A Basic Guide to Paintball

Introduction

Paintball. A sport played and enjoyed by millions. A fun, fast paced, team based game that requires speed, skill and quick thinking. A quick trigger finger will get you through too. So will a bit of dough. Paintball isn’t a cheap sport as you’ll discover, but if you have the money and are committed it can be the best thing ever. Paintball, in case you don’t know, was invented in Canada by a bunch of loggers who used their oil paint guns to fire the little pellets, not at the trees, but at each other. Smart eh? Eventually the oil paint kept staining and one man came up with a way to create a water based paint to be washable. Getting smarter. Eventually more and more of their buddies came along and TA-DA!!! Paintball was born. Now there are thousands of customer sites across the world and there are even large events where the best teams from across the globe get to prize money and nice, shiny prizes. Let’s get onto the actual paintball now.

Marshals

Marshals are some of the most important people on the field. They are there to keep you safe and make sure you have fun. They start and stop games, keep score and make sure everything is running smoothly. As a marshal myself I cannot stress enough to LISTEN TO THEM!!! The amount of times people have gone mouthing off at marshals because they have pulled them out for mask lifting or something else stupid, but it’s their job to keep you safe. They will shout at you, not to pick on you, but to get it into your head. Plus trying to talk through a mask is a little hard. Listen to what they say, do what they say and your day is bound to be fun.

Field Types

Woodland

Woodland is the number one customer playing field. It is the most popular and the most requested. It is full of trees and barricades made out of twigs and old wood. The ground is littered with grass, more twigs, wood and maybe even the odd full tree that’s fallen over. With this comes hazards so ALWAYS WATCH YOUR STEP!!! The amount of injuries that happen in the woods is amazing. The number one injury at the moment is collarbones. One guy comes on thinking he’s Rambo, combat rolls over a tree stump and SNAP! All the marshals can do is sit there, call an ambulance and laugh at you. So for that sake keep on your feet, watch where you are going and try not to run into any trees.

Sup-Air

Sup-Air is short for Super Air Ball. It is a field that is made entirely out of blown-up barricades (no, not ones destroy by an explosion) and it is a lot smaller. There is about 10-12 barricades on field and the field will be about 50 yards in length. The games are fast paced, loud and extremely messy. These type of fields are usually played by tournament players and are used by big tournaments across the world like the UK masters, NPPL and the Millennium series. In these games the key is to KEEP SHOOTING!!! Every time I go I am told to keep shooting no matter what. Shoot if a marshal is in the way, shoot if I am running, shoot if I am the last man. It doesn’t matter how, who or for the amount time, just keep going. That is the first key to staying alive.

Hyperball

Hyperball is the same as Sup-Air, but instead of blow up barricades there are solid barricades. The layout is similar with about 10-12 barricades (maybe more) and the size approximately 50 yards in length. These fields are sometimes played by tournament players, but are mostly played by a mix of tournament players and customers. The key to these fields is to NOT GO INTO THE BARRICADES HARD!!! Some players who are quick cannot help but go into them fast, however some players think it is right all the time. Not true. If you go into it hard there is a chance that you could hurt yourself. Once again safety is paramount here. So take it slow, unless you have your running shoes on then bring a strong pair of shoulders with you.

Game Types

Woodsball

Woodsball is basically what customers do and some tournament players do (also called ‘woodsball players’). These games usually involved some sort of capturing rules such as capturing a flag, capturing a certain amount of objects (3 barrels in your base, etc), capturing a base (attack and defend style), but there could be some unique game types such as VIP protection (protect one player on your team), One flag (get the one flag in the field and put it in your opponents base) or Free-for-all (everyone for themselves, usually done as last game). These games are all fun but most of them require one simple thing. TO WORK AS A TEAM. If you don’t work as a team in paintball you lose the game. Whether you are playing as a small group at a customer day, a team in a sup-air tournament or one your own at a walk-on, team work is key to success. Get your team working together and your success rate jumps up.

Sup-Air

Sup-Air are quite simple games really. They will either involve capturing a flag and taking it back to your base; touching the opponents start base or pressing a buzzer on the opponents start gate. The game will be quick and no team will go for the buzzer, flag or start gate until all players on the opposite team are dead or there are very few. These games will be full of running players, flying paint and shouting galore. The best thing to do in these games is to have good teamwork and COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR TEAM!!! Communication is defiantly one of the main parts of paintball. Communication lets you know how many players are dead on the opposite side, how many are left on your side, and where players are on the field. A quiet field is soon to be a field filled with dead players.

Hyperball

Same as above, but with solid objects again. Keep the teamwork and communication up and wins will start to come your way.

Walk-Ons

Walk-ons are massive games (I don’t over exaggerate) with between 100 players and an over 1000 players. A huge game, with big teams and even bigger objectives of the game. Make sure you have lots of money on you as you will use up at least 2 boxes of paint minimum. Having lots of air is required so BRING A GOOD SIZED AIR BOTTLE . It will help you stay in the fight longer (I will explain air bottles later on). These games are all about the fun factor. There are no real prizes, just the satisfaction of having a great day covering things in paint.

