DRILLS : How to make a good scenario team GREAT. Part 1 of 4

With the second part of the Annual Woodsball Tournament fast approaching we thought we would source some great wee drill ideas to help trains get up to speed.... part one below features the common Secure and Hold theme which we play frequently on site in the form of "King of the Hill".

Scenarios almost always include "secure and hold" missions. Usually for 20 minutes - or at a specific time. Its great to think the objective will be unoccupied when you get there, or that you will have enough troops to withstand any attacks - but drilling the opposite will come in handy.

Drill Duration : 8 minutes.

Red team spawns at starting point.

Game start - the blue team gets a 1 minute head start - secure and hold at 8 minutes from drill start.

Red team: secure and hold at 8 minutes from drill start.

The red team should be 2 to 3 times the size of the blue.




Sniper Variation: one red player gets a 1 minute head start. One minute later the blue team inserts. 1 minute later the rest of the read team inserts.

Spy Variation: one extra blue player may play trailer - leaving late & trailing but not engaging the red team. His mission is to report their strength and direction and anything they find - avoiding being spotted.

Assassin Variation: one extra blue player may play trailer - leaving late & trailing with the mission to assassinate one specific red player.

Member on both sides should focus on working in KILL TEAMS and as a team. Flanks may be pressed in moderation - keeping in mind in a real scenario, wandering far from your squad hurts the squad. This isn't recball where the number of bad guys is predictable, and fairly well know. Assume more bad guys than there are against you to make this drill work.

Red Team squad leader should focus on keeping his troops together, massing and moving as a team, flanking with caution - and keeping less experienced players in the center of the force and moving.

Top paintball tips to help you take out the opposition!

"I'm sexy and I know it...."

Avoid a Fair Fight!

Always try to avoid one-on-one shootouts where you and someone else are sitting in cover banging away at each other. You might get them but they could equally well get you and either way you'll shoot a bucket of paint. This is what tends to happen in tournaments, but in recreational games you can go after easier prey. The best targets are those that haven't got their eye on you or better still don't even know you're there. My favourite is when someone is the opposite side of a tree to you and crouching down firing at roughly 90° to yourself. Often their backside will be sticking out from behind the tree which makes a large target, and because of the tree they will generally be unaware that you are even shooting at them until they are hit.

If you do find yourself in this head-to-head situation there a few options. First think about retreating, so that you can then advance again somewhere else. Can you withdraw safely? If so, will it allow the enemy to advance and potentially jeopardise the positions of other team members? If either of these could be a problem then you will have to sit tight. Provided the cover is big enough to fully protect you then just sit and wait. You are quite safe and hopefully a better target will present itself. Keep your eye on your opponent, and if you are lucky he might start firing at someone else while you can still see a bit of him. This is your ideal opportunity to pop out and have a go at him while he is distracted.

Bore them out

If you find yourself in a one-to-one with no opportunity for repositioning, don't hammer away at them, but sit tight and be patient so that you are almost impossible to hit. Becoming restless and bored, your opponent will try something else. This may well be moving, which will give you a tempting target. Better still he may try to shoot at someone else and once he is distracted it is time for you to have a go. If you can see a reasonable portion of him then you can shoot from where you are, but if not it may well be worth moving up on his blind side. Depending on the terrain this might be a slow stealthy move or a bold rush that gives him no time to react.

Guarding

If you are guarding the flag or defending then get in good cover and only keep your head out. Keep watching and monitor any movements towards you and let your neighbours know if you spot anything interesting. Don't stand about in the open chatting. This sounds obvious but you would be amazed how often it happens. People caught in open ground by someone they haven't spotted will almost certainly be shot out.

How to prepare for the Scottish Paintball Championship - Sunday 2nd June at Battle Grounds Paintball Aberdeen

With the tournament season fast approaching and the Scottish Paintball Championship just 2 and a bit weeks away we thought we thought we would share a great article all about preparing for your first Big Paintball Tournament.... Enjoy!

