Here’s how to win at scenario paintball:    do the unexpected.

You laugh. Sounds like common sense doesn’t it. You’d be amazed at how doing something completely off the wall can impact the outcome of a game. I’ll give you an example.

Unexpected Ambush #1

This week, one of the first games we played was an ambush style game. The Green team (mine) was supposed to go out into the woods, anywhere we wanted, and lay in wait. The Blue team would then search and destroy. Or so they thought. I hate playing ambush. I would much rather be on the move and hunting than sitting still and waiting for the enemy to come to me. But it’s part of the game. I had been thinking about this particular field during the week and how much I hated to ambush and came up with a plan that was so crazy and suicidal that I volunteered myself to try it and if it didn’t work, I would be the one to take the pummeling from the other team.

 The typical move is to go back to the back of the woods and set up ambushes around Delta base (sniper tower and bunker set-up). Even players that have never played this field instinctively head back there, even though we can go anywhere on a 24 acre field. Every team does it. It’s like a lemming thing. Go back and hide by Delta. Then get killed. Ambushers almost always die. Hunters have the advantage of being able to move about, team up on you and eliminate you one at a time. Ambushers die.

My plan was as simple and elegant as it was completely insane. As my team made a lot of noise (deliberately) moving back toward Delta, I snuck back and planted myself flat to the ground in a woodpile directly in front of the entrance to the field. And I mean “within spitting distance” from the entrance.  I was sure they spotted me crawling in there. After the allotted time, the Blue team launched from the entrance, eyes focused on the distance toward Delta base. I waited until they walked past me, secure in the knowledge they were too far away from Delta to be in danger. I could have attacked as soon as they approached, but I liked the idea of shooting them while they were facing the other way to give me an extra second or two of shock and awe. As soon as they walked by, I popped up out of my woodpile and capped two in the back before they could fire a shot. The rest freaked, opened fire on me, but my cover was tight and they had nothing. The fire fight lasted long enough for me to empty my hopper and just as the ‘reload panic’ started to sink in, one of my teammates emerged from the woods to distract them by catching them in a crossfire. I reloaded on the fly and the two of us eliminated a third man. The whole game has now lasted less time than it took me to type this paragraph (doesn’t say much for my typing , huh?).

The beauty of this unexpected play was in a matter of seconds. we had eliminated almost half of their team by simply hiding somewhere completely different than had ever been done before. I was sure that was going to be a suicide maneuver and that as soon as I opened up on them, they would light me up. I got lucky. I even survived the game and we took the rest easily now that we had them out numbered.

Unexpected Ambush #2

 Another example of unorthodox tactics making a difference happened a few games later. Once again it was an ambush game with my Green team as the ambushers. Oh joy. I was fairly certain that they weren’t going to fall for the Fat-Guy-In-The-Woodpile routine again. I was tempted. But it worked so well the first time, it was possible they could guess we would try it. I wanted something NOBODY expected. Some possible things they could expect were: to hide by Delta or even aggressively attack as we did last time. Paintball is about aggression. The absolute last thing they would expect was for us to run away. So we did.

I had earlier overheard Dan mentioning that nobody really utilizes the entire field and a good third of it is west of the Swamp. We took the team to the farthest southwestern corner of the woods, through a bog-like area they call the Swamp. Nobody ever goes there because it is not in line with the entrance or the two main bunkers (and it’s ankle deep in mud). It is waaaaay out there.  We really had to hump it around the entire field and hide before they were allowed to get on the field. The tough part was actually circumnavigating a clearing where, had they been looking, they could have seen us. We ran and hid. The majority of the team hid a dense clump of reeds and weeds. Once the other team started moving, I could see they went directly toward Delta. I moved up and hid more toward the leading edge of the Swamp. From there, we had a clear killing lane behind them as they tried to approach Delta from our direction. The Blue Team got frustrated that they couldn’t find us and started getting sloppy. I was able to take out two and was on my third before my forward position was compromised (re: they killed me excessively dead).

At one point, Dan was the only member left on his team against overwhelming odds. He stands up from behind some barrels and just wades into us firing as fast as he can.  Not complete unexpected, but definitely outrageous and ballsy.

The bottom line is: think about what the last thing your enemy might expect and then do it. Shock, awe and a surprise position can do way more damage than an expensive gun.