Objective Gametypes

There will be a poll later this week about what kind of playlists you prefer.  I know, however, that many people don't know what some of the games actually are.  Here's a breakdown of the Objective gametypes that we play less frequently:

• Invasion: 6v6, Spartans vs Elites, two rounds with each team playing both sides.  Each round consists of 3 stages.  Stage 1 and stage 2 involve two territories each where the attacking team is trying to capture one of the two territories by standing inside of it.  Stage 3 involves a core that is in a protected room that must be stolen and moved to a score location.  If the defending team stops the attackers at any given stage when time runs out, the defenders win and the round ends (does not progress to the next stage).  In stage 1 and 2, if there equal numbers of attackers/defenders in the territory itself, the time will NOT count down.  In stage 1 and 2, if the territory timer is stopped between 1 and 7 seconds, it will reset to 7 seconds if the attackers are all killed.  In stage 3, the core can be returned by the defenders, and Bubble Shield is a stage 3 loadout available to the defenders to help them do that.
• Invasion Slayer: 6v6, Spartans vs Elites, one round with 3 stages, no side changing.  Kill the other team to win.  There are random territories scattered throughout the map.  Capturing the territory will trigger a power weapon or vehicle drop.  The drops are team specific, Spartans will unlock UNSC gear, Elites will unlock Covenant gear.  Drops come in 30 seconds after the territory is captured and CAN be stolen by the other team.  Spartans start with an advantage because the Magnum is more effective on the big maps than the Elite stage 1 weapons.  Spartan advantage continues with the stage 1 drops because they get Sniper Rifle and Rocket Launcher, compared to Elites who get the Focus Rifle and Plasma Launcher.  Elites get the advantage later on with Banshee drops, but Spartans balance that out afterwards with Scorpion drops.
• CTF: 2 to 8 person teams, Capture the Flag, has 1 Flag, 2 Flag and Multiflag variants.  In 1 Flag games, attackers try to get the enemy flag from their base and bring it back to the home base.  In 2 Flag games, both flags are active so both offense and defense are required.  In Multiflag, there may be several teams, each with their own flag.  Beating somebody down with the flag is a 1-hit kill.
• Assault/Bomb: 4 to 8 person teams, has Neutral and 1 Bomb variants.  Kind of the opposite of CTF, teams try to take the bomb into the enemy base and arm it by protecting it for a number of seconds before it blows up.  1 Bomb has the bomb spawning in the attackers' base, Neutral has the bomb spawning in the middle of the map where both teams try to make a play for it before switching to offense or defense.  Beating somebody down with the bomb is a 1-hit kill.
• Crazy King: 2 to 8 person teams, King of the Hill.  Your objective is to stand in a territory marked on the map, you score by racking up time in the hill.  You must be in the hill by yourself (or just with your team) to score time, teams may contest the hill  (and stopping the clock) by being in there at the same time as you.  The Hill continually moves randomly around the map so that you can't just camp it.
• Headhunter: 1 to 8 person teams.  Kill people to get their skulls.  You can hold up to 10 skulls at a time, with a number above your head that indicates to everybody else how many skulls you are holding.  When you kill somebody, they drop all the skulls that they were carrying, with a minimum of 1 if they weren't carrying any at all.  You score by carrying skulls into territories on the map.  The territories move around randomly like in Crazy King.  Score 10 skulls at once to instantly win, otherwise most skulls at the end of time wins.
• Oddball: 1 to 8 person  teams, normal and Hot Potato variants.  There is 1 skull on the map, your objective is to pick it up and hold it.  Score is number of seconds your team holds the ball (skull).  If the ball falls off the map, it will immediately reset at the initial spawn.  Beating somebody down with the ball is a 1-hit kill.  In the Hot Potato variant, the oddball is actually a bomb that will eventually blow up when the timer runs out.
• Stockpile: 4 to 8 person teams.  There are several neutral flags scattered throughout the map, and one "Stockpile" territory at each team's base.  Your objective is to pick up the flags and bring them back into your Stockpile.  Flags are scored every 60 seconds, so you  must drop the flags in the Stockpile and defend the Stockpile until the timer runs out and they are scored.  Flags may be stolen, or picked up and thrown out of the Stockpile to prevent scoring.
• Territories: 4 to 8 person teams, split up into offense or defense, two rounds, teams play both sides.  Team on offense tries to occupy territories around the map for long enough to capture them.  Once a territory has been captured, it can not be un-captured.  Whichever team captures more territories when it is on offense wins.
• 3 Plots: 4 to 8 person teams, one round.  There are 3 neutral territories on the map, teams score by capturing territories.  One a territory has been captured, the timer will continue to count and score for the capturing team until it is recaptured by the other team, even if nobody is in the territory.  Territories may switch possession as many times as teams can capture them.  The general strategy is to try and hold 2 of the 3 plots at any given time.

The idea is that all of these gametypes require good team coordination.  If just one player doesn't feel like participating in the objective and feels like just running up their kill count instead, it creates a huge disadvantage in the objective.  If any player on the team isn't familiar with the objective or the map, it also creates a huge disadvantage.  In objective gametypes, there are very few 1v1 encounters like in Slayer where a Lone Wolf may be able to hold their own.  They are intended to be 4v4 or 8v8 encounters.  If one side has players that are not fully participating, a 3v4 encounter is almost always a losing proposition.