Individual Tactics (Overt & Covert)

By Jamie Innes
Julky 8th 2006

 Following article is based on the standard 'Capture the flag' or 'Capture the fort' format, where two evenly numbered teams are pitted against eachother on an even playing field.



OVERT TACTICS


Stand up to observe

When you're making an advance into enemy territory, you inevitably run into situations where you cannot see the enemy, but you know they are lying in wait, or somewhere in the vicinity. Being the cautious player you are, you do not go running into ambushes or walking blindly onto the enemy front line. So what do you do when you don't know where they are?

1. Get close to, or behind some cover
2. Stand fully upright
3. Start observing. Try to pick out the positions an enemy might be. WATCH FOR MOVEMENT.
4. As an option, fire a round or two at something you think may be a player (NOT a bloody tree stump or log) and watch for movement. 

The idea here is to overtly discover or flush out an enemy position without compromising your existing position and cover. Many, perhaps 'most' players... even some of the more experienced ones, will not be able to resist taking a pot shot at you if you are sticking out 'clear as day'. Additionally, you can discover if an ene,y player is watching you, by watching for thier movement... when you fire a round or two at them. This whole tactic is intended for long range observing and enemy detection.

The casual walk

Elaborating on standing up and observing, sometimes that simply won't work... because either...

1. Behind so much concealment they actually cannot see you stand up in the open (See article on Concealment Vs Visibility)
2. They are smart enough not to shoot at you at a long range, and give away thier position.
3. There is in fact nobody there.

So if you still cannot detect enemy presence, but you need to advance into hostile territory. Then consider the casual walk. The casual walk is when you attempt to draw enemy fire by projecting through your own body language, a false sense of confidence. What I am describing here is the way you stand and the way you walk when you KNOW you are on relatively safe ground. The idea is to project this kind of confidence when advancing... the idea is to fool the enemy into thinking that you don't know they are there. So, things to bear in mind when doing the casual walk...

• BE PREPARED TO BE FIRED UPON AT ANY TIME!
• Choose the most likely place or places that enemy could be, and watch those places.
• Do not perform a casual walk if there are in fact... so many hiding places, that you cannot observe them all as you walk
• Do your casual walk from one place of cover, to another. This way, if and when you become fired upon, you can quickly run in behind the cover you were already moving towards.
• An alternative to the casual walk, is the covered walk. In the covered walk, you follow the same procedure, but your gun is raised in the direction of the most likely threat, finger on the trigger, ready to fire. However this isn't necessarily better than the casual walk, since shooting whilst in the open isn't neccessarily a better choice than running for cover.
  

Faking a teammate's presence

Occasionally you may run into a situation, where you determine that decieving the enemy... could be advantageous. The time this is most useful, is when you find yourself up against 2 or more enemies, 1 or more of which are moving and getting an angle on your position. You can usually retreat, but sometimes either that's not possible, or it's not what you want to do.
Faking a teammate's presence, means you pretend to talk to, and signal an apparently 'hidden' player. Novice players will usually be cautious because they will think there is a concealed player. And experienced players will usually ALSO be cautious, because they won't rule out the possibility of there being a concealed player. So this simple strategy can work to your advantage.
One word of advice... don't try pulling this trick for more than a couple of minutes. All players will eventually realise, due to lack of movement and lack of shooting, that you are actually talking to nobody.


Fire and retreat

Sometimes you need to retreat, it's a fact of life in bushball. Sometimes you find yourself in a position where you are outgunned, and need to move back, in order to not be eliminated. Now bearing in mind the severity of the situation that would necessitate a general retreat, when you move back, you need to think about the following....

• How far back do you need to go, to become safer? And how many seconds will it take you to get there? (You may be running, walking, crawling etc)
• Is the ground flat? hilly? full of holes? This will help determine if you need to turn around and put your back to the enemy, or walk backwards while facing the enemy. This is important... walking backwards on rugged terrain can be dangerous, you can fall and hurt yourself (I know, I have done it).
• Before you move, and you are giving yourself cover fire, pay attention to how much firepower it takes to get the enemy's head down for a decent amount of time. You need to aim for putting enough fire on them, to get thier heads down long enough... to cover the time it will take you to retreat.
  

