you in an unfavorable tactical spot, an ambush, for instance. You will be tooling around with your buddies and suddenly, unless you are way out in the open, you will run into dozens of balls in the air heading right at you. You won’t have a big chance to shout “Incoming!” and hit the dirt shooting. In an ambush, contact will be sudden, violent, close and at short range. If you react slowly or in a disorganized manner, everyone will “die” and you and your whole team will be sitting out for a half hour. Drills help you react right – RIGHT NOW!
According to Jon, this kind of organized practice (let’s call it “practice,” not “drill”) is exactly the right answer to climbing the paintball ladder to top-level competitive play.
Here is one of Jon’s immediate action scenarios. Remember that these tactics are proven and are actually practiced by military units in the real world.
Large inflatable bunkers are the rule on the professional tournament circuit. When the competition has you pinned down by laying paint on a lane or “sweetspotting ,” you can lean into these bunkers several inches to avoid flying goo. Be careful not to get comfortable, though, because the moment you do, somebody is going to lay paint on your back.
The Patrol
Your team is moving slowly and quietly along the side of a trail in the direction of the opposition. The team is staggered or alternated left and right by the trail. You know where the other team members are because you can see them.
Suddenly, your point man makes contact. He has to figure out if you have been seen, because that will determine your response. Figure you have been seen, so your point man shouts, “Contact, front!” to give direction, dives for cover and begins laying down fire.
The rest of the team echoes the point man’s shout, “Contact, front!” and immediately moves forward into covering positions on either side. (Jon says it isn’t necessarily important that the front person hit anyone, just that he makes people duck and hide while his team members leapfrog forward.) Alternating moving and shooting and remembering not to be in anyone else’s line of fire, team members move gradually forward.
When they move, all team members shout, “Coming through!” to avoid being shot in the back. Paint is paint, but at short distance it can sting and how humiliating it is to be put out of the game by your own team member!
If a team member runs out of paint, he shouts, “Loading!” This alerts everyone as to why he is not shooting; he doesn’t want his teammates to think it’s because he is taking a potty break in the middle of the action. Finished loading, he yells, “Up!” or “Ready!” Reloading under combat conditions while you are moving or scrunched up on the ground is tough and takes practice.
The team continues its leapfrog technique until the team leader realizes it is going to be overwhelmed or can take its objective. If it appears that the team is facing a superior force or one with superior firepower and cover, use the same leapfrog movement for a tactical retreat.
“Remember,” Jon says, “you can never have too much firepower!”
TEN TIPS FOR BEGINNERS
Courtesy of Game Face
1. According to the folks at Game Face, communication is the key to all team sports. Use your teammates to find out exactly what your opposition is doing and where they are located on the field. This insures that everyone on your team is “on the same page.” In a super-fast game of airball or hyper-ball, this is extremely important because seconds are crucial to survival. And in a scenario game , unless your team’s general can communicate effectively with his troops, the game will rapidly degenerate into a free-for-all. In that circumstance, everyone has less fun.
It’s a team game, so talk to your teammates. “Here is how I’d do it,” explains one teammate to another before their team takes the field at a tournament.
2. Make use of all available cover. On a field or in the woods, you must use everything from tree trunks to prepared bunkers. On a speedball field, the situation is different because you know in advance where every prepared element is located, where the flag is hung and what the lines of fire will be.
3. Wait for the right shot. In the beginning, a newbie will fling paint for the sake of seeing it fly. Accuracy is less important than the thrill of pulling the trigger. This stage of becoming a real paintball player doesn’t last long though. After a few solid, stinging hits, even the dullest newbie learns pacing, spending as much time looking as shooting. Poorly thought-out shooting just gives away your position to more experienced players. When you find a target, take your time and wait for the good shot. Then fill the air with paint.
4. Listen for your opponent’s firing. While you are playing, your ears can often be your best friends. Whether you are hunkered down breathing dirt behind the giant X in the middle of a grueling NXL game or ghosting through the woods in a Ghillie suit on the way to save the world from aliens, you need to listen for the sound of markers around you. Listen for people shouting directions. When people are re-grouping or confused is often the very best time for you to make a move.
5. Try snap-shooting. The term snap-shooting refers to exposing yourself from behind cover for only a brief period of time while you take a couple of shots. You immediately return to safety. You have a chance to look around, albeit quickly, and make a decision about your next move.
6. Look at the field from different perspectives. What seems open while you are standing may be completely different if you are kneeling or crawling. In a scenario game , slight undulations of the ground can often achieve maximum concealment. In a tournament, you will have a chance to walk the field and even make a map of the placement of the blow-up modules. Before the game, take every chance you can to figure out what your opponent is going to do, how he will approach, where she will hide a sniper.
7. Come out from behind cover with your marker ready. Whether you’re on a recreational field or playing at the highest levels of international competition, expect the unexpected. When you leave cover, expect that you are going to be shot at and that you will find targets of opportunity to paint. Why miss a shot? Take it from the Boy Scouts and be prepared. If your gun is up and ready, you save several critical seconds.
8. Work with your teammates. It is much easier to move over the field if you coordinate and communicate with a squad or your team. You move; they cover you. They move; you cover. Or, in the real adrenaline rush, your whole team charges the enemy camp, firing and screaming at the top of your lungs.(This usually doesn’t work, but what a gas!)
Paintball players on patrol. “Are you covering my back?” Answer: “Yeah, are you scouting ahead or looking for nickels?”
9. Move around the field. It is much harder for your opponents to focus on you if you are continually changing positions. This also creates new angles on them while they are convinced that there are ten of you! Of course, in some situations, the more you move, the more you give away your position, direction and intent. So, be flexible and thoughtful.
10. Don’t
