This weeks map for CAL happens to be one of my favorites, and quite possibly is one of the best maps in rotation for Assault. Ivory Tower may at first glance seem like nothing but a good Team Slayer map, but it is actually a great map for objective gametypes such as King of the Hill, and works very nicely for CAL Assault. The difference with Ivory Tower for CAL Assault when comparing it to other maps in the rotation, is that Ivory Tower has two bomb sites in which the opposing team can plant the bomb. This makes defense a bit trickier, but luckily the two bomb sites are very close together, on opposite sides of the back wall.

View of the backwall, OS side	View of the backwall, basement/shotgun side

This back wall takes a big beating during matches, with grenades often filling the stairways and banking off of the walls into the bomb planting areas. Most of the action takes place on opposite sides of the map, and teams seem to stay clear of the direct middle of the map, unless they are happening to pick up the rocket. Bomb pushes tend to come from either the overshield side, where the Bomb carrier can pick up the OS to get those extra seconds he/she needs to plant, or the Shotgun side, carrying the bomb through the basement and slowly taking out the opposing team, forcing them to spawn on the opposite side of the map and giving the team the time needed to plant.

Plasma pistol that can be used by the defensive team	Plasma pistol that can be used by the offensive team

You may think that due to the size of Ivory Tower, getting kills on the opposing team would be meaningless because of Halo 2's respawn factor. Luckily Bungie designed Halo 2 spawn points when carrying the bomb into an enemies base, to be opposite, or a good distance away from the bomb carrier. This gives meaning to all your teams kills, and all your teams deaths if you happen to be the unfortunate defending team. Although the team with the superior killing abilities will in most situations be able to comfortably win their matches on this map, strategy and teamwork play the more important role in CAL. That means that even if you are dominating the other team in kills, it is very possible, especially on this map, that they could win the game through good teamwork with the bomb.

The overshield, which both teams will fight to control	Human sniper rifle located above elevator

The best thing about Ivory Tower though, are the end result scores after a match or scrimmage is played. Just like Beaver Creek, Ivory Tower brings to CAL match night the most interesting and high scoring end results. A match can end with high scores such as 15-4, or very close scores such as 8-6. It is very possible for a team with a lot more skill over another team, to clearly shut out or dominate their competition. Unlike maps such as Coagulation, or Burial mounds, where even if the other team dominates them by 100+ kills, they only score 1 point over them. This is what makes Ivory Tower a better choice of map for CAL Assault, and I'm positive we will see some very interesting scores at the end of Week 6.