Merchant Gunship Battle

The merchant gunship battle is a destructive fight between two teams situated on merchant gunships travelling in opposite directions, carrying various bootleg cargo and stolen goods from one faction to another, in a black market trade. The gunships cross paths however, and soon engage in warfare.

The objective of the battleground is to eliminate the opposing teams combined player lives before they eliminate yours. To achieve this players must use devestating ranged combat using cannons, fire, artillery and ranged weaponary must be carried out, as there is no melee involved.

History
In more recent times, as war escelates, so does the demand for exotic goods, weapons and special luxuries, giving rise to a massive new Black Market trading scheme operated by high flying gunships. These mecenary ships employ adventurers to protect them from harm and in return, they receive a cut of the profits, however the skies are far from friendly, as rival merchants seek to eliminate the competition and secure their goods for their own benefit.

The recent rise in gunship techonology has meant that flying ships are the quickest way to ferry goods across the world without being subject to strict controls or invention of the factions.

The Battleground
Players begin in a secure Bedrock spawnroom, located on the E deck, the very bottom of the ship. Each ship is seperated into five levels.
 * A Deck- Main archery deck for ranged players, such as Archers and Mages. This deck also contains four Incendary-Only cannons, as normal artellery backfires when used in these.
 * B Deck- The decks that contain halls for sleeping and general living on the voyage. The main use of this deck in warfare is for the highly defensive veranda on the ramparts.
 * C Deck- This deck is the most important, as it serves as the Primary Gunnery with twelve artillery cannons capable of firing large amounts of explosive shells in short amounts of time. This deck is seperated by steel bulkheads that help prevent firespread.
 * D Deck- The Incendary Deck is equipped with a further 11 cannons better used for fire-charges to burn the enemy ship, and also contains a large supply of water grenades for dousing fire and disabling enemy cannons. These cannons can also fire artillery but with less devestating effects on the enemy ship. This deck is also seperated by Steel Bulkheads, and is fire resistant.
 * E Deck- The very bottom deck, in which players start inside of the protected spawn room. The E deck contains the ships stores, where most of the artillery, fire charges, water bombs and hand grenades are stored.
 * Crows Nest- The highest point of the ship, an idea vantage point for ranged classes and grenade throwers, but dangerous for its only point of access is one ladder.

The ships are navigated by a single stairwell that stretches from E to B deck, and then a secondary stairwell that provides access to the A deck and crows' nest. The stairs are situated toward the Aft end of the ship, near the engine rooms which have an emergency supply of Napalm (Lava) for use with hand grenades.

The Battleground ends when one team's lives have been fully expired. Lives are a collective team resource, and so everyone is responsible for the success or failure of the team.



Mechanics
There are three main roles in this battleground that are key to success:
 * Attacking- By using incendary cannons and artillery, or ranged class abilities.
 * Defending- By dousing fires using water bombs
 * Greifing- Using water bombs to hinder the enemy player's movements, push them off of the decks or disable their cannons for a short time, as they cannot fire through water.