Stealth Techniques 3 - Tree Walking & Line Of Sight

Jamie Innes - 23/11/05

If you're not familiar, tree walking is using a tree, bush, or other object to conceal your movements from your opponents. You can use this while stationary or moving, and also adapt it for use in speedball. This skill is also simply not just "moving from tree to tree", with tree walking you can use objects you aren't actually close to for concealment. For instance... when stalking another individual, instead of advancing in a straight line, you will walk from side to side along your advance, being concealed by indvidual, or groups of trees (or bushes).

Tree walking however is not a perfect science. Treewalkers do get detected during thier advance, and often. Experienced paintballers know that tunnel vision is the ultimate achilles heel, and in order to protect yourself from possible ambush, one often has to constantly look around at what is happening on the field, even if this means breaking one's own concealment.

Such is the undoing of the tree walker, because while he is concentrating his energy on maximising usage of the trees, his opponent is panning and scanning the field for movement. This is an example of how it can be very useful to visually observe your opponent if you are stalking them, because all your stalking is for nothing if they see you moving towards them. If you are stalking from a considerable distance, then this is a rare example of where a scope can come in handy on your paintball marker. (In paintball, scopes are usually used for spotting and observing, not for aiming).

Tree walking is a simple example of a thing called "line of sight", line of sight is usually first explained to you in primary school, when the teacher explains how satellites orbit the earth and can relay signals to eachother. As you know, line of sight is simply a straight line.

Sounds ridiculously simple right? well you would be surprised how often paintballers just ignore it, or assume that it will somehow things will go thier way. Without line of sight you cannot see or usually shoot at your opponent. These are prerequisites for being able to play the game. Here are some tips on how you can use line of sight as a practical tool on the field...

- If you're going to shoot, then you might aswell get the best shot you can, be it well aimed, or a big burst. If you don't have a good shot from behind your cover, then strafe out from your cover to get a clearer shot. You don't need to be under cover every time you shoot as you have 2 things working for you.
1. You're giving yourself cover fire,
2. A horizontally moving target is harder to hit than a stationary one, or one who is moving forwards or backwards. You're basically taking a calculated... you're weighing up the benefit of getting a better shot, vs breaking your cover. This is the kind of move better suited for a big bush field, as opposed to a speedball field.

- Your eyes are in your head, and the head is the topmost part of your body. If your whole body is concealed by cover, but your head is sticking out to see what's going on, then you're still visible, and can still be shot at. A possible solution is to carry a mirror with you on the field and use it as a viewing device ala Tom Hanks in "Saving Private Ryan". It makes for a smaller target, but bear in mind it's part of your equipment, get hit on it and you're out.

- The human eye has peripheral vision approximately 180 degrees to the side, and slightly less top and bottom. If you are flanking an individual or group of players, you want to get beyond thier peripheral vision, ideally the best attack angle is from directly behind them, but this is not always possible. The futher beyond thier peripheral vision you can get- the better, because they will also be scanning and panning thier eyes to cover more of the field.

- Sometimes when tree walking, you can actually be more concealed (not covered- cover and concealment are 2 different things) by being far (as opposed to close) from the tree or trees you are using. Objects further in the distance appear to be smaller, so standing far from your "concealment tree" can be a good thing.

Credits:
"Tree Walker's Heaven" thanks to Scruff
"A useful tactic" thanks to Gian Strabo