El Presidenté

Summary

El Presidenté is a classic "get that one guy" paintball game, where a person IS the flag.

Set Up

The game set up works best if played on a fairly large field that is longer than it is wide. It should not have any obvious choke points, like bridges.

One player should have a distinctive costume piece, like a hat, sash or shirt, to designate him as El Presidenté. Teams should be divided in about a 1:3 ratio. The smaller team plays the role of El Presidenté's personal guard. The larger team is a group of assassins out to kill El Presidenté.

Goals

The guards must get El Presidenté to the safe zone. The assassins must eliminate El Presidenté.

Play

The guards and El Presidenté begin at the field boundary of one of the short sides of the field, opposite from an area designated the "safe zone." This can be the opposite field boundary, or a specific building or bunker. The assassins begin at the safe zone.

Eliminated guards may return to their starting point, wipe off any hits, and return to the game. This represents the unlimited number of loyal followers El Presidenté gathers. Eliminated assassins are out until the game ends.

The game ends when El Presidenté sets foot in the safe zone, when El Presidenté is eliminated, when all players on a side are eliminated, or when time runs out.

Scoring

If El Presidenté reaches the safe zone, his team wins. The assassins win if El Presidenté is eliminated. The game is a draw if time runs out and El Presidenté is active but has not reached the safe zone.

Tactics

The guards should not all directly guard El Presidenté. Use him as a high-value target and split the opponents' attention so the assassins cannot afford to focus solely on shooing their primary target.

As the assassins, you initially have numbers on your favor. Try to pin down as much of the guard team as possible. Press the attack when you get eliminations, since the guards will be back very soon! Conversely, the farther away the guards are from their start point, the more effecitve an elimination is against them. Don't let El Presidenté get too close to the safe zone, but don't charge all the way to their start point, either.

El Presidenté should almost never go it alone, unless he is very close to the safe zone.

Variations

The standard version has El Presidenté as just another armed player. A more challenging version requires El Presidenté to only be armed with a pistol. Another option is to have a shield for either El Presidenté or one of the guards. The shield can be used in place of a weapon, or the player can be armed and have the shield, as sort of a mobile bunker. The shield can be dropped at any time if the latter rule is used, and used by any player.

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