Woodsball
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Woodsball is a popular form of paintball. Woodsball is the name of paintball that is played in any natural setting.
General
Woodsball (also known as woods paintball, Bushball, and sometimes incorrectly as Scenarioball) is the classic form of paintball. In some circumstances, woodsball doesn't have to technically be played in "woods" but played on a natural ground area, with natural barriers - and with large boundaries, or perhaps no boundaries at all. Woodsball has many popular variants.Woodsball tends to be more common among suburb or rural paintballers, as it can be easier to find suitable land to play upon. Speedball is played more likely by those who live in a more urban setting, or places that are hard to find open woods to play.
Woodsball's main rival is Speedball. Speedball may have more publicity, but paintball started in the woods, and where Speedball can resemble a game which simply revolves around basic angles and fast-shooting markers, woodsball is intended to simulate every side of combat that's possible. Strategy is more important in woodsball than ROF (Rate Of Fire, or how fast the marker/gun fires). Speedball, on the other hand, requires much faster-shooting markers than usually seen in woodsball, a notable exception being the heavy rifleman or his equivalent (see below). Also, the speed of players is much more important to Speedball games in general than in woodsball, as woodsball relies much more on maneuvering, accuracy, and broader strategy.
To learn more about woodsball, visit http://www.specialopspaintball.com Their section [Field Intelligence] contains plentiful articles on woodsball, reviews on some popular woodsball products, and overviews of suggested woodsball player positions (see below).
Equipment
Normal equipment can include anything that the military uses, like BDU forms of camouflage, army boots, ghillie suits, and so on. Additionally, one's personal equipment can vary greatly depending upon one's style of play, or position.Markers
Woodsball guns, known as markers, are known in general to be universal in play, as one can play many roles while using the same marker all the while. For example, a telescopic sight, stock, and more accurate barrel can be bought and added to the marker, and that player can then play as a marksman. The same equipment can be later exchanged for full-auto grips and/or circuit boards, which allow the player to play as a heavy rifleman. Because of the wide range of possibilities, woodsball guns often come out of the box with relatively basic configurations, leaving most modifications to be purchased subsequently.
Most paintball markers use carbon dioxide as a propellant, although they can accept compressed air or nitrogen. Also, most are built with the blow-back gas system. The blow-back system is a system initially developed by Tippmann Pneumatics that allows a portion of the same gas used to shoot the marker to also re-cock it. Most paintball markers are semi-automatic, and have stock barrels typically around 20 centimeters (8 inches) in length.
Camouflage
Camouflage can be very useful if employed properly. It is essential for most woodsball games, providing the basis for the stealth which is often the backbone of woodsball. The most popular camouflage is the Woodland camouflage developed by the American military in the latter half of the 20th century. The many forms of digital camouflage are making inroads on woodland camouflage's dominance, however. Digital camouflage, known colloquially as digi-camo, remains relatively rare, however, as military surplus woodland camouflage is easier to find commercially. Many other kinds of camouflage are also used. Mossy Oak camouflage and German fleck camouflage are not uncommon.
The popular and classic woodsball gun company is Tippmann, mainly because of their relatively low cost and reliability. Their most popular gun, the Model 98 Custom, has actually been run over by pickup trucks and survived, to demonstrate the durability of the guns. Their guns are also renowned for their ability to be 'modded', or modified, for many functions.
Camouflage can be a controversial topic. Often, inexperienced players and outsiders will confuse its purpose with rendering its user invisible while in woods, regardless of movement, conditions or other factors. However, this is not the case. It must be understood that camouflage has never been intended as a method of complete concealment while moving — the human eye can too easily detect movement, no matter the colors that one might wear. Unless one is in heavy cover or moving slowly, it isn't difficult to spot a camouflaged player without distraction. Rather, camouflage is designed to be more an aid against being spotted than a certainty against it. In order to be used properly, one must have a good grasp of the intended uses of camouflage. Use of one's surroundings, namely the cover, colors of the cover, lighting, quality of the air, backdrop, and a myriad of other factors must be considered to use camouflage to its greatest potential. The opinion that camouflage is irrelevant in a paintball game betrays ignorance of camouflage's more advanced capabilities. However, as with any tool, in order to utilize these capabilities, one must first know how to use it properly. Basic camouflage is inexpensive and a shirt and pants can be picked up for around $15, US currency. Camouflauge is an excellent alternative to most other colors often used in paintball, albeit inadvertently — for example, a pair of jeans or a black T-shirt will be more easily spotted in a forest environment rather than the greens and browns of a camouflage designed for that environment.