Fire and advance

 When it's time to advance, you need to weigh up all the factors, make estimations, and take a calculated risk. Gaining enemy ground is the name of the game. So what are some of things you should be thinking about when fireing and advancing?

• In most circumstances, make short moves. Moving more than about 5 meters at a time is usually not a good idea. In only 5 meters of space, depending on your terrain, line of sight and line of fire can change dramatically for you and your opponents.
• Refrain from firing whilst moving in MOST circumstances. Accuracy is greatly lessened while moving, and your opponents are getting a constand sound sigature as to your wherabouts. The exception to this rule, is if you are... <cough> 'bunkering' someone, or providing supressing fire for somebody else.
• After each movement, stop and assess how much angle you have on opponents, and how much they have on you. Also note how much cover you have, and how much they have. You need this information for your next move.
• Do not move from a covered positon to an uncovered position in MOST cirsumstances. Usually the exception to this rule is when you or a teammates has just eliminated the nearest threat to you, and so for the time being it is safe to stand in the open.
  

COVERT TACTICS


Fire and change position

 Use this tactic when you have ample quantity of concealment (Not necessaarily cover) between you and your opponent. The idea is, when you engage in an exchange with an enemy, keep shooting until you have thier head down and well behind thier cover. Then, STOP shooting, get down (get low), and change physicaly position on the field. Move across, forward, diagonal, backward... to whichever position you have picked to be your new position. Things to bear in mind...

• You must have a new position picked out, and a short route (visualsed in your head) to get there, before you begin firing.
• Ideally your new positon will take you across the field, or across and foward (gaining ground). Moving directly foward or directly backward is less effective, because when you do that, you are still in the same LINE OF SIGHT as your previous position. (Unless you get deep into a hole in the ground or move VERY high on a hill).
• Moving across, or across and foward is most effective because you move out of the prior line of sight of your previous location. When your opponent pops his head back up to look for you, he will look at where you previously were (Unless you were slack and he SAW you move).  If he's a newb, he'll keep looking there. If he's experienced, he will only look for a couple of seconds before looking around to alternate locations, so be sure your new location also keep you concealed, or your move has been pointless.
• From your new concealed location, decide whether to...

1. Ambush (Shoot from your concealed position)
2. Flank (Attempt to continue moving undetected from your existing concealed position).

DEFINITIONS: 'Cover' is anything that will stop paintballs. A hill, barricade, bush, tree, hole in the ground etc. Cover doe not necessarily have to hide you, but it has to stop paintballs. 'Concealment' is anything that actually aids in making you visually undetectable to the enemy. Concealment could be long grass, or a bush that blends with your own camouflage, making you difficult to see.


Crawl and retreat

When you gotta retreat, you gotta retreat. And sometimes you really need to crawl. Why? Well... sometimes you find yourself on very uneven ground, where walking or running exposes you, and slows you down enough for the enemy to actually succeed in eliminating you. Usually this ALSO means there is very little hard cover around. So, considering crawling to retreat, when...

1. You have determined you NEED to retreat (for any reason)
2. You have no adequate hard cover nearby
3. You have enough cover to cover you as you crawl. Ie- bushes, long grass, depression in the ground.

DEFINITIONS: 'Hard cover' is anything guaranteed to stop paintballs hitting you, such as a hill, thick tree, depression in the ground, or solid barricade. 'Soft cover' is anything NOT guaranteed to stop paintballs hitting you, such as long grass, bushes, vines, ferns, or a barricade with significant gaps and holes in it.


