Woodsball and Scenario tips

[druid]

It's true that there are diehard speedballers...and that loathe woodsball. If you have nothing usefull to contribute then by all means...go to another thread without posting here.

Camo
*Try to get away from the old school Woodland BDU. Everyone knows that they really don't help because of the "blotchy" colors. Tigerstripe is a better choice, Digital Camo is the latest design. It can be had, but can also be hard to get a hold-of.
*Ghillie Suits work very well...but must match the terrain.

EDIT 01Nov06: I played The Battle of Berlin on Saturday the 28th (at Skirmish, PA) and got to experience German "Flecktarn" camo (there are 4 different spellings of that) at it's best. I got to run with Team PennDragon who use it exclusively and I'll tell you what...I'm very impressed with the way it blends into forest/Fall folliage/ground imperfections and colors. It's a "blotchy" camo that really does break up your outline very well. I may just pick up a set from Sportsman's Guide for cheap...if I can get a set that fit.

Tactics-Sniper
*Flanking positions work best. Most people will go for the "high" ground-side. Either be there first or take the "low" ground.
*Pick positions that give concealment on 3 sides and cover on at least 2. Concealment is thick brush that hides you but breachable and cover is something impenetrable--rock, tree, etc. Have a rearward area so you can retreat as necessary.
*When you see your first "victim"...hold your urge and wait. There may be more a few yards behind them. If they are "singles" then wait for them to pass you and get them in the back.

EDIT 01Nov06: *Try to find a low profile hopper or lower your feedneck...or warpfeed your marker. Maneuvering in brush and reloading when **** hits the fan are difficult if you put yourself into a tight position and get surrounded.

Silencers-ARE ILLEGAL TO MAKE, POSESS OR USE WITHOUT THE PROPER CERTIFICATE FROM THE ATF. CONTACT THE ATF FOR THE PROPER AND LEGAL DEFINITIONS, AS WELL AS ANY REQUEST FORM.

Tactics-Forward positions/Recon
*Stay 4-8 steps to the left or right of any path. Groups/squads - Never cross a path at the same time...one or two at a time.
*"Skirmish" Lines don't work as well as you think. Instead, use a "V", or Inverted "^" formation called a "wedge."
*"Leapfrog" forward and in retreat. This allows you to "cover" then next team mate forward and minimalize casualties if you need to retreat.

Supression fire
*Allows team members to advance or retreat.
*Keeps heads (and markers) down while someone tosses a paint grenade or loads a mortar.
*can burn a ton of paint and air. Keep an eye on your tank gauge (if you have one...or get one installed with one of those "tank collars") so you don't run out in the middle of a fight.

Equipment
*Radios-Nice...but anyone with one can tune into you too. Skip the VOX feature and use the PTT button...no one wants to hear you breathing heavy. Firefox Throat mics are nice too.
*Paint grenades-IMO are a waste of money but can be usefull for large-scale scenarios. At many fields, you need them to take out tanks and vehicles because "marker-fire" isn't counted.
*Paint Land mines-are cool but a pain to set up...and they get stolen...or lost, or forgotten about. Save yer cash.
*Boots-are almost a must. Ankle support, mud, sticks, rocks on the forest floor...all make for some hazards. Skip the Cordura Nylon style and opt for an all-leather model. They are hotter, but give better overall performance. Waterproof them with "Sno*Seal" waterproofing paste and/or get GoreTex booties.
*Hydration-I use a Hydrastorm and love it.
*Optics-your choices are; Day or Night Vision Rifle Scope, Red Dot, Laser and H.A.L.O.
---Riflescopes are kind of useless because they normally have an eye-relief of about 3/4" to 1.5" and your mask lens is that far (or more) from your eyes. They can keep with a MilSim look but that's it. If you must have a scope, opt for a pistol scope. The eye relief is greater...to about 30" or so because they are designed to be utilized at arm's length.
---Red Dots are more paintball friendly. A 30mm is plenty but a 54mm gives a wider field view. They don't give any real magnification and they don't project a beam outside the body of the tube body, rather it shines a red light onto the front lense whre it stops. This is nice because a projected beam is detectable in the dark, in fog and in any mist or smoke.
---Laser sights should be AVOIDED AT ALL COSTS!! Ever read the sticker on your CD player? What's it say about lasers? Care to burn out someones eyes? DON'T USE THEM!!!

[Sandman_Bravo]

Nice thread Druid. I like your camo input. Although I have traditional camo, my vest is digital.
http://www.pbreview.com/products/reviews/?sort=new&prod=4305&page=1#149864
I find vests to be great for woodsball. You can carry pods, radio, water (mine has a hydration pouch), tools, grenades, remote tank, etc comfortably.

[rodeoshooter]

I wear a tree-bark camo that works well in our terrain. You don't see it around much, but I bought it at a garage sale!

[RomeNYRR]

I'll be sure to put some of your tips to use. good thread :)

[newkid]

nice thread!

[tater_salad]

I just use my hunting clothes which is all "Mossy Oak" camo and blends in perfect here. I agree with Sandman too vests are very helpful in woodsball.

[Gee Tee]

I used to play in a vest back in our pump tourney days. It is a good way to carry your pots and makes it a lot easier to reload in a hurry. The downsides are it makes also your profile more bulky from the front, making it harder to tuck in to cover or crawl without getting snagged. It also presents a lot more hard surfaces for paint to break on and reduces the chances of bouncers.