Masks, Vests, Belts and Other Gear
There are numerous other products available for purchase which are marketed as "woodsball" products. In reality, a large number of the items used in other paintball game types, such as Speedball, may be used in woodsball. The only real features that a "woodsball" item usually has are durability, lack of flashy logos or colors (to reduce individual visibility), and light weight. Paintball masks are an obvious necessity, as any paintball game type requires masks designed and manufactured specifically for the sport of paintball. Pod packs, which carry additional ammunition, are popular among players who shoot more than their hopper's complement of paintballs in a single game. Pod packs can be integrated into a number of platforms, including vests, belts, and leg packs. Gloves, pads and armor may also be used, although armor is rarely used amongst experienced players, who disgard it in favor of speed and maneuverability. On the other hand, gloves and pads, such as knee- and elbow-pads, can be very useful, especially in more rugged playing environments.
Player Positions
There are numerous different styles of playing woodsball. Some of the most popular are summarized here. Each style is known as a player position, and will often require different individual tactics, equipment, and even different mindsets. Player positions usually suit different kinds of people, and are often chosen for a player by the player's personality. Normally, player positions are only useful if one is playing on a co-ordinated woodsball team; thus 'walk-on' paintball rarely has these positions. Special Ops Paintball has an overview of their recommended player positions, including pictures, gear recomendations, and roles [here], and a relatively broad and wider-used set are identified below.Scout
Scouts are always lightly armed and fast. Usually, they are counted on to 'take point' in front of a squad. In numbers, they can also act as a team's quick response force, hovering behind their team's front line and filling in the gaps as friendly players are eliminated. However, scouts' primary responsibilities, of course, lie in finding elements of the opposing team, and then leading elements of the scouts' own team to destroy those opponents. Scouts tend to be chosen for their speed, lightweight gear, intelligence, and their initiative on the field (most 'adrenaline junkies' are assigned as scouts).
Rifleman or Basic Infantry
The bulk of a team's forces are riflemen. They are generally grouped with squads, and rarely play individually unless as a last resort. Most 'newbies' will start out as riflemen, due to the relative simplicity of the position and since most riflemen stick together (newbies are known to keep together in their first games, forming what are colloquially known as 'newbie clumps'. Being automatically assigned as riflemen gives strategic meaning to this trait). Experienced riflemen are the jacks of all trades, and are expected to fill in when a specialized player has been eliminated.Specialists
There are a number of different specialties that can develop in woodsball and scenarioball, due to the wide range of possible equipment configurations and the different needs that come about in play. Specialists are usually integral to a team's strategy, especially if there are a large number of specialists present within that team.Gunner
Players with the fastest-shooting guns are almost always gunners. They tend to hang back and 'longball' the opposition, letting scouts and riflemen move up alongside the other team. Gunners are responsible for providing heavy suppressive fire, and they will often be rush up and down the front line, providing cover for other elements of the team as they advance.
Heavy Weapons
Advanced teams will often have heavy weapons to combat opposing tanks, boats, and aircraft. However, such players will rarely be seen anywhere except 'Big Games' (games where sometimes hundreds if not thousands of paintballers will play) and Scenarioball. Heavy weapons specialists will carry paintball grenade launchers, paintball rocket launchers, paintball mortars, and mounted paintball machine guns. If there is a tank assigned to a team, it is common that heavy weapons specialists will be reassigned as tank pilots.
