run to another barrier (easy target) or try to get
the grenade and throw it back at you (not very effective and the player
would get tagged even more by the grenade. I was once the target of a
coordinated three-grenade attack. The grenade would come over the barrier; I
would take a hit or two as I tried to kick it out of range, being careful
not to expose my sensor to gunfire. Needless to say I was taken out very
quickly.
We played several games of 4 vs. 4, and then as some players got tired we
played 3 vs. 3. When we were down to 5 players we played about 8 games of
"Virus/Hydra" where it starts as a game everyman for himself and if you tag
someone out he resets his sensor and joins your team. The game continues
until everyone is on one team, the winner being the player who was the head
of the "Hydra". Just a little bragging here, I won three games in a row. My
secret strategy is get Andy on your team first, he is a very good and
aggressive player and he quickly gets you a third player on your team, then
it is three on two and not too hard from there.
The LASERBLITZ guns worked perfectly. The clip reload was cool and the
Uggghh! Sound effect with each tag was even cooler. I loved the red flash of
the target player's helmet to confirm your direct hit and the way their
helmet stays lit and their gun loudly announced "Game over - Power off". We
finally quit playing at 10 pm and had a good after game chat in the Gazebo
telling out versions of how each game went. We finally went to bed at 11 pm
and I slept very hard.
Breakfast was at 9 am and Jenny and Dale were cooking up pancakes, sausage
and all the good stuff I love for breakfast. By 10 we were ready for the
First "Freedonia" scenario game. As the story goes, Freedonia is a small
Central American country that is trying to get US funds to fight a rebel
uprising. In order to get money and military assistance from the US, they
have to prove they are helping fight the "War on Drugs". The Freedonian
Government is aware of a drug shipment moving from Northern Freedonia down
the river to the southern coast. I was a member of the Freedonian Government
troops. After studying the map provided by Tom Baker. We named the area to
the Northeast "Michigan" and the Northwest "Wisconsin" with the central area
"Indiana". We noticed a natural pinch point at a bend in the river near the
northern part of "Indiana, so we named it "South Bend". Andy and I decided
to set up an ambush on the west side of south bend while Tom and Terrence
set up an observation and sniping area on the ridge over looking South bend.
Soon after Andy and I were in position we say 3 "rebels" (Alex Moon, Corrie,
and Eric) moving south. We started laying down a heavy amount of fire and
they all went down to the cover of the forest grass. We kept up suppressive
fire while radioing the news to Tom and Terrence. They radioed back that
Steve was shooting them up. Andy told me we had to go on the offense and
finish up things here or Steve would be quickly in our backside. Andy kept
up the frontal assault on our three pinned down rebels while I ran back and
to the far left to flank them. I came upon Eric belly crawling to avoid Andy
's fire, so I finished him off. I continued on a little bit to see Andy
putting the finishing touches on Corrie and Alex. I doubled back to Eric and
found he was carry a 20 pound pack back full of sand (The drugs!!!!) We
radio the news to Tom and he informed me he had just been taken out by Steve
and a few seconds later Terrence was out also. I radioed to Andy to head
back to the only bridge over the river and make a lot of noise and distract
Steve and make him think we were going to cross there. I then ran to a part
of the River 100 yards south of the bridge and following the standing orders
of Roger's Rangers #16 "Don't Cross a river by a natural ford" I crossed the
river through thigh high water. I then snuck up back into the camp and
delivered the recovered drugs the Government "base" while Steve and Andy
were trading shots at the bridge. We won, but needless to say I went the
rest of the day with squishy boots.
In the second scenario the US was very pleased that the Freedonian
Government had helped in the war on drugs that they provided them with a
Surface-to-Surface missile system to attack the rebel base with. The rebels
had to launch an attack against the Freedonian missile base and disarm the
launch mechanism. The rebels had a secret agent in the Government forces who
had learned of the disarm code and had to get this data to the attacking
rebels or their mission was doomed. The teams were scrambled a bit with Andy
and Tom joining the rebels and Steve and Alex joining Terrance and I on the
Government Forces. I drew the card that told me I was the Rebel secret
agent. For the next ten minutes paranoia reigned supreme as everyone on the
Government team was trying to figure out who was the traitor, while trying
to develop a defense plan. I was having a very difficult time acting
innocent and at the same time trying how to get the message that the secret
code was 116 to the rebels. I also knew that I had to get Steve tagged out
as he is a one-man commando squad and could quite easily hold the fort long
enough to get the missile launched. The best anti-traitor policy is to keep
the whole team together, so I mentioned this to the team so they would not
think I was the traitor, but that made them suspect me even more. I also
offered to keep a second radio to scan for enemy communications and that
seemed to make them trust me. At the start of the game we decided to go up
as a group to the ridge to watch for movement towards the base. I knew I
would have a very hard time getting away from the group on that steep and
uneven terrain, so I had to make my move soon. Alex and Terrence went up the
trail first as Steve and I both tried to be the last one up the trail, as to
keep an eye on each other. I figured that this meant that he had figured me
to be the traitor so I took started firing at him and running for the river
while using my radio to yell to the other team "The code is 116" over and
over as Steve chased me and quickly was tagging away my hit points. Luckily
