Charging the Tower

Tower Control, Moray Towers. I have my Splatterscope on me, as the long, open ramps and open and low central area of Moray Towers lends itself perfectly to chargers. Naturally, other squids have the same idea. There's another charger in my team, and one ink gun. Yeah, only three of us, one squid disappears from our ink pool before the game even begins. That's never a good sign. Being a squid down generally leads to losing the match. That the bad guys have three chargers and one ink gun doesn't bode well either.

I'm not getting a good feeling about this game, and it's not even started. Teams full of chargers tend to compete amongst themselves for perches, and then take turns picking off the chargers on the other team. It's understandable given that a charger is almost useless on the tower. Although riding the tower gives a different vantage point, a charger just can't compete at short range, and any confrontation on the tower will be at pretty much the shortest range. A bunch of chargers and Tower Control nearly always leads to poor Ranked matches, as the objective is forgotten. But I will do my best.

Happily, I am perked up as soon as the match begins, with my teammates surging forwards with a sense of increased urgency. And my fellow charger isn't just trying to get to a perch before me. We are all heading towards the tower, and get first control of it. As the creepy tower-music starts playing, signalling the tower's movement, my charger teammate is covering me nicely from the opposing chargers. Good guy teammate. But, of course, riding the tower is dangerous, and I am splatted. But when I am, my teammates move forwards to try to retake it.

This is not how I expected the game to go at all! I respawn and squid down the levels to rejoin the action. When a teammate is on the tower, I move to a perch and try to get the bad guy chargers before they get us. When we lose the tower, I move forwards to stop the bad guys controlling it. That is invariably a short-term plan, as I don't last long on the tower, but my respawning teammates have my back. They protect me as best they can, and try to retake the tower when I am splatted.

This is a game of Tower Control like few others I've played. Everyone knows their roles, but also understands the objective, and are flexible and aware enough to do what is needed when it's needed. There's no knockout victory, which is a good result when a squid down, but our early lead remains in place, as our defence holds the bad guys back. Victory for us! Perhaps more importantly, I played in a brilliant, exciting game with fellow squids who were excellent teammates. I hope they continue to get good matches.

Posted in Gaming |
Tags: console, moray towers, splatoon, splatterscope, tower control, wii u