It feels pretty great when your team wins a game of Capture the Flag. Not only did you defeat the enemy team in a fun game based on speed and agility, you outwitted them too! That’s why this game has been so popular over the years. Brains and muscles combine for hours of fun competition.

If you do not know how to play this great game, here is an article we wrote on how to play Capture the Flag.

There are many variations of Capture the Flag. It has been around for years as an outdoor game. And in recent years it has been incorporated into online video games like Overwatch and Call of Duty. An exciting glow in the dark version of Capture the Flag is also available by us here at Starlux Games.

We are going to lay out five strategies for winning at Capture the Flag in the real world outdoors. But for you online gamers, here are a few tips:

1. Don’t overdose on Red Bull.
2. Take a nap after 19 straight hours.
3. Open some blinds so your body won’t reject sunlight when you finally venture outdoors.
4. Drink pickle juice for thumb cramps.

 

Now, here are our top five strategies for winning when you play our versions of CTF in our original nighttime game or in our newest game, Glow Battle. We’ll also toss in some tactics that you should not attempt.

5. You probably won’t win very many Capture the Flag contests with an undisciplined team. Do you think the New England Patriots would win so much if their offense let any player be the quarterback? Ridiculous right? Every team needs to have its players know their role. A team needs some guards to protect their own flag. And some attackers are needed to go after the flag in possession of the enemy.

With defined roles, your team won’t risk leaving your flag unprotected. Faster players will make for better attackers and slower ones will make for better guards. Each role is just as crucial as the other though. A team wins the game, not a single player. Tom Brady is the right QB for the Patriots, but his team wins as a unit, not as individuals.

 

4. It sounds like a simple thing, placing the enemy flag on the best spot on your side of the field. Most of the time teams will put it as far away as possible at the edge of their territory. But your team should give thought as to whether there is a better spot. Maybe it would be easier to guard the flag if it were closer to the middle of your territory. It’s possible that your team could take fewer chances and keep an eye on the enemy better by placing the flag closer to the middle ground.

It’s crucial to pay attention to how your rival team is attacking if you play multiple games. If you’re losing consistently then why not change up the location of your flag? Doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results is the definition of insanity. Some would say playing video games for 19 hours straight defines insanity pretty accurately too!

 

3. Have you ever noticed football teams with great offenses tend to win a lot of games but often lose in the championship game? It’s true more often than not. There’s something about a fast-paced offense that does well consistently but loses when confronted with a patient defense. So your team can choose to attack aggressively to win a Capture the Flag contest. And you’ll likely win many games if you have speedy players able to dodge the enemy team.

But if you’re in a tournament you may wind up defeated in the end by a team that focuses on defense. In tournament situations, it would be wise to mix in a patient defensive strategy with an opportunistic offense to keep the other team off balance.

 

2. Use your best player as a decoy. If you have the fastest player on the field, you have a big advantage. But use him or her wisely. Just sending the speedster straight after the flag at the start of the game will get them knocked out of the contest early since the other team still has all of their players defending.

Instead of risking your best player in a direct attack, send them near the flag, then let them lure the defenders away from the flag. Your one player could occupy 3-4 enemy players as they try to catch your version of “The Flash.” This should make it easier for your remaining attackers to make a run for the flag.

*One tactic that won’t work – sending a herd of players bunched up in a barbaric attack on the flag. You might get a rush of adrenaline for a few seconds, but your team will get picked off easily as they are too close to each other.

 

1. “All warfare is based on deception.” –The Art of War. Pretty solid advice from the ancient Chinese war manual. To Capture the Flag and win bragging rights, you will need to outwit the opponents. Use trickery, distractions, and maybe allusions if you happen to have a magician on your team.

Telling “yo mama” jokes probably won’t be effective unless you use it on a hot-head. Not a good idea as you could end up captured in a headlock! Your team is better off using these deceptions to win the game:

• Have a player act like he has the enemy flag, yelling like crazy for a few seconds as he races back from their territory. Think of it as a flea-flicker.
• Your team could pretend one of the opponents has your flag when they are in attack mode. Just a few seconds of confusion could give you an opening to their flag.
• Who says you have to go after the enemy standing up. You can crawl, roll, hop, skip, (generally act crazy while in motion). Whatever it takes to throw them off their game.
• Send a line of blockers with an attacker behind them. This is a common attack mode. But instead of having them go all in, set up another runner to circle around the other side with a little delay. The blockers will draw the defenders out a bit so your circler has a shot at capturing the flag from behind.