A lot of combat style utility vests available in the UK are supplied in black or other plain dark colours, which when worn over camoflage spoils the effectiveness of it. I now play in an elasticated 3 pot NXe rear facing pack for all my games. It gives me plenty of ammo (3 x 150) and much better manouverabily.

I've played in various camo patterns over the years. My first set was a US woodland jacket and trouser combo, followed by a couple of sets of Real Tree (mossy oak) which worked well. I did find the Real Tree pattern faded badly in the wash though. The whole team had DIY suits made for a 10 man series we played in in the late 90's, based on an Indian camo patten but using our own colours. It lasted well as the cloth we had the design printed on was good quality, and I still wear it sometimes now nearly 10 years on.

[Mistic67]

I use a mix of authentic military uniforms for camo, including BDUs, ACUs, & MARPAT.

I'm used to playing with small teams so I usually have small Vees going out. I usually tell them to stay about 8-10 yards apart.

I also have a crazy guy on my team that I use as a decoy. Problem is, he gets too excited and gives away his purpose by running sneslessly back & forth.

Another tactic I use is having a squad advance on the enemy while I sneak around behind them. By the time they see me, they're exposed. Works sometimes at the flagpost.

[Hossy]

you say silencers are illegal, and they are.

but what if you do a mod that makes the gun alot less noisey(if there is one), is that considerd a silencer?

[druid]

Hossy...please read...

http://www.spyder.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=2035&highlight=silencers+illegal

[Gee Tee]

Intrested to hear the story regarding silencers. AFAIK it's never been an issue the authorities have taken much interest in here in the UK. A lot of players used to run silencers here back in the pump era, but they seemed to vanish once the semi's became popular. Most modern semis with ported barrels are nearly as quiet as silenced old school markers anyway?

Still use mine when setting up guns in garage to avoid pissing off my neighbours :D

[Picchi]

Great thread druid, thank you. My team practices every week utilizing some of the tips you provided throughout your post. We actually tried the wedge with hand signals only, no WIFCOM. We've used the mobile sniper on some occasions, but most times he gets picked off after attempting to move up-field behind some of the light/medium infantry. One scenario, which was very effective last week for some reason looked something like this...( I was using Xs to show how the setup was but it doesn't line them up when I submit the post). So I'll try to graphisize (new word) verbally, we had a wedge on the left, all three were light, bottles on guns without packs. The center two were medium with remotes and lots of firepower. Right side was a mobile sniper. We kept two in the rear to defend. The left three moved up pretty swiftly, upon encountering hostiles the mediums would also provide suppressive fire. The sniper remains silent and pulls up the right side, firing only when absolutely needed. The key to this is when the light guys fire, mediums have to lay down the paint keeping the opponent from zeroing in to your position. In this situation our sniper went undetected until he encountered their defense, which he luckily took care of both on his own and grabbed the flag. Anyway, I found the most important tool before playing any woodsball game is HAVE A PLAN and EXECUTE the plan.

[Sandman_Bravo]

Just came across this link from another site:
http://paintball4all.com/Forums/tabid/52/forumid/49/tpage/1/view/Topic/postid/6977/Default.aspx
It has a lot of good info for my woodsball brothers :)

[cnizz]

I wear clothes that will blend well with the particular growth of the current season so that I'm able to hunt down my opponents. I just try to stalk them from a distance till they are at a spot where there is no cover for themselves and unload on them

[Gee Tee]

I wear clothes that will blend well with the particular growth of the current season so that I'm able to hunt down my opponents. I just try to stalk them from a distance till they are at a spot where there is no cover for themselves and unload on them

Hmmm... have visions of players sporting Daffodil-cam, or real Rhododendron?

Could get comments from the woodsball fashion police "Ooh... that guy's still wearing Wild Geranium-cam. That was sooo last month you know" :foreheadslap:

This could get out of hand... Cactus-camo? :devil:

[applesauce]

i think the best strategy is to move fast and aggressive, works for me when i play in the mich. monster game

[druid]

That's true for the smaller games but for the biggest games like Normandy at Skirmish...that doesn't always work out too well...

[applesauce]

the monster game is usually around 2k people

[druid]

cool. Stalingrad and Berlin bring about that. Normandy draws more than 4000 players alone...add to that staff, sponsors and vendors...plus anyone else I missed...

[slim and shady]

I just wanted to say great thread its nice to read a little on the scenario woodsball side of things!
There is alot of great tips here, my personal fav would have to be the bit on sniping particularly the shooting in the bacK! its the best way to snipe! I also think from a skirmish point of veiw that the ^ mainset is a great bit of info to. Anyone who is with an organized party should try this at least once and see how much better your chances have become just buy setting up properly. Great thread!

[alabama_lowlife]

in south alabama, i've found that the mossy oak camo has been better suited for the woods we are playing in. classic woodland BDUs tend to be too dark, and the only guy that played in digital BDUs was a little too brightly colored. there's no telling what will be most effective in the next location we play.

with our close proximity to Ft Rucker, we generally have at least one soldier play with us. one in particular played with us a couple times and tried to use hand signals to communicate with me and i understood that he saw something because he kept pointing to his eyes with his fingers. beyond that, i wasn't sure exactly what he saw....although logic dictated that it was somebody on the other team. he did some other stuff and i couldn't figure it out so i just stayed low.

i've searched on google for hand signals. while i'm certain they would all be useful, are there any that you find are almost required? also, is a whistle a typical method of getting a team mate's attention while trying to remain covert?

[chnk]

here is one of my favorite tips,

people are less likely to notice you if you're standing still,

if you're nice and cammoed, they won't notice you, note don't try this in close range, you'll get lit up