ChoicePaintballGuns

An important move to use while paintballing is the crawl.  Crawling is a way of moving around, both backwards and forwards, on all four limbs and stay close to the ground.  It may be necessary on a field where the bunkers are low to the ground.  It can reduce the likelihood of being shot during an ambush and is good for a means of moving around quietly.  It’s also great for avoiding enemy fire and staying out of harm’s way.  There are some important things to remember while crawling, however.  First of all, make sure that your elbows and feet are not exposed to potential paintball impact.  Also, make sure your marker remains close to your body and out of your enemie’s range.  Most importantly, make sure the hand your holding your paintball gun in is in a position that you can shoot at your enemies if needed.  There are many instances when crawling is the best choice for getting around.  Some instances may be when opposition is moving forward and has not spotted you yet; when you are playing in the woods and there is plenty of brush and vegetation to help conceal you, and when you are moving from one bunker to another that is connected or very closely spaced to the one you are leaving.  It is important to maintain open lines of communication with your teammates and even for them to shoot and distract your enemy while one individual from your team makes their move.  You may also want to crawl to stay invisible when trying to flank your enemy.

In paintball, Freight Training is an illegal move.  Freight Training is an attempt by a tagged player to affect the outcome of a game by lingering in the game.  After being hit, the player is supposed to put their barrel plug into the end of their paintball gun and immediately exit to the nearest dead box that will not cause any interference in the game.  If the player attempts to block a shot from an opposing player at one of their teammates, it would be considered freight training and can be penalized for it.  Another form of interference is deliberately getting yourself bonus balled.  Sometimes players will step out on the field with the intention of getting an enemy to shoot them in anger.  As soon as their enemy shoots them, the player yells out to the referee who will usually call a penalty on the opposing team.  All of these actions, if caught can get your team penalized.  Booooooo!

Flanking is one of hundreds of paintball tactics in which a player distracts the opposing team with an attack while another player sneaks around the side or back of the other team.  It is most successfully used on players who have tunnel vision or are so wrapped up in fighting off the players in front of them that they don’t notice the attackers making their way around them to defend an attack from the side or back.  The attacking player who is making his way around to the side or back of the enemy relies heavily on his teammates.  It is up to the teammates to keep the opposing team distracted.  Without full support from his team, the likelihood of being successful with this move is low.  When flanking, make sure to stay as invisible to the other team as possible; remain unseen with crawling and staying hidden behind bunkers, keeping shooting to a minimum to avoid being detected.  Then when you’re in the right spot, surprise the enemy with a barrage of well-placed shots, preferably from an automatic paintball gun.  Make sure your flanking move is pre-planned in your team strategy so your other teammates know when you’re making the move and will keep fire heavy while you’re moving.  Sometimes it’s smart to have your sniper do the flanking so he can sneak precision shots at key players in more vulnerable positions.

Bunkering is a move for more experienced players.  It can be trouble for less experienced players, because there are so many things that can go wrong.  To be successful with bunkering, the player needs to be able to mix things up with little warning.  When a player is bunkering his opponent, he charges straight at a bunker that is occupied by an opposing player, shooting as he goes.  The opposing player ducks behind the bunker to avoid getting hit by your shots and you get a chance to run closer to him without him aiming at you.  This does, however put you out in the open charging straight at enemy lines - open for other players to nail you; this is why it’s so important to be able to make critical decisions in a moment’s notice.  Often the player executing the bunkering maneuver is the front player of the team and will be bunkering either the back or midfield player of the opposing team.  This move usually isn’t used until late in the game.  It is very popular though when your team is down on points and time.  Occasionally, there are instances when you are well covered and you have an easy run to your target…. do it and don’t hold back!

In paintball, it is considered unsportmanlike to shoot a player from closer than 25 feet.  Sometimes you can sneak up on a player or if you get too close to him to shoot, you can use the ‘Barrel Tap’.  A Barrel Tap is when a player eliminates his opponent from the game by taping him on the back with the barrel of his paintball marker.  The benefit of the barrel tap is you can eliminate your opponent without having to fire on him from close range.  Being as most players at local fields and leagues may know each other and don’t want the humiliation of having to surrender in front of his aquaintances, the barrel tap saves him from having to make the choice of either surrendering or being shot at close range.  A common occurance for the barrel tap is when one player bunkers an opposing player.  For the most part, when a player bunkers another player, one of them will end up getting tagged.  Once the charging player gets to his opponent and neither one has been tagged, the player in the bunker will surrender or the bunkering player will execute the barrel tap.

