WWG North IV Report

Weekend Wide Game North IV – November 2003
Spy VS Spy VS Spy
15-16th November 2003, Cataract Scout Park

This weekend saw the biggest WWG yet run by the Crew. Playing over the entire Cataract Campsite, 90 Scouts in 19 Patrols participated, with nearly 40 Venturers, Rovers and Leaders assisting. With a strong attendance from South Cost, we still had room for guests from out-of-Region troops.

This year’s game ran with an espionage theme, with plenty of codes, deceptions, and untrustworthy individuals. Scouts played the role of spy teams assigned a mission to investigate a new energy source being developed in a mysterious Installation, located somewhere in the country codenamed “Cataract”. Each Spy team belonged to one of 4 other countries – each being interested in obtaining the secrets of this new project. Each team was uniquely identified by the banner they carried.

Each Country had to discover the location of the Installation, and then obtain samples of the new Material, and a copy of the blueprints describing the process. In addition, they were to attempt to encourage a native Scientist to defect.

Spies could gather information at the local Village, and could buy and sell information at the Information Broker. All the time however, they were at risk of detection from both other spy teams, and Cataract’s Internal Security forces. Safety could only be found at the Spy Team’s “Safe House”.

It took most teams the majority of the first day (and nearly all their money) to uncover the location of the Installation, and the access codes required to get inside. Once inside however, they had to separate the ‘decoy’ items from the real ones – all whilst the clock was ticking. Success depended on how carefully the Patrol had listened to the descriptions of the items they were seeking. Further pressure was added with the knowledge that they would only be allowed to access the Installation once.

Whilst Scouts had to work together in their assigned countries to earn points, they also had several opportunities to “sell out” their compatriots to enrich themselves. Each Patrol was also able to make deals with opposition Patrols in the market palace of the Village. Whilst most patrols displayed a degree of loyalty to their team-mates; others approached this in true underhanded fashion, wringing every last advantage they could.

If some appearance of loyalty was expected between Patrols from the same country, the gloves came off when it came time to deal with the opposition. Many patrols displayed true ingenuity in plans to score as many points as possible. Despite the phrase “trust no-one” being repeated through the game, many Patrols failed to take due precautions.

Some, having realised they had obtained a decoy item, attempted to pass it off as a genuine article to other Patrols – offering it for sale at a “discount”. Others, having spent all their money cracking the codes that lead to the Installation, attempted to re-coup funds by offering the answers for sale to those who had yet to raise the funds themselves. Upon realising that a bounty was being paid for identifying other Spy Teams, some Patrols then took to concealing themselves by major thoroughfares – although only one patrol successfully identified ALL the other competitors.

Despite the heat and mosquitos, all Scouts appeared to enjoy themselves, and the Venturers, Rovers, and Leaders involved in running the Game were observed to be enjoying their own roles entirely too much. It was very encouraging to see Patrols work well with others whom they had met only a few hours before, and the sheer ingenuity (and persistence) of some of the money-making schemes was impressive (even to a bunch of old, jaded Rovers!)

The final scores were wide-ranging, clearly showing the effort some Patrols had put in to the competition. Final places were distributed as follows:

Figtree Rover Crew would like to thank all the Venturers, Rovers and Leaders whose service made the event possible. We look forward to seeing you all next year !

Andrew Clark
SC&T WWG Committee