Layout Table~~~~574~574~~

Capture the Flag~Age Range: Any
Each team has a home base (for example, a particular tree or wall) and a Flag (or another object that can be easily carried, like a T-shirt, bag, or jumper; if you have some fake jewellery you could use it as “the crown jewels”). The object of the game is to capture the enemy Flag and get it back to your home base, while defending your own Flag. Make sure that all players know exactly what each “flag” looks like.

Scale Variants: This game can be as long or short, and as big, as you want it. It works on any scale from teams of two or three infants playing in a back garden, all the way up to teams of 20 or 30 teenagers or adults, ranging around acres of woodland. In a larger game, where the home bases are out of sight from one another, you should use at least two Marshals (one at each home base) to verify that the enemy flag has indeed been brought back – and what time it came back, in case both teams succeed.

Variant: Capture the Flags. This game can be played with a little modification using more than one team. Here, the first team to capture at least two enemy Flags, and retain (or recapture) its own flag, is the winner.

Variant: Healing. When a player dies, he or she can return to home base, count to 30, and come back into the game. Note that this makes the game much more difficult to win, and encourages defensive play. To counterbalance that you may want to give players bonus hits, or some other special advantage, when within a certain distance of the enemy home base.

Concept by Ian Sturrock.~~~574~576~~