I am broke, damn economy.
I am like a over sugared 8 year old.....I WANT TO GO PLAY OUTSIDE!!
And since I can't right now, I can do the almost next best thing. I can cruise the internet, most of my free time has been spent reading and watching paintball related stuff on various forums and Youtube..
I have come to a couple of thoughts that won't leave my head, so I am gonna give them to the interwebs to try and quiet my head. One of the big ones is compare and contrast of differing types of paintball play.
One of the things you need to know is the kind of paintball I like to play. My preferred game is Woodsball or Scenarios. I am in general not a fan of Speedball and Arena games.
There are some major differences in Woodsball and Speedball play...most notably scale. Woodsball is played outside (although not always in the woods...can also be urban, desert, scrub...whatever ya got) whereas Speedball is played around here indoors mostly (although not exclusively)on small level fields that are generally set up to remove the terrain from play.
What does that mean?
Well....for example...in a Woodsball game, the terrain is a 'player'. Sometimes ya have to fight uphill. There are natural obstacles like streams and ditches, not to mention the camouflage opportunities.
There are locations that confer a significant advantage to the players that hold them, such as fortifications and strongholds.
In Speedball, the terrain has been removed as a 'player'. This is done by making the playing field smaller (usually around 50 x 60 meters) and placing the obstacles (called bunkers) in a symmetrically mirrored layout.
What this does is distills the game down, and makes the play much faster pace.(a typical Speedball game last under a minute...whereas Scenarios can last for days...) It basically becomes a concentrated firefight. It artificially limits the front of the battle to a straight at the enemy assault. One of the most basic tactics is area denial by 'ropes' of paint...shooting high volumes of paint in a lane to further limit the choices of angles available to your opponents. This has led to the development of faster and faster markers, some with the ability to fire in excess of 20 balls per second(BPS).
That is NOT to say there are no tactics in Speedball...there are, just that the options are fairly limited and that most of the decisions revolve around gunfights, snap shooting and moving forward into withering fire.
I prefer the wide open play of the outside games in the green, and the type of play there. Where most times if you do come upon a dug in position, you don't have to run straight at it. Flanks are available, and a core of woodsball play. A good axiom for woodsball is "There is nothing so big and bad, that it can't be walked around."
What about cross overs? Do speedballers play woodsball and vice versa? Yes.
Very few paintball players are purist, playing only one or the other. You will see speedballers out in the woods, where they can be very effective players, if used properly by their teams.
All that being said...do I play Speedball? Answer....not if I have a choice. However I have gone to speedball parks when there are no other options available...which is pretty much from Nov to March around here.
While when I go to speedball games, I am a distinct disadvantage due to the fact my kit is based around a mil-sim(Military simulation) semi automatic marker and larger gear pack-out. That doesn't mean I can't play and contribute to the fun, while having a little myself. There are even lessons to learn, as the skills honed in speedball can be used on the woodsball field.
As evidence I submit the following....
If nothing else, I got to practice suppressive fire and being a base for a 'T' assault. I also had a bit'o fun and got to get dirty.