Snipers or Marksmen
Paintball snipers are highly controversial, and thus, the term 'marksmen' is being rather fitfully introduced into the paintball vocabulary. Paintball marksmen are players who concentrate on honing their marksmanship and tuning their markers more for accuracy than for speed, as they often are in speedball. Marksmen are generally used to 'longball' the enemy, and good marksmen can rack up as many kills at thirty meters as most players do at ten. Marksmen are used often as an intimidating concept to the opposing team, as in psychological warfare. In this case, marksmen's superior accuracy can be used as a deterrent which will cause opponents to hesitate, which a clever paintballer will be able to then manipulate.
The strengths of a marksman unquestionably lie in accuracy, and to a lesser extent, stealth. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the sport, paintball accuracy often correlates with the purchases of expensive equipment. It is not uncommon for an avid marksman to spend upwards of half again to twice as much money as spent on the original marker on marker upgrades alone. For example, in this image, the marksman has a Tippmann Model 98 Custom, which costs around $140 US dollars. In addition to his marker, he has an $80 Special Ops brand Commando air-through stock, a $40 remote coil with slide check, a $110 14" Stiffi carbon-fiber barrel, and a $40 BSA red-dot sight. All of these 'mods' contribute to the player's accuracy, and together, they cost about $270 US dollars, almost twice as much as the original marker cost. Paintball marksmanship can thus become quite expensive. Some top-of-the-line sniper markers may cost as much as $800-$1200 US dollars.
However, this eventually pays off. While initial expenses can be staggering when compared to other woodsballers, and while the necessary expense of buying top-quality paintballs can be far greater than what other woodsballers tend to buy, the marksman usually comes out ahead of his fellow players. This is because of one thing: he doesn't need to shoot as much. A good paintball marksman will fire a single paintball to every twenty or so of his infantry counterparts, depending, of course, how frequently those counterparts themselves fire. In an average game between two teams of ten to twenty players each side, a paintball marksman will shoot perhaps sixty to a hundred paintballs, while the infantry may fire as many as five or six hundred paintballs. Not only will the marksman shoot less, but he will often get more kills than the individual infantry players.
Aside from the marksman's duties of long-balling enemy positions and players, marksmen are sometimes deployed by the team commander in an ambush operation. Marksmen are excellent ambush players for several reasons. Paintball ambushes are obviously most successful if a large number enemy players are eliminated. Ideally, the ambushers are outnumbered by the ambushed (this is to free up as many players for use elsewhere), but will still be able to eliminate the entire ambushed element. This is achieved by an outnumbered ambush team only if a), they have a lot of luck, b), they barrage the enemy players with a voluble amount of paint, or c), remain unknown to the enemy. This last is often the best option, because less resources (paint and gas, for example) are used, and the ambush will have a much greater psychological effect on the rest of the enemy team if suddenly an element of their team effectively vanishes into thin air for no apparent reason.
This brings about the usefulness of marksmen as ambushers. The second trait that marksmen strive for, after accuracy, is stealth. A marksman cannot be eliminated if the enemy has no idea where that marksman is. A marksman, with one or two perfectly aimed shots from a virtually silent gun, will provide almost no indication of his location to the ambushed enemies. By the time a squad realizes where the marksman or team of marksmen are located, chances are good that the enemy squad will already have been eliminated. Other tasks requiring stealth, such as ghost flanks, hostage extraction (normally in Scenarioball games), and objective defense are all ideal tasks for a marksman.
Frequently, it is most advantageous to have a team of marksmen rather than just one 'lone wolf'. The most notable exceptions to this rule are ghost flanks. In a hostage extraction, for example, one or two members of a marksman team will cover the other members as they quietly infiltrate the hostages' location, usually a heavily fortified base or bunker. The covering marksmen will keep the 'back door' open while the indoor marksmen quietly neutralize the patrols in their path with quick, precisely-aimed silent shots, extricate the hostages, and then leave the way they came. The advantages of this is that the marksman team will have effectively an invisible wall against any outside reinforcements as the covering marksmen, expertly camouflaged and virtually silent like the ghosts they're sometimes referred to as, can occupy and push back up to even five times their number.
