Sabotage
Requirements
- At least two teams — Attackers and Defenders. The organizer decides team sizes and composition. No upper limit on player count.
- One to three physical devices (phones or tablets) acting as bombs, placed across the game area by the organizer before the game.
- An Android phone with AFT installed for players who want to monitor bomb states and coordinate movement between objectives. Players without a phone can still participate — they rely on visual and audio cues from the devices.
- The Sabotage scenario configured and running on each bomb device before game start.
- Optional: respawn rules, ammo limits, time limit — entirely at the organizer’s discretion.
Description
Sabotage is an asymmetric, objective-based scenario built around pressure, timing, and role inversion. Two teams — Attackers and Defenders — compete over a set of physical devices placed across the battlefield, each representing a bomb.
Attackers must arm and detonate all bombs before time runs out. Defenders must prevent that from happening.
Arming a bomb requires a player to hold their finger on the device’s screen for ten seconds. An animated countdown and an air-raid siren play during that time — there is no hiding the attempt. If uninterrupted, the bomb arms and a sixty-second detonation timer begins. Defenders can respond by holding the screen themselves for ten seconds, which resets the bomb entirely.
What makes this scenario distinct is what happens the moment a bomb is armed. Roles shift. Attackers become defenders of that bomb, protecting the detonation timer. Defenders become the attacking force, racing to disarm it. The same dynamic repeats for every bomb on the field.
The organizer sets the total game duration. If Attackers fail to detonate all bombs before time expires, Defenders win. Attackers win only by detonating everything.
How to Configure
Before running Sabotage, the organizer prepares the bomb devices and places them in the field. The steps below cover the full setup — from launching the bomb interface on each device to briefing both teams before the game starts.
To set up the Sabotage scenario, create a session and join it as an administrator. Add a new scenario, then activate it and open its detail panel. Navigate to the Bombs tab.
Each bomb is a physical phone placed somewhere in the game area. Before configuring, log each bomb phone into the same session so it appears on the device list.
Press + to add a bomb, then tap it to open its detail view. Tap the Device selected as bomb field and select the corresponding phone from the list. Save the bomb. Repeat for each additional bomb you want to place in the field.
That is all the configuration required. Once each bomb is saved with a device assigned, the scenario is ready to run.
For Players — What to Expect
Sabotage rewards players who can hold ground under pressure, read the game state across multiple objectives, and make fast decisions when roles flip.
Most airsoft scenarios reward whoever controls the most space. Sabotage rewards whoever controls the right place at the right time. Bombs are fixed, visible, and limited in number. Every player on both sides knows exactly where the objectives are. There is no exploration phase, no scouting requirement — only decisions about when to move, where to commit, and how many players to send.
Attackers face a fundamental problem: Defenders only need to stop one bomb to slow the game, while Attackers must eventually detonate all of them. This asymmetry drives Attackers toward concentration. A common approach is to commit overwhelming force to a single bomb, arm it, defend the detonation timer, then immediately redirect that force to the next objective. Speed and aggression are rewarded.
Defenders face the opposite problem. They must cover every bomb simultaneously but rarely have the numbers to do it comfortably. Spreading too thin makes each position vulnerable. Grouping up leaves other bombs unguarded. Defenders who communicate well — using AFT’s map to coordinate repositioning — tend to outlast those relying solely on voice.
The role inversion mechanic amplifies the tension further. When a bomb arms, the entire emotional context flips. Attackers who just took ground are now defending it. Defenders who were holding positions are now sprinting. The battlefield reacts instantly — and so do players.
The siren is audible across the field. Everyone knows something just happened — even players far from the device. This creates shared drama without any additional infrastructure.
When respawns are in play, the pacing changes significantly. Elimination becomes less decisive, and sustained pressure matters more than individual engagements. When respawns are disabled, every player lost is permanent pressure on that team’s ability to hold or push. A single player holding a screen for ten seconds under fire can genuinely decide the outcome.
Player Interface
Sabotage has two separate in-game interfaces: one for players tracking the battle across all bombs, and one displayed on each physical bomb device itself.
Player View
Players monitoring the game on their own phones see a live overview of all bombs in the scenario — the name or identifier of each bomb, its current state, and which bombs have already detonated or been disarmed.
To open the Sabotage interface, launch the navigation menu and select the Scenario tool. A panel will appear listing all bombs defined by the session administrator, each with its name and icon.
The icon color indicates the current state of each bomb:
- White — idle, ready to be armed
- Orange — armed and counting down
- Red — detonated
Gameplay revolves around the bombs that are not yet detonated — and in particular, any bomb that has turned orange. An armed bomb is the most urgent object on the board: Attackers must protect the countdown, Defenders must reach it and disarm it before it goes off.
Bomb Device View — The Device That Is the Bomb
To activate the bomb interface, open the navigation menu and select the Scenario tool — the same as on any other device. If the application detects that this phone has been assigned as a bomb by the session administrator, the bomb screen will launch automatically instead of the standard player view.
The screen displays a large icon identifying this specific bomb — useful when multiple bombs are active in the same scenario. In the center of the screen is the arming area. Press and hold your finger there to begin arming the bomb. An animation plays for the duration of the arming sequence. When it completes, the bomb is armed.
The moment arming succeeds, a siren sound plays. The icon changes to orange and a countdown to detonation begins.
The countdown can be interrupted by pressing and holding the arming area again and waiting for the animation to complete. A successful hold resets the bomb entirely.
If the countdown reaches zero, the bomb detonates. The icon changes to red.
Along the side of the screen, small icons represent the other bombs in the scenario. Their colors reflect current states at a glance — orange for armed and counting, red for detonated.
For Organizers — What to Prepare For
Sabotage is straightforward to run. The configuration is minimal — the complexity comes entirely from the mechanics, not the setup.
Configuration in the App
Setup requires no technical configuration in AFT beyond launching the scenario interface on each bomb device. The organizer prepares one to three phones or tablets, opens the Sabotage scenario on each, and places them in the field. Each device runs independently once started. Confirm battery levels and screen-on settings on bomb devices before deployment.
Device Placement
Placement is the key design decision. Devices too close together make Defender coverage trivial. Too spread out, and Attackers face a movement challenge rather than a tactical one. Two to three devices at meaningful distances across different parts of the terrain generally produces the best results.
Consider the physical context — devices placed on barrels, crates, vehicles, or ruins add to the atmosphere and naturally discourage casual interference. The siren during arming attempts is loud enough to be heard from a distance, which means placement also determines how much warning Defenders get.
Team Composition and Balance
If equal team sizes are used, three bombs is the recommended setup — it mirrors real asymmetric dynamics where Defenders must split attention while Attackers can concentrate force. Organizers who want a more balanced game can adjust bomb count or team size ratios directly.
Elimination and Respawn Rules
Respawn rules are entirely optional. The scenario works with and without them. Without respawns, every elimination carries permanent weight and individual engagements matter significantly. With respawns, the game runs longer and sustained positional pressure becomes the deciding factor.
Player Count
Sabotage works with six to ten players and two bombs — the game is tight and personal at that scale. With larger groups it scales naturally. More players means more pressure on both sides, not more complexity in the rules.
Summary
Sabotage does not require large teams, complex logistics, or specialized equipment. One to three phones in the field, two teams, and a clear win condition is all it takes to run a scenario that generates real tactical decisions and genuine pressure.
It works for a weekend skirmish looking for structure beyond team deathmatch, a corporate or bachelor party event where the siren and countdown create immediate drama, and a milsim operation that needs a focused, high-intensity objective on a compact AO.
Download Airsoft Force Tracking for free on Google Play and run your first scenario today.