Tower defense
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Tower defense is a scenario gametype that is available in real time strategy games such as Warcraft III. Wave after wave of "creeps" pour out from various spawning points in increasingly more challanging forces and numbers. Your only line of defense remains in the towers that you choose - so the towers chosen and the locations they are built on are obviously what matters. The game usually consists of a group of players who attempt to stop waves of monsters from reaching a certain point. They build towers either in the way or on the sides of the path the monsters take. In some tower defense maps, there are races to choose from, each with their own unique towers. Many tower defenses have been based off the popular Winter Maul, and have adopted the term Maul as their name. Some examples would be Warcraft Maul, Videogame Maul, DBZ Maul, Movie Maul, and Star Wars Maul
Another type of tower defense would be a hero defense (e.g. Enfo's Team Survival). Each player gets one Hero which has a variety of abilities used to stop the monsters. The goals of the hero defense are similar in objective as the tower defense - stop the monsters from reaching a certain point.
There are two modes in tower defenses: team and survival. Team mode is where all the players will work together to defeat the monsters, but if the monsters reach a certain point they all lose. While in survival mode, the players each work separately and have their own point to protect. If the monsters reach their own point, only that one player loses.
There are also competitive tower defense maps, such as line tower wars, in which players pay summon creeps to attack other players, while simultaneously defending their own base. In those types of tower defense maps, players receive income regularly, for example every 15 seconds, and summoning creeps increases their income.
Mazing: A common and effective strategy employed in order to increase the effectiveness of the towers that one may build upon is called "mazing". In which series of towers are lined up in a way that the "creeps" must head in ways that are not effective at reaching their goal, whatever that may be, this is assuming that they need to get from point A to point B. In some tower defense maps, such as the Azure Tower Defense in Warcraft 3, it is impossible to build on the path that the creeps walk on so mazing is impossible.
Standard (Horizontal) Maze: The standard maze is the simplest strategy that is employed by very basic players. It involves creating multiple horizontal lines of towers. In each line of towers has one spot for the creeps to pass through, at one end of the line. The line after it will have the same structure, except for that the opening is on the other side of the line. Not the most effective of mazes, as no tower gets a particularly large amount of exposure to the creeps.
Waypoints: In some tower defense maps, creeps must go to points on the map in a specific order on the way to the goal. One method of mazing is to partially block waypoints to that creeps must take a long route to get there, possibly passing other waypoints and having to go back to them.
A flash version of this "Tower Defense" can be found now at http://www.onemorelevel.com/games.php?game=415