Prepare for the Event

Preparing for the tournament is an important aspect.  Try to get everyone together to practice the weekends before the event.  Come up with standard names for bunkers and body counts for both your team and theirs.  Since this may be a newer team, get a feel for everyone’s playing style and communication.  Practice the fundamentals, communication and teamwork.  If the field layout is released early, which is unusual for local events, take a look at the field layout.

The week before the event, make sure all your gear is in order.  Don’t mess with your paintball gun or loader the night before the tournament!  As much as you want to play with it and regrease it, you don’t want to mess something up so close to an important event.  Give yourself some time ( a week or so) between maintaining your marker and the tournament.  I’d recommend cleaning all your gear at this point too.

Also I would make sure you have a barrel swab to clean your barrel.

The night before have everything in order, packed up and ready to go.  Most paintball tournaments start in the morning, so you’ll probably be getting up pretty early.

Finally try to relax and get some sleep!

Day of the Tournament

Get to the field early.  You don’t want to be rushing to get ready, especially for your first event.  I’d recommend getting their when the doors open for your bracket.

By getting to the field early, your team can most likely claim a table in a nice location and get situated.  You’ll also probably have to check in and sign waivers, so do that early as well.

Walk the Field

Once you get signed in and your gear on, take to the field once it opens up.  Usually about an hour before games start, tournaments open up the field to teams to walk the field.

This time is to look at the layout and come up with some strategies.  I’ll be writing another tips article specifically for walking the field, but try to get a general feel for how the field will play out.  Look at the primary bunkers such as the back center, middle and corner bunkers.  Walk the entire field looking at secondary and 50 bunkers.  Look for and remember various angles and blind shots.

Also look for lanes and where you think other teams will send players off the break.  Finally, come up with two or three breakout plans for your team.  This way, if your main one doesn’t work or teams adapt to your plan, you can change it up.

Game Time

Your first game is about to start.  Your pretty pumped and maybe even a little nervous.  Relax and remember, have fun!  I’m sure you’ll have a blast at your first event, most players do and end up coming back for more.

At this point just play your game and watch what other teams do.  Remember the basics and communication.  If you’re winning your matches and think the team is going to make it to semi’s or finals, you can scout other teams breakout plans and strategy.  Also watch the other local teams and how they play, you can probably learn quite a few things.

You may end up loosing a lot of your games at your first paintball tournament, but that’s okay!  Don’t worry to much about making mistakes, but learn from them.  The way to improve at paintball is to play against better players, and making the step from rec-ball to rookie tournaments is the first step in learning more about competitive paintball.  If you have the drive to compete, learn from mistakes and practice, tournament paintball will be a blast.

Don’t get discouraged if you don’t make the cut to semi’s either!  Keep practicing and improving, and once you and your team finally make the cut to finals or win an event, it’ll be very rewarding.

TIPPMANN TECH CENTRE..... YES PLEASE!

It's official! Battle Grounds Paintball is the first and only certified Tippmann Tech Dealer and Warranty Centre in Scotland. This means no matter how old the marker or where you bought it from you can guarantee Battle Grounds Paintball Aberdeen can help you keep your baby in tip top shape!

Travelling over 1,500 miles return last week saw Gilan and Hollie head to the Tippmann Challenge held this year at Holmbush Farm, Crawley. For those of you who have yet to experience a full on paintball festival the Tippmann Challenge is ranked amongst the big guns like the Warped Big Game thanks to the multitude of activities and trade stands the organisers pull off each year.

The duo spent the day tearing apart the full range of Tippmann markers getting to grips with the likes of the new model A5, TiPX, Custom Ultra 98 and of course the Phenom leaving with some of the first markers to stock up our brand new paintball shop which will be unvelied later this year!

Next on the cards tech wise is of course the full BT range swiftly followed by all those shiney shiney markers we know and love.....

The team are also considering opening an online shop.... let us know what you think!

~ Shooting to Thrill ~

The BG Team

The harder the battle the sweeter the victory!

Well boys and girls it's frankly been farrrrr too long since our last Battle Grounds blog and we need to start out with an apology for being so rubbish at keeping all you folks up to date on paintball in Aberdeen.