the way down to the river was full of turns and Steve was not able to keep a
line of sight on me as I made the turns down to the bridge and up the
opposite bank. I was able to make it to the woods on the other side with one
hit point remaining and I laid flat in the grass. I did my best to remember
my sniper training (translation: I read a book about a guy who had been
through sniper training) and kept very still staring up at the sky, avoiding
the urge to look around. I heard Steve walk within 30 feet of me then turn
and walk away. When I no longer heard his footsteps I looked up and say him
about 150 feet away and walking towards the "Southbend" area. I should have
taken the opportunity to radio to Tom and Andy about Steve's location and
make sure they had received my message about the code number 116, but the
temptation to shoot at Steve from the back and possible take him out was too
much. I opened fire and tagged him 3 times before he found me and took me
out with one shot. Steve then took out Tom Baker. Andy managed to get past
the defenses and to the locked launch control box and started working on the
combination when Steve showed up and tagged him out. The rebels failed and
the Government was able to launch the missile and destroy the rebel base.
After this mission we had a great lunch again prepared by Jenny and Dale. As
we rested we sat around and told all our various tales of the missions.
In the Third mission the President of Freedonia had decided to bask in his
victory over the rebels and Visit the southern provinces. The few remaining
rebels decided to ambush the Presidential motorcade. Andy was selected to be
the President with Tom Baker, Steve, two of Toms cousin's Callie and Bailey,
and myself. The rebel ambushers were Alex, Eric, Kevin and Corrie. The south
filed starts at the Tippecanoe River and goes northward along the creek to a
pinch point at a small highway overpass, through which we must get the
President. We advanced slowly using the Tom's young cousins as the advanced
guard (fancy word for "sniper bait") Tom was the left flank moving up the
creek, Steve center and I was on the right. Andy stayed back about 100-200
feet from the front lines. When the girls got to within 100 feet of the
bridge the rebels started firing. They id as they were instructed and went
for cover and fired in the direction of the bridge. Tom, Steve and I quickly
moved up to add fire support but were soon under sniper fire from hidden
locations and had to pull back. I had taken three hits, Corrie was tagged
out, but little 8 year old Bailey stayed put and managed to inflict serious
damage on the rebels and tagged out at least one (she may have tagged out
two). As Steve was falling back, Andy mistook him as an advancing rebel and
took him out. Having no option Tom and I moved up to attack again. This time
there was no sniper fire and I was able to make it up to the heavily
forested bank of the highway overpass. Carefully moving along the bank
toward the rebel area under the overpass, moving only when a car passed
overhead, I got into position to shoot Kevin, who was already under fire
from either Tom or Andy. Corrie, the last rebel was in and ambush position
on Tom as he moved up from the creek. I was too late on the radio to warn
Tom and Corrie tagged him out. I was then able to tag out Corrie, the last
rebel, and safely move the President under the overpass to the other side
for the victory.
The rest of the afternoon was spent letting the kids play with out tag gear
as we discussed making even better tag gear. Jason, a friend of Tom and Alex
showed up with his daughter and some electronic parts for the production
version of the Laserblitz gear. After dinner everyone geared up for the last
game in the Freedonia scenario. The victorious Government was split by two
factions who wanted all the power for themselves. We returned to the south
woods, my team stared at the Overpass and we started towards the enemy at
the river. I flanked wide left with Eric and started taking fire from Tom. I
belly crawled to the far left border of the playing field, trying to get a
flanking shot on Tom. But instead I got slowly sniped by Jason who I never
saw until after I was walking off the field. I am not sure who won the game;
it turned into quite a melee.
After the sun went down the Werewolf game began. Kevin went out into the
south woods with a gun that made not flash or sound. The rest of us went
hunting him in the Full moon light. It was very eerie and Kevin did a good
job of howling every now and then. Even with flashlights we never got a good
glimpse of him as he took his time tagging out everyone of us. Alex then
produced 3 night vision scopes and we went back out again. Everyone got
tagged out again. Kevin later told me that the infrared illuminators made
the guys with the night vision even easier to see.
The rest of the night we played games of 3 vs. 3 around the barriers and the
campsite. Wee were joined by Tom Johnson from the "old days" of the
Lafayette lasers. We decided to use the ammo limiting function of the
Laserblitz guns and played with 4 clips of only 9 rounds each. A big
difference from playing full auto all day long. These games we full of
staring bleary eyed trying to spot any movement or human shape among the
barriers, trees, bushes, cars, tent, etc. Again I was impressed by the
muzzle flash, and the red flash of the helmet when hit. It is very
satisfying to get excellent feedback when tagging. Finally we had played our
last game about 10 pm and few of us could move any longer. I had been
playing tag for about 27 hours with only a few hours of sleep and eating,
Nirvana! I spelt like a rock.
Sunday A.M. I was awoken by Corrie yelling at the top of his lungs, I was
the last to get up. We had another excellent breakfast of donuts, sausage,
etc by Jenny and Dale. We managed a few more games in the woods before
breaking camp and heading out.
Over all TAGCON Midwest 2002 was a fantastic success and I hope more of you
can join us next year. Tom and the Lafayette Lazer's mentioned the want to
host another one next Fall 2003 and I am working on holding a TagCon in the
Spring of 2003 in Saint Louis. Details will follow in a few months.

