You got your SpyraOne, your SpyraBase and some friends to start the most epic water battle with?

Great! Did you set up the field with designated spots for your team bases and strategic covers? Perfect! So, now that you're all ready to go - what's the plan? Yell and run towards the opposing team and hope to get them all drenched before they have filled up their SpyraOne? Sounds...solid, unless - your opponents probably have the exact same strategy. Sorry. But you can do better. Here, we are going to tell you all about one of the most underrated player positions: the cover.

How to set up/choose your cover

That's actually a crucial task to do before starting your water battle. You want it to be challenging and epic, right? So here's what to do:

Step 1: Collect terrain data - are you playing in the open and need to set up strategic covers or are you in your backyard with lots of nooks and crannies to hide behind?

Step 2: Review terrain data - where to set up the covers for each team? If there are natural covers - which of them belong to team red's and which of them to team blue's territory?

Step 3: Identify strategic issues - is team red on higher ground than team blue? Are your covers high enough? Are there more covers on team blue's terrain than on team red's? Make sure the terrain and covers are evenly distributed.

After you have concluded your competitive analysis of the terrain, you can start setting up your covers (if there aren't already enough natural ones). And since you went through a lot of work to set them all up, here's how you can use them to make sure your team wins.

Suppressive Fire

The best thing to ensure the advancement of your team is keeping the opposing team busy and stationed in one spot. After the water battle has started, the team members probably take cover to observe the movements of their opponents. Now's your chance. Shoot at their covers to keep them from advancing and monitoring your teammates so they - in turn - can either advance on the opposing team and drench them by surprise or, if it's the goal to capture the enemy's flag, you can use the time to sneak behind their borders and steal it. Remember, suppressive fire is all about strategic diversion and keeping the opposing team occupied so your teammates can run their secret mission.

Covering Fire

If you need to ensure safe passage for one or more of your teammates, you can give them cover by continuously firing at the opposing team's hideout. This time, you don't want to engage them for distraction but make sure they stay put behind their cover and don't give them the chance to shoot their water bullets at your advancing teammates. So you will have to aim your shots consecutively at strategic points of their cover and don't wait for them to show their faces. Since your tank will run out after some time, this maneuver is best performed in pairs so your partner can take over when you have to refill your tank.

Fire Support

Another strategy to support your team from your strategic cover is using one of your teammates as a decoy to lure them out. Once one of your opponents appears from behind their cover your teammate can quickly dodge while you use the opportunity to hit the member of the enemy team with one of your water blasts.

And there you have it. Lots of possibilities to support your team and use your cover strategically and not just for shelter. Make sure you're always one step ahead of the enemy team and use your team strategy meeting at the beginning of each play to determine how to use your terrain and covers best to win.

Do you have more ideas on how to best use your cover to beat the opposing teams? Share your experience with our community and help them make their next SpyraBattle even more epic!