Crouch, crawl and angle

These are general techniques used when you are making a stealthy advance. Either gaining ground, or attempting to covertly move past an enemy player. The general idea is to get low. It's a fact that bush fields have what's called 'low cover (or concealment, based on your choice of definition)'. Low cover is grass or bushes. By getting low (crawling, crouching, or walking very low), you make maximum use of existing low cover in remaining undetected. Do not discount this as being unimportant, sometimes the height at which your head sits above ground level, can make the difference between staying covert, or becoming detected.  Bear in mind too, that camouflage plays a part in utilising low cover.


Full field flank move

The full field flank move, is when you decide you want to utilise as much of the field as is possible, to flank your enemy. From there you would either overtly or covertly capture thier fort, or eliminate enemy plays with the element of surprise. In order to do this, you have to know the basic layout of the field, and know the strengths and weaknesses of the area immediately within the field boundaries.  Usually speaking, you must travel along one field boundary, and attempt to get past enemy players 'guarding that flank'. Sometimes you can do it covertly, sometimes you have to have a shootout and get him eliminated. However, once it's done, you know you have flanked the enemy team when you have covertly moved behind enemy lines, and are preparing to either capture thier fort, or attack enemky players.


 Ambush

Otherwise known as...

1. Sniping
2. Camping
3. Being lazy
4. Being clever
5. Proving yourself an asset
6. Proving yourself useless to the team

Based on...

1. Who shot you
2. Who you shot
3. Whether you were the ambusher
4. Whether you were the target
5. Where you were on the field
6. Where you are on the field now
7. What the rest of your team thinks of you
8. What you think of the rest of your team
   
9. Who won the game and why
10. Who lost the game and why
    

Seriously. There are a lot of variables involved in what constitutes an 'Individual Ambush'. Think about the aformentioned things, because they all play a big part in defining how this tactic is perceived. So, let's look at how the basic move can be performed.

• You wait, at the rear of your half of the field, close to your home base, in a concealed position. You are going to sit tight and shoot any enemy player that tries to capture your fort. The upside is you provide security (defense) to your base, the downside is you provide NO forward movement to your team, no offense.

• You move up the field and find a concealed position somewhere near the front line. You sit tight and shoot any enemy player trying to pass your position. The upside is you provide positional security, and safe ground for friendlies behind your position.... the downside is, despite this... you STILL offer NO foward movement, no offence to your team.

• You overtly move up the field, until such time as you engage fire with enemy players. You then fall back into a concealed position, to provide positional security. You either continue to hold positon (And eliminate hostiles), or you again move foward when the situation dictates you can, and provide off and on positonal security. The upside is you provide positional security, and offer SOME offence to your team, the downside is... it's hard for friendlies to know where you are, and what areas you have secured due to your constantly changing position.

• You succeed in a full field flank, and get into a concealed position behind enemy lines. From there you sit and wait to shoot at enemy players. The upside is, you are in a highly advantageous position for a surprise attack, can offer visual recon to your team if you have a radio, and offer SOME offence to your team. The downside is...  once you shoot, the enemy knows you are there, and where you are. They will either continue to observe your position, or send out a patrol of 1 or more players to find you and eliminate you. You also will have no help nearby since you are behind enemy lines. Either way, you're screwed.

So you see the various pros and cons associated with 'Ambushing'. Yes, ambushing has it's uses, but the underlying truth is, ambushing is usually a DEFENSIVE tactic.  It's usually defensive, because in order for an ambush to succeed, you must be concealed from your opponent, and within effective shooting range. And usually for this to happen, you have to sit still, in a concealed position, until some hapless player or players walk right into you. Occasionally you can ambush 'while on the move', but such instances are few and far between.

So remember, ambushes are usually DEFENSIVE. And because they are usually defensive,  thier usefulness in winning games is limited. As the very famous Rob 'Tyger' Robin once said...


Credits:
"Tyres: hard cover" thanks to Pale Rider
"Tussock: low cover" thanks to Mothergoose
"Bushes: concealment & soft cover" thanks to Blokie