A paintball strategy usually includes all of the player’s or team’s pre-planned tactics that they will use to complete the objective or win the game. The best advice for a team is to select a painball strategy based on the teammates they have near them, the alignment of the opposition, and the format of the game being played.  Strategies must often be different when playing on flat surfaces and airball bunkers as opposed to rough natural terrains with a lot of steep inclines.  You should also have different strategies when playing 3 on 3 tournament games as opposed to 10 on 10 matches.  A player’s environment and the level of competition they’re facing as well as many other factors may affect the strategy needed to win the game.  Do yourself a favor and have several strategies ready, so you can switch to something else at the last minute if you have to.  Most of the paintball teams that are effective in competition have a planned and studied a paintball strategy they will use for that particular game.  Many of the strategies and tactics used in paintball are often rooted in military tactics.  Many of the most important strategies involve how to move and play as a team and which players will go between bunkers or out in the open.  Don’t be afraid to frequently move between bunkers to get better shooting angles on your opponents.

Evaluate your playing skills by monitoring three things…. the way you move, the way you shoot and the way you coordinate moves with other teammates.  Great paintballers learn how to shoot to take out the opposition - while moving, and work well with their teammates to stay alive through key moments in the game. 

For the most effective shooting in games, there’s no better exercise to improve other than shooting itself!  The more you shoot, the better you get… practice shooting as many paintballs as possible in between games and you will find your accuracy and shooting ability greatly improved.  To improve shooting accuracy and effectiveness between games, practice shooting drills such as ‘Snap Shooting’; also practice shooting games such as ‘Follow Me’, ‘Reach for the Top’, and ‘Long Shot’.  Shooting drills help players improve their accuracy and get a feel for their ranges of accuracy. Consistently shooting at a target that is out of a players range is a waste of energy, time and paintballs.

A common shooting strategy is to rapid fire at the enemy whose profile is partially exposed outside a bunker.  This tactic of steadily shooting at a particular player is also known as ‘painting the enemy back’.  Once the player has receded entirely behind the bunker to avoid elimination, you can then continue to advance towards him until you’re close enough to mark him.  This tactic is often described as bunkering.

It has often been said that a well coached team with excellent field communication skills can triumph over a collection of players with superior talent and paintball gear (but poor communication skills).  In most paintball games, there are several positions you can choose to play on your team.  There are attackers (or pointmen), midfielders (or rovers), snipers, and defenders.  Successful teams work together, and back each other up; so that their pointmen are supported by their mid-fielders and snipers, and the midfielders are supported by the defenders and snipers.  This way, each player is backed up by another player, and must work together to back each other up if help is needed in one particular area, whether moving forward in attack mode or defending.  Continued success in paintball requires two essential ingredients…. recognizing the patterns of the enemy and getting into position accordingly, and players working together.  Teams with excellent field communication skills know where their teammates are and communicate with each other regarding the location of the opposing team’s players.  Success in executing a game plan and making quick adjustments in the event that players need to move to certain positions of the field to back up their teammates is highly dependent on good field communication skills.  In games like speedball, you may be crouched behind a bunker, unable to see any of your other teammates or opposing players.  In this case, you must communicate verbally with your teammates to get clues of where your enemies are to help plan your next move.  The better you communicate with your teammates, the more prepared you will be when the enemy tries to make a move.  Most experts in the game consider teamwork and good communication to be more important than the skill of individual players.

A paintball attack is when a team makes their move towards the enemy side of the field, make a surge to the opposing team’s flag, or makes a move towards the defending team’s players.  There are hundreds of different paintball games and your method of attack may be different for each, depending on the objective of the game or other variables, like whether or not there are bunkers to hide behind.  For example, in Capture The Flag, a player’s attack strategy may involve taking a path where the enemy isn’t.  In games of total elimination, the objective is for one player (or one team) to be the only one standing at the end of the game.  In the game Alamo, an attacking team must break through an enemy line of defense within a certain period of time.  In the game street fighter, players fight out in the open, with no bunkers, forts, or holes to hide in.  No matter what the game is, enforce your attack through a combination of strategy, player’s preparation, and luck and you will most likely emerge victorious.

To mount a proper attack, players must develop a keen field of vision to see the field around them, and know where the enemies are.  A player’s experience is the best means of developing the art of field of vision.  Players with this skill are successful at using their peripheral vision to see not only what is in front of them, but also what is to the left and right of them.  During an attack, make sure you’re running and shooting at the same time.  Players that only run across the field without taking aggressive maneuvers towards the enemy are putting themselves in a vulnerable position; you’re likely to get shot.  If the opposing players have the opportunity to take multiple shots at the enemy without seeing return fire headed that way, then they have a distinct advantage.  When a player executes running and shooting correctly, they shoot at the enemy while on the run, enabling their chances of staying in the game longer.