All you need to do now is use these top five Capture the Flag strategies the next time you get a chance to play. Winning these games takes planning and creativity. You won’t win every time by using the same old tactics again and again. Mix it up in order for your team to dominate.

We all want to win in any competition. But Capture the Flag is one of those games that makes you smarter, more aware, and improves your endurance even when you don’t win. Experience is a powerful teacher, and in this case – a fun one.

Click here to download our FREE eBook: 21 Ways to Win Capture the Flag.

 

* The featured image used in this post is by Kadena Air Base and can be downloaded at http://www.kadena.af.mil/News/Photos/igphoto/2000151764/

What’s with the latest fidget spinner fad? If you haven’t heard of a fidget spinner then a quick Google search will introduce to 2017’s hottest selling toy. These tiny spinners are simple blades that when you hold down a button in the middle they keep spinning after you give them a flick. While called fidget spinners, some schools have found that they’re actually distracting for many students and others have commented that they help some special needs students focus.

No matter your viewpoint, kids have been hammering to buy these cheap spinners for the past few months. Which led us to wonder… what other toys have been quick and popular fads throughout history.

Hula-Hoops: Hula hoops were so popular at one point in 1958 that every child in America could have owned one. For some reason, however, and probably due to the cheap and easy access to the hoops, households stopped buying them.

Beanie Babies: Everyone remembers the 1990s fade of these stuff tiny animals. From 1993-2000 these popular items paralleled the dot com boom. So not only were people buying up these collectables, but they were also all logging onto eBay to sell them. The Beanie Baby market crashed in early 2000 when people began to realize the product was over-saturated and demand was down.

Tickle Me Elmo: In 1996, around Christmas time, this doll was in high demand. The main reason being that Tyco, the company that made it, ordered a number that was far below demand on accident. They claimed that numbers for demand were understated, which in turn, made this doll in super high demand. Tickle Me Elmo was popular for the next year, but once stock became readily available and after the Christmas rush…well…at this point most kids already had had their turn at tickling Elmo.

While each of the above gave a brief moment of joy to the U.S. kid population, the fads eventually ran their course. That’s why at Starlux Games it was important to us to pick a childhood game that would ALWAYS stand the test of time. Sure, we’ll continue to update it and continue to offer cool glow in the dark games, but kids and adults alike will always love Capture the Flag. If you’re not sure how to play this exciting game, here are the Capture the Flag rules.

 

The idea of Capture the Flag is simple: grab an object in “enemy” territory and bring it back to your side. The team that does this first, wins. But where does this game come from?

Going back hundreds, even thousands of years, the flag has been more than just a symbol of national or group identity. The flag represented power and strength, and is still a source of pride. One thing that is very different about modern wars, however, is that we don’t carry a flag prominently into the battlefield like we once did.

Modern warfare would consider this a crazy notion, having a flag bearer stand openly holding the flag for all to see. However, historically, this was an important source of moral support. Having the flag still stand meant that they were still putting up a fight. This is why even the U.S. national anthem proclaims that “the flag was still there.” It was a proud realization that war hadn’t been lost. Back then, troops that went into battle would actively protect their flag and the flag bearer.

On the battlefield, a flag was often called the “colors.” There were flags, or colors, of the nation, the general, the brigade, etc. This is where the term “color guard” comes from. Their job was to protect the “colors.” In other words, they were expected to protect the flag from being captured. When a flag was captured, it was a huge defeat to the losing side, a huge victory for the winning side.

Color guard and flag bearers were awarded for saving their flags from being captured. On the opposite side, when you capture the flag of the opposing side, you were rewarded.

This tradition has echoes today, which you will see everywhere once you start looking for it. A relevant example recently was the Olympics. That’s why we have a flag bearer during the opening ceremonies. And to prove the peaceful intentions of the Olympics, they have one during the closing ceremonies, to show that regardless of who walked away with the medals, everyone can still carry their colors back home with pride.

Because we don’t know exactly when or who created it for the first time, a direct line is difficult to draw from these events in history to the modern outdoor game capture the flag. However, the reference is clear: capture the flag, bring it to your side, and win.

Historically, the majority of all military battles were fought during the day. This was particularly the case before the advent of gunpowder and electricity to lighten the field. Today, battles can be very effectively fought during the night, though. With Capture the Flag REDUX, the same is true today. While the group game has almost exclusively been played during the day for the past hundred or so years, Capture the Flag REDUX brings the game into the night realm for the first time.

So the next time you play capture the flag game, remember the proud tradition that action represents. If you had your flag captured, you may have lost the battle, but you can still win the war!