TagCon Midwest 2002 Review by Andy in Indy

Once again, TagCon was fun. Attendance was a little light (I guess we
didn't market it well enough), but it's always good to meet up with old
friends like Peter M., and make new friends like Terry from (my home sweet
home) Gary ;-) As a quick review (Tom Baker said he'd post a full one), we
played a BUNCH of Lazerblitz style games in Peter's barriers with his new
guns on Friday night. Peter also brought some grenades based on the
lasertag circuit that Phil Higgins made taped into some nerf balls. We
quickly learned that grenades were a good way to make some move from behind
their barriers and that sensors on the guns change the way a game goes (and
not to mix in guns without sensors unless that player needs an
advantage)Terrance was great! He would constantly be moving around his cover
and flanking other teams. When we switched to everyone-for-themselves
games, Peter emerged as the Lazerblitz King, winning 6 out of 12 games
himself. Of course, on the last game, Alex looked over at Terrance and
myself and said, "Lets go get Peter." Ahhh, it was Fun!

Saturday morning brought the scenario games. The premise was that we would
represent the government and rebel forces of a fictional country of
Fredonia. In the first scenario, the rebels had to move their "contraband
for profit", represented by about 25 lbs. of wet sand, from one end of the
playing field to the other, while the government job was to capture it. On
the Government team, Peter and I went to one side and Tom & Terrance went to
the other. Tom and Terrance encountered a rebel sniper (Steve), who held
them down and eventually eliminated them. Peter & I ran into their main
Convoy, and managed to recover their "cargo". Peter went off to return the
evidence to base (so we would get American weapons as support). My job was
to tie up the sniper's attention long enough for Peter to get back to base
(I die and Peter runs off with 25 lbs. of wet sand - not surprisingly, I
volunteered to die). I held Steve's attention for a few minutes while Peter
ran some distance down stream. As I was eliminating myself from the game,
Peter waded through waist deep water while juggling his video camera, radio,
gun and backpack of wet sand. Victory was ours!

The next game, the government forces had received the use of a cruise
missile to destroy the rebel base. Since the postman would not leave a
change of address card, the rebels had to attack the fortified position of
the control center, open a combination locked box and stop the countdown
timer. Players were shuffled onto different teams. To make this scenario a
little more even, a traitor was randomly picked form the government forces.
The rebels split into two teams again, with Tom and I flanking to the east
while Kevin and Eric crossed the stream early and attacked over the hills.
We had a description of the rebel infiltrator, medium height, clean shaved,
and brown hair - Peter. As we started to move into our attack positions,
paranoia had gripped the government camp. Peter quickly realized that in a
four person team, with one being a game organizer, his chances of being
located were very high. He took an early opportunity to call over the radio
(he knew we were monitoring all channels) the combination we needed for the
lock box. Tom and I split up to cross the creek. I was supposed to Decoy
for Tom so he could flush out Steve, but I was too far upstream for Steve to
shoot, and Tom was a handy target. I met up with Kevin and Eric as the were
pushing their way over the hill. Only Steve and Terrance Remained on the
opposing Team. Since I was at the base of the hill, having just climbed up
out of the creek, I made a dash across the open field to the lock box.
Terrance kept my teammates busy, and I didn't realize that I ran run right
past Steve. Since Steve was bored without Tom to shoot at, he stood up and
started shooting me. I automatically dove for cover and started shooting
across the filed to where I thought Steve was hiding. Unfortunately, Steve
was right behind me and I was soon dead. My teammates slowly died off, and
, with 3 minutes left to disarm the missile, the rebel forces were crushed.

