Shoot to Kill

Paintball is all about shooting the enemy and sending them to the ‘Dead Box’ as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, your opposition are unlikely to roll over and die so it pays to make sure the vast majority of your shots do some proper damage.

Keeping your head down may seem the sensible option when the paint is flying, but being so defensive is unlikely to win you many games (or friends!). Even if you’re pinned behind your barrier, there WILL be a time when you get the chance to return fire, so you’d better be ready.
Even if you can’t see the enemy, you can still find out where they are by asking a team mate. If that particular avenue doesn’t offer any answers, it is still possible to get a fix on where you should be directing your fire.

If you watch where the paintballs are going (as they hopefully fly over your head) it may be possible to deduce where they are coming from – and that gives you a big advantage. Simply wait for the lull in fire which will eventually arrive, pop up and unload as much paint as possible. Congratulations – you’re now a snap shooter!

It may now be a good time to move on because if anyone didn’t know you were there then they certainly will do now! Paintball markers are not the quietest devices on earth so don’t bank on being a silent assassin because it won’t work!

Snap shooting is all when and good but long-range shooting can also be just as effective. Firing paintballs from long range can help to provide covering fire for your team mates as they advance up the field.
Covering fire is often overlooked but without it a team can really struggle to get any kind of forward momentum. A nice trick is to loft paintballs up with the aim of dropping them on to enemy players. This is a good ploy because a well-embedded player is very hard to take out with shots straight at him (all you’ll really do is redecorate the barrier).

Covering fire is not an end in itself though. The aim is to give your players the best chance to get down the field in order to improve their angles on the opposition. Fast and aggressive play is the name of the game so there’s no room for the faint-hearted!

Using a barrier effectively is also a good ploy because by avoiding looking out from the same spot, you’ll become less predictable and so stand more chance of lasting longer and, ultimately, winning the game.

But all these tactics are little use if you don’t get out there and play. So what are you waiting for?