Over the next few weeks we will really be stepping things up a notch and will have some exciting new announcements to make so watch this space.....

In the meantime, to wet your appetites I thought I'd post up some pics of the site taken during the Crusade on 12th June. Have to say that the day was an astounding success with some epic fire fights spread across most of the site and over 120,000 paintballs shot in the space of just 6 hours!!! Check out the pics below and WATCH THIS SPACE!!

Mav from the Kung Fu Pimps Team from Inverness



I'll Sleep When I'm Dead!

Well it's been far too long since our last blog... incase you didn't all guess it's because we literally have been run off our feet although, fear not!, we have made some big steps on site over the last couple of weeks and it's finally starting to shape up!

So what the hell have we been up to I hear you ask?! Well the week of the 23rd saw Battle Grounds Paintball taken over with school groups for activities week with over 300 kids through our doors in a matter of days. Lots of great action on the field including some pretty intense battles between watch towers in the village made for a crazy few days - great to see so many teachers having a blast too! Oh and how could I forget the miles of ducktape!

This month also marked the start of our U-18's Paintball Club Sessions which run every second Wednesday night from 6-8.30pm. Using a combination of Tippmann 98's, A5's, Tippman X7's and BT Delta 4's the boys ripped it up proving that age and experience don't count for much when you've got a bit of enthusiasm and no fear! Next session should be a blast on Wednesday 8th June with new game fields to be unveiled!

Then of course there was the weekend of the 28th/29th.... possibly the wildest weekend BG has been witness to so far since moving to our site at Banchory. Six different stag groups, one hennie, two birthday groups.... 90 smoke grenades and 37 flash bangs..... and that was just the Saturday! The pics look great so take a minute to check them out here :

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Battle-Grounds-Paintball-Aberdeen/139373982799023?sk=photos

So what about the site? Well Aberdeen Fusion have been out a couple of times lining drainage ditches across the brand new Tournament Paintball Field, Aberdeen University Paintball Society players have been out doing the same and are set to work three days straight over the coming week finishing this mammoth task off! On top of that we have had plenty of help from the regulars, Craig and Stu deserving a special mention, and now have a chinook helicopter which is very near to completion not to mention the fact that the safety zone now has a beautiful (big) new roof! Thanks are also due to Holls who has worked real hard shifting stones, mud and wood and got her green fingers out with the plants popping up all of the site - we even let her use a nail gun!!

Our marshalls are doing an excellent job and we finally have a fantastic team of guys working regularly for us - Martin, JC, Dean, Ian and Ross you do us proud!

Well folks with only one week to go until "The Crusade" I reckon we need to get back on site and crack-on! Will try and keep you all more updated now that the schools are out of the way .... holiday anyone?!

A New Era Begins at Battle Grounds ...

What a couple of mad weekends it's been! Some brilliant groups took full advantage of the four new watch towers as "The Village" stole the show over both days.... Saturday saw many of our Groupon customers take advantage of superb value balling whilst Sunday entertained an enthsiastic group from La Bamba and Prime Cuts Restaurants in Aberdeen. Birthday's and stag-doo's galore also saw lots of people, including the boss himself, running the gauntlet for their birthday run with plenty of bruises to show for it!

Congrats to all those who played at BG over the last couple of weekends - you made it an awesome two weeks!

Meanwhile.... we have been super busy working on our King of the Hill and Chinook game zones with pallets of wood arriving on site last week. The safety zone posts are in and the walls and roof are all set to go on over the next couple of days. Longer evenings and sunny days are transforming the site into something a little bit special and, with the help of our fantastic new team of marshalls, the site is coming to life for the first time in a very, very long time!


April is going to be off-the-charts busy and we are all really excited to hear your opinions as we continue to work our BG magic on the place. Watch this space for news on Sup Air Walk-On days coming soon to Battle Grounds Paintball and for more updates on our progress! Pictures to be unveiled soon of our new game zones.

Oh - almost forgot - the compressor arrived today folks... say hello to steady 4.5k fills :)

Shoot to Thrill

BG