After a break for Lunch, we did our third scenario, which was to Protect the
President. The objective was to get the president (who got to be armed)
from the south end of the field, under a bridge, and to the Gazebo. Players
were reshuffled, and I was picked to be "El Presidente for Life". This
bummed me out, because I had figured that we would run this scenario, and
had wanted to either talk someone into turning traitor and killing the
President (I budgeted $20 for that, and was willing to trade gear) or I
would offer my services to do the same. The government forces started on
the south end and had to move up through the woods to the path under the
bridge. Since there is only one way to cross under the bridge, the results
became predictable. We worked our way up to the bridge in a picket line,
and curled or flanks into squeeze the enemy. After about the third wave of
attacks, Eric, who was their sniper, fell before Peter's onslaught. Peter
took his position and with Steve's Assistance began picking off the wounded
rebels. After a brief bit of (un)friendly fire, where the President
relieved Steve of his duties (Sorry, Steve), the Rebels were over run. The
Government was again victorious! (3 for 3 for those keeping score)

We took a break, and Peter spent a few hours running the neighbors and
relatives through a few hours of Laserblitz. His new gear worked
wonderfully, and many parents were quite impressed. We played a few more
games in the woods, in which (un)friendly fire was another issue. (Steve
recalls one of the kids running up to him, saying, "I ran into three of them
down by the creek. I think I killed one." Steve's team was down by the
creek)

After dinner we had our final scenario game in the dark - a total
elimination of the opposite team, with the winner having final control of
the country. We split teams again and headed off into the south woods to
meet our country's destiny! Unfortunately, it was so dark, that if the
destiny was in there, it had probably tripped and died in a patch of
stinging nettles. We split again into two forces (a common theme by now)
and worked our way forward to make contact with the enemy. I was with my
partner, alone in the dark when I noticed someone far behind, apparently
shooting at us. I called out to find out who it was, and did not hear an
answer. Unfortunately, Peter, who had dropped back a bit to avoid being
shot from behind, didn't know I hadn't heard him. Peter was soon on his way
back to the dead zone (Sorry Peter) and I was wondering how we would find
the enemy. Suddenly I heard Steve on the radio call out, "There's one going
back. And another. That's three dead." They were dropping like flies!
With the fourth player out, we return to base to discover two things - the
first was that we hadn't designated sides. Well, somebody was the
government now, anyway. The other was the Steve's sensor had malfunctioned
and was not taking hits from the direction he was facing. This left some
players in a bad mood.

We played one more organized night game. Since it was the full moon that
night, Tom had arraigned for a werewolf hunt. He showed everyone the pair
of legs (with no body) left stashed under a nearby boat. Player with
flashlights went out to hunt the "high-tech lycanthrope"(Kevin) in the dark
woods. My night vision being poor, I waited this one out, and it wasn't
long before player after player streamed in. Tom organized a second set of
players, some with Night viewers to go in for the second wave.
Unfortunately, Kevin was right there, picking us off as we walked under the
bridge. I never made it into the deep woods. Soon everyone was done, Peter
being the last to be brought back in from the woods by our lupine friend.

Our evening ended with a few night games in the open area under the light of
the full moon. Needless to say, they either ended quickly because everyone
was moving slowly, or they took forever because everyone was moving slowly.
:-) Peter and I slept in our tents that night, and It was night the snoring
that woke us up - it was the Dog Party and Conversation group at 2 am and 4
am.

Evening came and morning followed - the third day.

A brisk cold front moved through on Sunday morning, chilling the area and
blowing away one of my contacts. Many people went off into the woods to
warm up with a couple a games of tag, while Alex and I took down Peters
barriers. We woke Peter up with the good news, bad news routine (The good
news is that Corey got up early and stared a big fire. The bad news is that
you need some more barriers). After a brief discussion of plans and
projects we all took off in our heated automobiles to return to warm houses.

-Andy in Indy who hates tornadoes

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