How to Use Buildings to their Full Effectiveness in Paintball

When playing on a field that has smaller buildings and/or forts it is important to use these to the best of your ability. The way I see buildings and shacks is that they can be useful in some cases, but also a deathtrap in others.  Buildings can be useful in guarding objectives and keeping a major path covered. These types of buildings are quite useful. I rarely enter a building unless it has a good strategic location. The reason being, when you are inside of a building, you are confined to the building’s interior. Getting into a building is much easier than getting out. Also, the walls offer great cover yet limit visibility and awareness of your surroundings. While in a building one good player can clear a whole building in a single move. Here is an example I use a lot when playing on a town style field. In this type of field angle is very important.

Example 1

1. The building is occupied by 2 blue players.  All possible shooting lanes for blue are the dotted lines.

2. One red player is on the side of the building. From his cover he has almost no shot unless the blue pop out of the large back door. With one swift easy move the red player can gain a major advantage.

3. With one swift move the red player can sneak up on the blues flank. If he is noticed he still has a major advantage over the blue players. He gets a way better angle on his opponents.

4. If the blue player stops posting for even a few seconds, the red player can easily run through eliminating the opponents and gaining massive amounts of field for the team. Even if the red player is eliminated during the run through they still got 2 eliminations for 1 lost player.

This is both a diagram to help you defend against this strategy and to attack using this strategy.

I find this very effective when playing with newbies (given you do not bonus ball) because buildings are noob magnets. Noobs will also not be able to keep you held back effectively and with a little patience you can easily clear this building. Wait for them to unexpectedly expose themselves in other windows or openings.

Example 2

1. As you can see, the red team is greatly outnumbered. The first step in a situation like this is to fortify and dig in.

2. It will be difficult to snap shoot them out through windows and vice versa. So the key here is patience and  to wait for them to come to you. When they do try to move up, that is when you seize the opportunity and shoot them out.

3. Cover all angles. In this situation there are 2 reds, if one gets eliminated then the last one is backed into a corner and unless extremely skilled is pretty much eliminated. Teamwork is key especially in and urban themed field.

So these are the key points I have told you to follow:

1. Stay away from small building and forts and use the immobility and lessened awareness to your advantage. (Note: In a heavily urban e.g. Bedlam at CPX or Defend the fort type of game these do not apply.)

2. Teamwork is key.

3. ANGLES.

The use of building can mean Do or Die for a team. Good utilization of these building can be one very good skill to learn and master. In my many years of playing building based fields, I have eliminated many opponents using this strategy. Good utilization of this strategy can completely up your effectiveness on the field

Thank you.

This article was written by Kikkia. Be sure to check out his YouTube Channel.

Reloading - an In-Depth Look at a Seemingly Simple Task

Quick Tips:

- Continue shooting or at least stay out of your bunker.
- Keep your gun level.
- Keep your eyes forward.
- Don't open the lid of the pod until it is near the lid of your loader.
- Hold the pod for a second to allow the most paint in as possible.
- Give your marker a tilt or shake if you can.
- Drop the pod, don't throw it.

The faster you reload, the faster you can get back 100% in the game. That's why it is important to practice reloading until it is second nature. With these tips in mind, you can become an expert at reloading your paintball marker.

Cleats 101

There are many different types of cleats. Today we are going to look at the the main types of cleats.

The main style of cleats most players will come across are either the Exalt TRX or the HK shredders. Both are good but also a little pricey. They both have very different styles, but both are top notch and will work in most conditions.

Some people may not like the price or aesthetics of the paintball branded cleats -  that is ok, it's all personal preference - but here is what to look for when buying standard cleats.

This is a very common cleat, the spikes on the bottom differ from the ones on the shredders and TRX as these will embed themselves deeper in the ground relative to others and still allow a player to move fast.

You will notice that this is a similar cleat, but with different spikes. These spikes are more suited for soft soil or mud - they dig in deeper than other cleats, giving more traction. These are a little slower to run in, so these are best suited for back players. I suggest not using these in the woods as they don’t work very well when walking on rocks and logs.

Written for GonePaintballing Blog by PROTOFTW

If you liked this article, be sure to check out his YouTube Page.

Back Player Tips: Breaking Out to Lane

As a back player, it is your job to send a lane of paint at snake or dorito side first thing after the break. In order for your stream of paint to reach the opposition in time, your breakout form must be tuned to perfection.

The regular over-the shoulder technique is no good for a back player. This is fine for running and gunning, however it is inefficient as it requires you to swing your marker 120-160 degrees before you can begin to lane and walk towards your back center bunker.

Instead, place your marker parallel to the board, and lean back so that your tank is on your shoulder. With your marker parallel like this, you will only have to pivot your marker up 90 degrees instead of 160. This small amount will save a bit of time and get your lane up faster.

Once you have your marker parallel to the board and the tank on your shoulder, take a step forward with your dominant foot towards the back center bunker. Lean back on your other foot to keep your marker parallel. Taking the step saves more time. Why wait to move to your back center bunker after the break? Get as close as you can.

As you break out, simultaneously start towards your bunker as you pull up your marker and start firing. Again, this saves time. There is no point standing at the board and laning when you can move to your bunker while doing it. This may cause your lane to be unsteady at first, but with practice a player can learn to move a couple steps forward while sending a steady stream towards snake side.

Follow these steps and you will save a second or so breaking out. It may not seem like much, but one second could mean eliminating the oppositions snake runner or letting him into snake where he might shoot out your front players.

Gone Paintballing Blog will soon have a video on this subject, check back soon!