With these obvious advantages, one may wonder why whole teams are not made entirely of such specialists as marksmen. The fact is, while marksmen are excellent shots and stealthy, they are eventually located. Not even the best marksmen can hide from triangulation. Once they are located, the enemy infantry, often frustrated by getting picked off seemingly from nowhere, will 'unload' on the marksmen with a fierce barrage of paintballs that will almost instantly eliminate the camouflaged marksman. Without friendly infantry to back up the marksmen in firefights, then the enemy infantry would eventually walk right over the marksmen to the objective. In games between a marksman team and a traditional combat team comprised of all position classes, the lack of friendly infantry has made itself often painfully clear to the marksmen-only team.
Despite their strengths and their recognized prowess on the field, marksmen often receive rebukes from other paintballers. The most common rebuke is from calling oneself or being called a paintball 'sniper'. Paintball 'snipers' are a rather controversial issue in paintball, as snipers in the military form are known for their skill and accuracy in long-range combat. In paintball, however, such long-rage accuracy is impossible, due to the quality, shape and composition of paintballs. Nevertheless, there are woodsballers and speedballers who carry the title 'paintball sniper', but only for their singular accuracy when compared with other players. It should be noted that many players see the label of sniper as a contradiction. Therefore, the effort by many marksmen today to be called 'marksmen' instead can be understood.
Game Variants
Elimination, or Slayer
Generally the most common variant of woodsball played, and again mostly among new-comers to the sport. Elimination rules can be(but not restricted to) two or more teams, in the woodsball setting, engaging in combat until there is only one team left still in play.
Capture the Flag (CTF)
While the primary objective in Elimination is to eliminate as many enemy players as possible, the primary objective in Capture the Flag (sometimes abbreviated to CTF) is to capture the enemy flag instead. This is a very popular game type, second only to Elimination itself. CTF is also not limited to woodsball - CTF is a very common, indeed, most common variant of Speedball.
Often in CTF, there are two flags - one for each team. Each flag would ideally be situated in a base, bunker or easily-defendable position, which is then called the 'flag station'. The enemy team must find the opposition's flag station, seize the flag, and return it to their own flag station. Once the enemy flag is in one's own flag station and one's own flag is still there, then victory may be claimed.
Scenarioball
Scenario woodsball, or Scenarioball, can be a very gray area, since there are many different ways to play it but still be considered 'Scenarioball'. Scenario games are broadly defined as adhering to a storyline or certain established circumstances.
For example, in an 'alien invasion' scenario game, participants may be divided into two teams, the 'human' team, and the 'alien' team, who both then attempt to carry out their objectives as laid out in the scenario. A human objective may be to 'destroy' the aliens' mothership, or an alien objective may be to eliminate as many humans as possible in a given time.
Scenarioball can be anything from S.W.A.T. versus Terrorists to military attacks on an enemy base to the aforementioned alien invasion. Generally speaking, a good rule of thumb would be to describe a scenario game as a woodsball game with more elaborate or exotic objectives than traditional ones, such as capturing a flag, eliminating as many players as possible, et cetera.
Overnight game
An overnight game is a game that is played through the day and night, and can be formed around any other game variant. These games can be relatively hard to set up and come with many difficulties in preparing. Some of the problems with setting up these games are: where to keep refill propellants; what rules should be played during the sleeping hours; and whether or not to continue during the night (relatively few players own night vision equipment).
Mercenary
A less common variant of paintball played. Two different players start on opposing sides of the playing area. All the other players (the "Mercenaries") are scattered about the middle wearing some sort of blaze orange (Generally a vest or shirt). When one of the two players finds a mercenary, they can recruit them. Once recruited, the mercenary removes the blaze orange and exposes his clothes underneath, thus making custom teams.
Civil War
This is a rule variant that can be added to any of the above game variants. Participants forego a traditional hopper-style ammunition container and load each of their shots manually. Depending on the size of the teams, a certain amount of players may have an 8-round magazine to simulate a repeating rifle and one person per team may have a full hopper in order to simulate a Gatling Gun. The start of a Civil War game, like its namesake, usually begins with both teams opposing each other across an open field where each team will fire an opening salvo and then fire at will from skirmish positions.
See also
External links
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