Gear

Gear is essential if you are going to start playing as a tournament player or walk-on player regularly. There are hundreds of gear choices from markers to air bottles to sandanas to barrel backs. They come from a wide range of company’s and in a wide range of colours. The basic kit that is needed is listed below.

Marker

You have to have something to shoot everyone with. This piece of kit comes in all shapes and sizes, and can range from about £100 ($170) to a good £1150 ($2200). You can opt for a tournament marker like a Mini Invert or the popular Eclipse Ego range, with their high bps (balls per second, the fire rate in paintball) and their onboard computer systems, or you could go for a Mil-Sim (military simulation, supposed to look like a real gun) which will give you that extra realism and ruggedness will sacrificing the BPS. It is all about personal preference. If you want to play tournaments like in Sup-Air style, then you will need an electric marker like a Mini or a DM9, but if you only want to do woodland and walk-ons you may want to invest in a Mil-Sim marker because you will not need the high rate of fire. ONLY BUY FOR YOUR NEEDS as any other markers that don’t suit your needs will only be money wasted on your part. Buy as you need it and you will have money to spare for other gear.

Hopper

This is what helps feed your paint into your marker. This equipment usually comes in the form of a box or large holding bay with a lid and a neck that comes out the bottom, and it can either be a gravity fed hopper or an electric hopper. A gravity fed hopper works as simple as you can get it. As quick as it can drop is as quick as it will be fed into the marker. They cost around £5 ($7) to purchase and are the simplest things to maintain as they are usually made from plastic with no moving parts (except the lid). An electric hopper is a hopper that is a bit more complicated to the gravity fed hopper and can cost from £50 ($70) to £120 ($200). They have a lot more moving parts and the feed rate can be as high as 42+ bps. Obviously no one can shoot that fast so like the previous piece of gear, ONLY BUY FOR YOUR NEEDS!!! There is no point having a Mil-Sim marker and having a £100 hopper that can do 35 bps when you can only do about 12bps with your marker. It’s a waste of money, and even though electric markers are the best, you don’t have to buy the most expensive. Just get a £50 ($70) approximately one and you should have enough for your Mil-Sim marker. However, if you are playing Sup-Air tournaments you will want a hopper that does 25+bps just in case, depending on what kind of player you are. Once again, its all about personal preference.

Air Bottle

This device is what helps propel the paintballs out of your marker. It is usually a small air canister that fits onto the ‘air regulator’ at the bottom of your marker handle. There is a variety of shapes, sizes and capacity such as 0.8L carbon wraps to 1.5L steel bottles. A 0.8L steel bottle is sufficient for a new player, whether you are playing Sup-Air or woodsball or even walk ons. The 0.8L steel bottle is very strong and gives you sufficient air for your marker. After a while you might want to invest in a 1.1L air bottle, usually carbon wrap. This will be useful for the seasoned player who plays frequently and needs that extra air for walk-ons or maybe a backman (one of the positions in paintball, I’ll go into more detail later on). But as before buy for your needs ONLY. Don’t go getting a 1.9L carbon wrap bottle just because your going to a walk-on for the firs time.

Battlepack

This is a device that holds all your pods or pots (explained below). It usually comes in the form of a belt with holsters and loops on to put your pots through or in. This gear is a valuable because who wants to put their pots of paint in their pockets or hold them throughout the game? I sure don’t like to. These packs can let you hold from a measly 2 pots up to a huge 15 pots!!! I personally use a 4+3 battlepack, which has 4 holster style holders and 3 elastic bands between those to hold more pots. I find this sufficient for my needs as I use only 3 pots per Sup-Air games, but if I ever go to a walk on I can hold those extra pots. I notice that most backmen use these types of battlepacks too. I think that this battlepack type is sufficient for any person in paintball and is cheap to buy at about £20 ($28). So I would defiantly recommend this type of pack.

Pots/Pods

These hold you paint during games. They resemble a pill with a lid that’s on one end, and are usually made out of plastic. The capacity for pots is usally 100 paintballs, but you can buy some that hold 140. These pots can be either cheap or expensive. I find that there is no middle ground. If you are starting new with a group of players who have been playing a while then I’d put my money down that you might get some for no charge. Then again there are some new pots out called Dye Locklids (similar to my description of a pot, but work on a “pull button, release” mechanism) that cost about £30 ($45) for a set of 6 and these are very popular. But as always, its down to personal preference. I use the Proto pots in red because they are easy to use and the lid flips up easy. And to me forking out money that could be used on paint for something to hold paint is ridiculous.

 

I know this guide is short, but I did what I could with the small amount of word capacity I had. I hope this guide is helpful, but for those of you who can’t read too well or are just plain lazy here are my main tips:

· Listen to the marshals on field no matter what. They are there for you.

· Always watch your step when playing in woodland to prevent injury.

· Keep shooting in Sup-Air to get that one extra step to success

· Don’t go in hard to the barricades on a Hyperball field.

· Work as a team at all times and communicate no matter what.

· Have the gear that you need, not just because of the hefty price tag.

· Be sportsmen like at all time, that does not mean shoot the guy 15 times that just got caught cheating.

I hope this guide has given you some idea the fundamentals of paintball to some new people who wish to join and maybe given some advice to new players just introduced. Thank you for reading and I will hopefully go into paintball further for you all.

Written by Sean Stanway